-
NEXT GAME:no idea
Sometime in August
Kick off unknown pm
No idea where
Definitely the Championship
Rovers v Reading: 15 March 2023
- Thread starter Barmitzvah Boy
- Start date
Red carded for butting Gallagher
Barmitzvah Boy
Global winner of the 2021 Christmas Quiz 👊🤩🤩
Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Reading | Championship highlights
Highlights of the Sky Bet Championship match between Blackburn Rovers and Reading.
Attendance: 14,023 (284 away)
Travis went to sleep for the Reading goal.
Last edited:
Strange sequence of events. Within 2 mins we were 1-0 up with BBD latching onto Thomas's cross despite it obviously being intended for Sammy Szmodics before rifling his shot into the corner of the Reading net. From that moment on for the rest of the first half Reading huffed and puffed largely in effectively whilst the Rovers attacked on the break carving out some much more dangerous chances but without actually managing to 'notch'.
The second half followed the same pattern with Rovers player after Rovers player managing to spurn any amount of embarrassingly easy chances. It's small wonder we have such a poor goal difference with such hopeless finishing is it? What can't speak can't lie can it? Check out the goal differences here......
www.bbc.co.uk
How good would a 25 year old Simon Garner be in this team right now, ( let alone David speedie)? A great scorer of goals rather than a scorer of great goals our Simon and let's be honest he'd have had a bagful playing with this BRFC team. Never mind SG cos Andy McEvoy would have had two bags full whilst it's impossible to estimate how many Big Al would have managed!
Unfortunately after being privileged to watch the likes of Shearer, Sutton, McCarthy, Santa Cruz and Bellamy in their pomp with Archibald, Cole, Yorke, Speedie, Sukor, Fowler and Jeffries just a little bit long in the tooth we quite simply don't have a proper prolific finisher do we? How many times this season have we outplayed teams and carved out chance after chance only to end up leading by a single goal and relying on the midfield and defence to keep clean sheets?
Today we got out of gaol without a doubt. Reading should have been put to the sword quite easily but instead as we all must have anticipated they earned an equaliser courtesy of Casedei in the 68th minute. Many times in the past the Rovers might have capitulated when this happened? To their credit they rolled up their sleeves and despite continuing to spew easy chances eventually got the winner courtesy of a Hedges strike created by the best bit of creativity that I have ever seen come from the boots of Big Sam G! What a pass... and what a surprise. 2-1 with 10 mins or so to go yet the Rovers still managed to have us all chewing our nails down to the quick. At last after 5 mins ET Ref Darren Bond blew his whistle to signify another 3 points to add to our increasingly impressive total.
I don't want to court disaster but there is now a 5 point gap between ourselves in 5th place and Norwich in 7th in the championship table! We have a number of winnable games coming up next before what could be the finish from hell where Preston, Burnley, Luton and millwall are lining up to spike our ambitions. PNE and Burnley will probably have nothing to play for by then but local pride is sure to spur them on and they are sure to postpone all thoughts of Mediterranean beaches.
Pears... 6 Made a couple of crucial saves but appears to be declining in confidence. Should he have saved Reading's goal? I think so. His kicking is now resembling Raya's lob wedge style.
JRC... 7 Again showed what a creative player he can be. Does he have psychological issues regarding his fitness as a legacy of his long time out with injury? He seems to elect to come off anytime he feels a twinge but then appears on the team sheet the very next match. If he has then lets book him a few regular sessions with a psychologist. Almost made a huge rick in the last few minutes by committing the back 4 sin of allowing a high ball to bounce instead of being cleared. I'll put it down to the blustery conditions as a few other players on both sides made 'strange' passes on occasions.
Carter.... 7 Mr Solid and dependable again. This lad rarely catches the eye but then neither do many quality defenders as anticipation comes before last ditch eye catching tackles. Made one glaringly bad pass near the end which gave the ball away and almost put the team in trouble. I'm sure his development this season has been a real surprise package for the supporters as his name must be in the first half dozen written on the team sheet.
Hyam... 7 Good match but like Carter with one or two careless passes included which he could do to eradicate. I'm sure though that neither of them anticipated being involved as 'playmakers' quite so much as they are currently.
