[Archived] Rovers V Hull

[VinjayV4]

Well, we've gone from being a one-man team to being a one-man team.

Except now we don't know where the goals are likely to come from.

Our home form must be amongst the worst in the division and we really need a home win on Tuesday, now more than ever. Extremely concerned about the spectre of relegation and our heavily loanee and out-of-contract squad not being up for a fight.

Almost the worst.

http://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/championship/league/home

[Darwen Rover 007]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the majority of that Hull side in the premier league? We are a team of cheapies and loanies. I thought we matched them for the first half and then their power and pace took us out.

It was always going to be tough against this Hull team but we need to step it up in other games...

The difference in lamberts after game comments and GB's is ginormous... Lambert doesn't hide n lie to us; his standards are high and I'm confident he'll turn the ship round long term

[tomphil]

Is Gary Bowyer still in charge ? That today was right out of his scrapbook, what's with all the stupid messing around with the team?

Hull will never get an easier 3 points than that, I wasn't impressed with them or their fans but they didn't have to get out of second gear. If ever there was a team lacking motivation and desire and just going through the motions to collect their wages that was Rovers today.

@#/? poor stuff but and now lacking the only man who so often pulled us out the mire. Anybody who doesn't think we missed just even having Rhodes on the pitch today needs his bumps feeling. A moment of clarity about the situation for me came when league 1 reject Jackson was replaced by Elliot flippin Bennett. We are still a team going backwards.

If today was a glimpse into the future then I'm very concerned. Apart from the first half hour v Forest I've seen nothing at all on the pitch at Ewood yet to back up all this managers talk.

[1arC]

http://www.soccerstats.com/formtable.asp?league=england2

Read it and weep.

I think we need to hang on to the hope that Fulham are next to bottom of the 10 game table. They had a good result today, but up to then, as bad as us. Very important game coming up on Tuesday. Lose that and we had better tighten our belts.

[JAL]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the majority of that Hull side in the premier league? We are a team of cheapies and loanies. I thought we matched them for the first half and then their power and pace took us out.

It was always going to be tough against this Hull team but we need to step it up in other games...

The difference in lamberts after game comments and GB's is ginormous... Lambert doesn't hide n lie to us; his standards are high and I'm confident he'll turn the ship round long term

Every team that comes to Ewood is there to be beaten.

[tomphil]

Looking forward to Shane Duffy tweeting tonight to tell us all is okay and that everything will be put right on Tuesday.

He'll be on regular as clockwork to pick a fight with someone. Happens every time he's had a clanger, which is often. Tired of this guy and his good game crap game showings. In truth he's been a liability since he came in.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

My neck hurts, I must have been shaking it too much. I was looking forward to today as I haven't been to the away games recently. Wow was that underwhelming?

First half had me thinking 0-0 all day, but what the feck was that in the 2nd half? If I was Tom Watt, I'd wonder whether I should give up professional football to be taken off for Brown......having said that if Jordan was the question, Watt is not the answer.

Unless our proud owners are prepared to dig deep into their respective pockets then we are down either this season, or the next.

I haven't seen as many leave so early for a long time - if Lambert has a plan post Rhodes I'd be interested to hear it.

I'm with Stu, who on earth is going to step up & score 20 odd goals?

Very poor, very disappointed.

[DE.]

It's fine saying we were against a good team today and I agree this wasn't an easy fixture. But what about the below?

Charlton 1-1 Blackburn

Blackburn 1-1 QPR

Cardiff 1-0 Blackburn

Bolton 1-0 Blackburn

Reading 1-0 Blackburn

Blackburn 0-0 Nottingham Forest

If we're going to meekly surrender to the better teams then we absolutely must win our games against the weaker teams. We aren't doing that either, and this is why we're plummeting towards the bottom of the table. We may have two games in hand but I'm not confident of us getting the best of anybody in this division, because the players have proven time and time again this season they are not up for the fight often enough.

We'll know after the next two home league matches whether or not we're in serious trouble. Six points now is practically a minimum from those, any less than four would be a disaster.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the majority of that Hull side in the premier league? We are a team of cheapies and loanies. I thought we matched them for the first half and then their power and pace took us out.

