I know, and I agree that his powers of prediction are abysmal. I was simply saying that you brought up this prediction and called him a tosser because you think we'll win, but I think it's a decent prediction.

So it's a nailed-on home win? I think Bolton are capable of a draw with us. They are a very tough team to beat and they have a good record at Ewood recently. I think we'll win, but it's going to be extremely close. Could very well end up 1-1, as predicted.

It's a fair prediction. Bolton are above us in the table, very hard to beat, and we DID have a very tough match last night. Lawro is clearly biased against us but I don't see anything wrong with a 1-1 prediction this time.

It may well be a damning endightment of the Maltese Reds (or of Philip himself) that I genuinely believed some of those quotes to be made up. I can't see us going through. Sorry. Whilst I agree we have 120 minutes to score a goal, that means going an hour and a half without conceeding. I just don't see that happening. We're going to have to be absolutely clinical in front of goal and we're going to have to score at least twice. Disappointing 3-0 defeat on the night, but overall we'll all be happy that we're making giant strides under Sparky.

We should only pay the money back when Rovers start winning 15 games a season though!

Man Utd squad: Van der Sar, Howard, Neville, Bardsley, Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Evra, O'Shea, Richardson, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Smith, Scholes, Giggs, Van Nistelrooy, Saha, Rooney, Rossi, Solskjaer. Yup - that's the second string.

One game at a time guys. We can't take a win for granted, reserves or otherwise. I will take a 1-0 win with bells on. Step one is to win by a goal. Step two is to go to OT, show no fear, and get the draw we know we're capable of. The only bad result is a defeat. Old Trafford is a scary place but we know that if we play to our full capability we can get a result there. Going there needing a win may well be too much though.

It's a fair point, but he has his address on his driving license which he offered to come down and show to the people at the TO. They just told him that it wouldn't make a jot of difference. This, to me, is going out of their way to be obtrusive.

We've actually just been to the ground now and picked up some tickets. He's now going with one of his friends who is a Rovers member, but had to book on his credit card because said friend is on nights and wasn't available to get the tickets. You wouldn't beliee the difficulty this caused. We must have been stood at the window for 15 minutes as more than one member of staff scrambled round to try and find the tickets. It's no surprise that we struggle to pick up the floating fan when they treat them like this.

I believe the semi-final was against Chelsea last season in this competition. Duffer putting them out with a free kick at Old Trafford. 'Not a personal attack on you JansenPresty but I depsise it when people say things like ''we should have been 4-0 up at half time.''' I don't think you should be on JP's case for that comment. JP would have said something more along the lines of "we well should of well been 4-0 up at half time!!!!" Completely different. If Man Utd play a weakened team then all power to them. I don't care how weak they are or what excuses they have or whether or not people I know can point it out to me, I just care about getting to Cardiff again.

That's certainly true. At the moment the plans are to have a completely separate meeting to discuss this, and there is work being done at the moment to lay the foundations for this.

To get 70 points that means getting 40 points from 18 games - dropping 14 points between now and the end of the season. That's crazy-talk. Our aim is to get as close to 60 as possible. It'll be tough, especially if Bellamy picks up his monthly injury every time, but that's the goal. I'd take a drop in place or two in exchange for winning the Carling Cup, though.

I cannot. I don't know how these things work and I never pretend to either. It certainly doesn't mean that the ONLY conclusion is that he will play on Saturday. He may play, he may not. I would imagine it will be more beneficial to play one of our returning loanees. Who knows why it has been delayed. Maybe it's a deliberate ploy to get people to assume he'll play on Saturday and get their tickets for one last look at the lad. Maybe it's a paperwork thing. I don't know. Maybe Hughes will give him the sentimental piece of action for us all to treasue. Maybe he won't be in the squad. only Mark Hughes knows that. And I don't believe we can make the decision for him based on when any announcements are made.

I think that's probably a very naive conclusion. Hughes desparately wants to do well on all fronts and I'm not sure he would put sentimentality ahead of getting a result, especially considering the fact that QPR are no pushovers. The last thing we want is a tricky away leg replay. I think we'd all love Jansen to start one last game for us and do well, and I'd like to see it too, but I think we're allowing a bit too much sentimentality and daydreaming to cloud the situation.

