no way would we have been in norwich or palace's current position mate. we'd have been well on our way to breaking sunderland's awful record low points total, and already been relegated by now.

i'm surprised i havent seen anyone bash the referee yet... seriously. yes, we weren't the best going forward, and in any case, arsenal probably did deserve to go through, but i thought the referee was incredibly abysmal. terrible, to say the least. he was determined to hand the game to arsenal, and for every yellow card that we received, i can name an arsenal player who committed the same offence. plus, if neill had taken a leave out of pires' book and went down holding his crotch, he might have been off. instead, he chose to stand up like a real man, totally unlike the arsenal players. vieira for instance, we all know how strong he is, yet he fell over every single time someone challenged him. gutted by the scoreline, but the final 2 goals only came about cos we threw almost everyone forward, and they were 2 great finishes. as for todd, no way was that intentional. both of them were not even looking at each other when the collision occured, and they literally just ran into each other. if anything, today again showed that if we're to make the step up, at least two steps must be taken. first, we need a new strike pairing; dickov is simply not good enough. second, thommo should just be left on the bench or stuck in the reserves till he regains his form. he's clearly out of sorts, and in all reality deserved a sending off of his own.

extracted from a match report on sun Boss Souey was hit by a string of injuries and he said: “We were asking boys to do a man’s job out there. We’re very disappointed, things went against us.” now now, where have we heard that before? sorry, i couldnt resist it.

not sure if its entirely relevant to this thread, but it seems the closest thread to what i'm going to post. in any case, am currently watching a programme discussing this week's football issues on espn. its affiliated to sky and so we've got martin tyler on it from the london studios, with gavin peacock over here in the singapore studio. the hosts were discussing this issue of holding the semis at cardiff, and how it would inconvenience primarily the scum supporters and newcastle fans (well what did i expect, blackburn doesnt deserve a mention). but then, martin tyler came on and sort of stuck up for you guys who are making the trip. emphasised that we (blackburn fans) are in fact the worst hit, with the early kickoff time and the fact that you guys have to get up before dawn to make the trip, or fork out considerable cash for a hotel overnight. he then bashed the fa a little, saying how its all about revenue nowadays. anyway, that segment ended with him saying that we should all expect the stadium to not be full for our semi.

on the topic of kevin davies, that same season we apparently had an australian defender, douglas ithier, on trial. hodgson wanted him but as he only has 3 caps (i think), he was rejected a work permit. anyway, to cut the story short, he scooted over to Singapore next, which i thought was really strange anyway. imagine, from english premiership to singapore's national league! what disparity. anyway the fact that hodgson wanted him but he did not get a work permit was well documented in our local press as its naturally a big thing for us. in any case, he played for my team (useful centre back, loads of fancy tricks, the fans loved him; but seriously would never have cut it in the prem i thought) and i was talking to him one day when he realised i was a blackburn fan. so he gave me some nice stories about his time at brockhall, and apparently in his 2 weeks on trial, he put up with kevin davies and got on well with him. nice bloke he said, but ALWAYS drinking. seriously. doug went on to say that sutty was a top player, no airs, very hardworking even in training. as for dahlin, i remember his exact words: "always on his phone speaking in swedish".

i was hoping for howard webb or uriah rennie actually. oh well. at least u can be sure of one thing. ANOTHER pen for the scum!

One of those who took up Paul's offer. Shirts just arrived minutes ago! Delighted with them, arrived in perfect condition, no fuss. Million thanks for your help mate! will certainly do it again next season! ps: never knew that there was a brfc embroided on the lower back of the shirt till now!

