Pleased, and not so pleased
Posted on: Sun 19 Jul 2009
Boss Sam Allardyce had contrasting views as Rovers ended their trip to the continent with a draw and a defeat in Croatia.
In the first of two forty-five minute matches, a young Rovers side gave a good account of themselves against Portuguese side Nacional, but a lack of a cutting edge up front meant the game ended goalless.
And whilst Big Sam was pleased with that first performance, he was less so in the second match as Rovers lost 1-0 to hosts Hajduk Split.
"I thought the first eleven were very good against Nacional, apart from good crosses going in without ever creating any chances" said the Rovers manager. "Hence the reason we are looking for another front man to add more power up there.
"So that eleven were good and we had some young lads in there as well as some more experienced and they did well.
"But I thought the second eleven, with the Dioufy´s, Jason Roberts, Morten who has only just come back and Dunny, looked a little jaded to me and we were outplayed by Hajduk Split in midfield."
The only goal of the game came in curious circumstances as Ibricic´s tame effort took a deflection off Ryan Nelsen to wrong foot Paul Robinson in goal.
"The back four did as much as they could but we lost to one of the wierdest goals I´ve ever seen scored against us," added Sam.
"I thought it was a back pass and I thought it was going wide because Robbo hasn´t bothered diving for it and it has gone in the back of the net.
"I think it might have taken a deflection, in fact it probably did.
"But like all games at this time of the year, it is about the workout, we had a setback today with the time delay we had to suffer and clearly in the hot and humid climate tonight we didn´t look as sharp.
"I hope that is the excuse that they´ve got, because if it is not then I´m very disappointed in that performance. But I have to give the players the benefit of the doubt that what they have been through today has left them a little fatigued.
"We´ve enjoyed our time away, I think overall looking at Cambridge, Roma and Nacional, perhaps not against Hajduk, our fitness is looking okay."
Rovers travel back to the UK on Sunday where they´ll spend a week of training before the trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United next Saturday at 3.00pm.
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