[Archived] Blackburn Rovers v Birmingham City 9th April 2011

[Mattyblue]

We have no strikers who have form/quality/a face that fits, ergo this is going to be a hell of a struggle.

Complete joke we are in this situation.

[Mercer]

Predicted 1-1 with my head yesterday and let my heart takeover today and put money on us to win.

What a very strange afternoon.

Kean shot himself in the foot yet again. No Givet on bench, no Kalinic. So, Nelsen gets injured and instead of being able to bring Givet on, we have to move our driving force, Phil Jones, in midfield back. We need a goal - RSC useless, past it and collecting the dosh, leaving us with the dynamic duo of Benjani & Roberts.

The one player who excites is Hoilett, our only real threat. He will be a huge miss and if he's out for a month, our last chance has gone.

The supporters have been great with no one really turning on the players or Kean but there is a strange feeling, IMO, with a resignation that perhaps we are doomed.

So more evidence today of Kean's totally inept management. Haven't won in 9, don't look like winning and some horrific games to come. Final proof, if needed, that our transfer window has been, IMO, a disaster.

No doubt, we will hear the usual shyte, "fighting back, great commitment and spirit in the group, take the positives, unbeaten in three, we have momentum".

We are now a sad joke.

[tony gale's mic]

We have no strikers who have form/quality/a face that fits, ergo this is going to be a hell of a struggle.

Complete joke we are in this situation.

I'd kill for a struggle right now.

But with no wins since January, it seems like we're just giving in.

[rog of the rovers]

more crap served up again today. To many has beens in the side. Kean clueless. Sick and tired of the crap he picks. had enough. A dead cert for relegation.

Any team that cant beat Blackpool and Brum at home have no chance of staying up.

Kean is the worst manager rovers have had since Jim Iley. Anyone remeber him?

Get lost Kean.

Rant over. Not going anymore. Forty years and I am done.

Godd bye and God bless you all

Bye, close the door on your way out.

[imy9]

Not to harp on too much about the refs but you can look at the last 3 games and see how decisions have gone against us and cost us. We are fighting for every point, we need stick together.

[Mercer]

Bye, close the door on your way out.

You are missing the point - there are lots and lots of supporters feeling this way. This is not the exception but more the rule now.

[ross-shire rover]

My wife and daughter left at halftime and played outside, think they had the best idea to be fair!!

Why didn't you send them down to the Rovers dugout and our manager could have gone home early ? We might have got a win ! Or better still your wife could have gone on as a striker with her Mrs Clarke shirt. She couldn't have done much worse.

[tony gale's mic]

Not to harp on too much about the refs but you can look at the last 3 games and see how decisions have gone against us and cost us. We are fighting for every point, we need stick together.

We have still got the result in each game that our play deserved.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I've never been so frustrated watching a Rovers side.All the hard work from last week has now been undone for me,we needed the three points SO badly today anything else would hurt us SO much!

Cruz is not recieving any support upfront whatsoever he cant hold the line by himself and frankly looks a shadow of the player we sold to City.Hoilett took his goal beatifully,a real shining light in a horrible season,just hope to God his injury is not serious.

For all our huff and puff we once again could not find that winning goal,lets face the facts in the cold light of day,we're not scoring enough goals...we're not winning enough games.I'm really worried now,fate really does seem to be conspiring against us.

Great crowd in attendance on a sunny afternoon but the fans alone cant get us out of this mess,all we can do is pray and hope we can get some fluke results..............................

P.S.

Whoever voted Dunny as MOTM had been clearly on the lash since the early hrs of this morning,JOKE!

He's the only thing that stands between us and relegation.

Hoilett stands out like nothing else in our side,the ONLY player who possesses the ability to run with the ball and attack goal.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Not making enough chances for our technically limited " strikers " to turn into goals, not enough players with the X factor at this level. When we signed Formica that should have been a straight replacement for Dunny who could have gone into the team that weekend.

