22 minutes between posts begging to be in the team - give them a chance The1mattjansen

10-3 to Salzburg, if the fan game is anything to go by. Not a good start

Tonight Blackburn Rovers begin their much-awaited UEFA Cup campaign against FC Salzburg. Manager Mark Hughes is rumoured to be considering playing a 4-5-1 formation against the in-form Austrians, with Benni McCarthy towing the line up front and Steven Reid returning to midifeld. Rovers will be without star defender Ryan Nelsen and striker Jason Roberts, but the majority of the squad is fit and looking to star on the continent. Unfortunately, no British TV broadcasters are showing the game live, but live radio commentary will be available from BBC Radio Lancashire.

Well, Fife, I apologise on behalf of some of the messageboard members for them not signing Petrov. Their dismissive attitude may well have cost us Europe this season!

What confuses me as well, Drog, is how a keeper could possibly survive at the level Brad has with poor "fundamentals". He can catch, save shots, kick reasonable well, do well in one-on-ones. They seem pretty fundamental to me. In fact, the only thing I can think of that worries me is that he seems reluctant to come off his line sometimes. But, as I just said, his record at saving one-on-ones is pretty decent so he could well be justified there.

"Wayne Rooney's a ######, And probably gay, Cos when he's shagging Colleen He thinks of Micky Gray" ~

Watson V4.0

Own up, which person has updated his Wikipedia profile already? Surely somebody from here.

Any files which are promising to be 100% accurate as of today?

People keep on carping back to that Palace game. For cod's sake we need to move on

But they would. I can think of quite a few reasons to go to Spurs ahead of Rovers. Both in footballing terms and lifestyle terms. I think people are rather hung up on recent perceptions of teams. Spurs have been a bit of a joke "big club" team up until recently - one we've enjoyed a lot of relative success against. But now they are really heading in the right direction under the guidance of a good manager (sound familiar?). I don't like Mido's decision but it's his decision to make and there are one or two reasons for it. Blackburn Rovers is the centre of the universe for Blackburn Rovers fans. However, it is possible that some of the best footballers in the world today grew up as children without even knowing our name.

Claus Jensen. Nic Jensen was a different player who set up McBride's at Ewood last season IIRC.

Or what? You'll go looking for him? You'll challenge him to a fight outside the BBE? Why should he be watching himself, out of interest?

Not a surprising reaction from some on here. Personally, I prefer watching Rovers live and in the flesh, but that's just me. Nobody has to make the sacrifices clearly necessary to regularly follow Rovers, but it shouldn't just be "bloody Rovers" who are stopping them from watching.

Just got off the phone with Ian Singleton who wrote the article. I basically re-affirmed BRISA's stance on this issue. It's frustrating that we are clearly losing fans to the pubs, but at the same time it is completely understandable. People are free to choose how they spend their money and they can vote with their feet by not turning up. Financially, this hurts us. We aren't Man United - we cannot replace lost fans with new, richer fans. Realistically, we aren't going to have a much better season than last season and it hasn't done the trick in terms of season tickets at least. I'm sure that one or two lapsed fans have seen good football on dodgy Sky and come back to support us at game, but they surely do not make up for the hundreds (thousands?) of those who have traded a match ticket for some beers and a kebab.

Apparently a dreadful player who was fired out ages ago.

How would that work? Taking a dead straight run-up and not getting enough angle to hit it hard towards the corners?

I personally thought it was a bad penalty against United. Like Ashley Cole's Vs Portugal in 2004, it looked good because the keeper went the wrong way. It wasn't hit hard or in the corner - it would have been a routine save if van der Sar had guessed correctly. And I don't believe he intentionally waited for the keeper to dive the other way.

In the absence of Dickov and Bellamy, both of whom took penalties last season, I'd imagine it would have to be Neill. He took a penalty against Man Utd whilst Savage was still on the pitch, so I would imagine it has been decided amongst the squad that Neill is first choice. I remember that MGP's vs Bournmouth was a good one, and as he can strike a ball well you'd think he has a good penalty in him. On the other hand, Tugay fits that criteria and his penalty record is not so good,

He means that he doesn't want to pay the going rate, so why should he?

This the kind of issue that BRISA are interested in. In what way do you think Rovers can improve their communication with the fans? Do you mean something like sending letters to everyone on the database to inform them of cheap ticket deals etc, for example? (BTW, it's "Steven" Reid, not "Stephen" Reid. Unless the guy in your sig isn't the Rovers player.)

Have you ever heard of substitution? If so, you'll know exactly why Rovers don't do kids for a quid against the biggest teams.

Have I missed something? Why is it funny?

Not quite. Mutu went to Fiorentina didn't he?

I disagree. But even so that has little to do with technical ability. Oasis are possibly the best three-chord band in the world.