this wasn't much of a game of football but i thought it was a tighter and less scrappy performance than against leicester. we went to anfield hoping to contain them and possibly hit them with a lucky goal and we did it exceptionally. i haven't felt so calm watching a blackburn defense for a long time... normally it gives me heart tremours as soon as the opposition bring the ball into our half. we're not going to win a lot playing like that but hughes is in a scrap now and i don't think anyone can take away from us the fact that we have had to go out and play well to take a point at anfield. before the match i would've been more than happy to settle for that!

I would say that scoring one more goal than the opposition is doing enough to win a match.

i am going to go if i can get a ticket

got my tickets now and am just about recovering from the heat-attack inducing news that my train will cost over £100 (could do with being back in london for work on weds).... should be a great atmosphere though and another memorable win

andy82 - i like IAM, i have the double CD ombre est luminer (probably spelt wrong) which has some really good tracks on. that law on french radio about the tracks having to have so many seconds of french language on it did wonders for their hip hop scene the J5 are another of my faves - unfortunatel y the one time i had the chance to see them it was at a festival and every other person there had the same idea.. their tent was full to bursting so i had to make do with sitting outside and listening to whatever sounds drifted out... today tho i have mostly been listening to the super furry animals, probably my favourite band ever

i wasn't impressed with mourinho's quotes either, but didn't see the interview on bbc... however i'm not so naive to think that journos don't pick and choose their quotes to make things out as being more aggressive than they were - the standard headline of "PERSON X IN SOMETHING RAP" normal has a quote from them along the lines of "things could be better" or something equally as banal. i guess "mourinho gives grudging respect to battling team at other end of table" doesn't make as good a headline as "mourinho blasts dirty rovers"... in any case considering what he managed to do with porto i would say he'd be well up on how you have to battle if you don't have the class to compete with some of the bigger teams, so i wouldn't read too much into it.

agreed. i continue to be struck by the fact that despite the current fad of managers/chairmen/players spouting off about anything and everything in the tone of petulant children, hughes' comments stand out as being considered and dignified. in the current situations between rovers and birmingham and rangers, there has been a marked difference between their ranting and constant whinging thru the media, and the aura of calm that seems to surround our replies.

so thompson is literally all over the pitch

This picture? looks like he's doing an impression of pob

surely if he turned down any other offer that was given to him he could "do a bogarde" and sit the rest of contract out at bolton?

i think that's entirely plausible. look at the rubbish they've bought off us - it's hard to imagine, should any of them leave brum, that they will be going anywhere but the championship or below.

the whole thing has got tiresome in some ways and interesting in others. tiresome because it's dragging on and on and on, and interesting to see what laughable statement one of the brum triumverate will come out with next. some of the best imo have been: bruce whinging about how the right way to enquire about a player is to ask if they are available without making a fuss (note at this point the number of brum/savage quotes in the media and contrast that to the number of rovers quotes) and the cunningham (i think) saying that he hopes that savage can stay professional about the situation (note the brum chairman saying that savage is greedy and effectively calling him a liar - highly professional, and just what every employer wants to hear from their boss) i think it's almost certain that savage will now move, tho i get the feeling that brum have shot themselves in the foot with their bleatings, for if he does stay it's obvious that he doesn't particularly want to and that he doesn't have the support of the manager or the board. something which i am hoping wont have escaped the notice of the rovers board and which can surely be used as leverage in negotiations

that's a shame but i don' think it's that surprising when you have 4 games in the space of just over a week, at one of the most financially demanding times of the year!

surely pretty much any team that is in the top flight is going to show "losses" on transfer ins and outs? if you are constantly trying to improve on your squad whilst clearing out the players that aren't good enough then you're going to come up with a loss. the only teams that can make transfer profits over a space of several years are those who want to/have to sell their best players.

