Scrappy but a wins a win

A much needed 3 points against a bogey side of ours.
Did we ride our luck?absolutely
Nice to have a decision go OUR way
Raya was great and his distribution was much improved
Mulgrew we have missed you greatly his influence and leadership qualities calmed lenihan,lucky with the pen he gave away but on the whole welcome back.
rodwell looked very good and when fully fit Mowbray could of played a masterstroke.
On the whole a good gritty team performance and we are touching distance of the play offs.

I felt Roswell tired very quickly 2nd half.. He was that knackered he miscontrolled a simple pass to him out of play. Needs a bit of work on him fitness and conditioning wise I think. He started the game brilliantly though, certainly something about him still.

I'm always a bit uneasy about this "The win's all that matters" cliché. Of course, I'm as happy as anyone else with three points, but I also follow football because I enjoy the game. I would much prefer to see fluency, skill and excellent passing.
Still, I will settle for the victory!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AucklandRover

I'm always a bit uneasy about this "The win's all that matters" cliché. Of course, I'm as happy as anyone else with three points, but I also follow football because I enjoy the game. I would much prefer to see fluency, skill and excellent passing.
Still, I will settle for the victory!

---

I sort of agree.. It was a win, but in truth the general play was of an out of form rovers.. The 2 week break may do us some good.. Hopefully.

It will do us the world of good
We were leggy against Bristol city
We came back firing again
The same against Sheffield United and Bolton,very leggy and tired
2 weeks off for most of the team
We will come back hopefully stronger for What is a very tough group of fixtures.

Managed to see a re run of the game and yep I’m with you three , we were not at the races the second half.
As said before , this time we were fortunate with a ‘on the ball’ linesman.
We just invited pressure the whole half , which in turn brings about these exact kind of ‘situations’.
Of course there’s two teams on park and the oppo were absolutely desperate not to relinquish all points to us, thereby they considerably upped their game (as anyone would expect). But even so we were pretty poor in efficiently dealing with it, but luckily for us their forwards were not really performing. But so what, that’s their prob not ours.
A very welcome timely win , no matter how it came about.
I can only ‘opinionise’ as others have over our lack of verve and nous in dealing with it more effectively.
It’s another one chalked off though and now onto the next and we go again. One step at a time. There’s far more twists and turns to go in this entertaining league.
STP. (Stuff the prem)😉

Captain seems to agree:

Charlie Mulgrew: Lots of negatives for Rovers to work on

Sat was superb!!

The best most hard fought 3 points this season. The sign of a decent side, who doesn't play anything like their best, and still gets 3 points.

I am lucky here, in that everyone else will focus on the negatives.
I like to look at the positives. I will acknowledge it was a tough game.
They created 2 chances all night. I am told we took a battering. 2 chances. Raya (who is getting better and better and better every game) tipped over the header from the corner, and one was our own making when Graham spooned the ball high and Mulgrew headed the ball off the line. Raya tipped a long shot wide comfortably, and in the second half they took control, they never looked like scoring. We sat back way too deep for me. I thought the change of formation was a bad choice.
It brought them onto us even more.
Bennett is wasted left wing back, Reed, IU am not sure about this lad. First half was decent, second half he gave the ball away way too much. And is ineffective as RWB. He played well alongside Rodwell first half. He allowed Rodwell to spray the ball about, by doing all the ground work. The change in formation lead to Dack, Bennett, Reed, Rothwell and Bennett being ineffective. And I thought we showed them way too much respect. That said, I think we said to them 'come on and attack us' like we did to Deby, knowing we are good enough to stand firm. That was the case, they didn't come close second half no matter how much they huffed and puffed.

Rodwell will prove to be a masterstroke.
His first half performance showed me TM has pulled off another serious masterstroke. He is about a month ahead of where we expected him to be. All he is short of now, is match sharpness.
The way he controlled the game, by strolling around and not giving the ball away reminded me of Tugay.
He is the best passer of the ball I have seen in a Rovers shirt for over 10 years.
He is unflustered, his passing is Premier league standard. He has it all. In the next 2 months and onwards, Rodwell will be one of the most effective in it. A top player, with a great attitude. Reed did all his work, Rothwell was superb aswell, and we had guile. Yes he tired, that will come in time. He did not give the ball away in the first half, that won us the game.

It was heartening that we got a ref decision went our way.
I disagree it was 'lucky?' it was 3 years off-side. That's not luck. Its 3 yards offside.
Its not much to expect the ref gets a decision right. It has cost us a win vrs Villa and Forest.


As TM said himself, we didn't play that well. We lost our way and had to dig in. And they could not break us down.
Having started so well, it was one of those days. I don't think changing formation helped. It invited them on. I would have taken off Rodwell, and just replaced him like for like. Not change the whole team around. 2 or 3 (including Dack) didn't appear to know what their roles where? And until the last 5 mins, we offered no attacking options or outlets. The distribution of the ball was very poor second half, which is unlike us.

We have as many points as the team sat 6TH in this league. The play offs.
I thought we looked a little leggy at the end, and will benefit hugely from a break. As TM said, we have played 7 games in 22 days. In all those games, we have put a lot into every game. And only in one, did we not get any kind of a result.

Nobody thought we would be doing this well pre-season, and its a huge positive that we are ahead of where everyone predicted we would be.

So basically: we all agree .

I am still baffled as to why you keep thinking we others have got a downer on it all ???
You’ve basically called out all that we others have.
We seemingly are on the negative front , whereas you are on the positive ???

No, because it's easy to do that after a win. I'm still a bit annoyed that after a loss the world appears to be ending.
And am right in thinking I was the only one there on Sat?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by champs95

No, because it's easy to do that after a win. I'm still a bit annoyed that after a loss the world appears to be ending.
And am right in thinking I was the only one there on Sat?

---

Yes.. But I saw the whole game ont telly..! ;)

Excellent match summary above champs, can't disagree with any of it.