[Archived] Fulham 0 V 2 Blackburn Rovers

[McClarky]

did anyone reading this manage to get a pie ??

i was offered a bacon buttie or a frazzled burger or a hot dog, i took the burger and broke bits off the edge to use as missiles, but the onions tasted ok

The food may have been inedible and there were no pies but there was 1 inovation which I liked. Down at the side of our stand, backing onto the river, there was a bottle bar. They managed to serve people quickly as there was no pouring involved and you could just stand around drinking lager, it was great. Hopefully the powers that be down at Ewood took notice of this as it is the way forward.

[vindaloobob]

this was a great game and the best way possible to kick off my birthday celebrations that ended with me stumbling into bed at about 4am this morning..

fantastic level of commitment from the team - at times the game was scrappy and there were quite a few heart tremor moments but it wouldn't be rovers if there weren't. near the start one of my mates asked me what emerton does, and i answered "he runs", and he proved me right... he ran and ran and only seemed to tire in the last 5 minutes - i too remember him running the ball out of our half to near their area only for him to loose it somehow then run all the way back to our area, collect the ball and run out with it again. dickov too was good, he knows his limitations as a player and does well to make up for them by putting it about and causing a nuisance to the other team, which in turn allows some of our more technical players to do their thing. gallacher was superb, he is shaping up to be a good talent and he too gives it his all. most of the other comments i'd have on the team have already been made, and i think we can all be looking forward to the rest of the season with a lot more optimism now...

finally the fans i thought were great too, they didn't get on anyone's back and towards the end of the second half with rovers attacking towards us, the level of vocal support for the players, especially reid, emo and gallacher, must surely have given them a lift.

[cn174]

Fulham Match Report, written by AJConroy has been uploaded.

[Eddie]

I don't see how some fans here can still criticise Paul Dickov... He gives 150% (if possible) and only has one goal less than Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink...

And considering he scored 3 in 1 game, that really isn't bad.

[Ewood Dream]

I don't see how some fans here can still criticise Paul Dickov... He gives 150% (if possible) and only has one goal less than Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink...

And considering he scored 3 in 1 game, that really isn't bad.

Against a very sh!te defence if I remember rightly?

[colin]

Bothroyd's height and power leads you to think that maybe there could be a real long term partnership there for future seasons.

JBM,

Don't forget he's only on a season loan at the mo.

[Brownie]

What happened to Stead this week ?

A late fitness test last week, and still out this week !

Bothroyd with Stead on the bench next week, Gally will have to be on fire to stay on !

[Siriwan]

That's upsetting for me. If you have a look to my avatar you'll see who's my favourite Rovers player, and i couldn't watch his last game in which he performed greatly, only his goal. Keep fighting Gally, you'll become Rovers ace.

[bubblerrovers]

Great Display, Couldn't believe what was watching. Have to say all the players baring todd looked very fit and chased everything when they could, very pleasing

[John]

Interesting quotes near the end of this article from players and Hughes.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/popupWindow/0,,3-2004551502,00.html

[BMan]

Great effort by Dickov, fantastic match by the back four, Friedel when called upon.

I am happy we have Steven Reid. Happy to see him healthy finally and showing why he was plucked from Millwall.

Long may the results continue for Rovers!

Next week, they are on the TV again. Oh happy days

[AndreasG]

He should at least win one of five headers

If you are disappointed that a 5' 6" tall player aint winning at least 20% in the air against big 6' 2" centre backs, then I put a serious questionmark to your footballing knowledge!

Are you serious? Should we lower our demands just because we have crappy players? Should we be happy just because he's trying hard and say: - Oh, he missed again, but that's okey, at least little Paul is working hard.

This is not some school boy club. This is Premier League!! Strikers are there to win headers and score goals. Dickov is not doing that. He's simply not good enough. How hard is that to understand? I would be happy with him if we were in a lower division, but this is Premier League where 5'6'' players aren't players you build your team around.

I agree that he hasn't got the best finishing skills, but to make a point that he doesnt win alot of headers is just plain stupid IMO!

lower our demands? What are you on about?! Dickov has been a bargain signing so far and no-one can question that! But surely there will always be complete muppets like you who will complain that he doesnt win a huge amount of headers....HEADERS! For Gods sake the guy is 5' 6"!

Btw, I didnt know we were "building" our team around Paul Dickov, I just thought he's picked because he is the best we got atm..

