Wigan Preview

[Jan]

Hs Samba been sent off before? I seem to recall that that increased Nelsen's ban when he was sent off for a second time.

[Eddie]

Muffing fantastic win.

[Pinch]

Good to see that people have cooled off a little on Samba. Players have poor spells. Samba has seen his form dip and he has also been unlucky in my book. Mistakes by a centre back are often noticeable, and we've seen it this year from Nelson and last year from Ooijer and Kish. Especially Ooijer...he looked rubbish at the start of his Rovers career, but has shown his quality since then. Samba will do the same.

[Esulx]

I was originally gonna start this message with "I cant believe" but in truth I can...

However, why was Blackburn vs Wigan not Sky Sports' "Game of the Day"?

4 goals and 2 sending offs. And what game do they pick... Newcastle's 2-0 not very exciting game against Fulham... just because it was KK's first win since his return.

Ar5eholes!!!

[Guest fernhurstblue]

just watched the match on football first and gerald jackson (is it him?) sounded like a right tit at the end ..... apart from him and the drummer, along with 'the apprentice' reject things aren't that bad

[Fife Rover]

Right here we are again folks. I have now watched my 50+ minutes that Sky dishes out as Footie First, and which of course means that I have next to no right to comment on the quality of the match or the players in comparison to those that actually passed through the turnstiles and sat in the BBE or wherever. But whether or not I am entitled to comment I am going to anyway, and those who don't like it can just put-up with it.

Firstly the sending off of Samba: I have watched the incident from all the angles that Sky chose to show and listened to the commentators remarks as well. My conclusion is that Samba was unlucky in as much as there is no doubt in my mind that Heskey played for a penalty. He went down VERY easily. Samba DID lay hands on his shoulders, but you could see quite clearly that he applied very little pressure, and most certainly not enough to cause a man mountain like Heskey to go down like he had been shot. But as the commentators both agreed, he did lay hands on in the area and the player did go down, so by the letter of the law it is a pen and the ref has no other choice. Whilst this may be so by the letter of the law, I would argue that ref's who take Mr. Dean's line are just covering their own backsides, and they ought to show a bit more honesty and courage. They know fine well that the attacking player is going to "go to ground" or "win" a penalty in these circumstances and they should be showing a lot more integrity by standing up for what is right rather than taking the line of least resistance and in fact the cowards way out. But then again perhaps the fault is not primarily with the referees. What backing do the ref's get from the FA if they cause controversy by being true to their principles? Not very much these days!

I would just love to have seen how one of the old time ref's like Arthur Ellis would have dealt with that situation and all the others like it. Those of you that are old enough to remember will know exactly what I mean.

So, in this case, Samba was a victim of modern day dishonesty and corrupt practices, but none of that will make any difference either to the outcome should Rovers choose to appeal, or to the continuation of these now ingrained habits. In fact it would not surprise me one bit if I was to discover that players are actually coached into these disgusting and dishonest acts, on the grounds of "if you can't beat them, join them" A truly modern and appalling philosophy.

As for the rest of the match; I thought that Rovers played much better as a team than they have done for at least 3 months or so. I thought Bentley was our MoM, but virtually everybody put in a good shift without anybody being more outstanding than anybody else. All were good.

None of the above changes my opinion that Samba should be rested for a while, and this is based on what he has performed like in the last 4 months or so, not on today's display as he was hardly on the pitch long enough to form an opinion today.

[Ben-2000]

just watched the match on football first and gerald jackson (is it him?) sounded like a right tit at the end ..... apart from him and the drummer, along with 'the apprentice' reject things aren't that bad

Ha ha - was quite funny that everyone including the linesman thought the game was over... the ref only played about 10 seconds afterwards though!

Great win for Rovers... and some decent performances... improved atmosphere too for parts of the game. Europe is in sight again especially with other results going our way

[RevidgeBlue]

Also I did not claim to be basing my opinion on being present at the ground today, and I resent the implication that anyone who is not actually sitting in a seat at Ewood Park is entitled to an opinion. That is downright insulting to the many, many supporters on this site and elswhere that for a myriad of reasons are not able to attend every match at Ewood. How DARE you (Revidge Blue) make such insinuations?

Don't be such an arse, you clearly posted your opinion on Samba yesterday before you had seen any of the highlights of today's game.

I obviously have no problem whatsoever with anyone who has not been to the ground passing an opinion, howevever I stand by my original view that your initial character assassination of Samba was well over the top without having seen what actually happened.

The incident did happen in front of me and imo Samba didn't do a great deal wrong. Yes, with the benefit of hindsight he should not maybe have made any challenge at all, but he has to make a split second decision and was just trying to put the striker off. On another day the striker might not have gone down and Samba's actions might have been enough to unsettle the striker sufficiently.

