[Archived] Rovers V Chelsea

[greggyk]

thought Pongo was ok actually and I felt Bentley put in quite a good performance!

agree on MGP though

BUT WHO GIVES A ######!!! WE'RE IN EUROPE!!!

Edited May 3, 2006 by greggyk

[The Dart]

Waaay Heeey.

[Hughesy]

Great night, great performance, great season, great manager, great back room staff, great team, great atmosphere last night.

Loved the chant - Ur Coats from Matalan (Sung to the Tune of Jose Mourinho)

[theresonly1alj]

Pongy - Poor

MGP- Well below best

Reid - Usual high Standard

Savage - Everywhere

Tugay - Solid

Peter - Excellent for the short period he was on

Bellamy - Usual pain in the backside for opps defence

Gray - Better than I expected, but I didn't expect much

Neil - Strong and reliable

Axe - Dangerous when in our box

Friedel - Safe

[SAS]

Scott I did fanzone last night and have the whole game on DVD. I'll try and burn you a copy and drop off at the Ewood Arms at the City match.

404403[/snapback]

again lol

that`d be awesome if you could

cheers

[Hughesy]

Pongy - Poor

MGP- Well below best

Gray - Better than I expected, but I didn't expect much

Axe - Dangerous when in our box

404500[/snapback]

I agree with the MGP comment. But not the rest of them!

Axe was against Duff & Lampard over on the left, i think he did a sound job except for the pull on Crespo.

Gray - Was quality last night. Without him last night, our left wing would of been none existant.

Pongy - Good movement, good footballing brain, just needs to become a little more greedy and shoot more often, rather than trying to set other up

[CAPT KAYOS]

Pongy - Good movement, good footballing brain, just needs to become a little more greedy and shoot more often, rather than trying to set other up

404515[/snapback]

And stop trying to control the ball all the time with the outside of his right foot.

Edited May 3, 2006 by CAPT KAYOS

[Finch]

what a game! What a result! I dont care whether it was their 2nd string side. Days like today are exactly why we watch the beautiful game.

nice to see the attention switched from the 'big clubs' today for a change. So very very happy at work all day europe here we come!!!

[jim mk2]

Bloomin' right.

Three nailed-on penalties in my view but what does it matter ? Europe is trembling as mighty Rovers (one win in 16 matches) train their sights on the continent's elite again.

[Laurence]

Haven't had time to look back through everyone's messages today, so sorry if this is a repeat, but I just wanted to say I thought Lucas was fantastic last night (altho some of his forward runs made me a little uneasy).

If he can keep that up next season Neill and Nelson might make a brilliant partnership at the centre of defence.

[Bing]

Haven't a clue what game this fella was at! From another site I post on...

But we made the noise of about 15000. Didn't stop singing all game, you'd have thought we'd gone one nil up with the noise we made. Even Dickov clapped out fans when we sung about him being a ****, he didn't even acknowledge his own fans when he warmed up. We sung about both Dickov and Savage being *****, which means we actually sung about more of your players then you did.

When was the last time you even did anything in Europe, ###### never.

Shows how mickey mouse you are when your fans don't turn up to see your best finish in a long time.

The score doesn't really bother me to be honest, we didn't deserve much from it, although I wouldn't mind seeing the penalty incidents again. I never thought we'd win I just wanted to have a good time, and it was brilliant, we created a great atmosphere, it could only have been better if your fans gave us some banter. Fernhurst is quality too, bigger then most of our home pubs (probably bigger then your home pubs) whacked our champions stickers all over the place too.

[frosty]

Europe here we come !!!!

Who else, towards the end of the game noticed MGP was absolutely shattered?

[Flopsy]

Bloomin' right.

Three nailed-on penalties in my view but what does it matter ? Europe is trembling as mighty Rovers (one win in 16 matches) train their sights on the continent's elite again.

404531[/snapback]

1 win and a draw

[grizfoot]

As long as we don't get the turkish club with the unspellable name , I'm not bothered.

Great Win, Great Atmosphere, Great Night

[frosty]

Oh yeah, a great shout to the atmosphere, the Blackburn end were on a roll towards the end!

[1864roverite]

Bloomin' right.

Three nailed-on penalties in my view but what does it matter ? Europe is trembling as mighty Rovers (one win in 16 matches) train their sights on the continent's elite again.

404531[/snapback]

Jim despite yr many years of wisdom and knowledge you still have the ability to try and spoil EACH and EVERY Rovers supporters moment of joy.

the past is the past

Hughes and Co are the F U T U R E

If I was you I would be v careful cause you may not be around to see it so enjoy it rather than patronise it

[ihtd]

I got to admit i were bricking it when i saw Duff come on for the second half but luckily he didn't play well.

As for all the MGP comments, i have to agree. I thought he were just awful last night, he couldn't pick a pass out, he looked really nackered.

Maybe he needs rest and with him not going to W.C. he should be able to get some rest on a nice warm beach with his Miss Norway girlfriend lol. Lucky man.

Edited May 3, 2006 by ihatethedingles

[Neil Weaver]

If he can keep that up next season Neill and Nelson might make a brilliant partnership at the centre of defence.

404550[/snapback]

Careful Laurence, you could give Jim a thrombo suggesting our defensive heart might be Antipodean. Flopsy, you're just too damned pessimistic - I can think of at least five draws (Trelleborgs, Warsaw, both legs vs Sofia, Genclerbirligi)

[Sanny]

What a great performance, well done lads.

Did anyone else notice that Neill didn't really celebrate at the final whistle, or not as much as the others?

