Just got to put my two cents worth in here. I really can't understand the venom that has been directed a Souness on here. He took over from Kidd when we were close to rock bottom and heading for the (what is now) the first division. He got rid of the dead wood that Kidd had brought in - Peacock, Dailly, Davidson, Grayson - come on remember that lot of clowns? The next season he got us promoted back to the Premiership. Then he took us to Cardiff and won the League cup. Then we finished sixth in the Prem. Then of course it all went downhill, and he's repeated himself at Newcastle with strange team selections/substitutions and "Lady Luck" has been replaced with "injury crisis." We've got a lot to thank him for. I don't feel sorry for him because he's going to be trousering a few million from fat Freddy's coffers and will never need to work again, unlike the rest of us who will (with a few exceptions,) will have to toil away in the glue factory until we are able to retire. As a completely separate issue, which of course it is, is the fate of NUFC.

lenny Godber Scroll down to "Situations Vacant" The ball is now firmly in your court Jim. Important stuff this is.

Nah, Nitrate makes you speak rubbish, but very fast. I reckon it's good old- fashioned Moroccan Gold. The BBC hand it out in the canteen in the flapjack. "Cup of tea Mr Lawrensen?" "Yes please." "Your usual two slices of flapjack?" "No thanks, I've a l r e a dy h a d o n e a n d I ' v e g o t t o r e maine f o c u s e d. Two hours later: Gary Lineker: "So Mark, what did you think about the match?" Mark: " Wow, look at those lights, has anyone got any more chocolate?"

For those of you who are saying that this was a great game and one that you'll remember, fair enough. Personally I hated it. There was that 25 minute gap between when Donkey scored his second & the ref blowing the final whistle which was the most excruciating, horrible, nerve-shredding 1500 seconds of my life and I never ever want to live it again. Up to 4-1 it was great. It was almost better than that time me and Elizabeth Hurley made the two backed beast while Hugh was unconscious in the other room having quaffed too much sherry. Then Donkey scored..... Then Donkey scored again..... And I knew, really deep deep down in the bottom of my black and corrupt heart that with Shrek, Donkey and Sahahahaha on the pitch, that they would score again. It was inevitable. And then typical Scummers would get a 94th minute penalty for Todd breathing on Christine. Cue RFW dancing up and down on the pitch, The Neviller groin thrusting and badge kissing at The Blackburn End, me invading the pitch and severely adjusting his manhood with my foot & spending the rest of the night in Blackburn police cells. Then I woke to the sight of our best player being sent off (Rio, Rio, why did you do it?) Oh god, only another 180 seconds to go..... Yeeeesssss. Sorry if this is gibberish, I'm only just coming down from the euphoria of last night and a day spent smiling sweetly at the Scum fans at work, and trying ever so hard not to make myself deeply unpopular. I think I've managed to hold on to my job for now

Looks like we've got a winner here. Drag Bob away from his badger-watch and cough syrup and it looks like it's a good one.

The preview has now been expanded to include Special Guest Q & A. So just scroll yourselves back to the top right now. No messing about.

Well said AESF, I do think that there is a bit of a gulf between the "big boys" who feel that they are head and shoulders above the rest of us. They are marketing themselves as global brands and, it has to be said, they don't really give a monkeys about the fans because they currently know that they have enough clout to sell out most weeks and to sell £30 replica shirts to Hong Kong teenagers (with apologies to any HK teenagers who may be reading.) The rest of us (I'm thinking along the likes of Boro; Fulham; Charlton et al) will just have to carry on as we have done for years, boosted by Sky TV revenue (who would like to show Chelsea v Arsenal every week) and depending on local support to top up the coffers. Lets face it, no one in HK is going to be buying a Boro, Fulham, Charlton or Rovers shirt, nor paying to watch us on satellite, nor coming to the ground to watch a match. Still, I'd rather watch Rovers knowing that the other 15,000 home fans in there were solid Rovers fans rather than a bunch of trainee accountants from Essex up on a team-bonding exercise, or a 747-load of Malaysian stockbrokers up for a reward for meeting their targets. Over & out

Sorry sir, I'll try to do better next time.

