Rovers 1 (Gamst) Fulham 0

Home: i'm torn between 1 and 3 actually. 3 looks kinda minimalist/modern, while 1 recreates to some extent the kit we had in one of our most successful periods. i think i'll go for 3 though, but it was close. Away: 1 again looks very decent. If it was to be polled against any other option but 3, i'd definitely have gone for it. But, given the eternity we've waited for red/black halves, surely surely its got to be 3? 1 could be a third kit, but i hope we keep the red/black halves for good.

what about the dive under the challenge of sol campbell at OT in the game that ended arsenal's record breaking unbeaten run?

i thought he had a decent game, but not outstanding. certainly chelsea could have had 3 men sent off. i counted 3 clear elbows from their players on man u players' heads; geremi on giggs (i think), carvalho on rooney, and of course drogba on vidic. the first two might be debatable, but how drogba did not walk i will never know.

youngest scorer - milner

your the champ stuwilky! how long did that take you? was it off your head or did you refer to the team charts?

hernan hereidarsson (sp?), david dunn, francesc fabregas

do you mean for good or this season?

rovers 1 (gally) spurs 1

straight swop for finnan and they can have him in my opinion. but if he were really that hapless, perhaps benitez might throw in warnock as well?

Oops. Cultural insensitivities i guess... although Singapore's a commonwealth nation too, we don't actually 'celebrate' remembrance day here so i havent actually heard about it... till now. Thanks for the link too, cn174.

1.) sorry for being ignorant, but i was wondering who the minute's silence was for? couldnt find information about this elsewhere so i thought i'd ask you. 2.) noticed that about bentley too; i thought he's been a bit too selfish this last two games. 3.) I actually thought riley had a pretty good game, or at least better than i expected. all 4 of our yellow cards were deserved, and tugay should have got one for kicking ronaldo as well. riley also let benni off when it looked like benni was going to talk himself into a red card, and riley let the wall off for a second encroachment.

personally, i'm not convinced by Peter. His temperament seems suspect, and he does not really impose himself on the game anyway. the only bright spark is that he does seem more willing to take his man on than MGP but that's about it. for the spurs game, i think he'll start, but i'd rather see bentley shifted to the left and gally given a start on the right.

personally, i thought nonda was very good in the first half, but faded in the second. I attribute it to him not being fully fit yet, but the way he held the line was very very good. There some balls which were simply long punts up front without any obvious target, and he managed to kill most of them dead and make something out of it. Give him some time, i tthink he'll come good.

midfield is our biggest problem at the moment. Mokoena simply isnt good enough to cover for the losses of both reid and savage. Next week its Spurs. I dont have good vibes about that game either. Looks like we're in for a long hard month until we get savage back to full fitness. I don't think that we'll get relegated, but i think that if we dont address this midfield problem as soon as january arrives, we'll be in trouble.

Is anybody else watching this game on TV with alan parry and brian marwood as commentators? Its been an absolute lovefest with man u for marwood. Everything they do is great, wonderful and superb. How can anyone, on watching the replay of emo's challenge on saha, which was shoulder-to-shoulder and completely fair, say that he was 'denying saha a goalscoring opportunity'??!?!

Oh thanks herbergeehh, I should clarify my position. What i meant was seeing as Gomaa is 31 going on 32, 1.5m is too much as we have already splashed out 2m or so on Ooijer, who's in the same age band as he is. That would total near 4m spent this season on two relatively 'aged' defenders, and Gomaa by all reckoning, isn't coming in as a first choice. Of course, if we were spending 1.5-2m on a 31 year old nesta, that would be a bargain! lol. So yeapz, that's what i meant by 'too much'.

definite penalty to man u then.

i don't for one minute actually think that this will happen, but stranger things have happened and who am i to know? i'd be all for him joining, but i mean, seriously?! i suppose he could live in manchester, and there's the mark hughes connection. But if somehow, we really do pull it off (and i don't think we wouldl; expect an official denial anytime soon!) then it would be an immense signing for the club.

My local paper says we have put in a bid of 1.5m pounds for gomaa. That is WAY too much in my opinion.

Anyone shares the same worry as me? If we do get both egyptians, that means we'll have them two, benni, mokoena and nonda missing when african nations cup comes around. Is that not a little risky?

But gomaa dude is a centre back, not a right/left back. I don't know, but i suppose if we do ship todd out, then gomaa would be a sensible choice to come in as cover. I do like the way he looks though. Fierce and uncompromising. Certainly would fit in with our bully boy tag.

