Arsenal 3 v 0 Rovers - Cup Semi Final

[ABBEY]

(And Andy Todd should get a fine for losing his rag. He's the captain and should be setting an example).

UR SOON HOME!!

[ABBEY]

Concluding comments- 52,077 is a lot more than Villa Park can hold so FA vindicated.

Disagree. Fewer Arsenal fans would have got tickets but we'd have taken more of our supporters. Old Trafford would have had a higher attendance.

PILLOK FROM FA ON SAYING OLD TRAFFORD WOULD HAVE BEEN NO GOOD TODAY BECAUSE IT MEANT ARSHOLEEE FANS TRAVELLING TO MANCHESTER FOR NO REASON ....MMMM LETS SEE GEORDIES V UTD ...YEA RIGHT AND WERE THE BALLS ARE NEXT SEASON SEMIS??MMMMMMMM ARSE ONLY TRAVEL 2 MILES GRRRRRRRRRRRR

[ABBEY]

We are getting some unfair stick from the press and media phone ins at the moment. 40 odd passes, dirty fouling rovers, Todd to be hanged on the gallows, poor support.

1. Todd quite obviously did not elbow van Persie. I have emailed talksport to call for this afternoons presenter to publically apologise to Todd for suggesting that BRFC should strip Todd of the captaincy. Wot a dick!

2

WHA6T A SET OF TRETRS ......JUST SEEEN IT!!NOWERE NR AS BAD AS RADIO 5 OR TALK @#/? SAID....THEY SAID BAN TOOD FOR LIFE AND CHARGE HIM WITH GBH|!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SCUMBAGS .....PHONE CA;LL GOING IN TOMMM WHEN SOBERED IP

[ABBEY]

Todd quite obviously did not elbow van Persie.

Behave yourself Theno, he nearly took his bloody head off !

Despite that, the fact that Wenger's lot fall over at every available opportunity makes you turn a blind eye when they get snotted, Savage's high tackle even made me look away. Pires kicks Lucas in the nuts and Lucas is to blame, deary me.

Didn't want to win it anyway... mickey mouse cup.

DRUGS AS :

[waggy]

i think andy todd did a captians job today i would have killed someone if my team had been subject to the cheating of the arses players,pity it was van persie and not pires

[ABBEY]

van piles.....he made me arse ache

[Cheeky Sidders]

Got back to Ewood at 8.30pm on the dot and home soon after. It seems to have been an enormously long day and several cans of Stella can't shift the feeling we were never really in it today. I think we did well until they scored and then we never really got going again. That said, we didn't deserve to lose by three goals.

Not uch I can add to comments already made about the match except to agree with everything said about the ridiculous diving antics of the Arsenal team which just illustrates just how obscene Arsenal are. They are cheats and I hate them even more than I hate Moanchester Urinals. Urinals start cheating when things are going against them, whereas Arsenal cheat from the opening kick-off.

I was appalled by the media coverage I heard on the way back, especially the things said by Alan Green (who has been very generous to Rovers in the past) of 606. So we are a strong physical team, but that's nothing out of the ordinary and it's certainly a tag that could be fairly applied to Arsenal.

Poor support? Okay, we only took 17,000 supporters (hats off to everyone who made the effort) and we looked rather sparse compared to the 30,000 from Arsenal, but we certainly made up for it in decibels! Arsenal's support is typified by the song "Sing when you're winning!".

However, the thing that got my blood up more than anything else was the endless cavalcade of moaning Arsenal fans harping on about how brutal we were. *!@# me, if they carry on like that when they've won a semi-final 3-0, I'd hate to hear what they say when they lose! There was even a call from a Liverpool fan who dismissed Rovers as a disgrace to English football because of our style of play and because only 17,000 fans made the journey. A Liverpool fan says we are a disgrace? Ha! Tell that to the families of the poor @#/?s killed by Liverpool fans at Heysel and I think they'll have a different opinion about who the real disgraces are.

[trawdenblue]

Watch the replay - Todd's eyes were on the ball all the time.

Van Persie turned into him. Todd was NOT to blame.

I thought Neill was at fault for all 3 goals.

1. Nowhere to be seen at right back

2. Turned easily by Van persie

3. Headed the ball directly into Vierra's path

Thank God for Brad, it could've been 5 or 6 - but there ya go.

Roll on Wednesday - when we can play a team who are worse than us.

[ABBEY]

we already done the scum 2-1

[modes98]

Watch the replay - Todd's eyes were on the ball all the time.

