[Archived] Millwall [H]; 13/3/2013. F.A. Cup Quarter-Final Replay

[A cup of beans]

Angry, upset and devastated. Embarrassing comments from Apple.

Shame on Eddie for the slagging of those who didn't go.

I wish I didn't.

Eddie your comments show you in a very poor light, your comments are similar to those of murphys wife. Seems that you can't appreciate the reality. Our fans have had their souls ripped out by incompetents, criminals etc.

Maybe its easier to be more objective from afar and being somebody who fell in love with rovers on television in the mid 90s? If that sounds cruel, well payback for your comments.

Shame on those slagging off Dunny. For all his fitness. flaws, he still gives his all and tries to create. His tears are genuine believe me.

If anyone heard his interview on radio rovers before the game you can't doubt his passion. He was livid at being an unused sub in 15 games.

[bazza]

Every Rovers player tried 100%. No reason to boo them off at the end. They are lacking in skill, imagination and confidence. And half the team are strangers because they've never played together before. But they all tried.

We just weren't good enough on the night. And I didn't expect them to be. But I cannot fault the effort.

MA has his work cut out. We need to play as a team, keep the ball on the floor, run and pass, have two wingers who will stay on their touch lines. Lots of work, Mr Appleton, starting with a win over the dingles and avoiding relegation.

Dunny deserved his MOM. The only one showing class and passing forward. Pity his early shot from the corner kick didn't find the top corner.

[Muddboy]

Just want this nightmare to end now.

Everytime we go into a game, I hope and pray that we'll give a good account of ourselves and play like a fooball team. Not like Barcelona, just like a competent football team that can do the basics right: pass to each other, head properly, tackle effectively and shoot on target.

But the end of every game these days is just one huge disappointment. We don't have the players, manager or determination to get any of the above things right and who can be surpised that fans are walking away in their droves?

I hope to god that my dreams of a competent performance come to fruition on Sunday and that this current crop of players put their demons to bed and actually do what they're paid handsomely to do: play like a football team and with pride for the shirt.

I don't think it's too much to ask, but I'm braced for more disappointment.

[DE.]

Every Rovers player tried 100%. No reason to boo them off at the end. They are lacking in skill, imagination and confidence. And half the team are strangers because they've never played together before. But they all tried.

We just weren't good enough on the night. And I didn't expect them to be. But I cannot fault the effort.

MA has his work cut out. We need to play as a team, keep the ball on the floor, run and pass, have two wingers who will stay on their touch lines. Lots of work, Mr Appleton, starting with a win over the dingles and avoiding relegation.

Dunny deserved his MOM. The only one showing class and passing forward. Pity his early shot from the corner kick didn't find the top corner.

I imagine the boos were more for the tactics employed than aimed squarely at the players.

Do you think that performance deserved applause and cheers? It was embarrassing and I imagine the players are fully aware of why the fans were booing.

[adsfortheblues]

Don't care what anyone says but rochina, Vuckevic and Formica would have made a hell of a difference tonight

[47er]

Eddie, the situation is crystal clear. While the Indians own the club and continue to destroy it the fans won't return. Venkys will never be accepted by the people of Blackburn and if they attempt to recoup their losses by putting prices up next season then 10,000 will seem like a huge gate. Personally, I see no end to this spiral of decline until the Indian mob sell up and leave.

Tonight was the worst I have felt as a Rovers supporter in over half a century. We were discussing after the match that we were poor in the early 70s in the Third Division but at least the players, although not very good, put some effort into the game. Perhaps the fact that they lived locally and often mixed with fans had something to do with it. Apart from Dunny how many of these overpaid prima donnas really care about the club? After this game they will have got into their expensive cars and driven home to their fancy houses in Cheshire and the fat pay cheque will arrive at the end of the month win, lose or draw.

The only crumb of comfort is that we won't have to put up with the sight of Desai, the brothers Grimm and Shebby lording it around Wembley.

Despite some of the dire football in the 70's there were times to lift the spirits, the crowd was small but "together" and it was always a great laugh however it turned out after 90 mins. That has all gone and there's just the memories left.

Agree totally with your first para.

[bazza]

Millwall are bottom of the Championship form league ffs, they're not good, but we made them look it.

