[Archived] Rovers 0 Chelsea 1

[Duff's Minder]

I promise you we will win this one. 1 or maybe 2 nil

I am certain of this because I will be sat in a depressing German hotel room with nowhere to watch it so it's bound to be an historic victory.

[frosty]

Rovers 0 - 1 Chelsea

Cole

Att: 24, 915

[Quack]

Call me a pessimist but 0-0 would be a great result when the Roubleski band wagon rolls into Ewood, just cannot see our front line troubling a defence as mean as Chelsea's, their midfield will over run our foursome and

Duff / Robben / Drogba - how many will they score ?

Still - Keegan's mob beat them so why not Rovers - 1-0 to the Rovers.

Edited January 28, 2005 by Quack

[Mike Graham]

0-6

Savage sent off

pies run out

22,150

[tcj_jones]

2-0 Chelsea.

[colin]

It will take a momumental effort to get anything out of this, but if.....

the weather is abso-bloody-lutely freezing,

Rovers get an early shot on goal and the crowd roar,

the crowd get the players going and the players get the crowd going,

Rovers get a goal off Stead's backside or a floodlight or something similar,

Freidel has the game of his life and...

14 Cheslea players have an off night, then we might snatch a point.

....and from somewhere, 5,000ft above Darwen Tower it emerges from the gloom and mist.

Very slowly it flies north. Its wings flap slowly and effortlessly as it glides over the night sky and then, suddenly, it is unexpectedly caught in the floodlights of Ewood Park.

A small boy, a little bit bored by the game, looks up to the night sky.

"Dad, Dad, what's that up there?" he asks.

His father takes his eyes away from the pitch and looks up to where his young son is pointing. His jaw drops, and he stares disbeleiving at the sight above him.

One by one the crowd around him slowly stop looking at the game and join him in amazement at the sight that is slowly drifting in the air above Ewood.

Eventually, after about five minutes, all the crowd in the stadium, both home and away fans, are transfixed by the sight above and fall completely silent, simply watching the miracle that none of them ever expected to see.

Meanwhile, on the pitch the players continue with the game, oblivious to the spectacle that is unfolding in the sky above them.

Rovers' substitute Jon Stead has just completed his hat-trick to add to Dominic Matteo's three goals. The ref is just about to blow the final whistle when a voice breaks the silence.

It is Fred the butcher from Blackpool. He sits on Row 11 seat 57 at the Blackburn End.

"Bloody hell, I'll swear it's a Gloucester Old Spot, but I've never seen one with wings before."

Then, just out of habit he adds, "Bloody hell, you're a disgrace ref!"

[Perth_Rover]

didnt duff say when he left that he would love to come back to blackburn one day?

hopefully he didnt mean against us

[giraffen]

oh my god

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

"Humiliated in front of the nation" - what utter rubbish. Nobody expects us to win (even our own fans) - so the only team that can be humliated in this scenario is Chelsea (I hope I don't regret saying that when they knock 5 past us )

This game for Chelsea - is like us playing a first division team - same sort of gap. But you never know - against all the odds we could get a draw. Or even nick a win - yes the most likely result is anywhere between 2-0 to 4-0 to Chelsea, but you never know.

The most interesting thing for me - is how good a manager Mark Hughes actually is. Though we have had a drastic improvement over the last 10 or so games - this will be the first time we have come across one of the top teams since that improvement began. Chelsea are arguably the best team in Europe, with probably the best manager - if MH can take our current squad and get any form of result, then I think we may actually have unearthed a decent manager

[broadsword]

if MH can take our current squad and get any form of result, then I think we may actually have unearthed a decent manager

Like a win, draw or loss?

Perhaps humiliated was over-the-top, but we seem to have had more disasters than triumphs in front of the cameras.

[philipl]

Listening to Hughes, Dickov is a big doubt for Wednesday because of a problematic groin.

[RovertheHill]

Frankly the thought of Duff or Robben running at Matteo horrifies me

Like Ali vs Spinks, Tyson vs Douglas, we can only hope they are too complacent...

[G Somerset Rover]

As Roverthehill has pointed out, the d-man and robben up against Matteo is fairly ludacris, thus matteo must have the best game of his career to even come off the pitch with a shed of pride. I don't know why, but I just feel that were gonna somehow nick a point against them. They werent up for it against Citeh, so why not against us?!

