RevidgeBlue

Just to bring this thread back up I was fascinated by events last weekend following the Everton v Sheffield United game. Neil Warnock was less than complimentary to say the least about Dermot Gallagher's performance and whilst he has a bit of a reputation for whinging unjustly, one of the allegations he made was that Gallagher was presented with a signed shirt by Everton before the game. They were making a bit of a thing about it on Talksport the following morning and the head of communications at Everton came on to give it the official spin "It was Dermott's last season and probably his last appearance at Goodison, and it was decided as a club in private that if he didn't send two of their players off etc they'd make a presentation to him after the game blah blah" Then David Moyes came on after without hearing what the other guy said and let slip that Gallagher had an Irish connection with Lee Carsley and had specifically requested a shirt signed by Carsley. Moyes didn't think there was anything at all untoward about this and said it was entirely commonplace for refs to ask for shirts signed by particular players. This raised more questions than it answered and I texted in saying that if it was commonplace for refs to ask for shirts signed by certain players this must indicate clear bias in favour of the team in question. The text was read out by Mike Parry and Andy Townsend who quickly dismissed it saying that refs didn't ask for them for themselves they were often used for charitable purposes etc. That is no doubt often true but it obviously wasn't the case in that particular instance and, sorry, there's no way Gallagher would award anything of any significance against Everton if he was hoping for a signed shirt from Carsley! How many more refs officiate games not wanting to jeapordise their chances of a signed Henry/Rooney/Gerrard shirt?

This could be the game that gets our stop start season back on the rails again, if we can secure the win that will virtually secure qualification. The key factor is Savage's availability, if he is fit and operating at full capacity we've every reason to hope we can produce a performance of sufficient vigour and tempo to win. If he's out I'd settle for a point and living to fight another day. If Emerton isn't fit I don't see that as a major problem we just need to employ Neill in his usual position and Gray at LB. On the left side Peter is a more than capable deputy for MGP, albeit maybe without the capacity for the wonder strike out of nowhere. And hopefully the game won't be played at quite the frenetic pace of a Premiership which should allow Tugay to operate more effectively than of late. What does worry me slightly is where the goals are going to come from. imo McCarthy has looked a bit jaded over the last three games and to me by the time Jeffers gets round to pulling the trigger, the chance has gone. If Nonda is unavailable I would play Bentley up front with Benni and Gallagher on the right. Or vice versa. The other question is can finally we stop conceding sloppy goals? Heaven help Todd if he'd been responsible for some of the rank bad defending we've seen recently. 2-1 Rovers, qualification assured, season back on track. Hopefully.

We're definitely suffering from the lack of investment in the team over the last couple of years since Hughes came to Ewood Park, not only has he not had a penny to spend in net terms, I think he's about 1.5m up in the black after selling Kuqi!!! He's worked miracles on what he has or rather hasn't had available to him but there's only so much you can do if you hit a particularly bad run of injuries. The crux of the problem is that we can just about cope with the loss of either Savage or Reid in midfield but certainly not both of them at the same time. The lack of depth in midfield was highlighted by many including myself in the summer, and i think it's already a season too far for Tugay. Instead of looking to offer him yet another deal we need to be looking at who will eventually replace him and, painful though it might be to the Board, this will cost money. Mokoena's position at the club must now be tenuous- he's shown that he isn't up to playing anywhere in the side other than mopping up as part of a five man midfield. Up front the injury to Roberts couldn't have happened at a worse time, with Nonda also sidelined. Whilst Jeffers is capable of very neat build up play I've seen nothing from him to suggest that he still has the quickness of thought or physical sharpness to find the back of the net. Another make do and mend option which hasn't come off. Elsewhere I actually thought Gray played quite well and we looked much more threatning once Gallagher came on down the right for the last few minutes. Quite what he has to do to earn a chance I'm not sure. But it was all far too little too late in the end. As many have said, with our first choice eleven on parade including Nelsen, Savage, Reid, MGP and Nonda/Roberts we're more than a match for anyone. Unfortunately a number of fringe players haven't stepped up to the plate over the last week. Whether the Trustees can or should provide Hughes with more funding is probably a debate for another day. And I'm sure we'll be fine when one or two injury absentees return. Suffice to say though I wouldn't be confident of us getting a result against anyone if both Reid and Savage were out.

I'm taking my two daughters along, who don't usually go, if everyone does that we'll have 36,000 home fans trying to get tickets.

I can't remember the last time we beat Bolton at home, and we're usually a bit slow out of the blocks after our European sorties so I will be very pleasantly surprised if we win this one. 1-1.

