Everton are as stingy at conceding goals as Doug Ellis is with his chequebook. It will be a tight game, with neither side giving much away, however I'd go with either 0-0 or 0-1 Everton.

I thought it would be out of them two positions too Den, but how we could do with a striker who could bag a few goals aswell!!!

Not the worst result, but boy do we desperately need a few wins over the Christmas period. A few observations from watching the highlights on Sky: Dickov must be the worst finisher in the premiership. Penalties aside the lad has no composure in front of goal whatsoever. A striker is now desperately required, but as others have said, who is there available who can guarentee you goals? Also, although Thommo's second yellow card was debatable, he could quite easily have been sent off for the first kick. After what Jay Bothroyd did a few weeks ago, what the hell was David "can't wait to be back in the first team" Thompson doing?! It is good however that our defensive unit looks more solid, but we shouldn't get too carried away because we've only played Fulham, Spurs and Palace in our last three games. Investment is needed in January, and we must pick up at least 1 win out of our two next home games. Weather we will do, with our awful home record remains to be seen.

A Centre half and a ball winning midfielder for me too. However the problem of a solid left back keeps coming back to haunt us!!! Hughes' is obviously not picking micky Gray for a reason, so I guess that if we can get a left back on the cheap then Hughesey may think about it. A striker is also required, however with Rovers' financial predicament we must prioritise.

Great performance-a far cry from the team which has rolled over all season. There were alot of pluses today; the pairing of Nissa and Short, Ferguson's performance, Bothroyd looking the part up front, Reid looking every inch the player we heard about at Millwall. However the biggest plus of the night for me was Emerton. Have his family finally took back his twin brother and given us the real Brett or something? He looked like the player who had all the big clubs in Europe after him, what a performance. We must follow this up with a couple of wins now starting against Norwich next weekend. If we keep the same 11, I don't see any reason why we can't do that and get out of this mess. It was only one performance, and there were still some negatives (First 10 mins, Neil and Friedel-what was he doing for Baros' goal?! The first rule for a keeper is to come out and narrow the angle!!!), but for some reason I'm feeling strangely optimistic for the first time in a year!

Disagree, I think if we had a GOOD defensive central midfielder to partner with Ferguson, that would help our offense and defense. It would provide more cover for the back, and allow Barry to make more runs forward. Yeah true mate, but Barry scoring 5+ a season isn't going to solve our scoring problems is it. Surely Reid or Thompson could do a half decent job in there, thus allowing us to bring in a striker who could teach the rest a thing or two.

I do agree that a centre half is the priority, but surely a striker comes a close second before a midfielder. At current I don't think any of our top guns wil get 5 or more this season. Surely a risk on Ellington (Just as an example) and a centre half is required in Jan?

Boys "on paper" means absoloutely nothing. All my none Rover fan mates say "oh youve got a good squad-too good to go down". Absoloute rubbish. We have quite a big squad full of tripe. We have an awful defence-worst in the league by miles. And we don't have one striker who can net 10 plus (and thats being v generous). I do agree that Hughes cannot be blamed for our current predicement, but as someone mentioned, why have the players not responed at all to him? The other slightly worrying thing is that Hughes has won about one of his last 15 competitive matches now, that is shocking. He seems to have brought his losing mentality with him, and coupled with our awful team its been a cocktail for disaster. I think we've gotta start facing up to the stark reality of just how bad this Rovers team is. It breaks my heart, but it is the truth.

Your damn right, when Duff scores Chelseas 7th next week in the 90th and kisses his badge. I wasn't far off!

Yet another joke to us fans. Game after game we lose..we cannot score...we're absoloute crap. Saturdays are fast becoming my worst day, we lose every week without putting up a fight at all. Why play 4-5-1? Does Hughes think that weve got the Italian instinct or something?! I know that none of our strikers could score, but we'd have a slightly better chance with two up there. Why is Matteo starting again? This is a farce as he shouldn't make our reserves. Why is Gallagher not playing, or even featuring in our squad? Why play Emo or Reid left wing when we have Jansen/De Pedro or MGP (even though I don't really rate any of them on the left). We have no quality, no desire and now we have a losing mentality. I honestly cant see us getting out of this, and I don't think that Hughes will save us. Judging by our squad and current form we'll be dead and buried by Easter.

I think that Desailly would have been an ideal choice, but has he not gone to ply his trade in Quatar now? After seeing the goals again it simply makes me laugh. Gray looks like he's doing his best Micheal Jackson twirl impersonation-and as others have pointed out, why is he marking JFH on the right hand side of the area? Boy he must have alot of faith in Laurell and Hardy aka amo/matteo. And as for the other goals, such as Amo's Zidane like pass to the Boro player, it was nothing short of a joke. I agree with most people on here in that Dickov cannot play up front alone anymore. He's falling very short in the class department. Why not try something like Gally/Bothroyd, or Jansen/Stead. Anything other than what weve been playing. But wouldn't it be so Rover like for us to get a result at Chelsea now....We can hope.

