[Archived] Rovers 1 Everton 1

[AggyBlue]

Did anyone else notice that Pederson got two yellows

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I am amazed at the doom and gloom - but I think this is just typical football fans. If we had played c**p for 80 minutes but scored 3 times in the last 10 minutes, many would think it a brilliant performance - we played ok for 60 - 70 minutes and went into our shell, and suddenly it is a bad performance.

Lets be honest - Todd played on absolute blinder - all he was missing was the guide dog. It was his inability to handle Johnson that gave us our few moments of worry.

Yes, we sat back after taking the lead - but with three games in a week, you can't argue with the approach too much - especially as we looked as likely to score on the break as they did.

Everton are a poor team overall - but do have a work ethic and the odd good player that means they will get results throughout the season.

Last night wasn't far off our full first team - but for me our few problems revolved around centre half - which MH will resolve with Nelson coming back from injury and our new dutch centre half. Our forward pairing looks promising - and will only get better (this was only their second competitive game together, and McCarthy's 2nd in the EPL). And we have Tugay to come back from suspension.

[John]

How long we will have to wait though to get things 'right'......

At the end of the day we are dropping points - does not matter if it is the start, middle or end of the season.

Edited August 24, 2006 by John

[Ricky]

Well I'm not too disheartened with our first 2 results. We only picked up 1 point from these 2 games last season. We just need to beat Chelski on the weekend now

[G Somerset Rover]

One thing infuriated me-I think it was Todd (could be wrong) but when Mcfadden hit the post the defender just stopped and stared as it hit the post and as a result he was to slow to react when it rebounded off the post. I had the hundsight of a behind the goal view on footie first but whoever it was had a shocking defending lapse that could have been easily cleared if he'd carried on running back.

[spencey7]

One thing infuriated me-I think it was Todd (could be wrong) but when Mcfadden hit the post the defender just stopped and stared as it hit the post and as a result he was to slow to react when it rebounded off the post. I had the hundsight of a behind the goal view on footie first but whoever it was had a shocking defending lapse that could have been easily cleared if he'd carried on running back.

It was Todd. I only saw the highlights of the game last night but they were more than enough to put across the sort of game that our Glorious Captain had. Virtually every chance that Everton had came from a Todd mistake/lack of judgement. That penalty (and it was a penalty) was nothing short of embarassing, it was a Sunday league challenge.

I'm more excited about the signing of Andre Ooijer than Benni - Anything to get the blundering thug that is Andy Todd further down the pecking order!

Hughes - Get rid of him. PLEASE. Preferably to Burnley...

[BrianPotter]

How long we will have to wait though to get things 'right'......

At the end of the day we are dropping points - does not matter if it is the start, middle or end of the season.

Granted, things need to improve, but come on we're only two games in. If you'd posted that comment after six or seven I would agree.

For me I saw enough last night to show, with a bit of luck and hard work we can have another good season. We played reasonably well for long periods, just tailed off towards the end. Remember, we still have Nelsen, Ooijer and Tugay missing (sorry but I'm not incuding Neil in the list of absent players - still haven't forgiven him for Saturday). Also we are starting the season with a completely new strike partnership - this will get stronger as the game mount up.

The only slight concern for me is that with Chelsea at the weekend we could end up three games in with only a point (especially after seeing Jose's comments after their defeat). But I really think some people on here are going overboard (why am I not surprised by that). We are far better starting slowly and building into a rythm and producing a decent run. No point in coming out of the traps like a greyhound and then wilting like a dead flower mid season.

We'll get things right - I'm pretty confident of that.

[Presty On Tour]

i'm well gutted with just the one point, we should of had them dead and burried after the first half.

still it's our first point of the season, the first of many more i hope.

benni took his goal well, he's going to get better and better and combined with roberts to be fair, missed a few chances he should of burried.

our defence to the everton goal, all over the shop! it really was shocking, cant wait for ooijer and nelsen to start and neill returning.

[Hughesy]

Last season we picked up 1 point away @ pompey and 0 points @ home to Everton. So far we have picked up the same amount.

Only difference being that I feel we are now looking a lot stronger than last year. Now ok we didn’t win the game but our front 2 looked very good together. Our defence coped quite well considering they were missing 2 first choice defenders, and possibly 3 depending on what this new Ooijer is like.

