Distasteful? No. Pathetic? Ridiculous? A bitter diatribe. Those fit much better actually. If you seriously compare Burnley with Beirut, the Gaza Strip, Baghdad or Lagos then I feel sorry for your employers cos you are obviously living on another planet. actually I was in Beirut last month and its a wonderful place. Beautiful beaches, great food, gorgeous girls and fantastic nightlife. Beats just about everywhere in the UK never mind Burnley. By the way - did anyone notice the advertising hoarding for "John Smith & Smiths" ? - what awas that about inbreeding?

no argument - both teams were useless yesterday and neither of us commited much going forward. As we are the premiership team then the credit has to go to the Burnley players. I also think it's worth mentioning that the game was played in a good spirit - noone was flying in with leg-breakers (Like Arsenal on saturday). But it was impossible to come away from that match with anything other than the impression that Burnley fans are a bunch of thugs. From were I was sat there were a couple of blokes with their 10 or 11 yr old kids who were encouraging them to make 'come and get it' gestures at the rovers fans - WTF?? Added to that the cheering of the bloke who punched a WPC and the fact that half the fans weren't even watching the match and Burnley FC has nothing to be proud of. Any club has a few idiots amongst the support, Rovers aparently have a couple of coin throwers and at least 3 monkey-chanters but the general atmosphere amongst Rovers fans is always good natured and the chanting is always about banter rather than the pure hatred and aggression I was sat amongst yesterday.

just got back from the 5 hour drive back from the dingle den turned out that 'guest of Burnley FC' meant a ticket amongst the longsiders. I know there's been a bit of banter about the noise at the match but seriously who thinks "b*stards, b*stards, b*stards" is a clever chant? inbred bunch of thugs. If that's what going to football was all about I would go to a lot more cricket. I hope we slaughter them at ewood

sorry if I'm going over old territory here but what exactly is the situation with the trust fund, are we reliant on the continued goodwill of the Walker family or is a certain amount of cash guranteed? (i still hate the fact I'm having an accounts discussion on a football site though...)

Me for one. Although I'll be sat with the prawn sandwich brigade so I should get out alive.

just took delivery of my TSHIRT for Sunday

Matteo a cup doubt we can't lose now

A valid and important point. but probably not one that Rovers fans can make! I knew some one would say that. Nonsense!!! Rovers did not go out and buy established international superstars in the early nineties, like Chelsea and Man Utd are now. Indeed we bought much lower profile players than Man Utd did then too (Cantona anyone?). Shearer Le Saux Sherwood Ripley Sutton Wilcox Were all talented up and coming players, not people at the top of their game. It was intelligent management rather than raw economics which won us the title. Batty could be said to be a well respected player when he moved, while Shearer and Sutton were recognised outstanding talents but still! We had the financial backing but we were not massively outspending the other big clubs (look at Cole's 7 million transfer in '95 and shearer's 15 million). We were not operating with kind of advantage that Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal can exercise now. Rant over. I agree that it was a decent amount of money very well spent rather than an enormous amount of money randomly spent (as with Chelsea) but we did have the financial muscle to break the transfer record twice and without it we wouldn't have come close to the title, that's all. But as I said first time, your point is totally valid and very important - this game will go to the dogs before long if the money probelm is not sorted.

A valid and important point. but probably not one that Rovers fans can make!

I think it's different if your not local. I've never lived in Blackburn so there are definately teams that I have affection for but it's not the same thing as being a fan. Supporting Rovers means spending a feckin fortune on match tickets and travel and more importantly all those hours spent travelling, staying up till 1.30am to see the 30secs of Rovers on MotD and writing on this MB when I should be working. So its not the same thing but if you love the game of football you can have favourites amongst other teams. I certainly like the following: Citeh - I'm from Manchester originally but brought up amongst Cockney Reds as the saying goes - 'My enemies enemy is my friend' Brentford - Probably go to about a dozen games a season cos they are my local team (apart from Fulham and Chelsea) particularly fun when I coud cheer Big Ben Burgess Barcelona - Lived there for a bit and they are such a great club, can't wait for them to stuff Chelsea.

it seems that I'm going on Sunday as 'a guest of Burnley FC' will be sat with the directors etc - so I'm (slightly) less likely to have my head removed when we win) but the question is - when I'm sharing prawn sandwiches with the head Dingles should I remind them of: A/ Semi-Final 1960 B/ 5-0 in league C/ Their general inbred inferiority Answers on a postcard please

Celtic just gained 1 more fan

my brother was involved in trying to sell the last sponsorship and it was hard work. I know there are more important things in the world but it looks embarressing when you get a crappy sponsor. Think we would be better off going without (like Barcelona) than taking £25k from 'East Lancs Roofing Ltd' or something..

right - I'm having to leave London at the crack of dawn to get up in time for this. It had better be worth it! can't see us losing though, this team seems to do the business when it reall matters (if not the rest of the time). If we can get through the first half without Savage/Mokoena/Dickov seeing red then I think this could be 3 or 4-1. fingers crossed!

if savage plays then I think we will hand out our one and only spanking of the season 4-0 Savage, Dickov, Stead (2) you saw it here first!

