Rovers V Everton Preview

[Tim Southampton Rover]

From what I heard on the radio, the officials were right to rule out their goal.

If the goalkeeper is ahead of the play, then the forward will have to be in line with or behind two defenders. If that didn't happen then it was offside.

Without seeing the play though, i'm unsure if thats what happened or not but sounded like the above rule was the rule they used.

[yellowsubmarine]

The referee gave us a valuable point.

[Fife Rover]

The referee gave us a valuable point.

Only have Radio Rovers to go by, but it sounded like an undeserved point. Will wait till I have seen Footie First before the final decision.

[thecomebackid]

Fookin' hell; a clean sheet for the Rovers

[Plastic Head]

everton are an excellent side, we can't complain with the point.

Everton are an abysmal side. No flair no skill just free-kicks and 10 men behind the ball.

As are Liverpool, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Man City, Newcastle, Bolton, Sunderland, Wigan, Aston Villa, Tottenham, West Ham, Derby, Fuham, Reading, Birmingham and errr...Blackburn Rovers.

The Premier League stinks. It's a con.

The entertainment value today was nil. As it has been most games this season.

Disillousioned of Darwen....

[Lathund]

From what I heard on the radio, the officials were right to rule out their goal.

If the goalkeeper is ahead of the play, then the forward will have to be in line with or behind two defenders. If that didn't happen then it was offside.

Without seeing the play though, i'm unsure if thats what happened or not but sounded like the above rule was the rule they used.

Didn't see it from the best of angles, but certainly looked to me as if there were three Rovers defenders between Johnson and the goal, although it was perhaps a close call as two of them were almost in line with him.

It was either given for Johnson being offside when the ball was played to Vaughan (And he was offside by a mile, coming back from an offside position), but as he made no attempt for the ball and wasn't involved then, I don't see why it was given as they usually aren't.

The last posibility would be that Vaughan was deemed to have fouled Friedel when he got the ball, but I don't think that was a foul.

In short, we got rather lucky there. And on a few more occasions. Still, a draw with Everton isn't a bad result. We did look much, much better when Tugay and Benni came on for Derbs and Dunn.

[Fife Rover]

Everton are an abysmal side. No flair no skill just free-kicks and 10 men behind the ball.

As are Liverpool, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Man City, Newcastle, Bolton, Sunderland, Wigan, Aston Villa, Tottenham, West Ham, Derby, Fuham, Reading, Birmingham and errr...Blackburn Rovers.

The Premier League stinks. It's a con.

The entertainment value today was nil. As it has been most games this season.

Disillousioned of Darwen....

I guess you're feeling just bit disappointed PH.

[USABlue]

After arsenal game we hav the chance to pick up a lot of points boltn,newcastle,fulham,wham,wigan,reading and spuds at home!!! then unfortunately its liverpool & united back to back before derby and brum in run in!!!

Oh please not that again, every time we do this we drop tons of points. Needed to win th epoints today. On the good side Gamst is suspended.

[Plastic Head]

I have no idea what was given for their disallowed goal, I'm sure that'll be discussed at length tonight on MOTD.

McCarthy was by far the hardest working player on the pitch for us when he was on, it's just a shame his confidence is low because he would have finished off that chance if in form, instead of falling on his arse when a finger brushed his shirt.

Decent result in the end, and a fair one too. The game itself was pretty exciting, but woefully short on quality.

The goal was disallowed because it was offside. Definately.

[Plastic Head]

I guess you're feeling just bit disappointed PH.

Just fed of up watching rubbish games.

[Torgeir]

Definitely not offside when Vaughan played the ball, Johnson was behind him. Lucky point but we could've snatched three. Good point against a very good team, not to forget the third best away team in the league.

[USABlue]

Disillousioned of Darwen....

Uncaring in USA here, you know I could not even get into watching the game today, I had it on but I paid little attention. I saw a few moves, a few non passes when there should have been passes, Bentley holding on to the ball far too long, not passing when the man is open, Derbyshire out wide on the right with Cruz in space and in need of a partner to play off him, Gamst being as Gamst has been all season long. I saw the booking on Dunn with zero contact, Bentley clattered off the ball from behind without so much as a word said. I reflected on these things and us not buying anyone and just sort of lost all interest.

So I walked into the living room with Chelsea and Pompey on TV and just kept hearing young Defoe's name, thought now THAT would have been a great buy for us and lost more interest.

