NO QUARTER FINAL FOR ROVERS
FA Cup 5th Round replay
Coventry City 1-0 Blackburn Rovers (3-2 agg)
Rovers made 11 changes to their starting eleven for this FA Cup 5th round replay. But that still meant many first team regulars including Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts up front. Blackburn had forced the replay after scoring in injury time at Ewood on Valentines day. The match kicked off fifteen minutes late following crowd congestion. For the first half of this tie they created some good chances - but never really tested the Coventry keeper. It was competitive and end to end football - with the home fans thinking they had the lead just before the break when Clinton Morrison found the side netting. Coventry obviously had a good half time team talk, because they certainly asked the questions after the break and fifteen minutes in Leon Best gave them the lead. With injury time being played it looked like Chris Samba was about to head home and claim some extra time - but it went wide. Kevin Gallagher told ROVERS WORLD LIVE listeners that based on their second half performance - Coventry deserved their win. The prize for City a home tie with Chelsea and for Rovers the league and survival at Premiership level to concentrate on for the rest of the season! Next for Blackburn it's a trip to the KC stadium and Hull City on Sunday afternoon at 12:30. (February 24th 2009)
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SAME OLD (TRAFFORD) STORY!
Pen denied - and certainly deserved a point
Manchester United 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
United had gone a remarkable 1337 minutes since they last conceded a league goal - so if nothing else Blackburn can take heart from finishing that run. But they will also feel that they probably played some of their best football this season, and should have had a least at point if not more from the game. But things didn't start that well and when Rooney made it 2 in 2 it looked like it would be an easy ride for the reds. Only twenty minutes gone - but the goal seemed to inspire rather than deject Rovers. Less than ten minutes later Roque Santa Cruz also made it 2 in 2 as he collected the ball from Andre Ooijer and rounded Kuszczak (United's stand in keeper) to draw Blackburn level and end that Man U league record. They last let one in last November against Arsenal. Blackburn now had renewed confidence and continued to push forward. United were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area - and Cristiano Ronaldo powered past Robinson to restore their lead. Ryan Nelsen has never scored for Blackburn, but should have this afternoon - sadly he hit the post! Diouf was their to collect the rebound and again Rovers came so close. But Blackburn will feel they should had a penalty when Morten Gamst Pedersen looked to be clear on goal and found himself brought down well inside the box. Nothing given by Howard Webb. Big Sam told the BBC "I think he's pulled him, got his arm on his shoulder. It's not so, so blatant but he's through on goal and it's put him off balance and it's not given but I wasn't surprised. It's difficult to play here so it's difficult to ref here as well but they're prepared to do the job and get it right like we are, and when they get it wrong then they need to be held accordingly to that. From our point of view what we could control we missed, and that was the Ryan Nelson miss." Rovers certainly created plenty of chances and the TV commentary team even suggested that with that type of form it wouldn't be long before the bottom three was a thing of the past. Sadly as it is - 3rd bottom Blackburn remain. (February 21st 2009)
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COULD BE CHELSEA ...
FA Cup - Sixth Round
The draw has been made for the Quarter finals of this years FA Cup, and Blackburn Rovers were first out of the bowl. Of course they need to beat Coventry first in the replay on Feb 24th, but then the reward would be another home tie - this time with Chelsea!
The Londoners join Manchester United and Everton avoiding 5th round replays - with Arsenal still to meet Cardiff tomorrow in the 4th round to see who will meet Burnley.
The full draw is:
Blackburn Rovers or Coventry City v Chelsea Swansea City or Fulham v Manchester United Cardiff City or Arsenal or Burnley v Sheffield United or Hull City Everton v West Ham United or Middlesbrough. Matches to be played the weekend 7th March. And if you want to know who to blame for Rovers opposition - the away balls were selected by Graeme Souness!! (February 15th 2009)
thefa.com (full details) ALSO facup08089

