Rovers at the Toon FA Cup 3rd Round: Saturday 5th January 2019 - 5.30pm

[ChrisPriceBaldSpot]

50 minutes ago, The Fish said:

Well that was about as crap as I predicted. You can see our second string are bereft of confidence. Game changed when we brought Perez and Shelvey on. Was a penalty for me, but I think it's fair to say we didn't deserve a draw. Your lot were up for it from the off and while we had 19 shots, none of them really troubled your 'keeper. 

Hope the lads who travelled had a good time in Newcastle. 

 

re: not having sympathy for fans of clubs with shit owners. I don't get it? I know I speak for Newcastle fans when I say we feel for you having to suffer the Venky's, and for the Blackpool fans suffering Oyston, and Charlton with Duchâtelet. It shouldn't be "We can't feel bad for you because we think our owner is worse", should it? Everybody's battles are their own and I'm sure there's an owner out there who's worse than our fat chancer, your lot, and so on. Doesn't mean your owners aren't shit, or ours, or Charltons. It's not shit-owner Top Trumps.

Can I just ask, what is the fans opinion on Jacob Murphy? I know the lad and am friends with his parents. He just doesn't seem the same player that he was at Norwich. I would certainly take him on loan at Rovers, but just wondered what your thoughts were on him. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Roverthechimp said:

Regarding Raya: personally think he is a very good "modern" keeper - kicking aside but that is improving.

Trying hard to think of a keeper in the current game that dominates his area? Seems more that reflexes and distribution are the key attrubutes

Yep, even Big Brad was sometimes guilty of being beaten by headers from inside the 6 yd box.

[Ewood Ace]

46 minutes ago, Roverthechimp said:

World level.

Buffon, Oblak, Alisson, Handanovic, Courtois, ter Stegen (who for me is the best in the world, he is the complete goalie in the modern game).

[USABlue]

4 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

Well you haven't a clue about the position then. Raya creates unease and uncertainty in his back 4, kicking is poor, and his decision making is questionable. 

Basically if its instinctive,  Raya is decent. If he has to stop and think, he's poor.  

He makes me uneasy BUT, he is young.  De Gea dropped plenty of clangers when he first landed in England.  Look at Pickford, drops howlers from time to time.  Young Raya will just get better and WILL ne a top top keeper.  I am happy to see one big improvement, his punching.  At least now he punches, seems like he used to always palm the ball.  Damn I wish he could kick straight.  He'll be just fine as long as he learns from his mistakes,

[Ossydave]

Bit selfish but I really hope Newcastle come down, what a weekend! Absolutely love the place and can't wait to go back. 

As for the game, we were unlucky to be fair. I know it's another late goal but I wouldn't really say we bottled it or anything. Sure both teams are a bit miffed off at the prospect of a replay, honestly wish it just went to penalties like the league cup

[Roverthechimp]

1 hour ago, Ewood Ace said:

Buffon, Oblak, Alisson, Handanovic, Courtois, ter Stegen (who for me is the best in the world, he is the complete goalie in the modern game).

Fair enough. Buffon is old school for me while courtais is something inbetween.

Seem to remember ter Stegen being comedy gold when he first moved to Barca though?

[Rogerb]

Credit to TM for the high press preventing Newcastle from playing out from the back. For respecting the support and the competition by picking a full strength side.

[gumboots]

5 hours ago, The Fish said:

 

Hope the lads who travelled had a good time in Newcastle. 

 

 

And the lasses! 

[47er]

9 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I was delighted to get the draw with a decent performance but our Achilles Heel  came back to bite us. Every Manager that plays against us will be saying " Keep going right to the end against these, they're very vulnerable at the death". It's up to us to find a way of playing out close games. Anybody know how many goals we've scored in the last 10 minutes this season ? It can't be many.

On a more depressing note we've a long FA Cup history of getting great away draws and then folding dismally in the home replay. My first big disappointment came this way. We'd got a good draw 2-2 away at Fulham in the 6th round and we'd been drawn against the Dingles in the quarter finals. In the home replay we never turned up and lost miserably 1-0 in front of a 34,000 plus gate.

Coming more up to date we got another good draw against Newcastle away  in the Shearer era only to fold at home.

Let's hope we can overcome the HooDoo, I can't see the Geordies putting out their best team.