Rovers 1 Chelski 1

[eddiemd]

2-1 to Rovers, southern teams don't like playing in Lancashire in the middle of winter especially at night.

Plus get Matty Jansen back in the team for wendesday

[mhead]

At 7.15 pm on Wednesday the moment will arrive that determines the match. The team is announced. If it contains Johnson,Matteo.Mokoena or Bothroyd and does not include Nissa,Matty,Soft Bazza or Reid in the 16 then write it off. Emerton must be on the right and MGP on the left and Thommo has to be disciplined ( I know an alien concept to the cheeky chappy). Also expecting Dickov not to be fit so need to play Stead (the best of a very poor bunch).

All in all a difficult match for us spectators and fans.Best wishes to you all and may your God go with you.

[brennanboy]

maybe well of brought in a striker for Wednesday

[RovertheHill]

Just on the news earlier. Chelsea have spent £260m on transfers in the last 18 months, have a wage bill of £115m pa and last year lost £88m! Staggering sums of money and quite frightening really...

[dave birch]

88 mill loss, worth about 5 bob to the average punter.

[SouthAussieRover]

Rovers 1 Chelsea 5

Attendance 27,263

[Eddie]

Old Roman doesn't want to pay them off either, the club now has to "run as a business". Well I'm sure this is all just a nice story being created for the media, however, if it is true, Chelsea could really be in trouble.

[Poita]

w000t

Its been televised in australia live.

Will be a big morning for all the aussies

1-1

Stead and robben

[mattyc2422]

w000t

Its been televised in australia live.

Will be a big morning for all the aussies

1-1

Stead and robben

Bring it on. 7am in Vic I think

[James No. 7]

w000t

Its been televised in australia live.

Will be a big morning for all the aussies 

1-1

Stead and robben

Bring it on. 7am in Vic I think

Bah... an early morning. I would rather it be on at 2AM, but I can't complain, really. We are hardly ever televised.

[RoyRover]

I really think that we can get a draw from this game. Our defence has to perform to it's best ability and if any chances come our way we must take them. The idea of Matteo up against Robben or Duff is terrifying.

[1864roverite]

If anyone else is watching the brum game Chelsea definately do have a few weak links IF they were to send this team out at Ewood.

How long is it before the Champions League game ?

The most frightening aspect of them today is the subs bench. The Duffer has not exactly been on top of his game and missed a sitter, their midfield does not operate freely without lampard at the helm, their attack is lightweight without Drogba.

So the big plan.........

Rovers must set out their stall from the very first minute and that means a

1-5-5 formation. Yikes I hear, cries of total madness, but wait.... theres more:

Using the following team:

Freidel

Neil

Short

Nissa

Todd

Matteo

Emerton

Tugay

Ferguson

Flitcroft

Thompson

subs

Dickov

Jansen

MGP

Bellamy/Carew/Skoto

Enckleman

allows for the following plan.

from the very first minute, Lucas Neill should take out either Duff/Robben with a slightly mistimed tackle, gaining a booking but seeing the player leave the field. This should be immediately followed by Short/Todd winning a crunching 50-50 tackle against the Drogba rendering the softie useless ans being substituted. Enter Thompson/Ferguson or Flitcroft, as Lampard tried to turn in the centre circle, a heavy tackle, slightly over the top, again rendering the player useless (not badly injured of course) leading to a substitution.

After what is described as a heavily niggling match, Rovers escape the first half with 4 bookings and a 0-0 scoreline.

Half time and enter Dickov and Bellamy/Carew. Rover change to a more clinical 4-4-2 formation. But before the teams can settle, Dickov turns terry, brought down and a penalty is awarded. terry is despatched to the changing rooms for an early shower, Dickov cooly slots the ball past Check (sp) 1-0 Rovers. What follows is a Chelsea team struggling to break the midfield graps that Rovers powerful DEFENSIVE midfield has on the game, 10 men of chelsea cannot break through and in the last 5 minutes MGP slides in to convert a riveting cross field pass from Emo to send the Ewood faithful into heaven, it send Arsehaol Whinger and the red faced one into raptures. And so it ends, my dream for the night.

Its now back to reality, a couple of bottles of Bud and an early night

Oh well, 30 hours for the transfer window to close and 3 sleepless nights wondering what the FUERK chelsea are going to do with us on Wednesday night.

JHC it is great being a Rovers fan, But Mark, if your reading, those tactics are worth thinking about