Hasta

I wasn't aware until today that England had a meaningless friendly against Austria on Firday night. Now will Mclaren give Bentley a decent run out or will it be a Beckham, SWP, Lennon cop out. We shall see.

I knew I was putting myself up to be shot at but I still stand by it. I reckon had it been the same price structure as last year we'd probably be nearly at 30,000 anyway for the Liverpool game. Apart from the City game which was boosted by a large away following the other attendances must be viewed as disappointing considering the price structure. As many people have said, if we charge £10 per ticket I still reckon the attendances against the likes of Fulham and reading would hardly increase. I'm not moaning about it. I'm happy they've done it and I'm only paying £299 for my season ticket. I believe that we only have around 19,000 home fans. I also believe that figure is good considering who and where we are. JW and the board often tell us they want to fill Ewood every week. This price drop was the one thing they could hope would help to achieve this. It's not going to happen. I believe the affect it has had so far will be disappointing for the board. The only hope now is that recognition and a glimmer of top 4 success will improve matters. (what also won't help is the 18 live games we've got on Sky from December onwards !!)

That's possibly the only way short term. Good recent form against a 'big' club brings out the fans. It's true we did probably only get about 3,500 more home fans last night than for the other games but the 3500 turned up because of the opposition and the attractiveness of the fixture, not because of any price reduction. I know I'm stating the obvious here but Fulham, Reading and Birmingham don't have the same pull. They aren't attractve games to the Blackburn public as Liverpool or Man U whatever the price structure we put on them games. I believe that the attendances this season would only have been down by about 1500 had we kept last years price structure. A 7.5% attendance increase for a 30% price reduction is not the effect Rovers wanted. In summary- the Premier League product in general does not attract the casual supporter of Blackburn.

Cracking 30,000+ crowd and atmosphere last night. Strange though that the first game that sees us sell out at home is one of the games that still costs £30 to watch. More evidence that reduced ticket prices aren't making that much difference?

King Georges hall has finally been given the bullet as a Premier League Darts venue. Unsuprising really considering the trouble last year and the fact the event has obviously outgrown the location. Nearest location for 2008 is the MEN on the 14th February. Tickets £20 & £25 Dates here

The MGP booing happened once that I am aware of as he was subbed against Portsmouth. It was from a relatively small number of people in the Blackburn End.

Forget our drummers. That Portsmouth fan with the bells would drive me mad if I was sat near him all week. They were going through me from the other end of the ground. Edit for Ste B post below - Cheeky Cheeky !!!

And I wouldnt have had much worry picking up my cash either.

He's 6/4 and if Betfair had a market at that price up I'd probably lay it.

I said at the end of last season that McCarthy has got the old problem that he appears to put in subdued effort and can often go through games contributing very little. However his finishing is exceptional and he scores goals. If the goals dry up for a substantial length of time then we have a problem. However we're only 5 weeks into the season so let's see what happens. He, along with MGP and to some extent Bentley, haven't caught fire yet this season. The fact that we're still unbeaten is a testament to how good a side we have now. Benni had a quiet spell at the turn of the year only scoring once in the league after New years day until early March. However he hit 8 more from March to the season end. People are just worried over whether he is trying to play his way out of the club following his silly comments over the summer. If he is then Hughes has the players on the bench to be able to bomb him out until January. Let's see what happens over the next few weeks. Was Jay Bothroyd lazy ?? :ph34r:

Sorry to bring it up this back up Tris but I too was sceptical about Dunns signing. However in the games he's played this year he really has proved the doubters wrong. I'm not saying he's the second coming or anything but he's put in some good performances as shown again today against City. Now he's had a pre-season the worry about any stamina doubts are long gone. The image of his coming off 60 minutes into the UEFA cup game knackered are long forgotten. In both todays game and the Arsenal game he ran right to the very end. He may look 'fat' but his fitness isnt in doubt. I don't think hes the player we sold as he hasnt shown the ability to dart forward and past a player like he used to but he's still technically very good and seems to accept his defensive responsibilities much more not than under Souness. All those peoeple who thought he added nothing to the squad, and there were many of them, are IMO now being proved wrong.

Amazing how the ommision of two letters can transform a sentence.

I've got £30 on Painter to beat Taylor with a 6.5 leg start. :ph34r: Normal people would edit this post now as it looks as though I'm knackered but I'll leave it up for the crack.

Bit gory (you have been warned) and not really funny but video clip of a guy hitting a long jumper with a javelin tonight in Rome. The 'funny' bit is the interview after. "I'm not very happy because my javelin hit a man." "Can you tell me what happened?" "Err, My Javelin went a little bit too much to the left". http://www1.nrk.no/nyhetsspiller/type/loop...12736/tab/sport

If Todd has gone, which looks likely, I'd just like to say thanks for the service. Winning player of the season 2 season running shows what effect he had on the team. Sure we've had to put up with a bit of 'baggage' but we've got a good return on the pitch for the 750k we paid for him. A few people lately have been glad to see the back of him forgetting the service he's given, criticising recent performances when he got a game. I do think he's on the decline now. However we've pushed on a little bit in the last few years and the likes of Nelson and Samba have helped us achieve that. For the level we are at and the level we want to get to Toddy is not good enough. Let hime move on, thanks and good luck to him.

