[Archived] Rovers versus Manchester City, 25th April 8pm

[True Blue & White]

Role Reversal?

Rovers welcome Manchester City to Ewood on Monday (25th) and both clubs are fighting for something. However, unlike this time in 1995, when we dreamt of the Champions League with our mega-rich owner and they feared the drop with an incompetent manager who was fired that summer those roles have been reversed.

City currently sit in fourth place, three points above Tottenham who beat them to that elusive ECL spot last year and I’m sure they won’t want to throw it away this time which could make this an even tougher task for Rovers than it already looks on paper.

We, on the other hand, are languishing in sixteenth and are just two points above the drop zone, on a terrible run and fearing for our PL status. After an awful run in which we managed 1 point from 6 games, it looked like we were turning a very slight corner with three draws but a poor loss to Everton has put us right back in the mire. We really needed something at Goodison given our up coming fixtures, after City we face a tricky Bolton side and still have to entertain Man Utd at home, and we all know what happened last time we played them!

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We Meet Again Mr Mancini

We have, of course, played City at Eastlands in the league this season although it was back in September last year in our former guise of Allardyce at the helm, being watched over by John Williams and "supported" by the Trust (although they were packing their bags at the time and preparing to sell us down the river[side]).

Kalinic seemed to be earning a reputation as Mr Lucky as yet another keeper error gifted him a goal (his last coming after Everton’s Tim Howard dropped the ball at his feet for him to fire home at Ewood a couple of weeks before). This time a punt up field by MGP seemed to totally elude Joe Hart and gave our Croatian another poacher’s goal. Rovers went in at half time one goal up despite not having the balance of play (but who cares about that eh?).

Unfortunately, Paddy Vieira equalised ten minutes after the break after a bursting run and a one-two with Tevez. Rovers then were under the cosh a little for the rest of the game but to our credit defended very well and managed to get out of Manchester with a well earned point.

For the full match report click here= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8976775.stm

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Rovers vs. City Head-to-Head

All time summary

Full Premier League Era Breakdown

So as you can see we haven’t beaten City for six games and lost three of them. Before the last beating we were spanked 4-1 in a game in which Carlos Tevez scored a hat trick. The only consolation we took was that we were the first team to score against them since Roberto Mancini became their boss (who took over from our old gaffer Mark ‘Leslie’ Hughes of course). The last time at Ewood we were beaten 2-0 with Adebayor and Stephen Ireland doing the damage, at least we won't need to worry about them this time. It was way back in 2009 and amazingly marked Carlos Tevez's debut for City and Mr Hughes was still at the helm for the Sky Blues...

All this seems a world away from the glory years of 2005-2007 when we beat them every time, they must have really hated us back then…..

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Current Form

Rovers

LDDDL

An awful run of losses seemed to be getting a little better with the last three draws but another loss at Goodison makes our form depressing reading. Any team, let alone one worth £300m would fancy their chances against us at the moment.

City

DWLWL

Consistently inconsistent it seems, although they have lost their last two away games heavily which bodes well for us being at home. However they are also due a win given the pattern and smashed five past Sunderland not so long ago. We'll have to hope they aren't in that mood again and that Tevez's hamstring is still playing up.

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Injury List *correct at time of posting, will try and update (courtesy of PhysioRoom.com.

Rovers

D Hoilett (Hamstring)

R Nelsen (Knee Injury)

K Andrews (Groin Strain)

V Grella (Achilles Tendinopathy)

R Santa Cruz (Ineligible)

N'Zonzi (Suspended)

City

C Tevez (Hamstring)

J Boateng (Knee Injury)

S Given (Shoulder Injury)

K Toure (Suspended)

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Man City Q&A

I popped over to Blue Moon, the Man City Fansite to get the scope on what City fans thought our up coming clash, their season and our owners. Here are the questions I asked, and a nice chap called Niall was kind enough to give me these responses...

Q) With 6 games to go, City are in 4th spot and again vying with Tottenham for the Champions’ League place, they beat you to it last season so do you think this year will be your turn to grab that illusive spot?

I believe this will be our year, we are 3 points clear although we have played 1 more game and our goal difference is a lot better compared to theirs. The run in for tottenham is a lot harder as well, in their remaining 8 games, they have Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City. Whereas we have none of the top 6 teams to play so we have the best chance out of the two teams.

Q) Which player has impressed you most this season? Not necessarily your best player but the player who has done more than you expected this term.

