What can you say about a performance like that , I think we managed to string more than two passes together about three times in the whole game , our ball retention and our ability to win the ball back was shocking, we lost about 80% of the 50/50 balls, consequently we made Villa look like they were playing with a man more than us. Brad Freidel showed his worth last night by staying on his feet and out facing Baros. The midfield was lightweight, only Savage really got to grips with their midfield ( well done for keeping his cool when that sly Villa player did him with a spiteful tackle down the back of his calf), Pedersen and Bentley tackle like sugar stealers ( if you had a team full of these two you'd never win anything ,you'd never have the ball !) not only that but they persisted in giving the ball away. Reid stiffened things up a bit when he moved inside but is obviously not a ball player. Nobody picked Phillips up when he dropped deep and he was always the out ball for them. Nobody took on that Billy Bunter look a like Wilfrid Bouma until Emmo came on. Our back four had a collective nightmare, hopefully they can't play that bad again. I thought Pongo had his best game for us and looked sharp, Bellamy is obviously top class but we have got to get him on the ball more. Dickov was up to his usual tricks when he came on , giving away soft free kicks when it was vital to retain possession. They guy who said " Villa never really caused us any problems ", I can't believe you were at the same game as me , we were second best for 80 minutes last night and we could have got a real caning. Plus points ? just three of them.

David Pleat has us down to finish 4th in today's Grauniad, tomorrow's match is assuming massive proportions. Come On Rovers.

I meant to say on that Boxing day me and two mates had gone to Turf Moor to watch Burnley thrash United 6-1 ( you could do that then, one mate was a Burnley fan the other was a United fan and we all stood together). I got told our score on the terraces at Burnley and I thought theyd'd got it the wrong way round. I could be wrong but I think there was a lot of big scores that day, Somebody. Blackpool ?? got 9 and it was the record for most goals scored in one day in the old first division.

Yeah , they played on Boxing Day morning with an 11.30 kickoff I think ( I can't imagine many making the trip down from Lancashire, I know I didn't).From pictures I've seen of the game it was played on a pitch ankle deep in mud but that team could score goals on a quagmire, apparent we had 10 shots on goal and scored eight goals they had about 13 shots and only scored 2. Dougie gave Martin Peters the usual runaround and Peters got dropped for the return two days later. I went to this one , we were never at the races, typical Rovers we pulled in a big crowd and let them down, West Ham brought a guy called Eddie Bovington in to mark Douglas and he followed him into the Rovers changing rooms at half time he was that close. We got back in the game at 1-2 after about an hour but then let the Hammers in to score the third and conclusive goal straight away. I remember on the day of that game the Daily Mail had a cartoon of a guy selling scorecards outside Ewood, like it was going to be a cricket score, maybe the players saw that.

They were a great side Den, without doubt the best attacking team of the two. If only Jack Walker had got wealthy sooner we would have been able to correct our main weakness - a lack of strength in depth, when players got injured or lost form there was nobody really to bring in. Just think only three cost money, Else £20k, Harrison £20k and Ferguson £2k from Accrington Stanley - what a bargain he was. All the rest came up through the ranks. How about this for a combined team- Flowers---- Berg, England, Hendry, Newton-----Ferguson, Clayton, Douglas, Harrison----Pickering, Shearer. Subs---- Else, Le Saux, Batty, McEvoy, Sutton. That team would take some beating and score some goals!

I took my son to that game, afterwards we were waiting for autographs outside on a miserable, cold ,dark and rainy evening. The Forest players pushed their way through the small throng to their coach , every one refused to sign my sons book, all except Stuart Pearce. He kept all the so called stars on the Forest coach waiting for about 10 minutes whilst he insisted on signing for everybody and had a brief chat with my son, the mark of a true sportsmen and a gent.

