The Rovers Return

Well, we’ve done it. Rovers made it as difficult as they possibly could in the end but we’ve finished with a superb away win and safety well and truly secured.

The three points made no odds in the end, but it was nice to finish in style.

I’m glad I’m not a Wolves fan. Doomed to zero points from the moment Michel Salgado’s drive went in off Jason Roberts, their side spent the afternoon bouncing up and down in and out of the relegation zone, before a Spurs winner against Birmingham sent the fans into raptures and confirmed Wolves’ status as a Premier League side.

Rovers’ status was never in doubt after that early strike, which was followed by a stunning volley from Emerton and a sublime goal from Junior Hoilett.

Steve Kean is probably right about one thing; that was probably the best 45 minutes of football Rovers have played this season. Although it has to be said that Wolves were shocking.

The second half saw Wolves come back into the game after McCarthy threw on another striker. It could have been a lot easier had Roberts managed to beat the keeper when one on one, but his miss was followed by a resurgence from the home side.

Knowing they’d done enough later on they sat back and allowed Rovers to pass the game through to the final whistle, a la the closing stages of the United game last Saturday.

After the final whistle, the Wolves fans engaged in a pitch invasion, which resulted in a mass sing-song for the whole stadium, Wolves and Rovers fans, of We Are Staying Up. The Wolves fans, to their credit,  then, having returned to their seats for their team’s lap of honour, applauded the Rovers players who came over to thank the travelling fans – a gesture appreciated by the away section.

It’s been a very tough season for Rovers fans to bear, but now we can finally rest easy knowing we have top flight football to look forward to.

Now is a time to forget about the season just passed, and concentrate on the future. Now is the time for Venky’s to show us exactly what their plans are … And if they actually have any money.

There’s no point getting on the backs of anyone now. Steve Kean is here to stay. Venky’s are here to stay. Now they can build a side in their image that could take this club on in the future.

Fingers crossed, they’ll throw in a few million and build on what is a decent side. Kean will continue to gain experience and tactical nous, and maybe they’ll even consider bringing in a director of football to lend a guiding hand to the manager, and perhaps to give him a lift to the training ground …

At least maybe now someone will finally tell us how much a season ticket is going to cost for next year!

All Rovers fans who managed to get a ticket to Wolves on Sunday could witness Rovers last ever game of Premier League football.

That is the reality the club faces.

The other reality is that we are in the best position possible of all the clubs facing a nervous day on Survival Sunday.

With Birmingham, Blackpool and Wigan all trailing us by a point and needing to make up a deficit of six, seven and eight goals respectively, they all need to win big and hope we lose big at Wolves, who are also in the faecal matter.

Another plus is that Birmingham travel to Spurs, who are almost unbeatable at home if you’re not a top club, Blackpool face the champions Manchester United who, despite probably fielding a weakened side with the Champions League final on the horizon, are yet to lose at home this season and will not want that to change here, while Wigan visit Stoke who are always good at home.

For us to go down, we have to lose, and two of those three teams have to win. Surely even Rovers can’t be that unlucky?

Anyway, the best thing for all Rovers fans on Sunday would be to forget about all other sides down there and for us to win.

The fans should be in good voice as usual. Rovers support has been phenomenal on the road recently. Selling out constantly and being vocally brilliant. And it was great to see the club reflect this with the fantastic offer to pay £13 of every adult season ticket (and similar subsidies for all concessions), which, with tickets selling out once again, means they will actually have to fork out about £35,000.

With all the negativity surrounding the club this season, this was one shining light that really gives me hope that the fans may still be looked after.

Wolves will be far from easy. They can be very good. Especially at Molineux. But they are a funny side that can not turn up on the day. However, if Rovers are really up for it they should be good enough to beat them.

And if they aren’t up for what is once again the most important game of the season, then they really shouldn’t be playing Premier League football.

Saturday’s game against United was both brilliant and frustrating all at the same time.

An outstanding performance from Rovers all round with Samba and Jones proving colossal at the back, Jermaine Jones showing us he really is a quality midfielder (sign him up if possible) and dominating a nervous-looking United side for large periods of the game.

Before kick off I didn’t expect anything. I find it’s the best way to approach games like this to avoid disappointment. Keep expectations low and you cannot be upset by the outcome.

Then we started the way we did and went ahead after 20 minutes.

