[Archived] Gillingham away 17.3.18

[Stuart]

4 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

You have a highly sensitive smugness sensor Stuart 

You have been through the thread clicking the laugh icon on every one of my posts purely to bait me. Seems pretty smug behaviour to me.

Personally I’m gutted about tonight’s result and more worryingly our non-performance.

Keep on laughing - and trolling.  

[blueboy3333]

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/april/tony-it-was-a-difficult-night-for-us/

Mogga on the game (not prostitution)

[Rover_Shaun]

25 minutes ago, Tony Diamond Inc said:

Just for the record, I'm having huge fun laughing at you and the rest of the tremblers who can't enjoy one of Rovers' most successful seasons.

Hilarious!

Eh! What? When? How?

Did we win something?

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/april/tony-it-was-a-difficult-night-for-us/

Mogga on the game (not prostitution)

Reasonable comments. Sounds like Tony is keeping calm anyway 

[Butty]

1 hour ago, Waggy76 said:

Dont panic Captain Mainwaring !

Get real folks , a point is not the end of the world !

 

Absolutely not, we were never going to win every game till the end of the season in the same way Wigan and Shrewsbury weren't either. It's still in our hands.

[Norbert Rassragr]

well.....a draw is better than a loss I suppose. We're still right in there.

[47er]

1 hour ago, blueboy3333 said:

9 goals in two games for Wigan. I'm not sure nerves are affecting them yet.

Agreed though, still lots of twists and turns to come. Tonight was just one of them. All eyes on Thursday now.

I was going to say that! No reason to expect the season to just carry on with no upsets. We've had a minor setback tonight but Shrewsbury will have 1 or 2 before its over.

Fate still in our hands. 
 

PS---pick Travis!

[47er]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

But my point was not about striker but an attacking team, formation, style of play, passion. Mowbray does not have it in him. Johnson and Dunn have done exactly that this season against supposedly the top academies in England.

We looked absolutely knackered and devoid of any attacking ideas tonight. It was genuinely like we played for a draw.

Apologies if you didn’t have an agenda with your question. There has been an edge to your posts of late.

I think the 'absolute knackered" is the key Stuart. Its been 2 games a week for months now. Somehow the manager has to reinvigorate them. He's got the experience, he should know what to do.

[Tony Diamond Inc]

1 hour ago, Rover_Shaun said:

Eh! What? When? How?

Did we win something?

25 games so far

[garnersfags]

I can't understand the criticism of posters who are concerned that we haven't played well for a number of games, and that we are making some very ordinary teams look like promotion contenders. 

It's hard to watch and disappointing.

This is NOT a comment on our season or Mowbray.

Recently it has seemed easier for opposing managers to tactically nullify our major threats. 

Yes, we've had a good season but the match threads on this messageboard are for us to comment on this particular match. 

It's disappointing to be repeatedly frustrated (as we were tonight) by teams with a tenth of our resources, and shows us that we will have to seriously invest to guarantee midtable Championship stability. This tempers my enjoyment of a promising season. 

I apologise if this is unreasonably negative in some members eyes.

[Bbrovers2288]

16 minutes ago, garnersfags said:

I can't understand the criticism of posters who are concerned that we haven't played well for a number of games, and that we are making some very ordinary teams look like promotion contenders. 

It's hard to watch and disappointing.

This is NOT a comment on our season or Mowbray.

Recently it has seemed easier for opposing managers to tactically nullify our major threats. 

Yes, we've had a good season but the match threads on this messageboard are for us to comment on this particular match. 

It's disappointing to be repeatedly frustrated (as we were tonight) by teams with a tenth of our resources, and shows us that we will have to seriously invest to guarantee midtable Championship stability. This tempers my enjoyment of a promising season. 

I apologise if this is unreasonably negative in some members eyes.

Iv mentioned this at large on the promotion thread, I agree with your sentiments 

[jim mk2]

 

Some thoughts from a wet Priestfield Road  (why is it acceptable for away supporters  to have to watch a match without a roof over their heads in the British climate?).

That was a very long and arduous trip to watch a match of complete nothingness. The first 45 minutes was among the worst I have seen.

The second half was better but overall we were so poor it was a point gained rather than 2 lost.

Gillingham were very good. They prevented us creating a single clear-cut chance and could easily have scored 2 themselves. Their forward's lack of control when through on goal in the second half was laughable. They pressed us high up the pitch for 90 minutes and forced us into mistakes all the time.

In short, we never got going.

On the players, it was clear Dack should never have started (why risk him?) and Conway had a stinker before being dragged off. Only Raya came out of the game with credit.

Funnily enough, I thought Samuel showed good touches when he came on but what is his best position ? He hides out on the right and clearly doesn't fancy playing down the middle because he never offers himself as a target man to receive the ball. Strange player.

We seem to have hit a patch of poor form and look somewhat jaded. Is the season catching up on our older players ?   Assuming we go up (!!), fresh, youthful, Championship standard  legs are needed next season. 

 

[chaddyrovers]

@jim mk2 thanks for match report. 

I wouldnt say Samuel is target man type of striker but more of a striker who run the channels and behind the defence. Would you agree? 

On the performance, was Armstrong barely in the game?

How did our back 4 play? What effective did Evans and Smallwood?

[JHRover]

Not remotely good enough given what is at stake. I counted 2 shots on target from us all night, both from Mulgrew free kicks. 

