I must take issue slightly with that statement from Tom Finn, to simply say that clubs are only deemed to be responsible for the behaviour of their own fans seems to be a very literal reading of the guidelines and a case of passing the buck.

On a broader level surely Rovers are responsible for the behaviour and ultimately the safety of ALL the fans in the stadium.

Granted on an operational level there may be occasions when it is extremely difficult to get say 5,000 Manc barstewards to sit down but the club must at least be seen to be making every possible attempt to get away fans to comply with the regulations.

If the home fans could see the club seemed to be doing their best in difficult circumstances there would be surely little ground for complaint and similarly the licensing authorities would surely recognise this.

The Club have to sort this out as a matter of urgency.

I have no sympathy for people who persistently stand, stadias are now all seater - end of. BUT it is plainly not on to enforce the regulations against home fans only and not against away fans simply because there's a lot more of them standing.

There must be one rule for all.

God knows it's been bad enough on the pitch at Ewood over the last couple of seasons. We can ill afford to alienate any more support off it.

Has anyone else noticed that Souness looks more harrassed these days than he ever did at Ewood?

He can't fall back on the lame "We're only a small club, survival is the aim" excuse any more roversmum. He's expected to actually win things now.

I expect his hard line approach to work for a few months then his (and his coaching set up's) lack of tactical nous to unravel any good footballing habits the Newcastle squad currently possess.

First post in a while. been exceptionally busy.

First off perhaps it is unwise to read too much into the size of Saturday's scoreline, there didn't look to be anything much between the sides until the sending off and had Tugay stayed on the outcome might have been very different.

Nevertheless that doesn't hide the glaring deficiencies within the team. We are displaying the classic relegation characteristic of being unable to score goals whilst conceding them by the bucketload.

Very little of this can be attributed to Hughes. Souness left us miles down a very smelly creek without a paddle and we are suffering extremely badly from his previous decisions.

Neill: can not defend, very little positional sense. Always thought he looks more like a midfielder.

Amoruso: even less positional sense, no pace to speak of, and no reading of the game to get over that handicap. Arguably the worst defender I have seen in a Rovers shirt considering the level he is meant to be playing at.

Matteo: Very poor thus far

Gresko: £2m down the pan

Di Pedro: Not fit enough for this level of football when he arrived, I've heard he's homesick, will we see him again?

Gamst Pedersen: Seemed to be signed as an afterthought when Di Pedro plainly wasn't up to it. Hasn't really shone on the limited evidence to date. Will Hughes rate him or is it another £2m wasted?

However our biggest problem lies up front. Souness's act of lunacy in releasing Cole for nothing means we have SIX (yes SIX) strikers (Dickov Stead Boothroyd Gallagher Djorkaeff and Jansen) none of whom currently look capable of notching five goals a season let alone ten. I almost think that if you give a proven goalscorer like Cole away for nothing you deserve what's coming to you and IMO that particular transaction should have been blocked at boardroom level regardless of the history between Souness and Cole.

Nevertheless I don't think it's all bad. If Souness had still been in charge there would be no hope. In the short time Hughes has been here there have been encouraging signs the team are at least trying to start to play football and pass the ball on the ground. Whilst the results haven't reflected this yet If Hughes can keep us up this season the future may well be a lot brighter.

He will have his work cut out considering the crapola left by Souness though. The Board may have to bite the bullet and invest in an uncompromising centre half and proven scorer in January if they wish to retain Premiership status.

Frank Skinner came up with a classic Reid comparison in one of his Times Columns about how he always somehow pictured him sitting on a tyre suspended from the ceiling chomping on a banana. Can never get that image out of my head now when I see Reid on TV.

Hopefully this article was just a bit of mischief making by the Sun. The Board couldn't possibly be that out of touch could they?

Old chimpy chops belongs firmly at the top of the "Don't touch with an excrement covered stick" list.

With Hoddle, Advocaat, McCarthy, Venables, Bryan Robson etc etc not far behind.

Also a bit worried by all the talk and betting action concerning Advocaat.

May be thinking of someone else here, but wasn't he a complete flop at Rangers? (And it's not easy to manage that!)

For crying out loud this is ridiculous.

There was never any fall out with Paul Gallagher, it was people on here putting 2 and 2 together and making well over 6.

And having seen the way Paul Gallagher is capable of behaving at first hand, I would suggest that some kind "paternal" guidance is exactly what is needed.

I'd heard from a reliable source that before Souness's departure he had also managed to fall out with Gallagher.

Gally's crime? The heinous crime of stating that he wanted to start more games this season.

All allegedly of course.

A name that has cropped up in a couple of this morning's papers is Mick McCarthy.

Much as I like him as a personality, hope he isn't a serious contender as this would be a backwards step IMO.

Grabbi - player manager ....... ?

Or maybe a Dino Baggio/Grabbi combination?

