How I saw it

[Olgrligm]

Ratings first:

Sorensen - 8 Bit bizarre seeing as they didn't have a shot on target, but he dealt very, very well with their aerial threat.
Carlos Alberto - 7 - Sturdy, twice the player he was 12 months ago but couldn't resist trying to kill Diouf.
Shawcross - 8
Faye - 9 MotM
Higginbotham - 7

Lawrence - 7
Whelan - 8
Delap - 8
Etherington - 6

Beattie - 6

Fuller - 7

Well, how about that? Sam Allardyce's Blackburn came out and produced a near perfect reproduction of the 'Tony Pulis away game relegation firefighting display'. Remember when Plymouth came to visit with Pulis as manager and Boskamp in our dugout? No ambition to score a goal, just happy to kill the game dead and block out the opposition. By and large, they did a good job of this. Not out of the Tony Pulis book of management was Allardyce's active encouragement of Diouf's diving, Mokoena and Pederson leading with the elbows and the general play-acting antics of most of the other Blackburn players. The hard play I can appreciate, but the outright cheating is nothing short of despicable. A better referee would have had a number of Blackburn players into the book. Still, Blackburn made a decent fist of making the game die a horrible death (where's all their bad press, eh?) and we struggled to break them down. I think they should be able to pull away if they can pick up some points on the road playing like that.

By hell, I'd love us to sign Paul Robinson next season, unlikely as it is. Imagine having Rory launching in throw and Robinson smacking the ball into the box whenever there was a free-kick given for offside. Blackburn seemed to be looking to utilise his monster kick and I don't blame them one bit. I think that if we sent some big players forward, we could make a real, real weapon out of that.

Etherington. Hmm. Is this the double edged sword of our tiny pitch. Can we turn it into a trapezium, but change which side the wider side is each half? He looked pretty poor today, a bit of a one trick player - knock the ball ahead of himself, then catch up with it with his lightning pace. The Blackburn players worked him out though and easily coped with him. Brazil worked him out the other week as well, but when he played an easy ball back he then found himself getting into better positions in attack, resulting in him getting a very good chance on the break that he should have put away. I think he's going to have to adapt his game.

Is Lawrence carrying a knock? He too had a poor game in the first half, much improved in the second, but he looked like he was pulling out of every single challenge where he would have to stretch. He's not quite all there yet, but it was a very well taken goal. Good to see him getting into the positions where he scored all those goals last season, he took the ball around his man very well.

I thought we were mostly on top today but we again struggled to break them down, like Newcastle. I say that, against Newcastle we actually created chances and didn't take them. It's a sign of improvement that teams are coming to us set up for a draw, though, and that we've played against a team who didn't get a single shot on target in.

I gave Sorensen an 8 today. He was really dominant in the air and I think that had Simonsen been in goal we would have conceded today. Sorensen wasn't afraid to come out, though, and there were no clangers. Got either a firm catch or a solid punch to each ball into the box, very impressive and absolutely critical for us.

Don't know what the hell was up with our fans in the first half. The tension set in, I think. Only Block 19 seemed interesting in creating any atmosphere in the first half. Blackburn's following were very vocal though, impressive. Backed their team all the way through the game. I hope this is a warning to people to put an end to all this self congratulatory backpatting the fans nonsense and get on with the business of actually making an atmosphere.

I don't want to end on a sour note though, it was a very good result for us but I'm not putting us down as safe yet. I want us to keep picking up points until the end of the season, but today was a massive, massive step and I'm delighted we've taken the opportunity.

[powchirper]

The way the trainer was treating Liam in the warm-up reminded me of the physio i had on my back probs a few years back.

edit, good read that by the way.

[Olgrligm]

So a back problem then? I think he was holding his back when he went down after a 50-50 ball on the touchline early on.