Ozzie / Ohmi ... Kiwiwannabe and I are booked on the Wednesday night party boat from Hull. We'll be driving the few miles down the M62 from Leeds, and parking up at the terminal (which is free). Should be a proper laugh on t'boat!!

The best thing about yesterdays trip to Villa Park was discovering the dodgy off licence close to the away end sold that Polish 5.6% beer. Zywiec

They gave us two replays on the big screen!! Disagree on Gray. I've been to 8 out of the last 10 games and all of them since Emerton has been out of the back four. Without doubt Emerton is missed, but Gray has been adequate at worst - he's been competent. At West Ham and Villa Park - positively energetic. Someone even posted the other day he looks overweight and unfit. He's certainly not out of shape and his match fitness has improved with each game he's played in this run.

What was he supposed to do with it? He'd won the initial header, was off balance, facing across goal, and being closed down by two of their players but still managed to nick it to Zurab. Who could and should have put it into row z. As posted elsewhere, Gray is everyone's favourite scapegoat at the moment, but he is not the problem.

So mum's not seen the reserves all season (get well soon etc), Waggy's not been seen or heard of since the World Cup, but armchair boy knows better than Mark Hughes based on their match reports from the reserves. Speaks volumes about the lack of knowledge which is behind some of the rubbish which can be read on this messageboard.

A few observations. Mickey Gray is copping far too much stick from scapegoat hunters. He was one of the better players on the pitch for Rovers today - which unfortunately isn't much of an accolade. The starting front two were hopeless - Jeffers was a slight improvement but for me this is a big problem area. I didn't understand the subs, which left us with Peter and MGP not knowing what they were supposed to be doing. Midfield was a mess and Hughes has to take the blame for it. Instructions weren't given or understood. I haven't seen any replays - just home and MOTD2 has only just started - but the ref clearly waved away the penalty claims. He was the closest official. His lino gave it from in front of us lot - and for me he got it very wrong. The ref - having made his decision and clearly signalled it - should have stuck with his own decision. He didn't even consult - just saw the lino signal and changed his own correct flippin decision. The lino then got another key decision very badly wrong within 60 seconds of the restart. The Rovers fans were understandably irate. There was then the worst piece of stewarding I have ever seen. I guy I believe is called P*** (leaving it like that cos I don't want to implicate anyone) - who I have known by sight since Sofia, have seen away many times and is the least trouble making person you will ever meet. Long and short - he was removed. We're not talking one of the 2 pound an hour gang - they weren't even there today. I think someone near me got the whole thing on video. At half time I spoke to the steward who caused the incident and he alleged something against P*** which ALL of us sitting behind KNOW didn't happen. I also spoke to the PC who was on video camera duty to our right, and whilst he couldn't say how much of it he filmed, he was critical of the timing of such idiotic action by the stewards involved. The police clearly briefed / b*llocked the stewards at half time because they had vanished in the second half. P*** - if you intend to take your case any further you've got a whole stack of witnesses - in fact I've never seen such support for someone about to be ejected. And like I said the 2 pound an hour gang weren't there - this was normal middle aged, non drunk civilised Rovers fans standing up for right against wrong. All in all a bad day out at Villa Park.

Not worth 5000 people staying away though Den. It's not too much to ask is it - 3 European games over an 11 week period - games we should be delighted are taking place at our ground. The fans really should stretch themselves to attend. Why did we all get so excited about managing to qualify??!!! 4 quid a week for non ST holders, and £1.30 per week for ST holders over that period.

The disappointing element is that the crowd last night is over 5000 down from the Salzburg crowd. Now I know that was free for ST holders, but let's be honest - £7.50 for European football is as close to free as you're going to get. And walk ons paid the same £15 which is still a ridiculous bargain. I guess the club will be analysing how many of those 5000 who didn't show up last night are ST holders and how many were walk ons against Salzburg - and wondering what the hell they can do next! Either way it's disappointing and sorry Flops and co - this time you just can't put it down to cost. All parameters were the same as the Salzburg game - Thursday night, on Eurosport, insignificant number of away fans, European football experience at Ewood - but over a quarter (27%) decided not to return to see their team play Basel. The only other difference was the temperature. Maybe that was the decider for the stayaways??

