[Archived] Northampton Town v Rovers

[JBiz]

50 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Neanderthal is too nice for some of them. One of these behind me said he hoped Ward got a terminal illness and that his wife dies on Christmas Day. The sight of balding, overweight, drink addled middle aged men indulging in behaviour you wouldn't expect from a six year old is appalling.

I nearly walloped a lad at Bury for something he said about Rekeem Harper that I’d never repeat, and the lad even went into a shrill over the top denial, can’t have been older than 17. Two minutes later he’s showing some other young lad a video of a girl snorting white powder off a key on the coach down.. that’s one of the problems with away days!

As for the result yesterday, not what we needed but if we are playing poorly, missing open nets and penalty’s, and still only drawing, I’ve no concerns that we will get back to winning ways. Great goal by the Dackula.

[philipl]

Haven't seen any of the match but for what they are worth some thoughts:

Rovers of August, September or October would have lost that game...

We were without six players, three of whom (Mulgrew, Lennihan and Chapman) are well above this level, one is a leading scorer this season (Samuel), one a full international (Evans). And I had forgotten Bennet who provides a bit of pace and a lot of enthusiasm.

The stats suggest we didn't "deserve to lose"

Possession: 58-42

Shots: 11-7

Shots on target: 6-3

Fouls: 12-14 (there's a novelty- we weren't the dirtier side)

Corners: 4-1 (yes they scored from their one)

However, miss an open goal and a penalty and we don't deserve to win either.

When the final whistle goes on Boxing Day, we will be half way through the season and at least one of Wigan and Shrewsbury won't have collected 3 points.

So:

1) All to play for 

2) We are 20 points and 20 places better off than I feared we would be by now after the Doncaster defeat

3) Shame about the winning run but plenty of games left to have another go at beating our record

4) MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY

[Guest]

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

He's got not only a total lack of technical ability, but a total lack of intelligence and positional awareness. He offers nothing going forward bar taking up the wingers space and the occasional mishit cross into touch, although he usually turns back. And going back hes often dragged out of position or backs off too much.

Nyambe got forward quite well yesterday, and in the first half in particular, put some good crosses in. I agree that he often looks technically clumsy, but yesterday, there were a larger number of other players in the side that could be criticised ahead of Nyambe.

I thought Smallwood looked knackered. He seems to have lost his presence somewhat over the last few games.

[AllRoverAsia]

Some good coverage from the away end.

Conway miss at 8.25 mins followed by the penalty miss.

Conway was clearly distraught over his blunder.

Antonnson kidded himself. Twerp.

 

[chaddyrovers]

We got a point from a poor performance but its 11 games unbeaten and we are still 3rd. 

Antonsson pen was poor but the Palace midfielder who scored yesterday from pen took a similar type of penalty. 

We miss Mulgrew massively and Samuel pace. 

Yes we do need a couple of players in January. Would like to see Pacey winger and maybe box to box midfielder who can get forward. 

I cant comment on the players performances as I wasnt there but did listen to the Commentary on Radio Lancs. 

How did Graham play?

Also would anyone gone 4-4-2 when Nuttall came on and took Conway or Antonsson off instead of Graham with Dack wide? (Just a question)

[philipl]

On the evidence of that video, we didn't only not get a head on their corner, we didn't get a head on any of our corners or crosses either.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 hours ago, darrenrover said:

I totally agree. We're third though, despite the fact that other than 2 or 3 twenty minute spells, we haven't played particularly well all season.

We need a couple or 3 signings in January, which may be a tough ask and to keep hold of our key players. Without any pace, inventiveness and ability to unpick a stubborn defence, the best we can hope for is a place in the play offs.

 

Our good  results have papered  a worrying lack of real top class football, even at this lowly level.  How many halves have we really played well in ? I won't say games because we've not had more than a good forty minutes in a game all season. People say " Don't worry about how we're playing, we keep winning". Sorry but football's not like that. You can only defy gravity for so long.

I was optimistic before I saw the team yesterday but one look at that midfield was all I needed to realise we'd do well to get a draw. We're relying on Smallwood too much. If he has an off day we struggle.

We've too many players out there who aren't 90 minute players. As for Evans, he makes Vince Grella look like " Action Man ".

[Gav]

8 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

 

Finally, we really do have some neanderthal supporters. Quite why middle-aged thugs in their Fifties were having a row with the stewards only they know. And throwing coins at the Northampton goalkeeper isn't clever. 

One of the biggest problems was the free for all in terms of seating, sit where your bloody ticket says, that stops the gathering at the front and in the gangways, how hard can it be? Stewards brought that on themselves.

