League Two Rovers v Barrow

[Ian]

Lets get another win Rovers!

 

[Boz]

Hoping that today shows that O'Connor and Merrie can function as a midfield pair. Elsewhere line up as expected. The bench is a bit midfielder heavy.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

1-0 Hawkes !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Boz]

From the commentary it sounds as though Rovers on top and deserve the lead, though fairly low key. Some criticism of the ref booking Merrie but then not a Barrow player and ignoring a lot of man-handling of Hemmings.

 

[bigmart]

Lead at the break courtesy of a Hawkes goal with probably his first touch of the game, keeper made good save from s deflected Nevitt shot. Far from a convincing 1st half but deserve to be ahead, Merrie been pretty poor given the ball away a bit ref is poor.

 

[Boz]

Rovers need another. Having a few good efforts but Barrow sounding more dangerous this half.

 

[Boz]

Hughes on for goal-scorer Hawkes, who seemed to be playing well. Guess Morris swapping to the left?

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

A good result, but yet another 1-0. Why can't we make our superiority pay by taking more of our chances? Mark called for goals, goals, goals. At least now we are getting points, points, points.

 

[Boz]

Sounded like some good saves from their keeper and the woodwork for Nevitt's effort kept things respectable for Barrow, rather than Rovers being wasteful. Thought when we went more defensive at the end with the subs that Nolan might have come on rather than McAlear or Lewis. Decent win given Barrow's good start to the season.

 

[bigmart]

Absolutely dominant 2nd half performance and a thoroughly deserved win. Keeper for them was outstanding making 4 or 5 top class saves and keeping them in it.
Morris makes a big difference to our team and now he Is fully fit I expect him to be very influential

 

[ONIGP]

Really enjoyed the game. A strong performance and would have been more convincing apart from 2 wod class saves by their keeper. No obvious week links, although I do worry about Doohan's kicking and spatial awareness. First time I've seen Simeu and I was impressed. He's not the tallest but has great awareness and always plays a pass - no hoof ball. He was very unlucky not to be on the scoresheet. A special mention for the referee - perhaps not! Missed so much manhandling of Hemmings and missed, what looked to me, a stonewall penalty when Barrow defender handled on the deck. If we perform like this week in and week out not many teams will be looking forward to playing us.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

A very good performance and, as others have said, we really should have won by a bigger margin. The scoreline flatters Barrow.

In the first half I thought the two sides negated each other to an extent due to the match-up in systems, with Barrow playing Gotts as a number ten and having a spare man in midfield. We struggled to find space to create and Barrow were well drilled, but all of the moments of quality around the eighteen yard box came from Rovers, with a few decent half chances in addition to the goal. Hawkes did very well to show the composure to finish from a tight angle, given that he had barely been in the game up to that point.

In the second half we built up a head of steam and basically battered them. Morris became increasingly influential and we created numerous chances, and were only really denied a second goal by luck.

There were some outstanding performances today. The two centre halves were excellent, with Doohan a spectator other than catching crosses and sweeping up. O'Connor and Cogley were very good, and I thought Bristow had a very good game defensively. Barrow struggled to deal with Morris in the second period once he got the bit between his teeth, and Hawkes again showed what a valuable goalscoring threat he is. However, my man of the match is Simeu, who was immense.

The one slight criticism would be that Cogley in particular put some decent deliveries into the six yard box which were not attacked by the strikers. I thought Nevitt was the better of the two forwards today, but hopefully the goals will flow for Hemmings in time.

It looked a better gate than anticipated as well, although I have not seen the figure.

 

[bigmart]

Ah yes the referee was very poor to say the least.
Micky said in interview Luke Robinson out couple of months with ankle ligament injury

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

There were also a couple of great set piece deliveries from Hughes in the second half. Another very promising player.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

A more confident performance.
A stronger defensive helped us be more positive.
Only the lack of a dominant strike force, means, we have to battle out results.
Defo hand ball and yes the ref did miss a lot!
Thought Dynel Simeu was outstanding and is becoming a kop favourite, may I say a future legend (Goodison) status.
Great to have kieron back. I would play him in the hole behind one striker to be honest.
A better attendance, but unusually quiet first half, livened up second half. Still down on previous years.
The club need deal to bring more kids or family tickets at cheaper prices.
Especially with the cost of everything else outside the club.
And obviously with the overall cost prices rises inside the club.

 

[bigmart]

The attendance was 6123 with 565 away fans

 

[Ian]

Excellent performance today especially the second half, we battered them and should have scored more. We are never realistically going to score 3 or 4 in a game albeit the odd match so it's important to keep clean sheets and stay solid at the back. We have now found that solidity in defence with Simeu and Turnbull making a great central partnership with the excellent Cogley and Bristow mopping up out wide.

Morris has now comeback and is making a difference in midfield and I think this will help those around him. Pleased for Hawkes who got another and could easily get into double figures. Hemmings no goal again but was involved in some excellent link up play and is a good footballer at this level.

Regarding Hughes he is great with the play at his feet and has good vision but isn't the quickest, not that that is necessarily a deal breaker but just something I noticed today.

We are motoring along nicely at the moment and slowly creeping up the league table. I thought Barrow were OK but not as good as I thought they were going to be based on their results this season. I think we have to give credit to the lads for that. I like the ethic and workrate at the moment and some of Micky's decisions on squad rotation are really good and keeping people fresh with good competition. It's nice for Micky to have the choice with a few more players at his disposal.

 

[ALDO MUSSY]

hi all from NEW YORK An amazing place and the place I have had a 3-day trial at is amazing but gosh its rock hard and very stressful so a few things to talk about when home but I like where I am now, and don't know if I could miss my footie fix, its just coming up to 4 in the afternoon in NY so just seen the score and reports good on rovers some of the teams we have beaten in last few weeks just shows if the front two can fire we will be great

 

[ONIGP]

@Ian agree with your comments except on another day we could comfortably had 3 or 4. It was only an outstanding goalkeeping performance and poor referee that denied it.

 

[Sparky]

A thoroughly deserved win after an excellent second half performance tempered only by our inability to get a second goal.

First half wasn’t a great spectacle but Hawkes again showing why he needs to play with another goal taken well. Second half we came out and dominated and whilst their keeper made some great saves and Nevitt hit the post, I couldn’t help thinking if we had an out and out number nine goal poacher we would have won by at least three. That was probably the only concern in that whilst three 1-0 wins in a row is great, sooner or later we’ll concede a goal and we need to score more. We had this problem last season and as we know it partly boils down to poor recruitment signing injury prone strikers so Hemmings has no competiton.

Anyhow we mustn’t grumble. Three wins in a row and things are looking up. Onwards and upwards.