[Archived] The Blackburn Bully Boys?

[FourLaneBlue]

Rovers have made it a somewhat unwanted hat-trick of finishing bottom of the Premiership Fair Play Table for the third year in a row.

This was mainly helped by Rovers having almost twice as many players sent off (7) as any other team. The next worst was 4.

So...with all these stats do we have to admit that we are a bit of a dirty team? Or have we been treated unfairly?

Premiership Fair Play Table - 2006-2007

[eddiewac]

I think that Jason Roberts sending off says it all

[Paul Mellelieu]

And David Bentley's...and Tugay's...

[BRFC4EVA]

The Bentley and Roberts sendings off dont exist imo, so that should take us below west ham and bolton. 3 bottom isnt too bad

[FourLaneBlue]

The table -

Rank Team Yellow Red Points

1 Liverpool 43 0 43

2 Reading 40 3 46

3 Aston Villa 48 1 50

4 Portsmouth 49 1 51

5 Watford 48 2 52

6 Tottenham 46 4 54

7 Man Utd 60 1 62

8 Fulham 58 3 64

9 Arsenal 59 3 65

10 Charlton 58 4 66

11 Man City 60 4 68

12 Middlesbrough 65 2 69

13 Newcastle 67 1 69

14 Everton 67 2 71

15 Chelsea 64 4 72

16 Sheff Utd 68 2 72

17 Wigan 77 3 83

18 West Ham 86 2 90

19 Bolton 83 4 91

20 Blackburn 81 7 95

Out of three seasons under Sparky we have finished bottom of the table every time!

Personally I think it is a good thing somewhat. It at least shows our players will fight for the cause...sometimes literally!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

The ridiculous sendings off need to stop.

[Jordan]

The table -

Rank Team Yellow Red Points

1 Liverpool 43 0 43

2 Reading 40 3 46

3 Aston Villa 48 1 50

4 Portsmouth 49 1 51

5 Watford 48 2 52

6 Tottenham 46 4 54

7 Man Utd 60 1 62

8 Fulham 58 3 64

9 Arsenal 59 3 65

10 Charlton 58 4 66

11 Man City 60 4 68

12 Middlesbrough 65 2 69

13 Newcastle 67 1 69

14 Everton 67 2 71

15 Chelsea 64 4 72

16 Sheff Utd 68 2 72

17 Wigan 77 3 83

18 West Ham 86 2 90

19 Bolton 83 4 91

20 Blackburn 81 7 95

Out of three seasons under Sparky we have finished bottom of the table every time!

Personally I think it is a good thing somewhat. It at least shows our players will fight for the cause...sometimes literally!

How come Villa went into the fairplay draw, when Reading finished above them in the Fair Play league? Also I heard Spuds finished top of the fair play league on SSN.

[FourLaneBlue]

Hmm...apparently they use this one - Fair Play League

Which has Spurs at the top and Villa second. Rovers are still, alas, occupying bottom place...

[Roar of the Rover]

They sent Roberts and Bentley off both near the 90 minute mark, stupid!

[joey_big_nose]

We compete hard but I wouldn't say we had a single 'dirty' player (well, since Todd hasn't appeared and Niell left). Mokoena can be reckless, and Roberts clearly has an attitude problem with referees but genrally speaking we are alright.

THere were rumors we could have been penalised if we came bottom again. glad to see that isn't true.

[USABlue]

The ridiculous sendings off need to stop.

Agreed, but guess what, they won't.

[frosty]

Neill and Todd on the opening day didn't get us off to the best start

[thenodrog]

It mystifies me thats for sure. I struggle to think of a team that plays 'fairer' than BRFC. Our players in general play fair, rarely dive and hardly ever feign injury to get an opponent sent off. With TV replays proving every week that many referees have been conned I am amazed that our 'honesty' does not figure in referees thinking. BRFC players 'antics' rarely turn referees into figures of ridicule so what gives really?

[HairwayToSteven]

It mystifies me thats for sure. I struggle to think of a team that plays 'fairer' than BRFC. Our players in general play fair, rarely dive and hardly ever feign injury to get an opponent sent off. With TV replays proving every week that many referees have been conned I am amazed that our 'honesty' does not figure in referees thinking. BRFC players 'antics' rarely turn referees into figures of ridicule so what gives really?

I think that sometimes we are a bit thoughtless (Savage, Axe, Emerton, even Bentley) going in to tackles, except MGP who seems to be more cynical (Italy-style; if this guy dribbles me I'm too slow to catch him, better foul him before he can do some damage) in his fouls. If you watch the big four they appear a bit smarter when tackling, as they seem to pick their battles better. Though with Red Neill and Andy Todd out of the way, this trend should turn - I'd bet already next season.