Hopefully a bit more to come on this, but for now........ West Bromwich Albion, like Rovers, are one of the founder members of the Football League which occurred back in 1888. Albion were formed, so the story goes, by a group of workers from the George Salter Spring Works on 20 September 1879. They were originally called West Bromwich Strollers - changing their name to West Bromwich Albion one year later. Their first ever match was played on 13th December 1879 against Black Lake Victoria. They entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1883. It took them three years before they reached the Final (1886) where they played us, losing 2-0 in a replay after a 0-0 draw. They also reached the final the following year when they also lost, 2-0 to Villa. In 1888 they reached the final for the third year running, and it proved third time lucky. They beat Preston North End 2-1. In the same year they were invited to become one of the twelve founder members of the Football League. The first home game was a 4-3 win over Burnley. One hundred and eighteen years later and we can all raise a smile, and maybe a snigger. In that first season we beat them 6-2 at Ewood and lost 2-1 away. It would have been a nice touch to have been able to report that 100 years ago the two teams met at The Hawthorns, but unfortunately they dropped out of the First division in 03-04 after finishing bottom and didn’t get back until 1911-12 (for more: have a look at the very excellent http://www.baggies.com/ ] http://www.baggies.com/ [/url] and its history page. Click on “All about” & then “history” You’ll notice I’ve done a copy & paste job on a paragraph or two.) In more recent years our paths haven’t crossed too many times, and to be honest the games haven’t really been much to write home about. In September 1999 we met at The Hawthorns in the old division two/the newer division one/now “The Championship” and came out with a 2-2 draw, Matt Jansen and Christian Dailly scored for us. Two names which possibly signify how life can change for a professional footballer. In the return game at Ewood in February 2000, after Kidd had been replaced with Parkes, we won 2-1 with Keith Gillespie and (oh my god not again…) Christian Dailly scoring. The Baggies’ scorer was the wonderfully named Matt Carbon. I really do hope he has now gone into making pencils or toner powder for laser printers. The next season saw each team win at home 1-0 and a complete snore-festival of one hundred and eighty minutes of football Then we didn’t meet again until last season when, on the opening day, we saw a 1-1 draw at Ewood with Short & Kanu scoring. There was the same result at The Hawthorns with Richardson, on loan from Manyoo from a free kick, and Bert Emerton scoring from a Pederson cross. This season on the 2nd October we really whooped it up big-time with a 2-0 win at Ewood courtesy of a Kuqi-monster double, and we saw the famous turf-splat for the first time. For anyone traveling to West Brom, this link might be useful http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/park/yfh45/westbrom.htm It’s the highest league ground in England at 551 ft above sea-level. Boundary Park is only 501ft but by God I’ll bet my season ticket that it’s a lot colder. I’m still trying to get warm from the last time we played them, and that was pre-season friendly in July. Still, it could be worse, The National Stadium in La Paz (that’s Bolivia for those of you who didn’t pay attention in geography lessons) clocks in at 8,500ft. Anyway, as this is a match preview, which usually consists of a Q & A session with a mate who supports the opposition I thought I’d better follow suit. Then I realized that I don’t know anyone who supports West Brom. Frank Skinner? Only contactable through his agency. Sod that. Then I thought of “Godber,” Norman Stanley Fletcher’s cell-mate in “Porridge.” But that was just silly, although he was a Baggies fan. So I sent an e-mail to Adrian Chiles. For those of you who live abroad or don’t know Adrian here he is: Adrian Chiles He’s a Baggies fan. A BBC presenter and appears on the radio & TV as an all round good bloke. As indeed he is, because he said he’d do me a Q & A. What a star. (i)How did you become a WBA supporter? My Grandad took me. My first game was April 1974. We drew 1-1 with Luton. Tony Brown scored a penalty for us. I was quickly hooked and assumed I would grow out of it but I'm getting worse all the time. The low point was this time last year when we were dead certs for relegation. It was a rainy afternoon and a tramp came up to me in Leicester Square, put his arm round me, and said "I'm afraid the Baggies have had it this season." His eyes were full of pity. When even the tramps feel sorry for you, you know something's gone wrong. (ii) Last season you were the first team to be bottom at Christmas and escape the drop, and on the last day of the season too. Plus you were hosting Portsmouth who saw The Saints go down on the same day. It must have been one hell of an atmosphere at The Hawthorns. Where you there or were you working? Will you tell us about the full time whistle wherever you were. I was there. I was quite calm until the last 20 minutes which were the longest of my life. I seemed to be the only person in the East Stand with a radio. By then it had boiled down to us and Palace. We were going to win so it just down to Charlton to keep Palace from winning. Unfortunately, they weren't doing a very good job of it. And once Palace had gone ahead the 5 live commentators were saying there was only one team in it. Misery. Then, bizarrely, everyone at The Hawthorns started cheering, a rumour having gone round that Charlton had equalised. As I was listening to the commentary from the Valley I knew this wasn't the case but I still stood up and cheered as if that might somehow make it happen. Then things got really morose. Until Charlton scored. I leapt up and then so did everyone else. Mayhem and the longest ten minutes ever then followed. It was crazy. I'll never ever forget it and neither will anyone else there. (iii) The Rovers’ crowd has been described as (something along the lines of) “less like 20,000 fans more like 20,000 critics.” Yet the Baggies fans are infamous for being all “boing boing” good times. Is it something in the water? I think our away support is good but at home we're as miserably negative and frankly unsupportive as the next club's fans. If things go as badly against you as they did in our last home game against Sunderland then there's going to be real unrest. We'll give your 20,000 critics a run for their money, any day. We've been through a lot in the last six seasons though: in 1999/2000 we avoided relegation on the last day of the season; then we made the play-offs; then we went up, unbelievably overhauling Wolves to do so; then back down again; back up again; then the Great Escape last year. This season it looks like it's going to be either relegation or a narrow escape again. We're emotionally wrung out. (iv) I suppose work commitments must keep you away from far too many matches, but have you been to Ewood Park recently? What do you think of the place? I get to every game if I possibly can, apart from Sunday games for which I have to be at work. I've been to Ewood a couple of times and I think it's a good ground. Last time I went though, on the long climb up to my seat, I saw a massive space in the stand behind the away end. I just wondered why no use is made of that. It just doesn't feel like a very vibrant place, somehow. (v) This and (vi) are the usual two questions we ask. Which West Brom players should Rovers be wary of? Of ours, Kanu, Kamara and Gera - the first two are in Africa and the third is crocked. (vi) Which Rovers’ players do you think that your team should pay special attention to? Of yours, Dickov and Bellamy are always a worry. And I can already visualise Kuqi doing that belly flop celebration at the Hawthorns. May I ask a couple of questions which appertain to you as a BBC presenter rather than a West Brom fan? (vii) Since that FA Cup semi-final last year against Arsenal, Rovers have been tagged as “cloggers,” “bully-boys” and general all-round thugs. Was this a fair assessment or just one that took off after that game and was then just a handy “tag” to attach to us? What was the feeling amongst your colleagues at Five Live and the BBC? I don't honestly know whether it's a fair assessment. I suppose you'd have to look at your reds and yellows for the whole season. In any case it soon became a bit of a cliche so I tried to avoid it. If we did bang on about dirty Rovers it was down to laziness - more cock-up than conspiracy, definitely. I can promise you there's no Mr Big, who happens to be a Burnley fan, who's telling us to trash you. (viii) You seem a WBA fan rather who is also a presenter, On 19th November you beat Everton 4-0. I don’t know what you were doing on that day but I’m sure that if I was trying to present any kind of programme on that evening I’d be insufferable. How do you cope with the ups and downs of The Baggies and retain your composure as a presenter? On air I think I'm OK, but I'm bloody misery to work with if we've lost, and insufferably cheerful if we've won. The worst thing of all is 606 on Sunday evenings if we've played and lost that afternoon, especially if it was a 4pm kick-off. Last January we played Fulham away at 4pm. I was ###### off anyway because I had to be in the studio even though the Cottage is walking distance from my house. I watched the match with Gordon Strachan in the MOTD2 office but then, at 5.45, I had to go to the radio studio. It was 0-0, and still 0-0 when I got to the studio. At that point I'm watching Sky pictures on the monitor but listening to the 5 live commentary which is about 2 seconds ahead of the pictures. One minute to go and Fulham had a corner. As Sky showed them preparing to take it, the 5 live commentator was saying "it's in!" By now it was 2 minutes to six. Misery. In my opening to the programme I said "ring me quick before I do something stupid..." My wife, Jane Garvey, was bathing the kids at home and wasn't amused when my oldest daughter, who was 5, got alarmed and started crying. That got me a bollocking from Jane, just to compound my misery. Adrian, I salute you and thank you.

