Rockford's Love Child
Member
- Joined
- 15 Mar 2010
- Messages
- 13,912
- Player
- Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
- Manager
- John King
Rovers bowed out of the JPT with a whimper tonight, deservedly beaten by a full strength and highly motivated Vale side.
As soon as they saw our starting line up I think the majority of the 100 masochists who attended tonight could guess the outcome of the game. With the number of changes made we didn't have the sharpness or the understanding in the side to get a result. Despite this, I am in full agreement with RM's approach: we don't have the resources to compete on four fronts this season.
The midfield was the main problem area, Rovers never getting to grips with the game at all, and lacking any real quality or creativity. Both Power and Harrison were very disappointing I thought.
Bell Baggie was as lively as ever, but made poor decisions in trying to dribble in his own half at times; Bakayogo had a dodgy game defensively; Cassidy worked quite hard but was left really isolated in the first half as a result of our experimental tactics.
None of the new players did anything to suggest they should be in the starting eleven, although Stockton looked pretty good when he came on.
Strangely, while I thought both Gibson and Golabert played ok individually, we looked vulnerable at the back, particularly in the first half, perhaps due to a lack of protection in the middle.
The experiment with playing Thompson as a striker alongside Cassidy failed, and he got the hook just after half time. McGurk moved up front, and made some decent runs, but his final ball / shot let him down, as it did for the majority of the side.
Tonight's selection suggests we are really committing ourselves to league success this season, so hopefully we will have a more satisfying and exciting 90 minutes ten miles down the road from Vale Park on Saturday.
As soon as they saw our starting line up I think the majority of the 100 masochists who attended tonight could guess the outcome of the game. With the number of changes made we didn't have the sharpness or the understanding in the side to get a result. Despite this, I am in full agreement with RM's approach: we don't have the resources to compete on four fronts this season.
The midfield was the main problem area, Rovers never getting to grips with the game at all, and lacking any real quality or creativity. Both Power and Harrison were very disappointing I thought.
Bell Baggie was as lively as ever, but made poor decisions in trying to dribble in his own half at times; Bakayogo had a dodgy game defensively; Cassidy worked quite hard but was left really isolated in the first half as a result of our experimental tactics.
None of the new players did anything to suggest they should be in the starting eleven, although Stockton looked pretty good when he came on.
Strangely, while I thought both Gibson and Golabert played ok individually, we looked vulnerable at the back, particularly in the first half, perhaps due to a lack of protection in the middle.
The experiment with playing Thompson as a striker alongside Cassidy failed, and he got the hook just after half time. McGurk moved up front, and made some decent runs, but his final ball / shot let him down, as it did for the majority of the side.
Tonight's selection suggests we are really committing ourselves to league success this season, so hopefully we will have a more satisfying and exciting 90 minutes ten miles down the road from Vale Park on Saturday.