[Archived] Pne. Early Ko 12.30

[chaddyrovers]

I thought that Rovers was on for a comfy victory before the Duffy sent off. Duffy was stupid for that and he has admit it after the game.

The sending off was clear BUT we should have had a foul given on Graham and The ref did given it. The ref was awful and clueless. the standard of refereeing in this league not good enough and something the FA should be sorting out by now.

The players gave everything today and deserve a lot more than we got.

Very impressed by Lambert's tactics in the second half and gave us a chance of getting a point at least.

The owners need/should be backing Lambert this summer with serious budget to spend on players to get us promote next season.

Lambert's Blue and White Army!!!

[aletheia]

TomM

Really good effort and performance second half
Referee beat us today

Tosh –about the ref.

Certainly missed lots of niggles from them and should have booked their number 5 but probably forgot as it was sometime before the ball went out. Nothing that really affected the game. Got both penalty shouts right. Obvious dive from Browny. (As an aside, he won a few good headers late on but we were never first to the second ball.) Graham was never going to get anything for moaning and eventually talked himself into the book. The linesman on the Jack Walker side second half was poor but again it didn’t cost us. You’d be better looking at our pathetic attitude once we went down to 10 men and definitely after their second goal. Marshall was having a strop and they essentially looked like they were dreaming of the beach. It took a long time into the second half before we at least got a tackle in and got the crowd going. We should have been winding Gallacgher up after his yellow. A very unproffessional performance all round. Duffy of course has no brains. Instinctive? Nah. Just dumb. Smarter to just let it go in and stay on the pitch.

arbitro

I can't understand people criticising Duffy. It was a pure reaction and the majority of players would have done the same.

Nope. Many smarter players would have tried to stop it with their feet but if not then so be it.

Tom M

Bennet again was impressive.

Tosh.

Can he never beat the first man? When you are down to 10 men, set pieces are crucial. So how come if you are paid god knows how many grand a week, train all week with nothing else to think about, when the first free kick came after going down to 10 mean you send it way over everyone straight into touch? Ditto Steele.

We huffed and puffed second half to at least give the crowd something to shout about. But at the end, we looked like what we were with that team –a ragbag collection of misfits and loanees, who haven’t played together for too long.

Incidentally, why did we look so knackered? 10 men I know, but there was little snap about the side all afternoon. Beach again?

Can’t see much passion from this group of mongrels until the end of the season rebuilding.

[chor808]

Long trip for another derby defeat. Absolutely sick of losing this type of game.

We had them until the sending off, Duffys 'save' was something only done in the last seconds of a game, what really got to me and most of them around me was after the sending off in the rest of the first half we stood off and let them come at us. Preston are a poor side and we made them look like Brazil with their fans cheering every pass. Second half at least we pressed them further up the pitch.

Brown pen shout, looked like one from where I was but I'll wait to see the replay. Gomez nowhere to be seen. Marshall looked angry most of the match.

Summed it up when an old bloke stood up and shouted 'come on browny you can do it' in a mocking tone.

@#/? season and losing to pne is shameful.

[DE.]

Incidentally, why did we look so knackered? 10 men I know, but there was little snap about the side all afternoon. Beach again?

Seems to happen whenever we come back from a break, or if we've had a longer period without playing than our opponents. A combination of poor mentality and bad preparation, I suppose.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

Before the sending off we were on top and looked better than them. After its just inevitability, 9 times out of 10 having a man less will make a difference. Brentford was a freak occurrence where it didn't but its no surprise we weren't able to keep pace with Preston after the sending off. Its pretty ridiculous for anyone to expect us to but I suppose there must be this barrage of criticism whenever we lose no matter the circumstances. We could play Barcelona, have 5 players injured in the game and if we were soundly beaten the team would get slated on here.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

I really can't stand Jason Steele, I've made no secret of it I suppose but that lad is frigging garbage.

He's about as commanding as Captain Mainwaring. We need someone who is a presence in the goal. His aerial ability is non existent.

[DaveyB]

For what it's worth I thought we were excellent in the second half today. We battled for everything, got men forward and, most importantly, looked after the ball and played it through the midfield to enable us to build attacks as a team.

Which makes the first half performance when we didn't do any of that, both before and after the sending off, all the more frustrating.

Some points on individual players:

Marshall tried to do too much at times, but he's the only one who tries to do anything other than the ordinary and has carried us at times this season. The players know this too such is their desire to get the ball to him at all times, but he needs help.

Lenihan had a great game, especially in the second half. Really impressed with him today.

