[Archived] Birmingham Preview

[Nelsta]

Ok then i hope its bad luck rather than poor finishing.

[Tango]

Didn't deserve to lose based on the overall performance and chances created. Seems our away hoodoo continues.

[Amo]

Didn't deserve to lose based on the overall performance and chances created. Seems our away hoodoo continues.

When you defend like we did for their goals, you deserve what you get.

Also, 'away hoodoo' suggests some kind of bad luck. We're simply not good enough on the road.

[RevidgeBlue]

If you don't take your chances at this level you get punished.

Missing a penalty and a free header from six yards is inexcusable. No point whinging about bad luck etc.

That said in my opinion I think people have to realise we've a pretty poor squad and without a takeover Sam will be doing very well to keep us up. So we aren't going to be going away from home and winning every other week.

[Nelsta]

You bet though we'll have a game we deserve to loose and we'll get the win.just got my fingers crossed for another striker and another midfielder pretty sharpish.

[Mattyblue]

If you don't take your chances at this level you get punished.

Missing a penalty and a free header from six yards is inexcusable. No point whinging about bad luck etc.

That said in my opinion I think people have to realise we've a pretty poor squad and without a takeover Sam will be doing very well to keep us up. So we aren't going to be going away from home and winning every other week.

Disagree that this squad is relegation fodder.

Looking at Wigan, Blackpool, The Geordie Nation, West Brom, West Ham etc we will be fine.

Today was far better than some of the utter @#/? served up away last season.

[darwenblueswearehere]

Its important not to over react to today's result. Looking at one or two other teams we will be comfortably mid table so losing the odd game is nothing to worry about too much. Don't sweat the small stuff, we are in better shape now than we were this time last year, with the potential cash injection to look forward to as well. Nobody likes losing, but everybody has to endure it, especially away from home from time to time.

Just think how Wigan and West Ham fans must be feeling right now, and to a lesser degree, Stoke and Sunderland.....

[thenodrog]

That was ugly, long ball after long ball, If Sam cant get the team playing some sort of football, rather than just hitting it in the box, then he wont be spending to much of the £80-£100 million he MIGHT be getting. With Sam's tactics a 2M player or a 20M player would do the same job, hit it in the box and try to score

Brum equalised from a long punt and knock down. I don't suppose their fans will be too displeased with the manner of that goal.

[DE.]

First half was a pretty dire affair but we were the better team, second half was better and again we were the more dangerous of the two teams. We shouldn't have lost, had bad luck, etc etc, but how many times have we said this in the past? At some point it goes beyond bad luck and becomes an ineptitude that seemingly hasn't been addressed over the summer.

Admittedly it's only the second game of the season, however, as neither our team nor our tactics have changed greatly since last season it seems prudent to assume most of the problems from last season have continued onto this.

Tactically, I don't think you can really argue against Allardyce today. There were some decisions that to me were odd - Jones playing midfield, Pedersen taking penalties - but we were the superior team for the vast majority of the game and looked the most likely to win. Based on that you have to say the tactics are working. People who are saying Birmingham were sh!t today are absolutely right, they were dire. However, we were better and as long as we play better than the opposition we should pick up the win - or at the very least a draw.

Unfortunately, what Sam can't account for is individual errors. These have cost us so much over the past couple of seasons that it's gone from being amusing to just depressing. Whether it's simple misses in front of goal or sloppy defending/goalkeeping, Allardyce simply cannot account for these types of mistakes. Pedersen missing a penalty or Robbo letting in a goal he should save is out of his hands. I'm sure his instructions were not to let Craig Gardner of all people waltz through out midfield a la Micah Richards and belt a ball towards the goal, but the players allowed him to do it anyway. I'm sure Allardyce is as frustrated as the rest of us at these silly errors, but what do you do? We've known for some time the players in our squad - particularly away from home - are unreliable and prone to mistakes that cost us. The team hasn't really changed much in the past couple of seasons so the issue has never been resolved. I'm not sure that with the current crop of players there's a solution, really. We just have to hope and pray that when we're in front in future the players don't decide to balls everything up.

