[Archived] The FA Cup.Quarter Final Match Reaction

[SuperStella]

ohhh... what a feelin, when were dancin on the ceeeeilllin!!!

[ally]

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

have you seen jay bothryoyd play?

[1864roverite]

de vries makes bothroyd look super

[Tony Diamond Inc]

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!!!!!!!!

Was it not George Courtney?

[Tony Diamond Inc]

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

Couldn't agree more... he made Ian Moore look lethal!

[Alan75]

de Vries made Robbie Coltraine look athletic and anorexic.

[The Prof.]

Can't believe the critics on here. Hughes has picked the players he thinks will do a job. Given he wasn't left with much to start with I think the next big battle at Ewood will be to keep hold of him.

Being honest about our team;

- We have no flair players (Although Pederson has a wonderful persona

and touch he ain't there yet)

- We have no real strikers (Dickov just doesn't do it for me but he is all we

have until one of the other forwards sort themselves out)

- We have very little midfield flair (Tugay excepted but he is looking his

age -he is 64 isn't he?)

- We have no left back and dogy right back

- A goalie who looks hamstrung (or has he always been left footed.

- We have three excellent Centre Halfs

And were on our way to Cardiff again. Hughes is doing a lot right in my opinion. We are never going to score bucketfulls but neither do Chelsea. And we do look very hard to beat now which hasn't been the case for about 8 years FFS.

We know we have limitations but we only really need a couple of players in summer now and we'll fly. 5 months ago I wouldn't have given tuppence for our chances of staying up and thought the whole squad needed replacing.

WHO GIVES ONE IF WE WIN ONE NIL AND IT'S SCRAPPY. JOIN ANOTHER BOARD

Rant over (Can't wait to see Mokoena biting Roy Keanes legs -guy scares the £*&^ out of me! heh heh)

[Teemu]

Not the best of games but at least it was nice to see Rovers to go through. Personally I would have fancied to see an other goal as well, for that penalty looked a bit fifty-fifty decision to me. Probably to the ref too becouse he didn't call it straight away. Then again, I don't think there's a whole lot of moaning for the Leicester fans for there weren't really no chances for them at all and a handfull of close ones for us besides that one.

Furthermorely, I think everyone played overall pretty well but there just wasn't much of creativity in the air. One notable point was that Emerton looked a bit hungry and eager again for a change when he came in from the bench. Hopefully this is a sign that he is going to get a bit of something in to his game from here on, for he is a good player but hasn't really played up to his standard in a couple of games I've seen lately.

I'm also still a fan of Thompson for all his enthusiasm and go for it attitude. Sometimes he just don't cut it but usually he gets in at least two or one good chances a game.

Flitcroft looked a bit invisible, but I guess that was his role?

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I can't believe all the Leicester complaints about the penalty, firstly IMO it was a penalty, secondly we should have had a penalty when Neil was pulled back. Note that none of the Leicester whingers mention that.

Ultimately I think Hughes got the tactics right to beat a very hardworking Leicester team. He started with a team that would prevent Leicester any encouragement - lets not forget the height that they had in their side - Reid and the Axe adding vital height to our side. Second half, when they were tiring he introduced Stead and Emo to take advantage of tiring legs.

Lets not forget, with a little luck we could easily have scored prior to the penalty.

At the moment, we aren't pretty, but we are getting results. Hughes is doing exactly the job he was brought in to do - i.e. get the best out of the players at his disposal.

Cardiff here we come

[tonytony]

agree with most things prof ^^^ but:

3 excellent centre halfs...todd, nelsen and....? and yeah they're good but against the henrys and van nistelrooys of this world excellent doesnt really describe them unfortunately! tho i'm not slagging them at all becos without captain todd and nelsen god knows where we'd be!

the only good thing coming out of the fa cup tho is:

we beat burnley

we'll get money

the UEFA cup should be the last thing on anyones mind cos it kinda gets embarrassing when we get beat off crappy small teams no-ones ever heard of!

and for once now it looks as though we've got a manager who knows how to spend money if we get some (as long as he's finished trying to buy the welsh team)

Edited March 14, 2005 by tonytony

[streakyb]

todd, nelsen and....? and yeah they're good but against the henrys and van nistelrooys of this world excellent doesnt really describe them unfortunately!

Have you seen them play against them somehow? Thought that the ManU and Arsenal games coming up will be the first time that the pairing of Todd and Nelsen will have faced these players.

I will wait untill after those matches before commentating on how well they can handle players like that. Hopefully they will make you eat your words (but I'm not going to put money on it)

Edited March 14, 2005 by streakyb

[tonytony]

exactly

[USABlue]

He makes it sound as if the penalty was controversial... That was one of the most stone wall penalty's I've ever seen.

Conversely, that pull back on Neill was non-existent and certainly not a penalty.

