[Archived] Rovers 2 - 1 Fulham

[herbergeehh]

Download the goals here

[Rovermatt]

Good result, stunning goals.

It's just a pity that our fanbase can't rouse itself beyond 16,000 for the season's first home encounter.

Edited August 21, 2005 by Rovermatt

[Rainmaker]

Download the goals here

340597[/snapback]

Link don't work....

I get an error page when clicking the link

[adopted scouser]

Link don't work....

I get an error page when clicking the link

340608[/snapback]

Working fine here.

[greggyk]

Good result, stunning goals.

It's just a pity that our fanbase can't rouse itself beyond 16,000 for the season's first home encounter.

340602[/snapback]

it will get bigger aslong as we win more at Ewood.

[Rainmaker]

I get this.

"Either the desired file does not exist on our servers or your download link is faulty."

[USABlue]

I stand by my earlier comments.

340577[/snapback]

HAve you sobered up now I really laughed trying to decipher your earlier posts, started my day off right.

I am a bit disappointed with those getting on Kuqi already, granted I was not too thrilled with the signing at the time but come on everyone it's his 2nd game at this level. Give him a chance, getting on his case won't help him at all.

[USABlue]

it will get bigger aslong as we win more at Ewood.

340611[/snapback]

Don't count on it, the public of Blackburn once lost are a real buggar to get back. We need more good press like that Charlie fella, that might help, instead of all the papers slagging us off.

[1864roverite]

just to clear up a few points

tnd

gave emerton 7 as he was part of a winning team and if he showed as much effort in the first 67 minutes as he did in the last 23 he would probbly have got 8 !

alank

the FINISH was world class, the cross was excellent. This does not take away the fact that Kuqi is a championship player at best. His air shot, failure to get on at least 1 out of 7 good crosses into the box and his failure in the composure stakes in the penalty area confirmed that.

It is just my opnion, I am certain that many more would agree.

[McClarky]

I thought we played some good footie for a change and looked good going forward. Lucas Neill had a great game and the 4-5-1 looks better with Tugay in the middle because he can pass the ball and keep the play flowing.

Goals were amazing, I've never seen a better goal than Tugay's at Ewood.

The only real downside was Emerton. He was useless and needs to get himself sorted out. He just kicks it into the shins of the person in fromt of him every time. So frustrating.

I can't see Kuqi scoring many goals and his touch isn't good but he does put himself about and has a presence. I like him but think he'll and up getting stick if things don't go well.

As for the crowd, WOW! I thought we had dropped by 3-4,000 over the last 2 years. Make that 5,000 now and falling. We should be able to muster more than 16,500 Rovers fans for the 1st game of the season. Our gate would look poor in the 2nd division (or whatever they call it now). Whats the betting on a sub 15,000 gate this season for a league game?

[Radagast]

Well that result's got the optimism levels back up a notch or two. A pair of really good goals, I seriously doubt we'll see any better from Rovers players for the rest of the season.

The defending for Fulham's goal was shocking though - Todd doesn't look to have started the season anything like as well as he finished last from what I've seen so far.

[krislu]

Todd doesn't look to have started the season anything like as well as he finished last from what I've seen so far.

340634[/snapback]

He has been very poor to be honest, if this continues we really need a new centre back as Mokoena is even worse playing there.

[RoyRover]

It was great to get our first win of the season and to win it with those stunning goals, makes it even better. I watched the highlights on Football First and we seemed to play quite well. Lucas Neill looked very good and Pedersen seemed to play very well, even without his goal. Kuqi had some chances, which he will need to put away, if he is to stay in the team and if we are to do well this season.

[sumps]

Don't know if anyone else has said this, but I think Hughes has been encouraging the players to shoot more from outside the box rather than try and walk the ball in the net as we used to do under Souness.

[Manchester Blue]

7 ffs!  In one sentence you have lost all credibility.  Emerton was so poor today that the Rovers beat Fulham with virtually 10 men.  I dunno whats up with him as he has plenty of pace, control and power.  Unfortunately he appears to either not have  a clue what to do with them, or a strong aversion to using them.  He appears completely unaware of the concept of winning games by scoring goals whilst denying the same opportunity to opponents.  I can only assume that he has come off a motor bike and bumped his head this summer too.

340508[/snapback]

Couldn't agree more with this. I was amazed to see people standing and applauding Emerton off for that performance. It was easily one of the worst i've ever seen. Not only was he incompetent but he seemed lazy as well. Truly awful and I wouldn't have even rated him 1 out of 10.

