[Archived] Blackburn 1- 3 Newcastle

[RevidgeBlue]

I actually missed yesterday's game due to something that cropped up at the last minute.

General consensus in the Pub afterwards was shocking in the first half, very good in the second with ten men and unlucky not to get something out of it.

But why the hell for such a vital game did it take us going two behind and down to ten men to mount any sort of worthwhile effort? I find this utterly incomprehensible given the position we're in and for this reason our prospects of survival must be dubious at best.

[Presty On Tour]

well dissapointed with the result, as the 2nd half performance deserved more imo.

mgp, super dooper goal and a good game, he's getting there

the henchoz red card was harsh as martins touch let him down and it was a long way from goal but rules are rules

is anyone else frustrated with our strikers? lazy, them seem to get a buzz at seing the offside flag and no pace!!

on the plus side, we made a game of it in the 2nd half, our subs derbyshire and todd our pushing for places in the starting 11 after doing well and january is less days away!!

[thenodrog]

And finally, to the absolute pr*ck walking down the stairs of the family stand (with plenty of kids around) shouting "I'm sorry, I'm not racist but McCarthy is a lazy black b*st*rd" .

Insulting?..... yes. Why does the simple word 'black' cause you such a problem? To a professional sportsman any insult is only in the other two words surely?

[Flopsy]

I think the point is, that being black has got nothing to do with being a lazy @#/?.

Thats the racist bit.

[chris]

dear anything is racist these days, last time i checked he was black

i think the insult is @#/? lol

come on january window, lets get an speedy on form Black player like Martins lol

[philipl]

But why the hell for such a vital game did it take us going two behind and down to ten men to mount any sort of worthwhile effort? I find this utterly incomprehensible given the position we're in and for this reason our prospects of survival must be dubious at best.

We didn't- we had an OK first 20 minutes ruined by Benni getting offside in promising positions but we were opening them up very nicely, had a goal chalked off and forced a great save out of Given.

Problem was the catastrophic 20 minutes before half time that stuck in everyone's memory.

Even so. if I remember correctly we shaded the first half posession and territory figures.

[herbergeehh]

I was quite scared that Martins would be brushed by either of them, and the subsequent fall/dive would earn Tugay or Savage another red card.. It was a blessing he scored instead of earning a red card for either of our central midfield players

Was thinking the exact same thing, mate. As I've said before, I thought we were hard done by with 2-0 down after 45 mins, and looking at the 2nd goal I do think it's offside. Originally I thought the ball was being hit back, but it looks like the ball is going more forward - and Taylor definitely looks further forward than any of our players as far as I can see.

[jim mk2]

Insulting?..... yes. Why does the simple word 'black' cause you such a problem? To a professional sportsman any insult is only in the other two words surely?

So you don't mind being called an ignorant, loud-mouthed, opinionated, overbearing, white supremacist then ?

Or is it the white that causes you such a problem ?

Back at the match, I thought Rovers were actually quite impressive on Saturday despite the awful result.

And enjoyed the caller to Radio Five Live who berated Lucas Neill ! More of the same please.

[den]

A touch of reality. It's only a game guys.

[joey_big_nose]

dear anything is racist these days, last time i checked he was black

i think the insult is @#/? lol

come on january window, lets get an speedy on form Black player like Martins lol

Wellwe aint likely to get an inform player in Jan as they will be extraordinarily expensive, but your exactly right about the pace.

McCarthy, Ooijer and Roberts are the only players we laid money down on so far, and we are likely to get a little bit of cash for Neill.

Another striker may not be too much to ask, as Nonda could be returned to sender without loss, while Gallagher looks like he is in line for selling. Earnshaw, while hardly ideal, may well be better than what we have. We need speed!

[thenodrog]

So you don't mind being called an ignorant, loud-mouthed, opinionated, overbearing, white supremacist then ?

Or is it the white that causes you such a problem ?

'Loud-mouthed'? How can anybody be deemed 'loud-mouthed' on here? It's a bloody message board you thick sod!

But all those attempted insults are in your opinion only and should be taken as such, if we were face to face I'd either agree, laugh or knock your teeth down your throat and that would be for you to judge. However I am a white person, it is an unequivocal fact so why should I feel insulted by that? Surely John even you are not so stupid that you cannot see that?

Edited December 11, 2006 by thenodrog

[Wolverine]

Still not changing my mind - I agree with Herb and Sparky himself.

As far as I am concerned, the ball is not passed backwards.

Not arguing with you Jord and Bing - just stating my opinion.

[CAPT KAYOS]

We need speed!

If not the players then the Fans certainly do!!

Still not taken in by the performance in the 2nd half as this is what should have been happening in the 1st half especially after the performance defeat at Charlton.

