Oh - and Jan???? What happened to him "honing his fitness for us now" - since you posted that comment 95 days ago, Dunn has played in 1 cup and 3 league games - two of which Brum lost!! Now he's posing on TV with Santa and joking about mince pies!! What's he going to be like when he's back in the pubs and clubs of Harwood and Blackburn NOT honing his fitness?!

I don't have any ulterior motives on this one! If he comes back - for nothing - and earns only when he plays, plays well and helps us, I will be utterly delighted. If he comes back for a fee I will not be delighted at all because we cannot waste money on such a risk. greggyk might have hit the nail on the head - the chances of him passing a medical must be less than 50/50.

As this signing apparently gets ever closer I totally stand by what I posted above 3 months ago. And if it does happen, Rovers must make the terms very public, so the fans are absolutely clear that the damaged goods have arrived for free and are earning nothing until they perform. 46 league starts in 3 years is abysmal and he looked fatter than ever sitting down next to Santa on the TV yesterday - he even made a joke about it. It's never going to improve - he's simply looking to be paid a wage to live closer to his daughter and his mates and avoid the M6 traffic. NO wages and NO sum tcj - then there's no risk.

Don't think that would work for the games we're talking about though - because any neutral zone just becomes an extension of the away end. Indeed, as Fulham don't make the slightest mention of it on their website, I think we'll find they have got rid of it this season. For those who continue to criticise Rovers then take a look what a walk up Fulham fan would need to do to watch Liverpool at the Cottage. 1) Be a member - cost 25 quid - you get a pin badge but no ticket discount vouchers like you do with ours. 2) Pay the admission price for the Cat A+ game (£45 for Hammersmith End) 70 QUID. They did have a "bundle rule" as well which added another 30 quid to get a Cat B or C ticket - but have had to scrap it. Fulham have had lots of empty seats this season, but recognise the need to cash in on the big games - and force their non season ticket holders to tie themselves to the club with membership. Of course the local population is much larger, and has lots more money - but Rovers have to compete with Fulham on the pitch not off it - that is the reality of Premier League football. Discounting our prices leaves us further behind. Incidentally, if any true Rovers fan wants to see the Liverpool game - 1) Get yourself a membership for £20 - and the 2 x £10 discount vouchers that come with it - so it's actually free. 2) Go and buy your BBE ticket. 3) Bob is your uncle, you are supporting the club you love as a member AND you can plan another trip to Ewood to use your other voucher and enjoy seeing the live action. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??

Talk about picking out the one line to suit your long running - and quite frankly tiring - agenda. Try these lines instead: "the Blackburn manager insists he will continue to give youngsters a chance if they are good enough." "But there are only so many players who have the ability and the attitude to take on board what it needs to become a Premier League player" "They have to be exceptional players. You have to be single-minded." And the original article was in the local paper - LET link - if you keep getting your news and opinion from rubbish dumps like Tribal it's not surprising you talk so much rubbish yourself.

But we all know that the ref got the Tugay one wrong, and IMO the video review panel wrongly upheld the decision on instructions from the FA because of what Mark Hughes had said - ie to protect the reputation of the referee. Graham Poll - it seems - got this one correct, and two wrongs don't make a right. Saturday's incident and the subsequent TV pundit verdicts doesn't help the argument in favour of instant video refs. The BBC lot had 5 hours in nice warm studios with lots of equipment to decide it was a blatant dive. Andy Gray took 25 hours to decide the opposite - aided by probably better technology. What chance has some poor freezing bloke in the stands with a 12" monitor and 10 seconds to call it??!

After MOTD last night I though Benni's dive was a disgrace to our club colours. Andy Gray with Sky's superior technology has just proved me (and the MOTD lot) to be wrong. Sonko clearly stands on Benni's heel, causing his ankles to come together with his next step. There is no way he wouldn't fall to ground. He makes the most of it with his upper body actions for sure - but I think I'd do the same if I'd put the ball in the net 48 times and had them all ruled out by the flag happy chappy on the far side. Andy Gray also said he'd phoned Graham Poll to ask about this particular incident, Poll saw the contact and judged it to be accidental so not a penalty, but not a dive either. So he allowed play to go on and no yellow for Benni. I'm not Poll's biggest fan, but as it's the season of goodwill I hope he gets at least three Christmas cards.

