Ban Italian teams? Not likely. UEFA's revenue loss would be too great for them to do it. No Juventus or either Milan team would cost them bundles. Do they not check fans entering the stadium? There were alot of flares, not just one or two.

What will happen when they play each other in the league?

Davies: far too overpriced, didn't do any good, but is still scoring in the Permiership. I think we did pay about £5 million too much with Woy praising him before he walked in the door and that expectation tipped it for the portly Tyke and he lost it. He was truly awful to watch for us, looked a a deer in headlights everytime he played. His solitary goal should have been saved. He did sell more shirts than any other player that season, who has still got one?

Grabbi: technically good but not fast enough for the Prem, simple as. Another massive waste.

I do think that the worst player ever tag can be split up into eras, especially during the 20 years I have been following the club. Pre Jack Walker we had some genuinely bad players on offer. During and after Jack it was a case of bad cash management, but the bad players bought were still better than the old crap.

Peacock, Dailly, all those ropey Scandanavians, Perez, Kounde, Marcolin, Holmes, Ward etc, would all have been regulars for the 1980's sides I remember. On the other hand, Paul Shepstone, Darren Donnelly, Ronnie Hildersley, Keith Hill, to name a few never had a chance at top flight football.

I thought Jimmy Quinn was a hero, I was little but used to be proud that Rovers had an international playing for them. Remember, Northern Ireland were in the 1982 World Cup, they beat Spain, so it was a big deal to an 8 year old.

What was the name of the old football in the community man, surname began with a "D" who used to play? He was on A Question of Sport once taking a penalty for Morcambe where he fell and ended up heading the ball about a yard. He was crap.

Part of me misses the old days of bad players. I have a couple of friends who are Preston fans, and I used to go and watch. During John Beck's tenure they had some really bad players, but the crowd comedy was first class. You don't get that at Ewood anymore.

Eddie Johnson. Johnson's going to command big prices one day (Benfica apparently offered $6 million for him in the winter) and I doubt he'd be interested in our little club; having said that, he has never struck me as a can't-miss talent like Rooney, Ronaldo, Duffer, etc. Ruiz may have no interest in playing overseas, and probably isn't the prototype English center forward anyway.

This bloke isn't too bad. He may be worth a look at.

This weekend should be the defining one of the season as far as we are concerned. A win and we are looking at a mid-table finish, even a loss shouldn't be that bad for us. Just look at the rest of the weekend's fixtures:

Southampton v. Chelsea

Arsenal v. Norwich

West Brom v. Everton

Palace v. Middlesbrough

Fulham v. Portsmouth

It couldn't be better for us on paper. Apart from Palace, the lower teams play the the other members of the top 4, and the two teams directly below us play each other. We should be laughing, yet I seriously doubt a Rovers win at Old Trafford. We have improved but we are still a mediocre team and even our good teams never won away at Man U.

It is as plain as day what is happening to us fans, but no-one from the FA is coming out and defending their side. Who are they speaking to? What to they base their decisions on? Their corporate backers? The government?

This stinks. On the one hand we are in our first FA cup semi since 1960 so we want to go and support the lads, yet the FA are acting like complete plonkers and doing us in with a midday kickoff. Do fans go to support the team or do we stay at home in protest at a myopic FA?

Their response to the train schedules will be to go on official coaches. The M6 will be open at 5am, just in time really for 75,000 or so travelling down the same road.

If there are empty seats we'll get hammered for our bad support, not the FA.

Oops, I completely forgot about the 1991 semi. We should have known then that Seaman wasn't up to much.

Great letter from Tom Finn.

The Wembley semi final debate (debacle?) was started in 1993 by the city of Sheffield. As both United and Wednesday were in the semi's they were clamouring for a suitable arena to hold all their fans. Unfortunately for football Arsenal were playing Spurs in the other semi. They argued that the only suitable destination for them was Wembley, which was agreed and the tie was set to be played there. Cue mass outrage from the Tykes. They wanted to be treated the same/ not let the opposition get an unfair advantage by playing an extra game there. So the FA buckled and let the tie go ahead. Was Old Trafford not suitable for the city of Sheffield? This then seemed to become an overnight tradition which maybe would never have happened if we had played well in the 6th round against the Blades at Ewood, not to mention the replay. I do remember that they kicked up a fuss about ticket allocation then too.

We have been left up the creek by the Government here if this "personal" letter is to be believed. The colossal cost of Wembley is a burden to all football fans. For the supposed price they should have heated/padded seats. I'm still mad about the whole thing and hope that Man U, Newcastle, and the South Wales Police keep up thir protests. We are happy to be there and will enjoy it, plus we don't have the weight, who would listen to us?

Streakyb, the FA are responsible for the Premier League too and are getting the royal shaft. If they took the same grass roots approach with the far larger amount of money it has, the game would be in a healthier state but the "big clubs" have got together and told the Premier league to F off. Anyway that is another thread.

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.

How can you advocate selling Gallagher? That is so idiotic but typical of the short-term myopia suffered by some fans.

Gallagher only a few years back was the exciting young forward who was scoring hat-tricks and braces every other reserve game. And reserve regulars will remind you that he wasn't just scoring tap-ins, his rise to the first team was boosted by a number of spectacular goals he scored for the reserves.

Yes, his progress has stagnated, big time. However, young players go through ruts - some even go off the rails. But Rovers have to stick by Gallagher - at least for a season or two - to see if he can regain that form.

I can see why people want Jansen and Bothroyd to go - but Gally is here to stay - for a while anyway.

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.

Jansen may be equal with Gally or bothroyd but they aint good enough either.

Hopefully in summer we will let Bothroyd leave and also not renew jansens contract. Then hopefully get Bellamy and maybe one other. Some one like Henri Camara wouldnt be a bad signing

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.

4)andy payton - wife beater

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.

For those of us stateside, the match will be live on the newly renamed Fox Soccer Channel at 8:30 est Sunday the 20th!!

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.

There was a target man on the bench but he wasn't used.

AMORUSO

If he had come on up front for the last 10 to 15 minutes I reckon we may have got something out of the game.

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.