Carabao Cup - next round, moving on - draw.

[arbitro]

I didn't have an issue with the starting line up primarily because the majority of them got us through three rounds and beat a Premier League club away in the last round. Forest were simply better than us and for me the scoreline reflects that dominance. Looking at the bigger picture it's clear to me that the likes of Scott Wharton, Travis and Hedges are in a bad run of form. Tonight was an opportunity for them and in my view all of them struggled and such a drop in form can take time to get back up to speed. Our two starting loanees should be sent back if possible and either replaced by another loan player or one of the kids. That said Markanday showed up well particularly in the first half and should be on the bench at Sunderland. Hopefully January will bring in some fresh faces that actually improve us and we don't make the mistake of previous years of resting on our laurels.

[roversfan99]

Really poor night and an expected massive gulf in quality with disregard shown by such a poor team selection. It is not constructive to play so many youngsters together.

Ive questioned Hyam aside the success of the window and Mola and Hirst stood out in a bad way, both woeful and need sending back in January. 

Pears did well to avoid us conceding 7 or 8 and Markanday was as bright as anyone without much help or much end product. Phillips was much better than Scott Wharton who again was poor as was Travis. Adam Wharton was very iffy bar his assist and Garrett is very limited.

Quite apt that even in an attempt to wrap every first teamer in cotton wool that Dolan came on and got injured straight away, bad night all round.

[Doogs]

47 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Charlton a league 1 side are giving a more established epl side than forest the test of their lives ffs. Pathetic that we threw in the towel from the starting lineup in the vain hope that we might accrue enough points to get in the playoffs.  The lack of ambition stinks. I think the jdt experiment has failed and its time to go for a more experienced manager 

One thing I have learnt from tonight....Don't bother with any future cup games. Just not worth the effort with this clown in charge.

[Doogs]

The first thing that needs doing at Rovers is get shut of JDT....This project is shite...

[Mattyblue]

Don’t bother with cup games? He’d played 3 won 3 before tonight. Better than the last fella managed in five years. 

Yeah let’s sack the manager months into the job after just beating a fellow play off rival away to go into Christmas 3rd.

This place. Do folk actually read what they are typing when it’s post match? 🤦‍♂️
 

 

[Rover_in_the_South]

1 hour ago, CambridgeRover said:

Travis is awful. Truly shit player. Drop him permanently 

Agreed - he is a league one player at best! Also seems to have the attitude he is one of our better players, drop him.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Rover_in_the_South

[DE.]

24 minutes ago, DanielMB said:

Sometimes I think the fans on this messageboard will only be happy if we played tikki-takka, won the league and won the cup. FFS. Look at where we have been for the last 12 years. We are finally getting results where it matters most and people complain because we arent performing perfectly every single game with this squad. 

Appreciate people want to ignore the Mowbray years these days, but worth pointing out at this time last year we were 3rd on 42 points with a GD of +14, having just thumped Birmingham 4-0... 

[simongarnerisgod]

forest beat a rovers reserve side,big hurrahs for them,having said that,mola and hirst won`t be on the 1st team bus anytime soon judging by their showing tonight,hirst is no more a centre forward than i am a nuclear physicist and mola looks like a non league player,though non league players at least can control a football,not to bothered about the rest of them,they did`nt disgrace themselves against a side that has had 150  million spent on it

[arbitro]

15 minutes ago, Doogs said:

One thing I have learnt from tonight....Don't bother with any future cup games. Just not worth the effort with this clown in charge.

Were you at West Ham?

[Paul Mellelieu]

20 minutes ago, Doogs said:

The first thing that needs doing at Rovers is get shut of JDT....This project is shite...

We are third.

[Crozzy]

1 hour ago, davulsukur said:

The Rovers twitter admin took Forest's 3rd goal well.....

In fairness having been there, it was more of a clear foul than the foul not given against Saka for France’s first goal in the World Cup 😂😂

[Crozzy]

Was always gonna be a tough ask tonight, lots of games in a short space coming up so like others said, can’t be annoyed at the team he put out. Imagine if Diaz or Dack started and got injured, you’d all be slating him. 
 

S.Wharton is in a poor run of form yes but I don’t understand why everyone is being so harsh, homegrown lad who was unreal last year. Form has dipped yes and everyone’s getting on his back. Get behind ffs! 

