v QPR (h) - 26/2/22

[martonrover]

A crucial win, (thank goodness), but our deficiencies up top still look likely to be our undoing in the final analysis. We basically won the game with a freak goal, which won’t happen very often.

There is a gaping void in attack, with no obvious solution until Brereton returns.

[Cherry Blue]

Hadn't realised their keeper was subed at HT but in the first half he was one reason we didn't score twice. Good to see ball go in from Khadra's freekick, grateful first half keeper was off  Decent game with outstanding effort but a bit more quality and alertness could have seen us winning easily. As said earlier Johnson took an age to pass to Nyambe and there was a couple of loose passes, one from a freekick, showing lack of attention.

I'll mention Dolan again as he had an outstanding game. Knew exactly what was around him on the pitch and good to see his gesture to BBNEND toward end of game.

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Cherry Blue

[arbitro]

I might be in the minority but I thought in the first half we lacked energy and the tempo was slow which is unusual for us particularly the lack of energy. The second half was better as we pretty much played the game in their half. Much more worrying than that though was the finishing and decision making which overall was poor. Khadra, Johnson and Giles should have had us home and dry but at 1-0 we were on tenterhooks right to the end. I think our season might just hinge on the conversion of chances we create and without Brereton that's a real worry. I have real faith in us defensively and that is a great platform to win games but we mustn't be so wasteful.

I have to praise Mowbray today for persisting with Khadra whose confidence looked shot. It would have been easy to hook him but hopefully getting the winning goal will boost his morale. 

Despite my criticism the win was absolutely the most important thing so from that perspective it was job done and hearing Sweet Caroline was music to our ears.

Hopefully today isn't the last we see of Nyambe who once again showed his quality. 

[arbitro]

4 hours ago, Gav said:

I don't think I've seen worse referring, on a consistent basis, as we've seen in this division over the past few years Tony. 

Maybe it just seems that way, but we've seen some absolute dross working the games.

I agree Gav. It's such a weak list and they are having a huge effect of games with their collective incompetence. The referee today was decent simply from the fact we aren't really talking about him now.

[Exiled_Rover]

20 minutes ago, DE. said:

Gallagher has some good points. He's just not a particularly good pure footballer or striker, which is a shame as we are desperate for the latter especially at the moment. 

I keep on saying, if you're a new coach and Gallagher walks through the door you sit up in your chair - moreso when you see him run.

You turn away in disgust when you see him trap a ball though.

It's a joke that 5'6" Dolan is infinitely better at holding the ball up than 6'4" Gallagher.

[G Somerset Rover]

Missed most of the game today but absolutely made up with the win. Huge three points - we need that to really kick start our season again. 

We just need to shave 3-4 weeks off BBD’s injury so that we actually have someone who can put the ball in the back of the net!

Edited February 26, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[chaddyrovers]

Firstly, Great to see Tony Parkes on the pitch pre match and he got a great reception from the fans 

Here a video of it here https://twitter.com/Rovers/status/1497548658287550467?s=20&t=nnAMrouk8f3biKJ_fFQQaQ

Also who ever this person who has donated 12k to Parkes's future care well done and thanks for stepping up. 

 

[Darrenbot]

21 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Great win and decent performance.

Great credit for keep plugging away when it would have been easy to get nervous and frustrated. thought they did a good job of drawing them out a bit second half a creating a bit more space behind.

Dolan is such a livewire it's good to see but he and a few others in that forward line need some serious coaching in the art of releasing passes quicker. Too many trying too much and being greedy we'd make it easier for ourselves to create if they got their passes off to teamates.

Probably get tanked next week but hopefully a few more performances like this afterwards will keep us in the mix.

Not just the forward line that need to make better decisions.Giles went for goal when a square ball would have been a tap in for Dolan and a 2-0 lead.

[G Somerset Rover]

31 minutes ago, Fraserkirky said:

These three home games coming are gonna be massive. Bournemouth have a similar stretch at home against fodder. I would say 2nd has gone but we could be difficult to move out of the playoffs with 3 home wins.

Yeah I too think those three matches may well define our season. We simply have to aim for 9 points. As you say, get those and we’ll be tough to budge out of the play-offs.

[chaddyrovers]

I thought Rovers were outstanding today.

Mowbray got the team selection correct and playing 3 up front really worked well. Dolan suits that pressing role so well. Deserved the man of the match award. We played at high tempo and press from the front. Tyrhys Dolan was outstanding and set the tempo for this team performance. We press and chase high. We should have scored more but its was deserved win.

Also well done to Darragh Lenihan for getting the players together for huddle pre match and we came out of the traps quickly. 

We made QPR look very average today.

I hope Ryan Nyambe is ok after what look a nasty injury. Its didn't look good at the time.

Every Rovers players got at least 8 out of 10 today.

The Rovers fans were magnificent and never stop backing this Players. 

I am so proud of the players today and I am still buzzing from that performance

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

 

[Sparks Rover]

12 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Yeah I too think those three matches may well define our season. We simply have to aim for 9 points. As you say, get those and we’ll be tough to budge out of the play-offs.

