[Archived] Wimbledon

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

Me too. Optimism shattered by a silly defeat. Seen it so many times over the decades. Classic Rovers. 

I know Jim, one of my first games was away to Fourth Division Rochdale in the semi-finals of the League Cup. We were mid table in the First Division they were bumping along in mid table in the Fourth. I went along expecting our much superior skill factor to prevail comfortably. What I saw was a stumbling, disjointed performance were none of our players seemed to want to be there. When we pulled it back to 2-1 near the end I thought we were in with a shout only for us to let them get a soft third at the end. You can imagine what the following day was like in school in Rochdale !

Since then I've seen lots of similar performances over the years, if I had a £ 10 note for every one I'd be wealthy now,  so yesterday was so predictable.

Not long after that we were flying in the FA Cup, lots of the big teams were already out, we go to Fourth Division new to the league Oxford and get the same treatment, a 3-1 chasing ! That was the season I thought we could go all the way to Wembley. Bloody Second Division Preston went there instead.

At least I wasn't there to see the best Rovers team I've ever seen lose to Workington Town 5-1 at home !

 

I could see yesterday coming, way to much over confidence on this site and possibly at the club. We're OK if we can score first, fall behind and all the insecurities built up over the past 7 years rise to the surface.

I was listening to Fred Eyre on GMR yesterday, he knows the inside track regarding North West football and he was singing the praises of Paul Cook at Wigan. He's got a winning mentality and he's great at building up the players confidence apparently. All he knows as a manager is winning, albeit at lower levels.  I can't say the about TM I'm afraid. 

Yesterday's over now, the next game is all important. I wouldn't make too many changes seeing as we're playing away, I'd play 4-4-1-1 with Dack behind Samuel. If Nyambe was fit I might be tempted to play him at right back. If Conway isn't 110% fit I'd play Chapman. Two defensive mids is ok if you've got a creative player further forward, when you play two defensive mids with two out and out strikers there's a gaping hole between the two lines. Hopefully Dack can pull the strings in that position.

 

[the original david brent]

12 hours ago, FGS5635 said:

 

I thought Wimbledon where pathetic. The play acting and time wasting was down right embarrassing at times

 

I agree with this and that's why I was particularly angry with the result and our performance.

If we get beat to a better team so be it. Likewise if we are below par and get beat to an average yet honest and commendable team of grafters then it's palletable (Southend and Doncaster)

However Wimbledon are bloody awful; they are also unsavoury and cynical. Like the kind of sh1thole pub team nobody really fancied playing against in the Sunday league! The equivalent of playing against the Kings Inn on a cold Sunday morning at Pleasington in the early 2000s!

Their right back is a detestable creature. I've seen him get away with some bad challenges before on live sky games; when he needlessly shoved Williams into the advertising boards causing the young ball boy to be injured and require medical treatment it should have a been a booking. Of course that moron of a ref gave him a slight ticking off and he ran back to his half smirking.

i also agree with another poster that there should have been 8-10 minutes time added on.

I was sat directly behind their manager Ardley who spent most of the game berating the 4th official.

Our performance was utterly rubbish and the above shouldn't detract from that. Mowbray should have set up a 'footballing' team to have 'footballed' them off the park - Chapman should have certainly started, maybe even Dack. However Wimbledons antics made this defeat even more hard to swallow. 

[jim mk2]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

 

Not long after that we were flying in the FA Cup, lots of the big teams were already out, we go to Fourth Division new to the league Oxford and get the same treatment, a 3-1 chasing ! That was the season I thought we could go all the way to Wembley. Bloody Second Division Preston went there instead.

 

 

I remember picking up the Saturday evening LET (no local radio or t'internet in those days) and staring at the front page headlines and scoreline in disbelief. Along with England's 1970 quarter-final WC loss in Leon to West Germany, it remains one of my biggest disappointments in football. 

That 1964-65 team threw away a possible Wembley final. Oxford were managed or captained I think by a young Ron Atkinson - a sign of things to come. 