[Exiled_Rover]

I've never been so frustrated watching a Rovers side.All the hard work from last week has now been undone for me,we needed the three points SO badly today anything else would hurt us SO much!

Cruz is not recieving any support upfront whatsoever he cant hold the line by himself and frankly looks a shadow of the player we sold to City.Hoilett took his goal beatifully,a real shining light in a horrible season,just hope to God his injury is not serious.

For all our huff and puff we once again could not find that winning goal,lets face the facts in the cold light of day,we're not scoring enough goals...we're not winning enough games.I'm really worried now,fate really does seem to be conspiring against us.

Great crowd in attendance on a sunny afternoon but the fans alone cant get us out of this mess,all we can do is pray and hope we can get some fluke results..............................

P.S.

Whoever voted Dunny as MOTM had been clearly on the lash since the early hrs of this morning!

Hoilett stands out like nothing else in our side,the ONLY player who possesses the ability to run with the ball and attack goal.

Olsson has that ability too, but sadly he's confined to left back. We'd be a much better team with Olsson and Hoilett on the wings.

[chaddyrovers]

Depressed, considering our apparent/alleged situation:

1. Owners who have managed to get 3/4 of transfers WRONG, if the objective was to help us stay up this season.

2. Novice manager who seems on track to do worse than Ince.

3. Senior players running the show.

4. Our best striker and left defender (who could free up Olsen) AWOL.

5. No chairman.

6. Difficult run in, based on performances since January.

I hate that our survival depends on three teams performing worse than our current underachieving squad. It's depressing.

I totally agree! Since the owners came in it has been a totally mess! they sacked SA(who i would kept) and had no plan who to bring in. SK talk the talk to get the job! His record is worse than Paul Ince!

The transfers have not been good enough. JJ has been decent! RR and MF we haven't see then so why did we sign them? RSC is just not good enough and we should have never sign him.

[toetoe]

Benjani deserves more chances, nice performance from him today. Dunn were alright.

Foy had a bad day, but with 3 or 4 Birmingham players in his face on every single decision he made, its hard not to be influences. FA must do something about players trying to influence referees.

[Sysagent]

Going down.

Ref was abyssmal.

Send Santa Cruz back to City and save us 90K a week.

Today it dawned on me that yes we are that toothless up front that the inevitable is going to happen (hope I am wrong but I cannot see it changing).

In the last twenty minutes of the game I sat silent, emotionless, not despondent just resigned to it all and how bad where Birmingham, if we cannot beat teams as poor and cynical as that God help us in the Championship.

[gumboots]

Benjani deserves more chances, nice performance from him today. Dunn were alright.

Foy had a bad day, but with 3 or 4 Birmingham players in his face on every single decision he made, its hard not to be influences. FA must do something about players trying to influence referees.

Foy was quite definitely the worst ref I've seen at Ewood in a long time. When he booked our player in the first minute I actually began to wonder if there was any truth in the conspiracy theories that say the refs have been told to let us go down because it's easier all round if we do. Was there a decision he actually got right. I felt that if he could have done so he would have disallowed our goal. That said we didn't do enough to win, but it's so frustrating to see him letting Birmingham get away with murder and penalising us for everything. It clearly seemed a case of one rule for us and one for them, and we were the home side.

[Clitherover]

What was with the Brummies singing ''You've won f*** all'' are they as pig ###### thick as their accents suggests?

Was a poor result against a poor team but i think we'll survive the drop by the skin of our teeth.

[Hughesy]

Once again - shocking, poor referring cost us a goal, and almost another from their freekick on the edge of the box.

Dunn was quite good in the 2nd half to be fair.

Hoilett the main man AGAIN!!

RSC & Gamst did didly squat.

We need to get Givet back @ left back to allow us to play Olsen on the left win & hoilett on the right.

Benjani for me is a better option that Roberts....as is Mame. Whilst a point isnt really much, we are now effectively 2 games infront of the bottom 3 thanks to our better GD.

