[Archived] Bolton V Blackburn

[ihtd]

Sunday March 4th 2007

Kick Off 1:35pm

(I'm Gonna Try & keep this short and sweet )

Round Two starts here. After the defeat last time out to Bolton, the lads have a chance at revenge away at the Breezeblock...sorry i mean the Reebok Stadium away in Horwich not Bolton, the Bolton fans don't take very kindly to be reminded about that for some reason. Ticket pricing for this game has become very much an issue for some fans, we charged them £15 and they repay us by charging us full price until last weekend when they had a change of heart and reduced their prices. Not down to the level we charged but after the expensive season we've had following Rovers around Europe, any discount comes as a blessing to me on my student budget.

Rovers Last 5 Outings at The Reebok

Sun Sept 11th 2005-Bolton 0 Rovers 0-A bore draw if i remember rightly infront of 24 405 fans

Tue Dec 28th 2004-Bolton 0 Rovers 1- A fine winner by Paul Dickov from just outside the box infront of 27 038 fans.

Sat Aug 23rd 2003-Bolton 2 Rovers 2-A great comeback by the Rovers capped by a late Dwight Yorke equaliser, i remember this match mostly for Friedel running and beating a notloB ballboy to the ball that he hoofed long for Yorke to get on the end of. This game was played infront of 27 423 fans.

Sat Dec 7th 2002-Bolton 1 Rovers 1-Mostly remembered by Rovers fans for the legend that is Craig Short scoring the equaliser something like 3 minutes into injury time after the 90. Played infront of 24 556 fans

Sat Mar 2nd 2002-Bolton 1 Rovers 1-Game in which Andrew Cole saw red after only 19minutes for retaliating to a shirt pull by Mike Whitlow. Goal for Rovers scored by the one and only Matt Jansen, Bolton's scored by that enigma of professional football Rod Wallace. Played infront of 27 203 fans.

I have been harping on about how many fans these last five encounters have been played infront of because i wanted to see if i could find a trend in the decline in attendence even for local derby matches such as Rovers v Wanderers. Well apart from one match in late 2002, i cannot see a huge decline in attendence for this fixture, although in the space of 9months between the match in 2004 and the match in 2005, the crowd declined by just under 3 000 fans. It would interesting to see what attendence figures for this fixture over the next five years will be like.

I got a few questions for us Rovers fans now;

• Is this a big game to you personally as a fan? I don't want the response all games are big because yes they are but some are still classed as bigger than others.

• Is this a match you would be willing to pay the typical Premiership price for?

• Is this really a derby match?

I'd be really interested to hear people's answers to those three questions.

The Previous Encounter

Blackburn Rovers 0

Bolton Wanderers 1

The scoreline tells nothing about the match itself, but the most important thing it does tell, is that they took all 3 points. We can bitch and moan about how Zurab had a goal not given, how we had two penalties saved but at the end of the day, they came to a packed Ewood Park and took away all three points. Lessons should have been learnt from that day, e.g. we need a penalty taker who will put his foot through the ball and not try and over complicate things, we should have also learnt that we have the centre halves now to deal with the likes of Kevin Davies and Anelka. This defeat on Ocotber 22nd will have absolutely no bearing on when the two sides meet on Sunday, Bolton know they got very lucky to leave with three points. The one highlight of this match was the attendence at Ewood Park, more people turned out to see us play Bolton than when we played Manchester United (27 662 & 26 162 respectively). This is more than likely down to heavily reduced pricing, £15 a ticket anywhere in the ground, an intiative which created a great atmosphere in the ground for such a big game.

Bolton's Key Players

Kevin Nolan

Bolton's captain and all round midfield engine, when Nolan plays well, so do Wanderers. IMO he should have had a shot in the England squad by now, if Joey Barton can get a go who is of similar ability to Nolan, so should Kevin. Good passer of the ball and also doesn't mind a potshot on goal from 25-30yards out. He is a very good player that i hope Mokoena keeps a good eye on when Sunday comes around.

Kevin Davies

Our 7+ million flop, Bolton's goal scoring, fouling machine. Davies has given away the most fouls this season in the Premiership, picked up a fair few yellow cards and a red card, yet has still managed to bag goals and lead the line for Wanderers. Their style of football suits Davies, if he were to be put into a total football team like Arsenal he would struggle, he loves to play off the last defender and use his body size to impose himself when chasing a long ball hoofed upfield by all of the Bolton starting line-up. Nelsen and Samba are going to be very busy on Sunday chasing down long balls and heading away cross field balls come Sunday.

