Errr I mean six or seven points out of the last nine!

I'd have to disagree with that. As Hughes has said today we've achieved nothing yet. IF we qualify for Europe it will be a great achievement but if we miss out, having looked nailed on certainties to finish no worse than 6th, it will be a huge huge disappointment. If we reached the semi finals of the FA Cup and then got knocked out by say Darlington, we wouldn't be saying "ah well that was a great run" we'd be distraught at losing and missing out on the final. Sure everyone might have taken seventh or eighth at the start of the season but circumstances change as the season unfolds. it would be a near disaster now. Additionally we need that European place to attract a better class of player in the summer and give Bellamy something to stay for. The good news is that if we start doing the things that got us into this position in the first place again, we can quite easily get nine or ten points out of the last twelve.

The frustrating thing is that when we went on our good run last season the defence was tighter than a duck's backside. We seem to have completely lost that defensive meanness. Even without playing well we should have been able to shut out the opposition at Pompey and Brum for an extra three points which would have almost guaranteed UEFA qualification.

We are nowhere near as poor as is being suggested in some posts on here, we're a good side who haven't performed anywhere near our capability in three very winnable games v Wigan, pompey and Brum. The only area in which we're particularly weak is in finding a suitable partner for Bellamy, but we managed to cope with that over the first 30 games. IMO Hughes needs to resist the temptation to panic and chop and change too much. When everyone is playing to form we have a clear strongest eleven: Friedel Neill Gray Nelsen Todd Reid Savage Tugay Bellamy Pongolle MGP. The only change I would be tempted to make would be to swap Mgp (who is desperately out of sorts) for Peter. If in the mood the Norwegian should be more than capable of making an impact coming off the bench.

I've never felt as down after a result since we were relegated I don't think. A Uefa place which should have been done and dusted a couple of games ago now looks decidedly iffy. We seem to have forgotten how to defend and we're not creating enough in front of goal. We just didn't turn up in the first half tonight imo which just wasn't good enough for a game of this importance. We improved considerably second half and dominated possession but just as at Portsmouth were undone by poor defending. Neill and Zurab had nightmarish games in either full back position. Many people on here accused a few of us of being "moaners" after the dismal performance against Wigan, but unfortunately that standard of performance seems to have developed into being a habit. A Uefa place is probably still in our hands, just, but where is the next win coming from?

Much ado about nothing in my view. I thought he had a decent game tonight and throwing the armband down was in sheer frustration at getting injured imo. Remains to be seen as to whether Hughes sees it that way as he has strangely preferred Zurab recently.

A case of from the sublime to the ridiculous. After floundering on arguably the meanest back line in Europe on Sunday, we now seemingly have the chance to improve our goal difference against the most amateurish looking defence the Premiership has seen for some time. Of course it won't be that easy in practice with the hype that will surround Sav's return and them scrapping for their lives. However it is a must win three points with our recent slump in form having given Newcastle and Wigan a glimmer of hope. We must also make Spurs and Arsenal fight for their positions in case the unexpected happens. As always it's a case of which Rovers side turns up on the night but I have a sneaking feeling we'll win.

I've not seen anything of Milan during this season's comp but thought they were absolutely dire tonight.

I could stomach losing 6th place to just about anyone except the Newcastle team Souness almost led to relegation only a couple of short months ago. Cmon Rovers -get your backsides in gear!

All this crapola about the new law being wrong and difficult to interpret is a complete red herring imo. The fact is the officials got the decision wrong, plain and simple, end of. Cisse pulled away from/ missed the ball by the merest of fractions. Of course he was "active" if that's what you want to call it. Was he moving away from the ball or clearly trying to get back onside? Was he hellers like. Would the goal have stood had it been us on the attack and Chelski ManUre Arsenal or Liverpool on the receiving end? We all know the answer to that one I think.

They're not uninsurable, if a different injury altogether ended their careers the insurers would have to pay out. Presumably the clubs know the score (or should do) when they take out the insurance.

We were never ever going to win this case, the only surprising thing was we obtained judgement at first instance. The "pre existing condition" clause is completely standard for the insurance industry. Everyone apart from Rovers "expert" thought he had a degenerative condition. And common sense dictates a training ground fall is not career ending except in the most exceptional of circumstances. We should be looking at the procedures which allowed Dahlin to be signed in the first instance with such a condition and ensuring the same thing can't happen again now. Especially bearing in mind practically the same thing happened with Thompson and his 65 year old knees some time later. A lot of money down the pan pursuing this case.