[Stavros_BRFC]

Very disappointed, once again this season. Although fixtures come slowly to the end and as long as we still are above the relegation zone I am positive, that we will be in the premier next year

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

What was with the Brummies singing ''You've won f*** all'' are they as pig ###### thick as their accents suggests?

..And calling our support?.Confirmation they are unrivalled in their backwardness.

[cn174]

Once again - shocking, poor referring cost us a goal, and almost another from their freekick on the edge of the box.

Hughsey, whilst i agree that the ref was a pile of turd, i think the freekick when they hit post was a foul.

But however bad the ref was, rovers were worse, first half we were all over the show, second half just lacked ideas especially when hoilett went off. If we are to stay up we really need to be beating the likes of brum at home.

[grizfoot]

That game was largely a non-event in my opinion. Whilst players weren't receiving treatment for head injuries the ball was simply being punted in the air from box to box, the hoofball is well and truely back. In all honesty that really was the only way we looked like scoring. Our only bright spark once was against Holiett who seems to have more quality in an attacking sense than the rest of the team put together. Dunn tried to get things going in the second half but there was no real urgencey in my opinion. People might think a point is a bad result but it's a lot better than a defeat, yes a win would have been great but a draw isn't the end of the world just yet. Birmingham are just as bad as us to be fair and offer nothing but hard-work and a half-decent defense. The teams belows us in the league are no better than us either, I'm still confident we'll pick up enough points in the remaining games.

One final topic to finish on, the referee. I don't like blaming the referees all the time but this one today really took the biscuit from the moment he booked Olsson for a tackle within the first two minutes I could feel a bad performance coming and he didn't disappoint. He ruined the flow of the game too often and was just all-round poor to be fair.

[tony gale's mic]

People might think a point is a bad result but it's a lot better than a defeat, yes a win would have been great but a draw isn't the end of the world just yet. Birmingham are just as bad as us to be fair and offer nothing but hard-work and a half-decent defense. The teams belows us in the league are no better than us either, I'm still confident we'll pick up enough points in the remaining games.

The teams below us in the league are better than us, that's the point.

Form is the all important thing at this stage of the season, and with the exception of Blackpool, everyone is in better form than us. Wigan, Wolves and West Ham have all won 2 out of their last 6. We haven't won in 9.

If we can't beat Blackpool or Birmingham at home, where do you suspect we might pick up a win? Maybe against City? Or away to Everton?

[imy9]

..And calling our support?.Confirmation they are unrivalled in their backwardness.

No need to get so personal

[Majiball]

Well first and foremost it was good to meet philipl and Bob Fleming today. Bob your driveways mine now chap!!! I've gone of walking up the hill all you end up doing is thinking about the game.

We didn't lose has to be the first thing we take from this and yet again we've comeback from behind. But we have to become far more cohesive as a team, today Brum came to ask us to break them down and we struggled. Brums second half tactics didn't help not one of those players was injured, they were instructed to stay down to break up the game. We needed to stretch them and today we missed so many opportunities to switch the play especially second half, but instead we were always trying to force it down one side. One thing for me really stands out when you watch from the JW as you have a cracking view of everything. Our technical area provides nothing to the players, no I'm not beating Kean as we have more than one coach at the club. If you watched the Brum technical area, Mcleish was always stood there with up to 2 coaches. All of them were giving instructions, telling the players what they should have done and so on. We didn't do this, at one point I'm sure Jones was saying to kean that the strikers needed to split more but the message (he nodded to me that means he agrees) didn't get to the strikers because the following action was not one of communication. We need a stronger presence in our technical area, it doesn't have to be the manager McDonald did it often enough for Sam. One of the coaches on our books must be good at this, motivating, correcting little mistakes and so on, if we do I strongly hope we can see him in there for the next game.

Parsonblue you watch the U18's often is Bowyer any good at this?

[Clitherover]

The teams below us in the league are better than us, that's the point.

Sorry, No. At least Wigan, Wolves and Blackpool are worse teams than us, Birmingham as bad.