League Two Rovers v the Vegans

[Ian]

Second best for 45 mins. FGR came firing out the traps from the first whistle and we couldn’t cope. Midfield none existent, attack play poor and some desperate defending at times. Needs a huge improvement second half.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Not a great day for us all round. Northampton, Newport, Sutton and Mansfield are all winning. However, it is good to remember that no matter what happens we will remain in second place.

 

[Boz]

BBTC, so are Stevenage, who we play next.

Ian, we’ve not been right all over the park. FGR deserve their lead, don’t know how we can change things. Nevitt on for Jolley, who I thought was no worse than Hemmings in the first half.

 

[bigmart]

Grim result this, makes Tuesdays game very important now to bounce back straight away especially with most results going against us.

 

[Ian]

Awful performance and a pretty dire day with those below us all winning. Need to put this to bed and come out firing on Tues night. I thought FGR were streets ahead of us in every department and will continue to storm this division. The best we can hope for is 2nd or 3rd.

 

[Boz]

Hugely disappointing. Forest Green played well as a team, can’t say that any individual player stood out though was impressed with Kane Wilson both for his part in their first goal, but he seems to have bulked up a bit and a physically stronger player than when he was on loan to us. A lot of thinking to do for Micky before Stevenage on Tuesday.

 

[Sparky]

Well that didn’t work out as planned. The gulf between the sides was massive and we couldnt cope with them going forward.

They started well and McDonald was skinned by Kane Wilson with stevens unmarked to finish. Micky switched ro 3-5-2 to match them up playing mcpake as a CAM and I thought we had a half decent spell. However their wing backs got in again and the other frontman Matt made it 2-0.

Half time I was hoping glatzel and Hawkes would come on but it was the same eleven and FGR carried out as before and clinically got a third and it was game over. The 4th was too easy as we didn’t close him down and I missed the penalty as I’d had enough by then.

They were far too strong for us as if we go a goal or two behind in a game we can’t come back as we’ve still not got many goals in us.

But let’s not go overboard. We’re still in a very good position and have a quick turnaround and opportunity to get back to winning ways on Tuesday, albeit against Stevenage who had a good win today.

Hard to pick any MOM but OConnor kept going all game. NKP doesn’t fill me with any confidence and we need Davies back ASAP. We need hawkes in the team as he is the only one with genuine pace. Hemmings works hard but as a striker he’s joined a team who don’t create that many chances.

 

[drwhoman]

The result was a shock and MM has to have them bouncing back next week. How much part did crowd expectation and losing an early goal play you wonder? It does not sound as if Rovers got going at all.

 

[Sparky]

Highlight of the afternoon was Scott Davies half time speech

 

[Boz]

Highlight of the afternoon was Scott Davies half time speech

Yes though hopefully Scottie will get another more auspicious chance to say his farewells.

 

[Ian]

Typical Rovers. Pack the stadium and put in a poor performance.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

A disappointing afternoon.

We were not good enough defensively today, both the back four and as a team, to make a contest of the game. We were never going to out football Forest Green, but we needed to be stubborn and stay in the game as long as possible, whereas three of their four goals were absolute gifts, as slick as some of the approach play was.

The defeat was about more than one player, but we hugely missed Davies' reading of the game at the back. As Sparky alludes to above, we also really struggled tactically with their spare man in midfield and the quality of their two wing backs. O'Connor and Spearing were not able to affect the game at all in the first half and were overrun at times; being outnumbered in the middle does not matter against Rochdale and Barrow, but it did today. However, even that aside I thought we started the game far too passively and were not aggressive enough. We needed to throw in challenges, including fouls, to disrupt them, whereas we simply allowed them to build a head of steam.

There were still some decent individual performances, with McPake and Morris both having good games and showing bravery on the ball, and O'Connor excellent again.

It is one defeat to the champions elect and pretty meaningless in the scheme of things. It is just important that we bounce back quickly and take six points from the next two winnable games.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

The timing of the first two goals also could not have been worse, and was a real killer.

 

[frenchrover]

Well reality well and truly bit this afternoon, a good attack will usually beat a good defence and this proved to be the case. It didnt help that our usually good defence was weakened today by Knight-Percival replacing Davies, as there is no way they are of equal quality. In every position FGR were light years better than us despite some half decent performances from Morris, Clarke (as usual), Dacres-Cogley and McDonald and fully deserved their victory. Our forward line looks very lightweight and Hemmings has, in my view, added nothing to our attacking threat with best efforts today coming from Hawkes (whoi I think should have started ahead of McPake) and McDonald (which says it all). Well despite all of that its now on to Tuesday and Stevenage, and notwithstanding their 3-0 win today, we must look to bounce back and put in a strong, winning performance......anything less, with some really difficult games on the horizon, could see us slide down the table.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I would not want to read too much into this other than FGR are clearly the best side in this division. However, we have proved over the past couple of months that we are well up with the rest. We need to remember that we won't play FGR again this season and so we can hope to beat all the rest. Our biggest worry is that this might deflate us after such a long unbeaten run. Being champions would have given us bragging rights, but no more. There are two more places giving us promotion and one of those should be our aim now.

 

[Sparky]

It’s also a massive benefit for FGR that they have two strikers who are goal scorers at this level. Stevens and Matt both took their chances when they came. Reminds me of when we had Cook and Nors.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Hemmings is a good player and needs to be given more than a couple of games to show his worth. It was hardly the easiest afternoon for him to show what he is about, as the service to him was extremely poor most of the time.

He actually had a better game than Jolley, who struggled this afternoon and is having a dip in form.

 

[keep the faith]

sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say we were thoroughly outplayed, as others have put it we were 2nd best from 1st to last minute KP was a disaster midfield too similar I could go on but just have to put it behind us, maybe a bit of a reality check,

 

[Sparky]

Hemmings is a good player and needs to be given more than a couple of games to show his worth. It was hardly the easiest afternoon for him to show what he is about, as the service to him was extremely poor most of the time.

He actually had a better game than Jolley, who struggled this afternoon and is having a dip in form.

Yes I’d be tempted to give Jolley a rest and give glatzel a go

 

[Ian]

It’s still quite tough for the young lads in the physical games. FGR are a different beast as they have quality in the forward areas, very different from most of the division.