[Archived] Wolves vs Rovers

[JAL]

Well done to Gary Bowyer and Terry McPhilips undefeated champions of Blackburn Rovers !

[Silencio]

A draw away, decent result. Simple. Let's hope Appleton can do some dealing before the window shuts, who goes out is as important as who goes in...

[anindianfan]

Draw aside, the play was pretty uninspiring. Lack Luster defending in the center....the new right back played surprisingly well however. Martin Olsson was mediocre, got caught moving up multiple times.

The worst however was our midfield....we struggled to control the ball. Murphy was clearly lacking as was Lowe and we rarely possessed the ball with conidence. We could do nothing creative with the ball when we had it save Rochina, who simply was very very skillful and looked dangerous. I was surprised he was substituted out.

Rhodes worked hard but had very little support or service CKR looked just lost out there fouling Wolves every change he got.

Lot of work for Appleton to mold this squad into a side that can content push for playoffs much less content for promotion. We really need to do something in the midfield so we can be creative with the ball.

[USABlue]

Not sure what people were expecting. I am ecstatic with a draw. I fully expected a humiliating defeat, our likeable manager on his way out for someone no one really knows. I expected the players to be totally flat. Friday night games do not seem to set well with our lot either. Couple that with a new Manager buzz for Wolves and I think we dodged an L.

It will be more than just a little bit interesting to see if these unexplainable substitutions and at times the lack there of when needed continue with Appleton. It's been a puzzlement for me for some time. Perhpas all this "Manager picks the team" IS true, maybe Shebby just runs the subs. Anyway another new manager starts in, I don't expect much of an improvement from in TBH. If he does I'll be the first to hold my hand up.

[SouthAussieRover]

Well USABlue, apart from the nursing home resident and a couple of others, most posters seemed content with the result.

[rovermagic]

We drove up from London for match. And saw last bit of highlights later in Sky. Not sure what people on board are going in about. CKR did put himself about esp in first half to good effect. Our supporters at the match kept singing his name. Rhodes was on other hand really anonymous tonight. Kean was good. But did flap at ball Murphy cleared off line. Todd Kane had decent match at RB. Cannot say same for Olsson. Johnson got between him and Dann to score. Olsson let Wolves player past him near end and his 'saving tackle' was clearly a yellow. We missed Josh King badly as Olsson no longer a threat on left. Rochina and Vucevic were our best players by far. Very bad subs. Saunders O'Hara sub quite good. Had we gone ahead with Vuk and Rochina we may have scored another goal. Mistake to go for a draw after we had the momentum. Apart from goal Hanley and Dann were solid. Lowe some poor passes but broke up play well after they scored. We are short in fitness. Appleton can help on this.

[winstonsmith]

I'm looking forward to seeing what MA can do but don't expect him to wave an instant magic wand.

Well, it has been said that Appleton bears an uncanny resemblance to Voldemort !

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

I was quite impressed with the new right-back Onloan Fromchelsea he certainly has a good turn of pace and made a couple of good surging runs forwards. The game was rather dire in truth though, the only amusement from the first-half was the penalty incident. Which laughably the totally impartial folk on the telly box decided that it was a little "soft" presumably because the Wolves player "only" tried to hack off one of Ruben's two legs. Rhodes tucked away the penalty but in doing so unwisely used up his allotted four touches a game rule and thus spent the rest of the game running around in circles.

As for the inevitable Wolves equaliser, it came inevitably from a cross which we inevitably didn't defend very well. Although in all fairness to Scott Dann his duck can be somewhat forgiven for he clearly had to take evasive action due to a pesky flea, which would have surely left him needing another plaster if he hadn't. Besides perhaps you could argue that Martin Olsson was more at blame, then again I'll avoid the obvious conclusion that his mind was elsewhere and say that it was just bad defending all-round. That being said Wolves undoubtedly deserved something from the game and we didn't deserve to win so you can't really grumble too much. I like that Wolves player Sakho as well, he's exciting to watch at least he just loves dribbling around and around and around doesn't he, think he took it past about half our team on a couple of separate occasions thankfully there was no end product.

Our penalty was very very soft. Hacked his legs off??? Rochina kicked the wolves defender and fell over. We would all be fuming if that had been given at the other end. And Olsson was lucky to stay on the pitch in the second half.

[AJW]

Ive gone Rhodes to score first but finish 1-1(£5 @ 22/1) , think we'll start brightly but then as the game wears on Wolves will come back into it and nick one late on

Anybody want tonights lottery numbers?

[yoda's brother]

the biggest thing i noticed, when we had the ball wolves closed us down quickly and made it difficult to find a good pass, whereas when wolves had the ball we didnt close them down at all and allowed them space and movement. luckily they werent good enough to take advantage.

[alexanders]

Impressive AJW !

[Roverthechimp]

Wondering if Dann got a shout from Johnson and thought he was still at Birmingham....

[1864roverite]

If there is a positive to take its the fact that the unbeaten run continues and we didnt get doubled by a poor Wolves side who are recovering like Rovers from seriously poor senioe management appointments.