I just had to respond because my selection was disrespected... As I understand it, we are voting for the "greatest", rather than the "best", which is quite a difference. If we were voting for the "best", then we would all be voting purely on statistical evidence. However, since we are voting for the "greatest" team ever, we are all going to have differing opinions on who was "greater", since we have different interpretations of what the "greatest" is. I don't think Bellamy was being disrespectful just looking for reasons. The number of Jansen votes stands out like a sore thumb. We all agree he's a v good player and also that he has an excellent relationship with the fans (which is just as important when picking this team) it just seems that saying he is the 2nd greatest striker we've had is a bit of a stretch no matter how you define "greatest" I agree he could have been but for many reasons he hasn't fulfilled it. If we were picking the 'Greatest' team from the last 10 years (as some people on here seem to be) then I would agree, but not the greatest of all time. I voted Garner but I can see excellent reasons for voting Briggs, Southworth even Sutton or Speedie. Again, not being disrespectful just saying that it's not obvious why you would vote Jansen so please give us your case.

i think this just incentivises the big clubs to spend more on acadamies which means that any decent 14yr old from Kazakhstan to East Lancashire ends up at Arsenal or United. Meanwhile the players that small clubs nurture have a tougher time moving up the league because they don't meet the quota. Would we have bought Stead last year if these rules were in place or would we have stuck with Gally?

voted Garner but looking at the list I have to feel sorry for Mike Newell. He was fantastic for us in the promotion season - helping Speedie score all those goals and then putting away the penalty in the final (lets ignore the 2nd one) then he's Shearer's preffered partner for 3 seasons in the premiership helping him become the best striker in the league and ROvers to the title yet we don't seem to give him much love? I remember after the final whistle at the play-off final he came over to my section of the crowd to celebrate and everyone started chanting "Speeeeeedie". Poor bloke looked heartbroken... He's done more for the club than Jansen or even Sutton did and yet he's rarely mentioned in the same breath. I'm guilty of this as well, Ijust can't work out why?!

this is tough. the posts for Briggs and Southworth have been enlightening. But for being the undisputed star of the team for the first 7 or 8 years of my time as a Rovers fan as well as for being our leading all-time scorer I have to go for Garner. Coupled with this is a romantic notion that he was probably the last great "pint and a fag with the fans" type player we will ever see. all of which might be harsh on the other two but there you go...

On a scale of 1-10. 245. thought so just hope we stuff them - I don't mind keeping stum when we score but I can't cheer if they do...

need help here guys. I have managed to get a ticket off my brother at the FA. It's not in the Blackburn end. I've never been to the dingle den before - how likely am I to get my head ripped off?

events this month were out of the boards control. They should be judged on how they respond and what they and hughes do with the £5m. As i see it we have lost one decent midfielder and gained one decent midfielder (with a better PL pedigree) and we have brought in a couple of good defenders. That's a step up. Yes, a striker would is needed but I'm not a fan of short-term loan deals and there don't seem to be any decent signings being made. Do we need another Hakan Sukur right now? No. Maybe JJ will be this seasons Steadinho. It's worth a go.

JW had no choice, £5m is still more than BF is worth. Yes, the team would be better with him in it but from the moment BF threw his toys out of the pram he was not going to be any use to us this season. An innefectual sulking playmaker is not what we need.

How? This isn't bitterness over him wanting to go - I don't expect loyalty from any player these days. I'm even willing to be proved wrong because I haven't been to every game he's played. But I have seen him play 5 or 6 times in the flesh and the same again on TV and I can't remember a single game where he imposed himself. When he turned up we thought we were getting a Viera/Gerrard, then it turned out he's not much of a tackler so that changed to 'he's a playmaker' but whilst I can think of many chances created by Emerton, Thompson and even MGP in recent weeks the clinical through balls or dangerous set-pieces from Ferguson seem to have slipped my mind. Lily has been a top Premiership performer for 4 or 5 seasons and his impact will be much more than BF's. Savage can tackle and his set-pieces on Sat led to one goal and hit a post.

couldn't agree more. Ferguson just isn't terribly good. He's not terribly bad either. But I think Savage will be 3x the player for us that BF was/is/whatever...