Gray back from the dead! Obviousy Matteo's injury has made them think that he could have an important part to play for us!

Have to admit I do not agree with Sparky on this. We were the home side and in my view we were not that positive. We had no support up top for Bellamy. Plus the fact we were playing a side struggling on confidence. Boumsong and Taylor must have loved to mark just Bellamy. Anyway, time to move on. However, I have got a feeling we will be talking about this topic again in the near future (sadly).

Hughes on our system. People can talk about systems and formations, but we played 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 (against Newcastle), whatever you want to call it, and they played 4-4-2. "They created four chances and scored three; we created 20 and didn't convert any of them, so who's the most positive? "If people want to go down the road of saying it's a negative system then I'd disagree because against Newcastle, we were certainly the more positive side. "At the end of the day, it's not about systems, it's about getting the ball in the net and we're struggling in that respect because the number of chances we are converting isn't high enough. "But I'm not too concerned about it at this point. The important thing is we are creating chances, we just need to be a bit more clinical."

*IGNORE*

There are also bound to be wide open spaces in the stands tonight but Hughes said: "You have to be professional whatever the circumstances. You have to make sure you don't take your eye off the ball."

Threesome with Glenn and John Gorman apparently…

Not sure of the full story to be honest. At the time she wasn't one of Sky's main presenters so was there was not much publicity behind the story.

Hughes hits back at 'bore' claims...........

When she was 'a lower profile' presenter on Sky she had an affair with Bryan Robson. Following that she went away from the front line for a while and recently she has returned. Makes Champions League viewing a pleasure. If I was a pundit on Football First I would def ask her out for a drink on a Saturday night!

Claire is lovely! Lucky Bryan Robson!!!

I am just taking this from his post match interview and quotes. It was all over the pitch. He said our passing was not quick enough and too many players had off days. So he obviously does not think the formation is an issue. He stayed in the dressing room for a while after the match which suggests he had a go at the players. As I posted in the Mark Hughes thread, he does not take kindly to criticism Hughes..... it was the players fault not his....

On Hughes, I feel that on Sunday he did not think the players carried out his instructions correctly.

If you look at Hughes comments on the official site he seems to think we created more than enough chances....

Apologies about the length of this post, but some of the articles I have taken from Hughes tenure with Wales. Familiar reading.......... The Hughes managerial regime can be summed up in three parts, beginning, middle and end. In the closing 14 months before Hughes left for Blackburn, his reign often bordered on the downright awful. Hughes, and the sycophants who surrounded him, wouldn't dare admit to this. But fundamentally bad decisions were made during that 10 games without a win period which cost Wales two bites at qualifying for Euro 2004 and then put paid to our prospects of reaching Germany next year. The run of matches - and Hughes' decision-making in them - went something like this. August 20, 2003: Serbia 1 Wales 0: Sparky was accused of being too negative in a game which saw the slide in our Euro 2004 fortunes. Toshack, had he been in charge, would probably have adopted a bolder approach. September 6, 2003: Italy 4 Wales 0: The first of the really big clangers as Hughes stuck Simon Davies at right-back. Sept 10, 2003: Wales 1 Finland 1: Wales hadn't recovered from the Italian mauling and Hughes couldn't lift the team in time for a crunch Millennium Stadium clash four days on. Nov 19, 2003: Wales 0 Russia 1: Where was the more positive approach? After Davies at right-back, this was major clanger number two as Hughes started without goal sensation Robert Earnshaw, who was on fire at the time. Earnie was ready to destroy the nervous Russians who, I suspect, would have wilted in front of a 74,000 partisan Welsh crowd. Instead, Hughes' cautious team selection and tactics enabled the Russians to settle. Vadim Evseev scored after 22 minutes and by the time Earnshaw was sent on, to play out of position on the right wing, the game and our Euro 2004 hopes The moment he was substituted, Toshack, in his role as a radio pundit, turned to those next to him to query, 'Why on earth is he taking Delaney off?' October 9, 2004: England 2 Wales 0: Hughes argued you had to learn from your mistakes. Yet, despite the evidence of Milan, he stuck Davies at right-back again. This time it was Frank Lampard's turn not to believe his luck, as he encamped as a left winger for the second half. October 13, 2004: Wales 2 Poland 3: Hughes bizarrely took off Gary Speed, his captain, when the game was poised at 1-1. The defence was left exposed and the Polish midfield ran through the gaps to score two goals within six minutes.

