[Archived] Rovers 1 West Ham 2

[Roar of the Rover]

We all know that the ref was @#/?, but we should have tooken our chances in the first half. After we had scored i think we sat back a bit and gave West Ham a chance to come to us, which they did.

Bentleys red card, even IF it was a red card it still shouldn't have been given because it was way near the end, that decison showed clearly that Webb was againts us and has no heart.

What happend with the lad in the Blackburn End?

[James No. 7]

Predictably, Mark Hughes was unhappy with the performance of the match officials.

The Blackburn boss said: "I've asked the referee (Howard Webb) to keep his door open and haven't had the chance to go there yet.

"You can talk all you like about how games pan out - but this one has been changed by the referee's decisions.

"The assistant referee clearly wasn't up to the job - we had a warning early on when he gave a corner which should have been a goal kick.

"I feel he got the penalty wrong - the ball didn't even cross the line for their goal.

"It was a comedy of errors and the sending off of David Bentley at the end compounded a really poor day for the officials and a poor one for Blackburn Rovers."

On the second goal, the Welshman explained: "The ball was stopped going over the line by their own player (Tevez) - who was in an offside position anyway.

"I've no idea how he can give a goal - but I feel the assistant referee had lost the plot by then anyway and couldn't see the wheat for the chaff.

"He undermined the referee and I think affected him in the end too.

"You have to get key moments in games right - things like that have bearing on how well you do in a season."

Hughes said: "It could be a turning point for us and West Ham - and congratulations to them.

"But we are going for Europe and that may well be the end of it from our point of view.

"We hope it won't be a crucial day in the season - we've done remarkably well to get back in a situation where we are pushing for Europe, then we get a performance like that from officials who weren't quite up to standard.

"We did enough in the first half to win the game comfortably but if you don't take your chances there is a danger the opposition will come back into the game."

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8...1997832,00.html

[rover_groo]

Hughes got it all spot on in his interview (which was very controlled in the circumstances). The assistant ended up undermining the referee. He just got so much wrong. Webb could have done better, but for the key decisions which decided this game, he had to rely on the man with the flag - and he should never run the line again.

Agree wholeheartedly.

The linesmen and in particular that fat head Jim Devine. Disgraceful from him and now the FA should be taking action with regards to this performance OR are they too busy sorted out the venues for the Semi Final?? Fed up to my back teeth and I'm not having a good St Paddys by any means.

I think it was a penalty as Brett never won the ball and he had dived in too rashly.

With the Bentley sending off, it was about 8 secs over the 4 minutes of added on time. Then Anton Ferdinand got away with two blatent fouls within 2 minutes of each other and was only yellow-carded, whereas a read would have sufficed.

Then what about Rob Green in the goals. He took two kicks out of his hand that amounted to 11-12 secs on each occasion. I never knew the 6 sec rule was scrapped.

Great for Samba and thought we missed a few chances in the first half to have the game as good as wrapped up by half time. Great to see Bentley take his fair share of corners and they were more satisfactory this time. Other great performances came from Zurab, Warnock and Samba.

How fitting that my library of songs has come on:-

I've been down and I've been beat

I've been so tired that I could not speak...

Bryan Adams- Back to you!

Only good thing about today, was that Burnley lost today....

They're going down!

[Guest shoppybrfc]

Have to question Derbyshire strarting more like, Derbs was poor again today, he doesnt do enough all game to warrant a start in the Prem.

Peter was poor coming on as well.

Dunn was awful.

Warnock,Samba and Zurab were our best players

[den]

It's an old chestnut of mine, but would the ref/linesman at Old Trafford have given the pen, or the 2nd goal to the away side, then sent off a United player for handball at the stroke of full time?

NO WAY ON EARTH.

[Fife Rover]

I watched the match on Sky PPV and at the end they ran their usual controversy analysis. To be fair they all came down in favour of Rovers having a very raw deal, but then brushed it off by the usual " these things happen " "even's out over season" etc,etc crap. In the after match interviews Zamora admitted their second "goal" did not cross the line. Curbishley admitted that having just watched all the action replays it was never a goal. He admitted it had not crossed the line, and also that Tevez was offside anyway.But he then went to say"I don't care, we have had plenty of bad luck ourselves".

