ROVERS v Sheff Wed

[Mike E]

5 minutes ago, Darwen Rover 007 said:

We started with real intensity today.. that should be the minimum expectation every game..

Graham and Dack were both very impressive, both on the front foot throughout 

Conway has really surprised me if I'm honest today.. he was awesome 

Reed is an absolute BEAST... epitomized by the fact he chased his own header and ran past two of his own palyers.. Seriously the guy is immense and set so much of the early pace.. 

I think Smallwood also played really well.. again surprised me.

Downing was very good, he has generally done well for us as previously stated.

Few questions I have in my mind:

1 - Where we that good or where they really bad? 

2 - Should Bennett be dropped?

 

 

1. I wouldn’t presume to say as I didn’t attend.

2. It makes me think Bennett should replace Smallwood, but then it’s whether he or Reed go on the wing or in Smallwood’s place. That’s if he even gets in tbf.

Edited December 1, 2018 by Mike E

[Paul]

Just as knees jerking so high people almost take their own teeth out does no one any favours.

Just like the "that team should have got pasted" comment above.

[Darwen Rover 007]

I did attend but posing the questions to myself and all ?

[Doug]

Really enjoyed the game today with most players having decent games.

Dack and Graham are superb when they play like this, and Conway seems to have had leg transplants!

Thought Nyambe had a poor game but Downing had a particularly good game.

Reeds a proper terrier and the Evans Smallwood pairing work extremely hard.

Well done TM, back to winning ways.

[Mattyblue]

I for one want to thank Neal’s dad...

[bigbrandjohn]

1 hour ago, rovers11 said:

4-0 would have been more of a reflective score line. We were excellent, they were abysmal. 

Graham and Dack the stars of the show, but Conway and Downing made a huge difference. I don’t understand why downing has been frozen out for most of the season, he’s always done well when he’s played. 

Very strange. I was looking for a Downing thread this week and couldn’t find one. The forgotten man returns with a vengeance. That combined with the passion of Conway and Reed feeding the beasts. Great to see Graham score a hat trick. Wearing my shirt with pride at Fresh Markets. 

[blueboy3333]

Just now, Doug said:

Reeds a proper terrier and the Evans Smallwood pairing work extremely hard.

Reed set the tone today, he was chasing down everything from the 1st minute.

Smallwood and Evans were both good too. 

 

[Reedy You're A Star]

22 minutes ago, only2garners said:

After getting back home I’ve just had an enjoyable 10 minutes reading the posts before kick-off. As I understand it the collective wisdom from braces experts was that:-

Williams should be nowhere near the team, at least at full back.

Downing isn’t good enough for the Championship

Smallwod isn’t good enough for the Championship

Conway’s legs have gone

Reed can’t play out wide and needs to be in the middle

Dack is out of form and needs resting

Grham can’t last more than 60 minutes

Have I got that right?

Should've carried on reading. You'd have seen everyone saying they got it wrong and Conway and Williams had good games. Don't ruin a good night with "I told you so's"

[Stuart]

And breathe...

After the last two games and the last few weeks, that was the response we were all looking for. Passion, energy, determination, closing down, passing, movement, players on the same wavelength. We had it all (going forward). When Dack is on his game the rest of the team step up. When we create real chances for him, Graham obliges. Why we couldn’t motivate ourselves for local derbies I’ll never know but we can’t wait until the backs are against the wall in future to put in that kind of display. We need a bit of momentum now.

I’ve given him stick but he deserves credit for getting them wound up and letting them off the leash like that. His line up was not what I’d hoped but somehow - by luck or design - it got the best out of our two “talismen” - powered by a Duracell bunny in a Harrison Reed costume.

Where we do still have cause for concern is that even playing our best football all season we still conceded 2 goals. Hand on heart I’d sacrifice defensive resilience for attacking flowing football (providing we scored goals) but we need to be able to perform the basics right at the back. We did that today for the most part but the most part isn’t enough, we need consistency from our defence and although there was nothing anyone could do for Joao’s pile-driver (except applaud - class, if slightly odd, of him not to celebrate) their second was a shambles from our perspective.

