Shows how opinions differ. I too thought Gerrard was the best of the midfield quartet. He is the only one that runs with pace and determination at the opposition. He also seemed to be everywhere filling in holes when the others had disappeared. At one stage he sprinted wide to block a winger (i use that term loosely!) getting in a cross, then when the ball was played in field he was closing down the shot from 25 yards. At the same time Lampard was just coming back into view. Still I'm not knocking any of the others in the team beacuase we won and they all contributed although, dare i say it, Beckham did bugger all again. Gary Neville V Christiano Ronaldo. Could be interesting

At the end of the day drink is the man catalyst for most violence like this. You may not be aware but last orders in Blackburn centre pubs at the weekend has been 2am for quite a while. Does it stop binge drinking? Nope, IMO it makes it worse as people just binge drink for longer. Rightly or wrongly it's the English way!

First of all its a major embarassment everytime this happens whether it be friendlies or tournaments. People arrested and caught on camera should be heavily fined or jailed rather than just deported back over here. However as for playing the incidents down its been all over Sky News, BBC 24 News and ITV news this morning. It's also reported here. The fact is there are over 30,000 England fans there and there were 2 arrests. There's probably more arrests in Blackburn centre on a Saturday night. Contrary to your views I actually think the press report every incident they can find regarding England fans. You never hear about arrests of fans from other countries but I'm pretty sure they occur. Oh, and I'll just add that we are far worse than other countries and again anyone caught should have their knackers chopped off.

We are still 2/1 to go down with Betfair yet Leeds are odds on!! Souness do the honourable thing.

For me the test for Souness starts now. I've backed him all the way since the day he arrived but how he handles this, his most sticky spell, will tell us a lot. He is going to have to swallow his pride a bit and change a few things round that he doesn't seem to want to do. We cannot persist with thommo on the left. We cannot persist with Emerton as a right sided midfielder who insists on tucking in and cutting in. This is starving the strikers of service from that flank. At least Dizzy got the odd cross in. Reid is not a defender (although he did OK today). Souness needs to stop overcomplicating team selection and get back to getting defenders at the back, midfielders who know their job and are comfortable doing that job in the middle and a run of games with a settled front 2. We're certainly not being helped by the injuries and suspensions currently and all those Lucas Neill knockers are now seing what we actually miss both in a defensive and attacking support role. People may laugh but when fit Shorty is looking like one of the first names on the team sheet both for his ability and his leadership sills at the back. Luck has completely deserted us but we can't go all season crying about the run of the ball. This run has to end sooner or later or we will end up in a relegation battle. Over to you Mr Souness. When the going gets tough ..............

Two things have emerged from this. First of all fair play to Jason for coming on here and stating his point of view. I think that had the job been taken up by another messageboard member after Rev then this thread would never have lasted this long. Secondly it also illustrates how easy it is for people to read the views of us all on this board. The next time you write how goddam useless that blimmin Aussie full back is and how he should blimmin well sod off etc.. remember that they may well be reading it. Oh, and just incase that is true:- Houllier your a bitter idiot !!!!

Just goes to show you can't please everybody. Whilst I thought the last couple of weeks columns were OK (certainly not as bad as they were painted on this thread) I thought this weeks column was bland and showed just how much of an unwelcome gap the Internationals put into our football lives. On the wider topic I used to enjoy reading and generally disagreeing with Rev's columns and, if the nature of his departure from the LET is as is depicted in this thread, think that the paper was wrong to discard him as it has done. However its not the fault of the new chappie so lets make sure we keep a balanced view of his column.

"I've got something to tell you, I've got something to say, We're gonna put this dream in motion, Nothings gonna stand in out way When the going gets tough, the Duff get's scoring, When the going gets rough, the Duff gets scoring," At least I'm trying!

I know this should be in the songs section but as I've wasted ages doing it and as it's Christmas I though I'd risk putting it here where people could see it. Here goes ..... To the tune of I wish it could be Christmas everyday With Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, We thought you just might like to know, They put a great big smile upon everybodys' face. Taylor outjumped all the reds, Knocked the ball back with his head, And Flitcroft scored the goal that meant the mighty Rovers led Well I wish we could play man U every day. When Roy Keane starts whinging and Giggs shows he can't play. Well I wish we could play Man U every day. So let the blues sing out for Rovers. It was Sunday 2 o clock We were down at Ewood Park, Freidal kept the Forlan and nistelrooy at bay. And with Duffy showing no fear, We knew that victory was near, We'd have won by 4 or 5 if we'd have put all of our chances away. Well I wish we could play man U every day. When Roy Keane starts whinging and Giggs shows he can't play. Well I wish we could play Man U every day. So let the blues sing out for Rovers. With Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole (yorke and andy cole) We thought you just might like to know (just might like to know) They put a great big smile upon everybodys' face. And with Souey here to stay (Souey here to stay) And we've shown that we can play (shown that we can play) We'll sing our song out from the rooftops cos we know we sent Fergie on his way. Well I wish we could play man U every day. When Roy Keane starts whinging and Giggs shows he can't play. Well I wish we could play Man U every day. So let the blues sing out for Rovers.

Best fans anywhere in the world aren't they? No problems at all - until they can't get a drink!

Why aren't you dreaming about drawing Arsenal or Man U? You had the chance to be in their 'league' and blew it. You've got bigger fish to fry than Rangers? Don't think so because all the big fish swim in the champions league!! And for the record - You played well at Ewood, we were very poor and most Celtic fans were great!

