Despite being a Rovers fan, I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the match through a friend at Arsenal and, for 76 minutes, I had a fantastic night.

It's interesting to read through the points on the thread as you always get a different perspective of the match watching it live than on the telly.

While the referee was frustratingly reluctant to book any of the Barca players, I don't agree with the argument that he "ruined" the match. Lehmann had to go. Even if the referee had played on, allowed the goal and Lehmann to stay on the pitch would Arsenal have found a way back in? Trying to chase a lead and therefore leaving yourself vulnerable at the back against that Barca team - I don't think they could have won.

What was most thrilling about the game was that Arsenal, against all odds, got their noses in front and managed to heroically defend their lead for almost an hour while still creating clear chances to put the game out of reach.

I think the reaction of Wenger and Henry are completely understandable. I mean, you can't expect to get a level-headed interview straight after one of the most disappointing nights of your life, can you?

I felt really gutted for the Arsenal fans at the end. I can't imagine how their real fans must've felt.

An Aberdeen fan's banner at Ibrox at the weekend:

"AGENT MCLEISH...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED...

RETURN TO BASE.

- W. MILLER"

It was confiscated by the stewards.

I tend to support any of the British teams and was in Scotland when they got defeated on Saturday afternoon.  What amused (and saddened) me was that on BBC Scotland, their pundits were saying that they struggle because they're only a small country.  Is that really true in comparison with others of similar size, such as Croatia (pop. 2005 estimate 4.45 million), Slovenia (pop. 2005 estimate 1.96 million), Norway (pop. 2005 estimate 4.6 million) and Slovakia (pop. 2005 estimate 5.38 million)?  Mind you, we're pretty good at making excuses for the England squad when we need to...

The only time I feel like not supporting Scotland is when in the company of Scotland fans who go out of their way to support whoever is playing against England.

352913[/snapback]

You've touched on a reason why a lot of Scots absolutely love to see England lose: the media. That is the one reason why I lean towards whoever you play. Nothing against the players, the fans, the people, the country, but the media seriously get on my tits.

Excellent site TNR.

The figures I quoted were off the top of my head and will always be in Rovers' favour, but it goes to prove that if fans aren't happy with what's being served up, they'll stay at home.

341096[/snapback]

It's not just a problem at Rovers - Chelsea are struggling to sell out their forthcoming midweek game according to the Independent:

clickety click

Chelsea can hardly point to the excuse that they don't provide entertainment - fans have simply woken up to the fact that no matter how good your team is, £40 to go and watch a game of football is simply not worth it.

Just heard from a reliable source that Arsenal have sold 27,000 tickets for the semi-final. Roves have sold... 11,000.

Many, especially poorly-educated, Scots just cannot be taken away from their support network without falling apart. I've seen it too many times, and I'm afraid Barry never had enough about himself that I thought it would be untrue of him.

What an ignorant, ill-thought comment.

Being Scottish myself and having lived and worked - and met numerous other Scots - in countries such as Japan, Australia, and your own wee town London, Jan, I can't help but take offense at your broad generalisation of the Scottish, especially the "poorly-educated."

Speaking of poorly-educated footballers being taken away from their support network and falling apart, did anyone see Beckham on telly "speaking" Spanish the other day?

No wonder Barry wants to leave: he probably came here with the promise that Blackburn would be challenging in the top half of the table and going on to bigger and greater things. I'm sure he didn't want to leave as captain of Rangers to be fighting against relegation in the Premiership.

I watched the Hearts v Celtic game yesterday and am now praying that we don't go for Hartson. He was shocking against a very poor Hearts team. The guy has got the touch of a one-legged baboon...

HOW CAN A PLAYER WITH ONLY A HANDFUL OF APPEARANCES UNDER HIS BELT, CLAIMING HE IS HOMESICK IN THE MEANTIME, BE OUR CAPTAIN.

HE'S CRAP AT FOOTBALL, CERTAINLY NO LEADER AND HE HAS A FACE YOU WANT TO PUNCH.

