Anti-rovers Setiment

[americanrover]

this really disguts me. so called fansand experts saying basically we dont belong as a football team because we play not the cleanest heres some examples

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

More Like An Arsenal Fan

Example 5

and i have more and more examples of some idoits that think were so bad.

i used to have a lot from the chelsea game but then i was kicked of that site.

people are such dunces. no class at all

[RevidgeBlue]

Been listening to Talksport all the way back up and was amazed at the vitriol being directed towards us by the presenters.

Todd may well have let himself down although having seen the replay I don't think it's conclusive. Other than that despite a couple of bad challenges from Flitcroft and Savage I didn't think the game was overly physical but it was all "Only one team came to play football" "Football was the winner" "Todd's a cowardly thug" etc etc.

Only Rodney Marsh tried to partially defend us by saying that Hughes had no choice but to play in this manner given the personnel at our disposal. Although he was very scathing about Todd.

Then (get this) a Wigan, yes Wigan fan had an e-mail read out in saying we were an embarrassment to the Premiership because we'd only taken 15,000 to a semi final!. (Well it was probably nearer 18,000 but don't let that get in the way of a good story)

Rodders was in full agreement with this saying it would be embarrassing if a club took 15,000 to a semi final "played on the moon." The presenters then decided in their wisdom that this was because Rovers fans don't want to watch our ugly style of play. A Rovers fan tried e-mailing in about the £45 tickets but this was badly explained and swiftly dismissed saying they didn't understand the point being made.

It seems clear that we are currently the new Wimbledon or Millwall of the Premiership as far as the media are concerned, the team everyone loves to hate.

Looks like we'll have to put up with this sort of coverage for the forseeable future until we can add more flair to our game.

[ABBEY]

and the arseholer who came on before the game slaggin lancs off for the average wage being £25 a month in blackburn.............

[broadsword]

Ignore 'em.

Pundits are always contraversial, trying to make money off the back of footy. Fans buy into it, reputations are made and lo and behold Blackburn are evil.

Pile of.

[RevidgeBlue]

Ignore 'em.

Pundits are always contraversial, trying to make money off the back of footy. Fans buy into it, reputations are made and lo and behold Blackburn are evil.

Pile of.

Doesn't really bother me Bryan, just making the point we should be prepared for a lot more of this sort of (crap) coverage.

[modes98]

Talksport was an absolute travasty of justice. Not only did they have a go at us for "only taking 15,000" but for our style of play.

Clearly todd didn't lift his elbow to hurt van muppet, he was looking at the ball and in fact he showed concern when he had made contact with him.

As for the challanges the only needless one was thommo's when he got booked, i felt all the others were acceptable and some of the arsenal playacting was a discgrace.

[Rovermatt]

This kind of thing is utter nonsense, spewed by fans and pundits alike, with no inkling of the game beyond the traditional powers. Rarely will you hear a fan of say, Palace or Everton, accusing us of being filthy and a 'disgrace' to the game. That we have the audacity to put ourselves about when mixing it with the big boys, is something that riles the London based media and Sky Sports subscribing, arm-chair supporters.

Who cares?

[promoted2001]

This kind of criticism just spurs on the players. As for us only taking 15,000 I couldn't care less, it doesn't matter if we took 1 fan or 30,000, its the players that got there and it should be focused on them. The media doesn't like to look beyond the top 5 and thats the way it will stay because thats what sells the sky subscriptions.

[pg]

How dare we attempt to win a trophy?

How dare we not roll over and die so that a big club can win another trophy?

How dare the players attempt to fight and scrap and give their supporters something to cheer about?!?

The nerve!! All the dirty cheating diving Blackburn players should be taken out and shot!!!

No-one likes us and we don't care!!!

[waggy]

too be honest some off our players do step over the mark when challenging for the ball,i've seen a few challenges on ssn and they are not pretty.

you cannot defend thuggery even when it's your own team,hughes has too sort it out.

