v Cardiff City (h) - 21/10/2023

[Exiled in Toronto Mk2]

Tronstad easily our best player first half, Carter second half. Best piece of skill/vision was Dolan for the goal, closely followed by our keeper’s one save. Sammy and Siggi were very poor which really blunted our attacking play. Good little cameo by Ennis at the end, got us up the pitch a few times when we really needed it.

[booth]

3 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

Phew! That wasn't comfortable at all but a really good win. A game we needed to win really.

Tronstad, Hill, and Carter were all excellent. One bit of quality from Dolan to win us the game. 

The gung ho football has been axed which is good to see. Less entertainment but we will see better results. 

It's not just the gung ho football that's been axed, the midfield now looks better with Tronstadt and JRC. That's taken some pressure from the defence. Hill has really helped too.

We still have a lack of coherence up front.

[USABlue]

Good win, hard fought ground it out.  Needed a bit more tempo.  Seemed a bit sluggish off the mark today.handy 3 points.  Clean sheet.

[NeilInBristol]

Less shots overall

One shot on target

However we kept a clean sheet and won. I'll take that 

[joey_big_nose]

21 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

Tronstad easily our best player first half, Carter second half. Best piece of skill/vision was Dolan for the goal, closely followed by our keeper’s one save. Sammy and Siggi were very poor which really blunted our attacking play. Good little cameo by Ennis at the end, got us up the pitch a few times when we really needed it.

Think this is a bit harsh on Siggi and Szmodics - they had very little to work with as our passing out of midfield was very poor. When they actually got it they did okay imo.

[rovers11]

21 minutes ago, booth said:

It's not just the gung ho football that's been axed, the midfield now looks better with Tronstadt and JRC. That's taken some pressure from the defence. Hill has really helped too.

We still have a lack of coherence up front.

Completely agree. Those midfield two are a lot more disciplined in their defensive work and don't get overrun. That's really helped Carter too. 

[CambridgeRover]

First successive league wins since March.

Maybe we can go on a little run now

[tomphil]

We'd definitely be a few points better off this season had the team, as we thought it would, been based around Tronsdat as the axis.

That's no slight on Wharton but the way we play we need someone covering the defence in midfield.

[lraC]

Delighted with the 3 points, as we probably only deserved a draw. The football gods were with us today, rather than against us.

Three pivotal points with a lot of mediocrity in between. The offside went our way, when I wouldn’t have complained had it counted. Then the goal, which was a great through ball from Dolan and a nice finish. Finally a terrific save from Leo, so much so that he punched the air.

Great to see back to back clean sheets and much prefer this then going for the jugular being exposed and losing by the odd goal in a goal fest.

[Polky]

Different view today, shame about the performance but happy with the three points.

Enjoy your weekend everyone 🍺 

[Sweaty Gussets]

That was like a throwback to this time last season - poor performance but ground out a 1-0 win.  

Cardiff were a big, strong team.  As predicted, they were very much safety first. They only really started to threaten when they brought Meite and Tanner on and started getting the ball forward quicker in the last half hour. 

Credit to Dolan, thought he was poor, but he kept going and produced the pass of the match. Excellent run by JRC to get on the end of the pass. 

Credit also to Leo, was right behind that shot from Tanner on about 80 mins, it was going in and it really was a fantastic fingertip save. 

Thought the back four were excellent. Hill's passing was poor at times but thought he defended really well. Hyam and Carter were back to their best and I thought Pickering handled the threat of Josh Bowler well. 

Thought Tronstad was generally good, protected the back four and kept the ball moving.

Bit of an off day for the likes of Siggy and  Szmodics, but there wasn't much room to play. 

Delighted for JDT. He's gone back to basics a bit after not getting the result our performances deserved when we lost 4 in a row. 

We finally got a bit of luck too with the disallowed goal. 

Important win. 

[rovers11]

Anyone who thought we made a mistake in signing Hill over Batth in the summer now feels pretty silly. I include myself in that list! 

[Tugayisgod]

Just got home after celebrating the win this afternoon to hear the news about the passing of Sir Bobby Charlton.

Sad news indeed, one of Englands greatest, a truly remarkable player .RIP

[simongarnerisgod]

ground out a result today but disapointed we did`nt see the game out easier,cardiff upped their tempo and we lost our composure badly,we also looked shattered as well,not good given we`ve had a long rest,got to agree that the midfield looks more balanced and adam wharton has to have someone defensively covering when he does play

no idea why the cardiff goal was chalked off,i thought you could`nt be offside from a corner??????

