Manor Farm vs Bristol Rovers friendly Match Day Thread.

I didnt get to watch it yesterday as I was working, but I did look through the interactive commentary when I could, I'm going to be slaughtered for this i can already hear it, did anybody else feel just a little unimpressed? particularly second half.
Please let me know I'm wrong I want to know that we performed brilliantly, if we did it certainly didn't come across that way, I know its early days, to early to say how we will finally play but still... 4.0? it didn't look as though there were many other opportunities... perhaps I'm wrong...

Was a decent runout against a fit side that worked hard to keep the chances to a minimum. I only remember their keeper making one save and then just picking the ball out of the net. I also think that Ehmer is going to get a lot of red cards this coming season. Seems to give away needless fouls by going through the back of people. It's still early days and he had good feet distributing from the back on a tough surface and im absolutely sure he will get sharper as time goes on. Walker was really impressive with his two goals and showed great feet and interplay for the first goal, it'll be interesting to see if his introduction is some what of a one off but i hope we get to see a lot more of him over the next few weeks. Upson looked decent as you would expect him to and Hargreaves looked bright when he came on. Barrett getting injured was the only negative aside from the way he played, gives it away a lot and yes i can see this as he's 'trying things' but imo he tries to do far to much.

It was great to have the Gas back and have a proper excuse for cracking open a beer at 11:45am. UTG!

I think you are being a little unrealistic in your expectations for the game.
It's the first run out for the players. It's just about being able to play semi competitively for 45mins. A step in getting to full match fitness. It's also just about players fitting into positions getting used to the other players and following pre discussed tactics.
The result is pretty immaterial although always nice to win of course.
If anything could be taken from the game it's that the first half team is near enough the first choice lineup. We will see mehew replaced by ZW and the young lad upfront replaced by a different striker.

Zain Walker scored twice? The 2nd half team managed 1 goal v what must have been a v. tired BMF defence. 

ok OK I get it, I knew this wasn't going to be popular.
Trust me, I'm not one of these negative posters, It just felt a little... i dunno.. flat?

Same here.

Just judging by the signings of Ehmer & Baldwin, along with Alfie and Cian Harries.

Granted we've let Tony Craig leave, sold Menayese and Tom Davies is out injured long term, so that leaves us with 4 Centre Backs.

I guess we'll wait and see.

It was his vision, weight and timing of pass that looked good and a lot of player's don't have all 3 at this level. On one occasion he had 3 player's on him in a tight space. He slowed the game down, kept the ball close to him and then threaded a through ball through the tightest of gaps to Leary enabling him to cross first time. Plus not many player's would have had the vision to try the chip that hit the bar.

I was only discussing him as you felt the need to highlight his weight, even though you could see he has lost weight and was moving a lot more. Garner had already said he had come back in better shape and had hit his demands and those reporting on the game said how sharp he was looking until the injury. He's never going to be the quickest and fittest player in the squad, if he was he wouldn't be with us. As long as he's fit enough to move into space, to track back and to keep going, that's all that matters.

He's highly unlikely to be fit for the start of the season, now he's hurt his hamstring, which is a shame as he gives us something different. His hamstring went as he's not used to rubbing that fast, done the same thing myself a few times. Annoying but that's what can happen, when you improve your fitness over a short period of time. Especially when your muscles are tired.

Gillingham fans say he can give away penalties as he has a tendency to shirt tug

Certainly is wise not to read too much into friendly matches, or early season games to be honest. I remember a friendly at Sutton United where Alvin Bubb and Ross Weare were the best two players on the pitch (nuff said!). Also I came away from the first game of the season at Griffin Park where we got tanked 5-1 thinking Parkin and McCaffrey can’t defend together and Withey is a slow useless lump etc. Etc. Soon we were handing out 5-0 and 5-1 beatings of our own to Wigan, Leyton Orient and Portsmouth!!

As for yesterday, to address the flat, unimpressive labels being mooted.

- they are doing 2 to 3 training sessions a day to get basic fitness up, before real matches they would not have such rigorous training in their legs
- they were kicking off at noon in the midday sun (mad dogs and Englishmen!)
- each of them were at a different stage in their preparedness some are naturally fit e.g. Zain Walker, Tomlinson and look sharper than those who need a bit more conditioning e.g. JCH or Barrett
- once Barrett went off BG used it as an exercise in how to keep the ball and manage a game with fewer players than the opposition.
Daly, Nicholson, Ayunga (3), Barrett, Rodman, Tomlinson all missed presentable chances to extend the scoreline but I’m quite glad they didn’t, a 12-0 score would have far too many going overboard and was hardly what our hosts deserved.
- it will be different when they’re playing in front of a packed house (oh, wait...).

Was interesting being able to hear BG bark out orders and encouragement from the sidelines, especially around, shape, moving the press up, recovery positions when possession is lost etc. Walker and Mehew received a lot of help, direction and encouragement for example. All in all it was something to build on.