Ferguson epitomises our team at the moment. Nobody is wearing the shirt with pride barring Friedel. The youngsters need to come in quick.

Where are Gallagher, McEveley?

I think Fergie's performance yesterday answered your remarks. He was fantastic and didn't put a foot wrong, so stick it right up ye.

As for the youngsters, ie. McEveley, his lack of experience and naivety cost us a goal last night against Liverpool, so there's another one of your points answered.

You should apply for the manager's post the next time it becomes available. I'm sure the team could use your fantastic knowledge of football: "No Barry, you can't play because you've got a face I want to punch."

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the Scottish Sun has dug up an old story with today's "exclusive" back-page headline:

"Gers want to use 10m to buy Barry back."

Alastair Donald is due to invest 10m quid in the club and they plan to use that money to buy Bazza back in the January transfer window. Looking over the article, there's absolutely no foundation in the story and they base it on some pretty flimsy facts. They state that "Eck (Alex McLeish) must wait to see if his former captain wants to quite Ewood Park and his shot at the Premiership." So they even concede that Bazza doesn't want to leave.

They even manage to contradict themselves by saying that Hughes is wanting to build his side round Fergie, yet Rovers would be willing to do business as we're running on a tight budget and need funds for transfers. That's right, build a team round our captain, then sell him a few months down the line. What a load of cack. How do the Sun get away with journalism like this???

German football faced the problem of declining attendances a few years ago but is now booming with record crowds at many grounds.

The reason? Ticket prices were slashed, sometimes by as much as 50 per cent, and lo and behold, the fans came flocking back in. Pretty simple really.

The reason ticket prices were slashed was a result of protests by fans across the country forcing the German authorities to lower the prices across the board.

Until there's protests of a similar kind from fans in this country ticket prices are just going to rise and rise...

Don't get ahead of yourself, MrsJansen, he's not back to his old self yet. I think we should have learnt that from his 'comeback' goal against Liverpool. I do think it's a step in the right direction, though, and I was as delighted as any Rovers fan to see the joy on Matt's face after he scored. He certainly deserved the plaudits after the game.

I think a lot of the negative comments on this thread are borne out of frustration at the excruciatingly slow process in Matt's rehabilitation. I even admit that I didn't think Matt would make a return to the first team squad after hearing the noises coming out of Ewood and his performances when he did come into the first-team fold.

Let's just hope that Hughes gives him a decent chance and rebuilds his confidence so that we can see the Matt of old back in the starting XI. Indeed, the change in management seems to have rejuvinated Matt and given him fresh hope, so let's just hope he takes this chance with both hands and continues to fight back.

What on earth did Graeme Souness see in GMP or Pedersen - this lad is not premiership material at all he cant dribble, pass, defend, has a poor first touch and hides from a challenge more importantly and has no pace to get passed his man - in fact he would struggle to get in the Burnley first team hes that poor.

Its not about gibving him time your either good enough or your not and  Pedersen offeres nothing to the Blackburn Rovers first team at all.

Souness must have been taking backhanders from the agent to sign Pedersen hes such a shocker, and now we must look for our third left sided midfielder in six months.

What a load of rubbish, and I'm not saying that just because I'm a norwegian! The guy is 22years old, he has just moved to a new country, has been away with the national team to Italy and Norway, have only had a good couple of training sessions with the team, have played 3 games -- and you are slagging him off?! What a joke!

I'm not saying he will be a success here at Blackburn Rovers, but I'm surely not going to base my judgment on 3 games in the Premier League!

I agree, I think a few folk should tone it down with their criticisms of Pedersen. To say that he's close to being one of Souness' worst signings after just three games is a bit over-the-top to say the least. He's 22, come to a foreign country, has to adapt to a different style of football which is a huge step up from what he's used to, and has only just finished his third game for Rovers for goodness sake. Plus he's moved away from his friends and family and all of the Norwegian home-comforts that I'm sure he misses. Moving abroad and starting afresh is harder than some people think. Give him a bit of time. Do you think all those scouts would've been checking him out over the summer if he was pants?

