[Archived] Rovers 0 Chelsea 1

[ABBEY]

gutted....thought we deserved something ,nelsen looked a rock,my only gripe apart from 0 points is why didnt we go for it...I thought we could have thrown amo up front to help dicko a bit and to get in terrys skin a bit more......

IF THAT TEAM GO ON TO WIN THE LEAGUE GOD HELP FOOTBALL BECAUSE I THINK ITS DYING!!!!!!!

[Paul]

The result was wrong but the performance was so, so right. For me this was what I expect from our current squad. An excellent hard-working, professional performance that made the so-called best team in the league look average. Certainly Chelsea have the more talented players but we matched them in every department, prevented them from playing and there was absolutely no disgrace in losing tonight - a draw or even a win would have been no more than Rovers deserved.

The new boys, Ryan Nelsen, Robbie Savage and Aaron Moekoena were excellent, as was MGP. Dickov woked very hard but he's not a lone striker. Must confess to being a bit worried by Thommo's performance which wasn't that good.

Overall great stuff from the lads. Top marks to Sparky for bringing us so far since the visit to Stamford Bridge. You've put some pride back into Rovers tonight.

[brfcshabba]

Dickov woked very hard but he's not a lone striker.

Ah! Thats why he didn't score the penalty he spent too much of the game with Ken Hom

[jozsurf]

I may be reading too much into it, but didn't anyone find the Chelsea team's after match celebrations a little over-elaborate? Mourinho's fist-punching at the end, all the players high-fiving and hugging each other and later throwing their shirts into the crowd, you would have thought that they'd won the premiership already! After all, didn't they expect 3 points when they arrived at Ewood?

Or is that what they do at the end of every game?

[Tris]

I think it's time we went 4-4-2 with Jemal on.

Too niggly from Dickov and Savage. I'm all for competitive but those two seem to go too far and it doesn't help.

Hang on.

At half time you didn't even have a clue what formation we were playing.

Are we playing with five in midfield or is Pedersen playing as a striker?

But yet barely 20 minutes into the second half, you're telling Hughes how to do his flippin job, and knocking two of the better players on the night.

We know you don't go to games, but if you're going to continue to spout "know-it-all" suggestions then at least have the courtesy to watch the damn games on TV.

You are - by a country mile - the biggest source of BULLSH!T this forum has ever seen.

[92er]

Mourinho said a number of things on Sky Sport News-along the lines of:

We can play in ugly matches as well as beautiful ones

They thought we were kids from London and we could be intimidated.

The fans were brilliant and could understand how we played together as a team.

The lead we have now is the biggest we have ever had.

I'm sure Jim or somebody else could do a better link to Sky etc.

Mourinho was very critical of the way Rovers played and Hughes seemed somewhat surprised by the attack.

[Manchester Blue]

Thought we did ok but couldn't keep the ball all night. When is Australia Day? I'm guessing it was last night as that can be the only excuse for how poor Neill & Emerton were, both atrocious. Nelsen & Todd solid, Mokoena tidy & Savage worked hard. Thompson tried to do the difficult thing every time and failed, was very annoyed at coming off but maybe should do more on the pitch.

Biggest annoyance for me was Mourinho refusing to shake hands with Hughes after the match. You can't buy class.

[chris]

not too bad tonight, i was not looking forward to this game, but at least we did a half decent job, (anything least then 2-0 loss)

last 6 pens for Dickov thats 3 goals and 3 misses, step up Robbie Savage next time i think. (although strikers need goals for confidence, has a striker scored this year?)

[Oklahoma]

Proud rovers here

We played well, could have gotten the 3 points if we had any power up front.

I know Dickov gives all he has but for me it's not enough.

Besides, he spent more time arguing and giving free kicks than playing.

And he made two terrible challenges on Cech.

Nelsen, Savage and Mokoena were the best in my opinion.

Todd was good too but he could have done better in the header he missed.

The full backs played the usual, MGP and emerton was ok. Thommo was not that good.

If we are going to play 4-5-1, we need a creative midfielder that can transform it in a 4-2-3-1.

