|
Post by stevek192 on Sept 27, 2014 22:39:52 GMT
Back a short time ago and its a good feeling being a Rovers fan at the moment but to be honest it wasn't a great game today but it was a great result and they always say that a good team is one that wins when it is not playing well. For all the possession Southport had they did not really create much and we held on fairly comfortably and probably still created more than the opposition. The 367 supporters which i believe was the figure given was IMO nowhere near right and have the feeling it only counted away supporters behind the goal and not those in the stand,certainly nearer 500 and from our end it looked near a 50-50 split in the crowd but perhaps I am biased.
Individual performances
Mildenhall 6 Great save in the second half but needs to impose himself more as looks a bit shakey at times but thankfully took a couple of crosses in the second half but was lucky to get a free kick in the first half when there was minimal contact from their player and more down to poor handling and the ball ending up in our net. Perhaps this decision made up a bit for the ridiculous penalty at Braintree.
Lockyer 6.5 Felt Tom had a good game today. Stuck to his task well and passed the ball better,just a bit of a worry that he received another booking and by my re ckoning is only one booking from a suspension.
Trotman 7.5 Immense in the air and is a danger at set pieces. Wins a high percentage of the high balls and is not frightened to dive into a situation to clear his lines. Southport struggled to win any of the balls against our centre backs.
Parkes 7.5 Probably his best game of the season and his partnership is building with Trotman. Brought the ball out with confidence and is getting back to his best.
Brown 6.5 Reasonable game but was not involved enough in attacking moves. I( would describe it as a steady defensive performance.
Gosling 6.5 Great goal,should have scored another but a good first half performance. He is a very skilful player but faded as the game went on and rightly replaced.
Mansell 6 Not as commanding as previous games but should have scored one goal. Didn't get a grip on the midfield but to be fair to him it can be difficult when his partner Sinclair is covering ground all over the pitch and we are generally outnumbered in there. Cannot fault his commitment and his leadership.
Sinclair 7 Covered a lot of ground and used the ball well generally in a strong individual performance but there are time s where he need hold his positioning with Mansell.
Martin 4.5 They say wingers are unpredictable and this was certainly true of Martin today as failed to really get involved and didnt really influence the game. Was very surprised that he remained on the pitch today.
Cunnington 6 Put himself about and caused a lot of problems with his running and heading ability. Injury curtailed his performance.
Taylor 5. I might be being harsh on Matty but strikers should be mainly rated on goalscoring and for all his running IMO he will struggle to score enough goals. Missed a good opportunity with a header and to be honest I don't know how many games he can continue to be given without scoring. I think the time is getting near where Harrison could be given a start alongside Cunnington and Matty rested. I don't think Clarke will do this and so i just hope Matty can score his second goal of the season soon and then go on a run. He scored six in six last season in this League so we know he can do it but how long can we afford to wait and rely on others to score? Subs Clarke 6 Not on long enough to really influence the game.Went very close with one attempt and his appearance probably did what it was set out to do which was to strengthen the numbers in midfield where mansell and Sinclair were often outnumbered. Harrison 6 Seems to have built up the physical aspect of his game to go with his skill with the ball and surely will get a chance to build a partnership with Cunnington soon rather than replace him. Has the ability in this league to take on and beat defenders and score goals. McCrystal A bit of a strange substitution but not on long enough to really mark.
Despite these markings I must say that the attitude and effort which this team puts in cannot be faulted and I cannot finish without saying that Leadbitter can consider himself very unluckiy to be left out of the team let alone the squad but at least we know we still have Monkhouse, Leadbitter and Balanta and possibly even Brunt available soon if necessary.
