MGP ?? I wonder what Paul Calf would make out of those initals.

Dickov's might not be out. Radio Lancs said he was during commentary as he had collected 5 bookings but then they corrected theirselves 10 mins later and said he only had 3.

Hmm. Maybe not but none of them games really frighten me. Everton are vastly overperforming. Even watching todays Merseyside derby I can't see them as a real attacking threat. As honest a pro as Bent is he was hardly a fearsome lone frontman and Carsley, Kilbane and Gravesen behind don't seem much more potent. I'm amazed they are where they are but their bubble will burst hopefully next week! Newcastle will be tough but we've already got a point off Man U and Liverpool at Ewood. Villa are inconsistent and as for Bolton see Everton above except their bubble has already burst.

I don't subscribe to all the doom and gloom over this result either. I feel that Norwich's win over Bolton has increased a lot of the anxiety. The big thing was not to lose against a relegation rival and we were successful. We also kept Palace to only 2 chances and created far more ourselves whilst chalking up another clean sheet. Of course therefore it is disappointing not to score and win but we are not the first football team to play well and only get a 0-0. The fact is that there are several teams at the bottom that are very inconsistent and can look inept including ourselves. If anybody really thinks we are not going to be in a relegation dogfight this season (and most future seasons in the Premiership) then they are in cloud cookoo land. Hughes will try his best to bring in who he feels is right in january but some fans seriously need to take a reality check. We are far more likely to be bringing in an Ashton or (dare I say it) a Blake than we are a Cole. Back on topic - the result against Spurs was very dissapointing, todays was not.

Surely the first paragraph contradicts the second one. And judging by the 58 page Pedersonthread if he can't live up to the expectations of most board members (i.e poor) then he definately isn't the solution.

Tore Pedersen Cost - £500,000 Rovers appearances - 3 Per Pedersen Cost - £2,500,000 Rovers starts - 6 Morst Gandst Pederson Cost - £1,500,000 Rovers starts - 3 (currently) At least we've only had one Grabbi !!!!

I can't believe people are moaning about this! It is 100% fair. And for the record I have only been to City away and, unless I'm lucky enough to grab a 27 pounder, am unlikely to be going Bolton!

Just watching the FA Cup football on BBC now. It's poor, amateurish, dull, second-rate, uninteresting and the kind of dross you never get served up on sky. And thats just the commentary!

We have 2 wide midfielders in Emerton and Reid. Most people agree that third in line is Thompson who is returning from a major injury, not 100% fit but has looked good in recent cameo appearances. Fourth in line is MGP who has not had a run in the team but has looked poor in cameo appearances. We're winning easily 2-0 up at Fulham so Hughes gives Thommo 10 minutes to get his Premiership sharpness back for if (when) Reid is banned. Common sense. This might ruffle a few feathers. If Grabbi had only played 2 games for Rovers and then never got another chance his reputation would never have been destroyed. Maybe then we'd have got some of our £6.75million back instead of letting him go for nothing.

Thommo is a proven Premiership player, even in a right midfield role, and it would be foolish not to play him in Reid's absence. Especially in our situation. However MGP might get onto the bench in place of Douglas.

Due to the witch hunt being conducted in the media and even on this board to (rightly) find the people involved it was only a matter of time before he got collared. He might as well hand himself in. What's he meant to do - go on the run? However what if he called Yorke a 'flippin uselss lazy so and so' and is now being wanted for racial abuse. He should plead not guilty. Why are you presuming that he is guilty. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. We don't know. Unlike Perryman his solicitor obviously believes he has can deny the charge. On the pictures I've seen I can only see one person doing the chicken dance. My biggest concern if I was this other lad is that the police will not want him to be found not guilty as it might give the impression they somehow 'let him get away with it' and thus receive stick from our beloved media.

Please tell me thats a wind up Brownie.

As i said right at the start of this thread I think Gally is potentially the best striker we've got by a fair way. His movement into space was excellent yesterday and when he's in possession and facing the opposition goalmouth I get the impression he has the skill and guile to play a decent throughball - something which we sorely lack.

lol, It's good to know that tomorrow our club will try to be tarnished by every national newspaper going, and when opposition fans come on here to read this thread for a sensible and rational debate on the issue they'll find nothing better than a good old fashioned member catfight. Not that I don't find it quite amusing from the outside looking in. Maybe its just not the right place.

If you'd care to look back at Dunn's performances in the season we went up and the following year you'd see he was the driving force of the team. In total he scored 30 goals in 130 appearances which is just over 1 in 4. Pretty good for a midfielder who didn't put any effort in. IMO Yorke never approached his time on the pitch at Ewood with the same attitude or zest that he did for Villa or Man U. His touch and skill remain but his effort on the pitch was lacking. It may have been possible to stroll around at Man U with 10 superstars behind you but at Ewood we need every player putting in 100%. Otherwise we will end up in the trouble we were for a lot of last year and most of this season. I'm pretty sure Souness drummed this into his players time and time again but when Yorke went over the line he just didn't take heed. This was happening long before Souness nobbled him in training. He also had a habbit of throwing a strop when he was substituted despite the fact he had been ineffective (away at newcastle and Southampton in recent years spring to mind). Regardless of whether he was on 10k or 60k a week players should at the very least put the effort in unless they are good enough to be carried as a luxury. Yorke wasn't and let himself down and those of us who paid his wages. Yes I booed. However the racist chanting (which is what we should really be bothered about IF it happened) is diabolical.

