v QPR (h) - 26/2/22

[all you need is duff]

11 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Could have been a straight red on another day.

I think we need to rest Travis against Fulham. One yellow card away from a two match ban and I would say he’s highly likely to pick up a booking against that Fulham midfield 

[aletheia]

Not Sam’s biggest fan in terms of talent. But no doubt about effort. Pressed well with K. and D. Watch again the build up to Johnson’s easy chance. Sam pressed well and then nicked the ball off the defender and squared it nicely for Johnson (to erm, tamely side foot to the keeper. ) 

On a lighter note, was amused to see Trav’s little strop. When he was on the floor injured (and it did look like he was really hurting ) JVH wanted to get on with it and take the free kick. He offered a hand up to Trav, who promptly slapped his hand away. 

[chaddyrovers]

12 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

It turned out to be good logic. Suppose Johnson was the natural replacement for Rothwell and was outstanding.

Very good today, does need to provide more in terms of goals/assists though but so much energy.

Thought Johnson had a really good game and given us a physical presence in there. Plus allow Travis to go forward at times. 

Dolan's pressing game is quality to watch and why I enjoyed watching him in that role of the pressing forward

11 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Their number 7 (Johansen?) was very good I thought.

Stefan Johansen. Someone Mowbray wanted in the last summer window. 

Quality player but I thought his passing after we scored and they were playing suicide passing out of back was criminal. It suited us cos of our pressing game  

9 hours ago, Darwen Rover 007 said:

Agreed can see Van Hecke going onto really big things.. Mind you our own Wharton will be at least our club captain one day.. 

Wharton has been very good since playing this season. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

13 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Thought Johnson had a really good game and given us a physical presence in there. Plus allow Travis to go forward at times. 

Dolan's pressing game is quality to watch and why I enjoyed watching him in that role of the pressing forward

Stefan Johansen. Someone Mowbray wanted in the last summer window. 

Quality player but I thought his passing after we scored and they were playing suicide passing out of back was criminal. It suited us cos of our pressing game  

Wharton has been very good since playing this season. 

Johnson’s a big unit but towards the end of the game his legs had gone. Witness - his short passing game became sloppy. As far as sprinting goes  I could beat him over 10 yards with two dodgy knees. Is it lack of real match fitness or has he just gone ? We would have subbed him I think but with Nyambe getting injured it left us short of options. I agree he brings a solidity to our back line and Travis can get further forward but there’s still a gap between the midfield and the front three most of the time. One or two of our guys were running on empty at the end but they’d put in 100% effort.

[TruRover]

38 minutes ago, all you need is duff said:

I think we need to rest Travis against Fulham. One yellow card away from a two match ban and I would say he’s highly likely to pick up a booking against that Fulham midfield 

Disagree - if we want anything out of that game then we need travis. In my opinion he has been our standout player in the last month or so. Has clearly up’d his game from just a defensive midfielder - now seems to be one of our main driving forces and often looks for the forward passes between the lines. 

[Gav]

Tremendous scenes and these lads are only on loan!

Pride and passion, its all I ask for as a football fan.

Onwards and upwards.

[tomphil]

Thought Johnson did a decent job although his miss was very poor but it seems Mowbray wanted him pushing on a bit more and trying to get in the box.

So as mentioned he was cream crackered after 60 mins but yesterday was a good team performance. Everyone did their bit including Gallagher and the subs. 

[Gav]

26 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Thought Johnson did a decent job although his miss was very poor but it seems Mowbray wanted him pushing on a bit more and trying to get in the box.

So as mentioned he was cream crackered after 60 mins but yesterday was a good team performance. Everyone did their bit including Gallagher and the subs. 

I think it was on his wrong foot, if that had fell to his left foot the result would have been very different. We could argue football should be able to shoot with both feet, but having watched the highlights it was pointed out in commentary. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 minutes ago, Gav said:

I think it was on his wrong foot, if that had fell to his left foot the result would have been very different. We could argue football should be able to shoot with both feet, but having watched the highlights it was pointed out in commentary. 

As with most left footers his right foot is just a swinger. Did he have time to get it onto his left ?

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Johnson’s a big unit but towards the end of the game his legs had gone. Witness - his short passing game became sloppy. As far as sprinting goes  I could beat him over 10 yards with two dodgy knees. Is it lack of real match fitness or has he just gone ? We would have subbed him I think but with Nyambe getting injured it left us short of options. I agree he brings a solidity to our back line and Travis can get further forward but there’s still a gap between the midfield and the front three most of the time. One or two of our guys were running on empty at the end but they’d put in 100% effort.

I think Johnson might have sub if we had a sub left bit he had a good game and run his socks off

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

I think Johnson might have sub if we had a sub left bit he had a good game and run his socks off

Yes I think he would have been subbed if we’d have been able to. He wasn’t moving very freely at the end. 

[Beanie01289]

He was hobbling at one point towards the end and at one point when the ball was out of play you could see him trying to stretch his hammys

[tomphil]

51 minutes ago, Gav said:

I think it was on his wrong foot, if that had fell to his left foot the result would have been very different. We could argue football should be able to shoot with both feet, but having watched the highlights it was pointed out in commentary. 

Still poor, as you say a ten grand a week very experienced player should be able to crack it with both feet in a position like that.

