Rovers at the Toon FA Cup 3rd Round: Saturday 5th January 2019 - 5.30pm

[Sparks Rover]

1 hour ago, RoversClitheroe said:

 Says he's going to put faith in youth - doesn't even put Grayson as one of the 3 

I'd rather have Larry Grayson. The lads not a CH and is never good enough. I've known him since he was 14 and he's never been good enough. His dad has a lot of contacts though....

[roversfan99]

24 minutes ago, Gaz85 said:

First time poster. Some of the comments on here do make me chuckle. If it wasn’t for an uncharacteristic Dack miss we could well be in the 4th round. Also factor in the injury list/sickness bug/deflected goal/offside goal I don’t think we did to bad to be fair and can consider ourselves unlucky. Yes I appreciate that was a “weakened” Newcastle side, but also one that cost £50 million to assemble. Let’s not forget where we’ve come from and the strides we’ve made over the last 18 months. Small steps people...

Dont see what the last 18 months has to do with judging the Newcastle game last night in isolation.

Small steps indeed, but some of the steps Mowbray has taken with recruitment are not forward steps. Promotion and signing Dack are more than small steps.

The injury/illness list is a valid point but likewise the criticism of the formation is just as valid. There was no need to add further chaos, imbalance and confusion to a patched up defence. 

There is also a lot of valid debate and criticism over 2 of Mowbrays signings in Brereton and Bell who again were really poor IMO and I seemingly am not on my own with that opinion.

Obviously the team spirit Mowbray has fostered was again there for all to see yesterday and something we are all grateful for.

[tugayislegend]

10 hours ago, Darwen Rover 007 said:

The turning point was taking Armstrong off in my view.. he was our most potent threat and they were terrified of him..  

Personally think terrible decision by Tony..

On the whole I was pleased with out performance 

So apart from Armstrong do we have ANYBODY At all in the squad, with electric pace who can play wide either flank and run at defenders? ANYBODY? I think it's disgusting Mowbray hasn't addressed this! Any fullback in the vanarama league would feel comfortable defending against  brereton/bennett/conway/reed! Regarding Reed he is absolutely fantastic but not a wide player, use him in an emergency out wide but not on a regular basis to accommodate players like Evans and Smallwood! 

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, blueboy3333 said:

Bell was poor all match. His distribution and crossing are dreadful. It's no wonder the team are always knackered near the end when they expend a lot of energy trying to get the ball back after the likes of Bell have given it away cheaply. Graham is one of those who works his arse off trying to get the ball back.

BB is just a poor footballer and for a lad his size he's also incredibly weak. He could do to spend hours watching how a quality footballer like Graham looks after the ball. 

 

As everyone seemed to think Graham played well I watched a rerun of the match in detail this morning to see if my live impression of Graham's contribution was correct.

He was even worse than I thought. Good first half which included setting up AA's goal then in the second half he only touched the ball ten times, six of which were to concede possession in one form or another and four of which weren't particularly significant.

In the first period of extra time he touched the ball three times, one of which was the excellent pass to Conway leading up to Dack's miss. I don't think he even touched the ball in the second period of extra time.

The other thing that struck me was that the first three Newcastle goals were absolute shockers from our point of view. For the first we hadn't come out of the dressing room and no-one was attempting to close down tbe shot from the edge of the area. For the second Bennett was caught in no-man's land and Bell was out of position leaving Nyambe and Raya to try and retrieve the situation. Raya did his best by making a decent save and that should have been adequate time for the others to get back and snuff out the danger but no-one did and as the ball flies into the net you just spot Bennett ambling casually back into the picture. The third was the most basic of blunders from Raya and its hard to have any sympathy for or feel any affinity with this set of players when they keep displaying a lack of professionalism, keep making the same sort of errors and keep conceding soft goals.

So if I had to sum the match up in a nutshell we lost it by conceding yet more ludicrously soft goals and going forward we were hamstrung by the fact Graham was a virtual passenger from the second half onwards.

