That was a pretty dumb post Mr K

15 points after 18 so we have avoided that bogey! The reason for the passion against Souey is the lover spurned syndrome. Yes Souness came to us when both the Rovers and him were in a trough and he massively over-achieved: promotion Worthy Cup two entries to the UEFA (cannot call them campaigns) 2-0 and 5-0 But he was also an egotistical bullying arrogant fool who has no time for modern tactics or fitness methods. At some point the Souness Dr Jekyll turned into Mr Hyde for all of us- two with perhaps closer knowledge of him (Jim 'n Jan) were against him from the start- but for the rest of us we turned from being passionate supporters to passionate detractors at some point realising the negatives were now hugely outweighing any residual positives. For those who stayed loyal to the end came the final kick in the pants when he took Fat Freddie's wodge to join a "massive" club despite being at best fifth chojce in the most amateurly conducted Premiership management recruitment witnessed for some seasons. Fat Freddie the Wrexham kicker, and Souness the Yorke kicker deserve each other. Souness joins Gordon Lee, Dick Dinnis, Shearer and Dalglish in the list of those who won honours at the Rovers but not at Newcastle.

The advert outside the bar gave our game and the Mancs game- another game was being shown (the arab channels always carry a different game from Channel+) and I had assumed that was it. Header?!? Come on the ball was on the ground and Todd dived across Cahill's midriff to check him. He "bought" the card as they say because we were completely open if he hadn't stopped Cahill. That was certainly how the Sky commentators read it. You're talking about a different incident as Todd's arms were not being used for the body check. Not surprised there were only 17,000 Rovers fans- on TV, large areas of the Blackburn End looked empty

Just watched it right the way through in the Scots bar- interestingly, nobody was watching the Mancs being shown at trhe other end of the bar. So what do we take from this? - we more than matched Everton who were at full strength and played as well as they normally do and have won a lot more than 50% of their games thus far. - in the first half five midfield passes were given away setting up Everton attacks, in the second half those sloppy balls were no longer being given away. - Mike Halsey is not a Premier class ref despite being a likeable character: there were 15 seriously bad decisions which could have changed the result - Everton's free kick in the second half wasn't, Dickov's penalty was; other reffing bloopers were his failure to make several bookings and if Todd's rugby/american football full length diving body check on Cahill wasn't deserving of a red card.... - We had 13 set pieces in the Everton half, twelve were played so badly by the Rovers that they were complete and utter disgraces. - Neill, Reid, Ferguson looked class and Emerton is capable of ripping teams apart if only he can get rid of his Souness-induced fear of taking the opposition on. - Gallagher was carelessly off side for the original shot (fool) so cost himself the goal. All credit to Sparky- he came through the trial by Moyes very well indeed. The Rovers looked the part everywhere except upfront where a collective fear seemed to have siezed the team until the last five minutes. There were four great shooting chances in the first ten minutes and all of them were passed away- literally. Bothroyd still does not convince me and the day Emerton finds his crossing boots we will stick five past someone. However, I have changed my mind about signing priorities and a striker has gone on the letter to Father Christmas. Make no mistake- this was a good point earned, Everton are not about to self-destruct and we are steadily going in the right direction. More so than Norwich, Southampton and West Brom...

If as many posters have been asserting, the Rovers squad is not that much different from Everton's, this is going to be a massive test of Mark Hughes' skill, tactical awareness and man management. I still don't think we will get anything out of this game but I will be fascinated to read how it went. PS Is it being shown on any foreign channels- the web sites I usually use to check these things seem to be down at the moment. PPS Got my new keyboard so I can do , and . again!

Ronnie Clayton interviewed by Everton.

Blackburn Rovers wins draws Everton wins League 53 27 52 FA Cup 2 1 7 Other 0 0 2 Total 55 28 61 A bit of history shows we are shading it in the league- by one! Unfortunately the results at Ewood in the last 5 are: W L W L W - all pointing to a L on Saturday

