It gets worse for me. Read this claptrap: More "Big 3" propaganda. Not only do we have to contend with idiocy from the FA but the media have already bought the red ribbons to attach to the cup.

Good man Captain. Hopefully we shall hear something.

The more I hear about these cup semi's the more mad I get. I hope this boycott talk heats up. No doubt the press will be all over it and the FA may wilt. I seriously doubt that fans will actually go through with it but a bit of grass roots activism would be welcome in this situation. I'm glad that Paul raised the issue that we want a neutral ground, and the purported 45000 only should also help this. Villa Park is perfect for both teams. A decent sized ground half way between the two. Old Trafford would get Arsenal's backs up. Elland Road is perfect for the other tie. To add to the train times; seeing as the only train from Blackburn goes through Picadilly, how many Manc's will get on it? Get to Cardiff for an all dayer watching the semi in a nice pub, soaking up the atmosphere. We need to keep harrassing the media/authorities to see what we can do. Are there any other boards/supporters associations on this too? It would be nice to hear from them.

If fans from all clubs are seriously mad, all 4 clubs should act on that and get together to petition the FA for a change. As Lee said the FA, Police and TV are the three big hitters here, with the clubs, then fans, a long way behind. The FA and TV won't budge and they want to maximize revenue. The only realistic hope right now of a venue change is the police. Having 4 clubs worth of fans in Cardiff for a weekend would be a disaster. We're talking over 100,000. Most fans would be OK with it but you always have the odd idiot who will cause problems. Add to those the local misfits who want to join in and you have a hooligan's dream date. Every officer in Wales will have to be drafted in, car crime and juvenile incidents elsewhere will skyrocket as there is no one to control what is happening because the FA want to allow "at least 30,000 extra fans" the opportunity to go. The cited 12pm kickoff time on Saturday to allow teams to check into the hotels separately and give fans from our game (presumably - unless Newcastle get dumped out and the FA then decide to let them play before us) plenty of time to leave before the Manc's and Geordie's turn up is a joke. Loads of Geordies will turn up on Friday, as will the Manc's - it would be a good weekend away - I'd do the same. I read on a link that one Man U group is urging fans to boycott, well that is all well and good for them but all that will do is make it easier for the millions of Southern based Man U fans who don't go to games to get tickets, so that would be negated. The Geordies are so trophy starved that half the city will turn up, and Arsenal only have the Cup as a hope of any silverware so they'll be there in droves too. We are just happy for a day out. The FA have dropped another clanger by announcing back in September that the semi's would be in Cardiff without knowing who would be playing, and with typical FA arrogance and a dose of British stubbornness are refusing to bend to cater to the people that make the game popular.

Revidge, some of your comments are a load of sh!te. Who gives a monkey's if Hughes "blundered badly with his tactics". We won. It was the FA Cup. Do you know anything about the history of the competition? Just because we weren't flashy or disposed of them after 15 minutes it was a bad performance? Did Arsenal make the same comments when Wrexham beat them? Coventry when Sutton United outed them? Man U after the Exeter tie? The Cup is a great competition because of what can happen, potential banana skins all over the place. I think what a lot of people are forgetting is that our style doesn't make for exciting viewing. People are now complainig that we are crap and don't look good, at least we are in the cup semi and are very unlikely to go down. How many of you nay sayers would have asked for this last September? Hughes is doing a great job making the best of what he's got. We are hard working, very organised and are fit as fiddles. Let's be happy for a while, we've had nearly 2 seasons of crap, enjoy it.

Without quoting AESF's long list, he simply dislikes footballers and all connected with them. Footballers are narrow minded arrogant individuals, for the mostpart. As long as they hang around with each other they will always be this way, no-one else could put up with them.

I wouldn't say myopic. He has failed to improve, he's not going through a bad patch. The reserves and first team are two completely different animals Would you have these feelings toward Gallagher if he wasn't a local lad? He may be better off under a different manager, plenty of players are.

There are some complete t!ssers around. How old are you? Do you have a brain? Why do you have to bring fighting into the equation? I'm talking about both sides here. Keep the forum about football, not brainless idiots talking about silly activities that have no place in today's society let alone football. If you like fighting so much join the army and go to Iraq. Hooligan etiquette? Police walking fans into the ground? What did you lot want, having your grandma out shopping and being caught up in it? I don't have the energy to write more it's so frustrating and I can't swear on here.

I agree with this post. Get rid of all three. It will save money, which will give us the opportunity to pay a good striker decent wages. Jansen doesn't have it anymore. It pulls at many heartstrings as most Rovers fans remember how good he was, but he was the idiot who got on that moped. Gallagher isn't quick enough, and Bothroyd is lazy. I also think Camara is a waste of time. He's playing well right now for a bad team. I feel he's playing for a contract; one of the many mercenaries that come into the English game. He spat out his dummy at Wolves when they went down and gave them no choice but to off him. Dave Jones did say though that Camara was partly responsible because he didn't socre enough goals. As I write Prutton has got a 10 game ban. Good.