I don't undestand the fuss about the penalty either. There is no way it could have been waved off. Clear cut and just. MGP skinned the player by stopping the ball dead, player took him out. 100% penalty, no arguments.

Also in agreement on the shout for Neill, nothing there. In fact if Neill had been concetrating on getting in there instead of how to win a pen we could have been a bit more comfortable. MGP sooooo unlucky with the free kick early on.

Edited March 14, 2005 by USABlue

[herbergeehh]

1960...

John F. Kennedy is elected as America's youngest ever President and Blackburn reach the last four of the FA Cup

Are you saying there is a connection?

Roll on with conspiracy theories!

Edited March 14, 2005 by herbergeehh

[Duff's Minder]

Nelson, Todd and Mokoena were all excellent yesterday. Mokoena Vs Keane/Viera should be fun to watch. So we've got the defensive side sorted. The problem is if we play 1 up (as we probably have to) then Dickov scares the hell out of me. We're only going to get 2 or 3 chances inthe semi and we need a striker that might take 2 of them. All Dickov did yesterday apart from attempt to hit the keeper with his penalty was to fall over and moan, again and again.

Let's hope Stead can get a hat-trick against the scoucers and keep him out.

[CAPT KAYOS]

We won simple as - but god was it crap!!

There's one thing for certain though , we need to improve ten fold for the SF or this is the end of of our stumble to the Final.

[tonytony]

mokoena was excellent yeterday...you sure, correct me if im wrong but he didnt hardly make a pass, and he made stupid fouls! i think he has potential to be good but he wasnt yesterday!

[RevidgeBlue]

I posted a while back asking if anyone believes in all that "Our name is on the Cup this year " stuff.

If we do go on to lift the famous trophy I think there must be something in it after playing so abysmally against Burnley twice and if anything even worse yesterday.

I'm a big fan of Hughes but IMO he blundered badly with his tactics and starting line up yesterday, nevertheless getting out of jail courtesy of the rather soft penalty decision.

We carried too many passengers yesterday. What on earth has happened to Thompson recently? He was awful. Garry (was he on the pitch?) Flitcroft wasn't far behind and Dickov had a shocker despite his extremely well taken penalty.

Johansson hasn't done badly at LB recently but had his poorest game since returning to the side.

I couldn't fathom the substitutions as I thought Mokoena played quite well and Reid although not at his best didn't plumb the same sort of depths as Flitcroft and Thompson.

Against this there were the usual bright and competent performances from Todd Nelsen and Pedersen. Paul posted some time ago asking where all the heroes had gone and with these three you feel some warmth and empathy towards them because (like Craig Short) you sense youre going to get a good display out of them every time they pull on the blue and white halves.

Still we're through which is all that matters.

Fantasy Island time: a 4-0 drubbing of Sourpuss's barcodes in the semis and a fully committed 1-0 win over Scumchester United in the final (Keane og 89) please!

[speeeeeeedie]

Revidge, some of your comments are a load of sh!te. Who gives a monkey's if Hughes "blundered badly with his tactics". We won. It was the FA Cup. Do you know anything about the history of the competition? Just because we weren't flashy or disposed of them after 15 minutes it was a bad performance? Did Arsenal make the same comments when Wrexham beat them? Coventry when Sutton United outed them? Man U after the Exeter tie? The Cup is a great competition because of what can happen, potential banana skins all over the place.

I think what a lot of people are forgetting is that our style doesn't make for exciting viewing. People are now complainig that we are crap and don't look good, at least we are in the cup semi and are very unlikely to go down. How many of you nay sayers would have asked for this last September? Hughes is doing a great job making the best of what he's got. We are hard working, very organised and are fit as fiddles. Let's be happy for a while, we've had nearly 2 seasons of crap, enjoy it.

[jkritchey]

Seems to me Dickov would make a better sub than a lone striker. There's just no flow offensively. It's just hustle, work and hope. He's not fast enough to overcome his lack of size.

It might be wise to use his energy late in games when you need a goal.

As far as Todd and Nelsen dealing with the Henry's and RVN's of the world: Seems to me the only central defender Henry hasn't skinned in the last three years is Sol Campbell. And the only one RVN hasn't turned is Rio. You have to score against these teams if you want points.

[JAL]

Got to reply about blundering with the tactics comments, do you not think that Rovers have to work with what they have got or the players they have and this dictates tactics. If the opposition are not allowed to score but we nick agoal then thats fine by me.

To me the midfield five along with Dickov ran out of ideas after the first thirty minutes but did Hughes know that Craig Levein would be so negative and play with what must be the biggest donkey in English football in DE Vries. What justification what reason is there out there for 7000 people paying good money to watch or support a donkey like De Vries carry your hopes

Tommo wasnt having an effect on the game out wide but when he went central to me he looked to be the one who was trying to play that creative killer pass into the attacking two something that Steven Reid or the Axe had failed to do.

