As far as linesman decisions go, that was absolute sh!te!!! Carroll was almost all over his line before he clawed the ball out. How only the linesman couldn't see this (oh and Fergie most probably) is beyond me.

After the disappointing performance against Villa this is a must win game for Rovers. We dont have the best of records against Charlton in recent times but I hope the win will swing into Rovers hands this time. It's not going to be a pretty affair by any means, I'm expecting it to be pretty much the same kind of game as against Villa (I cant wait!) but we just nick it 1-0. Emerton to score.

I'm confident about this game, which will probably mean that we'll get beat three nowt!

This game saw Graeme Souness return to Ewood for the first time since his departure four months ago. Newcastle took an early lead after Dyer slipped through Rovers' 'offside trap', but Rovers equalised after a clever freekick ending in Dickov scoring. However the Geordies went into half time ahead following a superb freekick by Laurent Robert. Rovers were much better in the second half and put plenty of pressure on Newcastle's defence. Andy Todd equalised for Rovers, just about, after Given parried a shot from Thompson. Click Here for a full match report by Scotty

Dont worry, we're not having a re-vote or anything I'm putting everyone's profiles, thoughts etc together to make a Greatest Ever section of the website. The amount of info I have to work with is quite larga anyway, but it appears there isn't that much about Friedel except for a few lines. So if someone could come up with a profile/thoughts about him, so I could use it, that woudl be fantastic. It doesn't have to be very long, just something that will demonstrate why you think he got voted greatest ever keeper. Cheers

He is, I dont know how Clare puts up with him. Anyway, the game. I'm fairly confident for this one. I always look forward to the Newcastle games, and being on Boxing Day makes it better for some reason! If Shearer plays, he'll more than likely score against us. But I think Emerton and Bothroyd especially could do thier defence some home. Because lets face it, thier defence is worse than ours. 2-1 to Rovers. Emerton and a penalty from Dickov.

I'd avoid going on the train if possible, unless you are willing to go incredibly early and leave later. (but then once at the Reebok you'll struggle to get in places if you are wearing anything that might suggest you are a football fan). The reason for the train swap is because going to Blackburn is on the Clitheroe-Manchester Victoria Line, the Reebok is on the Manchester Airport-Preston line. You either have the option of going to Bolton and waiting for the connection from there, or to Preston and going from there. Note, not all trains stop at Horwich Parkway, so you need to check.

I think the system is fair enough. I think I'm right in saying that they started doing this after the Celtic cockup, where they did put tickets on open sale, and some people who had been to all away games and/or had even been to Bulgaria didn't get tickets.

Yea I think it was Stu, however I dont think they checked the number of games that each st had been to, they just asked. Because at least one of our tickets didn't have two away tickets attributed to it. Anyway, I've just got ours after being in a queue of 20 people for the TO . Alls they said is you have to take your proper ID, not just NUS card as they might refuse entry with NUS. £21 for the lower tier is considerably better than £35!!

Welcome to the site bluebird. I didn't realise there was such anamosity towards Hughes. As for the game its a tricky one for Rovers. We definately cant go down there expecting a win, look what happened against Bournemouth. It's not really the draw I wasd looking for, I wanted somewhere local, but it should be a good day out anyway.

To say that he's not good enough is a bit rediculous. Without his 5 goals this season we'd have lost against Man U, Man City and Norwich. Thats three less points than we have now (which isn't very many anyway). So how can you say that isn't good? His game isn't all about his goals either, he works very hard, never stops and brings others into the game. He also has three assists. If he carries on his current ratio, he'll have about 12-13 goals this season, which will be a better return that we've had from a striker for quite a while. And as for Grabbi (who I assume you are talking about), if he'd have got 5 goals by this time in the season in his first season I'd have thought most people would have been quite happy. As for the game - it was ace . Hopefully we'll carry this on now. The very last thing we need is a poor game against Spurs on Saturday. If we could get another victory there then we'll have a tremendous confidence boost and at last start getting some points on the table.

Its not the first time we'll have been charged £35 this year. Thats what we're paying for Crystal Palace

Fulham Match Report, written by AJConroy has been uploaded.

Taking a quote from FLB from the first page of this thread:: May be classed as equalling the achievements of Sherwood.

Erm, I thnk you missed his second sentance - usa was talking about Shearer, not Dunn.