[rovers11]

I thought we did quite well last night in what was a patched up side. The defence struggled but I think that's understandable when you are missing four defenders and your right back is playing centre half. The grit and determination within the squad is outstanding. We lack a lot of quality but we often make up for that in passion and energy. We saw that again last night. When that energy drains, we collapse and our lack of quality is exposed - hence why we concede so many late goals. 

Positives - What a player Lewis Travis is! One of the best players on the pitch again despite not being as good as he has been in previous games. Graham was outstanding too. Nice to see Armstrong score another. I'm not sure he particularly wanted or expected to score with that shot (it looked like he tried to hit it straight at the keeper to me and he looked gutted when it squirmed under the keeper into the net).  

Negatives - Smallwood and Bell showed again that they are the real weak links in the side. Brereton also looked woeful again, unfortunately. I think he will come good as he's only very young but he looks well off it at the moment. 

[Ricky]

I think it’s a bit harsh blaming us not having a CB on Mowbray not signing another one in the summer. It’s rare to have 4 players in one position all out at the same time.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, LA1Rovers said:

Travis is a machine!! Why the lad hasn't had more game time is beyond me. The duo of Evans & Smallwood does not work!! Would like to see a Reed & Travis partnership in the middle, both a step up from the other two.

One thing that got me was that, if Dack didn't start, why not stick Rothwell in the number 10 role? See what he can do in his natural position? We all know the lads got talent! The more Mowbray leave him out the less interested he will be. Hope we don't loose him!

 

Those 2 don't go together I'm afraid pal.

[Leonard Venkhater]

9 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Damn. Busted.

People also used to say the same thing about Jason Lowe before they finally realised he wasn't up to it either.

?

 

Guy Gibson's wife then!

[LA1Rovers]

11 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

I thought we did quite well last night in what was a patched up side. The defence struggled but I think that's understandable when you are missing four defenders and your right back is playing centre half. The grit and determination within the squad is outstanding. We lack a lot of quality but we often make up for that in passion and energy. We saw that again last night. When that energy drains, we collapse and our lack of quality is exposed - hence why we concede so many late goals. 

Positives - What a player Lewis Travis is! One of the best players on the pitch again despite not being as good as he has been in previous games. Graham was outstanding too. Nice to see Armstrong score another. I'm not sure he particularly wanted or expected to score with that shot (it looked like he tried to hit it straight at the keeper to me and he looked gutted when it squirmed under the keeper into the net).  

Negatives - Smallwood and Bell showed again that they are the real weak links in the side. Brereton also looked woeful again, unfortunately. I think he will come good as he's only very young but he looks well off it at the moment. 

Agreed. I really want him to do well but it just isn't working for him at the moment. Time will tell.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Well what can you say. Another great chance of progressing thrown away through a combination of bizarre team selection, bad luck and poor play.

Above all we needed to start on the front foot. Newcastle are there for the taking. What happens, we give a central midfield player time to turn on the ball, pick his nose, tie up a loose bootlace, then bang a shot at goal. Our central midfield nowhere to be seen, possibly discussing whereabouts on the pitch they should be playing. Next thing  two of our guys go for the same header and get taken out of the game, our right centre back gets done on his wrong side for pace on our left, the marking is still loose in the box and bang, we're 2-0 down before we've got into the game. Newcastle can't believe their luck. A potential banana skin is turning into a walk in the park.

We eventually clear our heads, decide who's playing where and start moving the ball in a more direct manner. This results in Armstrong getting on the end of a good move and tucking the ball through the goalies legs for 1-2. It's game on now and we start playing with some purpose, Right on half time Lenihan powers in a header from a good corner and we go in at 2-2 cock a hoop. Momentum definitely with Rovers, Newcastle looking shell shocked.

