Surely, as the glory-hunter you are, you're now an England fan again.

The two home games we've played so far have been fairly entertaining. I know one of them finished 0-0 but it was an entertaining 0-0. Maybe if you could be arsed to go you'd see that. 4-5-1 doesn't necessarily mean dull football - it can very easily be turned into a 4-3-3 formation. Away from home we try to be solid, come away with at least a point, and nick a goal on the break. It's exactly what the likes of Chelsea try to do, except that they are more successful at it because they've got better players. Incidentally, the one game this season where, away from home, we played 4-4-2 and took the game to our opponents we got pi55ed on. Now I'm sure we'll go back to that formation eventually, but right now I like the fact that we're picking up points. Oh, and I'd put the blame on Bolton rather than us for Sunday's game. They were the home team yet they showed no signs at all of wanting to commit players to attack. we were professional, organised, and fully-committed - and we also looked more like scoring than they did.

God knows what you sad @#/?s would have been like if we'd lost the Ashes. I guess some people just need to be miserable come what may. We won a brilliant series, everyone in the country seems to be happy about it, so we've milked it for one extra day. Jeez, how dare we!

I think you need a course of Prozac or something because you recent posts are just the most negatively depressing crap I've read in a long time. Everyone's happy, an England team actually won something, what the #### is wrong with celebrating?

England batted better, bowled better and fielded better. The only thing the Aussies did better was whinge.

What a fantastic series of cricket - deservedly won by a fantastic England team. We outplayed Australia for four of the five tests, were better in every department of the game, and always seemed to produce something special when we were under-pressure. Australia kept fighting to the end though and it's to their great credit that England never had it easy. Other teams would have folded long ago. Make no mistake though, this England team are special and should only get better in the next few years. Our bowling attack is the best in the world and hunts as a pack. If one bowler isn't in form then the others step up. We have bowlers who can produce whatever the pitch and weather conditions, and we also have specialists who can exploit certain conditions. They all have height and pace and I believe they genuinely surprised Australia with their quality. The Aussie top order just couldn't cope with them. To be a truely great team though you have to have one or two genuine great players. Take a bow Andrew Flintoff. What a hero that man is. A sporting great who deserves all the praise he's going to get in the coming months. And we may have another one in Pietersen. He's started his career superbly and, again, he should only get better in time. Warne was outstanding for the Aussies - a legend who performed at the peak of his powers throughout the series. Lee and Langer also impressed me at times, both with their skills and their sportsmanship, but that was about it. The rest of the team only played in fits and starts and England exploited their weaknesses clinically. The Ashes have been an incredible sporting occasion this summer fought by two tremendous teams who clearly respect each other highly. The whole event has captured the hearts and imaginations of the nation and we now have some genuine sporting heroes to follow in this country. I can't wait for the next series now.

We won them over an hour ago.

You sense that Pietersen might start to take the pi55 now.

Absolutely fantastic century by Pietersen that's just won England the Ashes.

No matter what happens from here on England have set a target that will be tough for Australia to get. Obviously, the more they bat the tougher it will be. Thanks to Pietersen I'm just starting to relax again - which is probably a bad thing to say!

No matter what the Neekoy numpty says it's not quite over yet. England still have to bat until around tea tomorrow to make the game totally safe - assuming the weather doesn't intervene again. Warne, Lee and McGrath will be giving it one last effort and it won't be easy for England. However, all the momentum in this test has now switched in England's favour thanks to a blistering bowling spell by Flintoff and Hoggard. Ok, they had conditions to suit, but they still had to put the ball in the right areas and they did it superbly. The Aussies had the chance to put England under pressure but, yet again, they weren't up to it. England deserve to win the Ashes, they've been far and away the better team in the series, and now they've just got to perform for one more day to do it. C'mon boys.

I thought Savage was the best midfielder on the park today.

Top post. You're good at the footy stuff. Special mention for two players Nelsen and Bentley. Nelsen was fantastic today, a true giant in defence. And Bentley showed enough when he came on to give me hope that we might just be able to unlock defences when all our players are fit.

