I was expecting that to be the case with Tugay-I presumed they would argue he was the last man. It is good it is only 1 game.

Well,I'm amazed.

It's in the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Philip, that is a very positive statement that needs a wider audience. I would suggest a letter to the Sports Editor of the LT and Radio Lancs would enable them to argue a strong case in favour of the club at this present moment.

I noticed after we went down to 10 that Oojer seemed to play in front of Henchoz and step up at times into midfield. Was he doing that before the penalty? As Scotty argued, Henchoz got pulled over to the left but Tugay should never have had to be the last man. Where were the other defenders? And indeed it was ironical that Tugay did track back as our centre midfield often doesn't!

The advice in the LT today, involving quotes from Chief Superintendent David Mallaby, for Rovers' fans is to stay in Amsterdam, or in the Oude Haven area of Rotterdam which is nice and has a number of bars. Rovers' fans are advised not to go into the centre of Rotterddam. The police are taking their largest number of officers to an away Rovers game.

What I noticed on MOTD2 was that Dowd continued to hold up the red card when he was talking to Jol, rather than put it down and show a 2nd card.

That could be why he apparently played so well on Saturday against Burnley. On the other hand, signing Koumas could make us look a little like WBA when they performed badly in the Premiership.

Gray seemed to improve after we went down to 10. He also didn't have a direct winger to deal with, and this is where he comes unstuck. Benni also did much better when he was the lone striker. Despite MH saying in the LT he was supporting Chris and had been working with him in 1 to 1 sessions, there is no sign of a partnership developing between the 2 strikers and despite Tugay's passing quality, there is very little being created in terms of chances. I don't know if MH is worried, presuming his missing players will eventually come back and get us out of this mess, but we currently have a lot of problems.

On the back page of the LT today, MH says he is going to stand by Chirs, and apparently he has been doing some 1 on 1 sessions to help him. MH says Chris has scored wherever he has played, that he has a good attitude-that is part of the reason he is still ahead of Jeffersin the queue for striking places-and it is important the rest of the team make chances for him.

But it would have been a silly thing to say to the Chelsea players.

The LT today suggested that MH might well want Gomaa back for another trial-the 1st paragraph suggested MH was impressed with him, whilst a later quote from MH said "........he did OK.........." The paper also suggested any move for him could depend on Neill and Todd moving.

Everybody who posts on the messabeboard, except for the odd away fan is a fan of the Rovers. There is massive disagreement between posters about the players who are playing well and those who are not, about those who are Premiership standard and about those who should be shipped out. There is disagreement about the songs sung by fans in European cities and about the attitude of Rovers' fans at away games. In a way, Vinjay appears to suffering an alienation that ,although more extreme, might have been suffered by many Rovers' fans at any time, either currently or in the past. I would welcome back his passion, whilst hoping he will not be one dimensional.

The same story was in the LT earlier this week. Except it speculated that if Todd and Matteo wanted to leave, that would leave room to bring him in.

If Birmingham have any say in the matter, they will be reluctant to sell to us, especially after turning down £2,000,000 on the last day of the Summer transfer deadline.

There was a suggestion in the Daily Telegraph today that Charlton had changed direction from being a club who spent very little on the transfer market to one who had heavily backed the new manager and had spent a high percentage of future earnings and were getting very jumpy at the prospect of being relegated.

Henry Winter, in his report on the Arsenal Liverpool game yesterday, suggested that Benitez will follow up on his interest in Neill to sign him in January to replace the "hapless" Finnan. So if he doesn't go to Barca, or Milan, he might go to Liverpool! Radio Lancs were reporting that Neill would spend most of the week on the treatment table because of a slightly torn hamstring.

I thought he was excellent when he first arrived-and looked as though he had the ability to be a class striker. Now, he looks as though he has lost his way again. So I'm not currently hopeful that this gamble will come off. On Saturday, MH seemed very unhappy at times with the movement of the 2 strikers. In my opinion they are not working as a partnership nor are they working for each other and I'm disappointed that either MH has not been working on this in training, or that what they have done has not worked!

Gally always shows enthusiasm when he comes on and gives it a go. Because he was brought up locally, I would like him to make it. Hughes seams, at least, undecided.

I think there are still question marks about his temperament. He has some ability but if he is to make a professional career, it will not be at premiership level. I think it's an indictment of the youth policy that he's in his 4th year with us.

Coming back to Ronaldo, what I think his major weakness is the quality of his crosses/passes into the box. Time after time he gets into a good position, but then appears to have forgotten that the main point of his job is to pick out someone else on his team. If he were to improve on this, he could become an amazing player. Walking up Bolton Road after the match, there was a small group of fans singing in support of Ronaldo and against the supporters of England. These might be commonly sung songs but I have not heard them before. Oh, and none of our fans took their fans on.

I wonder if it means Nelsen is not going to come back at the end of January

Don't forget that on another posting,it was stated that MH had tried to sign Dunn on the last day of the transfer window-but was turned down by Birmingham.

MH was on Radio Lancs today saying the Rovers are going to be looking into offering Tugay another 12 month extension.

According to teletext, Nancy are going to wear anti-racism badges/lapels when they play Krakow tomorrow.