Balls! I got the radio on one minute after we scored. But good news.

Is that true? I don't know about that but he's been convicted of drink driving. I don't know the legal details but he was allegedly caught hiding in a wardrobe at his house after legging it and when the cops found him in there he claimed to be wrapping Christmas presents. I have to add Ken Bates. He's always been a c!ck but I remember one pre-season interview with him in the mid-90's (when they'd signed Sutton - who was/is also not very nice) where the reporter asked him about Chelsea's hopes for the season. He got all sarcastic and said that they were just trying to survive. 10 years earlier they had no money and were getting relegated. The sheer short sightedness of him amazed me. Also Dave Jones, ex- Wolves, Southampton, Stockport manager. A right arrogant sod. A mate of mine used to play for Stockport and when anyone dared to disagree with him he'd drill them with questions of "how many top flight games have you played then?"

In no particular order: Keiron Dyer - arrogant, disrespectful, wasted talent, idiot Lee Bowyer - silly scrubber Mark Bosnich - got his comuppence El Hadji Diouf - looks and acts like a t!sser Ian Bishop - thought he was god Neil Warnock - never happy Jody Morris - thinks he's Platini Dennis Wise - thug, on and off the park I'll leave referee's alone as if they all quit there will be no football.

I'm now for a worst ever team, hte comedy will be much better on this one, the good team was serious, so let's have a break from that.

I'm confident after seeing the draw. We'll beat Burnley, no problems. A home game against a team who we should beat followed by another one. It will be a real let down if Burnley beat us. The last time we beat them we were flying high in the first division, now we are languishing in the Prem, but we are still there and should have every conmfidence in beating them. They won't score in a million years, it will only take us 1000.

Nice one.

Tough one. Garner for his hero status. Speedie because without him we'd never have gone up and was a cracking player. Briggs becasue of his recommendation on here, sounds like a great player. I'll decide later.

Andy Townsend commentating here was also saying that. I'll admit it would have been interesting, he would have given Terry a scare. Overall, unlucky, but who expected a win? It's the old complaint, we don't expect much then when we get beat it's a travesty. In this case though I think it's justified, we were hard done by and maybe on another day Makelele would have gone and we'd have had a last minute pen. I'd agree with most comments regarding player ratings. Friedel was definitely at fault. I too think he's lost something. He used to be invicible, maybe someone put some Kryptonite in his glove bag. Neill wasn't that bad last night. He's improved immensely since Hughes came but will never be an Ashley Cole, he is good at tackling and heading; good qualities for a defender, but nothing else. Todd and Nelsen were great, I think we've found our partnership. Matteo: what can be said? Last night was one of his better performances. His banana booted ability to constantly leather it out of play instead of down the line and his severe lack of pace give hope to aged pub leaguers everywhere. A Souness classic. What is he earning again? Savage and Mokoena look the business also, we will do well with a "spine" of these two and the central defenders, especially if we add a goalscorer in the summer. Thompson was nothing short of pants. I'm surprised he came out for the second half. His touch, passing and tackling were way off. MGP and Emerton did well. Our system doesn't let them play like Duff and Robben so you won't get the dribbling, but they will do well. Dickov is a pain in the arse for us and them. He causes problems but can't shoot straight and gives away too many free kicks trying to push people twice his size.

I always want us at home to Burnley in the cup.

It would be good to get Bellamy. Although a complete tisser he can play and has bags of pace. It would also nark Bruce and Sullivan again.

