[Archived] Rovers v Oldham

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

7 minutes ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

What..to make it 10 v 10 ?

No mate - it was 10 v 10  any way because Bennett was too knackered to run

[chaddyrovers]

well folks 2 totally different performances. 

1st half we were woeful and the formation and team selection weren't right. Mowbray picked the wrong team from the start. we started 4-2-3-1 with Bell and Payne as the wingers in the 3 behind the strikers. either provided the width or attacking play I would expect from those positions. Oldham played a simple 4-4-2 and their 2 strikers trouble our defence. Nyambe was exposed for the 1st goal and Mulgrew should have know better than allow him space and time instead of closing him down quickly. 

2nd half we change formation and 2 subs were made. Downing and Smallwood off Armstrong and Travis on. we went 3 at the back with Nyambe, Mulgrew and Williams as back 3 with Travis and Bell as wing back with Bennett holding midfielder with Dack and Payne provided the support to Armstrong and Graham. then after 10 mins Mowbray swap Bennett and Travis positions and this bought us more possession and greater attacking play and threat. Bennett gave the width and some good balls into the box and Travis looked very comfortable in centre midfield with good positioning and winning the ball back 

Mulgrew's free kick was excellent and keeper was unsighted. Armstrong took his goal very well and was a threat all 2nd half. 

Payne should have done better with his header by taking the ball down and controlling the ball and finish. poor. 

disappointed not to win it considering how much pressure we applied but after being 2 nil down at half time down quite happy with point. 

I have been saying we should play 3 at the back since Bell and Armstrong joined. gave us more attacking threat and IMO make us stronger at the back. 

Man of the match for me was Bennett. don't know how Payne got it. 

[rovers11]

1 hour ago, JacknOry said:

Forget other results - why is this result suddenly good because others fcked up?

Performance, tactics and everything else was wrong from the start.

Because it means we're 1 point off second rather than 4. That's a huge difference at this stage of the season. I fully expected us to both win and therefore be 2 points behind 2nd. In that sense, I'm pretty relieved that we gained ground despite a poor result. We got lucky today with other results. 

[chaddyrovers]

57 minutes ago, Biz said:

I’d agree with you if we didn’t continually concede goals on the counter attack 

players seems to switch off and forget about it. 

46 minutes ago, Biz said:

We need to start with 3 at the back next game, same 11 that started the second half just swap Travis for Smallwood, which in itself is harsh on Travis but realistic. I think we are destined to concede goals but I think we will score for fun if Dack is given two strikers to work with up top for 90 minutes.

I know that we did this earlier in the season, albeit with Williams as LWB - the additions of Bell, Payne and emergence of Travis make this more feasible- with more depth and option. I think we’d deal with counters better as Del and Ryan make up for other defensive frailties in mobility.

Its only fair to share the frustration with defending today though, I mean; Nyambe should either tackle or foul the guy for the opener today, extremely frustrating. As for Mulgrew backing off on the second... thank god he can take free kicks..!  

 

42 minutes ago, Preben said:

I also agree we should go three at the back, especially with Lenihan back. It gives us more options to attack and we concede goals for fun whatever the formation.

been saying this for weeks now. we have the options for wing backs system and not wingers. 

my team for Pompey game would be:-

                         Raya

      Lenihan Mulgrew Williams 

Bennett Smallwood Travis Bell

                         Dack

              Graham Armstrong

do you agree @Biz and @Preben ?

1 hour ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Why no Samuel for last ten mins? Bennett was knackered - dead on his feet - Oldham down to ten men.   We need the win but he doesn't roll the dice.  After the first half,  a draw is acceptable but we were down because of the line up/tactics. 

Samuel has right wing back. really? Bennett put a real shift in and still fans moan on here moan about him

1 hour ago, Biz said:

Minority of 4... :-) 

make it 5. 

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

players seems to switch off and forget about it. 

 

been saying this for weeks now. we have the options for wing backs system and not wingers. 

my team for Pompey game would be:-

                         Raya

      Lenihan Mulgrew Williams 

Bennett Smallwood Travis Bell

                         Dack

              Graham Armstrong

do you agree @Biz and @Preben ?

