Fantastic result for lil ol Rovers. Although at half time I thought we'd be lucky to hang on for a draw, with Big Brad keeping us in it. Then out come Second-Half-Rovers, and kind of knew that we might be able to get something more out of the game. What the ferk does Hughes say at half time, definitely needs to do it at the start as well, as people have been saying.

Tugay - legend! If Sheringham can still play into his 40's, then hopefully a fully fit Kerimoglu can do the same thing.

Shame about Savage having to go off, and now losing him for a month, looks like Hughes may have rushed him back.

Bentley, Ooijer and Zurab were pretty good too.

All in all, another 3 points in the bag, still top of the group and a good addition to the goal difference should it go that far, and with Wisla losing again, helps with gap between 3rd & 4th.

Top stuff to Sparky and co!!!! Keep it going.

Since changing from IE to the Mozilla then Firefox browsers, faster browsing, virtually no pop ups. Do recommend them.

Plus another bonus, is that you can customise them as well.

Changed from Firefox, now use the Maxthon browser. Tabbed, secure browsing with the same layout engine as IE. Customisable too. No problems with spyware or pop ups since either. Jobs a good un!

A good read, cheers fella!

I was just going to post that Hughes on Radio Lancs was saying that he was treating this competition seriously, it had been good to us last season and we were playing the champions. There were one or two players who had knocks who couldn't play but he would be putting out a strong team.

Headline on teletext is that Jose wants to win the cup again.

Saw the Mourinho's interview on SSN this morning, and he does indeed want to win it, but came across as still not being high on his win-list. Also seemed to give credit to Hughes too!!

Hope utd stuff them out of sight!

I'm hoping that as well. The crap that Allardyce was coming out with after our game . . . Although would be good to see him leave Bolton and end up at the sinking ship at Newcastle

I hate Bolton, end of! Especially Fat Sam. *In Kevin Keegan rant mode* I'd love it if he ended up in the ###### with his son over the bungs, I'd love it!

1. If the game against West Ham was a five a side, how would your team line up?

Friedel, Zurab, Tugay, Bentley, McCarthy

2. Who have been your best and worst players so far?

Best : Emerton, Bentley have improved immensely as has Savage

Worst: Pederson, performances make me wonder why he plays at all, hopefully a goal or two will bring back the confidence and performances, otherwise I'm sure he'll be the latest player of ours to linked with the Spuds!.

3. From a less than spectacular start, you seem right back on course (Sunday's madness aside)! What has sparked the transformation?

Coming up against in-form teams with a side of new players just gelling and with Tugay suspended for those games didn't help. But now that everyone has had a chance to get to know everybody and with everybody back, it's no wonder we're playing as well as we have recently.

4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Mark Hughes?

Strengths: Tactical, has one of the best coaching staff in the Premiership, well the ones with the most coaching badges anyway, comes across very well in the media, very astute in the transfer market and hasn't really wasted any of the funds he's had available to spend.

Weaknesses: He may come across well in the media, but he still doesn't get the credit when it's deserved.

5. Which combo forms your best striking duo?

McCarthy and Nonda

I don't see any reason why Hughes would go to Newcastle anyway. He's always said that he wants to manage the clubs he's played for. And besides, managing Newcastle is a poisoned chalice, what with Fat Freddy and the over-expectant fans that they have, plus they didn't really have too many managers beating down the door when Souness left. In fact you could probably say that about after every manager they've had recently.

It's the Man U and Everton jobs (domestically) I'd be more worried about for Hughes.

I use the Maxthon browser since I had issues with the Firefox browser. Based on IE but is open source and has the tabbed features and seems secure enough, although not sure how much more or less than IE, Firefox and Opera.

Hope there's some highlights tonight. And hope the Spuds get a kicking too! That would top my night off!!

You wait around ages for a win in Europe and we get two in a row All hail Sparky Hughes' Rovers!!!

Stingy git. It was a whole year ago that that one was released. The new one is much better anyway.

And no they don't release a patch (they want you to buy the new one)

I picked mine up from game today

Stingy, moi?!

Thought I'd ask first, will end up buying the game anyway.

I know they have a patch that updates the squads, but do FM release a patch that updates to the new 2007 version? Don't want to really splash out again on the new version when I already have the 2006 version.

Good to see our great media-fuelled reputation going before us once again.

In this Liverpool review of the match we are described as a "rugby league" side! Not heard that one before!

The Red Conundrum

wouldn't mind if we were like the all-conquering St Helens rugby league team and win everything in sight!

Maybe there was method in Peter Taylor's madness. Seeing as McClaren wants a full-time coach for the England U21's and Taylor definitely wants the job, with the Kuqi Coup and with the current run of results, maybe it's going to work out in the end for Taylor

Did anyone read that article by Simon Jordan last season (in his column for a newspaper) where he goes on to talk about thick footballers... like one who called up their assistant because his head was getting wet - it turned out he was sleeping next to an open window and it was raining!

Edit: found it! http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/...1651654,00.html

I do like Simon Jordan's articles in the Guardian. Definitely doesn't pull any punches and says things straight to the point. I also enjoy his comments whenever he mentions Big Club

C/O a deluded Brummie fan!

Birmingham isn't too bad a city but not sure about why they SHOULD be plying their trade with the big boys. Delusional, most definitely.

Top stuff, and a cracking read

the strange thing about newcastle is that as individual players, they have some very good players, but collectively and as a team...they just seem to flatter to deceive season after season.

Sounds a bit like England too

Could it be that England are the new Scotland/Wales/Ireland !! Welcome to mediocrity

Seriously though, the media always over-hypes the over-rated players and the team doesn't then perform well as a team. Talented individuals - yes, at club level, but as a team and with players playing differently it just doesn't seem to work. Why doesn't the McLaren get the players to play as they do week in week out, England might actually start to play a little bit better then. Adopt a system and use the best players that play those positions, rather than keeping the same players but play them out of position in new formations etc.

Hmmm.

The resources to spend 16 million on one player, 52,000 fans every week, big city club with huge global potential, opportunity of legend status even if he only wins the Carling Cup and the chance to showcase his talents to a bigger audience.

Do you honestly not think he'd be tempted to leave Rovers for that?

Don't think Hughes will leave to manage the Barcodes. He has been quoted at wanting to manage the club's he's played for, so that leaves a handful of clubs; Wrexham, Man U, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Everton and us.

He should axe Lampard if Gerrard is fit and only play him when he isn't. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Lampard plays well for the first time in months on Wednesday with no Gerrard around.

Didn't Lampard play much better when Gerrard was out last time?

Alright. Look, I thought I said: NO YELLOW .

For God's sake Frosty we got relegated in that thing you're posting.

Hope we NEVER have a yellow kit again!

A new and improved trailer for 300 can be seen here. Frankly, it looks awesome.

Definitely on my list of films to see. Shame it's not til next year though.

Well, as a man who apparently wears a skirt, I'd like to say firstly that I'm immensely proud of Scotland for a battling display where we rode our luck, took our chance and then defended like hell; and secondly that the England result didn't bother me one way or the other.

Seconded, brilliant result for us Scots. If anyone had said after three games we'd have scored 9 goals as well Wasn't fussed about the England game either, but I'm not one of those Scots that gloat about it either.