This loss hurts more because we should never have lost in the first place. At least if we deserve to lose the venting can be justified, but it just feels wrong to be angry at the players when we should have won and we for the most part played well (or at least to our strengths). If we play this well against an average team and still lose, how will we fare when the players have an off day and don't turn up? A point should have been minimum today based on ours and Brum's performance... absolutely gutted we gifted them a victory.

[Metaler]

Brum equalised from a long punt and knock down. I don't suppose their fans will be too displeased with the manner of that goal.

Rovers cleared first, Birmingham played the ball back in and scored,

They won so your right, I don't suppose their fans will be too displeased with the manner of that goal.

[thenodrog]

If you don't take your chances at this level you get punished.

Missing a penalty and a free header from six yards is inexcusable. No point whinging about bad luck etc.

Haven't seen the header but the pen was very well struck and credit must go to a blinding save by the keeper rather than any criticism for MGP. If I have a niggle his run up was a little too angled (he needs to straighten it a bit) and based on that he'd have been better hitting it in the other corner. Also hitting a post is unfortunate rather than poor play.

Our defeat today was not down to those two but rather down to sloppy Sunday school defending. The rocks that Evertons ship foundered on last week turned into pebbles this week.

Salgado inexplicably choosing to mark a corner flag instead of McFadden was an amateurish mistake whilst the entire midfield and defence were bang to rights guilty of allowing Gardner all the space and time needed to turn and hit a low scuffy shot in Robinsons direction. He really does go down slower than the Titanic when he has time to think.

BUT this was our old failing of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! Just wouldn't be us otherwise would it?

[Exiled_Rover]

It's a good job I'm concentrating more on singing than the games this year because the football is ######.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Three points thrown away by the sound of it...the sooner this takeover is done and the sooner we can buy some QUALITY the better!

[Clitherover]

Or ###### it against a wall.

Patience is a virtue.

[Ricky]

That was me sounding like a bit of a plank on 5live by the way.

Not sure how we lost that game to be fair, thought we played pretty well and should have been 2 or 3 to the good before they scored.

Thought emerton looked average when he came on and gamst was frustrating. El hadj looked lively again. 2 good games on the bounce from him

[beerwins]

We must involve Olsson more, he is floating in and out of games. We must use his speed to get in behind defences and support Kalinic more.

Out of all the players we have I think Olsson is one player who's attacking game could come on in leaps and bounds with the right tutoring, at the moment he is suffering the MGP left winger curse of dissapearing mid game.

Oh and *waves bye to another argument obsessed new member.

[Ewood Spark]

That was me sounding like a bit of a plank on 5live by the way.

Not sure how we lost that game to be fair, thought we played pretty well and should have been 2 or 3 to the good before they scored.

Thought emerton looked average when he came on and gamst was frustrating. El hadj looked lively again. 2 good games on the bounce from him

I heard you Ricky ... and thought you came across very well ... once again though the lazy compare started to roll out the old 'it must be so hard to attract players to Blackburn' line. So well done to Robbie Savage for sticking up for us and pointing out that we are surrounded by beautiful countryside.

[Parsonblue]

I must admit that I have travelled back from Birmingham and still don't know how we managed to lose that game. It is a long while since I have seen a Rovers team look so comfortable away from home. Even after the penalty miss, I still felt it was only a matter of time before we broke them down. Foster was in outstanding form in goal for them while our own defence looked fairly untroubled for virtually all of the first half.

Kalinic was unfortunate with an effort that hit the post - it's uncanny how a player can find the woodwork as often has he does, surely his luck must start to change soon.

I felt we were caught out for their first goal as Jones had only just returned to the pitch after an injury and we seemed a man light on the right of defence which enabled the Brum player to move into the area before getting in his cross.

I would need to see the second goal again but from where I was sat I don't think Robinson covered himself in glory on that one. He seemed to dive too late and didn't seem to cover the path of the ball.

Two errors and we paid a heavy price.

I felt we played some decent football at times today. I was very impressed with the performance of El-Hadji Diouf who looked a class act throughout. He retained possession, got in some decent crosses and won a number of free-kicks in both attack and defence. Nelsen and Samba again showed that they are our best partnership in the centre of defence and I thought Salgado and Givet defended well. Kalinic worked hard up front and I thought this was one of his better performances in the lone front runner role. I also thought that Derbyshire was excellent when he came on. He was full of running and started to give us problems as we pushed forward looking for an equaliser.