The annoying aspect of it all is, that regardless of the 2nd half we where still the better team in the first half yet we end up conceeding two sloppy goals and against poor opposition yet again and the geordies for the 2nd year running scored x3 at our place.

[OscarRaven]

Still not changing my mind - I agree with Herb and Sparky himself.

As far as I am concerned, the ball is not passed backwards.

And how many times have you seen it? At what speeds? Says to me offcials have a difficult job seeing things once at premier league speed and having to make the decsion in the very same split second.

And just in case your job wasn't difficult enough you can hear the abuse behind you and are just waiting for that coin!

Hughes is using these refs/lino's as a smokescreen for an ineffective front two and an unsettled and depleted defence. Perhaps he needs to look closer to home before questioning the integrity of offcials.

Or are we suggesting there is a conspiracy becuase were to good to go down?

[Paul]

Still not taken in by the performance in the 2nd half as this is what should have been happening in the 1st half especially after the performance defeat at Charlton.

I went to Ewood expecting a real battling performance from the KO and a 3-0 win. Perhaps I should go back to travelling more in hope than expectation.

[CAPT KAYOS]

And how many times have you seen it? At what speeds? Says to me offcials have a difficult job seeing things once at premier league speed and having to make the decsion in the very same split second.

Or are we suggesting there is a conspiracy becuase were to good to go down?

How many does it have to be seen OR?

If you are taking that as an example then every incident would have to be viewed and different speeds etc.

The decision on Saturday was just total bollux and to top it off Henchoz won the header first anyway - if players are getting sent off for that and this is what football is coming to then they can stick it up their arse and get ready for even more mass exodus.

Not a conspiracy because we are too good (which we are not) but as I have said on another thread , somebody does not want lil'old Blackburn in the Premier League.

[Robertson]

The first half was one of the worst halves i have seen from us in terms of lack of commitment and just not turning up.

The tactic of playing the diagonal ball to Pedersen to outjump Solano did not work the first few times, yet we kept trying to do it. Only in the 2nd half when we started to keep it on the ground did it get better. Newcastle always back off when you run at them (bit like us at the minute) so why we decided to make it easy for them and lump the ball up and miss our midfield out is beyond me.

As for our defending...

Lucas was getting stick from the fans and I am not surprised, he has been poor all season and IMO should not captain and arguably should not be playing.

The guy behing me left after henchoz got sent off, with his young son in tow. Nice ewood experience for that little chap!!!

2nd half better but after such an abysmal 1st half showing we deserved nothing really.

Bring on Reading and Arsenal!!!

[Ray-Von]

Its about time the Rovers managements stopped the practice of putting away fans in the executive boxes of the lower BBE. Its been going on for a while, and it came perilously close to kicking off in a major way on Saturday. There's nothing worse than being goaded by a load of ######-up corporate free loaders. Get it sorted Mr. Williams.

[AggyBlue]

Its about time the Rovers managements stopped the practice of putting away fans in the executive boxes of the lower BBE. Its been going on for a while, and it came perilously close to kicking off in a major way on Saturday. There's nothing worse than being goaded by a load of ######-up corporate free loaders. Get it sorted Mr. Williams.

Totally agree.

Get it sorted BRISA

[Wolverine]

Or are we suggesting there is a conspiracy becuase were to good to go down?

I refer you to my original post:

The blame lies with the players, but even so, when the ref is so against you (and anyone who has been to Ewood for any of the last four games with working eyes will tell you they have been), you can't help but wonder what might have been on an even keel.

Merely stating my opinion, sir. For the record, my initial live reaction was a foul on Grey, so I was not concentrating on the possibility of an offside. But then that is not something I am paid to do.

[BigDom]

First half....poor....very poor

Second half....better, but still not good enough

Yes, we have injuries,

Yes, the ref's don't like us,

and Yes, lady luck has deserted us.........

BUT, as many on here have already stated, why did it take getting a man sent off and a 2 goal defecit before we started playing ? We proved in the 2nd 45 minutes that we can play good football, but why do we not see this level of performance week in week out ?

IMO, only Tugay and Savage came out of this game with any credit for the huge effort they put in during the 2nd half...they chased everything

My biggest concern is the effect Europe is having on on Prem form......and parallels with the 98/99 season are also very scary !

[stuwilky]

Its about time the Rovers managements stopped the practice of putting away fans in the executive boxes of the lower BBE. Its been going on for a while, and it came perilously close to kicking off in a major way on Saturday. There's nothing worse than being goaded by a load of ######-up corporate free loaders. Get it sorted Mr. Williams.

JNewsham@rover-mail.co.uk

[CircoW]

The players only have themselves to blame for the defeat on Saturday. Neither of Newcastle's first half goals were off-side. Yes, Henchoz's sending off was harsh but Rovers had already done their best to throw the game away.

