are you serious about that bob?

Don't want to be involved in a bitch-fest-fight.

That's never stopped you before Colin...

For myself, Sherwood's disruptive behaviour under Roy Hodgson during his final season at the club left a bad taste.

It has to be FOREST for me - I can see the wood from the trees...

I'll fetch me coat now, that was a bad one...

Click HERE for a previous post from Jim, giving his thoughts on Andy Cole.

Andy has gone from a player who in Jim's words has been guilty in the past of "Far too many hands-on-hips, I can't be bothered, I'm not chasing that crap pass... Can I have a week off to go to Dubai etc..." - to a man who now deserves a rousing reception.

It seems that Jim didn't like Cole's performances, but now wants to cheer him because he's black and it will look good in the eyes of the media.

Three cheers for Jim.

Hip Hip Hooray....

I fear that we're living in a society now where the law is not applied equally among people of different races.

Black people can go around calling people 'n*ggers', but if a white person does it, then it becomes a crime.

Would the police take seriously a complaint from a white person if he reported that a black guy had called him a 'White b*stard'?

If a white guy uses the term 'Black b*stard' - he faces a fine and even perhaps a possible jail term for the offence.

This is not to condone any racist abuse towards blacks. But it's almost as if racism towards white people is acceptable, whereas any racism directed towards so-called minorities is deemed to be worse.

There has been mass media hysteria regarding the Yorke incident. It has been blown out of proportion.

"MORONS!" screamed the Daily Mirror alongside a picture of fans at Ewood Park.

(The implication from the headline being that Blackburn fans in general are racist morons.)

As well as the Lancashire constabulary, we've had Government ministers joining in with the chorus of condemnation.

I'm sure the five year ban Perryman has recieved won't be enough for some people. There'll be pressure put on Rovers to ban him for life.

To me, a £1000 fine seems harsh in comparison for example to the lenient sentences which are regularly handed out to muggers and those found guilty of violent assault.

Below is a link to an incident in 2001 where an Asian man in Lancashire punched an off duty female police officer in the face. He received just a £50 fine and a £150 compensation bill.

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashi...0/NEWS38ZM.html

Am I alone in thinking that the fine would have been quite a bit heavier if a white man had punched an Asian female in the face? It's almost as if there's one law for blacks and Asians, and another law for whites.

In May earlier this year, three Asians punched a man in Blackburn town centre for no apparent reason. Two of the thugs, who were convicted of assault and causing actual bodily harm, were given fines of just £50.

The other thug, Kashif Mukhtar, was ordered to pay £150 compensation and given a conditional discharge.

A link to this incident is below:

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashi...NEWSBBN7ZM.html

Compare the fines for this violent assault with the £1000 fine Perryman has received for impersonating a monkey.

In today's society it seems that actual physical violence; punching someone in the face - is less of a crime than saying names like 'Black b'stard'.

The downtrodden in our society today are white working class males IMO...

To make a final point in this post about the law not being applied equally: Below is a picture of the gangsta rap group "Gravediggaz".

In their lyrics, this appalling rap group have called for white people to have their throats cut. They say that white people are "devils" and should be shot dead.

I look forward to the Lancashire Chief Superintendent calling for this rap group to be prosecuted...

Can't quite see it happening though....

"We all felt the decision to sack him was wrong," said Mark Hughes.

"There was a strong feeling in the dressing room that he'd been treated unfairly," Hughes said.

That was what Sparky had to say in 1989 after Mike England, the former Rovers defender, was sacked as Welsh boss after Wales narrowly failed to qualify for Euro 1988.

"The Welsh FA got it wrong," said Hughes, commenting on the decision to get rid of Mike. "We felt he deserved to be treated better than that."

Fifteen years on, Rovers made an almighty cock-up in the way that they handled Tony Parkes' dismissal. It was a PR disaster for the club.

Friday November 12th was a day of shame in the history of Blackburn Rovers football club.

It was a dark day for all those who believe in traditional values like integrity, decency and respect - (values sadly lacking in today's society.)

A man who showed 34 years of loyalty to Rovers was not given the dignity of being told first-hand that his services were no longer required. What a terrible indictment of the cut-throat world we live in.

The Rovers 'mole' has done untold damage to our club. This odious creature has been lurking for some time at Ewood now. The Souness training spats with Yorke and Cole were leaked, the decision to strip Flitcroft of the Rovers captaincy was leaked beforehand, and most seriously of all, the disgraceful leaking of Parkes' sacking to The Sun.

What a cowardly despicable act it was for the 'mole' to ring up The Sun to tell them of Tony's sacking before he was told first-hand.

I wish the Rovers board would show the same level of determination in investigating the identity of the Ewood 'mole' as they seem to do when investigating allegations of racism....

I think that Jack Walker would have been appalled by the Parkes fiasco. While it's obviously true that Jack was willing to make hard decisions and change managers like Hodgson and Kidd if necessary, he would surely have wanted a loyal servant like Tony to have been given a more dignified farewell.

The decision to sack Parkes was taken on the Tuesday, and yet he wasn't given the courtesy of being told before the Friday.

It was an appalling blunder to give the news a chance to leak beforehand. The Rovers board should surely have thought more carefully about the possibility that a 'mole' would leak the news.

And what a PR disaster it turned out to be.

"Appalling", "Disgraceful," "The Worst Sacking in Premiership History" - these were just some of the words in the national press used to describe the fiasco.

I gather that John Williams occasionally reads the messages on this board.

