Fantastic to see Benni back to his best, when he is there he really is a great player. His problems have mostly been in his head, last season he seemed to be acting up for a while but when he did play a bit, he missed a few chances and I reckon he lost confidence, and then his place. When he came back this year overweight it was very disappointing and rightly he was told so. He did get himself fit and looked like he might be ready to crack on and then, sadly, his father passed away. When he came back he knocked in a couple of goals and I was very surprised to see him not in the 11 for Ince's last two games. His game and his comments ( especially the sweat blood bit ) make me think his head is 'right' and his body is fine. I may be optimistic but I think he can go on to be one of the best strikers in the division for the rest of the season and I predict another 10 goals for him this season.

i'm off to see Muse in Taipei tomorrow, from the bottom of the island to the top, hope they're as good as some of you make out

expecting big things

My last game before heading back to Asia, I haven't seen us lose yet, so that probably means we'll lose, but I am an optimist, I reckon 2 - 1 in a very tough hard fought game

Can't wait for this, Europe was what we were gunning for all last season, now we are there we should enjoy it as much as possible. It is hard to believe any season ticket holders won't go to this, it is the most exciting game of the season so far. I think it'll be a fairly big crowd considering the lack of away support, and Rovers will do 'em proud and win 3 - 1, Nonda Benni Bentley

Was that the weekend just gone??.... i didnt realise. I wouldnt mind checking out Snowfight heard quite abit about them being a good local band.

Yeah it was, a great event, apart from the absolutely outrageous queues for the bar ( about an hour!)

Wandered over to Snowfight not knowing anything about them and stayed til the end, was definitely impressed, reckon they would be excellent in a small venue, I would highly recommend going to see them. I think they are playing at the roadhouse in October, you can check 'em out on myspace

Anyone going to see maximo park in manchester on sunday???

I don't have a ticket but will go down anyway to try and get in

Heard they are fantstic live

Not over keen on Wolfmother, sound a bit rawk for me.

Was at cohesion live in Manc on saturday, Elbow were fantastic, if you are at all interested and ever get the chance to see them, don't hesistate, they are as good as you could hope live. Badly drawn boy was better than i expected, particularly his new song Born in the U.K., which was brilliant. Coxon was good, new band Snowfight in the city centre were really good too

Also saw Get cape. Wear cape. Fly on friday and they were great too

Live music is brilliant

Checkout the secret machines myspace site

It has the three best songs off their new album and the best song off their first album

All for free, good band

secret machines

I, unfortunately won't be in the country at that time, but if I were I would wholeheartedly support this, standing IMO is much better and supporters desreve the choice, good luck

Gragh. If I see another band/artist with an oh-so-cute name like this (see: you Say Party! We Say Die!, Help! She Can't Swim etc) I think my head might actually explode.

He/they are actually really good though, acoustic guitar with beats and occasional other instruments, little disappointed with what i heard of larrikin love

Still loving the futureheads news and tributes and maximo park too

Rovers 3 - 0 Man C

Macca

Bentley

Oooyeah

We better win as my MC season ticket holding brother in law is driving me there and back, he reckons city will be battling relegation, Weaver is playing well but the rest of them are poor, Dunne is their hero at the back but to me he is like Todd on a bad day, they have little creativety in midfield ( unless DMB shines ) and nothing upfront, Dickov has been there main man and he can't shoot. Season was kickstarted on Thursday now we're gonna see some football.

I had some great Sushi the other night for the first time.

Do you enjoy sushi dillo_dillo?

I enjoy a bit of sashimi(sp?) maybe tuna with wasabi v. nice

I got 23 goals last season and won the golden boot for my teamif you need a striker for the home game

Quite pleased tonight, got a good draw away to a tough in form team on a tricky pitch, plus we actually managed to score TWICE, not only that but we created chances, quite a few, if you saw the Sheff Utd game that is great news, maybe we are starting to turn the corner as regards to that, plus it all sounds like their defence was not crash hot, so with a bit of luck we might get a couple more at Ewood and make the group stages

WooHoo cause for optimism methinks can't wait for Sunday now

p.s. Leave off Neill, he is Sparky's captain it isn't gonna change anytime soon so we may as well get behind him

lucas is doing a gallas let him leave

Absolutely ridiculous

Lucas tried his heart out today, constantly prompting the team from left back, sometimes he got a bit out of position but a fair few of our more creative moments came from his runs forward, shame he missed the pen, it wasn't a bad one, a very good save.