Spurr also had a good game. Was thinking with the change of formation at half time that he would need to be replaced with Conway, but actually I thought that he looked better in the wingback position, although he was completely knackered by the end.

Ward - how he got the MoM I will never know. Not terrible, but certainly not the best of our players. Tbh it was probably the best I've seen him play, but he never seems to be aware of things around him, players running off him etc and I always feel that there's a mistake in him.

Kilgallon, on the other hand, I thought grew into the game. Looked understandably rusty when he first came on, but got better and I thought he had a very good second half.

Bennett - I know that I've said this before, but I just don't see what he offers. He runs about a lot, but as far as I can see that's it. No ability to go past a man, not great passing, no real tackles and today his set-pieces were terrible too. I couldn't understand why he wasn't taken off to allow either Gomez or Marshall to play further forward - I think PL has the same kind of blind spot here that GB had with Lowe.

Overall, I'm not too disappointed today (although I don't know any PNE fans so it doesn't mean as much to me as some of you) as there are positives to take from the game. As others have said the ref was poor and on another day we would have got a penalty late on (it looked like a definite penalty from where I was sat) and rescued something from it.

Something that I hope has come out of it is a move to 3 at the back occasionally. I've felt for a while that we have the players suited to that kind of formation, Hanley, Duffy & Kilgallon with Marshall & Spurr wide, 2 midfielders sitting and then Gomez higher up the pitch behind the strikers, with less defensive duties where hopefully he can have more influence on games.

[tomphil]

Unbelievable on that North End forum lol there's about ten threads raging away about their big day out. You'd think they'd been to Old Trafford and won or something. Sounds like a first away day for a lot of them. It gets me how they say we aren't a big club yet they behave just like minnows do when they've been to a big club and unexpectedly won.

I honestly don't think there was that much euphoria when Bumley won here for the first time in decades and I'm also beginning to understand why a lot of Dingle and Bolton fans cannot stand the knobbers either.

[JAL]

Obviously this game rested on the sending off and penalty decision....can't really comment on the actual handball from my position at the other side of the ground. But needless to say if it was deliberate ball to hand then that's pretty stupid.That's the thing you'd maybe do in desperation in the closing minutes but that early in the game basically gave the game away.

I was disappointed in the away fans - after reading all the hype about these thousands and thousands I thought they were pretty damned quiet - especially as they already had the game sewn up at half-time. But I guess that's what you get from fans who for most were only watching their '2nd team'. Towards normal kick-off time their thoughts probably turned towards Premier League team news etc. And what about those 2 lines of Preston folk in the JW lower - the guys that didn't get chucked out for scuffling with the kiddies all left at half-time. Did they have to set off for Anfield? Surely they wouldn't have had to leave that early to get to the local sports bar?

It was a bit of a strange one all round. The atmosphere for small parts of the first half - particularly in the first 25 mins certainly didn't feel like Charlton at home. Though it kind of tailed off after that (from everyone). I think the vast majority of supporters were already resigned to defeat at half-time (me included). So the 2nd half kind of felt a bit like going through the motions. Rovers only chance was that one of the Preston lot would lose their heads and the ref be forced to level up the numbers. But alas it didn't happen and the game flitted along with Preston looking the more likely to score - although they appear to have some bang average mid-table strikers.

The level of officiating at this level is truly appalling though and not so much the big decisions than others. You really notice this when you're really close to the action. Like the linesman JW/Darwen side made at least a couple of horrendous decisions which were at least a yard off -pretty obvious. Then there was one where a Preston player tripped someone off the ball in the referees line of sight - about one metre away and yet nothing.

To sum up. 2 bang average teams for whom having a player more or less than the opposition made a massive difference. We'll certainly be playing these guys again next season. I won't be losing any sleep over this. I'm already starting to get more nervous about tomorrows T20 World Cup final.

What happens off the field should be more of a concern for supporters.

Next season the officials in the championship will become full time unlike this and previous seasons.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

For what it's worth I thought we were excellent in the second half today. We battled for everything, got men forward and, most importantly, looked after the ball and played it through the midfield to enable us to build attacks as a team.

Which makes the first half performance when we didn't do any of that, both before and after the sending off, all the more frustrating.

Some points on individual players:

Marshall tried to do too much at times, but he's the only one who tries to do anything other than the ordinary and has carried us at times this season. The players know this too such is their desire to get the ball to him at all times, but he needs help.

Lenihan had a great game, especially in the second half. Really impressed with him today.

