v Peterborough United (h) - 24/11/21

[Gone to seed]

Such is the roller-coaster ride of Rovers' rampant and ridiculous rabble of ragamuffins, that it seems no-one (else) feels capable of stepping forward to preview the game against Championship whipping boys Peterborough United this coming Wednesday (yes, less than 48 hours away and not a word, not a peep, not a whisper of a match thread). Till now. To the Board's rescue comes the mighty, but largely clueless, keyboard warrior formerly known as Wild Irish Rover, but now oddly monikered 'WIR Second Coming' ever since a strange clash with a long gone Mod in the dark days of goodness knows when. Long ago.

I digress.

Wednesday evening sees the return to Ewood Park of Darren Ferguson's Peterborough United (theposh.com) with the two sides poised for an epic, if somewhat baffling, battle of half wit / half worry-wort with there being only one clear winner - the weather. Posh are in something of a tail-spin sitting at 22nd in the division, having won only twice since September, and collecting only 3 points from their past 5 games. Rovers are in much healthier shape, going into the game having taken 10 from a possible 15 points, even whilst establishing a new club record for a home defeat along the way.

Ferguson is apparently regarded as an up and coming manager in the game of association football, so far being saddled with a less than glittering track record to date taking in the heady heights of Posh (currently his 3rd stint), Preston Knorr Th'End and Doomcaster Rovers where no trees were torn up, or football boots thrown in dressing room spats despite his being the spawn of a Red Devil.

Head to head over the years has been unpredictable, other than to say you can predict the next game is going to be unpredictable.

It looks like there has never been a scoreless draw between the sides, so perhaps lump on some cash at the bookies. No, perhaps not.

Rovers' propensity to vacillate continued at the weekend of course, with the same group of players that gave a footballing and motivational lesson to a side only just out of the Premier League being harried, bruised and battered off their stride by a very poor bunch of cider-quaffing louts. Only the kwality of our Plastic Chilean mascot rescued a difficult point from our otherwise huff and puff / lack of Arte et Labore - long may El Diaz continue to bosh in the goals in such fine 'Gamst Stylie' I say.

Players who have graced (or disgraced) both teams include...

Derek Dougan - (Centre-Forward, turn-coat and late of this parish since 2007) (a chorus of loud boos from many a Rovers die-hard, or at least those who are still alive despite being able to recall the treachery associated with that name). Bit of a Posh Doog, at the time, no doubt.

Serhat Tasdemir  (Attacking Midfielder born in Blackburn) - Finding players who've been at both clubs is definitely a trivial pursuit opportunity - but apparently this chap was released by Rovers and is now plying his trade with Barnet, having made some appearances at London Road.

Niall Mason (Defender / Defensive Midfielder) - early career featured a spell with Rovers, eventually signing professional terms with Aston Villa but never appearing for them, and instead arriving at the Posh via another Rovers (doomcaster).

Prediction for Wednesday Evening?

Heart says Rovers have to stamp some kind of authority on this one, despite being dictated to by Brizzle at the weekend - So perhaps a fine 2-0

Head says you can only bank on being baffled at the mind-games played so expertly by our gloriously deluded leader as we hurtle towards kick off. Could go either way, but based on form alone, plus the Posh' awkward 'habit' of taking the game to Rovers at Ewood, an unsurprising result might be 2-3 in Fergie time.

I won't be there - am having to self isolate with the family, and can confirm that this Covid thing is real. Currently completely unable to taste or smell anything - NOTHING AT ALL - which is a weird thing. All I can say is, I still expect a strong whiff of bullshit emanating from Ewood Park in the run up to the game, but I am hoping that it will be the sweet smell of victory for the mighty Blue & White, rather than the stench of bewilderment for the few hardy souls brave enough to venture out for this one.

O Come on Ye Blues!

[1864roverite]

1-0 Rovers

 

[Mike E]

Very tidy preview!

[frosty]

So this is the first Championship game against Peterborough since one of many low points we've had since our PL relegation, the home defeat against them in 12/13. 0-3 down at HT and a good few chancers wearing the shirt - thankfully the odious Orr and Murphy were hauled off at half time and, if I remember correctly, neither were seen again thank god.

2-0 Rovers after being 0-0 at HT.

[Admiral Nelsen]

2 hours ago, frosty said:

So this is the first Championship game against Peterborough since one of many low points we've had since our PL relegation, the home defeat against them in 12/13. 0-3 down at HT and a good few chancers wearing the shirt - thankfully the odious Orr and Murphy were hauled off at half time and, if I remember correctly, neither were seen again thank god.

2-0 Rovers after being 0-0 at HT.

 

Some pretty undiplomatic language from Appleton at the end of that game as I recall! Without naming names, basically said that a handful of players weren't bothered and had downed tools. 

 

I'm not arguing that he would've been a success (that Millwall quarter final is still etched in my memory!) but an interesting bit of alternative history over our recent past would've been to see what Appleton could've done with the opportunity to rebuild that Bowyer was ultimately given. 

