[Archived] Rover V Fulham 14-01-12

[matt83]

That just goes to show even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.

[Stuart]

Top performance second half, we played much better without all the hoofing to yak and samba. we kept the ball well, second half down both flanks we played some good stuff, 3rd goal pure class! When i heard about samba before the game, then yak getting sent off i thought we'd be hammered. Hanley is starting to look a good defender. Some big positives today. The only thing that still bugs away at me when we win is always seems to be down to enforced changes. The yak is pure class but if it means dropping him to play that style with goodwillie battling away and the ball being retained on the floor i'd go for it.

Not bottom of league, not even bottom 3

As Dunny himself said, let's not get carried away!

[Plastic Head]

BRILLIANT! Credit to Kean and the lads. No samba Yakubu off the odds were against us. but in the second half even 2 - 0 up we ddint just play deep we attacked and it paid off, when that formica wonder goal went it I lost it!! HAPPY!

We had to play like an away side. We should have done the same against Stoke. When you are defending you can cover for some less able players but when you get caught up the pitch the defeciencies show (See their goal).

Goodwillie looked good today, could take yaks place for a while now he has to keep it up if picked for the next games.

He was woeful. He will be half decent when we get to League One.

chris who? (saying that he could just be injured...you never know)

He was supposedly ill. If he goes it's all over. Bet we give him away.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Even taking to one side the mysterious sending off of the Yak - was anyone else less than impressed with the referee's performance ?

[john-rover]

Thought Junior made a big difference, opposition scared to tackle him.. Buys us lots of time, him and Olsson made a big difference offensively compared to last few games... Cannot lose Junior to a team around us as Nicko's suggests

[yeti-dog]

Felt very sorry for Petrovic today, he was the best player on the pitch in his short spell. Big credit to Lowe, Givet and Hanley, they shut out Dempsey, Zamora, Ruiz, Johnson out very well.

Well done to fellow protestors of last night and today... You are a big credit and I was proud to stand with you all.

I had some sympathy for him too. Very belatedly he's starting to look like he could be a decent player for us.

Fantastic performance from the entire team today. All 11 of them. To score 3 and win whilst playing with 10 men was a very creditable result. We looked up for it from the off and made Fulham look pi$$ poor. Kudos to Givet and Hanley...both excellent which brings me on to..

Samba;pack your bags. Maybe you're not as irreplaceable as we thought you were. If true, your behaviour's been disgraceful and it obviously is time for you to go. Try and get at least £10m and then try (banks/owners permitting) and invest ALL of to give us a chance to flesh the squad out with a bit of quality.

Well chuffed tonight and now enjoying a nice glass of Shiraz

[Mr C]

Witnessed a man being run over outside the Blackburn end. Must be in a bad way not good

It was chaos trying to cross Bolton Road after the match!

I asked a copper why the traffic wssn't stopped like it usually is and he replied that there is no money to pay for the extra coppers to do this.

Sadly it looks like sombody has paid the inevitable price.

[RevidgeBlue]

Magnificent effort from both the players and the crowd today - well done to everyone.

I thought it was very noticeable today that we were trying to play the ball a lot shorter, especially before the sending off, and players were much quicker to make themselves available for a simple pass unlike the situation we have seen this season when no-one is making themselves available for the man on the ball. We played our best stuff under Keane a year ago when Brunskill was his assistant pre Jensen and Clement and I wonder if it's a case of back to square one and what we should have stuck with originally.

Felt really sporry for Petrovic. Thought he was playing especially well before he was sacrificed. Hope he can bounce back from the disappointment next week.

[Stuart]

Even taking to one side the mysterious sending off of the Yak - was anyone else less than impressed with the referee's performance ?

Thought he was very poor. Whatever happened to homers?

Bad challenges by Fulham were rewarded with 'advantage'. The advantage being two Rovers players running forward against 5 Fulham defenders.

Still he gave us the free kick at the end of the first half at least. Can't remember the last decent refereeing performance I've seen.

[Tom]

Fantastic win today, why do we have to do this the hard way though?

