v Sunderland (a) - 1/4/24

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I’m just pleased we have a player who wants to give 110% every game.

[chaddyrovers]

5 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

If he gets injured or even if he just isn't as fresh for the next game, yes, it's very obviously a problem. I've seen enough times over the years where somebody gets kept on after they've clearly taken an injury and it just gets worse. Sometimes they make it through the whole game and seem fine, only for an injury to be announced a couple of days later. Sometimes they can make it through the next match too but then the injury becomes too severe and they're out for weeks or months. Or sometimes they just carry the injury and play through it for months but their performances clearly drop off.

It was a fucking unnecessary risk because the game was won, end of. Even if we get away with it 100%, that stands. It was stupid.

I don't see it your way and let's not forget that only a couple of weeks Szmodics played after his missus gave birth during the night and he drove to Ewood Park and told he wanted to play. 

If he was too injured I'm sure Eustace would have took him off

[DaveyB]

22 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

We definitely watch different games.

We nullified Boro away, we played Ipswich off the park on Friday and we've hammered Sunderland today. 

We're no longer exciting to watch, but we're much more solid. 

Middlesborough managed to miss an open goal from about 4 yards out in the first half and also hit the bar in the last minute - yes we kept a clean sheet, but were tiny margins away from a 2-0 defeat. Not sure I’d class that as nullifying them tbh

[aletheia]

3 hours ago, philipl said:

e could get all 4 of Gally, Szmodics, Hedges and Dolan on the pitch together and they played superbly as a unit.

Precisely. Plus JRC and Tronstad. Plus Pears instead of Walhstedt.

How many of the 4 will be here next season? Are we due a Mowbray splurge in the cycle?

[Leonard Venkhater]

2 hours ago, davulsukur said:

Yeah, that's pretty damning of GB and Co. The recruitment hasn't been very good at all really.

Bayes is on his (and the club's) case. Good and not before time.

After the January 2023, play-off denying shambles, the recruitment over the next three windows has been pathetic-total shit.

When you consider that we sold Wharton and Kaminski in the last two windows, the quality of recruitment is a mind numbing disgrace.

No amount of management-speak waffle and spin can disguise this awful fact.

 

Edited April 1 by Leonard Venkhater

[arbitro]

Wow, where did that come from? I thought we would win today but that exceeded my wildest dreams. 

It was a terrific team performance and the type of match when you struggle to pick any outstanding players because they were all on their game. After a tentative opening we simply blew them away with some great pressing and transitioning, both done with a great tempo and aggression. To score five after the dearth of recent goals really was something to behold and credit to Eustace who got his tactics right and the game plan worked exceptionally well. The effort put in was another feature epitomised by Dolan and Szmodics. The former has his detractors and can be inconsistent but the last two games have shown he has these performances in his locker. What can you say about Szmodics? I was thinking the drive home that his goals to chances ratio must be really good because he doesn't seem to miss many. In the last couple of minutes of stoppage time at the end he was still chasing and pressing. In truth I would have taken him off after an hour to protect him but with his attitude he would probably have had a meltdown. It's only one win and we have some work to do yet but I'm going to enjoy the next few days.

Well done to the fans who travelled today too. They really supported the team today and after recent weeks I'd like to think the win is for them.

[Bbrovers2288]

Anyone else think a point at Southampton on Saturday? Would take that just now 

[Exiled_Rover]

33 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Against Boro we were solid but offered minimal threat so wouldnt have that as excellent, nor v Ipswich. But even then, it wouldnt be throughout his time here. Today, no doubt.

We went away to Boro, who have won 4 of their last 6 (with 2 draws against us and Southampton), and completely neutered them.

We had 2 good goals chalked off against Ipswich and they only scored because our GK is shite. 

[bluebruce]

4 hours ago, Roverthechimp said:

Agree in theory but in practice having a happy Sammy is in the best interests of Rovers…

Having a fit Sammy is even more important though.

[Exiled_Rover]

11 minutes ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

Bayes is on his (and the club's) case. Good and not before time.

After the January 2023, play-off denying shambles, the recruitment over the next three windows has been pathetic-total shit.

When you consider that we sold Wharton and Kaminski in the last two windows, the quality of recruitment is a mind numbing disgrace.

No amount of management-speak waffle and spin can disguise this awful fact.

 

£22.2m in, £1.28m spent. Tells it's own story before you delve into the wage budget being slashed by approx. 20%.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

21 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Anyone else think a point at Southampton on Saturday? Would take that just now 

We’re at Ewood. Yes, a point would be good.

Edited April 1 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Bethnal]

2 hours ago, Herbie6590 said:

Season ticket holders are included irrespective of actual attendance 

Do you think there could rationally be 10-15k stay aways, though? Allegedly 42k on, but didn’t appear to be anywhere near that.

[M_B]

47 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Wow, where did that come from? I thought we would win today but that exceeded my wildest dreams. 

