If it was Hughes' judgement that Tony Parkes, in his role as Reserve team coach, was an obstacle to improving the club then I think he had every right to make the move he did. Of course no-one can defend how he's treated. A similar story is told by City fans about Colin Bell.

Behind you 100% Tris. And Jan you're right about the Burberry caps, although it does not it easier to spot the nerds for the police and supporters alike; "Here I am, I'm a moron" on a tee shirt would serve the same purpose. (And be cheaper). It's not big and it's not clever. I got some abuse at the Celtic away game because I chose to sit down and asked two blokes, who were sat in front of me, to do likewise. Fortunately I was forceful enough to get my own way. It's like a badge of honour amongst some of the micro-brained youth who follow the club, to want to stand up at a game. Why? Just sit down and behave...... or else.

We can only buy players in the transfer window Rvoer6. By the way have you seen Donnelly play? Ot Pedersen for that matter? A good result considering the sending off. I was interested to hear Hughes' post match comment about the team's improving fitness. Well done Rovers.

Scotty nailed the problems Souness left the club with a couple of pages ago. If he'd have set out to destroy the club, he couldn't have done much better. And this from a Souness fan. I was less than enthusiastic about Hughes' appointment, drawing comparisons with Kidd and one has to wonder how we can get stuffed so badly. However from the three home games since Hughes took over, I've concluded the team looks better in many respects: fitter, sharper and better drilled. And make the comparison to Everton, who's squad looks not much different to ours'. it's not all doom and gloom, and we have a host of winnable games coming up. Up the Rovers!

I thought Reid's performance was one (the only?) positive thing about yesterday's game. he looked sharp, quick and apart from late on his passing was good. One 60 yard ball was superb. The defence was very poor, as others have pointed out, however i think we made a tactical mistake by only playing three midfield players once Tugay had got himself sent off. Our three of Ferguson, Reid and Emerton were swamped by Boro, putting the defence under constant pressure. Countless times, as Boro attacked Emerton was still in the opponents half, leaving Reid, in his first game, and a leg weary Ferguson effectively playing against 4 or 5 Boro midfielders. Hughes should have brought Reid into central midfield, put Djorkieff onto the left and Emerton onto the right. Avoiding trouble in the Blackburn End is simple: don't stand up!

I think Scotty is on the money. The weaknesses that he's highlighted, and obvious to even the casual follower begs the question of what the hell Souness was doing in the last months before he left. We need a defensive midfielder - Gary Speed would have been my choice, but I think Souness allocated that role to Matteo. He buys two left sided players, both of whom look a long way from premiership standard. (And sells our best two strikers). Very very strange. I'm echoing others here, but I left encouraged by the movement involved in our forward play. It reminded me, dare i say, of the way Arsenal play. Players getting forward quickly from midfield to support the front players, playing balls inside the fullbacks. Excellent! Maybe Eddie N is having an impact. The defence was very poor, but with Tugay stood in front of the back four, and with Matt out wide left, giving the ball away regularly and Barry bombing forward, the back line was put under even more pressure. The support seems to have totally collapsed though. 16k Rvoers fans. Only two seasons ago that figure would have been over 20k home fans. Overall though very encouraging.

I think the difference between cities such as Sheffield, and also Manchester for example, smaller and towns such as Blackburn and Oldham has a number of causes. There's no doubt that size is an issue, as is the respective histories of migration into cities. There are also large student populations in big cities, which add to sense of metropolitan transience which can suit migrant communities more than population-stable towns. I guess also the origins of different migrant communities plays a large role. Either way the relationships between migrant and host communities is a very difficult one, as the experienecs of the Irish and Jews in this country over the last 150 years demonstrtates. And the current tensions are a failure of politicians and community leaders, which the right will continue to exploit.

Article in the Mirror this morning claiming that the Rovers is up for sale. Apparently the Walker family are happy to see the club sold for £50m. Link.

Oh and we had enough chances to win a host of games.

What I learnt from tonight's performance is: Boothroyd looks poor Jansen is a million miles from being in the team As is Gresko Stead's confidence must be rock bottom Shouldn't have sold Yorke and Cole Nisse was very poor Pederson looked Ok at this level Amo needs a Short or Matteo to play alongside him Must disagree about Douglas though who I thought did a very good job Oh and I missed two of the Rvoers goals. Time for an ice bath

The police do regularly make mistakes. And if you've running a £5m operation your boss wants results. (Having said that I think the cops are improving and have made big strides forward over the last ten years.) However.... I find the defence of these guys a bit difficult to stomach. BRFCC has chosen not to answer key questions posed to him in that irritating "clever, clever" way that teenagers (and guilty people) use. As for wearing designer clothes being his only crime, if he does wear all that hooli crap than he deserves a bit of grief, becuase it's a lumpen uniform worn by idiots. It also looks crap - anyone who needs to scream look at my desinger label is in need of help or rough justice. Imagine if everyone wearing those irritating Burberry caps was lifted, how better the world would be.

The truth is that no-one really knows how Hughes will do: there's very little evidence to make a judgement against, other than a decent spell leading Wales, and to be honest he didn't have much to follow did he? Having said that John Williams and the Board are no mugs and will have thought through the options very carefully indeed. It looks like they got the man they wanted, as usual, and for the sake of the club, we must hope that they've done their homework. I just can't stop thinking, Brian Kidd....

Moyes had significant experience of club management, and now has the required top flight nous, which is what the Rvoers need. It's Hughes no doubt, but Moyes was a strong runner for a number of days.

I too have concerns about Hughes, which make me draw comparisons with Brian Kidd's appointment. Little or no experience at the top level is a worry when we're struggling: Moyes would be my choice.