The second half starts and it's business as usual, lots of huff and puff without ever threatening to blow Newcastle's house down. Pre half time momentum lost. That's inspite of the fact they look like they don't really fancy it.  They're there for the taking but we can't land the knock blow. Several subs come on without really influencing the game, Dack in particular looks like he's just taken off his pyjamas, drunk a Lem Sip and put his boots on. So we go into extra time. Nothing much changes until we work a good move that puts Dack in on a one on one. He has to take it early and he just puts the ball wide of the posts. On another night that's us 3-2 up and the Geordies going down like a pricked balloon !

As is the way of it in Football they go down the other end and somehow manage to conjure up another shot from the " D " .  It's well struck and obviously moving around but Raya palms it back into the danger area and a lad runs in from an off side position to finish. I once played in a team with a completely mad goalkeeper who had a habit of heading shots like that away ! After that we're chasing the game and as usually happens we got caught with a break out and their lad finishes the game off with a good shot to the top corner. I can't blame Raya for  that, it was a terrific shot taken from a similar position to the one Brereton put out for a throw in !

As for the performance, most of the time it was pretty turgid. As Sutton said we haven't got the players to consistently pass the ball out. We lack pace on and off the ball and we don't get around the side of teams. Their lad Murphy showed how dangerous getting around the side can be. Most of the time we play in front of teams that are set to defend against us. As a result of that we don't make anything like enough scoring chances and if we don't take them we struggle. Another criticism is we rarely shoot from distance, two of their goals came from having a crack from outside the area.

As for the selection - I know we'd every centre back out bar one either ill or injured but 3 at the back when 2 of them are full backs ?  I'd have gone 4 with Bennett, Nyambe Lenihan, Bell. There were times when Lenihan didn't have another Rovers player within 25 yards of him. Bizarre.

Nuttall out wide ? He's only just a centre forward.

Anyway Scores on the doors -

Raya 5, I like the lad but that error was game changing.

Reed 6, worked hard but he's wasted out there.

Nyambe 6, tried his best but got done for the second goal

Lenihan 8, MOM for me. He has a habit of losing position. He should have left Bell to deal with the header that led to the second goal and stayed with the striker. Good goal at the other end.

Bell 6, Did ok.

Travis 7, did his best to move us forward all night. Sometimes plays the difficult balls when an easy pass is on.

Smallwood 7, played well after a poor start.

Bennett 5, looked like a fish riding a bike out wide on the left.

Brereton 5, what can I say ? Never a winger in a million years. Missed a guilt edged opportunity to work the goalkeeper. The strangest signing ever for me.

Armstrong 6, looked a threat, strange decision to take him off. Maybe the illness in the camp affect ted him as well as several of the others.

Graham 8, did really well with a succession of long balls, tired as the game went on.

Subs

Conway 5, did very little apart from smash our best free kick opportunity of the night straight into the wall.

Dack 6, tried but not at his best.

Nuttall 6, gave it a good shot in spite of being out wide most of the time.

Rothwell 5, ineffectual.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[rock steady]

Something tells me Joselu knew he was offside. Just a shame the assistant didn't.

[1864roverite]

Not concerned about the result at all.

Fir me Conway is no longer good enough for our team, Smallwood, although he improved, began the game awfully as did Bell.

we move on

[Rogerb]

2 hours ago, renrag said:

Agree with you, I watched on TV and in one angle they showed from behind the scorer, the ball was moving all over the place. However, I can’t  understand how the linesman missed the offside.

Had the linesman done a proper job the goal wouldn't have stood and we wouldn't be having the inquest and castigation of Raya's role

[Mike E]

2 hours ago, rovers11 said:

I thought we did quite well last night in what was a patched up side. The defence struggled but I think that's understandable when you are missing four defenders and your right back is playing centre half. The grit and determination within the squad is outstanding. We lack a lot of quality but we often make up for that in passion and energy. We saw that again last night. When that energy drains, we collapse and our lack of quality is exposed - hence why we concede so many late goals. 

