Good grief - what on earth was all that stuff about the draft? How's that all work then?

We certainly looked better when Bentley came on but for heaven's sake why he came on for MGP and not Emerton I can't understand. Kuqi livened things up but that's all he's going to do on his own. Looked strong at the back and Zigazigahhh looked okay. Let's face it, was never going to be a classic..!

Galvanise - Chemical Brothers

Ahhh!

Me and the missus haven't got our tickets yet but the kids arrived today. Quite impressed - they got a certificate, Rovers pen, pencil, ruler, rubber, mousemat and a small reflective sticker with a fold and 2 holes in it - I have no idea what it's for - anybody got any clues?

......hmmmmm? Now if only we could organise some collective whinging & maybe put a catchy tune to it, at least it`ll create a bit of atnosphere! Maybe a whingers enclosure..... 324110[/snapback] Isn't that the Jack Walker Oooh, controversial...

I'm sorry but all these posts about players wages being the reason are a nonsense. If they were true there would be a drop in attendance at Chelsea and Man Utd - clubs who pay the highest wages. And, I seem to remember, our attendances were much better when we paid some of the highest wages in the league. I think the point you are looking for when referring to Rovers is that you do not think the players we have are worth the money. In my heart, I probably agree with you. However, in my head I think you'd find that most, if not all, of our first team would get contracts at other premier league clubs. I agree though - I can't abide this brattish behaviour - and people wonder why there are young yobs in the news all the time. I think the lower attendances are down to form and entertainment. I don't think you can fault the teams attitude under Hughesy.

Is there anyone you do like ?

Frankly it should be no suprise that people are being put off the Rovers. If you pick up the papers all you read about the club is negative. If you watch Sky - Andy Gray tends to be supportive but all the other muppets on Soccer Saturday tend to be negative. If you come on this message board a large chunk of the posts are negative! Now part of this is down to the way we have played this season - but you can't blame Hughes for that - he was given a simple and clear objective to keep us up and he achieved it. He is rightly now looking to take the club forward, and for the first time in ages I feel quite optimistic with the direction of the club. I am happy to renew my season tickets but also completely aware that we can no longer look to splash out on big name players. If we can follow the Charlton model (or dare I say it, the Bolton model) and keep making progress then slowly but surely the crowds will increase. However, we must not delude ourselves - we are never going to get the kind of crowds we got 10 years ago

Unfortunately, it could end up as a vicious circle - as no doubt a good atmosphere contributes to a team's performance. All the points made about the family stand are valid. We've had free tickets for my daughters for the past 2 years, allowing them to sample the games at little or no financial risk to us (kids get bored). As it is, the eldest still wants to come so we will be buying her ticket next year - if I'd had to buy it to try it we probably wouldn't

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

They are a shoddy lot. Bruce rivals anyone for worst buying manager in the league - he's wasted a fortune on complete crap over the years and the only surprise is that nobody seems to pick up on it. The entire Rovers team should run out in long blond wigs, just to p*ss them off even more! Anyway, I think we should prepare ourself for rent-a-gob Bruce/Sullivan/Gold* continuing the dirty theme after the game whatever the result, and the media taking to it like the lazy gits they are. 1-0 Rovers. Nelsen

Old chestnut. Just because he didn't "play the game" (professionally ?) doesn't mean he knows less about it or is not entitled to have opinions. After all, this place is stuffed with football "experts". Absolutely he is entitled to his opinions but two things strike me. One, sports journalism is one of the few places where a level of expertise or experience in the subject matter is not a pre-requisite to professionally commenting or analysing it. Secondly, this is lazy journalism. It's easy, fills copy and requires little or no thought or research. And then difference between us and them is that we don't do this "professionally" (or perhaps we are more similar than we think...!)

Yes.. here... Click Me Scroll half way down the page "Shocking Blackburn get elbow" I bet that muppet has never even been to Ewood Park !!! Easy story = lazy journalism (if you can call it that). Fills a bit of his quota. If he understood anything about a club like Blackburn he would realise that effectively having 3 home games on the trot with a SF in Cardiff in the middle is going to be too much for many people to afford and frankly, if we were playing expansive attacking football this would still be true. Does he have an email address.

The only thing I'm surprised about is that rent-a-gob Bruce hasn't taken the opportunity to have a pop at us!

I'm sorry but why exactly do we need to woo the press? They do not like us - we know that. But what benefit do we get from having them on our side? As far as I can see their job is to sell papers, and they probably won't sell many on the back of Rovers (unless they are the LET). So stuff them. And this is quite apart from the fact that one of the responsibilities that goes with free speech is that you do not libel people

I promise I was only drinking coffee but I'm sure in the second half I saw Matteo caught out going forward, somebody losing the ball and then MATTEO OUTPACING THE PALACE PLAYER!

How dare you - I'm not Southern and I'm not in the media

Did Sav have a fight in the tunnel tonight at half-time?

Great article by Souey! Clearly it's the age of the players that's been found out, not the great gaping holes in coaching and tactical ability

Seasons Opta stats here Basically - team with most fouls is not Rovers, it's Villa. Top 3 fouling players are Davies (Bolton), Cahill (Everton), Brown (Spurs) We are not very good at scoring as we all know. However, we are 12th in terms of shots, which suggests not as defensive or clogging as we are made out to be (interestingly enough above Newcastle who have Shearer, Kluivert, Dyer, Robert... and who are thought of as an attacking team). In terms of successful passes we are 9th. Still, why let this get in the way of a good old witchhunt...

My City mate emailed me yesterday and cheekily asked if they needed to bring their American Football pads?!? I told him no, we only kick the good teams Hopefully a win for us but the thought of SWP running at Matteo scares me to death!

Got into work this morning and all the other footy fans asked if I was disappointed about Saturday. The answer is no, but I am disappointed about Sunday's paper and the media talk since then. Totally over the top but what can you do. Martin Tyler and Andy Gray were pretty fair if you watch the Sky coverage - it seems to have been blown up since then. There were 6 dodgy Rovers tackles and four recieved bookings. The other two (Thommo's second and Savage's first attempt) should have received yellow cards. Other than that, there was the collision which I firmly believe was an accident. The hysteria has been amazing. Especially since this is the same appallingly behaved Arsenal team who are well-known for their petulance, diving and bullying antics. The only good thing to come of this is the fact that this will almost certainly generate a siege mentality and hopefully an excellent response from the team on Wednesday. On a side note, I hope all those that accused those of us who didn't go to Cardiff of not being real fans will be there on Wednesday - we need to give the lads a top reception

Funny how the facts go out of the window. Like the fact that Robert Pires on his way down running with Neill kicked out at him, kicking him in the crown jewels. Like the fact that Reyes swung an elbow when he was dispossessed. Like the fact that 10 minutes after the 45 pass session from Arsenal, Sky showed the possession for that 10 minutes - it was 70% Rovers and 30% Arsenal. Overall, I thought for 40 minutes in the first half we were not bad at all - although frankly Dickov isn't up to the lone striker role. Interestingly, in the NOTW the ratings for Arsenal are aren't that much higher than Rovers, which doesn't match the copy which slates Rovers. Hmmm, not like the papers to be inconsistent

Christ - the sanctimonious and holier-than-thou crap being spouted on this thread is worse than any of the election stuff so far. There are no winners with people like these. When attendances were up during the successful years you were whining about the "glory hunters" and saying you were only a real fan if you were one of 8,000 who saw us beat Gillingham in the "good old days". Now you are only a real fan if you are going to Cardiff for a big game. Make your mind up and get over it. Are we going to have a thread the Thursday after Crystal Palace when we get a sub 20k home crowd - because that's what I predict we'll get