Ah well looking through the papers and Brian Woolnough, who normally talks rubbish actually talks some sense

He asks if we were thugs or if the English game has gone soft, he says why should teams like Blackburn and Bolton allow the big clubs to humiliated.

Well done to Woolnough - as you say he usually talks sh*te - when Shearer got tfd to Newcastle he threatened to take solicitors action against me for a letter I wrote to him.

With regard to the media, I couldn't give a monkeys. More recently it has been Bolton, now it's out turn. As has been posted it will bind us together and make us stronger. In fact we should adopt the Millwall anthem from now on and starting against Palace.

NO ONE LIKES US, WE DON'T CARE.

Just seen the TV pictures of some of the challenges we did and it does not look good in fact they are indefensible and Andy Todd is a disgrace ........... you cant excuse that sort of behaviour.

Van Persie has took the Micheal out of Todd on two consecutive occassions now scoring three goals in the process and Todd has been shown up each time. The club have got to take action to cut that sort of behaviour out. Todd knew exactly what he was doing.

The criticism coming our way has only been brought on by ourselves so we have to correct it.

Andy Todd is not a disgrace. He is one of the reasons we have turned our season round.

He said it was an accident and that is good enough for me. He also offered an apology but it was not accepted by Wenger & Co, the "mediadarlingsletsrollaroundonthefloorfacesetchedinpainiwantmymuumy" southern softies.

He wears the shirt andhe wears it well - get behind him.

Assuming we beat them, as soon as the final whistle blows, can we please play "Glad All Over" from the PA system at 10 million decibels? I hate that ****ing tune but on Wednesday it would be nice to love it for a few minutes.

anyone know roughly how long the drive takes from ewood to cardiff?

picking up my tickets at 9. then driving to cardiff, but am gettting worried now in case i miss the start.

I'd be very worried mate - you haven't a cat in hells chance. We're leaving at 5am and hoping to be down there and parked up at around 10am allowing for city centre traffic etc.

you could have just told us the facts instead of tellin us in a story with a sheff utd fan. onli mess

Any story needs a crap build up.

Ferguson sits down to pee. Case closed.

Good point ES. And even more commendable are those figures when taking into account the fact that there is a significant %age of the population of Blackburn who would never claim any allegiance to Blackburn Rovers and would never dream of going to Ewood Park.

Said virtually the same thing today at work to a Sheffield United supporter. When he spotted my Rovers sweatshirt he asked if I were going to Cardiff.

"Sure am" I replied.

"You'll have sold out, won't you?" says he.

"Erm no" I offered.

"What!" says he again, "It's a semi final. When we played in the playoffs we sold out."

"But Sheffield is five times the size of Blackburn" I inform him.

"Oh" he adds with a puzzled look on his face.

"And there is an ethnic population of around 26% or 26k in Blackburn, most of whom choose not to attend games at Ewood, so you could say the population of Blackburn is only around 74k so the amount of fans we are taking to Cardiff isn't too bad.

Did, of course, also tell him we sold 30k for the Worthington Cup Final without the tickets going on general sale.

I think I'll print off this topic and send it to Viz.

There's enough material contained within, in the form of EXCUSES, as to why folk aren't going to one of our biggest games in 45 years, to keep the rest of the UK football supporters in stitches for weeks on end.

If Arsenal, Man United and Newcastle fans are reading this, let alone those from Burnley, they must be wetting themselves.

We are an embarrassment. A laughing stock.

As I've said, nowt against those that genuinely can't afford, it's those that are making their excuses sound convincing and those that can't be arsed that I'm talking about. And there's a good few thousand of them.

In total I have purchased 122 tickets including my own, over 60 are non regulars and who are heading there for a good day out.

Well done 1864 - you deserve to get in free yourself for that effort. Contrast that with several thousand who can afford the trip but can't be arsed and you know where the real fans (in the true sense of the word) are.

.....and why wasn't the stadium finished - 3/4 looks the business, while the other stand looks like it's been borrowed from Acrington Stanley!

That from a fan whose team played at The Dell for just over 100 years. Always enjoyed going there but it was about on a par with Pleasington Playing Fields.

just booking the trian.......

