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[Atko's Engine]

Well that was entertaining, though in some respects I wish it wasn't as we almost made a pig's ear of it!

A great start when we were looking lethal, some of the interplay amongst the forwards was very fine indeed. 

Their free kick; it couldn't have been more in the corner, it kept low and was  judged to perfection. I can see why Walton is being criticised as it had to travel a long way, but sometimes you have to credit the scorer rather than diss the keeper. Had Walton saved it, it would've been a top drawer save.

Thereafter we still looked the better side & should have got another 2 or 3 before Rothwell's effort after a sustainedspell of pressure on their goal (well deserved on today's showing from Rothwell).  

Then we just capitulated, inexplicably. We conceded to two good headers, the first was bad enough, but for the second, what was Travis thinking? He'd just got away with overplaying in his own box a couple of minutes earlier, then did so again calamitously. He needs to cut that out.

For a time we were on the ropes, but then got our composure back & finally got the 4th goal & 3 points that we deserved overall; a fine cross & finish it was too.

I thought Carter look excellent, albeit he was not pushed too hard. He wasn't in any way to blame for the goals, and he looks a unit. Best compliment I could pay him is that it didn't really feel like Tosin wasn't playing.

JRC looked competent but is obviously really itching to play further forwards. Travis was good bar his kamikaze tendencies, Johnson Ok, but Rothwell, Holtby, Arma & BB were excellent. Just a little bit more clinical please.

At first I thought the subs struggled. Davenport especially (who I'd hoped would start) looked off the pace. But we got the composure back, started playing neatly again (Buckley looked v tidy), then Chapman - who played like the Chapman we remember in his little cameo - put in a superb cross inviting Gallagher to put his head where it hurts with a great diving header (see Herbie's photo earlier).

Would've been great to see Vale hit that shot 6 inches lower to round things off.

There's real promise in that young squad that was on show today. Defensively there's work to do to be more solid & cut out stupid, naive mistakes (I guess that comes with youth) and offensively we need to be more clinical. But i saw some exciting signs today, albeit in a game in which there was nothing huge at stake.

[Miller11]

What a strange day! Plenty of sublime, plenty of ridiculous.

Called the Brereton goal early on in this thread and won a nice little bet. I think a lot of the praise he is getting today shows just how low a bar he set for himself. There was improvement, but there was also still some comically poor play. I was really impressed with Gallaghers goal today - what a ball from Chapman (who up until that point I thought was turning in a horrific cameo). Love a bit of proper wing play.

Things came off for Rothwell today. Reading stood off him and he punished them. When he gets closed down quick he runs out of ideas. Promising stuff though.

Their first was sublime. What a free kick that is! No blame for Walton there.

I’d actually be really happy if we went for it with these youngsters. And I mean really went for it. Regular game time for Carter, Buckley, JRC, Wharton, Davenport... Put a massive show of faith in them and built our team around them. They have all played a lot of football with each other, so any bedding in should be relatively pain free. I’m sure we’d get the odd hammering, but long term it could work. There would also be some relief of the financial burden, and it would be exciting! Still need to invest in a good keeper though.

[Admiral Nelsen]

  On 18/07/2020 at 21:20, Atko's Engine said:

 

Would've been great to see Vale hit that shot 6 inches lower to round things off.

 

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Try half an inch!

That aside your post is exactly how I saw today. Can't over interpret an end-of-season dead rubber, but it was an enjoyable game nevertheless, and there were promising cameos from young players, some of whom will need to step up next year.

[TheWeasel]

His appearance was brief but I can tell Vale has a bit of intelligence about his play, sweet strike aside (unlucky not to score) I feel like he picked up pockets of space really well which is usually a very good sign. I do think Buckley will end up being cream of the crop out of our youngsters, real football brain and good technique to boot.

[Mattyblue]

Not that I’m particularly arsed about either of them, but the Williams and Bell situation was a bit odd. From memory they were ‘touch and go’ for the Bristol City game, didn’t make it and not seen since.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

  On 18/07/2020 at 20:03, Leonard Venkhater said:

Many fans thought it was a sound decision by TM at the time. Reasonably enough, in my view, they assumed the replacement would be better and make fewer howlers.

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It's a bit like when  we thought we could get a more progressive manager than Allardyce and ended up with K***.

...Salgado and ended up with Orr.

 

Perhaps we should know better by now ??‍♂️

[Mattyblue]

Who’s ‘we’?

[LDRover]

Got to admit I couldn't see much in Buckley when he first got into the team. However, the more I see the more he impresses me. Comfortable in possession, always looking forward, finds good space and always has his head up.

The lad really has a chance if he gets game time next year and stays clear of injury.

[Paul Mani]

  On 18/07/2020 at 22:46, LDRover said:

Got to admit I couldn't see much in Buckley when he first got into the team. However, the more I see the more he impresses me. Comfortable in possession, always looking forward, finds good space and always has his head up.

The lad really has a chance if he gets game time next year and stays clear of injury.

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He is rated best of the lot. Brilliant mentality too. Needs to keep filling out. Will compliment Trav brilliantly in CM.

[AAK]

  On 18/07/2020 at 21:45, Mattyblue said:

Not that I’m particularly arsed about either of them, but the Williams and Bell situation was a bit odd. From memory they were ‘touch and go’ for the Bristol City game, didn’t make it and not seen since.

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Good fuck em, both shite.

[47er]

  On 18/07/2020 at 19:48, Tugay-is-God said:

Hahahahaha, that's always the funniest line.

It's like, "Yeah ok, Travis has grown and matured into one of the first names on the team sheet under Mowbray's leadership. But, let me try to invalidate that by somehow twisting it into TM being forced into playing him by that one suspension 18 months ago".