No they're not, Clare. We are!

http://www.footballformguide.net/form/npower-championship

[Dunnfc]

On brighter news how did Forrester play in his 15 min cameo?

[JAL]

Hooooof to Danny Shittu's head

...

Hooooof to Danny Shittu's head

....

Hooooof to Danny Shittu's head

...

Hooooof to Danny Shittu's head

....

Hooooof to Danny Shittu's head

....

repeat over and over.

Great tactics

Just to add insult to injury, Appleton brings on some non league player from Everton to play out wide.

[philipl]

That was beyond depressing.

We once had the real Sam Allardyce.

We now have a pale cheap failure masquerading as his replacement.

Don't care what anyone says but rochina, Vuckevic and Formica would have made a hell of a difference tonight

Totally agree

[Rover_Shaun]

What solution is there Phillip? An out of his depth Appleton is just a symptom. Venkys are the disease

[EwoodDawn]

Devastated, the feeling tonight is worse than when Wigan beat us to send us down last season, no idea why, maybe it's because we could all see it coming all season. Tonight though I genuinely thought we would win and was really looking forward to a weekend in London watching our club play a local derby in the best stadium in England, can't see us having a chance like this for years.

Have to mention David Dunn though, the only player out there who looked to get the ball down and pass it. Deservedly our MOTM.

Total empathy. Wanted to take my kids to Wembley to watch the Rovers - the one occasion I feasibly thought this might happen in the near future. Now we're extremely optimistically looking at either the long term future or maybe more realistically never. I was thinking of taking my season ticket holder children to the game on Sun. Probs won't now. Why would I make them face potential and unfortunately too likely humiliation?

[JAL]

Watching the game thought that Dunny and Peds where a breath of fresh air compared to the lower league Jason Lowe and has been Murphy. Sadly the guys in front, and wide of them, with the exception of Leon Best first half, offered absolutely bugger all.

Appleton = NO GOALS again !

Was the Millwall keeper ever forced to make a save ?

[bob fleming]

Well that just wasn't good enough. There are no excuses. Appletons comments are very worrying to say the least.

Dunny has clearly been fit for a while. "Calf" was the recent excuse for not playing him. Yet Murphy gets paid up and he's straight in!? How very Venkys. Dunn and Hanley did well.

Our powder puff attack was quite pathetic.

Pride and passion simply wasn't there. One booking? And that was harsh (in fact a joke). Two games in four days, we showed no stomach for the fight, we should have stood up to them, we all knew what was coming. We didn't. Instead we allowed a weight lifter to dictate the game. The "wingers" were appauling, they offered nothing all night.

Utter sh1te I'm afraid. This lot need to grow some balls, and quickly. We go again on Sunday. Perform like that again and they'll be hell to pay. Trust me.

2 games a week for 5 or 6 weeks. I don't give a flying .... how tired you are you insipid over paid @#/?s.

Don't lose on Sunday. Win.

[grizfoot]

I don't think the change at half-time really helped by bringing Nuno Gomes on, we changed to some sort of weird formation which I'd struggle to describe. All I know is Gomes ended up running around in midfield and Best was thrust onto the left-wing when he's the only potential source of winning headers from our numerous hoofed balls forward. It reminded me very strongly of the home game against Wigan last season where we tried to play with three forwards high up the pitch (think it was Modeste, Hoilett & Yakubu) and we just restored to hoofing it long at every opportunity. I was giving Appleton the benefit of the doubt but tonight the tactics we adopted played straight into Millwall's hands. I'm going to be haunted tonight with nightmares of Danny Shittu heading footballs away over and over again, it was a colossal performance from him to be fair though.

If anything it may be a saving grace and we don't have to suffer the humiliation of an heavy defeat in the semi-finals. That being said a trip to Wembley would have been nice, given our current situation I can't see us playing there anytime soon. We may very well have just passed up the best chance of winning the FA Cup in our lifetime as well.

[bazza]

On brighter news how did Forrester play in his 15 min cameo?

He was only on for 15 minutes and played on the far side of the park to me. But he seemed OK. He got stuck in. He looks like he can play a bit and I'd like to see more of him.

[JAL]

He was only on for 15 minutes and played on the far side of the park to me. But he seemed OK. He got stuck in. He looks like he can play a bit and I'd like to see more of him.

