gumboots

It wasn't just the pen he was scareed of - it was the sending off that would have had to go with it. Arsenal have had Gilberto and Senderos sent off recently but not at the Emirates? This one would have required far more bottle than Dowd possesses.

The blame for this unfair and frankly sickening bit of big club bias rests solely on the three match officials! They should be relegated to non league reffing in order that they have to rethink their entire outlook on the game. Apparently he said he couldnt be sure if Heskey had been brought down- meaning in his mind he had to wave the claims away. Surely if he is in doubt he should be able to turninstantly to his linesman, who was yards away for help! Secondly the doubt he has in his mind is so obviously due to the fact that he doesnt expect Wigan to win and so doesn't want to be the one to condemn Arsenal to defeat. If it was at the other end it is a penalty every time because he expects Arsenal to score at some point. To deny Arsenal the same penalty would be to postpone the inevitable and so the doubt in his mind doesnt matter! I still have that horrible sick feeling in my stomach from the feeling of being cheated and I don't really give a hoot about Wigan. What we all care about is the fact that we have seen here, first hand, that clubs outside the Champions League are being cheated, disrespected and denied a level playing field. Personally, with that decision, the conduct of Henry(including a blatant dive in the first half that has not been mentioned enough) and the £££ pumped into 3 of the top 4, I am finding it difficult to remain interested in the Prem. Platt, McAllister and Gray all condemned it outright and basically called it how it is. So sudrely now something has to be done. Unfortunately its only going to be focused on this match and this ref, the wider, more difficult picture will not be looked at.

Would fans not get behind any manager who actually dared to axe some of the so-called big names. I think most fans would even take non-qualification if they felt the team was going in the right direction. Problem for McClaren is he may well not qualify and he's not done anything revolutionary so of course everyone's on his back.

He was certainly head and shoulders above the rest of the team in the first half and the spaniards couldn't keep track of him. The problem was that the rest of his team seemed not to be able to cope with his movement and crossing either. Pearce said straight after the game that he was outstanding but if you look on the websites today ( i don't know about the newspapers) it's all about Lita saving the game. Yet another example of the media bias against us?

Heard the commentator say there'd been some disagreement between Bentley and the previous under 21 set up but since the same guy said twice that Ashley Young had signed for Spurs in the transfer window perhaps we should take that with a pinch of salt.

I don't fall into any camp with regard to Dunny. I genuinely would like to be proved wrong and for him to be a brilliant signing. There's something very likeable about the guy and I know he genuinely loves the club. I won't be looking for every mistake he makes BUT I really do think there is far too much expectation on fans part of a sudden return to form and performance levels that we cannot realistically expect, certainly in the short term. The optimist in me says he'll be a good signing but I am the world's greatest pessimist and I can just see it all going pear-shaped.

I still remain very wary of this signing. I think the weight of expectation on his shoulders might mean that he fails or tries to do too much and gets injured again. I'm certainly not looking forward to his starting tomorrow and hope that if he does get on we're already winning. I can't get caught up in this local hero worship. I'd love to see him do well, but I just can't believe he will. Hopefully I'll be proved wrong.

Couple of yards is an exaggeration but probably offside still.

Didn't Birmingham have loads of injuries last year that led fans to call into question their training routines? We are not just fit but one of the fittest teams around and Hughes always complains when players miss any of preseason because that's when you really build up the reserves of strength that get you through the number of games you have to play. Dunn has not trained with a squad of players for some time - most of the work he was doing appears to have been general fitness stuff and rather than rush him in and have him fail or break down Mark Hughes is erring on the side of caution and I for one agree with him.

I don't blame Lucas for going - only for the lies and self deception. We wouldn't like his going to West Ham any more if he'd told it like it is, "I'm going for the huge wages," but we might have respected him a little more for telling the truth. As it is he just digs himself a deeper hole. And as for the fact that West Ham appeared to want him more well, of course they do. They're desperate and Liverpool are not. They may not have the best team in the land but they aren't the ones in 18th place either. If he can't see that or won't admit it to himself then he's got less brain than I credited him with.