this was a great game and the best way possible to kick off my birthday celebrations that ended with me stumbling into bed at about 4am this morning.. fantastic level of commitment from the team - at times the game was scrappy and there were quite a few heart tremor moments but it wouldn't be rovers if there weren't. near the start one of my mates asked me what emerton does, and i answered "he runs", and he proved me right... he ran and ran and only seemed to tire in the last 5 minutes - i too remember him running the ball out of our half to near their area only for him to loose it somehow then run all the way back to our area, collect the ball and run out with it again. dickov too was good, he knows his limitations as a player and does well to make up for them by putting it about and causing a nuisance to the other team, which in turn allows some of our more technical players to do their thing. gallacher was superb, he is shaping up to be a good talent and he too gives it his all. most of the other comments i'd have on the team have already been made, and i think we can all be looking forward to the rest of the season with a lot more optimism now... finally the fans i thought were great too, they didn't get on anyone's back and towards the end of the second half with rovers attacking towards us, the level of vocal support for the players, especially reid, emo and gallacher, must surely have given them a lift.

it isn't, and even if it were cheering cole because he's black would be akin to using that "i can't be racist, look, i have a black friend" line so beloved of racists.

two factors to influence my prediction: on the rare occasions that i get to see blackburn they tend to be mediocre... but they also tend to give me a birthday present of a scrappy win... with that in mind i'm going for a hard fought 1-0 to rovers. tho given our current form i think it could just as easily be 4-3 rovers.

just seen the highlights on MotD - what was bothroyd doing? can see how that situation was getting a bit out of hand but you just can't do that. nice to see the norwich guy rolling around on the floor grinning because he knew jay would get sent off too. obviously can't really draw too many conclusions from the 3 or 4 minutes on MotD but Neill's ball was an peach, and it got the finish it deserved from Dickov. it's heartening at least to see that we have a bit of fight now, 1 goal and 1 man down I was sure we'd set ourselves up for another pummelling.

good times

ffs man, the working class doesn't cease to exist once you're inside the M25! west ham is hardly an affluent area.

good points. i think RFW knew that the Fenerbace defence would be vulnerable to Rooney, shrewd of him to give him his debut against them, as no doubt it will have done his confidence the world of good after 3 months sat out with injury. the finish on the first goal was class, even tho the marking was poor. the free kick was well taken but the wall collapsed. it will be interesting to see how he does in the premiership where the defenders might have more of a clue about how to play against him.

i agree with this. as i don't have sky, my rovers watching has been limited this season to the southampton match, and the charlton match. the southampton match left me furious at the ref and depressed about our team - they were scrappy, lacked will and commitment, and didn't seem to know what they were doing. last night i felt a lot better. the defense is still frail, and the attack lacks that edge (confidence?), but i was impressed by the way that we put them under pressure after conceeding the goal, and by some of the passing and movement. there's still a lot of work to be done, but i feel a lot more hopeful of an improvement than i did 3 weeks ago

i think his meaning is that souness saying that he'd settle for 17th before the season started shows a lack of ambition, but hughes taking the mess that souness left and avoiding the drop would be a fair achievement tho i agree with you in that the season is only 5 games old, if hughes can turn the team around we could still be aiming for mid-table mediocrity

i don't buy this and i don't think many of the other people on this board do either. let's look at the concept of a "tried and tested" manager objectively. most of them have been tried, and tested, and are now unemployed or are likely to be fighting around the relegation area come april and may - surely this tells its own story? whilst it is true that in several cases a "tried and tested" manager has been able to achieve the short term stability nececcary to help a club avoid the drop, in the longer term they have failed to deliver, hence why most of them are now out of work. contrast this with the relative successes of several "untried" managers who have managed to help take some of the clubs from relegation scraps to being on the fringes of a UEFA cup place. i think this is the sort of appointment that the rovers board had in mind, someone young with fresh ideas. when you consider that hughes has had such a distinguished career as a player and is so widely respected (both for his achievements and for personality traits that i think will make him a good manager), then he seems like an ideal candidate for the role. i am very happy with this appointment, i think the rovers board have shown that they are looking beyond the "survival is our only aim" mantra of souness that would have been continued by bringing in a quick-fix appointment, and are looking to provide the club with a sound future. i hope that hughes will develope into the manager we all want him to become, and (especially) that the players respond well to him and start to fulfill their potential - now that we have a talented young manager and some talented young players, i think that the next couple of seasons are already looking brighter than they were a couple of weeks ago