Vyeo, Very good, nice slant. Has anyone else noticed that you never see Kuqi & Chewbacca in the same room? Makes you think.......

Me too. Another year, another user-friendly analysis for the financially illterate. Well done that man.

May I just put the cat amongst the pigeons and mention the awful stench of hypocracy that is currently pervading this board? There has been an awful lot of talk about Graham Poll favouring the "big club" by not giving a handball against Rio Ferdinand, yet giving one against Zurab. With me so far? I'm sure you are. Would anyone like to go back in time to a week ago when we played Newcastle at St James Park? We took three points off them and won one nil. (I bet you can guess what's coming, you can you little rascals can't you?) How did that winning goal go into the net? Was it: (i) by a hand-ball? (ii) by a hand-ball? or (iii) by a hand-ball? So sshhh, be quiet, lest the gods of the self-rightious brothers comes down from above and smites you all down.

I went tonight, back home by 10:30 (which was nice) Then watched ITV coverage. If anyone knows: (a)Clive Tyldesley's home address (b)Where I can obtain a reliable firearm Let me know. I'll do it. the world will be a better place. It's all been said. If this was 18 months ago I wouldn't have gone because I thought we would have been used to wipe the floor. I'm quite happy with the performance tonight, we did OK. Absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. The Rovers' support was great too. Wigan for the Cup.