[Tris]

Bad night for penalty takers tonight, Angel had two saved, and Andy Cole put his effort so far wide it ended up in the Thames.

[The1mattjansen]

The result was wrong but the performance was so, so right. For me this was what I expect from our current squad. An excellent hard-working, professional performance that made the so-called best team in the league look average. Certainly Chelsea have the more talented players but we matched them in every department, prevented them from playing and there was absolutely no disgrace in losing tonight - a draw or even a win would have been no more than Rovers deserved.

The new boys, Ryan Nelsen, Robbie Savage and Aaron Moekoena were excellent, as was MGP. Dickov woked very hard but he's not a lone striker. Must confess to being a bit worried by Thommo's performance which wasn't that good.

Overall great stuff from the lads. Top marks to Sparky for bringing us so far since the visit to Stamford Bridge. You've put some pride back into Rovers tonight.

I won't pretend I know who you are, but you've just saved me a lot of time typing all that out.

EXCELLENT post!

Just to add a couple of points:

1. Mourinho was sort of right, we did get stuck in and try to get to them, but he can't complain about spoiling tactics.

2. Nelson and Todd looks to be an excellent partnership, two very experienced and mature Defenders, and what they lack in pace they can make up for with brains.

[Hasta]

We certainly fought hard but i have to say I'm disappointed (which I didn't think I;d be saying after a close 1-0 defeat tonight). In the final third of the pitch we were again extremely poor. We know thats our problem and it showed again. I know Chelsea are an outstanding defensive unit but we hardly ever looked like creating anything. Second half we couldnt even keep possession of the ball around the edge of their box.

Also Hughes was either way to negative or tactically niave. To leave Dickov on his own more or less all game was as frustrating for me as it was for Dickov himself. If J Johnson is the only striker on the bench and we are 1-0 he has to come on surely. A better option given the way we were lumping the ball upfield would have been to put Amo up front which shows how desperate we are. Far be it for me to praise the 'tached scottish one but if that had been Souness in the last 5 minutes we'd have had 4 strikers on the pitch. I just felt like we never had a real go at them. (Although we certainly had a 'go' at them in the other sense!)

Don't get me wrong there were plenty of positives as have been mention on other posts so I won't repeat. At the moment though I'm just too frustrated to be proud and look on the bright side.

Edited February 3, 2005 by Hasta

[Bazzathegreat]

Is it just me or are this chelsea side nothing special, i'm not just taking tonights game as a basis for my argument I have seen them half a dozen times this season and are at most a proffesional outfit.

they may look good because the rest of the prem is poor this season take arsenal for example, the arsenal of last season i'm sure would of beaten chelsea easy, they have some "very good players" but no-one you could truly claim as a consistent world class performer i.e Shevchencko, Henry or a Zidane of a bye gone era, i also reckon rovers could have exploited there relative lack of height , minus John Terry and i reckon they would be shakey on set plays

[jkritchey]

Glad to see all the cheers for Nelsen. Pure class in attitude and fortitude, and as long as he avoids a footrace with Henry or Robben, you can count on him. Looking forward to watching the game myself here on delay shortly.

[ABBEY]

. In the final third of the pitch we were again extremely poor. We know thats our problem and it showed again.

AND HERE IS THE PROBLEM 21 GOALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOMEONE TAKE THE GOALS BY TH E BOLLLLUX AND DO WHAT YOU ARE PAID TO DO!!! IF NOT BYE BYE SIMPLE AS.........................BEDTIME NIGHT NIGHT .....................STILL GUTTED

[Robertson]

Second that, look at how bolton played at stamford bridge this season, chelsea looked vulnerable from dangerous set pieces.

ferreira was a definite weak link for them tonight, pedersen should have had more of a go at him.

[Oklahoma]

What the hell was Amoruso doing on bench?

And where was Stead and/or Jansen?

Are they injured or banned?