Clarke 6 Hard to be critical of our Manager with 5 wins on the trot. I am not really sure whether the 3-5-2 would suit us better than the 4-4-2 used but at least Clarke trys things and is not like the stubborn Ward who no doubt would have bored us all to tears by now and I very much doubt under wards leadership we would be up to fourth in the table. Truth is we will play better and lose but lets hope we can keep this run going as long as possible. It will be a tougher assignment on Tuesday. I could understand bringing on Clarke to balance the numbers in midfield but failed to see the reasoning bringing on McCrystal but this is just my opinion and would like to hear what others thought of this substitution. So onwards and upwards- i would be satisfied with a point on Tuesday as 4 points out of six is what we should be aiming for together with maintaing our impressive home record. Remember this is only the game as I saw it but the beauty of football is that different people see a game in different ways and will mark players differently.
|
|
|
Post by Staffordshire Gas on Sept 27, 2014 22:52:15 GMT
Thanks for this.Didn't go but the lack of goals from Taylor is a worry and White doesn't seem to be the answer.However,goals from elsewhere are seeing us get great results.Taylor looks good ,moves well and works hard but he and White's combined total is only one all season .Whilst admittedly we are winning can't help feeling we need a more incisive and lethal strike force.Not being negative but to get back from this non league stuff then we need to up our striker's end product.Anyway , tuesday should make it six in a row so bring it on.
|
|
|
Post by Mark Ash on Sept 27, 2014 23:02:35 GMT
Thanks for the report. On the radio they said McChrystal came on to play in a back 5, to see out the match and a clean sheet. Made me nervous - I always prefer to take the game to them and keep the ball away from our goal. Why invite a siege? However - it stayed 1-0 so I was wrong, happily.
|
|
|
Post by gretschgas on Sept 27, 2014 23:03:05 GMT
Back a short time ago and its a good feeling being a Rovers fan at the moment but to be honest it wasn't a great game today but it was a great result and they always say that a good team is one that wins when it is not playing well.For all the possession Southport had they did not really create much and we held on fairly comfortably and probably still created more than the opposition. The 367 supporters which i believe was the figure given was IMO nowhere near right and have the feeling it only counted away supporters behind the goal and not those in the stand,certainly nearer 500 and from our end it looked near a 50-50 split in the crowd but perhaps I am biased. Individual performances Mildenhall 6 Great save in the second half but needs to impose himself more as looks a bit shakey at times but thankfully took a couple of crosses in the second half but was lucky to get a free kick in the first half when there was minimal contact from their player and more down to poor handling and the ball ending up in our net. Perhaps this decision made up a bit for the ridiculous penalty at Braintree. Lockyer 6.5 Felt Tom had a good game today. Stuck to his task well and passed the ball better,just a bit of a worry that he received another booking and by my re ckoning is only one booking from a suspension. Trotman 7.5 Immense in the air and is a danger at set pieces. Wins a high percentage of the high balls and is not frightened to dive into a situation to clear his lines. Southport struggled to win any of the balls against our centre backs. Parkes 7.5 Probably his best game of the season and his partnership is building with Trotman. Brought the ball out with confidence and is getting back to his best. Brown 6.5 Reasonable game but was not involved enough in attacking moves. I( would describe it as a steady defensive performance. Gosling 6.5 Great goal,should have scored another but a good first half performance. He is a very skilful player but faded as the game went on and rightly replaced. Mansell 6 Not as commanding as previous games but should have scored one goal. Didn't get a grip on the midfield but to be fair to him it can be difficult when his partner Sinclair is covering ground all over the pitch and we are generally outnumbered in there. Cannot fault his commitment and his leadership. Sinclair 7 Covered a lot of ground and used the ball well generally in a strong individual performance but there are time s where he need hold his positioning with Mansell. Martin 4.5 They say wingers are unpredictable and this was certainly true of Martin today as failed to really get involved and didnt really influence the game. Was very surprised that he remained on the pitch today. Cunnington 6 Put himself about and caused a lot of problems with his running and heading ability. Injury curtailed his performance. Taylor 5. I might be being harsh on Matty but strikers should be mainly rated on goalscoring and for all his running IMO he will struggle to score enough goals. Missed a good opportunity