Saturday, Jan 30th- Luton at Ewood

[Ossydave]

15 minutes ago, StevenSK said:

I thought Johnson was brilliant actually.

Same

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

[Ossydave]

55 minutes ago, Darrenbot said:

We still have to sort out the problem of the drab 1st half, in everygame we never look like scoring until 60+ mins into a game,if only we could hypnotise the players into thinking the start of the game is actually the 2nd half 😀

May I ask why?

Some of the best teams in the last century score most of their goals in the final 3rd of the game. 

[Darrenbot]

3 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

We should jeep getting points in February. The month of March has had me somewhat anxious all season- Reading, Millwall, Swans, Bees, etc. 

I’m not conceding anything, it’s just going to be a tough month to get points in bunches. 

I think we'll be around 7-9 th place by the end of Feb then March is where Mowbray can show his metal with those fixtures,sink or swim time then.

[Darrenbot]

1 minute ago, Ossydave said:

May I ask why?

Some of the best teams in the last century score most of their goals in the final 3rd of the game. 

Because when we play the better teams we can't wait until the second half to get going,it'll be all over by ht.

[West Yorks Rover]

On Travis, he's always been a player who gives the ball away a little too much, but when he was fully fit 

he would often get it back through his tenacity, or at least stop the opposition with a tackle/foul.

He just needs to get to full fitness asap, and then we'll have a player on our hands again.

[chaddyrovers]

21 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Yeah. The guy who knocked it across goal was offside from the flick on.

 

Thankyou for that 👍

[chaddyrovers]

Good signing by Mowbray 

[Wheelton Blue]

Scrappy game, but we stuck at it and ground the win out.

I'll take that over poncy tippy tap any day.

[Gone to seed]

5 minutes ago, West Yorks Rover said:

On Travis, he's always been a player who gives the ball away a little too much, but when he was fully fit 

he would often get it back through his tenacity, or at least stop the opposition with a tackle/foul.

He just needs to get to full fitness asap, and then we'll have a player on our hands again.

But jeez he was pants today... I'm not sure we can afford such a passenger in too many games going forward. I was shouting at my PC screen, "Are you Buckley in disguise?" at one point 🙃

[StevenSK]

Interesting the Luton fans seemingly thought they played well and should have won.

Thought it was another horrific performance myself bar the opening 15. Pleased with the points deserved at least one. 
https://members.boardhost.com/lutonoutlaws/msg/1612030181.html

 

[Roverinbelfast]

I was surprised at how good Luton were to be honest. They were much better than I expected. Good 3 points and yet another vital goal by the best striker outside the Premier league. Let's hope we can build a bit of momentum now. 

[joey_big_nose]

18 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

I’ll take wins like the last two at this time of the season all day long. The key point for me is that we have much stronger benches than the teams around us - all four subs today gave Luton new problems, as did last week’s three.

Howard Kendall would be lighting cigars after the last two win.

Yes that's our big hope. Our bench had a lot of quality on it. Not many teams would be able to bring on players like Dack, Dolan and Holtby, even Gallagher gives a new dimension.

The games are a pretty consistent one a week now so we should get a lot of time to improve fitness and work on ourselves tactically.

Got to keep the back five fit, any injuries there and we are screwed. And in our training sessions we need to work on the formation and tactics to give ourselves a bit more flexibility. I think the 433 thing just is too intense for us and only really works when we are totally in command of a game. Need something a bit more practical to mix it up with. 4231 looked decent today.

I'd be tempted just to go 4231 and play conservatively to avoid injuries. That's the key. We can always shift to 433 mid game when required.

Starting games 433 hasn't really worked since the first dozen games of the season, and even Johnson on commentary was saying that the intensity of it had been huge. He kind of hinted that it may have played a role in injuries.

[roversfan99]

Dreadful performance yet again, inconsistent shape, and a semblance of Mowbray just changing things regularly throwing enough shit hoping some will stick. But its all about results, 10 points from 4 games in which we have scored a paltry 5 goals but have conceded only 1 because we are finally seemingly building from the back, 3 clean sheets and we have match winners, Dack coming back, Elliott and of course our main man Armstrong.

Some typical absolute nonsense about Armstrong. Any notion of a striker being overrated because of his goals is absolutely bizarre. He is not in his best form, but his drought is 3 in 11 I think. He has 18 goals, our next highest scorer is 4. Yet again, as he has done 2 or 3 times before, in games we have been dreadful in, he comes up with a late winner. When he comes short or goes wide, no one gets into the box.

Performance wise, Douglas looks a different player, even if Pickering signs he cant come straight in, you cant drop Douglas. Both centre backs were excellent, especially Lenihan and Kaminski just brings an aura where he is safe, he deals with everything with minimal fuss.

Travis was really poor, a lot of the time you wonder if it is rust or just the limitations in his game. The subs did make a difference, Dolan was bright and gives us something different even if there is rarely anything at the end of it and sometimes he doesnt seem to know where he is going, their full back didnt like him being against him and went off shortly after. Brereton and Rothwell were both really poor, the former looks back to his old self in recent weeks and Elliott is well off form too.

[Guest]

Just now, roversfan99 said:

Dreadful performance yet again, inconsistent shape, and a semblance of Mowbray just changing things regularly throwing enough shit hoping some will stick

Just so far from an honest reflection of that fixture. Highly frustrating to see you & others be completely unable to dish out equal amounts of praise after wins as you do criticism after losses.