 

[McClarky]

That was a really poor game and Rovers performance. Following immediately after St Pauli's 4-0 home defeat to Inglestadt it didn't make a good day.  We just created nothing and looked to be playing at half pace. Their goal as well, what a shambles.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

 

I remember picking up the Saturday evening LET (no local radio or t'internet in those days) and staring at the front page headlines and scoreline in disbelief. Along with England's 1970 quarter-final WC loss in Leon to West Germany, it remains one of my biggest disappointments in football. 

That 1964-65 team threw away a possible Wembley final. Oxford were managed or captained I think by a young Ron Atkinson - a sign of things to come. 

 

I was playing that day and after the game ( 2.00 KO then ) we used to drop off the bus at a local TV shop window and watch the scores come in  on " Grandstand " on the old teleprinter.  When " Oxford Utd 3 - Blackburn Rovers 1 " printed out  I said to my mate " They've got that wrong, it must be the other way round " !

[den9112]

40 years i have been following the Rovers and i must say that that AFC Wimbledon as got to be one of the worst football teams i have seen at Ewood...(been to every home and away match this season)

My annoyance even took me a step further when i passed a Wimbledon supporter on the way to the car park, saying that that is one of the worst teams i have seen at Ewood...To my surprise, he agreed ,but at the end of the day they walked away with 3 points ...The Referee lost control of the game early on and never really looked confident in any of his decision-making  ,let's hope it evens itself out after a full season ....rovers yesterday just lacked that clinical finish in the last third, and in my opinion an early goal would have sorted them,it just didn't happen yesterday,some days it will .

Now having watched every game this season two players have stood out to me that really need to hang up their boots,..one is Ward who is a liability at the back , not knocking him as pro footballer but from what i have seen he is not switched on once the ball goes below his shoulder ,the second is Caddis , probably good for away games when all you are doing is defending ,but at home when you need some fire and pace , sorry to say that he as lost it ,no confidence in his own ability when he gets the ball ,.....

TM lasts game in charge of Coventry was i believe against Wimbledon ,but at least they got a draw...

 

 

[Stuart]

Think that's a bit harsh on Ward. He was one of the few that stood out yesterday. He saved us several times as the last man.

[rovers11]

Just now, Stuart said:

Think that's a bit harsh on Ward. He was one of the few that stood out yesterday. He saved us several times as the last man.

I agree. Not a fan of Ward but he was our best defender yesterday tbf. 

[Skiptonrover]

Ward did ok he'd be my pick of a best of a bad bunch caddis would be the other way round.

[blueboy3333]

2 hours ago, Paul said:

After some thought I was going to post I feel there is a complete overreaction on here to this defeat and performance

No there isn't. It's actually quite tame. There was a lot worse being said in the JW Upper yesterday.

 

2 hours ago, Paul said:

I've only seen the MK Dons and Wimbledon games. Yesterday was poor but by no means as poor as one would imagine from reading the MB.

If you'd been to the Doncaster game you would know yesterday was a very similar performance. That's twice in three games we've been out-fought and out-thought by a team with half our budget.

 

2 hours ago, Paul said:

Conway, who I've never rated, was 100% responsible for the goal and ultimately the loss

For the goal yes, for the loss absolutely not. We camped in their half in the 2nd half but we weren't good enough to score. We are very easy to defend against. That's Mowbray's fault. He sets the team up, he signs and picks the players.

 

2 hours ago, Paul said:

Prior to the goal Rovers had pretty much controlled the game

2 hours ago, Paul said:

However last season under similar circumstances the team would have fallen apart and conceded several more.

We controlled the game against Doncaster too. It means nothing if you can't create the chances to put the game away. All they did yesterday was sit back and hit us on the break, just like Donny did. It was only poor control and bad finishing in the 10 minutes after they scored yesterday from them that prevented a repeated of the Donny game. Last season we were also playing against far superior teams so the comparison doesn't stack up. Wimbledon were awful. Our team hasn't changed much in quality from last year.

