[Archived] Rovers v Wigan

[thenodrog]

I thought Emerton looked the best of a bad bunch, too.

Headless chicken who couldn't trap a wet sandbag today.

[Amo]

Headless chicken who couldn't trap a wet sandbag today.

Which says what about the rest of our midfield?

[brian_gallagher85]

did Roberts not smile when he scored because it was against his old club, or because he realizes how much he cost us vs Chelsea and that he needs to make up a lot more ground for that?

I thought it was more to do with the fact that he's been frozen out for the majority of the season. That's what the sky lot thought too.

[bazza]

For those who hated the performance; We played very well against Chelsea and got nothing. We played very poorly today and got something. The combination of playing well and winning would be great, but if not then the points count more than the performances at this stage of the season.

Sums it it up for me.

The only MOM for me was Robbo, although Nelsen had a reasonable game. The rest were below form.

[John]

Blackburn striker Jason Roberts admitted 'it wasn't a good thing' to have scored against his old club Wigan, but he had a job to do.

[RIML]

best way i can describe the game today was that we did, what we had to do!!

nelly was fantastic, as was salgado down the flank, supporting his midfielder and getting back into position. morten, well he was as per usual...not always what we watned from set peices, but his work rate as per usual is outstanding. while i am at it.....the geezer that was walking down the steps behind me at the end, is "whoops I missed off the "g" CLOWN".

100% pass completion, 100% tackle completion, he made three interceptions, two blocks and won a free kick, the only thing that let him down was his clearances, only seven successful and six unsuccessful.

But yeah I'd obviously have to agree with you that he was fantastic

[emerton]

im glad that im not the only one who thought phil jones hasn't been the motm in the last 2 home games despite getting the awards.

despite the performance im thrilled with 3 points; A result against newcastle would get some good momentum for us coming into spurs which will be tough

givet, nelsen or samba motm - no real creativity from midfield or up front to warrant the award to anyone else

[D-side17]

I can think of stronger. We did what we needed to, they look very poor.

If you thought Wigan looked poor, I'm intrigued to know what you thought we looked.

Who cares if it was deserved - it's three points.

We'd played some blinders this season and come away with nothing.

Please would you refresh my memory as to the "blinders" that we have played this season.

Lucky, but never undeserved and even if it was United won title after title with games like that.

So our win was "lucky" but "never undeserved"? Not sure how at that works. I'm afraid it was both lucky and undeserved.

And RFW must have taken some unfair abuse in his time, but to suggest that Man United won title after title playing like that must be one of the biggest insults he's ever had to endure.

Id rather have scruffy wins every week than good performances and zero points.

Football's a funny old game.

Unfortunately, we aren't going to get lucky with "scruffy" wins like that every week. Admittedly, we've had our fair share of luck this season with own goals and goalkeeper mistakes going in our favour but that cannot continue I'm afraid. I'm delighted with the three points but I'm also realistic enough to realise that today's perfomance is the major concern. If we hope to stay up this season, we will need to finish above Wigan - based on the two teams' performances today, that is far from guaranteed. Going to watch Rovers is increasingly hard work.

Finally, who keeps picking the Man Of The Match awards? Surely it must be Phil Jones's mum. I'm not saying that he's playing badly but to suggest he's been our best player for the last two homes games is ridiculous. He continues to perform as well as a promising young centre-half can be expected to perform when he's played out of position in midfield.

[Amo]

I wouldn't be surprised of Phil Jones' MOTM awards are simply a PR exercise, especially with rumours circulating about his future.

[Weazle]

is it me, but we struggled to pass and move. i know in the past we just tried to play the long ball and today we tried to keep it on the floor. but wigan looked alot sharper and seemed to want to win more. and were unlucky with the goal that wasnt given.still a good 3 points.

[John]

Out of interest, who was the lady sitting beside Sam today in the stands?

[grizfoot]

The all important three points, no easy games in this league, football is a result business are just three footballing cliches you could throw at today's game but in no way can you hide the fact that we very poor for large chunks of the game. After the impressive, spirited, uncharacteristic attacking performance against Chelsea I came into this game with hope and belief that if we played in a similiar fashion we should dispose of Wigan easily. But being the case with Rovers I go away from the game feeling less confident for the future than I did after the Chelsea defeat.

First of all I know Wigan are a decent passing side and do like to keep possession, but at times today we made them look like Barcelona. Their players were quicker, more composed on the ball and generally just looked more comfortable in possession of the ball. The counter-arguement of course is that we set out our stall to defend deep and thus allowing Wigan possession of the football in their own-half and only really start pressing the play on the edge of our own half. Not exactly brilliant to watch (especially at home) but you could argue we restricted Wigan to very few clear chances on goal, but there was a few scary moments: the disallowed goal and the cross that went across the front of goal in the second half spring to mid. Wigan must be left wondering how they didn't get something from this game, our two goals came out of nothing really. Pedersen scoring from a whipped in free-kick (not one of thoose silly floating ones that we usually insist on) and Roberts converting a chance even he couldn't miss on the counter-attack after a brilliant through ball from Salgado. You could say we also had two other decent chances despite our apparent lack of grip on the midfield with the Pedersen header and the David Dunn Roberts-esque miss late on.