Please - no fouls on the motorway at 1am.

Pretty much spot on there Scotty / BC. It wasn't a game of football - it was a 90 minute play acting cheat fest. One incident summed it up nicely - when Deco was writhing in agony on the floor and Terry kicked the ball at him - he was up like a shot to remonstrate - absolutely nowt wrong with the cheat. And it wasn't just Barca players. I'll still watch high profile games like that one, but I don't regard that as proper football any more. The ref hasn't got a hope in hell. We went to Barnet v Chester City last Saturday at Underhill as a warm up to West Ham - that's proper football. And was way more enjoyable to watch than the cheat fest last night.

will jose mourinho retract his snide comments about gudjohnsen learning how to dive since he left chelsea in the light of lampards disgraceful dive?

Just got an urge to quote some John Cleese ... ...

Rail and sea from London Liverpool Street - 25 quid each way Dutch Flyer

I don't agree with the flak being dished out to Gray - as I didn't agree with those who were slagging off McEveley in midweek. The fact is that neither of them are Brett Emerton - and his remarkable energy which has provided such a valuable outlet for the ball from the back 4 when he's in it - is sorely missed. It's so valuable that Lucas Neill has played on the "wrong" side all season so far. There are hardly any players who could replicate Emerton's new found role which can turn defence into attack with a few seconds of blistering pace - the player who replaces him in the back 4 has to defend primarily, and neither Gray nor McEveley has made a bad job of it.

That's probably half of the problem. If the only practice our defenders get in training is provided by the dross being sent into opposition boxes by MGP and co - it's not bloody surprising we can't defend corners. What I find infuriating is it's not a new problem. Hughes and co have UEFA pro licences coming out of their ears - the best coaching set up in the world according to some people on here. So why - match after match after match - are we so incompetent when it comes to defending corners and at the other end making even just the odd one count. I mean it's as basic as it gets!!! The Norwegian David Beckham can take some of the blame, but as none of the other players can take a decent corner either, then the coaching staff have to take most of the criticism for these failings.

I reckon between 500 and 600 away fans - TV must have been deceptive. That said, there seemed to be very few regulars and a lot of faces I didn't recognise - unlike at (eg) Boro when we were also low on numbers but I recognised far more people. Consequently, West Ham was quiet cos there weren't many singing (and the usual suspects were being picked off one by one by the old bill for singing £2 an hour).

Transport for London and the rail operators do a fantastic job of making travel to / in London on Sundays something of a joke. I'd read this before travelling. If anyone isn't rushing home and fancies some decent music after the game, we're going here.

Thought he was shaky to start with but got better as the game went on. Admittedly I had a better view in the second half as was in JW Upper towards the Darwen End, and from what I could see there were more positive signs than negative ones. Robben certainly didn't beat him every time - McEveley put in some outstanding tackles.

Erm, when did you last see them play?! McEveley put in a solid performance defensively last night, made some great tackles on Robben especially in the second half.

Kiwiwannabe and I stopped off in Berlin on the way back from Krakow and went to Hertha Berlin v Borussia Monchengladbach at the Olympiastadion. From that experience, a couple of reasons why crowds in Germany could be healthy: - seats very easy to book online, and could choose the exact seat from a plan - excellent pricing (our seats were 12 Euros (£8.50) in one of the best areas of the ground) - great public transport - match day experience really enjoyable with reasonably priced food and beer (£2.50 / pint) - can take beer to seat, beer "tankards" designed so you can carry 4 pints in each hand (handles lock together) (1 euro deposit on the returnable plastic tankards) Rovers are clearly at the forefront of initiatives to address falling crowds in the Premier League. They should all head over to Germany for a weekend and see how it should be done.

