philipl calculates his annual tax return

I would imagine Premiership managers looking at line-up and rubbing their hands with glee. If we are honest, that team would struggle in the first division. Somehow, we have to scramble for points until January and then hope that the board releases funds for at least four new players.

adopted scouser and one of "rellies" have quiet night in

Cheshire Blue's two up two down missed out on the national property boom

bluephil and thenodrug attend Blackburn Conservative Club's annual meeting

Tris gets spanked by his Mum after losing his job at Guinness

As a post-script, Saturday reminded me of the abject 4-0 thrashing Rovers received at the hands of Birmingham City at St Andrews in the FA Cup last season. Rovers did not look intersted that day and they showed the same lack of enthusiasm for the cause against Boro. What does it take to motivate lazy, multi-millonaire so-called professional footballers?

How can he clear out Souness's dross with little money to spend and the transfer window closed for ten weeks (by which time it might be too late anyway)? Or do we have to accept relegation as inevitable in order to rebuild and start again? If he did not know already, Hughes is now fully aware of the monumental task he has taken on in trying to save us from relegation. If he is a manager for the next ten years, either with Rovers or elsewhere, this is the toughest test he will ever face. He is inexperienced and is going to have to learn very quickly. The only way (as I see it) that we can avoid the drop is for Rovers to adopt Everton's old "dogs of war" approach and battle and scrap for every point. Every week. The trouble is our dogs are so old you can't teach them new tricks.

I remember that goal. Some Villa friends of mine remember it too. In many ways Fergie was more of an Ewood hero than Duggie. Fergie had a temper, though; he was sent off for knocking out Trevor Hockey against Coventry in 1967. That 2-1 defeat cost us promotion back to the old first division. In an ideal team, Fergie would play right wing and Duggie, as has been mentioned, at inside left. The trouble is the oiks struggle with the concept of inside left. Ripley is not good enough to lick either of their boots.

If you knew your history of Blackburn Rovers, the club you are supposed to support, you would not write that.

That Pele chap (whoever he was) wasn't a bad player either.

There speaks the voice of experience. To anyone who does not vote for Bryan Douglas, the greatest player to wear a blue and white shirt, I hereby give warning that I shall personally come round to their hovel and stand on their heads.

Middlesbrough have far too much quality for us. Plus our international players will be knackered. Rovers 1 Boro 2

Is that the first time we are in agreement? Strange days indeed.

No it is not. Mr Bigley's killing was appalling, barbaric etc etc and devastating for his family but a "tragedy" (a much overused word), certainly a national one, is a cataclysmic event, such as Aberfan in 1966, when 144 people, most of them children, were buried under a falling slag heap. Mourning Mr Bigley at an international football match was inappropriate in my view.

Eriksson will never drop Beckham, although perhaps the player deserves to be. Beckham is getting a fair amount of stick in the papers (despite his brilliant goal) for his kamikaze performance in the second half. It is being suggested that he got himself deliberately booked (therefore missing the next game) because he did not fancy the trip to Azerbaijan (sp?) and it is not the first time that he has pulled off such a trick. Andrew Cole never played for Eriksson again after picking up a suspension and Alan Smith was left out of the squad for a year after being sent off and banned. Beckham is likely to receive more lenient traetment however. Any euphoria over England's performance should be tempered by the fact that Wales were pretty awful.

Give it a rest. Your cricket crowds are the only ones in the world that boo the opposition (especially England). Nowhere else in the world (not even in roughneck South Africa) does this happen. One or two thoughts on the England v Wales match: 1. Those who decided that an international football match is an appropriate place to mourn Ken Bigley made a serious error of judgment. What happened to Mr Bigley was appalling, but his death was not a national tragedy. Prayers for Mr Bigley and his family in church on Sunday morning, yes, but a football match, definitely not. 2. There was much talk before the game of reviving the Home International Championship. The reaction of the neanderthal England and Wales fans who booed the respective national anthems of both countries, their general behaviour throughout the game plus the disrespect shown to Mr Bigley, showed why it should NEVER be revived. 3. Wayne Rooney has reaffirmed my faith in football. To see such a brilliant talent in an England shirt makes my old heart leap with joy.

