The Rovers Return

There are a few gremlins in the system on my home computer. I’ll be back to normal as quickly as I can . . .

We must accept that if things continue as they are, we are in the relegation battle.

Today’s defeat at Liverpool was disappointing, not just because of the result – to be honest, it’s not often you expect points from Anfield -  but the manner in which defeat came.

Yes, we were without Samba and Nelsen. But that doesn’t mean our defence should cave in the way it did for Liverpool’s goals. They were poor – but there should have been more.

Paul Robinson was undoubtedly the Rovers’ man of the match, it’s just unfortunate he couldn’t do anything for the two goals. When the goalkeeper gets man of the match two games running, questions must surely need answering.

It’s been the same every game so far this season – where are the goals going to come from?

Benjani and Diouf linked up well for our short-lived equaliser. But apart from that, Pepe Reina was practically on holiday today.

Last week, Sunderland’s visit was another non-event. We could have taken something from the game had Samba not allowed himself to get distracted, which let Bent through on goal only for the big man to take him down from behind. A definite red. Read more »

This shit situation was exascerbated by the fact when the weekend finally came around and Premier League football resumed, there was no Rovers.

Combine this with the fact it’s exactly a month since we last had a game at Ewood, and we are all really looking forward to tonight.

The Sunderland match is rarely a classic, and as the Mackems appear to be in a similar situation to us goals-wise, it doesn’t have the hallmarks of one tonight.

However, Rovers could be boosted by the return of Dunny, who is expected to play at least some part in the match.

We’ve missed Dunn’s goal threat this season and could do with him remaining injury free for the rest of the season.

Keith Andrews misses out again through injury, as does Grella – as you may have expected. While Ryan Nelsen is also a doubt.

Darren Bent, who has apparently scored 83 per cent of Sunderland’s goals this season, is injured – Hurrah.

If you’re daft enough to read anything into the league table at the moment, it doesn’t make pleasant reading. However, a win in this game can potentially see us rise nine places in the Premier League, to seventh.

A defeat, however, would leave us three points behind Bolton and two behind Blackpool and Stoke – sides we really do need to be keeping pace with, even at this early stage. Read more »

We’re an easy target, as the majority of British media will lap it up. “Danny Murphy joins long line of football ambassadors to slam Rovers tactics”. What a prick.

Firstly, I’ll deal with Murphy. As Lancashire Telegraph sports editor Paul Plunkett correctly points out on Twitter, Mark Hughes, Danny Murphy’s current manager at Fulham, had a far dirtier team at when he was in charge at Ewood than Big Sam. Murphy doesn’t seem to understand the difference between ‘dirty’ and ‘physical’.

Take a look at the Premier League Fair Play League, Rovers are currently eighth. Above Murphy’s Fulham. Granted, Murhpy’s other targets, Wolves and Stoke, occupy 16th and 20th, but why bring us into it? Read more »

Yesterday, he announced his desire to make his loan switch to Leeds United permanent.

That’s fair enough. He’s been a loyal reserve keeper for several years since his switch from Gillingham and it must be frustrating. I’ve said in the past we should let him, and Bunn, go, and promote Frankie Fielding to the number two position. He’ll just about be old enough and good enough to take over from Robbo when he calls time on his Rovers career.

But when he throws in:

“As good a club as Blackburn are, they don’t get crowds of 25,000, even for the visit of Manchester United, so it is a privilege to be at Leeds.”

That’s when we fall out.

If Brown judges the size and quality of a club by the number of fans it gets through the door, he’s a bit short sighted.

Yes, Leeds United get bigger crowds than Blackburn Rovers. The two key words are LEEDS and BLACKBURN.

I’ve had this debate many a time and I feel like a broken record sometimes, but Leeds is a city and Blackburn is a town.

Leeds has a population somewhere in the region of 750,000 people. Blackburn has about 120,000.

Need I say more?

The fact of the matter is, Jason Brown can’t get in the side at a small town Premier League club, so he’s dropping down a level to play at a big city Championship club. Accept it lad. Ta ta.

Since my last post, apart from a fantastic day out and win at Blackpool, things have been relatively bleak.

It’s nothing new, really. Sam has stuck with the same tactics that somehow got us to 10th last season. It’s not pretty, but it can be effective.

It can also be pretty rubbish.

We’ve developed the uncanny knack of not scoring goals. And when we do score them, we have developed another talent – allowing the opposition to come back and equalise, usually in the second half.

Negatives aside, it’s not all doom and gloom – we’ve got a trip to Anfield coming up, so there’s a guaranteed three points.

There are whisperings of discontent among the Rovers faithful at the current management of the side, but what’s new? Take a look back at last December, three defeats against the top sides in the league saw us stuck in the lower reaches of the Premier League. Talk began. Allardyce had “three games to save his job”. It was all bullshit.

At the end of the day, maybe we have just become slow starters. Read more »