BLACKBURN ROVERS | 2010-2011 SEASON | NEWS LINKS SEPTEMBER 2010

SEPTEMBER NEWS LINKS 2010
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Blackpool 1	-2 Blackburn Rovers

First ever Saturday afternoon @ 3 away win for Sam, as Rovers Manager!

BRETT EMERTON

Until the last 5 minutes at Bloomfield Road - Rovers were up to 8th in the 'live' table. But the Blackburn advantage came courtesy of an own goal from Charlie Adam in the 20th minute. Rovers then seemed to dominate and continued to put the tangerines under pressure - but couldn't find a second before the break. Blackpool looked better in the second half, but Rovers weathered the storm until the 85th minute when sub Matt Phillips made it 1-1. Blackburn were now being battered - as the home team hoped to go on and find a winner. But with 4 minutes for extra time added sub Benjani had his shot blocked but sub Brett Emerton was there to claim his first of the season and an important win for the visitors. Amazingly Big Sam had never enjoyed all three points on a Saturday afternoon away with Rovers! He was delighted and told the clubs official websitre:- "I thought at that stage it looked like it was going to be a draw.. We had failed to finish them off with the second goal and we were obviously then faced with Blackpool throwing everything forward trying to get back in the game. It paid off for them and it was a very good goal." Sam also paid tribute to Paul Robinson "I think he's a top quality goalkeeper and he can save us as many points as the strikers can win them with their goals. He gave us the platform to win today by making a couple of really good saves in the second half, but I always felt we were relatively comfortable today.You do expect a bit of pressure now and again, and you expect your goalkeeper to make some saves and today he did that at the right time for us, but I don't think he could have saved their goal. But the quality of Brett's finish has thankfully made the difference.".The win confirmed that 8th place and with a tough away trip to Stoke City next weekend before the next International break. (25th September 2010)

LINKS: bbc.co.uk (full reports) ALSO rovers.co.uk PLUS t&t1011 and goals1011

Aston Villa 3	-1 Blackburn Rovers

Rovers Crash out of the cup

GAEL GIVET

Despite a great opening goal from Gael Givet in the 34th minute - Rovers crashed out of the Carling 3-1 at Villa Park, as the home side came from behind to score an equaliser on the hour mark, and then two more in two minutes. It had looked good for Blackburn going in at the break with a 01- lead, but Gerard Houllier's first game in charge saw him bring Emile Heskey off the bench to score within a few minutes. The second half then saw Villa take control and in the 75th Ashley Young made it 2-1 and then 3-1 in the 77th. The League cup has been good to Rovers over the years, and despite making a number of changes - including Mark Bunn in goal - Big Sam had been quoted as saying how important the competition was to the club. Talking to the clubs official website after the game, a frustrated Sam Allardyce said "The game lasts 90-odd minutes not 45 ...The second half seems to be a problem for us at the moment." He went on: "I thought that at worse with Villa at home they may get a goal and we may have to go into extra-time but I didn't expect to lose 3-1 and I'm very disappointed obviously with the second half performance which is a great shame based on what we had built in the first half."
So no progress this year - but a massive Lancashire derby at Blackpool on Saturday. (22nd September 2010)

LINKS: bbc.co.uk (full reports) ALSO rovers.co.uk PLUS carling1011 and goals1011

Blackburn Rovers 1	-1 Fulham

Rovers 500th Premier League goal

CHRIS SAMBA

And that might be the most positive thing to say about the game! Chris Samba goes into the record books as the scorer of Blackburn Rovers 500th Premier League goal.
Sadly not a great day at the office - and after the wonderful performance at Man City - expectations ware high. Mark Hughed return with Fulham was down as a hoped for home win - Rovers having had a good home record over the Londoners. And Fulham have a very poor away one!
Much of the post match discussion was about the officials the 'red card' NOT awarded to Mark Schwarzer when he clearly handled outside his area just 7 minutes into the game. There were also a couple of good penalty calls, but again Mr. Taylor wasn't interested. The deadlock was broken after 30 minutes when Chris Samba headed home from inside the area. The BBC give the assist to Paul Robinson - now that IS long ball - but it was from a free kick. Mark Hughes felt that Schwarzer was fouled - but the goal stood. After that Rovers seemed to offer little - and the early dominance seemed to ebb away. Still they went in 1-0 up and hoped for better after and orange. Hughes must have given the better team talk, because it only took ten minutes for Clint Dempsey to head in the equaliser. Rovers tried a few changes and gave a debut to Benjani who looked very bright, but nothing seemed to spark the boys back into life. The Darwen enders resorted to playing beach ball and throwing hats around! This was not a classic. In the end neither Rovers or Fulham could get a second and the game ended 1-1. Big Sam admitted to being disappointed, and told RADIO ROVERS:- "We started so well, we scored a goal, but instead of getting better we went worse ....We got a goal in front, they are looking shaky at the back, lets go and get another. But instead of taking that on and going forward, they've scored off a quick free-kick. We didn't recover from that, we started to panic and I don't know why. We changed to a 4-4-2 with two up top but you've got to get the ball down and play it in the right areas and with the quality that we've got, but for whatever reason we haven't done that and in the end we've ended up with a draw rather than important victory."
Rovers now have 5 points from 5 played and don't return to Ewood for a full four weeks. But it's a big week with Villa in the Carling Cup on Wednesday and then away at Blackpool next weekend, You can hear full commentary via the roversplayer on the clubs official website. (18th September 2010)

