Rovers Versus Tottenham

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

A fair result in the end () but our inability at times to keep possession of the ball is worrying.Spurs looked lively today and had had an obvious kick up the arse after last week,was it me or did most of their players appear to move twice as fast as ours with the ball at their feet?.Today showed our side needs an injection of pace and hopefully that will be sorted in the summer.

Sideways then back,sideways then back.....a very annoying trait of Rovers at the moment.

We had moments of good play and our goal was well executed but it wasn't to be.......just like Europe I'm afraid.We haven't been consistent enough this season and I think everyone will admitt to that.Very flat atmosphere today from our fans,yet again waiting to be entertained rather than roaring the side on.

Oh well! time to rebuild and look forward to next season folks

[brfcshabba]

I can only remember one freekick given to us for a foul in the second half and that was given by the linesman

[Cocker]

villa may have won today but trust me they will slip up alot come the next few games.

i think we will get something for liverpool or man utd

Mate, get yourself to the hospital - your delusional

[G Somerset Rover]

Sideways then back,sideways then back.....a very annoying trait of Rovers at the moment.

An extremely annoying trait that we have continued to possess all season. I'm in agreement with you that we need some pace injected in the summer, with the obvious position being a Bellamy esque striker to partner Roque, however a quick winger would also be handy addition to the squad right now.

All in all 8 defeats thus far in the prem is an achievement in its own right and with Spurs fans galore as mates at least I won't have to switch the phone off tonight.

[roversmum]

I don't remember the sideways and back passing being new. As far as I can remember we've done it at least since the Souness days although we did drop it for a while and now sadly it's back with a vengeance.....

Oh boy, didn't Andre have a shocker?

Dreadful refereeing. Practically every decision went against us. And the ref looked as if he was being quite nasty to Roque when he asked him a question following an unpunished foul on him.

Liked the look of the new boy. He can stay.

Oh well, another day, another draw.......

[McClarky]

Bentley's foul was not a penalty it was however clear obstruction and Rovers should have had a free kick.

No such thing as obstruction now, they changed the rules. Its either a penalty or nothing.

[Hughesy]

Still unbeaten at home this year which is at least something.

1st half we didnt do well and Tottenham kept the ball well, however our goal was very good play from Reid & Bentley.

2nd half much better but once again very frustrating officials. We should of had a free-kick for the challenge on Bents and also Roque could quite easily of got us a penalty if he had gone down (although he wouldnt probably of given the foul anyway)

All in all a decent point against a side that has spent £62m since May last year! Not bad for a small, Town Team with no money.

[RibbleValleyRover]

2nd half much better but once again very frustrating officials. We should of had a free-kick for the challenge on Bents and also Roque could quite easily of got us a penalty if he had gone down (although he wouldnt probably of given the foul anyway)

I agree It would of been a cast iron penalty had Roque gone down. Though with that ref who knows.

I thought in the first half we gave Spurs too much time on the ball, second half we pressed them and closed them down more which made the game more even.

[Paul]

Didn't go today but someone who did described the game as " a shocking match" - true or false? Stewart Hall reckons we've packed up for the holidays!

[tony gale's mic]

Didn't go today but someone who did described the game as " a shocking match" - true or false? Stewart Hall reckons we've packed up for the holidays!

False. Frustrating at times but we looked better than a lot of the performances this season and Spurs played pretty well themselves. Few too many stray passes and sloppy moments when it mattered the most but Vogel's debut was very encouraging, I think he's the sort of player who could well help us control games in a way we've struggled to do for most of the season.

[JAL]

End of season stuff very predictable ..Mr.Hughes.

Penalty my arse, only youth referees or blind ones give those away.

As Simon Garner19 points out, sideways, sideways then backwards what the fook, i almost thought we were kicking towards the Jack Walker stand and not the Blackburn end second half .....top coaching there Mr.Hughes.

Johann Vogel 31 year old who is he, did he play, can he play, ten months out should he be out permanently didnt see one thing to convince me hes a good signing.. not very good Mr.Hughes.

We are looking like a one trick pony team with Bentley, the rest are not doing it, and Hughes needs to bring in at least two quality ATTACKING players into the team to balance things out, not defensive ones, how disappointing it was for the whole crowd to see 'the axe' coming on for Steven Reid in the final minutes it more or less said a draw will do now.

Totenham had an easy afternoon far too easy for me.

