Bristol City vs Blackburn Rovers, Sunday 1st September, 1.30pm KO

[Paul]

15 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

He needs to work harder defensively and chasing back and tackling. Rothwell twice or 3 won the ball and went forward with the ball. 

Palmer has a talent and I was pleased with his signing. But Ive not been impress but hope he proves me wrong. If he does I will hold my hands up

I always feel you're entitled to your view and admire the way you stick at it in the face of much  criticism. However with this assessment I think you're flat out wrong.

Palmer does chase back and tackle but what I've noticed is he doesn't chase lost causes in this situation. He's certainly not shy about trying to win to the ball back, especially when he's lost it either side of the halfway line.

He will prove you wrong but he's never going to be the all action, high octane player you compare him with in Rothwell.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Paul

[philipl]

I don't know why folks are saying who should have started. We were comfortably the better team in the first half.

It all went upside down in the second half when they played to their capability and we didn't.

[philipl]

10 hours ago, Ossydave said:

Because again, you didn't go to the game 

Sorry is a very short word to post.

Unfortunately you couldn't have been more laughably wrong could you?

[Ossydave]

19 minutes ago, philipl said:

Sorry is a very short word to post.

Unfortunately you couldn't have been more laughably wrong could you?

You're wrong on a consistent basis, to the point you don't even know the names of our own players 

[OJRovers]

Positives: at least we have options to mix it up after a bad performance like that - Rothwell, Dack, Williams, Reed, Davenport could all come in and improve things.

[K-Hod]

15 hours ago, Stuart said:

Why does everyone make it so personal? And then get so uptight when they get one back? Double standards on here are palpable.

The reason for the comment is obvious. The younger posters on here are in the main defending him. “He should be out and about the day before a match that he isn’t involved in. It’s a free country. He’s a grown man.”

The older posters in the main have higher expectations of a professional footballer paid thousands of pounds who should be focussed on getting back fit.

As always though on here, the groundswell is to go round and round with ad hominem posts and make what was an original disappointment into a great bit of sport in gleefully disagreeing with me for the sake of it.

One thing it does show though is the number of twentysomething posters we have on here who can’t tell their arses from their elbows and think social media is the best place to prove it.

Bit of a sweeping generalisation, is that, to be fair. I'm not a twenty something, but I can still differentiate between my posterior and my elbow. 

Social media is a necessary evil that enables absolute whoppers to upload millions of selfies of them with animal parts on accompanied by crying laughing emojis, but it's good to help keeping in touch with folk, so it's a trade-off.

Either way, Snapchat filters are just about the most infantile thing anyone can use.....

Edited September 3, 2018 by K-Hod

[Darwen Rover 007]

Reality check that the gap between league 1 and championship is pretty monumental! Our decent start has been against average (At best teams) Brentford aside.. 

We can't afford to carry people in this league, our best team should be playing, the minimum requirement to get into the match day squad should be attitude and legs.  Without both of these we may as well be a man down which will result in only one thing! 

One of the things I have noticed with Tony is he needs a defeat to change things and generally tends to stick rather than twist when we get draws and wins irrespective of the individual performance.  Case being Rothwell / Smallwood.

[Dreams of 1995]

11 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Question for all current/former amateur/semi-pro players out there.

What did you do when  Saturday came round, and you were out of the team with a short-term injury ?

Did you go and watch the team, even go in the dressing room before the game to offer support, because  you were part of a club and were "all in it together" ?

Or did you forget about the team and go and socialise with friends ? 

Dack may have had instruction not to travel. He's been there every home game whilst injured. 

Besides, it's irrelevant. It's an argument beyond stupidity. It had no impact on the result at all.

Whatever Dack wants to do on a friday night is up to him so long as it doesn't impact on the result or his own performance. You are being outraged for no reason.

[Dreams of 1995]

51 minutes ago, philipl said:

I don't know why folks are saying who should have started. We were comfortably the better team in the first half.

It all went upside down in the second half when they played to their capability and we didn't.

Exactly this. In the first half we made Bristol look ordinary. Keep in mind that this is a team that has kept home clean sheets consistently over the space of a year. We could have had 3 had the Palmer and Armstrong chances got put away. We also had some half chances where we broke and just didn't have the quality in the final 3rd to put it in the back of the net. The Elliot Bennett long range effort springs to mind. The huge difference came when Bristol had us on the break and put it away. They had more quality than us and it showed.