Brett Emerton was quality at right back. He did a very good job defending and going forward and he made some very good challenges. He is also not scared to get stuck in and he is better than the rest of the defence at distributing the ball as he has played in midfield previously. Also I noticed he was communicating a lot with the rest of the back four. Lucas Neill your place is under threat!! Ha ha!!!

Their goal – If anyone else notices, Todd slipped when they set off running and that was the only reason he was beaten to the ball over the top.

For 70 minutes we looked good and very comfortable. We couldn’t hang onto the ball but I think that is because we missed Tugay. When tugay is playing he keeps the ball and controls the play, unfortunately without him we played a lot of the long ball, however he is only missing for 1 more game.

After last night, which I actually thought we would of lost, I am very confident for the new season and I think we have a stronger squad.

[92er]

Gray was also poor defensively, but not much new there either.

Many posters on here are Savage supporters. I think we paid too much for him and although many people enjoy the "pressing" role he brings to the midfield, I see very little positive he brings to us-can't pass, shoot and has no positional sense etc. Very little comes through the centre midfield for the strikers and I continue to see this as a problem, although Hughes seems to rate him.

Bentley appeared to contribute very litttle from where I was sitting and Pedersen, for whatever reason, is nowhere near the form of 12 months ago. He was also very fortunate not to be sent off. Some people thought he was unfortunate to be booked initially-having caught their player arguably be accident, he appeared to deliberately catch Neville from behind in the 2nd half.

Todd was very poor, as many people have said-he might now be 4th choice-but I really could not understand what was going through his mind when he did the "shoulder charge" that led to his 1st booking.

[BrianPotter]

Brett Emerton was quality at right back. He did a very good job defending and going forward and he made some very good challenges. He is also not scared to get stuck in and he is better than the rest of the defence at distributing the ball as he has played in midfield previously. Also I noticed he was communicating a lot with the rest of the back four. Lucas Neill your place is under threat!! Ha ha!!!

Fully agree with you Hughesy - compare Emertons performance last night to that of Lucas at Pompey - different class. I for one, will be very dissapointed if Hughes brings Neil back in for Emerton after the way he played last night.

[G Somerset Rover]

I forgot to mention the commentator on football first said that Roberts scored only 1 in his last 13 appearances at the back end of last season (and unless Im wrong I think that was against us?!)-so that's now 1 in 15. If theres ever been one critisism of his game its his ability to turn chances into goals. The rest of his game is pretty much spot on-so lets get Benny and Sparky to show him how its done!

[spencey7]

Their goal – If anyone else notices, Todd slipped when they set off running and that was the only reason he was beaten to the ball over the top.

Did he "slip" against Portsmouth too? And why did he just completely give up when McFadden beat him to the ball?

Don't make excuses, until he's out of the squad we're always going to be prone to disastrous defending.

[Hughesy]

If I was Hughes then I would stick with the same back four, but possibly bring this new fella in for Ooijer for Todd, Unless Kishanishvilli could be shifted to play left back I don’t know??

Emerton will probably revert to midfield, however I would love to see him given that chance at right back again on Sunday. He is quite quick which would help when trying to stop Robben & co.

As for savage – he puts in more work than anyone. I wasn’t his biggest fan, but the amount of bustling he does and closing down people is vital. If all our team chased the ball down like he does then the other team would be knackered by half time. He also helps to motivate the rest of our team into closing people down more.

Pedersen – Needs a reality check. Now ok he may well do good on Sunday because he seems to perform against the big guns, but if he doesn’t pull his finger out then I think we should consider dropping him for a couple of games and see if that gets a reaction from him. Bentley & Peter are both capable of playing on the left so why not!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

We need more guile and craft in midfield if McCarthy and Roberts are to reach their full potential.Both sides looked very even to me........average at best.Early days yet but we need more from the likes of Gamst et al to start looking convincing against even the likes of ###### pot Pompey and Everton.

Everton fans.....I have never known a set of fans moan and holler at every tackle and decision made against them,like a bunch of pansies! HANDBALL! HANDBALL!!!!

Just 15,500 home fans......a clear warning Mr Williams that matters are reaching critical point as regards pricing down at Ewood

Edited August 24, 2006 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Hughesy]

Not making an excuse for Todd because I also think he can be a liability, however he did slip.

