[Archived] End Of The Season

[JC4LAB]

Anyone hear Andy Grays Comment during the Utd Game?...Towards the end he commented that Man Utd need forget about playing attractive and just grind out a result here like Blackburn ..If only his wish had come true. We got beat 5- 3

[ABBEY]

Started very strongly, had a dodgy spell in the middle and then finished off quite strong. 7th in the current league with the amount we have spent compared to our rivals is outstanding. We finished above Pompey, City & West Ham who between them spent way over £100m. We spent just £4m, the least in the league out of any team.

Still unbeaten at home this year, only 10 losses all season and 6 points more than last seasons total. The only downside to our season was our poor cup performances.

Our average attendance is up by nearly 3000 and the club shop is on its way back. We have signed a better sponsorship deal.

We now have 2 England squad players, 1 of who is getting rave reviews and has made his mark in the 1st team – albeit that he may well leave in the coming months. We have also unearthed another gem in Roque Santa Cruz.

We have found Vogel who is much better than the axe and that might of saved us £3m+ on trying to find a similar player.

Next season our prospects look bright once again. We must hold onto our better players, although if they do intend to leave then so be it but it must be for the right price. We also need to continue to improve and if possible add abit more pace to the squad.

Personally I would do abit of a refresh, if Bentley wants to go, then let him but not for less than £15m, Roberts can go for £4m (Yes he works hard and holds the ball well but if his shooting was as consistent as his moaning then he would score 40 a season – he just inst a top class finisher), Mokoena for £2m, and let Enckleman, Henchoz, Gallagher and Tugay leave.

shhhhhhhhhhhhh dont tell eddie he will want to biatch slap you.

[Roaming Rover]

Decent season all in all. We have had some shocking performances but the frustrating thing for me is the number of games (Villa, Pompy, West Ham at home etc) when we dominated teams for the first 20 to 30 minutes but couldn't score, only to then concede a rather poor goal.

I guess the past few seasons we've had a good cup run or wins against The Arse, man U or Chelsea to look back on, which despite some good draws against the top 4, has not happened this season.

The key for me this season has been the inconstancy. How many times have we been both fantastic and awful in the same half, never mind the same 90 minutes!!!

Anyway, just spoken to one of my mates who's a Halifax Town fan and despite going into administration and dropping into the relegation places after a 10 point deduction and then managing to stay up on the last day, have now ceased to exist.

It looks like they will reform but instead of playing in the conference premier, will start again from the Unibond 1st division North.

So all in all, at least we'll be alive and well to push up the table next season in the Premier league watching some of the best players in the world play for and against us.

Here's to some fantastic signings from Hughesy and a cup final victory for Rovers in the 08/09 season

And all the best to Halifax and their supporters

[LeftWinger]

Anyone hear Andy Grays Comment during the Utd Game?...Towards the end he commented that Man Utd need forget about playing attractive and just grind out a result here like Blackburn ..If only his wish had come true. We got beat 5- 3

Didn't he mean that United ground out a point at Blackburn - with Tevez late goal?

[speeeeeeedie]

I can't complain at 7th place especially after spending next to nothing. Hughesy said most of it for me. I said early on that I hoped that the home losses to Villa, Pompey, and West Ham wouldn't hurt us but they certainly did.

No Europe but no more tired Sunday games (Pompey). I'm just happy we're still in the Premier League as I get to watch a good few games on TV.

[OscarRaven]

Overall a good season, any season where we preserve our PL status is a good season;

Three major issues to work on for next year, currently we are;

1) Up for the big games only, we struggle in the bread and butter games - still not good enough despite improvement from last season.

2) Only playing well one half per game and having to come from behind all to often

3) Early exits from cup compettions, realistically our only chance for silverware

Season Postives

Santa Cruz & Bentley

Season Negatives

Benni and lack of youth player progression

Player of the season

Bentley / RSC - Santa Cruz gets it as Bentley's stalling on a new deal.

[philipl]

Guardian's end of season score card for Rovers

[Wolverine]

All very fair comments.

[den]

Looks like mixed feelings from the state of the Birmingham match thread, so could we possible have a poll and discussion on the season as a whole rather than just todays game?

There you go.

[1864roverite]

It must be a postive end to the season, according to figures, Rovers have just grossed a prize pot of some £39m for their 7th spot finish and tv revenue money, an increase of the £24m from last season.

Figures released in M E Post earlier today I believe.

