Blackburn Rovers blog: Trotters win such a tonic for Allardyce

4:20pm Tuesday 24th November 2009

By John Myles

I'm sure I speak for all Rovers fans in wishing Big Sam a speedy recovery from his forthcoming heart surgery.

If contrary to doctor’s orders (and I’d like to think that Sam’s the sort of guy who takes little notice of such orders) he caught Rovers victory over Bolton Wanderers on the telly it must have put him in good spirits for the treatment ahead of him.

Our second-half performance in particular suggested that if any local team is going to flirt with relegation this term it will be the Trotters.

In winning our second local derby of the season, and at the same time getting that monkey off our back of successive away defeats, Rovers posted a clear sign that while we may not be able to compete with the very best in the Premier League, when it comes to locking horns with those clubs traditionally seen as our natural rivals we can more than hold our own.

We are now top of the bottom half of the table! Surely that happy day when we overtake Burnley cannot be far away? It might even arrive tomorrow evening against Fulham when we play our ‘game in hand’.

A good result against Roy Hodgson’s boys and a win at home against Stoke on Saturday would have Rovers fans eyeing a European place but let’s get the points in the bag first and not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Certainly, if Dunny can maintain his present form which has bagged him half a dozen goals from midfield already, we have every chance of continuing on the up. Sunday’s game proved he could still be effective in a 4-4-2 formation.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on Thierry Henry’s ‘Hand of Frog’ goal that ended Keith Andrews and his Ireland team-mates’ hopes of playing in South Africa next summer.

Whatever you think about Henry’s role in the drama, any alleged cheating pales into insignificance against the pre-meditated and brutally self-serving decision by FIFA to seed the play-off draw in order that the big nations could avoid playing each other. Scandalous!

That game has also revived the ongoing debate about using video technology. I personally believe it’s bizarre that football, unlike most other high-profile sports, refuses to embrace TV playbacks to assist the referee in correctly determining crucial result changing decisions.

Of course, it would have to be carefully controlled and there are still those who feel it would take something away from the post-match debates that we all like to indulge in if there was less controversy to argue about.

On balance, however, I would suggest that some limited video refereeing is long overdue and why not start with the World Cup finals?