Awful game , neither team would have scored if they'd have played until midnight. Dry, bumpy pitch and a blustery wind at pitch level made life a bit difficult but there's no excuse for performances like that. My son, who lives a fair distance away has been to 4 games this season, West Brom 1-1, M,boro 0-4, Everton 0-0 and City 0-0, so in four home games he has not seen a Rovers forward score a goal in 360 minutes of football!!!!!!!.He was mightily p----d off today. We need to remember things like that when we lambast people for not turning up at Ewood. I thought the defence played soundly , Matteo played very well at left back , but forward of Makoena there was very little. Maybe the players were tired after a lot of big games in a short space of time but that was dreadful. Nice little cameo from Gallagher when he came on, he was sharp ,could actually run with the ball and beat a man. My favourite moment was the Axe tackle on Robbie Fowler near the dugout, can that man tackle !!! Savage is not in the same league when it comes to tackling.

Just been watching Match of the Day , Paul Scholes got sent off for a second yellow card ( which should have been a straight red ) for having the most almighty whack at an Everton player with the ball nowhere in sight. Nothing like this tackle happened in Saturdays Semi-Final, will it be all over Thursdays papers ? I think not. Watch this space.

Disapointed with the scoreline yesterday , the Rovers had their game plan which was to disrupt Arsenal's rhythm and stop them playing, Arsenal had their game plan which was to fall over in every tackle, working on the assumption that the ref would give them 75% of the free kicks and they were right. If the Arsenal way of playing is allowed to prevail football will not be the game I played and watched for 40 years, it will become a soccer version of rugby's tig and pass with physical contact not allowed. I admire Arsenal's football but their gamesmanship was sickening, I've never seen a team spend as much time lying on the grass. They had guys built like light-heavyweight contenders, Lauren,Toure, Vierra and co. going down when tackled by midgets like Thommo and Dickov as though they'd been hit with an axe. I'm prepared to give Todd the benefit of the doubt but given the disgraceful hue and cry lead by the London media I expect the F.A. will throw the book at him, today's Observer was particularly outrageous and I'm certainly going to change my Sunday paper after today. From a Rovers point of view the defence played well , but we lack creativity in midfield, Oh for a Berkovic type player who could carry the battle into their half, Pedersen was peripheral as was Thommo and Flitty. Reid and the Axe did their best but you can't beat Arsenal without everybody playing 100%. Up front we'd nothing, our lack of pace allowing Arsenal to play a very high line in defence and catch us off side all afternoon. Senderos turns about as fast as an oil tanker but we never got him turning all afternoon. We need to concentrate on achieving safety now with two home games on the bounce, four points from these two will do.

Sorry to spoil your story Hanks but he did actually score 17 goals for Huddersfield , some of which believe it or not were penalties, he also scored 3 goals for Rovers.

Martin Britt was an England youth international who came to Ewood with a great reputation, apparently he made mince-meat out of the great Tommy Smith in a youth cup semi-final in the mid sixties. He played 8 games in the league without scoring in the 1965-66 season. At the start of the next season he started in the Central League and scored 12 goals in 12 games playing with a knee he had injured early in that season, he had to retire at the age of 21. One or two other Rovers who had to retire or leave early early because of injuries were- Jimmy Kerr, saw him at Bury before he came to Ewood , he was a real player , could have been a star but he did his knee as well. Steve Agnew, great at Barnsley, never had a chance at Rovers. Alan Gilliver, great goalscorer at Huddersfield but came with a bad back, had the operation and couldn't bend at all after that. One or two nominations for you to think about for worst player- Francis Kopel, Brian Hill, John Coddington ( anybody remember the penalty he took against Palace ? I've never seen anything like it , he had a longer run up than any fast bowler and when he actually got to strike the ball his shot was so soft the goalie could have saved it by throwing his cap on the ball !!! Unbelievably the ref made him take it again because the keeper had moved and he did exactly the same thing, the ball only just made it to the goalkeeper he had to dive forward to save it !!!!!!!!)

Having got this far I think it would be foolish to throw away our advantage by playing an over expansive game, Southampton need to win this game much more than we do , why play into their hands ? At the moment our strength is in our defence, we can strangle the life out of most teams, I know it doesn't put bums on seats or sell season tickets but thats not the issue on Saturday, making sure we don't give Southampton a leg up is. My team- Freidel Neill Todd Nelsen Matteo Mokoena Emerton Reid Savage/Flitcroft ? Pedersen Dickov/Stead? * Savage and Dickov if fit Subs Enkleman Amoruso ( may need to throw him up front if the worst happens ) Tugay (may need some creativity in midfield --as above-----------) Stead/Dickov Johnson Last Saturdays " performance" puts Gallagher and Thompson out of the reckoning for me.

Great performance today ,thats the best we've played for a long while. If we can maintain that level of commitment we should have no problems. What a difference a day makes, --- sound of me eating humble pie !

To win games you have to score goals, thats my problem!

Which three games do you see us winning then ?

Who was it said there are lies, damn lies. and statistics, going off actual playing performances we are very poor at the moment, apart from the Norwich game when were you last happy with the football we are playing? Both Palace and S/ hampton are playing better football than we are , principly because they have a threat up front, Rovers at the moment have the most toothless attack in the premier league. I hope i'm wrong but I do fear the worst.

Remember who told you first, Palace and Southampton are staying up, where does that leave Rovers ? I know we have to play them both at Ewood but on current form I can't see us beating either of them. As I see it the only hope we've got is for Pompey to drop down into trouble. At the moment on current form Rovers are the third worst team in the competition, anything from tomorrows game at Goodison would be a massive plus, but I fear the worst.