[Archived] Bolton 0 - 0 Rovers

[Bobby G]

Poor poor match until the subs.

I thought in the first half we virtually posed no threat, no build up and Boltons defenders were having a laugh.

Bentley looks very promising. He has a touch of class about him and stood out between all our players in terms of quality.

I think with the trident of him, MGP and Bellamy, things will improve on the scoring front.

I felt sorry for Jansen playing up there alone. This was the first time I had seen Kuqi live and his work-rate and speed impressed me. But, like people have said his finishing is abysmal.

Next match, I am hopeful that Bellamy will be back and we will play with two up front.

1 point away from home isnt all that bad.

[waggy]

watched the game at rcc,the club was packed,the game was dire-but peter sleep now holds the amatuer and professional batting records for rishton,quite a few left the match in the club house to give sleepy the reception he deserved.

friedal 6 please punch and collect crosses

niell 7 best attacker

admiral 6 untoubled

asylum seeker 6 tidy

matteo 6 unoticed

mokena 5 one or two bad tackles in dangerous ares

savage 5 $%^&*()~+

reid 6 unlucky with a good run and shot

emerton 4 ###### off to convict land

jansen 4 forget it matt,play the piano

mgp 5 best off a poor bunch

subs

kuqi 3 how old is he

BENTLEY 8 THANK YOU arsene wenger

[American]

For those who said Matt didn't have the service to prove anything, he didn't make anything from poor service, either. Kuqi did get better service, but also made something of (and at least attempted to go after) the poor passes into his area, unlike Matt.

I think Kuqi will do MUCH better playing with Bellamy.

[Neil Weaver]

asylum seeker 6 tidy

346146[/snapback]

Thanks Waggy. Am I allowed a very un-PC chuckle?

Enter Theno

[Blackpool_Rover]

kuqi  3 how old is he

Jesus. The guy played well.

Not the best of games but it was nice to have an atmosphere from rovers for once. Singing all the way through and put Bolton to shame.

[greggyk]

Well that performance just confirmed what i always thought.

Jansen- please go! my money i pay to watch Rovers is being wasted paying his wages.

Pedersen- cannot play games away from home!

Emerton- i always knew that with better players he would play well. And when Kuqi and Bently(who looked classy) came on, Emerton also improved. Because up to that point-he was woeful

We lost 2 points today as we really should be playing 2 up front. Its totall ###### saying "we cant play 442"- why, becuase of a poor 20mins away to West Ham in the second half when we played 442.(we changed back to 451 when it was 1-1 in that game btw)

[Rovers_4_life]

Well that performance just confirmed what i always thought.

Jansen- please go! my money i pay to watch Rovers is being wasted paying his wages.

346152[/snapback]

How do you expect him to play when he had long balls lumped up to him against to giant defenders? When Kuqi came on he looked better because he is taller and stronger so he could deal with the long balls better, he also had fresh legs, which looked better against tiring defenders and Bentley had also just come on, which was providing him with better service than the others were giving Jansen. Hughes should have started with Kuqi and brought Jansen on towards the end of the game.

[modes98]

Jansen- please go! my money i pay to watch Rovers is being wasted paying his wages.

346152[/snapback]

Pay as you playm so it's not really wasting much if he does eff all and isn't played!

Kuqi and bentley were a fantastic pair of subs and we actually looked like we might score after that.

Solid at the back and apart from a poor game for mokoena in midfield. Up front we need bellamy back now!

[LeChuck]

Jesus. The guy played well.

346150[/snapback]

I can't stand watching him play for us, it's embarrassing.

He reminds me of the kid you used to phone on a Sunday morning when your team was one short...they'd run all over the place and try their heart out but ultimately they were sodding useless, and everyone could see it apart from the adoring parents (in this case, Rovers fans). Because this kid was your friend you always feel obliged to say things like "oooh unlucky!", "you're doing ok mate" etc etc...when in reality you're just praying that the ball goes to someone else.

That's Kuqi I'm afraid, effing useless in every way apart from his desire.