Positives - What a player Lewis Travis is! One of the best players on the pitch again despite not being as good as he has been in previous games. Graham was outstanding too. Nice to see Armstrong score another. I'm not sure he particularly wanted or expected to score with that shot (it looked like he tried to hit it straight at the keeper to me and he looked gutted when it squirmed under the keeper into the net).  

Negatives - Smallwood and Bell showed again that they are the real weak links in the side. Brereton also looked woeful again, unfortunately. I think he will come good as he's only very young but he looks well off it at the moment. 

Hang on, you mean he’s better than that? First time I saw him last night and I haven’t been so excited about an academy player since Jones’ debut!

[DaveyB]

5 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Absolute disgrace in my opinion. 

Plays 3 at the back with 1 natural CB. Says he's going to put faith in youth - doesn't even put Grayson as one of the 3 in the first place. In shock.

Travis, Graham, Lenihan class.

Grayson had played for the U23's on Monday evening. I'm sure if Mowbray had known that Rodwell was going to be ill and unable to play, he wouldn't have played on Monday and may have featured last night. However, expecting the lad, no matter how young and fit he may be, to play 2 games in 24 hours probably isn't realistic.

3 hours ago, rovers11 said:

I thought we did quite well last night in what was a patched up side. The defence struggled but I think that's understandable when you are missing four defenders and your right back is playing centre half. The grit and determination within the squad is outstanding. We lack a lot of quality but we often make up for that in passion and energy. We saw that again last night. When that energy drains, we collapse and our lack of quality is exposed - hence why we concede so many late goals. 

Positives - What a player Lewis Travis is! One of the best players on the pitch again despite not being as good as he has been in previous games. Graham was outstanding too. Nice to see Armstrong score another. I'm not sure he particularly wanted or expected to score with that shot (it looked like he tried to hit it straight at the keeper to me and he looked gutted when it squirmed under the keeper into the net).  

Negatives - Smallwood and Bell showed again that they are the real weak links in the side. Brereton also looked woeful again, unfortunately. I think he will come good as he's only very young but he looks well off it at the moment. 

Not saying that Brereton played well, but I don't think he was the worst player on the pitch for Rover last night. In fact, we looked much better with him on than Conway, who did very little. Now that may not be particularly high praise, but if you try and forget the fact the price tag and remember that he is only 19, it gives me some hope, as rovers11 said, that he will come good given time. How many players currently in the championship (or even the Premier League) were the finished article, or even featuring in the first team regularly, when they were 19? I think (and hope) that Ben will continue to develop and we will see some real improvement over the next 2 or 3 years.

Now, obviously that still raises the question, why pay the money that we reportedly have on him now, if he's not really ready, but Mowbray obviously sees some promise in him and believes he will flourish. If that's true, then £7m may eventually be a bargain considering how much even half-decent English strikers go for in the current transfer market. For us fans I think the best thing is to, like I say, try and forget the price tag and view him almost as one of our home grown youth players. For example Lewis Travis is getting a lot of credit for how he's playing at the moment, but I dare say that 2 years ago, when he was 19, he probably wouldn't have done quite so well.

My only hope is that his confidence doesn't get knocked so much at the moment that it stunts his progress going forward.

[philipl]

The BT feed was the worst signal I have ever experienced from an English game. This was watching in a bar with multiple legitimate channels and every one was rubbish.

Finally seen the Joselu goal on a clean screen. The only excuse for the linesman was he was so far offside during the build up to the shot he was out of his peripheral vision.  Seriously, Joselu made next to no effort to get himself onside and his stare- not glance- back at the linesman said guilty.

Such a shame Graham and Brereton missed such fabulous chances but you put those away or Premier League sides punish you.

Crowd looked and sounded good on TV and Rovers did themselves no harm after the wobbly opening. First goal was good fortune but if you don't smack it, you don't get lucky. Rovers don't shoot from distance enough for my tastes. If you are willing to take a pop, defenders need to come out more to block creating holes behind them.     