So here we go, making the trip to Old Trafford next, the final leg of our series of four consecutive league games against top six sides. Traditionally, we never get anything out of this fixture. Having supported rovers since the inception of the Premier League, i do not recall us ever doing well in this game. A few incidents stand out though, and i shall highlight them, instead of listing out formally past results in this fixture. One incident was of course Kevin Gallacher's quite magnificent volley past the great dane Peter Schmeichel. Another incident was the debut of the Italian, Dario Marcolin, who managed to score in a 3-2 defeat, with Nathan Blake grabbing the other. Needless to say though, those names are associated with our relegation season; nobody would have paid 4.25m for Blake, and Marcolin quite frankly did nothing else of note in his loan spell with us. Moving on, since our return to the top flight, we've suffered consecutive defeats in this fixture. Hignett got the goal in a 2-1 defeat in our first season back, a match which marked Andy Cole's first return to OT since joining us, and i remember he was given a rapturous welcome. In another year, we suffered a 3-1 defeat, with dunny missing a penalty. Of course, Ricardo, manure's reserve keeper, should have been sent off for what was a professional foul. However, the match being at OT, coupled with the fact that Ricardo had came on for Barthez already, the red card never materialised. Last season, Emo got a good goal from a tight angle, that being our sole goal in a 2-1 defeat as well. Dwight Yorke had a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out on his return to OT, which would of course had given us a point. On to this season, and the teams have had varying seasons. In an overall perspective, Manure have not done too badly actually, suffering only 2 league defeats all season. The first was at Chelsea on opening day, and the second was away to Portsmouth. In all, they have chalked up 11 victories and 4 draws in 15 home league matches. By contrast, rovers got off the blocks slowly. A potential 1-0 win in MGP's debut match was stolen not only by Louis Saha, who served up an assist to Alan Smith with his arm, but also by the referee, who initially signalled for 3min of injury time, only to change it to 4 after RFW's intervention. Since then, we have had a change of managers, and the entire backroom staff. At the helm now is OT legend, Mark 'Sparky' Hughes, who has certainly turned rovers' season around. Since the 4-0 defeat to Middlesbrough, we've played 26 matches, winning 10, drawing 10, and suffering only 6 defeats, and all by a 1-0 scoreline, the latest being to Arsenal yesterday. What this highlights is clearly, we now have a solid defence; a great difference from the days of souness' latter times when we were gifting goals away. This transformation is in no small part due to the Hughes' training methods, as well as the introduction of Ryan Nelsen, who has been arguably the find of the season. The Axe, Aaron Mokoena, is also an integral member of the team now, shielding the back four extremely well in his defensive midfield role. The differences in financial powers between both clubs is obvious; our striker signing was Paul Dickov for 150k, theirs was Shrek Rooney, for over 20m pounds. That said, both teams are into the semi finals of the FA Cup. Thus, this match may well be a dress rehearsal for the cup final itself. Certainly, I'm personally wishing for it to be the case; while playing newcastle in the final has the shearer factor, playing the scum will mean that we will be guarenteed a spot in Europe regardless of the result. The added income from a run in Europe will come in handy, and i will gladly choose that over a meeting with shearer. besides, i'd rather shearer remain on only 1 winner's medal, that being the league title, with US. Finally, here is an interview i did with a mate of mine, who's supported Manure for as long as i have supported the rovers. This could be interesting, as clearly, we're both from Singapore, so the viewpoint from an Asian perspective might be refreshing. What do you think of this season so far for both BRFC and MUFC? Blackburn started off badly and looked prime candidates for relegation. Despite the ‘too good to go down’ tag, your defence kept leaking soft goals and brad friedal’s form was ‘on par’ with that of his American counterpart, crazy Tim Howard. However, in the earlier encounter with MUFC, you certainly looked hard to beat and MUFC was fortunate to score an..ermm, lucky goal. Since Sparky joined, you’ve really looked resilient as well as… boring. And now with Savage playing Vinny Jones, you are now the new Wimbledon. Crazy Gang or Boring Gang are both suitable nicks for BRFC. MUFC started off the season horribly too. Although Smith did score goals, he is clearly no ruud, nor is he a player that could win the title for MUFC. MUFC is similar to BRFC in the context that they are both relatively hard to beat and once MUFC scores first, it is a given they would not lose. The bright spark of this season is Heinze and he is a real bargain! Silvestre and Brown each take turns to play the error prone partner alongside a much too relaxed (or is he still high?) rio ferdinand. Another spark is C. Ronaldo who looks world class in many games and he certainly was less frustrating as compared to last season. The attack has been an abysmal disappointment as despite all the hype, and a fantastic debut, Rooney looked over-rated. However, he had roared to life in the past months, and alongside Ronaldo, they could be considered as successes. Lastly, I thought Howard could be the replacement for Peter Schmeichel, despite his boos boos against Porto, but within 1 month of the season starting, he showed first impressions are not always accurate.  