The Aussies will need to bat at least until tea tomorrow before they'll be in a position to declare (I think they'll want a lead of 200+). England will then have to bat for 3 and a half sessions to save the game. However, any more stoppages makes life more difficult for the Aussies. Also, if England can keep chipping wickets away it'll slow their scoring rate down, and obviously if we can bowl them out before they get their 200+ lead then we'll have a much better chance. England need to bowl well and keep the scoring rate down, and then they'll have to bat out of their skins to keep Warne at bay. All 3 results are still possible, but the Aussie win is probably just favourite at the moment.

I assume the Aussies will go off for bad light long before 7pm.

I just hope the Aussies get into the same situation that England did at Old Trafford - needing one or two wickets at the end of Monday. Then it'll show how stupid yesterday's decision really was.

There's no doubt it was the Aussies day today. After winning the toss England will have been looking to score 450-500 on that wicket and virtually secure the Ashes after one innings. The Aussies looked a lot sharper in the field today than they have recently, they took some good catches and made some good stops, but it was really a one man show. Shane Warne bowled magnificently and fully deserved all his success today. The lack of back-up in the Aussie bowling though was startling and offers what I'd have thought, from an Australian perspective, must be a pretty frightening glimpse into what their attack could be like in a couple of years. After saying all that, Freddie's partnership with Strauss means that England will at least post something competitive tomorrow. Obviously, if the tail can hang around for a while in the morning, that total will become more and more competitive. I feel that England really need a first innings lead though as Warne will be even harder to play in the second innings. Which means that we'll have to bowl extremely well. Harmison could be our trump card. he's not really had a pitch to suit him all summer but this one seems to be right up his street. We'll need him to be at his best tomorrow.

Well, if you don't mind me saying so Dave, that's @#/?. Warne was bowling out of his skin with a newish ball on a flat pitch without any footmarks. Pietersen and Vaughan both got out playing daft shots - not defending. Flintoff and Strauss are currently playing extremely sensibly and have put on 80-odd together. They've shown the way to do it. Judging by yourself and that prize muppet Neekoy it's clear the Aussies are rattled. Not that you're an Aussie like.

It's got nothing to do with playing for a draw. They're just digging in and trying to rebuild the innings. Warne has bowled absolutely brilliantly today - as good as I can remember seeing him given the pitch and the state of the game. England are just trying to play sensibly and not give their wickets away. No matter what happens in this match you have to wonder what the Aussies will do when Warne retires because there's no-one else troubling England at the moment.

I've defended Sven in the past, and I do think he's received a lot of undue criticism over the years, but tonight was a tactical shambles from start to finish. First of all the formation. All this talk of a holding midfield player is completely irrelevant when we're playing Northern Ireland. What the #### do we need a holding midfield player for? None of their midfielders were remotely interested in attacking, something we all knew before the start, so why play anyone defensive in there? Northern Ireland were always going to line-up with two banks of four across their defence and it was up to us to break it down. The best way to do that is to play two forwards, four attacking midfielders, and two attacking full-backs. Instead, we only had one forward, one midfielder so deep that no matter how good his passes were they didn't hurt the opposition, and two full-backs who hardly got forward at all. Secondly the personnel. Our best forward, ever since he made his debut, is Wayne Rooney. He's brilliant at playing just behind the main striker, linking up with our midfield, and running at the opposition defence. So we played him on the left wing!! ###### stupid. Beckham was our best player and played some sublime passes at times. However, he was so deep for most of the game that his passes didn't hurt anyone. Even when he managed to release one of the wide men behind the defence (usually Wright-Phillips) they looked up and only saw a closely marked Owen in the middle. No-one from midfield supported, and I can't remember a single midfielder making a run ahead of the forwards all match. Thirdly the substitutions. SWP was our main attacking threat in the first half so why was he subbed early in the second? Just senseless. Bringing Defoe on gave us nothing as he's so similar to Owen. At that stage we needed a big lump a la Heskey or Crouch (or yes, even Davies Theno) to come on and give us a different option. Sadly we had no-one like that on the bench. And then, after we were a goal down with 10 minutes to go, Sven takes off our main goalscoring midfielder Lampard and replaces him with a defensive midfielder in Hargreaves. Clueless. Every substitution, instead of fixing things, just seemed to bring more confusion to the team. Our midfield in particular didn't seem to have a clue where they should be playing for most of the second half, and consequently the Irish gained confidence and could have won by more in the end. They were the better team and thoroughly deserved their win. We can talk about tactics and formations all we want but tonight too many individuals just weren't up to it. Too many of them didn't seem as committed as their opposite numbers and the whole team collectively didn't work hard enough all game. It's not a disaster yet as we can still win our remaining two games and top the group. However, how confident can we be that we can do that? I know I'm not confident now, and I just wonder if the team have lost confidence in the manager.

