On paper, the form tables are totally in our favour. We’re playing well, winning games and morale is high after we hit the dizzy heights of seventh before Liverpool’s win last night.

Villa have struggled in the league this season. Having been a team on the up in the past couple of seasons, they’ve struggled under the leadership of bulgy-eyed French flop Gerard Houllier.

However, our recent history against Villa, at Villa Park, makes bad reading. We’ve been knocked out of three consecutive cups at their place – although we did get a very good win there at the end of last season.

With the new owners wanting success, the FA Cup – and the Carling Cup for that matter – is something Rovers should really be trying to win.

There’s little enthusiasm for the cups at this early stage, but they do mean a lot to the club. Historically we were once a cup side, shunning the league in its earlier years to concentrate on the FA Cup. But without a win since 1928, Rovers are long overdue a cup triumph.

Must give a mention to last week’s win over West Brom. Another solid performance from the new Rovers using quick attacks to kill off an average side while never really getting into top gear.

Jermaine Jones looks awesome, too. What a bruiser.

Before Wednesday night, of Steve Kean’s four matches in charge I had been at three, and not one had filled me with confidence. Then, something weird happened.

Tonight, against what has to be said was the worst Liverpool side I have ever seen, Rovers pulled a massive rabbit out of the hat.

Of late, I’ve not been particularly looking forward to going to matches, and have not felt particularly confident ahead of them. This was no different.

You’ll understand my great surprise then when a perfect pass from Mame Diouf released Martin Olsson who slotted the ball through Reina’s legs and sent Rovers into raptures.

Six minutes later, and it was even more unbelievable when Benjani beat Kyriagos and smashed the ball home to make it 2-0.

More of the same in the second half as excellent work by Hoilett saw him beat two defenders before playing the ball across to Benjani who tucked it away from close range.

Gerrard’s penalty in the 85th minute was a big worry, but as he skied it you knew this was our night.

It’s been a while since Rovers fans have witnessed such a good performance, and result, particularly against one of the bigger clubs.

Fair enough, Liverpool aren’t the Liverpool of recent years as they have entered a period of decline, but to beat them so convincingly with Torres, Gerrard, Cole and Kuyt, to name just four, among their ranks is still a great result.

Everyone put in a man of the match performance and Junior Hoilett deserved to win the official award – he seems to have come on in leaps and bounds. He was involved in much of the attacking play, took on defenders and set up the third with that great run.

Didn’t think the chants of “Sacked in the morning” directed at Roy Hodgson were entirely justified. The man took us to Europe in a very exciting 1997/98 season before getting the sack when the following season was going downhill. Although it did become rather ironic when Rovers got him the sack … Again.

QPR

A poor game but with the desired ending. A great finish from Junior eventually gave us the win, but it could have been wrapped up early on.

Diouf missed a few sitters again, and Kenny made two cracking saves then we had one cleared off the line.

It seemed as though the collision between Mackie and Givet made an impact, though. And not just with the Frenchman leaving the field (only a bruise, thankfully) – afterwards we became a little bit more cagey.

QPR were extremely physical. I find that if you notice the opposition’s physicality as a Rovers fan, they must be a bunch of dirty buggers as we’re not exactly the softest team around.

It was good to see Lowe getting a run out and he did well enough on the night. But it was another great performance from Junior that provided the only real warmth on a cold day.

DRAW

I love cup draws. The anticipation of who you might play in the next round is exciting.

For me, round four needed to be a good away day or an “easy” home game. Obviously Burnley would have been a laugh. Stevenage, Burton or Notts County either at home or away would have been good days out/winnable.

So to draw Aston Villa away was a huge disappointment. They knocked us out of both cups last season and the Carling Cup this season. It’s definitely winnable, though, with Houllier’s Villa in a very bad run of form, but not the greatest game we could have hoped for.

Kalinic celebrates scoring with Olsson and Pedersen

Tonight Rovers lost their sixth semi-final out of seven in the past eight years. But, as the disappointment sets in, Rovers fans can hold their heads high.