This league is tough. We shouldn't be under any illusion that Bristol City away is an easy game. 4-1 in the end flattered them considering the first half performance. Yesterday was a lesson in putting away our chances. At 3-0 the game would have been ours to lose but going in at 1-1 must have been deflating and it showed.

[K-Hod]

6 hours ago, Songman said:

Anyone else have reservations regarding Palmer's attitude off the ball. Very skilful Player with the ball no doubting, but for Bristol's second goal when the move started right In front of the dugouts, he just stood still not far from halfway and allowed a runner to walk right off him and advance into our half. I noticed it at the game, he was stood In exactly the same position when the ball nestled in our net.

Jury well and truly out.

He's scored the most goals after Dack and Mulgrew so far, so whilst there may be a case for that, he's contributing more than a lot of them.....

[Parsonblue]

42 minutes ago, philipl said:

I don't know why folks are saying who should have started. We were comfortably the better team in the first half.

It all went upside down in the second half when they played to their capability and we didn't.

Bang on philipl.  Some of the reaction on here is pitiful.  In the first half we played some decent football, created chances but didn't take them.  On another day we could have been three up by the break and it's a different game.  In the second half they dominated and made the most of their chances.  The mistakes we made in the second half we would have possibly got away with in League One but in the Championship better players are going to punish them.  Bristol City are a club that have been rebuilding for a few years now - look at how the stadium has been transformed from what it was.  They have been steadily rebuilding on the pitch and played some decent stuff in the second half.  Why anyone should think that going to Bristol and winning would be a formality for a newly promoted club is beyond me.  The second half yesterday was the first time that we have looked second best in any game thus far and to be fair the last two goals came when we were chasing the game and took risks with the number of attacking players we had on the pitch.

We have looked a solid Championship side in the other games and that is where we are at the moment - a mid-table team that probably won't challenge for the play-offs but will stay away from trouble at the other end.  Mowbray has talked about a long term project and that is what it is and will probably take another two or three transfer windows before we have a team ready to challenge at the top end.  We have come on leaps and bounds in the past eighteen months and surely a little perspective is required at this point.  

[robbojohnno]

Rome wasn't built in a day.

[Oldgregg86]

9 hours ago, Ewood Ace said:

Mowbray does have a strange view on wingers it seems that he will play anybody out there except proper natural wide men. Recently Palmer and Rothwell have played there both have played the bulk of their careers centrally, Bennett is playing there this season but all his best performances for us have been playing central, Armstrong and Samuel have played wide despite playing their careers as strikers. Last season Antonsson who played all his career as a striker was played out wide and at home to Oldham last year even Bell had a go as a winger. The only winger we have had over the last year was Chapman and he was used rather sparingly by Mowbray.  

And it frustrates the life out of me

Conway did play there also but your point is valid

[Ewood Ace]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

I don't know why folks are saying who should have started. We were comfortably the better team in the first half.

It all went upside down in the second half when they played to their capability and we didn't.

But in the second half we were awful and the manager didn't react quickly enough and when he did his subs were baffling.

 

46 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

We have looked a solid Championship side in the other games and that is where we are at the moment - a mid-table team that probably won't challenge for the play-offs but will stay away from trouble at the other end. 

Rather early to state that so confidently.

[JHRover]

55 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Exactly this. In the first half we made Bristol look ordinary. Keep in mind that this is a team that has kept home clean sheets consistently over the space of a year. We could have had 3 had the Palmer and Armstrong chances got put away. We also had some half chances where we broke and just didn't have the quality in the final 3rd to put it in the back of the net. The Elliot Bennett long range effort springs to mind. The huge difference came when Bristol had us on the break and put it away. They had more quality than us and it showed.

This league is tough. We shouldn't be under any illusion that Bristol City away is an easy game. 4-1 in the end flattered them considering the first half performance. Yesterday was a lesson in putting away our chances. At 3-0 the game would have been ours to lose but going in at 1-1 must have been deflating and it showed.

To be fair virtually every game I've watched since the start of last season we've had a half or 30 minutes where we have made the opposition look ordinary. Yesterday was no real exception. The difference yesterday was that having managed to get that lead we continued to get at them and create good chances, whereas often we will sit back and allow the opposition to play as soon as we have the lead.  The problem is the other 45-60 minutes where we cannot sustain our approach and it is alarming as to the ease with which we are conceding goals. Against Ipswich, Reading and Bristol we have conceded 8 goals and really none of them were the results of periods of pressure or massive dominance from the opposition, many are just long balls forward or lapses in focus at crucial times.

