[Archived] Newcastle 3-0 Blackburn Rovers

[Maverick]

Some pictures from the game, taken from row Q.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/roverspicture/album?.dir=3e83

[tashor]

Souness has gone but at least he had come to realise that it is completely suicidal to play two wingers in a 4:4:2 away against a decent team with attacking flair, especially with our lack of pace at the back.

We should've started with a midfield of Douglas, Ferguson, Tugay, Flitcroft in a 4:4:2 or played a 4:5:1.

I have always had the utmost respect for Parkes but that went when I saw his daft line up today.

We now stand on the brink of premiershipsurvivalextinctioness.

Our poor start means that the new manager has only up to a dozen games to turn things around.

If he does that then we can still finish in the top twelve.

If he does not then at best we will probably just avoid relegation but will be on a downward spiral that will further deplete our Championship-level crowds and make it highly unlikely that we remain the genuine Premiership club that we are at present.

We have all to play for but the next two months will be a desperate roller-coaster ride of morning sickness that will either see the gestation of Blackburn Rovers as a stable top division football club or as a bloody bucket bound abortion heading for the mid/lower reaches of the fizzless Coca-Cola nothingness occupied by our hapless neighbours.

I plan to surface from an alcohol induced coma in early November to find out what has happened. Good luck to all concerned.

[Ricky]

Does that mean we're not going to hear from you for a couple of months

[Nayef]

There's always a silver lining.

I've never been to Chesterfield or Luton! Can't wait until next year.

[RoverDrake]

Oh come on, a few poor results and now we're doomed to the lower leagues? Just wait until the new man comes in and injects a bit of spirit and a royal kick up the ass to the team then we'll be sorted.

I mean look at our bad start in 1998/1999, Woy got sacked, then a new man in Brian Kidd was appointed and.....oh yeah...

[tashor]

Does that mean we're not going to hear from you for a couple of months

   

Oooh Whikey my lovely .....

I fully take your point...

I have made a dozen posts in the last two months...

You have made two hundred and fifty in the same time....

No wonder the standard of posts has become so much better recently....

.........I’m just going outside, and I may be some time.........

[adopted scouser]

We should've started with a midfield of Douglas, Ferguson, Tugay, Flitcroft in a 4:4:2 or played a 4:5:1.

Everton played one up against Citeh and took all three points, used the same tactic at Man U.

Any saving graces from today ?

It all seems to have gone wrong for that lot at Old Trafford

Palace got stuffed so we aren't at the bottom

Started to watch a bit of the Martin Clunes drama thingy. Ugly get with a smashed nose spread over his face, reminded me too much of Steve Bruce.

Cheer Up you lot, we are a small club, whatever we get is a bonus these days. Everything will be OK when Houllier gets here.

[Bobby G]

Well lets be honest we didnt expect any points from Arsenal and Newcastle away,probably hoped for 2 but reality strikes.

We lost our points against WBA and Southampton,shouldve had 3 more points at least from those two and we would have had 5 instead of 2.

Its definitly gonna be another poor season,15th or16th or 17th id say.

The fact that there was no heart from the players today is the main problem i have.

[1864roverite]

you obviously know faff all if you think using Douglas is the answer.

I wouldnt use him to clean my shoes he is that poor

[broadsword]

Everything will be OK when Houllier gets here

Oh no it won't!

The Lord help us if that clueless Clueso arrives.

We'll be signing Carlos Kickaball and Hannanah Alaboogoo for ridiculous fees. He's bankrupt us and take us down.

Take your red spex off.

[RoverDrake]

Everything will be OK when Houllier gets here

Oh no it won't!

The Lord help us if that clueless Clueso arrives.

We'll be signing Carlos Kickaball and Hannanah Alaboogoo for ridiculous fees. He's bankrupt us and take us down.

Take your red spex off.

Bankrupt us? We have NO money to spend, expect the odd million here & there.

[broadsword]

Well done, you're halfway there.

Missing component is that we spend more than we have. That is how you end up bankrupt.

[RoverDrake]

Well done, you're halfway there.

Missing component is that we spend more than we have. That is how you end up bankrupt.

But are JW and co really going to give Houllier a load of cash to spend on his track record? When it comes to finances, our guys are pretty wise, we won't ever do a Leeds.

[super_neill]

Oh come on, a few poor results and now we're doomed to the lower leagues? Just wait until the new man comes in and injects a bit of spirit and a royal kick up the ass to the team then we'll be sorted.

You beat me to it, there is no way we will go down, when the new guy comes in things will change without a doubt lets just keep the faith!

[tashor]

you obviously know faff all if you think using Douglas is the answer.

I wouldnt use him to clean my shoes he is that poor

Mmmnnnnn ....

.....and how many times have you seen him play, bright lad.

As it happens I WOULD agree with you that he is a very basic player with no frills.

I have seen him often, usually playing for the reserves, including the recent draw with Liverpool. I didn't bother to post on that game as I did not recognise the game reported by the few posters that had attended and could not be bothered to disagree with decent, if blinkered, folk.

For example, despite scoring Matty looked as good a player compared to before his injury as Brigit Bardot does a doe eyed sex symbol today compared to her glory days....

....back to the recently appointed three year contract Douglas...

NO!! He is not a left sided midfielder BUT guess what??

Once he was played there last season our results improved so much we pulled out of the relegation zone.

If you missed that and fail to understand my point in using a basic but solid player to shore up our defensive liabilities at times then I doubt your ability to know your football arse from your soccer elbow

[RoverDrake]

Oh dear god, now I don't hardly ever see Rovers live but after a just seeing Emerton's corner that ultimately lead to the possible penalty for Newcastle I have to ask....... are Emerton's corners like that in every game?