The paramount Decent place, ignore the comment about it being full of alcoholics. Either that of find yourself a Holts pub The Old Monkey The Ape & Apple The Crown & Anchor

Just rolled through this thread. Not a lot of suggestions from the "Sven must go now" camp as to who will replace him to take the squad to Germany. and as the xenophobic English press will hound and Johnny Foreigner to death Sam Allerdyce: - ROTFLMFHO Rat-Faced Whinger: - been suggested, he won't do it. He's too happy to be Scottish Alan Curbishley: - Oh come on, be realistic. No European experience. Stuart Pierce: - already laughted it off as embarassing. Paul Jewel:- 6 months experience in the Premiership, 0 in Europe Mark Hughes: - Got you thinking eh? That's just about it unless you want to have a think about Bryan Robson/ Steve McLaren/Graeme Souness/Harry Rednapp/ or Bernard Cribbins.

Yes it does. And it goes within about 50m of OT. By some amazing co-incidence either direction takes you within almost exactly the same distance from OT. Suggest you sit in the back of the car, poke Matron with your walking stick giving directions. When she breaks down sobbing, park up, slap your disabled badge on the dashboard and Bob's your uncle. Take some sandwiches, your Des O'Connor tapes and possibly your insulin and Sanatogen for the way out because that'll be the slow bit.

call me Gamst

Oooh you big softie. The bloke has earned millions from his football career, he's got a drop-dead gorgeous wife & young children. He should be walking his kids to school along the primrose-lined paths of leafy Cheshire and then playing a round of golf before going home to have carnal knowledge of his missus then picking up his kids from school. Later in the evening he takes the missus out to an exclusive restraunt where he plays footsie with her evening before taking her home for some more CK. As he drives the 19 year-old Swedish nanny home he stops at a convenient lay-by and......... The next day he travels first class down to wherever to have a cosy chat over a game of football with whoever Sky TV is showing and gets paid £ks for the honour. Later on in the day he meets his accountant to discuss tax evasion schemes and how to explain some oif his more bizarre purchases from Rangers. It's a hard life isn't it? No wonder you feel sorry for him.

Mea Culpa, but right now I don't care. Three points, up to eighth, and out of our last seven league games W5 D1 L1. Bring on the Red Scum

So, Andy Todd is not a "hard man" in the mould of Vieira/Gerrard/Keane. He is an "irrational, dangerous thug." I reckon that's a very fine line you're defining, especially when you include Viera and Keane. And, quite true, "That's my opinion, which I am absolutely allowed to have - Deal with it." Me too.

As someone who has cycled around Manchester for 25 years and holds a driving licence which enables me to drive any motorbike I want, I'd just like to make one simple point. (slight pause whilst I adjust my halo) Jansen was no different from hundreds of British tourists abroad who seize on the opportunity to hire a motorbike despite having bugger-all experience of riding one. Couple that with the driving on the right hand side and the different driving ethos of many countries he was just a disaster waiting to happen. As are all of the other tourists who jump on a motorbike. Jansen was a bit more unlucky in that he didn't end up having gravel picked out of his leg my a Greek nurse wielding tweezers, he ended up in a coma. Lucky man, he and his girlfriend could quite easily have been pushing up the daisies by now. Instead he is playing for Bolton. (Insert punchline here.)

Nobody said he was either. You might as well say he's not Einstein and accuse him of not understanding the general theory of relativity. Yours sincerely Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck

The problem with drawing attention to other people's grammar and spelling is that you inevitably make a complete hash of it yourself. Then you look like a fool. Don't worry about it. Most of us don't know a phoneme from a diphthong. Andy Todd's OK in my book, nothing to get worried about, he's a bit of an idiot every now and then, but who isn't? Van Persie suffered a split lip at Cardiff. I think many of us have suffered the same injury, but I doubt if any of us have fallen to the ground, clutching our heads and getting medical attention. I know that the last time the wife got all stroppy I just got on with it. She later apologised and dabbed it with iodine. You need to take it easy spensey.

"Theo Walcott" Anyone else wondering what the "Theo" is a shortened version of? If it actually is a shortened version of something. I'm getting "Theophilus P Wildebeest" aka Lenny Henry.

I really don't know why everyone thinks Shearer is going to score in this game. He's got four goals in the league this season. That one at Ewood, and I'd guess that at least two of the others were penalties. (Those of you with more enquiring minds may wish to prove me wrong.) Compare to Shefi who has scored five, none from penalties. He's now as slow as a tortoise with chilblains, our back four will have be able to count to ten and then still catch him up. Souness is playing him either out of respect for his "legend" status or because he has no alternatives. I suspect it is a bit of both. All we need is an early goal, go in for half time with a lead and the SJP "faithfull" will boo them off. Which will be nice. I'm feeling all warm and optimistic over this one, not least because they can't do to us again what they did at Ewood. Or can they?