[Archived] Northampton

[Stuart]

Just now, Tom said:

That was the annoying thing on one incident there were 3 fouls on our players in one move, all three could have been bookings, he eventually gave a free kick for the middle one but then clearly lost track of who fouled then spent about a minute talking to one of theirs then did nothing 

I was fuming at that one, Tom. As was half the family stand (a sign that the ref has got it very wrong).

He stopped play at the third foul to bring back play for the second foul, costing us about 25 yards and a much better free kick opportunity.

The bloke was a walking advert for a backstreet gym with no leg equipment. No wonder Mowbray pointed it out. He looked like a cartoon character or maybe his mum had made him put his big coat on under his shirt.

Prior to yesterday he had given out 77 yellows in 24 games with only one match without any. He was absolutely determined not to give any yesterday. Together with his lack of white spray you have to wonder if he had left his bag in his car.

Anthony Backhouse Brickhouse?

[DeeCee]

Will the referees at the play offs only be part timers?

[Stuart]

2 minutes ago, Garage Flower said:

Attacking players need to sharpen up. Plenty of good balls went into the box I counted 5 from Bell who I thought looked fantastic. We created enough to win yesterday the lads weren’t getting on the end of them. 

Very worried about Mulgrew. Can’t overstate what a big loss that is for us.

I think that was the worst refereeing performance we’ve seen at Ewood this season he was absolutely useless, clearly left his cards at home. 

Third worst in my view.

Kettle then the one against Shrewsbury, then yesterday’s. But the standard is just awful at this level.

[G Somerset Rover]

2 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

Will the referees at the play offs only be part timers?

That’s my concern. Just gotta hope given the occasion that they roll out some of the bigger guns.

[Cherry Blue]

6 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

Will the referees at the play offs only be part timers?

No. Prima-donna part timers.

[rigger]

2 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

That’s my concern. Just gotta hope given the occasion that they roll out some of the bigger guns.

I don't think the football league will class them as big occasions. I would think cheap is what they will be looking for.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

32 minutes ago, Stuart said:

I was fuming at that one, Tom. As was half the family stand (a sign that the ref has got it very wrong).

He stopped play at the third foul to bring back play for the second foul, costing us about 25 yards and a much better free kick opportunity.

The bloke was a walking advert for a backstreet gym with no leg equipment. No wonder Mowbray pointed it out. He looked like a cartoon character or maybe his mum had made him put his big coat on under his shirt.

Prior to yesterday he had given out 77 yellows in 24 games with only one match without any. He was absolutely determined not to give any yesterday. Together with his lack of white spray you have to wonder if he had left his bag in his car.

Anthony Backhouse Brickhouse?

Obviously waiting for a new delivery of both cards and spray then

[Bigdoggsteel]

45 minutes ago, Tom said:

That was the annoying thing on one incident there were 3 fouls on our players in one move, all three could have been bookings, he eventually gave a free kick for the middle one but then clearly lost track of who fouled then spent about a minute talking to one of theirs then did nothing 

Seems there are issues every game with refs 

[dingles staying down 4ever]

The blaming of the refs is just covering up the fact that we dominated the opposition how many time did we force their keeper into making saves? Not many compared to % play we had.

Personally I could understand taking Smallwood off, we went more direct and the intent was to give Dack more space coming from deep picking up the scraps.

The lack of pace in the Rovers team was exposed as they broke at speed and we were pedestrian getting back. Maybe Nymabe should have taken one for the team when out on the wing.

[AggyBlue]

25 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Seems there are issues every game with refs 

Yep. They spoil every game. Getting sick of it.

[roversfan99]

Thought we are pretty poor yesterday, for all our apparent pressure we certainly didn't carve out many good chances at all.