To be fair Patrick Anderson never got a chance. He didn't settle well and hardly got a game. When he did finally get a start it was at Centre-Back against a bang-in-form Paul Warhurst who absolutely shredded him. You have to remember Warhurst looked the part back then before his tragic leg-break at Swindon. However Andersson was promptly moved into midfield for the 2nd leg, scored and was never seen at Ewood again. 4 years later he pops up as one of the best center halves in Europe!!!! If I remember rightly Berg also ad one of his first starts in that game and also looked out of place. Fortunately we stuck with Henning.

Don't be daft. He wasn't particularly good by any stretch of the imagination and had a fair podge of a stomach when he played for us but 6 goals in 16 starts isn't that bad. Anyone remember that poor scandanavian we fielded against Sheff Wednesday in the League Cup Semi Final. He was bloomin awful. Paddy Andersson or something he was called. I bet he never did anything after leaving us.

I think Rovers fans are some of the most patient fans in the league. Despite being a £7million unknown Grabbi was given tremendous support by the Rovers fans every time he was on the pitch considering his actual contributions. Unfortunately for us after 18 months and several 'fresh starts' he still proved to be pants. I've only read the last few pages on this thread (since our new Norwegian friend threw his toys out of the pram) but IMO Pedersen will have to wait his turn. At the moment I dont feel we are in a position to be risking players who may well turn out to not cut the mustard at PL level. We need to scrap our way out of the bottom 3 and lift confidence any way we can and if that means forsaking flair and fancy football for sheer graft then Reid / Douglas / Thommo are probably better bets than MGP. However I'm sure if things go to plan and Pedersen keeps working hard behind the scenes he'll get a chance to show us theres more to his game than a fancy overhead clearance and a goal against Bournemouth.

Just returned home from the COMS and out of the plummeting temperatures in time to rewatch the game on Footy First. My main reaction is similar to everyone else who attended. In the first half although City had marginally more possesion they only had their goal as an attempt on target apart from 3 or 4 identically positioned free-kicks. We were unlucky to be behind at half time but the general feeling in my group was that given the scoreline we'd take a point at any costs. Second half and we dominated. The only shot I can recall Brad dealing with was the once he nearly made a right mess of and luckily spawned it wide of his far post (thats how it looked from the other side of the ground). Apart from that it was all Rovers without creating too much. Their left back should have been second yellow carded about 10 mins into the second half for a late high tackle that stopped a good Rovers break but got let off. The penalty had to be given but I think every Rovers fan waited with baited breath during the 0.5 seconds it took the ref to give it. The celebrations for the award of the kick itself were as loud and jubilant as for the subsequent kicks conversion. The next 10 mins I felt sure that 3 points were on the way back to Ewood and was disappointed this was not to be. At least we left the ground with the newly found optimism on the pitch still intact.

Sherwood was a very important cog in an effective machine in the mid-90's but he was far from the greatest midfielder. I don't think people are knocking his contribution to Rovers but just that if he is the best (or 2nd best) we've got then we've had a bad bunch for 125+ years. Viera, Keane and Gerrard are world class midfielders. Clayton was a world class midfielder. Sherwood was not. Besides, in 94 when Batty won player of the year he performed to a level that IMO Sherwood never achieved.

I've just snapped up all of the 11/1 about Stead on Betfair as first goalscorer. Come on Big bad John!!!

Hughesy, what is the point in replacing an 'a' with an '@' when they looked the same and read on screen exactly the same. If the board mods wanted the word to be used they wouldnt filter it in the first place. Personally it doesn't really bother me too much what language is used. The thread about the songs doesn't really bother me. HOWEVER as I quite clearly explained this board was considered 'unsuitable viewing' by my work because I once left it on my screen on a thread where certain well known four letter words were used with the odd * replacing a vowel. My boss saw it and subsequently got the site 'blocked' by IT. And in answer to your question - no I dont want any topics moved. I never asked for this topic to be moved. I just want to be able to enjoy reading the board during the day.

If Hughesy and TrueBlue concede defeat we wont need to wait for Ohio.

Should this poll not be on the ICBINF board ?

A word of caution to all. At my previous place of work our IT banned us from viewing this site due to the use of foul and offensive language. Misspelt words like tw@t etc.. were deemed this way. Same company, different location and I'm allowed to view the site again. If you must post vulgarities or use foul language to make your point at least do it on the ICBINF board (or even the songs board ) I quite like viewing the site during the day again. Rant Over