Vinjay, has anyone ever told you that you sound like Graham Lister off Vic Reeves Big Night Out? Do you, by chance, know any doctors and solicitors? How is Judith Grant these days? I think you've spoken your mind and you've had your fun, but now it's time to give yourself up without a fuss and go back to the institution you have escaped from. There's a good lad.

That's got to go down as one of the all-time great comebacks. No faulting Liverpool in the second half and amazing to see how quickly Milan turned from lions into lambs. The first two Liverpool goals benefitted from some alarmingly bad goalkeeping though. Hats off to the scousers tonight. Gripping stuff.

A pal of mine is a Liverpool fan and he casually asked me earlier on today what I thought the score would be. He expected me to predict a close win for Liverpool (just as he had done) but, being in a devilish mood, I said it would be 8-0 to Milan. He was unimpressed and changed the subject and that was the end of it. Now that I've watched the first 45 minutes and seen Liverpool playing like a set of drugged sheep and gone 3-0 down, I'm beginning to regret not placing a bet.

A splendid evening and great to see so many old faces. All the legends were there... Grayson, Donelly, Paul Dalglish... oh and some upstart called Shearer. I thought the most iconic moment was when Shearer was substituted for Garner near the end and the two had a quick chat as they changed over. A picture of that moment would be a most wonderful thing. On the down side, the away support was pitiful! How many did they bring? And we never heard them singing!

Sorry Den, but that photo of Dahlin in the Rovers kit is clearly a fake. a ) He has the ball at his feet which suggests he got close to it long enough for someone to take a picture. b ) He has a sheen of sweat on his brow which suggests he had been trying hard. In any case, when he played for us he always looked at least two stones heavier due to all those pub meals he used to eat in the Traders Arms at Mellor.

As I type I am half watching Match Of The Day and Reyes has just been booked for blatant diving. I wonder if Alan Handjob et al will choose to comment on it. No doubt it will be ignored by the whinging southern press.

My sister had a chat with Rob Coar today and she described him as "frothing" over the media's representation of the match on Sunday and described two prominent TV pundits in far from complimentary terms. He also rattled off a list of offences carried out by Arsenal players during Wenger's reign and she said it was clear he was geared up for a scrap if the FA decided to take it further. Now that Todd has been charged, it looks like the chairman will get the chance to let off some steam.

I've just spent a few minutes or do reflecting on them words. Without coming over all maudlin, we knew we were beaten. But for some reason we all got up and waved and cheered. A magnificent moment. I was glad I was part of it. Exactly, and that's one of the great things about being a SUPPORTER of a decent, honest club that doesn't see it as its divine right to win everytime. We expected to lose but we made the most of it and made much more noise than those prawn sandwich munching nancyboys in red & white. It's those "Thermopylae moments" that even when you you're staring certain defeat in the eye, you can still stand up and show your defiance to the opposition and also your feelings for our lads out there on the field. It's those feelings that stay with you long after the champagne has gone stale and memories have faded about the lies written by the press.

Got back to Ewood at 8.30pm on the dot and home soon after. It seems to have been an enormously long day and several cans of Stella can't shift the feeling we were never really in it today. I think we did well until they scored and then we never really got going again. That said, we didn't deserve to lose by three goals. Not uch I can add to comments already made about the match except to agree with everything said about the ridiculous diving antics of the Arsenal team which just illustrates just how obscene Arsenal are. They are cheats and I hate them even more than I hate Moanchester Urinals. Urinals start cheating when things are going against them, whereas Arsenal cheat from the opening kick-off. I was appalled by the media coverage I heard on the way back, especially the things said by Alan Green (who has been very generous to Rovers in the past) of 606. So we are a strong physical team, but that's nothing out of the ordinary and it's certainly a tag that could be fairly applied to Arsenal. Poor support? Okay, we only took 17,000 supporters (hats off to everyone who made the effort) and we looked rather sparse compared to the 30,000 from Arsenal, but we certainly made up for it in decibels! Arsenal's support is typified by the song "Sing when you're winning!". However, the thing that got my blood up more than anything else was the endless cavalcade of moaning Arsenal fans harping on about how brutal we were. *!@# me, if they carry on like that when they've won a semi-final 3-0, I'd hate to hear what they say when they lose! There was even a call from a Liverpool fan who dismissed Rovers as a disgrace to English football because of our style of play and because only 17,000 fans made the journey. A Liverpool fan says we are a disgrace? Ha! Tell that to the families of the poor @#/?s killed by Liverpool fans at Heysel and I think they'll have a different opinion about who the real disgraces are.