Samuel has right wing back. really? Bennett put a real shift in and still fans moan on here moan about him

make it 5. 

Who's moaning about Bennett?  He was out on his feet from 85 min on.  We could have gone 3 at the back and thrown Samuel up front or Travis rb and Samuel wide right.  Either way it would have been a positive move against TEN men. 

[Preben]

But at that time we were all over them and a substitution could have disrupted the performance?

[Hasta]

18 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

No mate - it was 10 v 10  any way because Bennett was too knackered to run

Except for those times he went down the wing, one of which led to the sending off.

If he hadn't kept crossing to the first man he would have been very good 2nd half.

[chaddyrovers]

3 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Who's moaning about Bennett?  He was out on his feet from 85 min on.  We could have gone 3 at the back and thrown Samuel up front or Travis rb and Samuel wide right.  Either way it would have been a positive move against TEN men. 

About him being lazy and not performance. Not yourself but others. 

We played 3 at the back all second half. Its worked. Why change it again? 

Travis did a very good job in centre midfield. 

Samuel has been very poor at right wing. 1 decent/good game. 

[darrenrover]

I said a couple of weeks ago, to much derision on here, that I suspected Tinkerman Tony would try 3 at the back again and lo and behold.

I also stated prior to our sequence of games, 4 at home and 2 away against 'lower league opposition' that I hoped we wouldn't do "a Rovers".

It gives me no pleasure whatsoever in being right on both counts!

Has anyone fathomed what our gameplan was?

 

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, DE. said:

So to suggest a draw against poor teams at home is OK is nonsense imo

A win would have put us back into the top two, with Shrewsbury needing a win in their game in hand over us to regain their place. From that point of view, it's not a good result to have only drawn at home against lowly Oldham.

Having said that, you simply can't ignore the bigger picture today; I would have expected Shrews and Wigan to win - wouldn't you?! I wasn't expecting us to gain any ground onthem today, but somehow, we have. So I'm fairly pleased from that point of view, even if our own result wasn't poor.

There is a lot to be critical about today; a poor result, and a woeful first half. But at the same time, we gained some unexpected ground, so that has to be a positive to take from today.

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, darrenrover said:

I said a couple of weeks ago, to much derision on here, that I suspected Tinkerman Tony would try 3 at the back again and lo and behold.

I also stated prior to our sequence of games, 4 at home and 2 away against 'lower league opposition' that I hoped we wouldn't do "a Rovers".

It gives me no pleasure whatsoever in being right on both counts!

Has anyone fathomed what our gameplan was?

 

1st half we played 4-2-3-1 second half we changed it to 3-5-2..

We played much better..the players are most suited to 3 at the back

[arbitro]

Mowbray tries to be far too clever sometimes and his tinkering with formations and selections frustrate the life out me. The fact we drew a game today and showed some character really papers over some huge cracks of which we have seen plenty this season. In the first half we were all over the place as Oldham dominated in every position. They went through us like a knife through butter and not one player comes out with any credit in the first half. They were stronger, quicker, more purposeful and made us look weak, slow and soft. We have now conceded a goal a game and that statistic alone tells the story and will probably be the reason we will be in the playoffs rather than going up automatically. This problem was evident from the start of the season but 31 games in we are still talking about this as a huge problem area.

I couldn't understand why we didn't use all three substitutes today, particularly as we had Oldham on the rack and somebody like Samuel could have made a difference.

Once again I feel disappointed in Mowbray who I believe has cost us points this season with his poor decision making.

[Tom]

Travis was very good in the middle but poor out wide, in fact our crossing today was poor from pretty much everyone 

Jack Byrne looks a good player wish we signed him 

[Hasta]

3 at the Back, blah blah blah.

We can't defend with 4 at the back. Every time they went forward they looked dangerous. Christ they had the best chance to win it at the end !!!!!

Our back 4 are not the best defenders and we cannot afford to leave 1 out and let the other 3 be overrun. Also Bell is not an attacking player and should play full back or not at all.

[Waggy76]

Just now, darrenrover said:

I said a couple of weeks ago, to much derision on here, that I suspected Tinkerman Tony would try 3 at the back again and lo and behold.

