Rovers v Borehamwood

[Mal]

Cook and Norwood have only had one game together. Neither Norwood or Alabi have scored since the season started, if you want to put it like that.

Very disappointing half. Nearly conceded from a McEveley error in the opening moments. The only effort on target I can recall is a Mitch Duggan daisy-cutter.

Oh dear, with the players we have, you have to wonder what has gone wrong. I can already hear the booing at full time....

I don't think we can afford to do what we did last year and change manager at this stage.

4:57 Talk about 'get out of jail'!!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Cook scores one and creates another. Enough said.

 

[Cowshed Kid]

On hols so following Twitter.
Two points dropped but it im sure it won't seem like that to the players now.
Disappointing result but the comeback might just kick start the season.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Although the players showed spirit in the closing stages, there is no escaping the fact that for sixty minutes we produced an absolutely awful performance, as poor as I have seen in a long time. I thought we were very fortunate to get the point, although the manner of achieving it could lift spirits and prove a turning point.

I thought for the first twenty minutes we played well, making good use of the width offered by the full backs and playing some decent football. However, none of our balls into the box were attacked and I did not understand the logic of leaving Cook out of the side if we were going to play that formation: neither Norwood or Alibi are good in the air and their keeper was not tested during this positive spell. Having failed to score early on, confidence visibly drained from the players and the quality of our play deteriorated, with stray passes and no real pattern of play. Wood got in the ascendancy on the half hour mark and remained the better side until the final ten minutes. Their penalty resulted from a counter attack where McNulty was left exposed, and for the second they drove a coach and horses through the centre of midfield in the absence of Harris, very similar to the first goal we conceded at Eastleigh last week. Boreham Wood were well worth their lead at this stage.

The introduction of Cook on seventy minutes was the turning point in the game, and leaves me and 4,000 others scratching their head as to why he did not start the match. Our play was still scrappy, but our attacks finally had a focal point and we began to win more second balls in the final third. His first goal was a trademark header, and he won another aerial battle to set up Mangan for the equaliser.

There are many things wrong with our performances at the moment, the first of which is a chronic lack of confidence. However, if Mellon wants to keep his job I would suggest he buries the hatchet with Andy Cook and plays him on a regular basis, as without his goals and hold up play we will achieve nothing this season.

Individually, there were few good performances. Alibi did slightly better than in his previous appearances, but Norwood, Jennings, Hughes and Norburn were below par, among others. Credit has to go to Mitch Duggan, however, for a creditable display at right wing back. However, I will give man of the match to Andy Cook for rescuing a point, and to show my increasing frustration with the manager.

 

[Sparky]

Another mainly frustrating afternoon and I agree with a lot of what RLC says - my first game this season and hopefully a turning point. Not playing cook is sheer madness. Just because he's had a bad game or two doesn't mean you drop your best striker. None of the top teams who have someone who is capable of scoring 25 a season drop their striker after a couple of indifferent performances. MM must take the blame for this and the fact that we were hitting long balls to Alabi and Nors - neither strong in the air.

Agree that Duggan did ok and Rides too - but no one else really apart from Cookie and perhaps Mangan when he came on. CJ a big disappointment for me. Not convinced by McEvely who I feel has an error in him.

MM drops Cook but sticks with Hughes who from what I've heard hasn't been good enough this season. Harris and Norburn surely the first choice 2 - we don't need all 3 of them in the starting 11.

Still work to do but morale may be improved and we have a winnable game on Monday so let's be positive.

Going back to Cook, he does seem to be a scapegoat of mickeys. Would he drop the likes of hughes after a poor run of games?! Unlikely.

 

[Sparky]

Just on their goals. The first came from a goal line chance for us that Alabi stood motionless watching whereas cook would have attacking it. Then they go up the other end.

Big Macs lack of pace tho was exposed for the penalty - a red card surely - and he was turned for their 2nd goal. I do think missing some sort of central defensive pace will see us concede more this season.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Regarding Alabi, I think he did ok for the majority of the first half today, but we used him in the Andy Cook role, as a hold up player. It seems to me that is not his natural game at all, which is why he is struggling. He is closer in style to Norwood and wants to play on the defender's shoulder and make runs in behind, and we saw that a few times from him today. All of which makes it nonsensical to leave Cook on the bench, particularly when you are playing a 352 formation. It should be Cook and Norwood or Alibi or Mangan up front.

 

[drwhoman]

You wonder whether there is some hangover from the Wembley disappointment given that there has not been a big change in personnel. Confidence is a big thing and they are lacking it. The messing around with Cook does not help. This said, the team and
The Manager need to get their fingers out. This is not acceptable for a team of Rovers standing. We will be marooned in the NL like Chester and Wrexham if this goes on.

 

[Sparky]

Interesting post match interview where micky states that Buxton was fit and he picked a team he thought could win the game.

Now before today I hadn't seen a game but Buxton has been our best player so I hear. And although duggan did well, has Micky lost the plot?!

 

[Cowshed Kid]

As I posted before, missed today's game so relying on other posts to get the gist of things.
We agree almost to a man that its madness to leave Cookie out if he's fit.
All the talk about 'stats' is fine for midfielders. They do have to work their socks off and CJs figures, for example, last season were top notch.
But strikers?
Cookie covers more mileage in warm up than, again an example, Akinfenwa and tub of lard Rhead.
The former does sweet FA save sniff around the box. Two goals for him today. Will he be dropped if no goals in next couple?
Sorry Mickey, if our main striker has run 3-4 miles in a game then he hasn't been where he should be to hurt the opposition....around the box.
In defence of Mickey, ignoring the lads on the bench who were likely carrying knocks and rightly splinter picking, that was as strong a line up as the vast majority of NL teams could have put out. Perhaps they should look at themselves?
Alibi is a difficult one. The non league papers/media I read suggested that was one of the best bits of business done.No disrespect to Chester (thank you for today!) but is he now a small fish in a large tank?
Not crisis time yet. Stubborn as he appears to be,, hope zombie nation continues to be my ear worm.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Interesting post match interview where micky states that Buxton was fit and he picked a team he thought could win the game.