Nothing special this time - just a Q&A with my mate Dave who's a Bolton season ticket holder. How pleased were you with Bolton last season? Extremely. How couldn't I be with our highest finish in 50 years and our first qualification for Europe? Do you think Big Sam has done well in the transfer window? Who are your in’s and out’s? Only time will tell. He's brought in lots of midfielders, but left us very short in defence, especially at fullback. As usual with Allardyce, I'm expecting some of his signings to be great, and some to be atrocious. I am looking forward to seeing Nakata and Borgetti, but less impressed with the signings of Ian Walker and Fabrice Fernades. The only out of any note is the retirement of Fernando Hierro, who showed his class towards the end of last season. How far do you think you can go in Europe? My aim would be to still be in Europe after Christmas. This will mean we have made it past the first round, and then progressed from the group stage. But I'm not confident we'll even make it into the group stage! Where do you think you’ll finish this season? Anywhere from 5th to 15th. For the last two seasons we've finished at the top end of the also-ran bracket, and we'll be in that group again. Rovers have seen their crowds slip markedly so far this season. It seems to be a trend throughout most of the league - has it affected Bolton? From the two home games we've had so far, it doesn't seem to have affected us yet. This is probably because we're still riding on the wave of last season's high finish. The cheapest tickets we’ve been offered for Bolton are £32. This seems to be about average for most of the away grounds these days. Do you think the common fan has become priced out of football? It's definitely getting that way. This season we've played Everton and Newcastle at home, two teams you would expect to fill the away end, but neither team has come close. Do you attend as many games as you used to? If not, why not? No, basically because of the cost. I buy a season ticket so I don't have to make a conscious decision about spending £30 to watch Portsmouth on a cold Tuesday in January (the answer would be no). I used to attend as many away games as I could, now I'm far more choosy. £35 to go to Selhurst Park last year? No thanks. And then add in the never-ending array of kick-off times, and the fact that you can now watch most games at some dodgy local pub, and the willingness to travel away decreases even further. A group of Rovers fans are in the process of starting up an Independent Supporters Association. Does Bolton have anything like this? What do you think of ISA’s in general? They are a good way of getting tax-free savings. If Bolton did/does have an ISA what issues would you like it to tackle? I'm not aware of Bolton having such an organisation, but if it did I would expect it to tackle the issues that affect the fans, such as pricing of tickets etc. But when my annual contribution to the club pays just a couple of hours of Okocha's wages, I wouldn't expect the club to give a toss about such a group. The fact that clubs like Bolton are looking to expand their audience in the Far East shows where the clubs' interests lie these days. What are your views on Rovers this season? Do you think we’re stronger or weaker than last season? I can't say I've seen much of Rovers so far this season, but you should be stronger just because of signing Bellamy. We have gained a reputation as a team of thugs. Do you feel this reputation is deserved? Didn't you know tackling Arsenal and Chelsea players had been banned? But a team including Todd, Savage, Neill, Dickov, Mokeona etc. is going to get itself a reputation, and it isn't going to be good. We haven’t lost at the Reebok for a few years. Why do you think this is? It's your biggest game of the season, and so you're well up for it. Finally, what’s your score prediction for the Bolton v Blackburn game? 2-0 home win.

Nice to know your true colours have come out now Tris.

Say it to my face next time we meet - otherwise calm down and sober up.

Tris is back - and this time he's mean!

Ah tris, it's lovely to have you back. I'd suggest your comment was just as offensive as mine, I even put a smilie after mine to show it was meant jokily, but if you're too sensitive a flower to see that then that's up to you. And I can't say that I'm too bothered whether "so many people on this MB think [i'm] a complete pr!ck" or not - I suspect there's a few who like reading my posts as well. But of course, you making that comment isn't offensive in the slightest is it? Just like calling Jan names isn't either. Oops, sorry - a bit more sarcasm there. It is a bit worrying that you can get so worked up over something as trivial as a Robbie Savage interview. I'd hate to see what you're like if something important happens.