[Archived] Rovers 1 Charlton 0

[Jan]

People dont want to pay £x and never see a win. Anyone who says that always watching losses is not a major cause of people not going is, quite frankly, stupid. Certainly lots of the people who sat next to me last year said that it was not worth them renewing to watch loss after loss- and they didn't renew

On another tack- having not attended for a while there was one thing which REALLY struck me. The players are VERY much slimmer now. It took me quite some time to identify some of them. Some of them are looking positively anorexic- Barry Ferguson is absolutely tiny! Either the club/their families have stopped feeding them or this fitness thing really does work!

Edited January 4, 2005 by Jan

[Neil Weaver]

Don't waste valuable time Flopsy. Jan will be reminding us about her nemesis till her dying day, maybe later.

[philipl]

I know I was watching it on tele but I thought the game was quite entertaining and that Rovers gave it a real go in the first half.

There have been some awful Prem games this year but that wasn't one of them.

Sparky did have the team playing very entertainingly after he arrived: the 2-2 v Liverpool and 3-3 v Brum for instance but in case anyone has noticed that with the excitement, the goals against have disappeared as well.

I hope it is a phase in the rebuilding.

The crowd was utterly bad on what is traditionally one of the top attendance days of the season- clearly there are big societal changes at work as attendances were pretty poor everywhere yesterday. Perhaps the New Year sales were to blame?

However, Jan has a good point about the lack of wins and I guess the failure to grab the winner against Newcastle had quite an influence on the occasional supporters who came on Boxing Day.

[Lathund]

Btw, did anyone else get the impression that Bryan Hughes was Barry Fergusons long lost twin? They look incredibly similar.

[Alan75]

Well, I'm in the Jan camp.

Ive supported the team through good and bad times, heck I didnt even miss a game during the days of Jim Iley, but some of the stuff we had to endure in the last 12 month, made me seriously concider whether I should renew my season ticket. It got to the point that I was going out of habbit.

Another season like the last, and I suspect my money would have gone instead on subscribing to sky instead.

[Alan75]

By the way, who had that blinking bird whistle in the BBE.

[jim mk2]

Some observations from yesterday.

Rovers are a transformed outfit to the one Hughes inherited to September. They are fitter, faster and stronger and should escape relegation though hard work alone.

Ferguson is the linchpin of the team and must not be sold, but the team badly lacks creative spark in midfield. Hopefully Savage can provide that and do Flitcroft's defensive duties as well.

Stead is lacking confidence, retaining possession when he should release the ball and laying it off when he has time to turn. A goal for him in January 2005 would give him a tremendous lift and would be better for the club than signing a new player.

The low turnout will not have been helped by the fact that ticket telephone sales were closed all day Saturday and Sunday. With a match on the Monday, who made that nonsensical decision ?

What did Neill do to earn the man of the match award ?

[CAPT KAYOS]

Great result but I am convinced that some of you wear blue and white specs 24/7.

The first half performance was appalling,apart from the goal we were clueless,uninspiring and without any creativity full stop.

Thank god an improved second half and the result made up for it.

THIS TEAM HAS A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE SAFETY IS ASSURED AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT THAT.

Totally agree SG

Looks like alot of yesterday was overlooked owing to the overdue win - but 6 pts ahead of the relegation scrap or not we have a long way to go and could easily fall back in there over the next two weeks.

Lets just hope we can build and Hughes can use his nous thus far and the transfer window to add a bit of creativity to the team - he's doing well so far but will it be enough? Charlton where not up too much yesterday yet we still made hard work of it - but then again that is just typical Rovers.

IMO a good cup run is a MUST for the benefit of the club as a whole.

Keep it up Hughesy but tell the players they can try and score more goals if they want too.

[thenodrog]

Charlton where not up too much yesterday yet we still made hard work of it - but then again that is just typical Rovers.

IMO a good cup run is a MUST for the benefit of the club as a whole.

Eh?

The consensus on here is that our small squad of 'Hughes approved' relegation threatened players is looking overplayed and jaded. So why do you advocate that we need more games to tire them out further and risk injuries?

[CAPT KAYOS]

Charlton where not up too much yesterday yet we still made hard work of it - but then again that is just typical Rovers.

