5-0 Rovers

Had a conversation with an ex-fans forum chairman and ex-drummer last night. Apparently, John Williams rang him recently to discuss whether the club should get rid of the drummer or not. His opinion (the ex-FF chairmans, not John Williams') was that the majority of Rovers fans want to keep the drummer, and that's what he told JW. I told him that I didn't agree. One point he made that I did agree with though was that it's unfair to criticise the fella who bangs the drum personally. He does it out of a genuine love of the club and believes he's helping the atmosphere, not ruining it. Apparently he was quite upset when he heard about the criticism of him on internet messageboards as he usually only gets positive feedback from the fans he meets face-to-face. As for BRISA's stance, the drumming issue was touched on in the Attendance Doc and has been mentioned in our meetings to the club. They are aware of our feelings.

Just back in sunny Manchester (flight only delayed half an hour which I guess is a huge stroke of luck at the moment) and now looking forward to a bit of a holiday to recover from my holiday. What can I say about last nights game? We were awful - just awful. I know it was an under-strength team but there were enough good players out there to at least put up a bit of an effort. Sparta were nothing special but we made them look brilliant at times. We looked vulnerable in defence, especially down the wings where McEveley in particular had a mare. We had nothing in midfield - Acuna constantly gave the ball away (to be fair he then went and won it back a few times but he shouldn't have had to), Douglas just doesn't look good enough, and, save for a couple of decent passes, Gallagher and Peter offered little. Up front Kuqi surpassed himself by missing two glorious chances when it seemed easier to score. McCarthy started well but took a whack mid-way into the first half and didn't seem the same afterwards. Roberts looked class when he came on late in the game. We only really started playing late in the second half when all the "first-teamers" came on, but we were already a goal down by then and our finishing was consistently awful. We must have missed 5 or 6 gilt-edge chances to score. However, Sparta also had just as many chances at the other end to put the game safe. It was all just dreadfully disappointing. I know it's only a friendly, I know we started with an under-strength team, but it's hard not to be a tad concerned after watching that shower last night. Our first eleven may be good but the rest of the squad look a bit short on this showing. Last word on Acuna. As I said earlier, he gave the ball away a lot, often in dangerous areas, and he didn't offer us much going forward. He's strong and a good tackler, but I hope for his sake he's done well in training because I can't see him winning a contract with us on the basis of last night. Had a good boozy do in Rotterdam afterwards though - and we didn't get stabbed which was nice. Didn't notice an official programme for either the Aachen or Sparta Rotterdam games (but I wasn't really looking for one either) but there were team sheets available for both.

Greetings from Amsterdam! Main things I took from the Aachen match were: - McCarthy has a suberb first touch and has great technique. - It's very early days obviously but there were signs that McCarthy and Roberts were already linking well. McCarthy came deep a few times to link up play whereas Roberts lead the line and tried to hold the ball up. - Both strikers took their goals clinically - Roberts especially showed great strength - Bentley didn't do much in centre-midfield - we loked much better once Tugay came on. - There were a lot more than 20 Rovers fans there - Mokoena loks like Agathe from a distance! - Their left-winger was pretty good. In fact, Aachen on the whole were a decent team who kept possession well. It was a good work-out for Rovers and a good, deserved win. - Aachen fans were very friendly, slightly mad, and incredibly proud of their team. It's the first time they've been in the top league for 36 years and they intend to enjoy it. It's been a cracking trip so far - looking forward to Rotterdam now and ducking the knife attacks.

The current glut of World Cup players releasing their autobiographies started me thinking about which ex-Rovers I'd like to do the same. I think Matt Jansen's would be interesting. He's was at Ewood for a good few years, saw a number of managerial changes, got promotion, won a cup, then almost killed himself in a bike accident. His own account of his recovery would be fascinating. Tim Sherwood's would be good as well. He was one of the few players who was around when we originally got promotion to the Premier League and was still playing for us when we won it.

No-one has. Whether you like Oasis or not, the fact is that whenever a "Greatest Albums Ever" poll appears both Definately Maybe and What's the Story (Morning Glory) always feature prominantly. I'm sure that will still be the case in 10, 20 or how ever many years you care to mention. I can't remember ever seeing a M use album in there (and I do quite like M use and own 2 or 3 of their albums). Of course comparing bands is subjective and a matter of personal opinion, but Oasis's musical legacy is far greater than M use's, and I suspect it always will be.

Yet they make tunes that are 50 times better than anything M use have done. Go figure.