What were your expectations at the start of this season for MUFC? I expected a top 2 finish as well as a good cup run. Also, if we have enough luck, a semi final run to the Champs League. Well, I am an eternal optimist. Who do you hate more, Arsenal or Chelsea? Arsenal! Chelsea may have an annoying manager but Arsenal has a whole squad of annoying players. Who have your best players been this season? It’s a toss up between Ronaldo, Giggs, Heinze, Rooney and Carroll. HAHA! I would say it’s Ronaldo as everytime he’s on the ball, you know he would actually do something, unlike smith, who would just pass the ball promptly back to the defence. Worst? It would be a fair contest between Howard or Carroll. I would not include players like Kleberson and Djema, as they did not play enough games to be Man U players. Actually, I would put Howard as the worst as he was so impressive last season. Carroll was never impressive in his 3 seasons at United. Who will you rather be first choice goalkeeper? Howard or Carroll? Embarrassment of riches. I guess it would still be Howard. At least he don’t fumble catching the ball like Carroll….Oh wait, I think he did. Sad. Fergie is rumoured to be looking at several goalkeepers to bring in for next season. With the money spent on Shrek supposedly coming from next season’s transfer kitty, is a big-money move for a goalkeeper still on the cards? Yes definitely. Fergie must be going senile if he still rely on the 2 clowns. Even hauling back bald bathez’s ass would still be a step forward. What are your thoughts on Malcolm Glazer? Would you want him to take-over? I sometimes don’t see what the big fuss is all about. Is there such a hoo-ha over Roman buying Chelski? However, the English fans must know something that I don’t. If he can guarantee at least 20m pounds of transfer fund per season, let him take over and earn more money. Who will be your main threat to us in this game? Ronaldo definitely. He will win all the free kicks and Rovers must double team him whenever he forays upfront. That would leave space for Rooney n Co hopefully. Who do you perceive to be our main threat? Asshole Dickov. Brown or Silvestre are uncomfortable with players like him. What do you think of the job Hughes has done so far at Ewood? He’s been great actually. Next job: Old Trafford. Dickov and Savage have been branded two of the most hated players in the English game. However, Keane and Gary Neville aren’t exactly the most well loved characters either. Do you think such criticism is justified? Hated by who is the important question. Hated by players or the audience? I think in terms of audience, people definitely hate Savage more. He talks thrash to players and it’s something about his blonde hair that make people hate him. Keano is well respected by almost everyone and he has certainly mellowed. Dickov just plays hard. A cheaper version of Alan Smith. Gary wears his hearts on his sleeves and is vocal about any sensitive issue that perhaps should not be brought up by him. For him and Savage, criticism justified. But many of BRFC and MUFC fans certainly love these 2 players for these traits! That said, how do you expect the game to shape up? A tight tight tight game. Either a draw or a goal will separate these 2 teams. Finally, your prediction? 1-0? If we score first, then there’s hope for a 2-0. FA CUP In an ideal world, who did you want to get in the semis? Us? Not Blackburn. Cup games are usually decided by the resolute defence. Newcastle certainly are on good form, but MUFC will willingly take on any team that has Bramble in it. What do you think of both semis and final being played at Cardiff? Cheapens the occasion. Materalism and capitalism at its finest. How do you think we will fare against Arsenal? Either a 1-0 win for Blackburn, or Arsenal win will walk away with it. Who scores first is crucial. With the roll Newcastle is on, are you confident of beating them? Yes. Robert is still over-rated. Rio can handle Shearer and his only danger is his flick-ons. Kluivert do not have the pace to threaten MUFC like Bellamy. Dyer looks the biggest threat but Keano would keep him in his pocket. Rooney and Ronaldo will run havoc as would Ruud and Scholes, where both have wonderful goal records against Magpies. That again, I am ALWAYS wrong.  Who will meet in the final? Sorry dude, Dream Final, Arsenal.