Weve got plenty of attacking players, probably more than any in the league, I'd argue that its fault of Mowbrays transfer market work that weve got too many similar players and no wingers who can stretch the play. Payne is a good player but hes a number 10, not as good as Dack who suffered deeper when he came on, therefore we will need to shoehorn Payne into a position wide that hes unfamiliar with. Armstrong is a striker but Graham has been superb recently, got another goal yesterday, therefore Armstrong is well off him for a start, so he needs to play wide as well, where he doesnt like playing and so far hes been poor for us in his sub appearances there. Instead of one of them, why not sign a winger?!

Conways legs have gone, dont know how you can say the goal we conceded was down to him as his air shot was 80 yards from our goal, but at least he toils away and tries. Which brings us to Samuel, he needs dropping, he again being played wide when he clearly doesnt want to and cant play there was really poor, aside from a good cross.

Bells debut was promising, and we need to replace Mulgrew if hes out for long, his ankle could hold our promotion hopes in it I fear.

Need a fast winger before the deadline, or we will continue to toil v defences coming to stop us. 

[LDRover]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Anthony Backhouse Brickhouse?

More like Anthony Shithouse.

[Stuart]

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/january/highlights-rovers-1-northampton-1/

Looks Like Rovers are now using ifollow to post match highlights. Thanks a f___ing bunch.

So we (Rip off Britainites) aren’t allowed to pay to watch live games. The streamers who help out are hunted to extinction (for licensing reasons).

We can’t listen to the local radio using legal internet sites because to play a live radio broadcast over the internet infringes broadcasting regulations.

Now, we went even allowed to watch highlights without paying extra.

It’s not a massive issue if you go to home games but for those of us who can’t make away games, it’s becoming an insult.

I would happily pay to watch an internet stream of an away game and cannot. I expect to be able to listen to the local radio coverage on my 21st century equipment.

We’ve come such a long way from VHS and taping off the radio. Now, to avoid me “stealing copyright material” I’m just prevented from having any access!

Effectively somebody has bought the broadcasting rights just to make sure that nobody can watch. Welcome to 21st century football. It’s no wonder illegal streams are popular.

[blueboy3333]

1 hour ago, Garage Flower said:

Attacking players need to sharpen up. Plenty of good balls went into the box I counted 5 from Bell who I thought looked fantastic. We created enough to win yesterday the lads weren’t getting on the end of them. 

1 up front at home again to a team with no intention of leaving their own half. Mowbray is all about controlling the game and possession, but that doesn't necessarily translate to getting players in the box. As you say there were some absolute quality crosses going in, especially from Bell, but we often only had 1 in there trying to get on the end of them. It didn't help when he dropped Dack into midfield. A very odd decision when he's our biggest goal threat.

[G Somerset Rover]

Lack of genuine out and out wingers is a concern but Mowbray seems convinced we can get by with attacking midfielders/strikers playing out of position. Chapman can’t come back soon enough.

[blueboy3333]

Just now, Stuart said:

Looks Like Rovers are now using ifollow to post match highlights. Thanks a f___ing bunch.

I think they always did? Maybe I'm wrong.

The free highlights are on SKY    http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11225692/blackburn-1-1-northampton

[AggyBlue]

Highlights are still available on Rovers YouTube channel

 

[AllRoverAsia]

9 minutes ago, LDRover said:

More like Anthony Shithouse.

If his first name was Brick and he plays football sign him up as a CB, we've missed having a Sh-t all season.

[grizfoot]

I'm not too despondent after yesterday's draw. Got caught on the counter-attack and conceded from Northampton's only shot on target. Totally dominated the game otherwise and our new signings, particularly Payne and Bell look really promising, both undoubtedly an improvement to the squad and ones who should be pushing for a starting place on the back of what I've seen of them so far. Add to that we saw a few players in different positions Williams moved to centre-back and looked very comfortable there, he might be a good option there and soften the blow if Mulgrew is out for a while. Dack was moved into central midfield when Smallwood went off and didn't look out of place there and playing him deeper could be an interesting option if we want to play both him and Payne in the same side. Still unbeaten, if we can maintain the performance levels and dominate games like we did in this game we'll be going up.

[Scratch Andy]

2 hours ago, 47er said:

We've got 2 points against Northampton,Wigan have 6! Won both games 1-0. Totally frustrating.