I do admire waggy and the1mattjansen for staying optimistic, but how can you be when the players have constantly let down the fans for over a year now. As fans weve had absoloutely nothing to shout about for ages now, its become a rut and a half! I just wished I shared your optimism guys because were not suddenly going to turn the corner after a year of struggle.

Gotta be Ripley for me, although I wasn't around for many of the others! But one thing where is Giorgios Donis?!

Anyone know what's happened to Gally? I can't wait to see the lad return, young, exciting and hopefuly can hit the net.

Your damn right, when Duff scores Chelseas 7th next week in the 90th and kisses his badge.

You sound like souness used to. The reason we lose literally every game is because were that bad. That's the sad truth I'm afraid mate-not poor refereeing.

The whole squad apart from maybe Friedel. They're all a disgrace.

Were doomed I can sense it. Absoloutely diabolical. How some of these guys get paid is beyond me-theyre a joke to themselves let alone the club. All of you are talking about how bad we are defensively (believe me I agree-schoolboy defenders are better than Amo, Matteo and Neil), however we couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo. We cant score, we cant create and we ship goals for fun=huge dogfight. I don't think that any of this can be blamed on Hughes, he must be so gutted with the squad he's inherited!!! But aren't new managers due a honeymoon period? Finally, why is it only the Norwegians who rate Gamst Pedersen? No offence meant here, but Norway aren't a huge footballing nation anymore, and if Gamst is playing well now and again for you guys it doesn't mean he will do for us. Alot of players aren't suited to the prem. Hughes and the coaching staff obviously don't think he's good enough. Anyway, he's the least of our worries right now, I think that the issue of our next point is of more concern! I seriously can't see us getting anything for a while, Chelsea will spank us, this'll be the game where Mourinho's "we'll score loads in one game soon" will come true. Liverpool will roll us over and Norwhich will claim their 2nd victory to finalise our 20th position. Finally to all of you who are saying "If we slip into the bottom three it may wake some people up" absoloute rubbish, it did nothing for us last season and it won't do this time round either! Rant over from one very angry Rover.

Great result from the boys, and a good second half performance. I think next week we have to go with Dickov and Bothroyd up front. Jay looks class. My mate watches the Italian league all the time and he says that he's a quality player who drew comparisons to Adrianho of Inter. He did say that he just fizzled out a bit as the season went. I also nearly had a tear for Jansen-lets just hope he carries on improving-but lets not be too expectant of him, it will take time.

Good interview from Hughes, he seems to have such confidence in his ability, a certain cockiness if you like. I like this in a manager. Bowen also seems a good apointment, and hey any coach from Arsenal has to be damn good! I also think that judging by Hughes' comments, that he has a bit of cash to spend in January, but lets just wait and see.

Quite pleased with the appointment. I din't really have a 1st choice, either Sparky, Strachan or maybe Graham would have done for me. It is a big risk, but he is an up and coming manager ready to pitt his witts against the best. Much more confident about Saturday now anyway, weve gotta get some points during our honeymoon period.

Surely this is a joke! Where's Vratty?! LOL.

I have a feeling that the new boss will be someone whom we haven't mentioned, or perhaps someone weve mentioned briefly. Surely if it was one of the front-runners that weve interviewed etc, then some sort of news would've leaked out. It could be a relatively unknown gaffer, maybe even a non-Brit?

I know the "view from the stands" on Rovers' official site should be optimistic, however the report given by this one fan seems a joke. I wasn't at the game but from the highlights, and from other fans' views I take it that he's having a laugh. "Despite the poor result, the players put in some good performances", he goes on "Neil put in an awesome display as he kept the lively Bellamy at bay". The same Bellamy that many thought got MoM and ran us ragged? On Gray; "It was just unfortunate that he left Shearer unmarked at the back post". "The back two were also solid", "the centre pairing of Fergie and Flitty looked strong". I realise that they'll be slightly bias, given that it's Rovers official site, but for fans that log in who don't look at other sites it's just blinding them from the truth! Approaching the end he did confess that Rovers are in trouble, but I'm still not in doubt that this guy could write for Walt Disney.

I agree that on paper we have a fairly decent sqaud. Trouble is that there is a huge difference between a good team on paper and a team performing on the pitch. We have a few players untested still in the prem (Reid, De Pedro, Pederson) and some players who you could argue are over the hill (Matteo, Jansen, Flitty etc) and then there's the players severely lacking in confidence (Stead, Neil, Emerton and maybe even the likes of Ferguson). All I'm saying is that when you look at things on the whole, were short of players that we can depend upon at the minute. I'm just hoping that the new man can install some much needed confidence into us in time for the upcoming games.