This shit situation was exascerbated by the fact when the weekend finally came around and Premier League football resumed, there was no Rovers.

Combine this with the fact it’s exactly a month since we last had a game at Ewood, and we are all really looking forward to tonight.

The Sunderland match is rarely a classic, and as the Mackems appear to be in a similar situation to us goals-wise, it doesn’t have the hallmarks of one tonight.

However, Rovers could be boosted by the return of Dunny, who is expected to play at least some part in the match.

We’ve missed Dunn’s goal threat this season and could do with him remaining injury free for the rest of the season.

Keith Andrews misses out again through injury, as does Grella – as you may have expected. While Ryan Nelsen is also a doubt.

Darren Bent, who has apparently scored 83 per cent of Sunderland’s goals this season, is injured – Hurrah.

If you’re daft enough to read anything into the league table at the moment, it doesn’t make pleasant reading. However, a win in this game can potentially see us rise nine places in the Premier League, to seventh.

A defeat, however, would leave us three points behind Bolton and two behind Blackpool and Stoke – sides we really do need to be keeping pace with, even at this early stage.

It will be interesting to see how the referee deals with the game. After Danny Murphy’s comments recently, the media will be praying for a mistimed Samba lunge to result in a broken bone and a sending off, just to prove that Rovers really are a dirty set of vicious animals.

In case you didn’t hear about it, Rovers circulated a press release last week, it stated:

Since my last post, apart from a fantastic day out and win at Blackpool, things have been relatively bleak.

It’s nothing new, really. Sam has stuck with the same tactics that somehow got us to 10th last season. It’s not pretty, but it can be effective.

It can also be pretty rubbish.

We’ve developed the uncanny knack of not scoring goals. And when we do score them, we have developed another talent – allowing the opposition to come back and equalise, usually in the second half.

Negatives aside, it’s not all doom and gloom – we’ve got a trip to Anfield coming up, so there’s a guaranteed three points.

There are whisperings of discontent among the Rovers faithful at the current management of the side, but what’s new? Take a look back at last December, three defeats against the top sides in the league saw us stuck in the lower reaches of the Premier League. Talk began. Allardyce had “three games to save his job”. It was all bullshit.

At the end of the day, maybe we have just become slow starters.

Looking at the games to come, and putting form to one side, we’ve got a host of winnable games this side of New Year.

Sunderland, Wigan, Wolves, West Ham and Stoke all have to visit Ewood, while we travel to places where we should be able to pick up points – Newcastle, Bolton and West Brom, to name three.

Moving on to individual performances – most impressive has been El Hadji Diouf.

I’ve always thought Diouf was a handy player. He absolutely loves playing and can be a real handful for defenders. He’s also great at winding up opposition players, and fans. His temperament, as we all know, is annoying. In fact, he’s just stupid. And if I’d had my way he’d have had all his bones broken after taking that dive at Ewood to give Bolton the winning penalty a few years ago.

But now, with my blue and white shades well and truly on, Diouf has been arguably our best player this year – he certainly has if you eliminate the defence before choosing.

Looking back, and Phil Jones has continued to impress. He’s been pushed forward into a more forward role, but I think, if he isn’t to be used in the centre of defence where he was solid as a rock last season, he ma be better used pushed further forward into a more attacking role.

Chris Samba has probably been the best player of the season, simply continuing the outstanding form he has carried throughout his entire Rovers career, and Paul Robinson has been faultless between the sticks.

Disappointment comes in the form of Vince Grella who, having returned from injury has proved shocking on the pitch, and the new Diouf, Mame Biram. Despite starting impressively, he has become something of a passenger, although he has played much of the time out of position.

What is beyond doubt right now is our need for a bit of creativity in midfield. We need David Dunn.

Apologies for the absence recently. I hope to get back to normal service now I’ve broken the duck!

It was a poor game, but Big Sam knew how to carve out a a win in a match that, on paper, seemed very tough.

It took a while to get our heads round the formation when the teams came up and Samba, Nelsen AND Jones were playing. But Phil Jones showed his versatility with a rock solid display in a holding midfield role just ahead of the more experienced Nelsen and Samba.

We took an early advantage after dominating the initial exchanges when Tim Howard dropped an El Hadji Diouf header and Niko Kalinic, who took so long last season to break his duck, swivelled on the edge of the box to finish well and give Rovers the lead.