There's 2 players that have impressed me this season. Firstly, David Silva has been one of our best players this season and the way he has adapted to the Premier League has been incredible. Some of his play is sublime and the link up play he has with the strikers is great. Secondly, Kompany has made the centre back role his own this season. He has stepped up so much and is probably playing the best football he has ever played.

Q) At Rovers, where money has always been scarce (post Jack Walker that is), the transfer fee plays a big factor when we judge the quality of a signing; we’d view a freebie that scored 10 goals for us a better buy than a £5m player who scored 11. Despite having an almost infinite transfer kitty, do the fans still judge the ‘value’ of each player brought in or do expensive failures not bother you?

Expensive failures still bother man city fans. I think it comes from the fact we remember the times when we had no money ourselves. We still think about how much each player has cost us and whether they are worth the money. People look at Roque Santa Cruz and think he was an expensive failure and we paid over the odds for the striker.

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Odds Report

Here are the best odds for the game (I will try to update it if they change).

Rovers Win: 11/4

Draw: 5/2

City Win: 15/13

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Two Timers – Players that played for both clubs

Not exhaustive and I’m sure you guys can add a few more!

Gary Flitcroft

Roque Santa Cruz

Paul Dickov

Benjani

Gunnar Nielsen

Egil Östenstad

Mike Duxbury

‘Andrew’ Cole

Craig Bellamy

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And Finally, My Thoughts (for what they’re worth)…

There's no sugaring the pill, Rovers are on an awful run and aren't playing well at all; our only positives recently have been the form of Hoilett, Samba and the embryonic emergence of Rochina. Our fate is still very much in our hands, but our survival is anything but guaranteed. After a being taught a lesson by Liverpool, City may want to make us the victim that suffers the wrath of the wounded animal. They are desperate to clinch that CL place this year after losing out to Spurs and I'm sure Mancini deep down knows his job may well rely on it, but then Kean is probably thinking the same about relegation and how it will affect his continued job prospects at Ewood.

We desperately need something but even with my most rose coloured of my tinted glasses it is hard to see anything but a loss. I am hoping that City suffer a hang-over from their semi against united and we can somehow get a draw but I can't see where a goal is going to come from right now. We badly missed Junior Hoillet against Everton so hopefully he will be back for this one, but not in the place of Rochina who played well in his first league start.

Here is the line-up and formation I would go with…

-----------Robinson-----------

Salgado--Samba--P.Jones--Olsson

Hoilett-J.Jones-Dunn-Pedersen

--------------Rochina---------

------Benjani-----------------

Santa Cruz has been an expensive flop and time to cut our losses on him as a starter in my opinion (besides he can't play against his parent club anyway). Not a popular signing, but Benjani has probably been our best striker in the Kean era (although that's a bit like being the best looking person in the burns unit at the moment). We have to get something from this game...desperately!

And that’s it, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this preview as much as I have writing it but most importantly make sure you are at the ground on Saturday, sing loud supporting the boys and maybe, just maybe, we might bag ourselves three points and another step closer to safety. So all that's left to say now is....

COYB

[RibbleValleyRover]

Decent preview. Shame it won't be a decent game or result for us.

3-0 City.

[BRFC1995]

city are very defensive with de jong and barry and don't dish out too many hidings so i'll say if tony parkes is in charge 2-1 rovers, steve clueless 7-1 city

[chocky]

There's always a chance however slim..

[bazza]

Could it be "after the Lord Mayor's Show" for City?

Whether it is or not, Rovers are just not good enough to get anything from the game.

3-1 City.

[roversfan1]

Cant see us scoring and even if Mancini rests a few they still have qaulity to come in - an easy 2-0 to City, more if they play a full strength team!

We are rudderless and heading for the Championship I feel!

[RevidgeBlue]

There are five games left and we can't afford to have an attitude of "We can't get anything from this game."

We have to fight for our lives in every game and we HAVE to get five or six points. It doesn't matter whether they're from City and United or West Ham and Wolves. But we have to get them.

[Majiball]

cracking preview.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

We can only hope but many fear we are simply not good enough,we cant buy a win at present.

Rovers 1 City 1

Att: 27,600

[RibbleValleyRover]

There are five games left and we can't afford to have an attitude of "We can't get anything from this game."

We have to fight for our lives in every game and we HAVE to get five or six points. It doesn't matter whether they're from City and United or West Ham and Wolves. But we have to get them.

Ok i'll forget the realistic viewpoint.

Rovers have a great squad and a fantastic manager, I don't think City can cope with us at home.

2-0 Rovers, Benjani with both goals.

That better?

[martonrover]

We haven't won since January. Can anyone really see that changing by 10pm next Monday?