Had a couple of hours on the motorway to mull the game over - not over bothered about going out of this cup this season, but that's on the assumption that we return to winning ways against Basel and Feyenoord, so that next time we play on a Wednesday (in 7 weeks time) the result really doesn't matter - because we'll be in the hat for a more important knock out competition. I'm guessing 90% of the crowd felt the same way, because that atmosphere was bizarre!! Shame about the two injuries and I hope they're not serious. Shame Henchoz is soooo slow. Good (if unexpected) to watch a left hand side of McEveley and Peter - some signs of promise against top class opposition. Maybe Jay listened to his "Rythm of the Blues" on Radio Rovers pre-match from a few years ago, some touches and tackles were certainly reminiscent of when he first burst on to the scene. Mokoena makes me nervous when he's on the ball but it was encouraging to see a midfield without Tugay and Savage function ok - again against world class opponents. Onwards and upwards - with a welcome break for the players between the Villa (A) and Man Utd (H) games - especially as the draw would have lumped us with playing Villa twice in 4 days.

You'll save so much on phone calls you'll be able to stay somewhere proper posh!!

There is more than one problem to be tackled I'm afraid. Similar concerns were raised after Salzburg, and as I haven't seen reference anywhere else (only just got back from Poland so haven't checked all threads) I'm raising it here. Some of the chants to be heard pre-match on Thursday, emanating from a bar on the scenic market square in Krakow, from a f*cked up minority of visitors to the city wearing blue and white shirts: (aimed at locals doing lunchtime shopping) And something involving Jack Straw which I can't remember. I can name two posters on this board who joined in with the "WE HATE PAKIS" bit. In fact one of them played in the fans game in Ankara and is a decent guy, so here's hoping he must have just been really beered up on Thursday. He looked it, otherwise (and if ever seen by me again) his real name and Ewood seat number would be in to the club. Unfortunately, John Williams had his photo taken with some of the racist chanting morons. He happened to walk past the bar in a quiet spell, and like the decent guy he is, came over to chat with fans and pose with them for photos. The thing is, it doesn't matter if it's only one or two idiots who sing this stuff. We're all in the same place wearing the same shirts. If 5 people out of 50 sing "WE HATE PAKIS" it rings around the location and we're suddenly all racist football thugs rather than great ambassadors for our club and town and country. This stuff sticks. Rovers fans have a brilliant reputation away from home but a few knobheads are destroying it. Last point before people put 2+2 together and make 5. Thenodrog posts a lot of salient points on this subject, and I happen to agree with many of them. He was not in the bar on the square so it's not him. He provokes quiet debate on the internet. These "Rovers" in Krakow were openly and loudly dragging the clubs name through the dirt, in a country where sensitivity is paramount.

As a new ntl broadband subscriber last September, I was entitled to a years free subscription to Rovers World, which I took advantage of. I haven't even been to Rovers World in 2006 - not once. They are bombarding me with emails offering another year at almost 50% reduction but for me it's a waste of money. The match commentary is very one-eyed so I'd listen to any alternative (and sometimes it would drop so far behind real time that unless you black out every other media source the "live" experience is lost). The "exclusive" video news and interviews don't offer anything you can't get somewhere else - and there's a limit to the number of times you can watch thick footballers tell a TV camera "it was disappointing to lose on Saturday but all the boys want to win the next game". I'll only get up to Blackburn 12-15 times this season (depending on cups), but I get far more satisfaction from reading a home match programme than from the Rovers World offering. And I believe it's far more valuable for the club if I spend my cash that way. (From memory, when so many league clubs were ensnared by the Premium TV internet deal, it was on a fixed price payment over many years. So the number of Rovers World subcscribers has no direct impact on the money Rovers get from the deal, it just helps PTV out of the hole it dug itself - just as since departed ITV Digital also screwed up so badly). So as an exiled fan, I use this site as my primary source of news and views, and I go to the LET website every evening to read their articles. There are a few posters on here who post links to any decent stuff in the national press (thanks philipl and others) and flag up any broadcast media of interest. And for leisure time reading about the club, match day programmes. All much better sources than Rovers World.

We've got 2500 tickets (from official site). Looks like Dutch police have been reading this thread, sussed out we're all staying in Amsterdam, and have now officially designated it a Good Idea.