[Archived] Rovers v Charlton

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Really can't ask for anymore,this run of form is superb.The motivation and mentality of our side appears spot on

Long may it continue.

[islander200]

Nice to keep a clean sheet. We weren't at our best today but we can't expect to be hammering every team.Charlton are 1 of the better sides we will face this season so not playing at our best but still coming away with 3 points bodes well. Glad to see Graham with another goal

[West Yorks Rover]

Attendance 10,907 (away 368)

[JBiz]

37 minutes ago, DE. said:

Not this season. 

Plymouth at home

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Hoping for a good turnout on Boxing day...we know we have Venkys but this side deserves more support.

[Mattyblue]

Apart from Bradford on Good Friday and a potential promotion decider in April/May I just can’t see the crowds getting substantially bigger in this division.

 

[chaddyrovers]

A win and a clean sheet..

Performance wasnt the best but the players found a way to win and thats what we want and need to do. 

Very happy night tonight. 

Pleased to see Raya coming for high balls and being so commanding of his box. Good balls played out today to start counter attacks. 

Mulgrew and Downing were solid enough. 

Smallwood and Dack poor today. 

3 points we got

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, AlanK said:

I didn't see the game but if folk are suggesting we played badly and won then that's fine by me.

 

That won't last. Worrying to hear that we struggled again to dominate a home game.

[G Somerset Rover]

1994 since we won 7 in a row in the league by the way. For the seventh victory we beat Southampton 3-2 with Le Tissier scoring his wondergoal for the Saints.

[Ossydave]

34 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Hoping for a good turnout on Boxing day...we know we have Venkys but this side deserves more support.

Won't happen sadly

 

Its unfortunate for the players and TM more than anything but so many won't forgive and forget, myself inclided, so Ewood is a no go. Aways I've missed a few all season. 

Support the team but not the regime. 

[Gav]

51 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Worrying to hear that we struggled again to dominate a home game.

Bunkum TS.

Its out best run for many years, keep getting dominated at home (which we never did by the way) and we'll be promoted by Easter.

Onwards and upwards.

[JHRover]

Under Mowbray we seem to have a way in home games of 'limping through' and doing 'just enough' to secure the result we need. 

So many times this season we've won games at Ewood without really impressing and having long spells in games where the opposition have loads of possession and we are pushed back struggling to get any kind of rhythm going. 

It isn't just this season though - we were the same last year against Wigan, Derby and Villa.

If it works I ain't going to complain and I've seen enough from this division so far to suggest that there aren't many, if any, sides good enough to punish us in this dreadful league.

[Boaty]

3 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

Won't happen sadly

 

Its unfortunate for the players and TM more than anything but so many won't forgive and forget, myself inclided, so Ewood is a no go. Aways I've missed a few all season. 

Support the team but not the regime. 

If you don't want to watch lower league football just admit it. 

[Gav]

Just now, Boaty said:

If you don't want to watch lower league football just admit it. 

Went today did you boaty?

[GreenRover]

42 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Hoping for a good turnout on Boxing day...we know we have Venkys but this side deserves more support.

A bit disappointed with the attendance. 10000 and the team on an unbeaten streak of six games now. They can't do much more. Would be great to see a few more attending the games. The players would appreciate it too. Excellent win today. Wigan looking good. Still think Shrewsbury will falter away from home so we will catch them there. Bradford keeping the pressure up on us with a 90th min winner and we are now eight points clear of Charlton. Really happy with the team. Hopefully we can all get behind them and look to extend the unbeaten run with a win away to Northampton. This is where complacency could catch is. Hopefully Mowbray will ground them and get them ready for another 90 min battle. COYB??⚪️⚽️??

[blueboy3333]

Well, we won and that's all that ultimately matters but we got a bit of a football lesson 2nd half. Fortunately, David Raya is a shot-stopping genius. Looking forward to seeing the double save again. He was better off his line today too, although he did flap at one 2nd half from a corner and they could have scored.

I thought Nyambe and Williams were both excellent defensively. We all know Nyambe struggles with the ball at his feet but I thought he had his hands full with the left side of Charlton's team (I thought their left-back was the best player on the pitch) and he coped really well. Williams was a lot better than he was earlier I the season, he looks a lot more confident and did well against the tricky Marshall.

Mulgrew and Downing struggled a bit with the physicality of Best and Magennis (sp) but stuck at it.