Here are some answers from my Everton-supporting step son pieced together from our conversations: Why oh why are you a Toffee? "Blue was my favourite colour and when I came to England from the Soviet Union aged 9 I was desperate to see English football on the television. The first game I saw was Everton at Goodison and I thought they looked really smart." You were lucky they weren't showing Oldham: "No comment!" You must have been an oddity supporting Everton at Eton: "most of the boys didn't follow any football team so I was a bit different- in the end many of my friends started following Everton because of my influence." How is the nose bleed? "very nice thank you! This is how you must have felt back in the early '90s when Rovers emerged." Will it continue to the end of the season and automatic champions League qualification? "We'll be suffering altitude sickness never mind the loss of blood! A lot depends on avoiding injuries and suspensions but we have some good youngsters coming through who could probably rise to the occasion. I am very confident of European qualification as we are now nine points ahead of 7th place and there has to be a big doubt about the ability of any of the chasing clubs overtaking us for fourth; that is assuming Arsenal and United are good enough to go 2nd or 3rd! At least nobody is talking about us winning the Premiership!" We had an obnoxious Scottish manager who upset people and couldn't change- you have one who did the same but has created the tightest team spirit in British football: what is Moyes' secret? "Moyes is just brilliant. He is tough personally and all the players respect him for that but he is also very intelligent and extremely good at thinking a game through. Nobody has broken our 4-1-4-1 system yet and it is something the players know works and uses their strengths. I actually like Souness a lot- he is always good for a quote and he did a fantastic job for you because in 1999 you were going nowhere in Division 1. But there is no doubt that Moyes is on a different level from Souness in terms of tactics management and motivation." Which players should we be worried about when we play you? "All of them! Everton are flying!!!!And I cannot wait for next week, I have so much confidence in my team at the moment. Nigel martin is in the best for he has ever been in; our full backs are solid; Stubbs and especially Weir are outstanding and must be the best centre back pairing in the League; Gravesen and carsely stop anyone else from controlling the midfield no matter who they are playing against; Cahill Osman and Kilbane are a lot more creative than they are being given credit for whilst Bent is fantastic- you were mad to get rid of him! Don't forget big Duncan Ferguson- he has won us several points and is the most dangerous and intimidating substitute in the Premiership." What are your weaknesses? "We have no individual stars now Rooney has left us and the team works for each other so well that if one player is not having a good day he gets covered by the others and that is creating confidence right through the side. I used to think Pistone was weak but he doing well. Hibbert is vulnerable to pace and strength so if Emerton is on song we might have some problems there." What do you think of Rovers this season? "I really expected you to do well and be challenging for Europe. I think you were very unlucky with those early games against Southampton and United and you play some good football when I see you on television. Your defence is a bit of a joke at times and that has been the problem. I like Ferguson and Dikov and Tugay is so cool." Will we go down? "Don't think so." What will the score be? "Everton should win."

Don't sign them Sparky!!!! The board will be full of moaning Kiwis and South Afrians when they don't get a game

2+2=£600K? South Afrian link Mokoena is a bit of a worry as he has been through a lot of leagues in a short period- whereas Nelsen looks like he has the leadership desire and fight we need but it is an open question as to how he will handle the transitionto the EPL

But will the drummer get the beat? Glad we are strengthening in defence first and we are signing players who are not too old; on silly wages or sky high transfer fees Also hopefully the paperwork will be done early so they will be playing during January The interesting questions are who are the players Sparky is going to splash the transfer fund on? The noises are pointing towards the Welsh blond despite earlier doubts. I suspect we will see a new striker too. I am sticking with the guess that 6 players will go- And that the transfer spend will top £100 Millions in January in the Prem

