The Rovers Return

4,000 Holes issue 80

A Happy New Year to all Rovers fans.

I’ve been busy of late on other projects, most notably the Rovers fanzine, 4,000 Holes, which I began designing at the start of this season.

If you haven’t seen or heard of it, 4,000 Holes has been around since 1989 and is now at its 80th issue – with the current issue and the last one having been done by yours truly.

Yes this is a shameless plug, and yes, I’m going to try to sell you one – you can pick one up online here or by finding one of our sellers near the Aqueduct or near the entrance to the ground, near McDonalds.

Despite not blogging, I have been watching on as our club is taken apart, bit by bit, by Venky’s, the Indian chicken cowboys.

They came in saying all the right things. We’ll let the board and manager run the club, give them time, while promoting the club as a brand in India before hopefully expanding our brand to the European market. That’s fine. Give and take.

We get a bit of transfer money. They get a lot of exposure for their company. Win-win. Yes?

Not quite. Within a month they’ve forced our reluctant chairman John Williams into sacking his ally, Sam Allardyce, totally without reason. Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

It does have its upsides, and I’m not just talking about the lack of cretins such as Gary Lineker, Lee Dixon et al spouting bullshit every Saturday night.

It is a time of excitement, a time of transfer talk, a time of forward planning.

Rumours come, rumours go. Will Guti sign? Who knows. Will Grella go? Who knows. Who will partner Niko next season? Who knows.

Who’s coming to Fleetwood on July 17? Who knows. Huddersfield away anyone?

There’s also the prospect of renewed rivalries. Blackpool are back in the top flight. It’s truly unbelievable to think that the Seasiders are up.

Everyone was surprised when Burnley found themselves in the Premier League last season. But Blackpool? Who do they think they are?

Congratulations all round to the Tangerines, and we look forward to planning our weekend’s excursion to the seaside. Whether we can get one of the 27 tickets available for the 350-seater stadium only time will tell, but whether that happens or not, there will definitely be a weekend at sea. Read more »

A rumour that I did not expect started today.

Sky Sports reports that Rovers’ manager Big Sam is on the West Ham board’s shortlist of replacements for Gianfranco Zola, along with Avram Grant, Dave Jones and Ian Holloway.

I, personally, can’t see Sam going down there. His wife is a proper Boltonian and a move away from the area would not appeal to her.

He’s got a good thing going at Ewood. A well run club with a top notch chairman. He’s made the team his own since he took charge and developed a good team spirit.

He’s also pretty popular with the majority of fans now.

With that in mind, why would he consider a move to a club in financial turmoil with a pair of idiots at the helm? Read more »

Now that I’ve finally stopped foaming at the mouth, I can finally put my dismay at Paul Robinson’s World Cup exclusion into words.

Fabio Capello has said, on numerous occasions, that he will make his selections for the English national team based on form.

Is that right, Mr Capello?

Let’s look at the form books then shall we.

Paul Robinson has been extremely safe for Rovers this season, pulling off numerous quality saves and has been a crucial part of a solid defensive back-line.

He has also kept 13 clean sheets. That’s more than any other English goalkeeper in the Premier League.

I’m not saying he’s perfect, and some argue he is prone to mistakes when playing for England.

Yes, he cocked up once against Russia, but he made 41 appearances for his country, and you don’t get that many through making mistakes.

In the 2006 World Cup, he kept four clean sheets, so don’t try telling me he’s not good enough.

He also plays for a team that finished 10th in the Premier League. Not one that finished bottom of the league – and would have still been bottom had they not been deducted points, don’t give me any of that romantic Pompey bollocks, they weren’t good enough whether they were skint or not – or five points clear of the relegation zone.

I’m not arguing with the inclusion of Joe Hart. He’s proved himself to be a good goalkeeper this year and could represent the future of England goalkeeping. Read more »

May 14, 1995. Where were you?

I’ll tell you where I was.

As an eight-year-old lad, just making my first forays into becoming a Rovers fan, I was sat on my Dad’s settee in Oswaldtwistle.

There, with my Dad, I was watching Rovers take on Liverpool at Anfield in the final game of the Premier League season – the third season in the league’s history.

Rovers, at that point, were two points clear of Manchester United at the top of the league. United, champions for two seasons running, were playing West Ham United at Upton Park, knowing only a win would suffice.

Throughout a frantic hour-and-a-half, my Dad was up and down, constantly flicking between the two channels to monitor the situation at both grounds. This was in the days of Sky before remote controls, so he probably got a fair bit of exercise.

Rovers took the lead through Alan Shearer. Stuart Ripley tearing down the right and playing it along the ground towards the centre spot, where Shearer slotted the ball through John Scales’s legs to put us ahead. Read more »

With Sam Allardyce as our manager, we will never be loved.

What some brand as ‘anti-football’, ‘hoofball’ or ‘thuggery’, Big Sam brands a legitimate tactic – and it’s a tactic that works.

Yesterday was yet another example of why it works.

Rovers have no money, Arsenal have lots. We have a decent Premier League team. Arsenal have a world class team. Who won? The underdogs.

Why did the underdogs win? Because we played to our strengths and attacked the few Arsenal weaknesses that do exist.

If Sam told Dunny, Keith Andrews and MGP to pass the ball fluidly and play Arsenal off the park. “Go on lads, use your flair,” we would lose … Heavily.

That’s why our tactics are more rugged and physical.

Arsenal are a team of young European pansies with a crap Polish goalkeeper. And our tactics reflected that. Be more physical, hard in the tackles. Play it long into the box and put the keeper under pressure and you give yourself a chance. Luckily, for once, we took our chances.

Arsene Whinger hates Rovers. He has done since the days of Mark Hughes, when Rovers first established themselves as a “bully boy” team.

The mere fact we are revered is a proven fact that we are feared. No one complains about Wigan’s awful brand of football, because they know Wigan are not very good and, if you put in a decent performance against them, you’ll come away with a result. Read more »