Another article from that website that backfired spectacularly.

I remember posting a link to this at the time. I've just come across it again. It's soooo bitter it's funny. Possibly the most biased report ever. Enjoy !!

Take the word 'journeyman' out of that quote and it sums up football. Practically every player at Ewood would jump at the chance of signing for Chelsea if they were good enough and wanted.

Lee Hughes should have served a hell of a lot longer in jail without doubt. However, once a man is freed he should , within reason, be allowed to coninue working like anyone else. He's done his time and completed his punishment. If Lee Hughes is now officially 'free' then he should be allowed to continue working, be it as a butcher, a baker or footballer.

Although there is no plans for a fourth POTC film yet, Disney are intending to extend the brand and not letting it die. This will mean lots more general merchandise (which the company I work for is already involved in) and probably cartoons etc... They obviously see it as product with a future so a 4th film is likely at some point, possibly a prequel to the first judging on the stuff we are getting to work with (unless thats been done already as I've only ever seen the first film.

I've moaned at England and McLaren a fair bit recently but can't really tonight. It was a professional job well done against a shockingly poor side with the result never in doubt. The lack of imagination and quality in the subs was annoying though. Tougher challenges lie ahead and I still feel we'll see the 'bad' side of England at some point in the autumn.

Problem here is that Estonia are that bad McLaren might get away with Dyer at RB and then it would appear in the eyes of the naive as a tactical wonderstroke. I'm not saying that Phil Neville should be in the squad but as he is then surely he has to be played at that position before Dyer. Same applies with Wes Brown. Yes they're both shakey but without a doubt they will have far more defensive positional awareness than Dyer. They'll also tackle and head better than Dyer.

Someone recomended to me that I rented out Pans Labyrinth. Having never heard of it I rented it 'blind' and was annoyed to discover it was in spanish with english subtitles. Normally I just can't get into films with subtitles. However I gave it a chance tonight and the film was superb. If anyone likes these sort of movies ( a bit wierd) I recommend them to get it and give it a chance. You'll not be disappointed.

I have to disagree TCJ. Alan Smith is nowhere near top quality. Sure he is a good player else he wouldnt be at United but he's very limited at what he does. He's like a very good Dickov. I'd say Crouch, as well as being better in the air, is better on the ground also. Crouch really does suffer because of his size. Alan Smiths record for United is 12 goals in 61 starts. That is a poor ratio for someone playing in a Man United team who win far more than they lose. I know he's played some of them in midfield but thats because he's not been good enough to get a game up front His England strike rate is 1 in 16 caps. Crouch is 29 goals in 71 games for Liverpool and 11 goals in 17 internationals. FIife - with regard to Owen I agree that apart from the header onto the roof of the net he did very little. However I let him off in my rant due to the fact that he's only played 330 minutes of football in 12 months and he is proven at scoring for England. It does sum up our lack of quality that despite his lack of matches we are almost compelled to pick him.

Time for a rant. Did McLaren not say at the start of his reign that he'd take friendlies more serious and make it an honour to wear the shirt again. Let's ignore the fact that Crouch didnt start so that a token Man U player could play in the case of the god awful Alan Smith. At least that might keep a portion of the 9 zillion Man U fans buying shirts. We were in front for what would be a moral boosting win. Then the changes. First Downing for Joe Cole even though Cole had looked more lively than Rhubarb and Custard had done in the middle of the pitch. Second Kieren Dyer on before Englands most potent marksman of the last 18 months. Finally Jermaine flippin Jenas on for Beckham. By the time 'JJ' wasted the glorious 3 on 2 break I'd had enough and hoped Brazil scored to put what is surely deserved pressure on McLaren. I cheered the equaliser. Lawro thinks we'll play a 'lone' striker against Estonia on Wednesday, similar to when we got absolutely battered in Croatia. Personally, I'd go with a Bentley, Cole, Gerrard Beckham midfield, 2 strikers and go at them all guns blazing. We wont though, we'll sit back in the hope of grinding out a 'professional' solitary goal win. If we don't start with 2 strikers on Wednesday, and if Crouch isn't one of them, for the good of English football I hope we don't win. At least we'd still have a slim chance of qualifying. People would say who would we replace McLaren with. I don't care. Anyone. Ian Holloway. At least we'd be useless but get a laugh. This is just plain frustrating. People, especially other nations, always say 'why can't you accept you're not as good as you think you should be'. I think the reason is because most people know that we suffer from favouritism within the camp (Lampard), not getting the best out of players in their correct positions and strange and ultimately stupid decisions from the 'management'. Even then we'd still not be good enough but at least we'd sleep at night knowing we'd done all we can. Rant over (and I've not mentioned Paul Robinson once!)