Nicko, where do you get them clarrot shirts?

[cn_barlow]

Hughes got it completely wrong today. How the hell can he justify starting Derbyshire ahead of McCarthy AND Roberts? The guy did sweet FA all match.

Im so tired of coming away from ewood feeling like ive wasted 2 hours of my life because of these crap performances...No wonder nobody turns up anymore!

How Arteta didnt see red i'll never know! Farce!!

[Exiled_Rover]

Hughes got it completely wrong today. How the hell can he justify starting Derbyshire ahead of McCarthy AND Roberts? The guy did sweet FA all match.

Im so tired of coming away from ewood feeling like ive wasted 2 hours of my life because of these crap performances...No wonder nobody turns up anymore!

How Arteta didnt see red i'll never know! Farce!!

Because he wanted to match Everton across the midfield. It was quite sharp, tactically speaking, or Hughes to do this. McCarthy doesn't have the pace and Roberts lacks the guile to drop back into a five man midfield.

If anything I thought we looked weaker defensively when we moved to the 4-3-3 formation (at least it looked that way, with McCarthy, Santa Cruz and Pedersen playing upfront or periods).

[andrew92]

can anyone get an illegal video to quash this offside argument lol, was there 1 or 2 defenders because friedel was stranded!!!!

[Tim Southampton Rover]

How Arteta didnt see red i'll never know! Farce!!

Same could be said for Dunn. He got a booking early on and then handled the ball in front of the referee and didn't get booked, despite the ref giving the foul against him.

0-0 against a team who apparently were better than us and probably deserved more from the game means it was a good result. The frustrating thing is that we're playing better away from Ewood and we're dropping points here. IF ONLY we won our home games then we'd be in a great position in the league challenging for a top 4 place. We need to make Ewood our fortress again and not give away points each week to away teams.

[RevidgeBlue]

yet again we see what a mockery starting derbyshire ahead of benni is.

Why was that then?

Because Benni missed a complete sitter when one on one refusing to shoot because he was hoping to get brought down from behind?

[Fife Rover]

Hughes got it completely wrong today. How the hell can he justify starting Derbyshire ahead of McCarthy AND Roberts? The guy did sweet FA all match.

Im so tired of coming away from ewood feeling like ive wasted 2 hours of my life because of these crap performances...No wonder nobody turns up anymore!

How Arteta didnt see red i'll never know! Farce!!

Arteta is a cheating barsteward. He was just the same when he played for Rangers. He goes down if the wind blows on him, but has also mastered the art of making it look genuine; far better at it than Ronaldo ever was or will be. He is also very good at dishing it out and conning the ref into thinking it is the other guy's fault. It is players like him that REALLY turn people off the game.

[RevidgeBlue]

Hughes got it completely wrong today. How the hell can he justify starting Derbyshire ahead of McCarthy AND Roberts? The guy did sweet FA all match.

That would be much the same as Bentley and Pedersen then.

Another solid display defensively but the first half was dire and although the second half was better, the entertainment value really is thin on tthe ground at Ewood these days.

[philipl]

We were fortunate as Johnson was marginally offside for the second the ball was played forwards in the first phase. Brad was stranded and there was just one defender between Johnson and the goal.

Shame Steven Reid had an off day. I thought Benni looked good when he came on and RSC looked better playing with Benni there.

Johnson looked superb- definitely the best English-born forward on current showing.

[Dunnfc]

Phil clearly never watched the match then.

Come back and i must say I'm dissapointed, a point was fair because either side could have won.

Everton came for a point and packed the midfield and we had no room or space to get our game going, when vaughan came on and we had benni and tugs on the game was brilliant and enjoyable to watch.

Hope the board watched the game and are appaled at themselves for not geting money available because if wed have had someone different to come on it would have lift the team and crowd and possably helped us to get a better result.

We looked tired and stale and the players heads were all down. My mom was Ooijer and for god sake i hope gamst is dropped next week because the guy is just plain poo. we only keep playing him because we think he's got a great shot and left foot. when both are wrong because the boy band wannabe is just a clown.

