League Two Rovers v Stags

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

I’m fairly certain that Micky won’t resign. And Palios won’t sack him. The latter would only happen if we were in danger of getting sucked into a relegation fight which we won’t.

Whether you agree or not, I’ll be amazed if Micky isn’t in charge for a while yet

We can't afford to sack MM, paying off his contract and bringing in a new manager and his wages on top, is not sustainable. If MM does leave, the only option is within the staff now.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

As an aside, I have been critical of Hemmings recently, but I think today's performance demonstrated that he offers more than the potential replacements. We were non-existent in the centre forward positions.

 

[Ian]

As an aside, I have been critical of Hemmings recently, but I think today's performance demonstrated that he offers more than the potential replacements. We were non-existent in the centre forward positions.

The lesser of two evils! The circumstances were less than ideal today with so much inexperience up top. Saunders, Mumbongo and Turner Cooke. Morris is a big miss.

 

[Stickman]

Until we try another manager we will never know, Hill actually got us into the playoffs. So your saying we just keep Micky as manager regardless of how we are doing just in case a new manager is not a success

This is actually a fair point about Hill although it helped that we had a decent striker in Vaughan. I think Hill paid the price for his bizarre interviews and irrational behaviour.

 

[Stickman]

I had a bad feeling today as soon as I saw the team sheet. It was always going to be tough against an in-form team with better players but without 3 of our best players, no chance! Still depressing to watch though. For me, Burton should be starting ahead of Mumbongo. I really hope Hemmings isn't out for long.

 

[Sparky]

I remember saying at the start of the season we weren't far away at all last seasons. Only a few points off the play offs and the top 3 and we had the best home record in the division.

The change in policy is looking like a failure and we’ve took some massive steps back. The budget will have partly caused that but the policy of youth and development is not producing results on the pitch consistently, and that’s what matters, above everything else

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

This is actually a fair point about Hill although it helped that we had a decent striker in Vaughan. I think Hill paid the price for his bizarre interviews and irrational behaviour.

We were in far worse form under Hill in the closing months of his time than we are now under Mellon.

Hill benefitted from Vaughan's superb form, but once he got injured he was clueless in how to turn things round. Mellon has had inferior strikers in his second spell, yet we still got more points last season than we did in 2020-21 under Hill.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I remember saying at the start of the season we weren't far away at all last seasons. Only a few points off the play offs and the top 3 and we had the best home record in the division.

The change in policy is looking like a failure and we’ve took some massive steps back. The budget will have partly caused that but the policy of youth and development is not producing results on the pitch consistently, and that’s what matters, above everything else

It is difficult to argue with that really.

The development policy may or may not bring benefits in the long term. It is still too early to tell. But in the short term it is little use to Mellon, who almost certainly would have wanted a different age profile in the squad.

 

[Stickman]

We were in far worse form under Hill in the closing months of his time than we are now under Mellon.

Hill benefitted from Vaughan's superb form, but once he got injured he was clueless in how to turn things round. Mellon has had inferior strikers in his second spell, yet we still got more points last season than we did in 2020-21 under Hill.

True, it was dreadful form. Can't think of too many managers sacked after making the play offs though, even if was only by a whisker. I'm no Hill fan though. He was crackers and I would have sacked him earlier. As for Micky, I'd give it to the end of the season and then make a decision. After Stevenage, the games look more winnable so hopefully we can put a string of results together.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

After Stevenage, the games look more winnable so hopefully we can put a string of results together.

Yes, we are in a horrible run of fixtures at the moment.

 

[Sparky]

Post match Micky was the angriest I’ve seen him for some time. Saying he’s pissed off on several occasions and even having a go at the mild mannered Derek Jones for one of his questions. He even mentioned how many promotions he’s had as a manager.

It shows he cares which is a positive but surely mark and Nicola are starting to realise their youth and development policy is doing more harm than good

 

[Sparky]

15 shots in the last two games and zero on target says it all really

 

[MancunianWhite]

Mickey should remain in charge until the summer then his position reviewed.

There is no obvious available candidate right now and we won't be relegated.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

I remember saying at the start of the season we weren't far away at all last seasons. Only a few points off the play offs and the top 3 and we had the best home record in the division.

The change in policy is looking like a failure and we’ve took some massive steps back. The budget will have partly caused that but the policy of youth and development is not producing results on the pitch consistently, and that’s what matters, above everything else

Nail on head.

It's the policy of survival, football is a results business, risk isn't.

I would believe without looking, the average age of our promotions was around thirty, I would guess it's now low twenties and the quality is not as good.
There is a saying in footie, that older pros are more consistent in performance, and young pros are brilliant but so inconsistent!
I believe that is what we are seeing on the pitch, consistently inconsistent!

 

[Stickman]

Post match Micky was the angriest I’ve seen him for some time. Saying he’s pissed off on several occasions and even having a go at the mild mannered Derek Jones for one of his questions. He even mentioned how many promotions he’s had as a manager.