-Petrovic looked the best player out there and his ball out to Olsson was sublime (along with Nzonzis pass it looked like Tugay was back in patches)

-The Yak was daft, it looked a bit harsh but he was always going to send him off after the debate about Glenn Johnson midweek

-Dunny is deserving of praise, for the first time this season to me he looked like he still has it

-I thought Goodwillie looked good today, put a real shift in in tough conditions he was never going to win the aerial battles today though

-I am convinced this referee doesn't actually understand the rules of the game: Several handballs missed, Murphy kicked ball away - no yellow Formica dragged down on counter attack - no yellow, a few suspect advantages as well.

- Andy Johnson appeared to be laughing every time he approached the blackburn end I expect he knows he's on his way here

Amazing to think we aren't cut adrift and even out of the drop zone for now

[Stuart]

Don't know if anyone's mentioned it but it was a good touch at the end to put "Thanks for being our 11th man". Hope Claire or someone got a photo. Just looked a blur on my phone.

The fans were magnificent again today. Although it took the sending off to get everyone (players included) fired up.

[yeti-dog]

Steve's the man !!!

Going down, no chance.

Until we scored, and Robbo kept us in business, thought Ewood had a stench of relegation about it.

We will always score goals and Jol, who I don't rate as a manager, must be absolutely livid. Fulham don't half fanny about and apart from a 10 minute spell when we went 2 up, I thought Fulham lacked any real sort of incisiveness.

Don't think anyone had a bad game for us today. Robbo was world class and I thought Petro, at last, was showing us a bit of what he had to offer until Kean made the tactical switch.

Feeling far happier tonight and yes, I think we are staying-up.

Now for a nice bottle, or two, of wine to celebrate.

Bloody hell Mercerman...sure you've not had a 'nice bottle or two' already? Not seen you that positive for ages!

[sambo]

Disagree with you there Plastic Head, I thought Goodwillie looked really good today in the second half.

Special mentions also to Petrovic, MGP and my MOTM David Dunn. For once we looked solid in midfield today.

The fans were excellent too.

[Stuart]

Disagree with you there Plastic Head, I thought Goodwillie looked really good today in the second half.

one of the least mobile forward players I've ever seen. Looks like he's permanently carrying an injury!

[Mr C]

Even taking to one side the mysterious sending off of the Yak - was anyone else less than impressed with the referee's performance ?

Just because a team retains the ball after a foul does NOT necessarily make it an advantage!

On several occasions today a Rovers player was fouled and an 'advantage' was played leaving one Rovers player against at least four Fulham defenders leading to an inevitable loss of the ball and facing a Fulham attack.

Rovers were down to 10 men and leading and would have wanted to have the free kick, retain possession and run down the clock.

I'm afraid Mr A Taylor (referee), you are a bit thick!

[ThatRabbitsDynamite]

Yup! This troll attended his first game in 1971 at the age of 8 and since then has attended every game that his active service with her majesties forces over 22 years has allowed.

Edit: I take that back, As I said; Tonight I love you all!

Very good Otto! We're brothers and sisters in blue and white tonight.

VERY interesting to hear Dunny on Radio Rovers. He spoke more sense than anyone I've heard from BRFC for months, he's a fan and understands. Talked about the need for decisions to be made, the rubbish being cleared out of the club and for the owners to communicate more. I sensed he had other things to say but was holding back for obvious reasons. Well said Dunny.

Might help get something moving in the front office.

Everton, Newcastle, Arsenal, QPR next and we need to get at least 5 points from those games. City and Newcastle doing the business this weekend would make good day even better.

Five would be nice but, there is room for more.

We have done quite well at Everton recently, why i don't know.

Newcastle is without some good players right now with Tiote possibly the most important in midfield.

Arsenal is a tough ask but, they've been known to error. We did beat them once this year.

QPR should give us some points although with Sparky in charge it will be very interesting. It should be lively affair.

I can see three wins: Everton, Newcastle, and QPR. Just saying that it is possible. If i could predict the future i'd be rather wealthy. The team has been on a little upswing and if the belief grows within the team we could be heading far enough upwards to be safe.

