Time for the Rovers to step up!

Rovers face their third daunting away trip on the spin on Saturday evening as they head over to the Theatre of Arrogance, sorry, I mean dreams. But I am laying the gauntlet down now, to lay to rest the ghost of Stamford Bridge.

Never before have I been so deflated, so upset as I was last week at watching a perfectly capable footballing side make a great Chelsea side look better than they actually are.

But the chance is there for the Rovers to make a mark and get the confidence back in the veins. It is just as tough to play Chelsea as it is Man United but a better performance than last week will see some pride restored.

Opposing teams used to not enjoy the luxury of looking forward to playing us, but after last week United will view us as easy pickings, something Rovers have been anything but for the last five or so years.

I am not expecting miracles, I never in a million years would expect Rovers to go to Old Trafford, keep a clean sheet and walk away with a convincing 3-0 win – thats not going to happen. But what I do expect is a committed, thursty performance with closing down, plenty of energy and BELIEF that we can get something if the high standards that we all know Rovers can hit if they play their best.

We are good enough for anyone at home at the moment, surely we can replicate that in some way away from base? Anyone, who is laughing at that ‘good enough for anyone comment’, please take time to watch a video of our recent game at home to a red hot Aston Villa side. We stopped them playing, over powered them, ultimately outmanouvered/out played them and got our rewards, even whilst playing the last 30 minutes with ten men.

The team also need to be sent out on away days with the mentality that we can do better than 0-0. We can do that – sometimes I feel it is Big Sam that needs convincing otherwise, not the fans. By all means, we need to set out to frustrate for the first thirty minutes, heck even the first half will do as the ‘big club’s’ home fans will get on the players back.

Fans have seen both the Arsenal and Chelsea games away from Ewood Park recently and if we are going to go down to defeat I would much rather witness the Rovers that were at the Emirates than at the Bridge. The Blackburn that were at the Emirates lost 6-2 but anyone who saw that game came away saying ‘fair enough, Arsenal were great and deserved to win but Rovers showed them no respect, got in their faces and went blood and thunder – they only lost the game in the last twenty minutes.’ I think I can speak for us all when I say if we are going to go down, lets go down like that.

Players such as Brett Emerton, El Hadji Diouf, Ryan Nelsen and Morten Gamst Pedersen are far too good a players to accept another hiding like they got last week.

Your pride is on the line guys, the fans deserve better than that disgrace we were served up last week. A good win over Peterborough is fair enough but it doesn’t restore parity – a good performance at Old Trafford will though. Most importantly and finally, this is where you earn your money Big Sam, unleash the beast in the Blue and White Army.