[Archived] Millwall vs Rovers 29th March 3pm

[Husky]

Same here, looked a worse decision on TV than it sounded on the radio. Ludicrous!

Dodgy penalties have cost us 4 points this week. 4 vital points

[Tom]

First one is a 50/50 could have gone either way should have gone neither but never a red

I just wish Hanley did his job instead of letting the man get in in the first place

Second is a blatant penalty why people are moaning about that one I have no idea

[West Yorks Rover]

Just back from the game and once again there are more questions than answers. I was surprised to see what appeared to be a 3-4-1-2 formation with Tommy Spurr playing wide left. Positionally he looked like a fish out of water at times and I doubt he has ever played that position before. Dunn was blowing out of his arse from early on and was too often a passenger because of this. Bowyer usurped himself when Hanley was sent off. He put one of our most creative players (Conway) to right back and moved Spurr back to left back. He brought the headless chicken Taylor on and played him on the right ahead of Conway. We were crying out for some creativity as Cairney warmed the bench.

Overall a draw was probably a fair result but in patches the game was as poor as I have seen for a long time with a distinct lack of quality.

I really cannot see any improvement from Bowyer as he looks out of his depth on the touchline.

I think most of us probably didn't expect too much from Dunny today, after his long shift the other night, you have to ask why, if Cairney

was fit for the bench didn't he bring him on at ht.

Dunny because of all his injuries etc, is the equivalent of a 38 yr old IMO, short bursts only please !

[RevidgeBlue]

I'm not sure why Wilpshire Blue got his knickers in a twist over my comment about Lowe it was more a general comment about our overall progress with him in midfield over the last season and a half or so rather than a comment about yesterday's game in isolation. And in the interests of balance, I think it's correct to say we haven't lost a game without him this season.

The point being imo is that if GB views Lowe in central midfield as being pivotal to our fortunes long term that does not bode well for either our or GB's fortunes.

[MCMC1875]

strengths:-

Signings players for first team like Kilgallon, Spurr, Conway, Cairney, Evans, Marshall, Gestede.

getting players playing with pride and passion in most games

changing the culture of the club and playing squad around from the previous 3 seasons of turmoil.

Weaknesses:-

not changing tactics during a game or making subs during a game quickly enough but is learning.

signing some poor squad players

I was abit shocked when he took Rhodes off for King today to use his pace in behind their defence today. good tactical change today. u agree with this???

guess we miss Gestede today???

Roverandout, that wasn't my question tho was it? I guess u don't go anymore then :-)

How long have you been following Rovers chaddy?

[arbitro]

strengths:-

Signings players for first team like Kilgallon, Spurr, Conway, Cairney, Evans, Marshall, Gestede.

getting players playing with pride and passion in most games

changing the culture of the club and playing squad around from the previous 3 seasons of turmoil.

Weaknesses:-

not changing tactics during a game or making subs during a game quickly enough but is learning.

signing some poor squad players

I was abit shocked when he took Rhodes off for King today to use his pace in behind their defence today. good tactical change today. u agree with this???

guess we miss Gestede today???

Roverandout, that wasn't my question tho was it? I guess u don't go anymore then :-)

Learning? After Hanley was sent off he put Conway (arguably our best player) to right back and brought Taylor on to play where Conway was playing. This despite the fact he had a natural right back on the bench. I agree about the signings you mention but for each of them there is a Dabo, Marrow, Judge, Songo, Eastwood etc. There does seem to be some pride in the players but that alone won't win games. Managers decisions are crucial to winning matches and Bowyer has made too many wrong ones far too often.

[Ricky]

Sorry to jump on you Chaddy but I have to take issue with one thing:

some fans have been asking for Bowyer to try 3 centre backs formation so he does. but then gets criticise for trying out a different formation. some people aren't happy ever lol.

That's just not right. There's no way that people have been asking him to play with 3 centre backs because we haven't had 3 bloody centre backs available lol.

[AllRoverAsia]

looking at the Hanley sending off was very harsh and actually looked like a foul on Hanley by Morrison.

second pen wasn't a pen at all. Keane clearly played the ball.

refs at this level are shocking and clueless.

Having now been able to see the penalty decisions (thanks to the League Show) and played back several times I agree totally with your comments.

The referee was a disgrace. What enjoyment could he possibly get from being such absolute crap at his job - that or as bent as a 9 bob-note.

Do you get an award for being quoted so much? hope so - it would pliss off a few that's for sure.

