Was it as bad as reported?

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Answers

No comments about 'his' tackle please

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

No - he got some of the ball and the player went over and hit his head. It was the hitting of the head that caused him to swallow his tongue (can you REALLY do this?). Robert had been fouled and kicked twice in the lead up and was getting revenge a bit I think. It was a forwards tackle combined with a bit of malice but not as bad as it was made out.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

I agree, he definately got some of the ball.....mind it was a strong, and some might say too strong a tackle. That lad`s head fair bounced off the pitch though, not Robert fault, but it`s no wonder he was seeing stars!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

It was a bad tackle. Even if he took the ball cleanly he should have been booked as it was reckless out of frustration.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Geordie I disagree i saw it as a honest tackle he got the ball , the defender threw himself to the ground in order to get the forward booked , it serves himself right if he hurt himself. If anything it was a freekick at best but no booking should have been made.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

I agree about the throwing himself to the ground but you could see the challenge building up and Rennie was spot on to deal with it.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

After Rennie's amazing yellow card for Elliott's air-tackle it was no surprise to see him book Robert for getting the ball. If he was really interested in preventing mither then he should have blown up for the half dozen kicks at the back of Robert's ankles in the "play" building up to Robert's tackle. Unanimous decision in the Red Lion: drag the cloggy bugger off the field to choke on his own and get on with the game.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Oh, and BTW Kegsy, thread titles like that are likely to give a woman of my age palpitations! (;o)

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

The tackle looked OK (if not perfectly timed) through my pair of rose-tinted gogs. Considering some of the industrial challenges that had preceded it I thought a booking was harsh - sorry I don't buy it that the ref has to label something as reckless and tehrefore punish a hard challenge simply cos it comes on the back of the tackler being dispossessed/given the runaround/whatever.

I dunno why Rennie couldn't have settled for a word in Robert's ear to settle him down. There again I thought he fecked up heaps of decisions throughout the game (Rennie - although you could say the same about Laurent) and was very surprised to see him getting praise in some reports (Rennie again, not Robert !)

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

It happened right in frontof where I was sitting. To be honest, I thought it was a lot worse at the time than when I saw the Sky replay when I got back. I had no issue with the yellow card, but I did for Robbie Elliott's and there should have been a number for B'burn.

IMHO, Rennie gave one of the worst displays I have seen in a long ime - well, at least since last Saturday's w@nker against Charlton. Professional refs? Bah!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Particularly enjoyed the Blackburn defender's runup and shoulder barge straight into Big Al's back which was given as a foul against Shearer. Also thought he got Distin's backpass to Shay completely wrong but was able to live with that particular decision ;- )

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Distin's "backpass" - what did SKY have to say about that?

I didn't think it was a back pass at all - it was an interception at full stretch and the ball could have gone anywhere. Mind if I had been Shay, he had plaenty of time, I think I'd have kicked clear to make sure. I wonder if he received a signal fro the ref to let him know it was ok? The Blackburn fans made a huge protest (one of the few times I heard them) but as I recall not a single Blackburn player protested to the ref.

I did not see Robert's challenge as I was still staring at the spot where he had been blatantly kicked (with no attenpt whatsoever to play the ball) and wondering how the inappropriately named Uriah indigestion relief could not have seen it.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

That's exactly how sky saw the alleged backpass. They said that it was a lung in an attempt to stop the ball and just hapened to head towards Given. It was a brave decision to pick it up though. I wouldn't have.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Sky pundits all thought the 'backpass' decision was spot on, although I thought Given shouldn't have risked it (knowing referees aren't always reliable).

The tackle looked ok to me - it was the subsequent hoo-ha due to his head hitting the turf that made it look bad. ie made it look as if the tackle was so violent that it had knocked him out.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Shouldn't we just be happy that Robert is tackling players?

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Paratroopers spend a lot of time learning to fall properly to avoid hurting themselves. I feel some of these footballers need some lessons.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

The "backpass" pictures from behind Shay's goal show Mr. Rennie clearly indicating to Shay that he could pick it up...

another bit of GOOD refereeing

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Fair enough Geordie - I owe Given an apology then.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Well spotted Geordie - I felt he must have received a signal as he had more than enough time to kick clear had it been necessary, and there would be no point taking a risk without the ref's signal.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

I spotted that too Geordie. If you watch carefully you can see that Given looks to the ref before deciding he can pick it up. Don't think he would have otherwise.

The tackle was a very reckless. Both feet leave the ground as I can only describe that he launched himself. Although not directly responsible for the players subsequent unconciousness it was a bookable offence IMO.

As the player came off he was saying he wanted to carry on playing and then asked 'What happened ?' !!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

I liked Robbie mouthing 'I never fuckin touched him' after he got booked

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Haha I liked that bit as well....

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

I laughed as well when I saw Robbie. Dizzy was falling before he even reached Robbie (he had to reach Robbie cos Rob wasn't going to catch him if they went all night).

I saw that when the Blackburn player as well, saying he's alright and then asking what happened isn't going to get you back on the pitch.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Did you also see Gillespie hoof the ball away and cringe when Shearer made to challenge him? Must have been memories of Dublin flooding back.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

I thought the reaction of the crowd to the Robert tackle was interesting. The demands for a red card corresponded not with the tackle but with the emergence of a stretcher. Clever lads! I thought at the time that he was stupid to do it and we wondered if YBR would take him off. Nice to see he didn't give in to fan pressure!

Robbie's "foul" on Dizzy was just crazy. No one round me (in the Jack Walker Stand) thought he'd touched him.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

He also had his hair ruffled by Mr A Shearer at the end of the match when he came over to congratulate him. Not seen a mention of that from any of the tired hacks going on about how Robert doesn't get on with anyone and never looks happy when anyone else scores.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

BR is defending LR in an article in tonight's Ronnie:

BR has leapt to the defence of his winger Laurent Robert after the £10m Frenchman was constantly booed by angry Blackburn Rovers fans at Ewood Park last night.

Robert was yellow-carded by referee Uriah Rennie with over half an hour remaining after his marker Lucas Neill went down. The Aussie needed extended treatment before being carried off on a stretcher. And it did not look good from the main stand after Robert lost the ball and went diving in.

But Sky match television commentator Rob Hawthorne who had the benefit of the replay, told me that Robert actually played the ball.

"The Blackburn fans should be ashamed of themselves after booing Robert when they see the incident again on television. They will feel ashamed because they booed him unfairly and unnecessarily, and I think they are out of order as they just did not see what really happened".

"They saw one of their players being carried off, but he has not gone into hospital and he did not have any injury. He was actually injured by knocking his head on the ground."

Robert played another game in which his suspect attitude and petulance were again noticeable. But Robson insisted: "Robert responded magnificently after his yellow card and set Alan Shearer up for our second equaliser".

"If I am honest, I will say that getting the best out of him is one of the greatest challenges. But we know what he can do. He can turn a game at any moment just like he did when he set up Shearer."

From my own good viewpoint of the incident, I felt Uriah the Heap was complicit in the incident by not blowing up for any one of 3 or 4 obvious hacks by Neil on Robert as he tried to get into the PA. Then, when LR subsequently dived into the tackle, I felt Neil attempted to exacerbate the situation by throwing himself to the ground - the dips**t only succeeding in knocking himself out in the process.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

That's exactly as I saw it Clarky -the stupid b@gger threw himself over trying to get Robert booked and knocked himself out.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

You don't mean................he's was a T0$$er??

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Guess that'll learn the idiot not to dive.

Interesting comment from YBR about how challenging Robert is. If anyone can get the best out of him, it's YBR!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002