[Archived] Rovers vs Bolton - Possibly our most important game in years

[heysham rover]

You seem to have a fairly poor grasp of where the press seats are!! Back of the upper tier, I sit in front of them in the box.

I also love how just cos I see it differently to you and feel it fair to offer some credit that 'I wasn't at the game' insinuating I'm not a proper fan. Like I said I'm no Kean fan bug the team seemed motivated today and on Monday night? Someone has roused that in them and I'm guessing it wasn't big Phil the doc!!

[Quack]

Fantastic to get three points on the board, quality of the performance is irrelevant for me at this stage.

Unfortunately I heard on final score that king kenny was at the game looking at Phil jones!

Was he there?

He was indeed there - sat directly in front of us as was David Platt.

[bazza]

I cannot understand why, after winning a must-win game, the first win since January, half the posters are still whingeing and whining about the manager and other stuff.

I am one extremely relieved bunny, I had a twisted core of a stomach before kick off and that didn't leave me 'til after the final whistle.

It wasn't pure football by any means but everyone gave their all and we got 3 precious, valuable points.

Roberts and Benjani did very well. Kalinic was OK when he came on, giving their goalie the strongest shot of the day to save.

Steve Kean did nothing wrong today and yet he gets slated.

REJOICE you Rovers fans; we're nearly safe. STOP WHINING.

[JAL]

Owen Coyles teams ineptness today can not in anyway shape or form, hide the fact that Stephen Kean is way out of his depth and should never be the manager of Blackburn Rovers football club.

[Balwer]

Excellent win. It's a huge monkey off the back for Kean and the players and it goes a long way to helping secure us Premiership football next season. Very pleased. Well done also to the fans that were able to make it to the game and provide such fantastic support.

[Mercer]

Always like to read the comments on the LT site. Far less tolerant than the posters on this MB. Would echo the views of the poster below.

"We won that game today DESPITE our manager not because of him - fer fuuuuuucks sake !! -Roberts and Benjani - the worst strikeforce we have ever put out in over 10 years of premiership football !! (and they were predictably TERRIBLE)."

[JAL]

Always like to read the comments on the LT site. Far less tolerant than the posters on this MB. Would echo the views of the poster below.

"We won that game today DESPITE our manager not because of him - fer fuuuuuucks sake !! -Roberts and Benjani - the worst strikeforce we have ever put out in over 10 years of premiership football !! (and they were predictably TERRIBLE)."

That strike force is terrible. Come the summer think a complete clearout of the current strikers would be the ideal thing to do.

[beerwins]

After a win I find it hard to criticise the team but both strikers were pretty much useless, Roberts tussled and tried to make some room but to no prevail, however I found him to be light years in front of Benjani, Some posters on here said he played well, I thought he was awfull and offered nothing at all, I could'nt wait for him to be subbed.

The fact that every long ball or long kicks from Robbo were aimed at him really did'nt help him, if you are going to ping the ball long surely you have to have Santa there as the target man, however we won so something must have worked.

As Theno mentioned earlier it was very amatuerish, we dont seem to work on things we should be, corners, set pieces, lay offs from the striker, Davies made it look so easy to hold up the play and bring in other players even though Samba did very well against him he still managed to control their build up play.

We look like we are being managed by a caretaker manager and it feels like the players are winning matches for each other, if we survive we must sort out this mess and bring in a goalscorer, it would'nt hurt to keep JJ too, we have missed a player like this for so long.

[Clitherover]

Excellent win. It's a huge monkey off the back for Kean

Steve Kean is a Monkey, a very ugly Monkey that needs to release the grasp of Blackburn Rovers and do us all a favour.

[RoversFanUSA]

Haha! A monkey!

[bubblerrovers]

Hate to be a party pooper but I don't see us getting another point this season which will see us getting relegated, we always lose at west ham, obviously utd will murder us and I can't help but see wolves beating us on the last day, is that happening such a long shot?

[RoyRover]

I'm delighted with the win today. I didn't care how we got it, just as long as we did. It will give us a huge boost going into the West Ham game knowing that if we win, we more or less ensure our survival. We still need to look to win one of our final three games to make sure that we stay up and today's win will certainly help us do that.

[Steve Moss]

Unfortunately I heard on final score that king kenny was at the game looking at Phil jones!

We should expect the bigger clubs to be looking at P. Jones. I have a two-fold hope: 1) the owners don't get greedy and decide to protect and build on the quality we have (such as P. Jones); and, 2) P. Jones remembers that he's a Rover. I feel very comfortable on the second point, not so much the first.

Oh yeah well done Steve Kean your win % has gone up by 5% lol!

Another 3 wins with no losses and he'll be at 33 1/3%, which is were a proper PL manager should be. So Steve Kean can still win me over. All he has to do is win the next 3 games.

