Having been attending matches regularly for a couple of decades I was discussing some of the players who I've enjoyed watching over the years and we tried to come up with a favourite. So, for me it was players like

Garner - obvious reasons

Brotherston - didn't look like a footballer to me but in a weird way that made me like him more

Batty - very neat and precise, never complained when hard challenges were flying in - just quietly got his own back!

Sherwood - heartbeat of the team - again, simple, neat passes and with an eye for goal

Shearer - always looked like scoring

Hendry - throw himself in front of anything

Berg - clever and usually dependable

Bohinen - thought he had great skill - perhaps a bit unfulfilled

Flitcroft - basic skills but made the most of what he had and gave it everything

Dunn - touch of arrogance and skill

Duff - great winger - think we saw the best of him

Friedel - what can you say - a legend

But out of all the great, and not-so-great, players I've seen, I reckon that the one who I've enjoyed watching the most has probably been Tugay. Yes, he occasionally brings his imaginery friend along, but over the years we have seen some great performances from him. Skill, passing, dictating play, volleys from corners - he's done the lot, and when he's in the modd he basically runs games

So that's mine, what about yours?

that was my view. however, i'll stick up for him. he's not to blame for saturday's debacle. i agree downing, king and carrick dont appear to be of international quality, but they still have enough ability to beat these minnows.

the players chose to sleepwalk through the game and the tempo was non- existent.

tel vegatable and mcc wouldve identified those points at half-time, but their words will have been ignored, as the players believed they only had to turn up to win.

lampard and gerrard are both selfish players and seem more interested in trying to out-do one another, than affect the game.

i'll end this post with a question. - "should international players need motivating ?"

I don't think it was lack of effort. I think it was a lack of quality in some areas and poor tactics by our supposed management team. We do not appear to be able to cope with the boy wonder having a run of poor form and resort to lumping long balls up to Crouch. Reminds me of Everton when Ferguson used to play. The problem I see is that McClaren, as well as not being very good in my opinion, was a fundamental part of Ericssons management team. I think it will be very difficult for him to introduce any new ideas with effectively the same group of players. He's tried to show who is boss by axing Beckham - which as I said before is the easy option. He should axe Lampard if Gerrard is fit and only play him when he isn't. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Lampard plays well for the first time in months on Wednesday with no Gerrard around.

Not good. Hopefully we can still qualify but frankly, I don't think McClaren is the man to get us anywhere beyond that. All this nonsense about taking the difficult decision and dropping Beckham. What a joke - that was the easy way out designed to get the biggest reaction. The difficult one is admitting Fat Frank and Gerrard cannot play together. Has there ever been a game where they both did well? The difficult decision will be dropping Lampard. Downing is not yet international class and I fail to see that he's any different to Beckham - he never beats anyone and more often than not goes either backwards or plays a poor final ball. SWP could be good but if you aren't playing regularly in the prem then you can't be playing at international level for me.

Not good

So far England are turning into the new Middlesbore... Playing Macedonia at home, and after 70 minutes I'm hoping we can nick one. Pathetic. Wonder what all those sad journo's who built McClaren up after 1 friendly will say about this.

3. Why take the captaincy off him? If he is setting a good example on the pitch and playing his ###### off for a mega bucks new contract who cares if it isn't here? He's given us plenty of notice to find a replacement which is all anybody can ask in this day and age. All this stupid talk of loyalty is pathetic and the sign of small minded insular numpties that our education system has been re-designed to produce in large volumes

over recent years

There really are some stupid sods on here. Behave.

Loyalty and why he shouldn't have the captaincy are two completely different things. He simply shouldn't have the captaincy because he has decided to leave - and you cannot lead/inspire people to go "above and beyond" or fight for the cause when they know you are on the way out. He should be in the team, and he hasn't left us in the lurch like some of the individuals you named. But the skipper should be someone who hasn't publicly announced he is off.

P.S. Spot on with your last comment

Neill is one of our best defenders and should keep his place. I don't doubt his professionalism. However, as Mr Blair is finding out, it is difficult to be an effective leader when everyone knows you're off. It's a fairly fundamental issue. Much as I like Brad, I don't really like keepers as skippers, so I'd make Sav the captain until Nelsen is back.

Cheers for that - was at most of those.

I'm trying to remember the last time we had 30,000+ in the ground - anybody?

Whilst I don't think the Bolton initiative will get us back to those levels, if it tempts an extra thousand people who actually see that we are playing good football and decide to come again then it will be worth it in the longer run.