Pickering.. 7 I almost gave him 6 but that would have been a touch unkind. Defended well enough and showed plenty of attacking intent.
Morton.. 7 Stepped in for the injured Buckley who is out for the season. This lad is a quality playmaker but as a 19 year old when he came is prone to the occasional rick. Leighton Clarkson is another top quality player (he's one of our own rem) who was too young and underdeveloped physically for the Championship at 19 but is now highly thought of in Aberdeen. From wiki "On 16 August 2021, it was announced that Clarkson would join hometown club Blackburn Rovers on a season-long loan deal.[9] His loan was cut short in January 2022.[10] Scored on his Aberdeen debut in a 4-1 win over St Mirren. In December 2022 he was unanimously voted by Aberdeen fans as the 2nd best loanee that Scottish Football has ever seen, behind only James Maddison.
Morton makes plenty of top passes (an assist for Gally's assist being one) unfortunately interspersed with one or two poor ones. I have to say that I was dismayed to hear growing criticisms from so called supporters in the JWU, 'get back to Liverpool' and 'gerrimoff' etc. What a bunch of absolute dickheads some people can be eh? With Buckley out for the season there is now just Trav, Wharton, Morton and Garrett to see the remaining fixtures through. Excluding Trav that is a combined age of just 58 for the three! Not even an average of 19.5! Confidence is so important in football and knobs in the crowd will just erode that! They've all done well and imo way exceeded expectations. Top six in a tough league with just a handful of matches left is a wonderful achievement for lads so young. They need encouragement and support not criticism.
Travis... 8 Trav was everywhere, heart on his sleeve, snapping into challenges and leading from the front. Sponsors made Szmodics MoM but it must have been a close run thing.
Thomas... 6 Seemingly not capable of playing the type of one touch football that JDT must be demanding and is rather a liability in his own half. All that changes though in the last third as his pace, trickery and quality of crossing are what must be keeping him in the side. Had an assist for BBD's opener and should have had another one after a peach of a cross in the first half ... a centre fwd's dream ball, was spewed by Gally who heading over when it looked easier to score. Blobbed big time when he should have been on the 6 yard line for a simple tap in but instead was guilty of ball watching from 20 yards out!
All good strikers do work on possible eventualities! Apart from that he is quick and I might be tempted to leave him in the centre circle when the opposition have dead ball situations in our third.
BBD.... 6 Took his goal with aplomb and has a presence down the left but rather let himself down in physical challenges and defensive duties. Taken off after he missed a 'gimme' chance by taking an unnecessary second touch and seeing Lumley make a commendable double save when he should really have been picking the ball out of the net.
Szmodics... 8 I'd love to see the miles he and Trav covered last night. If he were a dog he'd be a Jack Russell, never gives back and gives 100% aggression in every challenge. Every team needs one of these and he and Dack (when fit) can share the duties 'in the hole' perfectly depending on match situations. Desperately unlucky when he chased down a back pass and his attempted block on Lumley's clerarence resulted in the ball cannoning off him, onto the post and back into Lumley's hands. We'd all have breathed a little easier for the rest of the match if that had gone in.
Gallagher... Made Hedges winning goal with a peach of back heeled pass. Also his pass out of defence for Thomas to claim an assist was perfectly weighted and deserved high praise. I didn't know he had this sort of stuff in him... but then again he's only been here 5 years hasn't he? Should have scored with a DOWNWARD header but that's Sam isn't it? Other than that at last appears to be growing mentally into his frame and is starting to bully centre halves.
Subs
Hedges (Thomas 69) 7 'Came on and scored the winner' is the headline every sub prays for. I wasn't sure about this move at the time as Thomas was providing plenty of service from the right but I doubt Thomas would have got himself into a scoring position given his shocking failure to get on the back post for a simple tap in in the first half. I'll put it down to good management.
Dolan (BBD 69) 7 Brought his usual boundless energy to the game. In the local after I wasn't the only one to notice his willingness to track back with his man either!
JDT... 7 He got this one right in his game plans but unfortunately is having to manage with an underachieving strike force who yesterday as usual needed far too many touches to convert their frequent chances. Chose his subs well and must have been relieved to see no more apparent injuries given what is coming up between now and May. Nice to see Ince struggling in management. I'm surprised he's lasted so long at Reading.
btw... My mate who is a Mags supporter (not sure he remembers JDT there) commented that he has rarely seen a cooler manager on the touchline.