Blackburn Rovers tonight contested what will surely go down in history as a classic. Ten goals. A penalty. A red card. This game had it all.

And, had it not been for that red card, Rovers could well have booked their place in the Carling Cup Final.

It was great to see Kalinic fire home twice, even if neither goal was pretty. Those goals will undoubtedly give the Croatian’s confidence an almighty boost, which will come in handy with some massive games against sides close to us in the table coming up.

We also need Niko in form if Benni moves on, especially after West Ham declared their interest in the forward today. That’s a move that, if offered to McCarthy, I can’t see him turning down.

Unfortunately I watched the game over a computer at work while trying to churn out pages of the Scunthorpe Telegraph, so my judgement was blurred. But many Rovers fans have been complaining that there was a foul leading up to Villa’s first goal. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen it, but I’ll stand by my fellow fans and say, “What was the ref playing at?!”…

Also, although Samba’s foul was blatant, cynical and downright stupid, I wish the referee hadn’t sent him off. Yes, he deserved a red, the decision cannot be argued with. But in the second leg of a semi-final with the game poised as it was, a red card to one of our best players effectively killed the game, as could be seen from our defensive capitulation in the second half.

All that was needed was the penalty, which Milner finished anyway to give Villa the aggregate lead (punishment enough?) and a yellow card for Samba with the warning – one more foul and you’re off.

The second half quickly ended any faint hopes we had remaining for a Wembley appearance, as an unfortunate own goal from N’Zonzi was followed by a deflected Milner goal and Emile the donkey knocking in a rebound.

After seven crap goals, all of which scrappy or coming from deflections (except for the penalty of course), came a moment of inspiration as Martin Olsson scored a sublime overhead kick to bring Rovers back into it, kind of. Olsson has proved he is much better in midfield than in defence after just two games, and I hope he is kept there against Wigan next Wednesday.

Another scrappy one from Emerton gave us a slight amount of hope, but Ashley Young’s lovely finish right at the end spelled the end of any potential miracle comeback.

It’s not often you score four away and lose. It’s not often we score four away at all. In fact, it’s not often we score. But at least this result has proved we are capable of goals, and hopefully there will be more to come in the upcoming league games.

One thing I must say is had we not thrown the first leg away in the awful manner we did, it would have been a while different story. But over the two legs, the best team is going to Wembley.

All the best to Villa for February 28. Now Rovers must take the momentum that will hopefully come from this solid performance into their league form.

Sam Allardyce reacts to another near miss.

As I said after the Manchester City match, ‘it’s just so predictable’.

I also said, ‘abandon optimism all ye who enter here,’ and nothing’s changed after our latest farcical episode.

One up front. Long balls. It just doesn’t work. But it doesn’t change either.

Yes, the second half was an improvement, but it’s hard not to improve on a first half that bad. Yes, we were unlucky hitting the post twice, but had they sneaked into the net it wouldn’t have been at all justified.

Rovers were beaten, convincingly, by the better team on the night. There is a second leg to contest, but given our away form this season we haven’t a cat in hell’s chance!

Villa’s goal was poor. We’ve seen it time and time again, going all the way back to Robbie Blake’s opener for Burnley all those months ago. The opposition attacker comes forward completely unopposed, able to play the ball exactly how he pleases. Then, having played it out to the right, James Milner then wanders through the middle of the Rovers box, no defender batting an eyelid, before slotting the ball home from close range with Chimbonda and co looking bemused and mouthing, “Where did he come from?”

Going forward there’s absolutely no invention, creativity or innovation. Midfielder gets ball. Midfielder plays to the wing. Winger gets to 18-yard line. Winger hits a nice floated looping ball to anybody, without looking. Defender heads away. Lone striker wonders what he was supposed to do with it.

It’s easy to start blaming the manager, and there are 11 players on the pitch when these shocking performances are made, but how in God’s name Sam can come out after every pathetic Rovers display bemoaning our bad luck and claiming it was a good performance is beyond me.

