Rovers 1 Southampton 1

[Alan75]

Match Report by tucker

Edited by Alan75

First Half sumed up our home performances this season, never have I seen a poorer start from Rovers, we were simply dreadful, we lacked fight, cohesian, aggression amongst other things. Yet again there goal was another masterclass from the school of how not to defend, with Short and Babbel continuing on from last weeks shambolic defending, it was simply schoolboy stuff from 2 experienced defenders.

Despite the poor start we still created chances, we were able to get in behind there full backs with ease, though Emerton (Penalty?) and Douglass failed to capitalize. On the whole it was pretty poor though, Emerton sauntered about, Andreson couldn't get into the game and Gallagher was pretty ineffective, also surely it is time to try something else on the left, for all Douglas works he is simply not upto scratch on the left Flank.

Second half was a different story, the passive display of the first half was replaced with energy and enthusiasm typified by the performance of Michael Gray, who surely showed any doubters that he can slot in at Left Midfield with ease. Andy Cole deserved his goal, it is the first time in a long time that Cole has shown the supporters at Ewood that he actually  cares and wants to do well and but for a fine stop from Niemi he could have had another shortly after his equaliser.

Still though the Rovers defense looked likely to concede a goal whenever the ball came in from a set piece, and on todays performance I yet again question what the defensive unit gets upto in training. Though the performance of Matt Jansen was quite promising, for the first time some nice touches complemented his ever present work rate.