Brad's post Souness reported words were not full of praise for Souey either

So after the Kiraly show its onto The Toffees from Goodison and the unlikeliest story of the season. my step son is a passionate Everton supporter but I had forgotten he would be in a difficult to reach part of Russia when I volunteered to pen this preview- his answers to my questions will be added when received! Immediately post-Rooney with all the board ructions at Everton this fixture looked like it was going to be another in a procession of easier games in the run up to Christmas after we had the most horrible opening set of games handed to us by the Premiership computer. Rovers v Everton is as the truism goes one of the oldest games in the fixture list: both were original members of the Football League and both (with villa) original members of the Premier League. Everton have the advantage over us in terms of all time results between the two sides and with nine championships and five FA cup wins shade it in terms of Honours won as well. However Everton are not the club we have played the most often in our league history- that honour was lost late in the 70s when our 26 years long exile from the top division meant that fellow travellers around the divisions Sheffield United assumed that position- Everton of course are enjoying the second longest unbroken run in the top division after Arsenal. For all the games we have played against the Toffees few in my lifetime have been memorable- there was a certain frissance to the games after they had signed Fred Pickering. Following relegation in '65/6 Rovers rarely drew top flight opposition in the cups but we did get away ties at Goodison on two occasions- loosing 0-3 and 0-2. In the Premiership we have traded wins with Everton with abandon, quite often one side getting results against the other against the form book- lets hope that continues on Saturday! First season back under Souness I recall a well organised Everton doing the double over us but we returned the complement the following season. The most recent result was a 1-0 away win to the Rovers when a wonderful Stead/ Cole move produced an emphatic headed winner for Stead. Going back in time there was a lovely game in the late 90s when the Rovers scored twice in the last ten minutes to steal a victory at Ewood and tthere was the glorious 3-0 win at Goodison over Easter '94 when we kept our title challenge alive against the odds with a Wilcox strike from 30 yards past a shocked Southall which was one of the better goals I have seen the Rovers score. Of course Colin Hendry's heroism at Goodison the following season defending a 1-0 lead is the stuff of legends and was in any ways the defining moment when I think all football realised that Rovers really were going to win the Premiership. So to this week's game. On paper it looks all over a 1-0 win for The Toffees- that's how they win their games in case you haven't noticed as for the third game running the visitors to Ewood are a team that neither concede nor score many goals. From the Rovers' perspective the combination of suspensions and injuries means that this is going to be the most interesting line-up Hughes will have selected since his first game in charge. Perhaps a certain Pedersen will get his opportunity after his season end break- all the "play Pedersen" posters are forgetting that the lad has finished a full season with the Norwegian season running through the summer unlike our Winter game. There is no doubt that Everton are one of the best organised sides around and can play pretty passing stuff if you let them- interestingly their pass completion statistics are not that much better than the Rovers'. It is their pressing and defending which are superb with Weir and Stubbs the most unlikely top performing pair of defenders in the league. The transformation of carsely (an Ewood hate figure) and Bent into star players must be a role model for Hughes and his staff when they survey the apparently limited talents available to them at Ewood. This should be a game with an unusual amount of atmosphere for an immediate pre-Christmas fixture: Everton have long sold out their 8000 allocation at the Darwen End and those of you who will be there might find chaps and chapesses with funny squeaky accents sitting near you. A 30000 capacity crowd might be achieved. With the relative positions of the clubs any points for the Rovers will be a bonus on Saturday- the Rovers front line is not clinical enough to give any confidence they will convert the very few opportunities that will come their way so I cannot see past a 1-0 for Everton unless Everton find their goal scoring boots.

This report says Kiraly was the key to the result being 0-0: it is in line with all the other reports I read in the press

I certainly remember Xavier producing soome fantastic performances for both Everton and Liverpool. As well as the odd 'mare Don't know if we have the personnel capable of playing to Hartson's strengths but I do think we will be well capable of discovering his ample weaknesses. Sutty is a different matter. I'd have Sutty back in a flash and sod his disciplinary and more colourful off-field reputation. He can still hack it up front and has more mobility and guile than Hartson, gives us a central defender option and I'm sure he could do the sort of midfield job Sparky did for us in the Cup Final.

With tricky games coming up, this is beginning to get into must win territory if we are to avod the dreaded bottom at Christmas slot. Comes down to who wants it most. Dowie has the added needle of haviing been passed over for the Rovers job. 2-2 draw.

I would have preferred 0-0. I totally agree with den that Andy Cole was the big missing factor on Saturday. The Evening Standard's take on the game. At first I thought they had got their geography horribly wrong but then realised the number of times Spuds have taken players from Yorkshire clubs.

What a magnificent set of ties. Not one all Prem game and Man U v Exeter and Yeading v Newcastle marvelous roy of the rovers stuff. Really pleased for Exeter after all their financial troubles. Thirteen Prem v Championship ties, eight with the Prem club playing away. There will be Premiership casualties and have to say that Rovers must be likely candidates for an early exit although not the most obvious. The Bluebirds are massively under performing and the Rovers probably do not have that edge in class needed to put an uppety lower division side in its place. A nervous replay at a chilly half empty Ewood is a quite likely outcome.

