[Archived] Carling Cup Qtr Fnl. Home To Arsenal

[tchocky]

We need 7 new defenders in january. And Olsson to start.

[1864roverite]

Rovers have only themselves to blame.

the referee is not too blame, neither is the pitch, the ball or whatever.

11 seasoned pros couldnt beat 10 kids is what it all boils down to.

Saddened by tonights exit but what a pleasure seeing that Arsenal team.

If HOYTE is available if only on loan go and get him.

[DudeAbides]

Mcarthy is doin my head in...

[philipl]

That is so frustrating- a place in the semi-final for the having and our defence gives three stupid goals away.

Brilliant Santa Cruz again. Five goals in two matches from one player and we lost them both- incredible!

[rebelmswar]

Despite Santa's best efforts, Blackburn children receive no presents.

Headline tomorrow or..

Arsenal's elves upstage Santa.

[Torgeir]

Rovers have only themselves to blame.

If HOYTE is available if only on loan go and get him.

Indeed. We kept switching on and off for the entire match. Third goal was Hughes' fault for playing a rusty midfielder at right back. I still thought we deserved pens...at least.

I thought Hoyte was their poorest performer tonight, our left side of midfield created heaps of problems for him...with MGP on that side that was a little surprising.

[Rovermatt]

We played out of our skins to get back into that and credit must go to the players for stepping up after a such a disastrous first half. Letting the 10 men back in for the win was unforgivable though. Arsenal were there for the taking and the sloppiness in possession when up a man was really not good enough.

[Mr. E]

Nelsen, Samba, Warnock = worthless pieces of sh*t. Made a mockery out of all our efforts, which were incredible. I wouldn't mind not seeing them in a rovers shirt again for a long time. Put Berner, Zurab and Henzhoz in, at least we'll know what to expect with them. The defense has gone as bad as at the time of Souness, which is saying something. The others lads were pretty terrific against one of the best young teams in the world.

We've lost pretty much every big game this season. One massive disappointment after another.

[DE.]

I haven't had the chance to watch Rovers in a while, I was baffled by the 4-0 at Villa and the 5-3 at Wigan. I'm not baffled any more... wow. Is this the same team who were 5th only a couple of months ago? Rovers are not in a good place at the moment. First half was diabolical, no fight, no spirit, no skill. Second half was completely the opposite, but we could not put them away. Then our defence ruined everything.

I said when it got to 2-2 the biggest problem was that whilst attacking we had a real chance to score, we had just a big of a chance of conceding when defending because the defending was shambolic all night, we looked consistantly vulnerable against a bunch of kids. An extremely talented bunch of kids, but kids nonetheless. I'd take their reserve defence over ours right now.

You can't blame Brad, he's got no support in front of him. Warnock and Samba are not good enough, both were bad, caught out often, and didn't contribute enough. Samba posed a threat attacking, but posed a threat to nobody but ourselves when he was defending. Caught out of position too often. Nelsen wasn't fantastic either, they looked like they'd never played together before. Reid you can't really blame, he didn't play well, but he's out of position due to our complete lack of squad depth. Midfield was a mixed bag. Bentley looked dangerous, Dunn had his moments, Savage was Savage. However, MGP was awful. He and Bentley were both awful in taking our numerous corners, but MGP in general was just poor. He doesn't seem to be premiership standard, how long can you justify a 'poor run of form' before it just becomes that a player is not good enough? But who else do we have? Dunn on the left? Bringing Mokoena on did nothing to help. Santa Cruz was a danger for the whole match, a class above most other players on the field. Derbyshire worked hard. McCarthy was terrible for the entire time he was on. His heart is clearly not in it anymore, and if that's how he's going to play he can go. I'd rather see Derbyshire/Roberts and Santa Cruz up there.

We shouldn't have lost this match, especially not when they had 10 men. Really, really disappointing.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Despite Santa's best efforts, Blackburn children receive no presents.

Headline tomorrow or..

Arsenal's elves upstage Santa.

Santa delivers but Rovers gift Arsenal the win.

[johnny boy]

Jekyll and Hyde syndrome cost us.

We were 2 different teams today and kept switching between the two throughout the game and were punished.

Arsenal were the better team overall and to be fair to them they deserve to go through.

A fair sum up. We had enough chances to win it. If only we hadn't played so badly in the first 40 minutes. I felt like the world was falling apart early on and it's still pretty bad to loose against another clubs youth team.

McCarthy looked awful, but I thought Pedersen/Gamst looked better than he has in recent games. Thank goodness we've got Santa Cruz! Hughes should play Matty and Santa together and we need to sort out the defence big style.

Ah well that's one less competition to worry about.

[rebelmswar]

Santa delivers but Rovers gift Arsenal the win.

