Fulham Away, 25th November..ko 4pm

[ABBEY]

As shouldve been Murphy !! His tackle from behind was exactly the same as Dunny's at Old Trafford, he got nowhere near the ball. Talk about Double standards. I really am annoyed.

good point today but how many times as drogba dived and not been booked??

[joey_big_nose]

Considering we were playing with a very weak midfield and strikeforce a decent result. We were easily the better team but just had too few around in the box to apply the finish. Once Rocky, Benni, Reid and Savage are back we will steamroller a lot of the midtable sides.

Pedersen worked hard again for me and was picking up the right positions offensively but again looked to lack quality when on the ball or shooting. All depends on the money available but I am sure Hughes will have pricked up his ears to left wingers available in the window. As it is there is no way he will start once Dunn, Savage and Reid are back.

Warnock was incredible, Roberts showed a level of ball control and awareness I did not think possible, Emerton had a good game, Bentley always looked dangerous. Samba and Nelsen had poor games by their high standards. Mokoena and Toogs were pretty average.

[gumboots]

Anyone notice the little Hoo from the Grinch in the front row of the Fulham crowd. My son spotted it and rewound, and we could all see exactly what he meant. Have a look if you've recorded the prematch. Agree with whoever about Nelsen prematch. Bet he made that kid's day. Also thought the postmatch interview from Nelsen and warnock was a class above. Two articulate blokes, with Warnock taking resposibility for his mistake and Nelsen refusing to get drawn into any ref bashing over the pen but stressing the positives from the game. Quality.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Given the circumstances a good point well earned, losing Mc Carthy so early was a blow ( a less than match fit Roberts had to play all the game ) The Fulham guy knew exactly what he was doing, like we used to say " If you're going to hurt them , hurt them early ", we didn't even get a free kick !

Coming back twice showed courage inspite of a one-eyed referee, sometimes you've got to accept the raw deals. I got the feeling Fulham we're trying to bully us and by and large they got away with it.

Scores

Friedel 6 Nothing really to do.

Oojer 6 Steady, the hand ball was more of a pen than the one they got.

Samba 8* Immense as always, the best since the great Mike England, and that includes Hendry.

Nelsen 7 Typical captain's performance.

Warnock 8 One of the Rovers steals of all time, Wayne Bridge ? You're having a laugh.

Emerton 7 Worked hard all game, took his goal well.

Moekoena 6 Not at his best, but never is when paired with Tugay.

Tugay 6 Slow start, got better in the second half.

Pedersen 5 Poor , tired performance, back to the bench for Villa, he's underpowered, 1.2 litre engine in a 2.0 litre body.

Mc Carthy 0 Got done.

Bentley 7 Worked hard, looked a class player, booking for a " dive " was harsh.

Subs Roberts 6 Did well considering he hasn't played for two months

Reid 0 Cameo appearance, touched the ball once, welcome back.

One worrying thought- we had to field three subs coming back from medium to long term injuries, sort it out in the window Rovers.

[Roar of the Rover]

Warnock and Emerton were awesome today, our performance deserved 3 points. We should've buried them as we had the lions share of possesion. Penalty decision was a bit harsh. We could've done with Roque on the bench but go to give credit where its due, Roberts was amazing, especially as it was his first game back in a while.

[chris]

should haved watched it on TV was way too cold

Roberts can;t knock his effort but he can;t finish to save his life, anyway we knew that when we got him so well done for effort he put in, suits Championship more though

happy with point considering three tops strikers missing today

[Ben-2000]

should haved watched it on TV was way too cold

Nothing changes there then...was the same when I went a couple of years back

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Anyone notice the little Hoo from the Grinch in the front row of the Fulham crowd.

Come again??

[pg]

'twas nice to see a vintage performance from Brett today. He enjoyed playing on the right, in front of Andre (they combined well). Bentley was very good in 2nd half, especially when running at the goal with the ball at his feet. Most of our good stuff came through him in the 2nd half.

Gamst was largely anonymous today. Tugay had an 'ok' day, but IMO we needed a bit of magic from him today to win away from home, especially with only one up-front.

Caught up with Tris for the first time since Charlton away in '04, and met Revidge Blue for the first time.

That will be my last Rovers game for a while I would think... so that's good news for the rest of you!

[John]

Thought it was a decent performance today. Benni's injury did screw things up for us, and it took us a while to settle down. Mind you, Roberts played well.