The midfield were all pretty poor. Evans failed to make any impression and Smallwood just seemed to be fire-fighting. Charlton had a cracking player in the middle of the park, a talented left-footer who controlled the midfield 2nd half. Conway tried manfully but he just seemed half a yard shy of where he should have been. Antonsson didn't see much of the ball.

Samuel was poor. Couldn't hold it up and couldn't stay on his feet. Dack tried but Charlton won the battle in midfield so he was crowded out.

Graham looked sharper and took his goal well. He hurt himself soon after coming on so it slowed him down a bit. Nuttall looked like he was on sedatives half the time, he just didn't seem with it. Always on his heels, even a touch of laziness. He woke up a couple of times, thankfully once for the goal. Great little cross for Graham.

Tomlinson did ok when he came on and played the pass of the match to put Conway clean through.

All in all a microcosm of our season as a whole at Ewood. We lacked tempo and ideas but unlike earlier in the season we are starting to grind out wins at Ewood when playing poorly. Long may it continue.

It seemed a bit busier today. Hopefully a few were there to buy a half-season tickets in time for the New Year promotion push.

Cheers Leon.

COYB!!

[arbitro]

Three points, clean sheet and Best own goal. That's the positives from a quiet Ewood today when too many players looked jaded. It's been a while since we lost and the winning feeling is something we all like but Mowbray needs to give the players a few days off now ahead of the busy Christmas and New Year period to recharge the batteries.

[blueboy3333]

2 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Three points, clean sheet and Best own goal. That's the positives from a quiet Ewood today when too many players looked jaded. It's been a while since we lost and the winning feeling is something we all like but Mowbray needs to give the players a few days off now ahead of the busy Christmas and New Year period to recharge the batteries.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2017/december/tony-pleased-with-another-win/

Sounds like he will. A few were off the pace today.

[Blue blood]

Great win.

2 key things for me:

1 it's a real shame that a model professional scored such a crucial own goal vs a club he gave so much for ?

2 a good 3 points against a decent outfit.

[darrenrover]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That won't last. Worrying to hear that we struggled again to dominate a home game.

Tyrone, at no point did we struggle.

We were always comfortable, particularly after we were one up. At no point during the game did I feel we could lose.

We weren't pretty at any point and we're always going to struggle at times with no pace or trickery in the team, we all know that. With what Mowbray has at his disposal, IMO he got everything spot on today, even the subs.

We could do with a couple of tricky, pacey winger types in January and we'd be up.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

I must’ve imagined Raya making three cracking saves then!

Oops. Must've missed one or two of those when I went to the loo. 

[arbitro]

22 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2017/december/tony-pleased-with-another-win/

Sounds like he will. A few were off the pace today.

There just didn't seem to be the energy of recent weeks. Smallwood was running on empty well before the end as were several others. They dominated us in midfield in the second half because we couldn't get close enough to tackle or at times close them down. I think we have got away with one today.

[GreenRover]

Watched the highlights. Williams missed a sitter. Nuttall did really well for second goal. Raya made a great save in 1st half. Nyambe did well to put him off before he got the shot in. We were lucky best was offside for their chance in the second half. Raya should have palmed it out to the side. Can't tell much from the highlights. Win is a win. I will take it.

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/league-one

[Claytons Left Boot]

There will be more on Ewood for the Boxing Day clash, no doubt about it. May well only be a crowd of 14k or so and not the 17k or 18k that would have turned out for a L1 clash without Venky’s in charge but hey ho.

No one is forgiving and forgetting by the way. Whilst I respect the wishes of the NAPM brigade, it has been proved that, so far, their initiative has not worked. As I said a few days ago in another thread, the missing turnover from the NAPMers has not hurt our owners in the slightest. Venky’s are wealthy enough to not notice and will leave on their term and when they are ready.

Perhaps mods, we could have a poll purely for the NAPMers, to see just why they are boycotting, something along the lines of

a. To deny Venky’s additional income in an attempt to get them to leave

b. Can’t forgive or forget the turmoil they’ve caused

c. Other/personal reasons.

Let’s not forget, local businesses are suffering because of the lower attendances. Cafes, pubs, newsagents, bus & coach companies etc. It would be great to see the pubs rammed on Boxing Day and everyone given a tonic, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I’m not slating the NAPM brigade in any way here. I just want to get my head around just why they are boycotting when logic dictates it has not been a success.

[Hasta]

16 minutes ago, GreenRover said:

We were lucky best was offside for their chance in the second half. Raya should have palmed it out to the side. 

How where we lucky Best was offside. Raya got up and saved the rebound anyway!

He was outstanding today.