Flitcroft does not battle, he puts in a couple of tackles a game and coasts through the rest of it. Anyone with an ounce of sense only have to look at the effort put in by a half fit Savage to see the difference. (Granted he didn't have a particularly good game last night) Maybe to say Thompson doesn't battle is not quite the right analysis but there's a difference between battling to some effect and not being able to do a single thing right as has been the case with Thompson for several months now. He's clearly a better player than that (or was once) so the reason for his performances is a mystery to me. "Play with 10" was the shout from one wag behind me when Thompson stripped off last night. Trouble is, no-one was disagreeing and this comment brought chuckles of amusement rather than the righteous indignation it should have done had Thompson been performing to an acceptable level lately.

The difference this season Waggy is that everyone is that with the odd exception (both of whom didn't start last night) everyone is battling like mad and doing themselves great credit anyway. So there would be nothing to be gained in terms of spirit by bringing the youngsters in. Last season there would have been as as clearly no-one was prepared to perform for Souness.

Not surprised by this at all. Thought the original decision in our favour was a very surprising one.

Surely Craig Short is far more deserving of one last hurrah in a Rovers shirt than Amoruso? He may well be a very nice guy off the pitch but the sight of him warming up on the touchline sends me into a cold sweat. I wish someone would show Hughesey a tape of Amo's last outing, the 4-0 reverse at home to Boro and our Uefa Cup games last season before he is tempted to do anything daft.

Fair point, but the more clubs there are performing desperately poorly the better it is for us! The fact it is a "big" club makes it frankly even more satisfying. The fact it is Souness who took us on exactly the same downward spiral makes it "priceless" as they say in the ads.

I was thinking that Tony, the Club has been very quiet in the face of all the unjustified flak that has been flying around, even if not defending the on the pitch happenings, a spirited defence of the club's supporters wouldn't have gone amiss. Having had a few days to reflect the level of criticism the team has been subject to is totally uncalled for. There is nothing at all wrong with the team's overall style of play. However there is no need for the sort of studs up knee high challenges perpetrated by Flitcroft and Savage, and on another day Thompson's unnecessary petulance would have seen him enjoying an early bath. I'm sure we can cut those sort of things out without in any way compromising the team's competitiveness. The most unjustified attack in the National Media was that on the fans. When the hysteria finally settles down, fair minded analysts might just recognise the occasion as an imoportant day. It was a day that the average football fan finally drew a line in the sand and refused to be taken advantage of any longer. To me it wasn't so much the early kick off time, or the venue, but the refusal of the FA to make available adequate numbers of reasonably priced tickets particularly for kids. For those who had to disappoint little Johnny, it must have been a desperately difficult decision to make but they may just have done the game a favour in the long term.

Agree entirely with tash, Todd has already protested his innocence therefore MUST plead not guilty. On an objective and impartial hearing it would be impossible to prove his guilt on the basis of the video clips................ we shall wait and see. Have to pick up on a point in jim's post. I may be wrong but I thought I had read elsewhere the referee had seen the incident but viewed it as accidental which was why he failed to mention it in his report as opposed to not seeing it? If that is the case the FA decision to override him and charge Todd is disappointing and smacks of big club bias.

For the general good of the game I'd love to see unfashionable Bolton clinch the 4th Champions League spot. However from a strictly selfish point of view I think it would be a very bad thing for Rovers if they were to do so giving them for the first time a significant financial advantage over us.

Not half as crap as they will be by this time next season if GS and his "coaching" staff are still there. Good to see he has them conceding the standard four goals a game already.

There was one cracking call into Talksport yesterday. Rodney Marsh (who to be fair had given Hughes some qualified support) was bleating on about what a great final Man Ure v Arsenal would be and how the whole nation wanted this dream final etc. etc. Someone rang in disagreeing saying that everyone was sick of ManUre and arsenal and no neutrals wanted to watch a match between Arsenal,who writhe about in agony everytime anyone goes near them and ManUre, who swamp the referee everytime a throw in decision goes against them. Unsurprisingly this call was met with a "don't know what he's talking about" attitude from the presenters. It had me banging the car dashboard in approval though.