I think a bit of sense of proportion is needed here. Harrison and Langton were before my time (as were the days of Clayton and Douglas at their peak). I heard of them and good things were said but nothing to match the awed reverence towards Eckersley, Clayton and Douglas or Bob Crompton and Syd Puddefoot (for the 1928 Cup Final) from an earlier era. I can remember the pensioners talking about Forrest when I was a child in the early 60's and how that Johnny Forbes was a bit sharp. Yes Harrison and Langton were very good, I guess in the same way that Willcox was very good. My favourite memory of Jason was a Sheffield Wednesday defender literally left wondering where Handbag and the ball were (they were both behind him bearing downon the young Kevin Pressman) in a vital 1-0 wiin at Hillsborough in the Championship season. For all Willcox not looking like an athlete, he was a phenomenal product of the Rovers' youth system, very reliable t converting chances and a tremendous supplier of damaging passes and crosses. Suffice to say,had Willcox in his prime been playing left wing yesterday, we would have beaten Spurs. Waggy was utterly exceptional and it was a privilege to see him ply his trade at Ewood. I have never seen passes hit with so much back spin. A 40 yard driven trajectory into the space behind the full bcks and the ball would stop within a few yards of where it first landed. Both Brotherston and Sellers were huge favourites. Noel brought a touch of glamour to the grimmest period in Rovers' proud history. What fun it was waiting for his substitute appearances in the 1980 World Cup finals in Spain. So many marvelous moments- the goal against Luton at a frozen Ewood in front of the Match of the Day cameras and the destruction of Pompey when a 0-2 half time score turned into a 4-2 rout at Fratton. Scott Sellers was a man for whom the adjective silky was invented. My favourite memory was taking some Swedes and Dutch friends to Ewood Park and them being left stunned that such a player could be operating in the English second division. Which brings us to Duffer who undoubtedly had the beating of all of them. My only reservations are that he was with us for so little time and that Blackburn Rovers' all time greatest left winger is only the second best left winger in the current Chelsea squad.

The good news- the bottom three all lost so we are still one point above the relegation places. Lucas Neill looks to be getting back to his best and Friedel was solid. The bad news- there is no other good news. Before I went out to watch the game, I looked at the two line-ups and was very apprehensive. That Rovers line-up including subs cost a little over £20m and the Spurs line-up including subs cost in excess of £60m. With a decent Manager, the more expensive players will on average win out and that is what happened this afternoon. About ten minutes from the end, the camera focussed on Mark Hughes and the look of exasperation showed he knew there was nothing more he could do with the players available to him. A few bubbles of hope got popped tonight. Bothroyd was abysmal. When Tugay was replaced by Thompson all the rhythm went out of the side- I fear my memories of Thompson's inability to pass at Premiership quality came back to haunt me. First half Gallagher was way below Prem quality. Dickov faded from the moment he got booked- until then he was doing a first class job as a pest. Whatever NEJ is, he is not an overlapping full back. Sorry guys, Todd played to the top of his ability today but he is not good enough. The first half apology of a volley and him and Tugay's non-tackling of Brown for their goal.... Well, another huge game next week. I rather suspect Rovers and Palace will be battling it out for 17th/18th at the season end. At least we will have the more expensive squad at Palace.

Been reading the previews for the Spuds v Liverpool Carling Quarter Final tonight. Looks like Jol sees this as Spuds big chance for silverware this year and is fielding a full strength side. Liverpool on the other hand see the Carling as relatively low priority but with European and Premiership campaigns faltering, perhaps Benitez would be glad of winning something. Certainly there are a couple of less familiar names in his squad but he won't be putting out an all star Reserves Arsenal style as all his first team are listed as well. Here's hoping Liverpool make a real fight of it tonight. The last thing we want is Spuds rolling up to Ewood buoyed by handing out a drubbing to an under-motivated Liverpool. I am pretty indifferent about the winner tonight (would prefer Liverpool) but will be delighted to see an attritional, bad tempered, kick anything that moves, mistake-ridden game officiated by a card happy ref settled 21-20 on penalties after extra time. Nothing better than hanging around in the centre circle for 50 minutes in wet sweaty football strip late on a nasty London December evening for messing up the muscles and bronchial passages. Unfortunately, it looks like Liverpool will be fielding a weakened side.

The Drog displaying self-knowledge of the highest order. Whilst certain individuls are whipping themselves up over this matter, let me point out that: I have just searched the Guardian web site and have failed to find the article which purports to say that any authoritative body is advocating the introduction of sharia law. I have visited several Islamic web sites including the Lancashire Council of Mosques and have not found anything advocating the iintroduction of islamic law. I know of no political party which has the introduction of sharia law in its policies. The British Council of Muslims most recent public statement includes the following: "The Islamic faith strongly exhorts its adherents to be a positive influence on their community, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and discourages Muslims from becoming insular and retracted. Furthermore, I would be able to supply you with many examples of practising Muslims with a deep knowledge of their faith who have succeeded in historically closed careers such as investment bankers, solicitors, barristers, academics and medical consultants etc." What I have found is a deep frustration that Abu Hamza (an Egyptian) has been used as an example of extremism amongst the British Asian population and the fact that the efforts of all the major islamic bodies in the UK to avoid the radicalisation of their young people and initiatives to play a positive role in society in general are being ignored by the mainstream press. A rough equivalent would be, as an English Protestant Christian, for my views to be represented as the same as some loony creationalist evangelist from America's Deep South. Different Continent, different (totally opposite) value set, different social context, nominally the same religion.

