[Archived] Southampton 3 - 2 Rovers

[Paul]

Good to have that one cleared up

[vyeo]

Anyone know about him calling the fans "smart arses" at lunchtime? A lot of very unhappy callers on Radio Lancs tonight. As one of them so succinctly put it "Souness can dish out the criticism but he can't take it."

I watched that interview live. HE was stood next to Paul Sturrock. The interviewer asked something along the lines of "what do you think of recent events at Southampton?"

He referred to people at the club shood be getting behing their manager and smart arse fans.

It it was about Rovers club andor fans and him it was a very well disguised comments. I suspect people weren't listening probably.

agreed stu, i saw that interview too. also, on the surface, it looked like he was somewhat sympathising with sturrock but it sounds almost like he was pleading his own case as well.

[Hasta]

If you look at the name D'URSO closely you can see the name URS.

Spooky.

[accyrover]

I reckon D'Urso and Urs Meier were seperated at birth. I honestly thought I would never see amore incompetent refereeing disply after Euro 2004 but b*gger me if I didn't see one yesterday. D'Urso was a disgrace, not only for awarding the penalty but apparently he booked the wrong player in Ferguson the 2nd time round and that was his excuse for not sending him off ! The guy is an absolute idiot. He's a disgrace to the 'profession'.

Accylad

[SAS]

Yestedays actions were disgraceful, how the hell did he see a penalty from a 50/50 challenge.

[sausagemandog]

I too am feeling a little numb since watching the match on Sky.

First half til they scored we looked the most likely to take the lead.

Second half i thought we were excellent,only to be punished by a crazy referee. Besides the penalty we had three players booked one twice. Southampton were consistently let off by the ref when their challenges were mistimed.

Dickov constantly battled and on the 50/50 decisions he usually came out as the offender. Is this ref and others against Rovers for Souness,s attitude towards referees. I have no idea.

Lets hope for a miracle i recall a couple of seasons ago getting beat at Fulham then going to the Library and getting an outstanding result which changed our season.

Dont know whats going on at Ewood,we were led to believe that getting rid of cole would make a happy camp,but surely constantly playing people out of position,will ###### players off. Whats wrong with Gray left side of midfield and Gresko in defence. Emerton before he came to us was a wing back,now he looks a real novice in defence,only thing he seems to be any good at is creating .

Im not looking forward to the next few weeks its a long time till Pompey at home,if we dont beat them,i too may join the Souness must go campaign,but you wont get me chanting Souness out,im too down for that....

[Darth Paul]

Despite being a long time member of this site now I have rarely offered too many posts, preferring to observe the opinions of others passively, with the odd exception. However, the debacle that was the refereeing performance by Andy D'Urso (if that is his real name) has incensed me sufficiently to climb out of my sedatory observation hide and into the emotion scarred battlefield of this messageboard. Forgive me if I repeat any points, I have too much wind in my sails during this rage ridden rant to slow down and trawl through the backlog of probably equally disappointed people, Souness-baiters and suicide candiadates but what The F*** was the man playing at yesterday?!

The afternoon started off well enough despite a couple of unpunished challenges on Micheal Gray which deserved a booking in my opinion but I thought, you know, "its a mans game, fair play ref keep the card count down".

However,it wasnt until the final minutes where Mr D'Urshole decided to make a name for himself by chucking a few yellows about. No big deal I thought, the mans obviously a prick amongst the metaphorical cactus farm that is Premiership referees, I thought. Then injury time came and the final gut wrenching blow...PENALTY?! WHY?

Now others on this board can back me up with stats but it is a long time since we have had one of these, and if thats what that was, then how the hell have we managed to avoid one?

I have always shied against the conspiracy theorists who claim the refs have got it in for Rovers, who shouldnt be in the Premiership any way, ungraciously intruded in on the Arsenal/Man Utd title party etc etc... but to go for so many games with out a single referee (very nicely sponsored by Fly Emirates I noticed yesterday) deeming it necessary to award a penalty for us really makes you wonder.

If they really dont want to give us one, why not have the decency to inform the club in writing at the start of each season so we can save on overheads by not wasting paint on the penalty spots?

