Bristol Rovers vs Plymouth Match Thread

Under GC and BG, Ed Upson was a player who was infuriating too watch as he never passed forward, only sideways or backward and constantly slowed the play down. Under PT he has clearly been told to face forward and play forward and this has transformed his performance and that of the team. He has the skills and now he is using them to positive effective.

Today was not our best performance but the skills level are so so much higher than what we have been served up for the last couple of years. Nicholson looks a fantastic signing, McCormick the first loan signing for a long time that really stands out. Westbrooke is playing well and deserved his goal and Grant alongside Upson offer a really solid platform. Great effort today from Jordi who should take confidence from this.

We are turning the corner and heading up the table.

UTG

Well whatever he did before wasn’t working so if it took Gaschat to get the best out of him that’s a good thing right?

Really enjoyed that - well done to Tis & the boys for a great 3 points.

I imagine it was probably quite even as far as shots and chances go, but JVS had a great game and our defenders put their bodies on the line superbly at times.

Lovely to see us be such a threat from set pieces and Westbrooke’s goal was a cracking move.

Love it. UTG.

He normally looks so unorthodox in every thing he does almost like an outfield player playing in goal perhaps it’s nerves but today he looked a very good league 1 goalkeeper.
Hopefully the awkwardness was nerves and now he’ll be a bit calmer and fluid in his actions.
Man of the match today probably just pipped Sammy to it.

Stealing a living preferred martin Cameron 

Dam lightweight.

When you get threads like ‘Tisdale out’ before he’s even started they tend to stick in the memory. Agree today is about celebrating two great back to back league wins. Onwards and upwards. 

The last 4 games of this year will be tough, and if we can pick up 6 points or more I’ll be happy

Charlton (a) Tough
Oxford (h) winnable
MK Dons (a) winnable
Pompey (h) tough

I’m not so worried about mass signings in Jan, like others I’d be more concerned about keeping hold of Nicholson.

What has happened to JML? Is he injured?

Be nice to see Rodman, Davies and Little fit some time soon.

Consolidate this season, tweak in the summer and a strong campaign with crowds back will do me fine!

Happy cider drinking tonight gasheads!

That was a good watch. FWIW:
I’m not sure we played much better than we’ve done recently but getting an early goal and another by the half hour mark made it a more enjoyable watch and was the big difference.
It seems a back 4 suits the players, they’ve played far better as individuals in it and far better as a defensive unit.
Our defence today put themselves on the line and defended ok but JVS had his best game and but for him we might have lost. No one thought we’d be saying that at 3.00!!
ZW played really well and was playing his passing game in the front third of the pitch which made a big difference. And his dead ball Delivery was good esp in the first half and had he kept it up in the second we’d have won by more perhaps! But I’m glad he’s playing, he’s looking a far more committed player now than he did.
Luke Mc C was very good. He’s always looking for that forward pass and he works well with ZW as well as he does with Oztumer. Great he got his first league goal. He gets better and better with each match.
Upson and Grant are a good pairing in front of the back four and are a big reason for our improvement imo.
Hanlan was a handful and kept their defence occupied and allowed the midfielders to have more time and space.
Sam N is one of the most skilful players for is over the past 10 years. He was very good today and that piece of skill near the end was wonderful. I thought he was going to dummy a pass to Ayunga and then pass it into the net but he passed!
We played with the intention of winning, we played on the front foot and our players now seem to be playing in positions and a system that suited them.
But, I don’t like being too critical on a day when we won 3-0.....
Alfie K although he played well needs to be aware of those through balls. Sometimes his positional play and his play going backwards isn’t as good as his play when going forwards. But it was great dead ball goal and will give him confidence, a solid 7/10 performance.
Our passing is good but on 3/4 occasions we underhit a pass in the middle and we could have been punished for it. Do it elsewhere you get away with it, but do it in the middle and you can be vulnerable. We got away with it because Plymouth’s forwards were pretty poor. They missed two 1on 1s in the first half when they should have scored and another two good chances in the second half.

Well done Tis, well done the team. A served win to make a good Saturday night.

UTG!