Auks, Robin my take on xmas .....
Happy New Year to everyone!!!
Apologies I didn't get many chances to post over xmas. When I did have the chance, I had problems posting??
I went Northampton away, Rochdale and Scunny at home. I didn't go yesterday vrs Rotherham.
Northampton, we where poor. Started poorly, came into it 2nd half. Missed an open goal (Conway) and missed a pen. Ok we where without Mulgrew. Pity we didn't have him on the bench to come on and score the pen. Very much 2 points dropped.
It came to light after this game we had a bug running through the club, which affected quite a lot of players over the xmas period.
Rochdale - home.
We where pretty average, but won with ease. Dack and Mulgrew where the difference. I think Graham had been superb all over the xmas period games. He held the ball up well, looked a goal threat and very much seems up for this. Evan was absolutely shocking. I think he is a liability. I started to think we have a big problem in CM in this game. Very good crowd, but then again its boxing day, hopefully the returning fans may stick around.
Scunny - home
One of the best matches I have seen at Ewood in a long long time. 2 teams 100% commited. Both played good attacking football. Both deserved something from the game. We scored 2 decent goals, both good moves. The 2nd, Dack was brilliant finding Antonsson. Good header down for Graham, who finished very well. Their 1st goal was a fluke. Their second was a mistake from Bennett. But they did fight back twice after being down. We where very unlucky when Dack hit the post at 2-1 which would have likely lead us to all 3 points. We lost Antonsson to injury aswell. We took 4 points off them (which you'd take) over the 2 games. By all accounts we where rather lucky to get all 3 at their place. So not a bad point, brilliant game, good crowd again. But results elsewhere meant we fell behind, but kept them behind us. Whitingham replaced Evans and was very good imo. His best game in a Rovers shirt. Passed the ball, which is why he is in the side.
For them, Ojo was excellent. Morris was pretty average. He played deep central midfield. But wasn't effective. Not a bad left foot, but no better/worse than what we have.
Rotherham away!!!
Still a few sick, we missed Antonsson. For some unknown reason he dropped Whitingham for Evans (who has been piss poor, and is a liability). I didn't go, so cant be overly critical. But that was sloppy!! We will miss out if this carries on. I get we where missing players, and had a few illnesses. And we where tired!! We had put a lot into the Scunny game, and it was a battle. But to be 1 up with a min to go, you HAVE to stand firm! If you have aspirations to go up automatically. While we have 21 games to go, so much football to be played. But there is a gap now. We have Shrewbury to come soon, but even if we beat them, we still wont catch them. So we need to strengthen now, before we slip further behind.
