Well if you haven't got a hearing deficiency, that can only be down to the superb singing voices and diction of your present day singers! Or maybe your hi-fi is low-fi?

And I wouldn't think it is only Rovers that get hit by the dodgy decisions at O.T. or the other "big clubs" either!

Nothing to do with this thread (sorry) but I have to say to Burleyblue (phew! got it right) you need to be careful coming on here with a pseudonym like that. There are many who will get the wrong impression!!

C'mon Bob; you know better than that. There has been a consistent tendency to decry Scottish football on this site for as long as..... I admit I suffered from this particular form of ignorance myself before I moved to Scotland in '79. But now I have seen some 27 years of it up close and personal as it were, I find it sufficiently entertaining to want to keep on handing over my hard earned each week. OK if you compare the English and Scottish games at each level, the English game comes out on top for skill overall. But that does not mean there are no good players in Scotland, on the contrary there are a lot, and they are not all playing for Rangers and Celtic. I find the Scottish game entertaining and exciting and have thoroughly enjoyed my time up here. Rovers will always be my No1 but I will always support my local team and I always have done wherever my travels or job has taken me. Incidentally I think Ferguson is a good player even if he did not fit in at Rovers and behaved like a big soft kid. The fact remains that he CAN play; just a shame he chose not to do it for us.

I was just about to reply "that's a bit harsh Billy" but on reflection I will change it to " that's a LOT harsh Billy". Seriously, I quite enjoy watching SPL footie with DAFC. I have been a supporter of them since 1980-81 season and had a season ticket most of the time. It is probably not as skilfull as the EPL overall, but it is every bit as exciting and generally higher tempo. I have also enjoyed my visits in days gone by to exotic places like Cowdenbeath with its grass bank terracing and one small corrugated tin shed for a stand. Players changing facilities in a mobile home behind the stand and showers/ bath facilities across the road at the public swimming baths. Similar at East Stirling and Stenhousemuir, but always great to go to these grounds with DAFC massive support (7 or 8 D/Decker buses provided by the club) Fantastic atmosphere. Ah! those were the days. Not like that now. Average home crowd 4 or 5k, no atmosphere at all, and when either of the old firm come I stay at home. Cannot STAND the ignorant bigotted chanting by their "fans"and the intimidation of the home support. They take over the whole ground and God help you if dare to open your mouth in support of DAFC.

Sounds like you want to become a Rovers fan PJ!

I have been trying to tell you lot just that for months, ever since he became available, but very few of you took any notice at all and a few even advocated the much worse alternative of Malbranque. The trouble with a lot of you is that you have a completely false and unjustifiable view of Scottish football. I had it too when I moved up to Scotland in 1979. I soon learnt to modify my viewpoint from regular weekly attendance at games.

RTM: Are you always this tenacious?

RTM: You seem to have an unhealthy interest in other men's equipment! Kindly keep it to yourself there's a good boy!

Well said RTM! That is probably your most reasoned post to date. Keep it up!

Utter cobblers! It's Gordon Brown's fault!!

When does he not?

I would just like to "thank" all the contributors on this thread up to about the 55th minute of the match. Why? Because their contributions whilst presumably listening to some commentary or other had convinced me that Rovers had struck yet another depth of crap play, the worst yet seen this season. So at this point I gave up and went out to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and do some gardening. I managed to avoid all contact with radio and TV results until time for Footie First and proceeded to record the match on my DVD recorder. Imagine my surprise when watching it to find that it was actually the people on this site who had been accusing Rovers of producing crap that were the "crap merchants"! OK it was not a pretty one touch football match, but then who in their right minds had expected it to be? Rovers whilst still far from their best were still the better of the two sides and did try to play some creative stuff out of defence and from midfield. All the real problems lay up front where McCarthy was totally absent from any contribution to attack. He might just as well have not been on the pitch. The ONLY thing he did of note all day was to "win" Rovers a penalty with a blatant dive. Jeffers to give him some credit DID put himself about with some good movement up front and got in a number of decent headers; unfortunately mostly off-target but some of them only just! At least he tried which is more than can be said for McCarthy. Also when Nonda came on he did nothing of any value either. Though to be fair to him he was only on for about 20 mins and it was his first game with a new set of team mates. The officials were a joke! The ref gave 3 penalties that never were! Each of the assistants in turn made at least one howler; in the first half Jeffers was clean through on a superb pass from Tugs but was given offside when the replay clearly showed he was onside at the time the pass was made. Then the other clown in the second half gave a penalty for handball against Lucas which replays again proved hit his chest and not his hand! Thank God for Brad Friedal! He was MAGNIFICENT! No other word for it. He gained us a valuable away point. As for the rest it was not pretty but it was not the worst we have played by a very long country mile, Which IS the impression some of you hysterical clowns were giving by your stupid comments early on.

