[Archived] Blackburn Vs. Everton (preview)

[JAL]

Have to disagree. Thought in the first half Andrews was probably our most effective player. Grella on the other hand was truly dire.

Andrews faded in the second half once the Axe came on and he went out wider but overall he was no worse than anyone else.

What did he do that contributed something positive to the team?

Sounds like you're trying to pass the buck onto the axe for Andrews limitations.

[RevidgeBlue]

What did he do that contributed something positive to the team?

First half, - moved the ball about well, couple of good defensive interventions and got forward regularly.

Heaven forbid Ince or MK Dons itis is clouding your judgement.

He isn't really good enough, but neither is anyone else we have on current evidence.

[47er]

Just got back, dull game with little attacking threat from either side really. A few points:

- the ref was simply awful

- thought Andrews did well as did Moko when he came on, Tugay was really poor

- Roberts did ok lots of running but poor finishing again

- great save from Brown in the first half

- The Everton fans were really poor

- there didn't look to be 12 places between the teams

- also why was dunny on the bench if he wasn't fit to play out 20 minutes or so

Wiley is the worst ref in the Premiership list, I've long thought so.

[broadsword]

He isn't really good enough, but neither is anyone else we have on current evidence.

Can't really argue with that.

[Fife Rover]

Wiley is the worst ref in the Premiership list, I've long thought so.

Wiley didn't make a single bad decision tonight. If you think he did then lets hear what it was.

[Tom]

He just seems inept and I'm convinced he doesn't know the advantage rule.

[tashor]

Just been on Betfair - you can get odds of FIVE TO ONE that we will go down. Either those odds are grossly wrong - in which case please fill your boots - or many posters here haven't got a clue what they are rambling on about. I know where my money would lie.

By the way - I have a coin - heads on one side, tails on the other - give me a fiver and I will give you six pounds back if you call correctly. I will even paint the coin blue one side and white the other if you like!

[JAL]

First half, - moved the ball about well, couple of good defensive interventions and got forward regularly.

Heaven forbid Ince or MK Dons itis is clouding your judgement.

He isn't really good enough, but neither is anyone else we have on current evidence.

Did he move the ball intot the key areas that allowed our strikers a shot on goal?

How many poor short passes did he do tonight and long cross field passes.

He just seems inept and I'm convinced he doesn't know the advantage rule.

Come on TCO he didnt do that badly tonight.

Did he move the ball intot the key areas that allowed our strikers a shot on goal?

How many poor short passes did he do tonight and long cross field passes.

Come on TCO he didnt do that badly tonight. I feel you're tainting his performance tonight with other previous performances.

[ABBEY]

I know people say how this board is negative but not as negative as we are.WTF did we not grab the bull by the horns and crack on for three points as soon as the rubberax came on we stopped and knew it was over with regards winning the game which was there for the taking.Just listened to sam bulling up how many chances we created? to me they were half chances at best apart from the pregnant hippo one on one.HOW THE HELL BENNI,DERBS OR GALLY DONT GET A CHANCE BAFFLES ME.Roque tonight was in his couldnt be arsed mood and the three attempts in the 2nd half were not the strikes or headers of a 20 million pound player more like a sunday morning pub player.superb brown save but now hes injured .

[robbo_rovers]

Why the hell did Mokoena and Treacy get on but no sign of Dunn or McCarthy? It baffles me.

[Plastic Head]

Just been on Betfair - you can get odds of FIVE TO ONE that we will go down. Either those odds are grossly wrong - in which case please fill your boots - or many posters here haven't got a clue what they are rambling on about. I know where my money would lie.

By the way - I have a coin - heads on one side, tails on the other - give me a fiver and I will give you six pounds back if you call correctly. I will even paint the coin blue one side and white the other if you like!

I'd have said we were odds on for relegation before Hull, evens after and slightly odds-on again after tonight.

The bookies odds are certainly unrealistic.

They are obviously unaware of A) Who we have still to play B ) the fixtures of other teams and C) just how poor our players are.

