To the tune of the Batman TV show... "Nanananana Nananananana Nonda!"

Ok, thats excessively pessimistic! 1-3 to Rovers, McCarthy, Bentley and Nonda as a sub.

Yeah, that was a nice free kick. Positives from the game, for me, was generally the right side of our team. Emo and Bentley together looks a good option there. Why move Bentley? Paul did ok when he came on there, and Bentley was putting in fantastic crosses whenever he got the chance. Also does anyone know when Peter is back from injury? I'd love to see him on the left side, it could give us the width we need. Neill did well on the left. I think he's suddenly realised that he's not indispensible. Either that or Sparky clocked him one after the Pompey disgrace Poor Andre, he looked nervous at the start, made a mistake. Recovered from that only to give a stupid penalty, played ok for a bit, then made a mess out of a situation he should have been in control of for the last goal. Andre, keep your hands to yourself, and work on your fitness. He looked gassed by the end of the game. He will get better. Zurab played well, except for the bouncing ball madness! He looks more and more like a quality aquisition every time I see him play. And Nelsen is yet to come back. McCarthy needs to get in the box, and Roberts needs to relax. They need time playing together and playing for the team. Even though they didn't play particularly well, there were hints that when it starts happening, it'll be good. For the meantime, it might be worth trying Jeffers or Gallagher in a poaching role, as Benni and Jason seem determined to stay outside the box Reid was awful, simply awful. Made two tackles that I can remember and was completely anonymous for the rest of the match. Why isn't he attacking the edge of the box. He's got a rocket of a shot, and he's more accurate than Savage (whose shot accuracy is appalling. Something to work on!) even if he's no Gerrard. Savage had to stand off after his completely unjust booking. I hope the ref looked at it again and didn't include it in his report. If anything, Essien could easily have been in trouble for dangerous play... he made no attempt whatsoever to play the ball. Same as we've been saying for a couple of weeks, though. Need a creative midfielder, either someone who will get the ball and drive it towards the box, or someone who can pass with vision and accuracy. Feel free to blow the entire transfer kitty, and next years TV cash on it!

No, bonus points for DRUM shots!

It hit the defender, I'm sorry to say. It DID look like a fantastic backheel at first Oh, well. Good finish. Signs that Benni and Jason still have to gel, but also signs that when they do it will be a great combination.

Watched the game on Football First. Oh. My. God. Someone do us all a favour and break the drum over the guys head. He has no rhythym, and no sense of timing, and broke up any atmosphere that was building a load of times during the game. Whoever was talking about those scousers trying to start on him should have given them a fiver to break his drum!

Roberts and Benni still need time to settle as a strikeforce, although we've seen flashes of what they're capable of together. Hope Todd doesn't play against Chelsea, the guy makes me nervous every time he's on the pitch. For the Andy Johnson incident, there was no need whatsoever, he had a yard on him, and Brad could also have got it. I predict 2-1 to rovers. I'm also pleased by the fact I got any points at all on the prediction league McCarthy and Bently (who started to look like he could do a job, although he needs to hit the weights!)

4-1 to Rovers, hat-trick from Benni, other goal from Roberts. Beattie to score for the toffees. Oh please.... as long as it's not another day like Saturday I won't care

What sites stream live Rovers games?

Perhaps Rovers need to offer an alternative? If the game is being televised, but not by Sky, what is the situation with rights? If Rovers were selling the game to the local pubs, it's less financially damaging than not getting anything. I realise that a TV station is a significant investment, but I'm over here in Eire and it's not realistic to get to Ewood once a fortnight (or more often), and I'd definitely pay to see more Rovers action. Freeviews and the like could increase overseas support (because many people will watch football if it's on, but don't want to be watching a dreary game, which sometimes happens).

Wow, big undercurrent of pessimisim there. Can't agree. Got a really good feeling about the Benni-Roberts linkup. Rovers 4 - 2 Pompski Benni'll get a hat-trick, and roberts to get the last. Who cares who scores for pompey Edit: Savage, despite trying to play fair, will get booked.

Dunno about that, but the list of call-ups is on the official site. It says that both Benni and Aaron will be playing for SA against Namibia and that Lucas and Brett will be playing in the AFC cup against Kuwait. Zurab is playing a Euro 2008 qualifier against the Faroes.

