v Middlesbrough (a) - 16/3/24

[Roverthechimp]

Anyone know anything about Leonard? Is he out for the season? Seems to never get a mention other than an occasional “still unavailable” comment 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I’d have snatched your hand off for a point at 3.00. On to the next game.

[Polky]

2 minutes ago, Roverthechimp said:

Anyone know anything about Leonard? Is he out for the season? Seems to never get a mention other than an occasional “still unavailable” comment 

Out for the season with a back injury.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

22 minutes ago, Polky said:

Out for the season with a back injury.

As someone told me about my back injury - “ you’ve got a friend for life there son “.

He wasn’t far wrong.

[Ghost7]

41 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Hedges would have been a top player if he could ever maintain any form but it's always very up and down with him.

Mind you Dolan is the same and a lot of the others that's why they are where they are.

 

Nah Dolan is all hot air. Rarely hits a ball cleanly (passing, link up play or shots). Turns into trouble. Most things he does seem hopeful and fairly tamely executed. Lacks conviction and is a bit of liability on the ball for me. Sadly due to a lack of investment we still need him and he does put a shift in but I wouldn't touch him on a "big" contract.

I rate Hedges at this level. He has a presence, can move with the ball, make a bit of time for himself and strike it fairly cleanly. It's a shame he's been out so much.

Dolan I still think could fall off to a lower league one day. Suspect he will.

[BankEnd Rover]

13 minutes ago, Ghost7 said:

 

Nah Dolan is all hot air. Rarely hits a ball cleanly (passing, link up play or shots). Turns into trouble. Most things he does seem hopeful and fairly tamely executed. Lacks conviction and is a bit of liability on the ball for me. Sadly due to a lack of investment we still need him and he does put a shift in but I wouldn't touch him on a "big" contract.

I rate Hedges at this level. He has a presence, can move with the ball, make a bit of time for himself and strike it fairly cleanly. It's a shame he's been out so much.

Dolan I still think could fall off to a lower league one day. Suspect he will.

Agreed…only thing Dolan is effective with is his press - Everything else is poor.

Mental that Luton were “intersted” in him.He’d shine at a team like Derby or Bolton…Or us if we go down!!!!

Hedges is quicker, stronger and has a much better shot so hands down starts ahead of Dolan.

Edited March 16, 2024 by BankEnd Rover

[simongarnerisgod]

2 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Agreed…only thing Dolan is effective with is his press - Everything else is poor.

Mental that Luton were “intersted” in him.He’d shine at a team like Derby or Bolton…Or us if we go down!!!!

Hedges is quicker, stronger and has a much better shot so hands down starts ahead of Dolan.

i rate hedges,he works his **** off,got a sweet left foot and is hard to knock off the ball

dolan is ok once in ten matches,got no concistency at this level,same with buckley

[tomphil]

19 minutes ago, Ghost7 said:

 

Nah Dolan is all hot air. Rarely hits a ball cleanly (passing, link up play or shots). Turns into trouble. Most things he does seem hopeful and fairly tamely executed. Lacks conviction and is a bit of liability on the ball for me. Sadly due to a lack of investment we still need him and he does put a shift in but I wouldn't touch him on a "big" contract.

I rate Hedges at this level. He has a presence, can move with the ball, make a bit of time for himself and strike it fairly cleanly. It's a shame he's been out so much.

Dolan I still think could fall off to a lower league one day. Suspect he will.

We've been through this with Dolan many times over and he keeps getting written off but bounces back however that usually comes after a spell out either injured or dropped.

We do though miss him when he is out for a spell although that is more to do with how weak the squad is than the actual player himself sometimes. That squad weakness though means he and some others can't be managed properly and withdrawn/rotated when they are poor.

I'd keep him on an average contract but certainly wouldn't be throwing big money and 4 years at him.

[Ghost7]

We have but I don't call 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 crap performances and then 1 good one bouncing back. I call it a shit player.

anyway good luck to him... we need someone to step up and score some big goals apart from Sammie.

[47er]

1 hour ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i rate hedges,he works his **** off,got a sweet left foot and is hard to knock off the ball

dolan is ok once in ten matches,got no concistency at this level,same with buckley

You couldn't call Hedges "consistent" though could you?

Consistently injured maybe. Not a good buy really.

[Bbrovers2288]

16 minutes ago, 47er said:

You couldn't call Hedges "consistent" though could you?

Consistently injured maybe. Not a good buy really.

Called this at the time of his signing , not great 

[roversfan99]

For 200k, I think hes been a shrewd addition overall at that price. Youll more often than not get far worse for that amount.

[lraC]

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

We've been through this with Dolan many times over and he keeps getting written off but bounces back however that usually comes after a spell out either injured or dropped.