IMO a good cup run is a MUST for the benefit of the club as a whole.

Eh?

The consensus on here is that our small squad of 'Hughes approved' relegation threatened players is looking overplayed and jaded. So why do you advocate that we need more games to tire them out further and risk injuries?

Don't mean just to the players TND

Who mentioned anything about tiring them out ? - a couple of nip and tucks with those on the fringe which could give the experience to them that so many say they haven't got. Injuries can happen at any time so why worry about them - especially in training where most seem to happen anyway nowadays -don't see people saying thay must stop training.

In addition it could also bring back the interest and buzz and start to bring back some of the stayaway fans thus adding the financial benefit.

[BRFC4EVA]

Very good and important result, 1 which went pretty well un-noticed by the media as we were 1 of only 2 3pm kick offs, all the better for us though. The gap is now 6 points, and we have a better goal difference then most of the teams down there. What i like the most about BRFC in the last month or so, is the excellent defensive record we have had recently. Clean sheets against, everton, bolton, charlton and only a last minute winner for villa stopped us getting another. The wingers are key to this protecting the left and right backs. We must be careful not to get over confident about avoiding relegation as there is still much work to do. However it is looking better now, and hopefully some of our more senior players can have a rest against cardiff and give some of the others, like mgp, johnson, mceverly etc a chance.

[Blueboy Downunder]

JAN/UNCLE ALAN75

it aint about deciding wether or not to go because of the type of footy that we have been playing, it is all about following your team, regardless of who is in charge and regardless of how good or bad the football is.

i ahve come off ewood sometimes and thought that we have played absolutely awful....but been the first to get a ticket for the next home match. i myself could not care less, jkust how bad the football has been.....premiership to the conference and doctor martins league....as long as i have breath in my lungs and as long as i am alive, then i'll always be following blackburn rovers.

[American]

With the way we are playing now, I'm not even worrying about the relegation teams, I'm worrying about catching up to those who are slightly above us.

[teapreacher]

Ferguson does look thinner i agree - can't say the same for Thompson though. a good stone overweight i'd say.

[herbergeehh]

Still, he played well yesterday. So if he can take off that little extra aswell..

Mind you, he wasn't skinny when he played himself into the England squad..

[Lathund]

Admittedly I've only seen Rovers live twice (Once on a pre-season tour in Sweden, and vs Leicester at Ewood last season) so it's harder for me to judge, but I believe Thommo is simply built like that, and it has nothing to do with being overweight. Diego Maradona didn't exactly look skinny even when he was in his best form. Can't say that stopped him

[Blue blood]

Great result but I am convinced that some of you wear blue and white specs 24/7.

The first half performance was appalling,apart from the goal we were clueless,uninspiring and without any creativity full stop.

Thank god an improved second half and the result made up for it.

THIS TEAM HAS A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE SAFETY IS ASSURED AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT THAT.

Totally agree SG

Looks like alot of yesterday was overlooked owing to the overdue win - but 6 pts ahead of the relegation scrap or not we have a long way to go and could easily fall back in there over the next two weeks.

Lets just hope we can build and Hughes can use his nous thus far and the transfer window to add a bit of creativity to the team - he's doing well so far but will it be enough? Charlton where not up too much yesterday yet we still made hard work of it - but then again that is just typical Rovers.

IMO a good cup run is a MUST for the benefit of the club as a whole.

Keep it up Hughesy but tell the players they can try and score more goals if they want too.

My sentiments exactly. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of positives. Compared with earlier on in the season the team looks a class apart, you wouldn't believe its the same team. Nevertheless there's still a long way to go before survival and an acceptable quality for Rovers is reached.

The first half was not good. In fact at times it was pretty dire. The most worrying thing for me was the amount of times we gave the ball back to the opposition. Against a better team than this would have been punished. This is something Hughes and the team need to work on. This is not a lack of quality but carelessness and sloppy play. I tried counting the number of misplaced passes and casual losses of possession. I gave up after twenty (and Tommo was responsible for half.)

Another worrying thing was the lack of killer instinct. Despite giving the ball away on an alarmingly regular basis Rovers were the better team. Yet we didn't create too many chances - although there was that goal mouth scramble that was unlucky not to go in. However, the final killer ball was lacking.