When the goals didn't materialise, Grabbi claimed to have been a left winger. It's little surprise that when he returned to Italy he signed for Ancona (who were promptly relegated after scoring a record low number of goals) and was then released. Where is he now?

Over the years I've seen some real stinkers down at Ewood but as Revidge says we need to consider how much players cost in terms of their overall shitness (I love that word) level. I also think we've also got to take into account the amount of effort they made. I can forgive anybody for a lack of talent (if they can't do it, they just can't do it), but what I cannot pardon is lack of effort. So while many are mentioning Paul McKinnon (and yes, he was absolutely rubbish), we got him for nowt from a non-league club (where he scored shed-loads of goals) and I seem to recall he did run around a lot. After a few weeks he left the club after asking to be released because he knew he just wasn't up to it. A gamble that never paid off that's all. For that alone, he doesn't deserve the accolade as worst ever. I remember Stuart Munro(e) was particularly awful (another recruit from Rangers if I remember rightly) but he also cost less than the price of a bag of crisps and he didn't play that many games. Others in the cheap and out-of-their-depth category include Richard Brown, Matt "what the" Dickens, Paul Shepstone (genuinely p1ss poor) and Tony "What a gem!" Diamond, as well as fading old timers like Mike Duxbury, Ally Dawson and, unbelievably, World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles. They were crap, but they tried and they were cheap. As such, we can't really say they were the worst ever. In the early Walker years, Mackay and Dalglish had a major rush to sign any old crap and we ended up with the likes of Lee Richardson, Simon Ireland, Andy Morrison et al, but we have to see them in the light of promising youngsters who never lived up to it. Crap without question, but not the worst ever. In the later Walker years we had a new breed of crap player, ie. over-inflated price-tag and still crap. They included Christian "we were only going to ask for £5k per week but Hidgson opened negotiations on £16k per week" Dailly, Darren Peacock and Ashley Ward. Now Dailly was attrocious and I don't remember being bowled over by his level of industry, but in fairness to Peacock and Ward (who were crap, granted) they did try. As such, they are exempt. During that time we also had a legion of foreign cheap crap, mainly from Scandinavia (or Nordic countries for all you pedants out there). I don't know about you lot but this roll call sends a shiver down my spine. Per Pedersen, Lars Bohinen (initially good but fecking bone idle and amusingly colour-blind), Martin Andresen, Niklas Gudmundsson, Anders Anderson and another bloke called Pedersen who was a defender. We also had Patrick Anderson who seemed to be crap but subsequently went on to play for Bayern Munich and Barcelona so I think it was our fault for not getting the best out of him. We had loads of other foreign players who were shocking, including Patrick Valery (psychotic French dwarf signed by Hodgson), Oumar Konde, Sebastian Pelzer, Kaba Diawara, Dario Marcolin, Dino Baggio (how the mighty fall), Hakan Sukur, Richard Witschge (whinging Dutch snob), Sebastian Perez (whinging French ponce who was constantly caught on the ball), George "the derailed Athens Express" Donis and, finally, Javier "KFC Bargain Bucket" de Pedro. All crap but not massively expensive and all were bit-part players at best. However, three of them stand head an shoulders above the others because of their price tag, effort they failed to put in and their pitiful level of success. Defendant #1 Martin Dahlin He came with a big reputation, did sod all, scored a couple of goals (I can only remember the one against Liverpool though) and then spent the rest of his time on the treatment bench. He was signed by Hodgson so his shitness level is beyond question, but it now transpires that he was injured. He was also past his best and we were never going to get a good return from him. Verdict - not guilty on grounds of infirmity and age. Defendant #2 Corrado "Cicchio" Grabbi Big reputation from the Italian league where he was idolised by his former fans, but when the Nana from Ternana came to East Lancashire he wasn't so much idolised as simply idle. Overweight, underachieving and clearly hopelessly out of his depth. This food-loving fop was signed by Souness seemingly on the basis of a few videos. The multi-million pound price tag (was it £6m or £7m?) certainly left a sour taste but we celebrated like mad when he scored those oh so rare goals. We were stitched-up when we signed him and I'm not sure that was his fault. We also, allegedly, played him out of position. Verdict - acquited due to lack of evidence. Defendant #3 Kevin Davies By 'eck this lad could shoot! Long shots, tap-ins, one one ones, he scored the lot... and then he came to us and discovered the joys of Sandersons pies. We paid him too much, he spent it on pies, we gave him time to settle, he didn't care, we got impatient, he ate more pies, we got angry, he didn't care. In short, he cost too much, he didn't try, his attitude was a disgrace and he was sensationally rubbish. Verdict - irredeemably guilty and condemned to eternal damnation by all right-thinking Rovers fans.