[roversfan99]

4 hours ago, rovers11 said:

I thought we did quite well last night in what was a patched up side. The defence struggled but I think that's understandable when you are missing four defenders and your right back is playing centre half. The grit and determination within the squad is outstanding. We lack a lot of quality but we often make up for that in passion and energy. We saw that again last night. When that energy drains, we collapse and our lack of quality is exposed - hence why we concede so many late goals. 

Positives - What a player Lewis Travis is! One of the best players on the pitch again despite not being as good as he has been in previous games. Graham was outstanding too. Nice to see Armstrong score another. I'm not sure he particularly wanted or expected to score with that shot (it looked like he tried to hit it straight at the keeper to me and he looked gutted when it squirmed under the keeper into the net).  

Negatives - Smallwood and Bell showed again that they are the real weak links in the side. Brereton also looked woeful again, unfortunately. I think he will come good as he's only very young but he looks well off it at the moment. 

It was patched up but made far more unconvential by Mowbrays spontaneous decision to change to a formation that left more square pegs in round holes than round ones! So yes sympathy with the injuries and illnesses but equally he deserves criticism for playing the system he did. The gap between Bennett (who couldnt overlap being on the wrong side) and Bell was very troublesome.

You mention Brereron, you say you think he will look good, I ask the same of @DaveyB is that literally just blind hope? As age alone is not enough to suggest potential. What does he offer?

Very fair post otherwise.

[K-Hod]

7 minutes ago, philipl said:

The BT feed was the worst signal I have ever experienced from an English game. This was watching in a bar with multiple legitimate channels and every one was rubbish.

Finally seen the Joselu goal on a clean screen. The only excuse for the linesman was he was so far offside during the build up to the shot he was out of his peripheral vision.  Seriously, Joselu made next to no effort to get himself onside and his stare- not glance- back at the linesman said guilty.

Such a shame Graham and Brereton missed such fabulous chances but you put those away or Premier League sides punish you.

Crowd looked and sounded good on TV and Rovers did themselves no harm after the wobbly opening. First goal was good fortune but if you don't smack it, you don't get lucky. Rovers don't shoot from distance enough for my tastes. If you are willing to take a pop, defenders need to come out more to block creating holes behind them.     

And Dack!

[Bigdoggsteel]

34 minutes ago, philipl said:

The BT feed was the worst signal I have ever experienced from an English game. This was watching in a bar with multiple legitimate channels and every one was rubbish.

Finally seen the Joselu goal on a clean screen. The only excuse for the linesman was he was so far offside during the build up to the shot he was out of his peripheral vision.  Seriously, Joselu made next to no effort to get himself onside and his stare- not glance- back at the linesman said guilty.

Such a shame Graham and Brereton missed such fabulous chances but you put those away or Premier League sides punish you.

Crowd looked and sounded good on TV and Rovers did themselves no harm after the wobbly opening. First goal was good fortune but if you don't smack it, you don't get lucky. Rovers don't shoot from distance enough for my tastes. If you are willing to take a pop, defenders need to come out more to block creating holes behind them.     

Bang on. We concede a lot of goals(it feels anyway) from distance, but rarely score them! 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

The BT feed was the worst signal I have ever experienced from an English game. This was watching in a bar with multiple legitimate channels and every one was rubbish.

Finally seen the Joselu goal on a clean screen. The only excuse for the linesman was he was so far offside during the build up to the shot he was out of his peripheral vision.  Seriously, Joselu made next to no effort to get himself onside and his stare- not glance- back at the linesman said guilty.

Such a shame Graham and Brereton missed such fabulous chances but you put those away or Premier League sides punish you.

Crowd looked and sounded good on TV and Rovers did themselves no harm after the wobbly opening. First goal was good fortune but if you don't smack it, you don't get lucky. Rovers don't shoot from distance enough for my tastes. If you are willing to take a pop, defenders need to come out more to block creating holes behind them.     

