Goals are everyone's problem on the road, says Blackburn Rovers boss

11:00am Saturday 13th March 2010

By Andy Cryer

SAM Allardyce’s managerial career has never previously seen him bothered by travel sickness, but the Rovers boss believes it is no mystery why so many Premier League bosses are also experiencing the ailment for the first time.

Blackburn Rovers face Tottenham this lunchtime searching for just their second away win of the campaign and, with November’s solitary win at Bolton achieved with Allardyce sidelined by illness, ‘Big Sam’ is desperate to break his own personal drought on the road as soon as possible.

So far this season just two sides out of the bottom 10 have won more than two games on the road, and they only have three successes to their name, with Allardyce confident he can put his finger on the reasons – a lack of goals.

No side in the bottom half of the table have scored more than 15 goals away from home, with the majority lacking a prolific goal scorer, and Allardyce insists it is that that is proving costly.

He said: “It is an incredible number of teams who are struggling to win away from home this season. Our reason is, if I could put that right I would have done, we haven’t scored enough goals when we have had the chances.

“The old adage is get a goal whether you deserve it or not and 80 per cent of the time you are not going to lose if you get the first one. We haven’t managed to do that on regular occasions and I think that is the problem throughout the league - a lack of goal scorers.

“The only one who overshadows that is Benty at Sunderland. He has 18 and if we had Benty with 18 we would be top six probably. Steve Bruce is the only man who has had one there in the lower end.

“Everybody in that bottom 10 or down look at their goal scorers and they are still all very much in single figures. In our case medium single figures.”

David Dunn remains Rovers’ top scorer in the Premier League, with just five goals, with most of their Premier League rivals also suffering from the same problem, despite what Allardyce describes as a drop in defensive standards.

“Strikers are harder to find,” he said. “I actually think the Premier League has been more open than I have ever seen it. I think it has lost that defensive edge it used to have a few years ago.

“Defending now is nowhere near as good as it used to be. It makes the game more open and makes more opportunities to score goals.

“But we haven’t found one to take them and neither have a lot of other clubs.

“I will never have been through a season without an away win, I’m sure. In fact most of the time my record as a manager is better away than at home for long periods of time.

“I just keep hoping the performance levels remain up there and I’m sure they will bring a victory or two. We have had some really average performances and we have been well punished but that has been mainly against the big clubs.”

Rovers’ White Hart Lane clash today though will see them come up against Tottenham’s own explosive forward line.

While Allardyce was left unable to increase his firepower options in January, his Spurs counterpart Harry Redknapp was able to offload Robbie Keane, with the likes of Jermain Defoe, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Peter Crouch and Eidur Gudjohnsen all battling for a place.

Crouch downed Rovers at Ewood Park earlier this campaign, with both goals in a 2-0 defeat, and Allardyce insists the lanky forward man has done more than enough to secure his World Cup place.

He said: “You go on ratio to goals per game, don’t you? Then you look at what he can outside the box as well. He can lead the line and score goals for you. What more do you want?

“It is getting a bit greedy if you want more than that, isn’t it? I think his contribution in the Premier League and for England has been excellent over the last couple of years.”