Spot on that Hughesey, with the proviso Blue Blood mentioned that we had a weak ten minutes at the end before we scored. I thought it was a very good performance on the whole, the only weak points on the day being Neill who couldn't cope with their right winger and MGP who had yet another poor game. On the chance he missed, he had the time to bring it down, take another touch, and make a cup of tea before sliding it in yet tried a near impossible first time wonder volley. But overall an excellent display and Hughes and his coaching staff continue to confound despite a lack of financial backing. Just hope our lack of cover in midfield until Reid returns doesn't ruin what is starting to look like a very promising season. An injury of any note to Savage now and we're stuffed. AS far as the UEFA Cup is concerned, if Salzburg and Krakow in particular are indicative of the standard of the competition, then there's every reason to hope we can remain in the competition well into the knockout stages. A win in the next game and we'll be through with a minimum of fuss and effort. I wonder though if yesterday's win now takes the emphasis off a win in our first home game slightly and the absolute priority now is not to lose? An interesting one. I've always subscribed to the theory that if you're playing games and winning you don't feel tired so let's hope that holds true for the Bolton game on Sunday. A proud time to be a Rover thanks to Mark Hughes and his coaching staff!

Hmmm.......... no word of a lie my pre match prediction, if I'd got round to posting it would have been something like: "This will be a real test of our credentials to emulate last seasons sixth place finish after recovering from a poor start etc etc, Bellamy's nailed on to score, - 1-1." Unfortunately I didn't put a bet on it. Very much a game of two halves as far as we were concerned. In the first half, as in the second against Wigan, we played some of our best stuff under Hughes and had Liverpool chasing shadows. Had a couple of marginal offside situations gone our way Liverpool would have been going in at the interval 3-0 down. In the second half we just didn't play. We seemed to sit back at the start of the half anticipating a Liverpool onslaught and never quite managed to get our game clicking into gear again. Perhaps we lacked that final bit of self belief to go out and finish the job in the second half after a superb first half. The first 45 minutes from Bentley were his best in a Rovers shirt. Ooijer put in a much improved display, Savage was immense and the front two caused Liverpool all manner of problems during that opening period. The two substitutions were no surprise, the game was far too fast for Tugay and completely passed him by whilst MGP had another one of his invisible days. He really doesneed to find another gear whereby he puts in a passable shift on the days when he doesn't manage to conjure up a wonder strike out of nothing. Overall though it was a very encouraging performance the team just need to have that little bit more belief in their own ability so that we can finish the job off when we get into a dominating position.

Having the benefit of watching the game live on TV, I thought Clattenburg got most of his decisions wrong yesterday, Savage's first yellow was in fact a superb intervention in which he got the faintest of touches on the ball and the yellow card was an absolute travesty. That said, having got an unjustified yellow in the first place, he should have received a second yellow for a crude challenge, but didn't, so it evened itself out. The push by Hypia was an absolute nailed on penalty imo - no doubt about it whatsoever. Neill's booking came about after a foul by Pederson I thought. And the worst tackle of the day on McCarthy which resulted in him briefly limping off went unpunished.

I didn't think he made a boo-boo for the second Fife, the bobble was one of those things you can't legislate for and you haven't time to react. (Remember Tim Flowers down here v Liverpool?) I thought he was badly at fault for the first though. Should have been a routine save, but he got caught hopelessly in no mans land and it looped in. Other than that he kept us in it. Although I suppose you could argue that without either of the two alleged bloopers we'd have played badly and come away with a 0-0.

Amen to that Colin, most sensible comment on this thread. Cheer up guys, it's only England, the real football starts again at Anfield on Saturday. I did get a bit more excited pre World Cup than usual this year because we should have had a good chance of winning it with the players available. But on the whole I can't care the same way for players who I despise the rest of the year when they are turning out in a ManUre/Chelski/Liverpool/Spuds/Newcastle shirt against the mighty blue and whites. A couple of words on McClaren: He's not my favourite but a slight sense of perspective is required. We were crap under Sven, but the fact we appear to be even worse under McClaren doesn't mean that what went before was any good. Whither the universally renowned tactical genius "El Tel"? McClaren should however be sacked summarily if he is preparing his way via Max Clifford for Beckham's return. He made exactly the right decision originally, Beckham is history as far as England is concerned and that's the way it should remain. That had nothing whatsoever to do with it. It was the FA's cack handed timing of the approach.

Fair point.

I received a flyer for this on Friday and whilst I think the card is an excellent idea, and whilst the flyer was very witty it's a complete waste of time and money mailing it out to me as a ST holder. Unless we're trying to downgrade ST holders. If 12,000 flyers were sent out to ST holders, that's more than 3k alone wasted in postage without the cost of the leaflets themselves. Surely the Club's database is capable of differentiating between ST holders and occasional walk on fans? Or did someone in the marketing department not think to apply the relevant filter?

