Au contraire we saw that when we were chasing promotion in 2001 dropping the price to 5 quid saw a gate of 27,000 plus for a midweek game v Sheff Utd and very nearly 30,000 v Portsmouth at Easter.

All of it. That's why I didn't select part of your post to quote.

The kids season tickets and half season tickets are exceptional value sure, and should be continued and marketed to death. But once you've missed them the club need to be sensible about pricing for individual games. To charge 15 quid as with yesterday for kids for any game with the stadium nearly a third empty is ridiculous. You may only earn a pound if it's a quid a kid but it's one pound more than you earn from an empty seat! You don't have to go down to a quid every game but I don't think there's any excuse for kids tickets being more than a fiver at the moment. Rovers are going to have to be a lot more creative than we've been in the past due to the new "watch it in the Pub on dodgy Arab TV" phenomenon. I caught the end of an interview with the Watford chairman Graham Simpson yesterday and he sounded like a breath of fresh air. They seemed a lot more proactive than us at getting fans in as opposed to smply talking about it. They're gunning for automatic promotion but he didn't see it as the fan's duty to dutifully troop through the turnstiles. Quite the opposite. He said they were the only professional club in Hertfordshire and it was their duty to share the "Watford experience" with the masses. They were bussing people in from alll over the County. They were still selling season tickets for the remaining few games at discounted rates and had sold 500 that week. He himself was going round the area giving talks at places like Stevenage sharing what they were trying to achieve. Their academy was absolutely crucial to their business plan. Most interestingly they were doing a cheap block ticket for the remaining 5 home games at 60 quid for adults and 40 quid for kids. Rovers are very much in a similar boat. With all due respect to our smaller neighbours You simply can't get the "Premiership experience" or excitement like yesterday anywhere else in East Lancs. An imaginatively promoted and priced "Champions League Charge" ticket for the remaining games perhaps?

Absolute garbage.

I understand the point you're making but billhooks to that, let's have ManUre winning sweet FA (again) and us qualifying for the Champions League!

If we get 15 points out of the next 18, as long as the solitary defeat isn't against Spuds, I'd say we'd be nailed on for the Champions League. Over the last 2 seasons 60 and 61 points have been good enough for 4th spot. It may be very slightly more this time but there's nothing in Spurs recent form to suggest that they will get anything like 2 points per game over the last eleven matches. (Which would give them 68) 63 I think would certainly do it. Anything in the 60-62 range may yet be good enough again however. The trouble with us as we've seen countless times over the last 5 seasons is that we come to a difficult looking fixture and win, then facing a subsequent easier looking run of fixtures things go pear shaped. Find the answer to that one and we will be cooking on gas.

Arsenal are very much like ManUre these days, stop Rooney and you stop United, stop Henry and you stop Arsenal.

Fantastic performance today. I posted after the Everton debacle that I was ashamed to be a Rover after that performance. Well exactly the opposite tonight. Very proud. We were superb for 70 minutes, Arsenal never had a serious effort on goal in that time and the only worry at half time was that Todd and Savage had both passed up fairly simple chances to make it 2-0. On 70 minutes Friedel was finally called upon to make an excellent save and if there was a slight criticism today we sat back far too deep for the final 20 minutes and stopped doing the things that had got us in a winning position in the first place. But that's perhaps being churlish and we held out without too many problems. Everyone played well today but I thought Todd, Savage and Bellamy were exceptional. Todd fully deserved his MOM award and Savage was back to his best after a couple of below par performances. Up front Bellamy proved the difference for the second straight home game and when fully fit and in the mood seems virtually unstoppable. I thought he might be good when we signed him but I'm amazed how much better than that he actually is. Absolutely top drawer. Once again his fitness over the last eleven games will be crucial. It goes without saying but you have to put in a big shout for Messrs. Hughes, Bowen and Eddie Niedsthingy at this point . Only 995,000 spent and we've been transformed from relegation certs to live champions League contenders. How good a job are they doing?

Well no, it's to finish one place higher up the table in 4th! It's still imperative we get no worse than a draw next Sunday.

You must be joking. Todd was magnificent today, the ball was attracted to him like a magnet.

A friend of mine prefers "Amotortoise". Equally uninspired but no-one will convince him it isn't ribtickingly funny. Rather than blame Amoruso who seems to be a genuinely nice guy off the pitch perhaps the finger should pe pointing (again) at a certain ex manager. Would love to know who made what out of the dealings that saw Berg leave us for nothing, us sign a vastly inferior player of the same sort of age for 1.5m, and Berg eventually join Rangers.

