BRFCS.COM: BRFCS.COM -> 30th August 2008 - Away To West Ham

The Roving Eye.......

30th August 2008 - Away to West Ham - Premier League

Well we were really brought down to earth with this result, I didn't want to make a kneejerk reaction so I've waited a while to give my comments on the game.

All in all we were unlucky to lose the game, let alone 4-1.

I was a little surprised to see Grella thrown into the starting lineup, firstly because Mokoena had done quite well so far and secondly because he had barely met the players yet, let alone trained with them.

Grella was booked after about 5 minutes after a poor challenge, he went on to do okay for the rest of the first half before he was subbed, possibly tactical, possibly to stop him getting sent off.

Anyway onto the game, West Ham took the lead after Davenport scored with a header. The majority of fans and pundits put this down to another error from Robinson, now it wasn't the finest pieces of goalkeeping but to me it looked like Samba was marking him and then Nelson joined in, none of them got anywhere near Davenport who then headed past a slightly out of position Robinson. It's hard to know who's mistake it was, did Robinson call for it? If he did then he does have to take a lot of the blame, from what I saw and heard though it didn't look like a call, the defenders have to go for it if they don't get a call. At the end of the day it was an error by someone.

West Ham scored again thanks to Samba slicing it in, was Ashton interfering with play being that close to him? Could have been offside, but probaly not, a poor goal to concede anyway. We got back into it though through Roberts who turned his defender well and finished well with the outside of his boot again after the ball was headed into his path by Grella.

We then lost Roque to what looks like a return of his pre season injury and he was replaced by Derbyshire. Derbyshire immediately had the ball in the back of the net when Samba headed a free kick into his path and Derbs slotted the ball home. The goal was wrongly ruled out for offside and we went into the break 2-1 down when it should have been 2-2.

All in all we did okay first half, the defence looked shakey though and we certainly didn't create a great deal, missing the influence of Dunny, with Emerton and Pedersen not doing a lot on the wings. Steven Reid was his usual below par self. Roque created a half chance when he gave Behrami problems in the box, cutting it back to Roberts who couldn't get a decent shot off, other than that we didn't create a lot.

At halftime we replaced Grella with the much talked about Andrews with Emerton then coming into the middle and Reid going out wide. Soon into the second half Reid took a free kick which was handled by Carlton Cole giving us a definite penalty to the delight of the fans. The delight soon turned to hope when they saw Roberts pick the ball up. His mediocre penalty was saved by Green leaving the score at 2-1 when if a couple of key things had gone our way it could easily have been 3-2 to us.

We created some decent chances at times, Emerton should have scored from a Derbyshire cross, Debyshire himself perhaps could have scored from his one on one albeit a tight angle. Andrews did quite well in midfield to prove some of his doubters wrong initially, it'll be interesting to see if he can maintain his step up. He moved the ball around quite well though and showed a good engine, although nobody stood out in midfield he was one of the better performers. Emerton did okay in the middle but Reid and Pedersen offered little to be quite honest.

One of the bright moments in the second half was Treacey coming on for Pedersen, Treacey showed a willingness to take on players and get some crosss into the box, something we seem to lack from some of our other players.

Robinson didn't have a huge amount to do for most of the game until midway into the second half where he produced two fantastic saves (Two which wasn't repeated on any highlights I saw, the media really do hate Robinson and I beg anyone to prove me otherwise).

The defence was poor, conceding four tells you that straight away, West Ham scored a couple of late ones which flattered them but our defence really had been poor. Sure there were gaps obviously because we were going forward but some of the goals were direct mistakes. Samba sliced one into his own net, then for one of the late goals instead of trying to get back he continually moaned about a free kick decision which they then went to go and score from. Warnock tried a silly turn in his box and got punished. Nelson tried but had his poorest game for a while Ooijer who isn't a right back went missing at times.

In attack Roberts worked as hard as ever but after his penalty miss he really faded from the game, Derbyshire did okay when he came on but no major impact, although his disallowed goal could have changed that. Santa Cruz did okay while on.

All in all I didn't think West Ham were very special and although the score line did flatter them we still lost to them and performed only on par with them at best. Nobody particulary stood out for us, Treacey, Roberts, Andrews, Derbyshire did okay but nothing to write home about.

We now have a break for internationals, hopefully our involved players can come back unscathed, then we can get back to the premier league. Anyone know if Villanueva is off with Chile? Could do with him getting full fit, maybe the match practice might help him.

Ratings (10=Outstanding, 9=Great, 8=Good, 7=Did Well, 6=Okay, 5=Poor, 4=Shocking)

Blackburn Team Performance 5/10

Robinson 6/10
Ooijer 4/10
Nelson 5/10
Samba 4/10
Warnock 4/10
Emerton 5/10
Reid 4/10
Grella 5/10
Pedersen 5/10
Santa Cruz 6/10
Roberts 7/10 (Star man, did well up until his penalty miss.)

Derbyshire 6/10
Andrews 6/10
Treacey 6/10

Scorer: Roberts (Davenport, Samba OG, Bellamy, Cole for West Ham)