Referee Darren Bond 7 Did OK throughout the match and seemed to get most decisions right. The red card not even needing thinking about.
The second half followed the same pattern with Rovers player after Rovers player managing to spurn any amount of embarrassingly easy chances. It's small wonder we have such a poor goal difference with such hopeless finishing is it? What can't speak can't lie can it? Check out the goal differences here......
Championship Table - Football - BBC Sport
Find out which football teams are leading the pack or at the foot of the table in the Championship on BBC Sport
www.bbc.co.uk
Unfortunately after being privileged to watch the likes of Shearer, Sutton, McCarthy, Santa Cruz and Bellamy in their pomp with Archibald, Cole, Yorke, Speedie, Sukor, Fowler and Jeffries just a little bit long in the tooth we quite simply don't have a proper prolific finisher do we? How many times this season have we outplayed teams and carved out chance after chance only to end up leading by a single goal and relying on the midfield and defence to keep clean sheets?
Today we got out of gaol without a doubt. Reading should have been put to the sword quite easily but instead as we all must have anticipated they earned an equaliser courtesy of Casedei in the 68th minute. Many times in the past the Rovers might have capitulated when this happened? To their credit they rolled up their sleeves and despite continuing to spew easy chances eventually got the winner courtesy of a Hedges strike created by the best bit of creativity that I have ever seen come from the boots of Big Sam G! What a pass... and what a surprise. 2-1 with 10 mins or so to go yet the Rovers still managed to have us all chewing our nails down to the quick. At last after 5 mins ET Ref Darren Bond blew his whistle to signify another 3 points to add to our increasingly impressive total.
I don't want to court disaster but there is now a 5 point gap between ourselves in 5th place and Norwich in 7th in the championship table! We have a number of winnable games coming up next before what could be the finish from hell where Preston, Burnley, Luton and millwall are lining up to spike our ambitions. PNE and Burnley will probably have nothing to play for by then but local pride is sure to spur them on and they are sure to postpone all thoughts of Mediterranean beaches.
Pears... 6 Made a couple of crucial saves but appears to be declining in confidence. Should he have saved Reading's goal? I think so. His kicking is now resembling Raya's lob wedge style.
JRC... 7 Again showed what a creative player he can be. Does he have psychological issues regarding his fitness as a legacy of his long time out with injury? He seems to elect to come off anytime he feels a twinge but then appears on the team sheet the very next match. If he has then lets book him a few regular sessions with a psychologist. Almost made a huge rick in the last few minutes by committing the back 4 sin of allowing a high ball to bounce instead of being cleared. I'll put it down to the blustery conditions as a few other players on both sides made 'strange' passes on occasions.
Carter.... 7 Mr Solid and dependable again. This lad rarely catches the eye but then neither do many quality defenders as anticipation comes before last ditch eye catching tackles. Made one glaringly bad pass near the end which gave the ball away and almost put the team in trouble. I'm sure his development this season has been a real surprise package for the supporters as his name must be in the first half dozen written on the team sheet.
Hyam... 7 Good match but like Carter with one or two careless passes included which he could do to eradicate. I'm sure though that neither of them anticipated being involved as 'playmakers' quite so much as they are currently.
Pickering.. 7 I almost gave him 6 but that would have been a touch unkind. Defended well enough and showed plenty of attacking intent.
Morton.. 7 Stepped in for the injured Buckley who is out for the season. This lad is a quality playmaker but as a 19 year old when he came is prone to the occasional rick. Leighton Clarkson is another top quality player (he's one of our own rem) who was too young and underdeveloped physically for the Championship at 19 but is now highly thought of in Aberdeen. From wiki "On 16 August 2021, it was announced that Clarkson would join hometown club Blackburn Rovers on a season-long loan deal.[9] His loan was cut short in January 2022.[10] Scored on his Aberdeen debut in a 4-1 win over St Mirren. In December 2022 he was unanimously voted by Aberdeen fans as the 2nd best loanee that Scottish Football has ever seen, behind only James Maddison.
