Blackburn Rovers - Buying British only

kslall14

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Well, this is my first story on here and I've decided to do it on FM 12, even though no one cares about it anymore. The challenge of this story is to only buy players and staff that are British, but I've decided to also be allowed to have Irish and Northern Irish players/staff. Otherwise, I would probably fail this because by no means am I an FM god. I used the name 'Monty Panesar' because I didn't want to use my actual name but also, he's a British-Asian so the Indian owners will be happy he's Indian and he's British so he can be in the team. Also, my manager will have a 'Sunday League Footballer' reputation to make it a bit more difficult. The aims I've picked for myself are to:

  • Win a domestic cup
  • Qualify for the Europa League
  • Qualify for Champions League
  • Win the Premier League
  • Win the Champions League
I picked Blackburn because I don't really remember playing against them when my saves (as Man Utd) so it would be a nice challenge to pick a team that struggles to stay in the league. So Blackburn - founded in 1875, Blackburn Rovers are... blah, blah, blah. Basically, the owner is poor (transfer budget of £0 and wage budget of £475k) and the media think I'll finish 15th.

I actually believe this is going to be hard as the club is already over the wage budget and British players are overpriced and overhyped. The staff are actually pretty good, well the coaches anyway. The scouts are something you would expect from a League 2 team.
 
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The squad Stevo assembled is pretty poor. Needs serious improvement if I want to at least win a cup. Already put a couple of bids in for players using the cheeky (and slightly cheating) monthly instalment method
That's the poor squad and the tactics I will be using for the first season, and probably a couple of more seasons
 
Pre-season:

Well, it didn't go as I had planned. As you can see in the screenshot below, I had trouble getting the results I wanted. I wanted to play the beautiful passing game (hence why I bought Allen) but the team was not used to it. In some of those games, the team played well such as the win against Panathinikos but then played rubbish, like against one of those Championship teams.
Just after the Panathinaikos game, Wolves bought Hoilett for £10mil (his release clause) so I bought some players :) Spent a bit too much but I reckon I could get a respectable finish in the league with this team and a decent cup run too. Skipped the game against the Indian team so next game against Bolton will be my first game with the new recruits. Had to slightly alter my tactics so this will probably be my first team squad

 
August:

Well, the possession tactic isn't working as planned so before the Bolton game, I changed to a more counter-attacking game. Seems to be working as we take 5 points from 3 games in the league. Doesn't sound like much but we came up against giants Chelsea and moneybags QPR. We also have progressed in the League Cup and will vs Everton in the 3rd Round at Ewood Park.

On the transfers front, there has been quite a few ins as I had to sell my star player for any sort of transfer and wage money.The squad is now looking decent so I will be aiming for roughly 12th place in the league. But as I was searching for players, it came to my attention that the challenge is actually more difficult than I first thought. It seemed easy but looking closely into it, the quality players that I would need to get into the Champions League are all playing for big teams, on big wages - something that I cannot afford any time soon...

Blackburn vs Bolton (14/8/11): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Simpson; Gamst Pedersen (sub Gunter 78), N'Zonzi, Allen, Formica; Vukcevic (sub Marcus Olsson 66); Yakubu (sub Goodwillie 66)

Score:
1-0

Goals:
Goodwillie - 70 mins (1-0)

Truth be told, it was a poor game. Evenly balanced, but a lucky victory for me. It had nil-nil written all over it. I don't know if the players don't like listening to instructions, or if it's because of my Sunday League reputation, or even if they're just plain racist but they just didn't listen to me.

Chelsea vs Blackburn (20/8/11): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Givet, Hanley, Dann, Simpson (sub Gunter 51); Martin Olsson, N'Zonzi, Spearing (sub Petrovic 66), Gamst Pedersen; Vukcevic (sub Formica 66); Goodwillie

Score:
1-1

Goals:
Drogba - 42 mins (1-0)
Gamst Pedersen - 72 mins (1-1)

Played for a draw from the outset. Went for a defensive formation and to look for chances on the break and set-pieces which worked... sort of. Chelsea dominated the first half but we took the game to them in the second half. Pedersen scored a banger from about 25-30 yards in the top left corner. But the biggest disappointment is the injury of Simpson in only his 2nd game (out for 3-4 moths with a torn calf).