great work by our centrebacks who kept last season's champion's league top scorer and euro 2004 top scorer in their pockets. we felt that this run of matches will show if nelsen is the real deal; well, he's passed the first of three tough tests. lets see how he handles the arse's attack on saturday. attacking wise, what did we expect? we were never going to pile on the attack at anfield. mokoena again looked very good and comfortable playing the 'makelele' role, but i thought nissa was rather poor today. he was calm at times, yes, but also gave away quite a few balls. matteo however, surpassed even that; personally i thought he might have thought he's still wearing red. so he made a few clearances, and got lucky with one tackle at the end (which i felt he was just trying to bulldoze his man over but got lucky and took the ball instead); but his general standard of play simply isnt up to it. neill had his usual game, with his usual lapse of concentration (in the first half, gave the ball away needlessly and was caught out of position) etc, but we've got no one to take his place. lets hope sparky sorts out gresko for the left back spot next season, or we'd really need a pair of fullbacks. finally, anyone worried about the arsenal game? after tonight's lung bursting non-stop running performance, i'm just a tad worried that we'd be knackered against arse. however, i said i will trade a defeat on saturday for a cup victory... so i'm not too bothered as yet

the axe has a mission: take out henry, reyes and ljunberg and we'd be done!

not a pretty game, but frankly, who expected a pretty game? i thought it was a professional performance; not pretty, not fluid, but at the end of the day, getting the win was the only thing that mattered. regardless of the outcome of newcastle vs spurs, we have to be the team which everyone is praying they draw in the semis. i'm not bothered about who we get, its not gonna be easy. but so long as we turn it on, there's no reason why we can't get a good result against any other team left. cardiff, here we come (second of three visits this season).

this is what i think will happen: almost definitely out: Amo - possibly on a free transfer back to rangers Gray - free as well, to anyone who wants him really Short - Contract expired Tugay - Contract expired Jansen - Contract expired Bothroyd - Started promisingly.. what happened? if it were up to me, i'd get rid of donkey matteo as well... but sparky seems to be a fan of his, and his first choice left back for now. nissa's contract is up as well, and i really hope we give him a new one, and he's proved very useful at centreback, and is slowly improving as left back, so he'd provide good cover. jansen, i'd offer a pay-as-you-play deal for another season. yes he may not be the player he was in 2002, but he's still shown (in his few appearances this season) that he's still able to play abit. also, he was in the team up to the 3-3 draw with brum, after which he's supposedly injured up to now. don't think he'd be averse to such a deal really, in the light of how well we've treated him, and the genuine affection he seems to have for us. emerton, the enigma. if we can get anything near 4m for him, i'd get rid. spurs seemingly have a truckload of cash to spend, and are rumoured to be interested. if they stump up the cash, i'd let emerton go. better still, get them to swap either of keane or davies... which isnt entirely impossible, considering the number of players they have got (and are bringing in on bosmans). agree with 'roverismylife' about koumas. hughes knows him, and we could possibly be looking at him as tugay's replacement. neat player and can play abit as well. striker-wise, i really really hope we can get bellamy. notwithstanding his temperament, he never seemed to have given hughes a problem with wales. so if hughes can keep him in check, he'd be an asset. if possible, bring in a big target man type of player as well.. perhaps for a nominal fee or a bosman. no idea who's available, but we certainly need to add some muscle up front. stead i'm still unsure about, but gally i rate. he will never be able to lead the line with his lack of strength and pace, but he's proven himself rather useful as a second striker, laying off neat little passes and popping up for tap-ins. i think right now, he's actually our best finisher; certainly much better than dickov in this department. as for dickov, i appreciate what he's done for us this season, but if anyone offers us any sort of money (200k and above), i'd get rid. yes he gives everything for the cause, but he will never be a part of a team aiming for anything more than relegation in the premiership.

woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a performance from the team. again, NEVER stopped running... chased, pressed and hassled all game. wonderful team performance. when someone missed a tackle or header, someone else was always on hand to clear it. as jim said, this was one of the most hardworking performance i've ever seen from rovers, and the epitome of sparky's methods is really showing; despite all that running, the players did not look at all shattered at the end. yes they looked tired, but not shattered. i'm convinced that 6 months ago, we'd not have been able to put in that kind of performance. players-wise, nelsen was SUPREME in the defence again. mokoena looks much more at ease playing in that midfield holding role than as a centreback, and steven reid must have covered every single blade of grass on that pitch. stead played in flashes, had some good touches like when he held off yobo and pulled down a very difficult ball, and some truly atrocious ones like when he tried to control the ball but just saw it go off his knee. but take nothing away from him, great finish, and it wasnt luck; he had a look, wanted to hit that corner and he hit it. just hope that he will build on this goal and rediscover his form. for the team now, let's send leicester packing without a replay, and get something off pool, arsenal and scum.

