The Rovers Return

The moment everyone had been waiting for came this morning, with the announcement of next season’s fixture list.

Here are some particularly juicy days to watch out for.

First game – August 14 – Everton at home

August 28 – Arsenal at home

September 25 – Blackpool away

October 23 – Liverpool away

October 30 – Chelsea at home

November 27 – Manchester United away

December 11 – Bolton Wanderers away

January 5 – Liverpool at home

January 15 – Chelsea at home

March 19 – Blackpool at home

April 2 – Arsenal away

April 30 – Bolton Wanderers at home

May 14 – Manchester United at home

Last game – May 22 – Wolverhampton Wanderers away

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Big Sam is busy plotting for the new season

The close season is always a strange time. It’s easy to get fed up with no football on a Saturday. Nothing to talk about and nothing to complain about.

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 »

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Shearer and Jack celebrate winning the title

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 »

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A nice view - FROM THE BBC

A positive end to the season for Rovers in several ways.

First off, what a great result. A win at a ground we have been beaten on in six of our previous seven visits and the scene of the end of both our cup runs this season.

Villa are now a top side with bags of money. They had Champions League ambitions for much of the season so we had to be good today. They may have knocked us out of both cups, but we have beaten them home and away in the Premier League, which is a great feather in our cap.

I t was also the first time we’ve ended the season with a win since beating Manchester City 2-0 at Ewood at the end of the 2005/06 season.

Secondly, we’re in the top 10. Again. Apart from last season, we’ve been a top 10 side in every Premier League season since 2004/05 – the season that Souness left and Mark Hughes took his place.

This is in spite of the fact that, every season, without fail, we are tipped for relegation. This is also in spite of the fact that we have a meagre budget. Read more »

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Head-to-head (not quite) - O'Neill and Big Sam

Our last chance to win outside 1974 Lancashire this season.

It’s also our last chance to win at Aston Villa this season, having been beaten there in both the FA Cup and that immense League Cup semi.

However, it does represent an opportunity to complete our third double of the season, having beaten Villa at Ewood in an impressive performance at the start of the season.

It’s also historically worth noting that, should we complete the double over Villa, it would be the first time since 1998/99 – when we were relegated – a season in which we managed to win only one away game. So, despite our poor away form, we all know anything can happen.

With Manchester United needing a win at home to Stoke to challenge for the title, Rovers still have a good chance of an almost unthinkable top-half finish.

At the end of October, when Rovers fans wanted Allardyce out after a month that saw three defeats – against Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd – who would have thought that, with one game to go, we had a pop at finishing 10th? Read more »

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Samba celebrates Rovers' winner

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 »

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"Where's my hairline going?" asked McCarthy

Hopefully, Rovers can use today to break the hoodoo and win outside Lancashire (I’m including Greater Manchester as part of Lancashire before anyone starts being sad) for the first time this season.

It definitely won’t be easy at Wolves, who have exceeded all expectations will definitely still be around next season.

Unfortunately, in my time watching Rovers, we have never had a win at Molineux – our last win there was in October 1990, when I was three – so today is a chance to break that hoodoo as well.

To be honest, to anyone without an interest in either side, this really is a nothing game. In fact, in many ways it’s a nothing ae for Wolves and Rovers now. Both of us have achieved safety and both managers have an eye on next season, with potential transfer deals probably already being negotiated.

However, as I’ve said on several occasions, each league place is worth £750,000, which as an amount not to be scoffed at, certainly not by a club as skint as Rovers, so it’s definitely a case of points win prizes, even when those prizes aren’t trophies.

The importance of that extra few bob gained extra significance this week, with Big Sam seemingly priced out of a move for Polish hot shot Robert Lewandowski after it became apparent Lech Poznan are hanging on for a fee of about £5m. Should Rovers sneak up a couple of places in the Premier League table, that may make the difference between signing someone decent and signing another Nick Blackman. Read more »

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Steven N'Zonzi is mobbed after scoring the equaliser

Today, we fought and lost.

