Wigan Preview

[RibbleValleyRover]

How did we play when we went down to 10 men? I'd have guessed Reid at RB, Ooijer moving into the centre and playing a sort of diamond midfield with one of thr strikers playing a bit deeper?

Can anyone confirm or correct?

Not sure how we changed the formation around, i know we are playing 3 in midfield. Reidy likely was moved to the right back, havent seen much of Reidy today.

[Rovers in America]

How did we play when we went down to 10 men? I'd have guessed Reid at RB, Ooijer moving into the centre and playing a sort of diamond midfield with one of thr strikers playing a bit deeper?

Can anyone confirm or correct?

Reid did go to RB with Ooijer moving central.

Played a 4-3-2 with Roque seemingly dropping back a bit more, but not much more so than normal.

[BuckyRover]

Bentley should have been sent off then.

Deliberate handball (after being previously booked for diving).

The ref let him off.....

[RibbleValleyRover]

Roque off, Benni on

Well played Roque

Full time:

Bolton 0-0 Man City.

Villa 0-1 Sunderland

Spurs 2-0 Pompey

Great results today.

[DudeAbides]

Well done boys

[Rovers in America]

A tight race now.

6th Pompey on 50 points

7th Aston Villa, Man City, and Rovers at 49 points.

6 points back of Everton for the 5th spot with their game to be played tomorrow vs West Ham.

[Tango]

Good result (especially taking into account Man City and Villa), cracking performance and a thoroughly entertaining game. Santa Cruz and Bentley will probably take the plaudits but I thought Warnock was outstanding today, never gave Valencia a kick.

Oh, and if Marlon King's a Premiership striker, I'm Shirley Bassey.

[American Rover12]

Great game today. RSC was class, but Bents MoM for me. I can't really knock anyone for having a bad game, though I will say that Zurab gave up some silly fouls. All said though, great outing.(minus the red card)

[RibbleValleyRover]

Warnock was very good as were Ooijer and Zurab. Apart from the pen our defense was very solid today.

[Mr. E]

Finally we cna say we played a whole game of football, and despite the referee we got a good result.

For those looking at the points though...to get 6th I'm afraid we're not only going to have win all against the bottom teams, but also we need to get something from Pool or United.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Warnock should be in the England squad.

[krislu]

Best game we have played in a very long time even if Samba did his best to make us lose once again....

[yellowsubmarine]

What a win! Playing with ease despite 10 men. Wigan are just pure sh!te.

[philipl]

Very nice football- we ouitclassed Wigan when it was 10 v 11. RSC and Roberrts took their goals well and it was nice to see the ball being passed around well.

Bentley superb but MGP had an excellent game as well. Only Samba was poor- the rest were all on form.

Looking grim for Bolton and Fulham now as the bottom clubs just above them mostly got results.

[LeChuck]

Samba should have an extended spell on the sidelines after today, he really needs to sort his head out and stop making these rash decisions. Heskey did con the referee slightly, but you can understand it being given with Samba's arms all over his back. Needless as well in my opinion, if it's Heskey vs Friedel I'd back Brad every time, Heskey obviously didn't fancy his chances of shooting either and Samba gave him an easy way out.

Apart from that we were great. Bentley just oozes class on the ball, there will probably be a lot of clubs looking at him at the moment. Warnock was great as well, I love how his instinct is the charge forward with the ball after he's made a tackle.

[Fife Rover]

I really dont care if I get castigated by other fans on here but a very large number of errors resulting in goals against this year have come from Samba. If the reports of a bust up during half-time against Wham are anything to go by, I'm not the only one that's getting ticked off by it.

Something needs to be done about his attitude and if that involves dropping him then so be it.

You won't get castigated by me Esulx. I agree with you entirley. It is time to give Samba some "resting time". I have no idea why a formerly reliable and safe defender suddenly loses it altogether, but that is what seems to have happened in Samba's case.

This loss of form and giving stupid fouls away in dangerous areas is not just something that has happened in the last few matches either. It has now been happening since the beginning of November, may be something to do with his having to play without his partner and mentor the Admiral. It is down to MH to sort it out, but in my opinion it has already gone on too long and has cost us dearly. And before anyone gets round to accusing me of having an unfair bias against Samba, I refute that and any ideas along those lines. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was a fervent admirer of Samba and his defensive skills and pace, but for whatever reason ALL that seems to have quite suddenly deserted him, and we as a team can no longer afford to carry him. Mark needs to investigate fully and get it sorted quickly.

[Rovermatt]

Good result, long overdue. It's nice to see Santa Cruz finally breaking his long duck at home.

