Boreham Wood v Rovers

[Ian]

Mal, you couldnt possibly get any worse than last seasons team. Those guys make our current team look like the Brazilian national side!

They need to work on their mental game and confidence as well because they keep taking about heads dropping when they concede, losing their game plan etc etc..

The quality is there but they do need to step up.

 

[Sparky]

Jennings starts again!! Is he related to GB or something?!? Plus McNulty and GTF too.

And kirby travelled but not in the squad?!

Just watched Eastleigh beat southport with Stockton not getting on with 2 strikers coming on ahead of him.

 

[Ian]

Well, it's an improvement as we didnt concede but we did have a host of good chances and yet again missed them.
So we are at a level here we there were actually more away fans than home fans. We should be walking away with three points. Lot's of work still to do to get this team winning again.

 

[Sparky]

Well a point away from home is never a bad result I guess, especially when it sounds like we had 3 players limp off with injuries.

Need a win at home next Sat.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Ian, I am not sure I spotted the host of chances we had today, so I am guessing that Andy Doyle has been flexing his imagination again ?! This was dismal fayre from Rovers.

We set up in a strange, narrow 4-3-3 formation with GTF as the lone striker and Norwood and Tomlinson out wide. While this made us relatively solid defensively, it meant that we had virtually no creativity. GTF was too isolated, neither linking up with the midfield or troubling their centre backs. As a result, and despite the three man midfield, we played very little decent football. If previous games have at least been lightened by some decent passing moves, there was precious little of that in evidence today. In addition, as the formation was so narrow we had no threat wide, other than some good forays from Vaughan at right back in the second half.

It was a bizarre set up, and even when Harris went off injured and Mekki came on he operated in the centre of midfield rather than out wide. I think this was all about self preservation for GB, trying to make us solid to avoid a repeat of Tuesday night, but it made for a dire spectacle. We only seriously threatened in the last fifteen minutes of the second half when Norwood and Mangan had a couple of chances. The best opportunity came to the former, who set himself up well but shot straight at the keeper from fifteen yards. The chants of 'we've had a shot on target' from the Rovers fans on 80 minutes were an echo of the York debacle last season.

At the other end, Boreham Wood had several set plays but showed little quality themselves. A nil nil scoreline might look decent on paper, and I suppose it is in our present circumstances, but they were a poor side who should be able to beat comfortably. In general I thought the display from Rovers was shapeless, with no clear pattern of play and emphasised that confidence levels are at rock bottom at present. Yes, we kept a clean sheet, but the standard of our football was far worse than in the previous two or three games and there was nothing in this display to suggest we have turned a corner and give hope for the rest of the season.

Several individual displays were so lacklustre I got the impression a number of players are not playing for the manager. Norwood and Mekki worked hard and looked pretty sharp, and McNulty was composed at the back. Vaughan was very positive, got forward well and looks a decent player. Nobody else comes out with any credit. Jennings was awful, and did not play a forward pass all afternoon. Hill was skinned on several occasions by their right winger, and should probably be replaced by Ridehalgh on this display. Tomlinson contributed nothing: I have not seen him do anything worthwhile since he arrived at the club and you have to wonder why he is even here.

Remarkably, we are still only six points off the play offs, but I did not see anything today to suggest we will breaking into the top five any time soon.

 

[Ian]

Thanks RLC. I suppose GB post match comments of "we defended properly" pretty much echo what you are saying above with very little in the creative department. That's pretty depressing actually. God only knows what will happen if we fail to win next Saturday.

GB tactics today suggest he is really struggling and if the players aren't playing for him his time will come sooner than I expected.

 

[Sparky]

Thanks for the report RLC.

GB was trying to put a positive spin on it post match which is understandable I guess. At least it was an improvement from Woking (who lost today), and shows just how bad things are with the level we have reached.

The disappointing thing for me is GB is persisting with the likes of Jenno, Hill, & GTF who have done nothing of late. Do we know why Kirby didn't play and he stuck with Tomlinson who was poor again? Ridehalgh should be given a chance.

I think lose next Saturday and he'll be gone.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

This was the first time I've seen Rovers this season and I wasn't impressed. I have to say that this display was worse than all the games I saw last season. The Woking match has badly dented confidence, so GB's priority was to shore up the defence. Obviously, that plan worked. I thought the back five (six including the sub) played well. In particular, I thought Vaughan looked composed and creative. The problem was the lack of creativity in midfield. Boreham Wood dominated midfield through very tight marking, which meant we hardly strung more than a couple of passes together all afternoon. As a result, the defence resorted to hoofball. The forwards didn't see much of the ball but we might have nicked it in the last few minutes if they had been a little sharper. Again, we were very unlucky with injuries, but I didn't think the changes affected the performance. It was a very poor advertisement for the NL. Boreham Wood have not won for five games, but the team fought hard and worked for each other. However, I was left the impression that if we can't beat an outfit like this - or even score a goal - in 180 minutes, we are not going anywhere this season.