Lets hope we sign big Dunc, Hartson and bloody Peter Crouch in january..

Yes he's been a bargain but how much a player has costed us should not matter when judging his performance. What if he was a 7M£ Italian that also would have scored a few penalties and a couple of more goals in 15 matches? Would you still be happy then? I think not. Dickov is our first choise striker at the moment and I, at least, have higher demands on our first choise striker. He still hasn't produced as much as he should have, or at least as much as I want. What's wrong with being unhappy with him and think he should have produced more?

Am I a muppet because Dickov only is 5'6'' and doesn't win headers? I just said that I wanted strikers that our wingers can play crosses to. But I'm stupid to believe that that is an effective way to play football... oh stupid me!

Remember, we are still in a relegation battle!

[roversWASmylife]

Remember, we are still in a relegation battle!

I'm glad somebody has pointed this out.

I'm over the moon that we got our second win of the season at Fulham and I do believe that we are going in the right direction. But, we are still in the relegation dog fight. Anyone out of the bottom half, I think, is able to get out of it and are able to get dragged into it.

I'll be slightly more confident if we win our next two games, Spurs at home and Palace away are two games where if we win, we can climb out of it slowly and leave those two in it with others.

[millionpints]

Great all-round performance.

We were discussing after the game who was our man-of-the-match, and agreed that there were no stand-out contenders. Just goes to show what a fantastic TEAM effort it was.

By the way, it seemed like half of Blackburn was in the pub in Edinburgh we watched it in. Strange

[Duff's Minder]

That was the best performance I've seen from the Rovers in a very long time. We completely bossed the midfield for 90 minutes even though they were playing 5 across the middle. I knew Ferguson and Tugay were goodbut Emerton and Reid have been a revelation in the last few games for me. They both look like premiership players - big, strong, quick and with good technique.

The only downside for me was Dickov and Gally's partnership. After Dickov's hissy fit last week (when Gally put the ball over the line) and his performance on Saturday I can't believe how greedy Dickov is. Even the penalty only came about when he should already have crossed the ball! Then at full time he comes over and gives it the Rocky salute celebration whilst all theother players are just applauding the fans.

Yes he does work his heart out but when we look good going forward it's as a unit - Gally's movement, distribution and finishing are much better. I think Gally and Stead/Bothroyd will be our fist choice before the season is out.

[cn174]

Yes he's been a bargain but how much a player has costed us should not matter when judging his performance. What if he was a 7M£ Italian that also would have scored a few penalties and a couple of more goals in 15 matches? Would you still be happy then? I think not. Dickov is our first choise striker at the moment and I, at least, have higher demands on our first choise striker. He still hasn't produced as much as he should have, or at least as much as I want. What's wrong with being unhappy with him and think he should have produced more?

Am I a muppet because Dickov only is 5'6'' and doesn't win headers? I just said that I wanted strikers that our wingers can play crosses to. But I'm stupid to believe that that is an effective way to play football... oh stupid me!

To say that he's not good enough is a bit rediculous. Without his 5 goals this season we'd have lost against Man U, Man City and Norwich. Thats three less points than we have now (which isn't very many anyway). So how can you say that isn't good? His game isn't all about his goals either, he works very hard, never stops and brings others into the game. He also has three assists.

If he carries on his current ratio, he'll have about 12-13 goals this season, which will be a better return that we've had from a striker for quite a while.

And as for Grabbi (who I assume you are talking about), if he'd have got 5 goals by this time in the season in his first season I'd have thought most people would have been quite happy.

As for the game - it was ace . Hopefully we'll carry this on now. The very last thing we need is a poor game against Spurs on Saturday. If we could get another victory there then we'll have a tremendous confidence boost and at last start getting some points on the table.

[thenodrog]

Am I a muppet because Dickov only is 5'6'' and doesn't win headers? I just said that I wanted strikers that our wingers can play crosses to. But I'm stupid to believe that that is an effective way to play football... oh stupid me!

Remember, we are still in a relegation battle!

Agree totally with your last sentence.

BUT

1. Dickov scored from a cross v Norwich.

2. Its centre halves hoofing the ball skywards that causes the problems.

3. So supposing we could get Thierry Henry (comfortably the planets worst header of a ball) for 150 grand, you wouldn't want him either?

When Dickov eventually leaves / retires or whatever who are you gonna select as your next hate figure? After all people like you always need one.

So stop carping you sound dafter by the minute. You should be using this as your sig.........

