Looking forward to the game this afternoon. Probably be the last one I'll be at until October because I presume that the club will see Man City fans as ripe for ripping off as well.

The official website states: "Seats are extremely limited in this area." Its one small bloke at the Darwen End side of the Riverside. Although for a few quid more you can sit on the front few rows where you're liable to get soaked with rain. Decisions, decisions....

My sister claimed back £900. She was originally offered £500 but rejected that. She rejected two further offers as per the advice and within 3 weeks got the full amount back.

The club always play the 'best value in the Premiership' card but in the grand scheme of things, £36 is a ridiculous amount of money to watch 90 minutes of football.

Not wanting to drag this into a discussion about David Dunn but I met him last year at a 5-a-side tournament in which my nephew was playing. He couldn't be further from arrogant. He stopped all day which he didn't have to, he posed for photos and chatted with everyone whilst watching the games. He made my nephew's day too by giving him a few kind words of praise.

When set out like that the stats look far from impressive but he's not been given a consistent run anywhere in the few years. He's made too many cameo appearances from the bench. When you look exclusively at his starts the numbers look a bit healthier. 18 goals in 37 league starts for Everton. Plenty of sub runouts plus 4 starts for Arsenal in the league - 4 goals; 4 goals in 8 starts in the cup competitions. 5 goals in 12 starts for Charlton.

Jeff Kenna is out of contract and looking for a club. He's just training with Brum at the moment.

Ribery has been absolute garbage in every game. The French league has a habit of over-hyping players and them turning out to be mediocre (at best). Cisse would be a prime example of a player being proclaimed as a great talent and being thoroughly shown up in a better league. And those misses could have cost his team the game. Its ridiculous to dismiss them. Its like saying, 'that goalkeeper was pretty good apart from the two shots he let in through his legs'.

I think that sums it up. There's a funny bit in Nasser Hussain's autobiography where he expresses his dismay at a selection meeting where someone asks 'what does Graham Thorpe bring to the party besides runs?'. In the modern era of non-goalscoring centre forwards, a striker who concentrates on sticking the ball in the back of the net is most welcome.

A Swiss win against Togo and a draw in their match with Korea would put them both on 5 points and out of France's reach.

£6m for a player with such limited technical ability as Reid would be a no-brainer.

Not exactly foot to mouth of the same proportions but a lad I know in London was speaking to David Bentley at a club last night. Said he was happy at Rovers and hoping to be here for a season or two before hopefully moving on to one of the big four or a big foreign club. Might need more than one good game in five for that to happen.

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/82/dsc000840qj.jpg

There'll be 40 teams seeded in the first round. 19 of the confirmed entrants in Round 1 are already seeded or ranked above us. I can only spot another dozen or so in the qualifying rounds/Intertoto who have a higher coefficient rating. All of the English teams should be seeded.

For all his supposed talent - Theo Walcott's record in black and white: 4 goals in 21 Championship matches.

Good work whoever put together the video package with the Al Pacino speech from Any Given Sunday. Very apt. Particularly like the lines: Now I can't make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you - look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.

Haven't a clue what game this fella was at! From another site I post on...

He's probably just pointing out that being a bit rotund is no barrier to be a top player. Reid's got bags of potential. Has never got a fair crack of the whip at Spurs.

Get Andy Reid in a deal with Spurs. If there's anything he loves more than pies, its running at defenders and banging in 25 yarders.

A leopard never changes it's spots. Bye bye to Toddy.

I can only see Arsenal's CL game listed tonight. I might be going mad but I'm sure our game was scheduled for TV.

Not getting twitchy about us finishing outside the top 6 but out of interest, if Boro make the FA Cup final and win the UEFA Cup then won't a further place go to 7th?

Gally scores a "30 yard screamer" for Stoke.

Pompey are still the poor outfit that they were a month ago. They've beaten an under-strength West Ham and a spineless Fulham - that's it. An efficient 1-0 away win.

Granted, but you still can't argue with 27 points from 16 away games. A record bettered only by the top two.