Heskey, god no, we already have one big useless lump incapable of finding the net more than five or six times a season. I can't see any point in spending several million quid to replace him with another! Wouldn't mind Forssel. (again, if he can prove his fitness)

Both bookings were harsh when you consider the amount of verbals referees get every week from players of the "big four" clubs with no action taken.

We're lucky we're not heading out to Germany without our TWO most influential figures. The over the top challenge Rooney himself put in on Terry just after they fell a goal behind was a disgrace and could easily have broken the Chelsea player's leg.

Bolton denied a blatant penalty on 74. Stelios brought down from behind right in front of goal with only Jaaskelinan to beat. For once the "big club bias" has worked in our favour.

Agreed. We have to try and get the three points we need on Tuesday night rather than sweating it out on Sunday afternoon. It would take a superhuman effort from Chelsea not to take their eye off the ball slightly.

Wouldn't call Bellamy a first division footballer by any stretch.

Spuds 1 Bolton 0 - 60 minutes.

Great result, the unbelievable events just before kick off clearly knocked all the stuffing out of both the Charlton team and crowd and made it little more than a training exercise for us. Notwithstanding that the performance was far removed from our largely dreary efforts over the last 4 games and the main difference for me was Pongolle. Even though he should have scored early on, we look a totally different proposition with him in the side, intelligent movement, slick flowing football and balls into feet. Reid had another stormer, hope we get him signed up to his improved deal asap. Vital three points, means we can have a real go on Tuesday night and if we field the same starting eleven I honestly think we'll win with Chelski having already clinched the title.

Good job our manager isn't Toshack, he doesn't even have a mobile!

I'll kick this off with Ronnie Rosenthal. Centre half Larry LLoyd. 2nd centre half Gary Gillespie. Left back Steve Staunton Only 6 to go! (Keegan) Struggling to think of a keeper.

I'll beg to differ. Nelsen is a very good player but certainly ain't no Colin Hendry and has been at fault for several goals this season. Bellamy is a class apart and would fully justify the award. Although if the award is judged strictly on players who have contributed over the WHOLE of the season there are only two live contenders imo - Nelsen and Reid and I'd give Reid the edge.

How many times is this old cobblers about Shearer supposedly saying he wanted to stay at Rovers going to be brought up? For the umpteenth time, he never said anything at all about leaving or staying all summer. (Probably for obvious reasons) The "I'm staying" thing was an LET headline incorrectly attributed to Shearer. Looking back and even at the time it seemed totally unrealistic that he would stay, with us not even in the UEFA Cup and us slumping alarmingly due to Harford having failed to make the transition from coach to manager. It's a credit to Uncle Jack's enviable powers of persuasion that Shearer was seemingly undecided up to the last minute. Conversely a couple of seasons later Chris Sutton very publically came out and said that he wasn't leaving Rovers even if we were relegated (not expecting us to be) Of course it was a different kettle of fish when the unthinkable actually happened and Sutton soon changed his mind. Never hear anyone holding that against Sutton in the same way as the thing Shearer never even actually said though! In any event if Shearer was to be as loyal as some people expected, he would never have left Southampton to join us for bigger and better things in the first place.

Abramovic can spend as much money as he likes but it is still a considerable achievement to train, coach and mould the team spirit of a set of players that win the League - especially 2 seasons running. However Chelsea have had 2 seasons where practically nothing has gone wrong for them in terms of bad luck or injury. How many consecutive games has Lampard played? Despite all that there are clear signs in the second half of this season that everything will not be as hunky dory for them next year - I can't remember the last time they played really well, and for the first time they have had two or three really poor results. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Man Ure or Arsenal win the League next year. I still prefer Chelski to ManUre or Boring boring Liverpool any day of the week personally though.

McClaren will probably get it in the face of overwhelming public opposition because he is seen as the "safe" option by the FA. Sadly it's always been the way with the FA. Can't help thinking this reminds me of the 70's when "Uncle" Ron Greenwood got the job despite Clough being the only logical choice. Years of failure followed. Albeit there is no such outstanding candidate this time round. EDIT: Oops sorry Billy almost exactly what you said.

Lot of over reaction on this thread. Great player, currently completely out of sorts and may benefit from starting the rest of the season on the bench. Show me another left sided winger/ midfielder of the same age who'll guarantee you 10-12 goals a season who would be available for 5m, and only then should we consider selling. An offer of ten million upwards might at least give us something to think about - before turning it down.

An extremely churlish way to remember Blackburn Rovers' greatest ever player Gav. Sure he won't need to dash off to the pawnbrokers to trade in his Rolex anytime soon but neither did he deserve to have his final few games cut short through injury. The amount of media attention he's getting is richly deserved as he's arguably the greatest ever English striker let alone our greatest ever player. The only thing brassing me off this week is the countless people ringing in radio stations berating him for lack of ambition in joining Newcastle and not ManUre but.............. 1) In 1996 Newcastle under Keegan were the up and coming team. 2) More to the point it has been recorded many times Uncle Jack wouldn't let Shearer sign for United even though he wanted to. Thanks for everything big Al.

Nothing has really changed as a result of today's (predictable) results. It's still in our hands but we now need ideally two wins or possibly something from the Chelsea game depending on the Charlton result.

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.