That pathetic home shirt doesn't help tv viewers if the picture isn't great.

[philipl]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That pathetic home shirt doesn't help tv viewers if the picture isn't great.

The feed was completely stop start. Had plenty of still views of the shirt!

[Stuart]

I think our game and replay perfectly illustrated the ridiculousness of applying VAR on a selective basis.

Game 1 - Newcastle are awarded a penalty after a VAR referral.

Game 2 - Newcastle are unfairly awarded a goal despite being offside because VAR wasn’t used for the replay.

We could have won twice but the technology was both used and not used against us. What a stitch up!

If it can’t be deployed for every game in a round it shouldn’t be deployed at all. (Personally it should either be included all the time or none of the time).

[The Fish]

20 hours ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

Amazing to hear this Newcastle side cost £50m

£50m is a pittance for a Premier League these days. Our 1st eleven regularly cost less than one of our opposition's players.

19 hours ago, Doaksie said:

Newcastle following milking this like they've achieved something. They're playing a lower league team, and yet it's oles with an extra time victory and 2 offside goals. Hope they go down.

Celebration Police never take a day off, do they?

19 hours ago, philipl said:

Enjoyable game.

Premier League class won through but we could have nicked it.

When you look at our injured and ill list we were 7 or 8 players down.

Disagree there is nothing to play for- only 6 points off 6th means there is plenty to play for. Should be a fun last 19 games.

Think that's generous.

 

Joselu's goal was offside, no doubt. Don't think the refereeing was particularly good for either team though. Thought we made hard work of it, all too often a lack of quality or confidence lead to our lot making the wrong decisions at key moments. Pleased that three Newcastle Academy kids got goals. No surprises that big changes to the squad lead to such a fractured display, especially with two kids in the centre of the park. 

Going to extra time wasn't ideal, looks like we've lost two more players to injuries. To be honest deciding the game at St James' would have been better, whichever way it went. We could well have done with a week off after the Chelsea game, instead of having to face you lot. But we didn't do enough then and we barely did enough last night. We'll no doubt field another weakened side against Watford, so it begs the question, what's the fucking point?

 

Good luck with the rest of the season lads.

[The Fish]

11 minutes ago, Stuart said:

I think our game and replay perfectly illustrated the ridiculousness of applying VAR on a selective basis.

Game 1 - Newcastle are awarded a penalty after a VAR referral.

Game 2 - Newcastle are unfairly awarded a goal despite being offside because VAR wasn’t used for the replay.

We could have won twice but the technology was both used and not used against us. What a stitch up!

If it can’t be deployed for every game in a round it shouldn’t be deployed at all. (Personally it should either be included all the time or none of the time).

Agree with that. I think VAR should be in place in the Premier League, but if the cup opponents don't have it at their place, it shouldn't be available for the home leg.

[DaveyB]

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

It was patched up but made far more unconvential by Mowbrays spontaneous decision to change to a formation that left more square pegs in round holes than round ones! So yes sympathy with the injuries and illnesses but equally he deserves criticism for playing the system he did. The gap between Bennett (who couldnt overlap being on the wrong side) and Bell was very troublesome.

You mention Brereron, you say you think he will look good, I ask the same of @DaveyB is that literally just blind hope? As age alone is not enough to suggest potential. What does he offer?

Very fair post otherwise.

Not saying he will definitely come good, rather that, at 19, he has the time and opportunity to develop and so it’s worth baring that in mind when making a judgment on him. I’d wager that most professional players, outside of the very top ones, would have looked out of place in the first team at 19 - even Fergie’s ‘kids’ at Utd were around 21 when they became regulars. 

So - yes to an extent - maybe it is just blind hope - but going off last nights game - if you watched that in isolation, you’d say that Brereton had more going for him than Conway (and probably Bennett). Plus Mowbray must presumably see some potential in him, and I assume he’s a) seen more of Brereton than I have and b) knows more about what makes a good footballer than I do