Good luck pg, I hope you pull through. I'm currently in fourth after taking 10 points from 15 (I only took eight in the first half of the season!) which has seen me pull clear of the relegation battle. Will probably finish 5th but my team should be good enough to beat any IV sides coming up, especially at home.

The Rovers World commentator was talking about how he hasn't done too great, but then mentioned that he might just be taking time to adapt, like Emerton last season. Second Season Syndrome is usually applied to guys like Stead who have a blinding first season and then struggle. I reckon in a lot of cases it works the other way, lots of foreigners like Emerton and Angel struggled originally before improving. As for this nonsense about not wanting a cup run. I don't know what to say! I will feel extremely dissapointed if we lose to Cardiff on saturday, a good cup run will provide excitement and is a distraction from the mundane life of the Prem. I'm not saying Hughes should put out the entire first team (some of them may need a break) but I do hope he puts out a strong side consisting mainly of first teamers with a few fringe players at the very least. A cup defeat can be very demoralising and must be avoided.

Is Brad the only goalkeeper to score a goal in Blackburn's history? Sadly any mention of the goal against Charlton must include Cluas Jensen getting the winner thirty seconds later. Quite possibly the quickest amount of time I've come from complete delirium to utterly devestated.

You should do. The passing skill will increase his value quite a bit I'd think. Make sure you train young players as they improve faster and get a coach who's got decent coaching skill (passable+).

Maybe a little high sam, you could probably have got an excellent for not much more.

It looks to me like Gallagher's offside when Reid(?) shoots thereby giving him an advantage as he's ahead of the defence and can reach the ball before the Everton players when the keeper spills it.

Here's the view of an American I asked on www.hattrick.org (top quality online management game btw):

Hmm a month is a long time. If Cardiff pick up some form and the crowd get behind them we could be in a spot of bother.

When was that then? Most times he's played in central defence actually. Playing people in their proper positions helps a lot.

Nope, the ground may have been refurbished but the catering was shocking. As for the game itself most things have been covered. Fulham were pretty dire and we were pretty good, the two were connected but Rovers must take credit for the performance. I thought if Boa Morte had played Fulham might have a bit more of an attacking threat down the wings. Nisse must take a lot of credit for his performance at left back. Remember this was the player who lost all confidence when Souness played him there out of position last season, however the run at centre back has obviously given him confidence to perform this role as well. He got forward and looked solid. Emerton was also outstanding yesterday, never stopped running and Tugay was at his best. I was in favour of starting Thommo in place of Tugay but our number 8 came up with the goods yesterday. One thing that did dissapoint me was Gally playing wide a lot, meaning we only had Dickov in the centre and a lot Gally's crosses were poor. I'm not sure whether this was intentional or not, it certainly gave Reid a bit more freedom to come inside and rough up the Fulham central midfielders. Btw Cole got polite applause and no boos from the Rovers fans, which was the right response in my view. However to me it seems that most of the media attention from last week is focussed on Yorke rather than Rovers, it seems they've appreciated that it was a very small minority. Edit: Really good to see some attacking width and verve with Emerton today. I thought sometimes we were great at keeping possesion but couldn't find the killer ball to set someone free and shoot or people got into good shooting positions and passed.

I think a few people need to calm down and take Jim's comments in a bit more of a light hearted way as well. Forrest ahead by one vote at the moment, great stuff. As far as I'm concerned there should only be a run off if the two players are equal, and then only between the two. If one of them wins, even by just one vote, he should get in. A revote in that case would just lead to allegations of wanting the player that just lost out in the team.

The only thing it's as bad as is people throwing the toys out the pram every time someone mentions they're voting for Sherwood. I'm surprised Blue_Phil hasn't popped up to compare Jim and Al to pinko liberal enforcing PC behaviour on normal folk. It's a vote of public opinion and there's 9 pages of thread and links on the first page about the players. If people still think Sherwood's the best, then they're entitled to vote for him. Now shouldn't we go get those nasty third party Latheron voters who are stopping 'ickle Jimmy from winning? I voted for Forrest by the way.

Very harsh on Stig, he certainly did a decent job:( Leaving aside cuidado's bias and your agitation I do think it's a little odd that neither MGP or De Pedro have appeared much under Hughes. Pedersen has had a little time to settle now so might improve (he's obviously not complete rubbish as he performs for Norway) and you'd think Hughes would at least want a look at De Pedro.

