Ian Botham

How's about "Kebab" ? I once gave Lee Grooby a lift up Jack Walker Way. He was quite obnoxious and refused to sign any autographs.

No. I struggle to think of a player with less of a "football brain" than Bert. 2-3 yards behind play at times. Sure he played Bellamy in for the first with a nice pass but surely anyone would have seen that run (the hard work (creating a bit of time on the ball in the midfield) was done earlier in the move by Tugay). Bellamy is streets ahead of anything else we have in our team. A different class. Hughes needs to build a team around him and Nelsen. I just hope they stick around long enough for that to happen. (Judging by the activity in the last Transfer Window, the 2010/11 season is starting to look very promising ) Brad - little to do apart from concede at the Darwen End. Which he did. Neill - strolled through the game at half pace Nelsen - Class act as ever Zurab - Tidy on the ball - not sure about his aerial ability (defensively anyway!) Gray - Nope. Savage - "Ran around a lot" Tugay - "If only he was 10 years younger" - yeah - he'd be at ManU or the like Bentley - Class act. Good passer. Like him. Keep him. Dickov - Match fit? Bellamy - Best striker we've had in years

It's either Bellamy Vs Morecambe or Tommy Briggs.

Fnarr Fnarr. So all we need to do now is convert our "Penalty Box Entries" into "Onion Bag Deposits". It's so simple. Hmmm. Is that an alarm bell ringing?

Two great posts above. Well said chaps.

It's just a good job we didn't use the 4-5-1 formation. "Now we take Berlin Gentlemen! Go on Bellers, on your own son" We'll have a better idea of what this season entails after 10 games. That's normally the best way of judging. I'm not going to repeat everything that I've already put on the "Gates" thread but the most disappointing thing for me was the use of the lone striker against a team that was clearly low on confidence and there for the taking. The reluctance to deploy two strikers and out and out attacking football is a massive turn off and a big worry. Anyway, 4-5-1 tomorrow night and we win 5-0. I'll get me coat.

4-5-1. Unentertaining but I could put up with it last season if it kept us up, which it did. Great news. Fair play Hughes hasn't got much to choose from up front. We sign Bellamy and Kuqi - big guy / small guy thing I reckon, flick on's etc etc you get the picture. Matt Jansen, we'll keep him and we've also got Paul Dickov. More than enough strikers, so much so that we can afford to let two go out on loan. As others have mentioned, a promise by the Chairman and the Manager in the summer to play more attractive football at home. Great. Bellamy plays the first game of the season away at West Ham, is then injured. Returns against a Newcastle team that many thought would lose their manager had they lost yesterday. A defence (well, an £8m defender at any rate - anyone see Boumsongs defending against ManU? ) low on confidence and clearly slightly clueless. Right, this is it then, 4-4-2. Up and at them. Er, no. Wrong. If not yesterday, when? Is this it then? Is this as good as it gets now? Do we have any other ideas? Or is it 4-5-1, 4-1-4-1 - call it what you bloody like - all the way from here on in. Sorry, but that was @#/? and, I hope I'm wrong, but the penny dropped yesterday. Playing the lone striker is actually the formation they want Rovers to play. Does anyone on here actually think that playing Bellamy up front on his own is a good idea? Got my ticket for Wednesday today, the lads I know aren't going, Mrs F probably won't bother. Why am I going? Oh yes, I remember, there's a slight chance, a very slim chance, that I might enjoy it and be entertained.

Met Alan75 once at a pre-season friendly, couldn't get a bloody word in. In Germany 4 years ago (?) I stood next to Marcus Bent, well actually he stood next to me, at the urinals just before the start of the second half at some pub team that we played in a pre season friendly (he used to pick them out did our Graeme), can't remember the name of the club funnily enough, that German ale is good stuff. We didn't speak much. "Alright Marcus?" "Yeah". He must have been awe struck to have stood next to me and lost the power of speach. Met David Mail on numerous occasions when I worked on the ground in 87/88 in the summers when I was at college. If anyone got red paint on them from the barriers that used to be on the terracing then don't blame me. I wasn't given any training. David Mail was an absolutely top bloke. (I often wondered about my painted prowess when after the Derby play off game at home I came off the Blackburn End and looked at my Rovers shirt and saw a red line where I'd been crushed during the chaos, best atmosphere ever that game). All time favourite, Tony Parkes came to our wedding, I know him, or rather he knows my Dad. Anyway, a Dingle who I worked with for years came along (yeah, yeah what was I thinking etc) and got talking to Tony for what must have seemed like a life time for him. Fair play, he heard him out and let him say his bit. Then at the end of his tutting tirade, the kiss off. "Fair enough. But you must admit though, Burnley are sh*t" Now that is a legend.

Leave the deaf alone Stu. At least they get behind the team. I don't know it's people like you etc rant etc....

I got it and I liked it if that's any consolation. Paul wouldn't understand the current petrol situation as he drives a pedal bike Is Sav the press officer down at Ewood now? Does this game need any further added needle? Yes I say. Bring it on!

