v Southampton (h) - 6/4/24

[NeilInBristol]

4 hours ago, cesus said:

I thought we played very well against an extremely strong team whose subs that came on would probably all get into our first team. 

I was worried about Hedges going off for his denfensive cover but I thought Markanday was excellent and randomly loved a crunching tackle!

Brittain had a great game, he has a very unenviable role of having to hold onto the ball for long periods of time without having a forward out ball. 

Sammie didn't seem fit at all, I thought he would have been off when he went down early.

My daughter loved the day, although she thought the tannoy announcements in the Riverside were too loud. We've gained a new fan!

Markanday seems to be thriving under JE

[simongarnerisgod]

2 hours ago, DaveyB said:

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned already, but did anyone else spot that Martin came out to greet the away fans before the game - followed by someone videoing it for their social media - and he chose the exact moment that MGP was introduced to the crowd to step onto the pitch, no doubt to make it sound like he was getting the rapturous reception that he believes he deserves

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone quite so narcissistic as Russell Martin 

it says everything about how bad a manager he is not to get southampton up in the top two,they`ve got the best squad in the championship,i can see them losing in the play offs in all honesty,be some achievement to fail with the quality of players he has

[Upside Down]

2 hours ago, scotchrover said:

He’s a terrible loser. He’s always thought he’s better than what he is. That video -prior to a JDT masterclass at Swansea- said it all when he was going in about us eventually stopping running. I think we won 3-0 that day? 

In some respects, I hope he takes them up, because they’ll get an absolute pasting with their style of play, and his post match interviews will be hilarious.

With how quiet their fans were today too, it shows how riveting their style of play is. I’m not sure I remember a quieter away end at Ewood? 

Nah, it's much more hilarious that he could well fail to take them up.

The squad and budget they have they should be just about promoted already with confirmation being a formality at this point but instead they are 12 points behind Ipswich.

The guy is a tosser of the highest order and I have no idea how he got that job as he's never achieved anything.

[Exiled_Rover]

1 hour ago, martonrover said:

That is where I disagree.

i think we would’ve gone down had Tomasson stayed.

Eustace’s results haven’t been great, but they are better than Tomasson’s had been over a sustained period.

We were cannon fodder and it’s pretty obvious that he had lost the dressing room.

We haven’t won enough games to get clear under Eustace, but he has made us harder to beat.

Hopefully, that will be enough come May.

Agreed, I'm a big fan of JDT, but we were down if he stayed. 

The QPR game was the final straw for me - he was just being arrogant and stubborn and refusing to adjust his tactics for the squad of players he had available and sadly he'd lost the dressing room.

I think he'll go on to achieve good things in the game (more than Eustace will), but his relationship here had soured. 

[AllRoverAsia]

Lots seem to have fully operational crystal balls.

eBay or Amazon? I might get one.

[roversfan99]

3 hours ago, M_B said:

I've no doubt we were going down under Tomasson. 

We were never going to just start winning, we were crash landing into League 1. Much has been made of the lack of wins, but to lose 3 in 12, only conceding 12 goals has been a commendable effort. 

Commendable? Thats strong considering we have less than 1 point per game. You can spin either the lack of wins (only 1) or the lack of losses (only 3) but its points that are important and in that regard, picking up points at the rate we have across a season would send you down in most seasons.

I appreciate that he picked us up in terrible form and I know how keen you are you to go against Tomasson so I feel that you are naturally more inclined to big up the post Tomasson era because you are biased against him, and that whole situation had become toxic. But it doesnt mean that the results under Eustace are commendable. We should get over the line but had he taken us down, which he might but its unlikely now I think, it would have taken a horrendously bad set of results to do so that would have been barely precedented because of the buffer we had due to the points accumulated in the first few months. 

There are certainly green shoots coming through now and signs of improvement to suggest that going forward, the side can get better under him. We have only scored (admittedly 5) in one of the last 4 games in which we all seem to agree have shown noticeable improvement even though we are playing better.

1 hour ago, simongarnerisgod said:

it says everything about how bad a manager he is not to get southampton up in the top two,they`ve got the best squad in the championship,i can see them losing in the play offs in all honesty,be some achievement to fail with the quality of players he has

Leeds have the best squad at this level and I would probably suggest that Leicester have at least as good a squad as Southampton.