Now I like to think I am a realist...the current Rovers squad, even with referees in their pockets to the extent of 1990's Man Utd proportions aint gonna set the world on fire by bringing the European Cup home. But the fact remains that had Andy D'Urso not insisted on awarding the Saints that penalty then we would have come home with a point yesterday. Agree with my sentiments or not, THAT is a fact.

So the question is what do we do? What can we do? Do we accept that we are just not one of the "in" clubs anymore and be grateful for the scraps of free kicks, throw ins and the odd bits of tv money we still get before fading into Coca Cola obscurity in a couple of years?

Or can anything be done about these now professional, well paid officials who seem to have a combination of selective Mr Magoo vision and that of Jonny Depp in "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas". (Arrgh a penalty, eek a giant lizard smoking...)

Despite being happy that Bazza was not sent off yesterday, despite clearly being shown 2 yellow cards in a conjunctivitis fuelled mad ten minutes, I was further incensed to hear that Mr D'Urso when asked had stated that it was in fact Tugay he had booked. Where? Why? B****cks! At least be man enough to admit you made at least one mistake. You would probably have been due a monkey or two from the league for sending one of our players off under the new anti rovers reward scheme...good job you can get freebies from fly emirates for putting such a hard afternoons work in, hey Andy?

So does anyone have any suggestions of how to take action successfully against such injustices or do we content ourselves with the fact that we get to see 23 paid profesionals playing every week instead of the usual 22, except that the extra man will probably be kicking towards the Blackburn End come second half?

Rant over; agree with me, tear me to pieces, I dont care, Im climbing back into my well hidden observation post to passively enjoy the site once again.

See you in 12 months.

[murray92]

The STARTING LINE UP must be:

Friedel

Neill Short Amoruso/Matteo Gray

Emerton Ferguson Tugay De Pedro

Stead Dickov

Bench: Enkleman, Matteo/Amoruso, Yorke, Gallagher, Thomson.

- Hopefully Thomo is nearing fitness, and could replace Emerton at some point.

- Matteo has looked a liability to me in the 2 games, but surely he's a centre back, not a centre mid, and definately not a left winger!

- Dickov must start after his tenatious 2nd half display. He will prob not last the full 90 though cause he does sooo much running...which is ehre Gallagher/Yorke come in.

- I assume De Pedro still had a 'knock', which is why he didn't feature. He must be given a chance in his rightful position. Possibly having Dickov playing in front of him to offer a bit of pace there though! In any case surely Gray should have then taken left mid role yesterday, as Gresko was available.

- Nissa I'm sorry! How many times did he just hoof the ball up in any direction. He mad 1 forward pass the whole game yesterday, the rest was lumped! Now ok there are times when you need that, but not everytime you get the ball! Ok so Short does it too, but not to the same degree.

[bob fleming]

Please don't leave it 12 months Darth. Thoroughly enjoyed that post. The referee was poor beyond belief - I could go on but it's already been said.

Conspiracy theories? It's getting that way. We should have had a penalty ourselves at 2-1 up - If someone can remember what to do when we get one I do believe we could have been 3-1 up. Game over. Everyones happy - until Wednesday.

"Lady Luck" reared her ugly head and once again she sticks her tongue out in our direction. The bitch. (Yeah - I know slagging her off ain't going to help - but she's had it coming. The cow.)

Don't Let 'Em Grind Ya Down

[Dan Furness]

Anyone who wants Emerton to still be in the team after that pathetic performace yesterday needs their eyes testing.

constantly drifting out of position

not once took a defender on

barely went down the wing

flapping out of 50/50 challenges

utter crap, lets see if we can get the 2m we wasted on him back.

As for Dickov, how he did not start is beyond me. Gritt, determination, urgency, and also created a lot more play when he came on.

[greggyk]

Your not even a real blackburn fan so dont talk utter pants. Living in oslo, you just dont think or have the same feelings as people in this country.

Sorry greg but that was one of the most pathetically immature comments ive ever read.

maybe so and I apologies as I was, and still am very angry. But I do not like it when people who only see rovers play once a season slagg the team off when they have not seen the match and go on people opinions and not their own.

so i apologies for that statement and to the ppl it offended.

