And a couple of brain cells. Any volunteers?

Just the 1 Jim. Scored by a young Carrick if memory serves.

I thought he'd got a driving ban (OK, he might have served it) so better not tell the boys in blue!

For all you practical folk out there......... chill your ale

Maybe the figure's accurate but includes a few little 'extras' that Rovers aren't involved with eg endorsements?

Not far off Mum. Lived in Whalley during his playing days (insert your own joke here) I believe, don't know if he still has a house there.

Eddie, before you bow down and worship (as Roar of the Rover does with Benitez), here are a few examples of their dealings in recent years...... Yes of course they've made some good signings, but they've made some stinkers too. As have all managers.

I know, old news, but keep your backs to the wall ...... click . Watch out with that wavy perm Abbs

Must have been that vindaloo waggy. Couple of thoughts (apols to others that have mentioned something similar).......... 1 - lesson number one : Pearce and McClown should talk to each other. If McC had given Bentley an easy time rather than taking him on a fruitless trip to Estonia etc then maybe he wouldn't have withdrawn from the U21s. 2 - lesson number two : doesn't matter how much you're paid, a body takes time to recover. I used to be a reasonable club athlete and could go out and train for a few miles every day no problem. Do a race where you push yourself hard (couple of miles or ten miles, whatever) and you need at least a few days to recover before you can repeat. Keep that up for a few months and you need a decent rest or else you'll do some serious damage (frinstance I got a stress fracture that stopped me running for a couple of months). Get paid 50 quid or 50 grand a week it doesn't matter.

Time for the annual Preston hairdresser review. Thought this was a decent place to put it. So to explain…… First up is the real end of season table - . P GD pts Man Utd 38 56 89 Chelsea 38 40 83 Liverpool 38 30 68 Arsenal 38 28 68 Tottenham 38 3 60 Everton 38 16 58 Bolton 38 -5 56 Reading 38 5 55 Portsmouth 38 3 54 Blackburn 38 -2 52 Aston Villa 38 2 50 Middlesbrough 38 -5 46 Newcastle 38 -9 43 Man City 38 -15 42 West Ham 38 -24 41 Fulham 38 -22 39 Wigan 38 -22 38 Sheff Utd 38 -23 38 Charlton 38 -26 34 Watford 38 -30 28 Now here’s the table according to Lawrenson’s predictions over the season…… . P GD pts Man Utd 38 62 98 Chelsea 38 60 96 Arsenal 38 50 88 Liverpool 38 44 81 Bolton W 38 14 65 Tottenham 38 16 63 Aston V 38 0 58 Everton 38 5 56 Wigan A 38 -1 54 Portsmouth 38 3 51 Blackburn 38 -5 50 West Ham 38 -3 47 Sheff Utd 38 -25 34 Charlton 38 -15 32 Newcastle 38 -24 31 Fulham 38 -27 28 Reading 38 -28 27 Middlesboro 38 -34 26 Man City 38 -39 19 Watford 38 -42 17 Not guaranteeing it's perfect but it's not too far out. And finally a table to show the difference between the real world and Lawrenson’s predictions (positive numbers indicate reality was better than Lawrenson and vice versa) – . P GD pts Reading 38 33 28 Man City 38 24 22 Middlesbrough 38 29 20 Newcastle 38 15 12 Watford 38 12 11 Fulham 38 5 11 Sheff Utd 38 2 4 Portsmouth 38 0 3 Everton 38 11 2 Blackburn 38 3 2 Charlton 38 -11 2 Tottenham 38 -13 -3 West Ham 38 -21 -6 Aston Villa 38 2 -8 Man Utd 38 -6 -9 Bolton W 38 -19 -9 Liverpool 38 -14 -13 Chelsea 38 -20 -13 Wigan 38 -21 -16 Arsenal 38 -22 -20 So Reading, Man City, and Boro were this season’s big losers, all doing much better than the hairdresser predicted whilst Arsenal did much worse. Unlike last year, he wasn’t way out with us. Couple of things I did notice though : like last year, Boro did much better than he predicted, and both Chelsea and (especially) Arsenal did much worse. Maybe him and Arsene have something going. Now where’s that anorak gone…..

Well said JBN, another v solid performance last night from the Axe and Dunny. It's noticeable how the Axe is much more confident now and looks happy playing 20 - 30 yd passes. A couple of months ago, 5 yd sideways/backward passes were about his limit. Still a bit of learning though - he wins quite a lot in the air but nearly always (that I've noticed anyway) there's another blue and white shirt going for the header, and if Axe wins it there's not much in the way of directing it to a teammate. A much improved player though. And on Dunny, well that's another game towards Tris and myself saying he was a decent buy after all.

Glad to see his Rovers form isn't a one off

For those of a certain vintage (eg AS I suspect......) Not sure they do a listen again so Friday morning might be the only chance to catch this. Heard Andy Kershaw on Desert Island Discs the other day. Never been the biggest fan but thought it was a fine listen, with a sprinkling of musical gems eg White Man in Hammersmith Palais. Short notice but recommended if you have chance to listen.

Getting the flak jacket on, whilst Roberts might have decent potential, I'd rather have Shefki back on the eveidence so far. I'd look on em both as subs who might make something happen, and Kuqi wins that one for me.

Maybe it's just a ruse to confuse your evil sidekick?

Wasn't the West Ham goal blatantly offside? From what I heard, Kapo was a couple of yards off. If it hadn't turned out to be a consolation goal, think we might have heard more.

That Festive 50 site is a fine spot Oz. Marvellous. I have a few years charts on cassettes but 20 year old cassettes aren't the most robust things in the world.

Be interested to hear how he gets along Mr Tashkent (splendid name by the way). He first appeared on my Rovers radar 2 or 3 years ago when he seemed to be getting rave reviews for the academy. Seems to have gone off the boil a bit on his rise through the ranks - doing OK for the reserves these days, but still one of our brighter hopes.

I'd go along with that almost exactly Scotty. I'm baffled by some folks' views, but hey it's a subjective game so we'll all see things a bit differently. I'd suggest that Hughes' view isn't too close to Rev's. Some things just aren't worth getting worked up about though.

Flops, not going to stake my house on it, but I think it was Southampton. I remember thinking at the time that if someone like Gerrard had played the ball there'd have been many a pundit raving. Gord, ANOTHER post I agree with . Nurse, fetch more pills.........

Some words from Hughes yesterday about Gally............

We ??????????????????

Well said Gord, I can think of about half a dozen we've conceded over the past season or two where the conclusion has been that Emo didn't put in anything like an effective aerial challenge. Think I'd be a bit more constructive about it though - room for improvement rather than p1ss poor . Something for Hughes et al to work on. Suppose if he was the finished article though he probably wouldn't be at Ewood,

Tris, I was doing the same sums. £13 a head I seem to remember being quoted a while ago as the average admission price (taking into account juniors, seniors etc). So £500k is the income the club get from TWO home games. And remember we don't clear that amount - there's all the matchday costs, not to mention various wages of course. From a transfer market viewpoint maybe £500k isn't earth shattering. But in the grand scheme of things blue and white, IMHO it's 5 times what we can risk on pie boy.