Stoke City 3 Rovers 1 In a poor defeat against a nervous Stoke, there were only two real performers in this game as the voting seemed to indicate. Rochina polled 41.32% of the 121 votes and won the BRFCS Man of the Match award, more than likely based on his good strike which reduced the deficit and then another stinging effort moments later. Yakubu came second with 38.02% of the vote for his hard work and his good hold-up play. See the details of the vote here. View full article

BRFCS MotM: Jermaine Jones [caption id=attachment_1994" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image courtesy of cn174][/caption]A new feature will be added to BRFCS from now on — it will be a chance to select your man of the match for each game. We will trial this for the last 4 games of the season (starting with the Bolton one) and next season we can hopefully have some structure around "our" player of the season. With a bit of luck we could maybe even start the annual BRFCS awards (let’s see how it goes). The first match that we have taken the vote for is last week's home game against Bolton — a vital win which will hopefully keep us up, and a massive 3 points in the bag. Although Martin Olsson stole the headlines with his toe-poked goal from the left hand side, the immense Jermaine Jones was the BRFCS Members' choice for Man of the Match, taking 46% of the vote and edging out Olsson, who had 40%. Jermaine Jones won the MotM award based on his energetic display, tracking back, throwing himself into tackles, as well as supporting attacks when possible. Also, for a change, our midfield actually bossed a game for once and much of this was down to Jones' all-action performance. There is no doubting that Jermaine Jones has proved a useful addition to our squad, especially in recent weeks, and this has now led to Kean saying that he wants to sign JJ on a permanent deal in the summer, and that Jones wants to stay, too. Check out the Man of the Match vote in the Rovers v Bolton match report thread. View full article

Rovers 1 Stoke 2 Following on from the buzz of taking three points from the home of the champions, protests subsided, the fans stuck behind the team 100% through a game for the first time in ages and "hopes" were raised that Rovers could somehow start to climb out of danger on the back of an excellent three points at Old Trafford. However, it all went wrong. It was inevitable that Peter Crouch would score against us again, as he always seems to; however, when he hit his second just before half-time, it was a bitter pill to swallow and effectively killed the game. The game could have been so very different had the referee not cancelled out Samba's early header, but replays suggest that Yakubu held the keeper back from trying to collect the ball. In the second half Rovers improved a bit but couldn't find two goals, only one coming, this time from Goodwillie, who bundled home from close range. The Man of the Match award was always going to go in the favour of Morten Gamst Pedersen, who took 27.5% of the vote for that tackle on Steve Kean... For those of you who missed it, it is .Second place once again went to the Yak, who worked hard and had a shot cleared off the line late in the second half. Yakubu took 20.3% of the vote. See the details of the vote here. View full article

Liverpool 1 Rovers 1 In the Boxing Day game at Anfield, Mark Bunn showed that he is prepared to take his chance and put up a fight for the Rovers No.1 shirt with Paul Robinson. Following his crucial late save to deny Liverpool all three points, there was only going to be one winner of the BRFCS Man of the Match award for the match against Liverpool as Mark Bunn took 83.7% of the vote. Bunn also made several other decent saves in this game, where Rovers somehow held out for a point thanks to Charlie Adam's earlier own goal. See the details of the vote here. View full article

Rovers 1 Bolton 2 The game against Bolton was a six-pointer clash between the bottom club and the second bottom club. The first half was dire from Rovers' point of view, with the Rovers offering very little going forward and going into the break 2-0 down. It needed a reaction and it got one, but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough to take a point. Hanley took the BRFCS Man of the Match award in this Lancashire derby with 31.2% of the vote, which, considering how risky some fans have considered his play in the past, was commendable in such a big game. Hoilett came in second with 22.6% of the vote after his lively second-half display where he just kept running at the Bolton defence and trying to create a goal for Rovers. See the details of the vote here. View full article

Rovers finally picked up a point — only 1, but at least it got us off the mark. Scott Dann made his full league debut for Rovers and he turned out to be the one who fans voted as the BRFCS Man of the Match with 31.8% of the vote. A battling display to start off his Rovers career with an impressive performance. Rochina came 2nd in the vote, with his thunderbolt that gave us the lead, gaining him 26.3% of the vote. Not too far behind was Robinson, who made a few key saves in the 2nd half and gained 24.7% of the vote. Check out the Man of the Match vote in the Fulham v Rovers man of the match poll thread. View full article

[caption id=attachment_2384" align="alignleft" width="300" caption=" Image courtesy of cn174 ][/caption] Following back-to-back defeats, Rovers had Chris Samba return to the side for the visit of Everton. In the end Samba was the villain, giving away a dubious 92nd minute penalty, which unfortunately gave Everton three undeserved points.Once again Mauro Formica didn’t start the game, but his introduction around the half-hour mark sparked Rovers, Formica winning two penalties, yet missing one himself. Still, it was enough to win him the BRFCS Man of the Match with 48% of the vote, with Samba this time in 2nd place with 35.6% of the vote. So, 3 games in, 3 losses and Mauro Formica with two BRFCS Man of the Match awards. Next time hopefully we will have 3 points and 11 man of the match contenders. Check out the Man of the Match vote in the Rovers v Everton man of the match poll thread. View full article