Brentford vs Blackburn (23/8/11): [2nd Round League Cup]


Team:
Bunn; Gunter, Hanley, Pearson, Orr (sub Ramm 68); Marcus Olsson, Lowe, Petrovic, Rochina; Formica (sub Morris 77); Yakubu (sub Modeste 68)

Score:
0-2

Goals:
Moore og - 46 mins (0-1)
Modeste - 90+1 mins (0-2)

A decent game for us. We played well and had a shedload of chances but couldn't hit the target (7 shots on target out of 25). We even hit the woodwork 4 times!

Blackburn vs QPR (27/8/11): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Gunter; Gamst Pedersen, Allen, Spearing, Formica; Vukcevic (sub Rochina 71); Yakubu (sub Modeste 68)

Score:
1-1

Goals:
Dann - 27 mins (1-0)
Cisse - 38 (1-1)

Pretty even game. We had more chances but they had the better chances. Overall, a draw is a fair result.

Joe Allen got 3rd place in the Young Player of the Month award

P.S: the gold highlight on the names indicate they received a yellow card. A red hightlighted name would therefore mean they got sent off
 
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September:

This month was pretty good, I think anyway. We're starting to play better as a team and I have finally found someone to solve the problem of a lack of goals. However, we lost David Goodwillie for 2 months because of an injury he picked up on Scotland duty. We also progressed in the cup, where we'll play Sunderland in the 4th round of the League Cup at home.

Stoke vs Blackburn (10/8/2011): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Gunter; Hammill, N'Zonzi, Petrovic (sub Allen 45), Rochina; Formica (sub Gamst Pedersen 74); Modeste (sub Yakubu 78)

Score:
0-0

Goals:
None

Went for height against Stoke so couldn't pick the players I actually wanted to. I'll use that as an excuse for the 0-0 draw. It was a really boring game - I just ended up doing some maths homework instead of watching the game. Petrovic got injured in the game for a few days. Oh yeah, and Modeste missed a penalty!

Blackburn vs Aston Villa (17/9/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Gunter (sub Orr 65); Gamst Pedersen (sub Marcus Olsson 72), Allen, Spearing, Hammill; Formica; Rochina

Score:
2-0

Goals:
Rochina - 29 mins (1-0)
Formica pen - 54 mins (2-0)

For once we played good and won. Despite the counter attacking style of play, we had more possession .. somehow. Seems as if Villa are playing like they are in real life. The only bad point of the game was that our penalty was a soft one.

Blackburn vs Everton (21/9/2011): [3rd Round League Cup]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Hanley, Orr; Marcus Olsson, N'Zonzi, Spearing (sub Cotton 60), Gamst Pedersen; Formica (sub Rochina 101); Yakubu (sub Modeste)

Score:
1-1 (3-2 on penalties)

Goals:
Marcus Olsson - 23 mins (1-0)
Coleman - 84 mins (1-1)

I really wanted to win a cup this season so I played some big guns, well, some first team players. Still had to rest a couple of players because of the big games coming up. It was an even game but it went to penalties, which I dread so much. We won so the gamble paid off, just.

Liverpool vs Blackburn (25/9/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Gunter; Gamst Pedersen (sub Yakubu 66), Allen, Spearing, Hammill; Formica; Rochina

Score: 3-2

Goals:
Agger - 3 mins (1-0)
Dempsey - 19 mins (2-0)
Rochina - 47 mins (2-1)
Bellamy - 56 mins (3-1)
Rochina - 75 mins (3-2)

They dominated us completely but we did counter them well. Rochina played a blinder. Don't know how I forgot about his goal-scoring talent as he was an absolute beast in one of my previous saves.


Rochina won the Young Player of the Month award.
 
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October:

This month started off badly but ended wonderfully as we progress in the cup and are still in the top half of the league. A couple of injuries have forced me to over-play some players but it's gooood (Bruce Almighty style). In the quarter-final on the League Cup, we will play Fulham at home. I also sent a few youngsters on loan during the month.