However, I must say, I think Fulham are a very average side.

[Al]

A fair performance in view of all the missing players but I do think that Bentley is wasted up front. He is a skilful midfielder who puts in great crosses bu het gets muscled out in the middle.

[tcj_jones]

My, my. How did we manage not to win today?

First half was pretty poor, but the second half was very entertaining. I thought that Warnock and Roberts were particularly good. Warnock was my MOTM.

I feel that if we had have had either Benni or Roque in front of goal, we would have been more clinical and won the game.

Niemi earnt Fulham the point, that's for sure.

[Eddie]

We played some great stuff at times and deserved to win (and should have...which we may regret later on). Tugay and MGP were off and the defense was, at times, a shambles. Samba needs to be more careful when he ventures forward, he was caught on the ball a few times. Not happy to see Bentley dive like that, he needs a word in his ear. Very entertaining game though.

[rover6]

Friedel 6 Nothing really to do.

That save from Shefki Kuqi is worth a 7 by itself, surely!

MGP's situation is a microcosm of the foreigners v. homegrown player debate that is raging. On performances, MGP is struggling, youngster Treacy is flying having made his Ireland U21 debut recently (although he missed the next game with a knock). Hughes must decide whether to pursue with Gamst in the knowledge that he 'knows the ropes' and the hope that he might score a goal or make an assist which will escalate his form back to the top.

OR he can take the risk and field Treacy and see what he can do. He lacks experience but how do you gain experience? I suspect that Hughes will err on the side of caution/conservatism and continue with Gamst. Imo, that'd be the negative move and constitute shielding a player from competition. The laws of meritocracy would suggest that now is the time, if fit, for Treacy to be given a chance.

[Paul Mellelieu]

I don't know why they don't sack Hughes, bring in Rover6 to manage the team (that way at least he'll get to a game) and he can play the youth team against Villa.

By the way Treacy's Irish, not "home grown".

[philipl]

Hughes and Sanchez moan about Ref Dean... but not the same moans!

McCarthy is bruised and cut following the unpunished wild lunge and is virtually certain to miss the Villa game.

Roque's flight was 6 hours late and he had played on two rock-hard pitches so Sparky told him to stay at home in the north west and hopefully avoid the tendonitis flaring up again.

[modes98]

That save from Shefki Kuqi is worth a 7 by itself, surely!

He also saved a 1 on 1 with Kamara early in the first half. Brad had a very good game and did try his best to get the offside claim in for their second goal.

Phillipl in the LET Hughes is quoted as being hopeful that Benni will be fit to play a role on wednesday. He didn't look very comfy in the stands though.

[USABlue]

As shouldve been Murphy !! His tackle from behind was exactly the same as Dunny's at Old Trafford, he got nowhere near the ball. Talk about Double standards. I really am annoyed.

I disagree, if you mean the one on Bentley, it was far worse and much more dangerous than dunnys.

And LeChuck it was offside, Camara I think was offside when the first pass went out wide, definately offside on the pass to the middle, he was so far offside you could see it from behind also. I am not really seeing how the farcical active inactive can even be used here.

[USABlue]

[url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/article-23422965-McCarthy is bruised and cut following the unpunished wild lunge and is virtually certain to miss the Villa game.

I saw that challenge the same way Tyrone did, totally deliberate.

[kevinyip]

The silly defence cost us 2 points...

Friedel [ 6 ] - Some great save, but one silly pass nearly cost us.

Ooijer [ 5 ] - always lost position, does not have pace to cope with opposite ML, and where is him when we lose second goal?

Samba [6 ] - Some good defence, some silly pass, he always scare me when he start to dribble and finally cause some silly pass / loss the ball.

Nelsen [ 6 ] - Some good defence, some worst defence

Warnock [ 7 ] - always lost position, does not have pace to cope with opposite- 6 point. hand in a goal - one more point

Emerton [ 7 ] - some silly defence and pass but give us a draw

Tugay [ 6 ] - I heard him tell us to "come on" and give motive to ours.

Mokoena [ 6 ] - OK. But nothing special.

Pedersen [ 7 ] - great passing. I think he play ok today.

Roberts [ 8 ] - great dribbles, Fulham's defence cannot handle him.

Bentley [ 7 ] - provide pressure to Fulham's defence.

