[Archived] Blyth Spartans Vs Blackburn Rovers

[RovertheHill]

He also saved us from a replay. Useless piece of ****

The problem is that whilst he is good at throwing himself into last-ditch tackles/blocks/horrendous fouls as soon as the ball comes to him in any type of open play he looks about as solid as Shakin Stevens on ice and he must be colour blind because he rarely finds a blue shirt. Sav used to say that his job was to get the ball and give it to Tugay. The second part of that job is what Mokoena struggles with

[SAS]

They are 2 leagues below the conference.....and nearly bottom of that.

isnt it the league below the conference?

[JAL]

So what did we learn...

Bunn..........I had more confidence than with Robinson

Simpson.....Steady not spectacular....we knew that already.

Ollson.........Needs to go on loan to learn how to defend. Quite rightly axed by Sam.

Mokoena.....We learned nothing we didn't already know. Would be in and out of the Stockport first team.

Zurab..........Best Rover on the night and better than Nelsen in my opinion.

Grella..........Better than Mokoena and Andrews....worse than Tugay and Dunn

Vogel...........Irrelevant Rover tonight.

Judge..........Out of position but very poor on the night. Go on loan with Ollson.

Treacy.........Another Loan needed....big lad and needs to toughen up.

Derbyshire...Absolutely shocking. Cost us 2 points in the last game and couldn't win a header or hold the ball up against pub players. Control was dreadful.

Villianueva...Definately has something but wrong at the club at the wrong time for him. Will do a good job with the right team and feel a bit sorry for him really. If we could get him at a reduced price I would persevere if he was willing to give it a go.

The facts are that our first eleven are not very good and the back ups are very poor. Sam will be a miracle worker if he keeps us up.

The frightening thing is that the only player we have who can pass the ball is nearly 40. At least Sam has realised this and is by-passing midfield. Good luck big man.

Agree with everything you say there except Simpson,he was simply dreadful, an awful player, not even steady but yes it showed Rovers up for what we have become.

Obviously Brad, Bentley, Savage and Cruz carried these lads but not for any longer.

[Blue n White Rover]

We're through to the 4th round. Wasn't that the main objective of tonight? No injuries gained, through with relative ease, some positives from the game, what more do you lot want??

[JAL]

nothing about rovers reserves concerns me in regards to our first team.......

would man utd fans have said the same thing when they drew at burton

It should do because they are our future.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Agree with everything you say there except Simpson,he was simply dreadful, an awful player, not even steady but yes it showed Rovers up for what we have become.

Obviously Brad, Bentley, Savage and Cruz carried these lads but not for any longer.

It was the reserves. Get a grip.

[stuwilky]

isnt it the league below the conference?

Yes, Step 2 Conference North.

[Fraserkirky]

Thought Zurab had a good game, and King Carlos looked really good. Can't believe he got yanked instead of derbyshire, who was abysmal,shocking,hurrendous.

[Plastic Head]

isnt it the league below the conference?

No...the Blue Square Premier is below the Conference. Blyth are Blue Square North which along with Blue Square South is one league below Blue Square Prem. Hence 2 leagues below the conference. Only Hucknall are keeping them off the bottom.

[JAL]

It was the reserves. Get a grip.

That was our back up and our future mixed together tonight.

[brfcshabba]

No...the Blue Square Premier is below the Conference. Blyth are Blue Square North which along with Blue Square South is one league below Blue Square Prem. Hence 2 leagues below the conference. Only Hucknall are keeping them off the bottom.

No the Blue Square Premier is the Conference.

[RoverRich]

No...the Blue Square Premier is below the Conference. Blyth are Blue Square North which along with Blue Square South is one league below Blue Square Prem. Hence 2 leagues below the conference. Only Hucknall are keeping them off the bottom.

NO...the Blue Square Premier IS the conference, you muppet, so 1 league below!

Darn...just beaten to it but you get the picture...

[stuwilky]

No...the Blue Square Premier is below the Conference. Blyth are Blue Square North which along with Blue Square South is one league below Blue Square Prem. Hence 2 leagues below the conference. Only Hucknall are keeping them off the bottom.

Step 1 - Blue Square Premier formerly known as the Conference National

Step 2 - Blue Square North and South - formerly known as the Conference North

Step 3 - Unibond Premier - Northern Premier League

Step 4 - Unibond Division One North and South - Northern Premier League Division One

Step 5 - Vodkat Premier League - formerly North West Counties Division 1

Step 6 - Vodkat Division One - formerly North West Counties Division 2

[Amo]

They're part-timers either way.

[hawkiiz]

quite shaken by the fact we only just won this one - and that the goal came from a free-kick. scary.

BUT no first teamers played (no regulars at least), and the team was pretty much put together as individuals, not a team because sam wanted to find out who to offloand. we are through. good.

remember these things happen EVERY season. remember liverpool almost got skinned by that london pub last season? didnt they take the lead TWO times that game before gerrard got tired of it all and ended the game. i rember newcastle struggle with dag&red some years ago. it happens. be glad we didnt do a Sparky and lose by three to forest.

[Plastic Head]

Right ...let's not get confused between players who play in the Reserves league and squad players who aren't first team regulars.