Van Persie turned into him. Todd was NOT to blame.

I thought Neill was at fault for all 3 goals.

1. Nowhere to be seen at right back

2. Turned easily by Van persie

3. Headed the ball directly into Vierra's path

Thank God for Brad, it could've been 5 or 6 - but there ya go.

Agree with the todd thing 100%, never looked at van muppet once.

However to blame lucas for any of those goals is obsurb and you seem to be jumping on the "oh lets blame lucas for everything" band wagon. Having watched the last couple of games every little mistake lucas makes he gets singled out for, yet there are players out there giving the ball/needless freekicks away that cost us. (ie. Tommo today).

If anybody is to blame for the first goal its thommo for giving away the freekick when it didn't need to be done. Nelson may have been able to get a better connection or put off toure but it all stemmed from the freekick.

How can you blame lucas for van muppets goals, its just pure skill from teh guy to create the scoring chances and to go with that spraky pushing us forward to try and get in the game.

Have to say once we went 1-0 behind, we never were in the game and needed the edge of a striker who can score!

Theres always Next Year At Wembley!!!!!!! & its no neh never!!!!

[trawdenblue]

Modes......

All three goals came through Neill's position.

Maybe he shouldn't take all the blame, but in my opinion, he's not good enough - never has been, but it's only MY opinion mate.

Anyway, what does obsurb mean????

[promoted2001]

I wouldn't blame neill, 1st goal was great play by arsenal & van persie is just a class act. Just what we didn't need when going all out attack.

[waggy]

i thought today was much more enjoyable than the worthy cup final,we were outnumbered,out played but never outsung.top marks to all the roverites who went and to those who did not you missed a proud day to be a rover.

[roverthemoon]

Some pics of the day

http://roverthemoon.smugmug.com/gallery/485658/1

[AlanK]

(And Andy Todd should get a fine for losing his rag. He's the captain and should be setting an example).

UR SOON HOME!!

Must say I thought the same of our resident " expert ".

17000 fans at Cardiff were awesome.

Rover6=Roversicks

Anyway, enough of that tit,

we can`t blame the goals on anyone. Once we were forced to attack, Arsenal picked us off for the 2nd and 3rd.

If there is 2 things I have learnt today it is

1: Arsenal really do dive and bitch and moan and I can see why Man.U hate them so much....bitching,diving,moaning foriegn cockneys

2: Our hard core support is awesome. When we are all lumped together in one end of a stadium we are the best. Very proud to be a fan of the Rovers tonight.

[neekoy]

I thought Neill was at fault for all 3 goals.

Yeh of course he was

Nelson should have got a better look on the first

Van Persie is class

Rovers had given up the goose

Wenger had to swap Pires because Neill was all over him

That young bloke flogged his guts out for us today, definately in our top three players today

[Gareth]

It's gonna be either a total humiliation, e.g. Arse 3-0 Rovers

OR we'll lose on pens... 

Nice and optimistic you muppet! i hope i bump into you

Would you like cream, custard or ice cream with that humble pie?

I hate being right...

At least I didn't put my money where my mouth is.. that'd be a real kick in the teeth

Edited April 17, 2005 by Gareth

[americanrover]

It's gonna be either a total humiliation, e.g. Arse 3-0 Rovers

OR we'll lose on pens... 

Nice and optimistic you muppet! i hope i bump into you

Would you like cream, custard or ice cream with that humble pie?

I hate being right...

At least I didn't put my money where my mouth is.. that'd be a real kick in the teeth

yeah thats always a problem

[waggy]

fantastic pic's roverthemoon,have one off matt jansen with the juniors will try and post it ?today i met so many rovers i ain't seen for years,which was a big plus++++++++.did anyone see poor aggis fall,broke his hip apperently

[roversmum]

Quite a day!

Stewards at Cardiff brilliant but isn't the finish of the stadium awful? It's beginning to look very tacky already. Still the bit that 'shows' - the seating and the pitch is good.

Jack Straw saw us in the car park before the match and came over (he vaguely remembered Mr Roversmum for some Trade Union stuff a while ago).

Great to see so many in the blue and white and the team did us proud. Two gripes - Flitty (why?) and Thompson - both receiving unnecessary yellow cards. Did they have to be in the side?

Very, very disappointed that Arsenal felt it necessary to fall and roll about so much. They really can play so why the need? And how do the referees manage to miss them cheating and the sneaky fouls. At least with Rovers what you see is what you get!