I can only see goals in this one. Our back four of Neill, Zurab (Khizanishvili to his friends), Nelsen, Matteo have yet to play together and will have their hands full. Still we'll sneak it 5-4. Jaidi, Gardiner, Fadiga and Worthington for the Trotters and Bellamy x2, Dickov, Amoruso and Thompson for Rovers. Despite the goals it'll be an awful game to watch, simply terrible.

Any of the Premiership, English managers could surely do a better job than that rubbish dished up last night by Sven. It's hard to think of how he could have got it so wrong, every tactical decision made was questionable. It was almost as if he was doing it on purpose I'd take Big Sam but he'd have to grow the 'tache back as he would then remind me of Mike Bassett, England Manager in the film of the same name (and we'd play four four ###### two). Stuart Pearce is a good shout, although no doubt many would say he has little experience, I don't think that counts for much, at least he'd get them fired up.

He certainly did. I've just had a look on that internet thing - it's all on there you know. So just the one cap for Chris, I was nearly right. Do I get half a point?

Chris Sutton?

Surely they'll get the entire Darren End this year due to demand? They'll also have fans in other areas as well I'd suggest. "OwenMania" or something. They're crazy, best supporters in the whole of Newcastle without a shadow of a doubt that lot.

I was under the impression that we sold Stead to fund the Bellamy signing, i.e. presumably we couldn't have both due to our fantastic finances. Kuqi was free after all.

Yeah - he's injured at the moment but there's little arguement over who's the better player. He's played one game so far for us and is still matching Jon Stead for goals Would you like to bet on who'll score the most?

Signing Paula Radcliffe wouldn't be that good an idea Waggy, there would be dead patches of grass all over the place where she's stopped for a "rest". After asking Waggy how he could judge Kuqi after what turned out to be 55 minutes of play at West Ham I would have to say that he's probably right. The poor fella is lacking in quality, big style. Some of the best strikers in the world, and Jon Stead, are made to look poor when they have to play as the only striker, so asking a Kuqi to make the big step up to the Prem and doing it on his own up there is asking a hell of a lot. Regardless, will he be good enough with someone along side him? I have my doubts (*). As for signing another forward / more players before the transfer deadline? I hope so, I hope the board realise that we're in for another long season if we go with what we've got. Then again why have they waited until now? Are they bothered? By the way Paul - have you been watching Man Of The Match (MOTM) or Match Of The Day (MOTD)? (*) At this point do I need to put something about hopefully I'll be proved wrong and that I'm right behind him and that of course I'll be supporting him and he doesn't need people "like me" getting on his back? Or do I not need to bother either? Tango - I watched it on the foreign channel thingy - Todd didn't look fully fit to me.

Of course your right about Test cricket generally there Rev but at the moment England are playing really positively. Next year England play Pakistan so they'll no doubt be a lot of interest there as well (although I doubt it'll over shadow the World Cup). In addition there's Twenty20 which has really taken off. This Series along with everything discussed in this thread means that (I'm going to have to borrow a Dingleism here) "the gap is closing". Although for me personally, football will always be number one, it just needs to take a look at itself and get it's house in order.

It's "OPEN". Do a quick search in google every Wednesday, there are plenty of sites that publish the password. Saves me 60p every week. I'm 190,000 odd. Suppose you think your clever now don't you?

Even The Times says "Oct 4 1997: Andy Todd, then with Bolton Wanderers, can be forgiven for trading punches with Stan Collymore, the Aston Villa forward. Both are dismissed."

Originally everyone said it was a second yellow. I must admit I only say a red produced on the night but I was quite a distance away. The LET said it was a straight red. (EDIT - 2 yellows then it would appear - didn't see your post greggyk) Anyway... The Times: "Shefki Kuqi is a doubt for tomorrows trip to Aston Villa. The forward suffered a groin injury against Totteham Hotspur on Wednesday, but with Craig Bellamy injured and Paul Dickov suspended, Mark Hughes will give Kuqi extra time to prove his fitness." There's also an article on the same page "Hughes grows conerned by his men behaving badly" along with a lovely photograph of Andy Todd landing a right hander on Stanley Collymore. Nice. Presumably no Neill, and no Todd means that they'll be big changes in the defence. Todd's bound to be charged today surely - even though as Hughes pointed out the TV pictures prove nothing. Just 'cause Jol states that Reid has a "bump on the head" means nothing. He might have got that "bump on the head" at anytime. Either way though Todd has been rather silly and must be found guilty as The Times has published a photo of him hitting someone several years ago. Best we can hope for is a draw. 1-1. Kuqi with a 25 yard screamer off his groin ( ) and Gary Shaw for them.

Scrap that, the suns out now. 8,451.

It's chucking it down up here, cold, windy, wet, horrible. Could effect the gate - but I doubt it. 8,450. Spurs won't like this one little bit. How's Davids going to get on in the rain? Surely it can't help. I'm going to have to go for a draw though, looks like they're finally getting a decent team together instead of just trying to kid themselves and everyone else. 1 - 1. Kuqi for us - he does that "star dive" thing after scoring though and ends up skidding in the wet into the River Darwen. Ricky Villa for Spurs.