The connection's obvious - bad training.

Emre picked up a hamstring injury as well. Shame.

As a dues paying member, I believe that the committee stuff should be open to all.

If this is going to be an open organization, yes, I do. Proposed content, badges, etc. different opinions (having a go) should be open to the membership to know about.

Would I read it? Probably not. Would I feel better about the organization knowing nothing is being hidden? Yes.

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That may well be the case American but, to be blunt, it isn't going to happen.

If BRISA is going to work the committee have to be able to make the mundane decisions on their own. We simply haven't got the time to debate every little thing to death.

All the major organisational and issue decisions will be made at the BRISA meetings. Anyone can attend these meetings. We will also try to get the agenda for these meetings out as early as possible so that anyone who is unable to attend can contribute any comments or ideas they may have in advance. The only things that will be decided in the committee forum are the day-to-day trivialities that any organisation faces.

To put this into perspective, almost every other ISA site I've seen doesn't even have a members forum. We do. In fact, in comparison to most other ISA's, we're very open. However, we also need the authority to make simple decisions if we are going to succeed. I believe most, if not all, committee's act in this way.

Finally, as has been stated previously, all the BRISA members will get a chance to judge us at the AGM in the summer. If you don't think we're doing a good job then you'll get the chance to vote someone else onto the committee. In the meantime, I hope that all our members can show a bit of faith in us and wait to see what we can achieve in the coming months.

Given tonights agenda though, is there any point in non committe members attending? I am very keen to attend but would like it to be worthwhile given the effort it would take to get there...

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Well, if anyone has any views on any of the agenda items, or simply just wants to meet some of the people involved in BRISA and have the chance to talk to them face-to-face then yes, it's worth turning up. Also, as Den says, we have an Any Other Business item on our agenda where people can raise whatever they want.

I just wanted to make the point that this meeting isn't going to be the attendance meeting - that'll be next month.

What time is tonights meeting likely to finish. I am keen to attend, particularly if some of the ideas I put forward are to be discussed but may not be able to make it until later.

I dont want to turn up at half eight or nine and find its all over, does anyone have any idea how long it will go on for?

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Not that I want to put you off Darth Paul, but the issues you brought up will be discussed at our next meeting in December, not tonight's.

Tonight's meeting is mainly about the internal workings of BRISA and how we can structure ourselves to be as effective as possible.

The December meeting will be dedicated to sorting out exactly what we take to the club regarding attendances. That's when ideas like yours will be debated and decisions taken about what's workable and what isn't.

There's a danger of over-reacting here. Our first meeting with the club wasn't to discuss issues as such, the aim was to simply introduce ourselves to each other and discuss how we mean to work together in the future.

John Williams' comments about "will not happen issues" such as salary capping clearly came from an informed position. I'm sure he's had many discussions and meetings about this with the other Premier League chairmen, and he obviously feels that that particular issue isn't going to happen.

In any case that isn't the sort of issue we would take to the club. Issues like that have to be tackled at a national level, which is why we are joining up with the FSF. Rovers aren't going to introduce a salary cap independently so pressure has to be put on the league authorities collectively.

Up to now our impressions of the club have been positive and they've given the indication that they intend to take us seriously and listen to us. So, until that changes, maybe we should just wait and see what happens in the future.

Sorry you didn't get an acknowledgement Neil. We've all had loads to do since the launch and I'm afraid some things have slipped through the net.

Rest assured that every item of correspondance we've received regarding attendances will be going into the melting pot when we decide what we're going to take to the club at our next meeting with them.

If we all agree that your suggestion is workable (sounds good to me) then expect to hear from us again in the future.

I've been told that non-members can't read the BRISA forums at the moment. No idea if that's true but, if it is, that wasn't our intention and I'm sure the various techies we have will be trying to sort it out asap.

However rightly or wrongly I'm afraid the impression that is coming over quite strongly at the moment is that BRISA will be representative of the views of the membership who have stumped up their fiver and that only representations from that section of the fans will be given any credence.