Mr Williams, if you happen to be reading this, please accept your share of responsibility for this huge cock-up which has cast our club in such a bad light.

Mr Williams, one of your main roles as Chief Executive, (on a reported salary of £250,000 per year) is to try to widen our fan base. Do you think that that the appalling way that Tony Parkes was treated is likely to increase our attendances?

Mr Williams, the next time you are shaving in the morning, and keeping the 'tash neatly trimmed - please look deeply into the mirror and ask yourself if you ought to have handled this situation in a rather better way. The answer surely has to be a resounding 'Yes'.

I hope Mr Williams that you will learn the lessons from this shameful episode, which angered and alienated sections of our supporters.

I hope that Mark Hughes will also learn from the events. Sparky is inexperienced in terms of club management, and the decision not to inform Tony sooner of his dismissal is perhaps indicative of that lack of experience in club management.

I accept that Hughes has the right to change his backroom staff. (Although I disagree with the decision he made.)

What I can't accept is the appalling blunder that was made in not believing it was right to inform Tony earlier of his departure.

Mark Hughes says that Parkes has done a "Magnificent job" at Rovers.

And yet there's no place for him at the club.

I still can't quite understand why someone who is doing a "magnificent job" should be sacked. To me, that just doesn't make sense.

Do you get rid of him so that someone else can come in and do an 'even more magnificent job'?

Time will tell at the end of the season if results justify the Parkes sacking.

Since the 22nd of September, Hughes has had a run of eight consecutive Premiership matches without a win (plus the League Cup defeat against Bournemouth) - following on from the ten competitive matches without a win that he had with Wales.

Sparky's new backroom team certainly need to start doing a "magnificent job" pretty damn soon....

Although relieved to escape with a point, I'm still disgusted with Bothroyd for his stupidity.

In such a vital match, it was imperative for our players to keep their discipline and not do anything stupid to warrant a sending off.

Bothroyd let down his team mates, his manager and the supporters. He could easily have cost us all three points yesterday.

Players have got a nice lifestyle these days... There's no maximum wage. But there is a maximum fine.

So even if they're guilty of gross stupidity on the pitch, it won't make much of a dent in their bulging wallets.

The PFA have set a maximum fine limit of two weeks wages even though an act of ill discipline from a player can potentially cost a club up to £20m if it leads to relegation.

I can only hope that as well as fining him two weeks wages, Mark Hughes will make it clear to Jay that his stupidity can't be repeated.

Arsenal (literally) sent Jay to Coventry after an incident in an Under 19 final when he threw his shirt at the bench after being substituted. It was the final straw for Arsenal, who had questioned his temperament and attitude at the club.

At Highfield Road, playing alongside the disgraced Lee Hughes, Jay was sent off for Coventry against Palace. He received seven other bookings before moving to Italy.

When he joined us from Perugia, Bothroyd said that he wanted to shake off what he called an 'undeserved bad boy' reputation.

At Carrow Road yesterday, in probably the most important English game that Bothroyd's ever played in, he proved that he's still got a lot to learn.

We'll finish top 8!

For a man who likes the Smiths Tony, you're remarkably optimistic and cheerful....

The facts are that last season we lost ten matches at Ewood - the joint worst home record of any side that's managed to avoid relegation since the Premiership began. This season, we've managed just one win in twelve - a narrow victory over Portsmouth, and we're sitting at the bottom of the table with the worst goal difference.

I admire your optimism in adversity, Tony. You didn't have a bad word to say about the team's performances last season, and this year you've carried on in the same cheerful vein.

You'd make a good Rovers spin doctor!

Mark Hughes said after the game, "We're moving in the right direction now."

Well we need to start moving off the bottom of the table sooner rather than later.

(This might be my last post on the M/B for a few weeks as I'll be busy with other work - and it will give you all a welcome break from my long rants.)

This post, I fear, might upset some of the Rooney/Man Utd lovers.

I apologise in advance...

On October 24th at Old Trafford, Rooney deliberately cheated and conned the ref by diving in the box against Arsenal.

Sol Campbell didn't make any contact with his outstretched boot. It was a dive, pure and simple.

A week later, against Portsmouth, there was a wild reaction from Rooney - who was booked for a reckless challenge on Nigel Quashie.

He was charging around the Fratton Park pitch like the proverbial bull in a china shop - unable to get a grip on the game, and resorting to using his abrasive Scouse temper instead.

There was wild hysteria after Rooney's debut for United against Fernebache. Some were suggesting that at 19, he was already the best striker that England had ever produced.

Even though, when you examine his goalscoring record for Everton - 15 Premiership goals in 67 appearances - it compares unfavourably with the scoring record of Jimmy Greaves, for example, or Gary Lineker - who scored 40 times for Everton during one season, 1985-86.

When Mr Rooney has scored as many goals for England as Greaves and Lineker did, then he deserves to be put in the same company as those two.

I accept that Wayne has obviously got a lot of talent. But after the way he handed in a transfer request and demanded a move to Man United, I'm afraid I can't warm to the guy on a personal level.

A good player, but not a good guy IMO.

How could he do it to us?

How could he be that heartless?

It was like a knife through the heart and a shot of poison going through the arm.

Like a shard of glass piercing the skin.

Kissing the Chelsea shirt.... It was devastating to see.

Duff said in an interview after joining Chelsea that when the £17m release clause was met, Blackburn didn't do anything to try to persuade him to stay. Damien said that Rovers and the board were happy to get the money for him.

That might well be true.