Surely Kalinic has to start against West Ham, he look better than Roberts and Benjani by a mile.

Kalinic looked good.

And while he flubbed a chance, so did MD. I think Kalinic/MD should be the strike team if we are going to play 'proper' football.

Firstly, we played a very weary and demotivated Bolton (even Kean was rubbing his hands at the prospect of facing Bolton in their third game in six days) at exactly the right time.

This puts our 1-0 win in a bit more perspective.

Could have been a lot different had that Rodrigo kid not hit the post from about 4 yards out before we scored.

We caught a very lucky break. That we needed luck to survive an exhausted Bolton, at home, is depressing.

Hate to be a party pooper but I don't see us getting another point this season which will see us getting relegated, we always lose at west ham, obviously utd will murder us and I can't help but see wolves beating us on the last day, is that happening such a long shot?

I disagree. I think we could, and should expect, to win at least one more.

Today's result is a massive boost. We MIGHT survive even without another point on the board, though I wouldn't want to put that proposition to the test. If I were Kean, and wanted to win back some confidence, I would go back to 'proper' football. Let the squad play.

Kalinic/MD up front, Olsson and Hoilett on the wings, J. Jones and N'Zonzi in the center, and our solid back for would be a dangerous team. Its a team that can take points off the opposition away. And its about time we acted and played like it.

[47er]

After a win I find it hard to criticise the team but both strikers were pretty much useless, Roberts tussled and tried to make some room but to no prevail, however I found him to be light years in front of Benjani, Some posters on here said he played well, I thought he was awfull and offered nothing at all, I could'nt wait for him to be subbed.

The fact that every long ball or long kicks from Robbo were aimed at him really did'nt help him, if you are going to ping the ball long surely you have to have Santa there as the target man, however we won so something must have worked.

As Theno mentioned earlier it was very amatuerish, we dont seem to work on things we should be, corners, set pieces, lay offs from the striker, Davies made it look so easy to hold up the play and bring in other players even though Samba did very well against him he still managed to control their build up play.

We look like we are being managed by a caretaker manager and it feels like the players are winning matches for each other, if we survive we must sort out this mess and bring in a goalscorer, it would'nt hurt to keep JJ too, we have missed a player like this for so long.

Good post. I think we won because we had Ollson and they didn't! As for strikers, we don't have one of Premier League standard, that's why we can occasionally play well but still lose eg Spurs and City.

Lack of creativity and no strikers--um------how much money have the Rao's got again?

[LeChuck]

I disagree. I think we could, and should expect, to win at least one more.

I strongly disagree with 'should' in there. Given our away form I don't think we can expect to win any of the two away games, and that only leaves Man Utd at home.

Of course it's possible we can win games, and we'll all hold some hope that we can, but if we're being objective and without bias then everything points to another win being very unlikely.

Luckily I think the odd draw will do, and I can see us getting a point from either West Ham or Wolves.

[Tom]

Surely Kalinic has to start against West Ham, he look better than Roberts and Benjani by a mile.

Amazing how people see things so differently watching the same game, I thought he offered no more than Benjani but both did OK, Niko was wasteful on two occassions when he went for glory himself instead of the more sensible pass, although he was quite tidy on the ball today.

I think the two of them would compliment each other nicely but arse first Roberts seems to get the nod.

I hope Kenny was watching Jones today as he was poor IMO, looked like a young lad today which he normally doesn't to his massive credit, today however too many times he got caught in possesion or made the wrong choice.

[Hughesy]

not happy with J.Jones this game.

SERIOUSLY??? Look at some of the reaction below to him....He was quality - AGAIN!!

4 j jones = class / must buy!!

- Jermain Jones was fantastic, what a guy, he looked ruined at the end but never stopped.

Jermaine Jones is a top top player, his vision to make the correct pass is impressive and he has tank of gas in him. If he could add a goal tally of 7-9 a season then he would be at a bigger club then Schakle. He wont be at us next season, he is to good for us and he knows it.

I thought that J.Jones was immense, he was everywhere.

1. Jones in midfield was immense.

succession of long balls simply aimed at the excellent Kevin Davies who today was immense in his back to goal role. The Rovers players literally bounced off him all match. I can't help but wonder how we'd be faring if Allardyce had had his way and signed Davies last season and been handed Jones in January?

EXCELLENT Davies?? He won nothing, the bolton fans I know where raging about how poor he was.

Jermaine jones was fantastic today, he won absolutely everything snd made a number of excellent breaks.

Roberts played well today.

You must have been drinking all day!!

[AggyBlue]

Phew, a much needed three points in the bag.

I'm not bothered how inept notlob were, I thought they were only playing at 50% and that was our good fortune.

I thought we played quite well after going one up and never felt that we'd lose the lead.

It was pleasing we created so many chances but that.s what we need to do as we miss far too many.

Now we must avoid defeat next week.

