why do people keep saying he's not physically imposing or good enough at tackling, please remember he would be replacing Tugay at the moment

all we need to do is better the current situation, and Tommo is a big improvement on Tugay

i don't rate Emerton.

Andy Gray summed him up on Sunday when he said he doesn't get his head up early enough to see his options.

every time he gets possession he does the same thing - the head goes down and he runs straight at the opponent in front of him at full speed......almost every time he loses possession or at best gets a throw-in.

can someone on the training ground not point out to him that he shouldn't decide what he is going to do before he gets the ball but rather decide when he's actually in possession. this would put a few question marks in the opposition's mind at least.

he has no tricks either - not one.

a carthorse.

What a load of rubbish, sure you are entitled to your opinion but i mean c'mon. Emerton has been either the best player or in our top 3 best players this season. If you atcually got to games (Gray of course doesnt really have a clue about us, he is too busy watching the big boys) then you would see the good level of performance he is putting in

top three players in a team thats 20th, can't be doing too great, I think he's right that Emerton sometimes lack that final ball, but he's doing better then last season

A clause in his contract that means we pay £5 million after three games and £8 million after four and a half?!?!? To who? He had no club.

well if it is true we know who the Mole is in Blackburn, keep you eyes on this fella

De dedro must be doing something wrong in training, how much football has he played in the past 1 1/2 years anyway, probably count the games on one hand.

whole situation is shocking, positively shocking!

3. I would not relate this sort of action too myself as I don't think I look like a monkey - and I don't think any other human being does either.

Ian Brown

chris, we are not talking about his parenthood, we are talking about his situation on the playing feilds of Ewood, and whether he was telling the truth or crying wolf.

Why oh why must it affect his game,? His private life, presumably, doesn't change from week to week?

BTW, what was "over the top"? His private life or this incident?

"whether he was telling the truth or crying wolf."

I would consider being called a "Sperm Donor" to 10 million people would not help, firstly the reaction of the fans, and then the stress on Yorke and his reaction to the situation.

I was lucky enough to have a chat with Dwight after the match yesterday.  He was obviously very upset by the whole incident, he said that initially he went across to talk to a fan who was extremely irrate, as he approcahed the barrier things turned nasty.  He said he pointed out the culprits to the stewards.  He was surprised by the hostile reaction by the fans in general, he had expected some sort of reaction but not to that extent.  I told him most fans were upset by the state the club is in (playing wise) and unfortunately he was an easy target for people to vent their anger. 

Unfortunately after what happened in Spain the media are really going to go to town with this story.

after Yorke was branded a very bad father in front of "millions" of people last week on Frank Skinner, probably the last thing he wanted was this, must affect his game.

Looking back it was a bit over the top

He was a lazy striker who quite simply didnt do the business.  This wasn't because he didn't have potential - look at what he did at both Villa and United but because he was a big headed so and so who used us for a free meal ticket.  I suppose I would be accurate in saying he was on 60k a week and with his work ethic and attitude which quite clearly that he didnt give a toss about the club.  It takes the average football fan three years to earn what he makes in a week and he's stood there with that big bloody smile every time he squanders a chance, cant be bothered chasing the ball down or lost the ball etc....        See what I'm getting at?

What a load of bilge.

He actually got paid a relatively small basic wage with generous bonuses for goals and wins etc

Not even worthy of a .

well obviously it was worthy of a serious response, in fact its fairly obvious about 15,000 people felt the same way with the boo's, and he did have a poor attitude and was lazy, and didn't give a Sh!t IMO

Suprising how Yorke heard the chants yet nobody else did, publicity stunt on Yorke's behalf if you ask me

or bitter Yorke

Well with Gally back at least we have a little bit of competition for places, because now Hughes has to drop one of Jansen and Gally who scored or Dickov

and as soon as Jon Stead has stopped performing on X-factor as lead singer with "G4", he'll get his concerntration back on football and i'm sure he will bang a couple in.

anyone hear monkey noises, Yorke was very upset after the game, about some racists in the crowd???

