[Archived] Rovers 2-1 Portsmouth

[thenodrog]

Sorry LD I dont usually do 'cutting', But I do prefer to do accurate and inaccurate. Has Shillito ever seen Enckleman play? Or does he want us to waste our valuable transfer kitty strengthening the wrong area? Jansens off leaving us with just 3 strikers and he craps on about a guy that the majority of teams in the prem would still like in their squad.

I wonder what it is about so many supporters that means that they live strictly by the give a dog a bad name theory? We have seen critics of the likes of Sherwood, Carsley, Davies, Wilcox, etc etc etc who once they make their limited minds up refuse to change their opinion no matter what. Well personally given the benefit of time travel I wouldn't mind any of them in our squad at the moment. The whingers are small minded and pathetic individuals for the most part. Crowned of course by that complete tosser-in-chief Vinjay.

PS If you ever need a break I could do your Tuesday column for you!

Edited January 3, 2006 by thenodrog

[LDRover]

Sorry LD I dont usually do 'cutting',  But I do prefer to do accurate and inaccurate.  Has Shillito ever seen Enckleman play?  Or does he want us to waste our valuable transfer kitty strengthening the wrong area?  Jansens off leaving us with just 3 strikers and he craps on about a guy that the majority of teams in the prem would still like in their squad. 

I wonder what it is about so many supporters that means that they live strictly by the give a dog a bad name theory?  We have seen critics of the likes of Sherwood, Carsley, Davies, Wilcox, etc etc etc who once they make their limited minds up refuse to change their opinion no matter what.  Well personally given the benefit of time travel I wouldn't mind any of them in our squad at the moment.  The whingers are small minded and pathetic individuals for the most part.  Crowned of course by that complete tosser-in-chief Vinjay.

PS If you ever need a break I could do your Tuesday column for you!

371074[/snapback]

If you'd asked me last night you could have happily penned todays, I was touting it round but no-one was interested!

I'm with you on the slagging off players bit though. There's been times over the past couple of seasons when we've been total pony and I suppose one can accept a degree of slagging where it's deserved.

However this season I truly believe we've turned the corner and our performance levels are right back where we'd want them to be yet still the slagging of individuals and the team as a whole goes on.

Makes you wonder what makes people happy.

[Paul]

Well my cup runneth over. 8th in the league, two semi-final games on the horizon, Notlob and Man Utd coming up in the PL, great day at Wigan, 4 wins on the bounce (when did we last do that?), 19000 home fans at Ewood last night.

I can't say I enjoyed last night's game much other than having played below recent standards we still managed to win. I hate to think how tired the team would have been if we had played Sunderland? Hopefully Sparky will ring the changes on Saturday and we will be firing on all cylinders for the first Utd game.

While 19521 is a small crowd as Pompey only brought around 500 I reckon we had an extra 2000 home fans at the match. Now that must be good news.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I try and tell it as I see , it's only my opinion after all, take it or leave it. I try and be objective and I watch both teams.

Last night we were in total command of the game at half time but at full time we were hanging on by our fingertips against a poor Pompey team, we could easily have ended up with 2-2 or even a 2-3, fair enough we could also have won 4-1 but second half that would have been against the run of play.

We looked tired second half and several players seemed to vanish, given the fact that most teams have played a game more than us over Christmas this should not be the case.

I thought both Bellamy and Tugay should have come on earlier , Bellamy transformed our attack ( when did we last have a player with his electric pace ? ) and he has got to start against Man.U. I'd play Dickov and Bellamy, Kuqi was poor last night he didn't look a player at all, they say the first yard is in the head and maybe thats his downfall, he seems to react more slowly than everyone else. Mickey Gray has got to be fit for that game as well, Matteo looks like Al Murray but last night he played like him.

Although I criticised Bentley I still think he's more of a threat than Emerton , as somebody else said the way to deal with the chance he missed was to dummy a right foot shot and pull it back to the left and pick your spot left footed, I could see Bentley doing that , he got a bit of a kicking last night and I think opponents have realised he doesn't like the rough stuff.

[Seggie]

To me Brads still one of the best in the league. Last night I did feel he was over compensating on the right of his goal for the free kick, but most keepers do that as they expect a wall to do a job it clearly didn't last night. He did on one occasion make me very nervy with a flap which to be fair Brad doesn't make many of.

At the moment I wouldn't sap Brad for any keeper in the League bar probably Paul Robinson or Shay Given, the rest are just as prone to blunders Van Der Sar gets baten by free kicks all the time. Lehman can be a flappy happy fool and Pepe Reina proved yesterday that hes capable of a howler.

basicly ###### happens when your a keeper so its a case of minimalising it.