with a header and to be honest I don't know how many games he can continue to be given without scoring. I think the time is getting near where Harrison could be given a start alongside Cunnington and Matty rested. I don't think Clarke will do this and so i just hope Matty can score his second goal of the season soon and then go on a run. He scored six in six last season in this League so we know he can do it but how long can we afford to wait and rely on others to score? Subs Clarke 6 Not on long enough to really influence the game.Went very close with one attempt and his appearance probably did what it was set out to do which was to strengthen the numbers in midfield where mansell and Sinclair were often outnumbered. Harrison 6 Seems to have built up the physical aspect of his game to go with his skill with the ball and surely will get a chance to build a partnership with Cunnington soon rather than replace him. Has the ability in this league to take on and beat defenders and score goals. McCrystal A bit of a strange substitution but not on long enough to really mark. Despite these markings I must say that the attitude and effort which this team puts in cannot be faulted and I cannot finish without saying that Leadbitter can consider himself very unluckiy to be left out of the team let alone the squad but at least we know we still have Monkhouse, Leadbitter and Balanta and possibly even Brunt available soon if necessary. Clarke 6 Hard to be critical of our Manager with 5 wins on the trot. I am not really sure whether the 3-5-2 would suit us better than the 4-4-2 used but at least Clarke trys things and is not like the stubborn Ward who no doubt would have bored us all to tears by now and I very much doubt under wards leadership we would be up to fourth in the table. Truth is we will play better and lose but lets hope we can keep this run going as long as possible. It will be a tougher assignment on Tuesday. I could understand bringing on Clarke to balance the numbers in midfield but failed to see the reasoning bringing on McCrystal but this is just my opinion and would like to hear what others thought of this substitution. So onwards and upwards- i would be satisfied with a point on Tuesday as 4 points out of six is what we should be aiming for together with maintaing our impressive home record. Remember this is only the game as I saw it but the beauty of football is that different people see a game in different ways and will mark players differently. Thanks for the report Steve, I always look forward to your reviews of games. The important thing like you said is that we got another win despite not playing that well. The sign of a good team. The last 2 away games have shown that we can win away against the so called bigger teams and also the smaller sides which will do us a world of confidence. I was worried that we would struggle to beat these sorts of teams which would ultimately be our downfall. It sounded like one of those games that we can take the result from and a very good goal and move on. A tricky game on Tuesday followed by two very winnable home games needs to be where the focus is now, we have this potential banana skin out of the way with all 3 points so I hope that the team will now have even more belief and confidence. My hope is that we can keep this run going even if we don't score an early goal, we can't keep relying on these as we won't keep this run of early goals going. As long as we don't start to panic if teams prove tougher to break down we will be ok. Playoffs at the moment but can we maintain this? Only time will tell.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2014 23:08:18 GMT
thanks for the report,always enjoy it if i go or not interesting that dc said in his post match interview that jake gosling needs to get fitter but that hes a great lad... ref matty taylor could he be an effective midfield player? though i still believe hes going to have a goalscoring run
|
|
|
Post by cookinongas on Sept 28, 2014 6:47:23 GMT
Thanks for the report. On the radio they said McChrystal came on to play in a back 5, to see out the match and a clean sheet. Made me nervous - I always prefer to take the game to them and keep the ball away from our goal. Why invite a siege? However - it stayed 1-0 so I was wrong, happily. This was absolutely true. We never really looked interested in scoring second half. You should never sit back and try and defend 1-0. A better team yesterday would have scored
|
|
|
Post by stevek192 on Sept 28, 2014 6:59:19 GMT
My only criticism at the moment would be that we allow opponents to have the ball pretty well unchallenged in their own half (and parts of ours) to make sure we defend in strength but IMO this is a weakness because we are allowing opponents who are poor to get a lot of possession and it only takes one goal for them to be back in the game. I would like to see our forwards hassling the opposition and a bit more controlled play in the midfield We need a striker who can score to play with Cunningham and a midfield playmaker.