Not my understanding of the rule den - I thought the rule was that if the ball was played forward there had to be two opposition players e.g. keeper + one defender between our player and the bye line for it to be onside. Whether McCarthy was behind the ball or not is irrelevant if that's the correct interpretation. I might be wrong, perhaps some rules boffin could clarify!

He wasn't onside imo because the ball travelled forwards and Roberts and McCarthy were the two players furthest forward apart from Kirkland. Still, as others have said, who cares? Eh????? "Best passage of play in the second half since Sparky took over at the Club" ??????

In your usual rush to have a pop at me, you've made several unsubstantiated assumptions above. I've never once said League games should be priced at 15 quid but I certainly don't think any of them should be priced at 36 quid. Not with the ground a third empty. I actually think the cheapest games are slightly too cheap but that the categorised pricing should be scrapped until the ground is full or nearly full again. A standard price for all games which won't instantly put people off is what is urgently needed. People should be coming down to Ewood to watch us not the opposition.

Sorry Stu, I thought you were referring to today's game and that we had 5k home walk ons today. As for ST numbers it was around 12k last season and we are cryptically told numbers have "increased" but as far as I know the club have never divulged actual figures and I doubt it's 14k. We probably had considerably more than 7k walk ons on Thursday night as not every ST holder would have been able to attend.

Don't know what Sparky says or what he puts in the half time tea on the Sunday after European games but it certainly works. Just as against Man City we weren't really at the races first half, but were much improved in the second. In fact today in the second half I thought the passage of play from half time until the Wigan penalty was the best since Sparky took over at Ewood. Completely exhillarating. Unfortunately however we couldn't make our breathtaking build up play count and it looked as if we were going to go down to a completely undeserved defeat when we conceded a penalty with 12 minutes to go. Fortunately Jason Brown made a superb double save and we got slightly lucky with the winner which was undoubtedly offside at the point when Roberts passed to McCarthy. Against that we spurned a couple of one and ones which would have made the scoreline more convincing. I was really impressed with McCarthy today. We all know he has the talent, but until today I was wondering if he would fancy it in January or February, whether he had the physical strength to be a huge success in the Premiership. Well on the basis of today he has. He added real strength and power to his silky touches in a very impressive performance. Of the other strikers Jeffers had a poor first half but produced a superb lay off to Bentley for the first. After that in the second he looked a completely different player, with some superb play. And Roberts whilst obviously not completely match fit had the Wigan defenders bouncing off him. He'll be a real handful when he's completely up to speed. So overall, poor first half, superb second, and it's particularly pleasing to be sitting one point above Liverpool in the table. The one downside was the performance of Oiijer who I thought had a mare today, letting Heskey get in front of him for the first and conceding yet another penalty which could or perhaps should have led to a defeat. He's had half a dozen games or so to settle in now and looked ok against a side offering no physical threat in Salzburg but I don't think he's quick enough or strong enough for the Premiership. How many more games are we going to have to carry on making excuses for him? Not a patch on Todd imo.

--> QUOTE(Ste B @ Oct 1 2006, 21:22 ) 449146[/snapback] Perhaps if you got off your arse and contributed something to BRISA rather than bitch about it on the internet then BRISA would be able to. Why, is it up to me personally?

Rubbish, What was the gate today? About 17k of which 1500 - 2k ish were from Wigan. (They voted with their feet as well) So straight away we've lost at least 4,000 walk on fans because of the ridiculous pricing today, probably more as not every ST holder would have been able to attend on Thursday night. We seem to be making a misguided attempt to defy the law of supply and demand and it's backfiring disastrously. People aren't that stupid and no-one is going to pay 36 quid to go in a ground that's nearly half empty. It would be a different matter entirely if the ground was full or nearly full. We are driving support away in their droves with this categorised pricing. When are BRISA going to get their act into gear and campaign strongly against the current pricing policy?

I think there are already signs that this season might be one too far for the great man, I'm sure next season definitely would be.

Are we still doing the prediction League? Have to say for me this match falls into the "must win" category whether we're looking to get to 40 points as quickly as possible, trying to retain our UEFA spot or looking to improve slightly to push for that magical 4th spot. However it's the sort of fixture on the back of a good run we'd have made a complete horlicks of under Souness. Tomorrow will tell us a lot about the mental toughness of the players under Hughes. Another thoroughly professional display and 2-0 win. (Hopefully)

Completely agrre Ste. Just wonder after tonight though if this season the League might be the "bread and butter" and the Uefa the "icing on the cake"

OK don't wish to be rude but I still think nearly 19,000 home fans for a game which is being televised live on a Thursday night is a reasonable efort. And I thought the atmosphere throughout was a lot more upbeat than previously this season.

I think that the atmosphere for the League games so far this season has been as dead as a dodo but for tonight's game it was completely different, very good.

Why don't you bog off and support someone else then?