[Archived] Spurs 3 - 2 Rovers

[waggy]

watched the game at home on tv,and it was very entertianing.we may have had the BIG decicisions go against us but thats life.funnily enough i read somewhere 90% off goals come from mistakes how true!

spuds 1st,rovers throw in! lily and todd acting like tackling had been outlawed

spuds 2nd,keane thinking he was at landsdowne road,after another free kick caused brad problems.

rovers 1st king was lost by bellars and dawson defending like tiny.

rovers 2nd king fluffed his header.

spuds 3rd a damm right good goal,but what was lucas doing watching mido score!!

i thought all the lads did well,bentley was superb when he came inside,emerton was on fire,i was cursing when sparky brought shefki on for him.pongelle looks the part but is still finding his way in the team,and partnering bellars.he just seems to hold the ball a fraction to long.

i am really looking forward to watching motd,and seeing how they highlight the game into a 3-2 deserving win for spuds.

in my pre match prediction i said we would show the country why we are so high in the league,i think we did.

[waggy]

i dont want to sound like a broken record, but sav. was awful today. his desire cant be questioned, but his ability can.

have you seen that gordon

[den]

  in my pre match prediction i said we would show the country why we are so high in the league,i think we did.

388625[/snapback]

Sure did Waggy, sure did.

[roversmum]

No, I am asking you to apply simple basic logic and to be consistent in your reasoning. If you are complaining about the legality of either of Spuds goals, then you must also cocede the illegality of the Rovers "goal" at Newcastle.

388617[/snapback]

Fair enough, but do you have to keep on about it, Fife Rover? Every time since then when someone questions a decision, up pops your 'hand of ped' comparison.

I'm pretty sure there have been numerous questionable decisions since that, so I feel fairly confident that we don't need to be continually made to feel guilty about it - and if my maths is correct two today less the 'hand of Ped' (one) still leaves one......................................

and furthermore, I shall be looking out for your comments on the next match(es) and if you mention it again I shall scweam and scweam and scweam

[mjs]

A scruffy 1-0 victory might have done, but why should a defeat boost attendances ?

Rovers had a chance to day to set up a crack at a Champions League place. A draw would have been perfectly acceptable.

They blew it.

388612[/snapback]

It must be a laugh a minute in your part of the world. The hours must fly by.

If your trying to be a clever arse then at least be sensible about it.

[Tango]

If that wasn't an advert for Premiership football, I don't know what is. An absolutely superb display by Rovers, and a ruthless one by Spurs - probably the reason they'll make the Champions League ahead of us. Fair enough the refereeing was very dodgy, but as an attacking display I thought it was terrific to watch. Doesn't make this dejected feeling go away though

[American]

i dont want to sound like a broken record, but sav. was awful today. his desire cant be questioned, but his ability can.

have you seen that gordon

388627[/snapback]

Ok, so 2 people watched the match with tinted glasses...

As for Jim, I think I actually agree. We deserve to win when we score more goals, simple as that. If Sinama had scored his easy chance and Bentley had at least put a shot on the open goal he had, we would have. Had the entire defense (including Gray) not stood still (watch the replays, after he gets beat, Gray doesn't even move or look for other players to pick up) after the great piece of skill by Keane on the first goal, etc. etc. we would have.

[nonaynevernomore]

Despie the defeat I am a proud Rover after the performance. I am angry with the ref and also with the fact Kuqi was brough on for the impressive Emerton. It killed our attacking fluency.

[pleasure]

Despie the defeat I am a proud Rover after the performance. I am angry with the ref and also with the fact Kuqi was brough on for the impressive Emerton. It killed our attacking fluency.

388639[/snapback]

what did emo do today ? really fed up with the kuqi bashing! he's not the greatest player (if emo has kuqi's work rate and desire he'd be a world beater) but he's contributed far more than emo.

kuqi 5 goals 4 assists (the most assists by any rovers player/ fact).

give the guy a break.

[Eddie]

How can you have a go at Emerton's work rate? You can't say anything about the work rate of any of the players today, that is for sure.

Emerton played well. He kept the ball well, linked up well and helped to create a couple of openings. He was a bit rusty at the start until he fell on his ass but after that point he seemed to get a grip and was a major part of a midfield that played so well.

[SAS]

i thought emerton did well too

we had soooo much possession it was unbelievable

but our defending was crap after our 2nd

[Jan]

No coincidence that Pedersen wasn't playing in front of him. I think Pedersen's absence was crucial in a defensive and attacking sense. At times we had possession but didn't have the width in midfield to open up Spurs.

Perhaps Hughes could have been bolder, rather than bringing back Emerton, played Bentley on the right and peter on the left.

Anyway, roll on the next game, and UEFA cup football. Champs league is probably beyond us now.