UNBEATEN RUN ENDS AT EWOOD
Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Aston Villa
The return to Ewood Park of big Brad saw the American leave with a clean sheet - while his replacement at Rovers Paul Robinson saw two pass him to secure third place for Villa in the League .... There was much criticism for Ref Mr. Bennett - with fans sure that Rovers were entitled to a couple of decent penalty shouts. However, even if the decisions had gone for the home side - they'd still have to have beaten Freidel! Blackburn certainly had chances in the opening period - but it was James Milner who gave Aston Villa the lead after 27 minutes. They'd already had the ball in the back of Robisnon's net ruled out, and would have a second also disallowed. Big Sam had left new boy El-Hadji Diouf on the bench - but the second period started with both him and Tugay on for Dunny and Keith Andrews. There seemed to be some immediate impact - with more possession and pressure from Rovers. On also came Roque for Jason Roberts - and the chances started to stack up. In fact the stats show that Rovers and Villa had 8 shots each on target - and Blackburn 9 off target - one more than the visitors. There seemed a real chance that an equaliser would come - but with four minutes of time added on it was Agbonlahor who found the target in the 91st minute. So 2-0 to Villa - and an acceptance from the Blackburn manager that the best team won on the day. He told RADIO ROVERS:- "We were going to have to be at our best to get anything out of today. They are very good in possession and exceptionally good out of possession...." On penalty decisions he said: - "I didn't see anything blatant. Sometimes they can go for you and sometimes they can go against you."
After nine games undefeated under Allardyce, the tenth wasn't to be! Blackburn stayed third bottom with West Brom beaten by Newcastle, and Middlesbrough losing away at Manchester City. Above Rovers Stoke lost at Sunderland, and Portsmouth saw Liverpool come from behind to go top with a 3-2 win. A dozen player fly away on international duty to return next Saturday to meet Coventry City in Round 5 of the FA Cup at Ewood Park. (February 7th 2009)
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AMAZING AARON - BRILLIANT BENNI
Rovers in to FA Cup 5th round - eventually!
Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Sunderland (AET)
It took until the 117th minute for Rovers to find the winning goal and knock Suderland out of this years FA Cup. Along the way Ewood was treated to a 'wonder goal' from Aaron Mokoena - his first since 2007 - also in the FA Cup! Rovers had started well - testing the Black Cats keeper Craig Gordon within minutes of the start - but then David Healy surprised the home fans with a goal for the visitors after just 6 minutes. This lifted the North East lads - and Blackburn seemed to struggle to find a reply. But half an hour later Mokoena scored the equaliser that Big Sam thought might be goal of the season! Roque started the game and almost made it two just after the break. And despite testing Gordon and bringing on Benni to replace the Paraguayan - 90 minutes arrive with the score still at 1-1. Extra time on offer, and for the first 15 minutes Rovers seemed to loose all pace and composer. Penalties looked more & more likely. The final 15 had just 3 minutes to run when McCarthy was there to convert Carlos Villaneuva's cross and carry Rovers through to the next round. Just 10,112 fans were there to see it - but a memorable long night also saw Big Sam go 9 games undefeated. He told reporters:- "It was a good performance with the right result at the end. Perhaps it will give us the impetus we need in the league. We kept peppering their goal but Craig Gordon made some unbelievable saves. We made a lot of changes to give some players a rest so we have not done too bad. However there are a lot of tired minds and tired legs in the dressing room."
So it's Blackburn v Coventry City at Ewood on St. Valentines day at 3.00. Next up a tougher league test - at home to Aston Villa this weekend. (February 4th 2009)
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DEADLINE DAY DONE
Ins and Outs for the January window
The biggest news of the day - was the move that DIDN'T happened - Roque Santa Cruz remains a Rovers player! Big Sam talked on BBC RADIO LANCASHIRE about what an important talisman the striker is for the team - and no doubt how please he is that the window is now CLOSED! Sam told SKY "in this window, there was no clause in his contract whatsoever for him to leave Blackburn Rovers. "

El Hadji Diouf heads the list of big signings for the mid season window ... he joined from Sunderland for an undisclosed fee. Meanwhile young striker Nick Blackman joined from Macclesfield at the start of the window ... and Gael Givet came in on loan from Marseilles.
Leaving Rovers was Eddie Nolan who made a permanent move to PNE and Jamie Clarke moving to Rotherham. Going out on loan was fans favorite Matt Derbyshire, making a move to Olympiakos for the rest of the season, and Frank Fielding is now at Rochdale. Now the little matter of - the rest of the season, and staying in the Premier League. (February 2nd 2009)
bbc.co.uk (deadline day latest) ALSO skysports.com

EMERTON COULD HAVE LONG LAY OFF
Brett injury worries
Rovers Australian International Brett Emerton could miss the rest of the season if some of today's paper reports are correct. Brett went off injured at The Riverside on Saturday (replaced by David Dunn) - and reports suggest that it could be a cruciate ligament injury. The DAILY MAIL say that he's been given permission to fly home for surgery ... facts not confirmed locally .... If the news is true it would be a bitter blow for the player and team. He's been an invaluable member of the starting eleven - playing both right back and in mid field. (February 2nd 2009)
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JASON ROBERTS

EIGHT GAMES UNDEFEATED
But just a point at The Riverside
Middlesbrough 0-0 Blackburn Rovers
The afternoon started with the news that Stoke city had pushed Rovers back down into the bottom three with their win over Manchester City. That made it all the more important for Blackburn to collect all three points. And although they certainly created the chances - they just couldn't find the back of the 'Boro net. There were enforced substitutions when Tugay had to replace the injured Keith Andrews just before the break ... and David Dunn came on for an injured Brett Emerton just after.
The final change saw Jason Roberts on for Benni McCarthy and the striker almost brought the points home with two great chances in the final moments - but Brad Jones was on hand to save the home side. Andrews and Roque Santa Cruz both came close before the interval. Despite the clean sheet and undefeated run - what frustrated Big Sam was the inability to get a reward for some hard work. He told reporters:- "We produced several opportunities and we should have won the game and this is happening too often when chances are going begging. We are not burying the opposition when we are on top and as a result we have found ourselves in the bottom six. I'm pleased that we have kept out unbeaten run going but we should have far more wins in this period."
The result leaves Rovers with 23 points from 23 games and third bottom of the table on goal difference. Next up in the league are high flying Aston Villa who come to Ewood next Saturday ... but first it's the FA cup replay on Wednesday night at home to Sunderland. (January 31st 2009)
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