I was a supporter of Souness and certainly haven't 'run for cover' as Jim puts it. To repeat myself I think on balance that, as long as we get in a decent replacement, it makes sense for Souness to go. The stark reality of Saturday's performance couldn't have been more timely. For me the paucity of the new signings whilst letting our best striker go showed that he'd, as JW suggested, got to the end of the cycle. That isn't to suggest though that Jim and many other who called for his departure last season have been vindicated. Leaving then would I think have meant relegation. However Souness hasn't addressed the team's weaknesses and we have it anything looked worse this time out. I do agree with Jim in his description of Souness' actions on Saturday. He rubbed our noses in it. There was no humility and I'm sure he broke an agreement with the club. I thought he was better than that.

Newcastle fans must have been pondering how a team that finished sixth playing exciting attacking football had been turned into relegation fodder within two years. Well those were my thoughts as I left the ground. The main accusation that I would throw at Souness is that he has weakened us up front - although Stead was very good yesterday, left us without an obviuos central midfield pairing, and signed two left sided players, neither of who at this stage look up to it. Those problems are the legacy of the last twelve months of a confusing and ill-judged transfer policy. I thought Ferguson did Ok yesterday, but the team lacks cohesion and solidity - in aprt a symptom of constant changes in team selection. On another subject, I thought Souness turning up to the ground, with his son in black and white stripes was disrespectful to the Rovers and I would have thought breached his gardening leave agreement.

I was told today that a source from inside the club said that the players were doing cartwheels when Souness announced his departur,e and that he had lsot the players, and was 3 or 4 games from the sack. Moyes was mentioned as a popular choice with the club.

I've been a big supporter of Souness against most of the hysterical tosh that passes for opinion on the board. On reflection though, and on the provisio that we get in a decent manager, I think it's a good time for Souness to go. Without money to plunder the transfer market he seemed to be losing interest. The signings this close season were strange - teo left sided players, no cover for right back and still no ball winner to replace Flitcroft. We also lost our best striker by a country mile and have been left with a lightweight collection of strikers. In short we have gone backwards. Our support is falling away dramatically, amd I was shocked to see the empty spaces in the ground against United. Any new manager is a risk, but on his agenda must be: 1. Sorting out the defence 2. Getting some movement and cohesion in the team 3. Getting an effective partnership, upfront 4. Winning a game Like PhilipL I have very impressed with JW. He has dismissed questions concering how Souness will do at Newcastle with "I'm only interested in Blackburn Rovers," and he was ambivalent enough to make it sound like 'the Toon' were doing Rvoers a favour. One last thing. It has been Rvoers' strategy since Don MacKay to bring in a manager with a high profile - bigger than the club if you like. Simply we need such a manager to attract players to a small if wealthy club. Spit and move on!

Here's the definitive Jay Bothroyd article from When Saturday Comes. Make your own mind up! Or if you're in the Souness can do nothing right camp, come up with what ever crap argument you can. Cue Rover6....

I can't see him not signing. However, what I don't understand is the club's transfer strategy. Only a fortnight ago Souness said that a defensive midfield was the priority. And when we signed De Pedro, JW was quoted as saying that when the Spaniard became available, we ended our interest in Pederson. Now that may all be a smokescreen, but we appear to be signing two attacking midfield players, one for the left side, where we already have De Pedro. I'm not saying that we don't need more attacking options, hopefully with pace, but I'm a bit confused.

A strange match this one. The first thing to say is that WBA never looked like scoring, bar from a dead ball situation. Although that has as much to do with Albion's lack of desire to get forward and lack of abiity, as Rovers' defensive acumen. They were a very poor team, if fairly solid at the back. The first half was characterised by a lack of shape from the Rovers, with three players de Perdo, Gresko and Gray, hugging the left touch line at times. Although the passing was neat enough, too many long balls were thrown up to the front two, who struggled to create anything. In particular Stead looked out of sorts and shot from range when a short ball to Yorke would have seen my man of the match in on goal. I was worried by Dedro's lack of mobility, but I understand he's been victim to an injury in pre-season. Second half and the introduction of Tugay and Dickov transformed the blues. Albion found it impossible to pick up Yorke who played as well as I've seen him at Ewood for a long time. Dickov was excellent, but Stead was still a bit quiet. Possession wasn't tuned into chances though, although Emerton missed a sitter. Two points dropped. We msut do better. Still don't like the blue shorts.

I used to love Johny Price tearing round the right wing and remember "that goal" by John MacNamee, that seemed to belted from the half way line. Beamo and Don Martin were classic anti-heroes too. I also loved Tony Field and Rgoer Jones as a kid. But I guess Hendry and Garner have to be automatic choices which leaves one place free. I don't think anyone post-Hendry fits the bill, so I've gone for David Bradford.

I remember going to see the Rovers play the Prague club sometime in the early 70s, at Ewood Park. Anyone know the details? (I think we won).

I don't have a grudge against anyone on the board as such, i jsut found thenodrog's post offensive and i think i the right to say so. As for my infrequent posting on the MBoard, I've said what i think about Cole and was one of a handful of MBoard members who defended Souness in the last half of the season... when all around you.... and so on. Sometimes less really is more.

I think we have to reserve making a judgement on Cole leaving the club until a few games into the season. For sure Cole - along with Duff - saved us from relegation. But apart from a handful of games towards the end of last season when he linked up with Stead, Cole looked like a busted flush. The fans should be given an explanation by the club though to how we've got into this situation. Oh and Rover6, as someone else pointed out, Sukur didn't start against Man United during his time at the club. If my memory serves me right he did come on the second half and was very, very poor. But heh, don't let the facts get in the way of a bad argument.