It's also surely true though that John Williams and the board didn't literally put a gun to his head and force him to sign for Chelsea. Ultimately, it was his decision and his signature on the Chelsea contract.

Duff later said that signing for Ranieri was "the best decision" he ever made and that he has loved every minute of his time at Stamford Bridge.

No doubt the increase in salary from £40,000 a week to £70,000 a week was a nice sweetener for him.

If Duff is correct when he says that Rovers were happy to get the £17m for him, then this runs contrary to what Souness had previously said.

When asked about speculation that Duff might leave, Souness said:

"It is going to take a £20m-plus offer. If Rio Ferdinand is worth £30m, then it must be the same for Duff."

A link to those comments from Souness are below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ers/2143742.stm

I'm not suggesting that Duff shouldn't celebrate a Chelsea goal, but to actually kiss the shirt...

The club of the Russian gangster, the arrogant Peter Kenyon, the way that the club rips off fans by charging 40 quid a ticket - and £3.50 for a plastic cup of lager that tastes like p1ss....

Kissing the Chelsea shirt was equivalent to breaking bread with the devil.

How could you do it to us Damien?

Norwich is the most easterly city in the British Isles, and Rovers make the long trip east this coming Saturday for what's undoubtedly a vital match at Carrow Road.

The importance of this game cannot be overstated.

Nigel Worthington's side are one of our main rivals in the battle to avoid the drop this season and this is a crucial six-pointer. From my own point of view, I believe the relegation battle will come down to five clubs at the end of the season - West Brom, Norwich, Palace, Southampton and ourselves.

Down on the south coast this Saturday, the Saints host West Brom - and that looks to be another relegation six-pointer.

At least against Liverpool, we saw improved displays from Barry Ferguson, Paul Dickov and the erratic Emerton. Hopefully that improvement will be continued this Saturday.

Ulsterman Nigel Worthington took over at Carrow Road four years ago when the club were languishing in 20th position in the First Division.

In 2002, he came close to achieving promotion, when Norwich lost on penalties to Birmingham in the play-off final watched by a tearful Delia at the Millenium Stadium.

Two years later, Norwich won the Division One Championsip, playing a fluent style of football - and ending their nine year exile from the Premiership.

Worthington had to endure playing for Howard Wilkinson twice in his career, at Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday.

To play under Wilkinson once might be considered unfortunate; to play for him twice is sheer carelessness....

Fortunately for Norwich fans though, Worthington favours playing more of an attractive blend of passing football compared with the horrendous tactics favoured by Sgt Wilko - who lest we forget was the guy mainly responsible for Sunderland finishing up with the worst Premiership record in history - a pathetic total of just 19 points.

Norwich City's former Chairman Robert Chase was despised by the team's supporters for the way he ran the club. The rotund Mr Chase was an arrogant bully who wanted to flog off all of the best playing assets at the club.

Chase told blatant lies to the supporters. He said that Ruel Fox and Chris Sutton weren't for sale, but all the time, he was negotiating for them to be sold.

Sell your best players and you end up relegated. And that's exactly what happened to Norwich in 1995. Just two season after they'd finished 3rd in the Premiership, Norwich were relegated to Division One. The managers office at Carrow Road became a revolving door, with three different bosses in under a year.

John Deehan, Martin O'Neill (who resigned after Mr Chase broke promises) and Gary Megson all occupied the Norwich hotseat in the space of 12 months.

In contrast to 'con man' Chase, most Norwich fans have warmed to the soft motherly charms of Delia Smith.

The Canaries were on the brink of bankruptcy when Delia became a Director in 1996, and the club is now in a vastly better position.

For more than 25 years, delightful Delia has been advising the public on the basics of good wholesome cooking.

Popular with most of the country, Delia still has one or two critics though. She's been referred to (slightly unkindly) as the "Volvo of the kitchen" - safe, dependable and dull; while Egon Ronay described her as the "missionary position" of cooking.

In the football transfer market, Delia has also displayed a safe rather than extravagant pair of hands. The £750,000 capture of Darren Huckerby is her biggest outlay so far. She's resisted the temptation to splash out on expensive ingredients, preferring a more prudent recipe.

This summer Worthington had to make do with cut-price deals for Simon Charlton, Mattias Jonson and Denmark's Thomas Helveg, together with netting young David Bentley on loan from Arsenal - a player that Rovers coach Eddie Niedzwiecki knows well from his time at Highbury.

Mark Bowen, our Assistant manager, was actually in the Norwich defence that lost 7-1 to Rovers in 1992.

Goals from Shearer (twice), Wegerle (twice), Sherwood, Cowans and Ripley made it an emphatic afternoon at Ewood that day. Norwich also lost 5-1 to Spurs that season - and yet still managed to finish one place above us in the table, qualifying for Europe.

It's a funny old game. Norwich were actually eight points clear at the top of the table in December 1992 and if their away form had been just a little bit better, they could actually have won the first ever Premiership.

For nine seasons, Mark Bowen played at Carrow Road, scoring (along with Jeremy Goss) in their 2-1 UEFA Cup win over Bayern Munich, the first time an English team had won a match in the Olympic Stadium. Norwich won the League Cup in 1985, but were prevented from playing in Europe the following season due to the Heysel tragedy.

Norwich have never reached an FA Cup final, but they have come close on two occasions - with Mark Bowen playing in both matches. At Villa Park in 1989, in a semi-final overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster, Norwich lost 1-0 to Everton. Three years later, they lost in the semi-final to Sunderland.