The way Dickov had been playing i wasnt confident he would convert the penalty but thankfully he did even though he hit it straight down the middle.

To me the tactics were continually evolving and always having a positive effect on the team, i thought Rovers always looked the better team throughout even though we have seen a lot better in the past.

[joey_big_nose]

If we do go on to lift the famous trophy I think there must be something in it after playing so abysmally against Burnley twice and if anything even worse yesterday.

I'm a big fan of Hughes but IMO he blundered badly with his tactics and starting line up yesterday, nevertheless getting out of jail courtesy of the rather soft penalty decision.

We carried too many passengers yesterday. What on earth has happened to Thompson recently? He was awful. Garry (was he on the pitch?) Flitcroft wasn't far behind and Dickov had a shocker despite his extremely well taken penalty.

Johansson hasn't done badly at LB recently but had his poorest game since returning to the side.

I couldn't fathom the substitutions as I thought Mokoena played quite well and Reid although not at his best didn't plumb the same sort of depths as Flitcroft and Thompson.

Against this there were the usual bright and competent performances from Todd Nelsen and Pedersen. Paul posted some time ago asking where all the heroes had gone and with these three you feel some warmth and empathy towards them because (like Craig Short) you sense youre going to get a good display out of them every time they pull on the blue and white halves.

I dont see how you can blame Hughes. We put out a side that played arguably the performance of the season against Everton. We dominated posession in the first half and did not allow leicester to break. We could not create chances because Leicester put ten men behind the ball.

If we started with two up it would of left us open to the counter attack with not much suggestion of a more effective attacing threat. Dickov and Stead have not looked a good partnership so why sacrifice a formation that looked so effective just to experiment? Giving Stead half an hour at the end was a good decision and one that won us the game.

Against Liverpool we will use 451 as I imagine we will for the remainder of the season. We have decent wide players (Pedersen, Reid, Thompson, Emerton) and an excellent defensive midfielder in Moko but poor strikers. It seems to play to our strengths, which is not conceding goals.

If Dickov is out for six weeks, as has been suggested, Stead will get the chance to fit into the lone striker role with Gally or Bothroyd coming on to help out if we go a goal down or are chasing at home. It is not pretty, but it is effective.

Next season if we can find a decent playmaker (not many about these days, Tugay was an exceptional buy) and a good striker things will change, but you have to use what works best- which seems to be 451 at the moment.

ps. Thommo was awful against Leicester where he had no space but I thought he was good against Everton, better than Emerton had been in the last couple. I would be disappointed if Emerton came back into the XI on Wednesday night.

Edited March 14, 2005 by joey_big_nose

[RevidgeBlue]

Revidge, some of your comments are a load of sh!te. Who gives a monkey's if Hughes "blundered badly with his tactics". We won. It was the FA Cup. Do you know anything about the history of the competition? Just because we weren't flashy or disposed of them after 15 minutes it was a bad performance? Did Arsenal make the same comments when Wrexham beat them? Coventry when Sutton United outed them? Man U after the Exeter tie? The Cup is a great competition because of what can happen, potential banana skins all over the place.

We'll have to agree to disagree then, we were in real danger of becoming one of those statistics due to the tactics employed yesterday.

This was Leicester, a very poor first division side at home, yet we hardly forced their keeper into a serious save yesterday.

Football is a game of minute margins. We were saved by a 50/50 penalty call in the dying minutes and all is well with the world.

Had we not been, everyone would have been up in arms about potentially blowing our chance by being too cautious.

That's not to say that 4-5-1 (Stead instead of Dickov IMO) won't be the way to go against Arsenal and or ManUre but it's horses for courses.

[thenodrog]

We are now a team built to give nothing away and to grind out results. Hughes has no choice to do otherwise until he can get more of his type of players in so stop criticising and give credit where credit is due!

As for Dickov he is the best person that we have at playing with his back to goal, something which is a total necessity in a 4-5-1 formation. Gally is too weak to perform that role and appears to be well short of bottle for a lad from Glasgow (.......... but then again he's not on his own is he?), Steads second touch is usually a tackle, Bothroyd seems OK with his back to goal but injury and temperament seem to be against him and as for Matt Jansen.... nuff said. So our tactics, especially against stronger teams can only be to defend like fury and hope that Dickov performs well in his main role of winning set pieces in dangerous areas which will allow for MGP and Sav to create something from them.

[thenodrog]

btw blowing my own trumpet here but so many disappointed punters are on here whingeing about the game but the nature of yesterdays game and the way the match panned out was entirely predicatable imo.

I've a feeling that todays game might resemble our stuttering performance v Burnley than last weeks inspirational one v Everton.

.......... course if MGP and Dickov had made it 2-0 after 15 mins we would prob have won at a canter and I would not have dug this out.

Edited March 14, 2005 by thenodrog