[LeChuck]

It's nice to see Santa Cruz finally breaking his long duck at home.

The English language is very peculiar at times, I wonder how that would get translated.

[Al]

Samba should have an extended spell on the sidelines after today, he really needs to sort his head out and stop making these rash decisions. Heskey did con the referee slightly, but you can understand it being given with Samba's arms all over his back. Needless as well in my opinion, if it's Heskey vs Friedel I'd back Brad every time, Heskey obviously didn't fancy his chances of shooting either and Samba gave him an easy way out.

Apart from that we were great. Bentley just oozes class on the ball, there will probably be a lot of clubs looking at him at the moment. Warnock was great as well, I love how his instinct is the charge forward with the ball after he's made a tackle.

Absolutely correct. Brad was advancing fast and looking huge and Heskey was running full pelt with only minimal control of the ball. I would have backed Brad to save 9 times out of 10.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Why the hell couldn't we perform like that against Fulham?

Good,solid performance and Santa leading the line well.....nice to see him get two at Ewood!.Roberts gave a good account of himself and also took his goal well,encouraging now for a real push to the seasons end.

Excellent crowd today of 23,541...more than I was expecting on a horrible day.

P.S.

Anyone at the game today notice a group of about 6,very animated Asian men 'stood' watching the game from Jack Walkers personal suite over the tunnel?

Mmmmmmmmmm I wonder................

[cletus]

This game had it all!......

player stretchered off

2 players sent off

4 goals

1 pen

1 blatant dis-allowed pen

Player scoring against old team

Rocky double

Bentley hitting woodwork

a crap biassed ref

snow

sun

singing

an atnosphere!!!

& a decent performance at home.....for a change

[RibbleValleyRover]

Anyone at the game today notice a group of about 6,very animated Asian men 'stood' watching the game from Jack Walkers personal suite over the tunnel?

Mmmmmmmmmm I wonder................

Hmmm a question to be posed to Nicko methinks.

[RevidgeBlue]

Samba should have an extended spell on the sidelines after today, he really needs to sort his head out and stop making these rash decisions. Heskey did con the referee slightly, but you can understand it being given with Samba's arms all over his back. Needless as well in my opinion, if it's Heskey vs Friedel I'd back Brad every time, Heskey obviously didn't fancy his chances of shooting either and Samba gave him an easy way out.

Completely disagree with that, the goal was due to a suicidal header by Ooijer leaving Samba with no realistic chance of winning the ball.

Maybe in the cold light of day Samba shouldn't have made any sort of challenge and gambled on Brad making a save but from where I was sat the contact looked fairly minimal.

Under the rules as they stand, We can't have any complaints about the red card though. Ooijer owes Samba a huge apology.

[RevidgeBlue]

You won't get castigated by me Esulx. I agree with you entirley. It is time to give Samba some "resting time". I have no idea why a formerly reliable and safe defender suddenly loses it altogether, but that is what seems to have happened in Samba's case.

This loss of form and giving stupid fouls away in dangerous areas is not just something that has happened in the last few matches either. It has now been happening since the beginning of November, may be something to do with his having to play without his partner and mentor the Admiral. It is down to MH to sort it out, but in my opinion it has already gone on too long and has cost us dearly. And before anyone gets round to accusing me of having an unfair bias against Samba, I refute that and any ideas along those lines. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was a fervent admirer of Samba and his defensive skills and pace, but for whatever reason ALL that seems to have quite suddenly deserted him, and we as a team can no longer afford to carry him. Mark needs to investigate fully and get it sorted quickly.

How on earth can you come out with an opinion like that without even having been to the game?

[jrabrfc]

Just got feeling back in my fingers after a chilly afternoon at Ewwod!

Funny how we need to go down to 10 men to show some passion and commitment - that was the best performance at home for some time. Wigan were very poor - you couldn't really tell we were down to 10 men, until they did then our class shone through.

thought Bentley was excellent today, some of his long passes were sublime and his long shots in the first half caused all sorts of problems for Kirkland.

Roberts had a great game, his pace was a real asset today against the Wigan defence and we actually looked solid at the back with Reid at RB and Ooijer and Zurab at CH. Warnock had another excellent game, he really is a consistant performer.

Good atmosphere today too - I think the fact we were up against it and the players showed a bit of passion really got the fans behind them. Wigan didn't make much noise, even though they brought their entire town with them.

Added to a great set of results today for the Rovers, and Burnley getting turned over, the last few games of the season are to be looked forward to now. There's something to play for again.

Now for a hot toddy to warm myself up!