Rovers have only managed one away victory against Norwich in the past 20 years - and that was under Brian Kidd, with Egil Ostenstad scoring twice.

We've played Norwich six times at Carrow Road in the last two decades - with two draws, three defeats and just the one win.

Here are the previous results:

(Division Two)

1985-86 Norwich 3 Blackburn 0.

Premiership:

1992-93 Norwich 0 Blackburn 0.

1993-94 Norwich 2 Blackburn 2

1994-95 Norwich 2 Blackburn 1

Division One:

1999-2000 Norwich 0 Blackburn 2

2000-1 Norwich 1 Blackburn 1

David Bentley, Darren Huckerby and Leon McKenzie provide the pace in the current Norwich side.

I watched highlights of their recent entertaining game with Everton, and it was clear that Norwich can be a dangerous side going forward. Fortunately for us, they are also prone to errors at the back.

Hopefully they'll be generous in defence on Saturday.

Back in the 1950's, the system of national post codes was first introduced in the city of Norwich, before later being adoped by the rest of the country. The main aim of both clubs this Saturday will be to stay on the Premiership map at all costs.

Crystal Palace's improved recent form is a bit of a concern to me. Most pundits felt that Palace were certainties to go down this year, but they could put up a better fight than expected.

The three promoted clubs - Norwich, West Brom and Palace are still the bookies favourites to go down - with Rovers rated currently as the 5th most likely side to be relegated. (Southampton are 2/1, with Rovers at 5/2.)

As most people know - since the Premiership started in 1992, no club that has been bottom of the table at Christmas has survived. It's also true that despite the huge gulf between Division One and the Premiership, on only one occasion since 1992 has the three promoted clubs all gone down the following year.

That was in 1997/98, when Bolton, Palace and Barnsley went straight back down. On every other season since the Premiership started, at least one of the three promoted clubs has survived.

Let there be no doubt that the match with Norwich is a massive game for us.

Norwich folk, with their funny accents, will be hoping for their first home win of the season against us.

The skyline in this attractive city is dominated by it's famous cathedral, as you can SEE HERE.

After the one at Salisbury, the cathedral spire at Norwich is the second tallest in the UK. Our travelling Rovers choir will hopefully be in full voice this Saturday. The two men in the pulpit - Hughes and Worthington, must surely be aware of the game's significance.

Previous sins committed by Rovers players on the pitch can be forgiven, as long as they all do their proper duty this weekend. Three points for Rovers would be like manna from heaven....

Prediction: Norwich 1 Blackburn 2.

(I'm being optimistic for a change - It doesn't come naturally to me!)

He is storming forward like a horny stallion chasing a "my little pony" on heat.

Just seen this - an excellent description and post, Colin.

You've put forward the case for Atko very well.

Decided a while back though to vote for Clayton....

What did you say in your posts earlier on in this thread which you have now completely edited?

Nothing outrageous really.

But I did make some criticisms in previous posts about the changes that the LET made - chopping Simon and introducing Jason.

This wasn't intended to be a personal attack on Jason, but I was concerned at the time about the direction the LET were taking.

Others were critical and had concerns back then as well:

.... getting rid of Rev and replacing him with a hand-picked 'Yes Man'

Not long afterwards though, I came to realise that it wasn't the case at all that Jason is a 'Yes Man'.

I apologised to LD Rover about a year ago via PM, and when I took this thread back to the top of the board yesterday, I felt it was best to edit some of my previous posts.

The earlier posts, as I said, were not intended to be personal attacks on Jason, but others may have interpreted them as being so.

I'm quite pleased that in the 3 years or so that I've been on the the M/B, I've only ever once had a big spat/argument with another member.

I usually try to avoid making any personal attacks or insults on other members, unless strongly provoked.

Excellent piece by Jason in yesterday's LET....

A strong dose of reality - which is needed in these troubled times.

When Revidge (unfairly I thought) got the chop, I was concerned that we might get a PR puppet in place to take over.

Fortunately that hasn't been the case at all.

Jason has proved to be a good writer with strong independent views - certainly not someone to put a glossy sugar-coated spin on a bad defeat.

A link to Jason's article is below:

It's Time To Get Real And Brave The Battle

Arsene Wenger didn't win anything for the first few years at Arsenal.

Good Grief.

Wenger won the Premiership and FA Cup Double in his first full season at Arsenal, FFS.

Link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/special_ev...002/2542591.stm

Julian Alsop needs to be invited up to Ewood Park to shove - not a banana - but a stick of dynamite up the backside of Michael Gray.

Less than a minute after Gudjohnsen put Chelsea in front, Gray scandalously allowed the Icelandic the time and space to score again from almost the exact same spot on the field.

It was disgracefully bad marking. Coming just seconds after Chelsea opened the scoring, you would have thought that lessons would have been learned.

Gray stupidly stuck his hand up in the air like an idiot - instead of doing the job that he's paid to do.

This was one of the worst performances I have seen from us in the top flight.

One of the worst defensive displays I've seen, Simon.

It was atrocious, shameful and embarrasing.

Alan Hansons comments on MOTD just round my day off 

Personally I couldn't disagree with anything that Hansen said about us.

For anyone who didn't see MOTD on Saturday, Hansen said:

"Blackburn were appalling. No fight, no commitment, no quality... no anything. A simple ball over the top from Lampard - and you've got three defenders with their hands up in the air. Appalling defending. Mark Hughes has got a massive job there."

