[Archived] Rovers 0 Chelsea 1

[James No. 7]

Not impressed with Chelsea, after Robben went off they didnt really create anything. This is a game we could have won...

I'm not sure about winning, but we could have drawn.

If only Dickov got that penalty! And a penalty should have been paid to us when Makelele (or Gallas) pushed MGP over in the box.

At least we performed well... a lot better than I expected.

The likes of MGP and Savage (he didn't go missing, Izzitnot!) really impressed me.

There is some hope for us yet, but we really could have used a quality striker (understatement!).

In a good overall performance, I will pick out the bad individual performances...

Lucas Neill: The Chelsea players were running rings around him. He seems to get sucked in to attempt a tackle on one player, whereby another player runs behind him, all the time.

Dominic Matteo: He is very slow and left us exposed all day. I have to give credit to him though, since he did recover a few times when he seemed beaten and kicked the ball out of danger.

David Thompson: His first touch was terrible, and his passes were going all over the place today. I would like to give Reid a start in the next few games and use Thompson as a substitute -- to use him as an impetus in the last 15 minutes.

Edited February 2, 2005 by James No. 7

[herbergeehh]

More positive than some others here..

First of all - our central defence tonight was ace!

Todd and Nelsen didn't take a wrong step all night, perhaps except that one Gudjohnsen breakthrough.. fantastic in the air, and Nelsen impressed me with some good touches and a few very good passes.

Mokoena - solid defensively, but too clumsy and lacks passing skill- would've liked to see Tugay come on the last 20 minutes or so..

Thompson - poor game, poor touch and no glimpse of greatness. He'll come good though, I'm sure.

Gamst Pedersen - very good today methinks, some very good and creative choices especially in the first half - and worked hard defensively aswell, compensating for lack of tackling ability..

Emerton - not a very good game, didn't pass Wayne Bridge once and still has problems putting in a good cross.

Matteo - what's to say really? Can McEveley possibly contribute less? Or Gray? Or me?

Neill - struggled a bit, and only one good run forward- partly because we had to watch their wingers closely..

Savage - good game, tirelessly running and creating havoc in midfield. Some great tackles, and a few good attacking contributions aswell. I'm now more sure than ever that we ended up with the best player in the Ferguson/Savage saga. (two different cases, I know, but still..)

Dickov - what a player! Constantly kicking John Terry and Gallas, and sooo much better at holding the ball up than that ###### Bothroyd. A few unecessary freekicks as always, but very nice to see him upfront - you know that things happen around him!

All in all, a good game by Rovers! Chelsea is undoubtably one of the, if not THE best organized teams in the world nowadays- and the options were quickly narrowed down to passing backwards. Not much to do about that really, except hoping for some Thommo/Gamst magic or a scrappy goal from a free kick.

BUT, why did Savage take the corner kicks from both sides tonight??

Thought Gamst' corners against Bolton created a lot of trouble in there, an inswinging corner towards that square with 10-12 players can just as easily go in..

Oh, and not very impressed with Friedel on Robben's shot- and not Lucas defensive work either. But Chelsea without Robben didn't impress me, we were by far the best team. With a winger like Duff or a striker like Gudjohnsen upfront alongside Dickov, we would've beaten them.

Bring on Boro!

[cole]

maybe i'm just an optimist, but i thought we played very well.

i hate to sound like souness about this one, but "we played well enough to win... lady luck just wasn't on our side"

i don't think anyone truely expected us to win this game, but we managed to stay with the #1 team for the whole game. i took a lot of positives out of this one. as i said, we didn't win, but i didn't expect us to. we just looked overall impressive to me... the more i see dickov, the more i love his style he's such an irritant.

and i really am starting to like mokoena.

that being said, we still desperately need another striker...

[Flopsy]

not disapointed with the players

Matteo had a good game (except for his passing)

Its Hughes' fault - we didnt change anything till 75 minutes

I think that bringing on a striker at 60 and goingto 442 would have been better and having a go. not faffing with 451 at 1-0 down

[seahawkdad]

I'm very impressed with Nelson

He reminds me of Kevin Moran the way he carries himself on the pitch.

No fuss, he just gets on with it

I'm glad to hear the praises of Nelsen. I knew he'd do well for us, since I've watched him play for four years here.

Can't wait to get home Saturday (I travel during the week) and watch my recording of the match...other than the frustration of seeing us not able to score.

[HugeChin]

Is it my imagination or does MGP win everything in the air?

He is like a Goliath in the heading world

[Rovermatt]

Did anyone watch the game on PPV? I started yelling at the TV (much to my father's alarm) when that idiot Tony Cottee said we bought the league? HOW!?

