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?

Ashamed to be a Rover after that display. We should have been 2-0 down after 10 minutes. Then handed the game on a plate on 13 minutes by the young keeper making a mistake and getting sent off. It was however the 75th minute before we made their 4th choice keeper make a save! In between ten man Everton had the ball in the net on another 3 occasions. On another day two of the ruled out efforts might have been given. Shocking piece of defending by Neill for the goal but why weren't either Nelsen or Todd detailed to mark Beattie? I got slaughtered early on in the season for criticising Friedel and yes, he did pull out one superb performance at OT in the Cup, but again on this performance he is on his way out. No performances from any of our "big" players today Friedel, Nelsen, Savage, Bellamy. Emerton seemingly has no future at the club, with Pedersen out he should have been playing out of his skin to stake his claim for a place in the side and came up with..........nothing. No drive, enthusiasm, ingenuity,nothing. Only young Sergio Peter who came on as a late sub performed with any credit. If the performances of the last two games carry on, we'll get half a dozen or so more points and the season will sink without trace. Attract missing fans back to Ewood, you're having a larf. We've now played an hour against ten man Bolton and 80 minutes v ten man Everton and scored no goals and got one point. Very low after today. Will take me a long time to get over this one.

Have to disagree. Don't want to give them the Midas touch by predicting "they're buggered" but they certainly appear to be buggered from the figures quoted above. There seems to be no way they can meet their liabilities unless they can manage to tap into previously undiscovered levels of income. Glazer must surely be depending on the break up of collective Premiership bargaining of media rights. Which might happen I suppose. But it's up to the fifteen or so clubs who would be severely disadvantaged to vehemently oppose that.

It's reported in this morning's Sun that the underfire Boro boss has handed 30 YEAR OLD George Boateng a 4 AND A HALF YEAR DEAL at 45,000 PER WEEK. This despite the fact he has only managed 42 GAMES IN 19 MONTHSdue to injury!. I had to read this several times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Is it any wonder some people get turned off Premiership football? No wonder crowds at Boro, not exactly an affluent area are dropping even faster than ours.

Oops, yes Marcus Bent. Kevin Gallagher was quick on the turn and nippy over a few yards rather than having searing pace. Reading the full transcript of the Pongolle interview in the LET tonight it seems as if he only views us as a means of getting back in the Liverpool starting line up. (At the moment)

There won't be anyone else because you have to buy a licence if you want to make a widget with the official logo on. I went into the club shop again after christmas in the forlorn hope of buying a fleece and it really is going beyond a joke now. There are a few end of line Rovers items on display but practically the only Rovers related thing you can buy are whatever replica strips are left. And they're all the sizes no-one wants. I know the word "disgrace" is bandied around fairly freely on here to describe "minor irritant" but for once it's apt.

Not quite so sure about that, I think it may depend on whether he sees Blackburn Rovers as a permanent career option or whether like the German centre half we rescued from there (can't even remember his name now) he considers it beneath him. I'm sure he'll have bags more natural ability than both Dickov or Kuqi. One thing that was noticeable on Saturday (even though he was allegedly under the weather) was that he seemed to have plenty of pace. If Bellamy came back the thought of a Blackburn Rovers forward line with TWO genuinely quick men in it is completely unheard of! In 35 years of watching Rovers I think you can practically count our strikers with pace on your thumbs. Garner, Shearer (pre first injury), Bellamy. Anyone else?

The first bit of that sentence is impossible to disagree with Gordon but the second bit can't be strictly correct. We averaged over 26,000 just three seasons ago under Souness. Unless a very substantial proportion of the white indigenous population have moved out of the area to be replaced by their Asian counterparts within that very short time span. I'm sure there's some element of that but it can't be that pronounced.