From the time you posted I guess you weren't at the game either so I guess we can't take your views seriously either.

I was actually. Me and my brother drove down to the game amd he does actually have a laptop in his car. Which I used to post that message

[1864roverite]

lets just clear up that challenge between short and beattie.

It was never a 50-50 challenge, in fact IMO it was a 80-20 challenge in the favour of the defender. Beattie was moving backwards Short was in control, keeping eyes on the ball at all time and rose well above Beattie, headed the ball away whilst JB limped around like a dying swan, puppy eyes looking sweetly at the idiotic referee who took sympathy on him.

as for waking up this morning and realising that someone is now not a sounes supporter following a good nights rest ?

Well its Sunday, its lovely and sunny here in Leyland, the kids are out, the dog is in the back garden and all I was thinking about was well....let your mind roam.... it certainly was nothing about Souness,BRFC or football !

Dickead durso has allegedly admitted his error, I just wonder where this leaves Rovers on Wednesday Evening, will he be suspended ?

[Dan Furness]

my thoughts are........

cant wait for the pub to open in 5 minutes

[philipl]

dan-mark-furness. Try talking us through Dickov's goal without using the word Emerton. That pull back alone would hav been worth three points B'Ut F'Or D'Urso.

I am amazed that D'Urso has not ben hung out to dry by the Sunday papers. But there again, it was the Rovers who suffered so I should not be that surprised really.

One thing which has not changed on reflection. The last 20 minutes at St Mary's was the single worst display of refereeing I can recall in over 40 years of watching football.

It even beats the late Gerald Ashby's howler against the Mancs.

Edited August 22, 2004 by philipl

[Dan Furness]

one moment, one moment he had, when even I could have put that centre in.

rolling ball, easy to put spin and height on.

1 assist means naff all to me, he is a liability now in my eyes

[Dr Rich]

Try talking us through Dickov's goal without using the word Emerton

Try talking us through Kevin Phillips' goal without using the word Emerton. That mistake alone cost us a point even with D'Urso putting in his regular discraceful impression of a referee.

I don't know how you think Emerton's pull-back would have got us three points but for D'Urso, we managed to concede the first two goals all by ourselves. If you mean the penalty he didn't give us, then that would be two points not three that the pull-back was worth. Myself I'd rather give the credit to Dickov's wonderfully composed finish, taking his time and waiting for the keeper to jump before driving it home. Dickov was outstanding yesterday, gave it his all, got a goal and made another, exactly the player we need starting the match not coming off the bench at half time trying to salvage something.

[Tom Pringle]

Thought Emerton was better at right-wing than right-back. He did some excellent work down the right hand side to setup Barrys goal. But still not attacking.

Matteo left midfield

First half i thought we were playing some good football. Stead looked better than the first half of last week. But we lacked something, pace and the killer edge.

Hello Mr. Dickov, do you want to play for Blackburn Rovers?

Yes

FANS: He's crap, he's no cole, he's old, he's rubbish, played for a relegated side

I really hope you realised all that you said was utter rubbish. The man has changed the game TWICE in 2 matches. A fair few people saying Dickov was a crap signing before the season started, also wanted Souey out. Need i say more?

Like Paul, i don't know whether i'm for or against Souey anymore. I think we've got the squad, the coaching staff (I love you Deano) and the youth setup. Maybe Souey is becoming 'stale'? Maybe the 'tactics' aren't working anymore.

I don't know, i haven't got all the answers, but if souey goes, who's going to come in and turn things around

Anyway, 2 games in, don't want to be a doom and gloom man, we played some excellent football yesterday, better than i've seen us for a while. It's gonna take time to get a settled formation and settled side, but please Souey, PLEASE, start with Dickov.

[Dan Furness]

gotta disagree Tom, I thought we were extremely woeful first half, defensively ###### poor and not much better in midfield.

Second half I think we woke up a bit, lets be fair, there was no chance we could have been as poor second half as first half.

Shape of the team baffles me, im pretty sure hes doing it for damage limitation till we get some players back, looking at the midfield you would have though we would have been more 'solid' but sadly not the case

Dickov to start

[Jimbo]

I was going to post last night when I got back from the game but decided against it after having had a few too many drowning my sorrows/frustrations

So lets get the negatives out of the way first -

Flitty - thanks mate and bye - you just can't cut it anymore.