AESF, what has this information about Delroy Lindo got to do with this thread? It seems to me to be yet another sensationalist attempt to link unconnected crimes so that you can indulge yourself in your fantasies of being a crusading reporter. Instead of just typing out what you have picked up from other websites and adding those oh-so-helpful photographs, why not just post a link (if the story is relevant) or better still tell us what you think.

Jeff Kenna didn't get an official medal because he didn't play enough games. Furthermore, Bernie Slavin definitely didn't get one with us.

A superb result and all the sweeter for great performances once again from Nelsen, Mokoena and Reid. I don't any of our lads played badly today and three points away from home against one of the most organised teams in the league os something to be proud of. Let's hope we can get another three points from the game we have in hand and go above Birmingham and Steve sodding Bruce. I noticed, with some amusement, that some Brum fans are calling for Bruce to be sacked. You've got to laugh.

thats how long I think it will take our manager to get the squad together and ready I could be wrong of course - maybe we will do it next season But Cotterill won't be your manager then. Face it, he'll be off to a bigger club with cash to spend as soon as the chance comes. For what it's worth, I think Cotterill has done a great job at Burnley (although from our point of view we much preferred it when Ternent, Waddle, St John Bond the Blessed et al were in charge of your pantomime) and his good work with a squad of journeymen and on budget of the contents of Kilby's coppers jar and what he has managed to get from down the back of the settee won't have gone unnoticed. I suspect the board at Sunderland are feeling a bit sheepish, to be honest. Cotterill will be off within 12 months and you'll be back to appointing untried hopefuls, or seasoned old pros who are past their prime. Cotterill has no real connection with Burnley so why would he stay? No cash, poor stadium, poor image of town, tiny squad (most of whom have seen much better days), cold climate and you can forget all that "sleeping giant" and "best supported team outside the Premiership" claptrap. The fact is (and you'd have to be daft not to realise it) there are a lot of more tempting jobs in football than that of King Dingle.

I saw the same thing in the LET and mentioned it to our resident Dingle at work. He genuinely believes (as do most Dindles) that Grant kept Savage quiet on Sunday! Apart from his tackle from behind on Savage (for which he ought to have been booked but wasn't) I don't recall his name being mentioned at all.

Tonight's LET has some particularly fine pictures, especially that of Wayne & Waynetta Slob on page 3. This bewilderingly stupid pair thought it would be a good thing to take their 2 week (yes, WEEK!) old baby to Sunday's game, and held up poor Frogmella for the public to see as they grinned with their cheddar-coloured teeth. I was eating my lunch at the time and I was put off my roast swan and truffles as I felt quite bilious.

Maybe he would but we don't actually have a match at the weekend. Ah yes... you spotted my deliberate mistake... well done. Curse that League Cup screwing up my fixtures list! What about Todd's ban though?

Not sure if this has been raised or not, but will Todd be banned for the replay? He was on the verge of a ban and with today's yellow that makes it his fifth. Will he miss the league match at the weekend or the cup replay?