Jussi Jaaskelainen

Try spelling that name after a few drinks Bolton's time served goal keeper, has been there since 1997 singed by their former manager Colin Todd, he has been their number one keeper for many a year now and rightly so, he is a very good shot stopper. He is one of those keepers that refuses to wear the number 1 shirt and instead wears the number 22 shirt. Hopefully our lads will keep him very busy on Sunday, preferably picking the ball out of the back of his own net.

(I had posted a picture of Jussi but i'd exceeded my two picture limit per post, well you all know what he looks like anyway)

Sunday's Encounter

After the beating Bolton took last weekend away at Tottenham, Fat Sam will be looking for a response from his lads in this match and its rare that Bolton turn out two bad performances in a row, so we will be in for a very hard match. Everyone knows that Bolton like to hoof the ball upfield towards the strikers at the first opportunity, anyone who has never watched Bolton before may be in for a bit of shock as this is their main goal, get the ball to the strikers ASAP and in all fairness, it works for them and in a results orientated business, i've got to take my hat off to Fat Sam for that, he has his side playing football that wins matches. it may not be pretty and it may not be entertaining to watch but it gets them the three points. IMO if we play the way we played against Portsmouth, with both of our Wingers in Pedersen and Bentley looking to take on their man and cross for our strikers we could cause them many problems. If we make it a scrap we could come out on the wrong end of the result, saying that we are also a team known for liking to get stuck in and do the dirty work, we have players who aren't scared to put their foot in were it hurts. This is definately the sort of match we would love to have Robbie Savage playing in but if Mokoena keeps improving like over his past 2/3 matches we'll be okay, he likes a tasty challenge as well, Mr Arjen Robben can vouch for that.

I got a feeling that both sides are going to cancel each other out in this match and it will end up a 1-1 draw, well that's what my head says anyway, my heart says Bolton 0 Rovers 4 to make up for the stick i've had for having two penalties saved last time out versus notloB.

[OhmiBRFC]

Think you should change the colour of the notloB text

Think we can win this 1-0 with Benni Mac scoring

[ABBEY]

piggies 0 rovers 4

easy

easy

easy

[1864roverite]

Winkers just hammered by a spurs team and their defence a pure shambles.

Rovers simply pummelled a poor pompy outfit into submission without trying too hard.

A derby match ?

Rovers have a poor home record against winkers whilst the same could be said for them at home versus us.

Goals a plenty ?

think not meself, I forsee a dull boring 0-0 draw HOWEVER if Rovers can snatch a win then it leaves us in a mighty fine position to take 6th or even 5th place SHOULD we deposit maximum points in the home games and snatch a further 3 from either Newcastle/Spurs or foolham.

if ther eis to be a "shock" result then a 1-0 Rovers win will do me nicely with a certain Mr dunn making it so

[Fife Rover]

SSN has just reported that Rovers are to follow Bolton in reducing the price of season tickets for next season!!!

Unbelievable!! :ph34r:

[James No. 7]

SSN has just reported that Rovers are to follow Bolton in reducing the price of season tickets for next season!!!

Unbelievable!! :ph34r:

It's being reported that way almost everywhere.

[gazsimm]

team i would choose would be

Brad

Emerton Samba Nelson Warnock (if fit)

Bentley Dunn Axe Gamst

McCarthy Derbyshire

Subs, Brown, Tugay, Roberts, Zurab, & Nonda

[OJRovers]

Does anyone know how many tickets rovers have sold?

I would think that after beating the french on Wed night we might take a few more to Bolton

[Ben-2000]

Still lower tier tickets on sale so no more than 1700!! We'll get offered upper tier if they sell out.

1-0 to rovers.

Att: 24,572.

[gazsimm]

Still lower tier tickets on sale so no more than 1700!! We'll get offered upper tier if they sell out.

1-0 to rovers.

Att: 24,572.

i can't believe were not going to take more then 1700 to Bolton we should be taking at least 4 thousand to Bolton

[Finch]

We have to win this after they beat us at Ewood in October.

