You want positive?

Here you go then. For me, maybe not everyone, that was the best football I've seen Rovers play in a long time. Urgent, quick, width and something that's been missing for a while; effort I think they call it.

An error by Spurr 4 minutes in, but he made up for it for the rest of the game and was unlucky his free kick hit Delfouneso, (who I don’t think was offside anyway – come to think, it might have been Koita). Credit to Boywer for the starting 11 and the shape. Cardiff hardly threatened. The back 4, whilst nothing amazing, worked OK together and Spurr and Henley provided the much needed cover for the wingers Marshall and Conway to push forward. The central midfield got in with those last ditch tackles in the middle which have been absent for so long. Lowe looked fine and Hanley, fairly competent. We have decent pace and strength in Koita, and Barrow looked OK when he replaced him. Lowe was better in the middle than right back when he had to shift to make way for Guthrie. Took Guthr

Thanks for that, Dan. A completely different view of the game from that given by most of the posters on the LET site.
Would you say we should rest Marshall in favour of Barrow for the time being?
Who looked better - Koita or Delfouneso?
On the limited evidence so far, would you put Akpan in front of Guthrie in the pecking-order?

I'll have a look what others are saying Aucks. Sure there loads of whinging, there was an outbreak of "Bowyer sort it out" during a period of effort filled attacks, that didn't go anywhere, but there were no players hiding from the game or formation issues at the time. So I'll be buggered if I can work out what he was supposed to 'sort out.'


Based on tonight, but it was a debut, Akpan ahead of Gutherie.
We need Marshall, so no.
Koita oand Delfouneso are different, but both have bags of energy, (probably a limited bag in Koitia's case). Delfouneso intercepts, moves it on quickly and then moves onhimself. Koitia just gets it and runs as far as he can with it trying to out muscle the opposition, (he got further tonight with it than I expected). I fancy him to come good and bag a respectible amount of goals. But we'll see, he might flatter to deceive. Early days 'n all that.

Heres my two pennoth .
First half poor , their goal was a calamity of errors , mainly Raya`s fault for poor kicking and distribution . Kote was poor and showed what I thought he had , very little . 2nd half was much better , but still much ado about nowt . The team looked better once Lowe was at RB . Akpan did OK , Barrow was lively , Duffy and Hanley don`t work together , Conway was off form but worked his socks off , dont start getting on Rayas back it will ruin him . Long hard season ahead , but its not all doom and gloom .

My positive slant needle was more based on ideas of football and the effort I saw. In all honesty I could have slated them for not winning 4-1. Cardiff were poor and there for the taking. But I just don't expect Rover to take teams that are there for the taking these days. Hopefully something can be slapped together that makes that happen again. Play with that effort and the more positive attitude of tonight and there's something to be built on. I hope.

Bloody hell needle :O
I left Ewood disappointed we didn't win at a canter
we as Dan stipulated were a constant threat and the pace and power we had going forward worried Cardiff who looked shaky to say the least
raya top keeper yes was partly to fault for the goal however would Steele or Eastwood go through the season without making a fault?no
our centre backs did better but I still don't think they are our first choice and we will see many an error from them.
akpan is a signing Gary and his team need a firm pat on the back for a good midfielder who does the dirty work and goes forward with it
problem Gary has does he keep Marshall at right mid or put barrow there?
Barrow is a player and teams hate pace when he come on I felt we could of won 3 or 4-1 as I said I left dissapointed we didn't win not that we saved a draw.

Needle, you would be much happier posting alongside the footballing 'expert' mongs on brfcc.. Yer mate bluebruce has settled in well on there these days..

Agreed a better performance,,,,,,,Spurr gives us that with his throw-ins,looks like Fode-Koita is the new Josh King(lets hope hes a bit more consistent than King!)

I think Raya gets the nod above Steele(the best all-rounder)& Eastwood(the best shot-stopper but a tad inconsistent)because he is definitely the best at commanding his area(aka Paul Robinson).Which if Bowyer wants to play Hanley & Duffy as a pairing,is more than a bit necessary.

I just wonder if we couldnt be a bit more imaginative in trying to score by bringing either Kilgallon or Lenihan on(if on the bench)and pushing either Duffy or Hanley or Lenihan forward.This for the last few minutes..injuries and sending-off allowing...sort of a modern day Chris Samba approach>;)

It doesn't need to be positive, it just needs to have balance. Nothing from this season thus far is all negative. Reading the comments so far, you'd have thought we where the team coming down from the Prem, thinking we'd be going back up. Actually believing the hype about the manager who isn't a tactical genius after all. We are distinctly average, but it could be a lot worse. We could be both crap, and deluded.

I didn't go to last nights game, so unable to provide any comments. But it appeared to be a decent enough point. It's symbolic of the start to the season. Not bad, not brilliant. In the league, the only important thing for us, not the league cup, which is side stepped by championship clubs due to our long and unforgiving fixture list (with a small playing squad) we have lost one game, to the most obvious handball you will ever see, in a game we didn't deserve to lose. How on earth people only see crap, crap and more crap from that is beyond me. But that's the way it is.

Champs, the latest grips on here have been about things not being positive, because some people get annoyed at seeing a messy pile of lazy disorganised cr@p. Last night was much less so and football that Rovers haven't attempted since Hughes was managing. This is viewed by some as good. So you turn on that an moan and yet again focus only results. I'd have clapped them off if they had lost last night. A draw wasn't a fair result, but it was what it was. In the game against Wolves, yes unlucky not to get a point due to a blatant handball, but that doesn't mean the football on off that day wasn't awful. As for balance, no thanks, I work with information which must be balanced day in day out. This is football, it's a place for passion, not balance.