Tyrone Shoelaces

There’s possibly nobody harder on the team than me when we play badly but when we play well I’m equally happy to bask in our successes. I really enjoyed yesterday’s game. For me that was more of what Blackburn Rovers should be about. Everybody was playing to the best of their ability and giving 100%. That’s all I ever ask of the 11 on the pitch in Rovers colours.

He commits stupid fouls though. In the opponents half with the opponent going nowhere. He needs to learn where and when you need to commit fouls on the pitch. He got away without a booking after the first bad foul. However he carried on like that had never happened. You’ve got save the fouls that lead to bookings for game influencing moments, you can’t just toss them away like he does. It’s like he’s playing 30 or 40 years ago when tackles like that were perfectly ok. I like players who’ll put a foot in but it has to be tempered with football intelligence.

Downing Street ?

“ Dog chasing a crisp packet across a pub car park on a windy day “ comes to mind.

I wouldn’t say he has a better crosser than Brittain. That was the real strong point in Brittain’s game. However Alebioso is better in every other regard. Could you see Brittain having the pace and strength to create our second goal ?

Is he in our best 11 ? I sincerely hope not.

Looks O’Riordan has blown his chances of playing for us at Wembley this season then.

Not for me matey. Start with Hendrickson and we better get used to playing with 10.

Play like we did today and we’ll give them a game.

A great win, one that I didn’t really see coming. In the second half there was only one team that looked like winning and if we’d have been more clinical it could easily been 3 or 4. Toth 8, kept us in the game with a wonder save at a critical time. His distribution wasn’t great at times, but your keeper is there to keep the ball out of net, and that’s what he does. Alebioso 8, what a find this lad has been. Like Stanley Mathews everybody knows he’s going to go on the outside but he still managed to pull it off. Grand run for the second goal. Miller 7, he put in a wholehearted and committed performance. Typical Aussie. Wharton 8, I thought he led by example today. A good captains performance. McClouglin 7, he had some scares but on the whole I thought he did ok. DeNeve 7, I was surprised to see him subbed but Leicester were getting a lot of joy down the right wing in the first half. Not altogether his fault but when Hedges came on in the second half things tightened up Tronstad 7, still not back to his best on the ball but he’s pretty tireless out of possession. Gardener-Hickman 6, just a busy player. He spurned a golden chance in the second half. He made a really good late run, pointed to where he wanted the pass to be played, the Rovers player puts it on a plate exactly where he was pointing, and he puts it row Z. On his weaker foot apparently, really ? Henrikson -5, the lad isn’t playing with a full deck. Two bad fouls for no good reason in our opponents half ! He’s a walking yellow card. I wouldn’t start him ever again, he’s too much of a risk. Ohashi -7, never stopped running throughout the game. A real pest to play against and he takes some of the weight off Gudjohnsen. Gudjohnsen- 8, what can you say ? Sometimes he looks like a fish riding a bike. That too weak pass out to Ohashi that nearly got Ohashi flattened is a classic example. However, like a good poacher, he gambled on a mistake for his first goal, he was ready and on his toes to flick that ball home. Sam Gallagher would have just watched it happen. For the second goal he made just the right run at just the right time to be in just the right place to wallop the ball into the roof of the net. You can’t knock it. Subs Hedges 7, tightened up that left hand side by staying back a bit more. Montgomery 7, kept busy when he came on. We needed a bit more energy at that time and he provided it. Morishita 7 , I thought he played ok without pulling up any trees. A better bet than Henriksson. Forshaw N/A. Not on long enough to give a score. Guueye N/A the lad never gets the benefit of the doubt from the officials. He was within an ace of scoring the daftest goal I’ve seen in a long while. Ismael 8, got most things right apart from starting with Henriksson. When Rovers win away and the dingles lose at home what could be better. Shame about England in the Rugby League but you can’t have everything !

I’m going up to my son’s to watch the Rovers game and then the England v Australia Rugby League game. Heart says - “ What a great day to be a sports fan .” Head says - “ Double disappointment “.

The batting needs to sort itself out sharpish. 1 to 5 just about got 30 runs between them yesterday. It’s not looking good so far. At least the tail wagged a bit.

I take my hat off to any player who’ll turn out every week to get a hammering. Idon’t think I would.

Robert Knight - Everlasting Love

Gudjohnsen got better as the second half went on. In the first half he was hardly ever in the game.

Chris Crowe was playing on the right wing in my first ever game at Ewood. He came as quite an expensive signing but never really made the grade at Rovers. He had a good spell at Wolves afterwards though.

Give him some space and he can run past people. If a defender fronts him up he has to play the ball back into midfield again. He hasn’t got a trick in his locker. If we are going to play with a left wing back Ismael obviously thinks he’s a better bet than either of Ribeiro or Pickering.

High point for me was when Miller, I think it was, put that Southampton player over the barrier. That was a John Bray style tackle. A real “ quietener “.

He did work really hard. He’s got no idea how to beat anybody apart from trying to just rum past them but the lad is a trier if some what limited technically.

Can I just bask in the euphoria for today ? I’ll go back to being gloomy tomorrow I promise.

From the upper Jack Walker I thought that was in right until it hit the backboards ! Wrong choice of shot I thought. Shearer would have put his foot right through that and it would have either knocked the keeper out or been a goal !

They didn’t manage to improve Nyambe in that respect. He’s also a good athlete but his choice of final ball is patchy. He got in once in the second half and looped the ball over everybody when it was crying out for a driven ball hard into the goalmouth. He had bit of luck with the goal. In swingers like that can always beat everybody and end up in the far corner ( see MGP at Old Trafford ), but that was almost central and I would have expected somebody like Toth to get something on it at least.

I counted 3 times.

If goalkeepers can win you matches Toth won that one for us today.

At least that many.