I think wsr sums up the situation perfectly there and I think in this particular instance den is being churlish and is completely wide of the mark. Derbyshire has imo exceeded expectations. Hands up all those who thought in August that he would be an integral part of the squad by Christmas? I certainly didn't. Mind you it has been quite a godsend with Roberts injured, imo Jeffers having predictably been a complete flop, Gallagher seemingly completely out of favour and with Nonda having been very inconsistent. He isn't the next Alan Shearer, no-one is. And he's missed a couple of chances. However he's shown pace, a great eye for a pass and an ability to deliver that pass, the ability to get on the end of chances in the first place and above all his willingness and enthusiasm is a breath of fresh air. He's certainly done enough in my book to suggest that Hughes need have no fears whatsoever about throwing him in from the start if required because of injury or to give one of the senior strikers a rest. The FA Cup tie against Everton would be an ideal case in point imo. Arguably also, unless there's someone VERY good coming in, he might well have removed the need to spend a large chunk of our transfer budget on striker number seven. Seriously what do people expect of him? Three goals a game off the bench? Well done Matty, keep it up. I disagree with that as well. You only had to see the look on the face of that young 19 year old Edgar who scored the second for Newcastle against Man Ure to see that. Just couldn't resist the opportunity to have a completely pointless dig at wsr, could you?

I just caught the end of some Football League initiative on Talksport tonight, the catchphrase being something like "real football for real people" I think it said tickets were 2 quid and 5 quid and by way of example the first time it was done at Oldham the gate was 9500 and the second time 12000 - which I suspect is 2-3 times the normal gate. Like I say I only caught the end of it, does anyone know anything definite about it? With Rovers also having to do what they're doing, looks like a sense of reality is creeping back into football?

I agree with all that, I just don't think Nonda is as bad as is being portrayed. He could work a lot harder (so could McCarthy) but imo is certainly nowhere near being in the Grabbi category and imo is a marginal improvement on the likes of workhorses with no talent such as Kuqi and Dickov. That said, ideally would I like someone better brought in? - yes. To me our needs this window are becoming quite clear: One quality striker (possibly on loan) Assuming Dunn signs one other central midfielder as well - again possibly on loan. Assuming Neill leaves a full back - possibly the guy who's been on trial. Did Okkas never arrive at Ewood for a trial?

Nonda hasn't been great but you have to give him a bit of credit where it's due. The goal against Fulham was an exceptional piece of skill. He made the keeper look daft because he took the chance so early when it didn't look possible to get any sort of effort in. Thereby throwing the keeper totally. And the second v Arsenal was a difficult chance which he made look extremely easy. Nine times out of ten it wouldn't have occurred to players to attempt an overhead kick , they'd have tried to turn and it would have been blocked. Four League goals so far, a slight improvement in the second half of the season and it will be ten in total. It seems Nonda can do no right now, when he first joined nearly everyone was absolutely raving about him when he hadn't really been that good, now people are calling him to high heaven when he hasn't been quite that bad. Arguably also, as with Yorke and Cole, both McCarthy and Nonda have shown up better when the other hasn't been on the pitch. Neither have been particularly good in terms of overall play despite Benni's impressive goals ratio. As for Jeffers the situation seems a little odd, I haven't been impressed by him but he seems to have disappeared completely off the radar. I wonder if it's a combination of him not impressing on a daily basis and some sort of bonus kicking in if he plays again? And going back to the original topic for some reason Hughes really does seem loath to give Gallagher a fair crack of the whip. It's starting to look as if it would be better for him to move on sadly. So overall despite having six strikers on the books, until Roberts returns, as in midfield we're in a Savage/Tugay type situation whereby we need to wrap up the main two in cotton wool as we've no viable looking alternatives. I think we need another striker in the window unless the manager thinks he can kick start one of Gallagher/Jeffers/Derbyshire into making a significant contribution.

1) Always have done.................. and as a result the horse has now bolted! 2) Apologies if I'm wrong, thought the home leg was circa the 22nd of Feb!

It's a dead give away! He knows exactly where he's going (i.e. somewhere local so he can continue to live at his footballer's wives eyesore) and so does Hughes. All this stuff about him leaving "if we think it's right" is just a face saving exercise from Sparky imo to justify the ultimately futile step of giving him the captain's armband. If it's not already a done deal and he's not in a Liverpool shirt by the end of January I'll be amazed.

It was 3 p.m. boxing day, always a one off, always decent crowds nationwide, always lots of exiled fans from other parts of the country home for christmas, always lots of occasional attenders being taken along. And at best still only 22,000 home fans in due to our policy of giving up one side of the ground to away fans. I don't think there's likely to be any correlation at all with an 8p.m. Thursday night match in the middle of February. It all proves one thing, we can get away with charging category A+ prices for either Liverpool or ManUre on boxing day, the other 364 days of the year it doesn't work!

You mean Ooijer is older by two months. We just think of Henchoz as being a lot older because it's so long since his first spell here.

I think Ooijer is actually a couple of months older than Henchoz.

1) No 2) Arguably, but Todd has had a long period of enforced inactivity and is probably just reaching peak match fitness 3) I think he's done better than Ooijer when he's been on the pitch. 4) Can Billy Sharp play centre back?

Exactly right, was right at the front of The Riverside today, so got a really close look at him in the first half. Body language was appalling, clearly didn't want to be on the pitch, and let's just say he did the minimum consistent without actually throwing the game whilst not wanting to do anything to harm his new team either. The difference in commitment between him and Emerton, who was on the same side in the second half, couldn't have been more noticeable.