This is where we could just have done with Kuqi!

I already had him sent off in my prediction!

I can certainly agree with what you say about Matteo abc. you have made a reasoned argument for what you posted, unlike the majority with their "lynch mob" approach. I agree also that a loan to a good championship side until January is probably the best solution, as long as no hard and fast decisions are made either way until January. Go for it!

I can only tell you what I found from personal experience over many years (not isolated incidents) and that is that as long as I knew Eddie Quigley during his playing days (not after he stopped playing) he would not even have so much as a half of shandy during the season. Also later on, in the '60s Mike Harrison worked for a time with my company on a part time basis, and he always refused to go for a drink with us at lunch time quoting the Rovers policy as his reason. He also refrained and stuck to soft drinks when attending the company social functions in the evenings. As I said earlier I don't know when this policy was dropped but it certainly still applied in 1962 as I can personally attest to.

I really can't understand this widespread and almost hysterical mob handed cry of "get rid of Matteo". With our present situation for cover at LB who else have we got if Gray is unavailable? OK, we can use Neil there and he is at least as good or better than Gray. but for how long and does he really want to be here? I would rather have a fully committed and happy player than any "want away" mercenary no matter how good he is. Matteo can play LB better than McEverley and has certain attributes in the position that Gray does not have; namely he is a better defender, but no use going forward. On the other hand Gray is good going forward but does not always get back to defend quickly enough. Each of them has their good and bad points. I would agree that Gray is the better overall choice, but Matteo is IMO a very useful fall-back choice if Gray is not available. He certainly has the experience and can do the job defensively. Why the unholy rush to get rid of a useful cover player before we have found an adequate replacement?

I fully agree with that Philipl. I don't know how or when the policy changed, but I do know from personal knowledge that it was always the policy at Rovers in the '50s that players did not touch alcohol at all during the season. I know this from my personal friendship with Eddie Quigley (outside of football), and also from knowing a number of the other players of the day through Quigley. The policy at Rovers according to Eddie was that once pre-season training started a total alcohol ban applied and it was rigidly enforced. This lasted until end of season, when they were allowed (but not encouraged) to drink in moderation. Eddie also told me that this rule applied at all the clubs he had been associated with and as far as he knew it was a general rule in all professional clubs.

He's a Dingle! nuff said.

But if it turns out to be the second one we can always send him back to Roma; nicely packaged of course.

Got a terrible premonition about this one! Sheff U 2 - 0 Rovers Savage sent off. Nonda breaks leg on debut.

Maybe they didn't buy them! Could have mugged a few Rovers fans outside the ground and pinched their tickets?

Well, Well! My faith in human nature is almost restored. Thanks to Darth and Dave I can see that there are still a number of people out there that are capable of sensible and level headed thinking, without being carried away by either grandiose or over ambitious delusions. Time alone will tell, but the way I read it the "BIG CLUBS" will eventually clear off in to a "SUPER LEAGUE" and after a brief spell of ever increasing greed and corruption will inevtably die out because the paying public will become so bored and sickened by it all that they will all have found something better to do. Also the rich boy or company owners of these clubs are not going to stick around and keep pouring money into a sinking ship. As soon as it becomes apparent to them that they have milked the footie cow to the extreme they will be gone. Menwhile the remaining "little clubs" like Rovers, PNE, Burnley, Accy Stanley, Sheff.U. etc, etc, will still be there providing what they always have done: Great Value footie for the ordinary man! And they will carry on doing so for the future. Have faith!

But not the Faroe Isles of course! Let's see now? Oh, yes; they are probably at least as good as a conference side's reserves.