|
|
|
Post by Mark Ash on Sept 28, 2014 7:27:05 GMT
Yes, a lot of this "defence" strategy really comes back to Attack. 15 goals from 12 games... If we had stuck away another goal or two early on when we sounded on top we wouldn't have to worry about the defending so much. And I was worrying! Working on the old car in the garage, listening to the radio, having kittens at the end. I even set up my phone on Timer to count down the last 2 minutes... Bonkers! Still, they did win, so no moaning.
|
|
|
Post by Mark Ash on Sept 28, 2014 7:45:08 GMT
My only criticism at the moment would be that we allow opponents to have the ball pretty well unchallenged in their own half (and parts of ours) to make sure we defend in strength but IMO this is a weakness because we are allowing opponents who are poor to get a lot of possession and it only takes one goal for them to be back in the game. I would like to see our forwards hassling the opposition and a bit more controlled play in the midfield We need a striker who can score to play with Cunningham and a midfield playmaker. I would guess this control of midfield is on DC's mind when he brings on Ollie Clarke, as he has done lately. Also when he switches to 5 in midfield for parts of a match. Although I don' t think he did that yesterday?? (The 5 in midfield, I mean.)
|
|
|
Post by markczgas on Sept 28, 2014 10:18:00 GMT
My only criticism at the moment would be that we allow opponents to have the ball pretty well unchallenged in their own half (and parts of ours) to make sure we defend in strength but IMO this is a weakness because we are allowing opponents who are poor to get a lot of possession and it only takes one goal for them to be back in the game. I would like to see our forwards hassling the opposition and a bit more controlled play in the midfield We need a striker who can score to play with Cunningham and a midfield playmaker. Hmmm ! Sounds like a John Ward team !? I have only been to a few home games and yes our football is brighter and more of a passing game but in my view we don't sustain this style throughout a game. I would also say our 2nd half play has been very patchy and we grind our way to wins rather than keeping control of the game by staying on the front foot. What do others think ?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2014 10:42:14 GMT
My only criticism at the moment would be that we allow opponents to have the ball pretty well unchallenged in their own half (and parts of ours) to make sure we defend in strength but IMO this is a weakness because we are allowing opponents who are poor to get a lot of possession and it only takes one goal for them to be back in the game. I would like to see our forwards hassling the opposition and a bit more controlled play in the midfield We need a striker who can score to play with Cunningham and a midfield playmaker. Hmmm ! Sounds like a John Ward team !? I have only been to a few home games and yes our football is brighter and more of a passing game but in my view we don't sustain this style throughout a game. I would also say our 2nd half play has been very patchy and we grind our way to wins rather than keeping control of the game by staying on the front foot. What do others think ? well we have won 5 in a row havnt we? in some of those games weve had chances to make the game safe and havnt taken them which inevitably leads to nervous finishes to matches.... we arnt pushing up and playing with a very high line because although we have good defenders at this level,we dont have much pace in the back four and might get caught out with balls behind our defence,not pushing out means our opponents have more time in there own half. people say we need to sign this and that type of player but we might not have any more money until players move out?
|
|
|
Post by Mark Ash on Sept 28, 2014 11:05:49 GMT
I've had the feeling that only in the Nuneaton game were we really dominant and in control. Admittedly I am going by radio commentary as often as not and I'm not moaning about the players, who are a breath of fresh air. I just wonder if our position is a bit fragile, especially when looking at that Goals Scored column, compared with other teams.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 5:22:45 GMT
I've had the feeling that only in the Nuneaton game were we really dominant and in control. Admittedly I am going by radio commentary as often as not and I'm not moaning about the players, who are a breath of fresh air. I just wonder if our position is a bit fragile, especially when looking at that Goals Scored column, compared with other teams. Things are improving. Last year we couldn't even grind out a draw.