Blackburn vs Man Utd (1/10/2011): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Gunter; Gamst Pedersen, N'Zonzi, Allen, Hammill (sub Yakubu 64); Formica; Rochina

Score:
0-1

Goals:
Vidic - 17 mins (0-1)

They fully deserved the victory. The completely and utterly dominated us. Rooney got 2 yellow cards and was sent off at 70 mins, but we couldn't find a goall. In fact, they had more chances than us even with 10 men. They also had a goal marginally ruled out for offside. Adam Hammill got injured for 5-6 weeks in the match with strained knee ligaments.

Newcastle vs Blackburn (15/10/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Gunter; Gamst Pedersen, Allen (sub Petrovic 68), N'Zonzi, Formica (Yakubu 68); Vukcevic; Rochina

Score:
4-0

Goals:
Cisse - 14 mins (1-0)
Gutierrez - 22 mins (2-0)
Cisse - 56 mins (3-0)
Coloccini - 60 mins (4-0)

I was absolutely disgusted when I saw the result. It was one of those games where you'd rage quit and re-play the match. We defended horribly and rightly got steam-rolled by Newcastle. (Because I don't know where to put this, I'll put this here. Spearing got injured for 3-4 weeks in training a day after the match).

Wigan vs Blackburn (22/10/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Dann, Salgado (sub Orr 75); Martin Olsson, Allen (sub Dunn 75), Grella, Gamst Pedersen; Formica, Rochina

Score:
1-2

Goals:
Rochina - 13 mins (0-1)
McCarthy - 24 mins (1-1)
Rochina - 50 mins (1-2)

We played wonderfully here. Counter attacking football at its very best. Ruben Rochina was reminiscent of Torres, when he was at Liverpool. However, the defence were acting like strangers, which is why they scored their goal.

Blackburn vs Sunderland (26/10/2011): [4th Round League Cup]


Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Hanley, Orr; Marcus Olsson, N'Zonzi, Petrovic, Gamst Pedersen (sub Formica 69); Dunn (sub Vukcevic 30); Rochina (sub Yakubu 69)

Score:
2-1

Goals:
Marcus Olsson - 33 mins (1-0)
Givet - 90+1 mins (2-0)
Ji Dong-Won - 90+3 mins (2-1)

We dominated them. They struggled to defend against us, especially after Lee Cattermole got sent off for them in the 18th minute. However, we should have scored more against them. We fell asleep after the 2nd goal, so the capitalised to score a consolation goal. Dunn got injured for 5-6 weeks in the match, just after coming back from a serious injury.

Blackburn vs Tottenham (31/10/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Dann, Salgado (sub Orr 74); Martin Olsson (sub Marcus Olsson 65), Allen, Grella, Gamst Pedersen; Formica; Rochina

Score:
3-0

Goals:
Dann - 47 mins (1-0)
Dann - 61 mins (2-0)
Rochina - 86 mins (3-0)

Brilliant. Just brilliant. We were fantastic against Spurs. Tottenham had a horror show against us and their defence were scared of us, if you pardon the pun (check date). They couldn't lay a finger on us throughout the game. They did score a goal that was marginally offside, literally centre-metres offside. We were pretty lucky though as both of Scott Dann's goals came through luck. The first was a corner which hit Joe Allen's head and then rebounded off Dann's head to go in. The second goal was a corner that was passed to Allen and he had a shot which hit Dann and went in. Harry Redknapp got sacked after losing the match.

Ruben Rochina won Young Player of the Month for the 2nd time in a row. Alan Pardew also got sacked earlier in the month.
 
November:

This month didn't exactly go to plan. Out of a possible 9 points, we only took 2. All of the games were pretty close but we just didn't have the cutting edge. A few of the many injured people have returned, sort of. Hopefully with more players available next month, I can move up the table and get into the semi-finals of the League Cup.

Fulham vs Blackburn (6/11/2011): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Dann, Salgado (sub Orr 67); Martin Olsson, Allen (sub Petrovic 67), N'Zonzi, Gamst Pedersen; Formica; Rochina

Score:
3-1

Goals:
Gamst Pedersen - 50 mins (0-1)
Robinson og - 55 mins (1-1)
Hughes - 60 mins (2-1)
Ruiz - 76 mins (3-1)

It was an annoying loss. We were pretty even but they took their chances and we didn't. They even got lucky with the Robinson own goal as their shot hit the bar and went in off Robinson's back. Anyway, we still defended badly.

