Bloody Wycombe.

I suppose I should answer my own question. There's probably two things for me, loyalty being the first although even that is being stretched by my apathy towards the game in general and Rovers to some extent. The second is the alternative of what I'd be doing if I wasn't at Ewood, namely shopping with the missus, although there have been occasions this season when even that has been preferable to watching the bilge on show.

What with the cost, lack of entertainment on show, lack of player's committment, spiralling wages and general apathy around the place what keeps YOU at Ewood week after week? I only ask because I sense a huge downturn in season ticket renewals regardless of how the season pans out.

It's Liverpool, Sunderland, Grimsby and Wycombe in a 4 timer this week for me. £20 to win £154. Bring it on.

Agreed Cocker, but that was quite some time ago now.

Happened to notice that our much vaunted youth set up sent their latest batch of 'potential superstars' to a 5-1 defeat in the FA youth cup at Reading last night. So for all the years that we've been told it's one of the top facilities in Europe we're still to see any real talent emerge and go on to make the grade. The question now is should we continue to throw so many million quid a year into something that adds no value to the football club or use the cash somewhere where it'll effect results on the pitch? ie- add it to the annual transfer budget. It's all well and good having lovely state of the art facilities on the outskirts of the ribble valley but the success of it is judged on the players that ultimately make the breakthrough either to sell on for big money or to play in the first team for a sustained period. It's not happening and doesn't look like changing with the present crop of youngsters. Cue rover6...

For me the most annoying thing about McCarthy is the amount of times he gets caught offside. Does the guy not know the rules ffs? It takes me back to Egil Offsidestad. Anyway, as a side note, two long standing season ticket holding friends of mine have both told me they won't be renewing their tickets next season. An overreaction to last night? Possibly, but they're not usually prone to that kind of behaviour. We're in the mire though make no mistake, I just hope that the manager's seemingly carefree attitude towards our position is just a front to stop the panic spreading to the stands.

Oops yeah, sorry.

Chris Coleman. He's a tinge of beige.

Rovers were poor, Fulham even more so but contrast this feeling to the feeling after the Bowton game where we'd played arguably our best football since last year's Spurs game and like then, got nowt. Be thankful that we got the three points, sod the performance. That'll get better as and when our position in the table gets healthier.

Cracking thread. There's quite a few, Rovers 2 United 4 hurt in more ways that one, got run over and ended up spending 9 weeks in hospital with 5 broken vertebrae directly afterwards. Twas a United fan that did it, from Barnsley no less. The Man United semi last year denied us a tilt at possible silverware so that's up there as is the semi defeat by Arsenal. The defeat by Celtic left me speechless for about 24 hours as I couldn't believe we'd got beat but the main one for me was the quarter final FA Cup defeat on penalties to Sheffield United in 1993. It was a game we dominated from start to finish and still ended up on the wrong end of the result. To make it worse we had to walk through a load of their lot celebrating and taking the p***. A bloody long journey home that was.

Great quote from Smithy!! He's come a long way since he was set 3 for English!!

On a couple of those, a perk of being sat in front of Birdy I suppose.

We're flying from Brum Weds afternoon so can drop you off then if you can kill a few hours down there!!

Watched Keith Barker 'star' for Rochdale last night. If that's as good as we're producing down at th'Academy it's time to wind down the whole operation. He was pony.

The blue touch paper has now been lit.....stand back and watch the fireworks people!!!

What's everyone's tool of choice for the descent in to the hell that is the De Kuip stadion? I'm taking a 9ft x 4.5 ft sheet of material cunningly disguised as a St. George flag. Obviously I'll be using it to smother any unsuspecting Feyenoord fan that dares to ask me the time.

Trying to burn a compilation cd and can't transform the wma files from the CD to mp3 files that I can then burn. I've tried media player,real player and Nero v6.0 all to no avail and am losing hope. What program is the preferred one of MB members, remembering it's got to be ultra user friendly for me to have a chance of using it. Thanks.

More like the new cheap labour to clean the s***houses on matchdays.

You put your point(s) quite eloquently and put forward a decent argument but how many players let go by the academies actually go on and prove that decision ultimately wrong? I can think of no Rovers players that have done for a kick off, and there's no way whatsoever that David Bentley would be getting a starting place in the current Arsenal side. What you have to ask is, regardless of the system, are the players good enough for the first team? You'd have to say that the answer is, more often than not, no.

For all the great things Mark Hughes has achieved for us the blame has to lie fairly and squarely at his door. Not for the way we play, not for our fitness or tactics but for the fact he never got adequate cover in central midfield before the transfer window closed. At that stage Steven Reid was injured and although we weren't sure of the severity of the injury it should've highlighted the problems we would face should Savage get injured too. It was sod's law that he would and now the problem has come home to roost. There's no-one else in the squad who can do the job of either the aforementioned and as our game is based on pressure and setting the tempo we are struggling at the moment. Bentley and Tugay can't play together because neither of them can win the ball and Mokoena, for all his limitations is, well very limited (and that's being kind to him). I can see it getting worse before it gets better and the return of Savage can't come quickly enough but as I wrote earlier, it was a problem that could be foreseen and as such something should have been done when there was a chance.

I love it the way he goes to the furthest touchline when he knows he's about to be subbed to waste as much time as possible. Then he shakes hands with everyone on the pitch while ambling off!! It'll be a sad sad day when he's a Rover no more, one of my favourite players of all time.

Anyone know if 'The Music' are still together? Thought they were very much underrated andnever really got the same credit as more moderate acts such as Kasabian and Razorlight. 'Freedom Fighters' and 'Take the long road and walk it' are awesome tunes.

Rang the ticket office yesterday because there had been a lot of scaremongering about the availability of tickets and having to get the applications in early to avoid missing out. Anyway, after I said this to the lady on the phone she was at pains to tell me that I shouldn't worry and there would be 'no problem at all with availability'. Having said that, my application will be bunged in this afternonn.