i can't actually tell wether or not that zurab touched the ball...even at full speed and on repalys too. what makes it hard to understand for me was that the ball and player was running away from goal and all zurab had to do was shepherd the guy towards the byeline. however, in saying that if it was a free kick then it certainly was a yellow card at the very most...the ref without a doubt in my mind spoiled the game from that moment on. he was not the last defender and we had cover in the penalty area....so i think the ref has dropped a bollock on this one by spoiling the game.

it sounds so much like the mike tyson rape case. she knew why he wanted her to go back to his room. she had no problem with it...and decided to ruin his life from that moment on.

well i mean the man no ill's but if it is caused by the drink then it is about time the doctors refused to treat him and dedicated more time to those who actually give a toss about their own life and want to make it better.

for those of us down here the games that we play against the austrians and the poles are both live on espn this coming week. saturday night will be a great night...bbq,in the back garden with plenty of beer and then the match....come on!!!!

there is a bloke who used to play aussie rules for north melbourne called "donald mcdonald".

now the following has nothing to do with football in england but i thought it was still rather funny. back in the 70's or 80's here in australia there was a bloke who did a streak across the ground in a rugby league grand final....now i aint sure if this is completely true or not but his name was/is "Mark Hardon" i am sure that sydney rovers and some of the other aussies could shed some light on this.

west brom playing 5 across the middle mate, doesn't leave too much room to operate. the first 80 minutes of the game they totally cancelled us out. in saying that though when we scored it was thoroughly deserved.

from listening to the commentary it almost seemed that we was quite tentative in that first half. until sparky got them in the dressing room and told them to relax and go out and play some football. i thought it was always going to be a tough game but we persevered and in the end thoroughly deserved the 3 points.

affter an excellent win at the theatre of ######, it is very important taht we do not take this next game for granted - just because we are playing west brom who are in 18th and playing them at home...it means nothing. if we can get the win against west brom, which i am confident that we can, it will make the result at the theatre of ###### even better. i don't want our players to walk out onto that pitch next saturday afternoon thinking that because we beat man urinal, that this game will just happen for us. if anything we will probably have to work even harder to get 3 points. come on rovers, lets get another win and string together to confidence in the team and for the fans.

well said krislu. a truely great moment for a blackburn rovers fans....although insaying that this performance tells us all that we have what it takes to be in the top half all the time. give great dredit to sparky for having the balls to play an attacking game away at united...i am surprised that we got a victory today, but it didn't suprise me in a way because i know what this team is capable of and it seems that the players don't always realise it. i just hope that this gives us a kick-start to our season.

playing away from home against a title contender, 4-5-1 is probably not a bad formation it gives us strength across the middle, supposed to protect the back four and give support to the front man from the wide players. however, even them playing a 4-4-2 they still have the better quality acros the middle and if they get on top and have us pinned back then batten down the hatches cause it will be a rough afternoon....but just like last season i would be over the moon with a 0-0 draw.

martin...i wholeheartedly agree with you mate. i was sat watching the geordie game with a mate the other night and we both said taht we wished we could be there. just like me...i bet that sydney rovers, south aussie rover, p.g. and all the other rovers fans based down here....wished that they could be at ewood to watch rovers...but it aint that simple for us blokes down here...but for those who do live in the immedite vicinity of ewood or within driving distance....well, you blokes have a chance every weekend to support your club, wether it be at ewood or somewhere else...so lets not use the 'can't be botherd' excuse anymore.... aggy - you are spot on too mate.

well in theory he should play his strongest possible 11...to try and get some goals scored and to try and get a little confidence running through the team.....but even when us fans can't think of any other way other than positive we have been thwarted...by another 4-5-1. expect there not to be a crowd at ewood tomorrow...only for john noakes and shep sitting atop the lost world.

so with these players that you mention, what would you do? if you are one of those men who are paying to watch this drivel, as you say....then there is a simple solution, don't go anymore then. it really is as simple as that!

well folks me and aussie rover watched the game and i think that we both agreed that we have no idea where our goals are gonna come from. it certainly aint gonna be from a 4-5-1 formation....yesterday we dominated a game for over an hour but couldn't score...newcastle had 3 shots on goal and all went in. the difference between the two sides was that newcastle have players who know how to get shots on target (at the very least) and they have blokes who know how to score....we do not have any of the fore mentioned.

mokoena in the middle of midfield...alarm bells would start to ring. it must be tuges and sav/reidy....or put bentley in the middle and reidy out wide.

well mate, considering the way that every aussie and his dog has given stick to england, english people and anybody within earshot in the last 20 years...regarding the cricket...then i don't think the celebrations are over the top...just a long time coming and by the looks of the celebrations, this means a great deal to our fellow countrymen and women.

with the 17 average...i take it that we are talking about ian bell. and if he averages that in this series then i reckon i have a chance of playing for england as that is completely woeful.

well they might have players missing for various reasons, but lets not take this thing for granted. bentley must start along with kuqi and hopefully bellamy is fit too. i have confidence that we are playing at home and can get the victory...any kind will suffice.

neekoy...as the above says...we batted,bowled and fielded better than your lot...and also we were coached better too...so in cricket terms we were better than you all over the cricket oval...we out everythinged australia. you said that this was crap, so in your own words why where we not better than australia in every department?? you might wanna take them grapes back to your local fruiterer as they seem a little sour to me mate!!

now how many aussies actually thought and predicted hammering/whitewash that england would suffer at the hands of you lot?? come on be honest. after seeing us in south africa i was quietly confident that we could do the buisness over australia in this series but would have to play just as good if not better than we did out there. there was folks that did not see us in south africa and made predictions (probably) that we would get beat 2,3 or even 4-1 and the odd cocky aussie would have predcited the 5-0 whitewash....a lot of people would say what a close series it was, but in fairness i think we where a far better side than just a 2-1 win...but for a full day lost at old trafford...that makes it 3-1 and a much more comfortable victory than what we actually got. out batted, out bowled, out fielded, out captained....simply out everythinged (if there is such a word) we where by far and away the better side and hopefully this is just another building block on the way to bigger and better things. BY THE WAY...AUSSIE ROVER...A SLAB OF TOOHEYS NEW WOULD BE JUST FINE, THANKS MATE!!

how sweet this is....to be an englishman right now, but especially one that is in australia. all of my aussie mates over here have given me stick for the last 13 years about us not winning these ashes battles...no more needs to be said, for the time being!!!!

paddy...it would be nice if they didn't get a bat at all for whatever reason. everybody has been talking about what score the aussies will have to chase down....it seems people have totally ignored the possibility that we will just keep batting and batting. just bat for an hr affter tea and then if we have enough on the board.....put them in, if not to keep batting....and watch them complain in the media that we did not even want to play for a result in this game....!

matty was not good by any stretch, but we can't just blame the lad himself for his game today...the service was awful. how the (Please don't use that word again) do we expect this lad to get back to somewhere near his best when all we do is pump the ball forward for the bolton defence to eat up the headers all day long..... mokoena, well he did bugger all and i know that he sat infront of the defence...but i would rather have taken more of a risk and kept morten on and brought bentley on for mokoena and play four across the middle with two upfront. anyway, we got a point and thoroughly deserved it.

manchester blue - mate, if the aussies had of played better in this series or if they was even winning the series at this point then they or any other australian fan would not be complaining one little bit. i have noticed that what they (the aussies) have been doing since it has looked like the ashes is slipping away with every passing minute...is that it seems they are complaining about anything and everything and trying to pass the buck at every opportunity and they can take their captain as a prime example... come on england, ###### do em!!!!