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[Duffers]

I really don't understand this obsession with Gallagher. He played okay for a bit last season and he ran alot but without much substance. Yorke did really well when he came on, he won free kicks and held the ball up. Whenever we don't play well there is this outcry for Gallagher and Jansen to be recalled which I'm afraid is based on nothing but nostalgia.

To the game - we already look twice the team we did last year and if decisions had gone our way we would have 5 points from 4 games, and presuming that Arsenal go unbeaten - or very close to - for the rest of the season that would effectively (against our rivals) be 5 points from 3 games. It hasn't gone that way but its looking up for Rovers

[accyrover]

I really believe there is a conspiracy going on here. Souey didnt comment on the ref today, perhaps Williams et al have told him to stop moaning about the refs because.......(conspiracy coming up)

Today we got nothing. Again. Everytime a Man Ure player went down they got a free kick. The sending off was debatable and the Smith goal should never have stood. The number of wrongly given throw in's and corner to Ure were unbelievable. They clattered our players and not even a card. Everytime we went near one of them the ref blew for a foul. Add that to D'Urso's disgraceful display at Soton and you have ask yourself - have the refs got it in for us because Souey is always publically blasting them ?

Accyrover

[bob fleming]

No, fair play to Yorkie - made me proud. The way he jogged around closing players down. That silly Dickov chose to sprint around all match, chased the impossible. How silly.

Did anyone else see Yorke welcoming the United team into Ewood on Sky? Made me really proud.

I thought, "There's a player who doesn't give a flying ....... how we get on today. Thanks for your tireless jogging in closing players down Dwight. You thief."

accyrover - Nuff said. Spot on.

[JonnyH]

(Please don't use that word again) off Dwight Yorke. You've come on as a sub, you've got fresh legs, CHASE EVERYTHING.

So he chases down a lost cause that will result in nothing for Rovers because the fans want him to. O'Shea makes a simple pass and completely takes Yorke out of the game when we are down to ten men and need to defend from the front.

Yeah good point Tom

[den]

Off the top of my head - Berg, Amo (obviously), Neil? Flitcroft?

short. When we drew 2-2 with em

Sherwood at O.T.

[1864roverite]

YORKE OUT......NOW

[Duffers]

Did anyone else see Yorke welcoming the United team into Ewood on Sky? Made me really proud.

He was saying hello to the side he won the treble with!!! Its okay to be frustrated with Yorke, god knows every Rovers fan has, but he did well today and saying hi to some old friends doesn't warrant criticism

[Philly Rover ®]

Well that got the blood pounding and back to it's true colour of blue and white. It's a fine day in Blackburn, there was a buzz as we walked down LBR towards the ground, lots of Rovers and not a Manc in sight. Inside we sang and it soon became apparent this could be a day when we might leave with our heads held high. By injury time EVEN the family stand was on it's feet singing, a sight I have not seen for years, if ever. I left Ewood gutted, but not surprised, I felt United would score, we deserved to win, United cheated constantly. Got home physically drained and had to lie down to recover from this game.

Tonight a lot of pride has been restored in the blue and white shirt. If the players continue to perfom with the same PASSION and comittment this could tunr into a decent season. They gave us something to cheer, we backed them all the way. After weeks of disappointment I feel a lot better, lets hope for more of the same on Monday.

Well said Paul. Souness finally put out a team with a little bit of an attacking mentality, a team that was balanced and had everyone in their proper position. And lo and behold, the work rate and "battling qualities" were still there! Hopefully a lesson learned for Souness, so he'll continue to come up with a balanced side with a bit of attacking flair thrown in there.

Ronaldo - until today I liked him. I'd only seen him on the telly but you had to respect and enjoy his skills. I now realise he's a cheat. All that talent and he has to cheat? I hope he's a disaster from now on - cheats get what they deserve.

I feel exactly the same Paul. I was appalled by Ronaldo's blatant dives and constant whining to the referee. His theatrical tumble in the box after running into Amoruso was so bad it was actually funny--yet I can't believe he didn't go in the book for that. For a kid with so much skill, he clearly has a lot to learn about the game of football.

Quick sidenote: a real shame about Thommo, and I hope he's alright. He didn't really have any time to make an impact, but it's just gut wrenching to see someone who has worked their butt off after an interminably long injury absence come back and immediately get injured again. It's definitely not fair to him, but hopefully it was a minor injury and he can shake it off and get back in the first team reckoning once again. Until then though, Emerton looked very good today and hopefully the proverbial kick up the backside (Souness going with Thommo instead), as mentioned by Pringle, will serve to spur the Aussie on to become the player we all know he can be.

...Pederson had a great Debut - shame he didnt score...

Flopsy, I don't know if we were watching the same game, but I thought MGP looked nearly invisible today. Not that I was expecting much out of the lad yet--although I'll admit that I was hoping for a bit more from his free kicks--and I harbor high hopes that he'll settle in and eventually become a very very good player for us. But as for today, I fear he was quite simply overawed by the experience.