 

Is that the same for Wigan who lost 3 - 2 away and drew 0 - 0 at home to Peterborough !!!

[chaddyrovers]

3 hours ago, Stuart said:

To blame Nyambe for that goal is to completely ignore the context of it. Nyambe and Bennett had just prevented (on their own) a break away which looked like a certain goal in itself. Rank bad play higher up the pitch and not a centre back to be seen. They both did fantastically to hold up play.

That Bunney cross should never have come in. Where the hell was Samuel? But for an assist late on, Samuel was the worst player on the pitch yesterday. I was amazed he wasn’t replaced for Payne.

Even more astonishing was the decision to take off Smallwood and sacrifice Dack’s contribution by dropping him deeper. Bennett’s face said it all at the time. We looked all over the place for a good while and we seemed to have no plan apart from lumping the ball forward and missing out Payne and Armstrong anyway! The number of times Downing played that wasteful ball into the box which was easily cleared by their globetrotting defence competing against our hobbits was embarrassing. It was only when Goliath Crooks went off that we got a goal from that set up - whether coincidence or otherwise.

Mowbray can ultimately take credit for making changes that rescued a point but he seemed to lose the plot completely on 55 minutes, and ultimately that was 2 points dropped. Tuesday now becomes a must win.

Losing Mulgrew is a disaster for the rest of the team. No leader. No-one to tell Downing where to be. A genuine lack of quality back there. The absence of cover for Mulgrew means the tinkerer is going to have to either continue with Williams or start shuffling the pack again. That combined with the lack of CB cover on the bench yesterday suggests Ward is finished at Rovers.

Personally I’d be putting Nyambe rather than Williams in the centre and bringing Caddis (or even Lewis Travis) in at right back. However, with Bell coming in, Mulgrew’s injury will probably be a godsend for Williams (and Mowbray). Looking like we’ll see Bell - Williams - Downing - Nyambe as the back four for a month. Williams is really going to have to step up and lead because with Bell bombing forward I can see the natural shape of the defence having a regular lack of RB cover as Nyambe comes across to cover. If Samuel can’t be trusted to do that role then it would need to be Payne who comes in. Personally I’d rather see Travis come in.

Far more to yesterday than Nyambe, JAL. You should get down to Ewood if you are able. I reckon you’d enjoy it this season.

Mulgrew was poor for half hearted attempt in trying to blocked the cross that lead to their goal. 

Williams was leading the back 4 and him and Downing were communicated very well. watched it first half right in front of me. 

Taking Smallwood seems sensible decision as we didn't need a holding midfielder at that time

 

3 hours ago, tomphil said:

These games need to be won and we need to set up and go out to try that from the first min, can't fault the second half but yet again at home it's too little too late from Mowbray and his men.

Unbeaten yes but we go unbeaten until the end of the season and only finish 3rd or 4th, calculated risks have to be taken now not just in the last ten mins throwing the kitchen sink, we are in the second half of the season so go for it. That game and the comments on here are a recurring theme too often this season from home games yet when they are let off the leash and more attacking players are started we tend to put teams away early on. So what if your hanging on at the end ?  It's better than chasing the game.

We'll be more than happy with a point a piece at Plymouth or Portsmouth where you'll have two teams backed by big crowds only interested in taking Rovers scalp so anything from those will be a bonus.

Games at home to the likes of Northampton where you know they'll just come to park the bus need an altogether bolder approach from kick off now the squad has the players.

Step on it Tone !

of course we try to win the game from minute 1 we were the team with most shots, possession and trying to win the game. Northampton were happy with defensive approach and at full time their fans celebrated like it was a win. We attacked for 99 % of the game. 

2 hours ago, Tom said:

That was the annoying thing on one incident there were 3 fouls on our players in one move, all three could have been bookings, he eventually gave a free kick for the middle one but then clearly lost track of who fouled then spent about a minute talking to one of theirs then did nothing 

He didn't have a clue

2 hours ago, JHRover said:

I'll criticise and hurl abuse at these officials all day long but it irks a little bit to see Rovers moaning about it. 

