A fan's-eye view from Ewood Park, with Phil Lloyd

OK let's get the platitudes out of the way first. Rovers played well and gave Bobby Robson's team one heck of a fright. It was a cracking cup-tie. Great crowd, great noise. Pity we lost. Now we can concentrate on the League.

In all honesty, I'm a bit less disappointed at not being away to Tranmere in Round 6 than I am at not winning a year's supply of Twiglets in the half-time draw on Monday - and I can't stand Twiglets.

The last thing Rovers needed was an extra 90 minutes with the Birkenhead Bruisers, whose unique brand of football makes Wimbledon look like a skilful passing side! Being ambushed by Aldridge's street fighters in three week's time might have damaged Rovers' fragile confidence more than an unlucky defeat now, albeit against one of the Premiership dodgier defences.

So I hope Uncle Jack, his Cup dreams dashed once again, doesn't take it out on McAteer for his latest folly. I did suggest in this column last week that Jason in centre midfield is a loose cannon, a liability waiting to happen. But there are other, more serious lessons that Tony Parkes ought to be noting.

For one, unless Rovers can somehow deliver extra sharpness in front of goal, we will stay another season (at least) at this level. We should have massacred the Magpies in the same way that we should have whopped the Wolves and terminated the Terriers. Four goals in the last three home fixtures is ridiculous, given the quantity of excellent chances we've created in those games.

Nathan Blake was the hero after his Anfield goal gave us the chance to see Ewood full again (could you spot 1500 empty seats?) and pit our wits against a top flight team. But his two lamentable first-half headers effectively prevented us from having the match sewn up within 45 minutes. Maybe goalscoring is harder than it looks. Maybe we're unjust, criticising our lads for not finding the onion bag more frequently.

And then you get a chilling reminder of how easy it used to be for the guy in the number 9 shirt at Ewood. And you realise just why we are where we are.

Good luck to Newcastle at Prenton Park (they'll need it). I'm off to reflect on how unfair football can be - with a beer and a packet of Twiglets of course!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.