Brad amazing, all round not just the pens

Brett was good again good in defence and attack

Zurab and Oojier looked dodgy and don't look good together yet, worrying

Gamst ran around a fair bit but gave nothing creative, every corner was poor very surprised he wasn't subbed off, we had two players who could have come on for him on the bench really don't understand that

Sav made some good tackles and some good running but very little going forward

Tugay did alright almost messed up big time but its his first game of the season and he didn't play that much in pre season so can't expect too much

Bentley did fairly well, he and Brett have the makings of a great partnership when they get more used to it

Jeffers surprised me a lot he looked lively, played pretty well on what he got, linked up with others well, with a little luck he could have had a pen too, all round much better than expected, I think he could make a good contribution to the team this season

Benny service wasn't great and he did alright with what he had, I would have subbed off Gamst not him

Overall the team was a bit poor, a bit weak at the back and lacking creativity in midfield, its not all doom and gloom though, early days yet quite a few new players settling in and Tugay not up to speed yet, Nelly to come back sometime, but I don't reckon we will be top 6 this year, but can still hope for top ten, also Newc (Sibierski hahahahha) and Spuds only have one more point than us so cheer up

Spot on MI Rover, exactly what I was thinking. Suspect we won't see the Admiral this side of Christmas and with every chance of one (or more) of our centre backs missing a few games cos of bans/injuries, seems a sensible precaution.

Hughes said "several weeks" onthe official site so hopefully won't be too long

Henchoz is interesting, didn't see much of him last season, a bit concerned about why Wigan let him go though

This will be my first game since Christmas 2003, been in Taiwan and this is the first time been back in England since. Can't wait for it, but it will probably be a tough hard game, hopefully though Tugay's return will make all the difference and give us that extra quality we've been missing.

Sheff Utd 1 - 2 Rovers

SU centre back scores from corner, McCarthy and Bentley for us

p.s. anyone going from Manc to this, I know some are catching the 10:18 train but that's a bit early for me

would love the chance to meet up with some other rovers, there don't seem to be any others in south Taiwan and i get surrounded by scouse fans, Canadians supporting Man U etc.

Oops

Peel pated all sorts of different and new stuff, giving breaks to countless number of bands and genres, that is what made him great but there was a price to be paid in that some of it was crap.

I think Elbow are quite good

Elbow are fantastic, one of the best bands around, they make beautiful passionate poetic music, I'm am going to see them on Sept 23rd at Cohesion Live festival at Platt Fields Manchester, it is going to be great because they are also amazing live.

Kuqi wasn't really good enough for a side near the top of the premiership, but he was very useful last season and made a good contribution to the team, a fair few goals and I thought he improved towards the end of the season, not his touch but his all round play. He was very useful coming on in the last half hour of games and shaking things up. Sounded like a good number of people would have liked him to come on in the game against Chelsea. I'm a little sorry to see him go but 2 1/2 mil is a great price. Having said that he will do very well for Palace so he may well be worth it to them.

has bentley ever had a good game for us in the middle?

Portsmouth played really well at the end of last season and added 4 or 5 players

Rovers struggling with injuries

1 1

Roberts

I wanna be adored has to be one of the best intros

There are some great songs here, and I guarantee you have never heard them before

good songs here

unspoken and divine are my faves

Losnig your best player in the summer happens, and with a bit of luck McCarthy will be an excellent replacement, losing your TWO best players is different, it was very disappointing to hear Ryan talk about Portsmouth so positively, it would be a poor decision to let him goas he is the rock our solid defence is built on. Hughes has shown he is an excellent manager, and so far he has done very well in the transfer market, but he will make mistakes, who doesn't, I trust him but he is not perfect. We must keep Nelsen.

When I was a kid I remember thinking Gennoe was the best keeper in the country, but I also thought Scott Sellars should play for England.

Flowers was solid, and an amazing shot stopper, but he just didn't have the superman status that Friedel had for 2 or 3 years here. Mimms was good, but every now and again did a "Booby". Vince O'Keefe played half a decent season when Gennoe broke his leg, and had a stormer in the Full Members Cup Final.

All in all we've done well for Goalkeepers at Ewood over the last 20 years. Even Darren Collier began to win the fans over before we signed Mimms to replace him.

Who was the keeper who played instead of Mimms in our promotion season and let the ball float over his head and in. Against Wolves I think?

1. Friedal

2. Flowers

3. Gennoe

4. Filan

5. Mimms

Scott Sellars should have played for England! What a player he was, dribbling passing crossing he had it all, was gutted when he left.

Flowers was a fantastic keeper for us, but Brad has been slightly better, incredible service he has given, long may it last.

Filan was very good too, and you have to love Mimms, he was brilliant on his day, Gennoe was great too, but probably past his best when I saw him, we had Shay Given too, shame we didn't see more of him.

Just thought it'd be nice to let anyone who wasn't at the game know what had happened. I apologise if it caused any offence.

Personally, being far away, but excited about the forthcoming season, I very much appreciated it

Particularly happy to hear Gally did well, interesting how he played right mid though