All cricket fans are welcome and its great to see this series has captured the imagination of thousands who didn't care too much about cricket before it. Both teams gave everything and it was a delight to watch 8 weeks of fantastic cricket.

Only 10 minutes until the highlights are on Channel 4!!!

Fair play to Brett Lee, it's all over for them and he's still charging in at 90+ mph, 100% effort throughout the series. If it wasn't for him and Warne it would have been all over long before now.

Collingwood and Giles both justified their places now, when it mattered.

The knives were out for Giles after the first test. Look at how important he's been since then. Brilliant stuff.

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Agree about Giles but i'm not sure if Collingwood will keep in the team when Jones is fit. Personally i would play Collingwood instead of Bell who despite us winning the Ashes has had a very poor series.

Hail KP! He may not be able to catch but he can certainly bat!

Well done Gilo as well!

Well that performance just confirmed what i always thought.

Jansen- please go! my money i pay to watch Rovers is being wasted paying his wages.

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How do you expect him to play when he had long balls lumped up to him against to giant defenders? When Kuqi came on he looked better because he is taller and stronger so he could deal with the long balls better, he also had fresh legs, which looked better against tiring defenders and Bentley had also just come on, which was providing him with better service than the others were giving Jansen. Hughes should have started with Kuqi and brought Jansen on towards the end of the game.

I'm afraid that if that match was representative of top flight football then it won't be long before the game dies on it's arse. Two teams set up not to lose the game rather than trying to win the game, trying to grind out some sort of result to get towards the 40 point mark.

After about 30 minutes Brad Friedel launched a free kick from inside his own half which overshot our forwards by 30 yards and ended up straight in the arms of Jaskelinan (or however it's spelt)

Andy Gray's comment: "Is that the first effort on target?" Sad but true. 

As for us Kuqi showed up better than Jansen up front. Prior to MGP going off I thought the only timwe we looked competent going forward was when the ball was switched left to him. Quite how he was sacrificed before the bumbling Emerton is a strange one.

I thought Mokoena was quite effective in doing what he does best, breaking up the copposition. Hardly noticed Zurab was on the pitch.

I thought long and hard about going to this one before declining. For those that did pay 32 quid to watch garbage like that - I salute you.

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Maybe i was caught up too much in the good atmosphere created by the Rovers fans but i thought we were much the better side in the second half and did all the pressing. When Bentley and Kuqi came on we looked much better.

Jansen was left with no support up front and didnt stand any chance against those 2 huge centre halfs. Is it not a good thing if you didnt notice our centre half was on the pitch? Surely that means we were never under much pressure. Emerton was poor until Bentley and Kuqi came on then looked much more lively.

Good because unless it rains for along time in the last 3 days i can't see us avoiding defeat.

I worry that unless we bat a long time tomorrow and add another 100 (best case scenario) then we dont have enough runs. We will struggle to skittle the Aussies as easily as we have done because we have lost Jones, Hoggy will struggle with no help from the conditions and Giles is never a big wicket taker, especially not first innings.

Sven has to go if we want any chance of winning the world cup, he plays to negtively, changes formations needlesly and has completely lost the plot over the last few months. Stuart Pearce to replace him!

Sky Sports news are reporting that Simon Jones is out of hte 5th test and he his on his way home after failing a fitness test this morning. If true thats a blow, i say stick Collingwood in strenghten the batting and he's a more than useful bowler and great fielder.

Carl Cort? Newcastle paid quite alot for him.

should have read the second page before posting!

ITV news just reported that there could be up to 10,000 dead!

Hopefully there will be some rain forcast too annoy the Aussies a bit more!

Richie Benaud hanging up his microphone for the last time in England at the Oval.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/4202394.stm

one of the greats...

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Shame Geoff Boycott didn't think of that years ago!

If sky ask Savage questions in an interview he cant just not answer a question can he, he has to give them answers otherwise it would bve a pretty sh!t interview!

On the pitch he runs his @#/? of for 90 minutes every game and always gives his all, however i do agree that he has very, very little quality on the ball.

If you wear a centre midfielder for any other side and you were playing Rovers you wouldnt be pleased to see Savage up against you.

Chavs don't wear stone island etc. as they can't afford it, they tend to wear nike tracksuits and TN caps etc. I also wear clothes such as stone island, lacoste etc. yet in no way have i ever or will i ever act like a 'chav'.

pg

Agreed.

Still disappointed with Jones's 2nd innings yesterday though.

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Very! and with Bell both of the caved in with the pressure.

I was at Villa on saturday and was sat near those lads and they didn't spoil the entertainment for me, i sat close to them severeal times last season and they always support the team brilliantly. I didn't see the trouble after the game as i didn't travel by coach but from what i can gather the events were unacceptable not just at a football match but anywhere in society. I remember an incident a couple of years ago when a Forest fan threw a bottle into a group of Dingles and it hit one on the head and killed him, the guy got prisoned for manslaughter and ruined his life. That could have easily happened yesterday, not just to Wez but to anybody who threw anything. Banning the ones who sing during the games would be a big mistake as our attendances are laughable as they are and losing any of our hard-core support is not exactly what we need right now. These people need to continue their loyal support but also need to respect what other fans wish and avoid any trouble outside the ground for their own sakes.

What magnificent cricket!!!

Who said cricket was boring? Well done England for hanging on! Cant praise Warne and Lee highly enough for the way they bowled to try and save the game. I thought it was great how the Aussies shook hands with England even though they would have been gutted at just having lost, it was very sportin which we haven't seen from previous Aussie sides.

Whatever happens at the Oval this has been the best Cricket series i have ever known and both sets of players deserve an awful lot of praise for making the nation go cricket crazy!

I hope England nick it and i think we deserve it having experienced so much pain over the last 20 years!

Cumon England make us all proud!!!

and England set Austrailia 130 to win at Leeds in 1981

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That will have no bearing at all on the result of this game

I don't see how it has evened up really, in my opinion, England get a bad decision when they are 2/426 Australia get two in a row when they are 1/36 and 270 runs behind.

Now granted the English have done well to get them in that position through very very good cricket, but the not outs given to Flintoff (on 7) and Jones (first ball after lunch yesterday)  added over 180 runs to the English total.

Yes I am sore we playing without any luck and form, but I would rather lose because of a Flintoff yorker then a dodgy lbw decision.

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Now you know how we have felt for the last 20 years!!!

Just got back from Villa, awful first half but we were much better second half and deserved a point. Its worrying how little quality we have in the team, we dont look like there is a goal in us. Savage was abysmal today he gave the ball away far too much, the boy just cant pass! We looked better when Jansen came on but nobody wanted to shoot! We need a crative midfielder and fast!

As soon as Hayden went, I knew this was going to happen. Hayden's poor form is a *very* large part of why the top order is failing. He deserves to be dropped.

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Hows it haydens fault that the rest of the top order is failing?

2-2 tonight, kuqi to put us 1-0 up, Jansen to come off the bench and bag a late equaliser!

where has everyone gone then??

i know when shearer left, that was a big blow.

the worst though was prob when we went down!!

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That 30,487 was after we got back in the prem, although it was when the worthington cup was paraded in front of the fans, i think, correct me if i'm wrong thats just off memory

Did anyone read this in the programme on Saturday? In the 01/02 season 30,487 came to Ewood to watch Rovers - Fulham! Attendaces dropped the seasons after and this season we had an embarrising 19,953. Something's gone seriously wrong and needs sorting if we are to move forwards.