Blackburn Rovers Vs. Newcastle United

[rog of the rovers]

4 wins in 4 previews for me! WOO HOO. Thought Ooijer and Warnock were outstanding. David Dunn must be dropped for the next game!

[modes98]

David Dunn must be dropped for the next game!

Why? Dunny played well today. Made a few good bursts into the box, considering he is playing out of position as well. With Bentley suspended he will be a must pick unless Hughes thinks Reidy is ready for a start and he can trust MGP again.

[Blueboy Downunder]

i thought stephen warnock was outstanding today. defensively he was brilliant with some awesome tackles and going forward he gave support down that left flank too. chris samba looked like he was in a flap at times today and this was not one of his better games. dunny , even though playing out of position i still liked what he gave us today....attacking the fullback and getting him on the back foot, which is something that mgp does not do. i voted for warnock as my man of the match, but in thinking about it again i reckon roque was just by far and away the best rovers player out there.

a very good win for us and we showed some character to get back into the game, well done lads.

[Mozzer]

i totally blame Hughes. He's messing up with selection like Souness did.

so you was saying you blame hughes??

its funny , when we was 1-0 you blame mark hughes, and now we have won you havent posted since it..

[Rover Down Under]

The ref was poor... people are saying he had a good game... but he gave us NOTHING! gave them everything! I'm suprised we got the freekick for Dave's first... and as someone said above, he WASNT going to give anything for the bad challenge on Roque when he got his second.

Well that's a sad fact of being a Rovers fan nowadays - we think the ref has a good game when he doesn't give ridiculous penalties and undeserved red cards or buckets of yellows against us!

[rebelmswar]

Well that's a sad fact of being a Rovers fan nowadays - we think the ref has a good game when he doesn't give ridiculous penalties and undeserved red cards or buckets of yellows against us!

I agree, we should just take it as canon that the ref rule book says "Down with Blackburn". I propose that we no longer get angry at flagrant favoritism during matches, as we will live much longer and have far fewer grey hairs.

[Eddie]

Dunn played well, but he isn't a left midfielder. Even when MGP is out of form he offers more to us on the left than Dunn does. I would like to see Dunn moved into the middle and MGP return to the starting line-up. Dunn drifts into the centre too often and it means that we often don't have an option on the left, it really breaks up our play. MGP isn't playing very well right now, but he is always there and we can pass the ball across the midfield without any pause. We were lucky today. Once again we were horrible at the back, it is very worrying to see just how sloppy we are at times. We need to cut out the soft goals and easy chances.

[Wolves_Rover]

Today I was able to combine my two favourite things, football and shopping at the same time. For those of you who don't know, it was "Ladies Day" in the Red Rose Suite, and they had clothes, handbags and jewellery for sale- as well as beauty treatments available!!! If they'd had shoes it would have been PERFECT. (Although spending more than my season ticket cost on 2 dresses wasn't in the plan)

What???

All in all a good result which we have been due.

[USABlue]

Not our best that's for sure. Oh my that defence, it is scary we look so shaky and nervous. We have a hard time with balls over the top to the right side of the Penalty area. That said I thought he second half was cracking entertainment, end to end stuff and a bit of ruff stuff here and there.

I too thought the ref was a tad too lenient on the Geordies but we got away with an Emerton handball. We need to get more solid at the back. Missed the second but he first was a cracker and Toogs goal was well taken, calm gathered the ball then picked his spot and put it in.

What to say about Benni, fancy stuff at the wrong time, right before he came off he played a ball to Rocky which was too early, Benni had bags of room and should have ran with the ball abit. All's well that end well, JR did well when he came on I thought.

[Paul]

I always enjoy Newcastle coming to town. For some strange reason they have the air of a big club around them, in reality the Magpies are 50 years of also rans but it still lends itself to being a good matchday. Yesterdays Newcastle are the worst side I have seen in the black and white shirts. If Allardyce carries on like this I cannot see him surviving beyond Christmas. They have decent players, as shown in spells in the second half when the ball was on the ground. The long ball style Allardyce has introduced is not only ugly it doesn't work with this team and I can't see the Geordie fans putting up with it for much longer. Another 2 or 3 defeats should see Big Sam collecting a cheque. Bolton were ugly, terrible to watch but it was effective, Newcastle have the same characteristics but it doesn't get them results.

The first half was awful yesterday, no football at all from Newcastle and while Rovers tried to play we struggled against their 90 mph close 'em down and thump it long tactics. Second half was altogether different and it was probably good the Magpies scored first. In truth we should have had the game sewn up at half time with the misses by Roque and Bentley so 2-1 until the closing minutes gave us an excitng and entertaining second 45.

I thought Roberts had a very good game and we looked much better, perhaps safer, with him up front. On yesterday's showing I would give him the start ahead of Benni. McCarthy may be a class act but I'm still not certain, he loses the ball far too often for my liking. Warnock was again excellent, along with Ooijer but Emerton and Samba seemed unsure of themsleves and defensively we didn't look secure. Reid played some good balls but it was clear our new strikers aren't used to what he is likely to do, that will come ....hopefully! I just can't decide about Tugay, was he good, bad, indifferent or stuggling? Don't know. Bentley was clearly MOTM.