Bizarre. A cold-caller from TalkTalk (Carphone Warehouse) has justed knocked at my door. Well, she was quite pretty ( )and had what I thought was a Polish accent so I asked if she was from Krakow. The look on her face when she said she was Anyway, she'd never heard of Blackburn Rovers ! And with that she left sharpish - obvioulsy thought I was some weirdo - but nice to see the boot on the other foot with doorstep sales people...

Oops - sorry mods

Just got back. First half hangover - less said the better except why does Heskey always score against us? Most of the time he's a big tart but he always gets one against us.

Second half - brilliant. Jeffers looked a different player. MGP actually chasing down balls and tackling. (yes, really). Bentley's class starting to shine through. Roberts looked rusty coming on but can be a big impact player for us I reckon. And well done Jason Brown - great start. Happy now

A. Sorry but what would you call the 'where were they when we were sh1t' / 'part time supporters' brigade? I knop what RtH you make up a collective noun for them.

B. Baiting the armchair fans is a regular pastime of mine.

Take your pick here

I personally think you'll like "annoyance" - an annoyance of part-time supporters or "wake" - a wake of part-time supporters

Don't forget I lived through the 60's and 70's and have seen it all before. Odd thing is that as soon as Uncle Jack turned up all the bandwagon jumpers quickly became dyed in the wool, lifelong fans once again.

It's an interesting argument you make here. Firstly you claim people who can come won't and then hide behind pricing excuses. Then, in a period when more fans did come through the gate, you call them names such as "bandwagon jumpers". Perhaps glory-hunters too? You either want more fans here or you don't. And if Rovers get more, are you then going to have a pop at them?

That said, if you do know "fans" out there who big themselves up, can afford it, but hide behind the pricing then perhaps we all have a duty to at least burst their bubbles and shame them into either coming or shutting up?

People on here shouldn't be having a pop at those who say they cannot afford to attend the matches. It's a very arrogant viewpoint.

I personally think Rovers offer very good value for money, hence we have 4 ST's in our house. However, being frank, I must admit the whole greedy, face-in-the-trough mentality that courses through the game is starting to p me off.

Depends whether you mean worst value for money, or technically worst player?

Former - Dailly, Peacock, Ward, Blake, Grabbi, Davies, McAteer

Latter (and this is relative to the rest of the team) - Holmes, Kuqi

Regardless of whether the programme last night actually proved anything or not, clearly there is a problem in football with people taking bungs. It doesn't make it right, but you can at least see that a scout who earns in a year what a player earns in a week could have his head turned by the offer of a back-hander. What is deplorable is millionaire managers, who are on extremely good salaries and bonuses, taking illegal payments FOR DOING THEIR JOBS, and then complaining about the power of players and the fact that their clubs cannot compete financially. Their noses are so far in the trough that they cannot see that they are contributing to killing the game. Because at the end of the day, that money comes from fans. Either directly through the gate, or indirectly through Sky subs and/or buying products that contribute to ad revenues. At some point, fans will vote with their pockets. I think we are seeing some of it now with Rovers gates - not because of Rovers per se, but because of a general disillusionment with football. Possibly why Accy and FC Utd get such a lot of attention - 10 years ago they'd have been lucky to get blokes walking their dogs watching.

Moan over

The kids offers have been great for me and my family and I expect my daughters to keep attending.

I think a lot of people are disillusioned with football in general and the "nose in the trough" mentality these days. Idiots like Ashley Cole complaining about being offered £55k per week! Somewhere we've lost 5000 fans (and I'm not even counting those that turned up during the mid-90's). I can't see tonights Panorama programme doing anything other than turning a few more people off football

Well, what a strange game. The first thing was how quiet it was an hour before kick-off. No queue in the Red Dragon chippy, didn't see a city fan and barely any Rovers fans. 18,500 - not good at all - where was everyone? In the warm-up shooting practice most of the strikers were hitting some beauties so I thought we might get some goals today. First 15 minutes we looked like it was a practice match. City first to everything and would have been 3-0 if they could shoot. We should have been wearing masks the way we stole 2 goals. Not convinced by Ooijer yet. His positional sense is not good - he follows the ball like Savage. Unfortunately, that leaves huge gaps at the back. Never thought I'd advocate a Mokoena for Tugay substitution but what that did was actually stop Barton running through into the hole where Ooijer should have been and gave us a bit of stability. McCarthy suddenly looked good when he scored - up until that point he'd looked quite average really. Nonda looks like he could become very good too. Overall, second half was a big improvement - although for 10 minutes after half-time the end to end stuff had me really worried. Still - it's a win and that's what matters. Get the confidence back ready for Salzburg and Wigan

Peter Crouch's form is hopefully putting Michael Owen's talents into perspective.

