I just wonder over the timing of the announcement, or do the first division (whatever) not have to worry about the transfer window? We desperately need a quality centre forward to be pushing for a place every week, & whilst the Rovers are playing the poverty card we just cannot afford to keep paying big wages to a player like Janny who is contributing nothing. Wherever you go & whatever you do Matt I wish you all the very best.

have only heard game on radio, but seems we had backs to the wall & when under the cosh like that players were using the "known" players for out balls & as a result GMP was starved of the ball a bit. Give the lad a chance to settle in, has only been here a few hours & game seemed to be typical premclash/derby clash, ie 100mph, lots of passion, quite a bit of cheating & some shocking refereeing - I wouldn't blame anybody for being slightly under par making his debut in a game like this. Just a shame that the squad is to be split up for international duty next week.

After the United game I think we should just all accept that it IS Brad, close this thread & move on to the defenders...

would have settled for 1-1 before game, would take 1-1 at H/T, would take 1-1 when Amo sent of but to concede in 95th bloody minute is hard to take... Not nice at all but will have done the lads a world of good confidence wise. still no pen, 48 games now? Goal seemed inevitable but is just the timing of it that is like a smack in the nuts. Without Brad we would have been smashed. How can you really complain about not winning when our keepr has had to play like a man possessed. Last min goals are a real sickener though. Saunders is talking about handball for their goal haven't seen it but judging from comments elsewhere sems we have been harshly treated again. Surely our luck has got to turn at some stage. St James Park?

Or how about Nathan Blake when the Portsmouth Goalkeeper collapsed? Lathund if it wasn't the worst decision you have ever seen then you must have some bad refs in Scandanavia, or are you remebering the Henning Berg decision against United at Ewood? I suppose we should feel glad the Short wasn't sent off as well. Sorry but i stand by my point that me personally as a Blackburn supporter born bred & branded for life I would never treat my home town club in the way Beattie treated us. He is a disgrace to every son of Blackburn & maybe now he has revealed the 'character flaws' that lead to him being shown the door at Ewood. I vividly remember going down to Brockhall in the days before the academy was built & watching the youth teams. One saturday morning whilst I was there I saw Ray Hartford showing a young lad around with his parents in an obvious move to try & impress him. Beattie had been subbed & was on the touchline whenHarford came over & was beaming with pride when he introduced Beattie to the young lad & was glowing in his praise of the home grown talent. A talent who this week should his obvious distate for every body connected with the Rovers. I don't really have a problem with his play - It was his jubilation that really annoyed me. RANT OVER - lets move on.

It's now late Monday evening & the highlights have just been on Fox Sports again & I can't believe that nobody on here as had a rant about the actions of James Beattie. OK he is a professional footballer & paid to do a job, but when he claims to have been a lifelong Rover who cried when he was told that he had been sold... well he has certainly had a change of heart. I know he didn't claim for a penalty, but he didn't in any way defend Craig Short as we have seen other players do. Also after he had put the pen away he didn't just turn & run back to the half way line as Robbie Keane did against Wolves last seaon. Oh no Beattie certainly enjoyed seeing that one going in & cheating us out of a well deserved point. Sorry Beattie but your actions on Saturday disgusted me. Ok you have a job to do & if you are happy with the way you go about it then thats up to you, but you need to learn a little dignity & respect - suggest you have a word with Robbie Keane.

when I started going to the Rovers Roger Jones was in the nets, but as I was only about 5 years old at the time I really can't remember too much about him. I DO remember my dad having a wobbler when the news broke that Paul Bradshaw was going to Wolves though... We have had some bloody good keepers in the time I have been supporting the Rovers, it's been one position where we have never put up with a bad one for long - maybe the luckiest keeper was Darren Collier who he made some many appearances I'll never know as he was shocking. Another good one that I don't think has been mentioned is Micky Salmon who later went on to star for Charlton. Given would never get my vote as remember seeing him in a pre-season game at Colchester when he tried to palm a cross over the bar & ended up flapping it into the net... BAD ONES Matt Dickins Darren Collier John Butcher Vince O'Keefe (except for full members final) Shay Given (see above) Frank Talia (but has gone on to do well) GOOD ONES Paul Bradshaw Mark Grew Jim Arnold Terry Gennoe Bobby Mimms (does he still have record for most clean sheets in Prem?) Tim Flowers John Filan but my winner would have to be BRAD FRIEDEL

Sounded like we were a lot better in the second half & we got back into a game that we might have lost last season. Why was Flitcroft not even on the bench? Was it just tactical or has there been another falling out? When you look at the 16 we put out we are desperate for somebody 'special' the only glimmer of hope is that we have Thommo to come back, but he can blow hot & cold. Why couldn't we have picked somebody up like Kanu? At least after todays result we won't be too complacent as maybe we were last season after stuffing Wolves. Will people lay off Dickov now?