Good afternoon spolit by the pillock who ripped oof my wing mirror of in the car park. It's one of those fold-in ones and had clearly been levered off in an act of pure vandalism. Odds are you're a Rover or a Newcastle fan - football and society doesn't need ignorant idiots like you. A plague on your Christmas.

[rover6]

Great result, in fact, it could hardly get much better:

We beat Newcastle, heaping pressure on Allardyce, score three tremendous goals and Reid is back playing for Rovers, which will hopefully mean the demotion of a certain South African who seems not to get mentioned by most when he plays with ample mediocrity.

I agree that neither Dunn nor Bentley should be playing on the left. Hughes must consider Treacy, who is in the form of his life, if he wants to continue to leave Gamst out.

[Paul Mellelieu]

There were a number of callers knocking the Axe on Radio Rovers last night after the game. So Gerald dug up the stats, which told us that when Mokoena plays we have a 75% win rate compared to 30% when he doesn't....

When did you last see Treacy play Rover6?

[budha]

One thing I did notice today was that Samba NEVER marks goal side at free kicks. Was Carew his man on Wednesday and Martins his man today? Needs to be corrected ASAP.

In the Carew's goal it was Benni who was left standing when Carew surged towards the goal and the ball. Didn't quite catch who was supposed to be marking Martins yesterday, but my guess is that it was either of the South Africans.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Let's hope we can kick off another good run in december after yesterdays result.

November ended as a bit of a mare but we put the 4-0 defeat behind us in the perfect way....infact the opposite way....we played poo and we won whereas before we played well and were poo!

With West Ham next up at Ewood, we have a team who aren't the best away from home so we should be looking to get maximum points from that game.

Hopefully we get a decent draw in the FA Cup and December will be a very good month for us...

[Wolverine]

Roberts made a huge difference for Rovers yesterday. I don't doubt Benni's contribution but if he had made a couple of obvious runs yesterday, he could have at least troubled Given. Yesterday he laid off some good balls to create chances but never seemed to be in the right place when it counted. Roberts came on and took some of the holding workload off Roque which visibly paid off. A very good substitution in my opinion.

He looked strong and hungry and can be credited for our second goal in that he was strong enough to get the ball to Roque under heavy pressure, who in turn maaged to get it to Bents for his cracking goal.

[thenodrog]

Why so many voting for Bentley for MoM? Might sound churlish after his two sublime strikes but without those he had a poor day. I know that he missed a sitter but MoM imo was RSC who won everything played up to him but who was deserted by Macarthy who played far too deep. Roberts (MoM=) came on and played closer top RSC and the match was altered dramatically. By general concensus the Mags are poorest in defence so why the hell we allowed Macarthy to play so deep and play into Sams hands astounds me.

Like em or not but Smith, Martins and Viduka are a handful for any defence yet our tactics allowed them far too much of the ball in our last third.

[Eddie]

I agree with you that Bentley's all-round game wasn't brilliant yesterday, but those were two fantastic goals that won us the game and for that reason he has to be man of the match. Santa Cruz once again played well, although he had two very good chances to score and missed them both. There were a few good performances yesterday, but Bentley has to get it for me as he won us the match.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Yet another amazing refereeing display - only covered up by the fact we won.

Please could somebody answer me :-

1. When a player is clearly pushed in the back (i.e. Dunn in 2nd half) - why is it not a penalty ? Especially when two minutes later a Newcastle player was fouled in a similar way and a free kick was awarded.

2. Why was Bentley booked - and yet not the Newcastle player who impeeded Santa on the way to Bentley scoring his 2nd ?

3. Why did he give so many free kicks to Newcastle - but not to Rovers for similar offences.

I can't make my mind up whether it is just that Premiership referees are just incompetent and weak willed - or just plain biased towards the big clubs.

Suggestion for a new song - "Santa Cruz is coming to town"

[den]

Yet another amazing refereeing display - only covered up by the fact we won.

Please could somebody answer me :-

1. When a player is clearly pushed in the back (i.e. Dunn in 2nd half) - why is it not a penalty ? Especially when two minutes later a Newcastle player was fouled in a similar way and a free kick was awarded.

2. Why was Bentley booked - and yet not the Newcastle player who impeeded Santa on the way to Bentley scoring his 2nd ?

3. Why did he give so many free kicks to Newcastle - but not to Rovers for similar offences.

I can't make my mind up whether it is just that Premiership referees are just incompetent and weak willed - or just plain biased towards the big clubs.