For Chelsea's first goal the lumbering Matteo was at fault, their second goal, as I said, was scandalous defending from Michael Gray, and Lucas Neill was at fault for the final goal.

The following paragraph in today's Sunday Telegraph sums up our current predicament:

Blackburn have conceded 22 goals in their 10 league games this season and unless Hughes can stem the flow quickly, he is facing a long and difficult battle to keep his side from relegation.

These are worrying times...

A little trip down memory lane....

On Wednesday this week, it was actually the 14th anniversary of the infamous 21 man Old Trafford brawl between Arsenal and Man United in 1990.

Mark Hughes, of course, was part of the United side back then.

In contrast to last season's minor bit of handbags involving Van Nistelrooy and Keown - the 1990 brawl was a full blooded affair, with fists and boots flying for a mad few minutes.

Anders Limpar, a rare player of creativity for Arsenal during the early 90's, scored the only goal of the game that day.

The starting point for the brawl was an altercation between Brian McClair and Nigel Winterburn. Every Arsenal and United player on the pitch except David Seaman became involved in the scramble, with Paul Ince shoving Limpar into an advertising hoarding. Some decent punches were landed by both sets of players.

Observers at the time were left wishing that Frank Bruno could have shown similar aggressive fighting qualities in a few of his boxing bouts...

The following season, when the two clubs drew 0-0 at Highbury, Mark Hughes was sent off in another stormy match.

This weekend, while United and Arsenal are facing each other on Sunday - Hughes's mind will no doubt be focused solely on the important game at Stamford Bridge tomorrow. It's been a tough couple of weeks for Hughes - who has seen Wales lose to England and Poland, followed by the 4-0 'Boro mauling last Saturday.

Some Welsh fans have been critical of Mark Hughes for their results over the last year or so. After previously having been in an excellent position at the head of their qualifying group for Euro 2004, in the last 16 months Wales have had a disappointing run of results.

Hughes's last ten results in competitive matches for Wales are as follows:

Euro 2004 qualifiers

Serbia and Montenegro 1 Wales 0

Italy 4 Wales 0

Wales 1 Finland 1

Wales 2 Serbia and Montenegro 3

Euro 2004 Play-Offs

Russia 0 Wales 0

Wales 0 Russia 0

2006 World Cup Qualifying

Azerbaijan 1 Wales 1

Wales 2 Northern Ireland 2

England 2 Wales 0

Wales 2 Poland 3

Ten competitive matches without a win is poor - even allowing for the fact that Wales are obviously a small footballing country.

I'm hopeful that given time, Hughes will prove to be a good appointment for Rovers, but at the moment the jury is out on how he'll fare with us. Some of the mediocre players we've got at Ewood, together with the limited financial resources available in January, makes it a tough job for him.

It's not going to be easy, but let's hope he can succeed...

Tris

Scotty

It's a massive test for Hughes and his coaching staff this season. We've clearly got problems in all areas - defensively, in midfield, and up front.

I suspect Hughes will be looking for some extra firepower in the January window. Last year, Jon Stead's goals kept us up. Can he do the same again this season?

It's vital that we've got someone who can stick the ball regularly into the back of the net.

In this post, I'll be taking a look at the two main coaches that Hughes has brought with him to Ewood.

Our new Assistant Manager Mark Bowen, a Welshman the same age as Sparky, has had experience of being a Number Two with Birmingham, before he fell out with Steve Bruce and was sacked by him.

Originally with Tottenham, Bowen was an attacking left back who joined Norwich from Spurs for £90,000.

Left-back was his main position, but he was a bit of a utility man, able to play in midfield if needed. For nine seasons he was a regular with Norwich, experiencing the highs and lows at Carrow Road.

As well as Steve Bruce, another man unlikely to be on Bowen's Christmas card list is Gary Megson, who had a row with at Norwich over tactics. Megson sold him to West Ham and he later joined the Japanese side Shimizu Pulse.

Bowen returned to England to join Charlton under Alan Curbishley. He converted one of their penalties in the 1998 play-off final against Sunderland, which won them promotion into the Premiership.

Bowen joined Crystal Palace as a coach and followed Steve Bruce to Birmingham as Assistant Manager.

It's unclear exactly why Bowen was sacked at St Andrews.

Some reports said that it was a contractual dispute, others reported that Bruce and Bowen didn't see eye to eye anymore on playing matters.

Bowen's playing record:

Spurs 1981-87 League Appearances 17, Goals 2

(Played under: Keith Burkinshaw, Peter Shreeves and David Pleat.)

Nowich City 1987-96 League Appearances 321, Goals 24.

(Played under: Dave Stringer, Mike Walker, John Deehan, Martin O'Neill and Gary Megson.)

West Ham 1996-97 Appearances 17, Goals 1.

(Played under Harry Redknapp.)

Shimizu S-Pulse

(No appearance data available to me. Played under Ossie Ardiles.)

Charlton Appearances 36, Goals 0.

(Played under Alan Curbishley.)

Wigan Appearances 7, Goals 0

(Played under John Benson.)

Eddie Niedzwiecki teams up with Mark Hughes as first team coach.

He was a fine goalkeeper for Chelsea at his peak, before a knee injury forced his early retirement at the age of 28.

But for the presence of Neville Southall, Eddie would surely have won more than 3 caps for Wales.

He was signed from Wrexham in 1983 for £55,000 by former Chelsea manager John Neal. Eddie was a permanent fixture in the Chelsea side that won the 1983/84 Division Two title, and he became a popular figure at Stamford Bridge, before his unfortunate injury.

