Brilliant! I LIKE it! Sure hope this catches on, and look forward to more of the same.

Do you never learn. Why don't you just rewind to where all this trouble began. It was YOU who started it all with YOUR abusive comment to Jan, which I took objection to, and quite rightly so. I tried to point out that we dont take kindly to such stupid and offensive comments on this site, but then you really got offensive using even more foul and offensive language. Even when others came in and tried to calm you down you still went on with your crackpot rant and dirty talk. How many more times do you need to be told, and in which language will you understand it? WE DON'T WANT STUPID AND ABUSIVE FOUL MOUTHED IDIOTS ON THIS SITE! IS THAT CLEAR ENOUGH FOR YOU?

Hmmmm! Looking at that link TB, I can see nothing wrong at all. It certainly wets my appetite and I wanted to see more. How do I do that?

This link alludes to "better news could come from Andy Todd's successful appeal against his sending off....." Has this already happened and was the red card rescinded?

I am one of the 50k+ fans that was there and can remember it well. According to Mike Jackman's book the attendance was 53, 839. There seems to be some disparity about the actual number, because I can assure you as one who has stood on the BBE and the Riverside at a number of matches where the crowd was given in the 50k+ range you get an impression from looking around the ground and also by the feel of how crowded and difficult to move it is on these occasions. I know that is only ever going to give you a vague and innacurate estimate of the actual figure , but it gives you a "feel" for the range i.e. at least 50k or about 45k etc. On that Monday night I went down very early because I knew it would be a huge crowd being a replay against Burnley and I was right. Even then the queues all round the ground were tremendous and amongst the longest I have seen at Ewood. Can't remember how long I was in the queue but I eventually got in to the BBE, and then it took me about another 15 mins to stuggle through the crowd to get to a place where I could see properly. I finished up right at the back at the top of the BBE and pressed against the Kidder street wall. When they eventually kicked-off there was (so I was told later) some 10k or so still outside and these were locked out because the police decided the ground was already well over filled. Now I have never known this to happen before or since, and given that Rovers official record attendance was given as around 63k or so in a match against Bolton pre-war, I am sure that the official figure for the Burnley game must have been much lower than the actual attendance. What do any others that were there think?

Is that right? Well so far by your own ignorance and foul mouthed posts you have shown quite clearly for all to see exactly what you are.

Hmmmm..... Don't know about that PB; after his performance on Saturday it might be nicer if he didn't

A number of them played like they had! :ph34r:

How did that happen Capt? you certainly look like you have a good covering of blond thatch in your photo What a lot of people are missing ( not getting at you at all Theno) is that Pompey played as if they were the away team and set out to stop Rovers playing. This they did very successfully, and then they hit us on the break and eventually completely demoralised us. From there on it was easy. This would never have happened last season! After West Ham away that is!

Just a thought; with our current midfield problems, perhaps we could borrow him for a while, decontaminate him and we have got ourselves a decent left midfielder.

Hey you, newboy! Just be careful what you say when speaking to a lady! And remember that not everyone on this site is a spotty games consul playing teenager. There are a majority on here of intelligent and seriously interested football supporters and we don't take kindly to being spoken to like that by you. And for the record, I too had no idea what on earth you were talking about. :ph34r:

Well having watched and recorded the Sky FF 55min version, I have to say that we definitely got what we deserved. It's not so much that Pompey were the better side, but rather that they knew exactly how to play us. They (in effect) gave us a dose of our own medicine from a year or so back. They were straight in on Rovers players as soon as we got the ball; absolutely no time to settle or to think. On the day; good tactics to which we had no answer. Secondly our defence was non-existent; complete shambles all afternoon. Neil and Axe were **********!!!!!!! Whoever said Neil is better at CB than RB needs shooting. As for Neils two yellows and someone saying the second was a soft one, I say look again. IMO the first one could and maybe should have been a red, and the second was definitely a yellow given that the ref had specifically warned Neil earlier to be very careful. No, folks you can't blame Mr Wiley for that! Neil is a stupid ASS. In midfield we had the only Rovers outfield player that came out with credit on the day; yes our much maligned and hated Robbie Savage! He was the only one that played his nuts off in MF. Reid was just about OK but probably not properly fit so will say no more on him. Bentley and MGP might just as well have not been on the field at all; nobody would have noticed any difference. Up front Benni and Roberts did next to nothing, but given the complete shambles behind them I will excuse them (this time). Brad had a good game overall; not the best he's ever had but good. Brilliant save of the penalty that should never have been. Then we come to the performance of Rovers favorite ref, Mr. Wiley! Well surprise, surprise , I thought he did OK. He was certainly right in his sending off of Neil. He was slated for not giving Rovers a penalty when the Pompey player lay on the ball on the goal line and would not release it. Well having looked again and again at that incident I am forced to the conclusion that if our man had not stuck the boot in when and where he did (in the groin region) we would very likely have got one. You have to allow that the ref was probably thinking what to do about the situation with the Pompey guy just lying on the ball, when along comes our guy and boots where he thinks the ball is but inevitably catches the pompey guy where it hurts most and he acts accordingly giving Mr. Wiley not much choice, or an easy way out however you choose to see it. Whichever way, the ref did nothing wrong in awarding a free kick to Pompey. For the rest of the match he was pretty even handed and performed as well/ badly as any other ref on average. With the one exception of the Todd incident in stoppage time. When you look at it from behind as the ref did it definitely looks like Todd gets nothing on the ball and trips the man; therefore a penalty and red card for last defender. BUT when you see it from an angle further to the right you can see that Todd gets enough on the ball to send it for a corner and the Pompey player just trips over Todd's outstretched leg. Wiley has agreed to look at it again and therefore give him credit for that. It should result in the card being rescinded. Overall not a good day for Rovers, but as many others have said already it happend in similar fashion last year. Nuff said.