We've played Northampton recently just before Xmas and their approach was very similar to yesterday. We knew from recent experience what we were coming up against but couldn't overcome it. 

We also know that we cannot rely on the officials for anything and need to overcome their ineptitude rather than use it as an excuse. It wasn't the referees fault we conceded, yet again, and fell behind to a poor side. If we'd have been 1-0 up we wouldn't have been moaning about him allowing us to run the clock down.

Presumably Shrewsbury and Wigan have the same referees for their games?

the ref was shocking. how O'toole was booked during that game is unbelieving for constant backing into our defenders and how fouling our players at throw ins

refs at this level aren't good enough, time the FA forgot this VAR stuff and spend the money on developing better refs and improving them. 

39 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Thought we are pretty poor yesterday, for all our apparent pressure we certainly didn't carve out many good chances at all.

Weve got plenty of attacking players, probably more than any in the league, I'd argue that its fault of Mowbrays transfer market work that weve got too many similar players and no wingers who can stretch the play. Payne is a good player but hes a number 10, not as good as Dack who suffered deeper when he came on, therefore we will need to shoehorn Payne into a position wide that hes unfamiliar with. Armstrong is a striker but Graham has been superb recently, got another goal yesterday, therefore Armstrong is well off him for a start, so he needs to play wide as well, where he doesnt like playing and so far hes been poor for us in his sub appearances there. Instead of one of them, why not sign a winger?!

Conways legs have gone, dont know how you can say the goal we conceded was down to him as his air shot was 80 yards from our goal, but at least he toils away and tries. Which brings us to Samuel, he needs dropping, he again being played wide when he clearly doesnt want to and cant play there was really poor, aside from a good cross.

Bells debut was promising, and we need to replace Mulgrew if hes out for long, his ankle could hold our promotion hopes in it I fear.

Need a fast winger before the deadline, or we will continue to toil v defences coming to stop us. 

poor yesterday? really

we completely domination the game. Their had 1 chance and scored it. Mulgrew was poor in not blocking the cross. 

Dack in the number 10 role wasn't in the game due to his space being blocked by Grimes. So by playing Payne there and Dack deeper was trying to created more spaces. 

Bell's debut was very good. we don't need to Mulgrew as we have enough players there. 

fast winger? cant think of too many out there who are available. hopefully we can get one but selling club might not want to sell right now

 

 

[roversfan99]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Mulgrew was poor for half hearted attempt in trying to blocked the cross that lead to their goal. 

Williams was leading the back 4 and him and Downing were communicated very well. watched it first half right in front of me. 

Taking Smallwood seems sensible decision as we didn't need a holding midfielder at that time

 

of course we try to win the game from minute 1 we were the team with most shots, possession and trying to win the game. Northampton were happy with defensive approach and at full time their fans celebrated like it was a win. We attacked for 99 % of the game. 

He didn't have a clue

the ref was shocking. how O'toole was booked during that game is unbelieving for constant backing into our defenders and how fouling our players at throw ins

refs at this level aren't good enough, time the FA forgot this VAR stuff and spend the money on developing better refs and improving them. 

poor yesterday? really

we completely domination the game. Their had 1 chance and scored it. Mulgrew was poor in not blocking the cross. 

Dack in the number 10 role wasn't in the game due to his space being blocked by Grimes. So by playing Payne there and Dack deeper was trying to created more spaces. 

Bell's debut was very good. we don't need to Mulgrew as we have enough players there. 

fast winger? cant think of too many out there who are available. hopefully we can get one but selling club might not want to sell right now

 

 

Dack was poor yesterday and when he went deeper he was even less effective, he needs to be near the opponents goal.

We had all the possession and was in their half, but we didnt carve them oven, plenty of crosses, plenty of posturing, but how many clear cut chances? The goal, maybe Downings header, not many saves for the keeper, just alot of crosses straight to him.