Yeah and summerfest chap is praying we fuck it up 🤣🤣

[speeeeeeedie]

28 minutes ago, martonrover said:

A crucial win, (thank goodness), but our deficiencies up top still look likely to be our undoing in the final analysis. We basically won the game with a freak goal, which won’t happen very often.

There is a gaping void in attack, with no obvious solution until Brereton returns.

Thanks to ESPN I've been able to watch a lot of recent games. Brereton not playing has been a factor but I think that the bigger issue has been the lack of a final pass. All too often the last ball never reaches its target. On numerous occasions today a bit of composure and a decent pass would have led to a chance. 

With the back line + keeper playing as well as they are Rovers will be in and around it. Hopefully Diaz returns, not Brereton. Talk of Dack being a potential game changer is a bit premature if you ask me. He's been out for a long time.

[tomphil]

23 minutes ago, Darrenbot said:

Not just the forward line that need to make better decisions.Giles went for goal when a square ball would have been a tap in for Dolan and a 2-0 lead.

That was inexcusable really but we'll let him off just this once as Dolan probably would've done the same. It's something that really needs ironing out when we are so desperate for goals.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, tomphil said:

That was inexcusable really but we'll let him off just this once as Dolan probably would've done the same. It's something that really needs ironing out when we are so desperate for goals.

The ball looked to be cut off by their cb fairly quick, the ball had to be straight away or not at all. Don’t think he could’ve done much

[chaddyrovers]

3 minutes ago, tomphil said:

That was inexcusable really but we'll let him off just this once as Dolan probably would've done the same. It's something that really needs ironing out when we are so desperate for goals.

The pass to Dolan was block by defender from my view in Blackburn End

[Darrenbot]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

The pass to Dolan was block by defender from my view in Blackburn End

By the time he shot it was blocked but in the build up an easy pass across was the way to go.

[martonrover]

10 minutes ago, speeeeeeedie said:

Thanks to ESPN I've been able to watch a lot of recent games. Brereton not playing has been a factor but I think that the bigger issue has been the lack of a final pass. All too often the last ball never reaches its target. On numerous occasions today a bit of composure and a decent pass would have led to a chance. 

With the back line + keeper playing as well as they are Rovers will be in and around it. Hopefully Diaz returns, not Brereton. Talk of Dack being a potential game changer is a bit premature if you ask me. He's been out for a long time.

Largely agree, including re - Dack, but even even when we have gilt edged chances, we seemly do not possess a natural goal scorer to put them away. 
I see the same pattern being repeated in forthcoming games.

That puts a whole lot of pressure on the defence to keep clean sheets in order to accumulate points.

[Tom]

Yep Giles had an easy pass on but held it too long then the chance was gone for the pass 

[Gordon Gekko]

Scores are looking decent so far, this isn’t over until Thomas Brohlin sings! if we keep chipping away, especially with the home games coming up, anything can happen. Stranger things have happened at sea! I’m exciting again… It may just be the 6 cans of San Miguel speaking though! 

[aletheia]

Just knew we would win today –it’s so Rovers because all the logical signs were that we would never score a goal. And seeing the line up before kick-off seemed to cement that idea –keep it tight and hope we nick something up top. But then, a nice surprise first half as it was all us though obviously no surprise we passed up several good chances. And I thought if this remains goalless or a single goal away win, then this message board would be white hot by tea-time. And then, deep in the first half, it seemed that we would do our usual of dominating but conceding a soft goal when up they popped with a nice through ball for a one on one only for Kaminski to save well. That was huge.

And I could be my usual glass half empty man. I could point out that there are still lots of frailties (set pieces, crossing, scoring etc) that we all know about. I could point out that despite creating chances we couldn’t finish and that the goal we scored was really a mistake from their keeper who flapped.

But no, now’s not the time and that would be far too churlish.

We played really well and looked at it from the off. Dolan was the catalyst for most things good and the front three’s pressing first half was great. By and large we nullified them well –van H brings a calmness and makes the others play better.

Thanks lads for an exciting game with full commitment.

[Wheelton Blue]

Great win, which is all that matters right now.

Until the goal though, we never looked like scoring from open play in a month of Sundays. 

[Darrenbot]

A spell on the bench seems to have refreshed Dolan and he's come back on form,hopefully a couple of games on the bench can do the same for Buckley and he'll come back with the form he was showing earlier in the season.

[RoverCanada]

On 24/02/2022 at 14:17, RoverCanada said:

It'll be my first Ewood Park game 🙂

(Glad I changed my original plan to go last weekend!)

🙂 loved that!

Probably would've enjoyed it a bit more if the goal-less drought wasn't hanging over us, but I'll take that performance! Ultimately, can't fault any player too much (delighted for Khadra in the end!)

Dolan was a beast. Great to see him 100% healthy again.

A tip: Every time van Hecke's ballplaying starts giving you heart palpitations, quickly remind yourself he's Dutch and probably knows what he's doing.

Baffled that QPR are where they are in the table after that performance. Their CBs were awful.

Edited February 26, 2022 by RoverCanada

[yankfan]

Good results around us with Sheffield and Boro losing. Top probably out of reach at this point