Very nice

[sharptommy]

sparky......come on man! what the hell!

they go down to ten, lets attack! get roberts' speed on dont bring the axe on! why have a rusty reid at right back out of place? give new contact zurab a run there!

savage and dunn dont look too good together to be honest and as for gamst....not a bad game for him but bloody hell he should've bagged at least one he wouldve 2 years ago.

santa cruz fantastic tho, what a player, speed strength brains and a good finish bar the left foot swinger!

bit worried about sparky.....when there is a major change that is obvious he goes for some weird sub change that usually involves his best mate aaron.???? explain???

[Rover Down Under]

I have to go buy a wig as I've torn all me hair out.

That was quite a game, an Arse player actually getting sent off SO WHO'S VIOLENT NOW WENGER??!!! Against Rovers! Well done to Sparky for beating him at his own game. Unfortunately can't say the same about team selection, Reid at RB? He's been injured for 14 months and plays out of position from the start? Why didn't Khiz start? And Moks for Dunn? And McCarthy for Derbs? ROBERTS for Derbs and ANYONE but Moks for Dunn!

We really should have won that, especially with the second half performance and all the chances we had but it just wasn't to be. At least we know Sparky has found the "ON" switch at last, hope he remembers where it is for the rest of the season.

PS If that's how good Arsenal's youngsters are now I'd put a tenner on at least 5/10 titles before 2018.

[promoted2001]

Is everyone afraid to slate Reid? He is not a right back! Failed to keep tabs on Diaby for the first and played eduardo onside for the second. And the miss by MGP in extra tim... My god! Use your right foot you fool!

[G Somerset Rover]

Great effort from the lads second half but Im afraid however well you play if your vulnerable at the back and making countless mistakes then chances are you'll lose the game. At times Nelsen looks solid enough, but if you watch Eduardo's 2nd killer goal for example he just completely lets him run through on his own. As DE4life said Samba looks both threatening going forward and at the back - to us. I just feel that he's starting to look like the defender who opposition teams want to see in our line up, rather than having fear struck into them by seeing his name on the team sheet. Throw poor holding of the line and errors galore by our full backs and we really do have a defensive crisis.

The game was up when Hughes threw Mokoena on for the injured Dunn. Roberts must have done more than hand a transfer request in because Hughes' decision really was a bizzare and silly one given that we were 3-2 down in extra time.

One thing that tonight's second half does show though is that we're not a team who isn't up for the fight.

Edit-BTW the biggest smile on Mccarthy's face came when he was hugging the Arsenal players at the end. Just get rid of this muppet in Jan please.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

If Hughes doesn't want to play Roberts then just don't pick him in the squad. I don't see why he didn't bring him on especially when we were throwing the kitchen sink.

[Presty On Tour]

we come out fighting after half time and were unlucky.

santa's missed chance at the end of the 90 reminded me of pedersen's last minute chance against chelsea in the fa cup semi, you just new that was the one.

benni mac should be fined for that performance, it was disgusting....total rubbish imo. I would of played better!

the plus which i'm taking from this game was pedersen's perfomance. For a guy low on confidence, he worked his socks off, tackled and gave his all for the team unlike some others. i tip my hat to you mr gamst, keep it going.

[Mr. E]

Reid can be forgiven as it's Emerton's fault he's forced in that position. But it's the other 3 clowns in defense that have cost us game after game.

[promoted2001]

Yeh but couldnt Khizanishvili have started at right back?

[Tim Southampton Rover]

The positive thing from that game is that Reid got 2 hours of first team football under his belt which is great in the long run for us. I thought he played alright considering he was out of position and just came back from over a year out of the game.

[sussexrover]

I agree, thought that was the best we have seen from Pedersen in quite some time. Not perfect by any means, but he worked his socks off tonight and his crosses were much better than they have been.

As for Reid, I won't criticise him too much, he's not a right back. He was asked to do a job there whilst still working his way back, and his positional sense wasn't quite what it might be. Although going forward he looked ok.

Its a rut, it will end - its not long ago we won every game in October. However we could be looking at our season being all but over in another months time if we aren't careful.

[promoted2001]

bring on Derby on the 29th! Dont think we'll get any points from chelski or citeh

[Mr. E]

bring on Derby on the 29th! Dont think we'll get any points from chelski or citeh

Derby are just so terrible, I don't see us getting anything out of that either. Maybe vs Sunderland we'll get our chance, but we're so bad at home that's doubtful too.

Ah, pessimism. Being a Rovers supporter just ain't the same without it.

[LeftWinger]

According to skysports we had 18 shots to their 6. I think we were excellent in the 2nd half. We need to start playing in the first half for a change though.