[superniko]

1 hour ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Crowd: 15,138 (6,576 away)

Not bad in the end from the home fans. 

Jesus, all that nonsense in the build up but that’s a decent turn out for a mid-round cup game against a team we’ve played 20 odd times in the last 10 seasons (or something like that). Well done lads and lasses.

Shame they all paid to see our reserve 11, everyone with half a brain knew Forest would go strong (see all 4 prem teams yesterday). Would have liked to see a stronger team from ourselves but hopefully the intent means Trav and Smod are now in the 2nd 11 in the managers thoughts.  

[Crozzy]

1 hour ago, Fraserkirky said:

Why take Philips off, Wharton is a nightmare 

If your last man you just can’t do that I’m afraid

I heard Hedges shouting at the bench for some electrolyte gel for Philips. Philips came over for that and a bottle of something shortly after so I’m guessing maybe he was low on energy? Came off about 5 mins later 

[Darwen Rover 007]

Ok so just got home from the game (what the heck was going on with the traffic, been a long time since its been that bad)

Anyway onto the game, yes Forest were much the better side and had it not been for Pears heroics it would have been a cricket score! Totally get the selection given a) these lads got us here and b) upcoming games, the priority has to be to get onto the play offs, irrespective of how.. that said, the most worrying this about this side is the lack of resilience we have, we really do have a very soft under belly... for what it's worth my player ratings:

Pears 9 - probably the game of his career, sad that we still lost 4-1

Travis 6 - this lad is going backwards and runs like savage did at 36! 

Williams 7 - decent all things compared (his age etc)

Wharton 6 - yes he scored but he was generally poor what's happened to his rock solidness? 

Mola 3 - out of his depth send him back, put a youngster in

Garett 7 - played well, I like this lad, if he can kick on he'll be decent 

Wharton 6 - again seems to have gone backwards but early days for him 

Markanday 7.5 - to be brought off ahead of others is criminal, one of the few bright sparks on a miserable night.  He has something we are missing in our squad! 

Hedges 5 - missing most of the game, sad to see

Smodzic 8 - worked his socks off and showed a few nice touches, my outfield man of the match 

Hirst 3 - what does this guy offer! I mean honestly we should play Markanday down the middle ahead of this half hearted lump.

Thought Buckley showed some nice touches, hoping he can fill in for Travis.. 

 

[Doogs]

9 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

We are third.

Don't care where we are. The excitement and football this guy plays is dreadful 

[Leonard Venkhater]

1 minute ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

We are third.

Interesting, isn't it. I've never known a season like it. We are third in the table, yet so many of us are uneasy, frustrated, unconvinced etc

I think we have won 13 games and lost 10 in the league . 10 defeats is a lot and so may of them have involved complete no shows...The disgraceful derby performances merely add salt to the wounds.. And so many goals are gifted to the opposition too.

So, in our house-like this message board,- it is a repeated exchange-That was a shite performance v We are third in the table.

My response is that both are true, but I am not criticising anyone, who is frustrated and dissatisfied.

[Songman]

I thought Phillips and Wharton were both poor. Between Szmodics, Pears and Markanday for our M.O.M. Thought Edun did a decent job in second half, although maybe I'm comparing that to Mola in the first.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

A good workout for our youth team - hopefully JDT will have learned some valuable lessons.

1. When Edun looks a 100 times better than Mola - you know it is time to send Mola back to his club.

2. Hirst - didn't get great service - but no time for a player that consistently pulls out of 50-50 challenges.

3. Philips - could become a good player - but not ready yet, especially poor positional awareness and pulled around by a good Forest forward line

4. Travis - not a right back, even JRC looked better against Norwich

5. Scott Wharton - needs to realise he isn't Beckenbauer - in a poor run of form

6. Adam Wharton - see Scott

7. Pears - best match in a Rovers shirt

8. Markanday - reminds me a little of Dolan. On the first half showing, not certain why he has been frozen out.

Some players will have (hopefully) learned some valuable lessons. Pears, Edun and Markanday will have done their loan chances no harm at all.

There was some very good passages of play - unfortunately intermingled with some awful defending, poor choice and execution of pass.