Recent speculation has said Big Sam had two games (Villa and Fulham) to save his job and, after that display, he’s got one foot out the door already. However, I really believe that’s a load of rubbish.

Alan Nixon, the football journalist who wrote the story, is a member of the BRFCS forum, where that story originated. If someone writing in there was right and did have the inside story, I don’t fancy Sam’s chances of being around much longer.

Personally, I do go into every game with an air of confidence and you can see in every game little flashes where the game could be turned and, as I’ve said recently, luck has gone against us in the past couple of months.

So, I’m going to offer one green shoot of optimism. Fulham at home on Sunday is a very winnable game. If we can turn it round there and get some confidence back, things could look up again within a matter of days.

One thing is for certain. What nobody needs is for the crowd to get on everyone’s backs on Sunday. We need atmosphere to spur the lads on to fight. So come down in confident mood!

Benni McCarthy takes on Villa's Gareth Barry at Ewood Park last February.

In what is fast-becoming another season to forget, tomorrow’s semi-final first leg against Villa could really be the most important game of our season.

Two-legged ties offer the bonus of a guaranteed home fixture, and Rovers must find some goals tomorrow to stand a chance of a trip to Wembley.

With a visit to Villa Park – the scene of our second string’s FA Cup humiliation on Saturday – just a fortnight away for the second leg, we need to ensure we have a good lead to take into the return leg.

Big Sam has a near full strength side to choose from. David Dunn is still available and, you’d hope, more match fit after his 55 minutes at Villa on Saturday. Brett Emerton also returns to the side, he has been badly missed after picking up a groin injury. Brett has been in excellent form since his recovery from injury and his return is welcomed!

The perennially injured Vince Grella is out while thick as shit El-Hadji Diouf begins his three-match suspension after Saturday’s red card.

Allardyce has said that Saturday’s game will have no bearing on this match and I hope that’s true. The FA Cup tie was a totally different situation to the one we face tomorrow. We went into Saturday seemingly with the brief that we must not win at any cost. We would probably have been as well forfeiting the game altogether with the never-say-live attitude displayed on the pitch.

With a full strength side out tomorrow, and hopefully a cup semi-final mentality, it should be a completely different story.

Despite our awful form and recent lack of goals, we know we have players capable of scoring goals. Perhaps Niko Kalinic’s goal on Saturday will spur him on to score tomorrow.

And with Benni McCarthy in our ranks we’re always dangerous. Then there’s Dunny, our best player by a long way this season, who is always capable of scoring. And, of course, Roberts and Di Santo both have points to prove while Pedersen and Emerton are both capable of scoring.

It’s a big night for Blackburn Rovers tomorrow, so make sure if you can go, you do. Unfortunately, The Rovers Return will not be in attendance because of work commitments…

Que Sera Sera…

Familiar face. Villa manager Martin O'Neill is eyeing a triple-whammy over Rovers this month.

Happy new year.

We now embark on a new decade, hopeful of an upturn in Rovers fortunes, and ‘looking forward’ to three (yes, bluddy three) games against Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa.

Today’s FA Cup tie at Villa Park, which I’m not overly confident about and not too bothered about either, will be followed by a much more important game against the Villains on Tuesday night.

That game, the first of a two-legged Carling Cup semi-final at Ewood, represents a real chance at some glory for Rovers, whereas the FA Cup third round is a decent distraction from league football, but not a realistic opportunity to win a trophy if we’re honest.

Big Sam will almost certainly have one eye on Tuesday’s game when he send out his side for today, so I would expect key players to be rested and can’t expect David Dunn to feature if he is indeed fit enough now after injury.

Unfortunately, the response from Rovers fans has been poor for this game. Unsurprising given the nature of our recent performances. But as of yesterday Rovers had sold only 11,000 tickets for the game, with Villa already selling out their allocation.

I’m being a hypocrite for this one as, due to work commitments, I am unable to get over for it. But I implore you, if you can get down there, do it. Rovers need you.

Today is a good chance for Sam to have a look at some fringe players, with those players also playing for their futures as the January transfer window has now creaked open and Sam will be looking to sell if he wants to bring in any new blood.