Strangely our fate may be decided by how many points we get against the to five. I, along with others would have thought we needed to beat teams around us but many of the teams at the bottom have drawn and won games against the top 5 and we haven't got a single point yet.

[Rovermatt]

Dreadful game, poor result. Roberts's miss was proof further that we simply can't rely on him.

[PMT]

We lack players who can take someone on and beat a man, run at him in a one v one situation. This fully justifies the clamour for Dunny in the team as he seems to be the only one in the squad capable of achieving this feat at the moment its a great pity his body is knackered and past it.

How can Dunny's body be past it - how old is he?

[Fife Rover]

How can Dunny's body be past it - how old is he?

Dunn's body is virtually wrecked now, but not by age. It is IMO purely down to his lifestyle and his lack of care for his own body. Too much night life and booze and far too many pies. How do I know this? Because so many of you people on this MB have been telling me so for years, and as we all know none of you ever tell fibs or exagerate do you?

[Veevs]

Just been on Betfair - you can get odds of FIVE TO ONE that we will go down. Either those odds are grossly wrong - in which case please fill your boots - or many posters here haven't got a clue what they are rambling on about. I know where my money would lie.

By the way - I have a coin - heads on one side, tails on the other - give me a fiver and I will give you six pounds back if you call correctly. I will even paint the coin blue one side and white the other if you like!

Yeah looking on those bet comparison sites the bookies are backing us for 14th place (with Portsmouth, Hull, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Stoke then West brom in that order below us.. given the run ins I dont think its that far fetched and hell they make their money getting these odds close to correct).. guess I would be happy with that given the position we have been in all season... The worst odds on us I can find are 10/3 for relegation, thats pretty much 3 to 1 which is still a decent margin especially considering we are in the bottom 3 now.

[JAL]

Does anyone remember Warnock bursting through midfield first half, alone, with NO support from the other players especially Roberts, Diouf and Cruz.

He ended up slowing his run down so that the others could catch up and passed backwards .

[thenodrog]

Jason Roberts cost us that game. It's as simple as that. I reckon Sam thought we'd keep it nice and tidy for most the game and the one chance we do get we have to put it away. Unfortunately for Rovers, it fell to our worse finisher Jason Roberts. If we go down, he will be one of the main culprits.

Rum do is Roberts. First of all he cannot score when he is 1 on 0 at Sunderland and then today he cannot round a keeper who has already gone to ground. I'm certain that prem keepers who do their homework simply know to go to ground when 1 on 1 with Roberts cos they know he will attempt a weak side foot EVERY FOOKIN TIME rather than hammer it, dink it over them or simply go around them!

Sad to say I do not even get near to the edge of my seat when he is 1 on 1 with the keeper.

[thenodrog]

100 % agree. This was my main concern with the Allardyce employment, and our football quality will decline a bit more for every day he's in charge. I always thought that talk of "experienced relegation-battle war horse" always seemed like bull, I really don't think any manager with a bit more of a wish to actually play football would have been worse off than we are now.

Don't be daft! Our home form is abysmal and very worrying but lets remember that Evertons game plan at the start of every match is to crowd the midfield, squeeze the pitch, play in your face football stop the opposition playing and hopefully nick a goal. They've become very adept at it too. Free flowing attractive football is not an option when they are in town. I don't hear their fans whinging and whining about it either. 4 points from the last two matches is mighty good compared to what went before. And given the option I think we'd all have taken it.

Truth is but for the Ince abberation I think we'd be scrapping with everton for a UEFA place next season.

[Hughesy]

I was disappointing with Sam's ambition in this match as he was obviously going for the one point rather than 3 especially as the game went on.

I think its more a question of: would you rather have 1 point or none? If we attacked more then no doubt that Cahill or Saha would of bagged them a winner.

We are turning into Bolton of a few seasons ago. I hate it.

No we are playing hard-to-beat football. Keep it tight and hope to nick a winner. Its temporary to help us get out of trouble. Exactly what Hughes did when he kept us up, and nobody complained then!!