Friedel- Calm, played brilliant when called upon. 6

Emerton- Brillinat just brilliant his non stop running and chop on Arteta was brilliant. 8

Khizanishvili- Solid and composed, had Johnson in his pocket. Why does he never smile? 7

Ooijer- You can tell he is a dutch internacional because he ozzes class, so calm on the ball. 8

Warnock- Mixture of being frightend to go forward and some great tackling. 6

Bentley- Hughes aught to be shot if he thinks bents is a centre mid as he is clearly a winger with his crossing ability. 6

Dunn- Chased the ball like a puppy, tried hard wasent good enough. 5

Reid- Kept everything simple but struggled to run with the ball as we had no space. 6

Gamst- [rude word deleted] poo, disgrace, dosent deserve to wear the shirt, the best thing he did all day was get hit in the face with the ball.2

Derbyshire- Annoynimous shambolic, not a winger, no effort. 4

Santa Cruz- Gave the ball away too many times, wasted a great chance, worked hard though but had no service. 5

[Collie]

Alright lads, Everton fan here (I did the preview for the game at Goodison with Cocker). Just thought I'd comment on some of the things I've read on here, don't slaughter me too much!

The disallowed goal - it was definitely disallowed for offside, but it was an appaling decision. The only point that anyone was offside was at the start of the move when AJ was coming back from an offside position, and as per my understanding of the rules, that can't have been the reason for it being disallowed as he got himself back onside without interfering with play. It was not a foul on Friedel by Vaughan, and then when Vaughan played the ball to AJ, there were 3 defenders in between AJ and the goal. In any case, Vaughan's pass was backwards so it couldn't have been offside anyway.....

As for Arteta, well I'll certainly admit that he was a bit lucky because his reaction to Pedersen's tackle was stupid, and a less sensible ref would have sent him off for it. What I would say about that incident though is that Pedersen's tackle was a bit of a shocker - studs up and straight on to Arteta's shins. A nasty and potentially dangerous tackle if ever there was one. Arteta does go down quite easily, but he kind of earns the free kicks he gets in as much as he gets himself in to positions where people have to foul him. He doesn't go down when he hasn't been touched, I can assure you of that, although he does go down after only slight contact.

Overall, I'm very dissapointed that we didn't take 3 points away from Ewood today, and I feel we were pretty hard done by. I did think it was a good game though, played between 2 decent teams who both wanted to play the game properly. Despite being upset with the result I certainly don't have anything against Rovers and wish you all the best for the rest of the season. Hopefully we'll both be playing in Europe next year one way or another.

[brfcshabba]

Johnson looked superb- definitely the best English-born forward on current showing.

Pity he spends most of the time on his backside

I thought it was quite funny to see the Everton fan run to celebrate only to be disappointed

[Collie]

Phil clearly never watched the match then.

Come back and i must say I'm dissapointed, a point was fair because either side could have won.

Everton came for a point and packed the midfield and we had no room or space to get our game going, when vaughan came on and we had benni and tugs on the game was brilliant and enjoyable to watch.

Hope the board watched the game and are appaled at themselves for not geting money available because if wed have had someone different to come on it would have lift the team and crowd and possably helped us to get a better result.

We looked tired and stale and the players heads were all down. My mom was Ooijer and for god sake i hope gamst is dropped next week because the guy is just plain poo. we only keep playing him because we think he's got a great shot and left foot. when both are wrong because the boy band wannabe is just a clown.

Friedel- Calm, played brilliant when called upon. 6

Emerton- Brillinat just brilliant his non stop running and chop on Arteta was brilliant. 8

Khizanishvili- Solid and composed, had Johnson in his pocket. Why does he never smile? 7

Ooijer- You can tell he is a dutch internacional because he ozzes class, so calm on the ball. 8

Warnock- Mixture of being frightend to go forward and some great tackling. 6

Bentley- Hughes aught to be shot if he thinks bents is a centre mid as he is clearly a winger with his crossing ability. 6

Dunn- Chased the ball like a puppy, tried hard wasent good enough. 5

Reid- Kept everything simple but struggled to run with the ball as we had no space. 6

Gamst- [rude word deleted] poo, disgrace, dosent deserve to wear the shirt, the best thing he did all day was get hit in the face with the ball.2

Derbyshire- Annoynimous shambolic, not a winger, no effort. 4

Santa Cruz- Gave the ball away too many times, wasted a great chance, worked hard though but had no service. 5

Everton did not play for a draw - we were unfortunate not to win that and had the better chances throughout. Our midfield didn't give you space and shut you down, but that was nothing to do with us not going for it.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Derbyshire- Annoynimous shambolic, not a winger

I agree, and i am still puzzled why he plays him there. His best position by far is as a striker.

I just hope that those who are slating Derbs realise this...