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

[SBlue]

Just now, Amo said:

Sure.

Right.

So we’re using made up conspiracy theories now to have a go at the manager.

[ChrisPriceBaldSpot]

Just now, Amo said:

Sure.

Guessing Rodwell, Mulgrew and Williams are set to leave in the morning then? 

[Madon]

Raya had a bit of a mare tonight in all honesty, but people saying he's not good enough for us and we need a new keeper need to give their head a wobble!

He's made some outrageous saves this and last season that he's had no right to get to.. He's 23 years old, has come through our academy and should be supported. 

In my opinion he'll be a top Premier League player in years to come, hopefully with us!

[SBlue]

Just now, ChrisPriceBaldSpot said:

Guessing Rodwell, Mulgrew and Williams are set to leave in the morning then? 

Yes and Dack is half leaving.

[Amo]

Just now, S8 & Blue said:

Right.

So we’re using made up conspiracy theories now to have a go at the manager.

Downing's on the brink of a move to Pompey. Mowbray wasn't going to risk playing him tonight.

[ChrisPriceBaldSpot]

Just now, S8 & Blue said:

Yes and Dack is half leaving.

Wish it was his other half leaving 

[Exiled in Toronto]

Well there’s another glamour home tie disappointment to add to the collection that goes back to Man City in 1969.

With so many players out, to go three at the back with one of them Bell was plain daft. I thought their first was due to no-one knowing what they were doing.

Getting back to 2-2 was impressive but we barely landed a glove after that. I’m not sure Graham touched the ball in extra time, and in the last 15 they gave us a football lesson.

Pluses: Travis must surely be undroppable now; The Nut is 5x the player Brereton is; Lenihan is greatly improved the last few weeks; I thought the much maligned Richie did well, we certainly got worse when he went off; Reed.

Minuses: BB; let’s be honest, Dack did no better than him - missed a sitter and lost possession way too much; Rothwell did absolutely zilch.

We are a long way off being ready to go up and stay up. To beat any team a division above you, you need a bit of luck - a huge deflection, keeper error and offside goal were too big a hindrance to overcome.

 

Edited January 15, 2019 by Exiled in Toronto

[ChrisPriceBaldSpot]

Just now, Amo said:

Downing's on the brink of a move to Pompey. Mowbray wasn't going to risk playing him tonight.

Says?? 

[blueboy3333]

So many opportunities to cross the ball and practically every time the ball in was appalling. 

Bennett, Bell and Brereton were utter gash. Travis played well, as did Lenihan and Graham. The rest were average to bad. 

Our lack of quality showed tonight against a team that was there for the taking. 

[Ewood Ace]

Just now, Madon said:

Raya had a bit of a mare tonight in all honesty, but people saying he's not good enough for us and we need a new keeper need to give their head a wobble!

He's made some outrageous saves this and last season that he's had no right to get to.. He's 23 years old, has come through our academy and should be supported. 

He's good when he hasn't got to think i.e. reaction saves. Most of his errors seem to come when he has time to think.

[blueboy3333]

Just now, Amo said:

Downing's on the brink of a move to Pompey. Mowbray wasn't going to risk playing him tonight.

Pompey denied it the other day. 

[Darwen Rover 007]

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 

[rigger]

I thought tonight we showed bags of effort but very little quality. I think Bell shows he is a poor player, because he gets involved but doesn't produce anything. Brereton on the other hand I cannot judge if I think he is a poor player because he just doesn't get involved in the game at all.

[Stuart]

On another note, although he didn’t have a bad game per se, Smallwood’s return coincided with defeat after the team did extremely well without him.

He sees to have a 50/50 player. Half the time he can be brilliant with blood and thunder tackles in him, the other half the ball just gets by him.

[DeeCee]

Anyone hear the Rovers fan on Talksport re VAR and its trialling for ref training at Rovers?

 

[Husky]

2 minutes 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..

 

I don't see what Mowbray has against Armstrong. It's almost like the whole Bowyer - Josh King thing.

[Stuart]

5 minutes 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 

Agreed. I the time I said we’ve now got no pace in the pitch. We pretty much relied on Bell and Conway after that.

[Admiral Nelsen]

Just now, Stuart said:

On another note, although he didn’t have a bad game per se, Smallwood’s return coincided with defeat after the team did extremely well without him.

He sees to have a 50/50 player. Half the time he can be brilliant with blood and thunder tackles in him, the other half the ball just gets by him.

True enough, although in his defence the 2 winning goals went in after he was brought off!

Richie was a candidate for MoM today, and whilst Travis has easily done enough to keep his jersey, Smallwood has shown that reports of his uselessness have been exaggerated!

[Butty]

Positives too take from that for sure. I’m not Smallwood’s biggest fan but he was probably MOTM tonight. Travis again was excellent but he was gone after 90 minutes, put a huge shift in. 120 minutes on the clock and Bennett is running 50 yards to cross the ball in to the box, you cannot fault him for effort. Reed did very well and Graham and Lenihan also put big shifts in. We were always going to struggle with such a makeshift defence but on the whole I think we were the better side. Hopefully it hasn’t taken too much out of them as we should be beating a poor Ipswich side on Saturday. Heads up boys. 

[rigger]

3 minutes ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

True enough, although in his defence the 2 winning goals went in after he was brought off!

Richie was a candidate for MoM today, and whilst Travis has easily done enough to keep his jersey, Smallwood has shown that reports of his uselessness have been exaggerated!

But he was still on when the other two where scored

[G Somerset Rover]

I blame Mercer and his ‘license to print money’ kiss of death. Come on, Merce - get predicting a defeat for Saturday.

[arbitro]

I must have seen a different game to some because I didn't see a back three at all tonight. It was Reed, Lenihan, Nyambe and Bell across the back line for me.

Raya is in danger of becoming an enigma for us. His reflexes are as good as anybody's but he is so prone to elementary goalkeeping things that I do worry if he will ever stop making them. We did well to come back from two down tonight but ultimately we are out because defensively we concede too many sloppy goals.

There were lots of tired bodies out there tonight and already I'm worried about how we will react on Saturday. Mowbray has some tough calls to make in his team selection.

[RoverCanada]

Smallwood had a hell of a game. Maybe shouldn't be an automatic starter, but he's certainly a good body to have around.

[blueboy3333]

Just now, arbitro said:

I must have seen a different game to some because I didn't see a back three at all tonight. It was Reed, Lenihan, Nyambe and Bell across the back line for me.

Raya is in danger of becoming an enigma for us. His reflexes are as good as anybody's but he is so prone to elementary goalkeeping things that I do worry if he will ever stop making them. We did well to come back from two down tonight but ultimately we are out because defensively we concede too many sloppy goals.

There were lots of tired bodies out there tonight and already I'm worried about how we will react on Saturday. Mowbray has some tough calls to make in his team selection.

It was definitely 3 centre halves with Bennett LWB and Reed RWB. 

[Commondore]

33 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Why? Two years in there's no evidence either he or the players have the slightest idea what our best line up/formation is.

Because he oversaw promotion from League 1 and has us mid-table as newcomers, mainly on the strength of players he revived or brought to the club on a comparative pittance?  Sometimes I feel like the indignity of playing in the Championship (and, shudder, League 1) makes us overly hostile towards the team and manager. There needs to be a reasonable balance between lowering expectations to realistic levels and avoiding settling for too little, but I think we're currently focusing too much on the latter at the cost of the former.