[gumboots]

why is it that we were lucky today to be playing a Bolton team that, try as he might, their manager couldn't lift to a decent standard, and yet, in previous games, when the ref has seemed to do his best to stop us getting anything out of a game, we're not allowed to bemoan our bad luck. If these things are luck then we were due a bit of the good stuff! At this stage of the season, most teams are weary. Most teams carry heavy injury lists at some point in the season - we had P Jones missing for a long while earlier and have just got Nzonzi back from a perhaps unjustified 3 match ban. We were without our most creative players yesterday in Hoillet and Dunn. We stillbeat Bolton. How awfully we played, how wasteful we were, how it could all have been different if they had scored the one that hit the post don't at this stage matter. Come the end of the season is the time for the post mortem that will hopefully realise that the cause of our near-death was Kean's appointment. The players, whoever they were playing for, however they did it, won a game and that will give them a lift, give the manager a lift, give the kitman, the doctor, the tealady, the shop staff and everyone connected with Rovers a lift. It might be a papering over the cracks, but just for a few days can we leave the paper over them, stop over analysing and just enjoy the words 3 points. We've ended the winless run and finally seen our team get some reward for the efforts they have put into some of their recent games - I wasn't at Everton , which I hear was characterised by lack of effort, if reports are to be believed. Whether they are playing for the manager or doing it themselves, I don't care. I just loved going home without wanting to kick the cat, the dog or who/whatever it is you take your frustrations out on.

[cletus]

Great much needed win over a passionless Bolton with their passionless "you`ve only got one song" support.

Everyone in Ewood park played their part yesterday. The place was boisterous & noisy. Wish it could be like that every week!!

A tiny little bit of the 'togetherness' feeling came back to me yesterday. I felt the fans & players on the pitch connected....something i thought we lost when Sam got booted. Obviously i don`t like Rovers getting beat, but when you see the players sweating blood & grafting their arses off, you come away thinking "at least we had a real go". That`s all i ask.

Now, let`s hammer West Ham & get the job done!!!!

[PAFELL]

Steve Kean is a Monkey, a very ugly Monkey that needs to release the grasp of Blackburn Rovers and do us all a favour.

That really is a tad harsh and very cruel. Monkey's would find that comment very offensive.

[PAFELL]

I strongly disagree with 'should' in there. Given our away form I don't think we can expect to win any of the two away games, and that only leaves Man Utd at home.

Of course it's possible we can win games, and we'll all hold some hope that we can, but if we're being objective and without bias then everything points to another win being very unlikely.

Luckily I think the odd draw will do, and I can see us getting a point from either West Ham or Wolves.

I actually believe Rovers may get a draw v man u. Those players must hurt after what happened at Old Trafford. That result probable put paid to Sam's job. Which left us with the current situation. I am hoping the players are hurting so much that they play the best they ever have done and maybe dent Man U title hopes. Rovers did it last season. It is also the last home game of the season - which could also make a difference.

[heysham rover]

Ive read the last page or so but saw someone mentioned Kenny, he was sat a couple of rows directly in front of me near David Platt. Kenny was there with comolli on Monday night sat slobg from us. There was also a senior scout there from Chelsea, my dad told me his name but it escapes me. He has been there on a few occasions though

[Mozzer]

i think we need to either have santa cruz or kalinic up top with roberts against west ham

i know roberts aint a goal scorer but i think he offers more then benjani -

another top performance from jermaine jones - if we stay up imo this guy should bought first

olsson much better at left wing - attacks with pace and his crossing is really improving ..olsson one wing , hoilett the other - its quite exciting

on to west ham which will be a hugeee game

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I know I will get derided for this - but I can't help feel sorry for Kean when we actually win a match and people say it is inspite of him, because the opposition were tired etc. etc. I also think some of the monkey jibes are a little over the top.

It would be a nice change if people looked at Kean's tenure with a little more balance - some supporters just have a totally black view of Kean and probably wouldn't see any positives even if we won the Premiership under him (p.s. before anyone says anything - I can understand this to an extent as he has taken us from relative safety to the brink of relegation - though hopefully only the brink)

should he go - probably

should he have been appointed - no (or at least not without an experienced no 2 - and probably not even then)

have the players shown commitment under him - for most of the time. The annoying positive slant he puts on everything must be having a positive impact on the younger players like Hoilett and Olsson who still play with a certain amount of confidence despite our position.

tactics are improving - from an initial gung-ho mess to the more structured set up we have seen in the latter stages of the season. From his first matches in charge I think we have improved under him. And importantly he seems to learn from his mistakes - though he had plenty to learn from !

Despite what some informed people on the web site think - I wouldn't be surprised if a positive end to the season will see Venky's persisting with Kean into next season.

Lets just enjoy the win - in its self it may be enough - but any form of positive result at West Ham will possibly make us safe.