League Two Rovers v Bradford

[Sparky]

Heard a rumour last night the Stockport game may be rearranged for Tuesday 27th Sep

 

[Ian]

Palios is patient and not one to make quick fire, rash decisions. Micky will be here for a while, so let us just hope he can motivate this team. We need to get out of this rut. I'm not particularly looking forward to the next few away games the way we have been playing.

 

[Ian]

Yes and given how close we were last season to the play offs, it makes you scratch your head why we totally changed policy on age and experience. At this level you need your senior pros. I’m a fan of Palios and what they have done for the club overall but this seasons approach looks to be totally wrong, even if and when Morris and Davies are fit

I'd imagine a lot of this is dictated by budget. I don't think we have much money in the pot.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

A

Yes years ago you had lots of people flouting the age rules. 18 year olds trying to get in for under 16 and all that (so I heard anyway!).

Now it is all automated people are charged at the correct rate which is fair enough.

Ah yes, I got in for half price up to the age of 19! Unfortunately, I look more my age now and automatically get any pensioner discount.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Wow, I am on holiday and lost Wi-Fi for 24 hours, so reconnected to find almost 100 posts to read, none of them complimentary. The only positive seems to be that Kane has found his shooting boots again.

I think Micky and Mark will be under increasing pressure if results don’t improve soon. Posters on this forum are long-standing, intelligent fans. Most of the fans are likely to be less sympathetic. When push comes to shove it’s attendances and crowd reaction that make a manager’s position untenable, even in this club. I’m a big fan of Micky and I hope he can turn things around soon.

 

[Ian]

so reconnected to find almost 100 posts to read, none of them complimentary

sorry bbtc, its all a bit doom and gloom at the moment. dont wish to spoil your holiday!

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

sorry bbtc, its all a bit doom and gloom at the moment. dont wish to spoil your holiday!

Don’t apologise, Ian. It should be Micky and the lads saying they are sorry.

 

[Boz]

I have now seen the goals and read all the further comments on the match.

Both Bradford goals originating on our right side, while well-taken by Cook demonstrated shambolic defending by Rovers. For the first, there were defenders standing and looking at each other, while Cook had a free-header. While Doohan ought to have made some attempt at stopping it, coming off his line, it falls into the collective cock-up category for me, rather than purely down to the keeper. Their second was equally poor defending. I don't think Turnbull can be exempt from blame here, he was the lead defender of the three and in the centre. Hemmings took his goal well and had another decent chance, as did Nevitt.

With the players available, we did not have to play 523. 442, as we started at Orient was equally viable. It was telling in that game that things got worse after Rovers switched to 523. Why Micky chose to persist with that and with the 3 in exactly the same positions after the problems of the previous game is a decision that he must take the responsibility for. If Turnbull is able to play left-footed then he ought to have been on the left side. We had the inexperienced Jamieson as the centre of 3 in the opening game, so you'd think Byrne is competent enough to take that role.

I agree with the concerns about lack of onfield leaders, though this would appear to be more a failure of player recruitment rather than retention. We tried to keep Clarke and Foley. Spearing chose to retire and get a coaching job and Murphy was always going to be taking a more back-seat role. With Clarke, whose already been dropped at Walsall, wonder if he's regretting making the move know. The consensus on here was that it was time for him to move on, while I've always had reservations about his style of leadership, too much bawling out of team-mates. While I'd like to have kept Foley, don't recall him being a pillar of leadership last season.

Palios has spent money on Hawkes, O'Connor, Hemmings last season and Byrne this, so it is wrong to shunt the blame onto him for the current predicament. It didn't feel unreasonable to suggest we'd play more attacking football after some of the poor away fare served up in the second half of last season, despite the reinforcements brought in January. Rovers have been unfortunate in losing 2 experienced players Morris and Davies for a significant time period, but I don't think the current squad is that raw.

Finally, it is realistic to think that we're potentially in a relegation scrap here. Some of those sides below us picked up points on Tuesday night and we have a testing run of games coming up. The side which started this game don't look capable of delivering enough over the full 90 to get us out of this mess, so it is up to the manager to find us a combination from the current personnel which can do. There should be nobody exempt from dropping after this game.

 

[bigmart]

Boz, I agree that we are likely to be in a relegation scrap as our away form continues to be dire and we've already lost twice at home which is worrying.
Burton is the only other option up front as Jolley is out long term, Mumbongo out for a while yet and Glatzel is already injured. Maybe for now the best option could be Lewis just behind Hemmings with Nevitt and Burton options off the bench

 

[Boz]

Bigmart, actually think it’s the time to give Burton a start, although can see the attraction of Lewis with some of the more physical opponents we’re likely to face and in away games. I’m unsure if Jake would be good enough to hold down a regular starting slot, but we won’t know until the chance is given. If neither of those options work then the time to look at any affordable out of contract forwards available who are good enough for what we need.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Palios has spent money on Hawkes, O'Connor, Hemmings last season and Byrne this, so it is wrong to shunt the blame onto him for the current predicament. It didn't feel unreasonable to suggest we'd play more attacking football after some of the poor away fare served up in the second half of last season, despite the reinforcements brought in January. Rovers have been unfortunate in losing 2 experienced players Morris and Davies for a significant time period, but I don't think the current squad is that raw.