In 1985-86, he was in excellent form for Chelsea. It was claimed by some Welsh fans that they had the two best keepers in Britain at the time - Niedzwiecki and Southall.

Eddie first injured his knee in a clash with QPR's Steve Wicks.

Niedzwiecki briefly returned to the side eight months later but his knee collapsed again and he was forced to retire.

Eddie's Playing record:

Chelsea - League Appearances 136, Goals (unsurprisingly) 0.

(Played under John Neal and John Hollins at the Bridge.)

He was briefly Assistant Manager to Ian Porterfield at Reading, followed by a spell as goalkeeping coach of Chelsea. Eddie joined Arsenal in December 2000, taking over the reserve team following the death of George Armstrong.

At Arsenal, he worked with players like Ashley Cole and Jermaine Pennant in the reserve team set up. Niedzwiecki said that he was able to learn a great deal by working closely with Arsene Wenger.

He'll need to draw on all that experience at Ewood.

With our current problems near the foot of the table, it's going to be a huge test for himself, Hughes and Bowen.

Stuart Ripley.

He was a key part of our success in 94/95

A wonderful crosser of the ball at his peak, and an integral part of our Championship winning season - but the following year, in 95-96, he had a poor season.

In the early stages of Roy Hodgson's reign he initially regained form and played well, before later going off the boil again.

For me he wasn't consistent enough during the whole of his Rovers career - and you have to say that his goalscoring record for an attacking player was pitiful for a couple of seasons.

Total appearances made for Rovers (League and Cup games) 228, Goals 16.

Not entirely relevant, as it doesn't relate specifically to Rovers, but Ripley's poor goalscoring record continued after leaving Ewood - 61 appearances for Southampton and just one goal.

My vote's going to Duggy.

Although Bryan was before my time, I'm sure some of our more senior venerable board members will testify as to what a great player he was.

As Bazza said:

I can tell you that Bryan Douglas was equal to Duffer if not better.

A Blackburn lad who remained faithful to the club throughout his career and is still with us now.

He played outside right for Rovers and England, then moved to inside left to fill a vacant position. A totally brilliant player. It was said of him "He could turn on a sixpence".

Keith Gillespie - Blimey!

We've got years of this ridiculous hysteria ahead of us.

I agree Paul.

Rooney is obviously hugely talented, but the hysteria surrounding him has got out of hand recently.

Take a look at his goalscoring record for Everton - 15 Premiership goals in 67 appearances. Last season, between September and December, he had a run of thirteen consecutive matches without a goal.

I discovered in my research on Rooney that he actually had more yellow cards than goals at Goodison Park. He had 20 bookings and a sending off during his time at Everton - a poor disciplinary record for a striker.

He my be a fine player, but he's not a fine human being though, in my view.

I lost respect for him when he decided to have a sordid encounter with a dreadful whore. It was offensive to every decent person in the land for Rooney to behave like that.

I'm referring of course to his decision to join Man United - the morally corrupt merchandising organisation that represent everything that's wrong with our beautiful game.

Rooney's liaisons with prostitutes didn't concern me all that much - apart from thinking that he was naive, especially when signing autographs in the waiting room of a brothel. It was his decision to go to Old Trafford which offended me - the ruthless way he turned his back on Everton to join a club that every decent football fan in the country loathes.

Fans of Wayne Rooney would argue that he was merely being ambitious and that it was natural for him to want to go to Man United. I would argue that Rooney has now twice betrayed the people of Merseyside.

Firstly, his ill advised decision to give a series of exclusive interviews to The Sun caused understandable hurt and anger in Liverpool. Surely every Scouser, whether an Everton fan or a Liverpool one, would know how much the Sun is despised for it's coverage of the Hillsborough tragedy.

The second betrayal of course, for a born and bred Scouser like himself, was to join the one club, Man United, that unites both the blue and red half of Merseyside in their loathing. It was a betrayal of his upbringing, as well as being a kick in the teeth for the city of Liverpool as a whole.

Meanwhile Paul Stretford, Rooney's controversial agent, could now face perjury charges after being caught lying in court at the trial of three men he accused of blackmailing him.

Stretford, pictured below behind Wayne and his girlfriend, made false statements while giving evidence last week.

Stretford was adamant in court that he had not represented Wayne Rooney before December 2002. This turned out to be false. Two documents which were subsequently disclosed show that Stretford poached the striker in September 2002.

Wayne Rooney was viewed as a "cash cow" by Stretford, who poached him, the court heard.

Defence barrister Lord Carlile told the court: "Mr Stretford was desperate to get Wayne Rooney as his client because he knew he could milk the cow. If a solicitor was doing that, he would be struck off without a moment's hesitation."

"There is an issue in this case about Paul Stretford's many interests in Wayne Rooney and the ruthless way in which he approached those interests."

One of the defendants who walked free, said outside court:

"Paul Stretford maintains that he is the ethical football agent. This trial has shown that he is a manipulative and dishonest man who will stop at nothing to enrich himself."

Lee Hughes has still not offered any apology for his dreadful driving offence, according to the family of the victim, Douglas Graham.

56 year old Mr Graham died after Hughes' £100,000 Mercedes ploughed into the Renault car in which he was a passenger.

In addition to Mr Graham's death, another passenger in the Renault spent 3 months in a wheelchair after the crash.

Hughes went on the run from the police to avoid a breath test - after reportedly spending over £80 in the pub on vodkas for himself and friends before driving himself home.

