Harry has more or less admitted that his team is dreadful and is desperate to bring in half a dozen new players.

The best he has been able to do is get them scrapping a bit and working hard. No doubts that our team will more than match them in that department and then our extra bit of quality should see us win the game quite comfortably.

I suspect Big Sam will be the first on the phone. Fits the Bolton criteria in being a talented player with something to prove and looking for a new start.

'The Marquee' was a bar built into the North Stand in a similar fashion to the Blues Bar. Pretty big inside and nicely done, although the beer was a bit pricey.

Rather confusing. I was expecting a big beer tent in the car park or something.

Anyone got any definite news as to whether there'll be beer sold inside the stadium?

Heard there was supposed to be a marquee or something but then heard the bars will be shut.

From a friend who's a steward, its apparently very small areas here and there that are still frozen but as soon as the heating is turned off, the whole pitch will be like that.

I can't see a Hughes outfit going into any fixture with a complacent attitude. Since the Bournemouth debacle last year we've done professional jobs on all the lower league opposition we've faced.

Add to that the current competition for places within the squad. Kuqi and Dickov are basically slugging it out for one spot. Whoever comes in for Tugay (Reid or Thompson moving into the middle) is going to be ultra eager to put their marker down. And Pedersen will need to up his game after the showing at Boro without him.

Plus, Sunderland are absolutely useless.

3-0

On another forum I post on, a Fulham-supporting acquaintance thought MGP was our best player by a mile! His other remark was...."hes ******* outstanding at crossing the ball! He was also unlucky with the free kick that hit the bar."

Sky's news ticker is saying that Savage is ruled out today.

Reid moving back into midfield seems the obvious move.

Once again Hughes has a shocker with the tactics and formation. There's no way he can justify playing  with 1 striker at home against Everton. As for playing Bentley and Thompson, another shocking piece of managment by Hughes. Neither of them are anywhere near good enough to get near the first team. Bentley hides away for most of the game and doesn't get involed and Thompson's passing is dreadful.

It takes Hughes this long to realise we are much more attacking and a beter side without Savage and then plays 4-5-1 when he does drop Svaage! Surely the whole point of leaving Savage out was to become more attacking? In the after match interview Hughes said we missed a good chance to ghet into the top half of the table, well why didnt he go and try and win the game against an average side with an attacking formation?

I'm getting annoyed with his constant negative tactics and insistence of playing certain players. Why was Zurab left out again? Todd shouldn't even have been on the pich to get sent off, if Hughes had got the selection right that may not have happened. We threw points away at City playing the wrong formation, nearly got us knocked out of the Carling Cup playing the same formation and we had an abysmal display today. Simply not good enough.

We have 1 good result followed by 4 or 5 crap ones, another under-achieving seaosn down in the bottom 8 because of poor management. The only difference between Souness and Hughes is that Hughes has us more organised and beter at the basics but he is clueless whwen it comes to tactics and trying to win games.

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So Hughes is a useless tactician but we're better organised under him?

Thompson's not good enough? The same Thompson who scored a 30 yarder in midweek and inspired our fightback?

Bentley is a forward in the same mould as Bergkamp and Sheringham. We were playing two up front.

1 good result followed by 5 crap ones? How do you explain 5 home wins in a row and 7 wins out of 11 (losing only to Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) prior to today? 10 of those with Savage in the team I might add.

Team News:

Friedel, Neill, Todd ©, Nelsen, Gray, Thompson, Reid, Tugay, Pedersen, Bentley, Bellamy

Subs: Enckelman, Khizanishvili, Emerton, Savage, Kuqi.

Teams left in as well as ourselves:

Doncaster

Arsenal

Birmingham

Wigan

Man United

Middlesbrough

Bolton/Leicester

I'd fancy us to beat any of those teams at home, most of them away too. No Chelsea and Liverpool makes it look a rather weak grouping, with Man U and Arsenal fielding reserve teams.

Savage clearly made a meal of Reyes' little slap and tried his best to bring it to the referee's attention but surely, by the letter of the law, Reyes should have walked for it.

Raising your hands is a red card offence. There's no discretion in the rules. It doesn't matter if you give them a slap round the head or thump them in the nose.

Lee Trundle is being linked with a move to Everton in January.

Question his rotundness and lack of pace but any striker who's hit 18 goals in 17 games this season must be worth a look.

Another team struggling to get people through the gates this season is Aston Villa.

