I have a set of bongo's which I bang in the Jack Walker upper. Seriously though, I did bang the drum once, it felt good, really good .

I would think that's about right. Logically would he be in Germany if he was about to sign? I can't decide. For his medical I guess he would as the Rovers staff are out there I would imagine. For his personal terms etc. wouldn't he have to come to England? Or do we have someone out there capable of negotiating? I think I'm getting ahead of myself now.

442 is wild. Get back to 451 we might knick a point

The marketing process never ends. I guarantee if those who have renewed hadn't had the attention or marketing they received the renewal numbers would be down, even if it the difference was marginal. It's not the Rovers marketing people who are responsible for the downturn in sales. Apart from free season tickets there isn't much else they can do. Mark Hughes is effectively the 'marketing face' for Rovers, whilst he has done a good job it will take alng while for him to turn round the mess left by Mr. Souness. The upbeat comments coming from Mark Hughes will have been arranged, but it still made me feel good. Things are slowly turning around. A good start this season is imperative to acquiring a decent gate throughout the season.

I'm sure Dwight's pay was heavily perfromance based. Going on that information he must of been fairly close to the minimum wage. In all seriousness I think if he activated all the approptiate bonus packages in his contract he would be earning something like the 50k reported - taking in to account starts, goals, assists etc.

73k a week? How do you know that Jim? I'm not saying your wrong, but that seems awfully high. We should go for Rio if we have this sort of money to spend on wages

Looking back the first 3ish years under Souness were enjoyable. After that the guy seems to have lost the plot completely. I really can't believe he's looking at Anelka - I wouldn't want him at Rovers even on a free (ok maybe I would, but you get the point). Jesus, he should go for Carlton Cole or Robbie Keane or somebody like that. I think his main problem is he's looking for a different class of player to what he has been used to. Exactly where do Newcastle think they'll finish because if they think Champions League or Uefa they aint doing it with Souey! Poorly organised and managed football club. I must be terrible to be a Geordie at present. On the contrary life is wonderful at the Rovers.

This Bellamy signing is fabulous, however I do have some concerns. What on earth is Mr. Bellamy going to think when he looks around on the first home game and see's a stadium 2/3 full? When one year ago he would have played in front of a packed 50,000+ at St. James Park. Mid-week away games will see him cheered on by 4 or 500 Rovers fans as opposed to 3,000 Geordies or 4,000 fanatical Celtic fans. I do worry once he realises what he has done, he may only stick around for a year. Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom. I'm sure he'll be fantastic

That's rubbish, He's not as quick as he used to be. But he'd walk into any team outside the top 4. He's still a class act. I think it's harsh to say he's past it. He won't allow himself to be past it, he'll retire before that happens.

Started in 93-94 season, I was about old enough to understand then (8 years of age) This will be my 6th season ticket this year.

Yes that is how you turn it off, make sure you put the hold on after. To answer the second there are two possibilities. 1) You haven't turned it off well or hit hold and so it is playing without you knowing, or at least just being on. 2) The famous Ipod battery problem. To be honest with you another problem I had with the Ipod was that the indicator of how much battery life was left was amazingly bad. Sometimes while you use it, it actually will go up. It may well be that it simply isn't right at the moment, just give it time. Don't recharge it and let the battery run all the way down. If you recharge before it dies you may set the battery memory lower at lower than full capacity. 322001[/snapback] Cheers, that's helps. I'll give it a whirl.

For anyone who has an Ipod I'd be extrmely thankful if they could answer these questions? To turn it off do you just press play/pause until the screen blanks out? Is it that simple? Why is my battery 75% dead when I have only used it for 2 hours over 3 days. The Ipod 30g photo should have 15 hours of play/battery life after a full charge cycle. Any help would be sensational. Thanks

I will echo the thoughts of those who attended, what a cracking evening. Very rare to be at Ewood and be able to sit and take it all in. Nice to see Mr. Shearer back, really did bring some memories back looking over to the B'burn End seeing them worship SHEARER, SHEARER, SHEARER. I thought it was an especially nice touch how the last change of the evening was, "Kenny's had enough and Tony Parkes is taking over as Caretaker for one last time." All in all brilliant.

Myself and the lady friend will be purchasing tickets sometime before kick off. I really can't decide where to sit. If there are any people in Blackburn and the surrounding area who aren't going becasue Tony Parkes is rich blah blah! For god's sake just go. Close season can be a long, long time andIf anyone deserves a testimonial it's Tony. I am using the last of my student loan travelling over from Scunthorpe. Then it's overdraft time.What's a tenner anyway? It's not often we can watch the Rovers not having to worry about the result. Go and Enjoy. I deserve a medal .