All in all I think we need to be more ruthless with our chances and more dogged in defence.

Actually Brentford at home the other week was different to the norm, as we didn't really have our customary dominant spell where we created lots, rather we adopted a different more defensive approach on that occasion and it worked perfectly.

I also think there is far too much respect being shown to the opposition by some. Bristol City are a mid-table/top half side that might push for the play-offs. They've got to that stage through some shrewd recruitment rather than going out spending fortunes. A club with a plan that has followed it over a number of years. Nothing special as we saw in the first half but in the second we made it way too easy for them and had no answer to it. We're already hearing people gearing up for poor results in our next few games v Villa, Derby and Stoke and yet Stoke have been woeful this season and Villa have just been hammered in their last away game.

[Parsonblue]

2 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

But in the second half we were awful and the manager didn't react quickly enough and when he did his subs were baffling.

 

Rather early to state that so confidently.

With regard to his subs he gambled to try to get something from the game.  When he doesn't he's often accused of being negative.  The poor guy can't win.

I honestly haven't seen anything thus far that suggests that Rovers can't finish in somewhere between 9th or 15th in this League.  Not challenging for promotion but not involved in a relegation scrap.  We have a decent squad when everyone is fit and the new players are up to speed.  Of course we'll lose games this season - the opposition is that much better - and there may be times when we might drift uncomfortably close to the wrong end but on what I've seen so far I have no doubt we will be fine come next May.

[Scotland1]

20 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

With regard to his subs he gambled to try to get something from the game.  When he doesn't he's often accused of being negative.  The poor guy can't win.

I honestly haven't seen anything thus far that suggests that Rovers can't finish in somewhere between 9th or 15th in this League.  Not challenging for promotion but not involved in a relegation scrap.  We have a decent squad when everyone is fit and the new players are up to speed.  Of course we'll lose games this season - the opposition is that much better - and there may be times when we might drift uncomfortably close to the wrong end but on what I've seen so far I have no doubt we will be fine come next May.

That’s probably hit the nail on the head

[Bigdoggsteel]

Armstrong is a right greedy little so and so at times, isn't he? Calling some of his shooting yesterday indulgent, would be downplaying it. Get your head up and find a team mate man. Whatever about doing that when he is upfront, he needs to play for the team when operating as an inside forward 

[Ossydave]

26 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Armstrong is a right greedy little so and so at times, isn't he? Calling some of his shooting yesterday indulgent, would be downplaying it. Get your head up and find a team mate man. Whatever about doing that when he is upfront, he needs to play for the team when operating as an inside forward 

To be fair I think he was actually looking for options on a few occasions yesterday and nobody was forthcoming. Really poor in the final third yesterday but looked much more threatening when Rothwell came on. 

[Dreams of 1995]

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

To be fair virtually every game I've watched since the start of last season we've had a half or 30 minutes where we have made the opposition look ordinary. Yesterday was no real exception. The difference yesterday was that having managed to get that lead we continued to get at them and create good chances, whereas often we will sit back and allow the opposition to play as soon as we have the lead.  The problem is the other 45-60 minutes where we cannot sustain our approach and it is alarming as to the ease with which we are conceding goals. Against Ipswich, Reading and Bristol we have conceded 8 goals and really none of them were the results of periods of pressure or massive dominance from the opposition, many are just long balls forward or lapses in focus at crucial times.

All in all I think we need to be more ruthless with our chances and more dogged in defence.

Actually Brentford at home the other week was different to the norm, as we didn't really have our customary dominant spell where we created lots, rather we adopted a different more defensive approach on that occasion and it worked perfectly.

I also think there is far too much respect being shown to the opposition by some. Bristol City are a mid-table/top half side that might push for the play-offs. They've got to that stage through some shrewd recruitment rather than going out spending fortunes. A club with a plan that has followed it over a number of years. Nothing special as we saw in the first half but in the second we made it way too easy for them and had no answer to it. We're already hearing people gearing up for poor results in our next few games v Villa, Derby and Stoke and yet Stoke have been woeful this season and Villa have just been hammered in their last away game.

It goes back to the need of a top defender. Boro and Leeds should come 1st and 2nd in this league because their defence is by far better than others. Their goals against column indicates that.