When I first started going to football matches the "Chelsea" of the day was Tottenham Hotspur, every player was a top international, they played with style and swagger, they scored goals for fun and they very rarely lost. They were the first modern team to do the " Double" , so when they played in the Charity Shield they faced the full England 11 , and beat them 2-0. This same Spurs team became the first British team to win a European trophy when they beat Athletico Madrid 5-2 to claim the old Cup-winners cup. From Bill Brown in goal to Cliff Jones on the left wing they had a starstudded line up, Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay drove them forward in midfield , with England No9 Bobby Smith and the incomparable Jimmy Greaves banging in the goals. This was the team that ran out at Ewood on Saturday 7th of September 1963, the Rovers team had established stars in Ronnie Clayton and Bryan Douglas as well as some up and coming players who chose this match to stake their claim for future greatness- the three ex- youth team lads , Newton , England and Pickering plus the two Mikes on the wings Ferguson and Harrison. Nobody in the crowd of 20,949 who turned up that Saturday could have possibly predicted what they were about to see. From the off Rovers were buzzing, knocking the ball about in great style with the little maestro Douglas running Blanchflower ragged, it was Douglas who opened the scoring then McEvoy made it 2-0 from Pickering's pass. In no time at all Douglas had put McEvoy in for his second and after 25 minutes Rovers were beating the second best team in Europe 3-0. Obviously Spurs weren't going to take this lying down and rallyed, a lucky Greaves goal followed by a rocket from Mackay made it 3-2 at half time. It was one of those halves you don't want to end because you think " we can't play as well as that again and Spurs will only get better ." Fortunately Rovers roared out of the blocks and took the game back to Spurs, 10 minutes into the second half Mike England rose to power an unstoppable header in to the back of the net from a corner and Spurs wilted. From that moment Rovers and Douglas in particular tore Spurs apart giving them a lesson in passing and finishing- McEvoy twice running through a weary back line to slip the ball past Brown before Pickering administered the coup-de-grace with a rocket into the top corner from another flowing attack ,in all honesty it could have ended 10-2, Rovers were so dominant. The Rovers faithful rubbed their eyes in disbelief, the mighty Tottenham Hotspur demolished in 90 minutes, never to be quite the same force again. Put to the sword by a team who looked like a footballing version of the Haarlem Globetrotters. What a great team we had in the making, mostly young lads with their best years still to come--------- sadly for various reasons and inspite of some great results and fabulous football this Rovers team never went on to achieve the success that might have been. This was the most perfect display ever by a Rovers team, certainly in my life time , and I consider myself priviliged to have witnessed it, the football they played that day was truly awesome. Since then I've had my ups and downs with Rovers but nothing has compared with the feeling I had as a 14 year old lad skipping down Bolton Road on my way home about 5 feet off the ground.

Wouldn't it be nice to come up with players of this standard again- the best full back ever to play for Rovers ( since Bob Crompton anyway ), the best centre half I've ever seen , and a centre forward second only to Shearer in my opinion. Funnily enough none of these players started off in the position they later made their own, is there a case for experimenting with players in different positions, Andy Mc Evoy also started as a pretty average midfielder but became a goal scoring machine when he was moved up front.

In reference to the '59 youth team , although Newton, England and Pickering all became international stars Griffiths,Ratcliffe,Bradshaw and Paddy Daly all played for Rovers first team and the other four lads all played league football ,Vinnie Leach having a long and distinguished career at Bury and Rochdale.

Disapointing but the game was lost the minute Bellamy did his hamstring ( whenever that was- it seems to be permanent ). The boys battled to the end and never gave up but never really looked like creating a meaningful chance. to be honest we were totally toothless . Apart from Saha and Rooney the Red Rats looked very ordinary and a team who actually had a strike force would have had a real chance tonight, it pains me to say it but Kuqi is without a doubt the worst striker EVER to pull on the Blue and White( and I go back 45 years ). Unusually I thought we lacked aggression and lost too many 50-50 balls tonight, although it's not easy when you're playing the officials as well. Tugay was fouled when he lost possession in the lead up to the Saha slice and what was the difference between Zurab's handball and Ferdinand's- answer- there wasn't any. Freide -9 Outstanding- Did not deserve to be on the losing side. Neil -6 Did o.k. but got booked arguing again ( he's never going to learn is he). Zurab -8 Played really well , unlucky with the pen. Nelsen -8 Top performance again, a rock. Gray -5 It's not often you make two howlers that lead to a goal but he did. Reid -6 Not in the game, he can' t play out wide , it's in the middle or nothing. Savage -6 Huffed and puffed but really contributed very little. Tugay- 7 The usual mix of great passes and heart stopping moments, should have had a free kick before the second goal. Pedersen -5 If you wanted to know why I think he's over rated you know now. Bentley -5 Anonymous until three quarter time when he decided to play a bit. The Subs- Neither had much time to do much so no marks but just a remark , Peter is so left footed it's untrue and he lost the ball every time he had it , not a good first impression. All in all a bad day at the office , all we can take away is our bravery in difficult circumstances, the board need to take a long look at our striking resources, without an addition our season is just going to fade away.