It was by no means easy for the Croat who had his back to goal when receiving the American’s early Christmas present. It’s so good for him to get this goal early on in the season and can only give him more confidence in the 37 games to come.

After taking the lead, we inevitably sat back a bit, allowing Everton to attack a bit more. But they had no way through with the trio of Samba, Nelsen and Jones seeming unbeatable. And when they went down the flanks they had Givet and Salgado to deal with who were both also excellent.

But for a late scare when Robbo was forced into a superb double save, they hardly tested our keeper. But when he was called into action, Robinson was just as unbeatable as the men in front of him.

In midfield, Diouf looked sharp, as did Olsson, and man of the match Pedersen continued to thrive in his new, more central midfield role. The only sour note of an otherwise near-perfect afternoon for Rovers, was the loss of David Dunn, who limped off early on with what appears to be a groin injury. Haven’t seen how bad that will be yet. His replacement, last season’s player of the year Steven N’Zonzi, came on and continued to look a class act.

Niko did well with the goal, but afterwards didn’t see a lot of the ball and I still think he should have some support. He was replaced by the new Diouf in the second half who looked very quick but also didn’t see a great deal of the ball.

It was a deserved win for Rovers against a quality side. We’ve shown the league what we are about this season and kept Fortress Ewood a place to be feared. Long may it continue.

On a side note, it was a decent showing from the Rovers fans, but a little disappointing there were only 25,000-odd there for the season opener. However, a particular highlight was the chant “One-nil, and your shirts are shit” – Both comical and very, very true. Pink football kits? Ugh.

And it has been said by some that maybe his inclusion is a sarcastic retort by Fabio Capello at Paul Robinson, the man who snubbed him after his England recall earlier this week.

It’s unlikely Fielding, or Watford’s Scott Loach who also received a call-up after Ben Foster pulled out of the squad with an injury, will see any action. That is unless Joe Hart adds to the England chief’s misery.

Personally, I think it’s a great idea to include players like this in the squad.

I’ve thought for a while that the answer to some vital transfer money lay in our goalkeeper situation. We have three experienced stoppers, all of whom could be first choice for a top flight club, vying for the number one jersey at Ewood.

There’s only one man who’s ever going to keep that jersey, though, and that’s Robbo.

Jason Brown has stepped in on a number of occassions for the odd match and has always looked comfortable. When Rovers sold Brad Friedel to Aston Villa two years ago, I said at the time we should simply promote Brown, and I firmly believe he would have been a solid first choice keeper for Rovers.

Mark Bunn is the same, in fact he was something of a fans’ favourite at Sheffield United last season I have been led to believe.

Let these two players go. They must be desperate for a game. They are both wasting away in the reserves, sitting on the bench and playing the odd cup match.

Sell them for a combined £2million to swell the coffers. That would give us £4.5million in the transfer kitty, although it’s getting a bit late for transfers as it is …

Then promote Fielding to the number two spot as Robinson’s understudy. I saw him play for Wycombe Wanderers at Lincoln City while I was at university in Lincoln and he was unbeatable. To me, there seems little point having so many keepers in the rank when we have one who has the potential to step up to the plate within our own ranks already.

As for his selection in the England side, I reckon this should be done in all positions.

Now, in goal, we have three keepers all under the age of 25. Do that everywhere. Drop the has-beens. They were classed as the Golden Generation back in 2006 and weren’t good enough then, so they are certainly not good enough now.

Drop the lot of them, bring in a team of under-25s and breed a team capable of winning the World Cup in 2014.

• In other news, a quick well done to Phil Jones on his England Under-21 debut. Apparently he could have scored as England beat Uzbekistan 2-0. Fielding also played in the game but by all accounts had absolutely nothing to do.

I’ve gone over it several times, verbally and on this blog, to anyone who will listen … And those that really would rather not.

Robbo has been in fine form since escaping his Spurs nightmare. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a hero at Tottenham, but he had to move on to forget about the so-called blunder for England – how can it be his fault when the ball bobbled over his foot? – which resulted in his massive dip in form.

Since signing for Rovers, Robinson has become a real fans’ favourite.

Rovers fans have always had a great relationship with goalkeepers.