Whenever anyone has the audacity to doubt Owen's credentials as England first teamer, his goal record is brought up and used as proof of his indispensable ability. Similarly, Beckham's assists and occasional crucial goal were apparently evidence that England could not cope without him on the right - despite his predictable lack of form in tournaments.

Well Crouch's goal record, over less games, is better than Owen's and I think we can see now that scoring goals at international level is not reserved for the creme de la creme of world football. It's about being a good striker, who has the luxury of a run of games in the starting eleven and has the chance of building some confidence with some goals. That's how players like Pauleta have etched amazing international goal scoring feats into the record books without being truly world class.

I would not be surprised if Jermaine Defoe starts scoring regularly for England now that he's off the mark and is expected to be first choice alongside Crouch. Imo a confident Jermaine Defoe rivals Michael Owen for talent. Owen is more clinical but Defoe has more skill, better at linking play and can score from long range.

I'm sorry but Owen's record stands any test you care to throw at it, including crucial competitive matches against World Class opposition. I think you should put Crouch's record into perspective. His England goals have come against

Uruguay

Hungary

Jamaica

Trinidad

Greece

Andorra

It's not his fault - you can only compete with what is put in front of you. However, there's only one team on that list of any merit. When he has scored his fair share against quality teams then I think you can start lauding him.

There are 3 types of "super-rich" investment in the premier league

1) a boyhood fan spending hard-earned money on the club he/she loves (e.g. Uncle Jack or the Boro fella)

2) a serial entrepreneur who is looking to make money from his investment (e.g. Glazer)

3) the "mega-super-rich" and their latest hobby/toy (e.g. Abramovich)

The fact is that number 2) will make some money and move on, and sooner or later number 3) will get bored or find a new hobby. Or decide that actually paying a player (or worse, 11 players) £125k a week for kicking a ball is obscene and decide to give all their wealth to charity, like Mr Buffett and Mr Gates have done.

So whilst it would be nice to get some investment, it's more than likely going to be short term.

On top of that, it's only a matter of time before G14 breakaway and start their Euro super-league. And frankly, the sooner the better so we can get some proper competition back into the league.

So basically you're saying the owners are willing to gamble on promotion, despite sending out negative signals on a regular basis for a while now? Granted, the Heskey sale has covered the three signings, and I'm sure they cut costs quite a lot when they released Cunningham & co., but surely the 20m (??) loss has to be covered somewhere?

... that being said, they still have to replace the released players. (does anyone have a full list of the players released, Dunn is still there isn't he?)

I'm simply speculating. You yourself say the £20m loss has to be covered somewhere. It's most likely that the club as a trading entity has a near limitless overdraft and loan facility because of its owners. Or alternatively, they are loaning the money? I don't know, but their financial position won't be anywhere near as dire as other relegated clubs (unless the porn kings do actually pull out - no pun intended )

Because they are owned by porn barons worth nearly a billion quid between them...

The worrying thing is that McClaren, as head coach, was presumably consulted and stood shoulder to shoulder with Sven on the decisions made. Doesn't bode well...

Christiao Ronaldo Footballing Masterclass:

LMFAO

This is a topic that's been commented on before, when Diouf did dive at Ewood and cost us the match for one. As long as managers defend the indefensible and the FA do nothing about it then it will continue. It's time for retrospective punishment (yes, trial by TV) for cheats and unsporting behaviour, with points docked or significant bans. Only then will it clear up. And maybe Lampard, Cole and Terry back at Chelsea will view the behaviour of Drogba, Carvalho, Ferraira et al a little bit differently next season. Perhaps Rooney, Neville and Ferdinand will view the behaviour of Ronaldo and Van Horse a bit differently?

As for the posters earlier saying it's okay for England to do this - no it isn't. When our players do it they are vilified by the press and most right-thinking fans alike. When foreigners do it, we are told to shut up and stop being bad sports. If you want to play the racism card then it's actually reverse-racism at a very similar level to the way England fans are treated worse than the nutters from Italy, Poland, Holland, Turkey etc.

I for one hope Ronaldo doesn't set foot in England again - but then I've thought that well before this World Cup. He takes more away from the beautiful game than he contributes to it and I won't be sorry to see the back of it.

NO! NO!! NO!!! NO!!!! At least we can claim to still be one of the few Nations in World Football that does not stoop to these gutter tricks to con a way to victory. Let's just keep it that way.

I was being ironic...