Blackburn vs Swansea (19/11/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Salgado; Morris (sub Hammill 70), Allen, N'Zonzi, Gamst Pedersen; Formica; Rochina

Score:
1-1

Goals:
Sinclair - 32 mins (0-1)
Rochina - 89 mins (1-1)

Well, we had 16 shots but only 3 on target. Says it all really.

Wolves vs Blackburn (26/11/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Givet, Hanley, Dann, Gunter; Martin Olsson, Allen, Grella, Gamst Pedersen (sub Hammill 75); Formica (sub Yakubu 70); Rochina

Score:
1-1

Goals:
Kightly - 21 mins (1-0)
Martin Olsson - 23 mins (1-1)

We err... we could have erm... we could have played much better. I was so frustrated at my team because we were just horrible this month. They couldn't do anything right.

Allen and Rochina got 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, in the Young Player of the Month award. Morten Gamst Pedersen won the Goal of the Month award. Also, Alan Shearer took charge of Newcastle and Michael Laudrup is the new manager of Tottenham.
 
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December:

So, December. A month of two halves. It started off well but the last 2 games sort of ruined the month, especially the Sunderland one :mad: We still cannot finish chances as we lost many points because of easy chances missed and a lack of teamwork - players choosing to shoot when it would be a better choice to pass to a team-mate. Finally most of my injured players are back but yet again, David Dunn had gotten injured on his return from injury. I've almost given up hope on him. In the FA Cup 3rd Round, we drew Huddersfield and we drew QPR for the League Cup semis.

Blackburn vs Norwich (3/12/2011): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Hanley, Dann, Orr; Martin Olsson, N'Zonzi, Grella (sub Lowe 60), Pedersen; Formica; Rochina (sub Yakubu 68)

Score:
3-0

Goals:
Marin Olsson - 65 mins (1-0)
Yakubu - 69 mins (2-0)
Martin Olsson - (3-0)

My biggest win yet! Martin Olsson was absolutely brilliant here. He scored 2 and assisted 1! I'll take some credit for the win after the hairdryer treatment I gave them at half-time. Yakubu also has finally scored his first goal for us.

Blackburn vs Fulham (7/12/2011): [League Cup Quarter Final]

Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Dann, Simpson (sub Salgado 67); Marcus Olsson, N'Zonzi, Spearing, Pedersen; Formica (sub Vukcevis 67); Yakubu (sub Modeste 90)

Score:
1-0 (after extra-time)

Goals:
Vukcevic - 92 mins (1-0)

We only started playing properly when the game went into extra time - when the game became end-to-end football. We should have won the game earlier though as Formica rounds the keeper but shoots and hits the side-netting.

West Brom vs Blackburn (10/12/2011): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Simpson (sub Orr 75), Givet, Hanley, Salgado; Martin Olsson, Allen (sent off 51), Grella, Hammill; Formica (sub Lowe 65); Rochina

Score:
3-1

Goals:
Rochina - 54 mins (0-1)
Long - 60 mins (1-1)
Mulumbu - 83 mins (2-1)
Odemwingie - 89 mins (3-1)

Joe Allen got sent off for an elbow on someone's face but from the rubbish camera angles I didn't see anything wrong. Still got warned by the FA though. Back to the game, Rochina scored a Messi-like dribble and smashed it in for his goal. Thought I was gonna win it but West Brom were just too strong and quick for my defence to handle.

Man City vs Blackburn (17/12/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Martin Olsson, Givet, Dann, Simpson; Pedersen (sub Formica 69), N'Zonzi, Petrovic, Hammill; Rochina; Yakubu (sub Modeste 69)

Score:
1-1

Goals:
Yakubu - 25 mins (0-1)
Milner - 27 mins (1-1)

Great result! Yes we were completely outplayed but let's focus on the positives. I went for my trusty defensive tacitc for this match and it paid off. Paul Robinson was outstanding as he pulled out save after save. Yakubu scored a brilliant chip, from about 25 yards out, into the top corner.

