[Archived] Rovers 0 City 0

[Driftpeasant]

Well 0-0 and a bit of a disappointment considering some awfully good scoring chances, but still a point, and we definitely looked better than Man City.

Can we officially kill the "are we safe" thread now?

[1864roverite]

The game was a poor spectacle for a derby match. Plenty of huff but no end result. I think though that Rovers were the better team and James certainly had more to do than Brad.

I half expected Rovers to relax a little but hence it wasnt too be. In the first half it was simply a non event. City were poor Rovers were just as bad but we had the one thing that Rovers needed to do in the first half - a crunching tackle on SWP. Nelsens tackle on him in the Blackburn End goal sent shudders through the stand never mind the spindly little gits legs ! We didnt see him again all game.

In the second half, Rovers failed to change right after half time but certainly had the more urgency. A litle luck and a little more effort down the flank from Emerton may have brought a positive result.

poor old Johnny Stead, again another fine performacne but it wont fall for him. Brought the save of the game from James.

Savo flattered to deceive, Thommo when he came on left off from the palace performance. It was nice to see Gally get on, he played well enough as Rovers reverted to 4-4-2.

Matteo again had a blinder.

Neill did okay but on too many occasions gave the ball away. unlucky not to score.

Todd/Nelsen - immense.

Mokoena - solid.

MGP - looked tired.

Reid - too many balls going backwards but when he actually ventured in a forward direction he looked good.

The game needed a playmaker on the Rovers side to break down the back 4 of city who might I add do not deserve to be above Rovers. They had pleny of ball but were pretty god damned useless at playing football.

Anyhow, the garden bbq is on and BUD is calling

[whittle blue]

The game was crap. I sodded off 5 mins from time.

[Alex Rover]

Matteo again had a blinder.

I hope you're being sarcastic. Yes after further thought I know you are

[Alex Rover]

The game was crap. I sodded off 5 mins from time.

Ah Diddums. Maybe staying up this year isn't good enough for you.

[1864roverite]

ciren Rover, Matteo played very well, won most tackles, most headers in the air, SWP didnt beat him once.

So for me he had a blinder

[RevidgeBlue]

Quite a generous report from 1864, I thought this was a very poor performance and even worse game.

The main problem was that the whole team was at least a couple of yards off the pace which I can put down to only one of two things:

a) Feeling the pace after several very important games in quick succession.

or

The "phew" factor and mentally relaxing after virtually guaranteeing safety on Wednesday night.

I suspect it was more than a).

Not one player performed anywhere near as well as he is capable. As such the game barely rates a mention.

That said it is harsh to be overcritical as the players have been superb recently.

Edited April 23, 2005 by RevidgeBlue

[whittle blue]

The game was crap. I sodded off 5 mins from time.

Ah Diddums. Maybe staying up this year isn't good enough for you.

I'LL DO WHATEVER I BLOODY WELL LIKE.

What has staying up got to do with it?

[grizfoot]

I very close match i thought and yes Matteo did have i good game. Also i thought Citeh defence looked fair good especially Distin. That's 2 home games where Friedel has had nothing to do. The only problem now is we can't seem to score.

Also i think both teams are very similar in style play and it ended up as stalemate.

Edited April 23, 2005 by grizfoot

[Rover4ever]

According to soccernet.com,

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=155132&cc=3888

1)City had a perfectly good penaly appeal turn down

2)Our main aim was to break their passing game while they were much more attacking,

What did those who saw the game think? The usual soccernet crap, or was SWP actually fouled...?

Come to think of it, Matteo has done well against the 2 of the fastest wingers in the league in recent weeks

I doubt Nissa would have done as good as Matteo

[roversmum]

Brad was poetry today. He didn't really have any saves to make as such but at one point floated across the box and high up in to the air to catch the ball. I thought he was going to turn into Billy Elliott at any moment!

Bit of a scrappy do today, but the wind took the ball so passes went astray and the ground seemed a bit hard.

City were mostly a big ugly intimidating lot and I wasn't sure the referee got all the decisions right but at least he didn't flash cards about like a magician.

[1864roverite]

In response tot he first appeal - Never a penalty, the ball had gone as the defender carried through, SWP fell like a sack of spuds.

For the second appeal - Sibierski was pulling just as much, its just as he is a dirty cheating foreigner (they are not all I may add) he thought he could con a penalty.

So for every report on that ignore them, they were never penalties unless Mike Riley is in charge

[tashor]

Read my lips........

..........Matteo was superb - one of England's best young talents didn't get a look in.....

