The Rovers Return

Givet's shot was handballed on the line by Mark Noble

Before the game, if given the choice of a 0-0 draw or play the game and hope for the best, I’d probably have taken a draw.

Away at West Ham, a draw is not a bad result, especially given our record down there over the past decade.

However, having watched this one, I can’t help but curse another series of missed chances and bad luck.

It wasn’t pretty, as usual, but it was a good Rovers performance. We defended solidly – Samba and Nelsen as solid as ever – and looked more dangerous than West Ham when going forward.

And when Pedersen’s free kick came back off the bar, it was a real sign of things to come. In the second half, a penalty box melee resulted in Mark Noble handballing a Gael Givet shot on the line, although Martin Atkinson deemed it to be legal, followed by a good stop by Robert Green when the ball was sailing into the top corner and a poor effort from Roberts who, having done fantastically well to shake off his defender and get through on goal, made it easy for the keeper to save.

Another spirited display from Niko Kalinic who, if he had some support, may have been able to help us break the deadlock. It was another Allardyce decision that had me pulling my hair out when he took of the Croatian to bring on Jason Roberts, instead of leaving him on and going with two up front.

However, the performance of Pascal Chimbonda, who steadily gets worse every game after an impressive start, left huge amounts to be desired.

His defending was below par, but it’s his attacking quality I expect more from. Every time there was an attempted overlap with the winger, he would attempt a deft little flick, which just resulted in giving the ball away and infuriating the Rovers fans who just want him to stop the ball and play it simple.

There was also another disappointing performance from El Hadji-Diouf, although he did perform better in the second half. His lack of brain cells really does hinder us at times.

Apart from that I thought it was a reasonable performance from Rovers.

The fans were also good. It was a good turnout for the long trip down south. These London games don’t tend to be all that well attended, but we gave a good account of ourselves. Unfortunately, my friends and I found ourselves on the front row… So we were a bit out of the way.

Despite failing to win, the point pushed us into the top half of the table. A miraculous thing when you look at the situation we faced only two or three weeks ago.

All of a sudden, the pressure has gone and we’re no longer considered real relegation candidates!

Stoke away on Saturday is going to be tough and, again, I think I’d be very happy with a point.