It is the size of the entire wage budget relative to our competitors that is relevant, not nominal fees spent on a couple of youngsters.

Hemmings, Morris and Turnbull will be on decent money, but I doubt if many of the others are. There is no way we are competing financially with the majority of top half clubs.

Besides, it is HOW the money is spent that matters. Mellon certainly would not have wanted it spent on an experiment with a clutch of unproven youngsters, and that is a direction that has come from the top of the club. The squad is unbalanced, even if we have spent fees on a couple of players. Palios clearly had good intentions with that strategy, but if it fails Mellon should not be left to carry the can alone. You can't on the one hand claim that results on the pitch are nothing to do with Palios, and then state (correctly) that the squad is not for for purpose, when Palios has a key role in recruitment.

The football has been more attacking in periods this season, home and away. The problem is those periods are too infrequent, and we are too inconsistent.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree that Doohan was not principally to blame for the first goal. He is just the latest scapegoat for some.

Cook was given a free header in the middle of the six yard box, and even if Doohan had come for it he probably would have been bulldozed.

 

[Goody Two Shoes]

Goalkeepers are protected so much these days that if Doohan would have been bulldozed, it’d have been a free kick. He’s got to be fearless and more dominant in those situations and should have got himself more involved in that snippet of action. I’d have been rollicked for replicating that in my playing days. It’s the first time I’ve been critical of Doohan and I’m usually loathe to single out players, but his inertia on Tuesday didn’t look good. It was 5 yards out, right in front of him, not like he had to back-pedal or rush forward for the cross. Agree that the non-existent defending also needs scrutiny.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Goalkeepers are protected so much these days that if Doohan would have been bulldozed, it’d have been a free kick. He’s got to be fearless and more dominant in those situations and should have got himself more involved in that snippet of action. I’d have been rollicked for replicating that in my playing days. It’s the first time I’ve been critical of Doohan and I’m usually loathe to single out players, but his inertia on Tuesday didn’t look good. It was 5 yards out, right in front of him, not like he had to back-pedal or rush forward for the cross. Agree that the non-existent defending also needs scrutiny.

By 'bulldozed' I meant Cook would simply have been too powerful for him to claim the ball, as he had a run on him.

I was directly in line with the flight of the delivery. Doohan's positioning was correct, but he can't have anticipated that a six foot striker would be allowed to wander completely unmarked into the centre of the six yard box.

The goalkeeper can't come and deal with every cross, even if the ball is delivered to the centre of the box. Defenders have to pick up their men. Even if the defenders had not won the initial header, just by getting tight to Cook they could have prevented him having a free run at goal.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

I would agree in respect of contactless payments, but not cash on the gate. The potential for theft of cash by gatemen is immense, as there is no way of effectively auditing the takings on a game by game basis. I think theft was costing the club tens of thousands per season.

Gate men and women before cashless turnstile were scrutinised by cameras and counters electronically.

There was a lot of freebies and the big scams by certain people were stopped over time.

The biggest I heard was by a steward who was able to let in something between 20 to 30 each game.
Not so long ago after a new electronic system fai!ed, the club lost quite a bit as they had to let people in without paying. This has happened a couple or more times.
Another problem is every new system, the ticket office staff have to be trained to use and avoid crashing the system it is typically unavoidable with the Continuous practice of changing staff all the time. . A couple of years ago, the ticket office and shop manager left the club because of this.
The simple systems are the hardest to break.
Complicated means easily crashed.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

Just two things worry me at the moment after I watched this game.

We have no leader or experience to compete against the majority of clubs in this league. Just not good enough.

The low attendance. For whatever the number of reasons that contributed to this, I fear a severe downward trend.
Also the results have added to this trend.

 

[Goody Two Shoes]

By 'bulldozed' I meant Cook would simply have been too powerful for him to claim the ball, as he had a run on him.

I was directly in line with the flight of the delivery. Doohan's positioning was correct, but he can't have anticipated that a six foot striker would be allowed to wander completely unmarked into the centre of the six yard box.

The goalkeeper can't come and deal with every cross, even if the ball is delivered to the centre of the box. Defenders have to pick up their men. Even if the defenders had not won the initial header, just by getting tight to Cook they could have prevented him having a free run at goal.

Cook was marginally in front of Doohan and had barely any run to the ball, so I feel Doohan should have been able to read that he was the only option to interject. Can’t argue about the defenders going AWOL, but the position of Doohan’s arms look like he intended to catch the ball. In my opinion he should have been more assertive in the situation.
I’m guessing we’re going to have to cordially agree to disagree on this one and we ain’t going to be able to change it (if only we had the DeLorean!)

 

[Ian]

it’s hard times for a lot of people at the moment and they won’t part with their cash to watch this football at the moment. reducing the amount on the day is a good step but we need to see more on the pitch.

 

[bigmart]

Glatzel needs operation on his hamstring out long term

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Glatzel needs operation on his hamstring out long term

Tragic for the player and not much better for us.

He is on a pay-as-you-play deal apparently, so we will hopefully be able to bring an out of contract player in.