I watched the game on tv expecting us to lose with the obvious new manager syndrome kicking in for Wolves. The bonus for Rovers was that Wolves didnt score in the first 20 minutes which inevitably left it for Rovers to take the lead with a soft but well taken spot kick.

As the second half wore on I couldnt see Wolves scoring despite their advantage and it was YET ANOTHER defensive KEANUP that see yet another 2 points frittered away. I am blaming Dann, Kean and Ollson for that mistake becasue they could all see where the ball was going and it was 3 on 2 Rovers players to Wolves.

Its the next 4 home games that count. 12 points has to be the minimum take. Nothing else will suffice.

Michael Appleton - youre gonna need all the luck you can get.

Tip. Lowe is NEVER a central midfielder, he costs us vital possession and space in the most important part of the pitch. Get a central midfielder and the problem is solved.

SIMPLES

[The Gull]

Those slagging Murphy off for his post match comments, would you be happy for him to lie? No you would have slagged him for talking bull and not saying it his it is.

As poor as Murphy started off he has improved but he is not helped by the fact that he is the only one with a football brain in our midfield. He's club captain, get over yourselves and back the lad FFS.

Positives from last night include another confident performance from Kean and young Kane going forward, I was a little nervous when he was defending as he didn't look like putting a challenge in all game.

Oh, and Jim, your rant about us being poor is hard to disagree with except you stated we had no shots on target which is untrue, I remember a few that went straight in the keepers hands, they count, in fact we had 8 on target compared to 5 from Wolves. If you are going to continue you negative view of everything please get you facts right. Statistics eh!

[Gav]

I was very happy to take a draw, after all the uncertainty with the managerial position, it was always going to a difficult game for the players.

Terrible defending for the goal, and it was definitely a penalty even though Rochina made more of it than it was.

Lets hope Appleton can pull things together.

[Mike E]

Let me get this right. We get a point against a side w/ the new manager bounce, despite an on-off performance oursrlves. And people aren't happy?

Isn't it you lot that say it's a results business?

[Rover & Out]

The criticism of Kane on here is harsh. The lad turned up at the club this week & his performamce was steady, if unspectacular.

I'm really struggling to fathom the potential surrounding Jason Lowe. He has neither the technique to be a ball-player nor the prescence to be a holding midfielder.

Rhodes needs service & CKR offered almost no support. Having Leon Best back will be like a breathe of fresh air. Is Fabio Nunes still injured? Him & David Dunn would be good options in short bursts from the bench.

As for Pedersen. His set pieces have saved him from deserved criticism for a long while. Whithout that, he now offers us nothing!

What we also clearly lack is fitness, that sharpness that we had under Allardyce & Hughes.

[dwayne cage]

I' m just glad we.don't have to play them again. That Sako worried.our defence something wicked. I will.take a draw.because if it wasn't for Wolves' being unlucky and Jake Kean I think we would have lost by a good fair few.

[donnermeat]

Let me get this right. We get a point against a side w/ the new manager bounce, despite an on-off performance oursrlves. And people aren't happy?

Isn't it you lot that say it's a results business?

I'll go with this, neither team played particularly well and we came out with a draw so fair result. I haven't seen a team long ball it as much as that since Everton in 07. Don't know why he decided to take Simon off, I wouldn't have taken anyone off. We didn't look the same after that.

I prepare to be flamed for this but I don't think that Murphy played that bad last night I thought he kept the ball pretty well and it wasn't one of Lowe's worst games either. Though for me I would say Lowe is better at right back for sure.

Rochina gave the ball away more than these two combined.

[Amo]

I' m just glad we.don't have to play them again. That Sako worried.our defence something wicked. I will.take a draw.because if it wasn't for Wolves' being unlucky and Jake Kean I think we would have lost by a good fair few.

What? Wolves did bugger all. It wasn't really until Simon went off that we fell apart.

To be fair, we didn't create that much going forward either but to say Wolves totally bossed us is way off.

[ABBEY]

Two bad teams . Biased sky commentators . Poor ref for both sides.

[JAL]

For me the reason why didnt create much last were,

Jason lowe provided nothing in the middle as per usual.

Jordan Rhodes failed to hold the ball up or have the pace to make the telling runs to receive the ball

The two substitutes MGP and Morris added nothing at all to the team.

CKR''s booking followed by a warning certainly tempered his game.

Another game another set of circumstances like having Josh King available could had more of a positive impact on the team though in the end we should all be pleased with a point.

[adsfortheblues]

Crap, simple as that. Apart from a dodgy penalty we created absolutely nothing.

[sharpysharps]

I really hope MA brings in a decent box to box midfielder. Probably Lowes worst performance last night, offered less than nothing to the team. Murphy although has been poor still has potential to do well in this team if he has a proper midfielder alongside him. Neither Lowe or Etuhu are that midfielder. We need a player of the same ilk as Jermaine Jones or Steve Reid when he was at his best. I'd even take Mokoena over Lowe.

[G Somerset Rover]

What? Wolves did bugger all. It wasn't really until Simon went off that we fell apart.

Makes you wonder if Simon, and to a lesser extent Rochina, have clauses that they get a nice pay cheque if they complete 90 minutes. Don't think either ever have? Certainly not Simon. It was sheer lunacy to take both off last night, they were our only outlets.