Reasons Chelsea sold Duff

Booked flights and hotels for the second pre-season overseas tour now. Staying in Cologne Friday 4th August, Aachen on the 5th, and then Amsterdam until the 9th.

Just thought it'd be nice to let anyone who wasn't at the game know what had happened. I apologise if it caused any offence.

And so it begins again. It was still very, very hot at kick-off and the pitch was hard, bumpy and sandy, so it was never going to be a classic. Both teams were only playing at half pace and there was hardly a meaningful tackle in the game (with one or two exceptions), so it's difficult to make judgements on players. In addition I thought Accrington were very poor and offered very little up front. After saying that though Gallagher did impress in the first half. He started wide on the right but kept switching with Bentley in the centre and drove forward at every opportunity. It was his shot that was parried by the keeper for Roberts to finish. Roberts looked dangerous as well and it was a shame when he went off injured after about 35 minutes - hope it's not serious. However, there were no signs of Roberts and Jeffers developing a partnership during that time but it's obviously very early days. Agathe played at right-back and looked good going forward, but he also looked very shaky defensively. He did brilliantly for the second goal though, beating at least two players before getting to the by-line and delivering a peach of a cross that Jeffers couldn't fail to convert. It was really the only outstanding moment that Jeffers had in the game (he was subbed shortly after his goal) but I guess he's that type of player, doesn't seem to do much but gets on the end of things and, hopefully, scores goals. The other plus was Derbyshire, who scored one (a real poachers effort) and could have had a couple more. He still looks very small, but there's something about the lad - he's got a touch of class when he gets in front of goal. Our other debutant Brown had a solid second half in goal and made at least one decent save when called upon. The only real negatives were Friedel's kicking, which was awful (although the pitch was bobbly), Robert's injury, Bentley and Pedersen's poor performance, and seeing that Kuqi's first touch hasn't improved over the summer. Also both Reid and Nelsen were missing, presumably injured. All in all it was a decent workout against poor opposition. We controlled most of the game and deserved the win, but we never really got out of first gear. Nice that 3 of our strikers got goals though, can't hurt their confidence going into the bigger challenges ahead.

Hovercraft

Been saying for years that we should have a halved away kit. In fact, I think we should have 3 kits. Blue & white halves (home), red & white halves (if blue clashes), and red & blue halves (if white clashes). Whoever picked our recent kits must be either colour blind or Burnley fan.

I thought Gattuso was even better than Cannavaro myself.

I read today that a number of the England squad are releasing books soon (Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard and others). I suspect we'll find out the real feeling of the players, or at least get a general idea, once all these are out.

Why can't we just get beaten properly? If we're as bad as some of you make out then why don't we get deservedly beaten 1 or 2-0 and then we can at least hold our hands up and say that we weren't good enough? Why sodding penalties again? I thought we did ok until the sending off. It was a tight game, just like the Germany v Argentina one the day before, and chances were at a premium, but we didn't look in trouble and were perhaps marginally the better team. Then came the sending off. I'm obviously biased but I honestly don't believe Rooney meant to "stamp" on the guys balls. There was no real force exerted (the Portugese lad wouldn't have got up if there had been) and Rooney wasn't looking at the player - just the ball. I thought Rooney was falling forward, put out a leg to try and balance himself, and caught the player accidentally. And it seemed the ref agreed. To me it seemed he had just awarded a foul to Portugal and no more until Ronaldo and his team mates came wading in. It was only when Rooney pushed Ronaldo away that the ref reacted. Since when has a little push in the chest been a red card offence? I thought we were magnificent with 10 men. We defended superbly, restricted Portugal to mainly long range efforts, and looked threatening on the break with the pace of Lennon. We had arguably the better chances to win the game despite playing with 10 for an hour. So why can't we take penalties? Is it just bad luck? There's no doubt that players like Gerrard, Lampard and Carragher are just as good as their Portugese equivalents. And I'm sure that they've got just as much bottle as the Portugese as well - remember these players have all starred in big, big games for their clubs before. We've also apparently practised them over and over again in training. So why can't we take them? I've got two theories: pressure and fitness. The pressure on England players just seems to be higher going into major tournaments than anyone else. Our media build the team and players up to enormous heights and then can't wait to crucify someone when they mess up. It must be on the player's minds as they step up to take a penalty. Secondly, we don't seem to be as fit as other teams. We have regularly looked knackered in the second half of matches in the past and this time we had the heat plus playing with 10 for an hour to contend with. Contrast us to the Germans yesterday who all stepped up for their pens looking as fresh as daisies and supremely focussed. We looked shattered and scared. Maybe we play too much football in this country, or maybe the style and tempo of Premiership play is too fast, but for whatever reasons we don't seem as fit as other teams. Overall though, in hindsight, the squad wasn't strong enough - and we didn't have any luck. We were dealt two huge blows with the injuries to Owen and Rooney in the lead up to the tournament, a further blow when Owen's knee went at the start of the Sweden game, and we missed Neville when he was out too. We always seemed to be on the backfoot and dependant on players who were clearly not fully fit. i don't think Sven did too much wrong tactically, but he just didn't have the backup in key positions that he needed once the injuries started. Finally I really hope Portugal don't go any further in the tournament. They cheated their way through the Holland game and they were up to their tricks again today. Unfortunately the ref bought most of it. They aren't a good side, they didn't deserve to beat us even after we'd gone down to 10, and they're cheats. Still, we didn't deserve to win either today. Now it's up to McLaren to take us forward, something that worries me deeply.

