Reading v Rovers. March 2nd 2021, 8pm.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

5th v 15th. Didn't realise we were on Sky till today, so a tenner saved. god only knows what the lotto will bring up. Having watched all of the previous six games, one point, and a significant amount spent on ifollow, and drink, my expectations are at rock bottom. I suppose that's where we are. Anything at the moment is a bonus.

We really are in freefall under the Coventry cabal, no passion, folk out of position, talks bollocks, and we could be in danger of a relegation battle.

All to play for....but will we under this clown?

[chaddyrovers]

                   Kaminski 

Nyambe Lenihan Harwood-Bellis Douglas 

           Travis  Trybull  Rothwell

          Elliott  Armstrong Brereton 

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

With anybody other than Mowbray in charge I'd be thinking we could get a draw. As it is the players appear to have given up on Mowbray. So it's just more of what we've been seeing since before Xmas. They must have no pride in their individual abilities.

Edited February 28, 2021 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[davulsukur]

Defeat, no doubt.

Just hope it's not too an embarrassing defeat on sky.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Reading aren't in great form. Better than us but not great. Wycombe beat them t'other week. 

Every chance we could get something but feel this particular death spiral has a way to go yet. 

Can't see us winning so draw at best. 

What's Mowbray's longest run without a win here? Could he be on to beat his Coventry record of 10 without a win...

[simongarnerisgod]

53 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

                   Kaminski 

Nyambe Lenihan Harwood-Bellis Douglas 

           Travis  Trybull  Rothwell

          Elliott  Armstrong Brereton 

 

choosing between branthwaite or harwood bellis is like being asked  who would you like to go into the ring with,joshua or fury,either option is likely to inflict pain and misery🤔

[@roverseas]

In any other club whether in this division or another it would be thanks for everything Tony, but we keep on trucking with our Tony.  I love the guy and what him to finish the job, however with us seeming to stick to our guns, I am very worried about the next 6 matches.  Despite my concerns, I still back the lads and back the manager even though I feel it is time to move on.  And in fairness, I think we can do Reading this week, and if so perhaps we can scramble some points over the next 6. 

 

[Butty]

51 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

Reading aren't in great form. Better than us but not great. Wycombe beat them t'other week. 

Every chance we could get something but feel this particular death spiral has a way to go yet. 

Can't see us winning so draw at best. 

What's Mowbray's longest run without a win here? Could he be on to beat his Coventry record of 10 without a win...

The season we went down from the champ I think we went 7 without a win under him, but with maybe 4 draws in that run. Not sure if that’s the longest as we seem to go on a bad run at some point every season under him, this current run the worst of the lot of course and could still get EVEN worse yet. 

[WacoRover]

I predicted the 1-1 tie vs Coventry. No, I’m not proud of a tie, but a point got us off the schnide. I will call another point at Reading, but this time, 2-2. Arte et Labore. 

[New Jeru]

Can't wait to hear the guys on Sky prattle on about how many goals we score and what a good team we are.

You'd think they'd have seen us enough times to know better by now.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, simongarnerisgod said:

choosing between branthwaite or harwood bellis is like being asked  who would you like to go into the ring with,joshua or fury,either option is likely to inflict pain and misery🤔

I'd be considering Nyambe and Lenihan at centre back with maybe Pike at right back. Can he be any worse ? Failing that Douglas at right back and Bell at left back. Didn't Douglas have his best game at right back ? Nyambe has bags of pace and he can defend in that position. OK he can't head the ball but Lenihan will have to do that.

[Sparks Rover]

33 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I'd be considering Nyambe and Lenihan at centre back 

Considering both are international centre halves you'd have thought he might have tried that before putting in the U15s🙄

 

[Fraserkirky]

32 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Considering both are international centre halves you'd have thought he might have tried that before putting in the U15s🙄

 

I’m sure he has but JRC injury hasn’t helped, and the small problem of Nyambe being unable to beat anyone in the air.

[Sparks Rover]

4 minutes ago, Fraserkirky said:

I’m sure he has but JRC injury hasn’t helped, and the small problem of Nyambe being unable to beat anyone in the air.

He has played centre half in the latter.stages of the African Cup of Nations  what are you on about?  I'm not saying he is ideal, but feckin light years ahead of bill and ben

 

If Mowbray sat him down and said right your playing centre half every game, he'd do a good job for me.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Sparks Rover

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I'd be considering Nyambe and Lenihan at centre back with maybe Pike at right back. Can he be any worse ? Failing that Douglas at right back and Bell at left back. Didn't Douglas have his best game at right back ? Nyambe has bags of pace and he can defend in that position. OK he can't head the ball but Lenihan will have to do that.

I maybe shouldn't say it but that made be laugh, because it's true and Ryan at CB is a serious alternative to playing a young boy who can't jump.

Douglas can't be a worse RB than he is a LB either.

What a sorry state of affairs.

On the match itself - no chance.

BB has already scored where he hits it on the sweet spot so the chance of that happening again is about the same as me driving the Mars Rover. In person.