Blackburn vs Everton (21/12/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Hanley, Dann, Simpson; Martin Olsson (sub Yakubu 65), Spearing, Grella (sub N'Zonzi 23), Pedersen; Formica; Rochina

Score:
1-0

Goals:
Formica - 9 mins (1-0)

We dominated them but we need to practice out shhoting. Too many chances were off target (only 1/4 were on target). Formica also missed an easy 1-on-1 with the keeper. Grella got injured for a few days.

Blackburn vs Sunderland (26/12/2011): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Simpson, Givet, Hanley, Orr; Martin Olsson, N'Zonzi, Spearing, Hammill; Formica; Yakubu (sub Goodwillie 70)

Score:
0-3

Goals:
Bendtner - 18 mins (0-1)
Wickham - 26 mins (0-2)
Kyrgiakos - 77 mins (0-3)

I decided to rest a few first team players for this match as Sunderland were last and I have Arsenal next and rather harshly, 2 days after that, I play Bolton. I feel like saying we were robbed because we had more shots etc. but that actually suggests we played good. To show how **** we played, Bendtner scored. Bendtner! And they were last. And Bendtner scored!

Arsenal vs Blackburn (31/12/2011): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Simpson, Givet, Hanley, Orr; Martin Olsson, N'Zonzi, Spearing, Hammill; Dunn (sub Formica 45+6), Rochina

Score:
2-1

Goals:
Van Persie - 19 mins (1-0)
Van Persie pen - 55 mins (2-0)
Givet - 77 mins (2-1)

Went back to the defensive tactic and almost worked. As always with this tactic, the opposition dominated us but we did have a decent spell of pressure towards the end of the game. Not too bothered about the loss as they're in the top 4 but my team is really starting to annoy me. They play resiliently against the big teams but play like kids against the weaker teams. Pedersen got injured for a couple of days.

No one won any awards this time around but there is other news. My reserve goalie, Mark Bunn, wants to leave for more first team football, Louis Van Gaal is the new AC Milan manager after Allegri got sacked, and Zvonimir Soldo replaces Martin O'Neill at Sunderland (probably this guy's fault I lost :mad:).
 
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Winter Transfer Update:
I'll probably do a proper update soon but I'm going to do a transfer update first, and then another update (probably tomorrow). Anyway, I've decided to do this update now because a lot of transfers happened during the January transfer window and it would be much easier to tell you about them in a separate update rather than trying to fit it into the normal update.
As you can see, a lot has happened this season. Firstly, Inter Milan came in with a bid of £12mil for Martin Olsson, which I just had to accept as it was a lot of money. Tottenham matched the bid and he decided to go to Spurs. That allowed me to buy some players. I bought Jake Livermore for under £3mil and he'll play in the first team. I also bought Neil Taylor off Swansea to replace Olsson. Had to pay £6mil, which I thought was a bit much, but we all know that British players all have a higher market value than they should. I was struggling to find wide players so I loaned in David Bentley until the end of the season. If he does good enough, I might take him on a free transfer as his contract is up at the end of the season. I've also got a few players coming in next season so I'll tell you about them when they actually arrive. Hopefully it'll give ya a reason to keep interest in the story! I also tried to get Gary Hooper and Rickie Lambert (this one was during the summer transfer window) but they both went to Sunderland. I'll just buy them when Sunderland get relegated.

That's the most expensive transfers this season in the Premier League. Unsurprisingly, Man City is first. They only got Ganso because I didn't load the Brazilian or the Argentine leagues.

That's the new tactic/team I'll be using for the rest of the season. Hoping to get in the top 10 with that team...
 
January:

I must admit, I'm pretty behind on these posts (I'm currently in April) so forgive me if there's not much content. This is mainly because I forgot what happened in the matches apart from a few bits of information I write down for every match. So, judging by the results in the fixtures, this was a bad month. We only won 2 games this month but surprisingly played 4 cup games and only 2 league games. I do remember that this month was a complete struggle as the new players had to try and gel in quickly, and the squad morale was generally bad. One good point was that we've increased our junior coaching to a 'satisfactory' level.