It's worth noting though that we haven't conceded more than others around us. We are showing the hallmarks of a good side but still need a few more key players in areas of the pitch to push on. As Parsons has said - this squad is a midtable championship side.

Villa, Derby & Stoke is an incredibly tough run but any game in this league is winnable as has been shown. We will be okay this season that's for sure.

[blueboy3333]

Mogga pressed the panic button last season after we had out arses handed to us at Southend. He came up with all sorts of crazy formations after that until we reached our nadir at Oldham and he had a rethink and remembered we had better players than everyone else.   You'd hope he doesn't panic this time.

The two week break will probably do us good. Mogga has had a chance to weigh up where are strengths and weaknesses are and can go about addressing things he doesn't like. We've had a fairly decent start to the season but every game has been tight (until yesterday). Millwall could easily have beaten us, we could have beaten Ipswich. Brentford was a smash and grab where we looked decidedly 2nd best IMO (we defended very well). Hull was apparently a very good performance but only a last ditch save got us the three points. Reading gifted us a point after we gifted them two goals. Yesterday we should have had a two goal lead at HT. 

I know some people get upset when you praise the opposition but BCFC have battered better teams than ours at Ashton Gate over the last few years. They've always looked a bit fragile whenever I've seen them but when they build up a head of steam they can be very difficult to stop. They get a lot of men forward and they have quality players including the lesser-spotted 'pacey winger' of folklore. There's no real shame in losing down there. What it did prove though was that we don't have the midfield or defence to start playing a load of attackers away at good teams. Armstrong and Palmer IMO offer nothing defensively and we've never looked good against teams with good wingers when our full backs are exposed. We got away with it in League 1 because we rarely came across teams or players that could hurt us. 

I'm sure we'll be fine but it might take a while for Mogga to decide on his best team. AA isn't a No.10 and I'm not sure Palmer is a wide midfielder. Rothwell should have played yesterday to offer Bell more protection but then is Rothwell a wide midfielder?  Williams coming back will help, you can see why Mowbray prefers him. Can't say I'm convinced by Bell.  As we all know Dack is also a huge miss. He would have stuck those chances away yesterday. So would his woman dancer friend.

Is that only 4 goals from open play in 6 games and Dack has got two of them? That's a worry, especially  if AA, Graham, Palmer etc keep passing up glaring opportunities. At least they are getting the chances and at some point you'd hope those players hit a purple patch. Those players need to pull their fingers out. We won't defend like we did against Brentford every game, as yesterday showed. 

 

[blueboy3333]

1 hour ago, Parsonblue said:

ith regard to his subs he gambled to try to get something from the game.  When he doesn't he's often accused of being negative.  The poor guy can't win.

I'm not sure chucking a load of strikers on is 'positive' when it means they score at will at the other end. He did admit afterwards that it is his Plan B. Fair enough, there probably wasn't much alternative. His attackers let him down yesterday.

I think when you play 1 striker and five at the back against bottom-of-League-2 Barnet at home though there is always a chance you may occasionally be called 'negative'.?

Edited September 3, 2018 by blueboy3333

[Bigdoggsteel]

39 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

It goes back to the need of a top defender. Boro and Leeds should come 1st and 2nd in this league because their defence is by far better than others. Their goals against column indicates that.

It's worth noting though that we haven't conceded more than others around us. We are showing the hallmarks of a good side but still need a few more key players in areas of the pitch to push on. As Parsons has said - this squad is a midtable championship side.

Villa, Derby & Stoke is an incredibly tough run but any game in this league is winnable as has been shown. We will be okay this season that's for sure.

A total of 3-4 points written all over those 3 games. 

[Lancaster Rover]

I enjoyed the first half and the second half was perhaps the perfect lesson for us. A real steep learning curve in the importance of taking our chances in this league, we simply won't be able to get away with lapses in concentration as we could last year.

I think after the positive start there has been an element of getting carried away with talk of play-offs, etc, this should keep things in order and focus players minds on the task at hand. That said I think it's important to reflect on what has been a good start to our campaign. Regardless of the opposition we've put a good number of points on the board and one that coming into the season we'd have been more than happy with. If we keep up the current points ratio we would finish very comfortably mid table, which will do me nicely this season.

[K-Hod]

29 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

A total of 3-4 points written all over those 3 games. 

What's the betting that those out of form clubs miraculously find their form against us?.....