Matteo is no way a left winger - but after watching him vs WBA he's not much of a centre back either - I can only assume that Nissa got his place to counter the pace of Phillips & Beattie, which I think he did very well - I just wish he & Short would have talked to each other

The "defence" - come on lads - ROW Z - you know it makes sense - their second goal came after too much faffing around on the ball

Brad - sorry mate - come back when you're fit - Beatties penalty was made 10 times easier because you had to set off on your dive as he started his run up & every back pass placed us under pressure since you can only kick left footed, Arsenal will kill us if it's the same on Wednesday. Plus you shouldn't have been unsighted for their second - you really do need to be more mobile - nice save though fella!

The Phillips goal - no way was it Emerton's fault - the mistake was both Nissa & Short challenged for the cross & missed it leaving Phillips all on his lonesome - it would have been nice if Emerton was closer in but he was torn between coming in and covering their left winger (The TV replays showed this perfectly this morning).

The positives -

Emerton looked to be getting more confident as the game went on - this can only be a good thing & his pull back for Dickov's goal showed his determination to get to a slightly over hit Stead pass

Stead was instrumental in both Rovers goals - dragging the Soton defenders out of position to give Fergie the room to shoot & his pass through to Emerton for Dickovs

Dickov - what a fantastic little player - It's a shame it doesn't look like he'll last a full 90 minutes - he just gives so much. His battle with Le Sulk yesterday was fantastic & he pushed it just enough to unsettle him without getting booked, I did think he was going to walk when he had Beattie round the throat tho' & should have had a pen when he was wrestled to the ground just after his goal.

Barring the mix up for the first goal & the lapse in concentration for the second I thought the defence had a good game especially once Neill came on in the second half.

Michael Gray - he just looks better & better all the time

The rest.....

I thought pretty much everyone else had fairly decent games, tho' what Ferguson was doing kicking the ball away especially having already been booked - we need both him & Tugay running the midfield and can't afford the inevitable suspension that will result from it - no Fergie means Flitcroft will start

& the Ref - I can't really add any more to what has been said already D'Urso is a disgrace, not just for the penalty but also the fact he intercepted more of our crosses than any of their defenders.

Ah Well! roll on Wednesday when we stop the mighty Arsenal in their tracks :)Anyone up for a drink before the game - I'll be in the Alwyne Castle Pub, St Pauls Road N1 2LY - near Highbury & Islington Tube

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

I think it was Alan75 who said a while back that you have to be a sado-masochist to follow Rovers.

But believe me, I don't enjoy this pain one single bit.

It's ironic that in 1997, Souness resigned as Saints manager after one season, citing that he had been given only £2m to spend in the transfer market.

He complained bitterly at the time: "How am I able to keep the club competitive in the Premiership with that amount to spend?"

Seven years later, Souness has had to make do with only 150,000 to spend this summer - and it shows out on the pitch. We simply don't have enough quality in the side.

We didn't offer any real attacking penetration in the first half, apart from one shot by Jon Stead that was saved. Although our passing was neat and tidy at times, there was no zip, no fizz and very few incisive moves.

Or as Paul put it:

non-descript, uninspired, there is no spark of any sort.

There was a chronic lack of width in the first half which meant we were unable to get round the back of the Saints defence to cause them real problems.

We had no penetration whatsoever on our left-hand side. And there were only one or two sporadic moments of good attacking play down our right flank.

For Phillips' first goal, our defence went to sleep. It was also poor play in midfield to allow the ball to be played into our box in the first place. I thought the point of having Flitcroft and Matteo in midifeld was that we would be solid and difficult to break down. That was not the case yesterday.

Emerton is clearly not a right-back. (Mind you, is he actually much better going forward?)

After the break we initially looked a bit more lively after a welcome change in personel.

Ferguson did well to get forward into the box and score a well-taken goal.

15 minutes later, Emerton (surprisingly) actually got to the byline for a change and put a dangerous cross in. The diminutive Dickov was on the receiving end, and smashed the ball into the back of the net.