The action replays show that in the few seconds leading up to their second "goal" first Bowyer handled the ball (should have been a Rovers free kick) then Zamora shoots and Tevez is clearly offside but not interfering as he standing on the goal line in Rovers net, he then tries to jump over the ball but onlysucceeds in stopping it crossing the line and in doing so he becomes active and offside anyway. 3 reasons to disallow that "goal":

1) Bowyers handball.

2) Tevez offside.

3) Ball never crossed the line in any case.

The commentators and studio pundits all agreed on the above, but all tended to favour West Ham's view that they deserved a bit of luck anyway. They did in fairness also point out that the loss could possibly cost Rovers a place in Europe. They also pointed out that the time has definitely come for goal line technology.

As an aside to all this I really can't see any good reason why in such blatantly obvious cases the FA can't order the wrongly awarded goal to be struck off; and in this particular case award a draw.

[stuwilky]

Then what about Rob Green in the goals. He took two kicks out of his hand that amounted to 11-12 secs on each occasion. I never knew the 6 sec rule was scrapped.

Replace the name at the front of the email address I sent you with Keith Hackett

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I've been waiting until I calmed down before writing this- well I haven't but here goes- I don't know who annoyed me most to -night , the officials or Rovers. Let's start with the officials first, in my book nothing wrong with the first half goal, goalie comes out to meet a cross ball, goalie drops cross ball, we score , it's a goal ! oh no it's not,

The penalty- Tevez ( who was the best player on the field for me) runs out of steam and decides this would be good place to fall over - result , penalty ! can somebody tell me A) what is the record for pens conceded at home in a season, and what is the record for players sent off at home because we must have broken both records.

The " goal ", ball not over the line and Tevez who kindly cleared it for us was off-side !

At the death we launch a long ball down field, Lucas Neill pushes Bentley into handling the ball and the ref sends him off ! Bentley not Lucas Neill I must add.

I can' t remember a worse display by the officials in 46 yrs of watching football. It's the only time I've considered that there was an agenda other than what was going on out on the field. ( I saw a game of Rugby League once that I'm sure was " bent", over the years players from both teams agreed with me something strange happened that day ! )

On to Rovers, well we were awful, all those people who wanted Watford in the Cup- are you real ! The minute our goal went in most of the team just sat back and expected West Ham to self distruct, they wanted it and we didn't , it's as simple as that.

Ratings.

Friedel 6 Did nothing wrong, not much to do actually.

Emerton 6 Good performance, again didn't do much wrong.

Samba 8 Star man , what more could he have done to get us the points ?

Zurab 7 Played his heart out.

Warnock 8 Great performance, solved the problem left back position.

Bentley 5 Good player but reminds me of the tin man in " Alice in Wonderland "- needs to find a brain !

Dunn 5 Got lost at half time and never came out for the second half.

Tugay5 Ditto

Pedersen 5 At his most infuriating worst tonight- sell.

Derbyshire 5 Not his night, the conditions didn't suit little guys.

McCarthy 4 I think he played but could somebody just confirm it for me ?

Subs Roberts and Peter , hardly worth a mention.

A final thought, football is becoming a lottery, it's not what you do- It's what they think you do !

[Paul]

Regardless of their dodgy goals, I witnessed a well under-par performance from the lads in blue 'n' white today.There just seemed to be no urgency at all in trying to break open the Hammers meak defence and the second half performance was to be blunt,utter shyte. I'll go as far as saying the Hammers wanted it more than us.......our Hoodoo against the bottom clubs continues!

As for the ball not crossing the line,a call from the ref for a video reply is all it needed,wouldn't have taken more than 30 seconds.....will it ever come to fruition? What if that happens in the FA cup semi-final?

On a positive note,very happy for the big man Samba today with his first goal..he really enjoyed that one!

CROWD.