Wednesday were good without being great but still made it a testing afternoon. We won’t scored 4 every week (sadly) so balance will be required. I did wonder what was different today. The lack of experimenting? Round pegs in round holes? Conway back in the side? Williams back out on the left? Bell out? (Bell would do well to learnt from Conway) Rodwell not in the side? Maybe it was just that we focussed on our own game, played to our strengths, and kept things simple. Let the opposition worry about us for a change.

It was also nice to see Brereton brought in to directly replace Graham (even if only to allow Graham, and Dack, the ovations their performances deserved). Nowhere near enough time to judge him. Went for a short corner in the dying seconds instead of staying in the box but maybe he was trying to show his professional side.

Very happy this evening. Crack open the Chateau Neuf Du Pape, Merce, Chaddy needs a top up!

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Great to see Conway have such an impact, but also worrying how in one game he arguably looked better than Armstrong or Palmer have the entire season.

Neither of them had a game that good. He was quality from the first minute. Winning frees, good deliveries, tidy with the ball. With Armstrong you just don't know what he will do when facing a defender and neither does he I think. Its usually kick chase. Reminds me of Shane long. Players like that get found out. Or if they are playing against a quick full back, their threat is nullified. Conway is just tricky, draws fouls and if he gets space he doesn't faff about, he puts it in 

Great performance. I thought Conway and Dack linked well. Dack likes having someone else with a brain beside him 

Sheffield Wednesday are awful, but we played very well. 

[Reedy You're A Star]

19 minutes ago, Paul said:

Just as knees jerking so high people almost take their own teeth out does no one any favours.

Just like the "that team should have got pasted" comment above.

Beg your pardon? No one is at all. As that quote relates to my comment, I'll quantify it. There were a number of players on that starting eleven that have not performed well over the last few weeks and no one , including yourself no doubt, would've picked the likes  of Conway or Williams to start. So yes, on current form, that side should've got pasted. We are all very very pleasantly surprised to see that it in fact did the pasting  and we came away with a great result. Point scoring like that does you no favours,  just enjoy the win

Edited December 1, 2018 by Reedy You're A Star

[RevidgeBlue]

Never expected that from that lineup, I didn't want to go down when I saw the team at 2.15 but the clear the air talks must have done the trick, the intensity and desire was better than for quite some time.

Having slagged him off before the game Conway produced an excellent performance and if he is capable of that you wonder why he's been so poor for the last two and a half years or more but nevertheless if he can produce that consistently he gives us an extra option we didn't think we had.

Graham and Dack linked up better than for some time, Graham will probably never have scored an easier hat trick of tap ins thanks to the brilliance of Dack but returned the favour superbly for Dack's goal and was in the right place at the right time which is all you can ask of a striker.

Downing was also excellent. I quite like him and I think he gets a very rough press on here.

The thing that pleased me the most today apart from the result was the fact we twice kicked on and scored again after being pegged back to 2-1 and 3-2 respectively. That sort of desire hasn't really been apparent this season and we've been happy to try and scrape one goal wins.

Much better all round from both manager, players and in twrms of the general attitude.

[arbitro]

18 minutes ago, Paul said:

Just as knees jerking so high people almost take their own teeth out does no one any favours.

Just like the "that team should have got pasted" comment above.

But that's how they see it Paul. I defy anybody to tell me when they saw the team sheet that they could said with confidence we would score four and play as well as we did. Wasn't it you who, after the Barnet cup match was massively critical of the team and if I remember correctly Mowbray. It happens.

People have opinions but trying to take some high ground about their opinions if they are wrong does you no favours.

[Stuart]

Amazing to think that last time out we went 1-0 down and brought off Graham for Williams...

