[Archived] Blackburn 0-0 Bolton

[Neil Weaver]

Got the radio on as I type - Radio 5 have Brad (again!) as the 'expert' for the early game this aft : Wigan v WBA. And one of the commentators is ...... Alan Green. I won't be able to listen but be interested to hear from others if any comments ref Bolton are made! I think some of the off air discussions could be interesting .

[Hypo-Luxa]

Disappointing and frustrating. Yes it was great to see a Rovers match instead of listening to it over the internet, but my goodness was it a brutal affair. Riley's desire to have more face time on the telly became evident once again as there were more cards thrown around than at a 52 car pick-up competition, but I actually think Nakata's sending off was justified.

The tactics had me flabbergasted when I saw the Bentley-Dickov pairing. Good to hear that there was SOME reason as to why Bellamy was sat on the bench for over an hour. The inactivity on Hughes' part to change the tactics after the sending off was a might bit questionable as well. But in all fairness to Hughesy, the squad out there (excluding the exclusion of Bellamy) SHOULD have been able to break through and at least pressure Jussi. I think Reid is failing in auditioning for Tugay's successor. Too many of his shots were wide and he takes them from too far when there are passes that could be made to free some one a bit closer for a shot. The lad needs to quit getting tunnel vision when he's 45 yards out and in front of the goal. Every defense in the league will give him those 30-40 yard shots every day and he's got to realize that passing the ball is an option as well.

On Bolton's tactics I think it actually shows how much they respect us as to how they played for the draw even before the Nakata send off. I don't like it one bit, mind you, but when an opponent is playing not to lose then it shows a bit of respect.

This draw will be much more palatable if we can get a win next week against the Toon!! Let's add to their misery!!

[1864roverite]

I agree with Scotty about the tactics being wrong.

Am I the only one to have noticed Bellamy pull up with his left hamstring 5 minutes after coming on ? You could see him flexing and stretching and it seemed to hamper him when setting off.

Emerton should have stayed on the park.

Dickov should have stayed on and we should have completely rested Bellamy.

This was not a match for those shouting for Tugay, he was better off on the bench for a rest.

7 games unbeaten, I will have some of that. I wonder if we can see of Newcastle next week to make it 8 ?

as for those numpties in the Riverside, well a throwback to Burnden park many moons ago when we drew 2-2, anyone remember them clowns coming over the turnstyles when barker scored ?

[AggyBlue]

I agree with Scotty about the tactics being wrong.

This was not a match for those shouting for Tugay, he was better off on the bench for a rest.

374799[/snapback]

If he'd come on in this game, as some have suggested, they'd have kicked lumps out of him and he may well have been out injured for quite a while.

They didn't come to play football

[ABBEY]

as for those numpties in the Riverside, well a throwback to Burnden park many moons ago when we drew 2-2, anyone remember them clowns coming over the turnstyles when barker scored ?

374799[/snapback]

i was put in the bolton end for a game there with my dad we got there late and we told the police we were rovers fans and they still put us in and either keeley or faz scored with a header i think and me and pops both jumped up and got allsorts from the bonny ones and got marched round to our end .

[USABlue]

I just saw the attendance, only 18K for the local Derby, bloody hell it's getting worse not better. Or would the Man U match have drained everyones funds?

[Paul Mellelieu]

Tugay on at half time or close after would have made sense - with hingsight. But the real porblem was turning possessionj, in the last third, into goals. We had enough chances and good situations to have won easily.

As for Bolton. Dear oh dear what a disgrace. And then Allardyce has the cheek to criticise Riley. After last year's justificationm of the Diouf dive "Big Sam" has swown himself to be a man with no class.

[Neil Weaver]

I just saw the attendance, only 18K for the local Derby, bloody hell it's getting worse not better.  Or would the Man U match have drained everyones funds?

374858[/snapback]

It's not good USA, but when Bolton get the whole Darwen End and around 1000 make the long journey, it perhaps explains things a bit. Then again maybe we should credit Bolton fans with a bit of sense - for not shelling out to watch a team that play like that.

[RevidgeBlue]

I just saw the attendance, only 18K for the local Derby, bloody hell it's getting worse not better.  Or would the Man U match have drained everyones funds?

374858[/snapback]

Must say I was surprised with the official attendance.

From my view in the Jack Walker upper looking out towards the Riverside I thought all the Rovers areas of the ground looked fuller than for most home games this season.

[Manchester Blue]

excellent points.  You've saved 15 mins of my Sunday scotty.   Just to add that I cannot fault Hughes tenure at BRFC except his substitution tactics.  Often too late and frequently wrong.  I once saw us huffing and puffing to beat a spirited 10 man Newcastle until Tugay came on, passed em to death, used the width and we ran out easy 4-1 (I think) winners.  Bellamy should have been on sooner instead of Kuqi to.

374741[/snapback]

My one main gripe with Hughes is his substitutions. As far as i'm concerned he decides pre match which ones he is going to make and when and does not deviate from this. Invariably this invloves one at 60 mins another on 70 mins and save one for injuries. A change at half time would have been called for and bringing Kuqi on just played into Bolton's hands. Sam must have been delighted when that happened.

Hughes really needs to start reacting to the game in hand rather than sticking rigidly to his game plan. It was definitely 2 points lost yesterday and very frustrating. Most of what Sam has said is complete crap but one point he raised I couldn't argue with. How few clear cut chances we created, mainly because lumping long balls up to Kuqi was exactly what Bolton wanted.