You have just saved me major hassle tomorrow - many thanks.

What a good post.

Something strange going on here. I used a well deserved derogatory adjective in a post in relation to the murdoch minge munching journo at 4.36 this morning and it has been edited - electronically or manually - to sulkings. Is the Dawk being granted special protection??? We should be told.

I think you've got the roots of an absolutely fantastic suggestion here OJ. Take it to the extreme - in the opposite stand (upper), offer executive type facilities such as at seat service - but charge a huge premium over the season. Football must adapt, but adapting by quality of opposition and kick off time is a lost cause. Offering added value at the point of receipt is the way forward.

Just on a technicality - so far as I'm aware Neill is not the club captain. He is the current choice to be captain of the first team on the pitch. I think that the club captain is still Andy Todd. Irony of ironies. (Or maybe it's still Flitcroft). Back to the subject this is a rare occasion where I agree 100% with Scotty. Hughes has put his cards on the table and Lucas Neill is his captain for now. To respond to idiotic criticism from people who know nowt about what the dressing room feels would be suicidal. I'm quite sure that Hughes bases his management on the principle that you make a decision and stick with it. It's crazy to suggest that this issue is affecting the support. We've gone over this thousands of times, and the apologists for the poor support our team gets from the town latch on to any handle. Price, manager (he's been gone 2 1/2 years), style of play, bad music choice, tannoy too loud, rain, pubs, television, Dickov, Kuki, Ashley Ward - - - and now it's Lucas Neill's turn. The support just isn't influenced by individual players and it's ridiculous to suggest that it is. The long and short is that Neill is a bloody good player and he's never let us down. He hasn't broken a contract, and he hasn't mouthed off in the press. Long live Lucas Neill.

Livorno please. About time one of these foreign jaunts involved sea and beaches. And I don't mean in Israel (although I'm sure Tel Aviv is lovely, it's one heck of a trek).

You are the first to slag off the current set up, the recent set up - you hate Hughes, you hated Souness, you hated Parkes, you hated Hodgson, we can go back as far as you like idiot. Am I the boardroom apologist? Or are you the club idiot? Rovers are rocking the boat above their station, some of us love it, some knobs diss it for points. Step forward sulkings and show us your positive credentials.

You are a clueless idiot and so are your mates. And - just as a random comment on the side - you can't even spell the name of the captain of the club you apparently support. Back to Lucas Neill. As a football player he has come from nowhere (Australia) via nowhere (Millwall) to nowhere (a decisive European tie at home in Blackburn watched by 12000). On the way he's captained his national side to an unprecedented pinnacle of achievement in the World Cup, which turned to failure in an instant. He's been told - rightly or comically wrongly - that he might have a chance of "making it" at nicer places than Blackburn, maybe even places where the sun shines. So he hasn't signed a contract extension with us. He's honouring what he's singned up for - and with some style and commitment. Mark Hughes values that commitment and has been very public in his support for his captain. But this messageboard is riddled with spoilt pr!cks who know better - who are suddenly expert judges of morality and contract terms, of visible on-field performance and invisible off-field motivation, who know more than Hughes and his team, John Williams and his team, and all the established professional players who wear the blue and white shirts and clearly support Lucas Neill as their captain. It's pathetic that elements of the so called support think they know better, and I for one totally applaud Neill in making his point tonight. What the **** is the point of going to Ewood if you're only there to undermine the (manager appointed) core of the team????! Rev's post is the perfect case in point. Nose - cut off to spite face - all over it. You used to sit behind Uncle Jack and you should know better. The likes of Le Saux, Shearer and Sutton all stuffed us whilst under contract, Lucas Neill has done no such thing and has never had a direct quote in any media - all that lot did. Grow up and enjoy the European ride. This time next season there'll be no Europe, no Neill, and possibly no hope of such heights ever again.

That's where you're going wrong!! If you want some banter then forget the JW Upper.

--> QUOTE(Ste B @ Dec 12 2006, 16:42 ) 467222[/snapback] Its to do with part of the rules on appealing red cards. You can only appeal against making contact, not as to if you are the last man or not. Like Tugays it had no chance of success. You spelt some of that wrong. It should say "you can only appeal if you are not playing for Blackburn Rovers. Like Tugay's it had no chance of success."

