I think I agree with everything you say there Wags apart from maybe the ratings for Neill and Savage I thought were a little harsh. Friedel didn't really have anything to do other than pick the ball out of the net twice. At the back, we looked REALLY shaky. Now this has baffled me as when Hughes came in he made us really solid at the back and we have just lost this confidence totally. At the moment, I'd probably play Kishnishvili rather than Todd - he's having a mare of a time recently. Neill looks strong going forward, and Gray can at times but Michael seems the weaker defensively. Nelsen is trying his best to hold our defence together - surely he should be captain? He's certainly ugly enough. I thought Reid, other than making quite a few stray passes, looked pretty good once again and was perhaps our most influential midfielder today. His defensive part of the game has certainly improved leaps and bounds. Savage had one of his quieter games and was pretty average. Pedersen was not in the game at all and seemed to be drifting more central than he normally does, thus leaving Gray to cover the whole flank and being caught out on the break. Tugay was certainly very inventive, but he underhit quite a few passes in dangerous positions. Kuqi is crap. There is no other word. He tries hard, I want him to succeed so badly - but he's just not good enough. He wasn't winning much in the air which as far as I'm concerned must be one of the only things going for him. Bentley showed some sublime skill but still drifted in and out of the game as usual, and was often positioned too far wide to have an effect in our attacks. There was one situation however, in the second half, where he found himself on the left wing in his own half with nowhere to go. He showed some great skill to take it round about four players and get the ball up front. He certainly shows some great glimpses of promise. The subs - I thought Peter looked good. He is a lot more physically strong than he appears. He got stuck in and can use both feet well. Looks a good prospect. Emerton showed he has the skill but doesn't know when and where to use it. Reid is still the better option on the right. Pongolle I thought settled in well. He's only been at the club a few days, apparently he's got flu and he still managed a decent performance in a match that must have been very difficult to be introduced half-way through. He got stuck in (I didn't think he was this type of player) and I think when he's fully fit he will do the business. There was a couple of points made clear today: o We clearly miss Bellamy o We lack an out and out striker. Campbell and Horsfield showed today that despite their age (and in Geoff's case a perceived lack of ability) there is still a place in the modern game for an old fashioned English centre forward. I thought Hartson could have done this job for us (and yes I know he's not English) but we need a bit of bite up front o The Hawthorns support and match day experience showed-up Ewood's poor effort. From the supporters themselves, to the PA announcer - we are not on the same level as a club like WBA. I find that terribly sad. On the whole though - we had a bad day. It was coming. We had the best form in the league and we had players out - players that would have made a difference today. Hughes will pick the players up, sort their heads out, and gear the team up for three points against Everton.

I'll be there. And nobody has answered my question as to which pub everyone is meeting up in? Also, for anyone that is thinking of going and paying on the gate, they have a 'young adult option' for away games which usually isn't the case. Prices are: Adults: £25 Juniors/SCs: £10 Under 18s: £13

Just out of interest, which pub is everybody thinking of meeting up in? This is going to be my first away game this season so I plan to make it a good 'un.

Some people have far too much time on their hands

Is Mark Lawrensen a closet Rover I wonder? The NobEnder sat on his fat lazy arse last night on Match Of The Day on BBC as usual, alongside Alan 'Captain Scarlet' Hansen and Gary 'Ears' Lineker. I was ready for him to spout his usual @#/? about how Rovers were lucky, United had injury problems, the ref was on our side etc etc. To my, and surely everybody elses, amazement he went on a roll with complement after complement after complement for us. He said something along the lines of "Rovers are a classy outfit nowadays - strong upfront, a committed/pacy/adventurous midfield, a solid defence and a fabulous goalkeeper. Now I'm not saying that I don't agree with the guy.....it just felt so wrong. It felt like he was trying to say sorry for all those years of ignorance, neglection and then hatred. He well and truly came out of his closet. He's still a tosser though. Bugger off you Preston w*nker!

My bets going on Paul Jewell to be next Barcodes manager. And gets relegated with them.

Yeah because we all know how well Lawrensen does football previews! Besides, when exactly do you plan for us to play Nob End? No nay never I tell ya!

Good preview Col - and I've always admired Adrian as a presenter. He seems very down to Earth and like a football fan should be - I think we'd all rather sit down and listen to Adrian Chiles/Frank Skinner type pundits rather than Graeme Le Saux/Rodney Marsh/Mark Lawrensen etc spout their @#/?. It's the first away game I've been able to get to this season, and as I've never been to The Hawthorns before I'm looking forward to it. 1 - 0 to the Rovers. Pedersen with one of his tap-ins from 20 yards.