[Alan75]

So the media or other club supporters don't like us,do we care

It doesn't matter what we do, we won't get any praise. Maybe it's because we are an unfashionable town club with a limited population made up mainly of working class followers who don't subscribe to capitalistic advertising campaigns or don't shout from the rooftops propaganda that will make front-page headlines.

After this afternoons game, the team has been classed as a bunch of thugs, however if it was based on the yellow card count for the game, then there is little difference between Arsenal who had 3 players booked, (Toure, Fabregas, Cole.) and Rovers who had 4 booked (Flitcroft, Thompson, Mokoena, Neill.)

I have noticed that the media very rarely mention the play acting of the so called glory teams, with their Johnnie Foreigner players who are tactically aware that if they go down squirming every time they lose the ball the referees are naïve enough to award free kicks and yellow cards against opponents.

We are also being criticised for the poor following, well excuse me, but a following of 20,000 from a population of 137471, (2001 census figures for Blackburn & Darwen) represents one seventh of the population, which isn't bad in my book. I also suspect that the following would have been greater if the FA had considered the fans before the financial benefits of tv coverage, and thus allowed the kick off to be at a reasonable time and also if ticket prices had been more in line with a working class family orientated budget.

As for the 30,000 Arsenal supporters at Cardiff, I suspect they were all librarians. Well done to our lot for out singing the silent majority.

I somehow suspect that the media or the so called big club supporters, will never forgive nor give Rovers the credit for winning the Premiership Championship 10 years ago and will continue their vendetta, instead of giving Mark Hughes credit for playing the only tactics available with the players that he inherited from Graeme Souness. Any talented ball player that the club had was either sold or given away due to the previous managers personal ego or habit of wanting to play the transfer market, like some poker game.

Any team, not just Rovers who allow Viera and the Arsenal midfield any room, commit tactical suicide as Arsenal will then rip them apart, which was quite evident when Rovers had to take the game to Arsenal in the dieing stages of the game. Hughes therefore quite rightly in my opinion played a tactical game of closing down Arsenal at every opportunity, relying on hopefully getting a break away goal.

Maybe with a proven goal scorer things may be different, although I suspect we still wouldn't get credit from the media.

So what if they dont like us, we dont care.

[tassierover]

Good post Alan75.

I couldn't have put it better myself.

[roversWASmylife]

It doesn't surprise me to hear all this about Rovers, this is when we've just lost, can you imagine what it would be like if we had won?

What did people expect from us, it's a semi final we're not just going to let Arsenal pass it about.

[ally]

The People

This article is the most amount of drivvle i have ever seen.

[waggy]

the thing is most off it is true

[philipl]

The guy who wrote that ignorant pile of drivel in The People deserves a personal vendetta to drive him and his personal opinions out of journalism and into the gutter where they belong.

[Wild Irish Rover]

I was lucky (?) enough to get onto 5 Live about 7.30 last night and simply pointed out to Alan Green, who agreed with me, that it was almost as if the Arse had LOST, as everyone associated with their club (Manager, players, fans, hangers on etc) was being so negative.

My thanks went out on National Radio to ALL OF THE BRILLIANT FANS WHO MADE THE TRIP and to Hughesey and the players for giving it a go.

No way were the Rovers disgraced by anything that happened yesterday - it is only a matter of time before the media idiots wake up and see through the scandalous play acting and outrageous smuggery of the so called big clubs. IMO the only BIG CLUB playing at the Millennium yesterday was there in Blue and White, with that other shower simply there to make up the numbers.

So the Arse won - but they proved just what a bunch of Arses they are

So the media had red-tinted spectacles - they just proved that there is no fool like a sycophantic yes man fool..

So the Rovers fans had to travel from 4.45 am to be there - but I, for one, wouldn't have missed such a day out for the world, couldn't care less about the result and am happy that we outsung, outfought and out-passioned the nancy red team from that place without any identity or knowledge of football anymore!

PS, in my Radio 5 slot with Alan Green, I did say that I hoped the bar-codes can do the scummers today, so that a certain ex-Blue (A.S) can perhaps get to lift the FA Cup this year - so good luck to ye Geordies, haddaway and @#/?, man

And as for Alan Green - now there's a Yes Man..

