v Plymouth Argyle (h) - 09/03/2024

[martonrover]

  On 10/03/2024 at 09:15, Penwortham Blue said:

Yes, we were on a horror run but no way would we have gone down under JDT, we would have won matches and finished top half.

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Wonder if the Roda JC fans thought that the season he took them down?

JDT takes some responsibility, as will Eustace, but the squad is shockingly bad, and neither of them can be blamed for that.

Everyone from Broughton upwards is culpable.

[M_B]

  On 10/03/2024 at 09:15, Penwortham Blue said:

He would have taken us into the play offs, and posssibly up last year, with a modicum of backing in January. Before depletion of a paper thin squad through injuries, we were on the cusp of the play offs and playing the best football at Ewood for many a year, this on a financial shoestring. Yes, we were on a horror run but no way would we have gone down under JDT, we would have won matches and finished top half.

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We were playing some great stuff and he did definitely suffer from injuries, especially the much maligned Dolan,his injury and Costello was the start of the decline. 

I don't share your optimism about turning it around though, I think it had gone too far. We were in a death spiral, I suppose the question is would we have beaten Stoke the next game with him here? 

[Upside Down]

  On 10/03/2024 at 08:20, DuffsLeftPeg said:

You’re deluded Chaddy lad

There is no way this budget Tony Pulis has any tactical acumen. A good coach would implement his ideas from Day 1 on the job. Remember when Mark Hughes came in and we drew 2-2 with Villa at Ewood and you could instantly see a better team.

That’s not the case with Eusless. The only tactics we’ve seen so far are “hit it long to the big man” which is crazy given both our goalkeepers can’t kick it straight & the big man is an absolute donkey who can’t direct his flick ons and doesn’t have a first touch.

Eusless is out of his depth and from what I’ve seen so far, a significant step backwards and he’s taking us down to League One with the fixtures we have remaining. 

Hope I’m proved wrong but the toxic positivity coming out of the club & fans like yourself doesn’t help one bit. We’re sleepwalking towards relegation with this approach. What we need is a bit of realism and for the players to roll up their sleeves & play for the shirt. Unfortunately we have a squad full of soft arses and aside from Szmodics, I don’t think any of them have the professional pride to really care.

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I think you've just nailed exactly what a lot of our problems are ther.

Toxic positivity. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

  On 10/03/2024 at 06:29, philipl said:

Is Hayden Carter back for Good Friday?

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God i completely forgot about Carter!! 

[arbitro]

  On 10/03/2024 at 08:41, Michael123458 said:

I think Wednesday and stoke (despite recent results) will finish with Rotherham in the bottom 3. I just think on balance there are worse teams than us in the league and come may we will survive on that basis. Not good but although we aren’t winning we’re picking up points here and there with these draws. If we lost every week different story 

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I genuinely wished that I shared your optimism and sincerely hope you are right. As I said the last three games have done it for me and I don't see and light at the end of the tunnel.

[MarkBRFC]

I think we will have a better idea as we go into the international break after the following games...

Today - Hudds v WBA

Tuesday- Brum vs Middlesbrough 

Saturday - Middlesbrough vs Rovers, Stoke vs Norwich, Rotherham vs Huddersfield, Plymouth vs Preston, Sunderland vs QPR.

We simply have to win at Boro, as the fixtures coming back after the break don't look very good at all.

I still think we'll scrape a few more draws and one more win out of the last 9, and think some of the sides below us won't do that.

Edited March 10, 2024 by MarkBRFC

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

'We aren't in deepest shite at all'

'I dont think the squad is that awful'

Your comments fly in the face of common sense and reality Chaddy,you can only bury your Head in the Sand for so long.

I'll have a sip of what your taking my uber positive friend.

Edited March 10, 2024 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Blow-in]

  On 10/03/2024 at 09:23, martonrover said:

Wonder if the Roda JC fans thought that the season he took them down?

JDT takes some responsibility, as will Eustace, but the squad is shockingly bad, and neither of them can be blamed for that.

Everyone from Broughton upwards is culpable.

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Either the squad is terrible and neither manager was responsible or both managers were poor.

 

In my opinion We were going down under JDT, I think he was capable of saving us and had demonstrated the year before that he is a very capable manager but he had lost interest and in my opinion was doing whatever it took to get out of his contract and if that meant relegation so be it.