Great news about the away kit, I'll be buying an away shirt for the first time ever I think. Not so sure about the home one. but it may be ok in the flesh.

For the first Arsenal goal not marking Gilberto properly and letting him have a virtually free header was far more culpable than not having a guy on each post imo. With the benefit of the TV replays Bert sort of waved at him as he went up for the header.

Am taking my two daughters to the Liverpool game and for some unknown reason they like the Riverside stand so having to swap. Woman in the ticket office said it was "pretty full" everywhere and there was apparently only one lot of three seats still left together in the Riverside. So hopefully it will be a good crowd.

Eh,? they'll like it a lot less if he were to go in hard and accidentally injure a Liverpool player. Don't blame him at all btw for either wanting to move on or using his contractual situation to maximise his financial position. We didn't need that stupid gesture the other week mind.

Don't be ridiculous Brownie. Neill is perfectly entitled to move on and I know your view is in the light of Lucas being your best mate or something but there is no way at all he should play against Liverpool. It will be a tough enough game as it is and his long term loyalties must clearly lie with them not us. Whether he plays against Arsenal, Boro and Wigan is a different matter entirely. I've no doubt Hughes will pick him if he feels he is sufficiently committed. Personally I still wouldn't pick him if Emerton is available, and he definitely shouldn't still be in possession of the armband.

Bellamy hasn't played in very many of those though, and seems to be overlooked for the biggest games. Not sure if he'd consider it a great move with the benefit of hindsight. IMO Neill will never see the light of day at Liverpool. If it's what he wants good luck to him though. Shouldn't even be considered for selection.

Out of the nine you mention only three (Savage Tugay and Reid) can successfully play in the centre of a midfield four. And one of those (Reid) is currently injured leaving us with two viable central midfielders. I'd argue we need Dunn plus one other midfielder in the window given the former's dodgy injury record. As regards the cash involved, no good bringing him in for free in the summer and saving 500k to 1m in the process having already seen 35m quids worth of Sky money disappear down the swanney if we are relegated. Plus the reputed fee is less than half that received for the Honey Monster. So it 's not going to kill us.

Most sources on the matter tend to suggest that Rovers and Brum have agreed as part of the deal Dunn will not play for the bluenoses again. Just what is your problem with Dunn? It must be personal and can't be based on any rational footballing criteria. Potentially top class midfielder, still of prime age for a million or less on low wages and probably pay as you play incentives. Very low risk. I can't remember exactly what you said when Jeffers signed but I'm sure you took exactly the same stance in reverse about it being a particularly astute piece of business by JW and MH. I didn't agree with that but in both instances it's a relatively low risk strategy if things go belly (no pun intended in Dunn's case) up.

Don't understand why many posters view the Dunn transfer as a complete waste of time and money but at the time the Jeffers signing was viewed as a potential masterstroke, cheap, low wages, low risk - pay as you play, big upside etc. At his best Dunn is one of the top few midfielders in the Country, but as with Bellamy for a period it wouldn't matter if it was Pele, they're no good if they're injured all the time. On balance though for the price I think Dunn would be a good signing with better chance of success than Jeffers. Jeffers has shown little over the last five years to indicate he still has "it" when fit whereas Dunn by all accounts has been very impressive on the occasions he has played.

The second half of the Reading game combined with several of the recent games convinced me of two things: 1) We definitely have the ability to play ourselves out of trouble but 2) At times we also display the lack of character which is just as likely to play ourselves into trouble. Bad news about Charlton getting beaten by Wycombe last night. Charlton under Les Reed must have been certs for one of the relegation spots, but his imminent departure from the post must be a certainty now. At Boro let's hope Steve Gibson keeps faith with Southgate as things certainly aren't clicking there either. Slightly above us in the League, Citeh, who are dire, are getting sucked back in.

No he didn't , Tugay made contact and according to the letter of the law he had to go. The ref was right, it's the law that's wrong. There was no instruction given by the FA and there is no conspiracy against Rovers. You're right about video evidence not being the complete answer though. Other than "ball over the line" type decisions nearly everything else is subjective even when viewed over and over. i.e. many commentators still think Ronaldo didn't dive against Boro because they think Schwarzer had intent and Ronaldo was forced to take evasive action which denied him a goalscoring opportunity. Ridiculous imo but there you go.

It actually panned out exactly as I predicted, woeful in the first half, with the negative formation, the players devoid of self belief and McCarthy left completely isolated. What a transformation in the second half, playing 4-4-2. The team played with a hunger we probably haven't seen all season and fully deserved the three points. Turning point of the season? McCarthy had a very odd day. Had the ball in the net four times, but only one counted. Of the disallowed efforts, one was miles off, another was clearly off and one should have stood. Overall he had a great second half but I hated seeing him go to ground with a pathetic dive when he was in a very dangerous position anyway. If it was Ronaldo we'd be accusing him of ruining the game etc.

Proof of the pudding will be in the eating, but I can't see us getting anything at all with that formation. What we need is the eleven on the pitch to actually start performing in a normal 4-4-2 not revert to an unworkable line up.

Just a couple of points there, Neill is showing no loyalty to anyone other than himself. (Which is perfectly understandable) If he was bothered about the club (no reason why he should be, it's just a job to him) he would have signed a new contract ensuring us a large fee when he did leave. Secondly, I suspect he wasn't booed solely because he refuses to sign a new contract, I suspect it was because he is leaving AND it appears as though he hasn't been fully committed in certain games recently, Basel, United, Newcastle and Nancy being four that spring instantly to mind.