League Two Stockport v Rovers

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree, but the new signings are not bedded into the side yet. We will have a clearer picture in a few weeks.

 

[Sparky]

It is frustrating. We can beat the league leaders but then lose today. I’ve lost track of the amount of times that we’ve had a disappointing result but one said “we’re still only 4 points off the play offs”.

Hopefully we’ll get some more consistency over the coming weeks albeit we have some tough games ahead (on paper anyway)

 

[Ian]

Awful defending, gifted them the goals.

 

[drwhoman]

The defending Was chronic but even so the goalie was less than decisive!

 

[Goody Two Shoes]

“Awful”, “poor”, “sloppy”; just wanted to add my own adjective for the second and third goal and I’m plumping for ridiculous. For me, completely over-shadowed everything else that went on yesterday and I’m normally pretty up-beat. It’s no wonder Micky was lost for words. Clearing your lines is a legitimate tactic and I just felt we were trying to be too pretty and clever on both occasions. Also, God gifted goalkeepers arms and hands for a reason. Even with those errors we nearly nicked a point, which reflects that we’re not a million miles away from legitimately challenging at the top end of the table. It’s one game, had my bellyache and my focus is now switched to Tuesday.

 

[ADD]

Thought we did ok for the most part but disagree that there was nothing in it between the teams. Overall I felt they were the better side and hit the post twice with good efforts with the keeper beaten (Bristow's was a mishit cross). Main difference was they were more creative playing the ball to the man/ into space.
That said the new recruits looked good and we were far better in the second half and as others have said the new recruits will surely improve things once they get fully fit and fully integrated.
Burton also again did well when he came on and for a small lad he does seem to get up well for headers with a fine effort well saved at the death. I do wonder about Saunders playing as an out and out forward. Wonder if MM might be tempted to play him more in a wider role behind Hemmings as a lone striker or perhaps even behind Hemmings and Burton but that would likely mean dropping Morris who despite the goal doesn't to my mind seem to be firing on all cylinders.
We need another winning run urgently ideally starting on Tuesday!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Stockport had possession for longer periods than us due to their extra man in midfield, but we were dangerous and over the ninety minutes created just as much. In addition to the goals and hitting the woodwork, Hemmings missed a sitter early in the second half as well as Burton's late chance. There were also a couple of reasonable blocked efforts from Saunders after half time.

The stats for chances created are very even.

 

[Boz]

While it doesn’t detract from the point RLC makes, Stockport also won the hitting the woodwork contest; Wootton twice.

How did Byrne do yesterday?

 

[dollar'sbloke]

I don't see this happening but Saunders is probably a better sub option. Thought for a long time O'connor
needs to be central in five. Play merrie and hendry with the ball on the deck. Morris and hawkes can score at the back stick, need to get the former more supply though

 

[bigmart]

I don't see this happening but Saunders is probably a better sub option. Thought for a long time O'connor
needs to be central in five. Play merrie and hendry with the ball on the deck. Morris and hawkes can score at the back stick, need to get the former more supply though

I would leave Merrie out, he doesn't creste enough to warrant his place in the team

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Saunders just needs an extended run in the team to develop relationships with both Hemmings and the midfielders who are supplying him.

He has played the grand total of 130 minutes when not fully match fit, and it is not reasonable to jump to conclusions about him at this stage.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I would leave Merrie out, he doesn't creste enough to warrant his place in the team

I don't think O'Connor has been brilliant recently either. I think Hendry and Walker will be the midfield partnership in a few weeks.

 

[Sparky]

While it doesn’t detract from the point RLC makes, Stockport also won the hitting the woodwork contest; Wootton twice.

How did Byrne do yesterday?

Byrne was how I would have expected. Strong in the air but not great with the ball at this feet. I felt we could have done more with balls down the channels for Saunders pace to try and cause him more problems

 

[Sparky]

I don't think O'Connor has been brilliant recently either. I think Hendry and Walker will be the midfield partnership in a few weeks.

Yes I certainly think merrie will be out of the starting eleven for a while with hendry given some game time. Something needs to change to get us out of this rut we’re in of consistent inconsistency

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Byrne was how I would have expected. Strong in the air but not great with the ball at this feet. I felt we could have done more with balls down the channels for Saunders pace to try and cause him more problems

I thought the referee also treated him leniently, as he was using his arms a lot and regularly manhandled the strikers.

I think he is a very average player who is carried by the greater quality around him in that Stockport side.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Just rewatching the goals we conceded, I think Hewelt is partly culpable for the second and third.

It is a terrible backpass from Cogley, but Hewelt is flat footed. If he comes more aggressively to clear the ball with his head, Wootton would probably have collided with him and nine times out of ten the referee would give a free kick for a foul on the goalkeeper in that situation.

For the third goal, he should have caught the ball when it was deflected back to him.

 

[Boz]

Stockport are missing their best central defender in Horsfall. I think Akil Wright looks a decent player from the home game, though his career has been mostly non-league, while Hussey is predominantly a full-back being deployed in a back 3. I don’t have any strong feelings either way about Byrne, Challinor clearly trusts him and Pools fans rated him as reliable last season. Was curious as to whether he’d done better by being the central player in a defensive trio, which I don’t think we tried.

 

[Boz]

Just rewatching the goals we conceded, I think Hewelt is partly culpable for the second and third.

It is a terrible backpass from Cogley, but Hewelt is flat footed. If he comes more aggressively to clear the ball with his head, Wootton would probably have collided with him and nine times out of ten the referee would give a free kick for a foul on the goalkeeper in that situation.

For the third goal, he should have caught the ball when it was deflected back to him.

The poor back-pass from JDC was the primary cause of the second goal, with Wootton onto Hewelt straight away, he was pressured into making the wrong call. I wouldn’t put the odds as strongly in his favour as you if he goes full on for heading it and takes out Wootton in the process. 45+ minutes playing with ten men wouldn’t be great, especially with a game on Tuesday.

Think you’re probably right about the third goal, perhaps the wrong way to be playing out from the back against a pressing team.

Who do you think was most culpable for the first goal, those who failed to cut out the cross after JDC’s original error or those who failed to jump with and create difficulty for the scorer? If we’d kept that out, could have gone home with something.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

The poor back-pass from JDC was the primary cause of the second goal, with Wootton onto Hewelt straight away, he was pressured into making the wrong call. I wouldn’t put the odds as strongly in his favour as you if he goes full on for heading it and takes out Wootton in the process. 45+ minutes playing with ten men wouldn’t be great, especially with a game on Tuesday.

Think you’re probably right about the third goal, perhaps the wrong way to be playing out from the back against a pressing team.

Who do you think was most culpable for the first goal, those who failed to cut out the cross after JDC’s original error or those who failed to jump with and create difficulty for the scorer? If we’d kept that out, could have gone home with something.

The first Stockport goal was a good goal from their perspective. A quality delivery and an aggressive header by Knoyle. It was not great defensively, but nothing like the shambles of the second and third.

It is highly unlikely Hewelt would have conceded a penalty for the second goal in a circumstance where he could not use his hands. If he had been more proactive in both instances, we might have taken something from the game.

Turnbull and JDC did not cover themselves in glory yesterday, but there is no reason why Hewelt should be immune from criticism. Doohan would have been slaughtered for those incidents by people who have remained silent about Hewelt.

 

[Ian]

Hewelt probably should have done better but he shouldn't have been put in that position to begin with. It was just some very poor defending. Annoyingly, without the defensive mistakes we could have walked away with at least a point. Must be very frustrating for Micky.