Suggestion for a new song - "Santa Cruz is coming to town"

I honestly get the impression that Referees are simply not interested, when they come to Ewood. They want to be somewhere else, mainly OT or any of the other big clubs. That ref yesterday certainly wasn't interested in the first half. Given could have taken 10 minutes to take a goal kick, the ref didn't care. That wouldn't have happened at Chelsea. As Baz said, injuries needing treatment and time wasting and he added 2 mins. He didn't want to be there.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Why so many voting for Bentley for MoM? Might sound churlish after his two sublime strikes but without those he had a poor day. I know that he missed a sitter but MoM imo was RSC who won everything played up to him but who was deserted by Macarthy who played far too deep. Roberts (MoM=) came on and played closer top RSC and the match was altered dramatically. By general concensus the Mags are poorest in defence so why the hell we allowed Macarthy to play so deep and play into Sams hands astounds me.

Like em or not but Smith, Martins and Viduka are a handful for any defence yet our tactics allowed them far too much of the ball in our last third.

Christ entirely agree Theno - except I would'nt put it as a poor day due to his goals , however, he had a poor first half and only seem to contribute after he scored the freekick (which I didn't want him to take!! )

As for the game - well we where mugged on Wednesday but did a bit of our own pick-pocketing yesterday - we didn't play well but considering the tonkings they have had, the barcodes caused us alot of problems (all beit alot down to our own failings) and can count them themselves unlucky to have lost really.

The Ref - I actually considerd this ref to be one of the decent refs in the game, however thought he was poor without being really controversial - consistently same decisions went against us yet totally ignored for the barcodes, how many fouls does it take for Smith to be booked.

MOM - between Rocky and OOjer for me possibly with OOjer just shading it as he made some timely interceptions and bailed the other 3 defenders out a few times, although Warnock had a decent game a thought Bert was absolutely awful.

MGP - As somebody has already said - what the hell has happened to him - he looks completely bereft of any idea of the game and doesn't look interested - put us in some difficult situations with his lack of want yesterday and certainly did not do himself any favours.

Special mention for Roberts - thought he was excellent when he came on, and if as Jan has said re the stitches and McCarthy is suffering with the injury he should certainly be staring ahead of Benni, however IMO he should be starting anyway as we seem far more dangerous with him up front and as somebody has posted McCarthy is far too deep and trying far too many fancy touches for my liking.

Again, though we ned to cut out the mistakes , why can't we just clear a ball downfield instead of trying to dribble out including across our own box - what was all that about with Emerton?

[Plastic Head]

Yet another amazing refereeing display - only covered up by the fact we won.

Please could somebody answer me :-

1. When a player is clearly pushed in the back (i.e. Dunn in 2nd half) - why is it not a penalty ? Especially when two minutes later a Newcastle player was fouled in a similar way and a free kick was awarded.

2. Why was Bentley booked - and yet not the Newcastle player who impeeded Santa on the way to Bentley scoring his 2nd ?

3. Why did he give so many free kicks to Newcastle - but not to Rovers for similar offences.

I can't make my mind up whether it is just that Premiership referees are just incompetent and weak willed - or just plain biased towards the big clubs.

Suggestion for a new song - "Santa Cruz is coming to town"

1. I don't think it was a pen although it did look like one from the Riverside.

2. Bents said in his post-match that he "left his foot in" on Barton and deserved the yellow (but also said most of his other yellows were nonsense)

3. Kinda agree, certainly wondered why no yellow was given for the foul on Santa that we scored our first from.

And of course ref's are biased toward "big clubs". In Spain and Italy this is just taken as a given.

[Uddersfelt Blue]

Why so many voting for Bentley for MoM? Might sound churlish after his two sublime strikes but without those he had a poor day. I know that he missed a sitter but MoM imo was RSC who won everything played up to him but who was deserted by Macarthy who played far too deep. Roberts (MoM=) came on and played closer top RSC and the match was altered dramatically. By general concensus the Mags are poorest in defence so why the hell we allowed Macarthy to play so deep and play into Sams hands astounds me.

Like em or not but Smith, Martins and Viduka are a handful for any defence yet our tactics allowed them far too much of the ball in our last third.

Seems that if you score goals you are a hero regardless of how everyone else plays. Just shows how people's minds work.

Definitely a choice between Santa Cruz and Oojer who were both magnificent in their respective roles.

[Plastic Head]

Mccarthy clearly has issues on his mind and I can see him facing a spell on the sidelines if he continues to give the ball away. What is more annoying is the fact that some of his play is simply graceful, the first half RSC chance is evidence of that.

Benni was driving out of the car park behind the Darwen End in his Black Bentley as I left from the Riverside.

(and no before you say this wasn't at 4.30 I stayed to the end for once......)

[SouthAussieRover]

Seems that if you score goals you are a hero regardless of how everyone else plays. Just shows how people's minds work.

Definitely a choice between Santa Cruz and Oojer who were both magnificent in their respective roles.

Funny how goals win matches but I know what you are saying.

[den]

The best part of yesterdays game? The return chant of "where did Shearer win the league" and "walking in a Shearer wonderland" from the BBE, in response to a tired "Shearer, Shearer, Shearer" chant from the Geordies.

Shut them up completely, that did! Superb.