Very interesting posts. I'd agree with some on both sides. The people who watched BRFC 20 years ago were used to good football played in the second tier of English football by players who didn't earn much more than the average wage. Rovers survived back then off loan signings, aging free transfers and players who could come in and give the ground a buzz. I was only a kid but Steve Archibald's debut was massive, it put an extra 3,000 on the gate. The star factor gave us some publicity, but it didn't last long. The die hard 8,000 came week in week out to watch some talented players entertain. Faz and Keeley were always worth entry fees for the inevitable scythe on the striker. Barker produced some wonderful passes, Sellars would run rings around defenders; it was entertaining football. The biggest games I remember in the late 80's were our FA cup ties against Villa and Liverpool, both draws with 14,000 on. Now we play these teams every week now to a crowd not much different in size. This changed when Jack came in, transformed the place and we've had the rollercoaster since. Today's Rovers are hard work to watch, no-one wants to go and see it live when they can stay at home and watch United etc. play great flowing stuff. I went to three games when I was home at Christmas, I nearly didn't go to the Charlton game but it was my last chance before I left, so I begrudgingly paid to go. If I lived in England there is no way I'd go every week whilst Rovers playing like that; it's so boring, but effective enough to keep us in the Premier league. Our crowds will not get any better in the near future, the cynical fan is too fed up with overpaid players milking the club and the fans who ultimately pay their wages, either through Sky subscriptions, match tickets or merchandise purchases. Someone told me that Matteo is on £30,000 a week minimum, allegedly (do I have to put that in?). The club doesn't deserve money if they work out pay deals like that, it's complete lunacy. It is a vicious circle. We have no flair players, fan favourites, or talismen, so people don't bother to come, we get a lower revenue because of it making it harder over the long term to pay the good players to come, forcing the club to adopt the style we have now. I'm very glad we have Hughes as a manager, I think he does a great job and will keep us up for years, but that needs to be sustained with continual development and money from somewhere or else. Sky has been both the saviour and villain of English football, it gave clubs the licence to spend stupidly, with BRFC being a culprit all too often, and it gave players/agents more power to negotiate silly wage deals for themselves. It also gave the fans access to loads of games and opened up football to a wider public. 20 years ago there was barely a live game on TV so people had to go to stadiums to see it, BRFC had the 8,000 it still does, what has changed? Did the town get delusions of grandeur when we won the league? Did the club budget on projections of 25,000+ crowds every week? Does the club take the public for granted? For BRFC to keep its Premier league existence on its paltry crowds it needs outside help; probably coming from TV money. Sky is much maligned by a good few on here, but realistically they are our only hope. I'm not a "Lancashire United" advocate, it's a white elephant. Sky needs competitive football for it to survive. How many will watch Chelsea play Man U every week? A Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forest, Derby County, Everton challenging for honours is good for the league, Sky has the financial muscle to at least attempt to make it happen by equalling out its money. If Sky gave each club the same amount per year, then in theory all clubs would have at lest that much each to start with. Right now Chelsea, the richest club (if you consider Red Rom's billions) get a far larger Sky cheque than Norwich, who need it more. Obviously the traditionally bigger clubs would generate more funds from kit sales and attendances, but that is expected. Smaller clubs would also put a greater reliance on youth development; hopefully. Another silly idea that may work is for the Premier League to pay each team the same regardless of where it finishes in the League or reverse it so the bottom 4 get the most and the top 4 get the least and so on. The top will still get its beloved money from the Champions league and UEFA Cup and the relegated teams still have to play in the Coca Cola. However the big problem with paying the bottom teams the most is that they'll get to League 1 and but up all the good players for a swift return, with the rest crying foul that they'll never get a chance to go up. Blackburn Rovers are not the only club with attendance issues, it is a football problem that needs to be dealt with from the top but the FA big wigs are reluctant to do so because they have too much to lose from it if they do play it fair.

Looks like Hughes reads this site judging from his line up today. I shall take full credit for the win.

I'll go with the majority on this game and say that we were very mediocre in a very scrappy game where no-one could get it down and play. It was a draw all the way until the penalty. We are not the best team to watch from an entertainment standpoint but for budding coaches among us the shape dedication and discliplined way we play is very good to look at and learn from. However that is lost on most; hence the low crowds. We desperately need a goalscorer. There was a topic on here a month or so ago about which position we needed most, I plumbed for a centre half as we were leaking goals like mad, well Hughes has sorted that out, our organisation is very good now, we won't concede many, but unless we can score a couple we'll have more draws and losses instead of wins. Dickov is our best asset and that is saying something. I've no idea what has happened to Stead, I think he's a good player but it's not working for him. Bothroyd shows great flashes but I don't think he has it, what does Perugia want for him? For all the hype about Gallagher, he reminds me of Franny Jeffers; bags of potential but never seems to come through. The fans' allegiance to him will be much stronger as he is a local lad but he either needs to gain a yard of pace or bulk up a bit to make him stronger on the ball. Johnson looked lively, but needs a big man alongside him. Many of us have asked what if, in regards to letting Cole go. Could it still hurt us? Kayos made the point about Emerton being too narrow; that is a product of the system we play, Hughes has our wingers defending the spaces making it hard to get around the back of us. Forgot my point about the penalty. It came as no surprise to me that when Diouf turned his man, that man happened to be Matteo. What was he doing in the middle? But more to the point, why is he playing?

This stinks of agents making more money at the expense of players. Footballers have everything done for them, therefore do not have to think. Once they are around someone who they think they can trust they will listen to everything they say. This is the case here with Viola; Go home, they want you etc. Meanwhile he makes another £x thousand for practically nothing. If he wants to go then let him, I just hope we get decent money for him. But homesickness? He can stay in England for 3 more years, it's not a long time. The Scottish league isn't a hotbed of football, it could be that he wants to return to being the best in a bad league.

Have we done the greatest strikers yet?

There is more coming out on this. I reckon he's off. We'll make £1.5 million on the deal which when you add on Beattie's £1 million gives us another midfielder. Soccernet's Ferguson contribution He was homesick when he came, did he ever get over it?