A win would be a bonus, but I seriously doubt any Rovers fans, or Allardyce for that matter, will be expecting progress, or even wanting it…

As it’s now January 2, what can we expect in January? Assuming some local millionaire doesn’t decide to come in and do an Uncle Jack all of a sudden, I can’t say I expect a great deal of transfer activity, not on the incoming front anyway.

Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts have both expressed a desire to stay, even though the fans really don’t want McCarthy to leave. I’m not overly fussed about Roberts leaving, especially if that could open the door for a move for James Beattie.

That said, now Sam has tied up the loan deal of Franco Di Santo until the end of the season, I’m not sure whether he sees a striker as his top priority. I like Di Santo, but he lacks confidence in front of goal, and has only actually scored once since his arrival and, without someone to play off the big Argentinian, the goals need to come from somewhere, and he rarely looks like hitting the net!

It will be interesting to see what happens with Junior Hoilett. He’s obviously rated highly by Sam who’s been playing him regularly recently, but to me he’s showed a lack of composure in front of goal and a lack of confidence when going down the wing, often coming inside instead of taking on the full back. He’s definitely one for the future, but only if he stays put at Rovers this month.

Elrio Van Heerden, Big Sam’s most inspired signing of the summer, is on his way out. He’s off to Sheffield United. While goalkeeper Mark Bunn’s loan at the Blades has also been extended. Bunn has, according to my United supporting work colleague, been an inspiration for the Yorkshire side and is very highly rated there. I expect to see him leave Ewood on a permanent basis in the not-too-distant future.

Apart from those, and a host of unknowns from throughout Europe and beyond being linked with the club, I’m not sure what Allardyce has in mind during the window, but the merry-go-round has well and truly begun.

Hope you all have a fantastic 2010, especially Rovers! Come on you blues!

My ticket collection from the 2001/02 Worthington Cup run.

Bobatron, this one’s for you. Admittedly, I should have looked this up before you mentioned it…

Rovers have been included in the running for best League Cup moment, a competition celebrating 50 years of the competition, for beating Spurs 2-1 in the 2001/02 final.

Vote here.

For anyone who doesn’t remember, or doesn’t know, in 2001/02 Rovers were struggling. We’d just been promoted back to the Premiership after a two-year absence and were embroiled in a bit of a relegation battle.

The Worthington Cup, as the League Cup, now the Carling Cup, was then known, provided us with a welcome distraction from the difficulties of league football, and, ultimately, gave us the boost we needed to mount a late surge into the top half of the table, where we eventually finished 10th.

It was a great cup run, one I was lucky enough to go to every match of, starting with Oldham Athletic, where fewer than 10,000 saw Matt Jansen and Darren Dunning (remember him? He now plays for Gainsborough Trinity) score in a 2-0 win, with Marcus Bent sent off in the last minute.

Middlesbrough followed, as did another crowd of just fewer than 10,000. This one went to extra time as Craig Hignett, the former Boro midfielder, put Rovers ahead, only for Nemeth to equalise. Craig Short rescued us from the brink of penalties with a winner in the 113th minute.

We were drawn at home, again, to Manchester City, in the next round. A solid performance and a goal at the end of each half, one from Nil-Eric Johansson and one from Damien Johnson sending us through.

Another home game followed, this time against Arsenal, who put out a load of kids, as is Arsene Wenger’s usual League Cup tactic. It failed miserable for the Frenchman as a Matt Jansen hattrick  and Mark Hughes’s first of the season gave Rovers a crushing 4-0 victory, seeing us into the semi-finals.

With Chelsea, Spurs and Sheffield Wednesday in the hat with us for the final four, it was obvious which team everyone wanted. And we got them. An ‘easy’ tie against Championship Wednesday meant we had to go away for the first of a two-legged semi.

At Hillsborough we won 2-0, Craig Hignett’s opener being eclipsed by Andy Cole, who had recently become Rovers’s record signing, scored his first goal for the club. In the return leg it was 4-2, 6-2 on aggregate, with goals from Jansen, Duff, Cole and Hignett.