Bruce would not comment too much on it, I did notice Yorke looked upset, to be honest I don't like him and glad not to see a smile on his face but monkey noises is a bit too far

We desperately need a new pair of full-backs, any winger watching that game would've been rubbing his hands. Lucas Neill doesn't seem to give a toss, what a liability.

Gray was my player of the Season last year, now this year he's played with Amo and Matteo, what left back would not struggle, but Jay has made far more mistakes in his 4/5 games then Gray in 25 games.

some good stuff, some bad,

Reid, Thompson, Emo, Gally, Nissa, Todd all looked good

Negatives, thought dickov did OK and worked hard, but he has to pass to his strike partner more, too selffish today, and what was that at the end????

Tugay, finally hopefully It becoming evident that Tugay's inconsistent performances is too damaging to the side

Jay at left back look a little bad in first half, whats Gray done wrong?, probably paying for the crimes of Amoruso and Matteo

After seeing a bit of Emerton's excellent performance last night I am looking forward to seeing both him and Thompson running at Birmingham.

I really feel both should start with Reid being converted to a holding midfielder. A bit of a gamble, but the benefits could be huge.

An attacking triumvate of Ferguson, Thompson and Emerton would be frightening! If only our strikers could finish.....

I'd go with that, goodcall, Think it could work, the midfield that is, not too sure about the strikers, but hopefully someone going to start getting some winning goals, that extra quality is missing at the moment

well he does score plenty for his country, if we had him performing well and Thompson that could make up for the problems upfront, I would move Reid into the middle to replace Tugay.

but then hughes sees him evereyday in training, i don't

Rovers 2 - 0 Birmingham

Birmingham look pretty poor this season, then again any team relying on Heskey and Yorke is going to have problems.

Team:

Friedel

Neill Todd Johansson McEveley

Emerton Thompson Ferguson Pedersen

Dickov Stead

Pedersen must be doing something wrong in training, I think Hughes has changed things and gets a good look at players in a competitive situation(games), he's not even getting on the bench

Well they are only 7 points infront of us, however they have more quality as souness has not had much chance to ruin this yet.

Dont expect us to finish above them. We may however beat them at ewood

well he did start bramble and ronny johnsen against ruud and rooney... leaving the steady if unspectacular obrien on the bench... seems like he has a penchant for rock solid defences

He also keeps playing bellamy on the left, rather than Robert. Crazy!

I expect us to finish around 12th

at least he's not playing a centre back on the left anymore

a bad season for newcastle is 5th place, at this second I'd take 17th

IF LIEVERPOOL AND BLACKBURN ANYTHING TO GO BY, SOUNES WILL HAVE A VERY SUCCESSFUL COUPLE OF YEARS AND THEN MAKE SOME UNUSAL SIGNINGS...DAM CAPS LOCK

considering I got three of my last four predictions right and only missed out on getting Norwich right due to the sending off, otherwisw would havebeen right.

Frankly I don't think we are strong enough up front to say we will score more then one goal, but I havbe hope thart Thompson or Reid is going to get a winning goal from 20 yards

2-0 to blackburn

1. I would have said definitely 'forward' IF he had played up front with Cole as intended. It's not Dickov's arrival that has damaged us but rather Cole leaving us short of firepower because of a girly strop. (The only good thing to come from it is that I wont have to look at the sulking bbasttrrds scowling fizzog ever again.)

2. Not Dickovs fault at all. Thats the managers choice of tactics, criticise Hughes for that if you must. Dickovs hardly cut out to play on his own up front is he? The only option open to him would have been to do a Dyer and refuse to play. What would you think of him then?

3. You really must try to be more objective and not to have favourites to like and hate. It's odd to me but so many people apparently NEED to have a figure to ridicule and hate in the team, even when that player has left. Bloke behind me (like a lot of others) used to hate Sherwood with a vengeance till he left then it was Carsley, after him Lucas and Johansson in equal amounts copped it until Amo appeared.......

