This weekend, relegation-haunted West Ham visit Ewood Park, hoping that three points may signal the start of an unlikely 'great escape'.

Rovers in turn will be looking to avenge the defeat earlier in the season at Upton Park and continue their current good run of form which sees them edge near to another year of the UEFA Cup.

However, the main talking point of this Premiership clash is likely to be the transfer of a certain Mr Lucas Neill, but this fan in particular won't be booing him.

Ask most Rovers fans how they feel about the contrasting fortunes of Lucas Neill and Rovers, since they parted company in January this year, and they will delightedly tell you of our superb cup run and climb up the league table, coupled with the fantastic signing of Stephen Warnock, a young English left back surely destined for Full International honours.

Neill's fortunes, however, could not have been more different.

Injuries and bookings have plagued Lucas' transfer as he has struggled to justify his immense wage packet, reportedly £60k a week to the jaded Hammers fans during their irrepresible slide to the bottom of the table.

A win for Rovers today, consolidating both our European aspirations and the Hammers inevitable doom will be the perfect response to Neill's public view that he was leaving Rovers for bigger and better things.

However, I am always personally disappointed to see the Ewood crowd boo a former player.

In fairness to Neill he was one of the best right backs in the league for Rovers, clocking up well over 200 appearances over half a decade.

Despite his somewhat confusing view to us of where we stand in relation to West Ham in the footballing hierarchy, he never attempted to mislead the public about his intentions to leave, and when he did the club received an excellent transfer fee for a player so near to the end of his contract, which was put to far better use in replacing him.

Whatever the result, Rovers have already had the last laugh.

If Lucas wants to look back in years to come at the downturn in his football career, he may identify leaving Rovers as the place where it all went wrong, who knows?

But the best response our "little" club can give him is to show him what he has missed, by putting another nail in the Hammers coffin.

Perhaps Claret and Blue is the colour to be in for sides on the slide this year?