[SAS]

While 19521 is a small crowd as Pompey only brought around 500 I reckon we had an extra 2000 home fans at the match. Now that must be good news.

371086[/snapback]

i thought we had more there

the blackburn end lower was quite full, more than usual

the riverside was quite full too, i couldnt see the all jack walker from my seat though, but the lower tier seemed busy

[modes98]

What game were you at?

I saw a flapping bald idiot with superglue on his boots, not a goalkeeper.

371007[/snapback]

You should have been looking at brad and not this non goalkeeper person you like so much

The wall is designed to protect half the goal and it failed in its job to do that mainly due to bentley but also in part to savage. If brad had been stood in the middle it would have given taylor a much easier task to find the otherside of the goal with greater power, whilst also blocking brad's view of the ball.

It's swings and roundabouts from that distance as to if you trust your wall to do its job.

As theno said MGP's was a worse hit free kick and westerveld got about as close as brad did. Whilst brad isn't as fast over 5 yards as he used to be his reaction work is still as good as ever. Hughes needs to do more defending for set pieces in training, including whacking a ball at bentley over and over again!

[1864roverite]

official pompy support was 306 - footie liaison officer at GBANK

[Welshrover1981]

3 Points in the bag (despite slightly dodgy second half)

8th in the league gunning for Arsenal and possibly a European Place on 3rd January 2006

Semi Final of League Cup against Manure. Where we may actually have a chance.

Possible 4th Round in FA Cup and hopefully another good run.

And all I have read on this is moan bloody moan.

For God's sake if someone said to me Rovers in 8th, won all of Crimbo games, and play crap yet get 3 points at the start of the season then I would be telling you to **** Off to Burnley!!!

Lets be glad Souness is with Newcastle and not with us.

Hughesy has brought a long way from where Souness left us last season and will hopefully bring us some success which we fully deserve for once.

Come on lets be happy that we are not battling for survival, like Pompy and actually trying to achieve something for the club.

Edited January 3, 2006 by Welshrover1981

[ABBEY]

What game were you at?

I saw a flapping bald idiot with superglue on his boots, not a goalkeeper.

And how many freekicks is Brad going to concede. All his Rovers career he's looked dodgy at them, and his positioning is always awful for them.

371007[/snapback]

hey thats racist to us baldies!!!!

[S15]

Has Shillito ever seen Enckleman play?  Or does he want us to waste our valuable transfer kitty strengthening the wrong area?  Jansens off leaving us with just 3 strikers and he craps on about a guy that the majority of teams in the prem would still like in their squad.

371074[/snapback]

Wow drog well done. You've managed to completely turn around what I said.

Heres some points for you to swallow, ''numpty....''

1. I think Friedel is a good goalkeeper. He is easily the best Rovers keeper of modern times, and still one of the best 6 in the league.

2. Friedels positioning for freekicks has been in question even through his ''Superman'' days. He has conceded a hell of a lot of freekicks whilst he's been with Rovers, and to me, it is his blatant weekspot.

3. Lat night Friedel was poor. In the second half, he could and very nearly did cost us two goals. Would you be so defensive of him had one of those opportunities hit the back of the net? One would not think so.

4. I am a big Brad Friedel fan.

So, ''Mr Cutting,'' get your facts straight and look correctly at what I said, as well as looking at the the facts, before you start acting like a pregnant woman who's two weeks overdue.

[ABBEY]

a bald pregnant lady in goalie boots is this thought too sick even for me or do i add it to the ones to poke in 2006.

Edited January 3, 2006 by ABBEY

[RovertheHill]

our drummer was outcassed and hardly drummed

371016[/snapback]

I put it down to the congested fixture list - he was clearly suffering from too many matches in a short period

I thought Taylor from Pompey was pretty effective and might be worth a punt if they go down - right up until his taxi moment in our box!

I was horrified at the sight of our left back last night. A fully fit and match sharp Matteo runs and turns slower than an HGV so imagine what he was like last night on his return from 6 weeks out. If you weren't there, put a Rovers DVD on and play at half speed... I never thought I'd say this but bring back Micky Gray

Edited January 3, 2006 by RovertheHill

[vyeo]

I was horrified at the sight of our left back last night. A fully fit and match sharp Matteo runs and turns slower than an HGV so imagine what he was like last night on his return from 6 weeks out. If you weren't there, put a Rovers DVD on and play at half speed... I never thought I'd say this but bring back Micky Gray

371214[/snapback]

to compound the problem, i thought he looked like he had too much of the christmas spread... he looked like he had put on quite a bit of weight during his lay-off.