It was always going to be tough against this Hull team but we need to step it up in other games...

The difference in lamberts after game comments and GB's is ginormous... Lambert doesn't hide n lie to us; his standards are high and I'm confident he'll turn the ship round long term

Agree with this - thought we did well first half - second half their extra quality and pace up front did us (combined with a couple of mistakes).

Thought Spurr started very positively - but his lack of pace is a huge concern.

We hugely missed Hanley and Akpan today. Also a shame not to see Graham for the first time.

Very disappointed with Watt and Gomez (though you can see his quality). Marshall was my MOM - with Spurr the weak link.

[tomphil]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the majority of that Hull side in the premier league? We are a team of cheapies and loanies. I thought we matched them for the first half and then their power and pace took us out.

It was always going to be tough against this Hull team but we need to step it up in other games...

The difference in lamberts after game comments and GB's is ginormous... Lambert doesn't hide n lie to us; his standards are high and I'm confident he'll turn the ship round long term

Pace and power took us out ???? Sorry but they didn't look anything but ordinary to me, more solid than pace and power. We absolutely gifted them two goals, nearly 3. We also had more than enough of the ball to cause them bother yet we didn't cause them any problems at all. We just aren't capable when approaching games in that fashion, we could have played Charlton and that today wouldn't have good enough to get anything.

[Doug]

Agree with this - thought we did well first half - second half their extra quality and pace up front did us (combined with a couple of mistakes).

Thought Spurr started very positively - but his lack of pace is a huge concern.

We hugely missed Hanley and Akpan today. Also a shame not to see Graham for the first time.

Very disappointed with Watt and Gomez (though you can see his quality). Marshall was my MOM - with Spurr the weak link.

Agree with your post, although I thought Gomez looked good in the first half.

Marshal was my MOM also and Spurr was Spurr! We need a left back ASAP.

Conway is struggling on the wing, his lack of pace is letting him down and I do not see him as a first choice midfielder.

We mustn't forget we were up against a very expensive team and I felt we matched them first half.

Such a shame we lost Hanley, Akpan and Graham, the entire spine of the team.

Bennet looked quick when he came on and possibly might get a start on Tuesday.

Simeon does a lot of running and looks pretty quick, but not the answer up front on that performance.

[sambo]

Did we try to play good football today? Duffy comes back in and the positive football seems to suddenly stop. Maybe that's an over simplification but he seems to negatively impact our play.

[Stuart]

Christ on a bike, what did I miss.. last week we got unlucky at Boro, played well and some people talked of us pushing forwards.. this week despite three of our key players having last minute injuries against one of the top clubs in the championship and we are suddenly destined for relegation..

Did you go today, Veevs? I didn't go against Boro so can't comment on that game but today was awful. I honestly could not see where a goal was going from.

[RevidgeBlue]

Well, we've gone from being a one-man team to being a one-man team.

Except now we don't know where the goals are likely to come from.

Our home form must be amongst the worst in the division and we really need a home win on Tuesday, now more than ever. Extremely concerned about the spectre of relegation and our heavily loanee and out-of-contract squad not being up for a fight.

Good post Stu. The bit in bold is especially relevant I think. We look a relegation outfit if ever I saw one to me, creating next to nothing and no-one capable of finishing it off on the rare occasions we do. And the manager has flogged off our one hope of salvation..

Didn't think it was possible but we have gone back massively under Lambert imo. Graham obviously can't be relied upon, no doubt his hamstring will flare up whenever he doesn't really feel like it, also Akpam was apparently "ill" during the warm up. What's that all about? If he wasn't well he must have known some time before without having to withdraw during the warm up.

[roversoutsider]

Who was the captain today? Ward?

[MrT]

Well what a difference a week makes!

The performance at boro was superb, this week it was appalling. It was a keanesque display with hull quite happy to exploit the width offered to them ala Keanout tactics - Full backs caught out of position and the centre backs parting like the read sea.