And chaddy, neither me or you know who is available and who is not, stop peddling that line, hes seemingly signed a number 10 and a striker to play there, he's gone to the shop for a loaf of bread and come back with a pint of milk and a newspaper. They are good players to have but he wanted a Chapman replacement and neither are that.

Northampton sat in and we struggled to break them down, despite having all of the ball, and for me alot of that was down to the number of players in unfamiliar positions, you can tell Armstrong and in particular Samuel are not wingers, Dack isnt a central midfielder, should have put Armstrong next to Graham.

I thought we looked imbalanced, everyone wanted to come inside, too many square pegs in round holes, dont get me wrong we have alot of talented attacking players that our rivals can only dream of, but is it a case of Mowbray signing players who are available without addressing what we need? Days like yesterday, the space is wide, hence Bell getting so much joy on the overlap.

[philipl]

Would echo comments that we would have lost that one earlier in the season. Actually the stats in favour of Rovers are amongst the most impressive of the season: 

Possession 59-41

Shots 16-4

On 7-1 (yes they scored from their 1)

Corners 10-0

Fouls 8-11

Ordinarily that sort of statistical dominance spells a 3-0 win..

I would have started one of he three new boys to give us pace, great that Bell did so well coming off the bench early.  Those criticising Mulgrew's closing down are forgetting he was subbed within two minutes of their goal so he was probably already feeling the injury.

Makes Walsall a must win- heaps the pressure on us doubly- keeping pressure on for getting into the top two and Northampton as another bottom half team getting something from Ewood will give Walsall hope.

In fact from 14th to 20th we haven't beaten any of those teams at Ewood.

Walsall are 18th by the way. 

 

 

 

[den9112]

2 hours ago, Garage Flower said:

Attacking players need to sharpen up. Plenty of good balls went into the box I counted 5 from Bell who I thought looked fantastic. We created enough to win yesterday the lads weren’t getting on the end of them. 

Very worried about Mulgrew. Can’t overstate what a big loss that is for us.

I think that was the worst refereeing performance we’ve seen at Ewood this season he was absolutely useless, clearly left his cards at home. 

 

I think Williams is a far better centre back than Mulgrew,better in the air and quicker ... Just my opinion

 

[chaddyrovers]

11 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Dack was poor yesterday and when he went deeper he was even less effective, he needs to be near the opponents goal.

We had all the possession and was in their half, but we didnt carve them oven, plenty of crosses, plenty of posturing, but how many clear cut chances? The goal, maybe Downings header, not many saves for the keeper, just alot of crosses straight to him.

And chaddy, neither me or you know who is available and who is not, stop peddling that line, hes seemingly signed a number 10 and a striker to play there, he's gone to the shop for a loaf of bread and come back with a pint of milk and a newspaper. They are good players to have but he wanted a Chapman replacement and neither are that.

Northampton sat in and we struggled to break them down, despite having all of the ball, and for me alot of that was down to the number of players in unfamiliar positions, you can tell Armstrong and in particular Samuel are not wingers, Dack isnt a central midfielder, should have put Armstrong next to Graham.

I thought we looked imbalanced, everyone wanted to come inside, too many square pegs in round holes, dont get me wrong we have alot of talented attacking players that our rivals can only dream of, but is it a case of Mowbray signing players who are available without addressing what we need? Days like yesterday, the space is wide, hence Bell getting so much joy on the overlap.

we got some good balls and crosses in nsecond half but players didn't take a chance getting on the end of the,. Payne ball into the box was class and no one make a run to the back post. 

the Full backs provided the width like Bell and Nyambe were doing all game. 

On the signing on Payne, his technique and movement looked good yesterday and could play from the right wing easier 

on who is available, you at like there is loads of pacey winger out there, there isn't. You couldn't name me a couple of pacey wingers at this level who we could get. You tend to sign players who are available and might available, no point over paying for players. Look at how much Peterbrough want for Marriott, over 4 million pounds. 

I would be looking sign Chapman permanently.