Where's the flair? Ask Graeme bloody Souness thankfully 2-0 down v ManUre and heading for a drubbing. (Can't believe I would ever watch a ManUre v Newcastle game hoping for the Red Scum to win.)

Doesn't really bother me Bryan, just making the point we should be prepared for a lot more of this sort of (crap) coverage.

Been listening to Talksport all the way back up and was amazed at the vitriol being directed towards us by the presenters. Todd may well have let himself down although having seen the replay I don't think it's conclusive. Other than that despite a couple of bad challenges from Flitcroft and Savage I didn't think the game was overly physical but it was all "Only one team came to play football" "Football was the winner" "Todd's a cowardly thug" etc etc. Only Rodney Marsh tried to partially defend us by saying that Hughes had no choice but to play in this manner given the personnel at our disposal. Although he was very scathing about Todd. Then (get this) a Wigan, yes Wigan fan had an e-mail read out in saying we were an embarrassment to the Premiership because we'd only taken 15,000 to a semi final!. (Well it was probably nearer 18,000 but don't let that get in the way of a good story) Rodders was in full agreement with this saying it would be embarrassing if a club took 15,000 to a semi final "played on the moon." The presenters then decided in their wisdom that this was because Rovers fans don't want to watch our ugly style of play. A Rovers fan tried e-mailing in about the £45 tickets but this was badly explained and swiftly dismissed saying they didn't understand the point being made. It seems clear that we are currently the new Wimbledon or Millwall of the Premiership as far as the media are concerned, the team everyone loves to hate. Looks like we'll have to put up with this sort of coverage for the forseeable future until we can add more flair to our game.

It wasn't the most successful trip for me either. Some twonk ran into the back of me on the M6 yesterday. I was a tad disappointed with our performance today. In the first half we had the ball in numerous promising positions but seemed to lack the confidence in our own ability to make something happen, preferring instead to knock the ball backwards and retain possession. The game plan was obviously not to concede and after performing extremely well for the first 35 minutes it was obviously crucial to get to half time at 0-0. I felt however we took our eye off the ball slightly for five to ten minutes, Brad bailing us out with a terrific double save before we actually did concede. In the second half we tried hard and showed a little more ambition but never really looked like scoring. If there is one criticism I would have of Hughes's tenure so far it's his continued preference for playing Dickov as a lone frontman when I think it is plain for all to see that he can not fulfill that role. Today Stead looked sharp when he came on but should have had at least 25 minutes,it's unrealistic to expect him to do anything in six minutes. Still hopefully we can learn from this and with our new found resolve there may well be other big occasions like this to look forward to in future if we can sort out our lack of creativity and firepower.

Nice to see someone dredged up this thread. Sporting 4 Newcastle 1

Ditto. Going down to get them now!. We're staying in the Ocean Park Premier Travel Inn in Cardiff on the Friday evening (many thanks to Hughesy) so it would be nice to meet up with anyone down there. As for the game I have this strange vision of us nicking an early goal, then defending resolutely for most of the game before breaking away again to score a second in a routine 2-0 win!

Are you actually going yourself? The reason I ask is that generally it seems the people who make the most noise about our level of support don't go themselves. People who find the club "embarrassing" because of our followings really get on my nipples. It's all about supporting your team, your club. What does it really matter to you if x thousand people you've never met choose to go or not? It's a matter of choice, it's not compulsory, and you can't force anyone to go. More to the point where were all these people "embarrassed" now by 20,000 gates when we were getting 7,000 gates in the 80's in division 2 or even 4,000 in division 3 in the 70's? Probably not even born then but if they were no doubt they wouldn't have supported us because it would be far too "embarrassing" being associated with such an unfashionable club or being seen in such a small crowd. A "proper" fan (God I hate that phrase) would support us no matter what and wouldn't be particularly concerned if there were 3,000 or 30,000 like minded souls alongside him or her. (Although obviously the latter is nicer) And if I read once more that someone going to this one off game is more of a "proper" fan than a season ticket holder who forks out his money season after season I think I'll scream. RANT OVER: P.S. After all the hot air expended on this thread it's a 4am start, it's live on TV, it's mostly £45 per head with no reductions for kids, we currently average only 19,000 at home with 14,000 season ticket holders. Yet we're now looking like taking a respectableish 16,500. Much ado about nothing? If you must have a moan direct it at the FA not your fellow supporters. NOW CAN WE FINALLY GET DOWN TO TALKING ABOUT THE ONLY THING THAT REALLY MATTERS? TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO WIN THIS BLOODY GAME OF FOOTBALL!!!