If we have to go with a relative novice then I'd rather have Dowie than Hughes or Coleman. Moyes would be good, but Everton's cash injection/Rooney money will keep him at Goodison.

Good shout, you can also add Dowie and Moyes to the list of people I'd be extremely happy with.

Just didn't think they'd be likely to jump ship in current circumstances.

I'll have to agree with philipl and plump for Kevin Hird on this one.

Sold to Leeds for £357,000 in the late 70's which was an absolutely astronomical fee back then, very close to a domestic record as I recall.

Would be extremely happy with either

Strachan or

Hughes or

Coleman or

the Dalglish/Shearer combination.

Will the Board/Jersey have the testicular fortitude to make an appointment of this stature? Will they feel it is time to at least try and put into effect Uncle Jack's original wish to make Shearer manager?

Or will we end up with a low grade "Sturrock" type appointment? (Apologies to Rover6)

His record in 2004 is played 24 - won 6!

Alan R

hadnt realised it was that bad

hadn't realised it was that good

Sudden and unexpected to say the least but I think this news will be extremely beneficial for us in the long term once the initial shock wears off.

It was definitely a season and a bit too far for Souness in the Ewood hot seat with star names departing, the quality of team performance plummeting, and the general buzz surrounding the club disappearing.

I think Freddy Shepherd will be in for a bit of a nasty shock. If there are indeed a load of underperforming egos in the dressing room at St. James's Souness's take no prisoners approach will no doubt have a temporary impact. After that Shepherd will probably find he's actually got rid of the better manager.

If we get our next appointment right and appoint someone who gives suitable importance to bringing through talent from the Academy it could be the making of the club.

More excited about our prospects now than for some time. A great pity Souness didn't walk out on us BEFORE flogging Duff and Dunn and giving away Cole and Johnson though.

I suspect we'll play all the defensive players we've got, so we'll probably line up something like this:

Friedel Enkleman

Neill Short Amoruso NEJ Gresko Gray

Flicroft Matteo Douglas

Subs:

Yelldell

McEveley

Peers

Bruce

Danns

We'll still get beat by at least 4.

Was about to post along similar lines Scotty. Although I think the formation you put out above is far too creative.

Surely we will start with three keepers - Friedel, Encks and Yeldell. Sacrificing some of the "flair" from midfield.

Anyway being ultra optimistic, 0-0. And we will encroach into the Arsenal half once. When we kick off for the second half.

(Actually I think the only way you can get a result against Arsenal is to get at them defensively and from set pieces)

I'm not a fan of Souness's constant excuses involving refs, nor do I feel there's a widespread conspiracy re the club but the managers previous run ins with D'Urso obviously came home to roost on Saturday. At some point in the second half GS was ranting as usual on the touchline about something pretty innocuous, shortly thereafter D'Urso started giving every decision against us.

Ferguson received his first caution for a nothing tackle, Johanssen his for a clean challenge and I don't believe Ferguson would have received the second card on another day or if he was wearing a Manchester United or Liverpool shirt.

The penalty decision was a joke. Short is entitled to defend that situation and did nothing at all wrong. I remember 1974 World Cup Final referee Jack Taylor saying you couldn't give a penelty for every bit of contact in the area or every game would finish 12-11. Unfortunately that's what happened on Saturday.

All this hard luck stuff though overshadows the bigger picture regarding the club. Last week I called for Souness to be given fifteen games to be judged fairly this time round. I still stand by that to some extent but it has to be subject to him knowing his best eleven players, fielding a settled side, and playing a workable formation. I won't repeat what everyone has already said about individual players but you don't have to be one of the manager's "know it all" fans to recognise that playing players out of position generally doesn't work.

The worrying thing for me is that Souness seems to have lost his nerve. After the opening games against two of the poorer sides in the division I am sure we would have had four or even six points had we gone out with a positive line up (see second halves) to try and win the game rather than stop the other team playing.

Souness has said (again) this is his strongest squad yet so why is he showing so little faith in them? Whilst we aren't going to win the League we're certainly capable of giving any side a match on the day on equal terms. So why are we starting games as if we are a Conference side playing a 3rd round FA Cup tie at Highbury?

Souness has to show confidence in his players or they will not perform with any confidence themselves. We've seen already the negative tactics simply don't work.

Souness got the tactics badly wrong first half on Saturday IMO but it goes without saying it's far too early to be jumping up and down after one game. I would have sacked him last season but as the decision was taken that he 's still the manager he has to start the season with a clean slate.

If we don't get a result on Saturday then it's not impossible we will be propping the table up on September 11th with one point from five games. I shan't be too worried if this happens PROVIDED the performances are good.

There then follows two respite games v Portsmouth and Charlton before four potentially tough looking games in October v Villa, Boro, Chelsea and Liverpool.

So again there is the possibility that by October the 30th our League position still won't be the best.

November sees four easier looking games against Norwich, City Brum and Fulham. In the event we do struggle at the start then fail to improve over this period, I will be worried.

