[Archived] West Brom v Blackburn Rovers

[SamTheShrew]

Yesterday truly was a great day!

Reminded of what it means to be a Rover

[the gilstar]

What a day! People saying that was anything like what would have happened under Big Sam are wrong - I can only think of Villa away where we have tried to attack the opposition from the off in an away game. After a shaky end to the first half, I think Sam would have tried to merely stop them scoring, whereas Kean went on the front foot and made attacking tactical changes. Had it not been for the red card, we looked well like getting a fourth goal.

I respect what Sam did, and feel the sacking was maybe unfair, but that was miles away from any away day under Sam, who had a far different outlook. This shows how good Kalinic can be when not used as a very poor man's Kevin Davies (rubbishes some claims (by one or two) that he is rubbish).

On a different note, the support from the stands was incredible, and the players really responded to it. For the goals down that end and at the final whistle, they really celebrated with the fans - felt good feeling we were all pulling together. Another thing I liked was the way the final whistle was greeted by the players all huddling in celebration - they, for the first time, seemed to play for Kean.

What a day!

[the gilstar]

what a fantastic performance yesterday with injuries and 10 men -credit to the rovers following for makeing all that noise thats what its all about getting behind your team that gives the players a massive lift give steve kean a chance and stop being so negative certain rovers fans ,lets see what the transfer window brings one true love blackburn rovers

[Stuart]

What criteria did you employ to come up with that so early Hughesy?

The criterion of resembling 50 Cent. Read the board, James!

[Roost]

what a fantastic performance yesterday with injuries and 10 men -credit to the rovers following for makeing all that noise thats what its all about getting behind your team that gives the players a massive lift give steve kean a chance and stop being so negative certain rovers fans ,lets see what the transfer window brings one true love blackburn rovers

A big thumbs up to that!!

[Paul]

<br />?<br />

A very positive and uplifting post Paul. Nice to see you've managed to forget all about WHU, Stoke and 3-5-2? Good because I haven't.<br />

Jimmy could I refer you back to read the whole post. The WBA game was positive and we had a good time - unlike 99% of the games we watched under Allardyce. I was discussing the WBA game and I think you can see I stated it is "far, far too early" to judge Kean and that we "glimpsed" a better future IF Venky's come up with the cash - which I am deeply sceptical about.

Unlike some I avoided remarking on the previous two games. We were awful but overall i'd had enough. I was weary of the past two weeks and had pretty much given up on the club's future. I felt relegation and oblivion lay round the corner.

So WBA was uplifting. It's good to see even when the squad is stripped to almost the bare bones we can put on a show. It bodes well for the future BUT everything depends on the owners and the new manager. I wait to see the outcome with great interest. Make no mistake if we go down Rovers are finished.

[Valois]

It didn't feel like this watching the game because for me the relief of us winning and not looking clueless was immense but we shouldn't ignore these stats:

Possession

West Brom 55% Blackburn 45%

Attempts on target

West Brom 11 Blackburn 4

Attempts off target

West Brom 10 Blackburn 2

Corners

West Brom 8 Blackburn 5

Fouls

West Brom 9 Blackburn 13

Stats dont mean anything, the only thing that counts at the end of the game are the numbers on the score board. Sunderland had 32 sttempts at goal yesterday, scored 0, conceded 2. The fact we only had 4 attempts and took 3 of those, reads a lot better than having 11 attempts and and only scoring 1. Possesion, we had 10 men for most of the 2nd half, they are the home side, generally a home side will have the most possesion. Corners and fouls? Who gives a monkeys? How many throw ins did West Brom have? Who ate the most oranges at half time? All that matters in football is who has scored the most goals at the end of the game, its a pretty simple game really. For me it was almost the perfect away performance, had kali not been sent off, as i'm pretty sure we could have nicked another on the break.