What do you think though?

Typical Spain really, flattered to deceive as usual. When the big games come round they disappear. France aren't a shadow of the side they were yet they fully deserved their place in the last 8. What price the other early hyped favourite Argentina going out to the Germans on Friday? It's the teams that can defend well that'll end up in the latter stages (with the possible exception of Brazil who aren't great at the back but make up for it going forward).

And now we've got the personal insults. Even better contribution American - keep it up.

What a magnificent contribution from you American. There may only have been one prediction that we'd lose on this thread, but there were others on some of the other threads. Both Paul and USABlue, for example, have admitted they thought we would lose. Perhaps it's you who should get your facts right before making a pointless jibe.

I'm starting to really enjoy England winning and then coming on here to read the daft comments. There were plenty on here who didn't think we'd beat Ecuador, but we have and, other than one individual error by Terry early on, we did so without ever looking in trouble defensively. We were solid, we kept possession better than we have done up to now, Rooney looked fitter, and Beckham scored a cracking free-kick (average my arse). But for some poor finishing and the odd wayward final pass we could have got more. Yet again we played a team devoid of any real attacking ambition (bizarrely even after they went a goal behind), and yet again we played in some of the hottest conditions anyone has faced in the competition, but we deservedly won and are now in the quarter finals. Where we face the winners of a game littered with diving, petulance, mild violence and precious little good football. And these are supposedly the class teams that will easily knock England out of the World Cup? We'll see. I thought Carrick played well. He protected the defence on the few occasions he had to and used the ball well. No coincidence that we kept it better than we have before today. Hargreaves was an improvement over Carragher at right-back (but we still miss Neville). Ashley Cole was fantastic defensively - what a block! Gerrard and Lampard made some good runs and showed plenty of energy in the middle of the park. Lampard is surely destined to score a hat-trick soon. Man of the match for me though was Rooney. He was fairly quiet in the first half but still looked a threat when in possession, but in the second half he led the line superbly. He ran his socks off, frequently tearing off down the channels or coming short to receive the ball, which he then kept expertly. He's improving with every game - and he owes Portugal. Of course we weren't brilliant, but I'm not sure many teams would be in those conditions against a team happy to defend for most of the game. Joe Cole wasn't as prominant as he has been up to now, Terry is making worrying individual errors - as is Robinson, and Beckham didn't seem fit (reports say he felt ill before the game but didn't let on). However, I thought we looked like a better unit and the change in formation seems to suit the players we now have better than 4-4-2. Onwards and upwards, can't wait for Saturday now.

######. Germany, for example, had a far easier group than we have. So have Spain.

I agree with what Rev says but it's kinda nice that all the good teams have got through I think. There were too many shocks in the last World Cup and too many teams who weren't that good got to the latter stages (USA, Germany, South Korea) - basically because all the top players were knackered. This time everyone seems to have prepared better and it looks like the knockout stages will be fantastic. Whoever wins the cup this year will truely deserve to be hailed as the best team in the world.

I'm sure Crouch was only originally selected in the squad to be an impact sub. If we need a goal with 20 minutes left he's a good player to bring on as most teams won't have a clue how to handle him and he'll cause chaos in the opposition's box (like he did against Argentina in the friendly a while ago). Owen's injury has kinda buggered that plan up a bit sadly, but if we line up as Jim says and it goes well I'd expect Crouch's role to revert back to that of an impact sub.

Sadly, Lucas Neill. Except he probably won't flop.