[Archived] Rovers V Citeh

[John]

Very difficult to take. Painful in fact. Going to take a few days to get over this....

[Eddie]

Lets put it this way, we will compete for the rest of the season. On that basis are we good enough to pick up 7-8 wins out of 18? Id think so, we need results quick and fast.

Had we been on 20 points things wouldve been so much rosier!

Fulham, Bolton, Newcastle and Boro I believe are the next 4. All winnable, but we need 9 points at least, with avoiding defeat in the first one a MUST.

No it isn't, winning is a must. We will soon hit a run of games where we'll be happy with a draw, we need to be winning games now.

[chris]

Its a results business chris and despite much improved performances we are still not taking enough points from teams around us.

Sam's doing a sterling job in my opinion, our side looks much better but by christ today is hard to swallow.

i think we are gaining ground on Stoke, Boro, Portsmouth, Spurs, Sunderland and Hull

I think Man City have enough talent to pull off last minute goals, I mean a 32 million pound striker, christ

was still a result, I swear I thought in the 85 minutes, Oojier will do another error, I almost expected it, but not tiwce

[asianRover]

5 points from a possible 9, and we could have/should have gotten all 9 points, shows that we are on the right track.

[frosty]

Speechless.

[Stuart]

Just got in from today's game.

First of all "fiojgfigjsfldijASDGFADSKMgjnslngkfjghksbgkjdshgASDFKJHiuldhfhhjbgbzkjgbdfnvnOIIJTGIJSKSKNsgjdfg

jnsjdbngat5ioeggipelogrihpegp9ihjgrpihjriphtinhinhijprgtp"

Okay, got it off my chest. I've simmered down a little following the drive home - even though I still can't fathom why Derbs didn't run that ball into the corner flag.

I'm trying to look at the positives from what feels like a defeat. I've set myself a target of 10. It's that or keep counting to 10.

1) It was a good performance with a number of man of the match contenders: Tugay, Emerton, Roberts

2) Feeling this BAD following a draw with the world's richest club means my expectations are still high

3) Ince's team would have been turned over today and for most of the match we were on top

4) It could be said we were unlucky; a tired side gave it their all and there was no way there were 4 minutes worth of stoppages - even counting Tugay's professionalism - and the final goal came after the 4 minutes had passed

5) Other results today haven't gone particularly against us and we are in a better position overall than when Allardyce took over - in all except league position

6) Our goal difference is no longer so different to those around us

7) We are 2 or 3 points off safety depending on goal difference and 5 points off 11th - which any other season might be anything from 12th to 15th

8) Once again we have shown we are prepared for life without that Cruz bloke

9) We are unbeaten under Allardyce and now look like a football team, 5 points from 3 games including 2 clean sheets

10) We were bottom of the table before a very difficult game and managed to avoid being bottom on 1st January.

There, didn't think I'd do it but I have. Not sure it's helped - maybe I'll feel better when I've slept on it. January signings are going to be massive for us.

[TAFKAP]

Well lets support Man United tomorrow against Boro and hopefully they get stuffed.

You can't do that! They're your main rivals in the eyes of most of your supporters.

[American]

I think Sky said roughly 93:13 or 93:33 for the equaliser.

I thought Emerton played great, Roberts was MotM and it definitely was 2 points lost.

[Ricky]

Ooijer at fault for both goals, think its time to accept what I accepted months ago, he's not a right back. I said it after the Hull game where he made a similar mistake. if you play him, play him in hos propor position as cb, if not leave him on the bench.

Derbs made the classic howler, why not just run it into the corner, why try a killer ball.

Gutted that we threw it away but I would have taken a draw at the start of the game.

5 points from a possible 9 is pretty good, bear in mind that Sam won't have seen a greatdeal of the players over Xmas, now he'll be able to mould his team. Transfer window opens midweek and hopefully we'll get a few quality players in. I'd be happy with a decent Right Back, Right Winger and Centre Mid.

[BringOnNextSeason]

matt derbyshire should not wear the shirt again he is clueless and crap. dosent offer anything. why the ###### not go to the corner flag with 30 seconds left. Also is it to hard for him to track back? if he wasnt a blackburn lad he would have been fired off long ago. total liability

[DE.]

Ooijer at fault for both goals, think its time to accept what I accepted months ago, he's not a right back. I said it after the Hull game where he made a similar mistake. if you play him, play him in hos propor position as cb, if not leave him on the bench.