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To be fair, there was enormous demand on here for him to play long before Tony picked him. Let's not rewrite history.

The lad came in and made himself indispensable but that was only what most expected.

Bit too slow and over-cautious is Tony.

[47er]

  On 18/07/2020 at 19:10, Mashed Potatoes said:

Completely agree - it's a good day when we win and there is a particular reason to take pleasure from it.

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True true true! But its also true that when we win when it doesn't matter and we fail when it does.

Heart of the problem really.

[Sparks Rover]

  On 18/07/2020 at 23:01, Paul Mani said:

He is rated best of the lot. Brilliant mentality too. Needs to keep filling out. Will compliment Trav brilliantly in CM.

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Not in a promoted team he won't.  Put him in with Travis next season as first choice and relegation is on the cards.

Our squad is either very young and not quite good enough yet, and very old but with quality....he needs to sign some men, 28/29, proven, and will add a bit of scrap.

[Stuart]

  On 18/07/2020 at 22:05, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

It's a bit like when  we thought we could get a more progressive manager than Allardyce and ended up with K***.

...Salgado and ended up with Orr.

 

Perhaps we should know better by now ??‍♂️

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You are seriously comparing Mowbray and Allardyce?

Any arguments in favour of Mowbray rather than ‘there’s nobody else’?

[Ossydave]

  On 19/07/2020 at 07:28, Stuart said:

You are seriously comparing Mowbray and Allardyce?

Any arguments in favour of Mowbray rather than ‘there’s nobody else’?

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In fairness, if Mowbray had taken over from Allardyce (or any half decent manager had) he would have comfortably kept us up as a steady Premier league team.

But that's exactly our problem now in this league, being a comfortable, steady team isn't quite enough, we need to push onto the next level. I don't hate Mowbray, I have a lot of time for him, I just feel our ambitions as fans don't quite match his.

The team/bench selection was very interesting yesterday though and most likely an indication that we won't spend a penny this summer. A few loans and then blood the youngsters, which I'm absolutely fine with by the way. He's actually done well in the loan market more so than his permanent signings.

 

[rigger]

  On 18/07/2020 at 20:46, Exiled_Rover said:

In Walton's defence, the free kick went through the wall.

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It looked to me as if it went over the wall.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

  On 19/07/2020 at 11:03, rigger said:

It looked to me as if it went over the wall.

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It went through at head height I thought. It was a good free kick but there wasn't a lot of pace on it. My first thought was " Raya would have got a hand to that ". Walton is one of the most leaden goalkeepers we've ever had. If it's not hit right at him it's a goal.

How did Rothwell get awarded that goal, I thought their guy headed Rothwell's shot into the far corner of the goal. A clear OG.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Amo]

  On 19/07/2020 at 07:42, Ossydave said:

In fairness, if Mowbray had taken over from Allardyce (or any half decent manager had) he would have comfortably kept us up as a steady Premier league team.

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Seeing Mowbray has a 21% win record in the PL, I'm not sure you can state this with any confidence.

[Paul Mani]

  On 19/07/2020 at 00:11, Sparks Rover said:

Not in a promoted team he won't.  Put him in with Travis next season as first choice and relegation is on the cards.

Our squad is either very young and not quite good enough yet, and very old but with quality....he needs to sign some men, 28/29, proven, and will add a bit of scrap.

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Ready made players aged 28/29 are every promotion / success chasing managers dream. There’s a reason that we don’t sign them and that’s because they’re very expensive.

I agree, I wouldn’t expect us to challenge for promotion if the likes of Buckley, Carter and Vale feature heavily. That’s kinda what the managers eluded to in his interview. The club either, A - spend more money and increase the chances of going up or B - fill the holes in the squad with young lads: Carter for Tosin, Fisher and Hilton for Walton and Leutwiler, Buckley for Downing, Vale for Samuel etc..

If I’m honest, I don’t know which option I prefer. Obv I want us to go up but we can’t go on forever in this insolvent way. 

[rigger]

  On 19/07/2020 at 11:56, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

It went through at head height I thought. It was a good free kick but there wasn't a lot of pace on it. My first thought was " Raya would have got a hand to that ". Walton is one of the most leaden goalkeepers we've ever had. If it's not hit right at him it's a goal.

How did Rothwell get awarded that goal, I thought their guy headed Rothwell's shot into the far corner of the goal. A clear OG.

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All four players in the wall jump in the air, but at different times this causes JRC to be lower than Johnson the ball passes the wall above JRCs head

[JacknOry]

Yeah Rothwell getting the goal was optimistic at best. I guess it was on target tho but that looked more like an attempted clearance rather than a deflection.

Happy for him tho

[Ossydave]

  On 19/07/2020 at 12:02, Amo said:

Seeing Mowbray has a 21% win record in the PL, I'm not sure you can state this with any confidence.

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Seeing our squad then compared to West Broms, yes I can.

[Ewood Ace]

  On 19/07/2020 at 07:42, Ossydave said:

In fairness, if Mowbray had taken over from Allardyce (or any half decent manager had) he would have comfortably kept us up as a steady Premier league team.

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Based on what? He's only ever managed 1 season in the Premier League and finished bottom

[Ossydave]

  On 19/07/2020 at 13:36, Ewood Ace said:

Based on what? He's only ever managed 1 season in the Premier League and finished bottom

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As I've just stated, the squad we had then it was harder to get bloody relegated than stay up!

[Ewood Ace]

  On 19/07/2020 at 13:38, Ossydave said:

As I've just stated, the squad we had then it was harder to get bloody relegated than stay up!

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But Mowbray has shown nothing in his career to suggest that he is capable of managing Premier League players. He had one season managing in the Premiership and finished bottom. He had an good squad of players at Celtic and failed badly. Mowbray is a mid table of the Championship manager.