[Hasta]

Is it just me or are this chelsea side nothing special, i'm not just taking tonights game as a basis for my argument I have seen them half a dozen times this season and are at most a proffesional outfit.

they may look good because the rest of the prem is poor this season take arsenal for example, the arsenal of last season i'm sure would of beaten chelsea easy, they have some "very good players" but no-one you could truly claim as a consistent world class performer i.e Shevchencko, Henry or a Zidane of a bye gone era, i also reckon rovers could have exploited there relative lack of height , minus John Terry and i reckon they would be shakey on set plays

They're very similar to when we won the league although we did have a world class player in Shearer. The rest of the team was an effecient cog which worked very well which is how I see Chelsea. Anyone who saw Rovers win away at Everton and QPR in '95 will I think see quite a few similarities between them games and the game tonight. After them games I'm sure the home fans were probably saying that we weren't that good. At the end of the day if you keep grinding out result after result away from home then thats enough.

Don't forget Arsenal last year were freakish which we'll may well not see again for a while.

[JAL]

How to play Chelsea with the men we've got.

Can Rovers play the traditional 4-4-2 with the men we have, i think we would be left wide open if we did. So i think we should take a leaf out of Chelseas book by playing a back four with a diamond shape central midfield.... thats one midfielder preferably Flitcroft between the midfield and defence just like Makelele does for Chelsea with Savage and Thompson just ahead either side of Flitcroft and Dickov on the tip of the Diamond.

Dickov has to play off Gallas and not Terry becuase Tery will put Dickov in his pocket.

Emmerton and MGP play their usual wide roles, these lads have got to be encouraged to shoot across goal more often instead of trying to set up our weak attackers. The thing i see with these two is that Emmerton can beat his man but wont or cant shoot, whilst MGP can shoot but may struggle in beating his man.

One thing we dont want is Chelsea defending on the edge of their box - why ? because thats when they look solid and at their best and have the speed and strength to counter attack or pick us off at will with the speed they carry.

Bring the Chelsea team into our half if possible with their defenders near to the half way line and then we can try and open them up, this has to be the tactics - we tried it at the Bridge but Matteo and Gray fell asleep and we ended up conceding two easy goals.

If we play our usual game they would pull us to pieces and dont forget Richard Dinnis commented on the local radio that he had seen the Chelsea scout on Rovers last six outings, so they obviously know everything about the Rovers so we have to give Chelsea the unexpected.

Well Mokoena played instead of Flitcroft but how the team carried little David Thompson, theres people slagging Lucas Neill off but Tommo was an out and out liability along with Matteo - lots of running but no effective quality forward play which i thought let the team down big time from an attacking prospective .

The problem is we dont have anyone better to fill their positions at the club, hopefully Mark Hughes will address that in the summer along with the strikers.

Cant forget Ryan Nelson who really impressed in the centre of defence along with Mokoena who also did a competent job for the team.

Switching the widemen second half though didnt help because Bret Emmerton could not take the ball from his right and take it onto his left and then run with the ball - he was absolutely woeful at it and it exposed a true weakness along with his lack of ability to head a ball in front of me in the riverside.

Overall a pleasing performance despite the result and a big improvement on our early season games if only Bellamy was upfront then we really could look threatening.

[Tris]

Anyone who saw Rovers win away at Everton and QPR in '95 will I think see quite a few similarities between them games and the game tonight. After them games I'm sure the home fans were probably saying that we weren't that good

I was going to draw exactly the same comparison with our Everton game.

It wasn't pretty, but it was a statement.

I doubt that Chelsea will have a harder game than this in their run in to the titile. They may face more cultured challenges, but nothing that tough.

It was the manager who told them to throw their shirts into their fans at the end - and that was a stroke of genius. The watching world saw a fierce, graphic statement of unity and determination in those couple of minutes.

Nothing will stop this Chelsea team from taking the title this season, and with that base to build on and presumably limitless funds in the summer, they've more or less got next season's in the bag as well.

[tashor]

Was in a really good mood until I read the comments on this thread by those posting during the game......

............G...U...Y...S Y...O...U... K...N...O...W...

F...L...E...U...R...K... A...L...L...

A...B...O...U...T F...O...O...T...B...A...L...L.............

STOP POSTING. 'NUFF SAID.

To the real game.

The most I have enjoyed a game at Ewood when we have lost and not scored.

Made me feel proud again.