[the original david brent]

That first penalty decision is absolutely horrendous on 2 counts. I've just seen it on the football league show. A shocking decision. Never a penalty and even once given, never a sending off.

The millwall player Morrison just carried on chasing the ball; he didn't even appeal. I'm not sure what goes through a referees mind when he decides to give a decision like that.

The jury is out on the 2nd penalty decision. Impossible to tell from the angle on the footy league show.

[chaddyrovers]

Learning? After Hanley was sent off he put Conway (arguably our best player) to right back and brought Taylor on to play where Conway was playing. This despite the fact he had a natural right back on the bench. I agree about the signings you mention but for each of them there is a Dabo, Marrow, Judge, Songo, Eastwood etc. There does seem to be some pride in the players but that alone won't win games. Managers decisions are crucial to winning matches and Bowyer has made too many wrong ones far too often.

that's why I said of his squad signings has been poor but his signings for the first team has been very good.

Conway probably played there better than Kane would have do. Marshall did played there against Leeds away and was excellent.

Sorry to jump on you Chaddy but I have to take issue with one thing:

some fans have been asking for Bowyer to try 3 centre backs formation so he does. but then gets criticise for trying out a different formation. some people aren't happy ever lol.

That's just not right. There's no way that people have been asking him to play with 3 centre backs because we haven't had 3 bloody centre backs available lol.

when Dann, Hanley, Kilgallon was all fit, some people suggest playing 3 centre backs.

also a couple of members said they would like to see 3 centre backs in this game. look back on the couple of pages of this thread.

[Stuart]

when Dann, Hanley, Kilgallon was all fit, some people suggest playing 3 centre backs.

also a couple of members said they would like to see 3 centre backs in this game. look back on the couple of pages of this thread.

No they didn't.

[chaddyrovers]

No they didn't.

post 18 and 21 in THIS thread said about playing 3 centre backs for this game

[thenodrog]

We're heading for promotion don't ya all know.

Harsh that Den. Am I correct in not only seeing a touch of triumphalism in your post but also in detecting a note of satisfaction? Surely not??

tbf to the team and Bowyer nNeither of those yesterday were penalties and Handleys sending off was ludicrous cos he was the one who was being fouled! I gave him stick for costing us big time with his stupid indiscipline at Wigan but yesterday he did no wrong. The Referee should have a number of questions to answer. Credit to Holloway for saying as much too.

[thenodrog]

IMO Bowyer couldn't have done much more this season, that was the point. He stopped the rot. Nobody is saying we should be grateful for having seen the club nearly destroyed. I think you knew what i meant.

In reviewing crucial events this season I can only arrive at the conclusion that Bowyer has run over a black cat and cracked half a dozen mirrors! Yesterday he was robbed of our best centre forward. And before anyone says it Yes I know Napoleon preferred lucky Generals to good ones.

[had.e.nuff]

That first penalty decision is absolutely horrendous on 2 counts. I've just seen it on the football league show. A shocking decision. Never a penalty and even once given, never a sending off.

The millwall player Morrison just carried on chasing the ball; he didn't even appeal. I'm not sure what goes through a referees mind when he decides to give a decision like that.

The jury is out on the 2nd penalty decision. Impossible to tell from the angle on the footy league show.

Never a sending off even holloway thought they had got lucky, can you appeal against the red card quite alot overturned in prem this year.

[thenodrog]

Just back from the game and once again there are more questions than answers. I was surprised to see what appeared to be a 3-4-1-2 formation with Tommy Spurr playing wide left. Positionally he looked like a fish out of water at times and I doubt he has ever played that position before. Dunn was blowing out of his arse from early on and was too often a passenger because of this. Bowyer usurped himself when Hanley was sent off. He put one of our most creative players (Conway) to right back and moved Spurr back to left back. He brought the headless chicken Taylor on and played him on the right ahead of Conway. We were crying out for some creativity as Cairney warmed the bench.

Overall a draw was probably a fair result but in patches the game was as poor as I have seen for a long time with a distinct lack of quality.

I really cannot see any improvement from Bowyer as he looks out of his depth on the touchline.

Notwithstanding Bowyers Achilles heel tactical nous I'm amazed that you haven't commented on the dreadful penalty decisions.

First one is a 50/50 could have gone either way should have gone neither but never a red

I just wish Hanley did his job instead of letting the man get in in the first place

Second is a blatant penalty why people are moaning about that one I have no idea

1. 50:50? Hanley didn't lean into the Millwall player he was dragged over by an arm around his neck.

