Interesting story about him, a bloke came into Ladbrokes in Blackburn where my partner is manager about a month ago with 100k cash in a bin bag wanting to place the money on Kilmarnock to beat Dunfermline away from home. The bet was 100,000 at 8/13 to win 157,000! Anyway Kilmarnock were 2-1 up and looking ok until Dunfermline equalised in the 66th minute. The score stayed the same until well after twenty to five and Ladbrokes looked set for a huge windfall. Then it flashed up on teletext that that guy Invincible had scored on 90! Cue the punter going from zero to 157,000 quid in an instant and much wailing and gnashing of teeth and no annual bonuses at Ladbrokes end! Butt twitching time or what?

Nah, philip would rather make a completely unsubstantiated statement, bordering on without actually quite being defamatory, and leave it hanging in the air...............

Better still Gordon, instead of giving Chelsea 48 quid (would expect to see a Cup final for that) go to the Leeds cup game and take 3 non regular fans with you! (Not saying your bar tab is a large one or anything! )

I thought Savage was badly missed on Saturday, especially in the first half. Reid, who was in stunning form in the second half of last season, is currently not in the best of form and Tugay seems very inconsistent these days compared to two or three seasons ago.

Very much a case of all's well that ends well on Saturday. After such a great result at the theatre of merchandising you would have expected us to come out really buzzing but conversely the first half was appalling, as bad as anything I can remember under either Hughes or Souness. No obvious enthusiasm, commitment, movement off the ball or anything. The non stop contribution of Savage was sorely missed during this period. The second half saw an increase in tempo, plenty of huff and puff, but no real improvement until the introduction of the 2 substitutes Emerton and Mokoena on 65 minutes. For some reason we then finally found the real urgency and desire which had been lacking for the previous hour, permanently penning the Baggies back on the edge of their area. Nevertheless with 15 minutes to go it looked like being a thoroughly unsatisfactory afternoon. I had just been thinking how Kuqi and Dickov looked as though they didn't have 5 goals in them between them all season when Kuqi suddenly pulled out a great header from out of the blue for the first. A few minutes later he was gifted a second and everyone goes home happy. Excellent result but we'll have to play a lot better than that most weeks to get anything. The best thing was obviously the two goals for Kuqi. I'm still far from convinced by him but you can't help but like his attitude and the added confidence derived from the two goals might just help him discover his touch and lead to a big improvement in his performances.

Thank god for that. All credit to him though if he's as good as his word rather than just being content to pick up his pay packet. i.e. Flitcroft

Nice idea Stu. I personally think ST's should be on a permanent all year round rolling direct debit. Keeps the monthly cost to a minimum and people would have to take positive action to cancel rather than renew.

In theory you can also use these cards to order a ticket using your mobile phone etc but again I doubt we've fully mastered that sort of thing yet.

There was a grant available from the football trust which had to be put towards something............................................... In theory the cards allow the club to analyse detailed data about customers spending habits. I doubt we have fully got the hang of it yet. Oops........... just seen Paul's post.

Fair shout.

Rubbish. Alan's comments were in the context of the thread being about whether the clubs could get together to consider offering reduced 10 pound ticket prices then some muppet enquiring whether anyone fancied (spending loads of money on) an "all dayer" thereby negating the point behind that particular initiative. Also it is actually possible for most people to have a good deal to drink before and during a game without annoying other people or coming across as "drunken and lary" as you put it.

Only 3 points off a champions league spot now. Once again don't wish to be too critical after a wonderful overall performance but Neill had a mare on Saturday. Got skinned every time by Ronaldo. Would like to see Zurab given a run out in that position. I also think we look slightly more solid in the middle with Todd and Nelsen there. The million dollar question now is can we maintain this improved form on Saturday? We have to be consistent instead of turning our form on and off like a tap as has largely been the case over the last 2-3 seasons. And please Sparky NO MORE 4-5-1! It doesn't work for Rovers/England/The Buccaneers/insert as appropriate.

Yes. Mind you it's nice to have some return for 48 million.

Been waiting foir this for 13 years, what a great result. The game was won from our point of view in the first half by taking the game to them, playing 4-4-2 and defending from the front. Bellamy and Dickov did really well in that respect although Dickov showed his usual lack of quality in front of goal. Sparky did his best to try and throw it away by changing a winning formula at HT and then going to 4-5-1 after just 59 minutes but to carp on too much would be churlish after such a momentous result. MOM Michael Gray for me. We would be awesome up front with Pedersen and Bentley if Bellamy had a strike partner of similar quality.