I think it has been pointed out several times that Souness is at his best with limited funds. The finds of people like Tugay and Neill are far more valuable than people he actually had to bid big for. At Liverpool he threw money at lots of players, including massive amounts for Mark Wright and Dean Saunders at Derby. At Newcastle he spent about £8m on Boumsong!!! Luque was around the £10m as well and that one hasn't really worked out thusfar. He got the best out of our talented players and found us some bargains. His problem came when he developed us so far that we actually got some money to play with.

I don't want to pick apart too much, but half of that sentence is completely fictional. Reid wasn't doing very well at Wigan until his thunderbolt (the first that has actually gone in for us since he came to the club) which he made his name for at Millwall. He then got a grip on the game when Wigan abandoned having a midfield in order to throw Connolly on up front. Likewise, MGP is not playing well as of late. Since the double at Old Trafford he has looked poor. He's worth keeping in the side for his great goalscoring record but he certainly isn't "playing well" in the way that Wayne Rooney plays well or Ryan Nelsen plays well. Bit worried about tonight. Today could well be a massive day in the life of Portsmouth Football Club with this investment. We have to hope our players have the character to bring them down because they will be on a high tonight. I trust in Hughes to say the right things and play the right team.

Quite right, sir. People of your ilk are a rare commodity in todays modern game. People who hug the touchline, get the ball, beat their man, get to the by-line and put a decent cross in. Perhaps you can give our Brett a pointer or two?

Yup. Racism is all part of life's rich tapestry. ...

Fulham away. Scored twice in a 4-0 win. Bolton at home was a diabolical game for him. He was so sluggish and disinterested it was unbelievable. I think this was perhaps after the incident at Old Trafford where he spat his dummy out at Souness for playing Cole and Yorke.

We never had a player called Hakan Suker. But yeah, he was crap for us too. I'd take Bent off that list. I thought he did a very good job for us in division one and he has a few goals in him at Prem level. Blake was good for us in the promotion season before his injury too. I believe he was outscoring Jansen when both of the pair were fit.

I have been very confident about this one for ages. I've no real justification for this or anything - I simply have a feeling that we'll win this one. Roberts especially seems to score goals where the centrebacks have made an error due to his pressure. He is quick enough to expose errors high up the pitch and give himself a one on one. It has happened against Man City and West Ham in the last week alone, and there have been more. Ryan Nelsen will be a different story for him, but I worry about Zura. The general consensus amongst those that have seen a lot more of him than us is that he's a very good footballer but struggles under a physical threat. Like I say, I just have a feeling that we'll win there. But the important battle is between Zura and their front two.

Personally I believe that if the Walkers had stumped up the cash for a better undersoil heating system then we wouldn't be in this mess.

I made this point a while back. It seemed like Emerton was a great athlete but didn't seem like a natural football fan. His decision-making is generally awful, and he seems to do almost the exact opposite of what the fans would do in his situation, if you know what I mean. Now I read somewhere that he'd stay up late as a child to watch footy on TV so this doesn't seem to be the case. In which case I worry - the ability to make the right choice isn't usually there, and thus he'll always be frustrating to us. I thought at one point he was getting much much better. He IS quite quick, and he can combine this with power as well. At his best, he could knock the ball past the defender and then knock the defender out of the way. Not the most skillful, but very very useful. Hughes has also said that Emerton is the man they look to to take the ball away from our own goal in times of pressure. He'll always be much better than Thommo, and I have no problem with him being in our side, but I think we have to accept that the Emerton that destroyed Wolves will only come around a few times a year, and most of the rest of the time he is simply a decent Premiership player.

Statisitcally it was most likely we'd draw Utd or Arse, but we cant't forget this is not the first time it has happened. Im one of many in a line of drunk people posting, sounds like a good night for the boys. Let's hope we're all ther on boxing day for another win at the Riverside.

Thanks for that. Just got my computer back today so I can re-install FM and start a new game with all these lovely improvements.