As I said in my earlier pre-match posting, Everton are a very good team and they played well today.

However, Rovers created chances well, ending with 10 shots on target, despite chasing shadows for long periods, particularly in the first half.

I’m not going to talk about Everton’s goals individually. They were just three instances of sloppy defending.

It was very disappointing but we didn’t look nearly as solid as we have in recent weeks and definitely missed Chris Samba. Nelsen was done for the first and it was a penalty. Blatantly. We weren’t “playing 12 again” at all.

Having said that, Mikel Arteta should have been sent off after hitting out at Morten Gamst Pedersen after the Norwegian had fouled him. Unfortunately, the “young and inexperienced” ref, as Big Sam put it, seemed to miss the incident.

Poor defending aside, today we witnessed two glorious goals – something we don’t see much of at Ewood anymore.

Firstly, Steven N’Zonzi fired it into the corner from 30 yards to make it 1-1. Pushing for a winner we allowed the Toffees to come back and regain the lead.

Then Roberts, a second half sub in a bizarre incident that saw Big Sam introduce a second striker, instead of making a like for like sub, smashed another equaliser in from 25 yards.

Unbelievable. The sun was shining and the atmosphere in an excellent second half was becoming electric. Then all our hard work was undone in the dying moments when Cahill ended our four month unbeaten home run. Read more »

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David Moyes recently won the 'face most like a skull' competition

Are my eyes deceiving me, or does it still say 3pm next to the kick off time for today’s game?

The traditional kick off time for a football match has seemed a thing of the past this year. Indeed, the luxury of having one in our final home game against Arsenal has now been taken away for the ESPN cameras.

But enough of that, I’ve done enough ranting about kick off times. I’m already blue in the face.

A quick look back at Sunday as I haven’t had the chance yet.

Against United, it was at times a bit like a cross between the Alamo and Custer’s last stand. Although the Texians were a bit more successful in defeating the Mexicans at the Alamo, and the Indians slaughtered Custer and his gang.

Where those characters in history succeeded, United failed. And it wasn’t just down to Dimitar Berbatov’s lack of … well, anything really … as Rovers’ defence was absolutely impenetrable.

As the bloke who sits in front of me chanted, although few joined in, “Phil Jones is Superman”, as the Rovers fan from Chorley continued his excellent start to his Rovers career.

Jones is definitely the most exciting prospect since Duff and Dunn emerged in the late 90s/early Noughties, and it is lucky we have another centre back of that quality to provide cover for Nelsen and Samba. Speaking of Big Chris, he was solid as ever until an injury forced him off, making way for Captain Fantastic Ryan Nelsen who managed not to be overshadowed by Jones on his return, putting in a typically strong display. Read more »

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Roque Santa Cruz on the attack for Rovers against Man Utd.

Since the inception of the Premier League, there have been some massive games between Rovers and Manchester United, more from a Rovers point of view than United’s …

In the first three years of the league, we were genuine title rivals for the Reds. Particularly in the 1993/94 and, of course, 1994/95, we gave them a real run for their money.

The first meeting was on October 24, 1992. Having just won promotion, Rovers were surprising everyone with some excellent performances and results, and we held title hopefuls United on their first Premier League visit to Ewood Park. At one point during the following season, Rovers were lagging about 18 points behind future champions United in the Premier League table. However, as Alan Shearer scored twice in our 2-0 Ewood Park victory in April, Rovers had narrowed the gap and were real title contenders. It wasn’t to be, however, as United went on to lift the title for the second time.

In 1994/95, a season every Rovers fan will look back on very fondly, United did their first Premier League double over Rovers. But both games were filled with controversy.

In United’s visit to Ewood, United were twice stunned as first Paul Warhurst and then Colin Hendry equalised for Rovers, but United went on to win 4-2. The game is best remembered, though, for the dodgy penalty given to United after Henning Berg was judged to have brought down Lee Sharpe (I think) in the box, when he actually got the ball. The Norwegian was sent off and Cantona tucked away the penalty. Read more »

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