Well I'm excited! We have all seen what Stead (last season), Reid (very briefly), Thompson (pre-injuries) and Jansen (fleeting glimpses post-Rome) can do at their best. All four have it in them to be top performers in the Premiership. With MGP and Nelsen having pushed past previous first team certainties to nail their names in the starting XI, the challenge and example is there for that quartet to do the same when fitness and opportunity comes along. Nelsen is a simply awesome addition.

Interview/profile of the big man in the LET. After the club had been sliding into an assemblage of bland mediocrities too scared, too pliant or simply head too far down under the parapet to cross Souey the bully, it is great to see that we are beginning to get characters at the club the fans can believe in again. We all knew what Savage would bring but Ryan Nelsen is a fantastic unexpected bonus to add to the blossoming of Pedersen. What we need now is for Messrs Reid, Stead, Jansen and Thompson to sieze their first team chances with as much steely determination, joy and success as MGP and Nelsen have done when their chances came along and we could already have a squad which can really achieve something in the remaining two and a half months of this season. It is an exciting time to be Rover, thanks in no part to the inspired signing and performances of the Kiwi.

14 April 1979: President Lulu is sworn into office in Uganda replacing Idi Amin UN Resolution 450 is passed telling the Israelis to get out of Lebanon Number 1 in Britain: Art Garfunkel Bright Eyes Number 1 in Canada: Gloria Gaynor I believe Number 1 in the USA: Doobie Brothers What fool believes? (rather appropriate) Roxy Music were headlining in the States and Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy was climbing the charts. Jim Callaghan was still Prime Minister but the election was imminent. Seems just like yesterday..... Deaths in 1979 included: Conrad Hilton (hotels and Paris' great grandpa) Nelson Rockefeller (former American Veep and inherited a bob or two) Joseph Mengelle (yes, that Joseph Mengelle) Jean Renoir (film great) Robertson Hare (All Gas and Gaters) Richard Beckinsale (Godber and Kate's dad) Mary Pickford (black and white films actress) John Wayne Sid Vicious Louis Mountbatten (blown up by the IRA) Gracie Fields (our Gracie) Joyce Grenfell (St Trinian's) Richard Rodgers (and Hammerstein) Burnley bragging rights over Rovers.

Well said Paul. Burnley have improved remarkably in the last nine months- at the end of the Ternent era they were heading for relegation this season but they have scrimped and borrowed a side which can play pretty football and defend. The comparison with leaking 5s, 6s and 7s under Ternent must make it feel like there is a renaissance at the Turf but the reality is the current dingles cannot be said to be an improvement over their 0-2, 5-0 predeccessors. This lot are thoroughly mid-table and will end the season mid-table without challenging for a play-off place unlike Ternent's team did twice. The gap between this Burnley outfit and any club capable of making it into the Coco Cola play-offs, let alone automatic promotion is significant. The squad is far too thin for a start and three of the best players are loanees of which perhaps only Oster will stay with them- and that because of disciplinary problems and the likelihood his erstwhile employers will need better players in the Prem next season. Akinbiyi is no way even approaching Premiership class- a buy to try to maintain Coca Cola survival in 05/6 if ever there was one! Even erstwhile dingle stars- Little, Chaplow and Blake- have disappeared into obscurity at their new abodes. Those were the players who gave the dingles hope of a Premiership future yet their current fates show that even the players they idolised and believed to be approaching international class were in reality well short of the standard needed to survive in the top league. Norwich, West Brom and Palace show that clubs which could produce results week in, week out against opposition like Burnley equally fail week in week out against opposition like Rovers even after spending close to £20m between them on new players to try to compete at a higher level. Over the two Cup games, Burnley brought the second meanest defence in their division to play against the second most toothless attack in the Premiership. Burnley were still so frightened of the Rovers they opted for a five man midfield just to make sure they wouldn't get tonked again. Even so in 180 minutes and with several players below par, the Rovers scored twice and conjured up at least another four goal scoring opportunities. At the other end, Burnley scarcely mustered anything except a spectacular Fashinu-look alike strike by Hyde. Dingle pride maybe more intact today than it was on 2 April 2001 but the reality is that a yawning chasm has opened between the two clubs in the intervening period. Burnley holding their heads high for a toothless performance which never caused the Rovers a serious moment of alarm for their FA Cup future shows how low expectations at that end of the M65 have dropped. The dingles are clutching at straws but so too is the English game, so vast is the gulf in resources and performance between the Premiership and the rest.

Fare comments from Coterril Just a shame Rovers had several players under par or having stinkers in the two games this time round unlike both games in 2000/1 when everybody was on fire. On the Radio feed I had, the Rovers crowd outsung the Burnley mob for most of the game- I don't know where the mikes were positioned although the reaction for all three goals sounded equally close.

Apparently Bothroyd went straight to hospital yesterday evening. At least now we know that Matty is injured so there is hope that we will still see him back.

