Jeckyll and Hyde Rovers strike again! Name any month this season and I can give you examples of our inconsistency. Look no further back than December and after the humiliating defeats to Burnley and PNE they go and beat Norwich away, next up a trip to Sunderland and a narrow loss after what I must describe as an insipid performance followed by a much better showing against the Divisions away form team Boro only for a careless start to the second half and a freak sending off to screw us over. Whether one views it as 0 points from 6 or 3 points from 15 matters little EXCEPT that it is not the sign of a team in the promotion frame!
I cannot begin to guess why we go from zero to hero and back inside a week but we do, and worse we have done all season. Sitting in third position (God only knows how) we have now lost more matches than any team out of the bottom 3! Suggestions that JDT is losing the squad and that there is dissatisfaction in the ranks doesn't ring wholly true as displayed at Carrow Road and the first 45mins at Ewood Park last night until events transpired against us in the second period. I do suspect that some players have had their noses put out of joint and as such may be turning into rotten apples but that is based only on my own speculation.
Moving on I don't think the team under JDT is packing the fans in and not even as much as the team did under Mowbray. The Blackburn attendance last night was pathetic for a Christmas week fixture, really pathetic! How Tony Mowbray must be laughing up his sleeve this week after beating us with a winning goal in extra time in front of 43000 plus fans and seeing his team see the New Year in in 4th place! Happy Christmas Tony.
Next up the negativity of the Ewood crowd. As B&WH points out above the boo boys grew every week under Sam Allardyce AFTER HE HAD SAVED US FROM ALMOST CERTAIN RELEGATION and now I sense growing dissatisfaction increasing every week as we usually elect to pass it out from the back. Sure we do all to often get caught out and this needs to be rectified, sometimes the ball needs to be given a bit of leather when the situation requires it simply for safety's sake. As Big Sam himself said
"there are no such thing as long balls and short balls.... there are only good passes and bad passes". On the other hand some of our play up the pitch last night had me virtually purring in satisfaction, crisp smart passing in our half drew Boro up the pitch who where then split by balls down the channels. Hedges scored from one such move, Gallagher should have done but blazed wide on the near post
and BBD was thwarted by a horrible bobble. Unfortunately there is now a growing clamour from behind my seat for the players to 'get rid' or 'lump it up top' etc. The key difference last night was the direct nature and speed of our attacks which were in direct contrast to the Sunderland play where we got forward only to continually turn around and elect to play little triangles around Sunderlands penalty area and slow the attack down until the defenders were all in position to mark our attackers out of the game. Plain as the nose on my face but how is this being viewed at Brockhall?
Kaminsky.... 7
Rankin-Costello... 8 Sponsors MoM. Dovetailed / switched well with Hedges and in doing so kept the influential McGree very quiet.
Ayala... 7 Again a solid rock in defence against his old club.
Hyam.... 6 Strong partnership with Ayala but black marks as both goals penetrated his partnership with Harry Pickering. Harshly booked in the second half when worse had gone unpunished.
Pickering... 6 Struggled after the break and particularly after the sending off when Boro concentrated their attacks down our left flank through Forss. Had a much easier time after Carrick decided to replace him with somebody called Jones (2) who I swear would give Mola a run for his money as worst player to turn out at Ewood this season.
Morton... 7 Played a part in midfield and looked comfortable in last night's set up.
Buckley.... 7 Was in the running for my MoM until his ill advised rush of blood. I don't know if it's possible to change the charge but it certainly wasn't serious foul play but rather a mild form of retaliation to a spot of professional goading by McGree.
Hedges.... 7 Broke the offside trap to perfection (I think?) to latch onto Buckleys sublime pass for the goal and looked to be developing a good understanding with JRC down the right.
Dack.... 7 Looked more like his old self by providing some quality touches and passes when in attack.
Gallagher.... 7 Proves a handful for the Boro defence and Lenihan* in particular. Failed to finish the move of the match when he headed a cushioned header into GK Crooks hands when he might have fared better going inside far post, and when free one on one elected for power to the GK's near post and missed the target completely! I'm sick of saying it but 'INSIDE FAR POST FFS GALLY!!!!! That miss cost every bit as much as the sending off imo.
*btw Lenihan doesn't look the same player when he's playing on the left side of a CH partnership. He is just so right footed that he looks like a fish on a bike at times. His passing is even worse than it was when he was here.
BBD... 7 Battled and grafted much better than he has of late and showed real desire. Was he being watched perhaps? Unfortunately defences appear to know that if they can stop him cutting in from the right he becomes pretty ineffective.
Subs
Travis 66.... (Morton) Obviously JDT couldn't let us go 3 down or that was game over so he replaced two attacking mids with two defensive mids and crossed his fingers for a chance to be converted. Rather a pity and seemed strange to me that he didn't do that straightaway after Buckley was given his marching orders.
Garrett 66... (Dack) See Travis above. Put himself about a lot when he came on and gave his all. Perhaps a little raw but he's not intimidated by the opposition and doesn't care who he kicks. Good lad.
JDT 7 Set up the team well and was thwarted by the Rovers caught cold whilst metaphorically still eating the HT oranges plus of course THAT sending off. Why he didn't throw on Markanday or even Hirst for the last 10 I don't know.
Referee Leigh Doughty 6 No doubt red faced when he sees the incident that he was so quick to show red for. His action based solely on the advice of a Linesman was overly harsh. Refs constantly say to players
"If I don't see it son, I can't give it' yet this bugger did, and in doing so aided a travesty of justice as well as ruining a festive spectacle. I've long held the opinion that Refs should have another card an electric blue one for sin bin and/or a compulsory substitution. Last nights events add weight to my belief.