Tris

something you seemed a bit ###### off with at charlton jordan! Heard you quite a few times questioning why there were so many 'cockneys' in the blackburn end! Of course there's going to be loads of "non-rovers regular" faces at London away games. Last season at Charlton I got tickets for a Liverpool supporting mate (who also turns out for Rovers London Branch footy team) and three of his colleagues from America. On Monday I got tickets for an Australian girl I know and her parents who are over from Sydney on holiday. They all get an interest in Rovers and it's not as if they're keeping other fans out. As for Chelsea, well it's the nearest ground to where I live but I'm having serious doubts about paying £40. As others have said, there's a line, and it's been crossed. I've been looking at Charltons website to try and work out their pricing policy. I can't find anywhere that gives out ground prices for the season, but for Newcastle tickets were £25, for Southampton £20 and for Rovers £15. Suggests that they decide pricing on a match-by-match basis, and have one price no matter where you sit. Rovers was their highest crowd of the season so far, and backed up by London-wide press and radio advertising (to an audience of several million people) alerting them that live Premiership football could be watched for just £15 at the Valley, it illustrates just how difficult it is for Rovers to compete with the likes of Charlton. And also what a well run club Charlton is. To put it in context, cheapest seats at West Ham start at £24 but there aren't many of them, and other areas of the ground quickly hit £30 and £35. Prices are similar at QPR.

There seems to be an awful lot of empty seats at Stamford Bridge tonight, and if the atmosphere is being portrayed accurately on Sky, well, it's just crap.

At which point one has to mention Martin from Bushy's (Ale of Man) who single handedly got the away end going (in the absence of the drum) by hammering on the side of the stand with his hand. When I saw him in the Antigallican after the game, he appeared to have paid for this enthusiasm with either a fractured - or certainly extremely badly bruised - wrist. But it did get the noise going.

WHAT ??? Have you not heard of the Vichy government ?!

Can I just say I think Den's doing a fantastic job with this whole thing - he's taking plently of time to allow people to voice their opinions, he's suggesting compromise solutions, with maybe now even a vote on formation in the pipeline. This is democracy at its best. However there seems to be a stand off situation developing between the "pimple faced oiks" © Jim and the "old giffers" © Scotty. Might I suggest that rather than waiting for a vote to resolve this it is instead sorted with a massive ruck in McDonalds car park after the Villa game, perhaps our two respected members named above could captain either side ?? I'll be happy to referee as happily I fall in between the two categories. Perhaps either or both sides might like to improve their chances by getting in some ringers - feel free to rent-a-hooligan - plenty of candidates in the hooligan thread here. Well done Den, keep things ticking over just as you have been.

What's the problem - it's only 267% more expensive than Charlton on Monday night. And if you read the small print from the Rovers ticket office travelling fans are guaranteed 267% more effort and commitment from the players.

Colin who ? where's Amoruso ?

Dickov's a far better player though, as you keep saying

I voted yes. On the basis that if come January he's been crap, he knows where the door is So there's nowt to lose really. Although I'm rather suspicious as to why he didn't put pen to paper at Bolton, whatever the rumours on here.

really ? you think that ? you've never mentioned it before ... i thought you were a big fan of Paul Dickov

THREE ??! Don't tell me Mr G Goat is being allowed out for the weekend ?!

I know the London Branch used to go in the Rose of Denmark but not sure now. Jimbo may update us before Monday. I'll be aiming for the A-G by 6.30pm, it's a bit of a treck from where I work though.

919, and "plenty"

pre / post match pub : ANTIGALLICAN

The Antigallican's under new management !!! And for the first time in its history has some decent reviews .... ANTI-G opposite Charlton station Think we'd have gone there anyway ... but still Tickets are available on the gate on Monday night - £15 - bargain !!

I've emptied me mailbox and well up for this mini-break It's not quite Sofia or Ankara but it's about as close as we're gonna get !

Den, they were Souness' players on Saturday as well. Minus 9 changes.

and you call me predictable Which attitude of Souness' cup teams - the one which made him the most successful manager in English cup competitions bar Fergie Wenger and Houllier in his time at Ewood ??! All I'm saying is that Hughes - in the circumstances - should have taken more time to learn about fringe players in training and in reserve games, rather than spending 5 days with them and dropping them into a cup game he claimed he was treating as important it's not bloody rocket science, and it's not like we have a game on Saturday to worry about. The team which beat Portsmouth would have had an extra 2 days to rest before Charlton and as for "you couldn't bloody wait to post that" comment, well Scott you're clearly an abysmal judge of people as well as football.

I think Hughes has made his first significant error. Don't get me wrong - I think he's the right appointment and his fresh ideas and innovative backroom staff will - in the long term - be the right combination for Rovers. However, tonight was a good - in fact an easy - opportunity to prolong the honeymoon period, which instead has lasted exactly 6 days, and now the media hawks will be out in force hoping Hughes fails again live on Sky next Monday. Hughes' initial comments about this game which I posted on page 4 of this thread (Premiership = priority, this game is to view fringe players) now look totally accurate as he dropped 9 players from Saturday. The rather belated (and rather false) quotes in which he tried to backtrack on those comments (Lee posted a link) never made it past the official site. So I for one hope that Hughes learns from this and come January 1st/2nd - his next chance to put fringe players into a first team game which doesn't compromise us in the Premier League - he's watched their form in the reserves and in training first. And - not quite just for the record - mainly for Janice and co - Souness' record in this CUP over the last three seasons reads like this : WON IT - SEMI FINALISTS v Man Utd - robbed all guns blazing by LIVERPOOL. I take absolutely no pleasure from pointing this out - I'm gutted not to be going through in a competition which has been good to us - BUT maybe people on this board will stop mis-representing our cup record over the last few seasons and finally move on from slagging Souness on twisted perceptions which have no grounding in fact.

The exact same quotes from Bellamy are used in the reports on both Planet Football-Sky Sports and on BBCi The headline on Sky Sports reads "BELLAMY IN SOUNESS BLAST" The headline on BBCi reads "BELLAMY WILLING TO FIT IN" Flippin journos - why don't they make their minds up !

points per game table looks like this : in [] is position in total points table 1. Man Utd 2.09 [1] 2. Arse 1.85 [2] 3. Liverpool 1.69 [3] 4. Newcastle 1.602 [5] 5. Chelsea 1.599 [4] 6. ROVERS 1.49 [9] 7. Leeds 1.48 [6] 8. Villa 1.45 [7] 9. Spurs 1.31 [8] 10. Norwich 1.30 [26]

nope, still in the ice bath

why stop there ? why not send limos round or order cabs ?

Is this aimed at anyone in particular or the entire messageboard community ?

Alan75 / Jan Souness quotes on the Worthington Cup which look exactly the same as what Hughes has just said : link link