[Archived] The FA Cup.Quarter Final Match Reaction

[philipl]

Having watched the incident on the link kindly suggested by rover 6 as well as the multiple replays on Sky, have to say it was a penalty all ends up.

In fact MGP is fouled from behind as he's going to the by-line and impeded again as he gets the ball away with the only iffy bit being the way he obviously goes down over Kenton coming back from the by-line. But even at that point it isn't a matter of MGP simply needing to hurdle a prostrate Kenton to get to a ball he would still have been in full control of as Kenton was still clearly trying to stop him.

The linesman had a perfect view of the fouls if you watch it from the camera behind the goal.

At the time of the incident, I felt it was a nailed on penalty but didn't expect it to be given because Barry had not penalised two previous incidents. A pretty obvious (if cleverly executed) pull back on Lucas Neill was not given nor a hand ball on the edge of the area. It was ball to hand but hardly involuntary given the ball travelled at least ten yards to reach the hand and was conveniently diverted out of the area to the clearing boot of a Leicester player. I have seen those sorts of incidents given as penalties in other games.

It was great to see the ref point to the spot.

Obviously rover6 has fallen out of love with MGP now the rest of us are pretty happy with him.

As for Gilbert the Filbert, he knows very little about current premiership footballers but boy did I feel hungry after reading that piece!

Edited March 13, 2005 by philipl

[stuwilky]

Rover6. Look at the Leicester players left hand when MGP falls. What is it doing? Is it pulling him to the floor?

Not to mention sliding in for a stupid challenge, inside the box and taking the player whilst not making contact with the ball.

But wherever you come from if that wasnt a penalty, then fine.

[BRFC4EVA]

Poor game, but then again, who really gives a toss? By the time the semi comes around, the media will have forgotten all about lcfc and this match and so must we. Im sure we will raise our game come the semi's esp with Hughes and Savage playing on home soil, although i was a little disappointed with hughes playing 4-5-1. We looked alot better when Emerton came on and Stead, reverted to 4-4-2 with thommo in the centre and started to create chances. Dickov did, exactly what i thought he shoulda done against chels and blast it down the middle. Clear pen btw, sure he made a meal outa it who doesnt these days, but still a pen. Lcfc fans were good, but also disappointing at the same time, you woulda thought 6,500 could make more noise. We were pretty quiet throughout the game, and a crowd of 22k was poor. HOWEVER WE ARE GOING TO CARDIFF, and that is all that matters!!

We have dont our part by getting to the semi, now God must do his part and draw us with n'castle. Wouldnt that be fun

[runway24]

Who cares about the performance or the penalty debate? The referee gave it, we scored, we won and we are off to Cardiff.....

Same scoreline for Wednesday please.....

[Ozz]

Leicester-Crap performance

LCFC Fans-Not a bad effort, but I`ve seen better this season.

Rovers-Should have taken the game by the scruff of the neck but did not. Early superiority failing to manifest into goals/pressure.

Rovers Fans-AT GROUND-Not bad-reactive rather than proactive though.

NOT AT GROUND-Embarrissing, don`t deserve a decent club like Rovers

Nelsen-Yet to make a mistake in a Rovers shirt.

Service in the Jack Walker Upper-Tip top.

SEE YOU AT CARDIFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOOOORAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY for ROVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

[maxarover]

Just as Sparky said .... match them physically and then let the class of the prem see us through... just wish Stead ...who is class .... had started. Too cautious and not exactly encoraging the confidence to return for Stead.

It will be different at Cardiff.... underdogs again ...love it!!!

[JC4LAB]

Leicesters own official website says it how it r.ea.lly was...Leceisters own lack of any striking ability beat them ..not just the penalty..Dublin just as defender was silly though Im sure Toody & Neilson would have handled him ok

Edited March 13, 2005 by JC4LAB

[colin]

I think Rover6 has been reading this

AESF must have a Leicester-supporting twin!

I'll second that

[Alan75]

Well we reached the FA Cup semi final thanks to a penalty.

But after this display and the display against Burnley in the previous round it's no wonder people are not flocking to Ewood Park.