Surprised no one has mentioned that yesterday (Oct 9) would have been John Lennon's 64th birthday. Birthday greetings and a bottle of wine to him.

Souness's erstwhile side-kick Andrew Cole has had his ban extended from three to six matches by the FA today. COLE BAN ADDS TO FULHAM WOES By Alex Lowe, PA Sport Fulham’s season was plunged into further crisis today when the Football Association found Andrew Cole guilty of two charges of bringing the game into disrepute and doubled his suspension from three to six matches. Cole, one of two Fulham players sent off in last month’s fiery Barclays Premiership clash with West Brom, was dismissed for throwing punches, including one attempted haymaker, following a clash with Baggies midfielder Neil Clement. The former England striker has already served a three-match suspension but attended a disciplinary hearing held at the FA’s headquarters at Soho Square today and was found guilty of using abusive language to a match official and violent conduct. For the abusive language Cole was given an extra two-match suspension, to start immediately, while the violent conduct carried a one-game ban. He was also slapped with a £10,000 fine, plus costs. Fulham were tonight making no comment on the penalty, though its severity has alerted the Professional Footballers’ Association who were to make further enquiries before giving any reaction. Cole, who was fined by the club for his dismissal, will now miss the crucial league fixtures against Liverpool and Aston Villa plus the Carling Cup tie at Birmingham as Fulham attempt to turn around their season. They have secured just two victories and four defeats from their eight Premiership matches. On Monday night, without Cole, Fulham became the first Premiership side to lose to Crystal Palace this season and had Ian Pearce sent off in the process. Pearce became the fourth Fulham player to be dismissed in four matches, following the red cards shown to Cole and Papa Bouba Diop at The Hawthorns and Liam Rosenior in the Carling Cup win over Boston. Manager Chris Coleman, facing a disciplinary charge himself for comments made after Fulham were beaten in controversial circumstances by Arsenal, now has the international break to ensure Fulham’s fraying edges do not unravel entirely.

MIDDLESBROUGH, not Middlesborough. Rewrite 100 times until you get it right.

I've always wondered whether Whelan would get involved in Rovers but, as a confirmed Wiganer, I think his dream is to see his home-town team playing in the Premiership. Whether the Wigan public share his vision is another matter: a crowd of 7,000 watched the league leaders play at the JJB Stadium last Saturday.

West Brom on Saturday; Palace on Monday. The teams below us are starting to win matches. Help!

For argument's sake, assume that Rovers, Preston and Burnley each have a base support of 15,000 each and that the three clubs were merged into one. Is the new club going to attract 40,000 plus fans for every home game? I think not. Twenty years ago, London had two evening newspapers, the Evening Standard and the Evening News, each selling about 400,000 copes a night. The Standard took over the News, leading to its circulation rising to about 750,000 before settling back to around the 400,000 mark. The net result was 400,000 lost newspaper sales and the loss of more than 1 million readers. The same would happen in an East Lancs football merger: lost fans, three lost historic clubs and a new club that no one wants.

Football fans are tribal with allegiances going back generations. If Burnley and Rovers were merged, would you go and watch East Lancashire United? I wouldn't. In the 1980s, Robert Maxwell proposed merging Reading and Oxford to form Thames Valley Royals but fans quite rightly gave his plan the boot. He also tried it with Hibs and Hearts and they did likewise Jim. The common denominator of all this is that none of em have won a bean since! In fact Reading would prob be history but for the false input of Madjeski. Careful what you're saying. We had a benefactor by the name of J Walker. Was his false input? I wouldn't imagine Oxford and Reading fans are bothered about winning anything so long as they continue as separate entitities. Inter-town rivalry is what makes football in this country so special; merging teams into big "regional" clubs would not work.

Can we get it straight - is the team 4-4-2 or 3-5-2? I cannot believe that those magnificent club stalwarts, Derek Fazackerley and Matt Woods, have just one vote between them.