Remember that game well. It was one of those games when you knew it wasn't our day. Clayton scored a perfectly good equaliser but the ref penalised him for a non-existent handball.

You're right, draw the away game and go through at home is normal but not for us!

Presumably, Rafa will pick a stronger side, he won't want to go out of the competition in the third round.

[Paul Mellelieu]

On 05/01/2019 at 20:09, OnePhilT said:

As soon as Shelvey came on, he took hold of the game, and we were pretty much under the cosh from that point. Atsu did nothing, but Perez had the intelligence to win his side a lifeline. Evans was naive - it's silly, but that's why he plays for a mid-table Championship side. I know that we all want better...

Nevertheless, the last two games have really given me a lift. Although we were virtually full-strength against a weakened Newcastle side, I'm proud of what I saw - we more than went toe-to-toe with them. I can't see us pushing for the play-offs this season, so I don't mind us going full-strenght in the Cup. We can take Newcastle at Ewood if Rafa wants to treat the competition with a lack of priority again.

Our substitutions didn't play a part in the result was my point.

[RevidgeBlue]

Incredibly disappointing  yet again. We played reasonably well but Newcastle looked as though they didnt want to be there and a more ruthless team than us would have well and truly put them to the sword. We seem to manage to contrive not to win matches no matter how promising our situation looks and I sort of expect us to now find a way not to go through against a team whose priorities and minds are clearly elsewhere.

For the penalty I was thinking, don't dive in, dont dive in dont dive in, bugger!

Dack for me showed that when his mind is on the job not only is he a Premiership quality player he is a cut above your run of the will Premiership player. Any thoughts we'll be better off selling him and investing in several inferior players is nonsense for me.

We are still an extremely frustrating side to watch at times, there was one instance when Armstrong had the chance to beat his man near tbe bye line and home in on goal. Instead he checked back and a few backward passes later which put us under increasing pressure we were almost in a spot where the ball had to go back to Raya from near the halfway line.

On the plus side as OssyDave said what a night out it is in Newcastle. The ground must be fairly unique these days in being in the centre of town right on hand for the Pubs and Clubs etc. The only other one I can think of is the Millennium Stadium.

[The Fish]

17 hours ago, Stuart said:

I think it’s partly down to the fact that we had so little sympathy from fans of other clubs when the chips were really down for us.

Many opposition fans felt (and still feel) sorry for how “Rovers fans treated Kean” and we’re delighted when we were relegated from the PL while Kean allegedly got another pay rise. Without any understanding or caring to find out exactly why Kean was so despised.

If the football fan family had been a little more understanding it might have been different.

Cashley and the Oystons both got their teams promoted to the PL. In Cashley’s case he spent a lot of money and you have a Champions League manager.

Meanwhile, Rovers had 7 years of misery and only just now (by a fluke) look like we may have turned a corner by getting out of L1 first time (but so did Bolton and Wigan). We are only ever one error from our absent owners jailers from falling again, and “owe them” over £150m and still climbing. Charlton and Coventry probably share our pain the most but even Coventry won a trophy!

I’ve nothing at all against Newcastle and hope that you do well - except when we play you of course (!) - and we have a common bond in our love for Alan Shearer (as well as a few shared manager’s and great players over the years) but it’s hard to have too much pity for a side still gracing the PL when we have (still) had more relegations that promotions since the loons from Pune rocked up.

I suppose that's fair enough. If I'm honest the nonsense that the Venky's came out with (Signing Ronaldinho etc.) was pretty entertaining for an outsider. But I honestly don't know of anyone who was particularly bothered about how you treated Kean. 

I wouldn't say Ashley has spent a lot of money. Most if not all of the transfer spend can be attributed to funds recouped from transfers, and of course the monies rec'd from tv deals. We're £150m in debt to him because he didn't do due diligence before buying Sir John Hall out. Also, Benitez approached NUFC about the job, Ashley didn't seek him out and convince him. It's not as rosy a picture as some may assume.

17 hours ago, ChrisPriceBaldSpot said:

Can I just ask, what is the fans opinion on Jacob Murphy? I know the lad and am friends with his parents. He just doesn't seem the same player that he was at Norwich. I would certainly take him on loan at Rovers, but just wondered what your thoughts were on him. 