 

[47er]

  On 10/03/2024 at 09:49, MarkBRFC said:

I think we will have a better idea as we go into the international break after the following games...

Today - Hudds v WBA

Tuesday- Brum vs Middlesbrough 

Saturday - Middlesbrough vs Rovers, Stoke vs Norwich, Rotherham vs Huddersfield, Plymouth vs Preston, Sunderland vs QPR.

We simply have to win at Boro, as the fixtures coming back after the break don't look very good at all.

I still think we'll scrape a few more draws and one more win out of the last 9, and think some of the sides below us won't do that.

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We simply had to win at home to Plymouth and the previous game and so on.

But we never do.

Fast running out of time and fixtures. 

Down without a whimper I fear.

[47er]

  On 10/03/2024 at 00:11, Leonard Venkhater said:

Surely, he could have ensured Rovers got a better deal.

All that stuff about his looking forward to coming back and meeting old friends made me want to puke.

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Good post Len. I've liked it but there's a gremlin in the works!

[Uddersfelt Blue]

No amount of ifs and buts will change the position we are in.

We aren’t likely to change the current manager so we go into the last 9 games hoping we can turn some of our draws into wins. Despite the apparent difficult fixtures remaining there will be pressure on teams at both ends of the table resulting in some surprises.

We do need our injured players back though.

 

Edited March 10, 2024 by Uddersfelt Blue

[Tom]

  On 10/03/2024 at 10:01, 47er said:

We simply had to win at home to Plymouth and the previous game and so on.

But we never do.

Fast running out of time and fixtures. 

Down without a whimper I fear.

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My only slight hope about running out of fixtures is that we aren’t (yet) in the drop zone, there’s always a chance other teams collapse worse 

[47er]

  On 10/03/2024 at 10:15, Tom said:

My only slight hope about running out of fixtures is that we aren’t (yet) in the drop zone, there’s always a chance other teams collapse worse 

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Rotherham apart, they seem to be rallying?

[superniko]

Well we’re now 3rd favourites for relegation behind Rotherham (no odds offered anymore) and Sheffield Wednesday. 
It seems everyone else is clocking on to our downfall too now 

[tomphil]

  On 10/03/2024 at 04:50, bigbrandjohn said:

So I am a little confused. We didn't get the Sunderland chap because he was over 30. Then all of a sudden we get two over 30 year olds in this window. One is out for the season and the other banned because he is a trifle slow. 
 

 

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Because the Ewood brains trust have now chosen to blow a million on 2 short term to the end of the season 'frees' instead of committing a bit more in a 2 year deal for a better and slightly younger player.

Penny wise pound foolish as always but it's ok the bean counters see the sense in it !

[Hasta]

Even if we stay up, I imagine we will be in the drop zone by the Sheff Wednesday game and it will come down to those two last home games.

[Blue blood]

  On 10/03/2024 at 10:16, 47er said:

Rotherham apart, they seem to be rallying?

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And yet still aren't above us. It's been  Venkys regular get out of jail card that there will be 3 worse teams. Hard to see all of them maintaining that form, and there's still only 9 games to overtake us. Thank goodness we had the buffer that we did though  

[DE.]

The form table for the last six games, in regards to us and the teams below us:

Plymouth - 4 points
Rovers - 5 points
Stoke - 9 points
QPR - 10 points
Birmingham - 7 points
Huddersfield - 7 points
Sheff Weds - 12 points

Extrapolate that over the next six games (I know it isn't that simple, but just as a comparison point) and the table would look like:

Stoke - 50 points
Sheff Weds - 50 points
QPR - 49 points
Rovers - 46 points
Birmingham - 46 points (game in hand)
Plymouth - 45 points
Huddersfield - 44 points (game in hand)
Rotherham - 19 points (let's just assume they'll lose every match at this point, doesn't matter either way)

Obviously that deosn't take into account who each team is playing during the next six games, so form can drop quickly, but even if the likes of QPR, Sheff Weds and Stoke stutter a little and drop to 5/6 points over the next six we will still be well in the mire unless our own form picks up dramatically in games we are unlikely to get anything from. We really need to hope Plymouth, Birmingham and Huddersfield continue to falter alongside us, as if that is the case we will probably just about finish above them.