15 minutes on and he looked way out of his depth, contributed absolutely nothing, another lower league player at best.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Think I should give Best some credit, for a guy that's been out so long he worked his socks off but Shittu is just a beast so try as he might he wasn't going to win many of those headers

Great work for the shot he crafted as well and did well when he dropped deeper to get the ball, that was far too infrequent though in between the balls to Shittu's head

Yea I was thinking that, was relatively impressed with him. Like in the AEK Athens game, he looks to have quick feet for a big man and is no slouch either.

On brighter news how did Forrester play in his 15 min cameo?

I thought there was one passage of play in which he did well but then it turned out it was Best. He didn't contribute much but didn't do badly. Not that I expected any of our midfielders/attackers to contribute much though with those tactics.

[Tom]

15 minutes on and he looked way out of his depth, contributed absolutely nothing, another lower league player at best.

Not like you to write off a young lad so soon!

He did ok I thought but was hardly involved through no fault of his own so no idea how you can come to any sort of conclusion like that

He made one really smart run but Gomes wasted the pass (he was awful by the way, every ball was a stray one)

[JAL]

@RobbieSavage8

Not being funny Michael Appleton is another poor appointment from the board,league form awful and now another inept performance at home !

Totally agree with Robbies comments.

[beanie]

This was down to Appleton tonight i know we are the walking wounded out there so i'll let the players off tonight we were without CKR Campbell henley Orr Jones Williamson Murphy Etuhu and bentley. Best king olsson all just back while we lost king and olsson2 during the game. So i don't blame the players but the manager should have told them Shittu was just heading everything away and asked them to play the ball in to the forwards feet.

[rovermagic]

I know it is a bad midfield (on paper, at least) but there are not many players to chose from if Bentley and Orr don't recover.

The only other players available are Givet, Murphy (both will hardly play), Goodwillie, Nuno Gomes, Sandomierski,

What I expect today is a 110% effort and commitment from our players. It's the only way we can beat them (considering the many fitness issues)

110% effort is no help if you are under instructions to keep hoofing the ball long. It's not just that there is no Plan B. There is no Plan A.

[davefarnworth]

Could very possibly go down. Hopefully the new signing will come in and run midfield and tell the manager (?) to play through midfield. Think we got what we deserved - a poor Allardyce and I liked Sam. We're keaned. Atl least we're not Portsmouth yet but the signs are there and the manager (?) in place. (Not to mention the board ... ssh)

[RevidgeBlue]

Eddie, the situation is crystal clear. While the Indians own the club and continue to destroy it the fans won't return. Venkys will never be accepted by the people of Blackburn and if they attempt to recoup their losses by putting prices up next season then 10,000 will seem like a huge gate. Personally, I see no end to this spiral of decline until the Indian mob sell up and leave.

Tonight was the worst I have felt as a Rovers supporter in over half a century. We were discussing after the match that we were poor in the early 70s in the Third Division but at least the players, although not very good, put some effort into the game. Perhaps the fact that they lived locally and often mixed with fans had something to do with it. Apart from Dunny how many of these overpaid prima donnas really care about the club? After this game they will have got into their expensive cars and driven home to their fancy houses in Cheshire and the fat pay cheque will arrive at the end of the month win, lose or draw.

The only crumb of comfort is that we won't have to put up with the sight of Desai, the brothers Grimm and Shebby lording it around Wembley.

Give over Parson, I'm surprised you've been conned by Appleton for this long. We've played nothing like this badly under any of the other managers this season.

When Kean walked out we were in the top 3. When Berg took over we were in a respectable position. After Bowyer found the right balance for us and got us ticking over, we looked nicely placed for a tilt at the play offs. Appleton has destroyed the balance of the squad by offloading any creative players, bringing back the dross we had on the books like MGP, Orr and Marcus Olsson and bringing in more dross of his own (Jones excepted) on loan. He's turned us into an absolute shambles.

Venky's don't pick the team, choose the tactics or motivate the players. That part is purely down to the manager and his coaching staff. They are however at fault for employing this clown when he had a poor managerial record elsewhere before he arrived here.

[davefarnworth]

Agree with above. Appleton must go along with Shaw, Agnew and Uncle Tom. Keep Venkys. Need their money - not their expertise.