Is the Aachen game being televised? If so, on what channel!

I'm on a roll. Don't feel bad

ESPN on Benni signing. I must say, the lad knows all the right things to say. I'm genuinely excited by him signing now in a way I wasn't earlier. He really seems to be up for it! Saying things like can only endear him to the Ewood faitfhful. Also, We hope you can too, Benni!

Too slow Incidentally, UEFA said that they do not have the legal authority to prevent a team submitted by a national FA playing in European competition. Strange.

Good points there. What I see as the major failing in the English youth system is that the game in England is more physcial, with more of an emphasis on strength than on technical attributes. This is shown up in the relative paucity of creative players available for England, as opposed to Spain, or France. While I still feel that England underperformed because of tactical problems and poor selection during the World Cup, another worry is that England rarely looked to have that creative spark that teams like Italy, Spain or Argentina seemed to have. This was most evident against Portugal, but showed in other matches during the competition. Maybe the clubs need to send all their youth players playing in bare feet against the Reserves on concrete

It was all John Terry's fault, he jinxed Lampard by betting he wouldn't score. God knows, he put harder chances than some of the ones he got in Germany in the back of the net last season. I blame Terry and his voodoo witch doctor

So after all the mucking about, AC Milan have the green light from UEFA to play in the Champions League. Juventus are hoping to get their titles reinstated and be put back in Serie A after their next appeal (after accepting that relegation was only right after the first verdict. Apparently it's not as much fun with no company. And to top it all off, there's another two major scandals about to blow in Italy, apparently. One is to do with financial irregularities and the other to do with passports (maybe that's why Rovers were trying to get a work permit in holland for Mido ). Their league is almost definitely not going to start on time!

The advert that the quote came from is now my sig

And yet, Bolton are still in talks with Barca about him. If they can get him, and we can't, I'm very, very confused. Of the options he seems to have, if we were in there, we'd be well in with a shout. And the fee mentioned seemed to have dropped to £2 million, which is a really low fee for a really good player. Incidentally, his reported options at the moment are notloB and staying at Barca, where he's not really in the pecking order at the moment, behind Guily, Eto'o, Ronaldihno, Messi, and probably Gudjohnsen. That's quite the list to be trying to climb, although Barca say that they'll be happy to take them on their pre-season tour. Worth enquiring about, I tell you. And that would give us amazing depth of squad in the attacking positions (although it means that Shefki will probably go. I'll make that sacrifice.) Bolton Evening News link From the article: "The 24-year-old striker's agent, Alfredo Cabrera Brizuela, who confirmed Wanderers' interest a fortnight ago, is understood to have been in Bolton for the last two days."

I'm kinda interested the the expansion of the scandal. Apparently those four teams weren't the only ones with their fingers in the pie. Interestingly, the accusations against Milan aren't the same set as levelled against everyone else, as far as I can tell. It's to do with a phone call from Galiani (sp?) their vice-president. They're also the only ones to have claimed that they were innocent. I couldn't find more on the specific allegations or the evidence in English. I hope Moggi gets locked away for a while though. It's harsh on the players and fans allright, but far worse to let this go unpunished in footballing terms. Clubs need to know that the punishments are severe enough to be daunting. After all, 26 or so years ago, Fiorentina AND Milan were relegated for match-fixing, and that's not long enough ago that they could have forgotten, surely. Looking up stuff on the interweb, it turns out Marseille only got stripped of their title for match-fixing, and the following demotion and being sent to the doldrums was for financial irregularity. Would you believe, the punishment levied on Juventus is the most severe in the history of football, apparently!

The New Zealand national side on Saturday the 12th, 15:00. Which is nice! Has the admiral's team been sorted out yet (both sides want him, but apparently no swapping at half time).

So, for someone who's never been to Ewood, but will be coming during the season at some point, where should I look for seats? Ideally, no support stanchions hiding the players

That's surprisingly candid. He must be upset at lack of investment or some such. Either that, or he percieves expectations as unrealistic and he's trying to lower them, not like our Sparky, who's raising them, if anything