[Bobby G]

Team played very well,pressing,pushing,trying till the death.

Some players were disappointing Emerton,Thommo were both poor.MGP showed why he is a great player for us,especially in the first half,where his passes opened up their defence many times.He faded out in the second half,especially on the right.

Matteo was average by his low standards!Neill was also average if not poor.Friedel has let us down in this game.

The problem is the players played to their potential,but whether its Chelsea,Scunthorpe or whoever,we just DONT LOOK LIKE SCORING!

[HugeChin]

Did anyone watch the game on PPV? I started yelling at the TV (much to my father's alarm) when that idiot Tony Cottee said we bought the league? HOW!?

Exactly!!!

And then he went on to say we had a great team

For a while I thought it was Graeme Le Saux then the IQ was definitely questionable and I thought it was Tony Gale but that comment confirmed to me it was old FAT HEAD himself Tony Cottee who can talk ###### for England but couldn't score for them

[Nelsta]

What the hell was that premiership plus was it a chelsea speciel not a single word spoke about rovers in the after match at all.Very impressed with Rovers tonight we looked solid down the centre .But why did Duff have to kiss his badge

[Darwen Rover]

We were awesome today

[Jan]

I think the priority tonight was not to lose by any more than we absolutely had to. While we're in that position yet, goal difference may be important, and I'd rather lose 1-0 than try to win and lose 2 or 3 nil.

That said I have no idea where a goal's coming from either!!

Edited February 2, 2005 by Jan

[HugeChin]

I LOVE PAUL DICKOV

He wanted to fight with every Chelsea rent boy tonight and I loved it

The team looks quite mighty now in the strength and commitment department and neither Savage nor Makoena shirked any challenges tonight even though they were mainly up against lightweights Cole and Tiago

[Eddie]

Is it my imagination or does MGP win everything in the air?

He is like a Goliath in the heading world

Hopefully he's more like David. I don't think Goliath coped well with things flying around his head .

[Robertson]

Disappointed tonight, cannot fault the players trying and our 'special attitude' but the end product is awful.

Cannot afford to miss penalties and expect to get something out the game. Or play Matteo and expect to get something out the game...I see he did his speciality of losing the ball in the dying seconds. Worth the admission price alone!!!

Nelsen was a colossus, what a JAW!!! Thommo was poor and we needed him to be on hot form and Dickov tried but bring back Stead or Jansen to partner him please. or Shearer, I wish.

Rennie was bad as usual but did us a lot of favours which was nice of him.

I see Pandiani scored tonight

Edited February 2, 2005 by Robertson

[HugeChin]

Is it my imagination or does MGP win everything in the air?

He is like a Goliath in the heading world

Hopefully he's more like David. I don't think Goliath coped well with things flying around his head .

Touche

But for a player who was supposed to be too weak for Premiership football he doesn't seem to be fairing to badly to me

Edited February 2, 2005 by HugeChin

[DanLad]

I believe the refs jurisdiction extends for 30 mins pre and post the game. Should every Chelsea player receive a booking for removing their shirts?

[1864roverite]

just back home from the game, I predicted a 6-0 reverse, how wrong can one be ?

Please no more of this Chelsea were rubbish on the night. Rovers simply did not allow them to play their fast flowign football apart from the one chance when Robben scored.

Very impressed with Rovers defensively tonight, however just one lapse and one goal conceded.

I am taking lots of positives from the game.

Rovers were steady throughout the team based on a rock solid performance from Todd and Nelson. Neill and Matteo coped well.

In the middle Mokoena was superb as was Savage. MGP played well but why oh why does he not try and take on the defender ? Emerton played well but had little support up front.

Thompson was the only negative, how many balls did he give away ?

Up front little Dickov created mayhem against two top defenders, with a little support or a fellow front man we would have faired much better.

As for the tactics, well moaners around me moaned, I could see what Hughes was playing at but could not get my head around the lack of a target man on the bench. Chelsea were seriously wobbling and showed that when narked they dont like it.

Rovers, well done, you duffed up a team valued at around £110 million big style. Fight was clearly evident, work rate and effort was clearly evident, team work and camadare is clearly evident, the will to win is there and tonight the crowd was behind you all the way.

Mark Hughes must have read my post on how to beat them. I went for terry/Robben or Duff to get crunched early door and it happened. Robben departed but Terry survived just.

Cant blame a penatly miss, it was a superb save from the worlds number 1 keeper.

Well done Rovers and hard luck. Hope the fight is still there on Saturday.