Brad - could've done better with their goal but unlucky as the ball dipped. Otherwise little to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Todd and Nelsen were brilliant.

Matteo and Neill - o.k. at defending. Rubbish going forward. On balance that is why they make a team fighting relegation.

Mokoena - worked very hard and is learning fast. Good raw material and gave his all. Still very naive but I think he can make it.

Thompson - worked hard but I am not sure his first touch is good enough for a central midfield role.

Gamst Pedersen - deserved man of the match. Well done. Making him wait and getting him to develop himself is playing dividends. Might just become a star that outgrows our team. HURRAH....10 out of ten Rovers management and 0 out of ten to cwuiciuodaddyofgmp or whatever he called himself...

Emerton - worked hard and on another day his efforts would have given better rewards.

Savage - love the guy ( especially his flowing blonde locks ). One word for him. ZDOGSBALLORKS. That's what he gives us.

Dickov - ditto. Didn't look 100% fit but gave his all despite his lack of natural class. Did a better job in a 4:1:4:1 than I thought he could.

Reid coming on - did nothing. What was that about?? I wanted to see fresh legs up front.

No points therefore theoretically of no use to us.

Saints and Norwich lost.

A barnstorming performance by our lads against the best team in Europe.

Brought a smile back to my face

[philipl]

Completely agree with Paul's post.

We gave Chelsea a real fright tonight- if you doubt that, look at the way they celebrated at the end of the game- Mourinho was more hyper than when he won the European Cup.

Magnificent performance by the Rovers- full of competitive spirit but no lack of quality work as well. There were times when Chelsea threatened to play their slick stuff but whenever that occured, Savage was in their face and back we'd come holding the ball well.

Mokoena on tonight's evidence is a great signing.

Matteo played well.

Reservations-

Sorry Brad but that goal was straight at and through you and the look on your face after it went in said you knew you should have saved it.

Nelsen looked a touch short of the pace but did his job well when he was able to stand strong.

Thompson's passing- oh dear.

We shouldn't even bother trying to cross- we (Emo) cannot.

Dickov never looked like scoring that penalty- Cech out psyched him, Savage would have scored it.

I watched the game on French TPS Channel (they had a team of a rather attractive female presenter down in the JW/BBE corner and two commentators at the back of the JW) in the Scottish Bar in San Julian's, Malta. The other game they were showing was the Juve home defeat by Sampdoria in a predictably 95% empty Stadio del Alpe.

Funny, the Scottish bar not showing wee Bazza making his sub appearance in Rankers' 7-1 win in the CIS my arse Cup. Nobody was remotely interested- the Scots know where the significant football is played.

[Kremmin]

Thought we gave it absolutely everything today and pretty happy with the performance against the certain champions.

Sure, we lack a cutting edge but Cech hasn't conceded a goal since Sir Robby Bobson was in short pants.

Hughes will address the striking problem over the summer, no doubt but in the meantime, I'm confident we've now got the composure at the back and the grit in the middle to survive.

Then we can think about going forward again.

Savage, Dickov, luv 'em.

The wasp would pick a fight with King Kong - pity he couldn't butt in a spot kick.

[colin]

Well, if it's any consolation to anyone else ( I know I've got this thing about The Red Scum........)

The United fans at work were strutting around like peacocks with penis extensions after their win at Highbury.

"Oh, I hope you win tonight"

"No I hope they thrash us, so that you lot don't have a chance of winning the title"

*

*

*

I thought we did OK tonight. I've gotto agree that Thommo was not up to scratch tonight. The defence did well - how many saves did Brad have to make? Two by my reckoning, the one that went in and one from Duff.

But did we ever look like scoring apart from Savage's first half shot?

I loved the "Charge Of The Light Brigade" madness at the end. Twenty players in the Chelsea penalty area.

[Oklahoma]

We gave Chelsea a real fright tonight- if you doubt that, look at the way they celebrated at the end of the game- Mourinho was more hyper than when he won the European Cup.

It's not that hard.

He didn't celebrate European cup at all because, by then, he had falen out with the president and part of the supporters.

And there was a death threat to him, also, I think.