Derbs made the classic howler, why not just run it into the corner, why try a killer ball.

Gutted that we threw it away but I would have taken a draw at the start of the game.

5 points from a possible 9 is pretty good, bear in mind that Sam won't have seen a greatdeal of the players over Xmas, now he'll be able to mould his team. Transfer window opens midweek and hopefully we'll get a few quality players in. I'd be happy with a decent Right Back, Right Winger and Centre Mid.

Agree with all of this, Ooijer is at fault for both goals and our lack of decent RB has likely cost us the match. However, I think a right winger and centre mid would suffice, as Emerton is good enough to fill in at RB.

[Stuart]

Ooijer at fault for both goals, think its time to accept what I accepted months ago, he's not a right back. I said it after the Hull game where he made a similar mistake. if you play him, play him in hos propor position as cb, if not leave him on the bench.

Spot on Ricky.

[Tom]

Just got in, gutted gutted gutted but what is there to say really?

They played well but fell asleep at the wrong times, it's hard to be mad just really gutted.

People saying it went wrong when Moko came on need to get a grip.

Thought the ref was awful, Ireland should have been off from my view in the Blackburn End.

Roberts, Benni , Pedersen and Emerton were outstanding again, feel especially bad for Roberts you could see what the goal meant to him and it should have been decisive.

Sam has a hard job to lift them now but I still feel we can survive.

Either way there is a buzz about the place now and lets hope we can keep it even after this blow.

[jim mk2]

You cannot throw away 4 points like Rovers have done in the past 2 games and expect to survive.

We are going down.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

If we do go down everybody who watched todays game will know exactly why. Any average team should be able to play out a game 2-0 up with 10 minutes left. "Make the pitch big when you have the ball and make it small when your opponents have it", for the last 20 minutes we did exactly the opposite ! We all got back ( and in each others way) and just lashed the ball back to City time after time.

Scores

Robinson 6 Didn't make a save.

Ooijer 5 At fault for both goals, Sam get a right back in next week O.K.

Samba 8 Our best player, a collossus.

Nelsen 7 Getting back to his best, anybody think an eye injury would prevent him playing ? Get real, he's a Kiwi.

Warnock 7 Gave it a good go down the left hand side.

Emerton 6 Did O.K. in his worst position, Robinho would have buried the shooting chance he had right after half time, that's what you get for £32M.

Andrews 4 Seriously, was he playing ? 2nd half he could have sat next to me. As I said -Keep him in the team we're as good as down.

Tugay 5 It's over for the maestro, should have been subbed by Vogel 10 mins earlier than he was. Stupid yellow card.

Pedersen 5 . Tackled like a sugar stealer at the death. Him, Derby and Ooijer cost us the points.

Roberts 7 Ran his tripes off all the game but he's a blunt instrument. Championship players will ultimately get us championship football.

McCarthy 5 Tucked away a chance I could have dealt with. Would have been better off going getting Robinhos shirt framed than coming out after half time and worrying about it. Subbed too late.

Subs.

Mokoena 5 Should have been Vogel, we needed to keep the ball !

Derby 3 He's brain dead ! He has the ball , he's fresh - all he has to do is race the full back to the corner flag and try and get a corner/ throw in. What does he do ? HE GIVES THE BALL AWAY ! That's why we'll go down. Our decision making is ShIIIIIIte.

They'll all be out on the P--s tonight in Manchester with the City guys , all matey , matey. I'll be tossing and turning in bed. Maybe I've served my sentence, time to call it a day!

[DE.]

Just got in, gutted gutted gutted but what is there to say really?

They played well but fell asleep at the wrong times, it's hard to be mad just really gutted.

People saying it went wrong when Moko came on need to get a grip.

Thought the ref was awful, Ireland should have been off from my view in the Blackburn End.

Roberts, Benni , Pedersen and Emerton were outstanding again, feel especially bad for Roberts you could see what the goal meant to him and it should have been decisive.

Sam has a hard job to lift them now but I still feel we can survive.

Either way there is a buzz about the place now and lets hope we can keep it even after this blow.

I mentioned that about Moko, but as a joke my point was he wasn;t the most inspiring sub, and proof we do need more quality in the middle of the park. We shouldn't really be satisfied with Andrews and Moko as our midfield pairing, nor will Tugay be able to produce performances like todays in every match. Very interesting to see who Sam brings in in the next month.

[imy9]

You cannot throw away 4 points like Rovers have done in the past 2 games and expect to survive.