[Blue and White]

I don't see Rovers live in every game either but from what I've seen Emerton's corners are absolutely horrible. Most of the times they don't even clear the first man, the other times they're innacurate and harmless. Is there noone else in the team that can take atleast a half-decent corner ?? Because this certainly is not Emerton's speciality.

[Maverick]

I don't see Rovers live in every game either but from what I've seen Emerton's corners are absolutely horrible. Most of the times they don't even clear the first man, the other times they're innacurate and harmless. Is there noone else in the team that can take atleast a half-decent corner ?? Because this certainly is not Emerton's speciality.

The corners today was bad. Didn't seem like there was any plan behaind any of them. If I remember right, Rovers used to score a lot of goals on corners.

I would think MGP should take some. He has a great left foot. Just need some time to get into the pace of the game.

[92er]

We very occassionally score from corners, but that hardly makes up for the general dross up with which we have to put.

[Scotty]

I was quite pleased with the line-up today. Unlike our resident tactical genius Tashor I thought playing 4-4-2 and taking the game to the confidence-shy Geordies was exactly what we should do and I was looking forward to a cracking game. Surely if there was ever a game where we'd be up for it this was the one.

How wrong I was. We were simply pathetic.

We were second to every 50-50, we let the Newcastle players have yards of space every time they were in possession, and we failed to do the most basic of defensive duties.

Newcastle scored from the first corner of the match. A ball was swung over and Flitcroft headed it into the back of his own net. God knows why.

There was space all over the pitch. No-one in a blue & white shirt could be arsed to close down and Newcastle carved through us at will. A through ball found Bellamy challenging the hapless Neill and Short down their left flank. He was allowed time and space to pick out a great cross and Shearer did what he does best.

It could have been any score by half-time. The only chance we created was when the lively Stead turned and hit a looping shot onto the top of the crossbar. It deserved better. Sadly the rest of the team's efforts didn't.

The second half was a non-event. Newcastle went through the motions and we looked disinterested. Newcastle wrapped the game up near the end when a bit of a scramble led to O'Brien squeezing the ball home underneath Friedel.

Where do I start? Neill was utterly inept. Pathetic. Short and Matteo looked like they'd never met before. Flitcroft was anonymous. Ferguson was a show-pony - all nice touches but sweet fa substance. Pedersen is starting to look like a joke. Seriously, a pub player could have made more of an impact today. Emerton looked lively at times but he neglected his defensive duties. Dickov worked hard but produced no quality at all. Only Stead looked genuine class - his efforts deserved better.

We were abysmal today. I was sure we'd be up for it beforehand. How could we not be? Sadly, we were simply pathetic. No heart, no fight, no passion, no pride in the shirt. Tashor was right all along. Our players aren't good enough to take the game to a team like Newcastle away from home.

Our new manager has a hell of a job on his hands. Souness has left a fuking sh!te team behind.

[92er]

Where was Matteo for Shearer's goal?

[RoverDrake]

Where was Matteo for Shearer's goal?

The whole entire signing of Matteo just stunk. Was it really beyond us to go for Van Buyten when we could afford £1.5m on MGP?

I'd rather see Nissa or McEveley given more of a chance than Matteo. We already have two hard-working, old defenders in Amo and Short.

[vyeo]

finally seen some 'highlights' of the game. made for sad watching really. with regards to matteo - we buy relegated stuff, we get relegated. am i alone in thinking that he should be on the bench at best?? i'd really rather have nils in there instead of him. remember matt elliot of leicester (o'neill period)? he wasnt skilful either, was ugly too and supposedly a hard hard man. see the parallels with matteo? the difference - elliot actually did his job of being the defensive brute and rallying his troops. matteo does neither.

[philipl]

After having seen 60 minutes of the match on TV and had time to sleep on it..... here goes.

In all probability we are in deep trouble because whilst there are possibly better players to come back (Amo would have imposed his personality and Thompson could not have been worse than Fltcroft whilst Douglas at least helped keep things quiet in the second half), we are soft and squodgy all over the field. Not surprising given the batterings these guys have taken from Souness that the personalities have gone nd the soft and squodgies remain....

The fundamental problem yesterday was midfield. Flitcroft was played to provide steel in front of defence. He was utterly useless and whilst the o.g. was unfortunate, it also came about through rank bad technique.

With Flitcroft wasting space and incapable of passing, Ferguson hd nobody to play with. He is a brilliant footballer but not a one man disrupter when the opposition is allowed to play as they were yesterday. (Incidentally, by trying a formation to attack the Mags' weaknesses, we allowed them to play to some world class strengths)

Emerton is clearly a confidence player- he would have been brilliant playing for Newcastle yesterday, just as he showed for Rovers when we ripped Wolves apart and gave the Mancs a fright last week. When things are not going right (note, not only when things are going wrong!), he seems very very lost.

On the left, we have signed two players who are heroes in their own countries with multiple international appearances, but on the strength of about 200 minutes in total from both of them, appear to be woefully short of what it takes to be even half decent in the English Premiership.

A midfield like that exposing a defence which is short of pace is a recipe for relegation.

Final observations about the front line- there is nothing wrong with Stead- the boy is sheer class and those posters saying Souness buying him off us for £3m would be welcome are talking complete and utter rubbish. Hard to tell from yesterday but Bothroyd might be good enough. Dickov is you get what you see which is very good.

[Nate]

No panic yet from me. As far as I'm concerned, the season starts against Portsmouth.

We have played 3 of the supposed top 4 sides in just as many weeks. Mind you, some of the players need a right kick up the backside, so whoever is in charge next better do it.

Was funny to see Mourinho's post match interview, saying how Drogba should of received a penalty and if it had of been RVN, it would of been given. I like him already