There were a few raised eyebrows when we signed him for north of £12m, when he'd hardly pulled up any trees. He's got no confidence and, as you probably saw on Saturday, that's knackered his game. He's got a poor first touch, terrible decision making, can't finish. It's a shame because the lad's a Newcastle fan (kind of) and showed flashes of being a promising footballer when at Norwich. 

Perhaps we got the wrong Murphy?

12 hours ago, gumboots said:

And the lasses! 

Indeed

[AllRoverAsia]

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rafa-benitez-claims-blackburn-rovers-15636792

The Fat Scouser Waiter plastic Geordie having a bit of a nicker twist. Arrogant Diva.

[blueboy3333]

11 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rafa-benitez-claims-blackburn-rovers-15636792

The Fat Scouser Waiter plastic Geordie having a bit of a nicker twist. Arrogant Diva.

I quite like the fact we are being compared to Wimbledon or Bolton of yesteryear. It means Mogga is getting it right.

Blackeye Rovers are back. 

[gumboots]

The first thing my son said when he saw the team was that we should be all over their keeper as he's small. Not rough him up but crowd him a bit. Sounds like we did just that

[Guest]

Replay tickets on sale, £10 adult, £5 concession and £2 for 18 and under. Good prices hopefully a decent crowd on.

[J*B]

1 hour ago, AllRoverAsia said:

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rafa-benitez-claims-blackburn-rovers-15636792

The Fat Scouser Waiter plastic Geordie having a bit of a nicker twist. Arrogant Diva.

How dare Mowbray identify a weakness and try and exploit it to win. 

[tomphil]

Fat Waiter turns Fat Whinger !

Suppose it's not PC these days to chuck Spanish in there as well ?

[Ewood Ace]

14 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Our substitutions didn't play a part in the result was my point.

Taking Dack and Graham off to bringing on Williams and Brereton meant that we weren't going to go and do what Newport did yesterday and get a winning goal.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Ewood Ace

[RevidgeBlue]

Maybe it's a bit of a minor complaint I didn't understand the substitution of Dack for Williams at all. You've just been rather unjustly pegged back to 1-1  and you have one guy on the pitch who's likely to do something and maybe get you back in front. So what do you do? Simples. You take him off!!!

Plus, the removal of Dack had the effect of throwing Brereton to the wolves and leaving him with no support whatsoever. I'd go as far to say that if you were trying to make BB look as bad as possible and maybe even try and throw the game having lost the lead that's the sort of change you'd make. Not that I'm suggesting that was TM's intention but I thought it was a terrible substitution which we just about got away with. 

[Oldgregg86]

28 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Fat Waiter turns Fat Whinger !

Suppose it's not PC these days to chuck Spanish in there as well ?

Probably get arrested for saying fat these days that's before your slander case for calling him a waiter 

[Oldgregg86]

3 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Maybe it's a bit of a minor complaint I didn't understand the substitution of Dack for Williams at all. You've just been rather unjustly pegged back to 1-1  and you have one guy on the pitch who's likely to do something and maybe get you back in front. So what do you do? Simples. You take him off!!!

Plus, the removal of Dack had the effect of throwing Brereton to the wolves and leaving him with no support whatsoever. I'd go as far to say that if you were trying to make BB look as bad as possible and maybe even try and throw the game having lost the lead that's the sort of change you'd make. Not that I'm suggesting that was TM's intention but I thought it was a terrible substitution which we just about got away with. 

Said exactly the same thing as I walked down what seemed like a million flights of stairs. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by Oldgregg86

[RevidgeBlue]

6 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Said exactly the same thing as I walked down what seemed like a million flights of stairs. 

I cheated and took the lift!. I counted the stairs on a previous visit. It's something like 31 or 32 flights I think. Needed oxygen by the time I got there.

[MarkBRFC]

I had my lad with me so we took the lift up, and the stairs back down. We counted them on the way down and it's 14 flights of stairs, I thought it was more than that on previous visits.

[SBlue]

Just now, MarkBRFC said:

I had my lad with me so we took the lift up, and the stairs back down. We counted them on the way down and it's 14 flights of stairs, I thought it was more than that on previous visits.

Is that all? Thought it was a lot more.

Felt like I was in an Escher painting on the way down - that plus the never ending loop of “Aberdeen at home” sent me a bit hysterical.

 

Thats how I explain my actions later that evening, anyway.