[Bohinen1983]

Great result, thought we were going to get smashed! Need to grind a few more points out. 

[Paul Mellelieu]

A lot to admire in yesterday's performance, especially the hard work, good shape and application.  A shame we couldn't make one of the many good opportunities tell. 

[Gav]

4 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Leeds have the best squad at this level and I would probably suggest that Leicester have at least as good a squad as Southampton.

I know it’s like comparing apples and apples, but I’m sure I read Leicester have the most expensive squad ever to play championship football. They were head and shoulders above everyone else before Christmas. I’d put Leicester and Leeds in a bracket above Saints personally. I still think Leicester win the league.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Just about doing enough to scrape over the line and claim the achievement of survival.

HERE'S THE RUB: We are going to lose our top Scorer this Summer,Im sorry to say but amidst the Euphoria of drawn games without major investment (dont make me laugh!) we are set for another Season of struggle and angst.

Rinse and repeat.

[arbitro]

Did anybody else notice that Ewood didn't get its usual soaking by the sprinklers yesterday but almost a cursory few seconds before and at half time. A deliberate ploy by Eustace to keep the pitch dry and impede their passing game?

[M_B]

5 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Commendable? Thats strong considering we have less than 1 point per game. You can spin either the lack of wins (only 1) or the lack of losses (only 3) but its points that are important and in that regard, picking up points at the rate we have across a season would send you down in most seasons.

I appreciate that he picked us up in terrible form and I know how keen you are you to go against Tomasson so I feel that you are naturally more inclined to big up the post Tomasson era because you are biased against him, and that whole situation had become toxic. But it doesnt mean that the results under Eustace are commendable. We should get over the line but had he taken us down, which he might but its unlikely now I think, it would have taken a horrendously bad set of results to do so that would have been barely precedented because of the buffer we had due to the points accumulated in the first few months. 

There are certainly green shoots coming through now and signs of improvement to suggest that going forward, the side can get better under him. We have only scored (admittedly 5) in one of the last 4 games in which we all seem to agree have shown noticeable improvement even though we are playing better.

Leeds have the best squad at this level and I would probably suggest that Leicester have at least as good a squad as Southampton.

At the end of the day, it all depends how bad you think the situation was when Tomasson left,it's nothing to do with liking someone or not. 

I think we were going down and Eustace will have kept us up. You think everything would have been OK and we'd have stayed up under Tomasson anyway. 

I just don't see any evidence for your view, other than a couple of players have come back from injury, one of which probably won't play again this season. 

[NeilInBristol]

57 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Just about doing enough to scrape over the line and claim the achievement of survival.

HERE'S THE RUB: We are going to lose our top Scorer this Summer,Im sorry to say but amidst the Euphoria of drawn games without major investment (dont make me laugh!) we are set for another Season of struggle and angst.

Rinse and repeat.

Yeh. 

It's so frustrating looking at where we were last season and if we had good backing we could be up there battling with Southampton for promotion instead of celebrating a 0-0 that maybe perhaps possibly depending on other results could keep us in this league. Such a shame 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Its sadly what we have been reduced too...expectations through the floor mate.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

The way we were playing towards the end of JDT’s time here no way would we have got a 0-0 draw yesterday. More likely we would have tried to go toe to toe with them and lost 3-1.

[roversfan99]

37 minutes ago, M_B said:

At the end of the day, it all depends how bad you think the situation was when Tomasson left,it's nothing to do with liking someone or not. 

I think we were going down and Eustace will have kept us up. You think everything would have been OK and we'd have stayed up under Tomasson anyway. 

I just don't see any evidence for your view, other than a couple of players have come back from injury, one of which probably won't play again this season. 