It was also my first non-league game for many years. It was an eye-opener on how different things are outside the Football League. BW are a tiny club with average gates of about 600. (Today they got 640 but over half were the SWA!) However, they are a very friendly club and everyone I spoke to made me feel very welcome. I don't usually buy match programmes but this time I did so out of curiosity. The chairman wrote a very shrewd and honest article highlighting the difference between the two clubs. Interestingly, he was fairly frank that although his club had done very well to reach the NL, he was confident that TRFC would eventually get back into the FL. According to him, it is just a matter of time. He also offered BW fans a number of rail tickets to their next away game in Barrow at a subsidised price and to pay part of the petrol costs of any driver making the journey. Even MP wouldn't do that!

 

[drwhoman]

Thanks for the reports RLC and BBTC. I read an interesting article the other day in the context of Brendan Rodgers. When Managers are under pressure they tend to become more negative and to have more interest in not losing than anything else. This analysis could easily be applied to GB. I do not get the opportunity to go to games more than once every season or two but even so I could not understand the team that was chosen today given the highlights I have seen and the reports by regular attendees. It all reminds me of last season when Adams was starting to lose the plot. Shuffle the pack and hope! A sad indictment really given the perceived quality of the opposition. Onward and upward I suppose.
I was interested in your comments about non-league football BBTC. Years ago I had a friend who supported South Liverpool (sadly no more) who played in the Lancashire Combination and later the Northern Premier League. We had many pleasant and entertaining days out around the north of England. Some interesting places and very friendly people. A Rovers home game on a Friday night, with John M and Barry D banging them in, and perhaps a meat and potato pie at Bacup Borough on a Saturday (the best in the league) plus a couple of jars in the evening! Forgive the sudden burst of nostalgia!

 

[Brightonian]

Very accurate reports from RLC and BBTC. A really dire scrappy game looking like a goaless draw from the outset. One of those without virtually no moves of note, hardly ever more than a couple of passes strung together by either side, littered with errors and as poor a spectacle and entertainment value as I can recall in many years.

Trying to be positive it was a clean sheet, the new RB Vaughan played well with energy getting up and down well, competing with determination and was one of the better players. Thought Steve Mc Nulty had a really solid game, not really putting a foot wrong and did all he could to organise others being the pick for me.

Boreham Wood were the poorest team I have seen us play so far this season so as stated it does not bode well.

 

[bigmart]

Well a point away from home is never a bad result I guess, especially when it sounds like we had 3 players limp off with injuries.

Need a win at home next Sat.

A point away against a team with a poor home record and battling relegation is a bad result, although we are only 6 points off the play off places we look a long way away from making the top 5

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

A point away against a team with a poor home record and battling relegation is a bad result, although we are only 6 points off the play off places we look a long way away from making the top 5

I agree. To get into the play-offs, we need to win most of our home games and also a number of away games, particularly against the strugglers. We have performed badly all season against the poorer teams and this is why we are where we are. It's possible we could recover our confidence and turn things round, but it's looking unlikely at the moment.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree with Mart's and BBTC's comments above. Grimsby, Wrexham and Forest Green all won at Borehamwood. By contrast, we seemed happy with a point from the first minute yesterday.

We should not be going to such poor sides with a five man midfield, hoping to scrape a point. If we can't go to Borehamwood and take the game to the opposition without being afraid of conceding, it is a sad indictment of where we are at present.

 

[GroundsmansFork]

I think the simple fact is; we can't score. Instead of trying to walk it into the net, can we not just try hitting it!

 

[Ian]

We should not be going to such poor sides with a five man midfield, hoping to scrape a point.

It was all damage limitation for GB yesterday. He had no desire to win that game. His only focus was not to lose. Any team looking for a top six place will go there and try and win the game. Sad state of affairs indeed.

 

[Boz]

RLC, BBTC and Brightonian have fairly summed up the game and I share their analysis of events, depressing as they were. A new ground visited and the chance to put a face to a name (BBTC) were the main positives for me from this one.

A couple of things which my friends commented on were firstly the lack of singing; only one chant of SWA all game. The support was fairly spread out in the terrace behind the goal and half the stand at the side, but it seemed almost from the announcement of the team that disillusion set in. They also were impressed at the bottle shown by Matt Hill to come over and have a few words, when most of the others barely acknowledged the travelling support and Brabin slunk off as soon as the final whistle was blown.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

A couple of things which my friends commented on were firstly the lack of singing; only one chant of SWA all game. The support was fairly spread out in the terrace behind the goal and half the stand at the side, but it seemed almost from the announcement of the team that disillusion set in. They also were impressed at the bottle shown by Matt Hill to come over and have a few words, when most of the others barely acknowledged the travelling support and Brabin slunk off as soon as the final whistle was blown.

Good point, Boz. Yes, it was a bit quiet. Although we outnumbered the home fans, I've never known the SWA to have so much space allocated - one end plus half of one side to ourselves. But that's no excuse. The whole game lacked any atmosphere. Even the home fans were quiet. It was just a poor game with little excitement or action near the goals.

I too was unimpressed by the efforts made by the team or the manager to acknowledge the SWA at the end. Compare that to the way the home team's chairman treats their fans (see my earlier post). TRFC's PR is a lot better than it was, but this was poor.