We’ve been lucky over the years, I can only remember one bad keeper in my time watching them – Mimms, Flowers, Filan, Kelly, Friedel, Robbo – the bad one being Alan Fettis, signed when both Flowers and Filan were injured in 1997 (or 8).

Robinson has slotted in to fill the void left by Brad Friedel – probably one of the best keepers in the club’s history – really well and has deserved a recall to the England squad for a while.

He was left out of the World Cup squad in favour of West Ham’s Robert Green, the English keeper with the most unforced errors in last season’s Premier League, despite keeping the most clean sheets out of all the English keepers in the league.

He can count himself unlucky, if you ask me.

England’s World Cup, as you well know, ended in disaster, and now the team must be rebuilt. Fabio Capello turned to the man he shunned and dropped Rob Green and veteran David James.

But Robinson has decided to call time on his career. A nice little two fingered salute to the man who wouldn’t give him his chance when it mattered.

He’s right to do so, too. Ben Foster, who has had a stop-start England career, was also recalled, along with City’s young Joe Hart – you’d think the next England number one. So Robbo’s chances of being selected in the starting eleven are slim. Even if he was to out-perform the other two in the league, history has shown that this has no bearing on whether he gets a game or not.

So rather than traipse around Europe sitting on the bench at pointless international friendlies, he’s just as well concentrating on his club career at Rovers.

Obviously, if they’re good enough and their country is participating in the World Cup, they are in South Africa, but what about those that are not?

I recently came across a blog belonging to a certain Norwegian named Morten Gamst Pedersen.

It doesn’t say much at the moment, and looks as though it may be reasonably new, but I’ve stuck it in my links section and hopefully he’ll be blogging throughout the season.

Here is a recent post he’s done about a tour of Northern Norway …

In early May me, Stig and Marchello went on a tour around northern Norway. Stig is from Finnmark, so he was helping me guide our English friend Marchello. Marchello has been in Bodø once before but he has never seen Finnmark. So I was really looking forward to show him where I come from. We started in Vadsø where I come from. Marchello is half English and half Italian, so he is accustomed to slightly warmer temperatures in early May than Vadsø can offer. But he was undaunted by 5 degrees and a bit rain from the east, so we started with a tour of the capital of Finnmark. Marchello owns several restaurants, including my favorite, the San Carlo in Manchester which is the restaurant that I eat in almost every day, so it was exciting to offer him some of the local delicacies. My cousin Jarno had prepared some seagull eggs, whale meat, reindeer meat, seal meat, king crab and smoked salmon.

Finnmark is a sauna and hot tub country, and it was no doubt about what we should do in the evening. Kristian Sirka on the Sirka farm has made a great conference senter where there are several different saunas and hot tubs. I and my childhood friends sat there for several hours, talking about the good old days. There is nothing like coming home to sit in a hot tub or a sauna to listen to one good story after another. At night we slept at my grandmothers old attic where we used to sleep when we were children.

The last day of Vadsø we were invited to the Tundra center by the center director Petter Dahl. There we met some wonderful people who had a huge work effort. They have virtually zero sick leaves because employees show up for work even with a fever. It was a pleasure to meet these wonderful people. Therefore I would like to say hello to Gry and all the others who worked there and thank you for a heart warm welcome that we will never forget.

Photograph taken from www.gamst.co.uk

Ghana 1-1 Australia

Brett Emerton played the full 90 minutes as the Aussies put their disappointing 4-0 spanking at the hands of Germany behind them with a solid performance and a good result against Ghana.

A side considered by many to be one of the best African teams at the World Cup, Ghana could have been expected to give Australia a lesson or two, but Australia showed they aren’t at this tournament just to make up the numbers.

They even had the audacity to take the lead, Brett Holman somewhat fortuitously hitting home after Mark Bresciano’s free kick was fumbled by Ghana keeper Richard Kingson.

Unfortunately for Australia, Harry Kewell handled the ball off the line, landing himself with a red card and Ghana with a penalty which Asamoah Gyan scored, precipitating the ridiculously over-exuberant celebrations that also took place in their first game against Serbia.

I’m all for goal celebrations, but only if the goal deserves it, and, in my humble opinion, scoring a penalty does not merit a 25-minute celebration.

Ghana dominated the shot count – often a deceptive figure if you ask me – but it was Australia who had the best chances, their best coming when Luke Wilkshire fired straight at Kingson when through on goal.