2. Cos Kean nicked the ball away and the player went over his leg. Watch it again Tom.

[thenodrog]

I'm not sure why Wilpshire Blue got his knickers in a twist over my comment about Lowe it was more a general comment about our overall progress with him in midfield over the last season and a half or so rather than a comment about yesterday's game in isolation. And in the interests of balance, I think it's correct to say we haven't lost a game without him this season.

The point being imo is that if GB views Lowe in central midfield as being pivotal to our fortunes long term that does not bode well for either our or GB's fortunes.

C'mon admit it Simon..... you're just missing MGP! Who will you turn on when Lowe leaves I wonder?

Sorry to jump on you Chaddy but I have to take issue with one thing:

some fans have been asking for Bowyer to try 3 centre backs formation so he does. but then gets criticise for trying out a different formation. some people aren't happy ever lol.

That's just not right. There's no way that people have been asking him to play with 3 centre backs because we haven't had 3 bloody centre backs available lol.

If that is the case then thats quite a few minus points for Bowyer from me. Any football manager who listens to the know nowts on the terraces aint up to much.

The jury is out on the 2nd penalty decision. Impossible to tell from the angle on the footy league show.

Don't watch the players at all David, just watch the ball. Keane 'nicked' it away from the player. It was an excellent peice of defending imo.

[Tom]

Watch it again and still think Keane gets man before ball Gordon

First one is just a bit of physicality both ways ludicrous to blow up at all for me but more obviously a foul on Hanley first

[booth]

I think it was all of two people asking for three CBs. It's not really something I'd use to back up a an argument that people are never happy.

[arbitro]

Notwithstanding Bowyers Achilles heel tactical nous I'm amazed that you haven't commented on the dreadful penalty decisions.

1. 50:50? Hanley didn't lean into the Millwall player he was dragged over by an arm around his neck.

2. Cos Kean nicked the ball away and the player went over his leg. Watch it again Tom.

The penalties were at the far end of the ground to me and I have only briefly seen one replay last night. One thing that struck me at the time was why Hanley allowed the ball to bounce when it was first played through. Poor, poor defending.

In real time the referee took an age to give the first penalty and then send Hanley off. I think he was advised to do so over the communication system.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

Have to admit I have suggested three at the back to accomodate an extra midfielder. At no stage would I have Spurr wide left though. He would be at left position of the three defenders, only then if Kilgallon isn't fit.

I also suggested it with Lowe as a wide midfielder as he is an average right back and a below average midfielder and Bowyer will always pick him.

[den]

Harsh that Den. Am I correct in not only seeing a touch of triumphalism in your post but also in detecting a note of satisfaction? Surely not??

Absolutely not. I don't see anything to suggest we're on the way to promotion next season though. That was my point.

[EWOODACE1]

I don understand how on earth that first one was a pen and a red card. Hanley seems to be the one being fouled.

Even the second one was dubious as it's hard to tell whether keane played the ball first.

3 dodgy pens against us in a few days.

I hope those that jumped on hanleys back yesterday retract their comments

[Blue blood]

Hmm, hard to know what to make of the performance, players and team.

Certainly there are mitigating circumstances, the penalties seem very harsh, but again it seems we didn't step it up until we were in trouble (albeit not of our own making).

Trying new formations - no problem with that, given we're not going up experimenting now so he gets his first team line up and a plan b sorted is fine. Indeed, credit for it, it's the right time to try. However a tad worrying we still seem no closer to either of these things. Putting Spurr at left mind (why?!?) and then Conway at right back when he's our biggest threat at the moment, are again really erratic moves. Bowyer to me swings between positives and negatives and is increasingly making me think he'll be bang average at best. Is this good enough for us... depends on which way you look at it. But given our ambitions and perhaps need for promotion asap I'd suggest not.

Not sure there is much to play for for Rovers, but GB is he is staying must make the most of these games to convince fans he's worthy of persevering with and to finally get into his head our team and plan A and plan B.

[Majiball]

I want to see a reduction in our injuries as we lost yet another player yesterday to yet another silly muscular injury.

Cancel the off-season GB, get them in 4-5 times a week and conduct a strength training program based on ankle and knee stability and hip mobility. Without soccer to get in the way you will be able to make some serious improvements. Injuries will decline. If you don't believe it speak to Jack O'Connell at Rochdale, they did it this year and just look at there injury rate, fitness levels and position and there's the proof it could benefit Rovers.