he started off steadily, and has been on an upward curve since. he was absolutely phenomenal last night. fantastic. won everything that came his way, and was a threat at the set pieces too. reminds me of a certain scotsman by the name of hendry.

watched the game on tv and truth be told, we were clearly the better side, having more of the play and bossing the midfield. however, again, we were shown up in the attacking third. there is really no creativity there. dickov is as usual, all hard work, but not really much creativity. gally showed some nice touches, but drifted offside rather often, and also drifted in and out of the game. bothroyd came on, almost robbed the defender with his first touch, had a shot from the edge of the box, hit two stray passes, and was substituted. not sure if he picked up an injury. but in any case, MGP was our saviour again. right now, he's our only attacker who looks anything creative, and clearly he's come a long long way from the out of depth player we saw in august. just a question, why were there 2 man of the match awards announced? clearly heard MGP winning one and Nelsen the other. personally, my choice would be Nelsen, who was IMMENSE at the back. never put a foot wrong, read the game extremely well, snuffed burnley's strikers out, and almost scored with two headers. first was a great save from the burnley keeper, and the second bounced over the goal after the header was driven into the ground. unlucky. overall, defence and midfield had a good game, but we clearly need to sort out our attack with some flair and muscle. bring on leicester.

Where exactly did you find this information? (Link please.) I haven't found information on it being shown live anywhere, despite checking soccernet.com listings. hey james. link here: http://www.espnstar.com/tvtimes/tvtimes_index.jsp but you will have to do some toggling, select football and select the date... then the results will pop up. cheers.

just found the following tv information on the net, for fans with access to ESPN in asia. 02-Mar-05 03:55 Soccer/Futbol ESPN FA CUP FA CUP 2004/05 (5TH ROUND REPLAY) BLACKBURN, ENGLAND Blackburn Rovers Vs Burnley (L) really surprised its being shown live, but i'm not complaining! come'on! lets thump the dingles.

there are just too many! but my top five, in no particular order: mourinho - simply too arrogant kenyon - whore/pimp or whatever gary neville - wind-up merchant souness - i know he got us the league cup and promotion.. but i seriously never rated nor liked this man. mike riley - worst of a poor bunch of premiership referees, though some may argue that the spanish ones are worst.

i'm struggling to come up with 5 names for our penalties if it goes to that... i know dickov takes our pens but i never felt entirely confident with him taking them... and that was before the chelski miss. Savage, MGP... and who else?

like we all already know, this match showed that we can't score... we need someone else in there beside dickov. and for me, that man is non other than jansen. he was doing fine, he was scoring, so why has he been frozen out? for me right now, i'd have him in the team ahead of gally, and stead on the bench ahead of johnson. come'on sparky, give him a run out in the replay.

he comes across as really passionate, and really tried his best to do well in his time here. unfortunately, he's just not up to it. cracking goal at fulham last year though. if he played beside a rio or campbell, he'd be a cracking defender. unfortunately, souness saw him as our sol campbell, and that's where amo's been shown up. another inspired sour signing. get rid.

i, for one, do not want to see our kit being made by nike (not that it'd matter for the next 2 seasons... but still). the generic stuff nike churns out is just disgusting. look at the jerseys for arsenal and scum utd. remove the badges and you have an identical design, right down to the stripe on the sleeve. the difference lies only in the colour. nike is for me, the epitome of all that is wrong with sports marketing. i'd be happy with someone like kappa making our kits. while it was still pretty 'similar' in basic design, there were at least variations amongst the various teams in kappa's stable. but not that my rant will matter, because we always end up with the smaller brands anyway (asics, uhlsport!!!??!!!, kappa etc), and i'm happy with it.

red and black for the away kit please! yellow almost always mean a terrible season for us.

plus he's... gasp... welsh!

YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nice to see the changes being made to the 1st eleven, and these changes actually paying off well. surely now, 451 can be cast aside for good?