I absolutely agree with you YS. I was just about to come on and say much the same; especially in defence of Gray. I sometimes wonder if we are all watching the same match! Martin Jol said himself after the match that he deliberately put Lennon on because of his terrific pace, and that he knew he was capable of getting in behind ANY defender to provide crosses for Mido and Keane. As far as I am concerned I feel optimistic for the rest of the season if Rovers continue to play like they did today. It was a fantastic football match with great credit to both teams as all the varous pundits on Sky agreed. I just wonder what difference it would have made if we had Tugay and MGP playing? But then it also raises the question of how would Tugs have coped with the pace of the match, and would MGP have been any better than Bentley? Some of you have made the point (correctly) that both the first two goals for Spuds were strictly speaking illegal, but can we in all honesty complain after the "hand of Ped" gave us the 3 points at Newcastle? Anyway it is in the past now and we all need to focus on the next few games. Today Rovers showed the whole world just what a good team they have become under the MH regime. I just hope and pray that we can hang on to the services of the MH management team for some time to come.

Both Byrom and Pickering were abject failures when they came back to Rovers. If you want confirmation of that look it up in any of the various Rovers History books, or better still ask any poster on here who was around at the time!

In the very early 60's when Stanley were still in the League, I used to go along to the old Peel Park ground and watch them if Rovers were away. There was never a full ground and the average I estimate at about 5000 to 7000 max. This was in the days when both Burnley and Rovers were doing well in the First Division and Stanley were doing well in the 3rd Div. In fact at the time both Rovers and Burnley played in front of average gates of about 30,000+. Even in the season before Stanley went broke they only just missed out on promotion to the 2nd Div, but in spite of this there was no noticeable effect on the gates at either Burnley or Rovers. So in the light of all this I think some people are getting rather excited about nothing that matters, and I say "Good luck to Stanley; hope you get back to the League, and well done so far. Keep it up."

Next time I see Andy Gray around the local shops I think I will launch in to him in exactly the same way as Del Horno did to Messi, then as he rolls about on the ground I will ask him "Was that only a yellow Andy?" I will also get about as near to the ball as Del Horno did!

Only a grade 1 bigot would be capable of even letting Tugay's religion enter into his/her thoughts, let alone expose them for publication. How do you even KNOW what religion (if any) Tugay holds? The one and only thing relative to this topic is Tugay as player for Blackburn Rovers and all those who do not have the basic intelligence to see that should refrain from posting!

Yes, but what when Campbell comes back from his injury?

At last some one who agrees with my reading of the game! I got about 50 mins of the game recorded on DVD from the Sky Sports 1 highlights of the game, and I really thought Pongo did quite well especially in the first half (faded out a bit in the 2nd). His link up play with Bellamy looked very promising and can only get better as they develop an understanding of each other. He also threaded a couple of superb defence splitting passes to the left wing expecting MGP to run onto them but was disappointed in that direction. To all the doubters; please use a bit of common sense and give the lad some time.

I agree that Bentley could be a good creative midfielder as demonstrated with his superb 30+ yards pass over the top of the WBA midfield to drop exactly right for Kuqi. But guess what happened next? Yes, you've got it; his first touch let him down as the pundits like to put it, and a golden opportunity went amiss again. By the way, for those of you that can remember him, the pass I referred to above was distinctly reminiscent of a typical Quigley pass to the front runners. If Bentley is capable of becoming half as good a midfield player as Quigley was we are on to a winner!

OK I only saw it on Football First but what I did see told me two things: 1) That Robson had done his homework on us. WBA came out of the traps fighting from the first whistle and really closed Rovers down. They never let us get a sniff of it in midfield and with Tugay and Savage both having an off-day we were stuffed from the start. 2) The whole team was showing signs of fatigue after their efforts in the Man U. match. We were all well off the pace and second to almost every loose ball. The defence in particular was IMO showing distress signals. Only Nelson looked up for it, and even he was slower than usual to react at crucial times. It is pointless and unfair to have a go at the players on this occasion. Let's see what they do after a full week's rest against Everton. Oh ye of little faith!