I don't mind us 'not reaching our levels' from time to time but in reality that's now 4 games in a row I'd say we've been mediocre at best but in the other 3 we somehow found a way to get ahead and hold on for dear life whereas tonight we could still be playing now and their keeper wouldn't have broken sweat.

There needs to be a massive improvement for the Bristol Rovers game and if that means making numerous personnel changes so be it. We've pushed our luck in the last couple of weeks, getting the wins in unconvincing fashion, tonight we fell short of even that.

A draw or defeat for Shrewsbury and we go into Saturday in a stronger position than we started the week but a win for Shrewsbury and we're back in trouble.

[Parsonblue]

Credit to Gillingham who worked hard to deny Rovers any space.  Whenever we had the ball they had ten men behind it and we simply couldn't break them down.  Two men man marked Armstrong and their three big centre-backs headed or kicked everything clear.  I thought we looked jaded tonight and that a long season was catching up on some of the players who are struggling to deal with the nerves surrounding our position in the League.  Last season Bolton went up with 86 points and yet we've achieved that total with five games left and will still need another nine or ten points to give ourselves a realistic chance of promotion.  The last time we got out of this Division it went to the penultimate game before we clinched second place and promotion and I suspect it's going to be the same again this time. 

[Mattyblue]

‘Tremblers’, imagine coming on here (for the first time in an age, if I recall that poster correctly), just to post that Kean era jibe at fans who are just desperate for promotion.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

6 hours ago, 47er said:

I think the 'absolute knackered" is the key Stuart. Its been 2 games a week for months now. Somehow the manager has to reinvigorate them. He's got the experience, he should know what to do.

err no it hasn't we didn't play for 16 days a couple of weeks ago.

[arbitro]

Just got up after about three hours skip and I'm still a bit bewildered by the game and Mowbray tactics. The biggest worry for me is that Gillingham were comfortable. We never stretched them or got in behind them. Once again are midfield two were ineffective and absolutely nothing created by them. Out wide Conway and Armstrong must have been confused as they swapped wings after about five minutes and back again later. Was this an admission from Mowbray that he got it wrong in the first instance? Graham morphed back into the player who we all doubted a few months ago. Mowbray said he won't play youngsters who might be overawed by the pressure but a clearly unfit Dack starts effectively leaving us with ten players. The biggest issue for me was showboating Whittingham onto the right side, a position from where he has clearly struggled this season. He offered nothing. Everybody was confused by Mowbray with that one.

The clean sheet and decent performance of the defence and keeper was the only positive on a frustrating night. I'm waiting for the fatigue excuse coming out now. On the evidence of last night we will be in the playoffs.

[scotchrover]

13 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Just got up after about three hours skip and I'm still a bit bewildered by the game and Mowbray tactics. The biggest worry for me is that Gillingham were comfortable. We never stretched them or got in behind them. Once again are midfield two were ineffective and absolutely nothing created by them. Out wide Conway and Armstrong must have been confused as they swapped wings after about five minutes and back again later. Was this an admission from Mowbray that he got it wrong in the first instance? Graham morphed back into the player who we all doubted a few months ago. Mowbray said he won't play youngsters who might be overawed by the pressure but a clearly unfit Dack starts effectively leaving us with ten players. The biggest issue for me was showboating Whittingham onto the right side, a position from where he has clearly struggled this season. He offered nothing. Everybody was confused by Mowbray with that one.

The clean sheet and decent performance of the defence and keeper was the only positive on a frustrating night. I'm waiting for the fatigue excuse coming out now. On the evidence of last night we will be in the playoffs.

We’ve had this for a few games now. Southend made us look average for most for most of the game. MK Dons looked like world beaters in the second half. Going back before that, Bradford are the only side we’ve looked half decent against, and they’re awful.

[chaddyrovers]

Thanks to @Parsonblue @JHRover @arbitro for the match report of the game

[OJRovers]

Genuine question: is it time for Gladwin to be given a chance on the bench given form of Dack/Payne?

[chaddyrovers]

From a Rovers fan on twitter

Evans had another good game, Raya did well & I thought Williams & Benno did ok too.  The rest were off their game but you can’t win them all.  Let’s not overreact, guys #rovers

[blueboy3333]

Just now, OJRovers said:

Genuine question: is it time for Gladwin to be given a chance on the bench given form of Dack/Payne?

Did you see Gladwin play earlier in the season? Dack just has muscle fatigue.  He should have been rested last night. He's hardly out of form

[arbitro]

1 minute ago, scotchrover said:

We’ve had this for a few games now. Southend made us look average for most for most of the game. MK Dons looked like world beaters in the second half. Going back before that, Bradford are the only side we’ve looked half decent against, and they’re awful.

I have said clean sheets are the way to promotion because we can score in every game. How wrong I was. Aside from a couple of Mulgrew free kicks we were impotent as an attacking force. We were mundane, predictable and easy to play against last night. The lack of intensity in our game is the real worry for me going forward. We looked like a team safe in mid table with nothing to play for. In many games we have won this season we have done so in spells were we have scored during decent periods of play such is the poor standard of this league. Sometimes this has only been a 15-20 minute spell.

[blueboy3333]

Sounds like the Plymouth away game but this time we managed to nick a point. We need to bounce back at Bristol Rovers now.