For the love of god, why are people trying to put a negative spin on what was a fantastic result under the circumstances. We should be looking forward going into the next game, knowing if we can attack in the same way, and defend like we did in the 2nd half we have a great chance of getting a result against Sunderland, who are under pressure to get a result after losing at home against Blackpool. Their first home defeat in ages.

[den]

For the love of god, why are people trying to put a negative spin on what was a fantastic result under the circumstances. We should be looking forward going into the next game, knowing if we can attack in the same way, and defend like we did in the 2nd half we have a great chance of getting a result against Sunderland, who are under pressure to get a result after losing at home against Blackpool. Their first home defeat in ages.

Are they?

[Valois]

Are they?

Clearly, why feel the need to highlight pointless stats, inclining that we were perhaps lucky to win. People moan when we pla negative defensive football, and then when we try playing attacking football, people still moan, because the other side had 10% more possession, and more shots on target. If we are going to try attack teams from the off, there always going to be gaps. Personally I think we need to have someone who can just sit in the middle and break up play, butwe can still play attacking positive football. Like the Hughes days when we had Savage to close people down and break things up, pass it Tugay, and let him pull the strings.

Just dont see the point in highlighting these stats, saying we shouldnt ignore them. As I said, all they show is that we took our chances, and used the ball to greater effect when we had it.

[AlanK]

Great posts Paul.

I only get to see Rovers once or twice a season and after the recent dire performances I was trying to explain to my wife why I should go to this game after doing nothing but moan about takeovers, chicken, long balls, long throw ins etc.

Unfortunately, I couldn`t think of one sensible reason to go except that I should go, its unexplainable but us fans are totally mad.

I went and like you said it reminded me of why I go to football. Haven`t felt like that in ages.

[Balwer]

just as a point, I think the stigma of Sam giving up on away games should be limited to big teams, and I think the losses at Spurs and Man U highlight that and perhaps stick in peoples minds. For most of his tenure he was poor away and great at home, but this year it was more mixed, including the last game of last season we won at Villa, at Blackpool, at Newcastle and drew against City. Sure, he was a better manager at home than away (like most) but the mentality among some here is that he was hopeless away, which at least this season wasn't true (big teams aside).

Don't want this to be seen as a pro-Sam/anti-Kean comment either way, as many have said Sam is no longer associated with Rovers and therefore what he might have done is irrelevant. Sam might not have done better at home than Kean did these past three games, but if we play that game then the reverse has to be true, and maybe he'd have got something out of the WBA game.

Anyway let's hope that Kean can improve on Sam's away record, while trying to maintain the generally strong home performances. If he can do that we'll be on course for a top 10 finish.

[PAFELL]

What a day! People saying that was anything like what would have happened under Big Sam are wrong - I can only think of Villa away where we have tried to attack the opposition from the off in an away game. After a shaky end to the first half, I think Sam would have tried to merely stop them scoring, whereas Kean went on the front foot and made attacking tactical changes. Had it not been for the red card, we looked well like getting a fourth goal.

I respect what Sam did, and feel the sacking was maybe unfair, but that was miles away from any away day under Sam, who had a far different outlook. This shows how good Kalinic can be when not used as a very poor man's Kevin Davies (rubbishes some claims (by one or two) that he is rubbish).

On a different note, the support from the stands was incredible, and the players really responded to it. For the goals down that end and at the final whistle, they really celebrated with the fans - felt good feeling we were all pulling together. Another thing I liked was the way the final whistle was greeted by the players all huddling in celebration - they, for the first time, seemed to play for Kean.

What a day!

Totally agree. Was a very good day out, wife and I loved it - great game, atmosphere. I do not think anybody used the the provided seats.

Sadly there was 'one' idiot who shouted racial abuse at some of the coloured Rovers players. Slagged off Emerton, Pederson, Diouf and Salgado. Why that idiot turned up is a mystery. Thankfully nobody else joined in with him.But that was the only negative part.

radio five commented about the Rovers away support. The comment was, "what about the supporters, it sounded as though they had just won a cup final".