Like most others I'm very disappointed not to have dumoed the dingles out of the cup (especially as I will be sat opposite one of them at work tomorrow) but I have to say we got out of it what the majority of our players put in. Without pointing at finger at anyone, a lot of our players just did not perform today and we got caught on the ball too often, we passed badly, we fluffed our chances and at least one of our players chickended out of half a dozen 50/50 balls. Hats off to Robbie Savage, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Andy Todd and Ryan Nelsen who all gave good accounts of themselves. Their pitch was a joke and they should be fined for it. However, I'm sure they will be fined for Shadrach Dingle's drunken romp on the pitch, but it was good of him to disrupt the only concerted spell of Dingle pressure for us. What a chimp! One question though: how many fouls would Micah Hyde have to commit to get a yellow card? I can't help but feel that the referee, Mike "Runaround" Reid, was a tad too generous to our degenerate neighbours. After the match I had a brief conversation with a Burnley supporting friend (well, I say friend...) and his verdict was "Well, it wah a load o' sh1te really, wontit. Ah reckon we're fooked at Ewood though". It's a rare day I agree with a Dingle but I think young Zacharias got it just right.

I read Filth a few years ago and thought it was tremendous. Then again, it was by first Welch book so maybe I didn't know the formula. Then again, anyone who can create such a loathsome character as Bruce and manage to include Frank Sidebottom gets the nod from me. However, I did find the inclusion of the tapeworm's thoughts to be very distracting and very annoying.

And once again this thread returns to the top. Well, it's been a long time since we chatted about books and all things associated so I figured that some of you will have a few recommendations and tales of caution to share. Since this thread was last in circulation I have been reading (in no particular order)... Star of the sea - Joseph O'Connor - mentioned last time round but was only halfway through when I commented then. In short, it's bloody marvellous and can't recommend it enough. Funny, moving, informative, tragic and not simply a whodunnit, but a who's-gonna-get-it and a how're-they-gonna-do-it. Sex, violence, famine, nationalism, disease, a knife wielding psycho and it will keep you guessing to the very last page (I guessed wrong). Gates of fire - Steven Pressfield - originally recommended to me by Blue Phil a long time ago and I have to say it was genuinely superb and should be required reading for all Europeans and/or anyone who treasures any aspect of Western Civilisation. Funny, fierce, shocking, deeply moving and ultimately uplifting. If you can get through this book with dry eyes you have a heart of stone. I'm led to believe it's the book of choice among British troops serving overseas and I can see why. When the inevitable film comes out, it will eclipse all previous ancient history yarns. Hats off to those Greek lads. Trainspotting - Irvine Welch - even though I'd seen the film I thought I'd give it a whirl and it doesn't disappoint, and although all of the characters are far more repellant than they are in the film, you can't help but care (sort of) about Renton and Spud and you crave some sort of brutal justice to befall Sick Boy and Begbie. Sex, drugs and rock & roll... with the emphasis on the drugs. The legate's daughter - Wallace Breem - my earlier posts had extolled the virtues of Eagle In The Snow by the late Mr Breem and I was so looking forward to this book. The word that sums it up is disappointing as it never really gets going and I was disinterested for large parts of it. Approach with caution. Under the eagle - Simon Scarrow - originally recommended by Flopsy if I remember rightly. Er, it's not bad and ideal holiday reading but it's not brilliant either. That said, it's a good starter for those less well-versed in Roman Britain, but the 2D characters are somewhat grating. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson - first read this when I was about 10, partly due to early ambition to be a pirate, but always meant to read it again. In short, magnificent and Blind Pew still scared the bejasus out of me. Surely Long John Silver is the ultimate rogue and you can't help but like him. Give yourself a treat and read it again. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - I expect a lot of you will have read this by now and some will have some firm opinions. For my part, I thought it was a good page turner but it's little more than chase across Paris, London and Scotland with some (screamingly obvious) clues along the way. Ideal for reading on holiday or a long train journey, but it's not exactly great conspiracy novel it likes to think it is and although I won't spoil it for those who are yet to read it, it rarely offers any real surprises. For those wanting a bit of real intrigue I'd still suggest The Name Of The Rose. Emperor: The death of kings - Conn Iggulden - the second instalment of the Carry On Julius biography of G.J. Caesar and like the first part it's a good yarn and ideal pulp for a holiday read. The third instalment is out in hardback now but I'll wait until I get the paperback next Christmas before I'm tempted to pick it up. A drink with Shane MacGowan -Victoria Mary Clark - undoubtedly the funniest, most honest (auto)biography I've ever read and would recommend to anyone, not just fans of the permanently pickled Mr MacGowan. The book is a series of transcripts of conversations between Shane and Victoria Clark (his former beloved) when he's had a drink... or eight and it's very easy to get into. There's a lot of things he says I disagree with and his childhood is alarming to say the least (drinking two bottles of Guinness a day from the age of five - with the blessing of his guardians!), but you can't help be charmed by his wit, tall stories, wry look at life and blindingly blunt view on just about everything (childhood, alcohol, drugs, the IRA, punk, politics, education, agriculture, sex, other musicians, etc). Thoroughly recommended. Random quote "There's two things I hate in this world: racism... and the English". There's only one Simon Garner - Simon Garner - finally got round to reading it and felt so disappointed. First of all, it's way too short and he tells you hardly anything about the footballing figures he encountered along the way. When he does, it's great (like when he declares Andy Crawford to be a tosser), but it's all too rare and it's only like he scratching the surface. A huge let-down. At the moment I've just started reading The talisman of Troy - Valerio Massimo Manfredi and it's seems... well... okay. Not sparkling but reasonable so far. I read one of his earlier books (Spartan) and thought it was crap, but he deserves a second chance.

