Play in a relegation threatened team and a promotion team and you still come off the feild after 90 mins feeling knackered. Difficult to describe but one team plays leaden footed whilst the others play on their toes. The difference is half a yard slower all over the pitch. It does happen to most teams except the ones with huge squads of good players who are all competing amongst themselves for places. Maybe a good way to describe Boro this season (and also our own experience of the last two months... and 40 years come to think about it ) . Plenty of good players but Maclaren is not able to motivate them for every game. When they play against top teams they are self motivated by the challenge and end up beating the likes of Arsenal, MU and Chelsea.

Never mind Burnley! ............Are we Charlton in disguise?

Yes it was! Against 10 men our players did not put enough effort in OFF THE BALL! poor options is why there was so much bad passing.... its difficult to pass to a player who is closely marked. Teams only flounder against 10 men cos they relax and assume that the other team will capitulate. Everton worked like blacks and got the result they deserved. We do not appear to have a proper captain on the field driving the team on!

Out fought, out thought, out scored, out battled, out played. It could easily have been 3-0 or 4-0 against those 10 men! Macfadyan missed an absolute sitter and they had the ball in our net anothr 3 times! Congrats must be due to Moyes and Everton but they would have been beaten against most teams with 10 men for 80 mins. Our players need their arses kicking big time if this season is to be kept open. Out of 2 cups, little chance of finishing in a European place I've a feeling our lot think the season was over after doing the double over Man Utd. The drubbing of West Brom by Fulham validates this. If this carries on just think of the crowds come April!

I'm not saying he planned it over so many years BUT just how much has he received from two clubs in 18 months compared to his basic salary if he had kept BRFC successful? His reward for failure has far outweighed any reward that he would have got for success. My key comment was about spotting the writing on the wall. Correct me if you disagree eddie but GS appears to me to have been far more intent on planning his exit strategy to his maximum benefit than making the Mags successful. btw eddie. Have you seen 'The great Rock and Roll Swindle'?

Now that McLeish is soon to be history whats the odds on Souness returning triumphantly to Rangers after shamelessly milking the Prem for all it's worth?

sigh......patient mode on.... That smiley thingy looking skywards signifies that it was a joke Stu! Did you not get it?

Just thinking further but will Hughes want to replace a 'Tugay'? Tugay is an enigma. He is a creative playmaking midfielder of real quality but one that does not score many goals. imo Hughes in a perfect world may want a more attacking midfield playmaker and look to Sav and Reid to play deep.

Course there is..........put the various benefits offices into the concourse and only open em on match days!

No need for extreme measures like that Aggy........they'd just award our last game of the season to Mark Halsey!

that is really imp for ANY position in football now DM.

I think Simon would be amazed at anybody suggesting that he had much pace Rev! Also Shearer was quick but was hardly Billy Whizz even before his first injury. Fastest player that I can recall before Bellamy although whether you class him as a striker or not was George (the train) Donis.

Suggestions please anybody.

How about a 'spitting image' series solely dedicated to Prem footy!? That would sort out the 'rat faced whingers' in every team from the 'proper men'.

He made himself look a much bigger turd when he tried that particular stunt!

Personally I'm not expecting too much from Pongole. Sure I will give him every chance to prove me wrong but dont forget this guy is a Stead-like stop gap. Nowhere near the top of Hughes wish list but just about the only person of any quality that we could get before the deadline snapped shut. He came because Jansen had gone nad Dickov and Bellamy appear long term casualty's. He could prove me (and the management team) wrong of course but I expect him to leave come May.

Have you written to the FA about that? Maybe the publically burned fingers of the FA and FFS will lead to a little more sanity in future. Nobody repeat NOBODY is irreplaceable in this world.

Thanks Macky thats more than enough to convince me not to buy it! What a plonker!

Never mind the awful clearance from Gray cos Tugays powder puff challenge on Greening was embarrassing. Great player that Tugay is undisputed when he is given time on the ball to play BUT if the opposition get at him fast and physical then he may as well be subbed even if there is only 15 mins on the clock. He is still well worth a new contract but not as a player for all occasions.

Question for you FLB.......Why employ somebody who has been working for you for years?

Eh? Why? Redundancy is one thing but surely most dismissals should attract no reward whatsoever. Or else like the Souness saga they actually turn into a scam. As for the Souness scam........Are the Mags really that bad? Or was GS apparently displaying 'characteristic' stubborness in playing Boumsong and Bramble whilst all the while really engineeering his own lucrative exit? Are all those players really injured enough not to play some part or did he decide they were not quite recovered from injury? Once the writing was well and truly on the wall he appeared to put Shepherd over a barrell by seemingly playing a team designed to lose. Anybody see 'The great rock and roll swindle'?

The old RFW needs to take his own advice to Sparky doesn't he? He should take a chill pill and stop contesting referees decisions. I honesltly cant think of a better argument for abolishing this country's stupid honours system.

Now we've done damned well and exceeded all expectations since November but I do sometimes think that the meaness in conceding goals that we displayed last season had plenty going for it in certain circumstances. I dont want to be labelled a 'tinkerman' but at the start of the season I suggested 4-5-1 with the Axe instead of Tugay as an away option changing to 4-4-2 simply by swopping those two and bringing on another striker should the situation require it. The amount of goals against in the last few games does add some weight to using these tactics.

QUOTE(DudeAbides @ Jan 31 2006, 19:48 ) Gotta laff at the Brummies signing Dj campbell !!!!!! How desparate is that ???? Quote thenodrog... Dunno about that. I was very impressed with his pace, balance and finishing skills. Of course I only saw highlights but he certainly took his chances well. 380325[/snapback] 1st and only time I saw him I thought he looked good last week for Brentford in the FA cup and on tele last night he looked very dangerous against the Arse too. His style reminds me a bit of a Mark Stein / Rod Wallace. MoTD pundits thought he looked good too. Time will of course tell but it looks at the moment like Bruce might have pulled off a good bit of business there.

Crikey he gets blamed for just about everything these days. Sure we played crap football for 2 years but so did the mags and St James park still sells out doesn't it? I will only blame GS if I find out that he has a controlling interest in Sky / Canal+ etc, or that he has secretely become licensee at the likes of Hordens, Knowles, Woodlands etc etc. Many 18-30's seem to prefer their football viewed through the bottom of a glass these days. Apart from that Blackburn is too small a town, has a large percentage of it's population that simply have no affinity with the football team and has too small a hinterland to put 25000 bums on seats every fortnight unless we are in the top 2. That bits simple but the solution is much more difficult ihd.