Bolton vs Blackburn (2/1/2012): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Simpson, Givet, Hanley, Salgado (sub Orr 76); Martin Olsson, Allen, Grella (sub Lowe 69), Formica; Vukcevic; Yakubu (sub Modeste 69)

Score:
0-1

Goals:
Wheater og - 86 mins (0-1)

It was an even game but we were sort of lucky to get the win. This was also Martin Olsson's last game for us.

Huddersfield vs Blackburn (7/1/2012): [FA Cup 3rd Round]


Team:
Bunn; Morris, Hanley (sent off 25), Dann, Orr; Marcus Olsson, Allen (sub Lowe 69), Spearing, Hammill (sun Dunn 63); Vukcevic (sub Givet 25), Goodwillie

Score:
1-1

Goals:
Hammill - 14 mins (0-1)
Spearing og - 77 mins (1-1)

It was a scrappy game but after Hanley got sent off in the 25th minute, it was very difficult to hold on to the lead. We ended the game with 9 men as Goodwillie got injured in the 83rd minute (out for 3-4 months with a torn calf muscle) and were struggling to hold on to the draw.

QPR vs Blackburn (10/1/2012): [League Cup Semi Final 1st Leg]

Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Dann (sub Petrovic 90+1), Simpson; Dunn (sub Yakubu 56), Allen (sub N'Zonzi 69), Grella, Pedersen; Formica; Rochina

Score:
2-1

Goals:
Derry - 21 mins (1-0)
Cisse - 46 mins (2-0)
Yakubu - 81 mins (2-1)

Erm, I'm guessing that we didn't play well because I know for a fact that we were struggling in this month. New signings Neil Taylor and Jake Livermore couldn't play because they were cup-tied.

Blackburn vs Chelsea (18/1/2012): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Taylor, Givet, Dann, Simpson; Pedersen, N'Zonzi, Livermore, Hammill; Rochina; Yakubu (sub Formica 67)

Score:
0-1

Goals:
Lampard - 23 mins (0-1)

Because it's one of the big fish in the league, we went for the defensive tactic. As you would expect, they had more possession etc. but we did have good chances. Yakubu missed a penalty in the 33rd minute and we also, in added time, we had a goal ruled out for offside. Robinson got a 9.2 rating and was man of the match.

Blackburn vs Huddersfield (21/1/2012): [FA Cup 3rd Round Replay]


Team:
Bunn; Morris, Hanley, Dann (sub Givet 66), Orr; Marcus Olsson, Lowe, Spearing, Dunn; Vukcevic (sub Formica 117); Modeste (sub Yakubu 90)

Score:
2-3 (after extra time)

Goals:
Marcus Olsson - 1 min (1-0)
Novak - 27 mins (1-1)
Modeste pen - 30 mins (2-1)
Woods - 84 mins (2-2)
Novak - 116 mins (2-3)

This game frustrated me so much! We were playing like children against them. Yes, I played a weaker team but it's still no excuse to lose that. But, on a positive note, Marcus Olsson scored a delightful chip from outside of the box.

Blackburn vs QPR (25/1/2012): [League Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg]


Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Dann, Simpson; Pedersen, Allen (sub N'Zonzi 90), Grella, Formica; Vukcevic (sub Yakubu 32); Rochina

Score:
2-1 (4-3 on penalties)

Goals:
Rochina - 11 mins
Pedersen - 48 mins
Wright-Phillips - 83 mins

Vukcevic got injured (out for a few weeks) so I had to chage my tactics around. Whether it helped me or not, I don't know and actually don't care because WE'RE THROUGH TO THE FINAL!!! We played better than them for the whole game but they scored some rubbish goal to take the game into extra time and then penalties. I mean, they only had 1 shot on tarhet, which was their goal. We did score a late goal in normal time but it was ruled out for offside. We almost lost it twice on penalties as they needed to do was score the next penatly, which they couldn't do. We'll play Tottenham in the final in March.

I'm pretty sure that's the right image. I took the screenshot a bit late so a game I played in February is counted in that table, if that makes sense. No one won any awards this month as we hardly played in the league.
 
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February:

First of all, I have to apologise for the lack of posts recently. I've very busy this past week so haven't really had much time to post (but I could play because I don't really need to pay attention during the games). But back to the story, and what a month this has been! But, and a massive but, I don't mean that in a good way. Out of the 5 games we played this month, we lost 3 of them. I'm pretty sure we lost ground on teams such as QPR but luckily we're still mid-table. I know I said the League Cup final was in March, but I checked and it was actually this month.