It's not a night for playing young kids like Peter or trying new formations like Pedersen up front with Kuqi. If Bellamy is fit he should start, if he isn't play five in midfield- Emerton,Reid,Tugay,Savage,Pedersen with Bentley up front on his own. We need somebody up front who can hold onto the ball and let the midfield get forward, it's no good just having Kuqi up on his own , the ball will just come straight back at us.We need to pass our way out not just hammer it from back to front.

It was as long ago as last season, in the game at Ewood Saha clearly controlled the ball with his hand before it ran to Smith who scored, Or was it the other way round ? Anyway they got away with a blatant handball.

I thought Reid did well yesterday (apart from his shooting) ,Who played better in midfield ? Bentley, Savage ,Pedersen ? I don't think so. Of course he's not the new Tugay but who is ?, certainly not Robbie Savage.

Pedersen will never make a " winger " if he lives to be a thousand, he has absolutely NO pace at all ,I wouldn't mind betting that over 20 yards he's slower than Freidel. What he has got is speed of thought and two great feet , normally given these attributes he would be worth trying up front, but given his lack of pace and very light physique I think he would be less successful than he is now. O.K. he's got a good spring and can sometimes surprise defenders in the air, but most of his headers are miss directed, how many headers has he actually scored from ? Another thing- his corners are getting worse.

I can't believe the people slagging Todd off for the first goal, who was running with Giggs in midfield and putting him under pressure before the pass ? yes you're right _ nobody! That's why we conceded the goal , the back four are lambs to the slaughter in that situation .

Phillip , I agree with you entirely about Simon Jordan, I can't say I like the guy but I think his column ( it's the Observer ,by the way is spot on.

I try and tell it as I see , it's only my opinion after all, take it or leave it. I try and be objective and I watch both teams. Last night we were in total command of the game at half time but at full time we were hanging on by our fingertips against a poor Pompey team, we could easily have ended up with 2-2 or even a 2-3, fair enough we could also have won 4-1 but second half that would have been against the run of play. We looked tired second half and several players seemed to vanish, given the fact that most teams have played a game more than us over Christmas this should not be the case. I thought both Bellamy and Tugay should have come on earlier , Bellamy transformed our attack ( when did we last have a player with his electric pace ? ) and he has got to start against Man.U. I'd play Dickov and Bellamy, Kuqi was poor last night he didn't look a player at all, they say the first yard is in the head and maybe thats his downfall, he seems to react more slowly than everyone else. Mickey Gray has got to be fit for that game as well, Matteo looks like Al Murray but last night he played like him. Although I criticised Bentley I still think he's more of a threat than Emerton , as somebody else said the way to deal with the chance he missed was to dummy a right foot shot and pull it back to the left and pick your spot left footed, I could see Bentley doing that , he got a bit of a kicking last night and I think opponents have realised he doesn't like the rough stuff.

