maybe a bit of a knee jerk reaction now.. but i never ever wanna see that donkey of a player matteo in a rovers shirt ever again. for someone's who's supposed to be a brute of a defender, he can't head, he can't control the ball, he can't even clear the ball upfield properly. urgh. come'on rovers!!! an equaliser is still possible!

rejected all kinds of media access to today's results till half an hour after the match ended, so that i could watch the delayed telecast ala 'live' telecast, and boy am i so so glad that i did this! thought we started really well, but seemed to lose our way towards the end of the first half. in all honesty, portsmouth should have scored, but we got our slice of luck today. in the second, we almost camped in their half. again, they missed a glit-edged chance, so good luck for us again. matty's strike was superb - receiving the ball with his back to goal, the close control, then digging the ball out from under his foot to make the angle for the shot, and then finally drilling it into the corner was all too much for me. let out a huge scream and had tears in my eyes! that was like the matty of old. but yes, gotta come back to reality, as matty did well but also made his fair share of 'mistakes'. ie: just after coming on, i thought he was trying to do too much by himself, holding onto the ball for too long, as well as trying to pass his way out in our box when a hoof upfield would suffice. but he did improve, and after the goal, looked totally comfortable. hope he builds on this and improves. then again, i thought the same after his wonder goal against liverpool last year... so come'on matty, don't let it happen again. bothroyd: big, strong, and actually skillful and pacy too! looked good, asserted himself, and looks very confident. good home debut. hope for more from him. emerton: had a good game. actually took people on and got past them. passing was okie, and made himself available for the ball well. chased and harried well too, but crossing still needs working. our defence: is it me or did it really look more 'solid' than usual? short clearly had trouble dealing with yakubu's pace but used his positional sense and strength well. matteo still looks suspect, but was fairly solid today, certainly much better than his performances all season. according to the commentator, today's clean sheet was also his first of 2004, including his leeds days. amoruso, today he was supreme. thought he won everything expected of him, and he looks like our only defender capable of picking someone out with a long ball. also our best outlet of hoofing the ball 60 yards upfield when required. freekick was good too. agree with the earlier comment that despite all his defensive frailities, he does add something different to the team. the referee: he looked a decent bloke to me. called everything pretty much correctly, although brad's barge on fuller looked like a penalty to me. am i the only one thinking that if it was souness' team, that would have been a dead-cert pen? hughes: although he started last week's team, they looked more assured than last week at st james. inspired substitution of matty - don't think its due to injury, as commentator had already mentioned matty being warmed up prior to the horror tackle on pedersen. pedersen: abysmal. he looked really really lost... i'm not writing him off as yet, hope he comes good, but he really needs to knuckle down. hope this is just due to him settling in, but he gave away almost everything he could today. mishit crosses, mishit passes. but his long throws look a useful weapon. all in all, very very satisfied, and a smile still on my face. i was totally convinced we'd be murdered tioday if souness was still in charge. but its turned out to be a wonderful start for a new era, so come'on hughes' blue and white army! up the table we go!

reports that hughes' contract is for 2 years and 12 months rolling thereafter. what does this mean? he does 2 years and if the board decide he's doing fine, he gets another 12 months and the cycle repeats itself? personally, i thought that 2 years is a tad short. would have preferred him to be on 3 years plus an option of a year's extension...

definitely my first choice! lets roll pompey over on sat!

Extract from The Sun - Shepherd, pictured below with Souness, said: “It was Graeme’s obvious determination to get the job right from the first minute that convinced us he was what we were looking for — a winner. hmm... did he actually apply for the newcastle job? was glad he's gone... now i'm feeling betrayed...

he wants reinforcements? how about matteo? come on graeme. you wanted him. be a 'proper' man and take him with you.

its early in the week, and a win is imperative. however, having watched both rovers and pompey's matches this weekend, i am not optimistic. any 2 of amo, short, matteo and nils vs any 2 of yakubu, fuller and lua lua. no contest in terms of pace. here's hoping that my pessimism is untold. 1-3 pompey. rovers please prove me wrong!