Rovers and Accy should get in there before Bstards and set up some 'joint club' season ticket scheme. Might detract ever so slightly from our away attendance but I doubt it. Could be a chance to offer some support to a local club that's becoing bigger than Bstards, but also put a few hundred extra on our gate.

Just a quick one - isn't the badge nearer the heart if it's in the centre of the shirt though? Not that I'm particularly bothered. I couldn't give two sh!ts, I just think home kit three looks better!

Mmmm. Sorry to disappoint you Tchocky but most supporters don't hate or dislike certain clubs because of the colour of shirts they wear. For example, I don't particularly dislike West Ham, Aston Villa or Northampton Town - but IhateBurnley. Besides, I like the idea of having an away shirt that is 'totally' opposite to our home one. I know that sounds daft but there are comparisons between our blue and white shirt and say, a navy shirt (which we had about three or four seasons ago). A red away shirt is in stark contrast to our home, and anyway red teams always perform better!

European Cup - PSV Eindhoven 1 - 0 Milan 01-11-2005 2 yellows 1 red English Premier - Man Utd 1 - 0 Chelsea 06-11-2005 7 yellows World Cup - Czech Republic 1 - 0 Norway 16-11-2005 4 yellows English Premier - Wigan 2 - 3 Arsenal 19-11-2005 6 yellows European Cup - Panathinaikos 1 - 2 Udinese 22-11-2005 4 yellows English Premier - Fulham 2 - 1 Bolton 27-11-2005 9 yellows English League Cup - Millwall 2 - 2 Birmingham 29-11-2005 6 yellows English Premier - Chelsea 3 - 2 Fulham 26-12-2005 4 yellows English Premier - Everton 1 - 3 Liverpool 28-12-2005 6 yellows 2 reds Now I'm not one to normally over-criticise a referee, or single one out to be particularly bad. I will now make an exception - Graham Poll is a useless tw@t. The above record speaks volumes about his inability to referee big games and the examples include: o Issuing seven yellows in a top-of-the-table, multi-milion-pound clash between Man Utd and Chelsea o Nine yellows in a Premier League clash between Fulham and Bolton o Four yellows in a London derby o SIX yellows and TWO reds (!) in a Liverpool derby To say this is from the English representative in the UEFA refereeing ranks, it is abysmal, and his performance last night exemplified this. Bring in video technology for handballs I say, or at least make the rule clearer. FIFA should decide either: o The ball hits your hand in the area - penalty. No ifs or buts. Penalty. o A penalty is only given for handball when the hand is used to DELIBRATELY stop an oppenent from getting into a goalscoring position. Video technology would assist the referee in these cases and would allow the viewing of different angles etc. I really think that in handball situations this would work. The referee thinks he's seen a handball so he blows his whistle if. He then asks to see a video replay of the incident where he either awards a penalty or a goal kick.

I like the look of that one. However, I'm intrigued to find out what colour the 'Lonsdale' logo will be in the middle if that away kit is chosen. I'd choose grey myelf to go with the side panels, but I've a feeling they would use blue of blacmk which would spoil it. I can definitely imagine Savage and Bellamy in that anyway. I've gone for home kit 3 and away kit 3.

I think the criticism of Gray is a bit harsh. He obviously was desperately unlucky to make that mistake when he did, but I thought his performance was more than acceptable. Friedel was a hero once again, as were the defence in general. Nelsen was the commanding Admiral he always is, and his right-hand man Zurab is so calm and composed - an excellent defender. Neill got caught out at times but can be forgiven as he seemed to instigate a lot of our attacks down the right. Reid gets better with every game, and can see him being a very important member of our squad in coming seasons. He's sort of an athletic Garry Flitcroft that can attack - very impressed with Reidy. Pedersen drifted in and out of the game. I feel The Ped is vastly over-rated by the media and needs to improve - but there's plenty of time for that. I think Savage had one of his quieter games, but made things tick in midfield as usual. Tugay had the proverbial game of two halfs. I thought he was excellent in the first half - spreading balls here, there every fecking where (McAteer was on Sky) - however in the second half he seemed to get knackered, misplaced passes and was at fault for the second goal. Bentley had one of his better games. At least he got more involved but I don't think he is the answer up front - he keeps drifting outwide and crossing it in with the result of nothing. Apparently we also had another striker up front by the name of Shefki Kuqi - but let's not go down that road again.