The 3 points were there for the taking at St Mary's, but due to a combination of Mr D'Urso's performance and our own inadequacies, we failed in the task. From a position of being 2-1 ahead against what looked like a rather average/mediocre Saints side, we certainly shouldn't have lost the game.

But instead of putting the Southampton on the back foot, attacking them down the flanks and trying to get a 3rd goal, we sat back too much and invited pressure. Friedel couldn't have done much about Anders Svensson's powerful strike into the far corner of the net, but our defence should certainly have cleared our lines better and not allowed the ball to be crossed into the box from the Saints right-hand side.

It looked like being a 2-2 draw - two points lost, but not a complete disaster to draw away from home. That was up until Mr D'Arseh*le decided to create a few headlines and get himself into the back pages.

As my good friend Phil put it:

A couple of minutes fame even if it is for displaying gross incompetence might be considered worth it for a saddo like D'Urso .

Quite a few of our officials clearly love the fame, attention and notoriety they get.

This is why we get refs, such as Graham Poll and Uriah Rennie, who employ agents to get themselves into the public eye as often as they can.

As Sturrock's predecessor Gordon Strachan said last season: "You see these refs laughing and joking about their decisions on comedy programmes like 'They Think It's All Over'. It's sickening. Games are often won and lost because of their incompetence. Do they actually want to be refs or media celebrities?"

Clearly some of them prefer to be the latter.

And so we get creeps like Graham Poll writing his own newspaper column, and Uriah Rennie doing magazine interviews where he shows off karate kick moves to the camera.

Poll himself openly bragged recently: "When I first started out as a ref, I deliberately booked and sent off players to get a reputation as a tough guy."

That is what Poll actually admitted in a TV interview. He was more interested in putting himself in the limelight than in being fair, sensible and strictly impartial on the football field.

Football the beautiful game?

It makes me sick sometimes....

[greggyk]

FA to probe D'Urso error

he should be suspended

[Radagast]

Well having watched the game again with a slightyl more cool head I'm more disappointed but if our next 3 games weren't against top sides I would be less worried after the way we played in the second half (defence and D'Urso aside).

With regards to the team selection, I'm still not entirely happy with it (of course) but I appreciate the manager had his hand forced. Neill would have started if fuly fit and Emerton would have played on the wing - where I was very impressed with his second half display. Similarly, Matteo wouldn't have played in midfield if de Pedro was match fit, although I'm confused as to why Gray didn't start on the wing with Dom at full back, which again was part of the reason for our second half improvement whent they were switched.

D'Urso is a complete joke, it's a mystery how the man stays in a job - what happened between Short and Beattie will happen in every game of football you're likely to see. As for the Ferguson thing?

Some positives:

Dickov was superb.

Emerton actually looked like a player in the second half.

Neill looked on decent form again.

Some negatives:

The defence needs sorting - Matteo and Amo or Short at centre half please.

Flitcroft shouldn't have played, at least not in the position he did.

[92er]

Does anybody have stats on Amoruso-how many games played/missed?

My wife's reaction-"Still can't hold a lead".

Souness is now blaming the defenders for the goals-experienced players making mistakes they should not have made.

The FA sound as though they are going to look into why Ferguson was not sent off. Wasn't it a stupid action for the newly appointed captain to risk missing a game/games after missing so much of last season?

[tonygreenbank]

I must be one of the few fans that were quite pleased with the overall performances in both games. What is so wrong with changing style and tactics at halftime? Why is it an admission that the manager got it wrong? Yesterday for example the onus was on Saints to dictate the play and we react to it. Being a goal down we revert to another tactic and dominate the game as every commentator has said- you cannot legislate for a monumental error, described by Chris Kamara this morning as the "worst decision he had ever seen in a game".

We have been the better side in both games and unluckily have only 1 point.

Dickov has been tremendous as has Ferguson. We do have good players and once the initial rustiness has worn off then we wil do well . I have confidence in the manager - a great player himself - who has a tendency to infuriate but has the best interests of the club at heart and has demonstrated on more than one occasion in the recent past that he can produce the goods for us.

[Scotty]

You should be a politician Tony. The spin you put on our performances so far was superb - I almost started to believe you. Fortunately though, my head's not in the sand like yours obviously is.