It shows he cares which is a positive but surely mark and Nicola are starting to realise their youth and development policy is doing more harm than good

It looks like the pressure is getting to him. Call me old fashioned but I think the bad l language is ill advised.

 

[Sparky]

That is why I have some sympathy for Micky. Arguably it’s the Palios (and Vaughan perhaps), who made a massive mistake and change in policy.

We were close last season. Just needed a few tweaks here and there. Instead we’ve gone backwards and one of best players in cogley will go for nothing at end of the season

 

[frenchrover]

Todays performance was totally unacceptable, and I do not accept that our fans are delusional.When the club raised ticket prices at the start of this season fans rightly expected that these increases would help fund a budget that would sustain a team capable of a reasonable promotion challenge from this league.

No fan was made aware, prior to the seasons start, that the club would embark on a policy of recruitment aimed at developing young players with the potential for onward transfer for the purposes of sustaining the club financially for the foreseeable future.

I am not opposed to such a policy when this is proportional to the reasonable expectations of fans. It is totally reasonable for the club to carefully and specifically identify and recruit 2 or 3 youngsters who clearly meet the criteria for development and have the potential as future financial assets.

However, I think it is totally unacceptable for the club to recruit in the numbers that is has done seemingly on the basis that from these numbers a "diamond or two" might be identified for onward sale whilst expecting the total number of youngsters to form the nucleus of a successful first team squad. If we had a separate development team playing regularly in some recognised league format from which players could fight for promotion to the League 2 team whilst developing their skills and potential then recruitment at these levels would be acceptable but not otherwise.

Continuation of the current "system" can only lead to continued on-field mediocrity, further disillusionment of the fans with potential loss of gate receipts with resultant continuing financial and budgetary constraints.

Whilst all off-field revenue streams are welcome and currently necessary, the bottom line is that, without significant external investment, the fan base is the life blood of our club and we cannot afford to loose it or there is no future.

 

[Outoftowner]

I think the focus has to be on recruitment. There are too many below par players in that side. Jameson, Hewelt, Mumbongo (he was terrible today), Saunders has made no impression since joining and the likes of Chalmers and Hendry are struggling to impress.

If we change the manager, we will not get a more experienced manager than Micky. I think we are now starting to see the problems with limited investment. We are just an average side in this division and I think people need to accept what it is instead of having unrealistic expectations of the manager and squad..

I think MP really needs to try and find investment within the next year as things wont get better on the pitch and he's not getting any younger! I think this is a fairly crucial time for Rovers.

The fact is Mellon is a crap manager - face up to it !

 

[Boz]

I'll swerve some of the wider questions posed on here for further reflection and concentrate on the match for now. It was always going to be a challenging game against a form team with greater squad depth, even without the injuries absenting three of our key players across the park. When I saw the line-up, it looked like a loss was on the cards, but I didn't expect us to lose so comprehensively.

While there will be no argument from this quarter that Joe Murphy is an upgrade on Hewelt, it wasn't a totally smooth return to the team for the veteran keeper. His kicking was mainly straight down the middle, rather than mixing it up as he did so well last season. Some suggestion he could have done better for the first goal, while the defence were slow to react after he pushed Keillor Dunn's initial effort onto the bar for the second. I also felt that the defenders having more confidence in him worked against us at times, in that there were a lot more back-passes, especially from Tom Davies.

Goody highlights a failure by Saunders to pick out Mumbongo, well-placed in the box early on and have a hopeless punt at goal himself. Though given how Joel performed for the rest of the game, not a given that he'd convert it. Saunders reminds me a bit of Mullin during his time with us, not always making the right choices in his desperation to get on the score-sheet. However, none of the strikers on the pitch are particularly strong in the air, neither is the absent Kane Hemmings. It was disappointing to see the lack of balls from the midfield on the deck for them to run onto. It felt like Hendry was being snuffed out of the game and I'm surprised Micky didn't opt to introduce either Merrie, who could deliver balls for the forwards to run onto or Nolan, who'd do a better job at ball-retention than was forthcoming today.

As I'd feared in my pre-match thoughts, neither Turner-Cooke nor Chalmers were able to fill Kieron Morris' boots in this game and it's a lot to ask young pros. Jay did better at the defensive aspects of the role, though he seemed to be racking up the fouls, Logan again looked out of his depth, one good attacking ball aside. It would be interesting to know Micky's thoughts behind rejecting a switch in formation in this game.

We still need about 7 or 8 points to get over the L2 survival line. Amy more performances like the last two and you start to wonder...

 

[ONIGP]

A development strategy will never work in one, two or three transfer windows. If we have made a net profit in 1 window and turned down half a million further then that is an amazing start. The strategy is a long term one to ensure that we are sufficiently funded to move up the ladder. With this policy the aim is to be a sustainable L1 club, anything beyond this depends on additional funding which has been made clear often enough. MM is a trusted pair of hands and a development policy is a long term strategy; providing that we avoid relegation and have a better pool to fish new recruits from next season, then it has been successful. Neither a defeat to Mansfield nor any post match comments by MM are relevant.