Well it's 15,004 now, just ordered my tickets at tea time. At £45 a throw thank goodness I'm only paying for my own ticket. How anyone can possibly criticise say a family of 4 for not going and paying full whack for the kids is beyond me.

I was with you in not being an admirer of Matteo, but I feel he's played very well in the last three games. This topic should be divided into two categories: "Worst value for money" Davies and Grabbi out on their own with "Bad back" Dahlin deserving of an honourable mention. "Worst player" The likes of John O Mara, and Paul Mckinnon that I've seen.

Well ok, perhaps you're in "pedantic moderators mode" this afo. By "last couple of seasons" I meant last season and the first 32 games of this 38 game season. OK?

Hopefully Saturday's match provided a few selection headaches of the right kind for Mark Hughes ahead of Saturday's semi final. BTW we've been grinding out results but Saturday's second half was the first passage of REALLY ENJOYABLE FOOTBALL AT EWOOD for a long long time. Let's keep it up!. I thought Thompson was again completely lost even prior to his injury. By contrast when he came on Emerton put in his first really worthwhile shift in a Rovers shirt since the opening day of last season against Wolves. Amazing what the prospect of a Cup semi final can do to your performance level. On that form he'd be a real threat. Similarly in the middle Tugay was sensational when he came on, the player of two or three seasons ago albeit against a beaten and demoralised side. On the basis that you need to find something a bit special when you play a team like the Arse, do you give Tugay the nod? Alongside him a fully fit Savage as opposed to Flitcroft is a no brainer but do you risk throwing the former straight in after a prolonged absence? Reid must be one of the first names on the team sheet in his current form and was my mom on Saturday. Personally I tend towards the view that Mokoena is so effective in the defensive midfield role, playing the far less influential Flitcroft in a similar role is surplus to requirements. Could you even say the same to a lesser degree about Savage? Up front Stead has looked far livelier and likely to find the net than Dickov in recent weeks. Will he be given a fair chance on Saturday? Quite nice questions to ponder all in all after the last couple of seasons.

I wouldn't say the the footballing bubble has quite burst tnr and Paul but it definitely has a slow puncture. (For many of the reasons you've mentioned.) Having by far the smallest geographical fan base this impacts on us harder than "Bigger" clubs. Read somewhere over the weekend that the Taylor report recommended at the time that a fair price for a ticket in an all seater stadium would be five or six quid. Allowing for inflation that would be ten or eleven quid. That said, if we'd played the whole season under Hughes and his backroom staff and in current form, would any of us be bemoaning the state of the game in general? I think not!

Two points and closing. To paraphrase a former Newcastle manager: I'D LUV IT, LUV IT IF WE FINISHED ABOVE THEM!

Not anywhere near as limited as Dickov who yet again was very poor yeterday IMO. His sole worthwhile contribution was doing very well to keep the ball in play in the 91st minute. Stead played far better at Goodison and Anfield than Dickov has for several months now. Yet all the more senior player has to do is run around ferociously for most of the match and can do no wrong in many people's eyes

Play the ball into the corners, pull the other one it usually ends up in row 16. Athletic certainly and quite effective bombing forward. That apart he seems incapable of passing the ball to a blue and white shirt. More importantly he has no defensive positional sense at all and has played abysmally for a season and a half. Anything over £2m and we should snap the buyers hand off. (Or if you're reading this Graeme, you're quite right he is the best right back in the league and should be worth at least £6m more of Newcastle's dosh.)