Blackburn Rovers blog: Spurs defeat carried few positives

4:00pm Tuesday 16th March 2010

By John Myles

SAM Allardyce was asked by the Sky Sports presenter if he took any positives from Rovers latest away day defeat at Tottenham.

If I’d have been asked that question immediately after witnessing the game I think I would have answered: “Yes, it lasted only 93 minutes.”

I find it difficult to agree with our manager’s view that we had played well although to be fair he did go on to say that our defensive performance was poor and all three goals were down to basic defensive mistakes.

With the possible exceptions of Niko Kalinic and Chris Samba, I can’t think of any Rovers player who performed ‘well’ (we will excuse Paul Robinson, too, who did nothing wrong before his injury exit).

Our two full-backs in particular were woefully inadequate. Michel Salgado just couldn’t live with Gareth Bale’s pace, and it seemed that Pascal Chimbonda had set up his own iron curtain to prevent him getting anywhere near Roman Pavlyuchenko, who actually had a poor game but would have bagged a hat-trick if it wasn’t for Samba’s athletic clearance near the end.

The great pity was that we had a good penalty shout (it does help Dunny if you appeal for them) and the goal of the game for Kalinic ruled out by dodgy refereeing decisions.

Harry Redknapp was as upset by decisions, including a nailed on penalty not given for Spurs, so I don’t think on this occasion Howard Webb’s wayward whistle would have made any difference to the outcome.

Once again we have to accept clear evidence that against the top seven or eight sides we are simply not good enough.

I hope that Rovers will buck the trend in our encounter with Chelsea on Sunday, but I won’t be putting any money on it.

My disappointment at our present performance was slightly eased by reading an article about Rovers’ past in this month’s FourFourTwo magazine (I understand Sam will only buy it if it renames itself FourFiveOne!).

Dubbed, ‘The Amazing Inside Story of Blackburn Rovers’ Title-Winning Season’, I commend it to all fans but especially to those who might have been a little too young, uncommitted or daft to fully appreciate just what a fantastic achievement it was for a small town team who only a few years before were forced to fish balls out of the River Darwen and cut down on the milk bill to save money to beat the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal to the Premiership title.

The article recognises that without Jack Walker it would not have been possible. Reading it, I was reminded of that line from Jonie Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi, ‘Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’

That applies today just as it did then. We may no longer be in the running for the title but we remain a Premier League side.

For those who remember the Third Division days of struggling to pay the milkman, we will not take it for granted and nor should any Rovers fan.