Lets enjoy another win today and stay positive on the future!!!

C'MON ROVERS!!!

[Ripleys love child]

Just got bk and so proud and I think grant Hanley was superb. I think he's really come of age and the same goes for petrovic. COYB.

[trueblueroversiloveu]

As Dunny himself said, let's not get carried away!

How was i getting carried away? Merely giving my opinion of todays game, do i anywhere suggest we'll now qualify for the champions league? I didn't even suggest we will stay up.

[Martin]

Feel proud to be a Rover today.

Still a long way to go, but we are giving ourselves a chance.

Kean is out of his depth and needs to go, but he got everything spot on today. He deserves as much credit as anyone.

[John]

3 points is so nice!!!

[Stuart]

How was i getting carried away? Merely giving my opinion of todays game, do i anywhere suggest we'll now qualify for the champions league? I didn't even suggest we will stay up.

Way to overreact. Haha.

Yes, obviously I thought you meant Champions League!

[Waggy76]

I wasn't going to go today , I have had enough .But I was so angry with comments of that piece of vermin Anderson , i decided to go and I am glad i did .

A wonderful battling performance with 10 men , I super goal by Formica (A player I don;t rate ) but fair play to the lad today .

Givet , Hanley and Robinson were excellent giving us a platform to build on ..Dunn , Nzonzi and Pedersen (for the last hour ) were also excellent ..

Not sure what is going to happen from now on(cannot see us getting out of it ) but I am going to enjoy the moment , we have not had many this season ..The first time I have witnessed a win this season , so off to the fridge it is for Stella !!!

[hesfromburn]

Disagree with you there Plastic Head, I thought Goodwillie looked really good today in the second half.

Special mentions also to Petrovic, MGP and my MOTM David Dunn. For once we looked solid in midfield today.

The fans were excellent too.

Cheers! would have been pretty much my reply. He looked confident today and sharper than usual, hopefully he can build on this because we will need a lot from him for the next three. But he was awesome under the conditions.

IMO kalinic used to look useful as a sub then start the next week and look same old awful.

I wasnt to kean at the idea of goodwillie coming on and not rochina but it worked ran the channels well.

So I suppose we will wait and see if goodwillie starts next game and keeps his peformance up.

[jones_rover]

Great performance from all the lads today. Thought the Yak's sending off was harsh but was always going to be given after the events of the last few weeks. However, I thought the referee's performance in general was woeful. He refused to give a single booking after the harsh red, missing blatant fouls from Fulham players to stop us breaking away, and then compounded it by booking Pedersen for a perfectly good tackle on Duff!

I also felt really sorry for Petrovic when he was sacrificed as up to that point he had put in easily his best performance of the season. He really is a quality passer of the ball given time and hopefully he has finally adapted to the pace of the Premier League and he can become a good player for us.

Best performances in my opinion came from Pedersen and N'Zonzi who look like completely different players when they actually go forwards instead of backwards! Also though Hanley and Givet were immense today.

It made a nice change to come back from Ewood today having actually enjoyed the game! Don't know if anyone else felt this regardless of what's going on behind the scenes?

[Waggy76]

Great performance from all the lads today. Thought the Yak's sending off was harsh but was always going to be given after the events of the last few weeks. However, I thought the referee's performance in general was woeful. He refused to give a single booking after the harsh red, missing blatant fouls from Fulham players to stop us breaking away, and then compounded it by booking Pedersen for a perfectly good tackle on Duff!

I also felt really sorry for Petrovic when he was sacrificed as up to that point he had put in easily his best performance of the season. He really is a quality passer of the ball given time and hopefully he has finally adapted to the pace of the Premier League and he can become a good player for us.

Best performances in my opinion came from Pedersen and N'Zonzi who look like completely different players when they actually go forwards instead of backwards! Also though Hanley and Givet were immense today.

It made a nice change to come back from Ewood today having actually enjoyed the game! Don't know if anyone else felt this regardless of what's going on behind the scenes?

I agree with thew Petrovic comment , he started the game well ...