We do though miss him when he is out for a spell although that is more to do with how weak the squad is than the actual player himself sometimes. That squad weakness though means he and some others can't be managed properly and withdrawn/rotated when they are poor.

I'd keep him on an average contract but certainly wouldn't be throwing big money and 4 years at him.

Between you and me, we don’t have any big money to throw at him. 

[Ghost7]

Good signing for the money IMO (Hedges). We paid a lot less for him than we did for Markanday and Hedges can influence a Championship game.

Although a poor signing when in 2nd. Most clubs in our circumstances at the time would have moved on to better targets to align with how the season was going, and try for promotion.  

These conversations highlight just how badly we have gone about our business in recent years.

[Ghost7]

You can't speak about the club without having the same conclusion each time, the CEO needs to be sacked.

[philipl]

9 hours ago, Polky said:

Only seen the highlights to be fair. The one near the end where they fit the bar and air kicked the re-bound.

the highlights reel obviously missed the 5 Boro blocks in their 6 yard box near the end

 

[AllRoverAsia]

12 hours ago, NeilInBristol said:

Haha. We were very fortunate.

They missed an open goal a couple of times and hit the cross bar.

We had zero clear cut chances

Yes, Forss missed a very good chance, also McGree and then the crossbar saved us.

Boro has the better chances.

A point earned, not 2 points lost, against a decent side in an away game should be a confidence boost for the tough schedule ahead.

Edited March 17, 2024 by AllRoverAsia

[MarkBRFC]

Huge credit to whoever came up with the venkys chant.

Non confrontational, no swearing and no rapidly chanting venkys out without some berk piping in with "well what do we do without them".

To have nearly 1000 fans singing it in unison for that second half gave me hope that there is a beating heart left in the fanbase.  Not a single bit of division in todays following.

As for the game it is what it is, probably our best under Eustace which isn't saying much, never looked like winning but a decent point to take away.

Incredible that by the end of the season we could end up staying in the league by winning 2 out of our last 28 games, shows what miracles our previous manager worked with this squad.

[norwichblue]

1 minute ago, MarkBRFC said:

Huge credit to whoever came up with the venkys chant.

Non confrontational, no swearing and no rapidly chanting venkys out without some berk piping in with "well what do we do without them".

To have nearly 1000 fans singing it in unison for that second half gave me hope that there is a beating heart left in the fanbase.  Not a single bit of division in todays following.

As for the game it is what it is, probably our best under Eustace which isn't saying much, never looked like winning but a decent point to take away.

Incredible that by the end of the season we could end up staying in the league by winning 2 out of our last 28 games, shows what miracles our previous manager worked with this squad.

Wasn’t there. What’s the chant?

[arbitro]

1 minute ago, norwichblue said:

Wasn’t there. What’s the chant?

 

[MarkBRFC]

1 minute ago, norwichblue said:

Wasn’t there. What’s the chant?

I don't care about venkys, they don't care about me, all I care about is BRFC.

There's a Facebook page called "Away Days" that has a pic of our following yesterday.

Those pages are usually full of piss taking but there's loads of comments from boro fans saying how superb we were yesterday and best fans at the Riverside etc.

Really proud of the fanbase yesterday and would love for the Bburn end to get that going on Good Friday.

[M_B]

8 hours ago, tomphil said:

We've been through this with Dolan many times over and he keeps getting written off but bounces back however that usually comes after a spell out either injured or dropped.

We do though miss him when he is out for a spell although that is more to do with how weak the squad is than the actual player himself sometimes. That squad weakness though means he and some others can't be managed properly and withdrawn/rotated when they are poor.

I'd keep him on an average contract but certainly wouldn't be throwing big money and 4 years at him.

It happens every time, it seems that it isn't possible to praise one player without in turn slagging off another to somehow prove the point.

Dolan was in cracking form until his injury against Birmingham, from that point we nosedived. 

[47er]

I'll always remembers 2 examples of the conundrum that is Hedges---one of the best goals I have ever seen at any level, against QPR and that abject fatal disaster that cost us our Play-Off place at Preston.

Edited March 17, 2024 by 47er

[chaddyrovers]

Good overall performance and clean sheet. Shame it was only a point but its another point on the board and we moved on to the Ipswich game in good spirits and I think we can win against Ipswich at Home. Its a shame we couldn't get a winner at the end of the day 

I think moving to back 4 suited us better and Tronstad being back in the team and doing what he does best is vital for this team. 

Best players for me was Hedges, Hyam, Brittain and Tronstad. 

I thought the song that the Rovers fans sung was good and straight to the point, its about Rovers and nothing else matters. 

 

[Mattyblue]

Unfortunately Venky’s do matter as they own the club, our enormous decline over 13 years shows just how much they matter.