http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/world-cup-2006/win-tickets.html loads of tickets available here - every day until the world cup starts... In total, Yahoo! will be giving away over 300 tickets to england matches.... not many people have entered the email competition yet, so your chances of winning are good! Let me know if any of you win!

It's a shame that you can almost guarantee some trouble amoung the minority of thugs that will go to germany and use football as an excuse to have a fight. That aside - I think the Germans and Dutch might kick off - there is plenty of animosity there!

Luckily yes! I'll be stationed at Berlin for the tournament ( for work) but am hoping to be allowed out to use the england tickets! If not - i have a list as long as my arm of people who want them ;-)

There is a World Cup ticket competition launching on Yahoo! next week. In order to qualify, you have to ask / answer questions. The best answers giving you more goes at winning tickets. There are LOADS of tickets up for grabs - so if you weren't lucky enough to get hold of England tickets - get on their and have a go! I'll post the link when it goes live

if any of you are in Berlin - i'll be based there for the duration, so give me a shout! other than that - I'll be going to the eng v paraguay, eng v sweeden, winners of round of 16 and semi final of eng v brazil ( hope so) 64 days to go!!! keep an eye on www.fifaworldcup.com for last minute ticket news. england will apparantly have 150,000 fans there!

latest from lawrensen..... Like West Ham, Wigan are good at coming out firing when they've had a bad scoreline, and I think they can do so again at Blackburn. The Latics seem to play better on the road than they do at home and I think they might surprise Blackburn. Ewood Park is a difficult place for visiting teams, but this is a bit of derby match and it could be close. rovers 1 wigan 2

He's there for the very same reason you have just posted. You say the players need 'motivating' Well Keegan was the ultimate man manager and motivator but look where that got us. The England team are their for pride - not money. Owen, Rooney, Neville, Lampard, Gerrard - none of those guys are just doing it for the money - they love football. They need expert analysis so that the manager can put right what is going wrong on the pitch. They need someone to read the game and be able to make quick clear instructions.

I do remember because i went to the so called mecca of football and watched our team totally and utterly play Celtic off the park. That we didn't win that game was nothing to do with Martin O'Neil. They were the luckiest team in football that night. O Neil did make his name at Leicester. He was being touted as the next Man U manager before he decided to take life easy north of the border. Anyway - I don't doubt that he's a great manager - I just don't think he's any better than Sam.

He has done wonders at Bolton with no money. He gets the best out of the players available to him. Like Sparky, Jose etc, he's of the new breed of managers that disect the game in every minute detail. What has O'neil done that big sam hasn't? They both managed teams in all the lower leagues. Big Sam has done better in the prem than o'neil did.

And all those people who wanted Chris Sutton back - he's been totally absent too.

All will be forgotten once people see a match there. it will be the best stadium in the world and hopefully i'll see the rovers at Wenbley again! Full members cup final was the last time for me!

no he wasn't! But 'who the let the bent out' was!

well, it's the first game I'd been to for quite a while and what a dissapointment! from the first whistle, not a single player looked up for it. WBA closed us down really quickly and never let us do much the ball. Granted - we passed the ball around and looked a far slicker team in that respect, but we had absolutely nothing in the final third where it really counts. I've seen people blame Hughes, but at least he got the subs spot on today. firstly - tugay. was one of those frustrating games that he can have and I put this more down to a bit of tiredness. pederson was also the most anonymous player on the pitch! I expected big things from him, but he just didn't deliver. Never once tried to beat his man. His only decent contribution was his free kick. Kuki was absolutely awful, so he had to go off. I can't comment for the rest of the season having seen the games from the tv, but on this showing, he looks woefully short of being a premiership player. I think he won 2 headers all game which is criminal for a man of his size. He doesn't seem to possess a footballing brain, as so many times he just wasn't on bently's wave length. Todd also had a shocker. Lost every single header to old man campbell! OK - here's the positives: Bently - what a classy player. Very neat touches and is just crying out for an intelligent striker to play along side him. ( can't wait to see him up front with bellamy) Made plenty of very tellign runs, but unfortunately, our midfield failed to spot them,, opting to pass sideways. Flo - difficult to tell, but the guy has pace, a very good touch, good awareness and likes to run with it. I think he'll be a hit. Would have been far more effective than kuki if on from the start. Peter - needs to control his temper and was caught in possession a few times. But looks like he's a skillfull player. Reid - not his best recent performance, but looks very strong and more composed this season. Prefer him in central midfield than on the right. Hughes - made all the same changes I would have done! Not many times that happens!!! The balti pie at half time. Negtives: players looked tired and not really up for it. defence never looked like being first to the ball. players don't seem to want to pass to kuki.