Definitely a penalty and I think the decision not to give it was indicative of a poor refereeing performance. Charlton were guilty of persistant fouling but only had Stuart booked near the end. Why? I'd book that *@#! as soon as look at him but that's just me. Anyway, we can't rue ungiven penalties or blame dipsh1t referees for this defeat, the bottom line is we can't allow half of our players to have a poor game and expect Dickov to do everything on his own. How many times was the ball played into the box with nobody there to follow up? How many times did we run out of ideas when we approached their 18 yard box? For all our possession and all the corners, how many proper saves did Kiely have to make? How many times did Lucas Neill (exceptionally poor tonight) concede possession? I'm only grateful for the fact that the three promoted teams are unlikely to survive and Southampton are looking very ropey. Saturday is going to be a very tough game now.

I went to the match with a new sense of optimism and it seemed like even the sun had come out to make the day a good one. By half time I was thinking "This is sh1te" - no shots on target, players underperforming, no communication between the strikers and Pompey beginning to get in gear. The second half was a different story, especially when the subs came on. Amoruso did a very steady job for the injured Short (that looked bad and I hope he isn't out for long) and he again gave us options with freekicks. In fact, he was unlucky not to score. Griffin should have got a straight red for his murderous foul on McFly Pedersen, but in a way he did us a favour as the poor McFly went off soon after and made way for young Matty. Jansen looked a bit ropey but he stuck at it and was rewarded with a well-taken goal. The crowd went mad (relief and joy in equal quantities I'd say) and we all hailed the returning hero. I've doubted Jansen as much as anyone and saw our retention of him as an act of charity we probably couldn't afford. However, I'm happy to eat a big slab of humble pie tonight (Mrs Sidders isn't much of a cook and humble pie is often on the menu of late) and raise a pint (or eight) to the lad from Carlisle. Finally, the hardworking Stead made way for Bothroyd and what a difference it made. There's no doubting Bothroyd's belief in himself, but I think his faith in passing the ball to Emerton in the expectation that the ponderous Antipodean will do anything constructive with it will require a word from the coaching staff. Funniest moment was when Primus (bravely) stopped a piledriver from Matteo and lost all sense of time and place for a few seconds with his arms flailing around before he toppled like he'd been hit with a tranquilising dart. Three points, a clean sheet, the referee wasn't too bad, Jansen back from the dead and it didn't rain. What a good do!

I'm reasonably pleased but I think he's going to have a very tough job reversing the recent decline and getting the most of a largely idle playing staff. Re-establishing the players' belief in themselves will be a major test and not something that will sorted out very quickly. I think we should all make extra special effort to sing that bit louder on Saturday and make the commitment to slap the first dissenting voice on the terraces.