From Sundays press........"DREAM TEAM STAR MAN: PAUL DICKOV (Blackburn). Zat Knight will be having nightmares about him for months."

[mikeyliu]

hi!

Dickov: can't work out if I love or hate him, whilst it is correct that he puts the labore in 'arte et labore', he certainly takes the arte out.

I know that everybody loves a trier, and there were times on sat where he recovered balls down the channels that he had no right to get to, but perhaps he wouldn't need to if he had a better first touch or if his team mates had more confidence in his footballing and focused more and passed to feet.

I think we'd be better off if he was restricted to a supersub role, having Dickov in the team comes across as lacking ambition and confidence and our style of play suffers.

Andy Cole got a good reception and a bit of a song which was nice and goes a long way to debunking the less palatable reasons concerning Yorke's treatment last week.

But anyone know why the overzealous stewards removed some kids from the back?

wasn't really paying attention (admittedly the same kids who were singing 'no surrender to the IRA' before KO- silly idiots).

[CAPT KAYOS]

Remember, we are still in a relegation battle!

I'm glad somebody has pointed this out.

Something I pointed out after the Brum game and my analysis of Dickov.

Interesting the varying viewpoints that are being commented upon, similar much to what alot where saying early season when we did have Ward and then got relegated.

I still feel once everybody is fit/back Dickov would be more effective coming off the bench, as what is quite obvious is that we need to score goals and he does not exactly fill me with optimism to this. His effort and determination is superb and there is no doubt about his commitment to the fold but we are in a precarious position and a win against a Fulham side that from all accounts was very very poor including from their own manager does nothing to change my opinion considering we didn't put them to the sword and missed chance after chance which is not unusual - note ** - don't take your chances and you get punished.

Anyway a wins a win and and shoved history in its place for the end of drawing sequences and it makes good reading from the people who went to the game - so I 'm happy to let Hughes go about his ways for the time being as it looks like he knows what he wants to do.

Edited November 29, 2004 by CAPT KAYOS

[CAPT KAYOS]

i took the burger and broke bits off the edge to use as missiles

Did you take a photo of yourself Tris lobbing the missiles - or somebody took them of you god forbid?

Where you wearing Burberry per chance and it went to your head??

[tcj_jones]

As much as I like Dickov's work ethic and think he has played superbly this season, he is a poor finisher - in recent weeks theres been about three one on one chances with the keeper that a better player would have put away.

He does, however, shield the ball extremely well and if we could find the right player to play along side him I think we would be in business.

The problem with our strikers is that they are all too similar or cannot play together; Dickov, Gallagher and Bothroyd all appear to be link players and if playing together, just will not score the goals. Our goal scorers, Stead and Jansen, are either in poor form or lacking in confidence and match practice.

Personally, I would like to see Hughes revert back to the Stead/Gallagher partnership that Souness used for a small period last season. The only problem would be how on earth do you justify dropping Dickov and can you afford to lose his grafting in a relegation battle?

[Hughesy]

I expect Hughes and Bowen will be working the defenders hard this week and looking at the mistakes at weekend and I expect a big improvement by them.

Im going to go for a 2-0 win to rovers.

Dickov and Thompson with the goals

Wow! I nearly got my prediction spot on.

5 games unbeaten

Good draws against Liverpool and Birmingham and now a very good performance at Fulham.

With Tottenham next up (Defoe suspended). I think we stand a very good chance of picking up some more points.

Saturday was much improved and again we looked to get stronger and stronger. Rovers fitness appears to be going up and up and it seems to be causing more problems for the opposition.

Glad to see Gally back in the starting line up for a chance and he took it well. His work rate is very good and he and dickov didn’t give Fulham any time to rest.

Against Tottenham I would like to see the same team start. The two players I would look to give a chance half way through the game (depending on how it’s going) would be Thompson and Bothroyd.

If we can carry the same energy into the next game then I think another 3 points stands a very good chance. With only 7 points separating us and 9th place. Im now beginning to feel very optimistic.

[Scotty]

Defoe isn't suspended against us.

[Ricky]

His suspension will be the mid week carling cup game.

[millionpints]

Coleman takes his share of the blame. Writing in the programme of his respect for his old Wales team-mate Hughes, he said: "All personal relationships will go out of the window come three o'clock." It was a 12.45 start.

might explain why Fulham were so poor

Edited November 29, 2004 by millionpints