Mr Graham's wife Maureen said: "Nobody can understand the huge amount of grief and stress that has been caused to my family over the last year. The person responsible for this has still not acknowledged or ever offered an apology for what he has done to my family."

Instead, officials at Coventry Crown Court have announced that the Brummie lout is going to appeal against his sentence.

A link to this story is below:

http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100ne...-name_page.html

Meanwhile, as was mentioned briefly on another thread, Southampton winger Fabrice Fernandes has been sentenced to 100 hours community service for dangerous driving.

In a lesser offence to that of Lee Hughes, the 24 year old Frenchman downed five vodka and red bulls at a London nightclub before getting into his £60,000 Porsche.

Fernandes jumped several red lights while police were chasing him through the streets of London. He was found to be twice over the limit. As well as his community service, the Frenchman has been fined £10,000 for the offence.

The judge remarked that the fine was "almost meaningless" because of his £15,000 a week wages.

Good preview Ozzie.

A few grey hairs have recently started to appear on the head of Ryan Giggs - an indication perhaps that the United winger will soon be reaching mature 'veteran' status in the game.

Giggs will be 31 later this year, and the match on Saturday will be the first time he has come up against Gary Neville and David Beckham in a competitive match.

It's 20 years since Wales played England. Mark Hughes has fond memories of the last encounter in 1984.

Sparky scored the only goal of the game on his International debut. To make it even more memorable for him, the match was played in his home town of Wrexham.

The following year Hughes was named PFA Young Player of the Year, and he won an FA Cup winners medal when United beat Everton 1-0, preventing the blue half of Merseyside from doing the treble that year.

Hughes is confident that Giggs will be desperate to do well in Saturday's match at Old Trafford. It's been a big desire of Ryan to play for Wales in the finals of a major tournament - but I suspect he won't achieve his aim before his career ends.

Giggs came close to playing in Euro 2004, losing to Russia in a play-off, but that will probably be the closest that he'll get.

Realistically, he's unlikely to go beyond Euro 2008, and he might in fact decide to hang up his Welsh boots after the current World Cup campaign.

The last time that England hosted Wales was in 1983 at Wembley, with England coming back from behind to win the match 2-1.

Ian Rush gave Wales the lead, but Terry Butcher equalised with a header. Late in the second half, Gordon Cowans was brought down in the Welsh penalty area and Phil Neal sealed victory with a penalty.

It's probably fair to say that our current team now is better than the one that lined up in 1983, especially as our two best players back then - Bryan Robson and Glenn Hoddle - were both missing from the match.

The actual team, which included the much maligned Luther Blisset in attack - the 1980's equivalent of Emile Heskey - lined up as follows:

Peter Shilton

Phil Neal Terry Butcher Alvin Martin Derek Statham

Alan Devonshire Sammy Lee Gary Mabbut Gordon Cowans

Luther Blisset Paul Mariner

It will be interesting to see Sparky's tactics for the match.

Will he get men behind the ball, closing down space and playing on the counter-attack, or will he urge his flair players like Bellamy and Giggs to go forward and attack from the start?

For England, Rooney will probably start the match alongside Jermain Defoe - if Michael Owen is indeed unfit to play.

I don't think it will be a thrashing for England, but hopefully we should be able to win the game without too much difficulty.

My prediction: England 2 Wales 0

the last thing you should be doing is making out you are hard done by - because you really really arent.

Sorry T4E, but I'm going to have a bit of a moan here...

In the summer of 2000, Winston Bogarde was signed for Chelsea on a wage of £40,000 a week. I've just checked his playing statistics, and he has started just 2 Premiership matches in his four seasons at the club.

(He did also start in one League cup match.)

For four seasons, this greedy Dutchman refused to move away from Stamford Bridge, because he didn't want to take a pay cut. He was perfectly happy to sit in the reserves, train with the youth team and pick up a monthly pay packet of £160,000.

In just over two years at Chelsea, Mark Bosnich played in five Premiership matches. He was on a weekly wage of £42,000 - and by his own admission was blowing £3,000 per week on cocaine.

In my trips to the Bridge to see Rovers play in recent seasons, I've had to fork out a fair bit of money in tickets - which has gone into the Chelsea coffers to help pay the wages of those two parasites I've mentioned.

With the news that Chelsea are now raising the price of tickets to £40, I've just about had enough. I'm seriously considering boycotting this game on principle.

I don't see why I should have to fork out such an exorbitant sum - which will help pay for Peter Kenyon's £3m a year wages and for Jose Mourinho's £4m a year contract.

The cocky arrogant Mourinho asserts that English fans "no nothing" about football and he's transformed Chelsea into another version of George Graham's "One Nil to the Arsenal".

So far, Chelsea have won four of their Premiership matches 1-0 - against Man United, Birmingham, Middlesbrough and Liverpool. In two of their other matches they have drawn 0-0, with Aston Villa and Spurs.

Boring Boring Chelsea.

Serious questions still have to be raised about Abramovich's background. The billionaire with the stubble on his chin fled Russia just as some of his friends and business colleagues were facing arrest.

His close friend and associate Boris Berezovsky has now been charged with fraud and corruption and it's alleged that Abramovich failed to pay £300 million in tax.

As Philipl says, even though Roman has spent £200m on players, his assets at Stamford Bridge are likely to increase by about £250m.

Football has changed beyond all recognition over the last 20 years - not for the better IMO.