 

2 hours ago, Paul said:

On this one I'm with him every step of the way.

You're with someone 'every step of the way' who wasn't at the game?

 

2 hours ago, Paul said:

People probably have never noticed but I never comment on a match I haven't watched.

Hmmm...but you make a point of logging on to agree with someone who wasn't at the game?

 

2 hours ago, Paul said:

Some posts are entirely predictable

Yep.

You've made a post with the intention of criticising the widely held opinion that we were awful yesterday, yet offered no real rebuttal besides the fact you agree with someone who wasn't at the game. Very odd, I would have thought you would have some reasons based on what you saw rather than on what someone else didn't see.

[Gav]

26 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

No there isn't. It's actually quite tame. There was a lot worse being said in the JW Upper yesterday.

 

If you'd been to the Doncaster game you would know yesterday was a very similar performance. That's twice in three games we've been out-fought and out-thought by a team with half our budget.

 

For the goal yes, for the loss absolutely not. We camped in their half in the 2nd half but we weren't good enough to score. We are very easy to defend against. That's Mowbray's fault. He sets the team up, he signs and picks the players.

 

You're with someone 'every step of the way' who wasn't at the game?

 

Hmmm...but you make a point of logging on to agree with someone who wasn't at the game?

 

Yep.

You've made a post with the intention of criticising the widely held opinion that we were awful yesterday, yet offered no real rebuttal besides the fact you agree with someone who wasn't at the game. Very odd, I would have thought you would have some reasons based on what you saw rather than on what someone else didn't see.

A blind man on a galloping horse could see that the BRfcs reaction is a massive overreaction after pulling 12 points from the last 15, you didn't have to be at the game for that. 

This messageboard is for fans from all over the world to come and give their opinions whether they attended the game or not, and you're not going to stop that with your feeble attempts to drive that wedge and childish name calling.

If you don't like it sod off somewhere else, this site was going along time before you surfaced and will be here a long time after you're gone.

Dont let the door smack you on the arse on the way out.

[Stuart]

 

Morning Gav.

[Garage Flower]

We weren't good enough throughout the pitch yesterday. One of those days when we wouldn't have scored if we'd played 180 mins. 

Home form is bad. Nobody would have expected us to lose to MK Dons and Wimbledon at home before we'd kicked a ball but how many would have expected a win at Bradford and Scunny? If we get a result next week at Shrewsbury is it that much of a disaster? A bad result is just a bad result, we've got an awful long way to go yet.

 

Calls for Mowbray to go are foolish and personal vendettas against players verge on the bizarre especially if you haven't actually been to the game!

[JHRover]

13 minutes ago, Garage Flower said:

We weren't good enough throughout the pitch yesterday. One of those days when we wouldn't have scored if we'd played 180 mins. 

Home form is bad. Nobody would have expected us to lose to MK Dons and Wimbledon at home before we'd kicked a ball but how many would have expected a win at Bradford and Scunny? If we get a result next week at Shrewsbury is it that much of a disaster? A bad result is just a bad result, we've got an awful long way to go yet.

 

Calls for Mowbray to go are foolish and personal vendettas against players verge on the bizarre especially if you haven't actually been to the game!

Trouble is that talk of the Bradford and Scunthorpe wins 'balancing out' awful defeats to Wimbledon and Doncaster at Ewood isn't acceptable. If we were aiming for mid-table or a possible top 6 push then fair enough, the return so far is probably acceptable and the defeats could be overlooked because we've had some impressive wins too.

But we aren't in that boat. We should be winning the majority of games this season and should be in the top 2. The manager himself has added to that expectation with his comments and expenditure. 

We've now had 3 awful results out of 7 games. Lose at table toppers Shrewsbury next week and we'll have lost 50% of our games and will be 13 points off top already. 

Unacceptable whatever way you look at it and big pressure has to be on Mowbray. Every game we fail to win is poor in this league if you want promotion, but having already got 3 defeats to our name, 2 at home, against dross sides, is dreadful.