...but we didn't lose.  Which is more than I can say for the next opponent, Newcastle.  Lets get them while they're down, and another bad ref notwithstanding, put some more points in the table.

Exactly. A bit disappointing that we didn't scoop up all three points, but a solid game nonetheless and a much-needed point. Newcastle appear to be doing their best H.M.S. Titanic impression at the moment, and while they'll be under a ton of pressure to get a result next week, not many will expect Rovers to walk away with a good result. If we play the way we did today--the way this team is capable of playing--then not just a draw but a win is certainly not out of the questiuon.

Carry the momentum on, boys.

[Blue blood]

Wasn't looking forward to this at all seeing as we've not had the best of starts to the season and have seen some very odd team selections. So it was a nice suprise to see a balanced team with everyone in their best position - wingers playing on the wing, whatever next? The result of having a blanaced team were plain to see. Whilst Utd may have had more of the ball with two wide men we gave them some problems going forward and despite not having six defenders on the pitch defended really solidly. It wasn't always pretty but it was effective. Dickov's goal was pure class and Brad seems to have got over his injury worries and proved once again why he's the best keeper in the Prem.

Only several minor criticisms of Rovers; Tugay when he shot instead of passing it to Stead who would've been through on goal and Yorke. Regardless of the debate on his running the amount of times he got caught offside was criminal. This in turn gave Utd the ball and put us under pressure again. In an experienced professional this is pure laziness and shows how unimportant the club is to Yorke.

As for the referee he saved Utd (along with that cheating git Saha). At the end I genuinely believed we had won it, I thought that Utd had run out of ideas and were pumping it aimlessly forward. And when Utd start hoofing and hoping for a break you know they were beat.

Of course you don't expect that a blatent handball would be allowed but even before this the referee had shown where his sympathies lay. Amo's first yellow card was a joke, especially when that late two footed tackle by O Shea resulted in nothing more than a free kick. As for his second I thought Dickov had been blatently fouled, yet again, seconds before the ball was played up field. And extra time - how long? The man's a joke.

The only consolation is that if we play like that we should be getting some points soon and Utd are definately not going to get their grubby mits on the title.

[herbergeehh]

The ass. ref

My thoughts exactly !

Edited August 28, 2004 by herbergeehh

[herbergeehh]

So he chases down a lost cause that will result in nothing for Rovers because the fans want him to. O'Shea makes a simple pass and completely takes Yorke out of the game when we are down to ten men and need to defend from the front.

Yeah good point Tom

Like Dickov did in the 1st half when Howard's clearance nearly gave us a goal, you mean?

Yeah, good point Jonny

[Manchester Blue]

Completely different circumstances Herberger. Yorke was poor by his standards but it wasn't his fault we lost. When he got the ball he held it up well apart from once. He didn't chase enough or put enough challenges in but that's why he should never play up front on his own.

The overreactions on here are embarrasing at times. He was poor in difficult circumstances. Yorke still has an important part to play here. I didn't post on here how wonderful he was in the first game because he was just ok. Today he was not ok but the situation was different. You will never see Yorke running around like Dickov but you will get other things from him. If it means that much to some to have a scapegoat fine maybe Emerton can have a week off for a change.

Me I'll criticise a player by all means but to call him a disgrace and want him out of the club. Pathetic.

[herbergeehh]

Good point.. I guess it's nearly impossible to play up front alone, and that we were unlucky to get Amo sent off just AFTER sending on Yorke. We could've substituted Gamst and played Yorke in midfield I guess...?

[Manchester Blue]

Yeah exactly what we said after the match. If Amo had gone before the substitution then Yorke would never have come on. I also would have played him in midfield however I would have worried about the amount of room on the wings then.

[rover6]

Manchester Blue makes a good point in that you should never judge a forward by how much he runs around. Any imbecile with a bit of stamina can chase defenders down as they play it around.

And any imbecile would know that doing that excessively is pointless because the forward loses strength, gets tired and has less energy to actually get into dangerous positions to score goals (which is after all their job).

However, with Yorke, it's not the running that I don't like, it's his ability. He seems so laborious with and without the ball. He's not the best in the air and has certainly lost any pace he had.

[BMan]

A few points from the 'debacle' today

1) Quite rightly agree with the majority that 3 minutes was enough injury time. The formula for subs of 30 seconds x 5 would be correct if their were 5 subs made after the second half whistle blew. Saha came on before the second half whistle was sounded to kickoff.

2) Friedel played outstanding and I am already sick to the teeth of hearing how we were lucky to get a point. Goalkeeping is still part of the game even if they outshot us 16 -7 or whatever the wide margin was.

3)Hard to blame Brad for anything today, but I have ask a question, and it's genuine so try not to have a go at me for it, but, when the hand ball occurred, Brads first intuition was to raise his arm claiming hand ball. And at that time, maybe a millisecond later, he isn't ready for the equalizer from Smith. Does Brad receive partial blame? Part of the answer of course is that the hand ball or even the goal does not occur if the right injury time was posted.

4) Souness deserves a bit of credit today. Hats off to Ferguson for keeping his cool.

