What about this Nolan bloke? Is he any good? Only scored once when others were getting hat-tricks. Is he a goalkeeper or just not up to it?

he's a centre half and one of our brightest prospects.

i'm gonna go for 0-0.

similar to the game in season 1992/3.

an old favourite has just been released! is this man the answer ?

http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-he...asp?HeroID=1381

True, or Neil Danns considering is recent performances for the Brum...

neil danns ? that'd be even more horrific!

Personally i would move MGP or Bentley into to the middle and with Bentley in such good form it would have to be MGP and then bring in Peter on the left.

MGP 'kind of' played there in the latter stages of yesterdays game and looked lost (the game was already up though).

neill could be an option, once emerton returns.

i never thought i'd say this, but.... in hindsight... we should've held onto jon douglas, until jan!

They gave us two replays on the big screen!!

i had my head in my hands, tris.

I thought he was absymal yesterday.

he wasnt great, but he didnt get decent service.

a disinterested mccarthy offered no support and neither did the wide players. at 2-0 down he was the only rovers player in the villa box.

on the whole i've been impressed with nonda. he holds the ball up well and uses the ball well. i reckon the goals will come, once the service improves.

What was he supposed to do with it?

He'd won the initial header, was off balance, facing across goal, and being closed down by two of their players but still managed to nick it to Zurab.

Who could and should have put it into row z.

As posted elsewhere, Gray is everyone's favourite scapegoat at the moment, but he is not the problem.

tris, i've only seen it live and those wre my thoughts at the time. i'll get back to you when i've seen it again.

as for gray being a scapegoat, he has made himself one with rank bad performances.

the penalty decision is detracting from a poor display. yes we were pretty comfortable before it's award, but we were as woeful as our travelling support (only me and 299 others braved it).

there was a real lack of creativity and guile. everyone knows villa's defence are dominant in the air, but we persisted in lumping long, high balls into their box.

our full-backs have been shocking over the past few wks (gray must take some of the blame for villa's 2nd. the pass to zurab was never on) and our lack of depth in centre midfield is starting to show and without sav and reid we look very weak.

with tough games coming up, we are in danger of dropping down the league.

the slide needs to be stopped and fast. the question is.... how ????

Boy,the media don't mind picking on us do they?Look at the caption in the picture of Tugay in this article

HERE

the empty stand is the darwen end, but i take their point.

Is my memory playing me up, or did I hear "The Final Countdown" being played before the recent league cup match versus Chelsea?

I also noticed that last night the public address system was significantly lower in volume than usual, maybe something to do with European sound at football matches regulations.

no, you heard it. it made a welcome return for the bolton game.

as for the PA volume, probably just down to your ears being frozen.

It's almost as if people WANT to pay more for the football!!! Nowadays, football clubs are businesses - but that also means supporters are customers! I was one of the 'missing 5000' last night by the way - unfortunately I had to settle for listening on the radio.

I think the problem is though that there just isn't the same enthusiasm for football from the large majority of fans anymore. Atmosphere at grounds has been significantly reduced, costs have risen, lifestyles have changes, and the game of football itself has in my opinion taken a turn for the worse.

I'm not ashamed to say that now, I go when it is cheap or convenient - or ideally both like for the Salzburg game. People need to realise that the average fan now has to make choices between luxuries, and football is just that - a luxury. The simple fact of the matter is that if I had attended every game last month, it would have cost me more than my food bill for the month (and that's with 'reduced' tickets). For someone like me, that is too much.

IHB, if you've chosen other luxuries, over watching rovers, that's your lifestyle choice. i applaud you for being honest, but will you still moan about our fortunes on the pitch ?

We would have to start playing Zurab in midfield.

he left rangers cos they played him there, but he'd play there for us, if asked, and is technically good enough to do so. neill and burt are other options and would switch before zurab.

Tugay should be our captain (when Nelson's not in the team)

He obviously cares more for the club than Neill. Did anyone else see him job out of a few tackles last night?

lucas has been below par, since switching back to RB.

having SEVERAL of your own supporters call you a "flying worker" doesnt help, though.

I havnt noticed interest rates have gone up lately, in fact mine have gone down, but that is a different story.

In case you didnt realise I am a one income low earning family. I afforded last night, other things will have to give elsewhere.

For £7.50 / £10, or even £15 people CAN afford it.

They CHOOSE not to. Which is entirely there choice to make of course.

well done stu, i take my 'beenie' off to you.

you're committed and an true fan, others arent and hide behind flimsey excuses.

i think your post wraps the arguement (s) up.

Villa 3-0 Rovers

petrov

sutton

agathe

or...................................

Villa 1-2

baros MGP

nonda

some turnaround that!

thought basel were terrific, in the 1st half and by far the best team we've played this season. ergic and petric looked classy.

things changed dramatically and we dictated the play throughout the 2nd half, with nonda and tugay causing havoc.

tugay's goal was stunning, the control and strike couldnt have been better. what a player 'the maestro' has been, he's irreplaceable.

on a down-note, we look woefully short of numbers and quality in the midfield department- but with our abysmal gate receipts a top quality midfielder could be some time away!

congrats to MH and his staff. the euro curse has finally been lifted.

give it a rest - the disposable income so that people can spend it on Football isnt there anymore.

what ? people cant raise #15.00 ?

Don't whine about price, or that it was cold. You're not a fan.

my thoughts too. people who call themselves 'fans', had no excuses for not going last night. #15.00 for TWO games for god's sake!

yeah, we might be a small town team - but 13,000 (a trelleborg crowd) is utterly appalling.

the abuse yelled, from the riverside, at neill, mgp mokoena and nonda was ludacris. atleast those people attended, though!

He is our best striker, we should get the ball to him as soon as possible when going forward as he is very accurate with his shots,

exactly right. supplying benni is the key. he's still adjusting to the prem and i think some of his team mates are still developing an understanding with him.

benni's quality cant be questioned, - technically superb, clever link man (similar, but vastly superior, to yorke) and good in the air.

he's got everything.

HOPE WE WIN, but i'm going for 1-1. nonda for us and petric for them (a late equaliser).

according to the Sport and Local Econimic Development people (LANCASTER UNI) we were still looking into 'the infamous riverside hotel' in 2001.

"Blackburn Rovers, nonetheless, has become a major footballing business. Last season they returned to the Premier League with a desire to extend their capacity to 40,000 seats. The club had adopted a far-sighted managerial ethos, which involves the systematic application of knowledge to its marketing strategies. This involved three different knowledge - partnerships with Lancaster University. These entailed an examination of corporate hospitality, an investigation into the low proportion of ethnic minority fans within the stadium and research into the feasibility of building a 4* hotel in the ground."

http://www.cas.lancs.ac.uk/papers/sport_an...mic_develop.htm

i thought bentley has got 2 yellow cards in europe i could be worng though does the Salzburg game count or not? he got booked in Austria and at Ewood

you're right, but .....according to various reports, no rovers player was booked at ewood. but i can remember him being booked for kicking the corner flag.

another question--- what would fans prefer..... a new riverside or new player (s) ?

anyhow, we're looking responsibly at cutting costs.....

http://www.modbs.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/...l_stadium_.html

Didn't want to start a new thread, but why is sundays match at Villa a 2.00 pm kick off?

I have checked and it is not on the Sky PPV game that usually starts at that time, and both our and Villas sites show it definitely is a 2.00 pm kick off. Whats the script?

no idea.

i've got a car parking pass, and it says there's an 'exclusion zone on sunday' and to arrive at least 75 minutes before kick-off!