I'm playing footy in Halifax so will get home for around 7:30. I was planning on going into Blackburn but will not have time. So it will be The Park in Gt Harwood for me.

A bit of a mix for me, been listening to a lot of the Stone Roses and a couple of unknown bands, Geist and a obscure scandinavian band called Juniper Greene. The more mainstream music on my stereo at the moment are keane and O by Damien Rice which is a fantastic album.

I have to say that 3-0 was a mugging. And of course we can always rely on scousers for that. The commentary for the match was absolutely hilarious. Robson showing his senility grabbing any opportunity to talk about Kieron Dyer. "Well Dyer would have passed the ball to the left..." "you know if Dyer was on the pitch, he'd have run at the defenders instead of..." "...he reminds me of the way Dyer plays..." That made up the entertainment for all those times we simply lost possession. Make no mistake, if we lose possession so cheaply like we did against the swiss, we will get punished by other teams and even lady luck will decide to go home. Yeah i noticed that as well, kept us entertianed in the pub

Just for you Tom... Did i ever tell you how much i love you lee? Well i won't believe it until it's on tribalfootball Good news, finally we get a proper left sided player.

Fair point Morph - I wasn't directing the whole of the county remark at you but the people you hear on talksport etc who just repeat what the papers say!!! It just annoys me when Scholes is suddenly not good enough because he hasn't scored a goal for a while, there is so much more to his game which is over looked but i agree he needs to improve his goal scoring. Anyway i'm off to put £20 on Scholes to score first against the Swiss tomorrow, and if he doesn't i'll be straight on the phone to talksport..........

He's so threatening he hasn't scored a goal at international level in well over two years now. That's the funny thing about being a "threatening" player, sometimes you actually have to back those threats up with action... This hype about Paul Scholes not scoring a goal for years makes me laugh. The papers run a couple of stories about Scholes not scoring and should be dropped and the whole country suddenly decides Scholes is rubbish as he hasn't scored a goal. It reminds me a bit of when Shearer hadn't scored the papers all said he should be dropped and the next thing Shearer was our 5th choice striker in all the polls - just goes to show what the public know about football!! Against Turkey and France he was always available for his team mates to pass to and kept possession better than any other English player on the pitch. The passing and movement from Scholes when he set up Owen in the first half was class. I'm not saying their isn't a case against Scholes being dropped, he even admitted as much himself, just that people need to see how much he offers to the team even when he's not scoring.

I hope that is a joke. I doubt it, you see, Souness said David James was a great keeper, and Souey and Rev, well I think they'd manage to disagree if one of them said water was wet. No, it's not a joke - I wouldn't have said it otherwise would I? He's capable of pulling off great saves but just isn't reliable. If Souness thinks he's a "great" keeper we'll have to beg to differ on that. Friedel (Souness signing) has turned into a great keeper. So James is the only person to blame? Not Beckham for missing a Pen, not Heskey for giving away a foul on the edge of the box, not Gerard for his poor backpass?????? I'm not David James biggest fan, but he had a pretty good game last night.

I hope that is a joke.

I'm as gutted as anyone, but if we had won it would have been a fantastic performance, we lose and everything was wrong with our performance. OK so France played some fantastic football, they can do that all day for me in the middle of the park. As for the free kick I don't blame Heskey. He is not good enough but that is not his fault, it is Sven's for picking him. Hargreaves was poor, he always turned his man then instead of giving the ball or running past him he tried to beat him again and lost the ball. Scholes IMO played well tonight. He was always available to get the ball and kept possession well. We aren't going to win the competition playing French / Brazil type football, we have to play to our strengths. It's about winning not how you win. (And I realise how stupid that sounds seeing as we have just lost ) As Gary Neville said, it's better to lose like that now than in the knockout stages.

Its a funny old game isn't it, i used to live near Glasgow so know lots of gers and hoops fans, most of them roll over laughing whenever anyone ever mentions him, its a funny old game init. Bloody hell, what are you a Gypsy????

OK, so a few good points have been raised by Mr Ptholt. But what annoys me is the blinkered attitude of these negative posters. OK we signed Dickov. OK not the best signing that will be made this season but it is far from the worst, especially for the money. You say Souness is only signing players who are 30+, you forget to mention Stead and Emerton (I could go on) the fact we have made a bid for MGP who is only just in his 20's and as Kennys magic hat says hardly anyone has made any signings yet, so there is time. Matteo is in his 30's but who knows what Souness has in mind, he may think signing a younger centre back for 3 times the money is a waste as one or two of the youth players will be pushing through so he buys a cheaper older player in Matteo to bridge the gap. We have had one bad season, we have 2 of our best players coming back from injury and Souness has finally opened his eyes to the fact we lack a very good centre back and more importantly a Left Winger. What we don't want is Souness rushing to buy a load of 20 year olds and wasting what limited funds available and I think Souness is too shrewd an operator to do that.

BlueSq Well blueSq don't seem to hold out much hope. They will refund bets if England win Euro 2004.

Talking about the signing of Dickov to my mate who is a Newcastle fan and he summed it up. If you were a defender you'd hate playing against him.

