The Rovers Return

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Michel Salgado takes on Everton's Fellaini.

Things aren’t looking good as Rovers slipped to a heavy defeat at Goodison Park, with Everton not really having to get in to top gear.

Louis Saha seems to like scoring against us, and he did so twice today to leave Rovers third from bottom with four points from a possible 15.

As has happened in every game we haven’t won this season, we had chances to score. In fact, Diouf missed chances to put us 1-0 up just before the Toffees took the lead, while he went on to miss a second chance which could have levelled scores at 1-1.
According to Sky Sports, Michel Salgado was run ragged by Stephen Pienaar and found himself substituted in the second half.

All the pre-season optimism has now faded and if Sam doesn’t sort things out soon, we could be in for another struggle.

What makes the defeat worse is El-Hadji Diouf has landed himself in hot water with the police after allegations of ‘racial abuse’ by a ball-boy. He is a good player but he can be a liability, and with the side struggling we need to avoid this negative publicity. Read more »

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The line-ups are in for today’s game at Goodison Park. Ironically, after all that guff about Lars Jacobsen against his former side, the right back has been inexplicably dropped… *UPDATE* I’ve just discovered Jacobsen’s missus had a baby this morning.

Roberts remains up front on his own, with three attackers – Kalinic, McCarthy and Hoillett – stuck on the bench.

There’s no place in David Moyes’ squad for ex-Rovers defender Lucas Neill.

Rovers

Robinson, Salgado, Samba, Givet, Chimbonda, Andrews, Grella, Diouf, Dunn, Pedersen, Roberts. Subs: Brown, Nelsen, Emerton, McCarthy, Nzonzi, Kalinic, Hoilett.

Everton

Howard, Heitinga, Yobo, Distin, Baines, Osman, Rodwell, Cahill, Pienaar, Fellaini, Saha. Subs: Nash, Hibbert, Jo, Gosling, Yakubu, Agard, Wallace.

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Benni McCarthy could return.

Rovers travel to Everton needing an away win against a side that has struggled so far this season.

Only one win on the board for the Toffees means David Moyes’ side will be going all out for victory against a Rovers team that is seen to be struggling, purely based on results, and not performances.

This could give us a bit of an advantage. A home game against us is ideal for Everton. A game they really should win, is what they will be saying, but we could give them a surprise.

The omens are alright for Rovers. Even Paul Ince managed a win at Goodison, a 3-2 victory on the opening day last season, capped by a last minute winner from Andre Ooijer. We want a defender’s influence today, and if Lars Jacobsen can continue his superb start to life at Rovers, then a goal against the club that let us have him would be the cherry on the cake!

I’m not sure when the last time I was able to say this was, but Rovers are at full strength! Unbelieveable. With Benni and N’Zonzi back from injury, Big Sam has a full strength squad to choose from. It will be interesting to see if he sticks with one up front…

Sam’s recently come out and said that he wants to ditch the scrappy long ball style that teams under his management become accustomed to, I wait to see if that’s true, but we do have the players capable of playing attractive football.

Looking at Everton and Phil Neville’s missing, while Lucas ‘One Greedy Bastard’ Neill is unlikely to figure. Good. Read more »

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Share your Rovers supporting stories

Rovers fans are invited to come along to The Fernhurst on Bolton Road this Wednesday evening from 7 p.m. until 10ish (16th Sept 2009).

Apart from it being an opportunity to meet fellow Rovers fans we are organising the event to hear the stories and memories of Rovers fans and ideally persuade some of you to be filmed! We are starting up a website that is to be a ‘social archive’ of supporters memories and stories.

Any adult Rovers fan is welcome, old or young, male or female. The only requirement is that you are a supporter! We’d love to hear your stories be they funny, interesting, insightful or just plain ordinary.

If you want more information, call or email Stuart on 07879 444204 or stuart.glendinning@trusupporter.com.