As for the keeper, id have launched something at the time wasting swine if I'd had something to hand, especially when he started to bait the fans at the final whistle, no need for that, especially with tempers running high after the penalty miss.

On the game itself, we lacked energy, winning that second ball was a struggle all afternoon, but we had enough chances to win the game comfortably and didn't play badly by any means. 

[RV Blue]

As soon as Whittingham was announced in the team, you know exactly how the game is going to go, what a poor player. I honestly think I would rather have the Murphy we had in my team than the Whittingham we have. We desperately need another central midfielder to go alongside Smallwood as Tomlinson can't be relied on to do it with such inexperience. Mowbray needs to start getting this side playing well, and fast. Yesterday showed why you can't expect to play poorly and still win matches.

[JHRover]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

We got a point from a poor performance but its 11 games unbeaten and we are still 3rd. 

Antonsson pen was poor but the Palace midfielder who scored yesterday from pen took a similar type of penalty. 

We miss Mulgrew massively and Samuel pace. 

Yes we do need a couple of players in January. Would like to see Pacey winger and maybe box to box midfielder who can get forward. 

I cant comment on the players performances as I wasnt there but did listen to the Commentary on Radio Lancs. 

How did Graham play?

Also would anyone gone 4-4-2 when Nuttall came on and took Conway or Antonsson off instead of Graham with Dack wide? (Just a question)

'Still 3rd'

As I keep saying that is meaningless at this stage when we need the top 2 and haven't yet been in there this season. It isn't a positive that we're still 3rd given the results yesterday for the top 2. More important is that the gap to Wigan and Shrewsbury has widened once again and that now puts more pressure on us to win the next few to catch up to them.

Because of our mediocre start to the season we are still playing catch up to the top 2 despite an impressive run of results since October. 

I've heard people saying we should forget about Wigan as they're gone and concentrate on getting above Shrewsbury. I'm afraid if we're less than half way through the season and we're already talking about writing off the title and conceding 1st place and are now worrying about beating Shrewsbury Town to 2nd it is nothing to be pleased about. 

'At least we're still 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th' can be trotted out after every non-win for the rest of the season. It won't get us anywhere when the target should be 2nd at the least.

The response to yesterday's performance shouldn't be 'don't worry lads, we've had a good run and we're still 3rd because Bradford lost at Wimbledon'

The response to yesterday should be 'that performance was nowhere near good enough for a side aiming to get promoted. Northampton out fought us for the majority. It isn't good enough and has to improve' along with kicks up some backsides in the dressing room.

 

 

[Gav]

4 minutes ago, RV Blue said:

So you were just complaining at Rovers fans for making nasty comments to Ward and thenyou go and say that... you really are a moron. 

Talking of IQ's less than my shoe size.....

 

[RV Blue]

Just now, Gav said:

Talking of IQ's less than my shoe size.....

 

You just said you'd have chucked something at the keeper if you had it to hand and you are saying that someone else has the IQ of a shoe size, am I reading that right? If the police saw you chucking something at the keeper, you would be charged criminally and be banned from football for life, if the police saw you making nasty comments to your own player, they wouldn't do anything. Tit.

[Gav]

Just now, RV Blue said:

You just said you'd have chucked something at the keeper if you had it to hand and you are saying that someone else has the IQ of a shoe size, am I reading that right? If the police saw you chucking something at the keeper, you would be charged criminally and be banned from football for life, if the police saw you making nasty comments to your own player, they wouldn't do anything. Tit.

Trying to explain the difference would have you stumped under next Christmas, so I'll not bother.

[RV Blue]

Laugh all you want @Gav, your comment is there for all to see. If the mods had anything about them, they would permanently ban you for what you just said.

[JBiz]

 

18 minutes ago, RV Blue said:

Mowbray needs to start getting this side playing well, and fast. Yesterday showed why you can't expect to play poorly and still win matches.

 

Did you blink through October and November? We’ve been playing well.

Plus we didn’t play well yesterday, and only lost because we missed an open net, a penalty and defended a set piece poorly... we will win games playing worse than yesterday.

[RV Blue]

6 minutes ago, Gav said:

Trying to explain the difference would have you stumped under next Christmas, so I'll not bother.

The difference is that the first one was some lads making stupid comments in the heat of the moment at a player that shouldn't be anywhere near our team and the other is a criminal act of a cowardly scumbag who is too childish to understand that football is a game. They would risk potentially disabling someone for life because they did a bit of timewasting during a game of football. People have been banned for much less than what you just posted.

[RV Blue]

4 minutes ago, Biz said:

 

 

Did you blink through October and November? We’ve been playing well.