It was obvious after 15-20 mins that the tactics were wrong.

I don't mind Rovers losing as long as the players give it a right good go, today was lethargic uninspiring and insipid.

[Amo]

Who was the captain today? Ward?

Duffy.

[LDRover]

Who was the captain today? Ward?

Duffy. He led by example.

[Mercer]

Seems like we were very poor today - spoken with a number who went. However, a sense of perspective needed. To unexpectedly lose Hanley, Graham and Akpan was a body blow. We were also playing top of the league

Think there's too much unnecessary doom and gloom.

We will not go down. We are 7, 6 and 5 points clear of the bottom 3 with a vastly superior goal difference. Next 2 matches are at home to Fulham and MKD's and I expect a 6 point return which will put the situation in a completely different light.

[DE.]

Didn't think it was possible but we have gone back massively under Lambert imo.

Wouldn't say we've gone backwards massively, but if we fail to win one of the next three then Lambert will have the same record of 3 wins/16 league games that Bowyer had. So basically no further forward. Whilst it is too early to judge Lambert at this stage, a proper manager should still have gotten far more out of this team even in a short time frame. It's been a real let down so far, and we're basically relying on Lambert being allowed to change almost the entire team during the summer to improve things. Whether he'll be given such leeway, or enough money to make a big difference, remains to be seen. Hopefully we'll still be a Championship club regardless.

[Mike Graham]

The first half was reasonable, some nice footie from Rovers and we were as good as Hull.

The 2nd half was appalling, littered with mistakes and giving the ball away.

[sambo]

Seems like we were very poor today - spoken with a number who went. However, a sense of perspective needed. To unexpectedly lose Hanley, Graham and Akpan was a body blow. We were also playing top of the league

Think there's too much unnecessary doom and gloom.

We will not go down. We are 7, 6 and 5 points clear of the bottom 3 with a vastly superior goal difference. Next 2 matches are at home to Fulham and MKD's and I expect a 6 point return which will put the situation in a completely different light.

You also expected us to dispatch of Hull. No easy 3 points in this division, especially when you haven't won in 9

[Paul]

Time for the match thread.

First post Rhodes home game. I'm personally starting to look forward to games for the first time in 5 years. We're in the early days of a transition from what we were under the previous "managers", to what this particular manager wants us to be.

Don't know anything about Hull.

I felt exactly the same for the last couple of weeks den. Positive reports from those who went to the last two away games with talk of a pacy, pressing game. Things appeared to be on the up.

Tonight I feel disappointed and let down, again, by this team. Few of them are good enough and those that didn't even try. No energy, no enthusiasm, no motivation. Pathetic.

I know the first half was even stevens but second half we were woeful and once Hull scored the team gave up.

Two shots from outside the area in 90 minutes was the sum total of our efforts. This simply is not good enough.

At the moment I plan to stay at home Tuesday. I can't be bothered to watch that again. Might change my mind but unlikely.

[Parsonblue]

Hugely disappointing today after last week's outstanding performance. The loss of Graham, Akpan and Hanley proved too great to overcome against a team who looked light years ahead of us. Hull look Premier League bound whilst it is imperative that the Rovers scramble to safety to give the manager time to rebuild in the summer. Sadly, on the evidence of the second half, survival is not going to be straightforward and we are going to need the players to put much more in than they did in the second half. It's strange that under both Bowyer and Lambert the team have performed much better away from home than at Ewood Park.

[tomphil]

Seems like we were very poor today - spoken with a number who went. However, a sense of perspective needed. To unexpectedly lose Hanley, Graham and Akpan was a body blow. We were also playing top of the league

Think there's too much unnecessary doom and gloom.

We will not go down. We are 7, 6 and 5 points clear of the bottom 3 with a vastly superior goal difference. Next 2 matches are at home to Fulham and MKD's and I expect a 6 point return which will put the situation in a completely different light.

If you'd seen it I think you'd have a more downbeat post. There was a lot to be concerned about today IMO and not just down to a few key men missing and good quality opposition. They were solid but ordinary and really it should have been a nil nil'er.