If tonight ends up with Hirst and Mola going back to their clubs and replaced (with hopefully better) - then it could end up being a good night 🙂

 

[JHRover]

End of the day the manager can't really win with his team selections. If we do what has worked in the previous rounds and go with the same side that did well in getting to this point there are accusations of not bothering with the cup or playing our second string. If he'd have dropped them all and gone with the same side as at Norwich he'd have been accused of risking our league form for a 'pointless' cup competition and not rewarding the youngsters who had done well previously.

There are lots of people who talk about giving our youngsters an opportunity to shine and develop in proper games - so I'm not going to criticise the manager for doing just that.

Personally I've no issue at all with the team he put out and I've no real problem with the performance. They were the better side overall, they bloody well should be with the money spent and side they put out. Despite that I thought we settled down after a dodgy first 25-30 minutes and for the middle third were ok. Their 2nd and 3rd goals came from little - a misplaced pass into nowhere from us, a 15 yard wall set for the free kick and inexplicably not giving us a free kick but hey ho that's no surprise in these sort of games.

I then look at the remaining sides left in the competition. Am I bothered we aren't in the draw? Not really. I know the money men would love a 'big tie' and it would be a good experience for the players but as a supporter I don't feel like I'm missing much not getting a game against United, Liverpool, City etc.

Whoever it was at Rovers who decided to refer to the game as a 'potential giantkilling' on the website before the game needs a dressing down. I think that sort of language is a disgrace especially when we are talking about a club we were well above this time last season, but fits in well with some of the defeatists down at Ewood.

As with everyone in the Championship it is about the League and focus on that.

 

 

[Miller11]

Loaning players to fill squad places needs to stop. It’s a complete waste of time and benefits nobody. If a loanee isn’t improving our starting 11 they shouldn’t be looked at.

We have made far more pointless/bad loan signings in recent years than ones who were of any benefit. 

[superniko]

1 hour ago, roverandout said:

I'm starting to think jdt isn't the manager we thought he would be

Who thought he’d be anything? Chaddy maybe? He was a great footballer, as manager he won a Scandy league with the most famous/best team, and he smiles and is chirpy in interviews? 
Means absolutely nothing. At least with ex-prem players you get some good loan options (see Lampard at Derby and Kompany at Burnley) 

He has a lot to prove in my eyes. I don’t see a squad, I don’t see a team, I don’t see a captain, I don’t see a ‘style’, I don’t see ‘high press’, I don’t see good in-game management/subs. *awaiting the ‘but we’re 3rd in the league’ lot*

[Mattyblue]

Football is a results business and we are sitting third. It isn’t a ‘but, but’, it’s the whole point of professional sport.

[Silas]

17 minutes ago, Darwen Rover 007 said:

Ok so just got home from the game (what the heck was going on with the traffic, been a long time since its been that bad)

Anyway onto the game, yes Forest were much the better side and had it not been for Pears heroics it would have been a cricket score! Totally get the selection given a) these lads got us here and b) upcoming games, the priority has to be to get onto the play offs, irrespective of how.. that said, the most worrying this about this side is the lack of resilience we have, we really do have a very soft under belly... for what it's worth my player ratings:

Pears 9 - probably the game of his career, sad that we still lost 4-1

Travis 6 - this lad is going backwards and runs like savage did at 36! 

Williams 7 - decent all things compared (his age etc)

Wharton 6 - yes he scored but he was generally poor what's happened to his rock solidness? 

Mola 3 - out of his depth send him back, put a youngster in

Garett 7 - played well, I like this lad, if he can kick on he'll be decent 

Wharton 6 - again seems to have gone backwards but early days for him 

Markanday 7.5 - to be brought off ahead of others is criminal, one of the few bright sparks on a miserable night.  He has something we are missing in our squad! 

Hedges 5 - missing most of the game, sad to see

Smodzic 8 - worked his socks off and showed a few nice touches, my outfield man of the match 

Hirst 3 - what does this guy offer! I mean honestly we should play Markanday down the middle ahead of this half hearted lump.

Thought Buckley showed some nice touches, hoping he can fill in for Travis.. 

 

S. Warton's getting away with murder there with a 6.

[Butty]

38 minutes ago, Doogs said:

The first thing that needs doing at Rovers is get shut of JDT....This project is shite...

You a Dingle on the wind up or something?