We are going down.

Put your money where your big mouth is, £50 says that we will survive.

If we do go down everybody who watched todays game will know exactly why. Any average team should be able to play out a game 2-0 up with 10 minutes left. "Make the pitch big when you have the ball and make it small when your opponents have it", for the last 20 minutes we did exactly the opposite ! We all got back ( and in each others way) and just lashed the ball back to City time after time.

Scores

Robinson 6 Didn't make a save.

Ooijer 5 At fault for both goals, Sam get a right back in next week O.K.

Samba 8 Our best player, a collossus.

Nelsen 7 Getting back to his best, anybody think an eye injury would prevent him playing ? Get real, he's a Kiwi.

Warnock 7 Gave it a good go down the left hand side.

Emerton 6 Did O.K. in his worst position, Robinho would have buried the shooting chance he had right after half time, that's what you get for £32M.

Andrews 4 Seriously, was he playing ? 2nd half he could have sat next to me. As I said -Keep him in the team we're as good as down.

Tugay 5 It's over for the maestro, should have been subbed by Vogel 10 mins earlier than he was. Stupid yellow card.

Pedersen 5 . Tackled like a sugar stealer at the death. Him, Derby and Ooijer cost us the points.

Roberts 7 Ran his tripes off all the game but he's a blunt instrument. Championship players will ultimately get us championship football.

McCarthy 5 Tucked away a chance I could have dealt with. Would have been better off going getting Robinhos shirt framed than coming out after half time and worrying about it. Subbed too late.

Subs.

Mokoena 5 Should have been Vogel, we needed to keep the ball !

Derby 3 He's brain dead ! He has the ball , he's fresh - all he has to do is race the full back to the corner flag and try and get a corner/ throw in. What does he do ? HE GIVES THE BALL AWAY ! That's why we'll go down. Our decision making is ShIIIIIIte.

They'll all be out on the P--s tonight in Manchester with the City guys , all matey , matey. I'll be tossing and turning in bed. Maybe I've served my sentence, time to call it a day!

Tugay and Benni got a 5? They played exceptionally well, Andrews did a good job in front of the back 4 and certainly was not a 4!

[naperrover]

This match shows up one failing for which Ince can rightly be blamed. The players show nothing like the level of fitness that they had last season. With 15 to 18 minutes remaining in regulation, the team was seriously outworked by City. Sam has said it himself (from the soccernet match report):

"I think the contribution to ourselves with errors and the fatigue of my players meant we didn't compose ourselves to keep the ball."

[Tom]

Another point I thought there was a foul just before the 2nd goal but then again i am biased.

Tugay was silly really he picked up a pointless booking then looked like he could get sent off anytime he was near the action, there was really no other option than to sub him.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Put your money where your big mouth is, £50 says that we will survive.

Tugay and Benni got a 5? They played exceptionally well, Andrews did a good job in front of the back 4 and certainly was not a 4!

You call it how you see it, I'll call it how I see it.

[chris]

You cannot throw away 4 points like Rovers have done in the past 2 games and expect to survive.

We are going down.

we can not throw away 4 points if we were expecting to win the league, every team down the bottom throws away points, thats why they are at the bottom, they all have an Oojier around

if anything we have gained a point on the other today

[imy9]

You call it how you see it, I'll call it how I see it.

Fair enough but it is the first time a goal scorer in a game has got a 5 out of 10, The Axe got the same mark!!

[Amo]

I don't think Andrews had a bad game, but it does feel like he just...disappears sometimes. And other times it's like he's there just to keep the ball moving, and doesn't do a whole lot with it.

I think centre-midfield is as big a priority as right-midfield at the moment.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Positives - we are within 3 points of getting out of the bottom 3. If we take 5 points from every 3 games we'll be safe!!

Sunderland have cocked up big time by not getting a better manager.

Negatives - we have no creativity, width or goals in midfield. We just hit it up to Roberts and Benni (who I though were excellent today) and hope they produce something - it won't work every week.

In the past we have had Bentley creating and scoring as well as Pedersen. We need to add at least 8-9 goals from midfiled throughout the rest of the season or I fear we go down.

Next 4 games make or break our season.....we need at least 7 points

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Fair enough but it is the first time a goal scorer in a game has got a 5 out of 10, The Axe got the same mark!!

That's because you need to do more than just score a top in to get beyond 5. What else did he do ? Sorry I should have given the Axe 4.