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rovers v Cambridge

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Alan King, Barry Dyson
It's not looking good on Livetext, with the visitors having most of the play. How are we doing?

Ironically, we have moved back into the play-off zone, as Stevenage and Exeter are both losing.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
It's not looking good on Livetext, with the visitors having most of the play. How are we doing?
After a bright start with 2 good saves from their keeper one from Stockton, badly. Lack of pace and movement, forwards not seeing much of the ball, most of the action in the Rovers half.
 

ADD

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Norwood
We are playing very consistently.. as in another very very poor performance. V lucky to be on level terms as the post saved us when Davies was completely between again from 35 yards.
 
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aldo
Nòoooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
wwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooddddddddddddddc get the fk in
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
Sounds like an average performance but a welcome and hard fought for win. Must do the confidence some good for the forthcoming games. I look forward to the reports.
 
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With Exeter, Stevenage and Newport all losing, we have made up some ground. Unfortunately, FGR somehow turned round a 0-1 deficit with ten men, scoring twice in stoppage time. However, we are back in the top six and winning again.
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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Well, that certainly was not pretty but it was exactly what we needed. You have to give the players a lot of credit for the guts they showed in the second half to keep going and force the victory through sheer persistence. The SWA played their part as well, lifting the players when they badly needed some help.

The first half was awful, and as has been commented above, I was just glad we went in level at half time. We were bright for ten minutes, with Stockton forcing a decent save from their keeper, but after that passes went astray and there was little pattern of play or semblance of shape. The distribution from the full backs was poor, with too many aimless punts and poor passes, and there was a gaping hole in midfield in the absence of Banks, with nobody to put their foot on the ball and show some composure: McCullough had a below par match and, while Harris worked hard and had a decent game by his standards, he just is not good enough on the ball at this level. A poor Cambridge side had the better of the possession and chances.

In fairness to the players and manager, after half time we worked our way into some kind of form, and the football did gradually improve. Cambridge had already had a couple of lucky escapes prior to the goal, notably Monthe's shot which squirmed under the keeper but was cleared off the line, and the victory was deserved in the end, Mullin again showing his value in the build up to the winner. At the other end of the pitch Cambridge offered nothing and were woeful.

Individually, I thought Connor Jennings had a good game and showed some much needed composure in the middle of the pitch; both centre backs were solid; Norwood worked as hard as ever; Cole Stockton put in a decent shift and did ok, but should have put away the two chances he had before being substituted. However, I agreed with the sponsor's choice of Jonny Smith as man of the match. I thought he was scinitillating at times, particularly in the second half.

A vital victory and hopefully confidence will grow from here.
 
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ian goodison
strange how we all see the game differently I would have taken cole off at h/t, McCulloch to me was MOM breaking play up and keeping things simple, does anybody else think MM is reluctant to make changes in case it goes pear shaped?, to me Sutton should start ahead of steve he was off the pace today.
 
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I thought Macca was the best of the defenders today, won every header.
I certainly don't think he will be dropped for Sutton
 

Sparky

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Yes it wasn’t pretty but 3 points all that mattered in such difficult conditions. Thought we deserved it for that 15 minute spell in the second half when we were on top and the SWA roared them on.

Agree with RLC that Smith was mom and the most likely to create something. Was worried Nors May have been offside when stealing Mullins goal from him.

Not a vintage win by any means. Midfield still not great and Southport away will be a bigger test but 3 points is 3 points
 
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Southport away will be a bigger test but 3 points is 3 points
I think if we play like we did in the second half we will be absolutely fine at Southport. We have to bear in mind that for all of the talk coming from their camp ahead of the game, the poor Cambridge side we beat today are much better than Southport.
 
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Adam Buxton has just issued a Tweet criticising the people who cheered when Stockton was substituted.

Idiots, one and all.
 

Sparky

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Totally agree. Even if he has a stinker 1. He doesn’t do it deliberately and 2. He could be playing next week and needs confidence.

Remember he hasn’t played for weeks due to injury. He’s not good enough in my view but the cheers were out of order
 

Sparky

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Here’s what he has said. Not only does it piss Cole off it also does the rest of the team as he’s a popular player


Where all in this together to cheer one of the lads getting substituted like that is bang out of order. Other than that great win in tough conditions enjoy ya weekend everyone

1f44d-1f3fb.svg
 

Boz

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Supposed to be a sign of a good team, winning when playing badly. Rovers started brightly, shot from Norwood and header from Stockton both brought decent saves from their keeper. However, Cambridge battled their way into the game, they pressed and Rovers were sloppy keeping hold of the ball. Had two decent chances one brought a good save from Davies, with Harris hooking away the ball back into the box and the other a long range effort where the ball seemed to move in the air, hitting the foot of the post with Davies static. Thought there was a bit of booing at the team leaving the pitch at h/t. I didn't think there was much improvement initially in the second half, but suddenly Smith got into the groove, which seemed to give the other players confidence. Smith played a decent ball into the box for the goal, like Sparky, I did wonder if it was offside. Although there were a few jitters after that, with an underhit back-pass which Scott had to race off his line to clear and a low, fast cross into our box, with fortunately no contact and we held on for the win reasonably comfortably.
 
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Ian

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Glad we we finally came away with three points but it was a poor performance up until 60 minutes when we finally decided to string some meaningful attacks together. By this point Cambridge had settled for the draw so it was up to us to take it to them. Maybe this is just the result we needed, whilst not pretty, it might just be the springboard for some decent results in the run up to Xmas.

Mullin is a much better player than Stockton and while I can understand MM decision to change things, you've got more chance of an elephant scoring for Rovers than you have Stockton. Some of his play was OK, but we all know what we're going to get with him.

Overall pleased with the result but we can and really need to play better than what we've seen the last few weeks..
 

ONIGP

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Eddie Bishop
A dreadful first half after a bright first five minutes. Cambridge were poor and we were even poorer - it felt like V&n&&&&a all over again, shocking! The worst half of football we have played all season and I pray it doesn't get worse. Second half didn't start much better. However, as Cambridge started to tire we played some good balls down our right flank. Credit to the team for realising that this was our strength and their weakness and playing on it at every opportunity. Johnny Smith, supported by pretty much all the team, tormented them and well deserved the mom. Manny was again solid at the back in what was another shakey defensive performance. Great to get a win and I hope it gives the confidence to start moving forward again. However, we aren't playing as well as we were at the start of the season when we were scrapping out results and I don't understand why. It is as if we have beaten a few of our more"illustrious" opponents, believed that we are good and slightly taken our foot off the gas. We need to wise up and remember that this league is all about very fine margins. We escaped with one today and amazingly (based on recent performances) are 7th. We have got to go into each game fighting like we did in the very first one in August. SWA.
 
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