I'll be up at 3 am watching and hoping for a win, draw or at least a good 'performance'.

The Journey continues.

[Sparks Rover]

2 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I'll be up at 3 am watching and hoping for a win, draw or at least a good 'performance'.

I think big Lucas Joao will be licking his lips if any of the 2 boys are playing.  He will rag doll them lads all over the shop.

Anytime to score is a good bet for me.

[Fraserkirky]

1 hour ago, Sparks Rover said:

He has played centre half in the latter.stages of the African Cup of Nations  what are you on about?  I'm not saying he is ideal, but feckin light years ahead of bill and ben

 

If Mowbray sat him down and said right your playing centre half every game, he'd do a good job for me.

He would do a good job until a Woodrow, Hugill or a Miabou comes along and wins absolutely everything in the air against him. He is basically Magloire at Centre Half. Don’t see it as a reasonable fix unless against the right opposition, or maybe in a back 3. Your Centre halfs need to be good in the air, or maybe I’m just old fashioned. Nyambe lost every single aerial challenge on Sat against Miabou and was lucky McCallum got injured, as he was given him a hard time. I am huge Nyambe fan but he was terrible on Saturday defensively.

Whats the style of play in the African Nations, direct punts up to a couple of 6’3 lummoxes? Guessing it will be more power and pace, like the Ivory Coast and Nigeria teams of old, where Nyambe would be brilliant in.

 

[Fraserkirky]

53 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

I think big Lucas Joao will be licking his lips if any of the 2 boys are playing.  He will rag doll them lads all over the shop.

Anytime to score is a good bet for me.

Should of signed him instead of Gallagher, both going at the the same time. I dare say Joao would have been slightly cheaper. 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Don't know what to expect tbh.Players now looking like they are disinterested to me.

Is there anything left to play for bar pride?

(Huge Sigh,shake of Head)

[tomphil]

Well i think i predicted us to produce that backs to the wall bounce back win in the last 3 now.  So in this i'll assume we'll be on the wrong side of another narrow defeat.  Good possession stats, create next to nothing, miss a good chance, pull one back late to make to 'acceptable'. 😬

Reading 2  Rovers  1

[JHRover]

Reading a club on a real journey. Relegation battles the last 2 seasons. Get rid of Bowen in ruthless yet decisive fashion and bring in Paunovic who has had them in the top 6 all season. 

No doubt Mowbray will wax lyrical about what a strong quality side we are coming up against. ignoring the reality that they've left us in the dust this season after we finished well above them last year.

I'm interested to see how things unfold from here. If the worst does happen and we lose most of the March fixtures just how far can Mowbray and Waggott blag it before they have to hold their hands up?

[USABlue]

Another defeat sadly, bouyed by the hope it's Mowbrays last game in charge.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

8 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

He has played centre half in the latter.stages of the African Cup of Nations  what are you on about?  I'm not saying he is ideal, but feckin light years ahead of bill and ben

 

If Mowbray sat him down and said right your playing centre half every game, he'd do a good job for me.

As I've said a million times under Mowbray - what do they do in training ? That's where you try out new formations and ways of playing. Under normal circumstances Nyambe wouldn't be my first choice at centre half but I think he would be a better bet either of the two apprentices we've got there at the moment. He's quick and he can cope physically.

Speaking of centre halves, we did actually sign some guy called Ayala in Autumn didn't we ? I'm not imagining it am I. He seems to have vanished  off the planet. Surely it's warm enough for him to begin playing again now. Same with Johnson. Where are they ? Anybody else beginning to get the smell of a bit of Salgado/Nelsenitis in the camp ?

[1864roverite]

4-0 loss

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

8 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I maybe shouldn't say it but that made be laugh, because it's true and Ryan at CB is a serious alternative to playing a young boy who can't jump.

Douglas can't be a worse RB than he is a LB either.

What a sorry state of affairs.

On the match itself - no chance..

BB has already scored where he hits it on the sweet spot so the chance of that happening again is about the same as me driving the Mars Rover. In person.

I'll be up at 3 am watching and hoping for a win, draw or at least a good 'performance'.

The Journey continues.

Good on yer.

If we were set up better to prevent opponents getting easy crosses in we wouldn't look so poor under the high ball. It all comes down to the same thing - we don't work hard enough as units. The guys out wide see two on ones developing against the full back and just stand there watching. Some blokes were complaining about the Cunningham goal in the Preston game and blaming Nyambe for not being out there. Hang on a minute, what position was Cunningham playing ? He's a full back, our winger should have been stride for stride with him, then that goal probably wouldn't have happened.

It's not all about the centre halves. Same with the goalkeepers. Modern keepers seem very loathe to leave their line these days. When I was playing the six yard box was the keeper's responsibility and you'd be expecting any crosses to be claimed by him. If you go barging out into the pack to claim a cross 9 times out of 10 the ref will penalise the guy you bump in to. Back in the day keepers were  probably 6" shorter than the modern keepers and they were much better at coming out for crosses.