Ooooo, biting.

Exactly what I was thinking TD. Agree with the good entertainment for a tenner bit as well.

1) How does having a good day out (minus the football) help Blackburn Rovers? You may as well be supporting the Buccaneers. 2) Sorry to hear about your experiences with John Haworth but IMO he couldn't organise the proverbial knees up in a brewery and is a relic of a bygone age. I'm sure in a similar situation today you would get a more than satisfactory response from Tom Finn/ John Williams. Why hold that against the club now? 3) You're now engaging in a "I'm a better fan than you" type argument. This is totally pointless. You certainly won't have been to any more home games than me over that period. You may have been to more away games but I sponsored the match ball on several occasions in the 80's when the club really needed it. So what? 4) I couldn't agree more with general concerns about lack of entertainment/ quality as a whole but when the Club make the gesture of slashing the price to a tenner and it's going to be a desperately low home turnout, then I figure it's time to show up and voice any other concerns at a later date.

Whilst maybe not top quality this game was a lot more entertaining than much of the Premiership fayre this season for the simple reason that both sides were making an honest attempt to win the match. Bellamy showed his class once we managed to provide some balls for him to run on to and was head and shoulders our best player. Gray also did very well I thought after so long out. I have to disagree with some of the other player ratings though I thought Friedel had a terrible game. Rooted to his line or coming halfway and then retreating when he should have been taking command of situations. Tugay very subdued Savage warming to the task now he is fit. Here there and everywhere breaking the opposition down. He is always going to misplace the odd pass as he is involved so often. Emerton superb pass for the first goal and good header second half otherwise generally very poor. Bentley Flashes of real quality but needs to be more involved over the 90 mins. Dickov Quite awful Neither him or Kuqi anywhere near good enough, therein lies our major problem. Still a 3-1 win from not a brilliant performance. Can't complain. Long term at Premiership level Bellamy is going to need some quality support though.

Like you Paul I'm baffled by these supposed 21 shots. I can only recall Given making a couple of saves from set piece situations.

Going back to the original gist of the thread Wigan had just 3346 on last night for the visit of Bournmouth which may give an insight into the size of their real core support. That said we haven't seen what tonight's gate is going to be yet................

Not strictly true even Chelsea struggled desperately to sell out West Brom at home. Will Arsenal manage to sell out a 60k stadium if they're title alsorans? The Premier League can also apparently pass a motion if 14 clubs are in favour. So if things continue to deteriorate things might develop.

Of course not but as Quack says there is no logic in not going to tonight's game and not donating 10 quid to club funds but then spending a small fortune on an away day out on Saturday of which 32 quid goes to the Buccaneers. Not the best example for you maybe as you're Manchester based but I'm sure you'd be doing the same if it was an away game anywhere else. Also with a low crowd anticipated every single bum on a seat is doubly important tonight. It's in that sense you're not supporting the club in this particullar instance.

I have to disagree with that as well. IMO the Club has to run itself in such a way as to try and snatch as much of the Premiership TV money as possible. We are never going to get comparable amounts of money from any other source. I would agree that players are going to start to have to be signed on one year rolling deals or "Your pay goes down by 75% if we are relegated" type deals. I don't suppose we will be any different from the other 16 non champions league clubs in that respect.

Again total rollocks. Why would anyone give a stuff about the bragging rights when and if LU play at Ewood Park or not? It's not their club. I can't see any point whatsoever in supporting a new side such as LU on the off chance it might be more successful. It's no different whatsoever to deciding to switch allegiance to MU/Chelsea because it's the only way you can see some "success". Shaddy if you're that bothered about us not winning things I suggest you bog off now and go and support one of the "big 3." Stone me this is meant to be a Brfc messageboard for brfc fans. Talk about the enemy within.

That's the most ridiculous post I've ever seen on the subject. The new club has nothing whatsoever to do with the original one, and you're reliant on bypassing a generation of fans in the hope that you will be able to convert the next generation. You might as well just close the gates and turn off the lights now as adopt that type of approach. Quite why it worked in Australia I'm not certain but then culture and tradition have never been the strongest points of Australian life. This is a Blackburn Rovers messageboard. You should be thinking of ways to try and promote Blackburn Rovers rather than advocating the club be disbanded.