Look at how long it took Ferguson to settle in, and he was experienced at Champion's League and International football. There are countless other players who took time to settle to the British game and have turned out to be wonderful players: Henry, Bergkamp, Larsson, even our own Henning Berg had a few shockers when he first came here and look how he turned out. No wonder our players lose confidence with some wonderfully patient (!) fans like this...

Is he not a striker, though? Start him in place of Stead, I say. I think the pressure of reproducing last season's form has got to the young lad.

Heart-in-mouth moment as Fuller went down there....

Sounds like Brett Emerton's havin a blinder!!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Matt's back...

If the team that finished for Rovers last season was good enough to keep us up, then so is the team this time round. To say that it'll be Souness' fault if we go down this season is absolutely ludicrous *shakes his head in disbelief*.

Personally, I don't think there's any reason why we can't charge up that table and finish in the top half this season. We've got over 30 games to go, for goodness sake!! Happy with 17th place?? Sod that, we're good enough for better things...

These rolling contracts are all the rage these days, Souness is on a similar deal at Newcastle.

I'm glad that Rovers have managed to appoint someone so swiftly and appoint someone who seems to be popular with the players and fans. It's good to see so much optimism on these Boards for a change, and hopefully he can breathe a bit of life into the club.

However, I can't help but feel a bit apprehensive about this appointment. I know that his main weakness - his lack of club management - has been underlined already, but it's the one 'fault' of Hughes' that has been niggling at me.

Fair enough, he was massively successful as a player and had a bit of success with Wales. But to be honest, he took over Wales right at the crest of their revival. They had a crop of outstanding footballers at their disposal: Giggs, Speed, Davies, Hartson, Bellamy, Koumas, Savage... Who can argue that hasn't got the makings of a quality team? Put that together with a stunning new 80,000 seater stadium full of mentally passionate Welsh folk and of course you're going to turn over a couple of teams at Cardiff, even Italy.

He's now in charge of my CLUB, Blackburn Rovers. The difference between club and country management is huge:

- For Wales he picked a squad, took them for training for a few days every couple of months before sticking them on the pitch, telling them to knock it up to big John who will knock it down for Bellamy, Giggs, et al.

- For Rovers he will now be in charge in the day-to-day running of our club. The difference between that and managing Wales is MASSIVE. I was hoping he would appoint an experienced assistant, but Mark Bowen?

- He'll have to motivate the players week-in, week-out at Rovers, tellingly after the honeymoon period ends and when we're (hopefully not) staring down the barrel of relegation in April. Obviously, the Welsh players would need no motivation playing for their country...

- experience of scouting and buying players?

I could go on forever, but I don't want to dampen the mood on what should be a great day for Blackburn Rovers and hopefully the start of something great. I just wanted to get the point across that people who are dismissing his lack of experience of running a club - not just a Premiership club, but a clubside of any description - a little too quickly. I can't believe someone compared his lack of Premiership experience to Jose Mourinho's. Mourinho won the European Cup ffs! For every one Chris Coleman there are dozens of John Barnes, Brian Kidds, David Platts, etc.

Of course, his lack of experience may prove to work in his favour - fingers crossed it will. A big risk for Rovers, but one I'm hoping will pay off.

Hughes' Blue 'n White Army.

Just seen the interview with Parkes on RoversWorld and when asked what kind of manager Rovers should go for he replied someone "low-key" and that we should shy away from the kind of high profile managers we've had in the past. Wonder if this is any indication of the names on the shortlist...

This is the man who paid something like £12m for Diouf!

Ahh, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing? I reckon everyone in the country thought Diouf was a fantastic signing as he helped dismantle the French defence and had a brilliant World Cup...

I agree with you that Houllier wouldn't be the best appointment given how he failed miserably at Liverpool, but I think whoever we appoint there'll be people who moan about it. If the players want Mark Hughes then I say we go with Sparky.

