Eddie

Imagine if we draw with United! Then things will really be getting bad...

As mentioned earlier, had Reid or Emerton put away their chances we would have been hearing none of this.

Back to reality isn't it. After a few weeks of praising the team from head to toe one defeat in a close game to one of the best sides in Europe, even if they were missing a few players, and suddenly we are the worst team around and every player is getting stick. It's at times like these that some of you really, really annoy me.

Thompson was a bit selfish today and didn't deliver the ball as soon as he should have, but his dribbling skills, passing ability and shot still make him one of our few genuine attacking threats. In recent weeks I've actually felt like we've been seeing more and more of the Thompson of old, but just my opinion I suppose.

1-0 win or 4-0 loss You take your pick. Rovers have been treated to an array of footballing talent and skill over the last 10 years, now we are where we probably should be, I wish some of you could just get a reality check here. The football we play isn't that bad, we simply lack a good attacking threat that would turn some decent build up into anything. There were times today when three of four nice passes were put together but they can come to nothing because there was nowhere to go with them. It really annoys me to see some of you blabbing on about how boring we are, I wouldn't mind if we put every man within our own penalty area and never ventured forward, Rovers are never boring for me.

This could be a big psychological one. Perhaps winning once means there's no way we could win twice, but also think what it could do for the confidence of our boys.

Quite right, who need sexy football? We are taking the game back to its rougher roots, to how it should be played.

Especially with Pedersen one of our main attacking threats on such great form. To be fair we looked dangerous on a couple of instances. Reid's chance at the beginning of the second half that I mentioned earlier, he also had the chance to slip thread through in the first half before being taken down and when Stead almost put him through about midway through the second. Starting to notice a trend? Credit to him really, goes unmentioned quite often, but his attacking runs give us another dimension to our play.

Good solid performance, great that this is becoming the norm. If only Reid had got his head on the Emerton cross at the start of the second half. Fully deserved the result though, stopped them from playing. I actually think we string some nice football together when we get the ball, good link up play now and then and some neat passing.

They never broadcast during live games as they don't have the rights. Your only real bet is rovers world, I have the same problem over here in France sometimes. If not you just have to go with anything you can get on here and then text commentary from the BBC or soccernet or something of the sort.

Clash with the champions league perhaps.

If as a rovers fan you thought the win against everton was dull, you have problems.

I actually think that is quite kind to us. We are underdogs, and it paints us quite nicely, though a bit harsh on Hughes pre turn of the year, other than that don't see anything wrong.

Basically his pride couldn't take it. I can partially understand, he is nearing that age anyway and with Wales not up to much all he can ask for is to play. He certainly deserves to be in the sqaud, though perhaps he should have waited a day or two to make the decision public so that it was a bit more mature. Can't say I'm unhappy though.

Would you like to expand on that?

Do people not remember the finalists of the past two seasons Southampton and Millwall, I mean we are a better team than both of them, really being scapegoats can be annoying. As you said philipl...sorry hadn't read your post

Not known yet, have to wait and see who the TV companies pick, most probably sunday though.

I now see us as either being totally ripped apart or sneaking it. If Arsenal are on form we don't stand a chance, if they aren't then our tight defense and work ethic could see us through. We are now more suited for games we aren't supposed to be on top of, so who knows. The thing is a month is a long time and a lot can change. Form, suspensions, injuries could all change how we feel going into the game, hopefully it will work in our favour, but are we that lucky?

Did he make a meal of it? Perhaps. Certainly didn't dive. In the first place his challenge is a foul as he gets a good piece of MGP who doesn't go down so would never get the penalty, there is then a second foul as Pedersen turns around but finds his way totally blocked by Kenton. Both parts of the incidents are fouls, it was a fully deserved penalty. Neill's on the other hand certainly wasn't, it was a minor pull back but if they gave those they would be calling fouls every 30 seconds, he simply was actually well challenged from behind if you look and so ends up not getting any true contact on the ball.

We all know what your favourite book is now. Bit of a fantasy eh?

Probably not that bad. We'll have what 25-30k? I'm just guessing there. So the tickets will go on general admission I'd say, you could do it. If not get someone from the board to pick one up for you.

Hot balls? Ouch ;-) I tried very hard to phrase that in a way that no one would manage to make vulgar in any way, sadly couldn't manage it.

Yes but people will always have the theories that certain balls or heated or some other reason. Probably is right sometimes.

I don't think we'll win no matter who we play. I suppose though in order Newcastle Manchester United Arsenal Though I think United are in the best form of the lot I think they are less likely to simply turn it on and give us no chance like Arsenal might and that we stand a fighting chance. I don't know, pleased we are there, just wish there was another easier team in the hat to look at and wish for. Oh well, great to be the only small team left, if we only win 3 or 4 games this season I'd be over the moon if two were in the cup

Going to have to take issue with that. Sickening way to lose? Leicester deserved nothing, zilch, nil from this game. The Leicester defender goes to ground to play the ball in the box and brings down MGP, he gets up tries to step/jump over the defender who brings him down again. This was a nailed on, bang to rights penalty, it's in the rules so they lost. Leicester showed the attacking ambition of a road-kill. They deserved to lose and it would have been a travesty if this had been a draw. Not a great performance I agree but then the opposition chose to defend with 11 men and play the entire game in their half. This is how you lose games of football. Leicester did not create a single chance, it was 30 minutes before Friedel touched the ball.......and we have to feel sorry for them? Rovers haven't put in great performances in the cup? I'd argue with that. Against Burnley (twice), Leicester and to a lesser extent Colchester, we were asked to play against teams with only one intention - stop us scoring and hope they can nick one. In each game Rovers did not make mistakes, concentrated hard, took the game to the opposition for 90 minutes and WON. Burnley created four chances in two games, Leicester none at all today - they where there to be beaten. What else are the team supposed to do? Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd etc all struggle to beat teams who are determined not to lose. Look at the game against Chelsea at Ewood, we made them look very, very average as we tried to avoid losing first and foremost. I'm delighted with the whole team, I feel they are playing for the club and the fans. It's not the greatest football, but it is WINNING football. Given our current squad I'll settle for that. Would we rather have four wins and a draw out of five or the gutless stuff Souness gave us? You choice, I know who I want to support. Totally agree with that great post. As I pointed out, had that been one of the big teams they would have been praised for their professionalism of their performance and overcoming a tricky tie, for us, it's that we were crap.