Now before today I hadn't seen a game but Buxton has been our best player so I hear. And although duggan did well, has Micky lost the plot?!

Buxton has definitely been our best player, but in fairness to Mellon he said that certain players were rotated because of playing two games in three days. My guess is he will start at Solihull. In fairness to Duggan he did ok, and he is suited to that system.

There was a tetchiness in the interview, saying that the atmosphere in the ground was what he expected if we were not 'winning ten nil after five minutes'. Understandable in a way as he is under massive pressure, but you have to hope his relationship with the fans does not deteriorate. MM could help himself by ending the Cook nonsense once and for all.

 

[aldoes mustache]

Well that was a roller coaster . For 80 minutes we weren't at the races . James alabi was trash an thats being kind. Hughes was not mutch better. We need to start with cookie . An stop messing about. Mm . Needs to sort it cus palios wont hang around . Monday is a must win .

 

[aldoes mustache]

Also some of the fans behaviour. In front of children was embarrassing. There was 2 guys for the whole game . With two 5 year old girls in front . There farther did turn an tell em to cool down . But got a barrage of abuse . He told the stewards who did jack . I will not be taking my little girl .

 

[Ian]

Wow, that was shocking for the most part and it's no surprise that the game changed when we made the substitutions.

We were quite frankly dire for 70 minutes. I cannot remember a shot on target in that period. Alibi seems like an awful signing to me. His positioning and general awareness is terrible albeit having been played in the wrong role. I've not seen anything positive come from his performances yet.

After today I have to say there is a definite issue with Mellon and Cook and as RLC rightly says, whatever that issue is needs to be sorted ASAP.

Choosing Cook as MOTM really says a lot about the other players today. Norburn has also been quite disappointing. I think I much prefer Harris in there.

Great to see Duggan getting a game although it was a tough one for him and I thought was as poor as the rest of them.

At least we have 2 goals. Can we now build on that?

One last thing, I thought we struggled defensively today. Too much fannying around at the back and I'm not comfortable with the set of centre backs we have. They dont seem to be playing well together.

 

[aldoes mustache]

You can have all the stats in the world. But are midfield don't score goals . An go missing to mutch apart from harris we are lightweight . Norborn was very poor today an wallace is just always injured . We really need tollitt back . But cant put to much pressure on him . We need to get in the faces of the other teams an close em down chase an harr as em . But its tranmere . So prob offer then tea an bloody scones . We are to polite an dont wont to piss em off . Phew rant over

 

[Boz]

That was a very poor performance from Rovers and the late fight-back does not change things.

Dropping Cook was a no-brainer and unless Micky wants to totally alienate the fan-base, he should be a regular starter, the first name on the team-sheet in most circumstances. We saw the difference when he came on. Alabi is an inadequate Cook replacement, did very little with a couple of decent Ridehalgh crosses and is weak in the air. He's no Stockton replacement either, not capable of holding the ball up to bring others into play. Thought he tried quite hard and came deep a couple of times to get the ball, but if we are to get the best out of him need to play to his strengths, with balls through the channels for him to run onto. Norwood was unusually quiet today and not applying pressure like he normally does.

Until Harris came on, the midfield wasn't functioning. Don't think you can differentiate between Hughes and Norburn, both wanted to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible rather than carrying it forward. They offered very little protection for the second goal, where Balanta was just allowed to have a pop.

The penalty incident highlighted the lack of pace defensively. From a good attack where the ball came close to crossing their line and there wasa strong suspicion of handball, the visitors broke and next thing McNulty is conceding a penalty. Don't think any of the back three covered themselves in glory, but McEveley was the most accident prone and I think if we use that formation again Buxton or Gumbs should be in ahead of him.

At 70 minutes, I was thinking, what if we do a Stockport or York and drop down further... Even at full-time, we're only one point outside the relegation zone. Early days and all that, but I'm seriously worried about our prospects. Already 10 points behind the points tally we got from the corresponding games last season. The crowd was down to a disappointing 4,295. Await Monday's team sheet to see what lessons have been learned.

 

[Ian]

I thought the crowd was very disappointing too. Bank holiday weekend and a lovely sunny day.

 

[Sparky]

Agree with Boz and Ian that defensively we weren't great. Big Mac will I doubt be no slower than last season, when our defensive record was excellent. However losing Ihikwe and replacing him with McEvely doesn't appear the answer.

I'm surprised we didn't bring anyone in with pace at the back.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

In fairness to Mellon, I think it is difficult to recruit defenders with pace at this level as there are not many around. Mceveley does not seem a great foil for McNulty but has his strengths, such as being comfortable on the ball and a good passer. The attendance was very poor and you wonder how long it will be before gates really drop. Last season gave us hope, but I commented yesterday that as pure entertainment the match was absolutely shocking. I would normally accuse boz of being melodramatic, but relegation is not impossible. York had a big budget and a decent squad yet still went down last season.

 

[Ian]

I would normally accuse boz of being melodramatic, but relegation is not impossible.

I think after a handful of games albeit not very good ones it's a bit premature mentioning relegation. What MM needs to do is play his best players and they'll do the business. It's not a great patch at the moment but we'll come out of it.