[Gav]

3-1 Rovers 

[JHRover]

All the odds suggest a Rovers win. We are in decent form other than the Fulham debacle, our home form is decent with defeats only against West Brom and Fulham and should be even stronger having flushed away 2-0 leads against Coventry and Luton.

Peterborough's away form is beyond dismal with all but one of their away games ending in defeat.

Really we have to win this one but then I keep reminding myself that the games where we are favourites and expected to win we tend to struggle. Mowbray seems to prefer it when expectations are lower.

A tough game at Stoke on Saturday but all the focus needs to be on getting the 3 points tomorrow and worry about Stoke on Thursday/Friday. I hope Mowbray doesn't muck around making changes with Stoke in mind and then let points slip v Posh. Focus on the next one. I'll never forget our midweek fixture at Reading a couple of years ago when he went there making changes against a relegation threatened Reading because we had a game v Middlesbrough at the weekend and we ended up getting 0 points when Reading were there for the taking.

If we can get the 3 points here and take something from Stoke it will be a healthy week's return of 5 points from 9. 4 points from 9 wouldn't be too bad but would see us lose ground on sides above us. Less than 4 points from 9 would be very disappointing given the form of Bristol and Peterborough.

[Mike E]

37 minutes ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

Some pretty undiplomatic language from Appleton at the end of that game as I recall! Without naming names, basically said that a handful of players weren't bothered and had downed tools. 

 

I'm not arguing that he would've been a success (that Millwall quarter final is still etched in my memory!) but an interesting bit of alternative history over our recent past would've been to see what Appleton could've done with the opportunity to rebuild that Bowyer was ultimately given. 

I'd take him now tbh 

[Colt Seavers]

WIR Second Coming - what a great preview. You sir, are a writer!

[chaddyrovers]

Very good preview there @WIR Second Coming. Excellent read. 

my team would be 

                     Kaminski 

Nyambe Lenihan Ayala Pickering 

          Buckley Travis Rothwell 

  Dolan          Brereton      Khadra 

[matt83]

At the start of the season when it became apparent moggasurus would bumble on for another year I thought we’d possibly break club records for low home attendances. I looked at this fixture as the one which might break the records - small away following, midweek, coming towards Xmas, crap side, etc.

As it turned out Fulham in early nov was the lowest attendance since the ground was redeveloped but I stand by my summer prediction this will be the lowest attendance of the season and therefore lowest for over 3 decades. 
 

* wasn’t Fulham that was the record drubbing. Potentially hull for the attendance one

Edited November 23, 2021 by matt83

[tomphil]

Rovers   3    Posh  1

9.879

[simongarnerisgod]

peterborough are shockingly bad defensively,big ben and dolan to run riot in an entertaining real madrid vs eintracht frankfurt like 7-3☺️

[bazza]

WIR I take it those previous results were taken from a Posh site?

Anyway, 1-0 Rovers at half time. 3-0 Rovers at full time.

[booth]

17 hours ago, WIR Second Coming said:

I won't be there - am having to self isolate with the family, and can confirm that this Covid thing is real. Currently completely unable to taste or smell anything - NOTHING AT ALL - which is a weird thing.

I can confirm that too. Been struck down with it over the last week or so as have the rest of the family. Today has been the worst, not being able to breathe on occasion. Awful.

[had.e.nuff]

still waiting for the "well there a strong side and i expect a hard game" pre match talk

[Leonard Venkhater]

Well, what do you expect.." We're gonna give this lot a right good stuffing"..?

[Cherry Blue]

Expecting another game of two halves:

0 1 HT

2 1 FT

[47er]

2 hours ago, booth said:

I can confirm that too. Been struck down with it over the last week or so as have the rest of the family. Today has been the worst, not being able to breathe on occasion. Awful.

Good luck, wish you well.

[Upside Down]

We will be beaten. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

As always, tough to call with us. 

I'm going to go 2-1

2-0 up at half time, after missing a few chances. They score 60 min and its uncomfortable til the end 

[Gav]

On 23/11/2021 at 02:29, WIR Second Coming said:

 

I won't be there - am having to self isolate with the family, and can confirm that this Covid thing is real. Currently completely unable to taste or smell anything - NOTHING AT ALL - which is a weird thing.

 

14 hours ago, booth said:

I can confirm that too. Been struck down with it over the last week or so as have the rest of the family. Today has been the worst, not being able to breathe on occasion. Awful.

Get well soon to you both, this bloody pandemic is far from over as you can both testify to.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Is the game on Ifollow? 

[roversfan99]

Kaminski

Nyambe Lenihan Ayala Pickering

Travis Davenport

Dolan Rothwell Khadra

Brereton

Subs: Pears, Edun, Wharton, Butterworth, Johnson, Buckley, Clarkson

Fully expecting a back 3 but I would prefer the above, Davenport can give us more balance and Buckley was really poor at the weekend so bring Rothwell back in his place.

Weak bench is a major concern.

[islander200]

Buckley really poor at the weekend?Nonsense,  he was poor the first half as were the rest of the team.He played well in the second half