[roversfan99]

Just now, JoeH said:

Just so far from an honest reflection of that fixture. Highly frustrating to see you & others be completely unable to dish out equal amounts of praise after wins as you do criticism after losses.

"But its all about results, 10 points from 4 games in which we have scored a paltry 5 goals but have conceded only 1 because we are finally seemingly building from the back, 3 clean sheets and we have match winners, Dack coming back, Elliott and of course our main man Armstrong."

I presume you missed the above? Before a detailed defence of Armstrong and praise for various individuals. The performance was widely recognised to be poor, the tactics do keep changing without reaping rewards in attack in my opinion, but its about results which we are getting because the defence has stopped conceding goals.

[Roverinbelfast]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

Dreadful performance yet again, inconsistent shape, and a semblance of Mowbray just changing things regularly throwing enough shit hoping some will stick. But its all about results, 10 points from 4 games in which we have scored a paltry 5 goals but have conceded only 1 because we are finally seemingly building from the back, 3 clean sheets and we have match winners, Dack coming back, Elliott and of course our main man Armstrong.

Some typical absolute nonsense about Armstrong. Any notion of a striker being overrated because of his goals is absolutely bizarre. He is not in his best form, but his drought is 3 in 11 I think. He has 18 goals, our next highest scorer is 4. Yet again, as he has done 2 or 3 times before, in games we have been dreadful in, he comes up with a late winner. When he comes short or goes wide, no one gets into the box.

Performance wise, Douglas looks a different player, even if Pickering signs he cant come straight in, you cant drop Douglas. Both centre backs were excellent, especially Lenihan and Kaminski just brings an aura where he is safe, he deals with everything with minimal fuss.

Travis was really poor, a lot of the time you wonder if it is rust or just the limitations in his game. The subs did make a difference, Dolan was bright and gives us something different even if there is rarely anything at the end of it and sometimes he doesnt seem to know where he is going, their full back didnt like him being against him and went off shortly after. Brereton and Rothwell were both really poor, the former looks back to his old self in recent weeks and Elliott is well off form too.

Very good summary. Even if I don't agree with it all. Shape wise I thought we were fine today. I just think Luton were able to match us for large parts of the game. 

Travis we regain his form, but it will take him a while to get there. We are a better team with him. 

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Just so far from an honest reflection of that fixture. Highly frustrating to see you & others be completely unable to dish out equal amounts of praise after wins as you do criticism after losses.

I got a text from my son at the final whistle - " Well that wasn't pretty was it ? "

Let's call a spade a spade.

[West Yorks Rover]

11 minutes ago, WIR Second Coming said:

But jeez he was pants today... I'm not sure we can afford such a passenger in too many games going forward. I was shouting at my PC screen, "Are you Buckley in disguise?" at one point 🙃

Guess we'll see in a few weeks when he's fully fit, can't see TM dropping him any time soon though.

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

6 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Just so far from an honest reflection of that fixture. Highly frustrating to see you & others be completely unable to dish out equal amounts of praise after wins as you do criticism after losses.

Did you read his full post or just get a wobbly bottom lip on after the first paragraph and immediately respond? 

[Admiral Nelsen]

19 minutes ago, West Yorks Rover said:

On Travis, he's always been a player who gives the ball away a little too much, but when he was fully fit 

he would often get it back through his tenacity, or at least stop the opposition with a tackle/foul.

He just needs to get to full fitness asap, and then we'll have a player on our hands again.

 

Spot on. We need Travis in these sorts of games to give us the competitive edge to make sure that we don't get bullied, but with the ball he needs to be at the top of his game to not fall into some of their traps.

 

He's making us a much better team already by making us harder to score against, but I expect him to be much better in a few weeks time. 

[tonygreenbank]

Like any game of 90 minutes there are periods of excitement, periods of frustration and periods of mind numbing boredom.

The 3 points today are massive and keep us in the hunt for a playoff place. There are about 12 teams who will still be hoping and we can be one of them. Our subs bench now is so strong. I saw a caption in the Norwich-Boro game that we’ve got most goals from our subs bench in the league.

I think some posters just thrive in being over critical; let’s just enjoy these wins.

[Ossydave]

26 minutes ago, Darrenbot said:

Because when we play the better teams we can't wait until the second half to get going,it'll be all over by ht.

Well it won't will it given how few games have a goal first half

[West Yorks Rover]

Just now, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

Spot on. We need Travis in these sorts of games to give us the competitive edge to make sure that we don't get bullied, but with the ball he needs to be at the top of his game to not fall into some of their traps.

 

He's making us a much better team already by making us harder to score against, but I expect him to be much better in a few weeks time. 

I didn't see today's game, some seem to think he had a shocker, even if that's the case, he's shown enough

in the past for me to persevere with him until he's properly fit, I love a battler in the middle of the park.

I reckon he'll come good again.

[West Yorks Rover]

Just now, West Yorks Rover said:

I didn't see today's game, some seem to think he had a shocker, even if that's the case, he's shown enough

in the past for me to persevere with him until he's properly fit, I love a battler in the middle of the park.

I reckon he'll come good again.

Man of the match against Preston will do for me.