Waggy I think is wide of the mark, as I've also followed the club since the early 70s and am currently a season ticket holder.

I'm lucky enough to be able to afford to go, so maybe that colours my view, but as I posted on page two our prices compare favourably with virtually any other club you can name including those in lower divisions.

If we had the likes of Shearer and Duff playing the ground would be full so it's not just about price, it's about poor home form and value for money. You can into the game for £16 I believe, and if you want to watch top flight football that's very cheap.

The other issue is that Blackburn is a poor town surrounded by other towns, close to several other premership sides, so our support tends to be less hard core.

The club has been brilliant trying to keep prices down and at the same time keeeping the club in the top flight. The criticism really is unfair.

I think some of the comments are a bit over the top. Paying £19 to see a premiership club is not expensive compared to watching football right through the divisions. My Preston, City, Bristol City, Bury and Chester supporting friends are amazed at how cheap it is to get into EP.

There were about 200 Charlton fans at the game, which means over 19k Rovers' fans turned up which ain't as bad at it first seems.

A well earned win achieved by a lot of hard work and determination. Not a great performance, but we had little to beat today. Only after Charlton changed from a 451 to a 442 in the second half did the game open up. Tired legs were evident too, although we kept going right to the end, even when under some late pressure.

For me Lucas was our best player, along with the cnetral midfield duo. Flitcroft did very well, sitting in front of the back four. Nissa and Toddy tried their best to help out Chalrton during a period of the second half, but we defended well.

Stead could have scored a couple, but still looks well short at the moment.

Thompson and Emerton struggled a little until the Londonders switch to 442.

A win at home; that's how it feels.

ps Rover6. We are you so obsessed with MGP? On the occasions I've seen him pay he was awful and I don't know how you can know any different.

For a team in our position we have to expect games like this. However the overall verdict on the team compared to under Souness is positive. Spurs got their tactics dead on and marked the two wide men out of the game for long periods. Tugay played well leaving Barry in his wake for most of the game.

It's how we respond to this setback that will be the critical factor in charting the season ahead.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I don't think he has the range of passing or positional sense to play in front of the back four; playing further up field I think may work. it's not that he can't pass, but you need a certain discipline to play in fron of the back four and for all his undoubted ability further forward i don't think he's suited to the patient build upsometimes needed at the top level.

He may well have started playing centrally, but that means nothing; Henry was a winger, Hendry a striker and so on.

To be honest he's not particularly physical - he stature counts against him and enjoys getting forward and making things happen.

The only way I see a Thompson/Ferguson central midfield working is for Barry to adopt the withdrawn role in front of the defence, in line with the role he played early last season. It also demands a better workrate from Emerton to support Jay.

I don't think Thomo has the range of passing or positional sense to play there, which is why he has ended up on the right.

Yes Cole's comments basically add up to "it was him or me" and the club decided Souness was worth another chance. From the outside that would have been my verdict too. However the lunatic moves in the transfer market combined with what appears to a loss of the support of key players means we're better off without.

As to booing ex-players I find the whole exercise pointless.

Cole deserves a good welcome from the Rovers' fans. It's just a shame he's on the opposing team tomorrow.

Scotty is on the money as ususal. The main problem, which we've had for three years, is that we play Tugay in front of the defence and he can't defend. (When we used the diamond at the end of last season with Tugay the most forward midfielder we looked harder to beat)

Add to that Emerton's slowness at getting back and Ferguson's lack of physical presnece, it doesn't matter how good or bad the back four is, we're going to concede goals.

I don't know if Thompson and Ferguson si the answer either. Maybe Reid could fill in centrally, but I think his passing probably isn't good enough. One thing is for sure is that the whole team has to work harder defending, especially Emerton and Ferguson.

One pillock, at least, spoils yesterday's game with his ignorant behavour, which seems to me having seen the TV footage to be a monkey taunt. And after a dozen pages of reasonable discusssion here waggy and blue phil hit the gutter.

"The fact of the matter is that nothing of any note happened at Ewood yesterday."

I'm afraid it did Blue Phil if the footage is to be believed. It seems certain that Yorke was racially abused yesterday.

"i will not apoligise for what went on yesterday,as most people living in blackburn knows it goes on-why do you think we only get .0000001 % off the asian population coming to ewood,they get abused,black players get abused."

Well Waggy that makes it OK doesn't it? Racism happens, so there's no point anyone complaining then is what you're saying.

With fans like these........

I was shcoked by the level of booing Yorke was getting. I couldn't understand it at all. It's so bloody childish. Whatever happens with the racism charges i think the fans let themsleves down badly.

We don't know what happened and hopefully the inquiry that Rvoers has announced will establish the facts. What is not helpful is Steve Bruces' post match comments, comparing Yorke's reception - which was well over the top - with the one England's black players got in Spain. A stupid, stupid man who I caught on 5Live this morning making the most inept case against racism I've heard in many a year.

Of course anyone caught using rcaism should be banned for life.

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....