Plus we didn’t play well yesterday, and only lost because we missed an open net, a penalty and defended a set piece poorly... we will win games playing worse than yesterday.

We haven't played well for a full game in ages, if we had played well yesterday, we'd have been 2 or 3 goals up and wouldn't have to rely on a last minute penalty to save our bacon. At this moment in time, we are still in 3rd place which won't be good enough if we are still there by the end of the season, Mowbray needs to pull his finger out.

[JHRover]

Generally speaking results have papered over performances. Nobody is bothered when those results are wins every week but the minute those wins become draws or losses then it does become a problem.

At home in particular we haven't played well for a long time. I suppose Portsmouth was the one-off convincing performance and result, but Bristol Rovers, Charlton, Plymouth, Fleetwood etc. were not pleasant.

Away from home the story has been slightly better but still not many occasions where we've dominated a game for the majority. We've had good spells such as the first half at Oxford and spells v Peterborough and Blackpool. In reality its been either individual quality coming to the fore or short spells of ruthlessness rather than turning up and outplaying the opposition for 60-90 minutes.

[JBiz]

4 minutes ago, RV Blue said:

We haven't played well for a full game in ages, if we had played well yesterday, we'd have been 2 or 3 goals up and wouldn't have to rely on a last minute penalty to save our bacon. At this moment in time, we are still in 3rd place which won't be good enough if we are still there by the end of the season, Mowbray needs to pull his finger out.

If we aren’t promoted at the end of the season, Mowbray will be gone - he said it himself. 3rd at Christmas is very good, not perfect but what did I expect? 

For someone who suggested sacking TM in August, with no CEO in place,  not a semblance of reflection on the previous 7 years and 8 managers - what do you expect? Would you expect your suggested replacement; Damien Johnson, to have us mathematically promoted by now? 

[JBiz]

Just now, JHRover said:

Generally speaking results have papered over performances. Nobody is bothered when those results are wins every week but the minute those wins become draws or losses then it does become a problem.

At home in particular we haven't played well for a long time. I suppose Portsmouth was the one-off convincing performance and result, but Bristol Rovers, Charlton, Plymouth, Fleetwood etc. were not pleasant.

Away from home the story has been slightly better but still not many occasions where we've dominated a game for the majority. We've had good spells such as the first half at Oxford and spells v Peterborough and Blackpool. In reality its been either individual quality coming to the fore or short spells of ruthlessness rather than turning up and outplaying the opposition for 60-90 minutes.

How many teams in any level completely dominate games convincingly week upon week? You do know why we haven’t won 7 games in a row since 1995 don’t you? If we’d performed fantastically but failed to win 3/4 of the last 7 games - the knives would be out.

[blueboy3333]

Interesting that in the LT it states that Northampton sat in a bit more than perhaps the home sides have done against us recently which will have given us a lot less of a chance to counter? Still, missing an open goal and a penalty shows it shouldn't have unduly worried us.

I think the pattern is set for how teams will do well against us, so we need badly another match winner in January.

[RV Blue]

Just now, Biz said:

If we aren’t promoted at the end of the season, Mowbray will be gone - he said it himself. 3rd at Christmas is very good, not perfect but what did I expect? 

For someone who suggested sacking TM in August, with no CEO in place,  not a semblance of reflection on the previous 7 years and 8 managers - what do you expect? Would you expect your suggested replacement; Damien Johnson, to have us mathematically promoted by now? 

I would still sack Mowbray now, he isn't good enough. If we go up it is despite him, not because of him. 3rd place isn't good enough, we have the best squad in the league and the biggest budget, a decent manager would have us top of the league and be virtually guaranteed of promotion already (a bit like Wigan are now). Mowbray has thrown plenty of points away already this season and I wouldn't bet against him doing the same in the second half of the season.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Biz said:

How many teams in any level completely dominate games convincingly week upon week? You do know why we haven’t won 7 games in a row since 1995 don’t you? If we’d performed fantastically but failed to win 3/4 of the last 7 games - the knives would be out.

If my auntie  had balls she'd be my uncle. If we don't start playing better as a unit soon we'll miss out on promotion.  Remember who told you first.

[RV Blue]

3 minutes ago, Biz said:

You do know why we haven’t won 7 games in a row since 1995 don’t you?

Yes, because we haven't been in the third tier of English football...

[JBiz]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

If my auntie  had balls she'd be my uncle. If we don't start playing better as a unit soon we'll miss out on promotion.  Remember who told you first.

Results since the 3rd game of the season suggest otherwise, but “if” they don’t play well, you “might” be right.