Tomasson like Eustace would have had to get less than a point a game to get to 50 points. Im not sure that Tomasson would have kept us up but obviously there was a lot of baggage there with him clearly and understandably having the hump having been seriously let down by the owners, that situation had become untenable. So any new manager wouldnt have that baggage. But even relegation form over these last 15 games under Eustace can keep us up which means that it isnt that impressive IMO. Especially with the returning players.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Tomasson like Eustace would have had to get less than a point a game to get to 50 points. Im not sure that Tomasson would have kept us up but obviously there was a lot of baggage there with him clearly and understandably having the hump having been seriously let down by the owners, that situation had become untenable. So any new manager wouldnt have that baggage. But even relegation form over these last 15 games under Eustace can keep us up which means that it isnt that impressive IMO. Especially with the returning players.

“ Damning with faint praise “ is the expression I was looking for.

[Tugayisgod]

2 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

A lot to admire in yesterday's performance, especially the hard work, good shape and application.  A shame we couldn't make one of the many good opportunities tell. 

Yeah, don't think it's a coincidence that results have improved since the two week international break, when Eustace really had time to work on shape, whereas before that he admitted he couldn't get them on the training pitch because of the fixture schedule.

Draws against Boro and Southampton, big win at Sunderland and unlucky defeat to Ipswich, hopefully we are on the right track

 

Still plenty of work to do though

 

 

 

 

[Blue blood]

15 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Tomasson like Eustace would have had to get less than a point a game to get to 50 points. Im not sure that Tomasson would have kept us up but obviously there was a lot of baggage there with him clearly and understandably having the hump having been seriously let down by the owners, that situation had become untenable. So any new manager wouldnt have that baggage. But even relegation form over these last 15 games under Eustace can keep us up which means that it isnt that impressive IMO. Especially with the returning players.

Think this is a great summary of how I feel too. Under JDT the wheels had clearly- and understandably - come off but given the points accrued already Eustace hasnt 'needed to be that good to keep us up. Not even above relegation for., just not broken. 

Personally feel TM was unlucky to get relegated given his efforts in his first season here, whereas Eustace will be fortunate he had so low a bar to aim for. 

[M_B]

24 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Tomasson like Eustace would have had to get less than a point a game to get to 50 points. Im not sure that Tomasson would have kept us up but obviously there was a lot of baggage there with him clearly and understandably having the hump having been seriously let down by the owners, that situation had become untenable. So any new manager wouldnt have that baggage. But even relegation form over these last 15 games under Eustace can keep us up which means that it isnt that impressive IMO. Especially with the returning players.

It isn't "relegation form" if he keeps us up, it's all about doing the necessary compared to those around us. 

[philipl]

So low a bar? 

My hunch is this season will see 22nd get the second highest points total to the 51 which is the record under 3 points for a win which sent us down.

I think we need 5 points or a point per game to get to 51 as a minimum.

Incidentally, the unluckiest team relegated were Blackpool in the days of 42 games and 2 points for a win. They went down with 37 when we came 5th with 45 points!

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 minutes ago, philipl said:

So low a bar? 

My hunch is this season will see 22nd get the second highest points total to the 51 which is the record under 3 points for a win which sent us down.

I think we need 5 points or a point per game to get to 51 as a minimum.

Incidentally, the unluckiest team relegated were Blackpool in the days of 42 games and 2 points for a win. They went down with 37 when we came 5th with 45 points!

 

Was that the year they were only ever in the drop zone for about the last 10 minutes of the last game ?

[Penwortham Blue]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

Did anybody else notice that Ewood didn't get its usual soaking by the sprinklers yesterday but almost a cursory few seconds before and at half time. A deliberate ploy by Eustace to keep the pitch dry and impede their passing game?

Or Swag saving ten bob 😂

[martonrover]

9 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Agreed, I'm a big fan of JDT, but we were down if he stayed. 

The QPR game was the final straw for me - he was just being arrogant and stubborn and refusing to adjust his tactics for the squad of players he had available and sadly he'd lost the dressing room.

I think he'll go on to achieve good things in the game (more than Eustace will), but his relationship here had soured. 

We’ll see.

I think he might do ok back in Scandinavia, but I’m not convinced he’ll get another chance on these shores.

He was undoubtedly more sinned against than sinner, but you are right to say that he was stubborn, and I firmly believe he was cut a great deal of slack because of his persona.

[CambridgeRover]

10 hours ago, NeilInBristol said:

Markanday seems to be thriving under JE

Thriving?!