Edited September 11, 2005 by LeChuck

[des]

watch the game on sky at home

I think that away from home 4-5-1 work ok, but at home we should play a 3-5-2. with the players that we have a think that this sysyen would work you have an extra player in the middle but still have two up front. The down side is that the two wide midfield players have to be able to defend and attack which they can do so.

So for me lets give it a go.

AS for falling gates with football like and the cost of the game, than no wonder they are going down

[McClarky]

What a terrible game. If Bolton are good enough to finish 6th in the league then maybe we are better than I thought we were or is this just another example of how incredibly boring the Premiership is nowadays.

A few Rovers fans watched the game in our normal pub where sopmeone wanted to watch Ladies Golf on the other channel. After 70 minutes I wished we'd lost the arguement. Bentley looked quite good though so at least we have 1 bright spot to come out of the game.

I think its about time that managers (including ours) realised that football is part of the ENTERTAINMENT industry. No wander gates are so low if this is what the "best league in the world" has to offer.

[LeChuck]

AS for falling gates with football like and the cost of the game, than no wonder they are going down

346165[/snapback]

Agree...somehow football thinks it can charge more for a product which is getting increasingly worse.

A phrase I heard on the commentary today sums it up perfectly....'the 40 point mentality'. It will come back to bite football in the arse soon enough though, Sony wouldn't get away with releasing a worse machine than the PS2 and charging £300 for it...so why should football get away with something similar?

The sad thing is...we are the worst culprits in the league at the moment. West Ham have come up and are playing good football, Wigan are doing likewise (both are playing two strikers interestingly), Bolton aren't much better but at least they have Okocha and (dare I say it) Diouf. Sunderland are probably on a par entertainment wise, but that's more due to the fact that there's barely a Premiership standard player amongst them rather than having a bad mentality.

I'm not even excited about Bellamy returning anymore, it's seems pretty irrelevant who chases the pointless balls hoofed forward. Bentley might provide some ammunition for him, but it appears Hughes has set a limit of 3 'attack minded' players on the pitch at one time, so even that probably won't work.

I meant to ask this in last post...if anyone is going to watch this match again (or for the first time), could they please keep a count of Matteo's passes? I'll willingly put money on it that less than 10% of his passes found a Rovers player. He needs shooting, or dropping at least, even if he does win tackles he just puts us back under pressure immediately by giving the ball back to the opposition. Please Sparky, put Gresko in there, he might keep the ball more often.

Edited September 11, 2005 by LeChuck

[grizfoot]

It's just a shame Kuqi & Bentley didn't start. I'm sure they will against the barcodes though.

[mjs]

I think people really have to keep things in perspective and be patient. Just look back 12 months and think about the state we were in then.

We were way better than Bolton today, a team that qualified for Europe last season, we were away from home and never looked like losing the game.

Even though we still lack a cutting edge there are signs that we could find it with the addition of Bellamy and Bentley.

I think some people expect us to turn into Brazil overnight.

Keep the faith!!

[thenodrog]

Exactly right mjs. What a load of whingeing and spoilt brats we have on here eh? I'd have been happy to take a point before ko today, never mind finishing the stronger and more threatening team. Stuff

Last Sept we'd have lost this match!

As for this nonsense ....... "A phrase I heard on the commentary today sums it up perfectly....'the 40 point mentality'. It will come back to bite football in the arse soon enough though"

.........Well that aint the fault of BRFC! We can only play according to the rules made by the Prem!

I was quite happy with todays result. Just see how many teams come away from the Reebok this season with anything never mind being allowed to play free flowing attacking football by the hosts!

The defence was excellent, and well protected by the midfield whilst once the hapless (hopeless) Jansen had been taken off and replaced with Kuqi the forward line carried some menace. OK Kuqi is no Shearer but he makes up for some of it by defending from the front by not giving the opposing defenders a minute on the ball.

I'm happier being a BRFC fan than a Wanderers fan this evening thats for sure.