[brfcshabba]

Johann Vogel 31 year old who is he, did he play, can he play, ten months out should he be out permanently didnt see one thing to convince me hes a good signing.. not very good Mr.Hughes.

He has been out for 8 month, it was his debut at Premiership level what were you expecting?

[tony gale's mic]

It wasn't a brilliant performance by any stretch of the imagination and there's still a lot that needs working on but surely people can see this was a better display than many of our performances this season? Spurs are a good side with an excellent manager, look through their side and their line up on paper is arguably better than ours. They played well today, was disappointed in the build up to their goal but we came back well and as I said previously the final ball was lacking today.

But compare that with some of our other displays (eg when Everton came) and we weren't even getting into those positions to get the final ball in.

Johann Vogel 31 year old who is he, did he play, can he play, ten months out should he be out permanently didnt see one thing to convince me hes a good signing.. not very good Mr.Hughes.

Absolute rubbish.

[RevidgeBlue]

Vogel's debut was very encouraging, I think he's the sort of player who could well help us control games in a way we've struggled to do for most of the season.

Disagree entirely, he was completely anonymous first half, slightly better second, but based purely on today's performance he did nothing whatsoever to suggest he is better than or even as good as what we have already.

That said it is completely unfair to judge him on one game when he is presumably struggling to come to terms with the pace of Premiership football.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I went today, took my 78yr old mum for the first time since Bolton v Rovers in 1963 ! Well she could have picked a better game, I thought we were shocking as well, we just can't keep the ball- I'd like to know how many times we gave the ball away today, for me it must have been an all time record. We started sloppily and just got worse, apart from the spell after we scored up to half time the game was played in our half. Our passing is laboured, obvious, predictable and casual, Spurs moved the ball around with a bit of zip and class.

Looks like the guys have the brochures out and are busy dusting off the suitcases, play like that against the Red Rats and we'll get seriously shown up. We weren't helped by a poor set of officials, that pen in the second was nailed on from where I was sat, an un-believeable decision , bet it's not on MOTD though.

Scores

Freidel 6 Usual Brad, made a few good saves, I'd like to see their goal again.

Ooijer 5 All at sea, not a right back when we're up against quick wingers.

Samba 6 Took a while to find his feet today but got better as the game went on, Still don't know what Zurab has done to get dropped.

Nelsen 7 Probably our best player but both our centre halves weak point is their distribution, they give the ball away a hell of a lot.

Warnock 6 Tried out to get some life into our left side without much success.

Bentley 6 Played in fits and starts, made our goal with a sublime piece of skill, he's got an exagerated opinion of his own shooting ability.

Vogel 6 Neat and tidy, can't really judge him on one game after he's not played for ages

Reid 5 Great raking ball out to Bentley for the goal, other than that not the answer to our attacking midfielder problem , he can't beat a man so he's easily turned away from goal, passed it back more than he passed it forward today.

Pedersen 5 Scored our goal , that's it.

Roberts 5 Out of his depth, he was unlucky when he was penalised for out muscling Dawson, looked like he may have scored then.

Santa Cruz 7 Gave the ball away the least and was always looking for work.

Subs Mc Carthy ,not on long but slipped when he had a good volleying chance.

Emerton ,Came on for Ooijer at half-time, did O.K.

Mokoena , Came on for Reidy near the end, hardly had a kick.

[JAL]

It wasn't a brilliant performance by any stretch of the imagination and there's still a lot that needs working on but surely people can see this was a better display than many of our performances this season? Spurs are a good side with an excellent manager, look through their side and their line up on paper is arguably better than ours. They played well today, was disappointed in the build up to their goal but we came back well and as I said previously the final ball was lacking today.

But compare that with some of our other displays (eg when Everton came) and we weren't even getting into those positions to get the final ball in.

Absolute rubbish.

He'll (Vogel)be heading for 32 years of age next season, HE AINT GOING TO GET MUCH BETTER.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Disagree entirely, he was completely anonymous first half, slightly better second, but based purely on today's performance he did nothing whatsoever to suggest he is better than or even as good as what we have already.

That said it is completely unfair to judge him on one game when he is presumably struggling to come to terms with the pace of Premiership football.

Spot the contradiction.

And can I say that I thought Mokoena was magnificent when he came on.

[RevidgeBlue]

Spot the contradiction.

And can I say that I thought Mokoena was magnificent when he came on.

No contradiction whatsoever.

He was poor today imo but that's not to say he won't improve in future.

And he needs to.

[JAL]

He has been out for 8 month, it was his debut at Premiership level what were you expecting?