Plus, Liverpool needed a complete joke of a penalty to STEAL a point at Sheff U.

This could and should work to Rovers advantage as these new players have to learn to gel together yet. Whereas Rovers are going with two new stikers that have already got a good understanding of each others play. Pompey 1 - Rovers 2

--> QUOTE(ste b @ Aug 19 2006, 01:58 ) 436513[/snapback] Conversation in the pub tonight was more along the lines of that they wouldnt turn up for a home game even if it wasnt on tv because 1) its too expensive, 2) Would rather sit in pub all aft as cannot be arsed. It is a pretty fair bet that every one of those advocating the 2) position are well overweight and heading for a heart attack. I can just hear the scoffing replies to this as well: "oh testicals, you dont know what you're on about. I am fit as a fiddle" etc etc.

Sorry but I don't understand that term "Streaming" I thought it meant relaying or broadcasting a TV program. Now I am confused.

T4E & Capt Kayos: Please read my first para. I deliberately did not name or single out anyone, but did specify that I was asking the question of only those who could not look at Emerton objectively and criticise him fairly. From what you have said above I would accept that as genuinely held opinion and fair criticism even if I and others don't necessarily agree with it. There are a small number of people who continually rant on about Bert in a totally irrational manner and they come across to me as people who are not prepared to try and judge him fairly or to give him any credit at all. Bert has had several good games and scored or assisted at a number of good goals. He obviously has lots of ability otherwise why would so many people like Sparky and other managers continue to rate him. He had a very good WC and IMO he deserves a chance to be judged objectively on how he performs this season. Let's all give the guy a chance. That was the point of my earlier post.

I am afraid that you must have got your dates mixed up Ian. Duggie was definitely playing at Charlton on that day 26/04/1958. He scored Rovers 4th goal from a penalty.

Question for all the people who so obviously hate Emerton so much that they cannot judge and criticise him in an objective way. IF Emerton actually has a good season for Rovers this time out ( never mind how; just answer the question) will you have the good grace to come on here and admit that he has in fact played well? I am not asking or expecting any of you to say you were wrong in your refusal to see or admit any good in him up to now. Just that IF he does produce the goods this season you will have the balls to admit that much.

Might be better calling it the Bigots Thread.

I don't think we need a hundred; one would be enough! Oh silly me! I never thought of that. (selling the other 99 at £6m each, that is)

Is this true? Can I really watch all rovers games live on my PC by joining Rovers World?

OK, Bob. So that will be chapters 1 and 2 consisting mainly of expletives and other profanities. Will do. Oh and by the way we have still to agree on the royalties.

This sounds like a damned good idea Den. Bob writes a book using me as the "Ghost" author, you act as the publisher and you both get rich! Don't forget the royalties to the "Ghost" though!

Yes AggyB you are right but only to a certain extent. Alf and his ideas came along fairly well in to the "revolution". Though you could say that he was the first club manager to make his ideas and changes really work as manager of Ipswich Town when he won the English Championship, but that is jumping ahead of the story. The thing that really started the revolution was the infamous defeat of the England side at Wembley by Hungary. This was a major shock to all the football world, and led to a complete re-think of formations and tactics Before Ramsey, Don Revie had done a lot of "experimental" work with his Leeds Utd team. He was credited with inventing and developing the idea of a deep-lying CF. This was a role he played himself as a player. But it did not become fashionable until Revie used it as manager of Leeds and made them into a really successful side that was very hard to break down. He was probably responsible more than any one else for the adoption of an ultra-defensive approach to the game. His theory was: first and foremost; dont lose the game. Defence was king. Then when you had exhausted/ demoralised your opponents, hit them on the break and get a 1 goal lead, and having done that make certain you don't lose it. After this "success" at Leeds various managers joined in and of course Revie became England manager and changed their tactics as well. Ramsey was a man with his own ideas and he further developed the idea of defece first, win second. I will have to stop here as this is becoming an un-researched and largely incoherent ramble, and I am in danger of descending into talking rubbish as a result. As you can imagine this is a huge subject and could well be the subject of a fairly large book. In fact I have no doubt that it already has been the subject of a large number of books by various authors, but please don't ask me to quote a list of titles as I really haven't got a clue. The short answer to your question Den has to be: none of them. Having said that though, you would always get your forwards tracking back into the midfield areas when the other team was on the attack and any of them could occasionally get involved in the odd tackle here and there. But generally speaking this was not a planned tactic it was just something that happened in the "heat of the game".