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It was a game of four halves.
Rovers had the better of the opening exchanges. In fact we had all of the opening exchanges but, from the off, too many passes were misplaced - the “ponderous-looking” De Pedro being the main culprit. In contrast, Bournemouth’s passing was quick and accurate. Every now and then Tugay or Douglas would wave a boot at the ball but invariably it had been moved on leaving our midfielder flat on his elbow. The only players on the field looking anything like premiership quality were the two right wingers – Emerton and Elliot who constantly caused problems for their opposition’s left flanks.
Rovers took a deserved lead on 8 minutes. A rush of blood to the head of De Pedro caused him to pass accurately into the path of Jansen who had made a run in behind the full back. His shot was saved by the keeper but the ball looped up and dropped to Emerton on the six yard line. In the centre of goal with an open net in front of and time to watch the ball drop you felt sure he was going to miss but he didn’t. 1-0 to Rovers. Now we could sit back and relax and see how many we could score.
Then just a couple of minutes later, the unthinkable happened. A De Pedro cross dropped onto the head of a Rovers player inside the area! I was in so much shock I didn’t notice whether it was Emerton or Jansen who headed straight at the keeper.
An equalizer, if it came was likely to come from the Bournemouth right. It was their first venture into Rovers territory and the sheer audacity of it surprised the Rovers defence. Elliot strolled past De Pedro, who shrugged and looked at his boots, then, with Gresko backing off, he crossed into the Rovers penalty area. No problem, they only had O’Connor in there and we had Neill, Amo and Nissa covering. Unfortunately Amo and Nissa were practising the can-can as the ball came over and hadn’t seen Bournemouth attacking. O’Connor’s finish gave Enks no chance.
We had numerous half chances to score after that. Amo crashed a shot of the bar. Emerton, Jansen and Bothroyd all went close. Then the half began to fizzle out. It was brought briefly to life by an exquisite cross-field ball from De Pedro. With the outside of his boot and with all the skill of a seasoned international, he played an inch-perfect ball to some bloke in the Jack Walker Lower Tier in a green jacket. Sadly, the bloke mis-controlled it and the attack broke down.
I felt a call of nature and, as the half was drawing to a close, I made for the toilets. When I came out the second half was underway and Rovers were well on top. How long had I been in there!!?? Stead fired a shot narrowly wide, a drive from Matteo went inches over and a crashing drive from Pedersen brought a fine save from Gallagher. Hang on. Gallagher in goal? Pedersen, Stead, Matteo? It was the half time warm up for the substitutes!! Good entertainment actually.
The second half started as dully as the first had finished. Only Emerton and Jansen were causing any threat. Passes were still going astray and whenever the ball went out to Elliot our defence looked shaky. I did find out that the Cat’s Eye bicycle light can swivel through 180 degrees (thanks Paul). De Pedro was replaced by Pedersen and Stead came on for a disappointing Bothroyd. Stead made an impact. Closing down defenders and forcing mistakes. He went on a couple of runs but there was no end product. A pull back from Pedersen found Stead unmarked but his shot curled wide. Another shot was deflected wide and the keeper made a couple of decent saves. Douglas should have done better from an Emerton pull-back.
At the other end Bournemouth weren’t offering much. Until the 80th minute that is. A counter-attack, a cross and a virtually unchallenged header from Broadhurst put the visitors in front. Suddenly there was an atmosphere in the ground and a sense of urgency from the players. Paul Gallagher was introduced and Gresko withdrawn. More chances came and went. A Bournemouth free-kick was well saved by Enks. The 4th official put the board up. 3 minutes left. It looked like it wasn’t going to happen for us.
Tugay suddenly broke into the Bournemouth box. He beat the first man, beat the second, beat the third, set himself to shoot, beat the second man again, beat the third man again and was robbed by the first. Twit!
Deep into injury time Emerton went on another run. He worked an opening but decided against crossing. Instead he opted to take on two more defenders. Somehow he got a shot in which was well saved at the near post. The resultant corner was half cleared but the ball found its way to Pedersen who fired the equalizer superbly to force extra time and win me £35. smile.gif
We started extra time with a very attacking line-up and took the lead in the first minute. Emerton again went surging forward. His pass was behind Jansen who had to stop and lay it back to Gallagher. Gally’s shot was ferocious and accurate. Top corner. 3-2. Ewood Park sighed with relief. Bournemouth heads dropped.
Emerton was dropped to right back and Neill moved over to left back as we attempted to hold what we’d got. Then came the synchronized cramp. Nissa pulled such a hideous face as he hobbled off the pitch with cramp in both legs that the referee refused to let him back on until he was sure he had recovered fully. No-one likes to see a face like that on a football field. Then Emerton, Tugay and Amoruso started hobbling around clutching their legs, stretching at every opportunity.
The equalizer came from another Rovers attack With 5 minutes left, Jansen ran at the defence forcing them back to the edge of their area then, instead of playing the ball to Pedersen unmarked to his left, he fired a thunderous shot against the defender two inches in front of him. The ball rebounded 40 yards to the Bournemouth left winger who beat a static Neill and crossed to the far post where an unmarked striker headed the ball down to another unmarked striker who scored with only Bournemouth’s fourth shot of the evening.
So it went to penalties. The whole of the Blackburn End crowded into a small space behind the goal and the stewards went across to block their view - so there are still some supporters who don’t know what a penalty looks like. Enks made one save, their keeper made none but Bournemouth went through. We got what we deserved.
Match report written by NuclearSox
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