Terrfic day, performance (though need to get tackles in midfield a lot more) atmosphere from Rovers supporters, and result.

[darwenblueswearehere]

Great posts Paul.

I only get to see Rovers once or twice a season and after the recent dire performances I was trying to explain to my wife why I should go to this game after doing nothing but moan about takeovers, chicken, long balls, long throw ins etc.

Unfortunately, I couldn`t think of one sensible reason to go except that I should go, its unexplainable but us fans are totally mad.

I went and like you said it reminded me of why I go to football. Haven`t felt like that in ages.

Superb post and well done for persuading the missus mate

[47er]

When was the last time a striker was released down the channel under Sam?

The last time Roberts missed one?

[47er]

Clearly, why feel the need to highlight pointless stats, inclining that we were perhaps lucky to win.

Perhaps they are remembering the posts when we won by an identical score against Wolves under Sam.

[Amo]

Perhaps they are remembering the posts when we won by an identical score against Wolves under Sam.

Did we have ten men for a third of the match?

Did we make positive substitutions or park the bus as per?

[47er]

Did we have ten men for a third of the match?

Did we make positive substitutions or park the bus as per?

We can all go into various aspects of the games as we saw them but the simple fact is we won 3-0 under Sam and that doesn't count with some.

[cruz]

We can all go into various aspects of the games as we saw them but the simple fact is we won 3-0 under Sam and that doesn't count with some.

We would never have scored 3 away under Sam

[Valois]

We would never have scored 3 away under Sam

Not that I think its relevant anymore what we would or wouldnt do under BFS management, but as I have previously highlighted, we scored 4 against villa in the Carling cup, they scored 6 though, and we scored 3 away to Gillingham in the cup. Never 3 away in the league. The last time we scored 3 away was Paul Ince first game against Everton.

[Roost]

We would never have scored 3 (HEADERS) away under Sam

[Miker]

Did we make positive substitutions or park the bus as per?

What were the positive substitutions we made? They seemed like for like swaps to me. Not to mention we didn't exactly have any defensive players available to bring on...

[Tom]

Hoilett for Salgado seems pretty positive even if the formation stayed the same, as does bringing on a striker when down to 10 men.

[cn174]

The Sam vs Kean argument is tiresome. We can never know what might've happened had he still been manager, but we do know for sure that yesterday we won 3-1.

I think that games like yesterday are the reasons we support Rovers. We've had two ridiculous weeks with all kinds of rubbish happening, lost the manager, fans not happy/upset/are happy, reports of losing the chairman, players not happy, legal threats etc etc, we played 2 horrible games of football, and then completely unexpectedly we go and win 3-1 when we all thought we'd get a pasting. Brilliant

Of course it doens't mean that everything is ok, but let's just enjoy our victory, away wins don't happen so often!

[Valois]

The Sam vs Kean argument is tiresome. We can never know what might've happened had he still been manager, but we do know for sure that yesterday we won 3-1.

I think that games like yesterday are the reasons we support Rovers. We've had two ridiculous weeks with all kinds of rubbish happening, lost the manager, fans not happy/upset/are happy, reports of losing the chairman, players not happy, legal threats etc etc, we played 2 horrible games of football, and then completely unexpectedly we go and win 3-1 when we all thought we'd get a pasting. Brilliant

Of course it doens't mean that everything is ok, but let's just enjoy our victory, away wins don't happen so often!

Top post there, couldnt agree with you anymore, and have been trying to say the same myself since yesterday. Forget BFS, the time is now to get behind Steve Kean, and the players, who clearly showed yesterday that they are willing to put in a shift for Steve Kean and for the fans. Enjoy a terrific win, I know I did, and still am.

[T4E]

Just back to the land of internet. Yesterday was brilliant, and my record of only attending victories (5 wins 0 losses 0 draws) stays intact.

Anyway, back to Costa Rica tomorrow. Happy New Year all.

You wouldn't considering staying for a wee bit longer, would you?