Teams are coming to Ewood and putting 11 men behind the ball yet we still only play with 1 striker up front. That is if you can call Dickov a striker. Maybe if he'd stop moaning and concentrating on the game I might have some more sympathy for him.

Happy with the result, extremely disappointed with the performamce.

[Bijani]

Its time to pop my cherry.....I dont care about the performance (well I sort of do), but a win is a win and if it takes Rovers to the semi-final I certainly wont complain. And now all of us in the land of Oz will be able to watch ROvers in the FA cup for the first time this year. Damn it feels good.

[roversWASmylife]

Scrappy game but deserved it in the end.

Credit to the Rovers players, they kept battling on even when it's wasn't going right, shows that there's a good spirit in the camp.

I was puzzled at some of the subs Hughes made. I thought Reid and The Axe were doing well and was very surprised why he didn't take Thompson off, why doesn't he pass the ball when he should?

rover6, no offence or anything but you do post some c***.

[Kennys Magic Hat]

I wish someone would tell these nouveau wannabe tactical genius championship @#/? managers that you actually have to create goalscoring opportunities to win a football match!!

It not a league game where you can hope for a draw! If teams came and attacked us they might get somewhere, we aren't clinical enough going forward to punish teams on the break so you might as well have a go at us and see what happens!

Well done Rovers, kept plugging away, it wasn't pretty but we got there in the end with a definite penalty and a superb finish and great celebration!

COME ON YOU BLUES!!!

[Ossydave]

That is if you can call Dickov a striker. Maybe if he'd stop moaning and concentrating on the game I might have some more sympathy for him.

Agree with that, he's really starting to irritate me. Moan moan bloody moan all the time, can only imagine how annoying it must be for the opposition fans.

As soon as I heard the team and that Dickov was the lone frontman I felt negative thoughts flooding into my head. I was really hoping Stead would play from the start, with or without Dickov.

[Scotty]

Terrible game, crap performance, great result. And in the cup the result is all that matters.

We lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation with the same team that started against Everton. This was odd. Stead finally scores a goal and looks confident again, we're playing against a lower division team who show no ambition at all, we're at home, yet we leave Stead on the bench and only play one up front. Oh well.

We started off ok and gradually got worse as the first half wore on. In the first 3 minutes Pedersen hit a cracking free-kick from about 25 yards out onto the post - Walker was just watching it and hoping. Then about 10 minutes later Dickov was played through but rushed his shot when composure was required.

And that was about it from us. We had lots of possession, passed the ball neatly at times, and created absolutely nothing. Leicester worked hard to deny us space in the final third but we made it easy for them by lacking any sort of width or creativity. As the half wore on Leicester came in to it more, kept the ball a bit better, and started to exert some pressure. They never really looked like scoring though and only had a snapshot from a half-cleared corner to show for their efforts.

0-0 at half-time and a very bored crowd.

We started the second half as badly as we'd finished the first. Leicester set the tempo, pushed a few more men forward, and comfortably contained what little threat we had. Changes had to be made and Stead came on around the hour mark to replace Mokoena, meaning a change in formation to 4-4-2. Not much changed though. We still huffed and puffed without looking dangerous at all.

Emerton came on for Reid with around 25 minutes to go and that seemed to be the catalyst for us to slowly get on top. Straight away Emerton beat his full-back and crossed for Pedersen to "score", only to have the game brought back for an earlier foul on Emerton. To be fair, the Leicester players had stopped once they heard the whistle, allowing Pedersen in. But the incident gave us a lift and we started to stretch the game and get behind a tiring Leicester team for the first time in the match.

Another good cross from Emerton fizzed across goal where the in-coming Neill seemed to be pulled back before he could apply the finish. Should have been a penalty. Pedersen then fired a close to the corner flag free-kick across the six yard box that somehow managed to evade any sort of touch.

The breakthrough eventually came with ten minutes to go. A cracking cross-field ball from Neill was instantly controlled by Pedersen. He drove into the area, drew the defenders tackle with a neat back-heal, and was brought down for a nailed on penalty. The ref waited what seemed like an age before giving it. Dickov stepped up and blasted the ball into the net without any sort of finesse at all. Who cares?

Leicester threw on their subs and had a real go towards the end but we survived reasonably comfortably to see out the game.