[Gumbi]

Ok i'll forget the realistic viewpoint.

Rovers have a great squad and a fantastic manager, I don't think City can cope with us at home.

2-0 Rovers, Roque with both goals.

That better?

Roque can't play, which is a bonus for us.

[92er]

Kalinic seemed to be earning a reputation as Mr Lucky as yet another keeper error gifted him a goal (his last coming after Everton’s Tim Howard dropped the ball at his feet for him to fire home at Goodison a couple of weeks before). .

Last time out at Ewood we were spanked 4-1 in a game in which Carlos Tevez scored a hatrick. .

What an enormous amount of effort you have put into this.

Just a couple of things-I think the 4-1 defeat was in Manchester, and the goal against Everton was at Ewood.

Brilliant effort.

[Mercer]

Good preview - brave to take one on.

The good news is that RSC wont be available and that will certainly improve our chances provided his replacement isn't Roberts.

City will be on a high and need to lock-down that Champions' League place and preferably, from their angle, in third or above so no qualifying matches. They will be raring to go.

If Kean is in charge, see no chance for us.

We will simply be outrun, outthought, outplayed and cut to pieces. Anything less than a 3-0 defeat will be a result.

[Tom]

Good work pal.

We may look crap but it's 11 v 11 for 90 minutes, I'm just praying we can fluke a result.

I'm convinced we're going down but one lucky win see's us very close.

Who am I kidding, Toure will demolish us.

[rubecula]

Excellent preview.

In a match as has been said it is 11 versus 11 for 90 minutes so there is always a chance.

Citeh have a cup final to concentrate on now. How important that is to them will indicate how they play in the league from now on. They have some hard games ahead of them too.

Rovers could definitely win. Good luck guys.

[Waggy76]

I cannot help thinking it will be like the FA cup tie of 1969 4-1 to City , with the gulf of class there for all to see...

[Lancs Rover]

Instead of falling over ourselves in the race to say how bad the team is playing and how useless the manager is, maybe we ought to inject some Blackburn passion into this fixture. It's about the fans as well as the team on the field. After all, aren't the best away fixtures those where the Home fans are on the players' backs straight from the off. Come on. We can't gift City an extra player from the start. Get behind the lads whatever.

Get thee behind me, fat ladies.

[Ricky]

If carlsberg did match previews they'd do this one.

Loved reading it and took my mind off the goings on at our club for a while so thank you for that.

[Guest linganzi]

Ah its a midweek fixture is it ? What with the cup final I don't thinly the part time Charlie's will fancy it at all. Our best chance of points

Think. Bloody hangover bloody phone

Think. Bloody hangover bloody phone

[imy9]

Great preview, I would personally start with Rochina and Diouf up front, some pace and power, with Olsson and Junior on the wings. There is no point playing an unfit RSC for 60 minutes thats not good for him or us.

[riverside returns]

Fortunately, RSC cannnot play as we are playing his mother club.

[joey_big_nose]

-----------Robinson-----------

Olsson--Samba--P.Jones--Salgado

Pedersen-J.Jones-Dunn-Hoilett

--------------Rochina---------

------Benjani-----------------

Fantastic preview! Although you got the sides of the team the wrongway round? Shouldn't Salgado be at right back?

I have to disagree with your lineup. For me one of the huge errors we made at Everton was playing Dunn in the centre of midfield. We simply couldn't win the ball back. Against Man City we will be totally murdered as they are a much better side than Everton.

Only really one selection for me that makes sense with the injuries we have:

___________Robinson

Salgado__Samba__Givet___Olsson

______J Jones____P Jones

_Hoilett______Dunn_____Rochina

___________Benjani

Cruz, Emerton and Pedersen have been pathetic recently which is shocking given their experience. Maybe bit daft to start Rochina on the left, but to be honest he looked like he had some ideas the other day and Pedersen looks absolutely desperate at the moment.

I wouldn't play Dunn either if Nzonzi was available as we need someone with workrate. But we can only use what we have.

Moe than likely we will get beat, but I hope at least the lads put a shift in. Having P Jones in midfield should help that.

[Neil Weaver]

I'd go along with your team and comments jbn, except that I really can't see us scoring in open play so, poor as he's been lateley, I think MGP has to start. With Dunny in the state he is, I'd be tempted to have Rochina in Dunny's role then MGP on the left. Have Dunny on the bench then when the inevitable happens and MGP is subbed, he can come on and be almost as ineffective.

Gawd this is depressing.

[Amo]

What has Pedersen done to deserve starting? He's been absolute ######, and even dropping him wasn't a wake-up call.