Yes, they're his 'strengths'.

I'd like to be able to say to you that it'll get better but I can't. Just sounds all too familiar. Anyway, I'm not big on sympathising with Palace fans at the best of times, thanks for the 2.5mill bought us a slight improvement on Shefki in Benni McCarthy. Cheers. Small consolation for the play offs but it's a start.

Yes. Checked slightly at 1st bend and ran wide, chance was gone after that and to be honest, given the winning time, he'd never have won that race anyway. He'll hopefully get dropped down to A4 now, a grade he can win at. A big thanks is due to our trainer too who had two winners on the night at 4-1 and 5-1 and told us about neither. Top work.

8:35 on Saturday Jim. Got to be honest, I think he's got a real chance but as always it depends on how he traps and then if he avoids trouble. I can see him winning if all goes well, he's not got much to beat and I reckon you'll get a decent price too. I'll see you there.

Morning Jim. He's won 4 races now and has gone up the grades to A3 (which is the third highest grade strangely enough). He will be running this week on either Friday or Saturday but I'll know which later today. Will post on this thread when I know. You can find out more info on the dog by typing Ashanti Prince in the search here EDIT : Just checked the early race cards and noticed he's not running Friday so I've got to assume he will run Saturday night when you're there. Will confirm later.

Hmmm. The resources to spend 16 million on one player, 52,000 fans every week, big city club with huge global potential, opportunity of legend status even if he only wins the Carling Cup and the chance to showcase his talents to a bigger audience. Do you honestly not think he'd be tempted to leave Rovers for that?

Morning. We'll finish top ten, have a run to the ko stages in Europe, suffer exit at hands of Chelsea in Carling Cup and make quarter finals of FA Cup. Sparky's reputation will soar but will still not get the Man U job. Have a feeling there will be a vacancy at Newcastle soon and he may well be tempted. You will flatter to deceive up until xmas and then when your players realise where they are they'll bottle it and finish mid table. Still, it's better than you'd have hoped in the summer. Oh and Cotterill will probably fly the nest having 'gone as far as he possibly can' with the club.

Hotel Belga Herb. Looks a bumhole of a place but cheap (£27 p/night) and great location.

Who's on the 15:20 bmibaby flight from Birmingham to Amsterdam?

Trip more or less finalised, just sorting out airport car parking at Birmingham (£13.50) and obviously waiting on ticketing arrangements. By the way there are still very cheap flights from Birmingham to Amsterdam for those interested. Found a cheap hotel in central Amsterdam, the Hotel Belga, costing us £54 each for the two nights. Get en suite rooms and breakfast so we're quite pleased with that. I take it there'll be an informal 'meet' when we're all in the 'dam. I'll look forward to it.

www.bmibaby.com

Booked return flights from Birmingham to Amsterdam for 50 quid. A lot cheaper than the local airports as all the cheap prices were snapped up early doors. Fly out at 15:15 on the Wednesday and fly back in at 18:20 on the Friday. Good flights me thinks. Gonna stay in Amsterdam for the two nights and make the journey down to the stadium on the Thursday afternoon. There are trains every ten or 15 minutes to Rotterdam and it's only 22 Euro return. Only got to sort some cheap rooms for the 4 of us in the dam and we're sorted. Very happy days. Anyone any ideas on where to look for the rooms and is anyone from here on the Birmingham flight?

Sorry Den, on my way now.

Booked return flights from Birmingham to Amsterdam for 50 quid. A lot cheaper than the local airports as all the cheap prices were snapped up early doors. Fly out at 15:15 on the Wednesday and fly back in at 18:20. Good flights me thinks. Gonna stay in Amsterdam for the two nights and make the journey down to the stadium on the Thursday afternoon. There are trains every ten or 15 minutes to Rotterdam and it's only 22 Euro return. Only got to sort some cheap rooms for the 4 of us in the dam and we're sorted. Very happy days. Anyone any ideas on where to look for the rooms and is anyone from here on the Birmingham flight?

For all those like myself without access to a TV when the draw is made click at 11am.

Ah the drummer. Did anyone notice when he started drumming in time with the Salzburg fans? Just go. Please.

We can't get Newcastle or Tottenham, in the rules apparently.

Why can't we just be happy on a good first away win? There'll be plenty of times when we play better than on Saturday and end up with nothing so let's just be grateful for the points. We gave Boro TWO chances at home, yes that's right TWO, while we extended Schwarzer at least three times apart from the goal. I thought down the right we created no end of problems, our front two were lively, Savage won everything and our dominance in possession was that of a team brimming with confidence. Admittedly Boro looked a poor side but they're a poor side who've already beaten Chelsea this seaon so let's take the positives and be happy with the win for God's sake. There'll be plenty of times in this long hard season that we have real cause for complaint, no point doing it after our first away win.

That's Alan Parry, but you're right he's bloody awful.

Did anyone sing 'help me Nonda' or 'whoa black benni, bam ba lam'? It got a rousing chorus in the pub I can tell you.

Woodgate is possible the best centre half in the country at the moment so I can see us struggling to score. I just have a feeling though that our defence may be galvanised into keeping a clean sheet even though the evidence suggests otherwise. 0-0.

Agree with the Ward/Davies/Grabbi/Blake theories but guys... Christian Dailly - 5.3 million. Nuff said.

They certainly would Ricky, and doesn't it just get right on one's nerves.

Just thinking of songs for players and I think an adaptation of the Ram Jam classic could work quite well for Benni McCarthy. A cracking singalong methinks, and yeah I know it's off topic...sort of.

Apart from being shambolic defensively yesterday my main concern was how the ball never stuck when it was played in to the front two and it wasn't like some of the balls were difficult to deal with either. Too many times we brought pressure on ourselves by a poor first touch or a lack of movement into space. There are those on here who say that the quality of service McCarthy gets is poor. I strongly disagree. I believe if he spent more time in the danger area (as with the goal) he'd get his rewards as the crosses from both sides are starting to get there. For me, it's his movement, or lack of it, that is the problem, even Jeffers looked sprightly alongside him at times. A good three points nonetheless and if defensive frailties can be ironed out the only way is up.