Anyone going on the train? Anyone know if there is an away pub of any sort? A lively 0-0, with Savage providing a match-drawing performance. oh, and Hughes if you're reading START TUGAY! Thanks

Oberservations from attending the game yesterday. I expected a rip-roaring atmosphere, but it never arrived. It was evident from the off fans, players, everybody was nervous. I'm glad we are out of it. First half was poor. Stead was unlucky not to score and a flash of brilliance from Richardson was the difference. If that boy is available next season on loan we should snap him up. Neill had a shocker 1st half. Second half, once Tugay was introduced to the game we bossed it. There's no doubt we were the better team 2nd half. Savage played better, although he couldn't play much worse than his last two games. Stead was brilliant, I just hope he knocks a goal in before the end of the season. MGP is tired, I would bench him on Saturday and start Thommo. He needs games if he is going to attempt to regain that form he showed pre-injury. Finally, well done to all the fans that made the trip.

Flitcroft is simply not good enough anymore. He's full of passion and grit, but he's getting on and at times he goes missing. He won't get a look in when the midfield is fit. He has been a good servant, but he's paid too much to be a bit part player. If Wigan come up they'll take him.

I just hope this is entertaining as the Palace game. I think you could sense the players knew that 3 points last night meant pressure off and from out point of view we can sit back and really see what Hughes can produce in a slightly different ball game. This may well be a good game, with no pressure our boys will start to play more. I would most definitley start Tugay. This is the sort of occasion he revels in. I really hope he sticks around for another year, he's a real joy to watch. I'll go for a scoring draw.

Rovers have a nasty habit of dropping points when we all expect to pick them up. I half expected us to get a decent haul of points from Everton, Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd. However, our run-in on paper looks starightforward. So I'll predict us to make staying in the league as hard as possible. Starting with a 2-0 defeat on Saturday. I would quite happily take a draw now.

Having had several hours to think about today I like the rest of you have realised a couple of things. Poll had a poor game, big team bias he loves it. Ponce! The Dickov reaction is over the top. It was his worst game today, but he has bloody earned the right to have an off day. I would rest him untill he's 100%. Stead must be confident, stick him up top at Old Trafford. Mokoena will be brilliant (patience required!). Reid is on fire. We looked tired today, but Everton, Liverpool and Arsenal only manged one goal against us so something is working. Similarly we have only managed one goal against them. Now the Arsenal........ What a bunch of moaning, cheating idiots. Their football is brilliant and still they roll around like babies. I thought it was disgusting. I wouldn't have had a problem if Mokoena chinned Reyes. Wenger should be ashamed. I wouldn't have shaken any of their hands afterwards. Arsenal represent everthing I despise about football at the moment. P.S Wasn't it great to see the sun shining and a decent home atmosphere today?

This is a bonus game for me, so anything gained is obviously a bonus. The thing is the way we are grinding results out I think most people will be dissapointed if we don't get a least a point. Which goes to show what a fabulous job the management staff are doing.

I think the teams should walk out to the top gun theme tune. It's brilliant, just brilliant.

Works both ways. Last in will be first out and vice-versa. Being on coach 1, I am going to be last going somewhere. Anyway, will Sparky have sat the players down and made them watch the game from 4 years ago? I worry some of them won't know what it's all about. The pitch is going to be a real leveller.

Not in my book. You have to defend, that's it. Anything else is a bonus. But if first and foremost if you can't defend then you shouldn't be in the backline. Personally I hope we get a replacement for Neill in the close season. I don't rate him at all. I think it's interesting the difference in opinions on Lucas Neill. I think it's strange how like you don't rate him at all, yet I rate him highly. He's not in Gary Nevilles league but there are few others I would have ahead of him. Granted his defending recently has been alittle slack, but everyone goes through that. Starting on the bench will have done him well. I guess it comes back to what you want from a full back. I need to see someone comfortable on the ball who bombs forward. It is good to have one full back that bombs on and the other who sticks. Which with Matteo usually works. Nelson is a great defender, don't get me wrong I just thought he looked a little uncomfortable at right back. Conversely he looked perfectly at home in the middle.

Saturday was good, but Norwich were poor we must remmeber that. Savage looks like he's going to be a real hero. Pedersen is creative and a real goal threat. Don't think Nelson is a right back. I'd have Lucas in there everytime. However, as somebody mentioned Nelson is a fabulous central defender. He should be in there with Todd no question. They defend and that's it. As a full back you have to be able to play abit which Neill can do. Nelson struggled to do that 1st 45 on saturday. Keep Tugay in, for the prem games at least. Might need somebody else for the Burnley game. All in all positive but a long way to go yet. It just makes this week more enjoyable an we can look forward to visiting the dingledome.