[den]

Anyone else notice that the Fulham goal was offside?

[SAS]

Don't know if anyone else has said this, but I think Hughes has been encouraging the players to shoot more from outside the box rather than try and walk the ball in the net as we used to do under Souness.

340657[/snapback]

it only 1 game, we dont really shoot much outside the box which i find frustrating

i remember when we came 6th a lot of our goals were from outside the box

[DanLad]

Don't know if anyone else has said this, but I think Hughes has been encouraging the players to shoot more from outside the box rather than try and walk the ball in the net as we used to do under Souness.

340657[/snapback]

They are not shooting enough IMO.

If you get a sight on goal get a shot away!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I made the pilgrimage to Ewood yesterday and I was rewarded with two of the best goals I've seen in 40 years of watching the Rovers.

We started off brightly and after going a goal up to what could be the goal of the season we looked like adding more goals as we pleased, we should have been two or three up at half time. Obviously a very poor Fulham team could only get better after half time and lo and behold a dreamy Rovers defence allowed them a soft goal right after half time. For ten minutes Rovers struggled to regain control but gradually we got back on top leading to Tugay's thunderbolt from a corner putting us back in front, after that we played the game out quite comfortably.

I,m pleased we won our first home match and I'm glad we got the three points, only another thirty seven to go.

One or two observations- Kuqi lacks Premier league ability and will never score the number of goals needed to make a major impression, having said that he never stopped trying and did his best to lead the line, he also uses his size without falling foul of the officials unlike Dickov who will always be in trouble.

Nobody in the midfield got beyond our solitary striker at any point in the game , I don't expect Tugay to get that far up field but either Reid or Savage should be making these runs all the time ( very ,very disapointed with Savage I think we've bought a pup here, one of the most one paced players I,ve ever seen, he'd do better concentrating on playing and leave running the game to the man in black).

Pedersen's obviously a very talented guy but he just drifts in and out of the game, we need to work on ways of getting him on the ball more, he's a genuine goalscorer. The back four and the goalkeeper did well, Neill and Nelsen especially, Lucas was bombing forward all the time and Fulham didn't now how to deal with him. Emerton looked all at sea ,his confidence is obviously gone, playing against Jensen ( not a bad footballer but not the best defender in the world) he needed to get the ball beyond him and just run him, but he didn't.

Generally we need to pass the ball better ,we give it away much too often in dangerous areas of the pitch, Tugay, although he played well and passed it better than most is the No 1 culprit in this area. Come Wednesday we'll be playing a much better team than Fulham, give it away in our half and we'll suffer.

I expect us to play 4-5-1 again , given our lack of genuine strikers we don't really have a choice.

[MCMC1875]

All this talk of best goals in living memory, blah, blah.

Short memories - anyone remember Mr Shearer?

[ihtd]

Tugay's goal was very special though. But then again so was MGP's.

Great Goals-Great Team-Well I can dream about the latter bit.

[1864roverite]

1996 was a long time ago mcm

t'were the best goals in recent times

[tonygreenbank]

Did anyone else spot Kuqi wringing out his shirt during a hold-up in play ? The sweat just poured out. That was testimony to his work rate. He has a huge heart but his feet are still in the wrong place. The gates will improve but 21,000 will have to be seen as a good crowd these days. Yesaterday`s gate was the same as Rovers first home match in the prem against Arsenal in 1992 so it looks like we will have to start again getting the fans interested. Having said that I thought the fans were fantastic and were genuine in appreciating two fantastic strikes.

[eddiewac]

Yeah I saw that but I think that was shortly after the players had been to the dugout for a drink during a stop in play so he could have just poured water over his head to cool himself down!

Heres what Charlie Nicholas had to say about Rovers! http://www.skysports.com/skysports/article...1192834,00.html

[RevidgeBlue]

Did anyone else spot Kuqi wringing out his shirt during a hold-up in play ? The sweat just poured out. That was testimony to his work rate. He has a huge heart but his feet are still in the wrong place. The gates will improve but 21,000 will have to be seen as a good crowd these days. Yesaterday`s gate was the same as Rovers first home match in the prem against Arsenal in 1992 so it looks like we will have to start again getting the fans interested. Having said that I thought the fans were fantastic and were genuine  in appreciating two fantastic strikes.

340715[/snapback]

As I recall that gate was artificially capped at a lower level because the new Ewood was in the early stages of construction.

As far as the goals are concerned, Shearer was the greatest Rovers player of all time for me, but having seen the superb build up again to MGP's goal I can't recall a better goal from a Rovers player. Big Al or no big Al.