......... and then I moved seats 6 rows forward.

ps new bloke behind me just hates every referee now...... from the first minute to the last!

1 Thats a matter of opinion, I think Souness bought Dickov with in intent of playing Dickov instead of Cole, and thats why Cole blow his nut and decided he could not work with Souness, after last season Stead was always going to be first choice.

2 Yes Dickov is not at fault, but 20th in the league and playing Dickov up front was suicide, I think I was right to say I was not happy with that at the time, and I don't think Dickov alone can score the goals to get us out of relegation and so far Dickov and any partner don't seem to score enough goals, correct if I'm wrong!, which is the exact point of many of my posts on the subject, its has not reflection on Dickov's attitude or workrate.

3 I don't hate Dickov really,I hate to situation. But he has to keep scoring, he went 8 games without a goal and we were 20th in the league and he has not been able to form a partnership with another striker and obviously not a natural goalscorer, I can't believe I'm the only one concerned by this.

Just glad Thompson's back because he can be amatch winner on his day.

"I don't think Chris is critiscising Dikov in particular; just pointing out his limitations"

"Yes, Chris is criticising Dickov and has been for some time."

i'm not criticising Dickov, what has he done wrong, nothing at all, he's works very hard, scoring some goals. I'm not going to boo him or anything.

I'm questioning whether signing Dickov has taken the team forward or in reverse.

all I can say again is I'm disappointed that we are going to have to rely on the goals of Dickov to get us out of relegation.

9 points from 13 games, 2nd lowest scorers in the league, 11 games without going a goal ahead and 12 out of 13 without a winning goal.

I have to admit at the time playing Dickov upfront on his own and 20th in the league really depressed me, but things have been better the last two games, Its the bare minimum and has to be maintained and hope we are not relegated.

maybe I come over a bit too harsh, I was way to harsh on Amo last season which I got allot of stick for, although most people are worse then me now with him and Matteo.

I don't think there's a place in the team for Danns, but if he can show some spark in training, who knows?

Chris, what I don't understand is why you're attacking Dickov out of all of our strikers. He's by far the best one, and he was not brought in to replace Cole. Cole left for different reasons. Dickov was originally supposed to be a sub to replace Stead or Cole, but when Cole left he stepped into the starting role and has proven that he deserves it.

i'm defending my position that we struggled this season and not score enough goals, I don't blame Dickov I blame Souness for actually what has happen, currently we are heading for relegation.

To be honest he doing exactly what I expected he would. I never doubted he score some goals and wroked very hard, always been a fans fav.

sadly we don't have a Baros, Cole or Hasslebank who going to add that bit of quality thats wins games.

Stead's was playing well with Cole and is not with Dickov, i won't have broke that partnership up, but maybe Stead would have still been crap this season, we will never know.

so basically I'm disapointed that we are going to have to rely on the goals of Dickov to get us out of relegation. It could be extremely close in May, this should have all been avoided.

Ok thenodrog, I wrong about Dickov, his goals have got us to 19th and if it was not for him we would be 20th, how silly of me to prejudge a stiker who scored 35 goals in 160 games for man city and just got relegated after a career in div and div2. How stupid of me preseason to think we may struggle this season without Cole, you have totally proven me wrong, happy now!

How many games was since we won thenodrog, how many games since a striker scored a winning goal, how many poiints do we have.

Tpyical after another draw you try and attack me but didn't have the balls to do it a couple of weeks ago when he went 8 games without a goal and we were 20th rather then a much better 19th.

My worry was that Dickov would not score enough goals to get us wins, and I look silly do I because I have been proven right but he score a penalty, ok fair enough. I don't doubt he works hard and scores some goals.

Where exactly have I been proven wrong again?

Rodney Marsh, he has predicted we will not get 30 points this season