A very tired performance tonight , Portsmouth did enough to earn a draw at the death but lacked the fire power to do anything about it. Mike Dean was listening to the little voices in his head and from the best viewing position in the stadium gave a handball against Nelsen that never was, later on gave us a generous free kick which Pedersen put away nicely. First half we passed it around neatly enough but all the time in front of Pompey ,the only real chance we got Dickov nodded in a rebound from Reids fierce drive. Second half was dreadful ,Pompey took the game to us and although we had several good chances we couldn't kill them off. Lua Lua should have scored near the end and we came away with a very fortunate 3 points. Ratings- Friedel 6, beaten by a good free kick. Neill 6, steady Zurab 7, played well Nelsen 7, ditto Matteo 4, played like he,d been out for 4 years not 4 months Bentley 4, he's a lightweight, the new Barry Ratcliffe ( for the old guys on the site ) Reid 6, brilliant first half, never came out at half time Savage 6, worked hard , missed a sitter second half Pedersen 5, scored a great free kick then tried to find every way to give the ball to Pompey Dickov 7, worked hard ,scored a good goal, unlucky to be subbed Kuqi 3, an embarassment, looked like he was straight out of the Sunday School League, his failure to read Bellamys wall pass in the second half spoke volumes Emerton 4, poor, missed a good chance Bellamy 7, a real class act, should have been on at half time Tugay ?, on for 30 seconds at the death We'll play better than this and lose in the future so thanks for the three points.

I'm not predicting a score but what I will predict is we need to start the game at a high tempo, get our foot on Pompeys throat and keep it there. If we start off slowly and play casual football the little bit of confidence they will bring with them will grow and we'll have a problem to solve. Kill Rovers Kill.

A massive loss for The Rovers but the damage was done nearly four years ago, what might have been doesn't bear thinking about. Given the form he was in at the time the sky was the limit for Matty, the only consolation is we would probably have lost him to one of the bigger clubs before too long anyway. Thanks for everything son, you played the game the right way , with a smile on your face, and you certainly put a smile on mine.

Bentley, Reid , Savage, Pedersen, We look a bit light weight in midfield, hope I'm wrong.

Following our last promotion ( the one in which we hammered our friends from Burnley twice) I went to the club shop to buy my son a video of the season for Christmas. After queueing for ages I got to the front to be told they had sold out, fair enough, "when are you getting some more in" I asked. The answer was "We aren't " this was in the October following a season in which we had just been promoted and interest in the club was on the way up again. When I persisted and asked to see the manager I was told no more copies were being made because of a wrangle over copyright concerning the late Jack Walkers estate???????????????? We must have been the only club in the whole of the football league where you couldn't buy a video of the previous season. After that I've hardly bothered with the shop again, most of the merchandise is just tat anyway. We're a Premier League club with a corner shop mentality. P.S. Can anybody out there throw any light on why that particular video was deleted so quickly, or better still sell me a copy ?

It was 20 points and I don't think we got out of the bottom two places all season. After Jan the 1st 1966 we played 20 games in the league and lost 17 of them, of the last 13 games we lost 12 scoring 10 goals in the process, it was a miserable end to a dreadful season. Having said that we played some brilliant football in the F.A. Cup scoring 16 goals in 6 games attracting two home gates of over 33,000 for the visits of Norwich and Sheff. Wed.

In all the years I've watched Rovers the accident to Matty was the biggest loss we have sustained to an injury ( and I go back further than Jimmy Kerr doing his knee, when Rovers were planning to build a team around him.) His loss was incalcuable, the partnership with Cole was bringing goals all the time and the attacking football we were playing at the time was a delight to watch,he wasn't picked for the England squad for nothing. I said at the time that losing Matty was a bigger loss than losing Damien Duff, both of them were good to watch but Matty scored more goals and played more games. Having said all that it's nearly four years since the accident and Matty is still no nearer getting his real form back, even his biggest supporters, and I'm one, have started to acknowledge he may never play at the top level again. However I'm sure but for injuries to two defenders yesterday he would have got a run out, probably subbing Bellamy, but tactics dictated otherwise. In the case of Dickov versus Jansen, well it's no contest, the little Scot is not fit to lace Matty's boots- could you see Matty fluffing the one on one chance against Birmingham like Dickov did ( remember Bolton ?) Matty will always be a legend at Ewood come what may , two other strikers never played at the top level for us but don't tell me that Speedie and Garner won't always be remembered whenever Blackburn Rovers are talked about.

I,ve been very impressed with Chimbonda , For £500,000 he strikes me as a steal, he's got excellent athleticism, he,s good in possession and he can head it. We,ll have to see if he can maintain this form for a full season but he's one of the reasons Wigan are doing so well.