Rockford's Love Child
Member
- Joined
- 15 Mar 2010
- Messages
- 13,911
- Player
- Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
- Manager
- John King
Well, where do you start with this one ?
We played some superb football in the first half today, and the game should have been over at half time. However, terrible defending, and a bit of naivety from Baxter undid us.
Without exaggerating, some of the football we played in the first half was as good as anything I have seen from a Rovers side in many, many years. Baxter, Weir and Tiryaki were imperious in my view, with all three playing the best games I have seen from them in a Rovers shirt.
There were several great attacking moves, notably the one which led to Tiryaki's second goal - a fantastic strike - and an even better one a few minutes earlier which saw the keeper make a great save to deny Mustafa what would have been a hat trick. I think that save was a turning point, as I don't think Scunthorpe would have come back from a two goal deficit at that point in the game.
However, our defending was pretty woeful throughout, and Scunny's first, third and fourth goals were all thoroughly avoidable. For the first one, Fon Williams came off his line for a set piece and completely missed the ball, giving Duffy an easy header. Third goal, a routine hoof down the middle evaded both Taylor and Goodison, leaving Dagnall clean through, and he finished expertly. Fourth goal, stupid penalty given away by Goodison after dwelling on the ball in the six yard box, when he had ample opportunity to make a clearance.
Taylor and Goodison never got to grips with Dagnall's pace and movement, and even routine balls over the top seemed to have them tied in knots at times. Neither full back was particularly impressive either. It was as if we saved all the mistakes we have not been making in other games this season, for this one match ! The half time score was really frustrating, as Scunthorpe scored from pretty much their only two efforts on target, both goals coming against the run of play.
Baxter's sending off should probably not have been given, as Alan Knill has admitted, because there was a foul on a Rovers player in the build up to the incident. However, he went in two footed, out of exuberance I think rather than malice, and it was a certain straight red. His suspension will be a major blow, softened by the fact that two of the three games he misses will be cup matches I believe.
Credit Scunthorpe with having the resiliance to keep coming back at us, but we shot ourselves in the foot today, and this was definitely a game we should have taken points from.
Looking to the future, Tiryaki was excellent in the first 45 minutes, both with his back to goal and around the six yard box, and he must surely now be our first choice striker ? It was also noticeable how much fitter and stronger Baxter looked, as he was actually dribbling past players as well as spraying passes around as we know he is capable of doing. A shame he might lose a bit of that sharpness during his lay off.
Despite the scoreline there were certainly positives to be taken from the game today: I just hope we don't defend like we did for the remainder of the season.
We played some superb football in the first half today, and the game should have been over at half time. However, terrible defending, and a bit of naivety from Baxter undid us.
Without exaggerating, some of the football we played in the first half was as good as anything I have seen from a Rovers side in many, many years. Baxter, Weir and Tiryaki were imperious in my view, with all three playing the best games I have seen from them in a Rovers shirt.
There were several great attacking moves, notably the one which led to Tiryaki's second goal - a fantastic strike - and an even better one a few minutes earlier which saw the keeper make a great save to deny Mustafa what would have been a hat trick. I think that save was a turning point, as I don't think Scunthorpe would have come back from a two goal deficit at that point in the game.
However, our defending was pretty woeful throughout, and Scunny's first, third and fourth goals were all thoroughly avoidable. For the first one, Fon Williams came off his line for a set piece and completely missed the ball, giving Duffy an easy header. Third goal, a routine hoof down the middle evaded both Taylor and Goodison, leaving Dagnall clean through, and he finished expertly. Fourth goal, stupid penalty given away by Goodison after dwelling on the ball in the six yard box, when he had ample opportunity to make a clearance.
Taylor and Goodison never got to grips with Dagnall's pace and movement, and even routine balls over the top seemed to have them tied in knots at times. Neither full back was particularly impressive either. It was as if we saved all the mistakes we have not been making in other games this season, for this one match ! The half time score was really frustrating, as Scunthorpe scored from pretty much their only two efforts on target, both goals coming against the run of play.
Baxter's sending off should probably not have been given, as Alan Knill has admitted, because there was a foul on a Rovers player in the build up to the incident. However, he went in two footed, out of exuberance I think rather than malice, and it was a certain straight red. His suspension will be a major blow, softened by the fact that two of the three games he misses will be cup matches I believe.
Credit Scunthorpe with having the resiliance to keep coming back at us, but we shot ourselves in the foot today, and this was definitely a game we should have taken points from.
Looking to the future, Tiryaki was excellent in the first 45 minutes, both with his back to goal and around the six yard box, and he must surely now be our first choice striker ? It was also noticeable how much fitter and stronger Baxter looked, as he was actually dribbling past players as well as spraying passes around as we know he is capable of doing. A shame he might lose a bit of that sharpness during his lay off.
Despite the scoreline there were certainly positives to be taken from the game today: I just hope we don't defend like we did for the remainder of the season.