I'm amazed that Ferguson has not been charged with bringing the game into disrepute for his comments about the way a fellow manager's (Mark Hughes') teams play. In legal terms the comments were nothing short of being slanderous against Hughes. The facts of course did not bear out the ridiculous old buffoon's argument. We were the ones who had a man stretchered off after a late high challenge. The yellow card count was 2-3 with one of our players harshly booked for charging down a free kick. The foul count was 20-25. Nothing to choose between the teams in that respect. Then again I'm not really surprised at all. It's Manchester United. Had it been Hughes /Allardyce/Jewell making similar accusations againt Ferguson/Wenger/Mourinho their feet wouldn't have touched the floor. .

No,Souness was wrong. Hughes was right when he apparently sat the players down pre season and showed them a presentation with Europe as the target. Thats a large part of the reason why we are where we are now and why Newcastle were where they were before Souness was sacked.

What was so frustrating about today was we simply didn't compete in the first half. A yard and a half slower to every ball and you simply can't do that at this level. Was it complacency, only thinking we had to turn up to win? There wasn't a similar problem with our approach in the second half even though we still weren't playing particularly well. However at two nil down we'd simply left ourselves too much of a mountain to climb. Immensely frustrating although you'd still settle for winning two games out of every three i.e. two points per game between now and the end of the season.

Glad you enjoyed the game heapy. Watching the game live I thought Tugay simply got (very sloppily) caught in possession in a promising position and therefore it was a very poor goal to concede from our point of view. Mind you Saha mishit (sliced) his shot horrendously but it just found the corner of the net. Re: Graham Poll after tonight's lobsided officiating if he's ever in charge of one of our games again against a "big club" I suggest Rovers fans partake of a loaded revolver and a quiet room not just a beer!

Very disappointing really. We've gone there with a forward line up that would have embarrassed a conference side, and conceded two desperately soft goals defensively which you simply can't afford to do against a side of United's calibre. Other than that we've competed extremely well over the 90 minutes. Interesting to see one or two references to John O Mara. On tonight's performance Kuqi must be the worst striker to wear the blue and white halves since the six foot 5 inch lummox of the early 70's. If there is anything you can fault Hughes for it's the striker situation. We needed another quality striker in August, it didn't really need the injury to Dickov to make the need apparent. Now we're desperately scratching around in the last few days of the transfer window. If we'd have won tonight, the game against West Ham would have been kind of superfluous. Now it's vitally important to keep some sort of momentum going. Although you couldn't see us winning another game all season with Kuqi and Bentley up front. Back to tonight, Friedel was outstanding, a flashback to the form of the superman season. Reid was I thought by far our most impressive outfield player.

I agree that Peter Taylor sharing a bus with philip must have been one of his life highlights, but does his exceptional record with the under 21's not count for anything?

I don't know if the fact "the dream final" can no longer happen increases or decreases the pressure on the ref in that respect. Although Semi final or no semi final we know we get turned over by the officials at OT more often than not. I suspect we will have to win the game by a clear margin to get a draw if you see what I mean.

Excellent shout. EDIT: Peter Taylor I meant.

Never been so delighted about the result of a match not involving Rovers. I only saw the second half onwards but on that basis Wigan were absolutely magnificent. They wanted it far more than the poncey gooners and if we show the same desire tomorrow night we will go through. No question. Dave Whelan (whatever he may be like in person ) was also excellent tonight. Tracked by the Sky Cameras, came down from the directors box to walk half the length of the pitch to salute the travelling fans only to be ridiculously turned back by the home stewards. Undeterred he then went to the disabled supporters area and then embraced a couple of wheelchair bound supporters with real affection. C'mon Rovers, let's make it the people's final and the Broadcaster's nightmare!

joey, out of interest, since Sven's been in charge do you think we've performed better, worse, or about the same than should have been expected given the players we've had available over that period? Take out the 5-1 game in Munich and I can't find much in the "better" category. It's generally "about the same" with a liberal sprinkling of "worse" along the way. Especially when the chips are down.

There is an element of that as well. Sven will trouser 3.5m for doing naff all when the Tournament finishes and no doubt walk straight into another ludicrously overpaid position. I'm sure he's more than happy with the settlement he's negotiated.