That does rely on us continuing to pick up around 5 points from our next 6 matches and, considering our last 6 were against teams we'd be expected to get something from, and the next 6 are Boro (a), Ipswich (h), Sunderland (a), Southampton (h), Bristol City (a) and Leeds (a) ... well, you can predict three easy defeats there immediately. To replicate our current five points from six we would likely need to beat one of Boro, Sunderland or Bristol City - all away - and draw the other two. At least one must win and the other two must not lose. Away. We've won 5, drawn 3 and lost 10 of our away matches - but our last six away matches read LLLDDL. 

So yeah, I really think we are in the shit and we are going to be relying on other teams staying as bad as they are or getting worse. In some cases a lot worse.

Edited March 10, 2024 by DE.

[47er]

  On 10/03/2024 at 10:19, Blue blood said:

And yet still aren't above us. It's been  Venkys regular get out of jail card that there will be 3 worse teams. Hard to see all of them maintaining that form, and there's still only 9 games to overtake us. Thank goodness we had the buffer that we did though  

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There's hardly any buffer left now though.

[London blue]

  On 10/03/2024 at 08:40, chaddyrovers said:

Don't know unless I was in the room. 

Maybe @K-Hod or @only2garners can asked this question at the next fans forum whether anyone has been disciplined or sack for this incident. 

I think we will get another 10 points from the remaining games and stay up

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Where are those 10 points coming from?

[joey_big_nose]

  On 10/03/2024 at 00:04, roversfan99 said:

He left to join a big Premier League club who are in Europe, on I am assuming a much bigger contract. Most sane people would take a similar jump if offered. He is also now getting more football than he was here, albeit on loan.

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Sort of agree but he could have decided to tie himself a bit more to Rovers when he signed pro terms so Rovers would get a bigger fee when he left. It wasnt a binary situation.

Though to be fair to the lad he didnt need to sign pro terms at all, and could have left us getting very little. So he did help Rovers get 3-4 million quid without really needing to, so its a bit churlish to boo him.

[Mercer]

  On 10/03/2024 at 08:04, chaddyrovers said:

Mercer,

I'm not interested in what Harris has done at Millwall but since Eustace arrived we have 2 times come from behind to draw at Home in the league. Did we ever do that under JDT? Very rare and I was a big fan of JDT but he did have his own flaws that he couldn't get Rovers coming from behind to draw or even win from losing positions at home. 

Who gives a shit a fucking Coyle? the guy was a embarrassment to even been appointed as Rovers manager after being a dingle. You even mentioning again and again is a joke. nothing more

Johnson has said Publicly that Eustace and Gardiner had a big part to play in the gameplan against Stoke. One of the reason why I think he should be credited with some of the win against and the fact he didn't sit by in the stand when we need leader on the touchline but actually got of his ass and got his hands dirty and led from the touchline. 

We aren't in deepest shite at all. We are 3 points clear from the bottom 3 and we had a new head coach who has had very little time on the training pitch with these players. The next 3 weeks we will see this and he can actually get to work along with Downing, Gardiner and Johnson to implement his own tactical ideas and plans.  

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The only embarrassment atm is Eusless.

Think it's quite clear why Brum got rid of him - IMO, a man without tactical nous and zero charisma who creates a holiday camp atmosphere for the players (far too pally, pally).  I've seen enough already and think he will turn out to be one of our worse managers of the last 60 years or so ranking alongside Iley, Kean, Ince and Coyle (worse 4 managers I can recall off the top of my head).  Don't mention Rooney - an absolute disaster at Brum.

My prediction - we wont get to 50 points and will get relegated.

What's your prediction - how many points will we get and will we stay up?   

If we are relegated would you keep Eusless? 

 

Edited March 10, 2024 by Mercer

[RevidgeBlue]

  On 09/03/2024 at 21:24, Andy said:

I've had pelters for this, but I'm sticking with it - Leo will become a good GK and play at a higher level than Pears ever will.
Well, technically he already had (international football).

He's had a poor start overall with us, but I think there's a very decent GK in there.

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You don't give up do you - he can't even catch the ball - bit of a problem for a keeper.

[RevidgeBlue]

  On 10/03/2024 at 08:04, chaddyrovers said:

We aren't in deepest shite at all. 

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I'm not sure where you get your optimism from after two wins from nineteen Chaddy but I fear that phrase in particular will come back to haunt you in years to come.

Talk about tempting fate.

[B16Rover]

Chaddys playing the fiddle whilst rovers burn