I'm not saying that our players don't occasionally get booked or sent off for something others might escape with a quick talk and our old friend, the pat on the refs back accommodated with a nice-guy smile showing off those pearly whites. But sometimes we make it a bit too easy.

As for "honesty", well both our wingers, plus Savage have shown that they will and can take a dive.

[RevidgeBlue]

There's no mystery to this at all.

We've seen countless times over the years that what might be a red card to a Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan or Sheffield United player might be a yellow card to a Spurs or a Newcastle player and barely even worthy of a ticking off to a Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester United player.

End of story.

[USABlue]

Spot on rev. And therein lies the problem. It is not restricted to reds and yellows either, it's bloody well everything and it needs addressed. Yesterday!!

[Wolves_Rover]

There's no mystery to this at all.

We've seen countless times over the years that what might be a red card to a Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan or Sheffield United player might be a yellow card to a Spurs or a Newcastle player and barely even worthy of a ticking off to a Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester United player.

End of story.

Do you want evidence?

Look no further than the cup final - Joe Cole's 1st half (two footed) tackle on Wes Brown.

Yellow card? - are you kidding? - this is Chelsea!

[bob fleming]

Do you want evidence?

Look no further than the cup final - Joe Cole's 1st half (two footed) tackle on Wes Brown.

Yellow card? - are you kidding? - this is Chelsea!

You beat me to it. It's time Rovers kicked up a big fuss about this. The evidence is there for everyone to see, every single week I see tackles on MoTD that go unpunished and yet stick a blue and white halved shirt on the player and you know they'd be booked.

If the tackle by Cole was carried out by Robbie Savage:

1. He'd have been booked.

2. He may well have been sent off.

3. The commentators would have gone on for five minutes saying things like "Why does he do it?", "He's trying to ruin a great occasion", "There really is no need for this in the modern game".

The fact we're bottom of the Fair Play table again is a joke. What won't be a joke is the fine we'll no doubt get and it wouldn't surprise me if the FA look to take points off us.

[OJRovers]

Does any statos out their want to calculate number of fouls per booking?

I read somewhere back in January that Rovers had the Lowest number of fouls per booking - i.e. refs more likely to card our players for one/two tackles. Over a season this could be interesting, as I wouldn't say our players do particularly dangerous tackles.

[frosty]

I can guarantee that Henchoz's sending off against Newcastle would have been a booking for a bigger team.

[Guest shoppybrfc]

MGP is probably our dirtiest player, he's always hacking down players, he really does a great job of getting away with it though and its good that the media hasnt cottoned onto his little hack jobs! I also notiest in some recent stats, he's also our player with the most tackles.

[stuwilky]

You beat me to it. It's time Rovers kicked up a big fuss about this. The evidence is there for everyone to see, every single week I see tackles on MoTD that go unpunished and yet stick a blue and white halved shirt on the player and you know they'd be booked.

Ive been having an interesting discussion via email with referee's supremo Keith Hackett, who's explanation is that it is all down to individual referee's interpretation.

I have asked him how "come on ref, you ###### cheating @#/? of course it was a ###### penalty" isnt offensive, whereas "it was my first foul" apparently is.

[Fife Rover]

Just looking at the table and trying to be objective, it looks like a possible explanation may be the perceived stereotype of "hard northern towns" is affecting the officials thinking. The only problem in that line of thought is West Hams position in the table, but that too could be put down to their "battling hard to avoid the drop".

It would be interesting to see the table for other leagues i.e. Championship, Div1, etc to see if the same thinking applies there as well.

[Mr. E]

The unfortunate thing is that we didn't even earn it this season. If we're gonna get this title anyway, we might as well ruffle a few feathers in the process.

[thenodrog]

Does any statos out their want to calculate number of fouls per booking?

I read somewhere back in January that Rovers had the Lowest number of fouls per booking - i.e. refs more likely to card our players for one/two tackles. Over a season this could be interesting, as I wouldn't say our players do particularly dangerous tackles.

That would be interesting.

I think Bolton benefitted when Big Sam grasped the bull by the horns and had a personal meeting with the Refs Assoc armed with a video of all the refereeing mistakes made against his team.

It's not just us and Bolton though that are the subject of dodgy dealings, the prem is littered with such.....

1. It was only a few seasons ago that West Brom were relegated crying 'foul' over the abysmal refereeing decisions that had gone a long way to sending them down.

2. MU awarded just 3 pens against em at OT in something like 12 full seasons must be suspect to say the least.

Video refereeing would go a long way to redressing injustcies and more importantly weekly judgement of officials performances by an independant panel should be standard and public.

btw Good news and bad news. One less bad ref to bother about with the news that the conceited Graham Polls has gone, thank goodness, but and more regrettably the usually excellent (though frequently fallible in an honest manner) Dermot Gallagher has also retired from the game.