I was lucky enough to be a guest at the wedding of two good friends last Saturday.

Now I do like a good wedding and this was certainly a belter. However, the downside to getting married during the football season is that the date can cause an unfortunate clash with a Rovers game.

I was relieved, therefore, on getting this particular invitation to note that the happy couple obviously had the foresight to choose a date when Rovers had no game.

Little did I know at the time that it was going to turn out to be one of the more momentous sporting weekends, even without the lure of the Premiership.

It started off well on Friday evening with Matty Derbyshire getting his now customary goal for the Under 21s, which turned out to be the only goal of the game and secured England top spot in their group.

Kick off for the senior footballers coincided with the "I do's", so like the rest of the wedding party, I had to be content with regular goal updates.

By half-time, when the groom was grinning like a cat who'd got the cream, it was hard to say if it was because he'd finally won the woman of his dreams or he was aware that victory was in the bag.

The best was still to come, however. After the ample meal, champagne and speeches, what better than a few pints in the hotel bar watching Jonny Wilkinson and co. giving the blues to Les Bleus.

By 8pm, the dancefloor was even more bereft of men than usual, but even the ladies were crammed in around the telly, albeit that those in my earshot were less concerned with the intricacies of the offside rule than the relative charms of Jonny and Sebastien "caveman" Chabal. (which one would you like your daughter to bring home?!) In the past, I've bemoaned international break weekends but I've got to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

So it's on to Russia and the plastic pitch tomorrow for England and that's going to be tough.

The last five England qualifiers have been 3-0 victories and how we'd like that sequence to continue.

A draw however will probably be good enough.

I'd like to see David Bentley given at least part of the game but it's probably unlikely.

I simply cannot understand why so called fans will boo their own players.

Bents didn't get a runout so Frank Lampard got it last Saturday.

Okay, give him as much stick as you want when he trots out for Chelsea, but when he's in an England shirt, he's one of ours.

Talking of our own, let's hope that Roque's knees are not as much of a problem as first feared and that his pulling out of playing for Paraguay will be to Rovers benefit.

He has hardly put a foot wrong since making his debut and it would be a massive blow to lose him for a portion of the season.