League Two Rovers v Crawley

[Sparky]

Never any doubt!!

 

[frenchrover]

Just as the penalty win at Stevenage papered over the cracks of our performance on Saturday, tonight's win, again a team in the relegation zone who in reality should have at least got a point, shows how far we have sunk in terms of meaningful performance standards.

 

[Sparky]

Well if we can win ugly isn’t that a good sign? A common cliche from a a manager is that “there are no easy games” and tonight proved that.

Crawleys horrendous result on Saturday didn’t do us any favours as I’m sure they got a rollicking and had a point to prove tonight. Our own expectations were high after the Stevenage win. Crawley worked their socks off and will feel aggrieved they didn’t at least take a point when they probably deserved all 3, missing a penalty and Murphy was much the busier keeper.

Still a win is a win. Yes the performance leaves a lot to be desired but at this stage of the season I‘m not too concerned.

re the players I thought Lewis looked a bit lost up front. Charmers once again was ragged and unimpressive. Saunders again worked hard but that’s now 8 games without a goal.

MOM for me probably murphy with turnbull a close second. I’d take another 3 points on Saturday whatever the performance is like

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Micky needs to allow the full backs to get forward would be a start

They could not get forward because of the number of men Crawley committed up the pitch. Mellon has obviously been encouraging them to get forward all season.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Well if we can win ugly isn’t that a good sign? A common cliche from a a manager is that “there are no easy games” and tonight proved that.

Crawleys horrendous result on Saturday didn’t do us any favours as I’m sure they got a rollicking and had a point to prove tonight. Our own expectations were high after the Stevenage win. Crawley worked their socks off and will feel aggrieved they didn’t at least take a point when they probably deserved all 3, missing a penalty and Murphy was much the busier keeper.

Still a win is a win. Yes the performance leaves a lot to be desired but at this stage of the season I‘m not too concerned.

re the players I thought Lewis looked a bit lost up front. Charmers once again was ragged and unimpressive. Saunders again worked hard but that’s now 8 games without a goal.

MOM for me probably murphy with turnbull a close second. I’d take another 3 points on Saturday whatever the performance is like

I agree with pretty much all of that.

It was a really poor display but the result is what matters. In addition to our usual failings in the final third, six or seven players had real off nights and we did not play well in any part of the pitch, aside from the centre halves and the keeper. I don't agree that we were negative and did not allow the full backs to get forward. The full backs could not get forward until the closing stages because Crawley were so aggressive and adventurous and because we had no control in the centre of midfield, with both Hendry and O'Connor having poor games.

Crawley will feel really hard done by not to have won the game, let alone drawn it, but the result does demonstrate that we are prepared to dig in when not playing well.

In the first sixty minutes you could not fault the effort and the running of Saunders, but we looked absolutely clueless around the eighteen yard box. It says it all that it took a centre half to show the kind of composure for the winning goal that our strikers seem incapable of. However, credit has to go to Mellon for the substitutions which effectively won us the game. Merrie and Walker did well when they came on and gave us the composure in midfield we had been totally lacking to that point.

I thought man of the match was between Murphy, who made two or three vital saves, and Turnbull, who bizarrely could have had a hat trick tonight.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Just as the penalty win at Stevenage papered over the cracks of our performance on Saturday, tonight's win, again a team in the relegation zone who in reality should have at least got a point, shows how far we have sunk in terms of meaningful performance standards.

The performance was good on Saturday. We are now six points from the play offs.

 

[Boz]

Unable to get to this due to work, so an IFollow evening. Very fortunate to get the win and unless we play much better the Hartlepool game will be equally painful to watch and we may not be as lucky a second time. Good games from Davies, Turnbull and Murphy, while Walker did make a difference when he came on, after the initial changes left the central midfield exposed.

 

[ONIGP]

Only 22 away tickets sold for tonight's game. Reminiscent of the National League days.

I counted 47!

 

[ONIGP]

No doubt we’ll still get the away support ”classics” of “Your support is f*****’ s***” and “Is this a library…” and not forgetting “Your grounds too big for you”. The one I’m most looking forward to is “….it’s the Crawley boys making all the noise, everywhere we go”.

Particularly amusing when 3 started singing the first one and it ended with a lone voice!

 

[Higgy 2]

I agree with pretty much all of that.

It was a really poor display but the result it was matters. In addition to our usual failings in the final third, six or seven players had real off nights and we did not play well in any part of the pitch, aside from the centre halves and the keeper. I don't agree that we were negative and did not allow the full backs to get forward. The full backs could not get forward until the closing stages because Crawley were so aggressive and adventurous and because we had no control in the centre of midfield, with both Hendry and O'Connor having poor games.

Crawley will feel really hard done by not to have won the game, let alone drawn it, but the result does demonstrate that we are prepared to dig in when not playing well.