|
|
|
Post by BishopstonBRFC on Sept 29, 2014 6:01:44 GMT
I've had the feeling that only in the Nuneaton game were we really dominant and in control. Admittedly I am going by radio commentary as often as not and I'm not moaning about the players, who are a breath of fresh air. I just wonder if our position is a bit fragile, especially when looking at that Goals Scored column, compared with other teams. I've watched all the home games in that run and apart from the sitter the Wrexham bloke missed, we haven't allowed the opposition many chances despite letting them see plenty of the ball. 1973 could be right, DC may have decided due to lack of pace at the back it's better to sit a bit deep and snuff out our opponents. Even Woking who played some tidy football really couldn't find a way through.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 6:39:59 GMT
Arsenal had something like 75% + of the possession againt Spurs in their 1-1 draw.
The only stat that matters after 90mins is who scored the most goals.
|
|
|
Post by Mark Ash on Sept 29, 2014 7:09:47 GMT
I've had the feeling that only in the Nuneaton game were we really dominant and in control. Admittedly I am going by radio commentary as often as not and I'm not moaning about the players, who are a breath of fresh air. I just wonder if our position is a bit fragile, especially when looking at that Goals Scored column, compared with other teams. I've watched all the home games in that run and apart from the sitter the Wrexham bloke missed, we haven't allowed the opposition many chances despite letting them see plenty of the ball. 1973 could be right, DC may have decided due to lack of pace at the back it's better to sit a bit deep and snuff out our opponents. Even Woking who played some tidy football really couldn't find a way through. Yes I do agree that our goalmouth isn't being peppered with enemy fire. It's all obviously a cunning plan.
|
|
|
Post by Mark Ash on Sept 29, 2014 7:14:31 GMT
...I hope.
|
|
|
Post by phillistine on Sept 29, 2014 11:01:42 GMT
Hmmm ! Sounds like a John Ward team !? I have only been to a few home games and yes our football is brighter and more of a passing game but in my view we don't sustain this style throughout a game. I would also say our 2nd half play has been very patchy and we grind our way to wins rather than keeping control of the game by staying on the front foot. What do others think ? well we have won 5 in a row havnt we? in some of those games weve had chances to make the game safe and havnt taken them which inevitably leads to nervous finishes to matches.... we arnt pushing up and playing with a very high line because although we have good defenders at this level,we dont have much pace in the back four and might get caught out with balls behind our defence,not pushing out means our opponents have more time in there own half. people say we need to sign this and that type of player but we might not have any more money until players move out? I think that you are spot on . We seem to concede a lot of goals last year to a punt up the middle by the opponents and someone running free - this has stopped this year . Our only pace is with Leadbitter and he isn't really defensive minded so by defending deep it suits us.
It is frustrating to watch a team playing comfortably across the half way line without any real pressure from Rovers but you don't score many goals from the half way line
|
|
|
Post by BishopstonBRFC on Sept 29, 2014 12:31:16 GMT
well we have won 5 in a row havnt we? in some of those games weve had chances to make the game safe and havnt taken them which inevitably leads to nervous finishes to matches.... we arnt pushing up and playing with a very high line because although we have good defenders at this level,we dont have much pace in the back four and might get caught out with balls behind our defence,not pushing out means our opponents have more time in there own half. people say we need to sign this and that type of player but we might not have any more money until players move out? I think that you are spot on . We seem to concede a lot of goals last year to a punt up the middle by the opponents and someone running free - this has stopped this year . Our only pace is with Leadbitter and he isn't really defensive minded so by defending deep it suits us.
It is frustrating to watch a team playing comfortably across the half way line without any real pressure from Rovers but you don't score many goals from the half way line
The amount of goals we conceded last year from headers was disgraceful. Every game away it seemed that the opposition would score from a free header. We went to every away game trying not to lose but if you can't even get the basics right you stand no chance. How Ward never managed to deal with it is beyond me.
|
|