Blackburn vs Stoke (1/2/2012): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Taylor (sub Gunter 74), Givet, Dann, Simpson; Pedersen (sub Formica 68), Livermore (sub N'Zonzi 68), Allen, Bentley; Dunn; Rochina

Score:
4-1

Goals:
Rochina - 28 mins (1-0)
Rochina - 40 mins (2-0)
Bentley - 67 mins (3-0)
Rochina pen - 77 mins (4-0)
Walters - 79 mins (4-1)

What a great result! We played absolutely brilliantly here. Finally we were incisive in front of goal but we just had to concede yet again...

Blackburn vs Liverpool (4/2/2012): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Taylor, Givet, Dann, Simpson; Pedersen, N'Zonzi, Allen, Hammill (sub Dunn 65); Formica (sub Yakubu 65); Rochina

Score:
2-4

Goals:
Agger - 4 mins (0-1)
Suarez - 8 mins (0-2)
Keita - 17 mins (0-3)
Rochina - 25 mins (1-3)
Gerrard - 27 mins (1-4)
Dunn - 82 mins (2-4)

Never a dull game between us, eh? It was actually a pretty even game, although the scoreline doesn't reflect it. They just know how to finish chances off whereas we still can't! Agger scored a header against us again and both Gerrard's and Dunn's goals were bangers from about 30 yards out. On a more positive note, Rochina is a man on form as he followed up his hat-trick with a goal and an assist.

​QPR vs Blackburn (8/2/2012): [Premier League]

Team:
Robinson; Taylor, Givet, Hanley, Gunter; Pedersen, N'Zonzi, Livermore, Hammill (sub Ramm 76); Dunn (sub Formica 65); Rochina (sub Yakubu 76)

Score:
3-1

Goals:
Cisse - 8 mins (1-0)
Cisse - 15 mins (2-0)
Dunn - 38 mins (2-1)
Cisse - 77 mins (3-1)

I probably was annoyed or just plainly forgot but I didn't write anything about this match (see previous post to know why), so I'll just make it up with the limited information I have. They played slightly better than us according to the stats and Cisse played a blinder. Probably because of the tough schedule we had his month, we played poorly. We had to rest players and some... ******* players.

Aston Villa vs Blackburn (11/2/2012): [Premier League]


Team:
Robinson; Taylor, Givet, Dann, Simpson; Pedersen (sub Olsson 73), Allen, Grella, Bentley (sub Hammill 73); Formica; Rochina

Score
1-1

Goals:
Dann - 53 mins (0-1)
Heskey - 86 (1-1)

Argh! These defensive lapses are costing my team dearly. We've dropped quite a few points because of this. In fact, we could have been at least 1 or 2 places (at the end of the season) if we knew how to defend.

Blackburn vs Tottenham (26/2/2012): [League Cup Final]

Team:
Robinson; Gunter, Givet, Dann, Simpson; Olsson (sub Formica 68), Allen, Grella (sub N'Zonzi 71), Pedersen; Dunn; Rochina

Score:
0-3

Goals:
Adebayor - 24 mins (0-1)
Adebayor - 80 mins (0-2)
Parker - 90+1 mins (0-3)

We were deservedly beaten. They were superior to us in every aspect of the game. But I'll just stick up for my team and be a bit biased now - we had a long rest before the game after a tough schedule but I had almost half of my first team cup-tied so I was already on the backfoot. Also, bear in mind that they scored their last 2 goals on the counter when we went gung-ho about 15 minutes before the end. A bit early but we had nothing to lose to be honest (apart from the fact that the players' morale was low for the next couple of weeks).

As you can see, we're 12th in the league but from now on, we start to push on for the top half of the league. However, brilliantly enough, our game in hand is against Man Utd so we'll just try to restrict the damage on the goal difference. We don't have no FA Cup to play in so it will be a nice fixture spacing between games, from now on. Almost forgot to add that Rochina won the Young Player of the Month award for February. Hopefully he'll continue to play well for the remainder of the season.
 
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