Morton makes plenty of top passes (an assist for Gally's assist being one) unfortunately interspersed with one or two poor ones. I have to say that I was dismayed to hear growing criticisms from so called supporters in the JWU, 'get back to Liverpool' and 'gerrimoff' etc. What a bunch of absolute dickheads some people can be eh? With Buckley out for the season there is now just Trav, Wharton, Morton and Garrett to see the remaining fixtures through. Excluding Trav that is a combined age of just 58 for the three! Not even an average of 19.5! Confidence is so important in football and knobs in the crowd will just erode that! They've all done well and imo way exceeded expectations. Top six in a tough league with just a handful of matches left is a wonderful achievement for lads so young. They need encouragement and support not criticism.
Travis... 8 Trav was everywhere, heart on his sleeve, snapping into challenges and leading from the front. Sponsors made Szmodics MoM but it must have been a close run thing.
Thomas... 6 Seemingly not capable of playing the type of one touch football that JDT must be demanding and is rather a liability in his own half. All that changes though in the last third as his pace, trickery and quality of crossing are what must be keeping him in the side. Had an assist for BBD's opener and should have had another one after a peach of a cross in the first half ... a centre fwd's dream ball, was spewed by Gally who heading over when it looked easier to score. Blobbed big time when he should have been on the 6 yard line for a simple tap in but instead was guilty of ball watching from 20 yards out!
All good strikers do work on possible eventualities! Apart from that he is quick and I might be tempted to leave him in the centre circle when the opposition have dead ball situations in our third.BBD.... 6 Took his goal with aplomb and has a presence down the left but rather let himself down in physical challenges and defensive duties. Taken off after he missed a 'gimme' chance by taking an unnecessary second touch and seeing Lumley make a commendable double save when he should really have been picking the ball out of the net.
Szmodics... 8 I'd love to see the miles he and Trav covered last night. If he were a dog he'd be a Jack Russell, never gives back and gives 100% aggression in every challenge. Every team needs one of these and he and Dack (when fit) can share the duties 'in the hole' perfectly depending on match situations. Desperately unlucky when he chased down a back pass and his attempted block on Lumley's clerarence resulted in the ball cannoning off him, onto the post and back into Lumley's hands. We'd all have breathed a little easier for the rest of the match if that had gone in.
Gallagher... Made Hedges winning goal with a peach of back heeled pass. Also his pass out of defence for Thomas to claim an assist was perfectly weighted and deserved high praise. I didn't know he had this sort of stuff in him... but then again he's only been here 5 years hasn't he?
Should have scored with a DOWNWARD header but that's Sam isn't it? Other than that at last appears to be growing mentally into his frame and is starting to bully centre halves.Subs
Hedges (Thomas 69) 7 'Came on and scored the winner' is the headline every sub prays for. I wasn't sure about this move at the time as Thomas was providing plenty of service from the right but I doubt Thomas would have got himself into a scoring position given his shocking failure to get on the back post for a simple tap in in the first half. I'll put it down to good management.
Dolan (BBD 69) 7 Brought his usual boundless energy to the game. In the local after I wasn't the only one to notice his willingness to track back with his man either!
JDT... 7 He got this one right in his game plans but unfortunately is having to manage with an underachieving strike force who yesterday as usual needed far too many touches to convert their frequent chances. Chose his subs well and must have been relieved to see no more apparent injuries given what is coming up between now and May. Nice to see Ince struggling in management. I'm surprised he's lasted so long at Reading.
btw... My mate who is a Mags supporter (not sure he remembers JDT there) commented that he has rarely seen a cooler manager on the touchline.
Referee Darren Bond 7 Did OK throughout the match and seemed to get most decisions right. The red card not even needing thinking about.
Last edited:
Old Darwen Blue
Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
My thoughts on the game on a cold wet night. How anyone can criticise Sam Gallagher is beyond me. It was an inch perfect forward pass for Thomas straight out of our penalty area for the first goal and a clever back heel for Hedges for the second. Sam never stops running all day and provides a constant physical nuisance to some quite massive defenders on a weekly basis which the likes of Garner and Speedie could never do due due to their build. This nuisance resulted in a head butt from one of their players due to him being wound up so much! I also can’t recall him losing a single header and but for some heroic saves by their keeper would have had a brace himself. The guy is an absolute warhorse and if he were banging in twenty a season then he wouldn’t be with us. Regardless the facts state that when he starts we usually win, 18 out of 23 is it now?