I also stated prior to our sequence of games, 4 at home and 2 away against 'lower league opposition' that I hoped we wouldn't do "a Rovers".

It gives me no pleasure whatsoever in being right on both counts!

Has anyone fathomed what our gameplan was?

 

Go on the pitch and see what happens ! I am convinced now , we need a new manager next season ! Regardless of which division we are in ....His inability , to shore up the defence in a very poor league is nothing short of shocking ! Tony Mowbray a tough centre half at the Borough what is going on ?

[roversfan99]

Rubbish again, a point not good enough and the worst thing is, can anyone say that we looked anything like a well drilled side? Like one with an obvious plan? We have players like Mulgrew who can whip in free kick after free kick that Shrewsbury dont have, but they dont have a manager who keeps changing things and seemingly confusing the players as well as us fans.

We always look in danger of conceding, Lenihan said on the official site he is back available v Portsmouth, we need him and Mulgrew back together starting midweek. And going forward, we stumble across combinations/tactics that work, as we did v Walsall we looked so good, high intensity and Dack, Armstrong and Payne fluidly behind Graham, since weve tried Conway and Bell there, Mowbray seems to have an apparent need to change things regardless of success, if we got to the play offs youd expect him to try something tactically to counteract the opposition, even though 9 times out of 10 the only person he tricks is himself.

@chaddyrovers Bennett man of the match?  I thought he was awful, as he has been for the majority of the season, bar v Shrewsbury. Broke the record for number of crosses that hit the defender, at fault for their second and generally all over the place. Needs to be dropped, sadly under Mowbray hes first on the team sheet regardless of performance.

Making a habit of conceding on the counter, we need another player and not Nyambe to stay back, he lacks the brains to stop counter attacks and its not the first time its happened. Thought Nyambe in general was poor and seems the recent short spell of really good performances was not to be expected for any great length of time.

Our corners were terrible as well, use the short corner way to much to no success.

Raya still is far from convincing to me, looked like a meek attempt at saving their first, theres just so many doubts around him, if I was a defender in front of him I would be terrified.

I thought the whole game from both sides was frantic and lacked shape and structure for much of it, I can see why they are near the bottom, they have some players going forward that are far beter than other teams down there but they looked poorly organised too.

Would drop Williams, Bennett and Downing midweek and bring in Armstrong, Evans (not ideal but Bennett isnt pulling his weight and Whittingham is still injured) and Lenihan. Adopt the same tactics as we did v Walsall, not moving players around every 5 minutes like he did today like he was playing a computer game.

 

[K-Hod]

11 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

About him being lazy and not performance. Not yourself but others. 

We played 3 at the back all second half. Its worked. Why change it again? 

Travis did a very good job in centre midfield. 

Samuel has been very poor at right wing. 1 decent/good game. 

Anyone who thinks Elliott Bennett is lazy, I can’t imagine their seat faces the pitch as he’s probably the hardest worker in the squad. Whilst there are certainly other things he could be criticised for, effort isn’t one of them. Anyone saying he’s lazy or doesn’t try must just have a vendetta against him. Pretty pathetic to be like that IMO, but to each their own. Everyone has their favourites.

That being said, I don’t think he had his best game today, but then again, neither did a lot of players. Graham included and he’s been in good form of late. 

[DE.]

1 minute ago, OnePhilT said:

A win would have put us back into the top two, with Shrewsbury needing a win in their game in hand over us to regain their place. From that point of view, it's not a good result to have only drawn at home against lowly Oldham.

Having said that, you simply can't ignore the bigger picture today; I would have expected Shrews and Wigan to win - wouldn't you?! I wasn't expecting us to gain any ground onthem today, but somehow, we have. So I'm fairly pleased from that point of view, even if our own result wasn't poor.

There is a lot to be critical about today; a poor result, and a woeful first half. But at the same time, we gained some unexpected ground, so that has to be a positive to take from today.