I have to disagree with those who thought Liverpool were the better side, I thought in terms of our overall play and passing we've not played better all season. Friedel hardly had a thing to do until Cisse hit the post in injury time, and overall I thought we dominated possession. The goal completely changed the course of the game because Liverpool had showed nothing going forward but are particularly effective at sitting back and defending a lead. With Liverpool sitting back in two banks of four the one thing that you could criticise us for in the second half was failing to get in any decent delivery from wide positions, which we needed to do to get them turning. Reid put in a superb performance in midfield, didn't think anyone had a poor game. Just about the worst decision I've ever seen for their goal, when Fowler chested the ball on initially there were two players at least 5 yards offside, forget any technical bs about being active or inactive. If there's one bad thing about the premiership it's the appalling bias from officials in favour of the so called big 4. West Brom were the previous victims at Highbury on Saturday, denied a clear penalty and probable draw. The only good thing is that today's reverse probably won't affect our finishing position one way or the other. Our Champions League chances realistically went with our poor performances against Wigan and Pompey but we should still finish 6th although both ourselves and Bolton seem to be trying to outdo other as to who can throw it away.

I thought nearly 25,000 was a blooming good attendance for a live TV game, and by all accounts those who attended created a riproaring atmosphere. IMO Boro chief executive Keith Lamb did neither himself nor his club any favours at all by coming on the radio the following day whinging about the attendance. One elderly chap phoned in afterwards and pointed out not unkindly that that match was Boro's 21st Cup tie of the seasn thus far with more to come!. Like us next season if we have to take the Champions League qualifying/UEFA/Intertoto route?

Well according to your strange reading of the situation, Hughes, who was reportedly "disappointed" (and rightly so) to concede a lead twice today. Exactly the same as everyone else on here really. Only I note you aren't tarring him with the same brush. He's "spot on" whilst everyone else is "negative".

One man show from Bellamy today, he must be gutted that his 2 super strikes didn't bring home the 3 points. Quite a few of the team didn't show up today, in particular I missed the first quarter of an hour and honestly thought Dickov wasn't playing until I noticed him in camera shot on 52 minutes. We also defended very poorly today, we just don't look as solid a defensive unit unless Todd is playing. Shocking defending from first Mokoena and then Nelsen for their second. Mokoena looks like a fish out of water unless he is playing the holding midfield role. Why was Gray taken off, was he injured? All in all a very disappointing week, whatever anyone might say. We got ourselves in a very good position before the Wigan game and have let things slip quite badly. After Bellamy's heroics (no understatement there) there was no way we should have conceded the equaliser for a second time today. Looks like 6th at best unless there are some very unexpected twists and turns. We'll have to improve some to ensure that though

I don't think it's moaning to observe we were bloomin' awful last night, which we were imo. If we'd played with anything like the same commitment we showed for the remaining few minutes after we scored we'd have blown Wigan away, impressive away record or not. I didn't think they were anything special at all. We'll have to wait and see the effect of a draw last night at the end of the season. Whether it's the precious point gained that clinches us UEFA qualification or the two points lost that scuppers our Champions League dream. As Ricky says on the other thread I had us down for a draw on Saturday so if we could win that one a return of 4 points from the 2 games would look pretty respectable.

Whoops, you've read the other thread then. Nelsen was ok from what I saw live but then I didn't have the benefit of umpteen action replays on Sky like you so I'll bow to your superior judgement.

Hee Hee, punch up between two of my favourite contributors! Let battle commence!!!!!

Savage was never involved in the game tonight, I suspect this was because he has to go another few days without a yellow to avoid a further 2 match ban. Unfair to single him out though. I didn't think anyone came out of tonight with credit.

Desperately, desperately disappointing performance. By the end we were exceedingly fortunate to get a point. We started off well for 10 -15 minutes but when we didn't get the goal up we seemed to become edgy and nervous. Despite playing poorly in the first half it seemed to me from 60 yards away we were then undone by two shocking refereeing decisions. Firstly Bellamy was fouled from what seemed to be at least three yards inside the box. There was probably a valid case for it being only obstruction (Ie indirect free kick) but amazingly the officials bottled out and gave a free kick on the edge of the area. Next Filan went up for the ball, dropped it, and the resulting "goal" was chalked off. To balance things up Wigan scored a perfectly legitimate goal but the flag went up for a non existent offside. If we were poor first half the second half was abysmal. We conceded a soft goal and went from bad to worse. Wigan were far hungrier and were first to the ball every time. We got very lucky with the goal. Unlike the first half one, looked like a foul on Filan. After that, frustratingly, we played with real purpose for the eight or nine remaining minutes. Typical Rovers as those of us who have been following the team for any length of time will testify.

Yes we will, that was almost a given anyway. The damage that has been done is we won't finish 4th.

It would also take Bolton out in all probability. (Not that I want to pile the pressure on or anything )

Like the bookies I really can't see this being anything other than a comfortable victory by at least a two goal margin. Which is probably a bad sign.

Anyway, looks like there should be no similar controversy tonight. Seems tonight's official attendance figure was decided at lastc week's Board meeting!