FAC Q/F v Sheffield United (a) - 19/3/23, 12pm K/O

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

8 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Could be a blessing in disguise. I really dislike Sheff Utd and it hurt like hell today, but it will soften the blow if they get thrashed by City in the next round. Dreaming of facing them again in the playoff final.

It’ll certainly complicate their run in. We’ll see if we can take advantage of that.

[ItsRoverZ]

Been awake since 11am yesterday  ..really wanted to skip this game because my nerves wouldn't take it but my mind and body had other ideas,  was refreshing twitter for ages before I finally sat on my sofa and turned the game on ..as sheff united were celebrating thier 3rd goal ...honestly felt personal like the football gods were laughing at me ..or I've gone mad from lack of sleep haha! 

Finally going to bed ..heartbreaking today, negative subs costly but for 80 minutes we dreamt! And it was a good performance for those 80 minutes too!

Night all

[47er]

1 hour ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

Your last sentence sums up the feelings in our house. Even if we had won, when the dust settled, we would have only been going to Wembley for a semi final..not a final... 

Yes agree, there is absolutely no way we would have beaten City. so I'm not too downhearted either. It was an  outstanding performance, one of great credit from players and fans, both gave their all.

We played in the most exciting game of the season to a huge TV audience and showed the world we're on our way back.

 

[47er]

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I said pen right away and I was watching on TV. I couldn’t believe the shit McCoist came out with. In todays football it was a pen all day long.

In today's football "yes a pen". Only a few years ago "no, never". I prefer yesterday--the guy didn't handle it, it hit him. Moreover, it was a harmless mishit from Gallagher which the keeper would have taken with a teaspoon.

The real story of that incident was Gallagher's inability to control the ball and smash a sitter in from about 4 yards.

[Miller11]

Watched the entire game back again and it just served to confirm what I thought from the stand. For 80 minutes we were brilliant and every player was good to excellent. When they went to a back 4 and we went to a 5 it all changed. Brittain was a liability when he came on and Morton disgraced himself.

[tomphil]

The result wasn't good in the end but although it might not feel like it right now today was a good day for the club.

Back on a big stage, fighting performance, good effort from fans, getting a reputation for a good brand of football and battling mentality. Only beaten just beaten at the death by a quality strike from a club with a stronger squad and budget who look like they'll be in the Prem soon.

We've come a long way in the last 18 moths after basically standing still for years being fed lines about marginal gains. And it all started with a budget cut and youth policy whilst replacing deadwood on the pitch then off it.

On we go, if people can't finally take some positives from it we might as well give up.

[47er]

5 hours ago, yankfan said:

Agree with most on here regarding the subs. A change was needed as the game was much to open, but felt the problem was the numerical disadvantage in midfield. Esther than going 5 at the back would rather have seen us sacrifice Szmodics or Gally for a deeper midfielder. Garret or A Wharton would have helped balance the field without sitting too deep.  Our high press was pretty unsuccessful all afternoon so  setting a lower line of confrontation for the last 10+ min made sense. 

Yes---my thoughts exactly!

[bigbrandjohn]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

It’ll certainly complicate their run in. We’ll see if we can take advantage of that.

None of their players will want to get injured before the City game at Wembley. Massive distraction. 👍

[Paul Mellelieu]

5 hours ago, 47er said:

Yes---my thoughts exactly!

JDT said that we had been playing five across the back throughout when we lost the ball, in answer to a similar point made to him by Andy Bayes.

[philipl]

8 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i hope venkys give him some serious money to spend in the summer,i think this year has come to soon for promotion,give him the funds for 3 players in the summer and we`ll go up,honestly think we are nearly ready to challenge we`re just a few players short

Perhaps I will be corrected but my understanding is the issue is the FFP limit, and we don't know if Venkys would pump more in if they could legitimately.

[philipl]

7 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

It’ll certainly complicate their run in. We’ll see if we can take advantage of that.

As I posted on the Championship thread, 9 games in 28 days to the normal season end for them now.

[Ossydave]

Very proud of the boys, I came off the game nowhere near as dejected as I did when I was there for the league game. All we can ask for is them to try their best. Ultimately they were beyond lucky and the ref was abysmal, but that's football. 