Barely broke the 30K mark yesterday - around 8K down on their average last season. Appalling gate for a team with a market the size of Birmingham.

I'd love to see Tugay and Bentley together in midfield. Use of the ball wins you football matches, not journeyman plodders who 'roll their sleeves up', 'put their foot in' or any of that rubbish.

What will Reid contribute this afternoon that Bentley won't? A few tackles that'll see him win the ball but either give it away or pass it 10 yards backwards and a couple of lung-busting runs that produce very little?

Anyway, I'm unconvinced by Charlton. Been beaten at home off Spurs, Bolton and only drew with a dreadful Fulham side. Their away record is deceptive also. I'd fancy our chances of picking up at least 3 or 4 wins from games at Brum, West Brom, Sunderland, Boro and Portsmouth.

Miller was unfortunate to get that 'new Roy Keane' label. He's much more similar to Paul Scholes. He's excellent on the ball, good passer and all that business - plus he has plenty of goals in him.

Not sure what his status is with regard to injury but from what I saw at Celtic he'd be a far better option in midfield for Utd than Alan Smith.

Once the ball had been shifted, the wall was completely redundant. Therefore why didn't the end two players break away and try to close the ball down?!

There was one charger but he didn't get anywhere near it.

Practical point of view?

So how many chemists are going to be happy stocking this stuff and having 20 smackheads queueing in their shop, probably helping themselves to various other items whilst they're there?

And is the resident junkie going to nip down to Boots and pay £5 for a fix (complete with £3 tax) or is he going to ring up Dodgy Dave and get it illegally for half the price?

A side note from Saturday, I know it was to promote the new radio station but who thought it would be a good idea to let a 'Burnley Bee'-clone onto the pitch?!

As if 'Glad All Over' wasn't enough the other week.

It shouldn't be forgotten that it was Savage himself who told Toshack that he wanted to quit Welsh football, slamming the phone down on him when he called. Afterwards, Robbie changed his mind - and now it seems he's changed his mind again.

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I think Sav had every right to feel victimised at being dropped in favour of Carl Robinson and Carl Fletcher who couldn't even make the teams of Sunderland and West Ham last season. Even if Toshack wanted to see those two in action, why drop Sav from the squad all together other than to humiliate him? At 30 he still has four more years in him so the long-term argument he put forward was ridiculous.

The newest spat with Ben Thatcher must raise some doubts over Toshack's man-managment and no goals in their last five games is hardly showing the new regime to be a success.

He's not a right winger, nor will he ever be which is the reason for his average performances of late. I tell a lie, its due to his lack of work ethic, be it natural or due to the fact he's sulking about being put on the right wing. You'll see a better player once he gets a chance to play in the centre (preferably with Mokoena to give him the freedom to play), which might be sooner than you think given Tugay's and Emerton's recent performances. Fair credit to Hughes, putting pressure on Burt and putting his most talented players out, but the experiment hasn't worked - mainly because the lad doesn't want it to.

You'd think I'd be on the back of this lazy, egotistical, me player, but he's a talent and in our situation beggars can't be choosers

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Rather harsh to question his attitude I think.

In his interview on Radio Rovers before the game, he stressed how happy he is to be playing first-team football and after his lack of opportunities at Arsenal is happy to play anywhere. Just because somebody doesn't charge around like Robbie Savage doesn't mean they are uninterested or lazy.

I actually thought he looked like the only player who would make something happen in the first half. It was dire but he tried to get hold of the game - went past a few players and had a couple of attempts from distance.

The boy has certainly got some talent. Our next 8 home games are all winnable - in those matches, I think he and Savage in the middle would complement each other nicely.

Team for tonight:

Subs: Enckleman, Mokoena, Reid, Pedersen, Kuqi

29,000 at Chelsea last night - that's 13,000 empty seats.

Conversely, you can look at how Aston Villa were setup and how easily they got rolled over.

Yesterday could be called negative or dull but I'd take that over getting drubbed 4-0.

What do people really expect from a game at the Reebok? When was the last time you saw an entertaining game there?

Arsenal go there every year with their own brand of nice, intricate, attacking football. They get pummelled with long balls and battered into submission.

Against Fulham at home, people were raving about the best football we'd played for years. Against a decent passing team we can play in that manner. Its all about horses for courses - it'd be foolhardy for us to go to the Reebok and try to play in a similar manner. If we'd have gone 4-4-2, played Tugay, gone gung-ho and then got turned over, serious questions would be being raised about the manager's judgement.