[Andy]

Consecutive wins, consecutive clean sheets.

Not the most eye-pleasing game, but who cares?
We've played enough games this season where we've been dynamic and come away with nothing.

And my lad's U9's team got to do the flag waving at the start and HT penalties today, bonus 🙂

Edited October 21, 2023 by Andy

[BankEnd Rover]

Definitely had a feel of last season that, although happy with the win, I wasnt thrilled with the performance - Thought  the attack, bar Dolan, were all poor.

Not sure what I expect from Ennis but my god he looks a lump, his hold up play is great but definitely has concrete boots. 
We were very sloppy in the final third and felt we lacked pace when going forward (missed Moran IMO). However we looked solid at the back, Hill being the standout for me. Leo looked comfortable with the ball at his feet which is good to see and great safe near the end! 2 clean sheet in a row will do him wonders. 
 

Not sure why we arnt seeing Semir but time will tell.

MOM - Dolan or Tronstad.

 

[Waggy76]

Good 3 points , scrappy performance but never really looked like conceding...

Hill looks a good addition..

[wilsdenrover]

8 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

ground out a result today but disapointed we did`nt see the game out easier,cardiff upped their tempo and we lost our composure badly,we also looked shattered as well,not good given we`ve had a long rest,got to agree that the midfield looks more balanced and adam wharton has to have someone defensively covering when he does play

no idea why the cardiff goal was chalked off,i thought you could`nt be offside from a corner??????

Offside from the header (rather than the corner)?

[Neal]

There's a lot more height and physicality with Hill, JRC AND Brittain in there, they're all undroppable players so it's good to see JDT find a solution to that problem. Brittain has exceptional fitness suiting him to an up and down midfield role, he's more than decent at both ends of the pitch. 

 

Hopefully this is the platform for Tronstadt to kick on, he had a decent game but if we're looking at how good we need to be at the higher end of the table he still needs to improve. If he can improve a further 10-15% more than what I saw today then we have a real player there.   

 

One thing I noticed in our more measured approach is just how simple balls which are sloppy crept into our play, these small things like passes slight behind the man or not enough pace on the pass can really kill opportunities to hurt teams. 

 

As nervy as it was, they didn't really create that much with Tanner having the best opportunity. Speaking of which, if he's going to be a bit part player for Cardiff then I'd really like us to have a look at him. Watched his as a sub against Swansea and he was brilliant then aswell l, very talented footballer. 

 

I've been saying it for a while but Dolans best performances in recent seasons have been more central, he just simply doesn't have the pace to play out wide but has the quick turning ability to cause problems in the middle of the pitch. 

2 winnable games coming up, the relegated sides are already decided IMO... Let's take this league by scruff of the neck finally. 

[simongarnerisgod]

3 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Not sure what I expect from Ennis but my god he looks a lump, his hold up play is great but definitely has concrete boots.

he looks to be carrying some timber to me,looks like he`s a bit like dunny in that dept,puts weight on easily if he`s not playing or training

[K-Hod]

One I’ll raise at next Fans Forum, but one of the bars was shut in the JW Upper today for some reason. Just added to the general queuing we’ve come to expect…

[Sweaty Gussets]

8 minutes ago, Neal said:

s nervy as it was, they didn't really create that much with Tanner having the best opportunity. Speaking of which, if he's going to be a bit part player for Cardiff then I'd really like us to have a look at him. Watched his as a sub against Swansea and he was brilliant then aswell l, very talented footballer. 

 

Brought him up pre-match. Good player. Big unit too. He's just signed a long-term deal.

 

9 minutes ago, Neal said:

I've been saying it for a while but Dolans best performances in recent seasons have been more central, he just simply doesn't have the pace to play out wide but has the quick turning ability to cause problems in the middle of the pitch. 

He was poor for the most part. Excellent pass for the goal though. 

[joey_big_nose]

39 minutes ago, tomphil said:

We'd definitely be a few points better off this season had the team, as we thought it would, been based around Tronsdat as the axis.

That's no slight on Wharton but the way we play we need someone covering the defence in midfield.

I like Tronstad but the improvement defensively is as much about Hill coming in at RB and the midfield partner (JRC atm) playing a more disciplined role.

Think if something happened to Tronstad and Wharton came in hed be exposed much much less.

[Ghost7]

I used to think Benni McCarthy was fat. Some player.

[DeeCee]

Disappointed we're only 15th, seems like we're playing like 5 places higher though I've only seen highlights.