The second half saw us tighten up defensively and despite a lot of possession Charlton rarely troubled us. It would have been nice if we could have kept possession better, but as the first half demonstrated that isn't Rovers forte. I believe had we held on to the ball and had the majority of the possession for the first fifteen/twenty minutes of the second half we'd have seen a far more demoralised Charlton and a more favourable scoreline. However, as the guy next to us said, Rovers never do things the easy way.

Finally on the negative side, is the problem of having a left footer on the left. Emerton - my man of the match along with Todd - still struggles from not being able to cross it with his left. With Matteo's lack of offensive capabilities this meant we had no one capable of crossing it in from the left. This cost us on several counter attacks in the second half. This must be addressed. I'd have Emo back on the right, or as he's doing a decent job on the left, a left wing back with offensive capablities (what's wrong with Gray?) Either way this must be sorted.

Player raitings.

Friedel - not much to do but did it well. Was constantly yelling at the back 4 to push up which is much needed. We sometimes defend far too deeply.

Neill - a good game again, coming on both defensively and in attack with a couple of runs.

Nissa - sliced and mishit a couple of clearances but was generally very solid and good in the air. One near suicidal pass to Neill as well but coming along well with Todd.

Todd - this guy is showing his class. Ok not the most talented of players but never shirks a tackle and again showed real desire to win. Coped with Charlton admirably. Joint man of the match to me. You do wonder how Tiny would have progressed if paired with Todd rather than Amoruso.

Matteo - defensively solid if not spectacular, dire going forwards. Not the answer to left back, or centre back positions and definately not worth his wages.

Tommo - pants in the first half until his cross for the goal, which was his first pass to someone in a Rovers shirt. Second half improved with a couple of good dead ball plays but on reflection prefer the consistency and steel that Reid adds to the side.

Emerton - took his goal well although service prior to and after the goal weren't great. Defensively was supurb.

Flitty - old and these days sadly limited, but still did his main job of disrupting the opposition. If only he were 10 years younger.

Ferguson - involved in goal and had a lot of play go through him. A decent performance but would want more for a 7.5 million signing.

Stead - unlucky worked hard, got a stupid yellow card. His first touch let him down. Needs confidence - which might warrent a run in the reserves.

Dickov - worked really hard though didn't get much reward. Shot horribly wide when forced an opening in second half (perhaps he should have turned the other way).

In short theres room for a lot more improvement but despite some sloppy play Rovers ground out a win, which can only be a good thing. Despite a lot of hard work needed and a few key positions needing sorting out, the situation looks far from hopeless. In fact under Hughes things are beginning to look encouraging.

[Teemu]

I think it was quite enjoyable game afterall and just showed that we should be up there competing from positions 4 to 10, not to be in a relegation struggle (or then Charlton, Aston Villa and Everton should be there as well...). If we just could add a consistent striker in our team....

I was also glad to see Thompson in the starting line-up. He was a spark and showed some invention. I think Hughes should play him in centre midfield against Cardiff, as Ferguson could use some rest (and even competition...).

Morten should probably also be given a run as if a class team like Marseille is after him he can't be totally pants.

[blue phil]

The crowd was utterly bad on what is traditionally one of the top attendance days of the season- clearly there are big societal changes at work as attendances were pretty poor everywhere yesterday. Perhaps the New Year sales were to blame?

People around here are picking and chosing their matches ; that's due to a combination of high ticket prices and performances that aren't exactly thrilling . The Newcastle game was always going to prove more attractive to the floating supporter . We had the usual steady 18/19000 Rovers fans yesterday . The difference was the lack of away fans.

[Paul Mellelieu]

There were about 200 Charlton fans at the game, which means over 19k Rovers' fans turned up which ain't as bad at it first seems.

[thenodrog]

You do wonder how Tiny would have progressed if paired with Todd rather than Amoruso.

He'd prob have progressed as far as he has since..... or are Upson and Cunningham both bad influences on him as well?

[herbergeehh]

Interesting to read the CharltonMad reviews... the writer hasn't seen the games, but still makes a "my view: vs Blackburn" article..