RevidgeBlue

Excellent point. I usually sit in JW upper and the bit near me seems reasonably well populated therefore I assumed the rest of the stand was the same. Was in the Riverside yesterday and was shocked at how empty JW upper was. Shows price does have some impact as JW upper is the only area of the ground with no concessions.

I didn't say anything about lack of commitment yesterday. I would say we were "flat" as opposed to "uncommitted" under Souness. The one thing that did disappoint me in the second half was the fact that Neil/Reid/Emerton had several promising situations down the right but none of the forwards appeared prepared to take a gamble to get on the end of anything.

You criticise Dickovs performance Rev but the worst player on the park and by a considerable distance (much worse even than NEJ) was Gallagher. I may be proven wrong in the fullness of time but imo he is out of his depth in the Prem. Sure he pulled the save of the match out of Robinson but that apart he contributed next to FA. The thing that endears him to the fans can only be the fact that he lived in Shad. Which in itself provides a strange contradiction....... how does a lad from Shad manage to shirk and duck out of so many 50:50 situations? Dickov was finding it tough enough against the Tottenham 'Globetrotters' but the task became impossible once he had been booked. Not sure if I agree with that entirely tnr, No matter how far Gally is off the pace of the game on occasion I always feel he is capable of turning the game with a moment of inspiration or scoring a vital goal - as almost turned out to be the case yesterday with that fabulous save forced out of Robinson. As for Boothroyd, not entirely sure about him yet. He has all the physical attributes, has fabulous close control and shows some sublime touches. Yet sometimes I get the impresssion he is a non scoring forward as it were.

Absolutely typical Rovers, the crowd up by a huge 10% or 2,000 in relative terms, I'd taken my 2 daughters along for the first time since Duff left ............. and we get a completely flat performance. Sorry to all you Dickov lovers out there but whilst the pint sized Scot's individual work ethic certainly can not be faulted I feel his contribution to the team is enormously over-rated. Can't compete in the air due to his size. Poor first touch hence generally unable to hold the ball up. Rarely tests the opposition keeper and most importantly seems completely unable to link up with whoever his striking partner seems to be on any given day. I believe that if we are to have any degree of certainty of survival Dickov's role needs to be reduced to at most coming on for the last half hour to ruffle the feathers of tiring defenders. Whilst in the meantime and in the presumed absence of a major Cole like signing in January, a successful partnership simply MUST be found between any combination of the more technically gifted forwards at the club Boothroyd/Gallagher/Stead/Jansen.

Feeling really really optimistic about this one for the first time in a season and a half. 4-0 Rovers.

I seem to remember the late great Noel being a right as opposed to left winger. Recall him having to carry us single handedly on numerous occasions in the early 80's when we had a VERY mediocre side. For what it's worth of the players I have seen in the flesh he would be my choice on the right, with the incomparabe Duff on the left. To use the reverse of Jim's argument, just because he is modern day doesn't automatically preclude him from being the best either!

Just a couple of footnotes to the best performance for a season or two: The difference in the performance level of the team from when Souness was here is jaw dropping. And without wishing to put the kibosh on things, the last time I saw our midfield players hunting down the opposition like that with the appetite of a pack of hungry wolves was during the rather successful 1992-5 period.......................

Despite the serious nature of the situation as far as our club is concerned had to raise an ironic chuckle when Karen Brady called for a criminal investigation and prosecution this morning. Perhaps at the same time we could also ask the Police to charge Yorke with obtaining around two million quid in salary by deception over the last two seasons as well. Can't help thinking that Steve Bruce's irresponsible over-reaction will come back to bite him on the backside at some point. Judging by Yorke's ambling apology for a performance yesterday, it won't be long before he is attracting the ire of his own fans. And never having noted Brum fans as being the most placid or tolerant, Mr. Bruce may soon be have to be apologising for more than the isolated actions of a mindless couple of idiots. Trust Rovers will deal with the one or two culprits swiftly and effectively and that the fans will show their real colours by giving Andy Cole a great reception at weekend.

Sir Bobby left Souness with a far more talented squad than Souness left Hughes although I would wager that if Souness lasts that long there won't be much between the two sides at the end of the season as I feel we now have by far the superior coaching set up.