I went for Forrest this time round. Sherwood is one of my favourite Rovers players, but Forrest's record cant be argued with. Whatever the outcome of this poll, people will probably still argue about it. I've just been looking through all the older greatest player threads (shameless in-site advertising - new section coming soon!), and the Forrest/Sherwood debate sparked up in the middle of the right-back thread!

Yea I agree with that. As much as I like Tugay, he has been shocking recently and I'd rather we started with Ferguson and Thompson in centre midfield.

Well I'd prefer a nice 2-0 win to the Rovers with two first half goals and from then on Rovers control the game. However its a lot more likely that we'll start the game like a house on fire, go 3-0 up, then as normal, have our rubbish period of the game and Fulham will pull it back to 3-3. While all our fans sit in their seats and dispair.

It seems Rovers have to do everything the hard way! After setting off like a house on fire and going 1-0 up early on though a Matt Jansen strike, Rovers found themselves 3-1 down at half time. Anderton, Savage and Dunn getting the goals. The second half was much better and Rovers fought back. Reid's deflected shot brought it back to 3-2, then Gallagher bundled in the ball to make it 3-3. Both sides went close to grabbing a late winner with Savage hitting the post, and Dickov missing a one on one chance right at the end. All in all Rovers should be happy with a point, but we cant keep giving teams a headstart. Click here for full match report by Scotty and match ratings by tcj_jones Rovers: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Johansson, McEveley, Reid, Ferguson, Tugay (Thompson 56), Emerton, Dickov, Jansen (Gallagher 45). Subs Not Used: Pedersen, Enckelman, Matteo. Booked: Ferguson. Goals: Jansen 4, Reid 57, Gallagher 63. Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Upson, Gray, Anderton (Yorke 74), Johnson, Savage, Dunn (Clemence 80), Gronkjaer, Morrison (Clapham 65). Subs Not Used: Martin (Tiny) Taylor, Vaesen. Booked: Johnson. Goals: Anderton 17, Savage 38, Dunn 45. Att: 20,290. Ref: N Barry

3? Surely there's 4. Don't forget Yorke, who will probably play. Since I don't tend to get the results right, I'll go for a 3-2 win for them. Haha!!! I totally forgot about Yorke in my preview! Oh well

Out of the three I'd guess that only Johnson would play. Dunn is injured and Taylor probably wont be in the team.

Now that I would pay to watch!!