As an aside I'll be glad to be back to us loyal away fans who go most weeks, some right twats amongst us yesterday who clearly don't usually go.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Just as every Rovers fan knew. If you are good enough, you are old enough and experience only comes from being out on the pitch.

Really proud that was our team out there yesterday for millions to see.

We lost fair and square in a top top quality cup tie. I'm OK with that.

I think if we play that game 10 times in a row, we win 5 and they win 5 so I make it our turn in the play off final. 

[Penwortham Blue]

55 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

Very proud of the boys, I came off the game nowhere near as dejected as I did when I was there for the league game. All we can ask for is them to try their best. Ultimately they were beyond lucky and the ref was abysmal, but that's football. 

As an aside I'll be glad to be back to us loyal away fans who go most weeks, some right twats amongst us yesterday who clearly don't usually go.

Come on, every fan base has some knobs, including our regular travelling core. Just be happy that we turned out in number to support our club rather than bemoaning a few more idiots. Next, you’ll be moaning if we managed to get more on Ewood and changed the morgue like atmosphere that has prevailed for years.

[Exiled in Toronto Mk2]

3 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

JDT said that we had been playing five across the back throughout when we lost the ball, in answer to a similar point made to him by Andy Bayes.

We did IMO. Hedges was more often than not first to confront their winger and JRC made only a couple of his trademark forays. The issue for me was the subs absolutely did not perform to the required level. But, even so, we lost because of a stupidly deflected goal and abysmally poor centre forward play - both from the same player. If Szmodics had played in Gallagher rather than vice versa, would we have scored that goal? Not a chance. I’ve been worried for a while now that Gallagher will ultimately cost us promotion.

[Wheelton Blue]

If we keep that performance level up, we don't need to fear anyone in the chase for going up via the play offs.

Failing that, on the evidence of yesterday and the past few games (Stoke except), we're just 2 or 3 solid signings away from being strong challengers for the top 2 or 3.

They need to back him properly in the summer.

[wilsdenrover]

33 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

If we keep that performance level up, we don't need to fear anyone in the chase for going up via the play offs.

Failing that, on the evidence of yesterday and the past few games (Stoke except), we're just 2 or 3 solid signings away from being strong challengers for the top 2 or 3

They need to back him properly in the summer.

This, as always, would be reliant on how strong the relegated clubs are next season.

If we don’t go up this time, we could do with all three being ‘basket cases’.

Edited March 20, 2023 by wilsdenrover

[Gav]

7 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

I’ve been worried for a while now that Gallagher will ultimately cost us promotion.

He's paid to score goals, if he'd done that yesterday we'd have won, but the lad ran himself into the ground, never gave the Sheff Utd defenders a minute and as usual defended like his life depended on it, you can't fault a player like that in my book.

Just on Gallagher, 2 blokes stood in front of us yesterday, middle aged chaps with heart rates approaching 150 beats a minute I'd wager, slagging Gallagher off for most of the match, when in fact 9/10 times it was Diaz 🤣

[Crozzy]

Having calmed down after what was a heartbreaking last ten minutes yesterday, I’ve got to say yesterday was a great game of football. Friends of mine who were neutrals were messaging saying what a great game it was for them. 
I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday, we put in a proper performance, on another day we hold out for the win. It just wasn’t meant to be sadly no matter how much we wanted it. Gallagher OG very unlucky, hedges hitting the post and somehow spinning away just past the other post. Foderingham kick out looked for all the world to go out of play but dropped on the line to Morton who went down. Another day that just falls out of play etc. 

Ref was very frustrating from both sets of fans from what I’ve seen on Twitter. Without VAR we never had a penalty, not one player around appealed or saw it. I think we were lucky and I’ve seen people drawing comparisons with Willians handball last night and they’re night and day apart. Yellow was right for Robinson but sadly like at ewood a couple weeks earlier, the refs bottled a second yellow decision for Sheff Utd. 
 