It will also be 15 games in which I think will give enough time to give a reasonable assessment of our chances.

Anyone know a pub that's showing the game?

It's just that SKY have put the Prem plus package up by 100% to pubs to a whopping £1400 and a lot aren't willing to pay it.

Similar story at the Woodlands on Preston New Rd. They're considering not getting it for the first time, they said it was £2,000.

As for the game itself Southampton seem pretty ordinary under Sturrock so in optimistic mode we might just be able to sneak a 1-0 win.

Which would keep everyone happy whilst at the same time maintaining my 100% prediction record.

I can't remember a keeper who could catchand hold a ball as well as Roger could, I have seen full length diving saves where he did not just parry the ball but he would actully catch it and hold onto it.

Excellent point USA, that is one of my my abiding memories of Sir Roger as well. Must have had superglue on his gloves. Unfortunately catching the ball and holding onto it as opposed to punching it seems virtually non existent these days.

Might be largely to do with the ball. Was speaking to Terry Gennoe some years ago and expressed the opinion that Tim Flowers whilst an excellent keeper maybe didn't command his 6 yard box as well as he might. Terry dis agreed and said when he was playing opposition players just used to hoof 50 or 60 yard balls straight down the pitch which were meat and drink. He was of the view that in the Premiership especially with the lighter balls crosses came in so fast from all angles you simply didn't have the time.

I digress. Sir Roger for me by a hair over Friedel.

Let's not beat around the bush, Souness cost us the win today by playing a ridiculous formation first half. You can't afford to be that negative at home, let alone against a team like West Brom. The second half with a reasonable formation was quite good.

Individually

Friedel - not much to do (as with West Brom keeper)

Gray - extremely solid display as always since he joined

Short - a rock as always - still our best defender

Matteo - poor display- hopefully capable of better

Amoruso - unconvincing- couple of really serious errors

Emerton - very poor display

Ferguson - excellent performance - man of the match IMO

Gresko - never a central midfielder

De Pedro - come back at christmas when you're fit

Stead - poor by his standards

Yorke - Excellent in the second half when he dropped off the front two and played deeper but never going to provide much of a direct goal threat.

Subs

Tugay - should have started with Ferguson, made a big difference

Dickov - runs about a lot, but will have few opposition defenders or goalkeepers worried. Not Premiership quality.

Gallagher - not enough time to make an impact but surely either he or Douglas a better option until the Spaniard is fit.

Overall, assuming we start with a sensible formation (not 6 defenders) you would have to be encouraged by the much greater amount of control and possession we have in midfield with Ferguson as opposed to Flitcroft but be worried by the lack of punch up front.

First time I've read Sox's and Scotty's preview. Wonderful stuff. Carlsberg don't do posts but if they did they'd probably all be like that one etc.....

As for the game, I think the opening day is a bad time to be playing West Brom. They'll be all boinged up and Megson will be particularly determined that they make a far better general fist of things this time round.

Looked at in the context of the season the home games against the promoted clubs are "must win" fixtures for us and I think I'd rather we opened with a fixture we wouldn't necessarily be expecting too much from and then faced the Baggies after 3 or 4 games when harsh reality has set in for them.

The heart says Rovers 1 WBA 0 (Stead)

The head says (and my actual prediction is) 1-1.

Is anyone keeping score of a prediction League this year?

The maximum sentence you can get for death by reckless driving is 5 years. They must have thrown something else at him.

The offence of causing death by reckless driving was technically replaced by the one of causing death by dangerous driving.

The maximum penalty was originally ten years imprisonment. I think there were then proposals to increase this to 14 but I'm not absolutely certain if that was brought in or not.

EDIT: The maximum penalty is now 14 years I believe.

With the squad as it is at this precise moment I feel the decision to let Cole go for nothing and replace him with Dickov will lead to another desperately disappointing season, the saving grace being the three promoted clubs should still be worse than us.

1) Arsenal

2) Chelsea

3) Liverpool

4) Man Ure

5) Newcastle

6) Spurs

7) Fulham

8) Villa

9) Boro

10) Brum

11) Charlton

12) City

13) Portsmouth

14) Bolton

15) Southampton

16) Rovers

17) WBA

18) Everton

19) Palace

20) Norwich

Jansen isn't going to recover his form coming in off the bench or coming in for one game and being replaced the next. He needs a run of at least 8 -10 games.

If he's not physically capable of that, or if he gets that sort of run and can't do it, then time to call it a day.

Just got back. Good to see we won 4-0.

Also good to see a lot from this messageboard again. Also good to see Manchester Blue again and get his name totally wrong

In my defence, I was, after all, very, very drunk.

4-0, was there a game on?

Semi recovered now after a liver transplant this afternoon. The boy Fleming's fault.

Bit daft really going all that way and not being able to remember anything about the match.

Hope everyone who went had a great time and got back safely.