LINKS: bbc.co.uk (full reports) ALSO rovers.co.uk PLUS t&t1011 and goals1011

Manchester City 1	-1 Blackburn Rovers

Well earned point at Eastlands

NIKO KALINIC

A second goal this season for Niko Kalinic, and some brilliant defending secured a valuable point for Rovers at Manchester City. And it certainly could have been more. What looked like a valid penalty call early on when Ryan Nelsen was brought down, and Mame Diouf looking certain to claim Blackburn's second. But Big Sam had to settle for a point - and believed that it was certainly an upset for City fans. On the opening day of the season - when Rovers beat Everton - it was a goal keeping error that Niko capitalised on. At Eastlands - he did it again . This time Joe Hart at fault, and Morten Gamst Pedersen providing Kalinic with the ball for the opener after 25 minutes. Already Ryan Nelsen had been upended and was convinced Blackburn should have had a penalty. The big defender later picked up an injury and had to be replaced. At 1-0 up the interval talk must have been a good one - and Blackburn were up to 7th in the 'live table'! But it only took 10 minutes after the break for Patrick Vieira to find the equaliser and then it always looked likely that the home side would find the winner - but thanks to some brilliant defending they couldn't. Big Sam told reporters: "I was very pleased with our performance. We feel we got what we deserved after an outstanding team effort both in the way we defended and our possession of the ball... We have measured up to a club that should brushing us aside in terms of the quality of players they can afford, the wages they can pay and the limited budget we work on."
So Rovers have 4 points from 4 games at stand 14th in the table - and next weekend welcome Fulham to Ewood Park. (12th September 2010)

LINKS: bbc.co.uk (full reports) ALSO rovers.co.uk PLUS t&t1011 and goals1011

Takeover	timescale

On or Off - now or never?

Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allerdyce has been talking about the potential takeover of the club by Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed. In a special report broadcast at the weekend, BBC 5 live reported that Syed has 'a trail of unpaid debt in the UK'. Now big Sam seems to be less confident that a deal might be done - giving him a potential £100 million transfer kitty. "Whether it does happen seems doubtful, for whatever reason I don't know. I'm not privy to that information." he said.
Meanwhile the Lancashire Telegraph reports that given a four-week period of" exclusivity to discuss the deal", rumours suggesting a potential deal was 'dead'. The paper says a spokesperson for Ali Syed, said: "With this specific rumour, it is entirely untrue and the process is ongoing."
After the International break - Rovers are back in Premier League business at the weekend with a tough trip to Manchester City. The other business news can't be a distraction - and the Blackburn boss will hope to add to the one win from three games already played this season. The transfer window closed, the squad (listed below) is the one he'll have to work with, and Benjani will hope to make an impact. (10th September 2010)

LINKS: lancashiretelegraph.co.uk AND bbc.co.uk (full report)

ROVERS	SQUAD

Rovers announce their senior squad for the season

In line with all other Premier League clubs - Blackburn Rovers had to register a maximum of 25 payers with the league by 17:00 BST today (September 1st 2010) All these players are over 21 and for Rovers there are 21 of them this season, including on loan striker Mame Biram Diouf and newly signed Benjani. The club have also submitted a list of 7 players under 21 years for age. Changes can be made when the January window opens.
The registered players are:
Paul Robinson, Martin Olsson, Chris Samba, Gael Givet, Ryan Nelsen, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, Nikola Kalinic, El-Hadji Diouf, Vince Grella, Morten Gamst Pedersen
Mark Bunn, Steven Nzonzi, Keith Andrews, Michel Salgado, Jason Brown, Frank Fielding, Pascal Chimbonda, Mame Biram Diouf, Jason Roberts, Benjani

And the youngster are:
Aaron Doran, Gavin Gunning, Grant Hanley, Junior Hoilett, Phil Jones, Amine Linganzi and Josh Morris.
(1st September 2010)

DEADLINE	DAY

Deadline deals all done ....

Not a big day at Ewood Park for transfers - and when the window closed at 18:00 BST it was much more out than in ... Zurab Khizanishvili returns to Reading out on loan. He spent six months there last season, and is currently away on International duty for Georgia. and Notts County have snapped up youngster Alan Judge, on loan until January. The republic of Ireland under 21 only signed a new deal last summer to keep him at Ewood Park until 2011.
Also off on loan is striker Maceo Rigters. He's joined Netherlands Eredivisie side Willem II. Maceo joined Rovers on a four-year deal but has struggled to break into the first team.
Late news of another player out - as had been expected - and it's a full transfer. Lars Jacobsen has joined West Ham on a free, having arrived at Blackburn under the same conditions last Summer. The clubs official website says that the Dutch International made 16 Rovers appearances in his time at the club.

Things might be different in January - with the possibility of new funding if the proposed takeover goes through. But on that front there were reports today that seemed to cast a shadow over Ahsan Ali Syed's Bahrain-based firm 'Western Gulf Advisory'. A special report on BBC 5 Live said that the potential Blackburn owner had been told to wrap up his business "for violating the laws and regulations of Bahrain". However the Lancashire Telegraph carry a statement from Mr Syed saying “There is no hidden investor or any outside wealth involved in any way in the investment activities of Western Gulf Advisory. All our investments are based on our own financial resources and strength, and I am the sole shareholder of the company." There are links to the Telegraph story and a the full BBC report below (31st August 2010)

LINKS: lancashiretelegraph.co.uk AND bbc.co.uk (full report) ALSO bbc.co.uk (Jacobsen)

SUMMER NEWS	LINKS ARCHIVE

See what was said and who made the news in Summer 2010

Click on the links below to read the Blackburn Rovers stories from this Summer and the end of last season.

LINKS: August 2010(the past month) ALSO Summer2010 (all the news stories archive) ALSO march-may2010 (the end of last season)

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