Compared to majority of away performances this season I thought we were a completely different team this last 6 weeks. We’ve been brave and took the game to the opponents. The players should be proud on the whole. Easy to slag Morton off, he did very well for Szmodics goal winning the ball and in fairness plenty of people had a chance to stop them after Morton went down, Diaz had a pathetic attempt of a block. One thing I think is we aren’t ruthless enough sometimes to just stop an attack and take a yellow card. Morton’s down, refs not stopping. Just put their player on the ground so we can regroup and stop play yourself before anything can develop!

Players should be proud, they’ve been great and seem to have really clicked lately. Fan should be proud too, it’s a long time since I’ve been in a Rovers atmosphere like that, it was brilliant to be a part of and I just wish we could replicate that noise at Ewood

Edited March 20, 2023 by Crozzy

[Oldgregg86]

14 hours ago, superniko said:

Feeling Supersonic, Give me Sammie Szmodics!

Someone needs to get on this and get it in the stand, 

[Ossydave]

1 hour ago, Penwortham Blue said:

Come on, every fan base has some knobs, including our regular travelling core. Just be happy that we turned out in number to support our club rather than bemoaning a few more idiots. Next, you’ll be moaning if we managed to get more on Ewood and changed the morgue like atmosphere that has prevailed for years.

I'm not moaning, it's an observation. 

[ben_the_beast]

10 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

The most exciting thing is that we only started one (MASSIVELY OVERRATED) loanee today. Admittedly Brereton-Diaz is probably walking for free in the summer, but that's such a good base to build from. 

I thought this too. Ndiaye and McAtee were their most influential players with Doyle smashing the winner. Two of those are loanees. 

From what I can see it is win or a huge restart this year for Sheffield United. Probably not on the scale Huddersfield have seen but a reliance on loans whilst in an embargo is a risky position to be in.

They have 3 major assets of their own in Amelhodzic, Ndiaye and Berger. Surely 1 or 2 of those would have to be sold. The part that sticks in the throat is that Amedhodzic being sold would see them turn a large profit, when they didn't have the funds to buy him in the first place. Well done EFL. The rules make no sense in that only administration sees a club docked points whereas simply not paying your debts doesn't. It's effectively a loan that if spent wisely is a quick way to either make profit or win the lottery of promotion.

-----

As for us. On the one hand it's very encouraging that one of our lesser players is our only loan. On the other hand, if we'd played the loan market better, either at the start of the season, or in January we'd be in an even stronger position. Add wisely and play the loan market well in the summer and we'll be looking very promising for promotion. Personally I'd love McAtee. He missed some sitters but he was by far the best player on the pitch after Ndiaye yesterday. 

[BlackburnEnd75]

Don't think this has been emphasised enough but how did Robinson evade a 2nd yellow for his tackle on Hedges?

[Gav]

Just seen the Tyler Morton incident before the 3rd goal, he should never play for the club again on the basis of the 1 angle I've just seen. He dropped to the floor and led there motionless, whilst his team mates scrambled to try and stop the attack, leaving time and space middle of the pitch for Doyle to score.

That incident, on the evidence I've just seen, is everything that is wrong with modern day footballers.

[Penwortham Blue]

5 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

I thought this too. Ndiaye and McAtee were their most influential players with Doyle smashing the winner. Two of those are loanees. 

From what I can see it is win or a huge restart this year for Sheffield United. Probably not on the scale Huddersfield have seen but a reliance on loans whilst in an embargo is a risky position to be in.

They have 3 major assets of their own in Amelhodzic, Ndiaye and Berger. Surely 1 or 2 of those would have to be sold. The part that sticks in the throat is that Amedhodzic being sold would see them turn a large profit, when they didn't have the funds to buy him in the first place. Well done EFL. The rules make no sense in that only administration sees a club docked points whereas simply not paying your debts doesn't. It's effectively a loan that if spent wisely is a quick way to either make profit or win the lottery of promotion.

-----

As for us. On the one hand it's very encouraging that one of our lesser players is our only loan. On the other hand, if we'd played the loan market better, either at the start of the season, or in January we'd be in an even stronger position. Add wisely and play the loan market well in the summer and we'll be looking very promising for promotion. Personally I'd love McAtee. He missed some sitters but he was by far the best player on the pitch after Ndiaye yesterday. 

Like Sorba Thomas, I think that Ndiaye was playing non league until recent years. They are still out there and don’t all have to be Paul McKinnon.