that article on Grainger makes me laugh. People queuing up to state that poor old grainger will have to work for the rest of his life because he didn't make enough money out of the game to retire! My heart bleeds! So he managed to play football and make a living for over 10 years - he should be thanking his lucky stars!!

the fact that people actually reply to him makes me laugh! he's clearly ona wind up, yet people can't just ignore him! He'd soon leave if no one repsonded to him!

I agree partly with the Jim sentiments, but for me, it's also a question of entertainment full stop. There will always be a hard core element of blackburn Rovers fans that will watch the team come hell or high water. However, for many fans out there, myself included, who will always be supporters of the club, it's just we do not want to waste very hard earned money on watching terrible football. That's not entertainment it's punishment. Scenario 1) bloke 'a' goes to watch 4 games on the trot and probably pays about £300 inc travel, beer etc. The team plays rubbish football and he goes away from every game wound up and thoroughly peed off. The only respite he gets is to 'bitch' about it on here. Scenario2) bloke 'b' is also a rovers fan. he decides not to go to the games for a while, as he's not enjoying it. He still gets text alerts sent to his phone, watches sky sports / soccer saturday / grandstand to ensure he gets the results. If they lose, he's peed off, but nothing like he would be if he had gone to the game. He then spends £300 on a long weekend to Barcelona with the missus. Has an amazing time and plans to see a bit more of the world. Now tell me why bloke b should carry on watching the team when they are playing so badly? just because 'you're not a real fan unless you go to every game' Well so what! I couldn't care less what label is put on it - it simply comes down to a straight forward choice between how you spend your hard earned spare time! All that aside - Hughes has the boys playing exciting football again, so I think I'll be lifting my self imposed ban soon! Football fans fickle? Yes! It's my right to be!

does anyone on here know any of the players? maybe you could ask them why they don't demand something more uplifting!

Very shocking all round really. The first i knew about it, was this morning when I was in a conference. I had my phone on silent and I got a text asking if I was ok. I replied - 'fine thanks, how are you' !! when I got another text 2 mins later saying the same thing, I relaised something was not right, so I went onto the WAP site on my phone to discover the news. The fact that I live in kings cross and use that station most days, really brings it home. The worst thing about today though, is a girl who has been doing some work experience with us for 2 weeks. She's from Marseille and is supposed to be here for 8 weeks. We got word just over an hour ago that she was on the ground floor of the bus that was bombed. Thankfully, she's in hospital and is ok, although awaiting an operation on her knee. A couple of us are just about to head over to the hospital to see if we can do anything for her. The french embassy have also been amazing. They have called the hospital several times to get updates and offered to pay for her immediate flight home if she is able. More on this when I know! most of my friends down here that I've spoken to, are all of the opinion that we will be back at work first thing in the morning to show thos ******** that they can't break us. hope everyone else based down here is ok. cheers Andy

Don't class them as Muslims - they are terrorists - purely and simply extremist animals.

are all the london based rovers fans ok? tris and co?

i've not managed to get to a game for quite a while now, so it's very encouraging to hear all the good things said about stead. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure he had it in him, but I hope with a full pre season ( and maybe a lot of weights to bulk up) we could have a very good player on our hands! Cheers for all the reports