[JHRover]

Enjoyable afternoon, important win and fully deserved. I congratulate Mowbray and the players for delivering a good response and getting back to winning ways. My eyebrows were raised upon learning the starting line up but very pleased to see Conway contribute as he did and Downing didn't disappoint. Like Leeds we were quick out of the blocks and got the goal, but after that I felt the first half was pretty poor from both sides. Second half much more like it. We upped the tempo, looked dangerous, Dack came into the game more and he and Graham resumed their double act. Disappointing to see them score 2 which their efforts didn't deserve. We could have suffered but went on to restore our cushion.

[Pedro]

22 minutes ago, bigbrandjohn said:

Very strange. I was looking for a Downing thread this week and couldn’t find one. The forgotten man returns with a vengeance. That combined with the passion of Conway and Reed feeding the beasts. Great to see Graham score a hat trick. Wearing my shirt with pride at Fresh Markets. 

Downing reminds me a lot of Craig Short. Simple and steady, no nonsense and can drive on 15yards.

[Scotland1]

Great result, really well played. Just picked a new car up today so missed the game.

Downing well played, he’s a flat footer but I’ve been calling for Lenihan to be dropped. I don’t know what people see in Darragh but I think he’s really poor at cb. Downing looked rough solid no nonsense type without the giving away of a foul!

Well done Danny but you’ve discovered your touch again we expect another 3 points next week.

Over to you Rovers don’t let us down again

[AAK]

15 minutes ago, Pedro said:

Downing reminds me a lot of Craig Short. Simple and steady, no nonsense and can drive on 15yards.

Only difference being, Short was built like a tank, Downing is built like Rodney Trotter.

[Bigdoggsteel]

3 minutes ago, Scotland1 said:

Great result, really well played. Just picked a new car up today so missed the game.

Downing well played, he’s a flat footer but I’ve been calling for Lenihan to be dropped. I don’t know what people see in Darragh but I think he’s really poor at cb. Downing looked rough solid no nonsense type without the giving away of a foul!

Well done Danny but you’ve discovered your touch again we expect another 3 points next week.

Over to you Rovers don’t let us down again

It's Boro next week isn't it? 

They a re losing 3-0 at home to villa now, so dunno what that means for us. 

Bit more to that game with Mowbrays history there 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, AAK said:

Only difference being, Short was built like a tank, Downing is built like Rodney Trotter.

Well Lenihan has been defending like he is on 3 wheels recently 

[AAK]

Good performance, Conway I was surprised with, lasting the 90 and was man of the match contender. He's never lost that ability to cross a ball, probably the only player at the club who can, made a claim for a permanent spot today. Downing good distribution from the back. However still conceding 2 was a downer, bit harsh I know, but to be conceding another 2 after a 4 and a 3 is worrying, really need someone to shore that defence up as we won't be able to score 3 or 4 to win games all that much. All in all though very good performance.

[AAK]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Well Lenihan has been defending like he is on 3 wheels recently 

HaHa he has, don't get me wrong, I am not calling Downing thought he did pretty well, but he is limited and we can't rely on him full time going forward.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Interesting that of all our subs, Travis got on first. Good luck to anyone predicting a Mowbray move 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, AAK said:

HaHa he has, don't get me wrong, I am not calling Downing thought he did pretty well, but he is limited and we can't rely on him full time going forward.

Ya, he is, but he's a defender. No messing, no airs and graces, just a defender. Lenihan tries to be Mulgrew sometimes and I think that impedes him. Downing knows his role and his limitations. For now I would leave him there 

Edited December 1, 2018 by Bigdoggsteel

[AAK]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Ya, he is, but he's a defender. No messing, no airs and graces, just a defender. Lenihan tries to be Mulgrew sometimes and I think that impedes him. Doenkng knows his role and his limitations. For now I would leave him there 

Agree for now pal. Lenihan I still think would be a better defensive midfielder personally pal.