A point you seem to be more or less conceding having climbed off your high horse long enough to view the highlights on your all singing and dancing DVD player.

[RevidgeBlue]

Philip, I simply couldn't imagine our Fife viewing illegal channels. No way. His and my generation rise above those things.

Very good den.

I have to inform you though there's some poor sod that looks exactly like you frequenting the local hostelries whenever such illegal feeds are on, besmirching your hitherto unblemished reputation!

[AggyBlue]

Samba DID lay hands on his shoulders, but you could see quite clearly that he applied very little pressure, and most certainly not enough to cause a man mountain like Heskey to go down like he had been shot. But as the commentators both agreed, he did lay hands on in the area and the player did go down, so by the letter of the law it is a pen and the ref has no other choice.

In all my 40 odd years of playing and watching football I've never considered touching another player with your hand as a foul.

Has this always been the case? If not, when were the rules changed?

On the match, The boys are back. Great performance.

Bentley played like an England international, let's hope he doesn't now have his four 'off' games.

[den]

Very good den.

I have to inform you though there's some poor sod that looks exactly like you frequenting the local hostelries whenever such illegal feeds are on, besmirching your hitherto unblemished reputation!

What do you mean - some poor sod who looks exactly like me?

That's not very nice Mr revidge. cheeky git.

[Paul]

Firstly the sending off of Samba: I have watched the incident from all the angles that Sky chose to show and listened to the commentators remarks as well. My conclusion is that Samba was unlucky in as much as there is no doubt in my mind that Heskey played for a penalty. He went down VERY easily. Samba DID lay hands on his shoulders, but you could see quite clearly that he applied very little pressure, and most certainly not enough to cause a man mountain like Heskey to go down like he had been shot. But as the commentators both agreed, he did lay hands on in the area and the player did go down, so by the letter of the law it is a pen and the ref has no other choice. Whilst this may be so by the letter of the law, I would argue that ref's who take Mr. Dean's line are just covering their own backsides, and they ought to show a bit more honesty and courage. They know fine well that the attacking player is going to "go to ground" or "win" a penalty in these circumstances and they should be showing a lot more integrity by standing up for what is right rather than taking the line of least resistance and in fact the cowards way out. But then again perhaps the fault is not primarily with the referees. What backing do the ref's get from the FA if they cause controversy by being true to their principles? Not very much these days

That's all very well Fife, I appreciate what you're saying, however most Rovers fans would have been furious if the penalty had not been given if we were the attacking team. Second point would be, as only Revidge Blue seems to have observed, much of the blame should rest with Ooijer for his excellent backward flick which put Heskey clean through on goal. Once Heskey was through with Samba very tight on him a penalty was always of the cards plus he was through on goal so the red was a certainty.

[Roost]

There are lots of naughty channels out there- perhaps he has seen every minute of every game the same way I have; about 25% legally, the rest naughtily.

I hesitate to say live as the rest of the chatroom is forever amused by my celebrating goals and bemoaning reverses anything up to 5 minutes after they do.

Back to the game and the Guardian has this to say:

Man of the match: David Bentley

Despite the goal power of Santa Cruz young David Bentley must earn the award for prising open the Wigan defence with foraging runs and immaculate service from the wings. It is ludicrous to consider him making way for David Beckham in the England side.

Amen to that!

Is that lazy journalism, because this is word for word as in the Observer report...............

[philipl]

The Observer is the Guardian's Sunday paper but it uses the Guardian web-site. So it is one and the same thing and not, on this occasion, lazy journalism.

[John]

Wigan perhaps gave us too much space, but I really liked the way we started the game yesterday. We played with a high tempo and we quite aggressive in our play. The pace of our passing was fast and everyone was keen to get involved.

Not seen it enough at home this season, for whatever reason.

[philipl]

The reason for the space was the Wigan defenders were keeping extremely tight to our front men.

That was how Roberts managed to turn his man in a near repeat of Ashton's goal against Samba last week. It was huge credit to Roque's skill and movement that he kept shaking his guys off and got the two goals and Wigan played right into Bentley's strengths as he is brilliant at working tight spaces but for the most part it nullified Jason.

However, it did create that extra space in the central third. MGP in particular benefitted from being able to receive the ball whilst moving forwards and Rovers were able to knock it around relatively unchallenged much further up the field than most clubs allow us to do in the Prem.

[thenodrog]

Right here we are again folks. I have now watched my 50+ minutes that Sky dishes out as Footie First, and which of course means that I have next to no right to comment on the quality of the match or the players in comparison to those that actually passed through the turnstiles and sat in the BBE or wherever. But whether or not I am entitled to comment I am going to anyway, and those who don't like it can just put-up with it.