Reid - not play long enough to comment

Mccathy - not play long enough to comment

In first half we play 4-5-1 with no target men but Hughes has forgotten and the player always pass high ball to roberts. As a result roberts always head the ball to no one. Luckily Hughes remember that we are 4-5-1 and does not have target men after half time and ask player to pass the ball but not high ball.

I think we draw luckily. It seems that Hughes never change his tactic no matter we are 0-10 down or 1-2 down. There are several time in this season we get a draw or a win finally because of our passion but I question if it will happan always. Other manager will change tactic immedietely but not hughes.

[LeChuck]

And LeChuck it was offside, Camara I think was offside when the first pass went out wide, definately offside on the pass to the middle, he was so far offside you could see it from behind also. I am not really seeing how the farcical active inactive can even be used here.

The bold bit it absolutely 100% incorrect. I've seen it several times and it was debated on MOTD, that pass was definitely onside, it's as clear as day when the film is frozen when the pass is played. The lines of the grass show it perfectly, the ball is on one of those lines when Davies passes it, and Kamara is slightly behind this line. I've tried looking on YouTube for the clip but I don't think it's there.

The first pass out wide is open to interpretation, and today has just really hightlighted how farcical that rule is because no-one really knows whether it is offside or not. Paul Jewell said on MOTD that almost every player, manager and official wants that rule changed to how it used to be...if that is case, why do the F.A. think they know better?

[American Rover12]

Here goes another country heard from: thoughts in no particular order;

Gamst, nothing to say about him. I'm not scapegoating him, but no one could ever convince me he played well today. If I was the boss, I'd make a pretty penny off him in Jan. Warnock had the his best game in a rovers shirt that I've ever seen. He was fantastic. Bents played very well for the most part, sans the dive and times where he was just in the wrong sport. It can happen though when he's given free range of the pitch. Was quite impressed with Roberts, can't finish for sh!t but his touches and ball handling were second to none. Moved and weaved through clumps of defenders effortlessly. Would be real nice to have him play behind benni or Santa one match, control and settle the ball before setting up one of the big guys. Samba. Samba Samba, the only man who could get megged while an opponent was in fll stride and still recover and get the ball. For his more then usuall amount of mess ups, he did save his a$$ most of the time. I'll give him a pass cause he saved us more times then he screwed us. Emerton.....awesome goal? No opinion on him, but sweet finish. I could go on and on, lots of good and bad things in the match, really a full spectrum of quality was put on display today.

Here's the bottom line: We dropped two vital, crucial, necessary (get the point?) and needed points at the cottage today. We make up the one advantage we had on wednesday, with the game in hand. Win lose or draw wednesday, at the end of the season, these will be two points we will be kicking ourselves in the a$$ over.

[RoversFanUSA]

Over all a little disapointed as i would love to see Rovers keep up there winning ways, but i do have to say that a tie is better then a loss and Fulham are a good team. I think that there were some very silly challanges on our part (like the PK nelson gave up) and that high boot that benny got should have been a yellow at least IMO. iIm glad to see that Warnock has decided to start showing up to the games and i hope that the internatinal break slow start that rovers tend to have has been worked out and we beat Villa.. MGP needs to realine his crosshairs and get to scoring although i no he dosent pick it up till after xmas but its getting close so lets pick it up buddy! Brad is top dogg again in my book and i wondered where the hell santa was but you guys said his flight was late so..dang! Emerton played well and samba seems to want to keep on scoring so i say go on with your bad self! UP ROVERS!!

[Rovermatt]

Two points dropped I'm afraid. We dominated that and somehow contrived to concede two goals to a very poor Fulham side. I was pleased that we hit back so decisively but overall we should be gutted with that result.

[philipl]

I don't think Fulham are that bad. That was the fourth live game I've seen them in this season and:

- they were unfortunate not to hold Liverpool goal-less at Anfield

- they were much better than Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the 0-0 there and gave them more problems than we did in our 0-0 there

- they survived 87 minutes defending a 1-0 lead against an onsong Arsenal at the Emirates and had opportunities to extend that lead

Being without both Benny and Roque meant we were not going to score from the opportunities those two players routinely convert and others do not - that is where the two points disappeared.

That said, Jason Roberts was a revelation and I am sure the watching Sanchez only increased his admiration for him.

On reflection, my anguish is over the pre-meditated assault by Stepanov on Benni which was clearly designed to put him out of the game. Had Rovers been as muscular as Fulham were in that first half, the papers would have been full of Blackeye Rovers again.