[Wild Irish Rover]

Was it just me, or did anyone else wonder whether 'Arry had managed to slip a sleeping draught into our players' half-time mug of cocoa? Reid, having given an excellent display in the first half, proceeded to miss practically every single pass thereafter and MGP - come on!! I mean, how often can a 'professional player' give the ball directly to an opponent before someone works out he's put his boots on the wrong feet once again?

Bahh humbug to thoughts of Europe at this stage - I just hope that Hughesy has a strategy for keeping the players from smoking too much of their own exhausts, otherwise a dip in form and a sharp drop down the table will have the doubters queueing up again.. For me, a decent cup run, putting You-nighties out of the Carling Cup and finishing in the top half of the Prem will be a fantastic return, so anything better is pure magic.

[Blue blood]

I'm not sure I've ever seen two halves where the team has been completely different. In the first we were awesome, mentally to shrug off a goal that should never have been a free kick, to come back and dominate the first half so convincingly. Reid was majestic in the first half, everything a central midfielder should be whilst pederson really showed the other side of his game with some good harying and a few crunching tackles. Even Matteo was running about a lot more than usual, everyone seemed to be fighting for their places. The only disappointments of the first half were Bentley who was too quiet and Matteo who's passing is a big let down, and that seemed to frustrate the other rovers players. Zurab really showed how class there was one great sliding tackle from behind in particular which epitomised his quality and Kuqi was winning 90% of all the headers he was going for.

The second half... The only defence could be that they were tired, and many of our players do rely on a high energy game.

Kuqi looked knackered after 70 mins and should have come off sooner. The tireder he got the fewer headers he was winning and his touch went from poor to terrible. Worryingly his understanding with Bellamy seems poor, compounded by his lack of passing ability, although for a free transfer we cannot expect too much.

Reid is so hit and miss, two halves of the past two games he's been incredible, a match for anyone, in the other two halves he's forgotten how to pass. More consistency and he'd be in the Nelsen bracket in terms of importance to rovers imo.

The ball watching in the defence was worrying although Portsmouth are a poor team and really if you don't punish performances like our second half display then you're asking to be relegated.

On the positive side was Bellamy's good performance, although I wish he'd lay off Kuqi, despite his justifiable frustration. Also dispite being poor we still had the better chances, Savage and Emerton both were unlucky not to score. Finally, it's a cliche but the sign of a good team is they can play badly and win, and rovers these days can consider themseles a good team. Maybe the second half is the reality check the team needs to prevent complaceny setting in. There seems to be a real desire at the club and everyone is fighting for their place - things definately are on the up.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

It is amazing how much football is played in the head. 1st Half we looked as good as any team I have seen this season - put a fully fit Bellamy up front and we would have been so far ahead ay half time that the 2nd half would have been irrelevant.

2nd half Pompey were up for it - we sat back and struggled to gain the initiative back from them. Though they didn't work out, I thought Hughes two subs were perfect - maybe just add Tugay to actually have someone in midfield that can pass to them

I don't think you can underestimate the impact that Hughes has had on the team - they now regularly put in displays that we haven't seen since the glory days of Duff, Dunn, Cole and Jansen. Makes me wonder how well Hughes would have done with that group of players - 6th under Souey - Champs League under Hughes ?

[Blue blood]

I don't think you can underestimate the impact that Hughes has had on the team - they now regularly put in displays that we haven't seen since the glory days of Duff, Dunn, Cole and Jansen.

Agree. The man's a revelation he's slowly turning misfits like Pederson, Reid, and poor performers like Neill into quality players, is excellent in the transfer market and so often gets his tactics spot on.

Makes me wonder how well Hughes would have done with that group of players - 6th under Souey - Champs League under Hughes ?

Undoubtedly. Assuming Hughes has the experience then that he does now. These days the financial gulf is too big Rovers don't have enough resources to get a champions league place. Top six is within our grasp within the next year or two though.

[Florida Rover]

I am just curious about what we would actually do if we did finish 4th.Just play along for a moment:our squad would be considerably thinner due to contract expiryand we would have recieved some dosh for 4th place that would not have expected.Now,would that thinned out squad be capable of competing in Europe plus the normal cup competetions on top of the EPL?How much more depth would be required?How much would MH spend to compete?How much additonal funds would we recieve for competing in the qualifying rounds(i.e how much did Everton get this year for their brief blip of Europe?)