All in all a win for the Big Sam brand of football, let the other team have the ball and hit them on the break and with set-pieces. It worked today in the sense it got three points but I don't think anyone came away from the game feeling like we played brilliantly. The lack of quality in midfield was apparent, I'd question the sponsors MotM award that went to Jones he offered very little but pure work-rate in my opinion, much like Emerton in that sense really. Pedersen has 20 bad minute for every 5 good minutes he has, thought he played some good passes today at times (the one to put Diouf-Mk2 through first half stands out), but his lack of physcial strength was clear to see against a strong and techinical Wigan midfield that bossed the game. Both Diouf-Mk1 and Diouf Mk-2 were shocking and looked completely different players from the Chelsea game, Diouf-Mk1 didn't look fully fit to me though. The only good performances from today came in defence, thought Nelsen was superb and he'd get my vote for MotM, although to be fair the entire back four and Robbo performed well to prevent Wigan scoring with plenty of blocks and good tackles.

To conclude Wigan aren't as poor as some people would have you believe and they proved there's no easy game in this league. We didn't play well but football is a results business and we got the all important three points in the end and that's all that really matters (or does it?).

[nicko]

I don't go for stats much, but the possession figures are extraordinary...65-35 in favour of Wigan...sheesh.

[John]

The media like to say we are physical but we really lack any presence, particularly in the midfield.

Pedersen gets barged off the ball too easily, Emerton works hard and Jones likes to put challenges in however we don't have anyone who is really imposing.

Along with having little attacking flair apart from Diouf, it is a sad (and slightly worrying) state of affairs, but it has been like this for while now, having a gash midfield.

[benhben]

35% posession at home to wigan!

Good result be we are lacking so much quality its unbelievable, one of those is the manager (at the moment). To be fair hes never had a good squad to work with, but Im unsure whether he would change his tactics with even a squad like madrid

[Jeru tha Damaja]

I don't go for stats much, but the possession figures are extraordinary...65-35 in favour of Wigan...sheesh.

Where's that stat from? The BBC had it 49-51.

[Hughesy]

Wigan reminded me of everton....good ability on the ball, but short of ideas & not much of a threat where it counts....we seemed comfortable with them I thought, although you could sense abit of nerves around the last 10 mins.

Jones MOM??? WTF - sorry but that a joke, probably one of his weakest games....Id have probably gone with Robbo or Salgado....Emerton/ Samba & Nelsen also did pretty well.

Would have like to see Goulon replace Jones today.

MGP was unlucky not to have 2 goals, as he made an excellent header from a pin-point cross. Roberts did the best he could to miss his chance.

Dunn did very little when he came on, other than miss a sitter after Chimbonda teed him up.

3 VITAL points....SUPER team talk by Sam at Half-time

[JAL]

Thats the best we are going to be unless theres some new talent coming in. People need to get used to that fact buying two useless central midfielders from the previous management regime has certainly handicapped the club greatly.

As of now we are having to see a young promising centre half in the central midfield position alongside a left winger in a similar central position, all because the @#/? manager before was way, way, way, out of his depth when he went and bought his two numpties.

The academy should have by now been producing a couple of central midfielders along with a couple of young strikers but they have'nt, so its lets give credit to the players currently going out there and doing their very best for the team and club.

As the current back four and goalie are now most definitely solid foundations on which any team CAN be built on.

[bazza]

Blackburn striker Jason Roberts admitted 'it wasn't a good thing' to have scored against his old club Wigan, but he had a job to do.

What a load of rubbish. Roberts deliberately tried to hit the ball well wide of the post. THAT IS WHY HE SCORED!!

[PAFELL]

I don't go for stats much, but the possession figures are extraordinary...65-35 in favour of Wigan...sheesh.

All the stats had wigan having the best of the possession. But the stat that matters was the 2 1 Rovers win. It is ironic, last week Rovers played the best game for ages, yet lost. Today they played badly, yet won. The swings and roundabouts of football.

[Amo]

All the stats had wigan having the best of the possession. But the stat that matters was the 2 1 Rovers win. It is ironic, last week Rovers played the best game for ages, yet lost. Today they played badly, yet won. The swings and roundabouts of football.

People keep saying that, but we were playing Chelsea. Many a team has outplayed the Top Four only to come away pointless. They have the quality and the cutting edge when it matters.

[JAL]

What a load of rubbish. Roberts deliberately tried to hit the ball well wide of the post. THAT IS WHY HE SCORED!!

.....and whats your take on David Dunns miss at the end.

[cravenblue]

.....and whats your take on David Dunns miss at the end.

It was s@@t

[Plastic Head]

I see another manager has today claimed the their team's defeat was partly down to the "physical battle" you have at Ewood.

WHAT??? PHYSICAL BATTLE??

Lazy comments, lame excuses and lazy journalism not to challenge them. We couldn't have been less physical today if we tried.

We didn't even have an aerial presence apart from Samba.

If we are going to play the way the manager wants at least have:

a) Tough tackling players who can win the ball back when we (continually) give it away.

b ) Several players over 2 metres who can head the ball.

c) Someone who can take free kicks and corners properly.

d) Rory Delap.

[47er]

Wigan will feel hard done by, outplayed us as the stats show and were unlucky not to get anything from this game.

This game has shown to me that Sam hasn't learned from the Chelsea game, we went back to the usual dross

Perhaps someone forgot to tell Sam that the new owners were watching!