I felt it was a very good team performance but, unfortunately, the two errors we made cost us the points.

[Blue blood]

Just got back from Birmingham, incredibly frustrated at how we somehow managed to loose this game. Goodness knows how Birmingham have the unbeaten home record that they do, they were nothing special and looked distinctly average at best.

I was suprised at how open the game was. I thought it would be a really cagey game, but it was relitavely open, with both teams having chances (although few good chances). I thought rovers had the better of the first 20-25 minutes and bossed brum, creating a few chances and restricting Birmingham to aimless punts forward. We faded as the half went on and Birmingham came back into it, but a stronger finish to the half left me encouraged that we were in good shape for at least a point.

The penalty changed the game imo. Don't think it was a good penalty by Pedersen, a nice hight and too close to the keeper, but equally damaging was that it knocked the stuffing out of Peds. Up until then I thought he had been excellent, with some nice passes, but afterwards was rather more out of the game.

Credit for the team keeping going, and a good goal. However conceding as quickly as we did afterwards was criminal, and manner in which we did even more so. To be fair with Jones off injured there were probably a bit of confusion as to who was marking whom, but leaving two men in the penalty area unmarked after a free kick was asking for trouble, and Birmingham duely punnished us.

The second, I thought Robbo was a tad unlucky with the bounce, it bobbled awkwardly for him, but really their player should have been closed down long before he shot. After that Rovers panicked and just started hoofing it forward. I've no problem with the long ball game, and up until the goal for us, it was working fine. But there is a marked difference between us keeping it tight and waiting to release players at the right moment, as we did prior to our goal, and the aimless punts forward at the first opportunity. As it was, we still might have got something if we'd have been a bit sharper at our set pieces (one Foster flap falling to Pedersen in particular) but the way we played after going behind just smacked of desperation and a team that had run out of ideas.

Player wise I thought Diouf had a good game, and I was also pleasantly suprised by Salgado. I thought Kalinic worked his socks off, and until the penalty Pedersen looked good. I thought Olsson had an off day, and Jones and N'Zonzi though protecting the defence well, perhaps didn't contribute enough going forwards to relieve the pressure on Peds, Diouf and Kalanic to produce. The team is really crying out for another creative midfielder, and I feel with a bit more guile in the centre of the park we'd have probably had 3 points.

[American Rover12]

As I said earlier, it wasn't bad luck. He should have buried it.

I really think Samba barging into him caused the miss. The same way a defender would have had to give him just a bump to put him off, Samba turned him at the last moment at that pushed his header wide. Really unlucky.

[super_arran]

.

I also thought that Derbyshire was excellent when he came on. He was full of running and started to give us problems as we pushed forward looking for an equaliser.

How was his reception from our end?

[insert joke here]

[cn174]

How was his reception from our end?

[insert joke here]

Yea he got a good reception. Quite a lot of 'Matty is a Rover' chants, and he reluctantly waved to us whilst he warmed up.

[Ricky]

Excellent reception for derbs from the rovers fans. He did give a sly wave when prompted during his warm up.

[John]

Sam on creativity....

Allardyce was irked by the suggestion that Rovers missed David Dunn's creative flair after the midfielder sat out a return to his former club with a groin injury.

When asked if the Ewood Park club needed to bring in new additions to support Nikola Kalinic: "You must have been at a different game!

"If you look at the amount of attempts we had in their box, it's far greater than Birmingham City's."

[Blue blood]

Sam on creativity....

Allardyce was irked by the suggestion that Rovers missed David Dunn's creative flair after the midfielder sat out a return to his former club with a groin injury.

When asked if the Ewood Park club needed to bring in new additions to support Nikola Kalinic: "You must have been at a different game!

"If you look at the amount of attempts we had in their box, it's far greater than Birmingham City's."

Must be just mind games. Obvious to everyone we missed a really good passer of the ball. Added to which we do need cover for Kalinic.

Mind you Sam can't say that, especially with us still being penniless. Yep I need a creative mid and a striker and I've one week to get them in, is hardly a winning bargaining position - especially with a budget like ours.

If it isn't mind games though heaven help us...