Of course the manager has a bearing on whether we can attract good players! I doubt Ferguson would have been so willing to come to Rovers if it wasn't Souness in charge at Rovers. The chance to work with a high-profile manager who has had experience at working at the top-level, been successful, and promise of being able to develop a player's game is of course going to have some sort of pulling power.

As for who I would like at the helm, we have to look at what kind of predicament Rovers are going to be in regarding transfers in the coming months. I think Souness has left us with a good core of players and the foundations are there for an excellent starting XI, so I don't think there's any need to make drastic changes to the team. Plus, there's probably very little in the coffers to splash around come the January sales.

Therefore, what we don't want is a cheque-book manager, a la Walter Smith or Dick Advocaat, who are used to working with big budgets at Rangers. What we do need is an experienced manager who is capable of getting the best out of the players we have at the minute (playing everyone in their proper positions would be a start) and who has some sort of tactical sense.

As for who that could be, I'm not too sure about Mark Hughes. I think his success with Wales has coincided with a crop of good players he's inherited (Giggs, Hartson, Bellamy, Speed, Davies,...) so there's a bit of doubt whether he can do it at a Premiership club week-in week-out.

I would LOVE to see Martin O'Neill here(Christmas will have come early if he was to come) but I think the Board will go for Venables or Hod...

If he has signed (touch wood) then it's finally a signing to get reasonably excited about - young, creative, promising, pacey...

This is the direction that we need to be going in and not signing over-the-hill players who can barely cut it at the top.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this young lad play.

Talked to a friend from Arsenal last night who was at the match and he had some interesting comments about the Rovers and where they're going...

He said that Rovers used to be his second favourite team and were probably one of the most exciting sides in the Premiership with Dunn, Duff, Cole, Jansen, and Thompson all able to create and provide a bit of flair and imagination going forward. I'm sure everyone on here would love to see that team line up for Rovers again, but it's all in the past...

Now we're seen as bottom half also-rans scraping for Premiership status. For Dunn read Matteo, for Jansen read Dickov, for Duff read Gresko, etc. You can tell the difference even on these messageboards: a couple of years back we would have been relishing the Arsenal match and had a genuine optimism with a belief that we would be able to get at least a draw at Highbury. Looking back at the posts from the previous week now, the pessimism and lack of belief in the team is all too apparent.

However, with our full-strength lineup back and fit there is a bit of optimism and with midfield/attack comprising of Thompson, Ferguson, Tugay, Pedersen (if he signs), Stead, and Gallagher, I think all is not lost. I just want us to ditch this "battling" lineup that Souness is hell-bent on playing and get back to the flowing football that brought us a bit of success (and respect) in the first place.

I didn't think we played too badly today, but there's a lot we could improve on.

The distribution from the defence was woeful, with Nissa often the main culprit. However, I have to wonder if Friedel's injury and obvious unwillingness to take backpasses contributed to that.

I thought Tugay had an excellent game today - there was one moment where he skinned a Soton player with a sublime step over in the middle of the park. Great stuff. Rarely gave the ball away and sprayed it around nicely. Shows the man's still got it and has the legs for 90 minutes.

Dickov was most impressive when he came on and should surely start the next match. He created the first, scored the second, and perhaps should have got a penalty in the goal mouth scramble. There was absolutely no more he could have done, and it was nice to see someone out there with a bit of fire in their belly. I can't see him going through the season without getting sent off though...

A lot of positives to take and once we got the left flank settled, I think we'll be sorted. It's not all doom and gloom, stay positive folks. The Rovers always seem to pull a result out of the bag when we least expect them to, and I have a feeling we'll get something out of our next few games.

Bring on the Arse.

I think if he was to make a comeback from his injury he would have done it by now. I remember seeing him live against Chelsea (I think) when he started with Dwight Yorke and he was abysmal. He ran around and gave plenty of effort, but his first touch was nothing better than that of a one-legged donkey's.

That performance made me resigned to the fact that we'll never see the old Matt Jansen in a Rovers shirt again. A crying shame, but unfortunately these things happen in life.