He made 9 premiership appearances for us 8 of them from the bench.

Al instead of trying to convince yourself based on blind prejudice why don't you watch the players in question or even do a bit of research like I did. Now hartson wouldn't be my first choice and I still disagree with those who think he'll be fantastic. I don't think he controls the ball well enough but he does score goals. 24 in 59 for West Ham 19 in 46 for Wimbledon 6 in 12 for Coventry all in the Premiership that by the way as well as 14 in 43 for Arsenal and the 60 in 78 for Celtic. We need goals and we need an aerial presence. As for you Savage comments well they don't really deserve a response. It's like someone watching a few petulant moments of one of our players and ignoring all the moments of quality. Watch his delivery from a set piece, sure he'd struggle to get a go ahead of the hordes of quality dead ball merchants we have at present but you never know.

Of course it's the keepers job it has to be. Only he can decide if it is big enough or in the right place. Stead did a poor job but the ball went around him not over him.

On Friedel when a player runs at you from 25 yards out if not more i'd expect the keeper to come out like Jusskalainen did against Man U with Giggs yesterday. Instead Friedel was rooted to the spot like against Liverpool when appeared to be tied to his near post. As for the free kick it went around the wall not through it or over it. Friedel was just slow to get down but his left is weaker side so maybe that explains it. I wouldn't say he was poor but I would have expected better.

You don't need any kind of scouting network to watch football week in week out. Anyone who doesn't watch the games with a blindfold would be able to see that Savage & Hartson would be a better bet at the moment than Chaplow & Blake. Hmm 2 first division players over 2 proven premiership. All credibility gone there i'm afraid.

How about Score goals? Create goals, and also create opportunities like the free kick we scored from in the first half. You know one of those free kicks he wins which you don't think he does. He also holds the ball up and links up with midfield. You can pick fault all day long if you choose to, of course he's not great in the air, and he isn't very pacey but he does the job he's on the pitch to do and yesterday scored a goal. I was dead chuffed but I just knew someone would be on to have a go. I can accept we can all have an opionion but to me certain people are just determined to slate him come what may. If people only concentrate on the negative then IMO they have an agenda against him. Like the argument he doesn't score enough from open play. You show me the rule where goals from open play count for less? I watched yesterday and I thought at times Flitcroft was pathetic, he misplaced a load of easy passes and skied one as per usual. However he also worked his nuts off, put in a shedload of decent tackles and was vital to the cause. Do I concentrate on the negative? No because he had a job to do and also because we don't have another player who can do his job better. If we get Savage fair enough but until then Flitcroft has to carry on as long as he works as hard. Similarly we don't have a better striker at present, something backed up by stats as well as what was on display. If and when we buy one fair enough but until then let's get behind the lads especially when they are working their nuts off. It's going to be a battle to stay up so you'll just have to face up to that.

Asked the ref why he only added 3 minutes at the end and he just laughed. Despite him spending around 5/6 minutes off the pitch in total, Second time becuase Rennie didn't have boots on. 1 goal and 3 subs on top of indicating he was adding time on for Given timewasting. 10 minutes would not have been enough never mind 3. Bit teed off we didn't win as we played the better stuff and created some good chances. However we were also pretty shabby at times so can't complain too much. Friedel appeared at fault on a free kick again. Some good performances and most of the results went our way. At present we have to accept that and just hope we can push on with a few new players.

blah blah blah Muse are the only band in the world blah blah blah

Stuff Muse, just been to see a real concert tonight. The Charlatans were tremendous.

Off course it wouldn't!

They are also ignoring the fact that Spurs only brought about 2,000 so if we have the same amount of home fans again then the attendance should be nearer 28,000. Other than that they are spot on. Anyway back to this bet come on Scotty I know you love a gamble and after all, £50 is peanuts to you. Beers on you if you win.

He wasn't poor last season by normal standards just by his high ones. He is still one of the top 6 keepers in the league, just look at his performance against Man U this season. It will be very bad for us if he leaves, simple as that.

That's a pretty brave bet, or daft. Everton clearly are functioning very well as a team. When someone tried to highlight their superiority the players just looked very similar in ability to ours but you can't knock what they are doing. I'm actually quietly confident about Saturday, either way it won't be as one-sided as some people believe. Don't think i'd like to be offering bets on Everton finishing out of the top 6 though. I think they have every chance.

Which pub are people meeting at tomorrow then? The one opposite Thornton Heath or the one opposite Norwood Junction.

That sounds like a good one. Tell you what, you start singing it and we'll join in.

There is a big weatherspoons opposite Thornton Heath station which is popular with away fans apparently. Maybe that one that Glenn means. It is number 6 on Scotty's link.

Gray is great going forward but very poor at defending, which is exactly what all the Sunderland fans said he would be. He had a great start but started to be shown up against Charlton, got worse against Middlesbrough and was just shambolic against Chelsea. I wouldn't rule him out on that basis but we need to be solid at the back before worrying about how our full-backs will get forward. Against Fulham Nissa was up against Malbranque and never gave him a minute to turn on the ball or anything. Against Spurs had little attacking threat on the right so the onus was on Nissa to get forward with the ball where he was poor. One good game doesn't make him a great left back as you say but on the other hand one poor game amongst 7 or 8 other players doesn't make him a bad player either.

It's a very good point but doesn't count as it was 2 games ago and you should know that all players have to be judged on their last game only.

Hard to say. It's a ground that a lot won't have been to so that usually means a good following, i'd be surprised though if we took a bigger allocation than the 2,000.

Your official site says the decision on whether we take the whole of that end is down to ourselves.

Yes the y still have some terracing as you can see here though they do have seats at the front which looks quite bizarre. Never been so really looking forward to it.

There is no contradiction, the point I'm making is there is a whole world of difference between Duff & Sellars and training facilities and the like is just a minute part of that difference. If Sellars was playing now he would be a good player, no doubt but definitely not great, Duff is world class simple as that.

If you believe that then you miss the point of just ho good Duf really is. It has little to do with facilities, fitness regimes etc it's god given talent and Duff has it by the sackful. Sellars was one of my favourite players when I first started coming to Ewood but that can't hide the fact that Duff is just just a class above. As the old guy who used to sit next to me used to say about him, 'Barcelona'. He meant he was too good to be playing at Blackburn, as much as it used to annoy me, deep down I knew it was true.

Can I just echo what Ricky said about the fans today. I thought they were first class considering it was an early kick off on Sky. The buzz amongst the fans was evident as soon as we got in the Eight Bells. I can't explain what it was but the atmosphere was great and everyone was friendly and having a laugh. This continued all day and I have to say we really were a credit. Cheers all it was one of my best away trips in ages and a great laugh.

Just cracked open another bottle of red but had to respond to this as it's so spot on. I can accept people having reservations over Dickov but even most of his harshest critics gave now accepted his worth to the team. Yet some people still can't praise him. Why? I've seen him compared to Ward which to me is just an insult. Dickov has his faults but he brings so much to the team. He created that penalty like he won the one last week. He is a star and should be appreciated for what he does not slated for what he doesn't do.