388540[/snapback]

The reason Gray was "awful" (actually he wasn't) was the waster in front of him. Emerton is a complete waste of space and effort. We'd have been FAR better with Peter on the park. Emerton made two good runs and one good cross all game- otherwise he just got in people's way.

There was one especially memorable moment when Gray had the ball, Emerton ran in front of him and instead of running into the HUGE space on the wing, he ran to the relative safety of just in between two Spurs players (either of whom would have got the ball before him) and vainly stuck his arm up. Not surprisingly, he wasn't given the ball.

There was another incident when he had run forward and put yet another weak pass to the Spurs player directly in front of him while Bellamy was screaming for the pass in space about 10 feet further back. As Emerton passed Bellamy, Bellamy said something short, and, from the hunching of Emerton's shoulders, not particularly sweet to him. In the end even Lucas wouldn't give him the ball, because there was no end product.

He can't have been suffering from a lack of confidence for 4 years now. I hope he doesn't get a new contract. Awful, awful., awful.

That said, the rest of the team was magnificent. I was SO proud to be a Rovers supporter today. Yes, we lost, but we played some beautiful touch football. And the better team DID, as the wonderful Sparky said, lose today.

[Jan]

How can you have a go at Emerton's work rate? You can't say anything about the work rate of any of the players today, that is for sure.

Emerton played well. He kept the ball well, linked up well and helped to create a couple of openings. He was a bit rusty at the start until he fell on his ass but after that point he seemed to get a grip and was a major part of a midfield that played so well.

388646[/snapback]

No he didn't. He just ran around and looked bereft of anything resembling an idea of how to play football. The falling on his bum for no reason was actually a high point, because at least it gave us a laugh. The rest was just sad.

[Eddie]

I was just taking a look at the OPTA statistics and I noticed a slightly worrying trend when looking at our goals against. We've let in 35 goals and that in itself isn't a problem, but I found the breakdown of when they are conceded quite interesting:

0-15 - 7

16-30 - 1

31-45 - 9

46-60 - 3

61-75 - 11

76-90 - 3

Now that shows me we are poor starters, end halfs well and then have seem to also let ourselves down in the middle period of the second half. Obviously that is a simple way of looking at it, but for me it holds true. I'm not sure exactly what can be done about it but we have to start making sure that e get out of the blocks well and that we don't let the intensity drop for that middle period of the second half. The back end of the first half doesn't worry me as much as it is when a lot of goals are scored anyway and we have also only scored one less during this period, whereas in the other two we have a relatively large negative goal difference for this period of play, especially considering that overall our goal difference is positive.

[RovertheHill]

A scruffy 1-0 victory might have done, but why should a defeat boost attendances ?

Rovers had a chance to day to set up a crack at a Champions League place. A draw would have been perfectly acceptable.

They blew it.

388612[/snapback]

Jeez - the archives of this messageboard are full of your contrary and contradictory views. For example, these were words you used about the attendance problem in the past "Not surprising really in view of the dire "entertainment" served up at Ewood last season" You were also very vocal about our tactics at away games when we played 4-5-1 and ground out draws. Now apparently the entertainment is second fiddle to the result. Make your mind up man.

[joey_big_nose]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

How did we manage to lose that! I don't think I have ever been this ###### off about football. I don't think I have ever seen Rovers play so well and lose!

Every player had a good game apart from Fridel, Emerton and Gray who were certainly not terrible and we lost. How? How? How? How?

Great bit of skill from Keane for the firsr, Gray done for pace for the third. Perhaps the second could have been prevented by someone picking up Keane or Fridel for cing the ball wide. APrt from that?

Bentley, Bellamy, Niell and Nelsen were all excellent. Even Pongo came into it after bouncing everything off himself in the first 30 minutes. Kuqi won stuff in the air and caused problems- personally I would have got him on 5 minutes earlier.

Christ! Fing Jesus Fing Christ.

We shall thrash Villa next weekend. Thrash thrash thrash them.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[RovertheHill]

Gray got done for pace on the last goal but frankly it could and should have been cut out by Neill who stopped tracking back with Mido when he reached the 6 yard line. I don't think people realise that part of our increase in attacking threat has come since the switch from Matteo at left-back to Gray. He may not be the best defending full-back but he gives 20 times more threat going forward than our alternatives in that position.

The first 2 goals were very unlucky. The team played well today - even though it was a defeat they should take heart from this and push on. Let's be frank, if we play like that at Brum, Pompey and Sunderland we'll come back with 9 points - so we need to keep the momentum up.

[waggy]

i was in shock after motd2 it gave the posession as 55% spurs

[Paul Mellelieu]

Some sloppy defending undermined a great team effort by the blues. Special praise for Bentley who is looking every bit the Dunn replacement without the injuries, Savage who played some neat football. And of course Bellamy who scored an absolute peach and created the other. Tremendous stuff.

