Blackburn away | Vital Football

Blackburn away

Kentbee

Vital Reserves Team
Disappointing result and game. Not our day in many ways with icy conditions which they adapted to better than us in spite of that early lead. A penalty ( a naïve one to give away) and an own goal put us on the back foot from which we never recovered. We came back into it in the second and a draw would have been justified but we are not good chasing the game and so another defeat on the road.

Home game v Brum suddenly has more riding on it if we are not to fall into a slump.

Thought we were slow to make any changes. When Sawyer came on he made a big difference.

Any thoughts of the play offs are now slipping away and instead we are looking a bit anxiously below us. Two home wins coming up would change the mood a lot.
 
I thought in theory it was a good starting line up with two wingers and Vibe bursting through the line when attacking but it worked better for them. They played with wingers but had two big fellers upfront. Basically you run fast with the ball down the line, the full backs have to turn then probably slip over and you chuck a cross in...it worked very well for them but not for us.

I'm just wondering, is having two defensive midfielders a little bit negative? Maybe go 4-3-3?
 
I am wondering why the hell we persist with a left back who is constantly shown to be out of position and constantly torn apart when we have a better and proper left back on the bench.

I thought we deserved a draw at least out of that, and found the whole game a bit surreal to be honest. A strange own goal when under no pressure but apart from that Dean was one of our most solid players. Not sure what Nico was thinking when he made that challenge for their penalty, but what a great move to win it. Thought it was good to see Vibe playing almost alongside Hogan, who timed his run for both goals to perfection, even if the second one did have me thinking there was a flag the way it all went so quiet after the ball went in. Even he looked doubtful and looked at the lino once or twice while celebrating.

I agree with Kent, I thought Sawyers made a big, positive, difference. I didn't like him at first but even when he has a bad game, most of what we do good, comes through him. He's won me over.
 
Finally some life on here, been wondering where everyone was and almost gave up.

I was at Ewood and my view is that Smith got it wrong with the team he selected, one look at the playing conditions and i'd never have set us up with Clarke, Vibe and KaiKai in those forward positions. Sure we were able to support Hogan and his goals were classy, but the already weak midfield was over run and full backs exposed on the ice rink in our half, funny how it was less treacherous up their end!

We were feeble southerners, this epitomised by the embarrassing display from Vibe who should not have been out there. Yes we came back in the 2nd half but when you have a midfield that can't shoot, or play enough decent final balls you are going to struggle. Rovers kept it very simple, slung loads of balls into our box, and we imploded.

Totally agree re Bjelland, Bambi on ice and he's a makeshift full back who is being worked out. Seems criminal to have Barbet & Romaine on the bench, and to be starting weaklings like Vibe and KaiKai. I also think that the fringe players haven't been rotated enough or kept interested to be able to do a job when needed. The biggest disappointment to some will be realization that our talented midfield is actually not all that - Woods and Nico doesn't work, one has to come out now, we've needed some drive and physicality in there for ever and it hasn't been addressed. That said Sawyers really lifted us when he came on and he and Harlee flooded the midfield and looked our best hope at getting a point.

Big questions being asked again about the squad strength and the tactics, on our day we aren't bad but one decent performance every now and again won't be good enough.

Fortunately I don't have to live in Blackburn, 10 hours in the car to get soaked, frozen and to miss our opening goal. Fair play to the stewards and staff who were very friendly and helpful knowing what we'd endured to get there. God it was grim!

Need to do a whole lot better on sat against another bogey team!

 
We are currently in a worse position after 17 games than either of the last two seasons. I guess if we are a mid-table team, this could be expected, but a turnaround very soon would be welcome.
 
Sounded a bit like the big boys of Blackburn had a plan which worked better in difficult conditions

KaiKai has apparently been good in training but I don't really know why we played him on an icy pitch

I dont think Bjelland is a brilliant left back but I dont think Barbet is one either