[arbitro]

30 minutes ago, Gav said:

A blind man on a galloping horse could see that the BRfcs reaction is a massive overreaction after pulling 12 points from the last 15, you didn't have to be at the game for that. 

This messageboard is for fans from all over the world to come and give their opinions whether they attended the game or not, and you're not going to stop that with your feeble attempts to drive that wedge and childish name calling.

If you don't like it sod off somewhere else, this site was going along time before you surfaced and will be here a long time after you're gone.

Dont let the door smack you on the arse on the way out.

Actually the three games we have lost have been similar performances where complacency and poor attitudes contributed to defeats. So that is three performances out of seven where we have been out fought and lacklustre. That is over 40% of our league games where we have been second best in many aspects of the game. I don't think that is an over reaction myself. Southend, Doncaster and Wimbledon have deservedly beat us when player for player we are much better. Draw your own conclusion from that.

[Garage Flower]

8 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Trouble is that talk of the Bradford and Scunthorpe wins 'balancing out' awful defeats to Wimbledon and Doncaster at Ewood isn't acceptable. If we were aiming for mid-table or a possible top 6 push then fair enough, the return so far is probably acceptable and the defeats could be overlooked because we've had some impressive wins too.

But we aren't in that boat. We should be winning the majority of games this season and should be in the top 2. The manager himself has added to that expectation with his comments and expenditure. 

We've now had 3 awful results out of 7 games. Lose at table toppers Shrewsbury next week and we'll have lost 50% of our games and will be 13 points off top already. 

Unacceptable whatever way you look at it and big pressure has to be on Mowbray. Every game we fail to win is poor in this league if you want promotion, but having already got 3 defeats to our name, 2 at home, against dross sides, is dreadful.

I'm not saying the results are good enough, I'm saying that they've happened. Let's see where we are at Christmas before the standard knee jerk reactions from Rovers fans.

[arbitro]

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2017/september/weve-lost-too-many-matches/

 

That reads to me like Mowbray isn't too happy with the attitude.

[Parsonblue]

Just now, arbitro said:

Actually the three games we have lost have been similar performances where complacency and poor attitudes contributed to defeats. So that is three performances out of seven where we have been out fought and lacklustre. That is over 40% of our league games where we have been second best in many aspects of the game. I don't think that is an over reaction myself. Southend, Doncaster and Wimbledon have deservedly beat us when player for player we are much better. Draw your own conclusion from that.

Couldn't agree more with this.  Complacency and attitude has become a real problem.  Southend have won 1 game in 8.  Doncaster have won 1 game in 7 and AFC Wimbledon have won 2 games in 8.  No prizes for guessing who have they have beaten.  If players can find the motivation to grind out wins against Bradford and Scunthorpe - two of the better sides in this League - then we ought to be able to expect a better return from games against teams who are going to be in the lower part of this League.  

At the moment we lack the one thing that all successful teams have - consistency.  You simply don't know which team will turn up at any match.  We have the one that can play expansive attacking football - as at Rochdale; the one that can grind out a result - as at Bradford and Scunthorpe; and the one that surrenders without a whimper - which was in evidence yesterday.

[sambo]

My main concern is that we don't know how to react to going behind. This is something that seems to be a feature of this side under Mowbray, they look clueless when we fall behind.

We've yet to come from behind and win, which is what we'll need to do to get out of this league.

Another concern is how poor we are at home. He's cracked how to set us up away from home (so don't tinker too much Tony!), but at home we can't break teams down. We pass it pretty quickly on the counter (e.g. Rochdale) but when there's two banks of four we just pass it slowly across the pitch until a cross is easily cleared.

[Gav]

The majority of this side are new through the door, we're in a new division and it takes time for everything to come together.

I have no doubt yesterday's performance was dire, I've seen the Donny and Southend games and both are dire, but we're going to get inconsistency, because we're dealing with players in the lower leagues, that's why they're playing at this level.

