v Wrexham (h) - FA Cup - 29/1/24, 7:30pm

[bluebruce]

21 minutes ago, bigbrandjohn said:

Good luck for the rest of your season. Love your story and delighted Wrexham is on the uo  and up again.

Good for football and good for your community. We remember the joy of a visionary owner with money. Enloy every minute of it. 

I agree, I can't really understand Rovers fans who seem resentful of them having their moment in the sun (and they're still two leagues below us so it's even more odd).

[bazza]

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

Strange reply. Not sure why you're trying to poke fun at a fellow fan to defend the Wrexham commentators who were denigrating our home support. You Welsh or something?

?Que?

[WacoRover]

I missed the game due to work, but I’m extremely pleased with the outcome. 
My son (Liverpool fan that he is), did a great job of giving me updates. he was very impressed with our man, Sammie. 

I'm about to watch the replay on ESPN+, looking forward to this! 

[DuffsLeftPeg]

Szmodics was outstanding tonight, genuinely don’t think we’d have won the game without him…he was a class above every player on the pitch.

His work rate and energy are unmatched in the team, I’ve never seen a fitter footballer at any level than him - he was literally everywhere on the pitch tonight and never stops running. His quality and finishing ability in front of goal are highly underrated. Playing with absolute bags of confidence at the minute and it’s great to see!

Thought the rest were average in comparison. Great to see Dolan, Gally & JRC back on the pitch, more to come from them hopefully. Moran, Garrett & Siggy have to do better. Delighted for MegaTron to get his first goal for the club, looked like he enjoyed it!

Hard to gauge a result like that against a very poor Wrexham team but you can only beat what’s in front of you and it was very comfortable in the end. 

[bluebruce]

3 minutes ago, DuffsLeftPeg said:

His work rate and energy are unmatched in the team, I’ve never seen a fitter footballer at any level than him - he was literally everywhere on the pitch tonight and never stops running.

His running levels are Dickov-like.

Only player I can think of who was actually fitter though would probably be C. Ronaldo.

[yankfan]

1 hour ago, NeilInBristol said:

How much will we get for Szmodics and Wharton in the summer 

Nothing for Wharton as he will go this week 

[DuffsLeftPeg]

8 minutes ago, bazza said:

I cannot understand why most think Moran had a poor game. I thought he played as well as most. The poor players that I saw were Sigurdsson and Telalovic. Markanday wasn't on long enough to form an opinion.

Moran was poor. Not sure what he actually offers other than passing backwards, out of play or to the opposition. 

Yet to really nail down a position despite being in the team most weeks. 

[DuffsLeftPeg]

2 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

His running levels are Dickov-like.

Only player I can think of who was actually fitter though would probably be C. Ronaldo.

High praise - Ronaldo is a machine and one of the greatest footballers of all time, not sure he runs as much as our Sammie though!

Top performance 🫡 he can definitely play at a higher level than the Championship, hopefully we can hang on to him for at least another season but can see him moving on in the summer.

[roversfan99]

A win in which the 2 divisions between the teams was in full view, a massive gulf.

The formation I am not a fan of and we won in spite of it, due to the far superior quality on show, not because of it. Championship sides would have tore us to shreds. Both Dolan and Sigurdsson cannot defend and equally were hindered going forward.

Szmodics and Gallagher were the difference makers, such a threat. Szmodics' finishing gets better and better and we are so reliant on him. Gallagher is an actual Championship striker and miles above Leonard, Ennis and Telalovic whose touch is miles off. If he is sold he will leave a big void that wont be easy to replace, all this "ill drive him there" stuff is nonsensical.

Tronstad was very good, Garrett very poor and lacks ability on the ball, if he plays more as a result of Wharton leaving its such a huge downgrade. Hyam and Scott Wharton were fine, JRC is one of our stand out players but still rusty and Pears made a big error but made up for it.

[M_B]

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

A win in which the 2 divisions between the teams was in full view, a massive gulf.

The formation I am not a fan of and we won in spite of it, due to the far superior quality on show, not because of it. Championship sides would have tore us to shreds. Both Dolan and Sigurdsson cannot defend and equally were hindered going forward.

Szmodics and Gallagher were the difference makers, such a threat. Szmodics' finishing gets better and better and we are so reliant on him. Gallagher is an actual Championship striker and miles above Leonard, Ennis and Telalovic whose touch is miles off. If he is sold he will leave a big void that wont be easy to replace, all this "ill drive him there" stuff is nonsensical.

Tronstad was very good, Garrett very poor and lacks ability on the ball, if he plays more as a result of Wharton leaving its such a huge downgrade. Hyam and Scott Wharton were fine, JRC is one of our stand out players but still rusty and Pears made a big error but made up for it.

Garrett did struggle,especially first half, but played a great ball through to Gallagher leading to the first goal. There's something there to work with. 

Edited January 30 by M_B

[roversfan99]

14 minutes ago, M_B said:

Garrett did struggle,especially first half, but played a great ball through to Gallagher leading to the first goal. There's something there to work with. 

Ive never been totally convinced, at least that he is Championship ready for the here and now. I think ideally he could do with a spell in League 1 but obviously he wont because especially assuming Wharton goes, we are light in there.

[Upside Down]

4 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Having a megastar Hollywood owner and another fairly famous Hollywood owner helps all that though. They don't have to put much in because their owners already have profile and understand showmanship. It would take much more effort here, and of course we also lack the competence.