4-1-4-1 worked so well at Everton because Everton were committed to attacking, being the home team. The formation allowed us soak up their attacks and hit them on the break with runners from midfield linking up with the lone forward. At home though, against a team who weren't remotely interested in attack, it didn't work. There was no space to break into, any runners were easily tracked, and our lone forward was marked out of the game. Our wide players lacked the pace or creativity to beat their markers and nobody in a Rovers shirt had the skill or courage to run at Leicester and try to commit some of their players. Instead we knocked the ball around in an attempt to draw them out - they stayed put.

What it did do though was tire them out, and our superior fitness showed at the end. Once we'd switched to 4-4-2, once Stead and especially Emerton had been introduced, we started to exploit the spaces that appeared late on and created some chances at last.

Friedel had nothing to do. Johansson was beaten once or twice by Gillespie but did ok in the main. Neill played well, especially in the second half when he pushed forward well at times and set-up the penalty. Probably my man of the match. Todd and Nelsen coped well with their giant forward although I didn't think nelsen was quite as composed as he usually is.

Thompson wasn't great and gave the ball away at times. Reid was solid enough, tackled well, won headers, but didn't give us much going forward. Ditto Flitcroft. Mokoena was excellent as a defensive midfielder and covered the defence superbly. Emerton made a real impact when he came on and we should have scored from one of his crosses before the penalty.

Dickov was poor today and seemed more interested in scrapping with Leicester's defenders, but he's scored the goal that's sent us into the semi-final so that'll do for me. To be fair to him, he had preciously little supply. Stead did ok without ever really getting a chance at goal.

We played crap, I think we started with the wrong formation, and I'm sure any neutrals watching on TV must be wondering how the hell we're in the semi's. But we are there and I'm delighted. If we keep playing crap and winning all the way to lifting the cup no-one on here will care.

Roll on Cardiff, we're unbeaten there remember.

[chris]

That is if you can call Dickov a striker. Maybe if he'd stop moaning and concentrating on the game I might have some more sympathy for him.

Agree with that, he's really starting to irritate me. Moan moan bloody moan all the time, can only imagine how annoying it must be for the opposition fans.

As soon as I heard the team and that Dickov was the lone frontman I felt negative thoughts flooding into my head. I was really hoping Stead would play from the start, with or without Dickov.

look at it this way, he's 33 yrs old this year, it probably his last chance to win anything, he's never made it to a semi final, he's not a great player but at least he's filled a gap this season and we can sort out the strikers in the summer for next season.

now don't you feel better

[The Producer]

Awful game and lack of creativity from us against an average side, but I was never really concerned that they were going to score, which I guess is a decent achievement when we were so ineffective elsewhere on the pitch. The most worrying thing for me was the nerves after we scored, when we became unable to put 2 passes together for the rest of the game despite Leicester attempts to give the ball straight back to us. If we draw Man U or Arsenal, we need to score the winner with 10 seconds left on the clock (preferably 5 seconds just in case)

[tashor]

We won.

Shyite game .......... but we won........

Hughes started with the wrong formation but Leicester were dreadful so we still won ( once we swapped to the right formation ).

Now we are the underdogs we must keep the same formation that we started with.

We probably won't win again in the cup - but who knows ??

At least we, as fans, will be happy to see us try to bore the likes of manure and t'arse off the pitch.

Our boys Toddy, t'axe, Dicky, l'savagerler et al maybe will give them a bit of a kicking and we will love them all for it.

Another boring one niller to us will be like nectar to the yobs......

Here's hoping...

Good night to you all.

We won

[Nate]

I don't care how we play, as long as we win!

Bring on whoever now.

[blue/white]

Hardly a pretty match. IMO, Leicester never threatened Brad & our back four again provided strength, coverage and a good number of lengthy runs by the wingbacks. I was certain that we'd have a Steadinho sighting at the halfway point-but I won't quibble.

Just to blow off some euphoria... I've got a few points and err....pints.

1. I was certain that DeVries was trying to out-Dickov our Dickov... by all rights he succeeded.... by constantly whinging at Barry, he essentially isolated HIMSELF. stupid tack to take - he was dangerous at first & it looked as he may have had a shout or two for a call (especially at the top of the box) ... but after 15 minutes in-he was a yellow card in waiting.