If I was a coach then as blatantly simple as it sound I would make Gillespie spend 30 minutes a day running down the wing and practicing crossing. Do they actually do this with him? On a similar note I'd have Dunny & Flitty shooting from 25 yards for 30 minutes. Instead they probably play 7 a side and dribble round cones. Apart from April fools day, I've never seen cones on a football pitch.

To be fair to Jas I doubt any of us can really say what went on behind the Darwen End. I'm sure the police felt justified in going in to deal with whatever (drunks, abuse) they saw but I'm also sure that innocent Celts got caught up in it. As for the forged tickets, I know Crewe had a credit card style season ticket in 1993! This could be the answer. Not sure how this works for Matchday Tickets though.

Or the pillock, depending on your viewpoint.

The only gripe i've got with Rovers is as I've stated elsewhere. they said, as always, away fans would be ejected from the home areas but in most instances it doesn't happen. Why can't they have an extra steward & copper on each stairwell who ejects the away fans. I don't agree with kicking the fan from behind on his way out but I do agree with us chucking them out ourselves.

Rovers official site has announced this morning that big Brad is to have his operation on his knee after the game on Sunday. This will mean he misses the Charlton and Fulham games. The injury first came to light to Rovers fans in the warm up for the Arsenal game and, although Brad has been magnificent since then, the club seem to have decided it would be better to clear the problem up rather than risk making it worse.

Bit harsh

Forgot about him. What a nob. He embarrased the Rovers fans and got laughed at by the Celtic fnas. Well done mate!!

Where do I start?? First of all I'm fortunate I never stated how well we played in the first leg because I honestly believed Celtic played way below what they could do. I cringed over the last fortnight at the Rovers fans saying we'll hammer you second leg because the chances were that we would not play that well again (we didn't against Villa, Saints) and that Celtic would play better. As with most Rovers fans I believe over the 2 legs we have the better players. However there is something still missing within the club that has led us not to be the team that is best at getting the right result. Credit to Celtic, they came and showed the first leg to be all wrong.Larrson's finish was top class. We've restricted Celtic to giving their star player just 2 chances throughout the 2 games but he's stuck them both in the back of the net. Could we say the same about Cole? In the second half we threw caution to the wind, created nothing and Celtic exposed us at the back. Beofre the game all the Celtic fans I spoke to on the streets and in the pub were very friendly. Strange how many of them we're from England with English accents but they were still passionate about the club. Every one of them wanted to chat about football and despite their obvious intoxication were a great laugh. Any complaints?? Yep I've got 2. 1) Sorry lads but that was not the loudest away following I've heard in the Darwen end. Newcastle and especially City (in 2000) were FAR louder. 2) (And probably controversially) Nearly every Celtic fan I spoke to said 'You'll hear us singing songs about supporting the IRA. Don't be offended cos we don't mean anything by it.' We'll dont sing them then. You wouldn't go to brixton and say 'You'll hear us singing songs about supporting the Klu Klux Klan. Don't be offended cos we don't mean anything by it.' Anyway I'm going away tommorow morning till Sunday night (yep I miss the Everton game ). However this means I won't have to read the obvious rubbish from Jas and his mates. To the rest of the decent Celtic fans (Pete, SMc & Co) well done lads and good luck.

I'm with SteB on this one. We played outstanding last Thursday but got beat. We'll have to live with it. In fact it's strange that we got more credit in defeat than we normally get in victory. As for Celtic they looked poor but we've looked poor in certain games before. You can't judge a side on 1 game. There's still 1 game to go in which Rovers can try to finsih the job and convert their superiority so far into an actual victory. There's also still 1 game to go for Celtic to show there first leg showing was all wrong by matching and bettering Rovers at Ewood. I feel what will happen will lie somewhere in between these two scenarios with the winner going through by 1 goal (or god forbid away goals). Altough I wasn't at Celtic for the first game the atmosphere seemed very poor but a Celtic fan has already admitted elsewhere this was down to disbelief in how well Rovers / badly celtic played. Where the boot on the other foot, as for long periods of the Villa game yesterday, we'd hardly raise the roof would we! A final prediction. Souness O'Neill

Sorry to dig this old fossil of a thread up but does anyone know how the tickets for the home game are selling. I honestly thought the sold out signs would be up by now although I suppose a lot of people will want to buy them at Ewood today.

I hate Steel, I can't remmber getting in last night! Anyway typical Rovers performance excpet for last night we weren't putting the shots high and wide someone was getting as arse or a leg in the way. Why was it that after 5 minutes the only fans you could hear were Rovers fans. Great atmosphere! Not wishing to name names but Tiny Oh dear When was the last time we went to an away game in the Premiership and bossed it that much? I hate stella

As tickets for the non season ticket holders are now on sale anyone know what the demand was like this morning. My dad wants to go but is still stuck in the 60's and 'doesn't believe in them credit card thingies' so I'm going to have to either phone up for him or go down in the car for him tommorow.

In that case i stand corrected. However i could probably name you only 3 more Celtic players as to be honest the media coverage of games from Scotland in the national press down here is minimal. Because Lennon, Gupppy & Co have gone up from England I think the English press give them slightly more attention hence my belief they were 'stars'. Cos let's be honest, if guppy's a star then there's something amiss. :'>

Look at the Sofia game. Because Sofia scored and it was 1-1 it meant we had to score in the away leg and forced us to be more attacking (not that we need forcing). Obviously 0-0 is better than any defeat but I feel our chance may be in the away leg when Celtic will come at us all guns blazing. Our game won't be and can't be to soak up all celtic pressure. We'll just collapse a la City. Best to go at them and try and win the game. I'm sure Celtic will score over the 2 legs. If the first leg finished 0-0 this means that we'd have to score 2 at Ewood.