[philipl]

I thought Rovers exploited their man advantage better than teams often do. We really took the game to Bolton at the start of the second half creating good chances which we simply didn't finish.

When it started going stale, Hughes rang the changes. OK it was an off day, not a major tactical blunder.

[waggy]

what yesterday proved is our need for a decent striker,if bellamy was a doubt he should not have played.dig deep jw,i know its hard on 18k gates

[Neil Weaver]

Waggy (et al), I agree that it's the single thing that'd make the most difference. We all know it's going to cost though. I've no idea what you do/earn but imagine going to your bank manager and asking for a personal loan, say 10 thousand. He'd want to know your plan for paying it back before giving you an answer. Analogy to a new striker : the money man/men/people will want to know exactly the same. OK, European football is a possibility, but at best surely no better than an evens chance. And have our past European excursions been big money spinners? Second thing that could be argued is it would increase gate money. Would you be confident making that case with what's been happening to attendances for the past year or two? Third thing is the player's value would increase so that he could be sold on for a profit in a couple of years. That's the only reason where a case could be argued IMHO.

There isn't a strong case. I'll try not to be pessimistic again today.

[Jan]

And just LOOK how well Wigan did against 10 man West Brom!!!

[LeChuck]

OK, European football is a possibility, but at best surely no better than an evens chance.  And have our past European excursions been big money spinners?

374911[/snapback]

The UEFA Cup is a lot more profitable now than it was when we were last in it, I can't remember which chairman said it, but whoever it was said that getting into the group stages of the competition now guarantees a minimum of around £5 million. Hughes' attitude towards cup competitions is also far better than Souness', I hope that fact won't go unoticed by the board either.

There is also the point that there's £500,000 per place in the Premiership...and with the gap between finishing 6th and finishing 16th being wafer thin then it could be argued that we could reclaim any outlay on a striker purely from the league prize money.

I certainly don't think it's a bleak situation as far as transfers go, especially when you throw in the removing of 'dead wood' into the equation.

[FourLaneBlue]

Oh and I have a theory about our two central defenders (whoever they may be)  It's called "the magic passing hat".  The trouble is, we only have one, so only one of them can wear it at a time.  Today and on wednesday, Todd had it.  Earlier in the season, Nelsen had it.  When wearing it, their passes go neatly to one of our men.  When not, they don't- simple as that.

(well- you think up something better to explain all those misplaced passes when they've played so well earlier in the season)

374634[/snapback]

You're such a girl.

[FourLaneBlue]

I thought Rovers exploited their man advantage better than teams often do.

374893[/snapback]

How? Hughes did nothing to change the situation.

[philipl]

The existing XI moved the ball around really well stretching the Bolton midfield and back line. I think people are getting hung up with the 0-0 score line and missing how we played for long passages of the game.

Before Nakata was sent off, we scarcely had 40% posession. After he went we had 60%. All those corners and off-target attempts on goal had to come from somewhere!

[mjs]

The existing XI moved the ball around really well stretching the Bolton midfield and back line.

374962[/snapback]

Spot on phil. I actually commented during the second half on how I thought we were doing the right thing by keeping possession well and trying to stretch them. Unfortunately it is not easy to breakdown a team that is basically playing none up front.

As for Bolton they are probably the ugliest (football wise) Premier League team I have seen.

[Manchester Blue]

It's not easy to break a team down of course but one of the first things you would do is ensure your best passer is on the pitch, secondly you would make the pitch as big as possible so keep your wide players on. It's not rocket science really but it seems to have been missed by Hughes. We had 60% of possesion because Bolton were happy for us to have the ball in areas we couldn't hurt them. How many saves did Jaaskelainen make?

[thenodrog]

It's not easy to break a team down of course but one of the first things you would do is ensure your best passer is on the pitch, secondly you would make the pitch as big as possible so keep your wide players on.  It's not rocket science really but it seems to have been missed by Hughes.  We had 60% of possesion because Bolton were happy for us to have the ball in areas we couldn't hurt them.  How many saves did Jaaskelainen make?

374971[/snapback]

Exactly. The situation was crying out for Tugay to exploit the width of the pitch.

ALSO we were suckered into giving away far too many silly fouls in our own half. I have seen Notlob play for fouls when in this situation before. When they are lumping free kicks into the box for their big guys any advantage of having 11 v 10 goes right out of the window. And especially so after they have gained their usual 3-4 yards on every free kick. The linesman in the second half was almost in dereliction of duty in ignoring their ploys to gain ground.

[AxesFirstTouch]

Bolton are a horrible side, the worst to watch and probably the worst to play against, the sooner they get relegated the better. Its just a shame Jansen had to join such a awful team.

[cletus]

Must say I was surprised with the official attendance.

From my view in the Jack Walker upper looking out towards the Riverside I thought all the Rovers areas of the ground looked fuller than for most home games this season.

374873[/snapback]

You obviously couldn`t see the less than half full Jack Walker upper then? Only the middle bit had people in it. I`d say less than half full up in the gods.

BBE upper was only a third full (2000 empty?)

Darwen End lower, 3500 empty seats?

Darwen End upper closed (3000 more empty?)

Tons of empty seats around me (Riverside)

& empty seats in outer areas of BBE lower.

[philipl]

Savage did his own press conference!

That's two extremely pro-Rovers (or is it anti-Big Sam) articles from the Guardian/Observer.

[herbergeehh]

Nice little article that. See, Big Sam, that's what happens when you make poor Nakata act all Alan Smith'y. He can't tackle at all, he's a luxury player - don't make him go head to head against Savage again