['arrod rover]

i'm happy with our final position and generally pleased with the performances during the season, especially the opening couple of months. Things seemed to go south a bit after hughes won the manager of the month award but i think we all saw that coming

only major problem i have with this team is our inability to score first and see a game out. I lost count of the amount of times we had to come from behind to secure a win or a draw. Naturally it showed great determination and fitness in many of these games to come from behind, although it is a position we shouldn't have got ourselves in most of the time (both games against derby for example!)

i have my doubts about samba and nelsen, so perhaps a proven premiership centre half should be in Hughes' thoughts....as well as a right back, centre mid, left winger etc.

will hopefully be an exciting summer!

[Rover4ever]

7th position flatters our performances in general, but am personally pleased , given that we came above richer and free spending clubs. That in itself is a huge credit.

[Wolverine]

Cheers Den!

[b12_simon]

Cheers Den.

Now we're getting a decent feel for the supporters' views on our season instead of just Eddie the whining vocal minority.

[den]

Cheers Den!

You're very welcome.

[Ozz]

Well, without wishing to sound rude, the Poll options are very limited. The bottom three are not really applicable (apart from the Grooby "joke"!), The best since 1995 is unlikely, I'm not annoyed about the final position, and although disappointed we did not finish 6th and in the Toto I would not advocate serious change. Which leaves Good, and pleased with the overall final position. We are doing well for a club of our size. Which is probably about right, and anyone with any common would probably see as being the case.

May have been better just to have points out of ten, plus the Grooby out of ten option for old times sake.

Not that it is that important really!

[Eddie]

Cheers Den.

Now we're getting a decent feel for the supporters' views on our season instead of just Eddie the whining vocal minority.

the minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong

or how about:

whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect

Two quotes worth living your life by.

[American Rover12]

I am quite content with our final position this year, which is why I picked the second option. As I learn more and more about everything that goes into a club and a league, I find it astonishing in a good way that we ever compete, let alone beat some of these teams. That's just my opinion anyway.

Still can't help that we just threw away sixth though, that'll probably irk me for quite a while still. I'm still getting the pit out of my stomach from Sunday.

[philipl]

Andy Nield's review of the season in the LT.

[T4E]

the minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong

or how about:

whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect

Two quotes worth living your life by.

or how about:

Just because Den says you're wrong, doesn't make it so.

[American]

Well, without wishing to sound rude, the Poll options are very limited. The bottom three are not really applicable (apart from the Grooby "joke"!), The best since 1995 is unlikely, I'm not annoyed about the final position, and although disappointed we did not finish 6th and in the Toto I would not advocate serious change. Which leaves Good, and pleased with the overall final position. We are doing well for a club of our size. Which is probably about right, and anyone with any common would probably see as being the case.

May have been better just to have points out of ten, plus the Grooby out of ten option for old times sake.

Not that it is that important really!

When I started reading this post, I thought I was in the thread about your upcoming kid where someone suggested a poll!

[vintageadidas]

You all seem to be forgetting that we reached Quarter Finals of the Carling Cup and lost in a thrilling 3-2 extra time game with Arsenal, finished 7th, played in Europe, drew with Arsenal, Chelsea, United, Liverpool, Everton, Villa and our attendances are up 12.5% - How is that a bad season?????

Get a grip! There is a very fine line between us finishing 5th, 6th or 7th one season and doing a bolton the season after. I too have higher expectations now (this is down to the great job sparky has done) but we have to realise that most if not all teams in the premier league have more money, larger populations and still finish below us.

This season - SUCCESS (we live to fight another season)

[Eddie]

We lost in a thrilling game...to kids. A side that was then destroyed by Spurs and let's not forget that they were also down to 10 men.

I'm not sure you can say that we "played" in Europe.

The attendances are great news.

The 7th place finish is certainly not bad, but when you consider everything else and what this squad could have achieved it isn't amazing.

I think I've been the most negative about this season, but I even I don't say that is has been a bad one. It has been a let-down for me and could have been miles better and we missed a lot of chances to take the club forward. In the end I think we've taken a slight step backwards, which is unfortunate, but not the end of the world and it is certainly something that we could recover from.

[Ronin]

Andy Nield's review of the season in the LT.

I do like Savage's quote at the end and definitely sums up Rovers.

IMO this season has been a good one, League-wise we've improved upon last seasons' totals and position, and when you look at how the teams around us have strengthened and especially with the funds that they have at their disposal, we've been bloomin' marvelous. Couple that with the fans coming back and our average attendance getting boosted too.

The few disappointments have been the UEFA Cup and FA Cup and just missing out on the Intertoto place due to the bad run in form in the middle of the season (note to Premier League, NEVER give Hughes Manager of the Month again )

But overall, we've done well to be the 7th best club in the country, and can look forward to next season with a bit of optimism.

[b12_simon]

Andy Nield's review of the season in the LT.

An excellent review. I thought this was very perceptive:

if only Matt Derbyshire had scored that penalty against Aston Villa in January