5) On the fence regarding MGP. He looked very nervous in the first half understandably, but in the second half, apart from the blunder he made with the ball well over the bar, he looked a bit more comfortable. I think he'll be fine once he adjusts to the English game.

[krislu]

Did anyone see Gamst Pedersen doing a sweet brazilian overhead-kick, cant remember seeing many of those at Ewood..

As for the game, I needed an hour for myself after the match, but I now believe/hope that souness will continue to pick a well balanced team as he did today, good work for once Souness..

One more thing, I'm starting to like Dickov, that guy really works his socks off and aint afraid of anyting, good buy!

Edited August 28, 2004 by krislu

[Lathund]

Did anyone see Gamst Pedersen doing a sweet brazilian overhead-kick, cant remember seeing many of those at Ewood..

Yeah that was nice Was near his own touchline with a United player pressuring him. Did two on the foot and then kicked it up in the air and hit a sweet overhead kick. Can't really see Matteo doing that if he was in that situation

[BRFC4EVA]

I feel CHEATED.

We have now lost 7 POINTS cos of direct decsions from ref's. Against wba the ref gave a free kick for what was a perfectly good challenge from matteo and they score from it. 2 pnts dropped. Against saints, 3 pnts dropped, dickov should have had a blatent pen and then beattie got a farce of one. And now against the mancs, weve dropped another 2 pnts cos of the ref not seeing a blatant hand ball. Instead of being comfotably 3rd with 9 points we have 2 and are second bottom. All this cos of direct poor ref decsions. JOKE

The game was played in front of a great atmosphere, in which i think Brad and Emerton were our star players. If Emerton can play like that every week.....

On a final note, how left footed is MGP, ie does he do the majority of the things with his left foot and take free kicks with it ect...? Im just a bit worried by all this talk about him having been a righty until he was 15. Cheers.

C'mon the Rovers.

[herbergeehh]

Amo however..

BMan: That was actually my reaction aswell, he wasn't ready for the shot and he might've deflected it over the bar, had he been 100 percent concentrated !

But he saw the situation and Saha's hands, I guess it's hard to NOT react like he did - and to blame Friedel for ANYTHING that happened would be harsh after his display...

EDIT: Gamst has got two good feet, but his left foot is his best one.

Edited August 28, 2004 by herbergeehh

[bob fleming]

Manchester Blue makes a good point in that you should never judge a forward by how much he runs around. Any imbecile with a bit of stamina can chase defenders down as they play it around.

And any imbecile would know that doing that excessively is pointless because the forward loses strength, gets tired and has less energy to actually get into dangerous positions to score goals (which is after all their job).

However, with Yorke, it's not the running that I don't like, it's his ability. He seems so laborious with and without the ball. He's not the best in the air and has certainly lost any pace he had.

Manchester Blue, as well. What a load of crap.

The fella is allegedly paid 35k a week. The least he can do is run around a bit, perhaps put O'Shea under pressure for a second or two instead of just jogging slowly towards him and letting him clear the ball.

I'm not blaming anyone for the lack of 3 points - other than the ref - and I do appreciate that it was a hard job he had on his hands when it we were down to 10.

BUT - BUT - Work your socks off man! Do the business! Pretend you give a sh*t at least! Run yourself into the ground for 30 minutes.

Don't get me wrong - If Yorke had scored the goal that Dickov scored today I'd be right behind him.

There seems to be a bit of confusion on here now and again, that hard work and good goals aren't compatible. I find that quite incredible, considering that Alan Shearer once played for this football club.

[bazza]

Did anyone see Gamst Pedersen doing a sweet brazilian overhead-kick, cant remember seeing many of those at Ewood.. 

Yeah that was nice Was near his own touchline with a United player pressuring him. Did two on the foot and then kicked it up in the air and hit a sweet overhead kick. Can't really see Matteo doing that if he was in that situation

Yeah, MGP was on his own goal-line and his "sweet overhead kick" went straight to a United player just outside our penalty area, putting the defence under more pressure.

But on the whole I thought he had a good debut; no nervousness in the first half; good player!

[krislu]

Just read on the official page that "8,000 United fans behind the goal"..

Was there really only 18k Rovers fans at the game today, must be an all time low against manU at Ewood...

[Tango]

Just watched the highlights on Match Of The Day... Once again, robbed. Blatant handball and the extra minute. Although, saying that, Johansson handled in the area - it would have been a very harsh penalty, but arguably a penalty none-the-less. Amoruso's red card looked fairly legit; can't complain there really.

Friedel looked superb; couldn't say much for the other players as all the clips were Manchester United dominated...

We can take heart from the point and, with Newcastle leaking goals without a solid defence, we can hopefully take something from there too.

I can get to sleep reasonably happy tonight.

[Hasta]

Just watched it again on football first and still can't believe that Dickov gets hoofed 2 foot up in the air 5 seconds before amorouso's sending off and it's not noticed. And for the second week running I got the feeling Tony Cottee doesn't like us in the commentary box.

On a plus note newcastle looked a mess of a team, especially defensively.