I'm not too focused on Wigan or Shrewsbury. If we're talking bigger picture then both teams will likely bounce back from these poor results with better ones, which is why it was crucial for us to gain as much ground as possible on a rare weekend when both lost - particularly when Wigan have two games in hand over us and Shrewsbury have one. It's all too much like 13/14 when we were within touching distance of the playoffs so often and briefly tasted 6th, but then threw it all away with draws that should have been wins. The signs are there again, especially when it comes to how many we concede. That season we conceded 62 goals, far more than any team above us. This season we've conceded 31, compared to 23 and 16 for Shrewsbury and Wigan respectively.

Obviously this season the consolation would be a playoff place as opposed to absolutely nothing back in 13/14, but do I trust this team, management included, to get through that? Absolutely not. 

[roversfan99]

3 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

1st half we played 4-2-3-1 second half we changed it to 3-5-2..

We played much better..the players are most suited to 3 at the back

How are they more suited to 3 at the back?! Theyve played 4 at the back all season.

Obviously we attacked more in the second half, we were 2 goals down, they sat back, but we hardly carved them apart, Mulgrew scored a worldie free kick, Dack and Armstrong combined well but it was more a case of so many attacking players causing enough pressure to break the door down, its hardly a sustainable tactic over 90 minutes.

Constant change and confusion reigns supreme. Its so bloody frustrating. 

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

10 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Except for those times he went down the wing, one of which led to the sending off.

If he hadn't kept crossing to the first man he would have been very good 2nd half.

Which was the last one he made. He was bent over double blowing 2 mins later.  

[Waggy76]

Just now, DE. said:

I'm not too focused on Wigan or Shrewsbury. If we're talking bigger picture then both teams will likely bounce back from these poor results with better ones, which is why it was crucial for us to gain as much ground as possible on a rare weekend when both lost - particularly when Wigan have two games in hand over us and Shrewsbury have one. It's all too much like 13/14 when we were within touching distance of the playoffs so often and briefly tasted 6th, but then threw it all away with draws that should have been wins. The signs are there again, especially when it comes to how many we concede. That season we conceded 62 goals, far more than any team above us. This season we've conceded 31, compared to 23 and 16 for Shrewsbury and Wigan respectively.

Obviously this season the consolation would be a playoff place as opposed to absolutely nothing back in 13/14, but do I trust this team, management included, to get through that? Absolutely not. 

I have gut feeling , Shrewsbury will start shipping a few more in the coming months ! Wigan I will agree with !

[roversfan99]

1 minute ago, K-Hod said:

Anyone who thinks Elliott Bennett is lazy, I can’t imagine their seat faces the pitch as he’s probably the hardest worker in the squad. Whilst there are other things he could be criticised for, effort isn’t one of them. Anyone saying he’s lazy or doesn’t try must just have a vendetta against him. Pretty pathetic to be like that IMO, but to each their own. Everyone has their favourites.

That being said, I don’t think he had his best game today, but then again, neither did a lot of players. Graham included and he’s been in good form of late. 

Just lacks ability to be honest, very hard worker as you say but I think quality wise hes been poor most games this season, partially backed up by a terrible goal and assist output.

That said, like much of the team, it doesnt help when he fills in here there and everywhere in the continuously changing tactics of Tony Mowbray, centre mid, right mid, right back.

And to clarify, Im happy with Mowbray with being manager, as some people like to manipulate constructive criticism into wanting him sacked.

[DE.]

Just now, Waggy76 said:

I have gut feeling , Shrewsbury will start shipping a few more in the coming months ! Wigan I will agree with !

If they do then we will most likely take 2nd, as Shrewsbury don't score anywhere near enough to make up for conceding more goals. We've scored 16 more goals than them this season so far, we're actually level with Wigan on that front with 56 goals scored each. Just a shame we can't defend anywhere near as well as they can.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

We would win more games if we had a forward like that big unit for Oldham. Lad gave our back line a torrid time.  Someone like that off the bench should have been a priority signing for this league. 

we need to gamble sometimes to win games.  Just like when we used to throw Samba or Henry up front.  Against ten men in the last 10 mins we should be throwing another option up front and today the only option was Samuel. 

[roversfan99]

Another question, how bad is the pitch at the moment? Cant remember it being as bad before.