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.

Looking at the games to come, and putting form to one side, we’ve got a host of winnable games this side of New Year.

Sunderland, Wigan, Wolves, West Ham and Stoke all have to visit Ewood, while we travel to places where we should be able to pick up points – Newcastle, Bolton and West Brom, to name three.

Moving on to individual performances – most impressive has been El Hadji Diouf.

I’ve always thought Diouf was a handy player. He absolutely loves playing and can be a real handful for defenders. He’s also great at winding up opposition players, and fans. His temperament, as we all know, is annoying. In fact, he’s just stupid. And if I’d had my way he’d have had all his bones broken after taking that dive at Ewood to give Bolton the winning penalty a few years ago.

But now, with my blue and white shades well and truly on, Diouf has been arguably our best player this year – he certainly has if you eliminate the defence before choosing.

Looking back, and Phil Jones has continued to impress. He’s been pushed forward into a more forward role, but I think, if he isn’t to be used in the centre of defence where he was solid as a rock last season, he ma be better used pushed further forward into a more attacking role.

Chris Samba has probably been the best player of the season, simply continuing the outstanding form he has carried throughout his entire Rovers career, and Paul Robinson has been faultless between the sticks.

Disappointment comes in the form of Vince Grella who, having returned from injury has proved shocking on the pitch, and the new Diouf, Mame Biram. Despite starting impressively, he has become something of a passenger, although he has played much of the time out of position.

What is beyond doubt right now is our need for a bit of creativity in midfield. We need David Dunn.

Apologies for the absence recently. I hope to get back to normal service now I’ve broken the duck!

To a man, everybody at Ewood Park can take some credit for today’s vital win over Wigan.

In defence, Paul Robinson was unbeatable. An absolute wall in the Rovers goal. I saw some stupid article, probably written by some twat from America who’s never actually witnessed a real football match, which ranked Robbo as the third worst signing this season, he has surely answered any critics today, and with the England goalkeeping situation as it is he’s surely worth a chance, isn’t he? Very unlucky not to get Sky Sports’ man of the match in my opinion, although McCarthy did play well!

The rest of the defence was very solid. Givet and Nelsen never lost anything, Ooijer and Warnock at full back as reliable as ever. Special mention must go to Nelsen for scoring the best goal I have ever seen… What a time to score your first goal for the club!

We won the midfield battle. Diouf was exceptional down the right. I was dubious about the Senegalese midfielder when we initially signed him, but he really has shown his qualities and looks extremely dangerous every time he gets the ball. Pedersen looked about as good as I’ve seen him in a year while Tugay’s passing and Dunn’s energy kept us on top.

Samba was as solid as ever, despite not scoring he was involved in both goals, blocking Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland to provide McCarthy and Nelsen with perfect scoring opportunity’s. McCarthy scored the opener and set up the second. His cross was an absolute peach, keeping reasonably low and maintaining zip it was just begging for slight nod, and that’s exactly what the Admiral did. Who better to score the winner than the captain?

However, and this is where my headline comes in, the fans really answered Big Sam and Ryan Nelsen’s rallying cries. Turning up in numbers and singing their hearts out for 90 minutes. I’m gutted I wasn’t one of those 25,000-odd fans who really did their part in a fantastic day. It’s really good to see a club initiative pay off like this, going to show we really do have a board that has the fans’ interests at heart!

As I write I’ve just seen the league table on MOTD 2 and would like to point out IT IS WRONG. The league table shown had not been updated since last night and we are now 15th, on 37 points, six points clear of Boro in 18th and seven clear of Alan Shearer’s Newcastle, who take on Portsmouth tomorrow in an absolutely vital clash which could all but seal their fate!

Today was fantastic. When we play like that we show we really are capable of a much higher league position and, pretty confident of survival, I am beginning to look forward to next season.

- Nice to see Diouf get his first goal for the club. He’s done well since signing and this will only serve to boost his confidence. He looks really fired up, you can see that from his reaction to winning games, so I’m pleased for the lad.