The constant barracking of Neill became just f'kin annoying,boring and childish,Rovers fans would do better to get behind our club and players.Again the attendance of around 17,000 fome fans was utter crap..are we really playing entertaining football and in the FA cup semi-final?.Lets hope the cheap season tickets do improve matters considerably on this front next season or the opposition 'your support is f'kin shyte' chants will continue.The chavs were at it again today in the BBE with the stewards trying to provoke a confrontation.....its really not clever kids.

A BAD DAY ALL ROUND AND ONE TO FORGET.

The best post so far on this match. Far, far too much concentration on the officials, yes they were terrible, but wake up folks West Ham are the worst team in the PL and Rovers thought they had this game won on Friday. Our team was a bloody disgrace today, we should have been 2 or 3 up with the game safe well before WHAM got their penalty. The people responsible for this disgraceful, utterly unacceptable defeat are the eleven or so on the pitch. No urgency, no passion, no effort. Do they think it's enough to reach a semi? Well let me tell you guys it isn't, your performance was awful and all the carping about the officials simply distracts from a shoddy and unprofessional performance against the leaguse's punch bag.

The club management do everything they can to attract fans back to Ewood, in no small part because the players want to play in front of bigger crowds and the team serve up total rubbish. It's completely unacceptable and I trust Hughes will tell them exactly how poor we were today. I was going to book the STs this week. Won't be bothering now until I see the team start to play again. Rubbish, they can't be arsed, why should I?

As for the scum in the Blackburn End attacking the stewards, I just hope this lot will be banned as well. Morons who are not welcome at Ewood Park.

Lucas Neill will have a good night....................

[tsnuf]

I thought we played well in the beginning when we actually passed it on the ground. As the game went on, too many long balls were pumped forward and we don't have the personell to do that...

I think it was a penalty though, Emerton shouldn't have challenged.. he's definitely the defender that makes me most nervous.

[bluebruce]

The people responsible for this disgraceful, utterly unacceptable defeat are the eleven or so on the pitch. No urgency, no passion, no effort. Do they think it's enough to reach a semi? Well let me tell you guys it isn't, your performance was awful and all the carping about the officials simply distracts from a shoddy and unprofessional performance against the leaguse's punch bag.

Generally agreed with your post Paul, but, er, we're already in the semis?

Anyway, I think everybody needs to get a grip in regards to this whole 'we're out of Europe' lark. Nonsense. We're still only 5 points from the team in 6th, and we still have to play them yet. We've got plenty of winnable games, and I know the result was gutting but let's not give up just yet eh? Get behind the lads and push on for Europe!

[USABlue]

He will miss the next game, Man Utd. Great.

Oh that's nice then.

[ewoodblue]

I still can't get my head around todays game.It just seems every referee that comes to Ewood is totally inept,and thats putting it mildly.I daren't print what i really think.Once again, seething and disgusted by the officials that are responsible to adminster fair play.

Sending Bentley off was just the final straw.I just hope the media show this to be the total farce it was, but as usual by Monday it'll be yesterdays news.

Rovers weren't brilliant today, but West Ham were dire,and there's no excuse.We should of hammered them.They're still going down

The player who stood out for me today , was Zurab, always consistent,and steady.

England beat by Wales,and the cricket team humbled by New Zealand.What a week and another 3 points squandered.

One good thing that cheered me up ,Burnley 2 points from the drop

[USABlue]

Got to agree. Apart from the blatant cheating, we were absolutely shocking today. Didn't really look up for it, hardly trouble a very poor West Ham side and seemed to sit back when we went the goal up.

Also, is it just me or does anyone else not get overly roused and inspired when I see Roberts coming on.

No you are not alone, infact I said to me dog, that's our chance of scoring just gone

[rover_groo]

Replace the name at the front of the email address I sent you with Keith Hackett

I agree Stu.

Could do that very easily, but this w@nk of a linesman need to be sorted though. Far from up to scratch.

All in all, its all done now and we need to knuckle down and ensure we can get stuck into Utd!

[Paul]

Generally agreed with your post Paul, but, er, we're already in the semis?

