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Rovers v Leyton Orient

Boz

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Terrible news about Tollitt, who sounded like he was struggling after a bright start. Sounds like we could have had a penalty but Clint Hill on Wirral Radio feels the defence sitting too deep.

Weather sounds grim, what’s the turnout like? Sounds very quiet on the commentary.
 

Ian

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Weather was grim, turnout not great but a vital three points and refreshing to see two teams trying to play. Pitch became sodden towards the end but I thought really good battling performance from the lads tonight.

That should give them more confidence going into the Chester game.
 

Ian

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Surprisingly the att was 4145 pretty good for a wet night with game on TV.
 
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Well, I enjoyed that. The best we have played since the Woking game and we looked much more like our old selves tonight. The 442 formation was pretty risky without Harris and we rode our luck at times in the first half, but we were the better team overall and deserved the win.

For the first thirty minutes of the first half I thought we played our best football for a while. Individually and collectively we looked much more confident and sharp and Tollitt gave us the natural width and ability to beat a man we have lacked all season. Norburn, Norwood and Cook were all having much better games than recently. We deserved to be ahead in this period, but Orient's opener demonstrated the dangers of the system we were playing with no real defensive midfielder: McNulty got caught on the halfway line and Orient counter attacked and cut through us like butter. Tollitt's injury seemed to knock us out of our stride for fifteen or twenty minutes and we were actually poorer immediately after the equaliser, Orient having two or three good chances and showing they could play some decent football themselves.

However, the second half was all Rovers. The standard of the football was not so good with the conditions almost unplayable towards the end, and we missed Tollitt. However Mottley-Henry had a very encouraging debut and continued to give us width, providing a couple of great crosses, most notably for Norwood's winner.

Individually, I thought six or seven players were much improved tonight, but I would give man of the match to Norwood. Not everything came off for him, but he kept running and chasing and had a hand in the first goal as well as scoring the second.

Our prospects look a lot brighter with the 442 formation, so hopefully Tollitt's setback is not too serious.

On to Saturday.
 
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Surprisingly the att was 4145 pretty good for a wet night with game on TV.
Funny, as there were only 157 Orient fans tonight, but the Cowshed looked packed compared to what we are used to for midweek matches.
 
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Well i said that i was confodent. And after a good performance . And wat a great second half it was . Could of been 6/7. An to make my night even better i won the half time draw. . Just hope that tollitt is not to injured an Norborn to . As for dylan he looks great . Well done the magnificent fans to great atmosphere. And best performance of the season
 

Ian

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Agreed with Norwood MOTM, he worked hard tonight, but there was more togetherness in the team tonight and a real desire to get a positive result. You can see there was more balance in the side with Tollitt so lets hope he's OK. I was surprised to see him start as MM had mentioned in the programme how we need to be careful with him as he's had no game practice.

Mottley-Henry has pace and can cross a ball, so that's promising. I'd really like to see us persevere with the 442 as we can pick up more points this way and the team looks a whole lot better when we play this formation.

Bit disappointed not to see Harris in the starting XI.
 
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I still don't think he should have started to be honest, it was too much of a risk, particularly in those conditions.

Apparently he just has 'fatigue' rather than a recurrence of the original injury, so hopefully he will be ok.
 

Boz

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Clint Hill on the radio also made Norwood MoM, though the sponsors had Norburn and Mottley-Henry as their picks.

Apparently MM said Tollitt's knee had stiffened during the game and that rather than fatigue was the reason for making the change. Agree that it wasn't the ideal climate for his return.

Crowd was better than I'd feared and all things considered a decent turnout.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out v Chester and who starts. Talk of another arrival. Don't think they've as much pace up front, so if we got away with the deep-sitting back four today, can be more hopeful for the Cheshire derby.
 

Cowshed Kid

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Big three points.
Certainly no doubting the commitment tonight and nice to see a 'proper' footballing visiting team.
Agree with RLC that Tollitt should have been on bench.
Hope that "stiffness" is indeed the problem. He was virtually static on the halfway line a good 15 mins before he was subbed though.
Thankfully the pitch held up, though there were some scary moments when the ball stayed put. Credit to the players of both teams for paying the conditions sensibly.
Nice little debut from DMH. Great bit of work to put it on a plate for Nors. He could make a valuable contribution in the next few weeks.
 
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Really pleased for the lads. Must have been tough but our first back to back wins, so lets hope it's three out of three on Saturday.

It looks like 86 points will be enough for promotion this year so we have a chance.
 

drwhoman

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Hurray! Sounds like the whole team put a shift in. More of that and it will be onward and upwards. We have the players. I was pleased to see that Cook lasted the whole game and was not subbed. That must do his confidence good quite apart from the goal! Norwood might have his limitations in one on ones and has a temper but he really gives his all for the cause. You cannot ask for more than that. We might need Harris to support the back four against the top teams but we will see. Unlike the last two seasons, no team is a stand out. Even Macc have lost four to our five.
 

Boz

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Having seen the highlights, think we could have done better for the Orient goal. The deflection fell kindly for their man to put the ball into the box, but the marking of the scorer was poor, not challenged for the ball.

Goal aside, how did Cook do? He seemed to feature more in the first half commentary than the second, but maybe doing a lot of work off the ball?
 

Sparky

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Their goal was disappointing although it came from a blatant rovers penalty claim at the other end. Harold was unmarked as the ball came across and we had Sutton & Buxton close by who could have picked him up.

Back to the game in general - as others have said I thought we played a lot better than in recent times. Tollit starting gave the whole place a lift and I feared the worst when he went off. Not just for him, but for the whole atmosphere and the players spirits. We kept going 2nd half in very difficult conditions and although the cross took a wicked deflection, credit to Mottley-Henry for taking his man on.

Re Cook - he looked more like his old self but you do wonder if his spirits were up anyway seeing a proper winger in the side and that we were playing with width. His goal was well taken and he was unlucky not to get another. I just hope now the whole Cook debate is put to bed and even if he runs his contract down, he'll give 100% and hopefully score lots more. We should be offering him a new deal soon if we can.

Thought Hughes had a better game than recently and Norburn was lively (hope his injury isn't too bad). I'm not the biggest fan of CJ this season and apart from missing a decent headed chance, he offered very little. That said, he isn't a winger and was played out of position the whole game, but did put a good shift in.

Thought Buxton had a poor first half by his standards, some of his crossing was woefully overhit although you could blame the conditions a bit. Much better 2nd half. Apart from their goal the defence did very well. Nors again showed why he must be in the starting 11 when fit - not just his goal but he's one of a few players we have with genuine pace. Surely Mangan will be one of the players to depart on loan.

Potentially exciting times with a new player coming in today apparently. It was nice to come away from PP having seen a decent game and 3 points for the rovers - I missed the Woking game so really enjoyed last night. We know a poor Chester side will raise their game on Saturday for the derby but another opportunity to get 3 points. Given their are still concerns about Tollit, I think we still need another winger to come in. I heard a rumour Ryan Lowe was at the match last night but could be rubbish.
 

Ian

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It's probably no coincidence that our front two scored a goal having played with width. I really hope MM keeps the shape for Saturday as we can easily beat Chester playing 442.
 
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