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Anyone can come to our meetings and pass on their views. Anyone can read the BRISA forum. Anyone can read the minutes of all our meetings. Anyone can either e-mail us their views or post them to us - we even hope to have a phone line soon where people can leave a message. All views will be given an equal amount of credence.

We've also said, in response to similar criticism from EiT, that we will be actively trying to gain the views of non-members in the future. Quite how we do this hasn't been decided yet but we will be trying.

Seriously Rev, what more can we do? I genuinely want to know.

Just to add to Paul's post above, we are due to meet with the club in January to discuss a topic(s) of our choosing. This topic will almost certainly be attendances.

Between now and then we will need as much input as possible from as many Rovers fans as possible. Any ideas, suggestions, discussion points, complaints, moans etc regarding attendances should be directed to BRISA so that we can take as much information as possible into the meeting.

At the next BRISA meeting after Thursday (i.e. the December one - date yet to be confirmed) we will be looking to sort through all the information we've received, prioritise it, and then determine the best way to present it to the club.

So, even though the above agenda does not include a section where we will be discussing attendances, rest assured that we will be at our next meeting in December and that all the suggestions and ideas that have been made so far have been noted and will be discussed then.

It would appear that Hendry's been sacked now. Simon Grayson has taken temporary charge.

UPDATE: This is strange. It now seems that Hendry hasn't been sacked yet, but Grayson has been put in charge of the first team. Hendry will find out his fate next week.

Grayson takes over

As has been pointed out somewhere else earlier, all our "big" home games (Bolton, Man U, Arsenal, Wigan, Liverpool, Chelsea, City) are in the second half of the season. Gav will be fine.

The reason we're playing Argentina is because it's importamt we play South American opposition before the World Cup. The South Americans largely play a different style to the Europeans and England need to familiarise themselves with this style again.

Why Geneva - god knows. But as Rev says I'm sure it'll have something to do with money.

Exactly JBN. If the ignoramous is a mouthpiece for BRISA, then it's not for me

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You agree with JBN but then choose to insult me.

Oh, and I'm not a mouthpiece for BRISA, just one of several people involved. And if you can't see past your problem with me to see the wider picture of what BRISA is trying to achieve then that's a shame - and not particularly fair on the others who are involved. But that is, of course, your perogative.

Well done scotty.  Thats much better.  So nice to see you have learned that counting to 10 whilst taking slow deep breaths is often the best policy  Try to keep it up you'll feel much better for it in the long term.

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Wise words Theno. I trust you'll be taking your own advice as well.

ah - what's the point.

Not good enough mate. You're the one who has volunteered to represent the views of other rovers fans.  That entails a responsibility beyond "if you think you can do a better job" to be respectful of the views of others. If you can turn your childish style on and off that's great, but I've yet to read a post of yours that didn't insult someone.

Save that kind of stuff for your meeting with JW - you might even stick your tongue out at him when he's not looking, should he disagree with your excellently argued points.

In the meantime - Brad winning us points by game 12 is great, and long may it continue; I would love to be proved wrong over the season as we have no other keeper anyway. But he did owe us for Villa and Liverpool.

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It's sooo easy to be critical from afar. I, like a load of other Rovers fans, are trying to do our best to represent all the Rovers fans views.

Of course, because I happen to not agree with you on a point, it makes it easy for you to think that I'll fail BRISA in some way. I don't agree.

I think I'm capable of seperating my membership of BRFCS to my membership of BRISA. I'd like to think that on BRFCS I could simply be responding as a fan, but I guess clowns like you might make that impossible.

The bottom line is you're point about Friedel was wrong. Instead of sticking up for your point you chose to question my involvement with BRISA.

While I have nothing but admiration for you stepping up to the plate on BRISA, I hope that you will be able to represent the views of Rovers supporters that will at times contradict your own.  Your insulting debating style should be very effective in swaying Chairman John.

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Ah, like Rev did last week you've gone for the BRISA defence!!!

If you can't differentiate my views on this board to my views within BRISA then you're clearly struggling.