not for the faint hearted. http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/sport/tm_obj...-name_page.html

finally seen some 'highlights' of the game. made for sad watching really. with regards to matteo - we buy relegated stuff, we get relegated. am i alone in thinking that he should be on the bench at best?? i'd really rather have nils in there instead of him. remember matt elliot of leicester (o'neill period)? he wasnt skilful either, was ugly too and supposedly a hard hard man. see the parallels with matteo? the difference - elliot actually did his job of being the defensive brute and rallying his troops. matteo does neither.

hi there... appreciate your good intentions. but if there is one occasion that your source is wrong, please god, let it be this time. i'll be gutted too if its true. dowie is up and coming, has shown lots of promise. but definitely not what we need now...

we won't need dragging if its reid. we'd be down quite easily.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=309596&cc=4716 interesting article regarding sam allardyce, who i belief has earned the respect of many. however, are we big enough to make him 'great'? there's even a mention of uncle jack in the article... i personally wouldnt mind if we got him even with his bolton ties...

i'm a ferguson fan but if souness comes waving the woodgate cash (8-10m) at us for him, i'd take it. whoever the new man is must fancy bringing in some of his own players, and of course, if he fancies fergie as his main man, perhaps we'll hang on to him. if he doesnt, such a sale would allow him the chance to bring in some new blood. that said, i have a sneaky feeling that some money will mysteriously appear anyway for the new man to spend in january here... hope i'm right!

lechuck, superb.

now that he has taken saunders, boersma and co (his usual lackeys) with him, all that's left is for him to let us have bellamy on the cheap! come'on graeme, go kick him! my original choice was mark hughes... but after 6 hours or so of thought, i suppose i wouldnt mind houllier or venables... but please, no hoddle.

in a morbid kind of way, i'm glad that he's gone. and he's resigned, so that means we do not have to pay him off. however, i'm also stunned. he never came across as such a character. resigning because of his family or his health etc, i can take. but not resigning to go to another premier league club. here's hoping he destroys them... and this continues newcastle's plundering of our ranks through the years...

come'on back Mark Hughes!

kamy, coming from you, (with your uncannily accurate transfer news i might add) my heart skipped a beat when i read it! sigh. if only this one's true... if anything, the smiling sod's departure will mean matty has one less competitor for a shot in the first team. maybe souness' decision was in part due to matty's insistence on staying and rejecting the move to spain?

brilliant idea! though i haven't even been near ewood... hope i manage to catch a glimpse of the banner on television if it does happen! and maybe... just maybe, some ref will give us a pen...

out of 10, i'd give morten a decent 6.5. yes, he wasnt into the game that much, but the step up from norwegian league football to the EPL is a huge one. also, he didnt disgrace himself with his performance. most importantly, he provided much needed balance to the side. thought we certainly looked much more balanced today. so, given time, i think he will come good. negatives - in the first half, there was once manure had a freekick on the left wing. think it was neville or ronaldo who jogged past pedersen (in his full view) but he did nothing to track him or even show that he noticed. another point was in the first half as well when he was chasing ronaldo as manure was on the counterattack. i thought he looked more like he was jogging along than fully sprinting after the cheating portugese greaseball. finally, the freekick in the 85th min or so on the right wing was just shocking. the one where he tried to cross but blasted way over. but all in all, encouraging performance. surely he will improve.

cheating saha. conned again. but magnificent performance. can't fault the team. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

dickov!!! great turn and volley!

match just started. but some WONDERFUL SINGING. REALLY REALLY LOUD even on the television! good job guys! now for rovers to do their part...

looks like a good team. only thing i don't understand is why gray has been dropped. would rather see gray there instead of gresko. ronaldo vs matteo... hmmmm

seriously though, i'm wondering if we will even take the lead in any game this season... for the game itself, hope to see pedersen on the left if he's eligible. and no matter what, please souey, no matteo in midfield!!!!!!! and let's see if gally makes the squad... if it were up to me, it'd be friedal neill amo(if fit) nissa gray thompson fergie tugay pedersen de pedro yorke but think i'd have a better chance of striking lottery than seeing the above line up tomorrow...