[Blue and White]

While I can't say that I'm happy that we lost, 1-0 vs Chelsea isn't a disaster. We gave it a real go but there just wasn't enough wuality and creativity....with a bit of luck we still could have sneaked in a draw.

I thought Brad could have saved Chelsea's goal, it was very hard hit but it seemed like it went just under his arm. Chelsea didn't create much after that, and I really don't see why they are 11 points clear at the top. The only thing that really impressed me about them were those massive giants at the back, (and it was hilarious watching those long balls aimed at little Dickov on his own up there), upfront they aren't anything special. I can't say I blame Dickov for the penalty. He shoudln't be taking them anyway as he's hardly the best of finishers, but the sad thing is that there's noone else. It wasn't a bad penalty though, but Chech is a monster. I don't see just how the hell it's possible to ever score against him. I thought our back 4 were good today, Nelson did good, Matteo was also very good in the 1st half especially. It's sad that we had noone to bring on at the end though and challange for something.

[James No. 7]

What the hell was that premiership plus was it a chelsea speciel not a single word spoke about rovers in the after match at all.Very impressed with Rovers tonight we looked solid down the centre .But why did Duff have to kiss his badge

Yeah, I forgot to mention that in my post-match analysis and was just about to post it, after checking whether it was already mentioned.

That ###### me off. Did he really have to do that at Ewood Park?

[Eddie]

Glad to see more positive noises being made. I think if we played like that for the remainder of the season, we'll have no worries. We'd beat most like that. If one or two of our attacking players can just get that something extra going forward now and then in a game, we can more than make do for the rest of the season and bring in a new striker and other faces in the summer.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Rome wasn't built in a day. This team is now unrecgnisable from the shambles of the latter Souness era when it comes to defence, effort, tackling and so on. I enjoyed watching the game - they are the best team ever to come to Ewood and we gave them a good fright.

I really liked Nelson, no way should he be dropped after that. I also liked Mokeona in front of the back four, I thought his first time passing was excellent. Savage was at the heart of everything we did going forwards, MGP is looking better and better. Dickov is, well Dickov.

There are still some weaknesses Hughes has to address, most notably up front, Emerton and the fullbacks, but I really feel optimistic about the future.

One last word to stir the nest - when will everyone stop living in the past about Brad. Maybe it's just on the televised games, but I thought he was yet again crap tonight. The goal was very soft, he didn't come out for anything (vs Cech's fine catch near the 'D' right at the end), he was too slow off his line in the 2nd half to a punt from Cech that could easily have been goal no 2, and so on. How many games has he earned us points this season with an above and beyond performance? Man U back in early Sept.

I don't know how good Enks is, but I think Brad is playing like a bottom 5 goalie.

[LeChuck]

Lucas Neill put in the worst performance from a full back I can ever remember...surpassing even his own terrible performances in the past. An athelete? Yes. A footballer? Absolutely not.

Pedersen was easily our cleverest player, Dickov worked has balls off and had some good touches but needs a partner (needs to work on that penalty technique, what's with the rushing?), Friedel was terrible for their goal...stick a leg out and he saves it, why try and use your hands?

4-5-1 won't keep us up because we don't have an Andy Johnson at the attacking end compensating for the lack of a second striker and Neill and Matteo will mean doing Everton-style 1-0's will be very rare. Stick Mokoena back in defence, Nelsen on the right, Johansson on the left and give Dickov Jansen or Stead to play alongside with Johnson providing something different from the bench and we should be ok.

[RovertheHill]

Just back. Very positive. Will everyone on here realise the reason we had so much of the game was the formation and that reverting to 4-4-2 20 minutes from the end wouldv'e meant we probably wouldn't have touched it again.

Said it before though, without the Glasgow p*ff or Tugay, we do not have a real creative central midfielder and it's not Thommo. And some bite up front.

Think the centre of defence is sorted - Nelsen just looks class to me. Don't know why people thought Neill was the worst full-back - you only had to look across at Dom "Oil Tanker" Matteo. If MGP has a wand for a left foot, Matteo has a log.

But overall, keep that up and we will be safe

[herbergeehh]

he was too slow off his line in the 2nd half to a punt from Cech that could easily have been goal no 2, and so on.

That was a fight between Gudjohnsen and Nelsen/Todd, no way Friedel should come off his line earlier!

I see your point though, Brad isn't the steady performer he was two seasons ago. But I think he played quite well tonight, with the exception of that goal.. I also think we need him at the back, he seems like a personality and a man the defenders really respect. That's probably a more important quality than most supporters think..