[Archived] Rovers Vs Sunderland - Dec 28Th Preview (Well Sort Of...)

[martmitch]

how how

[Eddie]

Amazing save...then amazing miss.

[RibbleValleyRover]

What a save, Samba misses though.

[beerwins]

OMFG !!!! I dribbled in my pants a bit right there!

We are so much better as an attacking force than a controlling one.

[Miker]

WHY THE (Please don't use that word again) ARE WE NOT UP BY NOW!?

[Majiball]

I really don't like the way our luck in front of goal is going recently.

[BPF]

The Peterbrough V Cardiff match is incredible

[Sysagent]

Heh Peds gets man of the match and finishes 2 - 2

[G Somerset Rover]

2-2. Should have won but didnt. We had injuries but they had half their squad out.

This could end up proving a very costly 2 points dropped. 8 games without a win.

Gutted.

[Majiball]

Disappointing result really think we should have won that.

[Mr. E]

I'm about to break something.

We have a chance to win it right at the end, where it's easier to score than to miss, and once again frak it up. This hasn't just happened a few times this season, this seems to be happening time and time and time again without fail. The safest position for the ball to be for the opposition at the end of the game seems to be on their goaline, because we refuse to score no matter what happens.

I don't care who saved what, I don't care bad luck or not. Utterly fed up.

[RoverRich]

Di Santo and Kalinic showed in that last 10mins why they should be starting together. Both of them did so much more than Roberts did and were unlucky not to score. I really cannot believe how we didn't score a third. We should have won that game but no, we draw YET AGAIN!!!

[martmitch]

seeing this as a rather massive 2 points lost, great to see us come back twice but even tho samba's one of my fav players i'm cursing his name tonight

[Steve Moss]

A point is better than nothing. On the other hand, we are now officially on track for 39.9 points, averaging 1.05 points per game. We need some wins.

[Eddie]

MGP deserved MOTM, a very good performance from him once he got that very good goal. We looked so much better once we upped the tempo and went for it. We kept the ball down, got the ball wide, ran at them and created chances. Yet again it took us going behind to knock us into action, but I fear it will ever be thus under Allardyce.

Diouf, Kalinic and Di Santo did well when they came on. Special mention to Andrews, who I thought had a good game. Couple good shots (could have gone with his head for his best chance), but he also did a good job picking the ball up in front of our back four and played some nice passes. Hoilett and Benni did ok, but they suffered from the fact that they played when the team was just lumping balls forward. Roberts was useless. Won a few free kicks but gave the ball away and brought many attacks to an end.

Back four did OK, although it was terrible defending for their first goal. Robinson might have been able to do better when dealing with the ball in and maybe even could have saved the second, but neither can be blamed on him; made one very good safe to keep us in the game at 2-1.

Overall we got to see a first half of why everything was wrong and about 30 minutes looking at how good this current squad could be if they tried to play in the right way.

A game like today makes it plainly obvious that our problems aren't all down to a lack of quality, much of it is down to the instructions and team selection.

[RibbleValleyRover]

I know some people will say we were unlucky not to win with some of those chances near the end. However until the 52nd minute we didn't turn up, the football was absolutely dire with no attacking threat. We should have been going into this game looking to give Sunderland a real go, considering all their injuries and dire away form instead it took a Sunderland goal to wake up.

Kalinic and Di Santo showed more of an attacking threat in their cameos than Roberts did for the time he was on the pitch. Its time to play both of them.

[roversnick]

i've only just got back and seen the result

i can't quite understand sams logic in that first 11. this is happening more and more lately, is he losing the plot?

jacobsen, kalanic / di santo & salgado should all have started ahead of nelsen, andrews & roberts

[j166429]

We're making too many draws against teams we should be beating. It's not good enough and is not consistent with Sam's strategy of winning our winnable games.

[Bobby G]

Kalinic with the header that was saved somehow by Fulop. The guy is unlucky.

I am so gutted that we didnt win this game against an injury-ravaged side.

Way too many draws puts us under a lot of pressure in the second half of the season. Theoretically we need 7 wins.

[philipl]

Comes to something when a crowd of 25,656 is disappointing.

[RoverRich]

We are still only 2 points from 10th position and would be there tonight if we had managed to score another goal. So not only are we not taking our chances on the pitch, we are not taking our chances to prosper in the league. Top half is being dangled in front of us but we are not reaching out and taking it. Saying that though, we are yet to win in 8 and not playing as well as we can but still close to the top half so that is not too bad. As you can tell, I am not looking down, only upwards. We are closer to the top half than the relegation zone so we need to start making the most of our opportunities

[Bobby G]

Next up Man City away.

[ROVERS]

perderson had a twin brother or did sam allardye actually made 4 substitutions???? simply amazing stuff from him after 52mins.................... he scores, he defends, he makes amazing crosses and his free kicks actually hits the target....... magical.......

[Bobby G]

He is a confidence player. I think he loved that goal. Its been a while since we saw the fire in his play and tonight after the goal he was different quality and a much deserved man of the match award.

[Amo]

Although we came back twice from behind, I would certainly consider this points dropped. Sunderland were there for the taking, and if only for some clinical finishing and tighter defending we should have nicked it. The first half was a diabolical spectacle for fan and neutral alike, and it wasn't until we went 1-0 down that any urgency was inserted into our play. I also share Eddie's cynicism, because the long ball percentage game is clearly not working for our players. When we actually try to string passes together and get the ball out wide, things happen.

I'm also holding Robinson responsible for the second goal. Didn't get down quick enough, simple as that. But hey, he can boot the ball 70 yards on a regular basis, so that's all that matters!

Roberts showed why he's sub material, AT BEST. He tussles and wrestles but lacks any sort of quality needed at this level.

Both Nzonzi and Andrews were wasteful when presented with a shot at goal.

Pedersen picked up after his well-taken goal, which hopefully means he'll have a suitor in January.

Kalinic & Di Santo need a consistent run together, but you get the feeling Sam is picking names from a hat.