Fulham v Blackburn Rovers – live! | Jacob Steinberg

• Click on auto-refresh for all the latest action • Send your emails to Jacob Steinberg here • Follow Jacob on Twitter • Follow today’s other latest scores 26 min: Gary Neville is having a wee chuckle about little brother Phil being left on the bench by Everton yesterday. Ah, brotherly love. 24 min: The lively Goodwillie scoots into the Fulham area but is unable to outwit the hulking Senderos. 21 min: A moment of high farce to enliven proceedings in the Blackburn defence. There was absolutely no danger at all as Dann went across to the left to cover an aimless pass down the line. Facing his own goal he decided to knock the ball back to Robinson. But he failed to notice Zamora there – even though he had a little look – and played the ball straight into the path of the Fulham striker. He was through on goal but was too eager to get the ball on to his left foot which allowed Samba to block his path. Salgado then raced back and muscled Zamora to the floor. Fulham cried for a penalty but Webb waved play on, before awarding a free-kick to Blackburn when Zamora, on the floor, grabbed the ball with his hands. Well done everyone, that was very entertaining. 20 min: Blackburn don’t look like a side with zero points from three games but Fulham’s early intent has rather disappeared. There’s a disturbing lethargy about their play, passes going astray with too much regularity. 19 min: Blackburn are enjoying a decent spell, with Hoillet particularly menacing on the left. Fulham have now been forced into an early change, Aaron Hughes limping off to be replaced by Stephen Kelly. 16 min: “Must say its a poor start from Neville,” says Rob Smith. “He’s offered tactical insight, hasnt slated the ref and worst of all he hasnt referenced the best eague in the world yet, and 14 whole minutes have gone. As much chance as lasting as an MOTD pundit who doesnt play golf.” He’s also spoken a lot about the refusal of both midfields to close opponents down. He’s aping Alan Hansen, that crafty Neville. Anything to get one over on Liverpool. 15 min: Well, Goodwillie is supposedly suffering with a hamstring injury, but there’s little evidence of that here as he launches into a stunning overhead kick from around 12 yards out which flies not too far past the corner of the post and bar. Samba, as ever, had caused the initial nuisance in Fulham’s area after a cross from the left from Hoillet. 13 min: Ruiz has spent more time on the floor than on his feet. This has been a rude awakening for him. 11 min: Rochina misses a glorious chance to give Blackburn the lead. Hoillett, quiet so far, suddenly bursts into life, skipping in from the right and slipping a pass through the middle for Rochina, whose canny run had gone unnnoticed from the Fulham midfield. He was through on goal but rather than take the shot first time, he got the ball stuck under his feet, seemingly desperate to score the perfect goal. That allowed Hangeland and Senderos to recover and close down the route to goal and when Rochina finally decided to go for goal, he could only curl a tame low shot at Schwarzer. 10 min: Ruiz, perhaps understandably, hasn’t got into the flow of the game yet. The pace in England is rather more frenetic than in Holland and at the moment he wants a little too much time on the ball. 8 min: Duff v Givet is not a contest at all. Once again the Irishman beats the creaking Frenchman to a loose ball on the right and scampers away down the right. He marauds with intent towards the area and then plays an intelligent pass back to Sidwell, arriving from deep. The pass was just behind him though, his momentum taking him too far forward, and from around 12 yards out he cracked a firm effort well wide of the left post. Fulham may well feel they should lead. 7 min: Now Blackburn are playing it around at the back, keeping it on the floor, without really going anywhere. Eventually Samba gets bored and knocks it down the right channel for Goodwillie. Throw to Fulham. 5 min: A free-kick to Blackburn in their own half. They take it short, working pretty patterns and triangles in midfield Everyone ambles up into Fulham’s area, Robinson launches it forward and Schwarzer catches it easily. Goalkeeper to goalkeeper: efficient. 3 min: And here’s the first evidence to support that. With Givet caught out of position, Duff is released down the right flank by a firm pass from Murphy. He hares away with barely a Blackburn defender in sight but his low centre towards Zamora in the middle is crucially cut out by Samba. 2 min: For all of Blackburn’s troubles, it must be said that a centre-back pairing of Samba and Dann will be very difficult for a lot of sides in this league to break down. So there’s some encouragement for a side that will take anything it can get at the moment. 1 min: And off we go, Blackburn, wearing their yellow away kit, kicking off and attacking from right to left. They keep the ball for all of three seconds from the kick-off. Start as you mean to go on chaps. A minute’s silence before we start for the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. Impeccably observed. Gary Neville’s the co-commentator on Sky. This is his first one, isn’t it? This should be interesting. I’ve been very impressed with his start to life in the meedja. If Blackburn lose today, it will be the first time they’ve lost their first four games. Ever! They did it once during World War One, but that doesn’t officially count. In Blackburn’s favour, though, the food in and around Ewood Park is exceptional, which is really how they should judge these things. Hello. It’s a bit early for talk of six-pointers, but what the hell, let’s talk of six-pointers. These two have made terrible starts to the season, Fulham in 19th with one point and Blackburn last with none, a state of affairs which does little to justify the sacking of Sam Allardyce last December and the subsequent appointment of deep thinker Steve Kean. But hey, maybe Venky’s know best. They have heard of Raul, Ronaldinho and David Beckham after all and you can’t buy football knowledge like that. Suffice to say, despite all the talk of bringing in big names, Kean has had to rely on some big bones instead, bringing in Yakubu from Everton on deadline day, a signing that should, how shall we put it … beef up their attack. With two goals scored in their first three games, Blackburn will need the Nigerian to hit the ground running. That’s a figure of speech by the way; no one expects Yakubu to do any actual running. Even so, delving further into more punditese, he knows where the goal is, whereas Jason Roberts is more likely to point at that rectangular thing at the end of the pitch, a confused look on his face, and ask ‘What’s that then?’. Goalscoring has been a problem for Fulham as well, their record even worse than Blackburn’s. They’ve managed only one so far, Climnt Dempsey’s consolation strike in the defeat to Newcastle two weeks ago. But whereas Blackburn are in genuine trouble, the suspicion remains that this is merely a slow start for Fulham, perhaps a consequence of playing two away games shortly after Europa League ties. Their away form is as dismal as ever, which will heighten the tension at Craven Cottage, though they will be confident of getting their first win against a side who don’t fare too well on their travels either. Martin Jol isn’t under too much pressure yet – he’s only just started in the job after all – but after the fine work achieved at Fulham by Roy Hodgson and Mark Hughes, the comparisons with those two are likely to be unfavourable until he gets those first three points. He can’t complain about not being backed either, spending £10.6m on the exciting Costa Rican Bryan Ruiz from FC Twente. Though there is a dangerous precedent for Fulham and costly signings: who remembers the club-footed Steve Marlet? Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Hughes, Senderos, Hangeland, Riise; Duff, Sidwell, Murphy, Dempsey; Ruiz, Zamora. Subs: Etheridge, Kelly, Johnson, Kasami, Gecov, Grygera, Dembele. Blackburn (4-5-1): Robinson; Salgado, Samba, Dann, Givet; Hoilett, Dunn, Formica, Nzonzi, Rochina; Goodwillie. Subs: Bunn, Olsson, Petrovic, Yakubu, Vukcevic, Roberts, Lowe. A special treat: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire) Premier League Fulham Blackburn Rovers Premier League 2011-12 Jacob Steinberg guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 11, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.