More than that, just one thing from the lad would have left me pleased and he didnt even have to kick a ball either to have pleased me either.

He looked like a Fulham player, foreign, cheap and over here.

All these kids on here telling us how wonderful he was beforehand ..fooking rubbish.

[tony gale's mic]

He'll (Vogel)be heading for 32 years of age next season, HE AINT GOING TO GET MUCH BETTER.

He's only just turned 31! His game doesn't really depend on pace so there's no reason why he can't do a good job for the next two or three seasons.

He put in a decent enough display and you WOULD expect him to get better since it was his first game in 10 months.

At PSV him and Van Bommel were considered one of the best midfield partnerships in Europe, Milan liked him enough to buy him and he's got 94 international caps. But clearly not good enough for Blackburn with our amazing range of central midfielders at our disposal. He was such a waste of money too wasn't he...

Some people are utterly clueless...

[Paul Mellelieu]

Clueless doesn't start to describe the idiotic postings above.

One game, and he's crap.

[RevidgeBlue]

Didn't go today but someone who did described the game as " a shocking match" - true or false? Stewart Hall reckons we've packed up for the holidays!

Whilst it wasn't a great performance from us, I thought from a neutral point of view it was a pretty entertaining game and a lot better than much of the dire fare we've suffered at Ewood this season.

There was a lot of carefree end to end stuff from two teams who almost looked as though they didn't give a stuff.

Poor performances from Reid and Roberts and an appalling one from Ooijer in the first half. He even had the nerve to blame Samba most of the time. Rightly hauled off at the interval.

Thought the substitution of MGP was a poor one and we lost our shape and balance.

Europe's probably gone but philosophical about it as I've thought that for ages anyway.

[Dunnfc]

JAL did you go to the game? Or are you basing your opinion on the first 15 mins of the game were we was very poor?

What i saw of Vogel convinced me that hes got pedigree to suceed here, we went one nill down and he saw everyone drop their heads but he rallied them and said come on and clapped his hands he kept encouraging the team throughout the game and i was very happy to see that, did anyone else notice him do this?

Vogel's passing was pretty key today in us getting the ball in the final 3rd and he gave the ball away twice with two bad passes but WTF you expecting from an out of shape guy whos come in on a free?

If he haden't have been playing today Spurs would have run riot in midifeld as Reid wasent at all at his best and he needed Vogel to have a good game and he did on his debut on fornt of a home crowd.

Don't know about you but i'd have been racked with nerves, i thought he was good today anyways.

[JAL]

He's only just turned 31! His game doesn't really depend on pace so there's no reason why he can't do a good job for the next two or three seasons.

He put in a decent enough display and you WOULD expect him to get better since it was his first game in 10 months.

At PSV him and Van Bommel were considered one of the best midfield partnerships in Europe, Milan liked him enough to buy him and he's got 94 international caps. But clearly not good enough for Blackburn with our amazing range of central midfielders at our disposal. He was such a waste of money too wasn't he...

Some people are utterly clueless...

Your in dreamland, please wake up.

[JAL]

JAL did you go to the game? Or are you basing your opinion on the first 15 mins of the game were we was very poor?

What i saw of Vogel convinced me that hes got pedigree to suceed here, we went one nill down and he saw everyone drop their heads but he rallied them and said come on and clapped his hands he kept encouraging the team throughout the game and i was very happy to see that, did anyone else notice him do this?

Vogel's passing was pretty key today in us getting the ball in the final 3rd and he gave the ball away twice with two bad passes but WTF you expecting from an out of shape guy whos come in on a free?

If he haden't have been playing today Spurs would have run riot in midifeld as Reid wasent at all at his best and he needed Vogel to have a good game and he did on his debut on fornt of a home crowd.

Don't know about you but i'd have been racked with nerves, i thought he was good today anyways.

Thanks Dunnfc, first point is why is an out of shape guy playing in the first place, second is his passing, it was pedestrian, predictable, and very easy to do, i'd say any professional footballer could do the things he did today..any, bar the axe of course.

Comparing him with what Rovers are going to be up against in the premiership he reminded me of Woys signing from years ago a certain swedish midfielder Anders Andersson(spelling).

So how many tackles or attacks did Vogel stop, for me not many if any ...not impressed, the standards are higher and Rovers have to go higher, a fellow supporter said to me on the way out we look like we are scraping the barrel with Vogel and possibly Fortune aswell.I have to agree with him.