In the first sixty minutes you could not fault the effort and the running of Saunders, but we looked absolutely clueless around the eighteen yard box. It says it all that it took a centre half to show the kind of composure for the winning goal that our strikers seem incapable of. However, credit has to go to Mellon for the substitutions which effectively won us the game. Hendry and Walker did well when they came on and gave us the composure in midfield we had been totally lacking to that point.

I thought man of the match was between Murphy, who made two or three vital saves, and Turnbull, who bizarrely could have had a hat trick tonight.

Agree with everything there RLC. I think Hawkes was half decent and may ha e Co.e third in the MoM stakes.
BTW Hendry actually came off for Walker.
Hope Walker gets fit enough to be a regular starter.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Agree with everything there RLC. I think Hawkes was half decent and may ha e Co.e third in the MoM stakes.
BTW Hendry actually came off for Walker.
Hope Walker gets fit enough to be a regular starter.

Yes, I meant Merrie not Hendry. Now corrected.

I agree about Hawkes, who had a decent second half.

 

[ONIGP]

Agree with everything there RLC. I think Hawkes was half decent and may ha e Co.e third in the MoM stakes.
BTW Hendry actually came off for Walker.
Hope Walker gets fit enough to be a regular starter.

Hawkes had so much space in the first half, it was disappointing that we chose sideways passes so often.

 

[Ian]

It was marginally improved in the second half but it was not a great performance overall. Let's just be glad of the win and move onto Saturday. If we can pick up 3 points we'll have had a very good couple of weeks. I would definately like to see more of Walker as he looked very good when he came on and is actually quite a big imposing unit, something we probably need in midfield to add a bit of grit. I have no answers for the forward line, there does not seem to be a goal between them but we have covered these failings elsewhere. I think we have to rely on other players to step up such as our midfelders and Turnbull for his supreme heading skills! For a team that is not hugely creative we do miss Morris a lot so hopefully he will be back sooner rather than later.

 

[Goody Two Shoes]

Sadly, my son and his friend (without consulting with each other) both decided not to go tonight. No emotional blackmail or twisting of arms (not literally ‘cause that’s frowned upon) would change his mind. On the balance of things, probably just as well. Therein lies a problem for me; if it ain’t inspiring the youth, I’ll be on my own next season, or at least only have the father-in-law for company (he goes as a sense of duty). The youngsters want entertainment (well, at least the ones I know) and tonight was pretty much as far as you could get from that. It’s okay the rationalists amongst us saying the points are the most important thing, winning in style captures it’s own audience; it’s obviously an unrealistic expectation all of the time, but a reasonable percentage is required for that particular target group. They’ll get wiser as they age, but hopefully it’s not too late to save them.
Agree that Crawley will feel mightily hard done by not getting at least a point tonight, but also agree that winning “ugly” has its’ place; can somebody tell my son that!!!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I think it was really evident tonight that we miss both Morris and Hemmings for their general quality and composure on the ball.

For all his faults, Hemmings offers much more than the strikers currently on the pitch, certainly in terms of retention of possession, and there is a chasm between Morris and Chalmers / Turner-Cooke. We have lost the link up between Morris and Cogley on the right hand side and had no threat at all down that flank tonight.

Walker seems to be a bit of a character and leader, in addition to a good player, which I like. The professionalism / gamesmanship at the end where he won successive corners was impressive to watch.

 

[ONIGP]

Poor performance against a poor team and we were fortunate to take the win, welcome as it was. We seemed to allow Crawley to dictate the game to us and react to it, rather than being on the front foot. This is especially so considering the opposition should have been there for the taking. This team is better than that and I'm not sure whether it is dictated by team mentality or deliberate tactics. If it is the former I hope a fit Walker can make a difference; if the latter it could be an uncomfortable few weeks despite the level of opposition. I agree with the mom contenders but also a shout out for Lewis who ensured that we won some aerial balls in the centre of the park.

If we can win again on Saturday this "iffy" 1-0 win should just become a positive statistic.

 

[ONIGP]

By the way, did anybody notice towards the end of the match when the referee stopped the game and ran over to the Crawley bench with, what looked like, a mobile phone? The Crawley coach looked like he tossed it into a bag in the dugout. Bizarre! If it was his own mobile why didn't he give it to the 4th official. If it wasn't, how did a Crawley phone get on the pitch and how did the referee know it was theirs? I'm not going to sleep tonight....

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

 

[ONIGP]

Fair enough.

 

[Ian]

Crawleys horrendous result on Saturday didn’t do us any favours as I’m sure they got a rollicking and had a point to prove tonight.

I think this is a good point. We may not have been at the races but I didn't think Crawley were all that bad considering their league position. They kept Joe busy at times and they let themselves down with poor finishing. I think it was a tougher game than most of us expected.