[Alan75]

the thing is most off it is true

waggy, you and I appear to be on the same wave length.

I think the following says it all.

Quote from the PeopleBut look at every single Blackburn player and ask yourself: Where's the flair? Where's the imagination? Where is there anything but muscle and malice aforethought? Not once in the whole game did a Rovers player produce a piece of skill that brought a smile to the face or joy to your heart. Nobody in a blue and white shirt did anything but the dourly predictable and mundane ... the only glimpse of imagination came in the myriad ways they found to break the laws.

[Eddie]

I don't agree with that. There were a few times when we put a few nice passes together, and I remember very well Thompson beating his man on the line (Cole I think) with his first touch then putting in the cross. Alright these were exceptions, but most teams who play against Arsenal either do what we did or are swamped. It's not our fault we aren't Manchester United. It's high time the media start to realise that the little boys don't have to play the big boys's game just to make everyone happy so that we can be the smiling losers.

[Ewood Spark]

I'm begining to wish we hadn't got to Cardiff. The relentless negative publicity that is being generated by all aspects of yesterdays game is going to set the club back years. After reading the match report in The Observer .... a supposedly quality newspaper....this morning I felt physically sick.

[Wild Irish Rover]

Alan75.. the only glimpse of imagination came in the myriad ways they found to break the laws...

Hang on a small moment here... it is against the Laws to indulge in 'simulation' so how come the German keeper didn't get a card, how come the French midfielder stayed on the pitch and how come the world and his wife have forgotten that FOOTBALL IS A CONTACT SPORT for goodness sake!

Storm in a weak tea cup, methinks, but I just wish SOMEONE, ANYONE in the media would wake up and see the truth about what really went on yesterday - and for goodness sake someone in an Arse shirt please please please appear happy and not bored that you are in a goddam CUP FINAL again...

[Alan75]

hang on, that was the quote from the people.

[James No. 7]

How dare we attempt to win a trophy?

How dare we not roll over and die so that a big club can win another trophy?

That's the sort of negative coverage Greece received after winning Euro 2004 (excluding the "dirty" jibe). For some odd reason, if you're not a big team, you don't deserve to win, which is odd. You would think that people would stick up for the underdogs.

[promoted2001]

the thing is most off it is true

waggy, you and I appear to be on the same wave length.

I think the following says it all.

Quote from the PeopleBut look at every single Blackburn player and ask yourself: Where's the flair? Where's the imagination? Where is there anything but muscle and malice aforethought? Not once in the whole game did a Rovers player produce a piece of skill that brought a smile to the face or joy to your heart. Nobody in a blue and white shirt did anything but the dourly predictable and mundane ... the only glimpse of imagination came in the myriad ways they found to break the laws.

Just because we don't have the flair of the big teams shouldn't mean we're bad. So we haven't got a Van Persie or a Christiano Ronaldo therefore we're not entertaining?! I thouroughly enjoyed the match, especially the first 20 minutes when we were playing them off the pitch.

Also as for that Todd/Van Percie clash, Van muppet ran straight into todd and Todd was only protecting himself. If someone ran straight into you wouldn't you instinctively protect yourself from harm? I know I would.

So we didn't rollover and die like a good underdog. So we didn't try a few rainbow kicks and step-overs. So we didn't dive and cheat. We played football how it was played 10 years ago or so but I guess times have changed and so have the media. Personally I am no longer going to listen or read any member of the medias comments as they don't know what football is really about and they can't look past the top 5 or 6 teams.

[JAL]

To me Jim Holden chief sports correspondent for the Sunday Express goes beyond his journalistic scope by insulting every Rovers fan by calling us ....'loyal' one eyed supporters.

I can take the team were dirty, didnt play good football etc., but to directly insult Rovers fans, he, the empty headed Jim Holden, who goes into an open attack on Rovers fans everywere is.......unacceptable.

He either issues an apology or his empty head is on the block big time!