I cannot believe I am going to say this after the HORROR of attending Ewood earlier this season ( away team attacks - away team scores ) but I don't mind if we don't sign ANY defenders during the summer

[rover6]

Just like to say, Stuart Pearce's lenient attitude towards referees is admirable. I wish more managers would look towards their own selection/tactical errors rather than finding an easy scapegoat.

No doubt the media will patronisingly label Pearce's stance as naive or quaint but long may it last.

[Paul]

The Rovers are safe, our third game in seven days, including a semi, the sun was shining so we set off to Ewood fully expecting the sort of crazy game Rovers v Citeh usually serves up.....................jeeez it was very poor.

Nothing of note happened in the entire game. This is the revitalised City under Psycho? we are no better, no worse. Neither side had a particuarly talented player on the day and the whole game just drifted away. City created nothing, Rovers made 3 or 4 reasonable chances.

Still who's complaining? I'm not.....3 or 4 months ago we'd have celebrated taking a point and a clean sheet. The general disappointment I sense about this result shows how far we have come since January.

[Blackpool_Rover]

Matteo again had a blinder.

I hope you're being sarcastic. Yes after further thought I know you are

dont be stupid, matteo was excellent and has been since he came back from injury, typical rovers fans, he has a few bad games when settling in and suddenly hes the scapegoat.

[Shevchenko]

In response tot he first appeal - Never a penalty, the ball had gone as the defender carried through, SWP fell like a sack of spuds.

For the second appeal - Sibierski was pulling just as much, its just as he is a dirty cheating foreigner (they are not all I may add) he thought he could con a penalty.

So for every report on that ignore them, they were never penalties unless Mike Riley is in charge

Have you seen replays of the two situations?

The first one was a penalty without a shadow of a doubt. Matteo clearly clipped him but the ref didn't give it. We got lucky.

The second one would have been harsh but I've seen them given for holding like that before. Sibierski made a meal of it though and should have been booked for the dive IMO. But Nelsen was holding him back before that.

Very poor game, scrappy. But the draw was a fair result all in all as neither team was particularly impressive. Thought we looked a bit jaded really and some players were clearly not fit enough (Sav, MGP). But no complaints, another clean sheat and another game undefeated. All good

[RoyRover]

dont be stupid, matteo was excellent and has been since he came back from injury, typical rovers fans, he has a few bad games when settling in and suddenly hes the scapegoat.

He had more than a few bad games, he was shockingly bad up until his injury. I was devastated when we signed him and for the first half of the season my fears were justified. However, I can say that he has really improved since he has come back and it sounds like he had another good game today against SWP.

[greggyk]

Just like to say, Stuart Pearce's lenient attitude towards referees is admirable. I wish more managers would look towards their own selection/tactical errors rather than finding an easy scapegoat.

No doubt the media will patronisingly label Pearce's stance as naive or quaint but long may it last.

yeah, but he still managed to have a dig at us though.

He was on the Radio saying something like, Rovers are a hard team to break down-they play 10 men behind the ball depite being at home.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Awful game , neither team would have scored if they'd have played until midnight. Dry, bumpy pitch and a blustery wind at pitch level made life a bit difficult but there's no excuse for performances like that. My son, who lives a fair distance away has been to 4 games this season, West Brom 1-1, M,boro 0-4, Everton 0-0 and City 0-0, so in four home games he has not seen a Rovers forward score a goal in 360 minutes of football!!!!!!!.He was mightily p----d off today.

We need to remember things like that when we lambast people for not turning up at Ewood.

I thought the defence played soundly , Matteo played very well at left back , but forward of Makoena there was very little. Maybe the players were tired after a lot of big games in a short space of time but that was dreadful. Nice little cameo from Gallagher when he came on, he was sharp ,could actually run with the ball and beat a man. My favourite moment was the Axe tackle on Robbie Fowler near the dugout, can that man tackle !!! Savage is not in the same league when it comes to tackling.

[SAS]

boring boring game, nearly fell asleep. End of season style of game

[Hasta]

Just watching Football First and the matteo challenge on SWP was definately a pen.

[Blackpool_Rover]

boring boring game, nearly fell asleep. End of season style of game

the kid behind me was asleep for the entire first half...result! I usually have to indure 90 mins of seat kicking from the little brat.

[Quack]

On MOTD both SWP and Nelsens pull on Sibierski appeared to be penalties - oh well, lady luck is smiling !

[mrsjansen]

I think the most satisfying thing about these results, apart from our safety is to currentl be higher in the league that a team bigger than Rovers (GOLD) and one of the biggest teams in the world (Souness). Lets hope the season finishes like that.