Lost 3-0 at the weekend, PICing and CAing at home in preparation for bigger games to come. Slightly harsh result as he has no wing attack to speak of but this season hasn't been good so far. Might have been a mistake to CA him as I could have got close to his midfield on normal. Tbh American Wu-Tang Clan look a lot better than you so it'll be tough to beat them whatever happens and away from home I'd expect you to lose midfield. You are currently training strikers aren't you? This doesn't really lend itself too well to CA or pressing. However your defence is pretty good so it might be an idea to try a 4-4-2 CA/Pressing with three IMs and the winger positioned to attack the side he doesn't have a full back on. If you really aren't confident (and away from home will be a tough ask) it might be best to PIC, you're coaches' leadership is pretty good so it's probably worth doing it if you think this is the way to go. I guess whether to CA or press depends on the skills of your players. Do your players have good passing for CA (one option to consider is playing an IM with good passing and defending as an offensive centre back).

I can only echo what's been said on here about Tony Parkes' service to Rovers. Thanks for your time as a player and on the staff. I can only remember you in the latter role but am appreciate the fantastic jobs you did as caretaker manager. As for the dismissal itself. We all need to move on and it's difficult for any of us to know how effective TP was from day to day at Brockhall. The manner of the dismissal stinks though.

Atm I don't think I'd vote for Sherwood or Atkins. Atkins was a loyal servant but great? The reason I don't think I'll vote for Sherwood is similar to why I didn't vote for Le Saux; the way he left the club and stirred things. At the moment I think Forrest must take my vote. Rovers were the best team in the country in the 1880s. I believe he was one of the first professionals, at a time when everyone was amateur. He had a "day job" working somewhere else but Rovers were paying him money to play for him. He seems to be the most well known player from that time and that can't be for nothing. Many are talking about how greats from the 60s are being excluded by ignorant youngsters like me. What about the greats from the 19th Century? If someone's willing to have a look in the history section (I will tomorrow but it's late now and I need sleep) there's probably loads of info in there. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise though... May I suggest that the topic and vote is open a for a decent length of time rather than the three days or so we had for the second centre-back slot. There's loads to discuss here.

Thanks Grizfoot. I won 3-0 so am four points clear of the drop zone now. Tbh my opponent played CA with three at the back and only a solid CA rating, it would probably have been 50:50 if he hadn't done that.

Not a good season so far. Out of the cup at R4 which won't please the fans and 2 points from 9. Big game today away to the bottom team.

Not sure about David Dunn in the shortlist. There seem to be a lot of pre-90s midfielders who sound like they contributed more than he did.

Don't usually comment on games after only watching the highlights but a couple of things to add. For the first goal Neill looked like he was playing Riise onside, everyone else moved up. Nice to hear that Nisse's doing well, hopefully Hughes will give him a chance. And finally admin need to adjust to daylight saving time, the MB clock says it's 10:50 not 9:50.

Ok I'm going to make the case for Garry Flitcroft. Flitcroft is currently the longest serving player in the squad having been signed on 26/03/1996 from Manchester City for £3.5M. This means he's been around for eight years, which is pretty extraordinary by today's standards. During this time he's made nearly 250 appearences. Flitcroft isn't the most skilful of midfielders, but then again a lot of the leading runners weren't either. What Flitcroft has provided is agression and fighting spirit (sometimes a little too much of the latter). For much of these years Flitcroft has been our captain and he was influential in promotion from division 1 and our first few years back in the Premiership, even getting a few vital goals such as the winner against ManU in 2002. Greatest midfielder ever? Probably not, but worthy of inclusion in the shortlist I feel. As to my feelings about the overall poll. Well Clayton's got my vote for the first position. For the second I'm undecided between Atkins and Latherton. Sherwood leaves a bad taste in the mouth, a little like Le Saux and for me a great player has to do more than just performing on the pitch. Batty never really played enough games in the title-winning season, unlike Atkins.

Didn't Ken Clayton get a nasty injury of some sort? I seem to remember reading that that was the reason he faded somewhat.

That's my little cousin I think.

Hattrick's currently down until 16:00 HT time so you'll have to wait American.

But Ferguson hasn't achieved anything with Blackburn of note. As there's so much quality he probably wouldn't make the final 15. One player who should be considered for the shortlist (although he's not really in the best ever category) is Flitcroft. He's been around for a long time and before the last few seasons was pretty consistent in midfield.