Spurr also had a good game. Was thinking with the change of formation at half time that he would need to be replaced with Conway, but actually I thought that he looked better in the wingback position, although he was completely knackered by the end.

Ward - how he got the MoM I will never know. Not terrible, but certainly not the best of our players. Tbh it was probably the best I've seen him play, but he never seems to be aware of things around him, players running off him etc and I always feel that there's a mistake in him.

Kilgallon, on the other hand, I thought grew into the game. Looked understandably rusty when he first came on, but got better and I thought he had a very good second half.

Bennett - I know that I've said this before, but I just don't see what he offers. He runs about a lot, but as far as I can see that's it. No ability to go past a man, not great passing, no real tackles and today his set-pieces were terrible too. I couldn't understand why he wasn't taken off to allow either Gomez or Marshall to play further forward - I think PL has the same kind of blind spot here that GB had with Lowe.

Overall, I'm not too disappointed today (although I don't know any PNE fans so it doesn't mean as much to me as some of you) as there are positives to take from the game. As others have said the ref was poor and on another day we would have got a penalty late on (it looked like a definite penalty from where I was sat) and rescued something from it.

Something that I hope has come out of it is a move to 3 at the back occasionally. I've felt for a while that we have the players suited to that kind of formation, Hanley, Duffy & Kilgallon with Marshall & Spurr wide, 2 midfielders sitting and then Gomez higher up the pitch behind the strikers, with less defensive duties where hopefully he can have more influence on games.

Funny how people see different things in a game. I thought Spurr was terrible today. He put in one decent cross all game. Doesn't have the skill or pace to beat a man and was continually outbattled in the air.

[Ribble Rover]

Spurr also had a good game. Was thinking with the change of formation at half time that he would need to be replaced with Conway, but actually I thought that he looked better in the wingback position, although he was completely knackered by the end.

WTF? This guy is nicking a living, seriously. His actual kicking technique is completely wrong, he's so one dimensional. I suppose the only thing you could compliment him on is the fact that he's made it this far. To be fair to Spurr, if Gomez was supposed to be ahead of him on the left, he was left exposed a lot.

[tomphil]

Agreed, what a little jumped up **** Garner is. And he's supposedly a Rovers fan?!

From the Blackburn area but a life long Nobber, a very rare breed indeed. Mind you if he'd made it as a player with us he'd probably have been a life long Rover !

[Ribble Rover]

From the Blackburn area but a life long Nobber, a very rare breed indeed. Mind you if he'd made it as a player with us he'd probably have been a life long Rover !

He's a rovers fan and so is his family.

[tomphil]

He's a rovers fan and so is his family.

This has been done to death on here but he's a boyhood Preston fan. Either that or he's telling lies in the PNE programme, on radio Lancs and the LEP.

Maybe his dad is but he isn't.

[J*B]

He's a rovers fan and so is his family.

You have no idea what you are on about.

[Mike E]

He's a rovers fan and so is his family.

Month Python, right?

[USABlue]

Could have been 2-0 up before the sending off. All downhill from there. Reading a lot of critism aimed at akpan but totally unjustified. He was trying to cover for two players the whole match. Himself and Gomez. For me Gomez wouldn't wear a rovers shirt again. No passion or commitment.

Taking Jackson off was a mistake as his pace could have come in handy. Gomez should have been the one sacrificed. Overall a lot of huff and puff but playing with 9 men it was always going to be a Preston win

I would have pulled Gomez too, he just never seems up for a battle.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

Does it really matter who he supports? He's a complete prat as a person, a jumped up little muppet with an extreme case of small man syndrome and in need of a being sorted out (and there'd have been no shortage of takers 30 years ago). Somehow gets away with murder most games, like the first half when he dragged our defender back, got dragged back in return, and got a free kick! The chicken celebration as well tells me he's another Beattie, Rovers reject with a big chip on his shoulder. Deserves all the stick he gets.

[USABlue]

To be fair, he threw himself across the ground, John Terry style, desperate to keep the ball out, it could have easily hit him on the face but he put his body on the line. I'm not sure where he could have put his arms. By the rules it was the correct decision but I don't think he deserves vilifying for trying to keep the ball out. My beef if the ridiculousness of the multiple punishments for a single offence. He has to miss a game and three quarters, and the goal that he denied them, they scored anyway.

It wasn't that sort of situation. You wouldn't have been able to intervene. There were loads of people at the front of the JW lower where it was kicking off - you wouldn't even have got near and there were stewards and police all over it very quickly.