With ref to the various signatures on this post could I ask the Mod's to adjudicate on whether this is a football supporters M.B. or a political M.B. Thank you.

Steady on! I was born and spent the first 13 years of my life in Preston. Incidentally I really like your signature; bet that gets a few on here saying "what's he on about?"

Perhaps Big Sam will loan him back to us if we ask nicely?

Remember Dunnies hamstring injuries? The "big club" are claiming to have cured him completely by an operation on his back! Perhaps Rovers should politely ask for further details?

I too have vivid memories of that match at Port Vale. Fantastic atmosphere; just like a home game for Rovers. I dont know how many Roveres fans went but I remember the coach I was in stuggling to get near the ground for traffic and ending up in a car park about a mile from the ground.

Completely agree with all you say TR, but IMO Gray made amends for his mistake as far as possible by having a very good game after the errors. Also, regarding the "penalty that never was" am I the only one that noticed on the TV replays that RVN used his hand to push the ball aginst Zura's upper arm, which resulted in the ref seeing it as a penalty? I have the whole match recorded on DVD and have looked at it several times. Total travesty, and Rovers should take this up with the FA, not that it can change anything now, but combined with evidence of the definite handball by Ferdinand in the area later which he dismissed as "no penalty" I would argue there is evidence of clear bias in favour of MU.

To all those who advocate going for Hartson, I would ask them to consider the following questions: 1) Is the SPL a better standard than the Championship? 2) How many goals did Kuqi score in the Championship as compared to how many does Hartson score in the SPL. Perhaps better to compare their relative goal ratios. When you have the answeres to both questions, ask yourself : is Hartson likely to be a better player for Rovers than Kuqi?

Unfortunately you are absolutely right about the effects of TV coverage on the smaller clubs. The TV stations (especially SKY ) are slowly but surely taking over the entire business of top class football and killing it off as an attended outdoor sport. The big question for all true fans everywhere is: What to do about it? Perhaps this question should be debated at the BRISA meeting.

Totally agree with Rover 6 on this. I am not a big fan of Souness, but I think that as long as he keeps his job at Newcastle, they are much less likely to give Rovers any serious competition, and there is no danger of MH being poached.

Sorry but I cannot resist asking any longer. Please tell me D.A. where did you obtain the photograph of me that you are using for your signature?

Ditto. I was also thinking exactly the same in the frustrating second half, but unfortunately there was no Peter on the bench to supply the left wing play. My thoughts were to put Bert on the left wing and move MGP up front to support Bellamy as a striker and take Bentley off.

What predjudice? I was merely stating my opinion that we might have done better with Dickov on from the start, and that it was obvious after the first half hour or so that Kuqui was not up to it on this occasion so why wait so long to sub him? Secondly I was NOT in any way having a go at Todd but merely posing the hypothetical question that could we have done better in the creative sense building up from defence to attack with Zura in place of Todd. Also given that Tugay was having one of his more anomymous games should Reid have been brought on sooner?

How times have changed! The one and only time that I was booked in my 20 year fotballing career was for admonishing my team mates with " Come on lads for F****s sake" as we lined up for the 11th time to kick-off after conceding a goal. I was booked for "Using industrial language in contravention of rule ??? (Violent and abusive language)"

My sentiments exactly!. Kuqui was awful, and Dickov should have been on from the start. I cant understand why Sparky did not get Kuqui off after about the first half hour when it was blatantly obvious to everyone with half an eye that the big guy was having a stinker. Also, in hindsight, we would have been better to start with Reid instead of Tugay, and maybe Zura instead of Todd. Bentley and MGP both played well in the first half, but competeley faded out in the second. Emmo should have come on sooner, perhaps on the left wing inplace of MPG and move Bentley up front to support Dickov with Bellamy out wide right but still acting as a striker/winger?

Sorry Bob; my remarks were not aimed at you but at all the dismal Johnnies who love to take the pessimistic view on these occasions.

Cheer up people! Just remember that as we all winged our way to Old Trafford a few weeks back we were all thinking that we had not won there for 40+ years!