 

[G Somerset Rover]

Watched the full match on catch up last night and it’s really encouraging that we’ve now outplayed two play-off rivals in a row in Sheff Utd (granted we got sucker punched) and QPR. Real cause for optimism if we can keep finding the back of the net - even just one p/m as our defence is very likely good enough - until BBD is back.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[dallydally]

1 hour ago, Gav said:

I think it was on his wrong foot, if that had fell to his left foot the result would have been very different. We could argue football should be able to shoot with both feet, but having watched the highlights it was pointed out in commentary. 

I remember hearing Bobby Charlton on the radio being asked how he could shoot so well with either foot. He said he used to go in the back street when just a boy and practiced for hours on end kicking a tennis ball against the wall so that he could shoot well with either foot. No excuse for being so one footed

[Admiral Nelsen]

3 minutes ago, dallydally said:

I remember hearing Bobby Charlton on the radio being asked how he could shoot so well with either foot. He said he used to go in the back street when just a boy and practiced for hours on end kicking a tennis ball against the wall so that he could shoot well with either foot. No excuse for being so one footed

 

I remember reading somewhere that Pedersen had a similar story. Naturally right footed, but practiced with his left to the point where it became his dominant foot. 

[Gav]

14 minutes ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

I remember reading somewhere that Pedersen had a similar story. Naturally right footed, but practiced with his left to the point where it became his dominant foot. 

Maybe thats the reason why most of his free kicks went in the stands and he could never beat the 1st man when talking a corner...

I liked Pedersen, that header at Old Trafford aside, but his free kick taking abilities are legendary, for anyone who didn't attend Ewood on a regular basis 😄

[AllRoverAsia]

1 minute ago, Gav said:

Maybe thats the reason why most of his free kicks went in the stands and he could never beat the 1st man when talking a corner...

I liked Pedersen, that header at Old Trafford aside, but his free kick taking abilities are legendary, for anyone who didn't attend Ewood on a regular basis 😄

Not much has changed at Rovers then.

[roversfan99]

13 hours ago, Darwen Rover 007 said:

I've been thinking about our winning formula run.. and alot have mentioned our back 3 / 5 approach being the main reason, rightly so..

 

However I would be interested to see what our win % is when Dolan has played.. I have a theory (not based on science) that actually the main factor to our winning formula is both the new found defence and Dolan..

Dolan offers us an attacking threat / magician type with aggression that we don't have and this has opened things up for the likes of Khedra and Diaz..

I may well be proven wrong but this is only a theory but kind of adds up (in my head at least).

I suspect it wouldn't be as high as you would think as for much of our winning run, Brereton and Khadra were the 2 forwards, with Buckley as the false 9.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

25 minutes ago, dallydally said:

I remember hearing Bobby Charlton on the radio being asked how he could shoot so well with either foot. He said he used to go in the back street when just a boy and practiced for hours on end kicking a tennis ball against the wall so that he could shoot well with either foot. No excuse for being so one footed

Me too as a kid. There wasn’t much else to do. No gadgets, just two tv channels. It was football, football, football. If there was nobody else out playing I’d go on my own with a ball to a local car park that had a substation to shoot against. By the time I was 15 I could play on either flank, no problem.

[Fraserkirky]

1 hour ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Watched the full match on catch up last night and it’s really encouraging that we’ve now outplayed two play-off rivals in a row in Sheff Utd (granted we got sucker punched) and QPR. Real cause for optimism if we can keep finding the back of the net - even just one p/m as our defence is very likely good enough - until BBD is back.

Don’t think we have reason to fear either side in a playoff matchup. Sheff Utd have Berge who is way too good for this league, and QPR we’re missing both their strikers, but we are also missing players.

[windymiller7]

Similar kind of thing, me & 3 of my mates used to regularly go on a nearby school field at any opportunity. We were all right footed but used to play a game where u weren't allowed to score with your right foot (taking it in turns to go in goal when someone did score).

My left foot is nowhere near as good as my right but it's not bad.

On a side note, one of my mates once scored a pearler of a volley with his left foot in one such game & never shut up about it. So much so that I even mentioned it in my best man's speech at his wedding! 😅

[Mercer]

37 minutes ago, Gav said:

Maybe thats the reason why most of his free kicks went in the stands and he could never beat the 1st man when talking a corner...

I liked Pedersen, that header at Old Trafford aside, but his free kick taking abilities are legendary, for anyone who didn't attend Ewood on a regular basis 😄

Sadly, when Pedersen crops up in conversation I always remember 'that header' at the 'Scoreboard' End with just minutes to go.  Football wise, not sure I'll ever get over it!

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, TruRover said:

Disagree - if we want anything out of that game then we need travis. In my opinion he has been our standout player in the last month or so. Has clearly up’d his game from just a defensive midfielder - now seems to be one of our main driving forces and often looks for the forward passes between the lines. 

If we want anything from that game...

Well, I do, but quite frankly as long as we don't lose it by more than 2 I will just shrug my shoulders and move on to the next game. They can be beaten on the right day, but they're also comfortably the best side in the league and we're going to their turf. As a reminder, they drubbed us 7-0 on our own turf.

We have improved remarkably since then, especially at the back, but we have to admit they are heavy favourites for this one. It's the hardest game on paper we will have all season. We have already lost some much easier games.

[USABlue]

So pleased with that show, ither than the missing of gilt edged chances.  How good is young Van Hecke.  If QPR are the best of the rest, we have kittle to fear.  Hope re-instated.