Rovers 1-1 Tottenham: Vogel, MGP and Highlights

By: Jim | April 5th, 2008

MGP take 3 New signing Johann Vogel was thrust into the Ewood spotlight for today’s game against Spurs. Having been with the team for less than a month and having not played a competitive match in about 10 months, it was clear Hughes had all confidence in his new singing.

The game started off extremely rough. A goal in the 7th minute that can only be blamed on poor defending started off the day on the wrong foot. Jenas played the ball into Berbatov who put it home. Rovers could have forced an offside with some heads up defending, but replays show the correctly call was made. The Rovers defense looked in shambles as Spurs were cutting in and out of them for the better part of the first 30 minutes.

Then right on the half hour mark, and admittedly against the run of play, Rovers equalized. A ball played from the midfield down the right Bentley was superbly played by the England international. The first touch and control on the run was world class as he just flat out beats Chimbonda before puling back to set the ball in for Gamst. Gamst slotted it home with class and the game was level.

With the game on level terms, Rovers pulled a complete 180 with RSC having a chance right after the goal. Despite the early possession control and dominance by Spurs, Blackburn clearly looked the better side by halftime; a halftime I might add that came at a terrible time as the momentum of the game was demanding another goal with some good chances for the home side and the continuation of the confusing refereeing decisions.

The second half looked a bit more level as neither team was dominating as clearly as had been seen in the first half. Both teams let the play open up and exchanged chances back and forth, some good with good keeping to match, other chances not so good. It was also the half of inconsistency as the linesman who had hardly raised a finger against Spurs in the first half could wait to throw his arm up in the second half. Then climb in the count of questionable calls hit is pinnacle where after some absolutely absurd calls, a penalty was denied to Rovers after Bents was taken down. Where he was taken down and how he was fouled is apparently open for debate but I’ll try to get a clip of it. Lets just say that I’ve seen them given for less.

The rest of the game was much of the same though we had some late chances we just couldn’t seem to convert. With the push for Europe in full force, we can be happy I suppose at getting points but with an Aston Villa win today, those are going to be two points we might live to rue. Also, Vogel had a very solid opening performance with few mistakes and a few good passes. It’ll be promising to see how he progresses. Check back in a few days when we’ll have a list of pre-end-of-the-season pluses and minuses, all the good and the bad before the season ends and we change everything up. Until next time, Up the Rovers!

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