The Rochdale and Scunny games both showed we're heading in the right direction, so with us only a few weeks into the new season it's not the time to be calling the manager useless, the players useless and sack them all, let's at least give them until the end of September 

[JHRover]

11 minutes ago, Gav said:

The majority of this side are new through the door, we're in a new division and it takes time for everything to come together.

Not good enough. How long does this 'gelling' period last for? They've had all summer, a busy pre-season schedule and we're now 10 games into the season and its still being churned out as an excuse. The starting 11 yesterday featured just 4 players who weren't here last season. Caddis and Smallwood were signed precisely because of their experience of this level and ability to quickly come in and perform. 

We're falling off the pace already due to defeats against teams we shouldn't be losing against. The Bradford and Scunthorpe wins should have been the icing on the cake and crowned a very successful start to the season, but instead those wins are just keeping us in the top half of the table at the moment because those defeats have undermined them.

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 hours ago, david brent said:

I agree with this and that's why I was particularly angry with the result and our performance.

If we get beat to a better team so be it. Likewise if we are below par and get beat to an average yet honest and commendable team of grafters then it's palletable (Southend and Doncaster)

However Wimbledon are bloody awful; they are also unsavoury and cynical. Like the kind of sh1thole pub team nobody really fancied playing against in the Sunday league! The equivalent of playing against the Kings Inn on a cold Sunday morning at Pleasington in the early 2000s!

Their right back is a detestable creature. I've seen him get away with some bad challenges before on live sky games; when he needlessly shoved Williams into the advertising boards causing the young ball boy to be injured and require medical treatment it should have a been a booking. Of course that moron of a ref gave him a slight ticking off and he ran back to his half smirking.

i also agree with another poster that there should have been 8-10 minutes time added on.

I was sat directly behind their manager Ardley who spent most of the game berating the 4th official.

Our performance was utterly rubbish and the above shouldn't detract from that. Mowbray should have set up a 'footballing' team to have 'footballed' them off the park - Chapman should have certainly started, maybe even Dack. However Wimbledons antics made this defeat even more hard to swallow. 

Well if they got away with this stuff at ewood, what will they be like at home? 

Mowbrays quotes after the game were interesting. He said we will go and train this week and not think that we are a good team. Sound like arrogance crept in last week. The same arrogance that cost us against Southend and Doncaster. Sounds like we have a thick bunch on our hands if they let that attitude cost us again so soon. 

[tomphil]

33 minutes ago, Gav said:

The majority of this side are new through the door, we're in a new division and it takes time for everything to come together.

I have no doubt yesterday's performance was dire, I've seen the Donny and Southend games and both are dire, but we're going to get inconsistency, because we're dealing with players in the lower leagues, that's why they're playing at this level.

The Rochdale and Scunny games both showed we're heading in the right direction, so with us only a few weeks into the new season it's not the time to be calling the manager useless, the players useless and sack them all, let's at least give them until the end of September 

First line doesn't really wash anymore i'm afraid, fair enough comment after the first 2 but when they've won 4 on the trot with more or less a settled side it becomes a bit redundant.

Like I said before though if they get back to winning ways then a 0-1 might not be the disaster it seems. They didn't fall to pieces like v Donny and the odd defeat followed by wining a few on the bounce is better than constant draws and trying to talk that up as some great unbeaten run, and all is well as has been the case in the recent past.

 

[Cherry Blue]

23 minutes ago, Gav said:

The majority of this side are new through the door, we're in a new division and it takes time for everything to come together.

I have no doubt yesterday's performance was dire,

You make a good point Gav and thankfully we do have the skills of Mulgrew, Evans & Bennett to step up and rally the rest but i didn't see that happen yesterday and without a blood & thunder leader on the pitch we are going to get the same again at Ewood this season. As someone pointed out earlier its ashame we don't have a 12th man at Ewood these days like we do away from home.

After yesterday's dire performance, including TMs, I'm seeing negative figures of played 7 lost 3 = 12 points but a win next saturday will change things to played 8 won 5 = 15 points.

[den9112]

Could Trevor Kettle be a Wimbledon fan