Only criticism of Todd and Johansen, apart from the odd dodgy pass, would be that they let the ball bounce a couple of times when they should have gone to win the ball.

Apart from the top few sides the Premiership is very closely balanced. Go on a good run and people start talking about Europe. Go on a bad run and they talk about relegation. I think Charlton typify the 'average' side in the Premiership. They work hard and are organised, but they don't have much in the way of quality. They'll have good runs and patches of bad form too. They're emminently beatable and we should be looking to beat sides like them at Ewood. An early goal would be great and if we get it I think we might even get a comfortable win (apart from the traditional last 10 mins back to the wall defending!) The longer it takes for us to score the more likely we might get hit with a sucker punch and the more nervous everyone in the ground will become, including the players.

I was quite pleased to see Flitcroft back playing and unsettling Everton, especially Gravesen. I think it was Flitty who gave Gravesen one of his meaty challenges and I think Gravesen knew he wasn't going to be able to intimidate us in midfield from then on. That makes a big difference IMO. Dan

If Hughes can bring a new striker in, then yes that would be a great idea. Dickov aint that hard to replace you know! We should sell our best attacker this season to play "a new striker" instead? Who can we replace Dickov with? Anyone we do sign will probably be an unknown commodity and potentially not up to the job. Who is 'a new striker'? I think a replacement for Dickov would be difficult to find. We're going to struggle to find a striker in the transfer window as it is, never mind offloading a good, honest professional like Dickov;-) All the best, Dan

Yes I appreciate that. The point which confused me is that Gally was clearly offside by a yard - you're right he should not have been there - I wondered if the keeper spilling the ball had the effect of playing him onside. Obviously not. If a player is stood in an offside position and an opponent plays the ball to him he becomes onside? Hello all, This is my first post so you'll have to excuse me potentially making a mess of it. A ball passed by an opponent to a player in an offside position means that the player isn't offside. I recall Peacock passing to McManaman in our six yard box against Liverpool a few years ago. I this instance the ball was played forward by a Rovers player and at that juncture Gallagher was stood in an offside position. If the ball flew in it would have been allowed as Gally wouldn't have interfered. The fact that the keeper spilled the ball did not render Gally onside from the original shot ie when the ball was played forward. In a similar vein I often hear people shouting that you can't be offside when the ball takes a deflection off an opponent. That's wrong. If you're offside when the ball is played it doesn't matter if it takes a deflection or not, you'll still be offside. Hope that makes sense! Dan