I know. That's why I asked the question "Do they think it's enough to reach a semi? It isn't, last week's game should have been followed up with a scintillating destruction of WHU, instead the team have collectively switched off. We haven't got a game for two weeks, then we just have two weeks to get ready for Chelsea/Spurs.

[Tris]

I know. That's why I asked the question "Do they think it's enough to reach a semi? It isn't, last week's game should have been followed up with a scintillating destruction of WHU, instead the team have collectively switched off. We haven't got a game for two weeks, then we just have two weeks to get ready for Chelsea/Spurs.

It's ok, most of the squad are off to Dubai for a holiday now. That'll fix everything :ph34r:

[USABlue]

I have to agree with some of the other posters, no matter how bad the officials were we have only ourselves to blame. We started out very brightly infact I was feeling right proud with some of our play. Then the goal you could see it like a switch, we stopped playing as if we thought it was in the bag.

Perhaps a bit of a come down for the players with the excitement of the Cup but we allowed Wham back in it, another example of Rovers not going for the jugular.

Also not mentioned I thought the challenge on the keeper for Mattys disallowed goal was fine, the ball was there to be challenged for, but there again it's another thing that has changed you can't fart near a keeper now with out the whistle blowing.

Is our game first or the other one. I hope the other it'll give me an idea what to expect from the FA. If utd play Watford and we see it there then we know what we are going to get.

[benhben]

That is a shocking result. Why are we so bad against the bottom three? Thats charlton watford and west ham now! Especially on the back of our recent form!

[stuwilky]

As for the scum in the Blackburn End attacking the stewards, I just hope this lot will be banned as well. Morons who are not welcome at Ewood Park.

I didnt see anyone attack a steward? I saw someone in an orange jacket throwing a punch at a paying customer though.

[mrsjansen]

I dont really understand why everyone loves West Ham so much, its the same every season, West Ham cant go down, lets feel sorry for them, blah blah blah.

If your at the bottom of the league and cheat your wy ato win games season after season you deserve to go down. End of.

The sooner they are out of this league the better.

[Eddie]

Horrible, horrible, horrible. Although we should have been well clear by then. I'm trying to cast my mind back to the Arsenal game to know what it feels like to get some good decisions. We now will probably have to win the semi-final in order to be able to make this season into what it should have been.

[bluebruce]

That is a shocking result. Why are we so bad against the bottom three? Thats charlton watford and west ham now! Especially on the back of our recent form!

It already was all those three. West Ham twice now.

[roversmum]

Still shell-shocked. I can't believe so many of the decisions that looked obvious fouls on Rovers' players to me were given the other way. I really can't believe how bad the refereeing was. I remember that ass. ref before and he has caused us trouble in previous matches, but don't know his name.

Why in heaven's name did the players switch off like that? One minute they are looking class and the next like a pub team (sorry, those in a pub team, you are probably better...... ). So many corners wasted. Chances missed. AAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

As for Lucas Neill, thanks, Lucas, no point in appologising to Bents after you've managed to get him sent off.

For those who booed Lucas - fat lot of good it did any of us. He certainly enjoyed himself - walking off with a smarmy grin on his face. Cheers.

My goodness, what a lousy week. I've lost my mobile, my favourite (only ) leather jacket has split beyond repair and now this. Oh dear.

edit How could I forget. I HATE the Ferdinand brothers with a passion. Please God neither of them ever play for Rovers, it's difficult enough having to watch them in England Shirts

Oh, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Rovers - it's been said before - but what the dickens is the use in pumping long balls up for THE OPPOSITION'S DEFENDERS? Try it a couple of times by all means but it's fairly obvious even to me that most of the time they just head them back to their own players....................

*Roversmum stamps off to bed........*

[Paul]

I didnt see anyone attack a steward? I saw someone in an orange jacket throwing a punch at a paying customer though.

So you didn't see the bunch of 15/16 year olds make their way from behind the goal to the exit area to have a go at the stewards while trying to wrestle the lad who was being ejected from the stewards grip. I saw a steward throw a punch as well, reckon I might have done the same thing myself. These chavs have no place at Ewood.