A very fair report by the Mirror

The dingles trying to look on the bright side. They say they are getting closer to us... has the map shrunk? This Telegraph report rather rubs the dingles noses in last night's defeat.

Yes sam, I have woken up with a happy grin this morning even though the BBC World Service have just said that Henrik Pedersen scored our winner. There must be a great feel-good factor in Blackburn today.

Radio Rovers stated that Jansen is out injured at the moment when someone asked why he wasn't being selected ahead of our other non-performing forwards. In the post match interview, Hughes said Bothroyd's injury looked a bad one.

Cannot see us getting anything from this one. Everton were very good at Villa and will create chances even though our defence is looking good. I rather fear that Savage will be out injured and the midfield will be overwhelmed. Everton to win 2-0.

Rovers defending for the Burnley goal was poor but MGP's winner was a stunner. Nelsen was immense! Well done dingles- first goal against Rovers in how many years?

Well as the counter records the quarter century or so since we last lost to Burnley in the League, it is not in any danger this evening!

Plenty of press coverage this morning. In addition to The Sun reporting that Steve Cotteril got bleeped on 5 Live for saying on air what he would say to opposition fans, we have: Fortress Ewood in The Guardian The Independent on Burnley woes More about swimming baths, Dubai and security preparations in The Times

Ah well, longsider, your pretence that Burnley would win promotion in 2006/7 folded as soon as anyone questioned your reasoning. But at least we agreed that 22+3=25. Let the best team win tonight.

Come on Modes98, let us in on the secret- what are the two ways we can access the game over the internet? Would the stream be good enough to put up on a screen in a bar?

That's correct, 22 outfield players. Unlike dingles supporters, (and Man U and Arsenal), Jose doesn't forget that he needs three of the best keepers in the world to complete his squad of 25. Don't worry, I'm not going to humiliate you. You haven't answered my other questions.

thats how long I think it will take our manager to get the squad together and ready I could be wrong of course - maybe we will do it next season Which are the promising youngsters coming through from your academy or reserves who will be ready by 2007? Given you've just flushed £600k down the loo on panicbiyi (who is scarcely good enough for the division you are in), how large will your transfer budget be this summer and next? Obviously Chaplow and Blake were good enough to go straight onto the substitutes bench of injury-hit lowly Prem sides, do you have any other players as good as their standard? Any plans to increase the first team squad beyong 16 players? (Most Premiership clubs struggle if they have less than 25 Premiership-quality players.)

2006/7- why?

Good grief, not while there`s a hole in my arse. prepare for your colon getting seriously backed up then When?

Well done Kamy! Obviously the club had been taking the advice of scotty's football consultancy services when they hired the lass who gave you grief!

Has Kamy managed to get his tickets?

I doubt if the ticket office staff have anything to do with it. I went down yesterday to buy 4 additional tickets so that some of my family could go to the game. I have done exactly the same thing earlier this season for the Liverpool and Middlesborough game. The lady who served me said I am sorry sir you do not have a buying history for purchasing these amounts of tickets so cannot sell them to you, told her that she must be mistaken because I have bought 4 tickets to the Liverpool and Boro game. However she just kept saying nope you haven't and basically accused me of being a liar and her general; attitude towards me "stunk". Anyway I didn't see any point in getting into an argument with her so just left. Because of her incompetance Rovers have alienated a season ticket holder and also lost out on the opportunity of attracting some "armchair" fans to Ewood on a more regular basis. I don't know what is going on at Ewood but these types of incidents are just not on, especially at a time when the club should be doing all it can to get people to come to Ewood. I am still very angry about all of this and shall be writing to John Williams and I will recommed a consultant so that he can send "some" of the ticket office staff on Customer Service training. Kamy, that is terrible. Surely there's got to be a way that we can vouch for you so you can get the extra tickets?

Are we going to sell out our remaining tickets today?

By way of a light diversion, here is the erudite, insightful, mathematical genius that was the conclusion of the clarets.net preview for the PNE v dingles game yesterday: "We are at that stage of the season where one defeat could mean the difference between play-offs and a relegation struggle come the end of the season. While we have two games in hand to most other teams, these games have to result in six points if we are to push for the play-offs. Defeat could set off a run of similar results, and while the 6th place is 8 points away, relegation is 14 - and you never know what can happen in football. "A win today will bring us closer to Preston, currently occupying the final play-off position. A win for Preston, and they will be even further infront of us - and making that gap a little wider. "So, as you can see, Preston v Burnley is THE derby game that we need to concentrate on. Every league game is important if we are to make the play-offs. With Ade and Ian upfront, our only remaining problem - that of not being able to find the net enough - may be solved. So long as everyone else keeps doing their job, then play-offs aren't that distant. But we have to start winning from today!" That gap is a little wider- like three points wider.