Agree 100% It's harsh not quite as stupid as the penalty and sending off for denying a goal scoring opportunity. I can see the reason but it just kills the game as a spectacle. To me if a pen it is given it should be a yellow, if it is outside the box then a red. The rule was brought in to deter the "professional" fouls to me it hasn'y just ruined many a contest.

[No Nay Never]

About the talk of violence and pne in the JL lower looked like they were dealt with and rightly so...sitting in home end is one thing but mouthing off ... Deserve everything you get!!

[blue kiwi]

Raya needs to be given a chance good enough old enough.Why waste money on a keeper when we have a great one on the bench.Ok play him when were safe but he needs to play other areas are more important.

The wolves game he was beaten by a handball.Thats the only time I've seen him apart from at derby when he played for Southport and was world class.Steele is very poor.

[garnersfags]

We lost to a side that didn't self-destruct and enjoyed the freedom of Ewood Park for 30 minutes before our experienced, esteemed management team noticed their number 12.

Why the f*** was Lambert the only person in the ground that wasn't saying if we dont close Gallacher down, he is going to create or score a goal.

Their keeper didn't make a save but no-one seemed to notice.

Preston will never, ever have an easier away win.

I get all the uber-defensive comments about how difficult the game becomes when down to 10 men and deprived of your mercurial No 10, but I expected Lambert to pull something out of the bag to give us some hope of salvaging a point but instead we allowed them countless opportunities to score 4 or more goals and we created nothing.

Huff and puff. No quality.

Yes, I know we are going to storm our way into the top two next season under our glorious management team (no, I do accept that this may happen) but allow me, and the poor 180 souls that have had to endure the last 15 away games, to be somewhat underwhelmed....

[Bohinen 22]

Big mouth Jamie Hoyland was bigging Preston up all game whilst Gallacher sat like a mute. Maybe he's just fed up like we all are. Hoyland also had a right go at Rob Kelly for knowing nothing as he had never played the game. Suppose Wenger, Van Gaal and Mourinho know nothing too then Jamie and most of he fans sat in the stands. What an arrogant pundit who should stick to his show about dogs. Another with an anti Rovers chip on his shoulder.

[blue kiwi]

Why do we have so bitter fans?Garner this Garner that.Many wanted him back in the summer he is rovers through and through.Why you ask I knew him and his dad when berg lived above the chippy in whalley.

Gally another roverite gets rave reviews then bitter fans start calling him inconsistent.The guy was born in highercroft one of the roughest estates in town.Turned up at my sons grandads funeral because they chatted about everything rovers.

Now we have a go at pundits.there pundits for a reason,usually because they've played the game.

The reason we have a poor team is the walker trust sold out to a bunch of cowboys.

It's not Duffys' fault its not spurrs fault or Gomez or graham its a bunch of Indians called venkys.

[oldjamfan1]

Didn't get back to Glasgow until very late last night so I'm writing this without having the benefit of seeing any TV replays of anything, or the 'benefit' of scrawling through all the pages of this thread, so apologies if I'm repeating stuff that has already been said or if my memory of incidents isn't perfect.

The penalty and red card pretty much ended the game as a contest after only 20 odd minutes. I was sat right behind the incident and while, with the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to say Duffy shouldn't have done it so early in a game, I would find it hard toi be too critical of him for it, and I would hazard a guess that 99% of us would have done the same. Anybody who thinks they would have had the presence of mind to have let it go in have probably never played sport at that sort of pace. The pinball in the box leading up to the penalty would have been avoided if we had a better keeper!

I was a bit surprised to see Jackson get hooked to be honest, and i would have probably left him on, hooked Gomez and shifted Lenihan to centre half. However, I do think the change of shape worked quite well in the second half.

The second goal - my instinct at the time was that Spurr had been caught ball watching and that Steele might also have done better, but without having seen a replay of it I may be wrong or harsh.

Gomez is not the type of player for a game like that, which is all the more reason why I would have subbed him rather than Jackson.

The officials were bang average, though I have to say Brown seemed to go down in instalments for our 'penalty' and my immediate instinct was that it was not a penalty. I had a pretty good view of the incident and I wouldn't have given it anyway. Brown otherwise did everything that could have been expected of him when he came on, we just didn't seem to get close enough to him to pick up the second ball.

Nice to see Paul Gallagher get applauded off by the Blackburn End at the end of the match, he showed his class at times and he certainly did with his respectful reaction to the final whistle. Unlike that little tw"t Garner.

I feel for those Rovers who work with PKE fans, sometimes the long trip home for me has its advantages!

I'll be sort-of glad when this season comes to an end!