As I said to Rev, if you feel you can do a better job then I look forward to you joining BRISA, I really do. I'd be delighted to stand down.

In the meantime, your views regarding Friedel are still pathetic.

As expected, weeks and weeks of mediocre performances are instantly trumped by one decent performance for the chosen ones - Brad'n'Bert; whereas yet another excellent performance by Dickov goes largely unremarked, failing to dispel the received wisdom that he is crap.

Brad is paid to make saves in a game, lets hope he keeps doing that and throws in a few "how did he get to that"'s to make up for the howlers.

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What a thoroughly pathetic post from someone desperately trying to defend his point of view.

Brad today did exactly what you accused him of not being able to do anymore - he made two or three top class saves that eventually won the game for us.

At least Rev had the decency to admit that Friedel had a good game today. You, on the other hand, just showed how blinkered you are.

Top, top performance today from the lads. What a good game.

I was worried beforehand. I thought we'd miss Savage's running in midfield and that Tugay's lack of mobility would be picked off by Charlton's 5-man midfield. How wrong I was! Anyway, Reid came in for Savage and Dickov was prefered up front to Kuqi - otherwise it was the same team that played Chelsea last week.

We started off like a house on fire. I've been critical in the past of the way we've started our home games but no complaints today. Within two minutes Emerton collected the ball at the edge of the area on the right. Charlton's full back forced him wide but Emerton managed to wrap his foot round the ball and hit a fantastic shot into the top corner of the net. Charlton's keeper looked like he thought it was going wide - big mistake.

Fifteen minutes later we were two up. A cross from the right deflected of a Charlton player and found Dickov in acres of space on the edge of the six yard box. He looked suspiciously off-side, even before the deflection, but he finished with aplomb. Cracking header.

We just controlled the game after that. Our passing was great and Charlton didn't have a sniff - right up until Gray had to go off on about the half hour mark with an injury (looked like his hamstring, could be out for a while). Mokoena came on and went to right back with Neill switching to left back, but we didn't look at all comfortable, and it was no surprise when Charlton scored from a move down our left. Neill seemed to let Rommadahl (sp?) go, he hit a decent low cross to the far post, and Hughes got there in front of Mokoena to stab the ball past Friedel.

Charlton suddenly found an extra yard and put us under some pressure for the first time in the game, but thankfully we held out until half time and went in deservedly 2-1 up.

We started the second half superbly. Within five minutes we should have had a penalty for a completely blatant handball and we won numerous corners and free-kicks around Charlton's box. We didn't get the breakthrough straight away though, but we plugged away, kept playing fantastic footy, and eventually got our reward with a great goal. A pass from the back to the right wing was flicked on skillfully by Emerton straight into the path of the on-rushing Reid. He hit a superb low cross to the edge of the six yard box where Pedersen, running in at pace, got a deft touch with his wrong foot to score a cracking team goal. OK, the shot got a deflection but I'm sure it would have gone in anyway.

Game over you'd think but, credit to Charlton, they came back and gave us a few frights. It didn't help that Todd had to go off with what appeared to be a knee injury (again, could be out for a while) and we failed to re-organise our defence. Hardly surprising though considering that Pedersen was playing left back at this point and Neill was an emergency centre back. Luckily for us though Friedel was in top form, he saved point blank chances from Heriderson (more sp?) and Bothroyd, as well as keeping out a couple of long-range efforts as well.

For all Charlton tried to get a goal back though we looked dangerous on the counter-attack. Another good move saw Kuqi (sub for Dickov late on) winning a flick-on, a Charlton defender getting beaten by the bounce of the ball, and Bellamy tucking the ball away showing the class he has.

And so it finished 4-1, and let no-one be in any doubt, we totally deserved it.