Their goal was actually a belter and I’m sure their fans were amazed!
The referee was much better than I expected him to be as I recall he hasn’t been good to us in the past.
On the crowd I thought it was higher than the stated figure, the Jack Walker stand looked about 7/8 full to me as did the BBE.
Readings kit was terrible.
Their goal was actually a belter and I’m sure their fans were amazed!
The referee was much better than I expected him to be as I recall he hasn’t been good to us in the past.
On the crowd I thought it was higher than the stated figure, the Jack Walker stand looked about 7/8 full to me as did the BBE.
Readings kit was terrible.
Barmitzvah Boy
Global winner of the 2021 Christmas Quiz 👊🤩🤩
There were lots of new faces and families in the JW Upper last night, taking advantage of a good view in a decent stand.
Personally I thought Gally was excellent last night and worked his socks off, he does need to work on his finishing but who can complain too much given his involvement in both goals.
Cue losing out on 6th place on goal difference.Strange sequence of events. Within 2 mins we were 1-0 up with BBD latching onto Thomas's cross despite it obviously being intended for Sammy Szmodics before rifling his shot into the corner of the Reading net. From that moment on for the rest of the first half Reading huffed and puffed largely in effectively whilst the Rovers attacked on the break carving out some much more dangerous chances but without actually managing to 'notch'.
The second half followed the same pattern with Rovers player after Rovers player managing to spurn any amount of embarrassingly easy chances. It's small wonder we have such a poor goal difference with such hopeless finishing is it? What can't speak can't lie can it? Check out the goal differences here......
How good would a 25 year old Simon Garner be in this team right now, ( let alone David speedie)? A great scorer of goals rather than a scorer of great goals our Simon and let's be honest he'd have had a bagful playing with this BRFC team. Never mind SG cos Andy McEvoy would have had two bags full whilst it's impossible to estimate how many Big Al would have managed!Championship Table - Football - BBC Sport
Find out which football teams are leading the pack or at the foot of the table in the Championship on BBC Sport
Unfortunately after being privileged to watch the likes of Shearer, Sutton, McCarthy, Santa Cruz and Bellamy in their pomp with Archibald, Cole, Yorke, Speedie, Sukor, Fowler and Jeffries just a little bit long in the tooth we quite simply don't have a proper prolific finisher do we? How many times this season have we outplayed teams and carved out chance after chance only to end up leading by a single goal and relying on the midfield and defence to keep clean sheets?
Today we got out of gaol without a doubt. Reading should have been put to the sword quite easily but instead as we all must have anticipated they earned an equaliser courtesy of Casedei in the 68th minute. Many times in the past the Rovers might have capitulated when this happened? To their credit they rolled up their sleeves and despite continuing to spew easy chances eventually got the winner courtesy of a Hedges strike created by the best bit of creativity that I have ever seen come from the boots of Big Sam G! What a pass... and what a surprise. 2-1 with 10 mins or so to go yet the Rovers still managed to have us all chewing our nails down to the quick. At last after 5 mins ET Ref Darren Bond blew his whistle to signify another 3 points to add to our increasingly impressive total.
I don't want to court disaster but there is now a 5 point gap between ourselves in 5th place and Norwich in 7th in the championship table! We have a number of winnable games coming up next before what could be the finish from hell where Preston, Burnley, Luton and millwall are lining up to spike our ambitions. PNE and Burnley will probably have nothing to play for by then but local pride is sure to spur them on and they are sure to postpone all thoughts of Mediterranean beaches.
ratings to follow
tonygreenbank
Senior Member
The £10 ticket offer was mentioned on Sky Sports last night and they said it looked a good crowd on as a result. I’ve never heard any comment before on Sky about the Ewood crowd. It is all adding up to the excitement of this end of season!
Another great win and I’m still pinching myself that we’re in the playoffs, a place in the 6th round and 3 possible visits to Wembley! COYB
Another great win and I’m still pinching myself that we’re in the playoffs, a place in the 6th round and 3 possible visits to Wembley! COYB