The next two games will make or break the season. If we are to maintain the improbable dream of Champions League qualification then we can't really afford to lose either and 4 points will be the minimum requirement. A win from either would probably be enough to keep UEFA hopes alive. For some strange reason, and somewhat unusually, I'm not feeling optimistic pre match about either game. Let's hope I'm totally wrong.

Wigan 2 Spurs 2. Got to be a good result for us. Could West Ham be the fly in the ointment?

Derbyshire came on as sub during Parkes testimonial and scored a goal that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Only a really natural goalscorer would have even "seen" the opportunity he successfully converted.

Yep, I've always tended to like Smith, but cant feel much sympathy for him after the way he targeted Savage in the 2 Cup games.

Is that all? So are we!.

No problem with the Villa promotion, however I was thinking of taking my 2 daughters to the Arsenal game until I saw it was 15 quid for juniors. I don't think so at that price! I have always argued the club do this the wrong way round. First and foremost we need to get BLACKBURN fans into the big games. Only then if they like what they see will they be tempted to go and see the Charlton/Fulham fixtures etc. Another opportunity lost.

Originally you compared Reid with Bert

Are you just on a wind up? Reid had a decent game last night. Albeit his shooting boots are still at the JJB. As for Bert we'll be very lucky if we get back the money we paid for him.

A lot of people I spoke to after the game thought tonight was awful. I didn't think it was that bad. We've played a lot better sure, but the game was played in a very strange atmosphere. Sunderland were so poor it was like playing a non League side. I actually felt sorry for them. When you know you're probably going to win without getting out of 2nd gear, it's hard to generate tempo on the pitch or atmosphere off it. We didn't play particularly well tonight but the whole side were well up for the game. As evidenced by Friedel's body language, which was one of extreme urgency. As such we won a good share of the 50/50's. MGP clearly wasn't fit and shouldn't have started. Peter supplied yet another quality assist for Bellers and you have to say his all round contribution is far better than Morten's (Without the spectacular goals) Can't understand why Pongolle was pulled off. Wasn't playing brilliantly but at least at times he can control the ball when it's played up to him. Unlike the honey monster. On the rare occasions we see him, Bellamy is as influential for us as Shearer was. Would give my right arm to see an injury free season from him in a Rovers shirt next season. Totally disagree with 1864. Tugay played well.

Given the dire need to get back on track and get 3 points by any means necessary I'll settle for a repeat of the ManUre 4-3 scoreline. Us 4 (anyone, anyone, anyone, anyone) Mackems 3 (Stead 3) After which we can start defending properly.

Completely disagree Den, it's gone now but that was one of the worst performances under Hughes. The bottom line is, that like in the first half against WBA we weren't sufficiently "up for it." Playing ten men for 80 minutes we hardly ever won a 50/50 challenge and hence barely challenged their goal. (With a rookie keeper in the nets) If we play the same way tomorrow night we won't win. Hopefully the last two displays are out of the system and we will get the result we want. Some random thoughts based on the thoughts of others: People are being exceptionally tolerant of Friedel due to his form of 3 seasons ago. Strange how Todd/Gray always cop all the flak, yet Neill whose fault the goal was neer gets any. Disagree the midfield isn't good enough. Reid/Savage is an excellent pairing, Savage just had a poor game on Saturday. His form was extremely good prior to being scythed down by Rio. Bentley looked better after a couple of games as an out and out striker than he does out wide. Pongolle started brightly but faded. Not really the fault of the strikers who had no service. Kuqi offers nothing Peter doesn't look in the least bit out of place at this level. How many more are there at the Academy?

The worrying thing is that over the last 2 seasons, under both Souness and Hughes, there's been a marked downturn in both the performance and commitment levels the minute we were "safe." The same seems to be happening again this season. With 14 games to go!

You have to applaud Hughes' ambition in doing everything possible to try to ensure European football, probably the fact that the UEFA Cup is now more lucrative has a lot to do with the decision. The downside is that historically intertoto teams start off like a house on fire being seemingly ahead of others in terms of sharpness and preparation but then seem to burn out around Christmastime. The "squad" would really have to pull their weight rather than sitting around getting paid for doing nothing. Not necessarily a bad thing?

My internet connection was off for a week after we beat ManUre. Had we been playing eleven men today I'd be inclined to agree with you. But playing ten men for 77 minutes and not even testing a 4th choice keeper goes beyond the pale. The question now is how do we react? Do we let the season slip away into nothingness or put in a strong finish?