100 % agree. This was my main concern with the Allardyce employment, and our football quality will decline a bit more for every day he's in charge. I always thought that talk of "experienced relegation-battle war horse" always seemed like bull, I really don't think any manager with a bit more of a wish to actually play football would have been worse off than we are now.

Ince liked us to play a nice passing game - look where that got us, anyone remember the game against the big teams when we just rolled over?? What would you rather, roll over and die or keep it tight and hope to nick a winner?

Everton arent that good, its the lack of strength in depth that has come back to haunt us just like it did at Coventry last week.

At the end of the day a point isnt a bad thing.

Keep the faith its going to be close.

Everton are 6th. They are a big team, hard to beat and a very physical outfit. To take a solid 0-0 result in which we had the best two chances (Roque & Roberts) isnt a bad result.

Honestly people, some of you on here are just going way over the top. We are 2 points off 15th, with a game in hand, and we still have the teams in 20th, 17th and 15th to play. Its very much in our own hands. We can do it, and we will do it!!

[RevidgeBlue]

Roberts missed yet another one on one granted, but RSC was equally at fault, dragging a simple chance wide in the second half.

I can't really draw any comfort from that as I feel the odd chance that does come our way is more as a result of a lucky break/bounce than really good play on our part.

[grizfoot]

Would have liked to have seen Dunny come on ahead of both Tugay and Mokoena. Obviously wasn't fully fit, which begs the question why he was on the bench in the first place. Roque was wasted on the wing but I can see why he was put out their, to try and exploit Baines who is one of the few Everton players who isn't good in the air.

Our play played into Everton's hands, long ball after long ball. They had Yobo, Lescott and Jagielka at the back who are brilliantly headers of the ball and that Rodwell in midifield looked about 7ft!

A draw was probably about a fair refleciton of the game. Each team had one golden chance, Everton's was well saved by Brown and Roberts ermm fluffed ours.

Both teams lacked creativity, Everton were without their best player in Arteta and we missed any sort of creativity from midfield which Dunn or maybe even Pedersen would have provided.

Overall if we were in mid-table safety you'd say a draw was a good result as it is you'd say we really could have had all three tonight against a less than full strength Everton side who offere dlittle in attack. Although to be fair Everton set up with the intentions of not conceding and we didn't do enough to break them down.

[Exiled_Rover]

Poor game, good result. It's unfortunate that Hull and Stoke both picked up wins, but we've done the business over the past week. If we continue in that vein we'll be fine.

[thenodrog]

Wiley didn't make a single bad decision tonight. If you think he did then lets hear what it was.

He had a poor 1st half and a good second half. Which is a 50% improvement on the last time I saw him.

[colin]

Just to comment on Jason Roberts' miss.

He wasn't just on his own against Tim Howard, he had Everton defenders really close on either side of him.

His final touch was constrained by them, so it's a bit unfair to suggest that he should have beaten Tim Howard. He was at full stretch.

I do wish he'd done it though.

Rubbish game.

Did Wiley book anyone?

[broadsword]

Rum do is Roberts. First of all he cannot score when he is 1 on 0 at Sunderland and then today he cannot round a keeper who has already gone to ground. I'm certain that prem keepers who do their homework simply know to go to ground when 1 on 1 with Roberts cos they know he will attempt a weak side foot EVERY FOOKIN TIME rather than hammer it, dink it over them or simply go around them!

Sad to say I do not even get near to the edge of my seat when he is 1 on 1 with the keeper.

Totally agreed.

Presumably this is worked on in training, if so, his mind must freeze on match day.

As soon as I saw him get into 18 yard box I said "bang it", but then he fart-arsed about, the keeper commits but he just seems like he has a magnetic attraction to the 'keeper.

It is incredibly frustrating to watch. I think he must have the footballing equivalent of teh yips, too scared to shoot early, so then he tries to do it too late. I don't think he's even thinking of rounding the 'keeper.

But really, who knows?

Roberts missed yet another one on one granted, but RSC was equally at fault, dragging a simple chance wide in the second half.

And a lame header from him in the first half, I seem to recall.