good article in the guardian: http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/....html?gusrc=rss Burnley aim to end 45 years of hurt Lancashire rivals renew hostilities in Sunday's fifth-round tie Stephen Bierley Wednesday February 16, 2005 The Guardian Blackburn Rovers fans tauntingly refer to the home of Burnley as "Tiny Moor". "Jackburn Jokers living in the shadow of the Reebok," Clarets retaliate, taking vicarious delight in Bolton's Premiership dominance. Look at the map of Lancashire, gather in a huge slice of footballing history, ignore the two Manchester clubs, and there is no obvious reason why the greatest of red rose rivalries should not have been between Blackburn and Preston, Accrington, Bolton, Rochdale or even Blackpool. But by tradition, Blackburn versus Burnley it has always been. Lancashire was the birthplace of professional football, and the very start of modern football is spiritually set in Blackburn, with Ewood Park hosting internationals as the 19th century drew to its end. Perhaps the mill town of Burnley, standing at a higher elevation, and like Blackburn home to one of the immortal dozen founder members of the Football League, always believed in an innate superiority and so the rivalry was nourished. Mike Holgate, who has just published a book on this rivalry, dating back to an 1882 friendly that Rovers won 10-0, tells the story of a talented cousin who had a trial for Burnley and was turned down. A similar offer then came from Blackburn but as Holgate recalls: "He never went. He just couldn't face it because of what his family and mates would think." Discounting the war years and various loan deals, only 30 players have pulled on the claret and blue and the white and blue. In recent times David May and Andy Todd; most famously Adam Blacklaw, John Connelly and Keith Newton. Yet if this relatively small number might appear to emphasise the great divide - which along the M65 is about 10 miles - then relations between the two clubs have invariably been cordial. Not so with the fans. "It became a lot more bitter during the 1970s and 1980s," said Holgate. This was a time when football hooliganism reached a peak, although there were untimely echoes of this violent past when Burnley were last at home to Blackburn, on December 17 2000. Blackburn won 2-0 and hundreds fought it out in Burnley's shopping precinct, with around 20 charged with public order offences. Stores were looted and for more than an hour after the final whistle Blackburn fans were held at Turf Moor for their own safety. Meetings between senior police officers and the two clubs have tried to ensure that Sunday's Cup match passes off without incident. There will be high-visibility patrols throughout Burnley comprising mounted police, dog handlers and special evidence-gathering teams with video cameras. "As long as that rivalry remains friendly and doesn't spill over into disorder then we have no problem with that," said Superintendent Neil Smith. It is possible that what happened five years ago was inflamed by the fact that the two clubs had crossed paths so infrequently since the end of the 1970s and that the chance of a little tribal warfare proved irresistible. Since 1979 Burnley and Blackburn have met only four times in the league, and Sunday's fifth-round encounter is the first in the Cup since their quarter-final in March 1960, which went to a replay. For Holgate, a Burnley fan, the memory of those two matches remains as vivid as it does painful. A crowd of 51,501 saw a dour first half, with little indication of the ensuing drama. "I was there on my own," said Holgate, who was only 12 years old. Inspired by Jimmy McIlroy, who has a stand named after him, Burnley went 3-0 up, and so it remained with not much more than 15 minutes left. But what so easily might have gone on to be a Burnley league and Cup double evaporated under the Pennine skies. Four days later, Rovers won 2-0 in extra-time, then lost in the final to Wolves. "I suppose the fact that I went to that first Cup match on my own tells you a lot about the different times then," said Holgate. "I can also remember that in the 1960s several of the Burnley players were part-time because the club insisted they took on a trade." Burnley, famous country wide for producing player after home-grown player, were in their pomp then, and still harbour hopes of a return to those glory years. Indeed many believe it is their right, and mutter darkly that but for Jack Walker's millions they would still be north Lancashire's top dogs. So they might, but not in the Premiership. Only four meaningful meetings in the last 25 years. Hardly a rivalry at all, you might say. Except that at 13.40 on Sunday afternoon, and a more ridiculous time could not be imagined, time past and time present will again entwine. To misquote TS Eliot: "Footballs echo in the memory" - and for 90 minutes the rivalry will be every bit as intense as it ever was. Rolls of honour Blackburn Rovers Premiership champions 1995 League champions 1912, 1914 Second Division champions 1939 Third Division champions 1975 FA Cup winners 1884, 1885, 1886, 1890, 1891, 1928 League Cup winners 2002 Burnley League champions 1921, 1960 Second Division champions 1898, 1973 Third Division champions 1982 Fourth Division champions 1992 FA Cup winners 1914

And when you look around at the 10,000 fans at Aberdeen - you'll be really pleased you made that decision Barry.

Where has all the male solidarity gone? I'm appalled by all this support for Debs.

I don't know how this will affect your voting, but we didn't do anything at all for valentine's day. We didn't even send cards to each other. Gav says every day is valentine's day living with him. I say valentine's day is hyped up nonsense dreamed up by card manufactorers and rose growers. I used that line too! The ticket has to go to the bigger fan. In this case - there is no contest. Sorry Debs, but Gav gets my vote