No way was Andy Todd's collision deliberate. I've seen the replay a couple of times since getting home (which is another story). Even Arsene has later said there was a doubt.

Waited after with a couple of Arsenal fans for the players to leave. I have to say, when Reyes came out, he saw the lad in the wheelchair and came over to sign his programme. He went back to the coach and almost immediately came out again and brought his match shirt for the lad. Now I don't like Reyes play but he was very polite to the fans and I was impressed that he took the trouble to bring the shirt for the lad. All the others turned their noses up and got straight on their coach. Our lot weren't much better, none came over (there was only the roversmum family left when they came out so perhaps that was why ) and I think it was Eddie called out 'thanks for your support'. Still, I suppose they were a bit fed up......

The car decided to pack up on the way home, in the middle of the M5 on a part where the hard shoulder was coned off for some random reason. Luckily for us the car just managed to cruise to the end of the said coned area. So we ended up arriving home about 11.15pm in one of those breakdown things with the car on the back. Looks like the car is going to cost us a bit to repair .

[joey_big_nose]

I thought we were very decent today and put in a good performance. Rovers were defensively sound, they only had about four oppertunites up until the 86th minute, and we havd two spells of good football and real pressure.

There are areas that need improving in the side, notably left back and a bit of creativity in midfield, but the essential problem lay up front where we lacked a quality striker. A bit of pace, technique and finishing could have gone a long way and made all the difference. Dickov cannot provide these qualities and I doubt Stead ever will to the standard required.

The team should not be dishartened, the scoreline was flattering to Arsenal and we were hardly played off the park. Our defence was strong and our midfield industrious. No reason to doubt we will continue on our upward curve.

[Alan75]

Forgive me if I missed anyone who posted about our dissallowed goal.

Dickov was not off side. after seeing the replay his lobbed goal in the first half was incorrectly ruled off-side by the Dicked, oops refs assistant.

Im suprised that our resident armchair muppet, how suggested that Todd should be banned, didnt see it.

[Paul]

Once the day arrived everyhting seemed to change. After weeks of ticket sales discussion etc finally getting on the M6 was a relief. More and more Rovers appeared until south of Brum on the M5 every other car seemed to be blue and white. Every service area we pulled into was rammed so we eventually pulled into Ross on Wye and found a cafe that did TWO English brekkies for £3.40 The good folk of Ross eyed us and our car with suspicion as we parked in the market place, flags flying. Meet a couple of Newcastle fans down for the weekend.

Into Cardiff for 10ish, no traffic problems, parked easily in the city and wandered up to the castle to take in the atmosphere, which was excellent. Saw three lads struggling with something size of a rolled up living-room carpet towards the ground, goodness knows what that flag weighs or cost to make?

In the stadium we were a sea of blue and white, flags everywhere and more noise than a 100,000 Arsenal fans could have made. The team played exactly as expected, Arsenal fell over just as expected. I felt 1-0 would have been fair, 2-0 OK but three was undeserved. The defiant repsonse from the Rovers fans at 2-0 was the moment of the day, it's been said elsewhere but we really are the best. There may not be many of us but when we are all packed together this is the best crowd in the country. Proud to have been there. When Hughes was appointed yesterday was a dream, it's been a great day out and I feel sure Rovers will continue to improve.

One deep blight on the day. Some crass, insulting joke of a radio presenter on Talksport - and NOTE MY SPELLING:

What players have Blackburn produced? Who have they had since BRYN Douglas? Who is this Bryn Douglas? oh there was Fred Pickering but he had to go to Everton to make any progress. This guy went on to suggest our average home support was around 11000. He then asked a Rovers fan who rang in "Don't you think it would be better for the future of the game overseas if it's an Arsenal-Man Utd final?"

Just wish I could have got through on the phone. Don't understand why the two Rovers fans who did get through didn't pick up on the insults from this guy.

We had a great day out which is more than I expected back in Janaury. Another great day to be a Rover, which for me is what matters most.

[Paul]

Brad deserves a mention all on his own for the four outstanding saves which kept us in the game, preventing the scoreline from being an undeserved rout. He was superb yesterday.

[waggy]

i think we must pat cardiff on the back as a city .a fantastic stadium with every facilaty a footie fan could want,next time we grace a major game we will stuck at the new wembley.

no pubs,london prices but a fantastic staduim,and i have travelled all over the world and never been propositioned for 'BUSINESS' at 8.50am by a very seductive taffy,what a city