Alan75 Posted: Jul 27 2004, 12:56 Trooper, he was offered the job, he accepted the job and Jack Walker kept the job open for him. Even sent him videos of the games so that he was up to speed on the teams performance then 3 months or so down the line after hed got a better contract elsewhere he gave Jack the big elbow. I know Alan, just my attempt at humour...

yeah, well there is always that I suppose... Or maybe it's his range of mobile phones??? Aren't you just glad we decided to not accept him as our manager & chose Roy Hodgson instead... I always knew we'd made the right decision

Was reading up on this on the excellent BBC sport website & wondering what all the fuss was about. So what if he's had another affair, beats me how a Mr Burns look-a-like can get these women in to bed... But when I delved further it turns out that Sven & his concubine (who is a secretary at the FA) had denied all allegations so vehemently that the FA legal section had actually issued a statement declaring their innocence.... But then it turns out that the secretary has been 'involved' with Sven AND with the Chief Exec as well! (at the same time?) No doubt everybody in the UK knows all about this, but just thought I'd maybe bring it to a wider audience. FA calls emergency meeting http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/i...and/3926679.stm

Keeley Garner Mickey Speight with a special mention also going out to Paul McKinnon

My first thoughts on seeing that Andy cole has left were that we must have somebody lined up to replace him & I still think we will have, just give it time for the situation to play itself out... if we don't bring somebody then I too will be baffled & bewildered

For us Expats the MB is essential, but setting up a standing order is not so feasible. A one off payment would be good enough? Is 25 quid about right? Trouble is we get short changed by the exchange people, but I'm sure I'll be able to sort something out.

Maybe it is all a psych thing. Some players play like captains any how, some need to be told they are a captain to bring that bit extra out of them. When we won the championship we had a team full of "captains", does it really matter who has the armband? Surely Flitcroft is now mature enough to accept that he still has a big influence around the dressing room. Just the other day I was drawing up my second XI & feeling quite pleased with the strength in depth we have now got, an element that is essential if we are to avoid a struggle again. Hopefully Flitty is clued up enough to realise that if he stays in the top Div then he could have several more productive seasons, but age starts catching up with you very fast when you drop down a division or two.

or maybe my sarcasm missed the mark. Maybe I posted the above as a barbed retort to all those who doubted that Bazza is now one of us? Or maybe I am just thick...

Hi fellow expats! Do any of you know if Foxtel will be offering this in Aus?

Rovers first & Rovers last. Whilst I will always be proud to call myself English, I am essentailly a Blackburn Blue. England is a good second choice. Also, is it just me or are we alienated from the England set-up, even when we were successful we were never particularly well represented in the England squads. Obviously Shearer was always there but few others got a consistent run out & the treatment of Sutty was a joke. And why are we never chosen to host England games? I know we had the U21s against Greece, but surely we deserve more than that! No I'll stick with my Rovers thank you, England are an interesting diversion, like a Friday night fumble up the Cav, but supporting them would be like cheating on the wife.

Well we are going to be in a real mess when he moves back to Rangers then, maybe that nice Mr Flipflop can become the captain all over again, or what about Nicky Reid he always ran around a lot & kicked things...

Leeds are in a mess! was just having a browse around when I came across this http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t...tic/3798719.stm Also noted that Leeds had beaten Bradford to the signing of Danny Cadamateri but had lost out to sheff utd on Barry Hayles. These things may be old news to those living in the UK but for me it just underlines the desperate situation the once mighty tykes have gotten into. Not that I'll shed a tear for them, can't stand the most arrogant of all sheep shagin teams but when you compare this with the tidy signings that Wigan have made it makes me think that Sheff Weds & Leeds may soon have some cracking derby games to look forward to. Heres hoping the mighty clarrots can complete the dingle triumvirate...

I view it as swapping Todd for Matteo, and I don't think we would be coming out to badly from the deal. All we are doing is rearranging our squad (as with Dickov) for little to no outlay, & from what I've seen so far it seems like some astute dealing is being done. Hope Dominic signs for us I think he will be a positive role model for the young defenders we have coming through.

I view it as swapping Todd for Matteo, and I don't think we would be coming out to badly from the deal. All we are doing is rearranging our squad (as with Dickov) for little to no outlay, & from what I've seen so far it seems like some astute dealing is being done. Hope Dominic signs for us I think he will be a positive role model for the young defenders we have coming through.

It's that infernal noise again.

If he's a replacement for Yorke then no problem at all. For the money I don't think we could have got any better. He may not be the best in the world but his attitude seems to be spot on & he is more suitable as a mentor to our up & coming stars than Yorke & possibly even Andy Cole. Don't get me wrong, Dickov is not in the same class as Cole on the pitch but off the pitch Cole is not a good role model.

What's John Bond doing these days???