BLACKBURN NIL...

By Greg O Keeffe on Sep 24, 08 11:52 AM

WE NEED one thing almost as much as victory tonight and it isn't for the Yak (Zac Morris) to lock Screech (Fellaini) in the bogs five minutes before kick-off in a Saved by the Bell style prank, only for Mr Belding (Moyes) to come and let him, out right before the whistle goes.

No. That would be amusing, but what we really need is a big, crisp, white, freshly-laundered clean sheet.
We need to have a fat NOUGHT next to Blackburn's name tomorrow morning in the Daily Post.
We need the confidence and solidity it will give Time Howard and our increasingly fragile back four. It would be the first time this season, and the contrast with last term is vast already.
The reasons would seem clear. With the defensive personnel unshuffled, the confusion generated by a brand new midfield is making our spine porous.
Yes, Lescott and Howard's inexplicably car-crash form makes things extra bad, but the main problem is a lack of cover from our half-baked midfield.
They are still learning. Learning to play together, adapt in the premier league, and to speak English in some cases.
So yes, thanks to priceless Tim Cahill and The Yak (with a eye-glistening nod to Saha's potential) we're scoring.
But we need to stop conceding stupid, stupid goals. Or if we insist on conceding to opposition teams, cutting out own goals would be a start.
The calamity on Sunday leaves Joleon Lescott as the only member of our back four not to net in his own goal so far this season, and he has flapped so badly at times, he might as well have.
So, yes, solidity would be welcome. And we need to stay in this cup competition to be optimistiic and firing on all cylinders for Saturday and all that jazz.