Judging by Mark Bowen's bulging folder at full-time last night I'd have to agree!!!

I've said it before but for me McCarthy's most frustrating point is his lack of directness towards goal. He gets the ball, dwells, tries a flick, attempts a trick when really we want our front two to run at defenders. We desperately need somebody pacey to compliment Benny, because at the moment he's just a luxury we cannot afford-especially away from home. As for Shabani 'goal machine' Nonda...

Absoloutely gutted. Bad day for me too...fly home from scorching Tenerife to freezing England and when you need a pick up Rovers again do their utmost to bring you crashing back down to earth. God we need January to come..Lacklustre and lack of concentration just about sum up our Premiership season so far.

Hughes cannot have been too happy with the first half...Good to see Gamst finally being replaced. Comon boys Charlton are there for the taking!!

Sky Sports are reporting tonight that Aaron Mokoena is to be offered a new 2 and a half year deal by Rovers. They go on to say that he performed admirably as Sav's deputy recently.

Similarly, which i doubt that a man as wise as Hughes would, if he were to say "we're too good to go down" or taking some fans' opinions that we literally have to turn up to beat teams such as Watford and Fulham then we're in trouble. No team is too good to go down and whilst I don't expect us to be involved in a dog fight we need to roll up our sleaves and fight for every point now rather than later.

Billy Sharpe is the man who put two past my local team Yeovil Town on Saturday. I agree with Billy there are good young strikers out there in the lower leagues who deserve a crack in the prem. Ie. Sharpe and Eastwood spring to mind. Also has anyone seen Jarvis of Gillingham play? I haven't but he's meant to be a very pacey winger-something we could perhaps do with.

One rumour site this morning says that Chelsea may enter the running for Lucas.

God I hope that this article is correct. IF he did recover his form of old,which he sounds confident of, then que another good run in the league as I said above.

Nice preview Rog. I suppose I should predict nearer the time but I'm going for a frustrating 1-1 with Sav for us and Mcbride scoring against us again. Surely we can't be dragged nearer to the bottom three

He said "we have benni, shabani and Franny but if we could add one or two more than that would be great". Or something similar. You know Sav though-he may've been talking about defenders for all we know!!

On Eurosport last night they interviewed Savage and whilst he didn't think that our lack of goals was a problem, he did say that hopefuly Hughes can bring in one or two more strikers in January.

Delighted that we're through. Its been too long since we did ourselves justice in Europe and finally now we can hold our heads up high. Plus points: Like many thought Ooijer and Micky Gray were quality and I'm pleased that Ooijer is making fools of the people who doubted him. I also thought that Tugay did the simple things well. Negatives: Our attacking in general again. Nobody is doubting McCarthy's quality-but he has to be the least direct striker in the league. When he gets the ball he dwells on it for too long allowing defenders to get back when he should be running straight at goal. As somebody mentioned if we'd had pace up front near the end of the game yesterday we probably would have nicked a goal. Jeffers needs to start ahead of Nonda too. Well done to the fans out there, you did us boys proud! Edit: I agree with joey-their left back is going to be some player. Expect him to be at one of Europe's biggest clubs before too long.

I do agree-we have the strikers and management who any young striker would love to learn off. What i should've said in my previous post was that I was mainly aiming my 'best days behind them' comment at Nonda and Jeffers. I would be very suprised if either rediscovered their form of old-but at least Mark hughes is giving them a fair crack of the whip.

I like the idea of signing another striker. Clearly central midfield has to be Hughes' priority, however I would be suprised if we're not going to strengthen all areas of the team come January. As Eddie said though-if we were to go for a striker then perhaps a younger forward would be preferrable as opposed to another striker whose best days look to be behind him.

Quality-cheers for that Nayef. One goal they missed though-his cracker in our 2-1 win at Southampton about four years ago...God did that ball move!

Probably me not doing enough reading-but how come Tugs has only received a one game ban and Ghally three? Is it because Ghally's was for voilent conduct?

I pretty much agree with your whole post AESF. Our squad depth has obviously been tested to the limit at present due to injuries but other squads too have had injury problems. Take our subs bench against Spurs' (who granted have spent almost more than anyone else in recent years) who could bring on Keane, Berbatov and Murphy despite being depleted by injuries. We currently have no plan B whatsoever. Hughes clearly doesnt't have much faith in Jeffers, Peter and Gally for example being able to grab a goal because he always seems hesitant to throw them on despite our abysmal run and poor form from other players (ie Nonda and MGP). Last season showed how well we did to keep pace with clubs with larger squads at their disposal. Until January it has to be a case of fighting for every point that we can until we get some of our big game players back and hopefuly being able to strengthen all departments-even our strikeforce-if we are to repeat the second halves of the previous two seasons.

Why it has taken everybody except Rovers fans five years to see how good Tugay is I will never know. If Fergie rates him so highly then I'm suprised he didn't go for him a few seasons ago when he outclassed £28 million Seba Veron at OT.

If Hughes were to go after Koumas I'm suprised that he didn't do it when he was having his problems at WBA. After all hughes would know all about the guy.

Of course the Berg one was 100% more puzzling, but I was just likening it to the way that nobody in the whole crowd expected him to get sent off.

I can only repeat what others have said. Awful officiating-absoloutely awful. I do think however that a penalty was probably fair (we would've gone crazy if we'd not been given it) but not in a million years should Tugs have been sent off....It reminded me of Henning Bergs dismissal against Utd all those years ago. So 1-1 (which was probbaly fair) and then Mido goes and hand balls it and we get jack all-where as two weeks ago it wasn't even remotely a pen and Ooijer is adjudged to have handled. I would like to think that refs would give us the benefit of the next 50-50 but I'm not going to hold my breath. As for the game it was pretty poor football from both sides and we only really came alive after Tugs got sent off which is rather strange. What is now certain is that the Fulham match on the 2nd of December becomes a must win-no excuses. They say if your creating chances but not putting them away then you don't have much to worry about (Arsenal)...we're unfortunately doing neither this season which is why we are where we are in the table.

Henchoz over our best performer in recent weeks?!!!!!!!!! As for the game-I said it in the other thread: we will lose. All my mates are Spurs fans and they never let it go when they win, so this is the one game I hate us losing. I'll go with what Left Winger said: Rovers 0 Spurs 1 Robbie Keane

Definitely...they accepted my loan offer from Rovers on FM anyway!! But no seriously I think your right, players such as Obi Mikel and SWP will surely have to leave at least on loan as they appear to be nowhere near the first eleven right now.

A potential Neil replacement Gareth Bale has again been linked away from St Mary's. It would show good ambition from the club if we went for him-but it is obviously dependant on how much he is available for (Teamtalk mention 7million but this is surely some way off) and who goes in for him. Out of the big four I could only see Arsenal possibly needing a left back.