Witschge came on as a sub for about 18 minutes away at West Ham. I remember it vividly - he was pants.

You lot are soooo out of date. Stanley shirts are made by Surridge. Who are they?? This whole messageboard is infuriating at the moment. MOAN MOAN MOAN Why are they doing the vote now? Might affect Christmas shirts sales bla bla bla ... ... It was much better last year when the shirts came out weeks after our summer holidays ... MOAN MOAN MOAN Crappest sponsors logo I've ever seen, why are those idiots giving us millions of pounds to buy players bla bla bla MOAN MOAN MOAN I hate Lonsdale / I hate Kappa / I hate Asics / I hate Uhlsport / I hate ANYTHING BUT NIKE but Surrige is OK cos Stanley have them MOAN MOAN MOAN 15 quid for Boro tickets??! It's just not good enough, it should be two bob and a free pie with a santa hat. And the Liverpool game is on Boxing Day - they should serve 30,000 Turkey dinners at half time - really it's the holidays, don't they realise?? People will go to the shops instead if there's no free turkey on the Riverside MOAN MOAN MOAN That bliddy Europe competition, we'll be reliagated by Christmas if we keep winning more foreign games, what's Hughes playing at?? MOAN MOAN MOAN Seriously people, it's nearly Christmas!! The world is full of people trying to do the right thing and make other people happy. That doesn't suddenly cease when the A666 goes past the Fernhurst. There's an amazing bit of ground on the right hand side where dreams have come true, legends have made history and we each own a little bit of that ground. The people whose job it is to keep the dream alive are doing everything they can to make it as good as possible. Cut them some slack!!!

You've got to watch them blokes from Yorkshire ... the buggers

Hats off to Rovers. It's 15 quid a seat (£5 concessions) for the Boro game on December 30th. And to appease ST holders, a special offer on the home leg of the UEFA Cup game in Feb. We are the luckiest bunch of fans in the Premier League when it comes to pricing.

Beacuse Eddie, we have a Chairman and a Chief Exec who have sussed how important it is to price the product according to what people can pay, and what it is perceived to be worth. I can't believe you gave us the slip again. That's twice at Charlton (was Charlton last season your last live game?!) and once in Paris. All you had to do was drop us a text or call into the Antigallican like you said you'd do last year - you could have partied the night away with luminaries such as Jordan, MarkBRFC, 14May1995, Preston Blue, John, LondonRover, nolan9 and many more. Oh well, sure we'll see you at Reading or Arsenal.

What use is 30 million quid when every other PL team gets the same? We're still the poor relations because our non-TV revenue is the lowest in the division. I'll take the drop with the UEFA Cup win thanks. A glorious pinnacle to 15 great years. And a welcome return to proper league football, cheaper tickets, motivated crowds enjoying Saturday afternoons, local derbies which mean something, rebuild Nuttall Street, better pies - and we'd get another season in Europe to boot! We're not going to qualify any other way!!

Totally agree with your first paragraph and totally disagree with your second paragraph. There are elements to his technical ablility which are good - but there isn't a single player from the Conference upwards who doesn't have something going for them. Let's not forget that this is Gally's second chance - he's been here before and proved nothing - Jon Stead was a better option at the time. Gally had a good season at Stoke playing out wide but that doesn't make him a PL striker. As anyone who was there last night could see, it doesn't make him a PL wide player either. He has neither the pace nor the skill to beat the poorest full backs in the league. Unless he hits a really early cross he loses the ball. In short - he's not the answer in either position. We certainly can't afford to give him an "extended run up front" - no manager who has ever had him on the books has done that. Because he's just not good enough.

Paul - you can't accuse Sky of killing the game (further up the thread and on many previous occasions) and then pretend that Setanta aren't part of the same problem!! In fact, as the rights Setanta won are for live games at 5.15pm on Saturday and 8pm on Monday - the two slots most disliked by fans who attend matches - by this time next year the name Setanta will be dirt. BT Vision is merely another platform to access Setanta's 46 games to complement satellite and cable - and to ensure the subscription cash keeps rolling in. So they can bid for more live games next time around.