Where do we start with that bloody Shefki Kuqi? Now I know he had a 'dodgy' patch a couple of months ago when he was actually playing OK. I feel so fickle as I was one of the people who was singing his praises after the win at Boro. But christ the guy is shyte! Let's sign one striker at least and pull Gallagher back from Stoke. Urgent action is needed and quick! Kuqi does a lot of running and so is generally perceived to be a hard working striker. This just masks his totally inept and lacklustre performances though - has there ever been another player so physically big that does not put his weight around? I honestly thought Bellamy was going to start tonight. When I saw the lineup my heart sank. A terrible Shefki Kuqi alongside a terrible David Bentley. Alas, I looked across to the side to see who was on the bench. I nearly threw up. No Bellamy - not even another striker! Now I know we are short but why oh why did we have Mokoena on the bench at the expense of putting a young striker on? Derbyshire, Johnson, Garner, Mr fecking Blobby - I don't care as long as we make adequate provisions to put a striker on when we inevitably need a goal. We always were going to need to attack Utd tonight and the ability to score goals was vital! To Mark Hughes: I'm sure we all agree with pretty much everything you have done so far, and we trust you to the hilt. But please please please make some moves in the coming week. Even announce interest in a striker you have no intention of signing!!! Give the fans some hope that things are going to improve!!! All we need is one striker to make ALL the difference. Tell the trust fund to get their cheque book out because things are looking bleak at the moment and I'm sure the last thing we all want is another season of mid-table mediocrity. The maths say that if another striker costs £3m, we only have to finish six places higher to gain that back in prize money and that's just this season! If we finish sixth well that's at least six places higher than what we must have banked on finishing.

Yeah I agree we have to go out attacking tonight - maybe not right from the off though. I've got £2 on Bellamy to score first and Rovers to win 2-0. 275/1 seemed too good to resist.

The FA will find Graeme Souness offered an 'irregular' payment to the agent of a certain Lorenzo Amoruso in order to tempt the Italian ace to join the Rovers. They could even confiscate the player from the club and cancel his contract with immediate effect. Please God.

Just been on Coral and they are paying 100/1 for Rovers to win 1-0 and Pedersen to score first

Doubt it. I take it if you think The Ped will play up top, that Sergio Peter will play on the left tonight? I can't really see that happening with all that's at stake for us, but I wouldn't argue if Hughes did decide on that team.

If I remember rightly USA, our final against Spurs got the record viewing figures for a televised League Cup Final. Having said that, anyone would have tuned in to see our 'Brazilesque' team what with the likes of Stig Inge Bjornebye and Martin Taylor strutting their stuff!

Well you never know, probably not. He can't if he isn't given the chance. Let's remember Pedersen looked far from impressive in his first few games. Pedersen also came from a mickey-mouse league probably comparable to our reserve leagues. I'm still unsure about the overall Pedersen package - let's just leave it to Hughes eh?

I certainly havent stated that Walcott should walk into the England squad. I'm just saying if the lad is good enough - which he promises to be - then putting him in the England squad for a couple of friendlies will certainly do him no harm. Just look at Rooney!!!!!!!! Why feel pity if that is the case though? A 16 year old wonderkid(s) is definitely NOTHING to be ashamed of. No doubt you were cursing our luck when we put an 18 year old Duff in for the 'legendary' Jason Wilcox.

Well let's see.... About four years ago, Wayne Rooney was a lad on a youth contract earning let's say £300 a week. He's now playing every game for the biggest club in the world, he is arguably one of the best players in the England squad and I think I might be right in saying he's ony just turned 20. Wayne Rooney has achieved everything that a footballer can achieve at his age. Now don't confuse this with what he has 'won'. Obviously Rooney has won very little - though probably through no fault of his own. Alan Shearer has 'only' won a single Championship medal and I suppose for a legendary striker (possibly regarded as one of the best strikers of all time) he has achieved very little? Achievements come in all shapes and sizes. Some could say Dion Dublin made an astounding achievement coming back to football from a broken neck, and possibly even the great Matt Jansen has achieved a great deal by still playing Premiership football after a bad motorbike accident? Players often are judged solely on their medals. Alan Shearer for me is much more of a legend than Andy Cole - but one of their trophy cabinets in empty and the other's is rammed.

Not too sure how you make that presumption LeChuck. Surely we haven't seen enough of Sergio Peter to presume that he won't get as many goals as Pedersen? I just think if required, playing Peter on the wing and Pedersen up front, gives us a fresh look and seems more attractive than playing Kuqi up top to no avail. Obviously if we sign another striker then this theory should be ignored!

1. Can this be proven? Has the debt been 'totally' cleared? Aren't the Trust Fund constantly loaning us money, therefore we will always be in debt? 2. Ferguson was sold on at a loss, therefore it did not pay for Savage. 3. I believe Reid was going to be signed regardless. We must be saving some money for a rainy day. Even if it's a couple of million, no doubt the Rovers board/trust will make these funds available when/if we become seriously involved in a relegation dogfight?