West Brom 2-0 rovers. Match review

[nonaynevernomore]

Dr. Jekyll Rovers today. The next level is consistancy - the players are good enough.

381862[/snapback]

I dont think we are defensivly. or going forward.

[frosty]

Why leave it until HT to bring Emerton on for Tugay when you are 2-0 down?

[emglch]

mid-table finish will be realistic.

[philipl]

I am sitting here laughing.

I know I shouldn't but these comments are so funny.

Hughes will pull them together for a difficult game at Everton next week. The Premiership clubs 2nd to 19th are all basically capable of beating each other.

Rovers had to be 100% today and clearly were not. Throw in a lousy pass by Gray for the killer second goal and probably the second best keeper in the League in the Baggies' goal and it was over and out for the Rovers.

[ABBEY]

echo that abs but really its a kick in the nackers

381858[/snapback]

it is but it happens ...AND A DEFEAT IS GOING TO SPOIL MY BIRTHDAY LASH UP TONIGHT ...CLUB TROPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

HEE HEE

AM PROUD TO BE AROVER THESE PAST FEW MONTHS...ROVERS RETURN AT SCOUSEVILLE!! MARK ABSTERS WWORDS

[nonaynevernomore]

Hughes better pull us togeter

[Kei]

We were always going to get beat today. Some of the coments on here are highly amusing.

Edited February 4, 2006 by Kei

[yorkblues]

come on lads its only a game

[The Dart]

40 points and survival has to be the target at the start of every season, Souness was right about that, and we are in February with 40pts within our grasp, job very well done if you ask me.

[RevidgeBlue]

What was so frustrating about today was we simply didn't compete in the first half. A yard and a half slower to every ball and you simply can't do that at this level. Was it complacency, only thinking we had to turn up to win?

There wasn't a similar problem with our approach in the second half even though we still weren't playing particularly well. However at two nil down we'd simply left ourselves too much of a mountain to climb.

Immensely frustrating although you'd still settle for winning two games out of every three i.e. two points per game between now and the end of the season.

[RevidgeBlue]

40 points and survival has to be the target at the start of every season, Souness was right about that, and we are in February with 40pts within our grasp, job very well done if you ask me.

381881[/snapback]

No,Souness was wrong. Hughes was right when he apparently sat the players down pre season and showed them a presentation with Europe as the target.

Thats a large part of the reason why we are where we are now and why Newcastle were where they were before Souness was sacked.

[grizfoot]

Savage was awarded a rating of 2 out of 10 on ceefax

[mjs]

There aren't half some drama queens on here.

I am sure some fans think we should go out and win every game we play. That's not how it works. I know we can play better but we also have to remember that West Brom are in a relegation scrap, they aren't going to just roll over for us.

We have seen the highs and lows of football this week - it happens.

ALWAYS proud to be a Rover!!

Edited February 4, 2006 by mjs

[Wolverine]

That's our league loss out of the way, now we can get back to good form.

[waggy]

might be the 1st to post who actually went to the game,well we got what we deserved a beating.poor defending for both goals,the 2nd was comical-call tugay but what gray was doing kicking the ball from a throw in to the edge off OUR BOX i will never know.

this game was as much lost in the team selection as in poor defending,sparky messed up big time playing kuqi and leaving emerton on the bench.pongo looked a little under the weather when he appeared happen that was why the monster played.

ratings

brad 6 no chance with either goal

neill 5 poor display

todd 5 lost campell for 1st

nelsen 6 the admiral was the best off a poor bunch

gray 4 must learn to defend

reid 6 many misplaced passesbut never gave up

lily 5 p$$ poor

toogs 4 not his best display

pederson 5 not involved in attack to busy covering gray

bentley 7 lovely touch,a berkamp inthe making

monster 5 tried his heart out,but with the jeering around me when he was subbed he is on borrowed time.

subs emo 6 tried hard

pongo 6 looked in shock

peter 5 had a little fight

[Alan75]

Look at the good point, it moves West Brom 6 points clear of Birmingham.

[Quack]

Every cloud has a silver lining comes to mind and Emile the donkey was sent off.

[cn174]

There was a sense of inevitability about today - we seem to always end up losing against lesser teams after a big win.

Personally our day started off badly - spent the morning in the garage seeing if they could fix the break disk/pad. By the time they said it was gonna take longer than an hour to fix and cost £230, the last train we could get on to Birmingham from Chorley had gone. So having decided we probably wasn't going we then got a lift to the game and by half 2 we was in the ground!

And from then on everything got worse. Rovers just weren't at the races. We didn't win anything - Tugay, Neill and Grey stood out as the worst in the first half not that anyone was particulaly good. Bad defending for both goals though the second one was an excellent finish.

I thought if we'd have got a goal just after half time we could have been back in it, but once we'd gone about 20 minutes I didnt really feel like we was going to score. We had a couple of opportunities like when Pedersen headed it back across the goal.