Waggy, I just knew you were originally from Northern ireland

I don't think anyone really knows how ticket sales are going, albeit generally they are poor. It's just been posted that we won't sell more than 15k according to the ticket office. An earlier post says (also via ticket office) that we have sold about half, which would mean 15k already. With a further week and a half to go you would expect the figure to rise to 20k or perhaps a bit more, which bearing in mind all circumstances would be reasonable.

Lucas has come to a bit lately but if some sort of swap deal for Bellamy could be engineered I'd go along with letting him go. Hughes' track record on new signings has been good and I'd leave him to bring in a suitable replacement.

This is a game we can not afford to lose - stay with 4-5-1 even if we are at home, keeping it tight. We should still have enough to win by one or two goals and thereby being almost home and dry in terms of PL safety.

The likes of SG194, Gav, CLB, SuperStella etc, etc just can't wait to have a go........

For what it's worth, Golden Boy, I think Rovers will take a reasonable following, over 20,000 but not quite 25,000.

I was merely pointing that out, not particularly having a go at anyone.

That said, I do think it will be embarrassing if we take less than 25k and very embarrassing if we take less than 20k.

Whilst some people have genuine reasons for not wishing to go (cost, time factors etc etc, it's been done to death and not just for this game) it could only be Blackburn Rovers fans (in general) who constantly moan that we've reached a semi final - the first for 45 years.

As I pointed out in another previous thread, whilst I was trawling the grounds of Colchester, Leyton Orient, Notts County, Bristol Rovers, Mansfield and Wrexham et al, any Rovers fan, not just me, would have given their right arm to be in such a game as we face in two weeks time.

I'm not portraying myself as a better fan than anyone else, because I'm not. I don't travel away very much these days 'cos I can't afford it. But for a semi final I'll pull out all the stops and I would expect 95% of the rest of our support to do the same.

I just wish everyone would stop their incessant whinging.

Speaking to a Jarrow based Bar Code this morning - they shifted 33,500 straight away and a further 16,500 are waiting to enter some sort of lottery for an extra allocation they are hoping for.

I know Newcastle is three times the size of Blackburn with no other local teams apart from Sunderland nearby, but come on Rovers, anything less than 25,000 will be embarrassing and anything less than 20,000 will be extremely embarrassing.

I'll bite my tongue for now as it will only prompt Golden Boy to attempt to shoot me down again!

My mate got his and my tickets on Saturday. Wanted BT East upper tier near the front but we had to accept row 23 and almost got row 29. Seems like most folk are doing the sensible thing and ordering by phone.

With all the hassle of getting to cardiff for noon and parking, queuing, Iam seeing this as one big pain in the arse, that I can't really be arsed with.

They don't make it easy for us do they?

A short while ago you were wanting to break the decibel level at Cardiff - we'll just have to do it without you.

To be honest Ossy, I've heard very little negativity about Hughes. At work we deal with blokes from all over the show who support a wide variety of clubs. They all seem to think he's doing a good job and are full of praise for him. The only negativity at all has been from the "know-it-alls" who doubted his ability, from an experience point of view, when he was appointed.

That was my post - my son was still logged in!!

Out unbeaten record?

30 games without defeat?

You could be right there! But it's not the one I was thinking of and I'm the quizmaster so my decision is final. - Ok so you could have 2 things over us.

Keep trying - if you want the answer just ask.

And ELEVENTH major ever.

Having said that, I wouldn't like to fall out with C.C, she's one of the better Burnley fans that are brave enough to come on here and face the unwarranted abuse.

She can't answer my little teaser though.

Excellent post Billinge. Can we please also stop applauding the opposition keeper as he runs to the Blackburn End nets either at the start of the game or start of the second half. The only thing it does is make him feel more at home. Applaud him after the game by all means. Today, the Leicester fans continually gave Brad stick whilst he was defending the Darwen End nets. Most of the Blackburn End gave their keeper polite applause.

My Norwegian hometown team Molde and Rovers are my two teams.....

Laget mitt er Ålesund

On a serious note I think anything by Doris Day, Vera Lynn or even Nana Mouscouri (sp?) would get the place rocking.