Good signing for the money. Ok he is no Henry or Shearer, but they cost small fortunes because they are few and far between. As for signing someone like Ashton form Crewe, yes he is a very good player but IMO you can not play Stead and Gally upfront game after game. They are both still learning and need someone to take the pressure off them, which i think Dickov will do, where as Ashton would take time to adapt, as would other younger less experienced players. As as been said he is not a replacment for Cole but will be a welcome addition to the squad.

Come now, bob. For the last time, it's DamiEn. You know, like AndREsen. And GallaGher. You're a disgrace. I'm Glad you weren't my English teacher at School

At least we know why you are called parasyte now! Perhaps add very ignorant and brainless to that one. Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world followed by Spanish, then English. So we should all go and learn Mandarin and Spanish. Why should we 'expect' everyone to speak English, learning a bit of the local lingo goes a long way to being accepted by the locals. It didn't do Del Boy any harm knowing a bit of French

They've been saying this on 5 live all day as well . I reckon Smith will wait and see what happens at Anfield re Mr O'Neill before he makes his decision . Unless he's already made his mind up to join the Scum - (in which case I owe Morph an apology.. ) IMO Everton know Smith will not sign for then so have bid to keep the fans happy. As has been said before it looks to me like the club are trying to boost season ticket sales.

Would you really stay at Rovers if you were a top class mid twenty year old player if they were plummeting into relegation? The whole squad is being ripped apart to cover debts, the fans are miserable, the management is on a never ending carousel of changes and pay offs. It is his career as well you know, loyalty is a fine thing but he wants to make the most of it. The clubs have as little loyalty to the players as the other way round- the right bid comes in and they would look to sell him, even force him out if at all possible. A bad run of games and all the fans would hate him, jump on his back, call for him to be dropped, insult him in the media. Where would he be then? A dried up journeyman with the sole consolation of knowing he stuck by his clubs side.... is that enough? To turn the tables where is our loyalty for Matt Jansen, eh? Most of us are hardly calling for him to be reintroduced because we do not feel he would be good enough. Sentiment is a very small part of it, we want results. We are only as loyal to him as far as he is useful to the cause, if you see what I mean- we have Stead now. He is the new golden boy, so if Matty was harbouring a deep burning passion for Rovers he might well find his heart broke. The club may well just leave him behind. Natural arrogance and self serving nature is not in any way linked with being a footballer. The reason that most footballers act in their own interests is because that is the way the game works- 99% of the people on this planet would act the same way- there is nothing to suggest they would not. It is a sad state of affairs, that I admit, but it is pointless getting on a high horse about it when we are little different. It would be nice if it was a little more romantic, but that would come at the expense of the competition and quality that makes football what it is. If Rovers were made up of only players who cared passionately about the teams they played for then we would be effectively playing the fans. Would they of beat Man Utd on the first of May? Well said Joey_big_nose. Are we all having a go at Stead for being a money grabbing so and so. Leaving the club he supported as boy when they were on the brink of promotion to get paid loads of money in the Premiership. Shocking. Look at Simon Garner, he stuck with Rovers when he could have moved to a bigger club and as soon as we get promoted the club get rid of him, loyalty works both ways. Unfortunately it is lacking from the clubs just as much as the players. I agree about Defoe getting slated for saying he wanted to leave West Ham and Smith being classed as a hero even though he did a similar act was out of order, but I can understand Smith wanting to play in the PL and England. You only get one chance and you have to make the most of it.

Agree about the Munich songs but there were some Rovers 'Fans' singing it on Saturday...idiots I feel sorry for Smith and Leeds fans because they have gone through a lot this season, they support the club when the people at the top are just leading it into oblivion. Saying that i'd never say that to a Leeds fan, and as someone else said, rather them than us

I would rather pay to go to some home games and some away games, at least if we lose away you still get a good day out with a better atmosphere.

But you it would be know typical Rovers will get somthing from the Chelsea's and Arsenal's of this world and nothing from Pompy and Leeds. We've got the talent to stay up but have we got the desire???

Spot on. Although this WC has not attracted the masses who appear when the nation is gripped by the 'we're going to win it' hysteria, every two years. Absolute @#/? , both comments that is. I admitedly don't know much about rugby, and don't follow the domestic game, but does that all of a sudden mean I can't watch and support my country because it might be pecieved as jumping on the bandwagon. It's about supporting your country in a world event, maybe this point has flown over your heads. What you mean when women go to the pub just to see Beckham & Owen I watched a lot of the rugby at Blackburn Rugby club as a couple of mates play there and when I asked about aspects of the game i didn't understand they explained it to me without talking as if i was stupid. They didn't seem to have a problem with me watching England even though i don't really care about league games. You have to understand not everyone has your vast knowledge for the game, and therefore may look stupid stood next to you!!! I for one apologise for supporting my national team whatever the sport. However , if you point is against those people who make stupid comments just for attention and a reaction without any knowledge, like 99% of Man U fans i agree 100%!!!

My Webpage

http://smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/21/1069027327735.html Half way down - Don't mention the war

Nice post Aussieinuk, amy the best team win!!!