After missing the Pompey game, I’m still waiting to see my first Rovers victory of the season It’s been a long season so far, but after three consecutive draws Birmingham at home could actually be the game that I see Rovers eventually win! Yesterday, the Blues suffered their 5th 1-0 defeat of the season at home to Everton. They weren’t particularly bad, just couldn’t score – Heskey and Yorke both missing very good chances. For their visit to Ewood, Birmingham will be without influential midfielder Muzzy Izzet after he produced a fantastic two handed save on the line earning him a red card. Meanwhile in Rovers game something amazing happened. Rovers were awarded a penalty!! Rovers fans celebrated as if we’d just scored, Danny Mills got send off then we realised that someone had to then actually score the penalty. Thankfully Dickov coolly slotted it into the bottom corner to make it 1-1. The Players In recent years Rovers has become a minor feeder club to Birmingham with Damien Johnson, Martin Taylor and David Dunn all heading south. Damien Johnson has been there the longest and is a first team regular on the right wing for the Blues. Johnson made over 100 appearances at Ewood after progressing through the academy. He left Rovers in the 2001/02 season after making just 8 appearances. We kept Gillespie, Birmingham got Johnson – doesn’t seem that good in hindsight! Martin “Bambi” Taylor moved to Birmingham in January for (a somewhat overpriced) £1.25million. Although Taylor played a part in the defence in the season that Rovers kept 15 clean sheets, many thought that he did not progress as much as hoped. Steve Bruce was a big admirer of his, stating “"Martin Taylor appeals to me because he is versatile and young, he's English, he is six feet, four inches tall and he can play right-back, left-back and centre-back. “ However he has only made two appearances this season. David Dunn left Rovers in the summer of 2003 for £5.5million. Dunn was a Blackburn lad, supported Rovers and came through the ranks at Rovers. He made 169 appearances for Rovers and scored 38 goals. He also played regularly and also captained the England U21 squad. During the first season back in the Premiership, Dunn was fantastic for Rovers and was part of the Worthington Cup winning team. However in the 02/03 season he wasn’t up to the same standards and also he didn’t see eye to eye with Souness. The sale of Dunn split the opinions of Rovers fans. There were those who believed that he should have stayed at Rovers – a fit Dunn would have been very handy at times last season. On the other hand others believed that Souness could no longer get the best out of Dunn, and that he was injured too much, so £5.5m for him was a good deal. I am one of the people who would welcome Dunn back to Rovers any day. Plug for the site coming here – at the end of last season Alan75 sent an interview off to Dunny who took the time to reply. Click here for the article The Games In the past few seasons our record against Birmingham has been pretty good, losing just once to them in the league since 2000. Last season saw Rovers win 4-0, lose 4-0 and draw 1-1. In December, Rovers scored four goals in 22 second half minutes. The first half was a pretty boring affair, even though Dugarry should have been sent off for a blatent elbow on Craig Short. However after the introduction of Andy Cole in the second half, Rovers were on fire. Although Cole didn’t score he played a part in the first two goals, being involved in both Ferguson and Neill’s goals. Dugarry did then get send off, for a second bookable offence and from then on the Rovers victory wasn’t in doubt with Tugay and Gallagher scoring. However it was a completely different story in the FA Cup in January. After waiting an extra 35 minutes for the game to kick off due to a power failure, two goals either side of half time gave Birmingham an easy victory. Rovers were pretty poor that day, and the excellent game that David Dunn had only made the defeat worse. Morrison, Clemence, Forssell and Hughes were the scorers. The final game between the two teams was Rovers last game of the season. Rovers had just secured their Premiership place for this season and were looking to finish the season on a high. After the Blues started the game on top, Andy Cole put Rovers ahead in the 24rd minute. The game ended 1-1, after Stern John equalised in the 83rd minute. It was the story of Rovers’ season – drawing a game we should have and could have won, meaning that Rovers slipped down the table by two positions and losing £1m in the process. The Opposition To get an opposition view of things I asked Flopsy’s mate Nigel, who is a Blues season ticket holder, some questions. 1) Much was expected of Brum following an expensive summer. Where has it gone wrong so far? Forsell's and Morrison's injury's, Heskey, Gronkear, Sick Note Anderton & Sick Note Dunn. 2) Are you glad that Steve Bruce didn't take the Newcastle job? Yes 3) What are your thoughts on Rovers so far this season? They will be lucky to stay up 4) Newcastle then offered their job to Souness, he buggered off, and now he have Hughes. Do you think we'll be better or worse under Hughes? Better under Sparky but you'll still go down if you don't buy in the winter window. 5) We've had mixed reports of David Dunn from Brum fans. What do you think of him? He is an exceptional player who's skill and workrate make things happen, just a shame he is as soft as ###### when it comes to injuries. 6) More importantly how is Tiny Taylor doing?! ;-) He is crap, we should never of got rid of Purse to the Albion 7) Who have been your best and worst players this year? Melchiot has been the best, Gronkear the worst. 8) What style of play can we expect from you on Saturday? We will command midfield, defend well, but have next to no chances. 0-0 draw. 9) Which Rovers player are you most scared of? Friedel 10) Any memories from Blackburn v Birmingham games that stick in your mind? 0-4 followed by 4-0 last season was a game of two visits. The season before at Eawood when you kicked Dugarry etc all over the place. A dirty game which we should have won. 11) Where do you think both teams will finish at the end of the season? Blues - Bottom half (11th), Blackburn - 15th to relegated 12) And finally - last season the three games between Rovers and Birmingham brought 10 goals. Do you think we'll see the same kind of high scoring or do you think it'll be a bore draw? Bore draw most certainly Thankyou to Nigel for answering those The Predition As for the score I’m going for 2-1 to Rovers. Dickov to score in the first half, Birmingham to equalise just after half time. Then Stead to come on and score his first (of many) goal of the season! Come on Rovers!!

Yea but that isn't the problem is it? Everyone gets a little excited when the ball gets near the Rovers goal and stands up. Fair enough. But the people who this thread was originally started about weren't doing that. Half the time they weren't even watching the sodding football, more bothered about watching what the stewards and the police were doing than what was going on, on the pitch.