It’s fine to turn up on the evening but if you are pretty sure you can make it, let the organisers know in advance. Please bring any old momentos such as old scrap books and those of you that wish to be filmed might want to wear some Blackburn Rovers clothing. This is an opportunity to capture some memories and stories that might otherwise be lost. We believe that many Rovers fans will want to hear about the experiences of other supporters.

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Diouf scores Rovers first.

Yes, I’m aware I may have been pipped to the post in terms of speed of my write-up, but I have better things to drink…

Finally a win for the boys that should settle a lot of nerves. Three goals also gets us off the mark at Ewood and an efficient display from the much better side on the day.

The one up front tactic employed by Big Sam paid off in this one, as David Dunn, who Allardyce has since labelled as his ‘Steven Gerrard’ supported Roberts well up front and was rewarded with a goal and the man of the match award.

The whole team looked solid, which is a good sign considering this is not us at full strength, and with our £6-million signing sat on the bench for the whole game, it can only get better, surely?

Wolves looked terrible. I’m aware they had a few players missing for various reasons, but if Wolves are to stay up they need to improve significantly as they looked very poor on Saturday.

Our defence is looking very solid right now. With Samba and Givet at centre back, new-boy Chimbonda on the left and Lars Jacobsen on the right, we appear very tough to break down, and Chimbonda and Jacobsen both have no problems going forward. Stephen Warnock? Who? Read more »

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David Thompson scores from 25-yards in the opening day 5-1 thrashing of Wolves in the 2003/04 season.

Just a quick ‘un as I’m soon off to the pub for some pre-match refreshments.

Wolves at home is a game we must be looking to win. And I’m confident we can turn them over.

With Nelsen, Diouf, Di Santo, Emerton and Reid all back in contention Big Sam can actually have a choice about which team he wants to play.

And hopefully Nikola Kalinic is now ready to start playing regularly.

A lot of people don’t rate Diouf but I think it’s clear we’ve missed him in midfield. Without him we’ve looked a bit weakened. And with Emerton and Reid back from injuries we have some more competition for places in the starting line-up. Read more »

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Granted, winning the Premier League is highly unlikely, but with Sky Sports new The 92 campaign, fans of clubs throughout the country can show their passion and take their team to the top.

All you have to do is register at www.the92.co.uk and submit your best fan photos and comments to the website.

Fans who send in the best content will win points for their club, and who knows, could end up winning the league.

That means Rovers fans can taste some glory this season, by signing up at www.the92.co.uk

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Most of the Bolton fans

Not content with being the least popular Premiership club in Greater Manchester, Bolton are now trying to poach fans from Blackburn!

Of course, it’s not a ploy to take away our existing supporters. I’d be very surprised if anyone would leave Rovers to start watching the Wanky Wanderers.

Apparently the idea is to reward ‘community champions’ with free tickets to watch Premiership football at the Reebok.

Funny that a club like Bolton have to start bribing people from other towns to go and watch their side for free…

Rovers fan and Blackburn MP, as well as resident Muslim upsetter, Jack Straw says it’s a good idea, and I suppose I agree.

“I think we need the Football Association to investigate!

“This smacks of desperation and shows a curious naivety.

“Most Rovers fans would be hard pressed to go to the Reebok as a supporter even if they were paid money.

“The next thing will be Burnley trying that trick!

“In all seriousness, it’s a good community initiative.”

I wonder if there’ll be any tickets going for the Bolton v Rovers match…

PS – Can you tell it’s a slow week…?

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Atletico Madrid

An interesting Rovers fact you may or may not know. Indeed I did not know this one myself until recently.

Both Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid once played in blue and white halved kits. This was because both clubs used to buy their kits from Blackburn Rovers.

Back in those days, England were the pioneers of qualtity football, and surprisingly enough Rovers were up there with the great entertainers of the sport in that period, often wowing the crowds during tours of eastern Europe.

However, in 1911, no Blackburn Rovers kits could be bought, for some reason or another, so Sunderland kits were bought. From this point on Bilbao kept the colours of Sunderland.

Madrid on the other hand stuck with the Rovers shorts, thus explaining their unusual red and white striped shirts coupled with blue shorts!

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