Gate was 22,000 – they had about 5000 there so id make that more like 17,000 home fans

[ihateburnley]

If I was Hughes then I would stick with the same back four, but possibly bring this new fella in for Ooijer for Todd, Unless Kishanishvilli could be shifted to play left back I don’t know??

I'd be looking at a back four of;

Gray Zurab Ooijer Emerton

In my opinion Zurab looks our best defender at the moment, Ooijer's experience will be vital against Chelsea, Gray keeps his place only because we have inadequate cover and Emerton can build on a solid performance against Everton.

Put Todd on the bench for a game or two, and give the captains armband to Savage - let our captain lead by example.

Or in a dream world, we could go all out against Chelsea and shock them;

Ped McCarthy Roberts

Peter Reid Savage Bentley

Zurab Ooijer Emerton

Friedel

[greggyk]

Had we held on for nother 6mins......would Rovers be top 6 contenders according to you lot? My God, some of you do like a moan dont ya.

Yesterday was 100x's better than Saturday and as the players get back to full match fitness(which is what all our game is about) then we will improve.

[rover6]

A major problem is, despite Pedersen having an anonymous game, he stays on the pitch because there's no-one to replace him who can provide real width on the left (I know Gally can play on the left). In fact we have no-one who can provide real width on the flanks apart from Peter and the ineffective Emerton. (I hope Emo stays at right back now).

I know Sergio Peter has been troubled by a ankle injury but even if he is fit, I don't think he'll get on the bench when all the others are fit too.

Edited August 24, 2006 by rover6

[only2garners]

To counteract the prophets of doom on here this is the report of the match from today's Independent.

http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/pr...icle1221364.ece

This fits in with my view of the match - that we were the better team for most of the match and that we had plenty of chances to have put the match beyond Everton, but that we missed them. Then we sat back to try and protect the lead, which we were doing OK until the last 20 minutes. I don't know whether that was our design or forced by Everton's pushing forward - probably more the latter. Before that Everton had not been in the game at all. I can only remember them creating 2 serious attempts on goal - Andy Johnson's break and shot saved by Friedel and the goal. Overall aa draw was the right result but only because we missed chances and paid the price. On another day we could have 3 or 4 easily. We're not as fluent as last season yet but we were comfortably better than Everton.

PS Did anyone else notice that Bet24 are our "principle" sponsors. Good to see an on-line betting company with principles...

[thenodrog]

Many posters on here are Savage supporters. I think we paid too much for him and although many people enjoy the "pressing" role he brings to the midfield, I see very little positive he brings to us-can't pass, shoot and has no positional sense etc. Very little comes through the centre midfield for the strikers and I continue to see this as a problem, although Hughes seems to rate him.

Yawn............ I think you need to ask those that play against him for a true assessment of Savage's input if you cannot see it for youself 92er. (patient sigh)

btw to all the Todd detractors....... he was not the worst or slowest defender on the pitch last night by some considerable distance! You lot would whinge forever if we had to watch Stubbs lumber around every week.

btw his partner Yobo is one class act.

Did anyone else notice that Rennie said he was going to book Neville, when he'd played advantage - but just because we scored he didn't bother!!

Yes me. Neville got well and truly out of jail. Rennie still spoke to him though but then ended up patting him on the shoulder. Another day and another ref and Neville could have been sent off. I must say Pederson did appear to have been targetted last night by the Everton players.

[greggyk]

cant exactly start having a go at Rennie, was unbelievable how he didnt give Everton a pen

[thenodrog]

cant exactly start having a go at Rennie, was unbelievable how he didnt give Everton a pen

All my mates in the JW said it was a pen but from the Riverside it just appeared that AJ went down too easily and was fishing for a pen. And that is the angle that Rennie got too although he was much closer of coures.

[adopted scouser]

All my mates in the JW said it was a pen but from the Riverside it just appeared that AJ went down too easily and was fishing for a pen. And that is the angle that Rennie got too although he was much closer of coures.

Well let's be grateful that Rennie was in the wrong position. Had he seen it properly, Todd would have had as much chance of getting away with it, as Quasimodo getting a love bite on his bell end.

[brfcjon]

Well let's be grateful that Rennie was in the wrong position. Had he seen it properly, Todd would have had as much chance of getting away with it, as Quasimodo getting a love bite on his bell end.

Well what we really should be gratefull for is signatures like the one you have.=)