It's mistifying and sad to me that first team squad players who don't play in the first team don't even get a game for the reserves. How are they supposed to get match fit for god sake.

As for Judge, Treacy etc....they have to take the chances they get and force the manager to pick them in the first team by their performances in games like tonights'. They didn't do that at Blyth.

Hughes and Ince rarely if ever watched reserve games...it remains to be seen in Sam will bother. The stop/start fixture list in the reserve league doesn't help the situation.

Perhaps the reason many Premier league back up players appear so poor is the lack of match practice.

[SAS]

No the Blue Square Premier is the Conference.

As i thought then

[JAL]

quite shaken by the fact we only just won this one - and that the goal came from a free-kick. scary.

BUT no first teamers played (no regulars at least), and the team was pretty much put together as individuals, not a team because sam wanted to find out who to offloand. we are through. good.

remember these things happen EVERY season. remember liverpool almost got skinned by that london pub last season? didnt they take the lead TWO times that game before gerrard got tired of it all and ended the game. i rember newcastle struggle with dag&red some years ago. it happens. be glad we didnt do a Sparky and lose by three to forest.

Thank god that they were nowhere near as good as Forest.

Right ...let's not get confused between players who play in the Reserves league and squad players who aren't first team regulars.

It's mistifying and sad to me that first team squad players who don't play in the first team don't even get a game for the reserves. How are they supposed to get match fit for god sake.

As for Judge, Treacy etc....they have to take the chances they get and force the manager to pick them in the first team by their performances in games like tonights'. They didn't do that at Blyth.

Hughes and Ince rarely if ever watched reserve games...it remains to be seen in Sam will bother. The stop/start fixture list in the reserve league doesn't help the situation.

Perhaps the reason many Premier league back up players appear so poor is the lack of match practice.

NO they just arent good enough, you should question why is there such a dearth of talent coming through the ranks.

[tcj_jones]

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that we are through; that we played with a reserve team and didn't pick up any injuries but, 1 - 0? I didn't watch the game and I haven't read any comments on here either, but 1- 0? That screams utter ineptitude. These players call themselves professionals but cannot even beat this bunch of part timers by more than a goal? This should have been playground stuff: 6 - 0, 7 - 0, 8 - 0 etc. 1 - 0 is an embarrassment!

How did Vilanueva play?

[RevidgeBlue]

Tonight was an absolute shambles, Mr. Allardyce got VERY VERY lucky with his team selection, the only moment of magic was only ever going to come from Derbyshire or Villenueva out of the starting line up.

Luckily CV provided it, if the ball had have gone out slightly beforehand, he wouldn't even have been on the pitch to provide it!

If the Blyth Spartans guy had have buried his unmissable chance on 85 mins we'd have been heading for a totally unnecessary replay.

Jason Roberts (once he came on) looked the only player a cut above the Blyth players.

Horrible. If we're going to play a similar line up at Sunderland we might as well concede the tie now.

[modes98]

I thought Treacy and Judge were absolute pants!

That's strange. I thought Treacy was our biggest threat in first half, he opened them up and looked to get dangerous corners and crosses in. Judge came to life later on and produced from the other side. My villa fan mate even texted me to ask his details and said he looks a bright prospect.

Simpson was decent in patches, especially going forward.

Carlos did his bit, looked to shoot on site and had a bit of skill to add to the game.

Derbs and Mokoena were dire. Mokoena did his best to make Bunn look awful, by ignoring 2 of his calls and almost gifting them goals via misskicks.

It was never going to be pretty on a cold monday night and on that pitch. At least we came through it and it's games in the bag for the reserves.

[RevidgeBlue]

I thought Treacy and Judge were absolute pants!

Have to agree with that. Judge even worse than Treacy.

[Mr. E]

Great free-kick by Carlos but that was a dive to win the FK. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't like to see that in a Rovers team.

[Hughesy]

Ok look at it from a more realistic point of view:

It was a banana skin, on a dodgy pitch, in a shanty stadium - a win of any sort would do. The main thing was not losing and try to progress without a replay - We got that!

Next we used it as a reserve game, giving chances to back-up and youth. Tonight showed us one or two things too, exactly what Allardyce was hoping to gain from it!!

Bunn - Had nothing to do, looked fine on crosses.

Zurab - Solid and reliable

Ollson & Simpson - Young and potential, however more experience needed

Mokoena - NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Goodbye

Judge - Not good enough yet, a loan maybe.

Vogel - NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Goodbye

Grella - Got involved and his lack of fitness showed, give him time

Treacy - 1st Half got quite involved, 2nd half disappeared. Loan would help him.

Carlos - Creative, always looking to get a shot away, scored a cracking free-kick, need to give him more time to prove himself.

Derbyshire - NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Missed at least 2 or 3 good chances, should be scoring at least 1 or 2 against teams like this.

Subs:

Roberts - Held the ball up well and looked very comfortable against this lot. Did what he was probably asked to do.

Andrews - Did okay, nothing special, but full of running again.

Hodge - Not enough time to decide.

[philipl]

The big worry for me tonight was the two senior pros Grella and Vogel exercising negligible control in central midfield. Those two should be closest to getting into the team in the absence of Dunn.