Edited September 11, 2005 by thenodrog

[John]

Sorry guys but so many teams come unstuck against Bolton at the Reebok.

Thought we got our tactics right and although it was a dire game, most of Bolton's matches usually are.

I can see where people are coming from with the 'negative' tactics but you need to win the second balls against Bolton or it is very likely that you will lose.

[greggyk]

-Last Sept we'd have lost this match!

-I'm happier being a BRFC fan than a Wanderers fan this evening thats for sure.

346177[/snapback]

-Firstly, we won this game this time last season

-secondly, that shows how bad things are at this moment in time why should Bolton be unhappy about taking a point from the mighty Rovers.

Edited September 11, 2005 by greggyk

[mjs]

-Firstly, we won this game this time last season

346196[/snapback]

I think the point was that we wouldn't have done last September.

[LeChuck]

As for this nonsense ....... "A phrase I heard on the commentary today sums it up perfectly....'the 40 point mentality'. It will come back to bite football in the arse soon enough though"

.........Well that aint the fault of BRFC!  We can only play according to the rules made by the Prem!

346177[/snapback]

West Ham and Wigan have come into the Premiership and they're having a proper go at it.

What rules are you on about? The rules of being relegated? They've always existed. The point was basically that both teams had basically gone out to keep a clean sheet and try to nick a goal, Andy Gray said that he struggled to see why teams are doing this in the 4th or 5th game of the season.

For once I agree with him. A few years back when we were leaking goals and looking like we were going down, Souness changed the midfield to a very narrow line-up including Douglas on the left wing. That was fair enough, it was getting late on in the season and we needed points regardless of perfomance...but doing that in September? It's a horrible way of playing and it basically typifies what's wrong with the Premiership.

Can't understand the Kuqi praise either, all he did was run around and chase some dodgy back passes. He never looked like doing anything else...admittedly niether did Jansen, but he was on during the first 60 minutes when the tactic was the flood the defensive areas and negate the attack. We went slightly 4-4-2 ish with Kuqi/Bentley came on, I'm sure Jansen would have looked better with Bentley on the pitch.

[mode_m]

Watched the game today, I must say the first half was terrible for both sides, but Rovers dominated the second half. I am really liking David Bentely, he put some really nice crosses into the box for Kuqi and others. Excited to see whats going to come from him in the future.

[S15]

What a pathetic reaction.

I couldn't care less how boring a match is as long as we are winning or drawing.

Today we were the better team, and just about deserved to win.

Every team is involved in an awful game from time to time, as soon as we get Bellamy fit we will be winning games like today.

Now ffs take a reality check some of you or the next time you wake up you might realise your watching a Premiership team with some good players, all giving it a good go.

What else do you want?

[Captain_Planet]

West Ham and Wigan have come into the Premiership and they're having a proper go at it.

What rules are you on about?  The rules of being relegated?  They've always existed.  The point was basically that both teams had basically gone out to keep a clean sheet and try to nick a goal, Andy Gray said that he struggled to see why teams are doing this in the 4th or 5th game of the season. 

For once I agree with him.  A few years back when we were leaking goals and looking like we were going down, Souness changed the midfield to a very narrow line-up including Douglas on the left wing.  That was fair enough, it was getting late on in the season and we needed points regardless of perfomance...but doing that in September?  It's a horrible way of playing and it basically typifies what's wrong with the Premiership.

Can't understand the Kuqi praise either, all he did was run around and chase some dodgy back passes.  He never looked like doing anything else...admittedly niether did Jansen, but he was on during the first 60 minutes when the tactic was the flood the defensive areas and negate the attack.  We went slightly 4-4-2 ish with Kuqi/Bentley came on, I'm sure Jansen would have looked better with Bentley on the pitch.

346205[/snapback]

Le Chuck, i cant agree with that one. Wigan and West Ham may have came up and be having a good go of it (Im not sure what constitutes a good go by the way) but ultimately they'll both be in the relegation mire come the end of the year.