I'll start at the front because that's where our real class is. Bellamy was, yet again, excellent today. His runnnig off the ball is fantastic, he's also got a great first touch, and he passes as clinically as anyone in the team. And, just like Henry does down the left at Arsenal with Pires and Ashley Cole, he's linking up superbly on the right with Emerton and Neill. For the whole game Charlton simply didn't have any answers to the threat we posed down their left, and it was no surprise that two of our goals came from moves down that flank. In addition, Dickov worked his nuts off and scored a cracxking header, off-side or not.

In midfield Tugay was majestic. As I left the game I was going to give my man of the match to Emerton, but seeing the highlights again on TV it just showed how instrumental Tugay was. Considering Charlton had a 5 man midfield you'd think they'd have assigned one of them to close Tugay down, thankfully though they didn't, and Tugay had the time and space to control the game from start to finish. We passed the ball brilliantly today and Tugay was a huge part of that. He looks fit, full of running, and back to the sort of form he showed 2 or 3 years ago for us. Man of the match.

Reid filled in well for Savage, put himself about when he had to, and passed the ball better than he normally does. Emerton was terrific down the right - it just shows the confidence a player gets from scoring an early goal. He could be vital to our chances this season. The way he links up with Neill and Bellamy is such a threat to the opposition. Pedersen didn't do too much going forward, apart from score of course (how many times have we said that?!), but he worked hard defensively and helped reduce Gray's injury to a minor convenience.

At the back Todd and Zurab looked composed, clever, and controlled. Zurab in particular showed himself to be a great footballer, he frequently took the ball out of defence and started off attacks. Gray looked a threat before his injury, and the whole back four look troubled afterwards until half-time. Neill played in 3 different positions during the match and looked classy in all of them. He's been a revelation this season and it's not unrealistic that the likes of Milan may be looking at him.

Finally, Friedel made 3 or 4 great saves when he had to in the second half.

Charlton were overrun today. Their 5-man midfield was simply out-passed by our 4-man midfield (with thanks to our defence). Instaed of getting close to Tugay and stifiling his work they sat off him and allowed him to dictate play. He did it brilliantly. And up front we had the one class striker on the pitch - take a bow Bellamy.

We were brilliant today. Long may it continue.

Jansen was the best forward we've had since Shearer imo (although Bellamy may soon take over that mantle). He was fantastic in the first division, and fantastic when paired with a decent partner (rather than the truely awful Grabbi) in the Prem.

Of course, none of us can say what he'd have done if he'd not had his accident, but I'm confident he'd have been brilliant.

You've disappeared so far up your own backside recently you only seem to consider your own point of view as worthy of discussion.

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Recently?

I'd hate to think this inflated sense of your self importance coincides with your election to the BRISA committee. Either way I hope you'll be a little more receptive to other points of view in that capacity.

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You're more than welcome to join us on BRISA if you think I'm not doing a good job Rev. I'm sure we'd be delighted to have you.

It's just unbelievable. There's no doubt Friedel's having a poor run at the moment (although I don't blame him for yesterday's 3rd goal at all) but I've no doubt he'll be back. He had a poor run midway through last season, the usual suspects all came on here spouting off, and then he was back to his brilliant best for the rest of the season. We didn't here a peep about his "fundamentals" then.

I stopped taking Rev's posts seriously a long time ago. He picks his favourites at the start of the season and then he picks players he doesn't like - and no matter what happens during the season Rev's opinions will never change. The only surprise is that he's not managed to blame yesterday's result on Flitcroft yet!

For me, Friedel's made two real mistakes all season. One at United in a game we won anyway, and one at Liverpool where the defence were also at fault. I think you'd struggle to name another keeper who's only made two mistakes this season.

As for yesterday's goal, you see that sort of goal all the time and it always has very little to do with the keeper. Our defence was far too deep and then we allowed Terry to get a free run at the ball. Friedel was caught between positioning himself for a header from Terry or following the flight of the ball. If our defence had done its job he'd never have had that decision to make. Oh, and if you remember EiT, your beloved Van der Sar made exactly the same "mistake" against us a few weeks ago!!

Everyone who's joined will eventually receive a membership card. We're also discussing what else we can offer members. Shouldn't be too long now.