Big Brad Neill Todd Ooijer Taylor Gally Emerton Tugay Bentley Benni Jeffers

the best we would have gotten out of that game was 0-0; we simply never ever looked like scoring. watching that game, cant help but wish that we had brought sutton back. he did everything that nonda should have done. as a result, he simply murdered us. as for the penalty, what have the officials got against ooijer?! that must be the 3rd he's given away now. harsh, very harsh, but it was given by the linesman and not the ref. but like what the commentators said, if he had given that, surely he had to give petrov's as well. bah, we're used to it by now. are you guys even surprised? and i dont understand what that was about putting henchoz on for neill? january can't come soon enough. its obvious we are lacking in quality at the moment. please rectify this before its too late. dont let the basel result confuse you, we never deserved to win by 3-0. today we were showed up again, and i fear what rampaging manure will do to us next week if he play like that again.

dont see how we'll get anything out of this game after a very tough game on thursday night. without savage in the centre and emo at right back, we might not even have the legs. surely tugay can't keep playing twice a week? i'm hoping for a draw, but i reckon we'll lose this. villa 2 (petrov, sutton) rovers 0

Looks like its moko playing against villa, man u and possibly spurs now...

agree with frosty there; ooijer does seem to have (finally) settled in. in fact, i thought he's been improving with every passing game. if only we had nelsen fit...

1-1 draw methinks, and a goal for jeffers to start him on a run.

i could rant all night about the performance, but lets just extract the positives: 4 in 7 now for bentley; mccarthy certainly is class; jeffers looks very good actually - a goal will really set him off i feel, and hopefully he'll get it against basel; neill was determination personified and ran his heart out. but 3 losses in a row now, and we've got a tricky tie against basel coming up in which we must get a result, because our next three league games are all tough ones. january - come'on board, its bleeding obvious that we need a new left back and midfielder. its ridiculous how little money sparky has had to spend; surely its time to give him something to work with?

pray tell, why do we never ever put a man on the far post when defending corners? i'm not saying that it would definitely have stopped today's goal, BUT, its just perplexing that we should leave one post unmarked. surely we can afford to put someone there??

If you can't beat the structure, make the best out of it; i'm gonna buy us a win with 20 bucks - 10 on west ham to win, 10 on a draw. Since fate hates me, surely the only other possible outcome will occur!

we really are a bunch of losers, arent we? p/s: glad i'm not the only one to do that! most recently i did it against liverpool (ten bucks on a pool win and bellamy to score first); it worked cos we got a draw.

surprised dunny hasnt been mentioned yet. we might not have gotten many penalties but apart from old trafford, i dont remember dunny missing many... our next pen has to go to benni/roberts if they want it... if not let mgp blast the roof of the net off.

You just know what's gonna happen... West Ham 2 (tevez, tevez) Rovers 0

1. If the game against West Ham was a five a side, how would your team line up? Best side for me: Big Brad, Ooijer, Tugay, Savage, Benni To bruise: Big Brad, Todd, Neill, Mokoena, Nonda 2. Who have been your best and worst players so far? Best: Emerton has been absolutely astounding this season; we've been badgering him for the last 2-3 seasons but he's been faultless thus far this term. Bentley too is really coming on leaps and bounds, and benni has settled in well. Even savage deserves a mention; he's beginning to look like the player we spent 3m on. Worst: Gamst (as he likes to be known) has not been up to his usual standards, but i must add that he does offer protection to the left back. Ooijer had a rough start as you would know, but seems to be settling down now. Moko's never been one of the better players technically. This may be controversial, but in my opinion, neill, who is error-prone and suspect positioning, would be one of the worst in the team now. 3. From a less than spectacular start, you seem right back on course (Sunday's madness aside)! What has sparked the transformation? It was a case of us finding our feet i guess, and the salzburg game set us off on a nice run. The loss of nelsen was crucial for me, as he's quite clearly our best defender since hendry and getting to terms with such a loss understandly took a while. the loss of tugay for the opening 3 matches probably played a part as well; despite his age, he still the one who makes us tick. we could also do with reidy back. 4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Mark Hughes? Strengths: Astute, composed, articulate, doesnt crave media attention but will get his point across when needed, protects the club and players, and most importantly, doesnt take and talk nonsense (like a certain manager of a club near you) Weaknesses: He's a manc and will probably walk there the moment ferguson steps down. 5. Which combo forms your best striking duo? Mccarthy and Bellamy (if only) Seriously, we havent had a serious look at all pairings so we can't really give a definitive answer. But its surely Mccarthy and one other. Jeffers has looked promising, Roberts creates havoc when he comes on, and Nonda's been steady if not prolific. Question for you Upton: What's your prediction for sunday's score? And do you think tevez and/or mascherano will score on sunday? (i think tevez is a nailed on to score personally, and i'm sure i'm not the only one on this board who thinks so [just being a pessimistic rover]). Cheers.

ball might just be the one we turn too seeing that we made an attempt to bring him in during the last window.

27 shots with 11 on target - no goals + 2 penalties missed the only player we have who would have thrashed the penalty was pedersen, and he wasnt on the pitch. i'm disappointed by the result, more so because we should at the very least have had a draw, but today was clearly a day where we were quite truely jinxed. its just one of those strange comedy of coincidences which will not happen again this season. what i'm worried about however, is that we play chelsea next, and it would always be tough to get a win against that lot. and after that we play westham at upton park, where we never ever win. by this time next week, we could have lost 3 in a row, and that's what i'm worried about.

0-0

well, if lucas really were to go to barca, then fair play to him. but seriously, do you guys really think that he would get into barca's team? if he can't be rated ahead of finnan at liverpool... what more zambrotta?! in any case, i guess my point would be, barca would be an obvious upgrade from us. however, if lucas moves to them or liverpool, who can also be considered bigger than us, then he is going to be giving up a regular place for a spot on the bench at best.

Fabio Capello, after his failed madrid homecoming, might be a decent shout as well. His reputation itself will make him an attractive proposition to the glazers should he be available. That said, did RFW say he was looking to stay on for a couple more seasons yet?

liverfools 2 (bellamy, gerrard) rovers 0 just too bad that gerrard's suspended for the croatia game and will thus be well rested against us. and as we all know, bellamy is definitely gonna score; stick some money on him scoring to mitigate the pain we'll feel from inevitably getting screwed by the match officials again.

Rovers 3 (nonda, benny x2) Wigan 0

very positive night. watching on tv, it seemed that the crowd was really decent, or at least on par to what we get for some league games. nonda was good, though he faded away somewhat in the 2nd half. yet, he still got the assist to bentley's goal, winning a ball that would usually have been cleared. mccarthy looked quality; though he missed a few easy chances, his goal was good and he showed some very good ball control/touches. but special mention must be made for our right-sided combination of bentley and emerton. emerton is looking like a world class right back at the moment, and bentley, if he can maintain this form, might soon play himself into an england call up. at the risk of sounding over enthusiastic, some of his crosses this season reminds me of the master's (beckham) himself, swerving and dipping at pace. however, he doesnt do it enough yet, but i'm sure he'll continue to improve. and hell, he can even dribble abit and beat his man, something becks never does. finally, naming ooijer MOM was a very very good strategic move i thought, as it will surely boost his confidence. worryingly, some defensive errors still occured, but there are many many positives to take from last night's performance. and i feel we havent even hit top gear yet. i would venture to say that we acheived last night's result playing at about 80% capacity, as we didnt seem to need more than that, which is good news.

rovers 2 (nonda, mccarthy) salzburg 0

they got him on a bosman free if i'm not wrong

boro 1 rovers 1 (mccarthy)

dailly and davies