What followed was another West Ham. Seventy minutes of destroying finger nails.

Unfortunately, the inevitable happened and Manchester United were awarded a penalty.

A draw was the result both sides would have settled for before the game. But with Blackpool and Wolves winning, Rovers really needed the three points in the end.

The final 10 minutes, bizarre as they were, I can understand. I can see both sides of the argument and understand why some fans are outraged. But I can also see the side of the argument that says the point gained means Blackpool MUST win at Old Trafford/Birmingham MUST win at Spurs/Wigan MUST win at Stoke. Whereas had we gone on the attack and lost, a point for any of those sides could potentially take them above us (if we lose at Molineux).

What frustrated me most about the game was referee Phil Dowd. Now I don’t like to blame referees and get into the idea that referees cost games, but there was pure inconsistency on show from the man officiating this crucial fixture.

In the first 20 minutes, Jermaine Jones (I think) was booked for pulling Rooney’s shirt on the half way line. It was a first offence (again, I think). We went on to pick up more bookings.

Meanwhile, Nemanja Vidic committed at least two fouls and received nothing. I’m not saying they were necessarily bookings, but Phil Dowd set the bar by booking Jones for shirt-pulling, yet didn’t follow that decision up by being as strict with the United players.

My main gripe, however, is, as you may have assumed, the penalty. Now, I still haven’t seen any replays. I just have what I saw from my seat in the Blackburn End. Which is nothing.

I’m not disputing whether according to the rules it was a penalty or not.

What I am disputing is the fact that when Hernandez goes down, the referee doesn’t know if it’s a penalty. The linesman doesn’t flag, so he clearly doesn’t know it’s a penalty. However, having gone to the linesman and been surrounded by half of United’s squad, he awards the penalty.

How can this decision have been reached? How can the linesman, having not raised his flag, and the referee, having not blown for a foul, award a penalty using hindsight?

I sincerely hope the loss of two points in this game does not cost us our Premier League future. Mind you, I doubt Phil Dowd will lose any sleep.

LIVERPOOL

Before Wednesday night, of Steve Kean’s four matches in charge I had been at three, and not one had filled me with confidence. Then, something weird happened.

Tonight, against what has to be said was the worst Liverpool side I have ever seen, Rovers pulled a massive rabbit out of the hat.

Of late, I’ve not been particularly looking forward to going to matches, and have not felt particularly confident ahead of them. This was no different.

You’ll understand my great surprise then when a perfect pass from Mame Diouf released Martin Olsson who slotted the ball through Reina’s legs and sent Rovers into raptures.

Six minutes later, and it was even more unbelievable when Benjani beat Kyriagos and smashed the ball home to make it 2-0.

More of the same in the second half as excellent work by Hoilett saw him beat two defenders before playing the ball across to Benjani who tucked it away from close range. 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 »

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 »

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 »

Quite how Rovers lost at Birmingham on Saturday will forever remain a mystery.

We were the better side for much of the game. We created chance after chance and were awarded a penalty.

But some shite finishing, a penalty save and some slack defending at key moments saw us lose what appeared a very winnable game.

Pedersen will be as annoyed as anyone about the penalty. Yes, it was a good save, and Ben Foster has gone on to laud it over the rest of the goalkeeping world, but it was the perfect height for him and he was a tad lucky it came out off the bar.

It was still 0-0 at that point, though, and we went on to take the lead moments later with what is fast becoming a typical Rovers goal. Stick a load of the big boys up top for a corner and aim high. Steven N’Zonzi rose highest to give us the lead.

What followed was disgraceful. Birmingham’s equaliser came from a free kick. There were three touches and it was in the net. Somehow, we were outnumbered at the back, when it was a free kick … Read more »

Apparently Coral are offering 10-3 on ex-Rover Matt Derbyshire scoring in a Birmingham win tomorrow.

I’ll give you one thing I wouldn’t accept bets on, and that’s if Birmingham were to score tomorrow, the Great Harwood lad will be the one who does it.

So that said, I’m hoping for a clean sheet.

I was disappointed when Big Sam got rid of Derbs. There was obviously something there that Allardyce just wasn’t a fan of.

He always looked handy in front of goal and could be relied on to come off the bench and grab a goal if we were struggling to find the net.

It’s ironic that, having allowed this homegrown talent to go to Greece, we ended up in a situation where we had a severe striker shortage and inability to score goals. Read more »