Good second half display, which keeps me believing we'll trun things around (especially when we get everyone fit). But where was that spirit and fight in the first half!?

We really do need to get something at Reading next week, otherwise we'll be in the bottom three by the time Boro come to town.

[speeeeeeedie]

I can only comment on what I saw; that being the goal highlights as for the first time in weeks we were not on TV. Their first was not offside, neither was the second. Henchoz should not have been sent off. Pedersen's goal was a good strike. Their third was a bit of a calamity. Who was the idiot who slid in and missed Martins on the half way line? Why didn't he just hold him up and wait for reinforcements?

A below par crowd, a listless performance and the fans are now openly talking relegation. From what I've seen this season we are nowhere near last season in performances. Injuries, and if truth be told some under par signings, have turned us into a bad side. We look toothless up top and leaky at the back. I do think that we will hold on and not go down but it is going to take some real resilience over the busy Christmas period to make sure we go into 2007 without having to fight. 4-5-1 please to stop the rot.

[Blue blood]

The last three games should have seen us pick up around 7 points. Although i thought we'd slip up against the barcodes I fully expected us to beat both charlton and fulham.

Now newcastle are not a good team, and charlton are crap. That we loose to both of them in the manner that we did must have alarm bells ringing - even for Hughes regardless of what he says in public. Having listened to a couple of the games i agree with a fair bit of what is said on here.

Worryingly the problems are coming from all over the pitch. From the defence upwards we have vast room for improvement. Mostly though the problem seems to be a lack of desire. Last season we seemed to be 'up' for every ball, the team really ran themselves ragged every game, and you could sense the desire in the players.

This season we don't seem to be up for it at all.

Now rovers have been unlucky with injuries, reffing decisions and players promise not being fulfilled over the last 2 years but we've done well in spite of this. Heck, that's always been the case even when we won the prem decisions were going against us against the bigger clubs, and we've lost some key players to injury (e.g. tommo, gresko and jansen under souness).

This season we don't seem to have enough to cope with this, too many positions are filled with players who aren't good enough for the level we're aiming at. The defence has been dramatically weakened - Grey was the weak link last season. I expected a top lb to come in but this hasn't materialise. Added to Neill wanting away (why doesn't he just shut up like Bellers did) the full back positions have been weakened. Ok Emerton has made the right back position his own, but that still leaves us a couple of full backs short of a squad. Zurab was always the weakest of the three centre backs, but Nelsen and Todd always covered for him. Ooijer whilst being decent is not as good as either Todd or Nelsen (although much improved upon his initial performances) leaving the centre of defence much weakened as well. One slightly hesitant centre back is enough imo, two is a desaster waiting to happen. As for Henchoz, he's done a decent job since coming in, but to be relying on a wigan reject is asking for trouble. Worst of all it shouldn't be happening as Todd is still on the books. Yes he is a loose cannon, but his desire to play football cannot be questioned. In our situation can we really afford to leave him out of the team? He's the type of player we need in this situation.

Midfield - it was always a risk having only 3 centre mids especially when one is 35. They didn't have to be a world beater but one or two other options would be nice. Certainly reverting to 4-5-1 may not be a bad idea at the moment. For starters it'd give us another decent midfielder in Mokoena allowing him to play his best position and to the best of his ability. Besides the side is leaking far too many silly goals and needs some defensive solidity. Also Pedersen should be rested (not dropped) as that would've taken a fair bit of the pressure off him and hopefully put a bit more energy into the side in Peter's pace.

Up front we're missing a powerhouse like roberts. I can see why Nonda wasa worth a gamble, but it hasn't worked and we've no more time for gambles. We need tried and tested players in this situation. Similarly I doubt that Derbyshire is the solution, from what i've seen from the reserves he's promising but not up to premiership standard. Benni imo is a good player, but because of his style needs someone to play off. At the moment none of our strikers actually fulfill that role.

Therefore I would:

Go 4-5-1 and try grinding out results away from home. Hopefully Bentley and Peter/Pedersen would be able to support Benni up front and with having fewer defensive duties able to concentrate on attacking.

Bring Todd back into the team. Strip Neill of his captancy but still play him as he's better than Gray and will want to impress his next club whoever that may be. I don't care what you say having a captain looking elsewhere cannot be good for the team.

Get rid of Nonda in the transfer window and buy in a quality striker proven in the EPL. There's not many about so a loan may have to do the trick.

Buy in a top class left back. A defence of Emerton Todd Nelsen and top class left back would be committed and far more resiliant.

Buy in another centre mid so Bentley can keep to the right mid and Emerton the right back slots. Ideally a box to box centre mid would do me.

Three top class signings however would cost the club but without them the team could worryingly look a lot weaker, and with a couple of injuries would arguabley have 2/3 championship standard players in the first 11, which really would see us struggling vs relegation.