[S15]

i was one whats pathetic about it?as for the game sven should be on the phone to mourinoho.

england need cole/terry/lampard in germany so they should not play,if they do and get done so be it,a draw is on the cards,score draw more favourable than most

403698[/snapback]

Only just read back to this after seeing you quote my post, but I think my comment went over your head.

Read Joeys previous post and it might make more sense.

[Fife Rover]

Very good performance tonight, I was especially pleased with our makeshift defense. Neill was excellent, Reid deputised well, and Zura again didn't put a foot wrong. I like the fact that Zura is good at playing the ball out of defense well, even under a lot of pressure, and not just hoof it upfield.

We were the better team and deserved the three points, but two small mistakes could've lost us the game. Mokoena's shirt pulling was a blatant penalty (The fact that the chelsea player went down like he had been shot is irrelevant, there was still a clear foul), and I've seen similar incidents as the other two penalty appeals been given before. The ref did give Chelsea something in return when he didn't send Geremi off for a second bookable offense, but we still got lucky.

But I'm not gonna dwell on that anymore. Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes not. That's life. I'll just enjoy the fact that we're in Europe next year, and that we beat the champions!

404260[/snapback]

I think you are right Lathund. We were on balance the slightly better side last night. Certainly in the first half, and we held our own in the second too.

Also like you I felt we were lucky in the penalty let-offs; but considering all the bad decisions from various officials we have had this season ( and a few lucky ones too: hand of Ped etc) I feel that overall our luck has evened itself out both ways. Therefore no complaints; let's all be happy!

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Bloomin' right.

Three nailed-on penalties in my view but what does it matter ? Europe is trembling as mighty Rovers (one win in 16 matches) train their sights on the continent's elite again.

404531[/snapback]

Fair comment - but under Hughes anything is possible. We could hardly buy a win against United for years - and then we do the double. Lets not forget Arsenal and Chelsea home wins. Hughes is destined for great things - lets hope some more of it rubs off on Rovers before he moves on.

[mjs]

Maybe he needs rest and with him not going to W.C..

404584[/snapback]

Maybe that is the root of the problem - a trip to the doctor's might just be the answer.

[colin]

The atmosphere last night was superb, especially in the latter stages. If ever there was an example of how the reaction of a football crowd should be spontaneous rather than orchestrated, last night was it.

With five or so minutes to go the Blackburn End stood up en masse. Some had been standing for ages but then the whole end got up. There was no signal, it just happened and to a deafening and continuous chant of Barmy Army.

404314[/snapback]

Brought a tear to my eye too.

From The Guardian

It takes quite a lot to persuade patrons of the Darwen End (close, but no cigar)to dance on their seats but Blackburn's fans did just that last night. One of the Premiership's traditionally quieter venues was transformed into a wall of sound as, by securing sixth place and its attendant Uefa Cup slot, Rovers put themselves back on the European map

"A wall of sound" Phil Spector, eat your heart out.

[Blue blood]

What a night, fantastic atmosphere, even better result.

Other than rovers fans I don't think anyone was giving us a chance of winning - but what do they know. Truth be told I was expecting a draw but rovers as always under Hughes managed to exceed my expectations. Fantastic.

Watching the Charlton game I wasn't entirely sure how good rovers were and how much of it was a woeful Charlton side. Tonight showed how good we can be. And for all those who moan about a weakened team - 9 international's who'd walk into any team in the country isn't bad going.

First half my only disappointment was us going in only 1-0 up. The work ethic even for Blackburn was astounding, Chelsea for the most part were contained in a very effective manner and we missed several golden opportunities to score. How Bentley's header missed or why MGP didn't shoot (lack of confidence perhaps?) will remain a mystery but Savage and Reid came up with the goods. Fantastic free kick by Sav and Reidy as usual was putting himself where it counts. Also notable this half was the enthusiasm from Pongolle - something that he seems to have been lacking.

Second half was a lot more tense. For all the penalty controversy I thought a lot of decisions especially in the early part of the second half went against rovers. lots of tackles were given as fouls, the linesman seemed to forget what offside was and Chelsea were doing a rediculous amount of diving.

Reid showed why he isn't a right back and struggled with Duffer, but then many would. Having said that many right backs would struggle with Duff and with help Reid just about contained him. On the left flank Gray seemed to strugle for pace (as usual) against SWP but doggedly stuck to his task and just about seemed to come out on top. As for Pedersen though going forward he wasn't great his tracking back and helping out Gray was fantastic - far better than Bentley who imo is not really suited to a right mid role. Mokoena when he came on did ok in my book. Again he got in a few good tackles, put Duff off his stride and his distribution was good. Considering this is not his natural position I thought he did rather well. As for the centre backs - magnificent. I worried how they'd do without the strong leadership of Todd or Nelson but Zurab and Neill were fantastic. Zurab dribbling past Crespo was class and despite the occassional wander up field when he forgot he was a centre back Neill looked very acomplished in the centre.

The last 5/10 minutes I thought we rallied fantastically. The atmosphere throughout the ground was fantastic and rovers began to venture forward again. Peter looked to have a particularly nice touch and the tiredness which seemed to nearly overwhealm us halfway through the second half seemed to be shrugged off, as players and fans alike realised that we were going to do it. Man of the Match for me was Savage who never stopped running, more than matched a very tough midfield, and created the goal. He seemed to be the epitomy of dedication and enthusiasm and answered any questions to why Hughes was so eager to bruing the lad to rovers.

And so we're in europe again. The performance epitomised everything about rovers under Hughes; some nice touches of class built on the foundations of bucket loads of commitment, hard work and endevour. I'm really looking forward to see where Hughes and co take rovers next.