Bit of useless information, Bobby Svarc has a healthy business fitting/maintaining burglar alarm systems and came out to look at ours about 18 mths ago. Really pleasant bloke, then he mentioned in passing he was a jehovah's witness and I beat a hasty retreat. Worst player, this has been done lots of times before, IMO in terms of value for money, Grabbi and Davies although the latter has shown he is a decent player at both Saints and Wanderers. However today's "worst" players would walk into our 1970's 3rd division sides. Worst two for me John O Mara - lumbering six feet five centre forward who couldn't win a header in the air. And from the 80's Paul Mckinnon. Lardy free scoring centreforward from non league football who disappeared from whence he came after a handful of games.

The lads who were removed were very angry towards myself and friends. I think we of been responsible for them getting angry and getting removed. Hughesey, controversy seems to be following you around at the moment. I recall you saying in another post you somehow completely unexpectedly ended up on the pitchside at City. Just for the avoidance of doubt and for elimination purposes only what exactly did you do to attract the wrath of the people thrown out?

Has to be Batty for me, his Rovers career may have been short but for a time it was extremely sweet. He produced a standard I've never seen before or since from a Rovers midfielder in the second half of the 93/94 season when we nearly overhauled a 15 point deficit to overtake ManUre.

4 straight defeats for Newcastle now. The Fuhrer will be falling out with Shearer and giving him away to Fulham for nothing next.

Three points from three games doesn't look well on paper but the improved nature of the performances give reason for optimism. Two or three wins and a five or six game unbeaaten run suddenly looks hugely impressive.

I have said for some time that we are not making full use of the magnificent Academy facility therefore I support the sentiment behind the decision to strengthen the links between the academy and first team. However the treatment of Tony Parkes has been an absolute disgrace. I thought yesterday when there were huge pink LET billboards round town screaming "Parkes sacked" that he deserved a much more dignified deparure than this and that his departure could have been presented on a mutually agreed basis. The actual story was actually even worse. The decision was made on TUESDAY, yet no-one could be bothered to tell him until the news leaked out in the press on FRIDAY morning? TP found out about it from his daughter who heard/saw it on the news and then had to ring JW, the club still hadn't had the decency to make contact with him. A very brave decision from Hughes, even King Kenny didn't dare pot "Mr. Blackburn Rovers" At least we now can be under no illusions, the phrase "job for life" obviously only applies to Chairmen, Board members and overpaid chief executives. Thanks for the 35 years of service Tony. You have done far more for the Club than the people responsible for cocking up this situation ever will.

Let's just hope that we have reached the crest of the slump and that we saw the green shoots of recovery peeping out from amongst the wreckage of the Souness era on Saturday. Positives: Emerton, Bothroyd, and Reid were excellent. Emerton in particular has now shown he can perform on either flank if he wants, so there really is no excuse for him only putting in the two or three good performances we saw last year. Short and NEJ looked 100% more reliable than Hulk Hogan and Matteo. Ferguson played well again and Tugay bounced back commendably from the sending off. The goal apart McEveley performed admirably after a long absence from first team action. Why on earth was he shamefully overlooked last season by Souness? Negatives: Neill was the weakest link in an underperforming side last season and has continued in similar fashion this season. Time to get some value out of the 4 year contract we gave Douglas in the close season and give him his chance. I may be in the minority on this but after a bright start to the season I think Dickov has looked poor and out of his depth in the last few games. He hasn't scored in eight matches (which is pretty much in keeping with his career record) and I can't see that ratio improving. Would like to see Stead starting alongside Bothroyd, whose display on Saturday came as somewhat of a revelation as he displayed signs of real quality.

Agree entirely with philip l, this is A MUST NOT LOSE GAME for us. A draw won't represent a bad result in the general scheme of things but we can't afford to lose three points to Norwich as things stand. I'll go 1-1 but I just hope we go down there and try and play our normal game to try to win the three points rather than simply adopt a containment strategy. We saw against Chelski this isn't our forte.

Watched the game on Norwegian. Am prepared to back Hughes as Souness got us squarely into this mess but Souness can't be blamed for the nature of todays showing which was totally unacceptable. This was one of the worst performances I have seen from us in the top flight, we showed no ambition, no desire to play our own game, no willingness to take the fight to Chelsea. On the flip side we didn't even succeed in our limited aim of making it awkward for them. It was almost as if we had decided beforehand we weren't going to take anything out of the game and therefore went through the motions instead. Tactically Dickov and Djorkaeff are never going to work as a pairing, the ex Bolton man is surely better playing behind two front men. Don't get me started on Flitcroft who should be as far away from first team action as is possible. Snap Wigan's hand off. What was gutting as a fan today was hearing mealy mouthed platitudes from the players all week about training under Hughes being "different class" yet they go through the motions on the Saturday. What is also deeply worrying is that the same players who didn't perform for Souness are now not performing for Hughes. Moreover several new players brought in for this season aren't performing either. What is it about Ewood in recent times? Does the job description on the players' contract say "Come to Ewood and put your feet up?"