Thank you pleasure. To be honest, i didnt know 'scum' would give people so much grief. I do apologise if it seriously put some off. Cheers. P/S: For the purposes of the prediction league, Rovers 0 - Evil Empire 3

These are dark days; all is not well at Planet Ewood; the Dark Mark looms over the ground. Facing the onset of winter, the Jedis have lost their last three domestic battles. Events have conspired against them, injuries robbing them of their bravest warriors, officials screwing them over and over again. The next battle lies around the corner, a fight against mighty opponents. We begin this preview then, with a look back in history. In the year 1992P.L, a galaxy named the English Premier League was formed. Since then, it has been plagued by a state of Galactic civil war. Twenty factions compete at any one time, but only four have ruled at one point or another. The most dominant is the Red Scum, led by the Sith Lord Darth Ferguson, who triumphed in 8 out of the 14 wars. The French Daisies come a distant second with 3 wins, and a Blue Mafia financed by dirty money and led by a classless, perpetual liar, has emerged to dominate the last two years. In popular opinion, the weakest faction is the fourth, the Blue and Whites. Depicted as a ragbag of thugs and renegades by the Galaxy’s supposedly-free-press, the truth is that there is a never ending campaign of propaganda against this faction. In Galaxy-wide discourse, it is almost as if this faction had never triumphed; any trace of its brief one year rule seems to have been erased from the memory of all but a few. For them, the line in the history books noting the success of this faction stands out like a pimple on an otherwise flawless face; an eyesore that must be eradicated. The problem is structural, the forces combine to exert power over this faction. Disliked by the press, disliked by officials, it seems an uphill battle to even just survive. The recent emergence of the Blue Mafia has meant that the evil Scum empire has been in decline since 2003P.L. However, the Red Scum has shown signs of revival in 2006-07P.L. Most recently, a 4 goal win over a bunch of rogues including a French mercenary and spitting diver, as well as a 3 goal success over a faction of pretenders to the Blue Mafia is evidence that the revival is well underway. The Scum current sit pretty at the top of the table. This evil faction returns to Ewood Park on 11 Nov to face the Blue and White Jedis. In the last battle of Ewood nine months ago, a young English Padawan had answered the call to arms. A day before that epic battle of 1 Feb 2006P.L, Padawan Bentley saw the Light, left the Frenchies and joined the Jedi order for good. In a team missing the influential Bellamy Skywalker, he delivered three bloody blows to the evil empire, sending them back to Scum Trafford with their horned heads hanging. Clearly, The Force was strong with this lad. Since that epic battle, the Order has seen many changes. The popular Finnish renegade Kuqi left the camp, as did the little Scot, Dickov. The most crucial and unplanned loss however, was Skywalker. Having seemingly settled well into The Way of the Jedi, he had risen quickly to become the most important Jedi of them all. Yet, when overtures were made him by a Spanish faction from the Dark Side, one who had never gained power in the P.L era, Bellamy Skywalker was swayed, and walked. When he walked out of the Blue and White Order barely 12 months after joining it, the faction’s small band of loyal followers could not accept it. “Why?” they cried, “You were the Chosen One!” In response, the Grandmaster Sparky recruited five new fighters: two Africans, one Dutch and one Grenadian. The further addition of Jeffers the Faded Daisy baffled many, but since following the Way, he has shown signs of rediscovering the Force within himself. The faction have had a mixed set of results in 2006-07P.L. A rough start saw them lose several battles, before going 8 unbeaten. This was followed by 3 domestic defeats, heavily influenced by unjust officiating, begging the question, who actually enforces the rules of engagement? No one, or is it just one set of rules for the Jedis, and another for everybody else? In any case, this poor run of results heralds the visit of the Scum. The Kiwi Knight, de-facto leader of the faction, and the Irish engine-man Reid have both been injured and not featured. In the leadership position, a Dark-side wannabe has been installed. His head swayed, his intentions appear to be all too obvious. Yet, as long as he remains part of the Order, Grandmaster Sparky does his utmost to bring him back on to the side of the Light. The Kiwi’s position on the battlefield has been taken by the Dutchman, who is beginning to settle in after initially looking worse than the pet Italian Stallion of disgraced former master, Graeme Sour. The Viking Singer, ever popular last term, has come in for criticism for not pulling his weight in recent battles, while the shaggy hound Savage picked up a recent injury and will not feature. On the bright side, the aged but evergreen Turk Tugda can still be counted on to weave the magic, and Superman Brad is still super. The African Warriors have settled in well, Benni in particular landing seven knockout punches already, potentially propelling him into the rank of Jedi Knight. The brightest sparks however, have been the re-emergence of R2D2 Emerton. Version1 in 2003P.L was well received, Version2 came in for some flack a year later, and everyone wanted to send Version3 to the scrap-yard last year. This new version4, deployed at right back with a new operating system, has been a massive upgrade over all previous versions. The other revelation has been young Padawan Bentley: Under the tutelage of the Jedi Council led by Grandmaster Sparky, and Jedi Masters Bowen and Niedzwicki, the young one has come on in leaps and bounds. Against this backdrop, the Jedis, depleted as they are, must go to battle. The meek surrender at Villa Park must be forgotten, and never repeated. Recent history is on the side of the underdogs, yet the Scum are in rampaging form. With a decreasing number of supporters and revenue, it is possible that one day, this small, unpopular faction may be indeed be banished; but they say fortune favours the brave, and this is not the day. This day, WE FIGHT.