It was a terrific team performance and the type of match when you struggle to pick any outstanding players because they were all on their game. After a tentative opening we simply blew them away with some great pressing and transitioning, both done with a great tempo and aggression. To score five after the dearth of recent goals really was something to behold and credit to Eustace who got his tactics right and the game plan worked exceptionally well. The effort put in was another feature epitomised by Dolan and Szmodics. The former has his detractors and can be inconsistent but the last two games have shown he has these performances in his locker. What can you say about Szmodics? I was thinking the drive home that his goals to chances ratio must be really good because he doesn't seem to miss many. In the last couple of minutes of stoppage time at the end he was still chasing and pressing. In truth I would have taken him off after an hour to protect him but with his attitude he would probably have had a meltdown. It's only one win and we have some work to do yet but I'm going to enjoy the next few days.

Well done to the fans who travelled today too. They really supported the team today and after recent weeks I'd like to think the win is for them.

If Dolan or Gallagher came up for sale at another club, we wouldn't be able to afford them. They're already paid for, it's vitally important they're both signed up. 

[tomphil]

It's happening a lot this season bot Cardiff and Brum resembled Ewood there was thousands less in there than the stated gates.

It's making us look normal with stated crowd figures and i think at some clubs it goes beyond just a bunch of ST holders not pitching up.

Sunderland seem to have a lot of empty seats and sparse areas going off tv but gates are usually late 30s early 40s thousand.

Odd, must be a lot o complis issued at these clubs but why ?

[Torgeir]

48 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Anyone else think a point at Southampton on Saturday? Would take that just now 

I think we can beat them. They concede quite a few, and I wouldn't want to play us at the moment considering we're actually quite solid and tough to beat. 2-1 or 1-1.

[47er]

5 hours ago, des said:

Well we won which us great intninkmwe can play better but winning is what count s. Ps we need new goal keepers

We had less possession too---45% as against 55%--seems to indicate we were rather more direct!

[Parsonblue]

Days like today are why we travel to every away game - in the hope of seeing a performance like this.  It was a real team effort with every player knowing their role and performing it perfectly.  Dolan and Szmodics were outstanding and their interplay was something that Sunderland couldn't cope with.  However, the whole team excelled in every department.  JRC and Tronstad completely dominated the midfield.  Much of Tronstad's work goes unnoticed but he has become a key player to this team.  He keeps everything ticking over and patrols that area in front of the back four and then prompts attacking moves.  I thought Gallagher put in a shift up front and put defenders under physical pressure which they clearly didn't like!

Hedges has made a difference since his return from injury and is another who puts in a huge amount of work.  

Eustace is beginning to make his mark on this squad and after working on the defence he and his coaching staff are now producing an improvement going forward.  The football we played today was very easy on the eye and played at speed but also with a physicality when required.  This was a huge step towards retaining Championship status.

[RevidgeBlue]

53 minutes ago, M_B said:

If Dolan or Gallagher came up for sale at another club, we wouldn't be able to afford them. They're already paid for, it's vitally important they're both signed up. 

Are you Gallagher's Mum? He's an absolute liability and our top earner to boot.

I would however like to think we could sign Dolan up - failure to do so would reflect extremely badly on Broughton yet again 

[yankfan]

Massive 3 points. Hopefully this performance and the result take a bit of pressure off the side and they can play like this more often. Staying up is important and hopefully, probably blind hope, there’s a large pot for transfers this summer. 

[RevidgeBlue]

I'd say that's three fairly decent performances under the circumstances in the last three games against Boro, Brum and Ipswich given the run we'd been on under each of the last 2 coaches. Hopefully we're starting to turn a corner and there are grounds for cautious optimism.

Edited April 1 by RevidgeBlue

[M_B]

2 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Are you Gallagher's Mum? He's an absolute liability and our top earner to boot.

I would however like to think we could sign Dolan up - failure to do so would reflect extremely badly on Broughton yet again 

You're probably right, I mean, what does Keiran Mckenna know? 

[AllRoverAsia]

Having missed the game live I saw the highlights on YouTube and also watched a couple of post match videos from Sunderland fans

They were full of praise for Rovers, said it was Men v Boys with them as the Boys!

There were quite a few derogatory comments from their fans on the attendance figure. Apparently they have an employee called Stevie Wonder who does a physical head count at every home game.

Needless to say the team, manager and owners got grief big time.

[Herbie6590]

1 hour ago, Bethnal said:

Do you think there could rationally be 10-15k stay aways, though? Allegedly 42k on, but didn’t appear to be anywhere near that.

Kick off v Full time 

[AllRoverAsia]

27 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

Kick off v Full time 

Neighbourhood pubs had a good day!

[Upside Down]

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Are you Gallagher's Mum? He's an absolute liability and our top earner to boot.

I would however like to think we could sign Dolan up - failure to do so would reflect extremely badly on Broughton yet again 

To be fair he could score a hat trick and set up four goals along with clearing two off the line and you'd still be saying he'd had a shit game.