I'm really, really fucking glad there isn't a documentary following BRFC, it would be highly embarassing under this lot. It wouldn't sell tickets and shirts, probably the opposite. Although with the conceivable advantage that the humiliation might shame Venkys into selling, which would make it worthwhile.

Get the documentary underway then.

[philipl]

Watched it on the feed for the US which TN puts into pubs in Malta.

Commentary praising the academy but completely omitted JRC as an academy product. They sounded desperate to see Adam Wharton on the pitch...

An amazing stat given how old both clubs are, that was the first ever Rovers Wrexham FA Cup game.

Wrexham knocked top division Rovers out of the League Cup in its inaugural 1960 season in the only other cup tie between the two.

JRC and Dolan weren't perfect but made a big difference.

I thought a lot of things didn't come off for Szmodics tonight - he could easily have had 6 goals and that is not an exaggeration. Struggling to think of another player with quite the same mindset of being totally unaffected in performance by set backs during the game. He just keeps going and getting into positions to hurt opponents.

Gallagher physicality completely ruffled their defence but familiar wrong decision in third minute when he didn't move for a tap in and lack of control 8n 15th minute passed it to the Wrexham full back when he would have scored if he had given himself of a second touch if his first touch hadn't been so heavy...

The 5 minutes they were cutting through us were scary but otherwise we were very good and a pleasing watch.

Sigurdsson and Moran frustrated at times and Garrett had a poor game by his recent standards. 

Stat appeared on scrén around 70th minute showing passes 500-200 in Rovers favour and completion % 93 -73. That was the gulf in class. Sure they could have freaked a win but we could more easily have Harrogated them.

Looking forward to seeing us against Newcastle. Obviously odds favour them but expect JDT ( whom the commentary were lavashing praise on) will set us up well.

Edited January 30 by philipl

[sharpysharps86]

Ended up being men against boys, which is exactly what it should've been given the gap between the two clubs. In truth it should've been 5 or 6.

Wrexham were always going to have a spell in the game, its unfortunate that they scored during it, but credit to Rovers for nipping it in the bud quickly and promptly.

Thought JRC was very good, a calm figure in defence. The fact that he is comfortable playing it out from the back helped us massively. Dolan was lively an Gallagher did well. Sigurdsson and Moran relatively poor, particularly the former.

 

[AllRoverAsia]

Extended highlights

 

[arbitro]

 

[RevidgeBlue]

7 hours ago, TugaysMarlboro said:

Also someone needs to have a chat with Peter Jackson about his eyesight. I've no idea how S Wharton got motm. I feel Tronstad has been done over for the award on a few occasions now.

Mentioned it before but thought Scott Wharton had a superb game. His passing out from the back was exemplary.

He's our best centre half by a country mile when he's on song imo. Hopefully JDT will start to notice what a good player he is instead of using him as first reserve.

[Herbie6590]

Have your say in the BRFCS POTM supported by @RoversTrust in the Match Centre now…not you though Peter…😆

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/football/match/1156201/blackburn-wrexham?tab=voting

[roverblue]

Watched on tv and enjoyed it, the best we have played for a while. The team look so much better for having Dolan,Gally, JRC and Pears back in. 

Let’s hope we carry it forward to QpR on Saturday as we are desperate for a home win. 

[TugaysMarlboro]

36 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Mentioned it before but thought Scott Wharton had a superb game. His passing out from the back was exemplary.

He's our best centre half by a country mile when he's on song imo. Hopefully JDT will start to notice what a good player he is instead of using him as first reserve.

Each to their own but I thought there were 3 or 4 others who had better games and Wharton wasn't even our best CB last night.

 

I'd have given it Tronstad.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Excellent win. Our league form and confidence vs theirs meant it was set up to be a banana skin game. In the end we could have scored 7 or 8. 

Thankfully it means we will only see Blackburn for 5 seconds on Welcome to Wrexham instead of an entire episode. 

[roversfan99]

Hyam was our best centre back last night and is in general. He has shown signs after a horror run of form when initially back from injury of starting to settle down again. Better on the ball, less rash and less easily exposed on the turn compared to Wharton.

[superniko]

8 hours ago, DuffsLeftPeg said:

Moran was poor. Not sure what he actually offers other than passing backwards, out of play or to the opposition. 

Yet to really nail down a position despite being in the team most weeks. 

Didn’t someone say he had the highest pass completion % on the pitch?

Agree with most though that he didn’t stand out last night. 

[47er]

12 minutes ago, roverblue said:

Watched on tv and enjoyed it, the best we have played for a while. The team look so much better for having Dolan,Gally, JRC and Pears back in. 

Let’s hope we carry it forward to QpR on Saturday as we are desperate for a home win. 

Always got to remember the calibre of the opposition though.

I've always supported Dolan---he makes things happen by his determination and energy. Its infectious.

Pears obviously a better option than Wahlstedt but not so long ago we were calling for Pears to be dropped so W could take his place!

That really signifies we've got 2 ordinary keepers at best.

Gally scored one and made one and put himself about as he always does. We miss that but he was never worth 5M all those years ago. Doesn't score enough.

JRC---top man, just hope he can keep fit. We've missed him big-time.

[sharpysharps86]

6 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Hyam was our best centre back last night and is in general. He has shown signs after a horror run of form when initially back from injury of starting to settle down again. Better on the ball, less rash and less easily exposed on the turn compared to Wharton.

I thought Hyam and Wharton were pretty solid last night. With Carter being out long-term, lets hope this is a partnership that can steady us defensively. Failing that, hopefully O' Riordan is up to it.