Rovers were through to the final at Cardiff and Chelsea had been beaten by Tottenham.

It was a final Rovers were massive underdogs for. No one expected us to win, but a goal from Matt Jansen, making him the tournament’s top scorer, gave Rovers the lead, before Christian Ziege equalised for Spurs.

In the second half, Henning Berg launched it forward from just inside the Rovers half and, when Ledley King couldn’t deal with it, Andy Cole pounced to score Rovers’ second of the match, which would eventually prove to be the winner.

There were 30,000 Rovers fans at Cardiff that day, compared to the 9,000-ish that turned up at Ewood for the first round…

England's number one! Paul Robinson is a hero

Wow, what a night, and I didn’t even go.

Before you start shouting at me for being a part time supporter and all that, I finished work at 6:30pm, more than two hours from Blackburn! But boy, do I wish I could have been there.

I hope Sam gave this one a miss, otherwise his heart may have taken a bashing. Taking the lead came as a surprise, and when we were 1-0 up at half time I was feeling quietly confident we’d hang on. How nice was it to see Nikola Kalinic score as well? More of the same please Niko, if we ever see you play again…

Cue a Chelsea shake-up and we were 2-1 down pretty quickly. That’s it, we’re going to get steamrollered. Oh ye of little faith.

A shock equaliser, plus a disallowed goal, which I haven’t seen a proper replay of, saw us take the league leaders into extra time.

Then, an almighty shock as we are awarded a penalty! And Benni scores it! 120 minutes passes and it looks like we may have sealed the victory. Then, in the dying moments, Robbo flaps at the ball, his poor punch fins Ferreira and it’s 3-3 and penalties.

You know what happened next. Robbo redeemed himself with two great saves. The first, fantastic to see a great low diving stop to deny Ballack the Squarehead before sealing the win by saving from Kakuta.

It sounds extremely pedantic for me to say this, but it’s a little disappointing we couldn’t finish Chelsea off outright, without the need for penalties, especially after seeing Junior Hoilett, who has been linked with yet more of Europe’s finest recently, missing the target completely when through on goal.

The BBC’s highlights programme which followed at about 11.30pm left a lot to be desired. Let alone the fact it is presented by that tit with Mark Lawrenson and Steve Claridge as pundits, but they failed to show the disallowed goal at all… So I’ll never know whether it was correctly ruled offside or not.

Either way, a solid victory, and with us getting the easiest (if that’s the right word) semi-final draw, we are not a million miles away from Wembley. We’ve beaten Villa once this season, and now they are all that stands between us and a first cup final since 2002!

Okay, so I have no proof to back up this outlandish statement. But it seems obvious to me that there’s some jiggery-pokery going on before cup draws, especially when they reach their later stages.

The FA will obviously prefer to see the ‘Big Four’ reaching the later rounds, and preferably meeting each other in the final. And surely it’s no coincidence that the draws tend to see them avoiding each other…

This all sounds like the bitter ramblings of a man who’s team has just been drawn against a Chelsea side that hammered them 5-0 recently. And to some extent, yes, that’s it.

But I maintain that, with eight teams in the draw, three of which come from the Big Four – Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea – yet none of them draw each other:

United v Spurs
Portsmouth v Villa
Rovers v Chelsea
Man City v Arsenal

Looking back, I refer you to last year’s FA Cup quarter finals:

Coventry v Chelsea
Fulham v Man Utd
Arsenal v Hull
Everton v Boro

FA Cup semi-final 2006/07:

Rovers v Chelsea
Man Utd v Watford

United v Chelsea that year turned out to be one of the worst cup finals ever. It could have been so much different if one of Rovers or Watford had been there!

Carling Cup semi-final 2005/06:

Wigan v Arsenal
Man Utd v Rovers

FA Cup semi-final 2004/05:

Arsenal v Rovers
Newcastle v Man Utd

I could go on. I believe my compelling argument is more than conclusive.

The prosecution rests…