[AggyBlue]

The BBC actually managed to make spuds look the better team. I'm sure they must have mixed in some highlights from previous encounters

[RovertheHill]

i was in shock after motd2 it gave the posession as 55% spurs

388666[/snapback]

Hmm - that' what the Sky website says too. But during the game itself Sky showed possession as 65% Rovers with 10 minutes before our 2nd goal running at 86%!!!!

[Blueboy Downunder]

The best display by a rovers team for a long time....superb. which goes to say that there is simply no justice in football if we can play so well and get (Please don't use that word again) all from a game. there was nobody who played badly today as every single rovers player contributed towards a very very good team performance. individual players certainly made mistakes, none more glaring than their 3rd goal when lucas allowed mido to waltz right past him to the back post and put it away, but on the whole we were brilliant today.

one thing though and it is starting to become a very big issue for me. their first goal was absolute class from keano but from the different camera angles shoulds never have been allowed to happen cause it certainly looked like ryan did not touch the ball for the throw in. secondly, their 2nd goal was just plain awful, kean again and a blatant hand ball infront of the ref that was not blown up puts us two down. I have no problem with refs making mistakes that don't have a telling impact on the game as a whole but glaring mistakes by the officials have us two down.

Jan, please tell me how to play football...cause unlike brett, i have no doubt that you know

[Dan]

I'm not going to write much, just that we were unlucky. Emerton WAS awful! Kuqi was never going to make a difference. We outplayed Spuds without ever really looking like scoring many. I was very happy at the performance though, I don't think I could have asked anymore of the lads. I think we justicified our position in the league and showed we are are equal to, if not better than the 4th place team.

If bellamy gets injured(again) we are going to have to go back top grinding out results, since he seems to be all out creativity. Anyway, I'll be happy with a mid-table position and not have to worry about a relagation battle. Hughes has done fantastically well and maybe in the summer will be able to strengthen and aim for Europe next season.

[BRFC4EVA]

I travelled down to London today, and boy was it worth it!

It was a terrific peformance, how many times will a team go away from home to the 4th place team in the league and quite frankly dominate. We had the better chances and Robinson had to make more saves than Brad. Obviously the ref didnt help, the 1st 2 goals shouldnt have counted and we shuda had a pen, but i guess sh!t happens sometimes.

I cant work out certain posters haveing a go at individual players. Of course, there were stand out peformers but for anyone to say that Gray was crap, or Emerton useless, or Savage rubbish doesnt have a clue about footie and was obv nowhere nr WHL.Bellamy and Pongolle worked well up front together and the midfield was creative but combative at the same time. They ran their socks off and it was a shame a lapse in concentration let them in for a third time. No faults to Gray, you cant help it if your physically not fast enough to catch the guy up, Lennon would outrun Maurice Green ffs!

Funnyly enough this has made me more confident of achieving a champs league place. Not saying we have it nailed on, but look at the fixture list, we gota chance for sure. Plenty of home games, still have to travel to Pompey, Blues, Sunderland and Charlton all very winnable games.

Finally im very proud to be a Rover. Performances like these are good in the long run, cos it shows we have the capability to do it. Good support from our lot also, id say 1,200 on a sun tv kick off when its £31 a ticket was a reasonable effort. Keep the faith!

[Kennys Magic Hat]

Superb performance today against the Yids, only let down by a bit of bad luck, we dominated the rest of the game after we went 1-0 down against a great Spurs side.

Both teams played superb passing attacking football and great to see the pundits (esp. Andy Gray) drooling over Rovers for a change!! The game was all about Robbie Keane and Craig Bellamy, both bang in form, creating and scoring all the goals. What swung the games Tottenham's way was a bit of luck with the decisions.

4th place is not out of reach just yet with the games we have remaining, we just have to believe we can do it!! Its still there to be fought for and if the players can put in the kind of effort and show the desire we've seen against Tottenham and Arsenal then we'll definitely still be in the hunt come May.

Bellamy is an awesome player but to say we'd be nothing without him is a slur on what the team have acheived so far this season. In actual fact, up until the Sunderland game, Bellamy hadn't actually scored any match winning goals, he'd only scored goals late on in games with the game already won, for example against Charlton and Wigan. It was Pedersen, Kuqi and Dickov who propelled us into the top 10 with the great run of form around Christmas. The team deserve a lot more credit from the goldfish memories on here (remember the 6 goals in the two wins against United anyone? Bellamy neither scored or created any!)

We have an awesome team, an awesome squad, an awesome manager and we're on the way to Europe!!!

COME ON YOU BLUES!!