Firstly the sending off of Samba: I have watched the incident from all the angles that Sky chose to show and listened to the commentators remarks as well. My conclusion is that Samba was unlucky in as much as there is no doubt in my mind that Heskey played for a penalty. He went down VERY easily. Samba DID lay hands on his shoulders, but you could see quite clearly that he applied very little pressure, and most certainly not enough to cause a man mountain like Heskey to go down like he had been shot. But as the commentators both agreed, he did lay hands on in the area and the player did go down, so by the letter of the law it is a pen and the ref has no other choice. Whilst this may be so by the letter of the law, I would argue that ref's who take Mr. Dean's line are just covering their own backsides, and they ought to show a bit more honesty and courage. They know fine well that the attacking player is going to "go to ground" or "win" a penalty in these circumstances and they should be showing a lot more integrity by standing up for what is right rather than taking the line of least resistance and in fact the cowards way out. But then again perhaps the fault is not primarily with the referees. What backing do the ref's get from the FA if they cause controversy by being true to their principles? Not very much these days!

I would just love to have seen how one of the old time ref's like Arthur Ellis would have dealt with that situation and all the others like it. Those of you that are old enough to remember will know exactly what I mean.

So, in this case, Samba was a victim of modern day dishonesty and corrupt practices, but none of that will make any difference either to the outcome should Rovers choose to appeal, or to the continuation of these now ingrained habits. In fact it would not surprise me one bit if I was to discover that players are actually coached into these disgusting and dishonest acts, on the grounds of "if you can't beat them, join them" A truly modern and appalling philosophy.

As for the rest of the match; I thought that Rovers played much better as a team than they have done for at least 3 months or so. I thought Bentley was our MoM, but virtually everybody put in a good shift without anybody being more outstanding than anybody else. All were good.

None of the above changes my opinion that Samba should be rested for a while, and this is based on what he has performed like in the last 4 months or so, not on today's display as he was hardly on the pitch long enough to form an opinion today.

No one can defend the indefensible Fife, even Steve Bruce conceded that we were good value for our win! The fact is that Heskey went down too easily for sure when the faulty wheel came off his roller skate again (... that same wheel kept falling off all afternoon! BTW Has any statto counted how many free kicks heskey 'won' yesterday? Winning free kicks seems to be his main job in that team which is odd cos the lad who took them couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo! ) BUT Samba was absolutely bloody stupid in even putting his hand on Heskeys shoulder. Rightly or wrongly under the current rules Dein was in order to do what he did. But I've more objection to Dein continually ignoring Sharner jumping at speed into RSC's back every time there was a high ball! I noticed on MoTD that Readings Bikey was manhandled very very obviously by Brums Jaide for the 2nd goal without any apparent censure by the referee.

But with the exception of Samba there were plenty of excellent performances all round with Reid, Warnock, RSC, Dunny and Roberts all excelling and with Bentley absolutely supreme. Rovers fan 'Bill Boaden' commenting in the Observer only described his performance as 'average'?! I can only suggest that Mr Boaden turns his seat around to face the pitch when he is next performing in the Observer!

[Ozz]

Overall an enjoyable afternoon, plenty of highs and a couple of lows. Ooijer must be to blame for the red card and penalty, crazy header. If Samba was Bobby Moore, he may have had a chance to save it, but alas he is not. The rule of automatically sending the defender off in that situation I guess is to encourage the last man not to foul the attacker and run the risk of a penalty and a sending off, rather than letting Heskey (in this case) making a fool of himself and missing a one on one from 8 yards. Brad would have saved it I'm sure. He should tell Samba to have more faith in him!

Good atmosphere in the second half, as usual though it took an apparent act of gross injustice to stir the Rovers up-we should be called ChipOnTheShoulder Rovers sometimes!

Thenodrog-didn't realise Warhurst was still on the books?

[thenodrog]

Damn! Thanks Ozzie. Case of my mind working faster than my fingers...... or vice versa.

[tony gale's mic]

Best performance of 2008?

[philipl]

Best performance of 2008?

I hope not, we need those for the visits of Spurs and Man U whilst it would be a shame not to serve up a spectacular against Derby.

[roversmum]

I think it's time for another Bentley hat-trick against the Mancs........

[RovertheHill]

Interesting. Rooney just clean through and Carragher flicks his leg, he loses balance, gets it back and tries to shoot but is now too close to Reina and it comes to nothing. Nothing given. And we wonder why big galoot's like Heskey look like they've been assassinated when a defender puts a hand on their shoulder

Thankfully, there were far more positives to take away from the game

[tony gale's mic]

I hope not, we need those for the visits of Spurs and Man U whilst it would be a shame not to serve up a spectacular against Derby.

...so far I meant...

[Montfort]

Absolutely fantastic. Not many ( any ? ) teams score two further goals when they are down to 10 men!!!