In the old days, English football was to an extent safeguarded from being abused by those looking to make vast profits and to asset strip clubs. Rule 34 limited a director's income and preserved clubs as sporting institutions.

That all changed when Spurs' chairman Irving Scholar created a PLC holding company in the 1980s, which could be floated on the stock exchange. Rule 34 was scrapped and since then football has become big business, with some shady characters involved.

After Spurs, Man United shortly followed suit by floating on the stock exchange and the game was changed into a billion pound leisure industry for the prawn sandwich brigade.

When Tottenham became a PLC, Keith Burkinshaw, the former Spurs manager, looked across one of the stands at White Hart Lane and made his now famous observation, "There used to be a football club over there."

Sadly, that situation has been repeated in West London at the Bridge. Can you honestly say that Chelsea are a proper traditional football club now? They've become a plaything for an unshaven Russian gangster.

One of his giant oil firms has allegedly been involved in money laundering, bribery, corruption and fraud.

Abramovich's current sidekick at the Bridge, Peter Kenyon, who once described himself as a "lifelong Red" - is on record as saying he would like there to be only 40 English professional clubs in the country. He'd be happy to see the other smaller clubs go to the wall. He doesn't care one jot.

Bates meanwhile bought Chelsea for £1 and has made £18 million selling his shares to the Russian. A nice tidy profit for Captain Birds Eye.

Abramovich partly made his money from asset stripping publicly owned firms in the ex-Soviet Union, and he left thousands of people unemployed and in dire poverty.

So I think Rovers fans can be forgiven for not wanting to plough in an extra 40 quid to assist the repulsive Russian regime at the Bridge...

Alan Curbishley, and his brother - who works in the music industry - are both big fans of classic rock groups like the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who and Genesis.

One particular Rolling Stones track sprang to mind while I was watching this 90 minutes of tripe at the Valley - 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'.

I'm afraid I found it difficult to derive any satisfaction from watching the kind of wayward passing and chronic lack of invention I felt Rovers were guilty of last night.

Sorry to be negative, but the match, in my view, was a very poor spectacle. It was hardly a great advertisement for football, was it?

Many years ago, The Valley was built on a large Charlton sand pit. It looked as if some of our players had their feet well and truly stuck in a sand pit last night, given the poor quality of their passing.

The following paragraph in today's Daily Telegraph sums up the 'entertainment' on offer.

Both teams were struggling to find any pattern, with possession surrendered too often while the passing was frustratingly wayward. There was too much muddled midfield play with no positive end product and when an attack did start, there was a sense of inevitability about the outcome.

I agree with that assessment, and also with the following comments below that were made on this thread:

We play far too many long balls which just result in more pressure on the defence.

Stead worked hard but we're toothless in attack.

total lack of a quality ball in to the front two

In the last 3rd of the pitch there was nobody to link with the front 2.

Much work needs to be done on the training ground to address our weaknesses.

It was frustrating to see possession given away so cheaply, with too many long balls played by our defenders. In contrast, Flitcroft played too many back passes and looked slow and off the pace.

We need one of our central midfielders to be making better runs forward into the box. Flitty did manage to do this in the 7th minute, but frustratingly he hit the woodwork, when he should have scored.

We looked uncertain in defence. Kevin Lisbie was given too much space by our defenders, and we have to stop conceding such soft goals from set pieces.

Lucas Neill had a poor game, and Michael Gray's lack of height at the back means that he sometimes gets caught out at set pieces.

In an ideal world, Gray would be a couple of inches bigger. I don't know if his girlfriend would agree or not....

I thought Emerton was his usual frustrating self at times last night - guilty of weak shots, giving possession away too cheaply, and poor quality crossing.

Stead looks as if he's lacking in confidence. I couldn't fault him for effort and to be fair to him, the quality of service wasn't great, but it's just not happening for young Jon at the moment, and it might be time soon to give the him a rest on the bench.

I don't have happy memories of this ground.

In 1999 at the Valley, in a vital relegation battle near the end of that season, Ashley Ward was denied a blatant penalty after being upended by the Charlton goalkeeper.

We drew that match 0-0, when we desperately needed the 3 points, and it was at that particular point when it became clear to me that we were heading down into the 1st Division.

Last season even a Brad Friedel equaliser in injury time couldn't prevent our inept defence from conceding a 3rd Charlton goal before the final whistle.

I've got a lot of respect for Alan Curbishley's management skills, but I felt his team were just as poor as us tonight. It was a game that Rovers should have picked up at least a point from.

Sorry to 'Paint It Black' on this post, but the players need to improve for the rest of the season or else like the Rolling Stones, I'll be heading for my Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown....

Because our team had no idea what was going on in that last bit    Oh come on, it's really not that bad.

I don't like losing any game and I'm angry and embarrassed by tonight's result.

I think Hughes has made his first significant error.

Have to agree with that Tris.

When I saw the team sheet tonight, my immediate thought was that Sparky had made too many changes and that we weren't treating this game with enough seriousness or respect.

A couple of changes to the team would have been fair enough, no problem.

But to change nine players from Saturday was simply too much of a gamble.

Teams in Division Two (I refuse to refer to that League by it's ridiculous new name) - are more than capable of knocking Rovers out of cup tournaments if we treat such games lightly.

You're right Tris. Like yourself I had no complaints with Sparky being appointed, but I'm afraid he got it wrong tonight.

Oh, thank you Mum.

You've made me blush.

a hot milky drink and a (motherly) hug

Sounds like the perfect combination to me....