Or Skysports news

not quite sure why David Jones is such a funny name, must have missed something.

I went to Salzburg but I'm not going to Feyenoord so that'll make it 1301 Oz. I am however off to Amsterdam on Monday for the England game... which is nice!

So RTM you pick a team that includes a player who is currently out on loan at Crewe and then single someone out for having the 2 centre halfs the wrong way around... an you're wrong on that one as well!!! You do like to shoot yourself in the foot occasionally don't you

Thought Jeffers looked good when he came on against basel. Hope he gets 30 mins or so today.

Sutton starts for Villa.

Alan, Soccerbase doesn't list the 1988 transfer at all. Thats why it's not included. I didn't have the time to use a number of sources so had to rely on Soccerbase being correct. Obviously being from hereford I'm well aware of Chris Price (I met him a few times when he helped coach my town team, Kington)

Chris Price was released by us so doesn't show as a transfer. I know he did play for Villa after playing for us but it can't really be included under a TRANSFERS header when he wasn't a transfer.

Palermo are currently sitting second in Serie A and only got 16000 for thir game against Newcastle last night.

Apologies for the delay but I've been laid up in bed for the last few days with flu. Original preview is sat on my works computer so here's another one. Rovers return to league action on the back of an excellent 3-0 UEFA Cup victory against Basel. I'm sure we are hoping for more of our second half performance and less of the first half, playing for 90 minutes rather than 45 always helps when trying to win a football match. We take on the team recently purchased by Randy Learner (phnar phnar!!) and managed by my preferred choice for England Manager, Martin O'Neill. Will there be fireworks at Villa Park on 5th November or did they stop all the malakey after the incident at Wolves a few years ago, who knows!!. PREVIOUS MEETINGS Our record with Villa makes for interesting reading. Out of the 164 games we have played Villa have won 58, Rovers have won 55 and the other 31 games have resulted in draws. Not a lot in it at all. I suppose we can all hope for a similar result to our first seasons meetings way back in the 1888-1889 season (if you require details of this season please ask Jim as I'm sure he remembers it well), we thumped Villa 8-1 in the league followed up with a 5-1 win in the FA Cup, Villa also beat us 6-1 in the league that season. Over recent seasons the results in the League have been fairly close, we went down 1-0 at Villa park last year although we did beat them 2-0 at Ewood. 2005 - 2006 Villa 1 - Rovers 0 Rovers 2 - Villa 0 2004 - 2005 Villa 1 - Rovers 0 Rovers 2 - Villa 2 2003 - 2004 Villa 0 - Rovers 2 Rovers 0 - Villa 2 2002 - 2003 Villa 3 - Rovers 0 Rovers 0 - Villa 0 Villa 1 - Rovers 4 (FA Cup) 2001 - 2002 Villa 2 - Rovers 0 Rovers 3 - Villa 0 I suppose the most memorable match for me was the 4-1 FA Cup match where we witnessed a comeback from Matt Jansen. In only his second game since the infamous Scooter accident, Matty scored a delightful volley and a header, he got the man of the match award and many thought he was over the worst of it and would return to better things with Rovers. TRANSFER DEALINGS For some reason our transfer dealings with Villa have been extremely limited, in the whole history of our clubs we seem to have spent around £1m on players from each other. Our biggest signing from Villa was Simon (Larry) Grayson, costing an unbelievable £750k, whilst their big money signing from us came in the form of Alan Wright who they paid £1m for. Out of our current squad our only ex Villa player is reserve Goalkeeper, Peter Enckelman. CURRENT FORM Although Villa were unbeaten in the league intil last week, our form is very similar. Out of the last 8 games we have each taken 11 points. Villa sit one place above us in the form table as they have a better goal difference. 9 Aston Villa P8 W2 D5 L1 F9 A7 GD2 10 Blackburn Rovers P8 W3 D2 L3 F9 A9 0 TOP SCORERS The Top Scorers league currently makes for interesting reading. Sitting in joint 3rd position is our very own Benni McCarthy with an impressive 7 goals in all competitions. He currently finds himself behind Drogba and Crouch, and is looking like one of the bargains of the season. He is placed above the likes of Henry, Saha, Johnson, Rooney, Angel, and the player he replaced, Bellamy, doesn't even make the top 20. Villa do have 2 players featured in the top 20 with Angel on 5 goals and Agbonlahor on 4. i guess our only concern would be the lack of goals from our other forward players, Nonda and Jeffers have 1 each and Roberts has failed to score. INJURIES This is an area where our lack of depth in the squad could cost us. We currently have 6 players sidelined though injury, this includes our central midfield pairing of Savage and Reid, our first choice centre half, Nelsen, our revitalised right back, Emerton, and our most expensive striker, Roberts. Peter Enckelman is also currently injured. Out of all of these the only one with a slight chance of making Sunday's match is bert, who faces a late fitness test. Villa have 5 players injured although Physioroom state that 4 of these could return on 5th November (McCann, Samuel, Delaney. Whittingham). CONCLUSION Villa will certainly take some beating at Villa Park, they will be bouyed on by a confident crowd and will see it as a game that they should win, however Rovers are no mugs these days, and will also see it as a winnable game. Lets hope we start well and set the tempo of the game. I'm predicting a draw although I would love to be proved wrong. A Rovers win will see us go level with Villa on 15 points.

What are you on about you silly little boy.

Gallagher on the left wing..... nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Pedersen or Peter surely.

Well i'm as confused as I was before. Pks1984 link to satfootball states that it's not on and Gazsimm says it is. I'm still none the wiser. Yahoo have it on their listings so that'll do for me

McEveley also looked pretty shocking when he came on against West Ham

I know it's probably been asked before but I can't seem to find a definitive answer... Is the game on the tv this week.

I was surprised to see him hit a ball quite so sweetly with his left foot on Saturday, this led to Bentleys goal. I would like to see him playing further frward, he seems to have a fair bit of pace and planty of tricks so should really be playing off the shoulder of the last defender. When I've watched him he seems to play quite deep and when we break quickly he isn't in the box to get on the end of things. So far so good though, he's outscored Shevchenko, Rooney and bellamy in the premiership.

A hotel would be the only way to make it pay to be honest. Making it 40000 seater would be pointless as we can't even attract 30000 at present.

Cocker, I'm guessing he's suggesting moving it to Manchester or something Not sure if hou've ever been to Ewood RTM, I'm guessing not from that comment. It's actually in quite a good area.

Move the away fans to the Riverside. Why do we keep giving them the pleasure of taking over the Darwen end when we could give them the Riverside. We treat 'em all too well. Eddie, you're talking nonsense... it doesn't make sense to re develop one stand but it does make sense to build a whole new ground..... are you sat there with your underpants on your head, two pencils up your nose, and saying wibble!!!!!!

I would imagine Ooijer is in most danger of picking up another one. To be fair Tugay and Bentley aren't known for their strong tackling. Agreed 3 points in this game would go a long way to seeing us qualify, but as it's rovers and we don't like to do things the easy way, expect us to lose!!

I would imagine they would play in Red and White and we would play in Blue and White. Don't see too much of a clash there.

A replica rovers shirt from late 80's early 90's went for £115.00 last week. Couldn't believe it. I would have paid £50 for it as it looked in pretty good nick. It was an old shirt made by ellgren (sp?) with the new badge and a Perspex sponsor. Very nice shirt.

That's an excellent preview Upton333. Top notch stuff.

Oh dear. You're not the brightest are you.

It was on radio 5 live. I listened to the whole thing. That's whay I was surprised by your rant. To be fair we played them off the park for long periods of the game (from what I could hear)