I have a nasty feeling about this one. Spuds won at Everton earlier in the season and their mean defence could well achieve a shut out if their under-performing front line grabs the opening goal at Ewood. On paper the prospects for this game look the same as the Brum match did-hardly any sign of a goal- but look at the 3-3 that happened in that 5.15pm kick off! Spuds have also had their goal fest in a season otherwise full of 0-0s and one goal outcomes with the 4-5 aganst their nearest and dearest Arsenal. Apart from that game which so impressed Jose Mourhino- ahem, Spuds have been offering some pretty turgid stuff and Martn Jol doesn't seem the type to appreciate show ponies. So will lightening strike twice and Saturday evening turn into a goal riot?- I doubt it. Hopefully, beating Boro will turn into a false dawn for Spuds. By all accounts, Boro lost it- they had been found out by Villareal midweek and offered little after Queudrue got sent off at White Hart Lane. This will be another massive game for the Rovers- we will almost certainly be kicking off in the bottom 3 again unless Fulham get an unlikely win at Norwich in the 3pm games. It is even conceivable we will start the game back at the rock bottom of the Prem (Southampton at least drawing at Man U and West Brom winning by more than two at Pompey)! A defeat will deflate all the confdence and optimism building up at the moment and reconfirm that this season is going to be one long relegation fight. Victory and we will be thinking of mid table at Christmas. With no Andy Cole to embarass Ledley King again, this is going to be the long overdue 0-0 draw.

Was at a conference all day yesterday but managed to get the Reception to ring up a bar to get the score with about five minnutes of the game remaining. Just want to say what a superb job Sparky is doing and an enormous thank you to Fat Freddie for relieving us of the problem of firing a Manager who had achieved so much for us before self-immolating. We took two horrible 0-4 beatings- one down to a justified sending off, one to a team which found its goal scoring ability and hasn't stopped since as Charlton found out yesterday. Sparky and his coaching staff have set out their strategy and stuck to it. They have worked extremely hard on our defending, tried 4-5-1, rejected it and finally the defense got a first fully-deserved clean sheet as opposed to fluking one (let's be honest, Pompey should have had a pen at Ewood). Their training methodologies are also finally producing a fully fit squad and gone are the days of being embarassed by the team runnning out of steam and generally not pressing the way they should have done. We started the Season with a horrible set of fixtures with a couple of refereeing howlers thrown in (D'Ursoed at Soton and the 93rd minute rugby pass v ManU). Now we not only a favourable run of fixtures with two teams most people would choose to be next up, but I suspect we are playing a number of teams at just the right time- Fulham yesterday- Spuds before they get themselves sorted out and a decent chance that Everton and Bolton will be suffering from altitude sickness when we play them. Now Hughes has to move on and finally sort out the set pieces and give players the confidence to recognise great shooting positions as well as keeping defensive concentration levels high. The task in the transfer window is also changing. Perhaps on 1 January the table will be making very much more attractive reading than it did at noon yesterday. If we have built rather more than a one point cushion above the relegation places, the challenge will not be to find the right talismtic scrappers which has been the depressing litany of journeymen littering this MB's transfer thread so far. Hughes' three tasks will be - to get rid of players whom he deems have no future (after the TP episode, nobody can deny that Hughes does not take tough decisions), - get the right new defender(s) - and to find one or more players who solve the problem Rodney Marsh rightly identitified when he said "when you look at the Blackburn team, there is nobody whom the opposition has to be really worried about." Looking forwards with faith in the new management team and a great deal of optimism. So far, Sparky is doing as well as I had hoped and better than I expected.

Andy Cole's comments in the LET show he has a deep respect for the club and its fans. Let's face it, he was right about Souness too but he made some big mistakes in the things he did. He got a great reception from the Rovers' after he Brum game at Ewood at the end of last season. So why shouldn't he get a great reception when he runs out today? I am sure he will.