Feeling positive after the two Arsenal games and our one-sided (if ultimately disappointing) home game against Leverkusen.

2-1 Rovers

[pksrover]

Looks like we have the same ref as we had at Ewood earlier in the season against notlob (Mike Dean).

So, two penalties and Nolan sent off again please and this time, Gamst to take the pens!

I'm still unbeaten watching Rovers away this season, so I'm very confident that we're getting at least a point on sunday.

Score prediction:

Notlob 1 - 4 Rovers

.................Samba 14

.................Benni 23, 78

Campo 43

.................Derbyshire 85

Team Prediction:

-----------------Friedel

Emerton - Samba - Nelsen - Warnock

Bentley - Dunn - Mokoena - Gamst

------------Benni - Roberts

Subs: Brown, Zurab, Tugay, Derbyshire, Gally/Nonda

[frosty]

0-0

[Jan]

Can someone tell me why Dunn isn't banned for this game rather than Man City, given that Adebayor and Toure were banned last night?

[Lee]

5 yellow cards for Dunn = ban in 7 days

1 red card apiece for Arsenal duo = immediate ban

[Jan]

5 yellow cards for Dunn = ban in 7 days

1 red card apiece for Arsenal duo = immediate ban

Thanks. Seems a bit silly, though. You're either banned or you're not, and you can appeal red cards but not yellow, so you'd think the yellow one would be immediate and the red after 5 days. Or am I being too sensible.

[Ste B]

Thanks. Seems a bit silly, though. You're either banned or you're not, and you can appeal red cards but not yellow, so you'd think the yellow one would be immediate and the red after 5 days. Or am I being too sensible.

Whats even more silly is had he picked up his 5th booking against Bolton and not Arse, then he wouldnt have picked up any suspensionl.

[joey_big_nose]

Team Prediction:

-----------------Friedel

Emerton - Samba - Nelsen - Warnock

Bentley - Dunn - Mokoena - Gamst

------------Benni - Roberts

Subs: Brown, Zurab, Tugay, Derbyshire, Gally/Nonda

Thats exactly the team I would go for on Sunday. I quite fancy us to win, but it will be hard game. Maybe 2-0 to us.

Samba and Nelsen atthe back look an incredible combination.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

The usual boring goal fest 0-0 or 1-1.....put money on it!!!

[Hog]

I'd make Blackburn favourites for this (and that's from a Bolton fan)

Despite the league position we've not played well for most of the season and the performance at Tottenham was awful.

I'd expect Rovers to close us down and then hit on the break, which they are more than capable of doing. Hopefully it'll be more entertaining than the last few encounters (a total of three goals in the last five games)

A pity David Dunn isn't playing as we were going to throw some pies at him. That's not resentment, we just thought he might be peckish.

[disgruntled]

I'd make Blackburn favourites for this (and that's from a Bolton fan)

Despite the league position we've not played well for most of the season and the performance at Tottenham was awful.

I'd expect Rovers to close us down and then hit on the break, which they are more than capable of doing. Hopefully it'll be more entertaining than the last few encounters (a total of three goals in the last five games)

A pity David Dunn isn't playing as we were going to throw some pies at him. That's not resentment, we just thought he might be peckish.

I think there is a very good chance that Dunn will play.

[b12_simon]

I'd make Blackburn favourites for this (and that's from a Bolton fan)

Despite the league position we've not played well for most of the season and the performance at Tottenham was awful.

I'd expect Rovers to close us down and then hit on the break, which they are more than capable of doing. Hopefully it'll be more entertaining than the last few encounters (a total of three goals in the last five games)

You're not the first Bolton supporter I've heard be nervous about this one.

A pity David Dunn isn't playing as we were going to throw some pies at him. That's not resentment, we just thought he might be peckish.

0-1 from a more open game than any of the pundits will give us credit for.

Simon

[Oklahoma]

Rovers to keep another clean sheet and win 0-2.

Benni and Derbyshire score!

[James No. 7]

Rovers 1 - 0 Bolton

Mokoena 32"

:ph34r:

[Eddie]

I would bring Dunn in for Tugay and allow him to rest up for the City game and also bring Benni in for Derbyshire. Other than that I would keep the same team from the Arsenal game if everyone is fit.