I must take issue slightly with that statement from Tom Finn, to simply say that clubs are only deemed to be responsible for the behaviour of their own fans seems to be a very literal reading of the guidelines and a case of passing the buck. On a broader level surely Rovers are responsible for the behaviour and ultimately the safety of ALL the fans in the stadium. Granted on an operational level there may be occasions when it is extremely difficult to get say 5,000 Manc barstewards to sit down but the club must at least be seen to be making every possible attempt to get away fans to comply with the regulations. If the home fans could see the club seemed to be doing their best in difficult circumstances there would be surely little ground for complaint and similarly the licensing authorities would surely recognise this.

The Club have to sort this out as a matter of urgency. I have no sympathy for people who persistently stand, stadias are now all seater - end of. BUT it is plainly not on to enforce the regulations against home fans only and not against away fans simply because there's a lot more of them standing. There must be one rule for all. God knows it's been bad enough on the pitch at Ewood over the last couple of seasons. We can ill afford to alienate any more support off it.

He can't fall back on the lame "We're only a small club, survival is the aim" excuse any more roversmum. He's expected to actually win things now. I expect his hard line approach to work for a few months then his (and his coaching set up's) lack of tactical nous to unravel any good footballing habits the Newcastle squad currently possess.

First post in a while. been exceptionally busy. First off perhaps it is unwise to read too much into the size of Saturday's scoreline, there didn't look to be anything much between the sides until the sending off and had Tugay stayed on the outcome might have been very different. Nevertheless that doesn't hide the glaring deficiencies within the team. We are displaying the classic relegation characteristic of being unable to score goals whilst conceding them by the bucketload. Very little of this can be attributed to Hughes. Souness left us miles down a very smelly creek without a paddle and we are suffering extremely badly from his previous decisions. Neill: can not defend, very little positional sense. Always thought he looks more like a midfielder. Amoruso: even less positional sense, no pace to speak of, and no reading of the game to get over that handicap. Arguably the worst defender I have seen in a Rovers shirt considering the level he is meant to be playing at. Matteo: Very poor thus far Gresko: £2m down the pan Di Pedro: Not fit enough for this level of football when he arrived, I've heard he's homesick, will we see him again? Gamst Pedersen: Seemed to be signed as an afterthought when Di Pedro plainly wasn't up to it. Hasn't really shone on the limited evidence to date. Will Hughes rate him or is it another £2m wasted? However our biggest problem lies up front. Souness's act of lunacy in releasing Cole for nothing means we have SIX (yes SIX) strikers (Dickov Stead Boothroyd Gallagher Djorkaeff and Jansen) none of whom currently look capable of notching five goals a season let alone ten. I almost think that if you give a proven goalscorer like Cole away for nothing you deserve what's coming to you and IMO that particular transaction should have been blocked at boardroom level regardless of the history between Souness and Cole. Nevertheless I don't think it's all bad. If Souness had still been in charge there would be no hope. In the short time Hughes has been here there have been encouraging signs the team are at least trying to start to play football and pass the ball on the ground. Whilst the results haven't reflected this yet If Hughes can keep us up this season the future may well be a lot brighter. He will have his work cut out considering the crapola left by Souness though. The Board may have to bite the bullet and invest in an uncompromising centre half and proven scorer in January if they wish to retain Premiership status.

Frank Skinner came up with a classic Reid comparison in one of his Times Columns about how he always somehow pictured him sitting on a tyre suspended from the ceiling chomping on a banana. Can never get that image out of my head now when I see Reid on TV. Hopefully this article was just a bit of mischief making by the Sun. The Board couldn't possibly be that out of touch could they? Old chimpy chops belongs firmly at the top of the "Don't touch with an excrement covered stick" list. With Hoddle, Advocaat, McCarthy, Venables, Bryan Robson etc etc not far behind.

Also a bit worried by all the talk and betting action concerning Advocaat. May be thinking of someone else here, but wasn't he a complete flop at Rangers? (And it's not easy to manage that!)

I'd heard from a reliable source that before Souness's departure he had also managed to fall out with Gallagher. Gally's crime? The heinous crime of stating that he wanted to start more games this season. All allegedly of course.