2. I was impressed by Nisse's 60 yard 'sprint' on the ball during the 2nd half... he 's as ungainly as they come and he'll never be confused for Cafu.... but you cannot question his commitment to the club.

3. The foul that earned Dickov his yellow card was atrocious... no need for that.

4. Love to watch Nelson ( e or o.. whatever) and Cap. Andy play together.

To my untrained eye it appears as they've developed a great understanding-in a relatively short period of time. I am shocked at the Admiral's quick adaption to the Premiership.

5. Is MGP the Norweigan Maradona? With the exception of a corner kick or two... Pedersen strikes a sweet ball.. unfortunate that we couldn't jump on top early like that... certainly we'd see a better, more open game.

BTW:does anyone else get that feeling that he'll get one off a set piece soon, why not against the North London Frogs?

6. Not certain I'd like to see the Barcodes at the moment. (even if Bowyer had every intention of gifting Spuds an equalizer) It apears that Dyer has emerged from his funk and Given had another blinder... If they are indeed next for us.. I reckon we'll need to watch the early onslaught. The Geordies have learned to nurse the early lead in the past few weeks.

7. Well done, Sparky. Oh, almost forgot: Bazza-yer still a soft, little chav.

Sorry this club wasn't the big enough stage for you.

Cheers Lads... have a few celebratory rounds and get the frame of mind set for the Scousers.

Edited March 14, 2005 by blue/white

[Kremmin]

Who said History never repeats...

Graham Barber = Neale Barry

Steve Walsh = Darren Kenton

David Speedie = MGP

Mike Newell = Paul Dickov

1-0 to the Rovers = 1-0 to the Rovers!!!!!!!!

[roversmum]

Levein - what a pr*t! Stating quite clearly that he wanted a draw and moaning because his master plan didn't work.

Boring match on the whole but as someone said earlier if Arse had played like that and won everyone would be singing their praises. Our lads stuck with it.

A word of praise for Nissa. The guy was kicked and shoved all through the match and just picked himself up and got on with things. He must be black and blue this morning.

Disappointed with Reid and Thommo; as for Flitty, can someone show him the door?

Lots of niggly bits going on behind the ref's back from the Leicester 'players' but it's over and done with now and the right result!

Noticed Souey has surfaced saying he wants to play Rovers in the semis. How sweet would that be if we took them on and won!

[LDRover]

To further add to the was it/ wasn't it a penalty debate, did anyone see Gudjonnsson give Kenton dog's abuse after the challenge?

He knew it was a penalty and if one of their players feels like that, it's good enough for me.

And after all the games with Souness without one such award, is it not justice?

Anyway Cathedral Road Cardiff, you have been warned, my mate's on his way down to see his child, it'll be about 2 now!!!

[Flopsy]

I thought once we went 442 we suddenly looked threatening - and for once Emerton did his job getting to the byeline and putting good balls in.

As for the Penalty well im sorry, defender goes in takes out MGP, who stays on his feet and tries to get to the ball - looked like the defender tried to pull him down. Tough titty Levine - Ive spoken to some guys at ork and said that Rovers deserved to win, and that it was a penalty, although the pull back on neill should have been one too

[Flopsy]

Cynics assessing his [Mark Hughes] chances might recall the old Don King quote about a fighter’s prospects being somewhere between slim and none — “and slim has left the building”. Hughes is a fighter, though, and so is Dickov, a man ably mending his career after the trauma of last season, when he spent the last two months with rape allegations hanging over him before the case was dropped. Add a fit-again Savage and Blackburn might yet irritate their way to a final.

Taken from The times' match report

I like the last line

[1864roverite]

please peeps, just woke up after nights and I read on this thread that some readers/members think that de vries is a good player !

FFS he is the biggest donkey to ever set foot on Ewood's lush green turf.

For someone who is 6ft plus, large build allegedly got a bit of pace about him and you have Leicesters new image of heskey.

The man was and is a useless pile of poo, all he relied on was fouling the defenders.

please dont make me laugh so much in the morning, it hurts