Congratulations to all connected with Accrington Stanley. This proud club is now back where it rightfully belongs in the Football League after 44 years in the wilderness. Lets hope they can now build on that and look to further promotions in the not too distant future. Then, who knows, we may see all the Lancashire teams together again in the Premiership.

Didn't we do well!

This thread has really got me thinking. I have been paying all kinds of premiums to a fairly wide variety of insurance companies ever since the late 50's. Some of them have matured and given me a modest return on the investment, but none have been exceptional and quite a few have been very poor. Then there have been several that only give you cover against a certain eventuality which never happens so you get no return at all. And finally there are several more that have been ongoing for X number of years and will continue until my death. Now just supposing that instead of paying all these premiums to insurance companies, I had instead invested exactly the same amount of money in the best completely safe savings or investment schemes available over these years and kept on paying in every month as I have done to the Insurance companies. How much would I now have stached away? I warrant it would be a tidy sum by now; easily enough to cover any unforseen disaster or other "risk" as the insurance companies like to call it. Instead I have got exactly nothing to show from my "umbrella" insurance, and all those monthly premiums since 1958 to the present and still ongoing count for nothing!

Nelsen for me. He has missed very few matches and has been consistently good and reliable in every one of them. He should be the first choice for captain in my opinion. Running him very close I had Bellamy because of what his games played have meant to Rovers this year, and then in joint third and also very close to top two I have Neil, Friedal, MGP, and Reid. Others worthy of mention are Gray, Savage, and Tugay.

That is the exact thought that occured to me when I saw it on TV. Even I could have headed that one in and I am only 5' 6" and in my 70's!!

And where on this thread does it tell us when or what the final outcome will be?

+Whenever Bentley plays in the left midfield role he seems to play well, and he did impress for England U21's in that role. So why not rest MGP and play Bentley wide left? The one position he never seems to play well in is the wide right MF, so why keep putting him there?

Have to disagree with you there> The reason why we failed to get the front men on the ball often enough was because we were constantly trying to thread long passes through into the centre for Dickov or Bellamy to run onto instead of using the wings or building up with short inter-passing movement. These long ground passes were meat and drink to their defence who had plenty of time to read the move and intercept easily before the ball could reach it's intended target. Also a lot of the "air balls" you refer to especially in the first 15 mins or so were due to headers pinging back and forth between both sides. The truth is, as has already been stated earlier, Wigan had done their homework on us and gave us a dose of our own medicine. They harried and chased and closed us down so quickly that we could not get into our usual rythm of passing at all. I think a lot of credit is due to the Wigan coaching staff and to their players for carrying out the game plan so well. And as for Rovers; the message well and truly is: Must do better next time out; another failure is NOT an option. Yes I do consider it a failure in spite of the late point saver, for the simple reason that I do consider Rovers players and coaching staff to be superior to Wigan's and that match should have been won.

It's being so cheerful that keeps you going is it Allan?

Absolutely side splitting, Bob. Are you Jasper Carrot's script writer by any chance?

Where have you been? O'Neil made his name not at that tuppence hapeny outfit Leicester City; he worked wonders with Celtic built a great team there. Remember when they played Rovers in the Eufa Cup?

You obviously dont know Terry Butcher; he is the most animated and vocal football manager I have ever seen (and I am including Pearce). You would not want to be a Motherwell player if he thinks they have not done their utmost in a match!

Out of the available candidates in the poll I would prefer Martin O'Neil who proved himself a very good manager and tactician with Celtic, or possibly one for the future would be Stuart Pearce. But I voted for A.N.Other and had in mind Bryan Robson or Terry Butcher because both are ex- England internationals with plenty of nouse and experience and both of them would REALLY care about it; which to me is a necessary qualification.

Jan: You are so right! This is your finest post. It sums up a lot of the things I have been trying to say on this site for a considerable time, and obviously without your ability to make the points stick. It will be interesting to see how much better your post is received by some of the regular posters on here!

Yes you are right in what you say Theno, but my reasoning was based on my opinion (nothing more) that having seen quite a lot of both Charlton and Newcastle this season I believe Newcastle to have more "potential" to hit the big time than Charlton. I could be wrong, but hey that's life!

You are so right RR. I am dreading the day (which will come) that one of the genuine big clubs comes in for Reidy. I dont care if they offer £12M, Rovers should tell them all to get lost, because one day in the not too distant future Reidy will be worth that and more to Rovers if we are ever to become a top team again. And while we are on this subject, Reid is not the only one that Rovers should be valuing alongside the Crown Jewels. Bellamy, Neil, Nelson, and MGP also fit into that category. There are others equally valuable at this moment in time but who are sadly getting older and will inevitably have to be replaced sooner rather than later.

Simple. You just do as most of the clubs in the SPL do; Most tunstyles are cash or season ticket (there are a few S/T only) and you pay your cash get a ticket without a seat number, go in and find yourself a seat. All the S/T owned seats hav e a large RESERVED sign on their backs. It works fine.

Excellent suggestion for cash turnstile, and I can recommend Darwen End (upper) as a very good view, although difficult in some parts to see the big screen. As for the Light Brigade; that was rather a long time ago, and they DID get annihalated.

Please God dont let it be MGP!!!

Excellent preview Colin. Just one slight criticism; you forgot to tell us how far all the beans in the tins would stretch if laid end to end. OK, I know. You were leaving that one for me to work out!

My guess is that it is already too late for anyone to sort Pennant's off-field troubles out. He must be well on the way to being a confirmed alcoholic now.

Today's results were all good for Rovers. 1) Boro did us a big favour beating Notlob. 2) Manure ditto beating Big Club. That will check any revival of confidence for them. 3) Charlton beating Newcastle will dent any hopes they still have of making a late run for a top 6 place.

Bellamy made a decoy run and took their two central defs out Reidy banged it in !! 1- 0 to Rovers

And Shearer playing one half for each team! Fantastic. They could sellout twice over! Come to thinkof it what does anyone else think of the idea of Rovers offering him a separate testomonial?

I vote we dont play on that day