We play to our strengths and if that grinds points out like today then we'll be safe and ultimately the number one goal attained at the end of the season. Id much rather, like i say play to what we know and stay up than be this years 'Norwich' with pretty football yet going down.

Clubs are desperate to stay in the Premiership and avoid any financial meltdown that relegation incurs so the 4-5-1 is an easy formation to grind points out with. Add to that the successes of Bolton and Everton with the same formation and it will seem an attractive formation to follow for many managers who need to meet short term targets such as staying up that year which is probably the main goal for over half of the Premiership.

People are determined to slam Kuqi, but at the moment he's our best option up top. He's big and strong and gives us the Kevin Davies option to use in the 4-5-1. Ben Haim and N'Gotty had an easy ride in the 1st half with Matty, no fault of his own but it isnt his type of game. Kuqi asked more questions of the Bolton centre halfs today with his strength and all action chasing than what was previously on offer. Playing the 4-5-1 with our other choices leaves us with the same problems as last year with Steady up top on his own where the ball doesnt stick.

He isnt the best forward weve ever been graced with but its unfair to criticise him already. If he would of bungled one in off his shoulder today then he would of been a hero! Simply put, when Kuqi plays the ball sticks up top and our attacks develop. Playing today with Matty, no sooner was the ball hoofed up field than it was being returned and putting the defence under un-needed pressure.

[Scotty]

Exactly right mjs.  What a load of whingeing and spoilt brats we have on here eh?  I'd have been happy to take a point before ko today, never mind finishing the stronger and more threatening team.  Stuff

Last Sept we'd have lost this match!

As for this nonsense ....... "A phrase I heard on the commentary today sums it up perfectly....'the 40 point mentality'. It will come back to bite football in the arse soon enough though"

.........Well that aint the fault of BRFC!  We can only play according to the rules made by the Prem!

I was quite happy with todays result.  Just see how many teams come away from the Reebok this season with anything never mind being allowed to play free flowing attacking football by the hosts!

The defence was excellent, and well protected by the midfield whilst once the hapless (hopeless) Jansen had been taken off and replaced with Kuqi the forward line carried some menace.  OK Kuqi is no Shearer but he makes up for some of it by defending from the front by not giving the opposing defenders a minute on the ball. 

I'm happier being a BRFC fan than a Wanderers fan this evening thats for sure.

346177[/snapback]

Top post. You're good at the footy stuff.

Special mention for two players Nelsen and Bentley.

Nelsen was fantastic today, a true giant in defence. And Bentley showed enough when he came on to give me hope that we might just be able to unlock defences when all our players are fit.

[Whyoy]

The facts are that Rovers only came into the game when Kuqi and Bentley were introduced with the benefit that Reid could no longer play in the middle and took up a position on the right flank.

Bentley looked good because after he'd made a pass he instantly ran into space for a return ball - thinks !! must be something to do with how they train players at Arsenal.

Kuqi at least presented some kind of challenge in the air to the Bolton defence which is a good job because previously everything we'd played forward was in the air and asking alot of the 5' 10" Jansen against the 6ft+ Bolton central defenders. The question is why play Jansen if you're not going to play anything on the ground for him to either use his skill or his pace.

Perhaps its because in the first half the midfield of Reid and Savage whilst effective defensively hadn't got a clue how to pass the ball forward. Bentley looked good when he came on because anyone would when compared to those two in midfield. As for Emerton I haven't got the time or the energy. Come to think of it neither did he. To say he improved after Bentley came on is boll...ks. He was really cr..p before, afterwards he was just cr..p. Does he have a clause in his contract that means he has to play if he's fit?

To be fair to Reid, I thought he had a good game when he went wide right. The defence were good (including Matteo) and Mokowena did the job asked of him which was to cut out the high balls to the Bolton forwards.

Overall, entertainment value 3, performance 6 (7 when you consider we did it with 10 men (Emerton doesn't count)

[SAS]

well at least only 5 of us were attacked by the bolton "hard crew" tonite

or did anyone else experience it?q