A draw was not ideal for Australia, but Brett Emerton and Vince Grella’s side do still harbour hopes of a place in the second round, although that requires them beating Serbia and Ghana beating Germany.

Cameroon 1-2 Denmark

Right back Lars Jacobsen has every chance of featuring in the next round after an excellent win for Denmark saw Cameroon become the first side eliminated from the competition, while it ensured safe passage to the next round for Holland.

It was a game of many missed chances, but a comedy of errors saw Cameroon take the lead after just 10 minutes. Poulsen gave the ball away on the edge of his box and Eto’o was able to give the African side the lead.

Denmark equalised when Simon Kjaer, who could find himself a sudden transfer target for many top sides if he performs as he did here regularly, sprayed a perfect 60-yard pass to Rommedahl, who squared it for Arsenal’s Bendtner to score.

It was Rommedhal who scored Denmark’s winner when he burst forward on the counter attack and slotted past Hamidou Souleymanou in the Cameroon goal.

The result means that if Denmark beat Japan in the third round of games, a result they will be expected to take, they, and Lars Jacobsen, will be through to the next round.

Italy 1-1 New Zealand

Ryan Nelsen captained his side to another historic draw against world champions Italy, winning ITV’s Man of the Match in the process.

The All Whites stunned everyone with this, the shock result of the tournament so far.

In a game everyone expected them to lose very heavily, Simon Elliott’s free kick somehow found it’s way to Shane Smeltz, who poked home from close range to give New Zealand a surprise lead.

Italy preceded to pile on the pressure and were rewarded when Tommy Smith brought down Daniele De Rossi in the box. Iaquinta put the resulting penalty away for Italy.

Controversy ensued when Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen claimed Italy’s penalty should never have been:

“I think their goal wasn’t a goal. I think the guys will be disappointed that we ended up drawing because it was a dodgy goal,” said the skipper after the game.

New Zealand go into the final match of the group stages level on points with the world champions, knowing a win against Paraguay, who currently top the group, could put unthinkably put them through to the next round.

Easy then, eh?

Over-the-top expectations once again meant that the opening to our World Cup campaign is a disaster and all Brits have a sour taste in their mouths.

Yes it was a disappointing result, but with Algeria and Slovenia to play, surely we’ll finish the group with seven points?

Put it this way, if England don’t qualify then they’re definitely not as good as everyone thinks they are.

The States has gone overboard, as you can see from the front cover of the New York Post, pictured.

Back to the match itself, and it was a particularly disappointing display from England. I’m not going in for all this guff about America performing well and holding us to a draw.

We held ourselves to a draw, throwing away two vital points and making qualification that little bit more difficult.

Rob Green made an error. Fact. And I could go back to the Paul Robinson debate again here, but I won’t. I could say something about how Rob Green made more unforced errors than any other English keeper in the Premier League last season. But I won’t. And I definitely won’t mention, again, that Paul Robinson kept more clean sheets than any other English keeper in the Premier League last season.

Green’s blunder was a big one. But it was nothing major. So far in this tournament, in which much has been made of the ball, I’ve seen Thomas Sorenson spill one for Denmark and Cameroon’s Souleymanou let one slip through his hands when the catch seemed straightforward. I also believe Algeria’s keeper had a similar problem.

Unfortunately for Green, and England, in our case the ball ended up in the back of the net.

I thought his attitude after the incident was admirable. He didn’t let the mistake affect his performance and made a couple of decent stops in the second half. Then, he came out and spoke to the press, giving a full and frank statement about what had happened. Usually you would expect the individual to slink off and sink into a reclusive state of depression.

It’s this attitude that leads me to think Capello should throw him back into action in Friday’s game.

A couple of players who need to see less action are Emile Heskey and Jamie Carragher. Heskey set up Gerrard for England’s goal – a goal that I, along with everyone inside Hammersmith Apollo and, I believe, anyone else who watched the game on ITV HD, didn’t see – but his inability to score when through on goal is unforgivable for a man who is paid to be a forward.

Carragher is simply past it. He came on as a sub and was behind the pace of the game all the way through.

That aside, let’s go back to the positives. We didn’t lose. We have a point. We have two poor teams to play next. Basically, if we don’t win the group, we are crap.

Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek has been roundly criticised for opting to take a defensive approach, a tactic his side are not really used to, and the critics could be right.

Brett Emerton suffered as a result of this negative style, being subbed in the second half to make way for the more defensive Mile Jedinak in a move that could only be described as damage limitation.

I’ll be honest, having been out for a curry with a friend in London, we missed much of this match. Then, when we did finally get back and put the telly on, that substitution was made so I never actually saw Emerton touch the ball.

For that reason, I won’t insult you by talking about his individual performance, only that, from what I’ve read, he was about the best of a bad bunch.

What I will say about the match is that I cannot understand all the fuss over Tim Cahill’s red card. The Everton midfielder could have broken Schweinsteiger’s leg with a very clumsy challenge and deserved to go.

However, it certainly isn’t over for Australia. This was as much a fantastic performance from Germany as it was a disaster for the Socceroos.

If Germany have slapped Australia 4-0, they have the potential to smash Ghana and Serbia, while Australia have the group’s most difficult tie out of the way and can concentrate on trying to win their next two matches.

I’m not saying those games will be easy, but it’s no use thinking it’s all over after one setback.

Watch this space for a look at Lars Jacobsen’s efforts for Denmark against Holland, which is just kicking off as I write this

No one really cares about it, but a few of the Rovers squad are involved, merely as a keep-fit exercise I presume, so it’s worth giving it a mention.

I do, of course, mean the football World Cup, and everyone’s excited.

Unfortunately for Rovers, a lot of our players haven’t quite made it. Keith Andrews’s Ireland, Morten Pedersen’s Norway and Zurab Khizanishvilli’s Georgia, among others, all failed to qualify, while Paul Robinson was not chosen for England and Pascal Chimbonda missed out on the France squad – no real surprise there.

Youngsters Martin Olsson and Niko Kalinic are both still in their national youth teams, Sweden and Croatia respectively, and Michel Salgado can’t find his walking stick.

However, four (soon to be three) Rovers stars will be hoping to bring glory to their nations.

Captain and centre back Ryan Nelsen will captain massive underdogs New Zealand, while Brett Emerton and soon-to-be-in-Turkey Vince Grella are in action for Australia and Lars Jacobsen will feature for Denmark.

New Zealand

Nelsen will have a job on trying to keep New Zealand in the competition beyond the group stages. Group E has pitched them against Paraguay, Slovakia and Italy, and as a realist you can’t see them progressing.

The lack of optimism isn’t helped by the fact their two best players are Nelsen and Plymouth striker Rory Fallon …

Still, every World Cup has a surprise package, and a couple of surprise results could see New Zealand surprise everyone. I doubt it, though.

The Rovers Return prediction: Bottom of Group E

Australia

The Aussies are a decent side, especially with Tim Cahill in there, and have a decent group if they dig in and concentrate.

Brett should be a first teamer for them throughout, and he could even line up against England in the Second Round.

Looking at their squad, they only have three forwards, the most notable of which is Harry Kewell, so expect to see some defensive displays – especially with solid players like Lucas Neill and  Craig Moore in their side.

The Rovers Return prediction: Lose to England in Second Round (Winner Group C v Runner-up Group D)

Denmark

Denmark are a shadow of the side that won the 1992 European Championship, and who can forget the 3-0 tubbing they got from England in the 2002 competition? Oh, that’s right, everyone. That’s how easy it was.

Lars Jacobsen is a good player, and was unlucky not to get more first tam action for Rovers last season, but his side will struggle here I reckon.

They do have some quality players – Christian Poulsen, Jesper Gronkjaer and Jon Dahl Tomasson to name a couple – but they have a deceptively tough group.

There are no world-class sides in Group E, but all four are decent. Holland haven’t been great in recent years, but will always be solid, while Japan and Cameroon will believe they have a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition.

If they were to qualify, you would expect it would be in second place behind Holland and they would be faced with Italy in the Second Round – if everything goes as you would expect.

The Rovers Return prediction: Third in Group E

Three World Cup finalists have played for Rovers – Ossie Ardiles, Dino Baggio and Youri Djourkaeff – could this be the year we add to that list?

I kind of doubt it …

Check back after New Zealand, Denmark and Australia matches for a Rovers at the World Cup player watch