The paper has a few more quotes from him. Would not buy it though, I am sure his comments will appear on the web over the next few days.

In the Sun today, big article on the decline in attendances. Big article with a lot of talk from our very own Chairman in it!!

David Thompson gave an interesting interview last season when he said under Hughes he could express himself as he always had to hold this position. He said he did not mind because it benefited the team. Souness (the tactical magician) referred to it after the game. "They are hard to play against because their players don't move out of position". We need to get the balance right and that's exactly what Hughes said after the game. However, his track record with Wales suggests he is one dimensional in his approach to tactics.

Man Usa 1 – Rovers 1 Rooney and Savage to get sent off after brawl.

You need to have good, attacking players with pace and who can beat a man to play West Ham's way.

When he is asked about Blackburn, Souness has always been very complementary about our club. He has very fond memories of his time here and he made some good friends along the way (and obviously enemies!). Whatever your thoughts on him, he is an extremely honest man who is passionate about his football.

Thing is, in charge of Wales this ‘negative’ tag haunted Hughes. Admittedly he had poor players to work with but some would say he is working with poor players now. With my pessimistic hat on, his time at Wales is being mirrored at Rovers. False promise at the start followed by a decline.

Souness said: "I thought it was a nervy affair, really, until we scored a goal. It was two teams aware of their situations. "Confidence plays such a big part in football. Some people need a great deal, some people get by with not a lot - and I think it showed at times in our play. "When we scored our goal we started to play with confidence and pass it around. "The way Blackburn set out to play they don't open up and chase you, so it was a dogged affair early on. "There won't be many teams that come here and win 3-0 the way they're set up to play. They are hard to break down and the players don't step out of position."

Hughes was very angry after the match yesterday. As I said in another thread it was our pedestrian passing which left him very annoyed. He also said he maybe needs to look again at the balance of the team. Think there has been somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction on here. The manner of the defeat hurt and the circumstances surrounding the match have added to the painful feeling. A positive to me what Craig Bellamy who showed that he is quality. He hardly had a pre-season and he looked quite sharp. I am sure we will find a way of getting the best out of him and that will only be good for the team. I think Scotty mentioned it in the post match thread. Hughes finds it hard to work out what our best line up is. I think he has the same questions marks over 4-4-2 as ourselves because on the message board we have debated at length if Reid can play centre midfield etc. I think ideally we need to look at Savage and Tugay playing our home matches. However, Tugay plays deep naturally so you cannot really have Savage deep as well. At home against lesser teams we should be on the front foot. However, we can talk tactics all day but too many of our players had off days yesterday and it cannot be put down solely to tactics. What I do not like about our situation is that we have some particularly tough matches coming up and it could get worse before it gets better.

It is not just United away though, we some horrible away fixtures coming up and the emphasis now will be to WIN home games or we really will be in trouble. Thought Zurab played well today and being a defender you would think he will only get better. Considering Bellamy has played hardly any football I thought he was looking sharper than he did at West Ham. I fear he could get soon pi*sed off as we don't have anyone who can complement him. Tugay thrives when he is around good attacking players - Tugay is a must starter, certainly for home matches. He has been there and done it, Bentley seems to think he is better than he is. Hughes said it afterwards, there was no tempo to our passing and it was far too sluggish. I have cooled down a bit, but still on reflection this defeat hurts because I just felt Newcastle were there for the taking.

Maybe when playing away........ but at home!! Playing Bellamy on his own does not make sense. Also playing pointless high balls to him does make much either. Looking at the fixtures coming up we have some tough times ahead. We were playing a team low on confidence and with a dodgy backline. However we never put them under enough pressure.