Discuss among yerselves!

[Blue blood]

I am just curious about what we would actually do if we did finish 4th.Just play along for a moment:our squad would be considerably thinner due to contract expiryand we would have recieved some dosh for 4th place that would not have expected.Now,would that thinned out squad be capable of competing in Europe plus the normal cup competetions on top of the EPL?How much more depth would be required?How much would MH spend to compete?How much additonal funds would we recieve for competing in the qualifying rounds(i.e how much did Everton get this year for their brief blip of Europe?)

Discuss among yerselves!

371245[/snapback]

Hughes would find Nelsen's long lost cousin who fortuitously plays left back, replace the 4/5 squad players we've lost all for a combined wage which is lower than that of Matteo's, find some random creative midfielder from Siberia who proves to be the new Tugay, and steals another Newcastle striker by exchanging Owen for Douglas.

Seriously I'm not sure whether rovers could sustain a squad to cope with champions league football as well, even with champs league money, but loosing our squad players is a definate advantage be it the current or top 4 scenario as it gives Hughes much more room financially to get who he wants into the club in the summer.

Edited January 3, 2006 by Blue blood

[joey_big_nose]

I am just curious about what we would actually do if we did finish 4th.Just play along for a moment:our squad would be considerably thinner due to contract expiryand we would have recieved some dosh for 4th place that would not have expected.Now,would that thinned out squad be capable of competing in Europe plus the normal cup competetions on top of the EPL?How much more depth would be required?How much would MH spend to compete?How much additonal funds would we recieve for competing in the qualifying rounds(i.e how much did Everton get this year for their brief blip of Europe?)

Discuss among yerselves!

371245[/snapback]

It would be interesting if us (or any other 'small' club) get into the champions league. Everton's example shows you cannot spend big on the idea that you will qualify for the group stages, and if you do wait until you have qualified many of the best players are inelidgable to play in the CL.

We would have to treat it as very much a second priority behind the Prem just out of sensibleness. Our players we need to be rotated so we would see a weekend team in Europe.

Sad, isn't it? But such is the awesomeness of the financial inequality that is tearing the game apart.

[S15]

I think realistically, if you get into the CL, you have to be first realistic and then optimistic with your transfer policy.

By this I mean stock up on quantity first, with players you know will do a job, and a good job at that, to ensure you can actually cope with the implimentations of the extra fixtures. Then, once your squad is at the minimum amount to cope with this start adding quality players if possible. This way you aren't caught short once the season starts, with maybe one or two quality additions but no numbers, which can lead you into freefall in so many different ways.

I think Moyes got his policy wrong. He tried signing all these quality players and let plenty of good players who would have strengthened the squad slip away. He seems to have just about got away with it, but he certainly didn't take advantage of the once in a lifetime opportunity he got.

[RevidgeBlue]

We had as many clear cut chances second half as Pompey.  We have to expect periods of being on the back foot.  You'd think we'd lost listening to RevBlue and some of the other professional pessimists.

370984[/snapback]

Well if pointing out, as I did, that we played poorly but still bagged the 3 points is being pessimistic then that's a new one on me.

It's actually an extremely encouraging sign.

[philipl]

Coming 4th in the Prem is a recipe for a nightmare draw in the third qualifying round of the Champs League as Everton found out.

Good point Rev although the second half looked bad from a Rovers point of view primarilly because the football quality of the side had been so high in the first half.

[FourLaneBlue]

I wonder what it is about so many supporters that means that they live strictly by the give a dog a bad name theory?  We have seen critics of the likes of Sherwood, Carsley, Davies, Wilcox, etc etc etc who once they make their limited minds up refuse to change their opinion no matter what.  Well personally given the benefit of time travel I wouldn't mind any of them in our squad at the moment.  The whingers are small minded and pathetic individuals for the most part.  Crowned of course by that complete tosser-in-chief Vinjay.

371074[/snapback]

Excellent post thenodrog. There seem to be some who think they are better fans than others if they constantly criticise and others who will never hear a bad word said about the club! Football makes people lose perspective often.

To be fair though, Shilito was just mentioning about Brad on free kicks, not having a massive whinge. Brad has let in goals from quite a few free kicks this season. Newcastle (h), Liverpool (a) and Lampard's for Chelsea (a)...all of them should have done with better by both goalkeeper and defence.

Edited January 4, 2006 by FourLaneBlue