I backed Noland and after seeing the way it stuck on up the hill past tiring horses went off Accoridan Etoile and backed Voy Por Estedes as well. Nowhere near after that but still slightly up. Not had a proper look tommorow yet but backed The Listener at 14/1 around Christmas. Afrad and Lou Du Moulin Mas are of interest. Might not be able to get off work to watch tommorow though.

lol, All in good time LD, all in good time. Having had a look I'm having a quiet day tomorrow. I quite liked the look of Mister Hight for the first but he's a non runner. He's joint fav for the Triumph on Friday and, as I don't fancy Detroit City, I'll probably be backing him there. Noland for the placepot then. In the Arkle, providing the rain doesnt come in any great amount I'm backing Accordian Etoile. Racing Demon is a bigger price than I thought he'd be on the day so I might back him to cover my stake money on Acc Et. Brave Inca looks OK for the champion hurdle but i'm not backing it at under 2/1. I've already backed Black De Bessy (4.00) to win and place at silly odds on Betfair. Might have a look at Moulin Riche. Leaving x-country race alone. Again already backed Alfred the Great (5.20) to win and place at silly odds on Betfair. Anything can win that though. Depends which trainer has got his novice handicapped the best! Good luck tommorow. I'll be back tomorrow night to see how you and everyone else has got on.

Agree with regard to Beef or Salmon. He could well be the best 3 mile chaser in Britain and Ireland on a flat track but his past Cheltenham form is poor and his jumping can always be suspect. One Knight would have a very good chance if getting round. I think I'm right in saying that he's only been beaten once over fences when he's completed and he lost all chance with a bad error that time. Agree Denman looks a real machine. I'm going to have a look at Tuedays card tonight so I'll post any fancies later.

Cheltenham is once again upon us next week. The absense of a large number of 'big name' horses has taken the gloss from this year a little bit but come 2.00pm Tuesday I'll soon have forgotten all about that. No real views on the Champion Hurdle except that although he's earned his right to be well fancied I think Brave Inca is very short at 2/1 (and under in places). He battles but doesnt always quicken after the last and could get done for pace up the hill. Kauto Star looks banker of the week to me now that Moscow Flyer is beginning to show signs of cracks. The Gold Cup is truly wide open. At the moment I'm favouring the Hennessy form of Cornish Rebel and L'Ami. I do have a strong fancy (and a strong word for) another horse at the back end of next week but I'll reveal on Wednesday night to prolonge a bit of suspense. Anyone have any views on anything this year then?

I'm glad I'm not alone in been annoyed by the bias. Barca could have had 2 penalties and for every soft free-kick that went their way, one went Chelseas way. OK the sending off was controversial but he did miss the ball and have a kick at him and it was the third time in about 5 minutes he'd had a go at him. Disapponted in Sky and heard what i expected from Mourinho.

Lots of nice meaty Man Utd fouls in the game against Fulham. A few deserved bookings and a miles offside goal. Only half time aswell. But I'm sure Fergie sees it differently.

1992 / 93 when they had their Premier League party at OT and we needed to win to try to get into Europe. Rovers leading 1-0 and Paul Parker blatantly trips Wilcox. No penalty. Ref states years later it would have 'felt inappropriate' to spoint the party.

Whilst not wishing to sound like a stuck record it definately said that the game was sold out from Man U's point of view last Wednesday at Old Trafford. I can only presume that they have unsold tickets allocated from travel trips / corporate trips that have been given to the public. Alternatively, maybe Rovers were initially going to do the same sort of segregation we used against Burnley with rows netted off but have now released more of them tickets to the mancs.

I can only say what I saw and heard at Old Trafford and they definately said sold out.

Yes they have. It was flashed on the scoreboard and put out over the tannoy at Old Trafford last week. Blackburn away - SOLD OUT Edit- although Man U's website is shockingly unclear for the biggest club in the world ever. Official Merchandise Utd site

I don't go along with all these people thinking we are going to key hammered just cos we've no-one up front. We had no-one up front against Man U and had large chunks of the play and possesion. At worst we'll go down to the odd goal despite dominating long periods.

I presume if you are going to park on the multi-storey at the Lowry you're better getting there early and near the exit as it'll be a nightmare getting off with everyone else. Anyone done it?

I'm getting the train over but, if it goes to extra time and penalties, anyone know if you can get a late bus back to Blackburn?

I know Boro still sing "Who's that team they call the Boro" and I think they are the only team I know that still sing it. However I remember it very vaguely from the 80's being sung by Rovers fans and my Dad says it was sang long before that. If so, what were the words?

The one worrying thing was that late on they had a few headed chances that they put harmlessly over or wide. However they were unmarked (I think from set pieces) and on Weds night we'll get punished. Other than that we were very good today. Bellers again looked different class with two cracking finishes. Tugay was excellent at times in the midfield and Peter had a good debut. Hope Grays back on Wednesday night though. Every time Matteo comes back into the side it takes him about 6 games to get back into it. He looks once again a bit like a footballing slug with poor distribution which at times last season he showed he's not.

Hope there's at least 22,000 tonight. However maybe the queue this morning was cos Man U tickets went on sale. With Man U and Bolton coming up it will definately affect the attendance. We play Portsmouth on sky next week. 17,000 anyone?

Anyone know how far it is from the station to the ground. If I can only get on the train which gets in to Wigan NW at about 2.40pm how much game will I be missing. I'd be suprised if we sold out this week. I know it's popular but 5,400 is a hell of a lot of tickets. If only we'd got that many at Celtic

This is the Racing Posts preview of todays game. Gits

I thought it was a very poor penalty. Not very hard and not in the corner. Some may say that he 'shimmied', saw the keeper go right and then stroked it left but I thought he was just very lucky the keeper went the wrong way. He's still different class though

Not knocking you but I'd give the game a second watch on the TV. I thought the two Rovers fullbacks were our best two players. Opinions - who'd have 'em.

Lower tiers hold 4,500 so half of the bottom tier is 2,250. Even allowing for segregation they filled at least half of it so I'd guess they brought at least 1,000.

Unfortunately he won't go away for a while. Another of his garbage-riddled spouts was when he suggested that lowly teams in the Premiership play weakened sides against the top clubs ( link ). West Brom obviously had their reserves out today to beat Arsenal.

Sky Sports News (and website) are reporting Billy Davies as having admitted an interest in taking Jansen to Preston on loan.

Chris Armstrong just before we signed Speedie.

Quite enjoyable and a good professional job by Rovers. Bellamy is lightening quick and must have been onside for at least a couple of the 5 times he was flagged offside in the first half. Bentley looks good on the ball but I feel he may drift out of games for periods. As mentioned earlier I was impressed by the Huddersfield fans at kicko ff time but they must have been scrumming for tickets all through the first half as it seemed like another 1,500 had appeared by the second half. Their side though were competent without being spectacular. The only real negative point I can muster would be Emerton who was largely ineffective and very rarely attempted to take his full back on.