Could his injury problems have partly been caused by the amount of driving he's been doing? Several players have found their hamstring problems have improved when their car's been adapted for them. If, as he says, he's spent a lot of time driving up and down to see his little girl and other family and friends perhaps he's less likely to get injured if he's here. I know it's not all benn down to that but could have been a contributory factor.

Hughes has said that he would have no problem playing him if he's still at rovers tomorrow, because he's never let him down in terms of committment in any game he's played so far.

actually a lot of those who work around the club are rovers fans - when your income depends on it you'd be daft not to be. Don't mean the players or management but the ordinary emplyees.

Sums it up quite nicely. I have always supported Lucas through the criticism of his behaviour and attitude but now I really would like to see West Ham relegated even more than before. I can't think why a professional player who wanted one last chance at a big club would settle for the cash and go to West Ham. I know about his ambitions after football but it still seems to me that real footballers want to win things and what is Lucas going to win with the Hammers? He's certainly going to finish off any chance they may have had of winning the Fair Play League.

Wasn't his point that it was impossible to set those low prices before the start of the season and not that you couldn't charge them at all?

She's also the mother of his daughter.

If we can offload Gallagher then I for one will be delighted, especially if we can get a sell-on clause included. He has shown no sign of being Premiership standard on a consistent basis and if we get rid then at least we'll see the back of the "Gallagher should be given a fair chance" brigade.

Well, it's just possible that he won't get a better offer than he gets from Rovers in terms of cash or the quality of club that want to buy him so he's really got to be careful what he says. No point in alienating the club that have already offered you a good contract if the only club that decides it wants you in the transfer window is a rubbish one. We all think we know that Liverpool want him but then it might all go wrong for him, we might not let him go in January because we can't find a replacement and Liverpool might change their mind before the summer. Who knows?

Basically he said that whether he leaves or not in this window is up to the manager and the chairman but that unless he signs a new contract he will be leaving in the summer. exactly what Hughes has said and exactly what we've all known was the case all along. Mark Hughes won't sell him unless he has someone else guaranteed to come straight in and do a good job and Neill knows that. He's not asking to go, just telling it straight. I don't think he was any worse or any better yesterday than at any other time recently and those who think he was deliberately doing as little as possible need to look at what happens on the pitch and not at what they think is happening or expect to see happen.

There is quite simply, no substitute for live football. As someone said, it's in your blood. It's part of what you do in your spare time, so much a part that you can't imagine not doing it. We go as a family, 4 or 5 of us or even more when my daughter comes over from Germany. It's our entertainment. So although I do feel £36 is a bit steep I've paid it as a one off for this game for my daughter who's coming home from France because she's been watching 3rd division Laval games since September and can't wait to watch Rovers again. She's at the Emirates today and will be at the other games played while she's home. We can't afford it either but we'll miss out on something else rather than miss Rovers. Not saying it makes us better than others who don't go - just explaining how it is.

No thanks but if we're making a Christmas wish list I'd take the Duff we knew before he went to Chelsea and the Matt Jansen the season beofre he got injured Ain't going to happen unfortunately

Do you really think he'd be taking a pen in that situation? You can be sure the management team have thought about the possibilities and will decide what happens. Besides which would you as a Liverpool fan ( many of whom dislike Neill intensely) want to see a player who could stab his team mates in the back coming to your club. I'd back Lucas to score if they were to let him take such a pen.

I still can't get my head around so many fans wanting Dunn back. If Hughes decides he's worth the risk then I'll respect that but I personally don't think he's a risk worth taking. There weren't that many fans who didn't think he'd got too big for his boots before he'd left or too fat for his trousers. Perhaps he will respect Hughes more than Souness but I don't see us getting the Dunn who scored that fantastic goal against the Dutch under 21s back and that's the Dunn I'll need to see before I really feel it was a worthwhile move to bring him back.

Unless they've restocked since last week they haven't had woolly hats for more than a year. They no longer carry the range of sweatshirts, fleeces, jumpers etc that they had even when Sportsworld first took over. The club are aware of the problem and I did hear from someone who knows that there are steps being taken to address the problem but it will take a while, probably not this season.

Yes, but you fail to remember that one was by a rovers player and the other one wasn't. We all know that fouls against our players have to be at least twice as bad before anything gets given