All in all a rubbish performance/game/day but not to worry. I don't think we'll play that rubbish for a while now and 6th spot is still within our reach.

[andyrovers]

Just got back from the hawthorns. Crap Day. Crap Result. Crap overall performance.

Reid - Did not have it in him today

Tugay - Scared to tackle

Kuqi - Why bother if you cant be arsed

My Man of the Match has to be Mickey Gray

[1864roverite]

the last defeat set us up on a great run, hope this does likewise

[ihateburnley]

brad 6 no chance with either goal

neill 5 poor display

todd 5 lost campell for 1st

nelsen 6 the admiral was the best off a poor bunch

gray 4 must learn to defend

reid 6 many misplaced passesbut never gave up

lily 5 p$$ poor

toogs 4 not his best display

pederson 5 not involved in attack to busy covering gray

bentley 7 lovely touch,a berkamp inthe making

monster 5 tried his heart out,but with the jeering around me when he was subbed he is on borrowed time.

subs emo 6 tried hard

pongo 6 looked in shock

peter 5 had a little fight

381901[/snapback]

I think I agree with everything you say there Wags apart from maybe the ratings for Neill and Savage I thought were a little harsh.

Friedel didn't really have anything to do other than pick the ball out of the net twice. At the back, we looked REALLY shaky. Now this has baffled me as when Hughes came in he made us really solid at the back and we have just lost this confidence totally. At the moment, I'd probably play Kishnishvili rather than Todd - he's having a mare of a time recently. Neill looks strong going forward, and Gray can at times but Michael seems the weaker defensively. Nelsen is trying his best to hold our defence together - surely he should be captain? He's certainly ugly enough.

I thought Reid, other than making quite a few stray passes, looked pretty good once again and was perhaps our most influential midfielder today. His defensive part of the game has certainly improved leaps and bounds. Savage had one of his quieter games and was pretty average. Pedersen was not in the game at all and seemed to be drifting more central than he normally does, thus leaving Gray to cover the whole flank and being caught out on the break. Tugay was certainly very inventive, but he underhit quite a few passes in dangerous positions.

Kuqi is crap. There is no other word. He tries hard, I want him to succeed so badly - but he's just not good enough. He wasn't winning much in the air which as far as I'm concerned must be one of the only things going for him. Bentley showed some sublime skill but still drifted in and out of the game as usual, and was often positioned too far wide to have an effect in our attacks. There was one situation however, in the second half, where he found himself on the left wing in his own half with nowhere to go. He showed some great skill to take it round about four players and get the ball up front. He certainly shows some great glimpses of promise.

The subs - I thought Peter looked good. He is a lot more physically strong than he appears. He got stuck in and can use both feet well. Looks a good prospect. Emerton showed he has the skill but doesn't know when and where to use it. Reid is still the better option on the right. Pongolle I thought settled in well. He's only been at the club a few days, apparently he's got flu and he still managed a decent performance in a match that must have been very difficult to be introduced half-way through. He got stuck in (I didn't think he was this type of player) and I think when he's fully fit he will do the business.

There was a couple of points made clear today:

o We clearly miss Bellamy

o We lack an out and out striker. Campbell and Horsfield showed today that despite their age (and in Geoff's case a perceived lack of ability) there is still a place in the modern game for an old fashioned English centre forward. I thought Hartson could have done this job for us (and yes I know he's not English) but we need a bit of bite up front

o The Hawthorns support and match day experience showed-up Ewood's poor effort. From the supporters themselves, to the PA announcer - we are not on the same level as a club like WBA. I find that terribly sad.

On the whole though - we had a bad day. It was coming. We had the best form in the league and we had players out - players that would have made a difference today. Hughes will pick the players up, sort their heads out, and gear the team up for three points against Everton.

[des]

as football fans we all can take out views over one game at a time and this means that we can be world beaters one min and a compete wastse of time the next.

And as football fans true to form that is what we do, however if we look at the bigger picture say over a ten block game period, them a better jugement can be made.

for me its anywhere between 9-6th. and thats jugement is take over the season todate.

Yes today was a bad day and wed-day was a very good day and somewhere we are in the middle, not bad side, but not a top four side yet.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Haven't seen anything from today, but Hughes must be worried that we've conceded 11 in the last 4 games: I know I am

[SAS]

hhaha rubbish we were

absolute

terrible

i want my ticket money back

[modes98]

Haven't seen anything from today, but Hughes must be worried that we've conceded 11 in the last 4 games: I know I am

381928[/snapback]

Our defense never has been brilliant. to go on the good run we did was great.

Todd is making stupid mistakes, zurab never looks convincing but has his good moments. We don't have a good defensive left back.

Neill and Nelsen are the two that carry the others along with brad keeping out alot of good shots.

We need to strengthen defensively and up front.

Today was an awful performance that probably was to be expected after the effort put in on wednesday. Just hope we beat everton, sunderland and arsenal....i know i don't ask for much!