- Jason Roberts yet again proving he’s a good player for us. Possibly the most important goal he’ll ever score.

- Paul Robinson keeps on proving himself as a top notch keeper. He made a great save from Nevland with the last kick of the game and must surely be due an England call-up soon!

- We didn’t deserve to win. Fulham probably had enough chances to bury us, but who cares? We dug deep and got the result we needed. It’s resolve like this that could see us stay up.

- 15th in the league feels a lot safer. Now we’ve got Newcastle, Stoke and Portsmouth move below us in the table, which is wonderful!

- I’d like to wish Roy Hodgson all the best. He’s doing a good job at Fulham and I like the man. He took us into Europe in his first season in charge and the 1997/98 season was one of the most memorable seasons we’ve had.

Bolton at home: Conclusions

- Something seems to be wrong with Big Sam’s pre-match team talks. We were shite here, absolutely diabolical, and we weren’t much better against Newcastle in the first half. He seems to do something right at half time though!

- Kevin Davies, I’d love to rip his face off. Fat waste of money. As soon as he scored I was straight down for a pint!

- In the second half we were superb. If we were to play like that for the whole game we’d have walked it. Unfortunately we didn’t.

- Is Benni allergic to Jussi Jaaskelainen? This isn’t the first time the Finn has saved his penalty! It was a shite penalty though…

- Good to see Warnock on the scoresheet. The cheeky Scouser is a good player and a likeable character to have in the team, I’m not sure if he meant to fire it into the net but he did!

- Benni made up for his miss by banging in the equaliser. The South African really is in form again and it’s great to see him recapturing the sort of form that made him such a sought after player after his first season!

- In the second half Big Sam brought on Tugay and Roque. They made the difference. Tugay was able to open play up and spread the ball when given the opportunity and Roque was a constant thorn in the Bolton defence’s side. He also got a better reception this time!

- Seeing a last minute shot come back off the post was agonising, this game was about as important as they come and could have given us a real gap between the bottom three, at least we avoided defeat though!

Boro away: Another missed opportunity

Another game we should have won. A Pedersen miss and a great Fulop save kept Boro in the game in this relegation scrap. We really should have won and, with Stoke’s win over City putting us in the bottom three, things are looking a bit dicey.

The other bad news to come out of this was the injury to Brett Emerton. He will be out for nine months and that is a huge blow for us, and indeed his national team!

Our little purple patch of league games has now ended and we have finished with only two wins and five draws. An inability to turn these draws into wins could prove our downfall when we look back on this season!

Especially when you consider the games we have ahead: Villa (H), United (A), Hull (A), Everton (H), Fulham (A) and Arsenal (A). How many points can we realistically expect from those games?

Transfer round-up

A boring transfer window really. Citeh never blew anyone out of the window, despite the daft Kaka saga! That included us, with the speculated £25-million transfer fee being too much for Hughesy to stretch to.

We let Jamie Clarke go to Rotherham, a youngster who never seemed as though he was going to make it and also allowed Alan Judge to join Paul Gallagher on loan at Plymouth while Rostyn Griffiths got a great deal for himself with a loan move to Australian side Adelaide United! Lucky for some!

The only incoming transfer towards the end of the window was Sunderland’s El-Hadji Diouf. An interesting signing to say the least.

The attacking midfielder has played under Allardyce before at Bolton and there is no doubting the lad has talent, albeit he didn’t show it at Sunderland, it’s just we all know what else he is capable of.

My main memory of the player is seeing him take a dive in front of the Blackburn End against Bolton, the resulting penalty saw Bolton score and win the game 1-0. An annoying memory to say the least!

Having said that if he comes on and bangs in a hattrick against Villa I’ll be a happy man! (Provided Villa don’t score four!) It was also very insightful of Allardyce considering Brett Emerton’s injury two days later!

Sunderland again

What can I say? We’re playing Sunderland. It’s not unusual. Having seen Burnley win I would like to see us progress though!

With Emerton out it will be interesting to see what Big Sam’s team looks like as Diouf is cup-tied.

Come on you Blues!