[Archived] Rovers v Wigan

[Bobby G]

Dunn literally touched the ball 3-4 times until stoppage time. One of the worst ineffective sub appearances for us.

[Mr. E]

How???

By disallowing Wigan's goal, which would have changed the game entirely.

[John]

Couple of really good chances which we squandered again today.

Important thing is the win though, the league table is very tight from 4th place downwards.

[joey_big_nose]

Phew. We won the must win.

Woo hoo!

I can't believe we won that - how awful were we in the second half? Allardyce needs to have a look at somehow getting three decent players in Jan (two if Goulon is any good). We don't have anyone who we can depend on to test the opposition defence. Roberts, Benjani, Emerton, Pedersen are all good workers and have qualities but are predictable and easy to deal with from a defensive point of view. A dynamic winger or a quality striker would make all the difference (ideally both....)

Looking at Bolton you can see how Lee, Holden and Petrov stretch teams in a way that we just can't do with the current personnel. We need that. You look at Wigan and they have Nzogbia, Birmingham have Hleb, Blackpool have Adam.

Hard to see where we are going to get goals from at the moment. Today we were gifted one by the keeper (although a great set piece by Pedersen who delivered well all game I thought), and Roberts was offside. And Wigan's defence was very poor imo.

Easily could have lost today. Hate to say it after a win but alarm bells are ringing for me.

[RibbleValleyRover]

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 which worked only this time due to what looked like an offside goal that went in our favour, what looked like a fair goal that was disallowed for Wigan and a rare bit of quality from Pedersen. We will have to see whether this result changes our season or is just merely papering over the cracks.

Happy with the points but the performance was in reality poor and the result so easily could have been a different story.

[Rover Down Under]

That really was a superb free kick and watching the higlights Peders played very well today, like the man of old. Who was MoM?

[bluefred]

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

Good day for us today elsewhere to be honest, bring on the Geordies.

we where lucky pal take those blue and white specs off

[hollowsr]

By disallowing Wigan's goal, which would have changed the game entirely.

ah yeah forgot about that..... still never mind eh!

[brian_gallagher85]

By disallowing Wigan's goal, which would have changed the game entirely.

He pulled our defender off the ball on his way to it. Stop you doom mongering and appreciate the 3 points, which we probably deserved from last week.

As for the lowest we've been, do you remember the "Ince era"?

[joey_big_nose]

Apart from the 3 points the one thing that has to be taken from the last two games is that we have to continue with TWO upfront.

We didn't play two up front. We were one up all the way through the game. I agree we should be at least giving it a go, but it didn't happen today.

[PAFELL]

we where lucky pal take those blue and white specs off

That is football. Chelsea were lucky last week. Rovers did not play brilliantly, yet still won. How often do we hear that a sign of a good side is when you play badly yet still win. I am not saying this applies here. Rovers won, 3pts, out the bottom 3, that is what I see through my blue and white specs. Rovers had not scored a goal in the second half at home this season, today they got two.

[brian_gallagher85]

Well at least we had two strikers on the pitch.

[Amo]

That really was a superb free kick and watching the higlights Peders played very well today, like the man of old. Who was MoM?

Really? Other than his fine free-kick, he looked poor again. It was his dawdling on the ball that gave Wigan their goal, as well. I don't believe there isn't anyone else who can play centre-mid.

[philipl]

Relief!

[Doaksie]

3 points secured. That was the sole objective from today's game.

I'll not say must-win, but regardless of how it was achieved I think we all know the win was massive today.

Get the win, build a bit of confidence and move on to the next game during the week with a bit more promise.

Job done.

Wigan are in the bottom three. Ask their fans if they would have liked an 'ugly' 3 points today..... Thought as much.

[PAFELL]

Well at least we had two strikers on the pitch.

Anybody know what happened to benjani? according to sky he stormed off down the tunnel, not happy and not injured.

[Darwen Rover]

Good result played badly but won...

However must say alarm bells are ringing for me. Apart from a game and a half we have even woeful this season..

[brian_gallagher85]

The Stoke fans must have the robe at the ready....

Wolves went to Old Trafford and played well despite missing a brilliant chance like we did last week against Chelsea.

We're now three points ahead of them and the same amount of points behind Bolton. The league is extremely tight this season and almost every team with the exception of Chelsea have been coincidently inconsistent all season!

[Amo]

Right now, the 3 points are all that matter. However, continue to play like we did and it'll be a loooooooooooooooong season.

[JohnD]

Relief!

Oh dear!

So it is true then..............

[martmitch]

Picked up the stream from about the 60th minute onwards, saw us hoofing for our lives and hanging on pretty much the remainder of the second half, complete opposite from the performance we saw last week which saw the champions only narrowly defeat us, for their free kick goal our wall let robinson down big time and dunn just took the award for miss of the season for me, much worse than roberts's miss last week

didnt get to see any of our goals so will look forward to match of the day, relieved to have another 3 points in the bag

[John]

Wigan appear to have some players of pace, power and flair but where it matters in the final third, they are not potent enough.

[MarkBRFC71]

Just got back. A very welcome but undeserved win as Wigan largely outplayed us. Karma paying us back from our undeserved defeat last week maybe?

Although the same players as last week were out on the pitch, there seemed to be a tactical shift to somewhere between hoofball and last weeks tactics against Chelsea, in that we stood off them far too much and played a good 10 yards more withdrawn, but at least we were trying to pass it when we could.

Wigan looked a far better footballing side than us, which I think is largely down to the respective managers' ethos and probably differing areas being focussed on in coaching rather than them having better players than us. Having said that, N'Zogbia looked by far the best player on the pitch today.

No-one really stood out for Rovers - in a good way! Jones got MOM and he was pretty energetic so prob just deserved it. MGP stood out by virtue of being simply awful, despite his goal which I think was a cross anyway. He's become basically a passenger, only in the team to take set-pieces - and even they are usually dire.

Oh well, it's 3 points when all is said and done - in our position, playing the way were are that's the single most important thing.

[Darwen Rover]

Robinson - 8 some excellent saves

Salgado - 8 showed his class

Nelson - 7 solid

Samba - 7 shakey and both brilliant at times

Givet - 7 solid but caught out of pos a few times

Jones 6 no midfielder thought his distribution was shocking today mom???

Pederson 6 great goal but so prone to awfulness it's embarrassing

Diouf 7 not one of his best games but solid enough

Emerton 6 poor overall but good ball for the goal

Benjani 7 some good vision and touches but what happened??

Subs

Roberts 6 poor on the whole, couldnt really miss the goal, even by his standards

Dunn 6 some good touches at the end

Chimbonda 5

[Look4Me]

Anybody know what happened to benjani? according to sky he stormed off down the tunnel, not happy and not injured.

He limped and could hardly run just before he was taken off, so if he wasn't injured, he pretended to be in a very convincing manner..