Rovers v (Forest Green) Rovers

[Cowshed Kid]

Well, I hope Cheltenham finish top and FGR get smacked in the play offs. They were woeful and, as was reported in Echo, "more interested in wrestling than football".
Worse than Eastleigh were for spoiling and that says something.
Referee needed to grow some balls. Down to 10 men, it was their no 6 (already on a yellow) who wiped Kirby out. He winges he's hurt and the referee falls for the sob stuff. Free kick was ours so why not a second yellow?
I think the playoffs are now out of reach but it's important, after the last two seasons, that we maintain some momentum to the very end. It would be nice if it was still mathematically possible with a few games to go - hosting Wrexham's or Grimsby's play off party will be hard to stomach.
Thought the first sub would be Maynard for Kirby (who didn't disgrace himself) and move Hughes to the left. Maynard's physical presence might have ruffled up their back line given we had a man advantage.
On a lighter note GTF looked almost anorexic compared to Parkin.

 

[Sparky]

Yes GTF looked like he had lost a few pounds. Maybe Higdon is on the same diet!

 

[Boz]

As a further point, why was there no striker on the bench today ? We had two centre halves on there, but not Margetts. In the second half when the game opened out, he is the kind of player who could have applied a finish when the ball was bobbling around in their eighteen yard box. He scored on Monday night and to leave him out altogether smacks of bloody-mindedness on the part of Brabin.

We don't score enough goals and Brabin has let one natural goalscorer leave and sidelined the other. That should be considered when he is assessed at the end of the season.

Totally agree with this. No strikers and TWO central defenders on the bench in a must win game was inexcusable. He's packed off Stockton on loan and seemingly fallen out with Margetts, but Omotola scored twice for the youth team and Liam Davies is also a forward so other options were available. It's idiotic team selections like this which make me question Brabin's suitability for the job.

Rovers started brightly, but poor defending allowed Parkin to set up Carter for their goal with pretty much their first attack. There was then a string of cynical time-wasting ploys, feigning injury etc, not always clamped down on by an inexperienced referee. I was a bit surprised at this approach from Forest Green, as when I've seen highlights/read reports on them, such negativity hasn't been obvious. There was a fair bit of pressure on them first half, but no end product. Marsh-Brown's elbow on Hill deserved a red and the officials also missed a tug-back on Norwood in or around the penalty-box.

Second-half Rovers started with more purpose and a great ball from GTF set up Jay Harris who finished coolly to level. After that, the closest either side came to scoring was a long-distance free-kick from Marsh-Brown, tipped over by Davies. There were other incidents of note; Carter sent off for a second yellow, thought he was a bit unlucky with that, although as RLC says, he'd only been booked for 1 of his previous 3 bad fouls, Norwood stamped on in the box, again missed by the officials, Bennett, already on a yellow took out Jake Kirby without sanction. The only sub Brabin made was Mackreth for the injured Kirby and one good cross aside, Jack made little impact. Think Cowshed Kid's idea of throwing Maynard on should have been tried, given our self-inflicted lack of other options. Ultimately a point isn't enough and whatever can be said about the failings of our opponents and the officials, we didn't test Forest Green enough, especially when a man down to have deserved more.

MoM for me was Hughes, always offering himself up for a pass and marginally ahead of GTF, who played some intelligent and calm football.
Of the rest, defensively McNulty was below par-bit surprised the sponsors gave him MoM, but the others were ok. Thought Harris played some good balls from midfield, Kirby was quite industrious, but Mekki very subdued. Norwood seemed to be targetted by the visitors, guess hoping to fire him up, but he did well to resist.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

It's idiotic team selections like this which make me question Brabin's suitability for the job.

I agree. There was a bit of a 'love-in' towards Brabin on this site last week, but it is games like today that highlight our weaknesses; dominating possession but not doing enough in the final third. I saw an interesting post on another Rovers site which shows that we have had play-off form in the second half of the season, but still fall well short of FGR, Cheltenham and Grimsby in that period. And that is without even considering our truly dreadful form in the autumn. You have to question whether that is good enough with the money that has been spent (third highest budget behind FGR and Eastleigh I would guess).

The main reasons cited for keeping Brabin are stability and the lack of an obvious replacement - hardly a ringing endorsement of his abilities.

 

[drwhoman]

Myself and probably others can only agree with your second para RLC. What concerns me, and I am sure you, is how obvious the issue was regarding the subs. You really do wonder. GB is meant to be an experienced coach which is presumably why he got the job in the first place.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I can't see any evidence of Brabin love-ins. In fact, I haven't seen any compliments for him on this site for a long time. I myself have been the most pessimistic poster on this site recently. Recognising that changing managers now would be futile is just common sense.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I can't see any evidence of Brabin love-ins. In fact, I haven't seen any compliments for him on this site for a long time. I myself have been the most pessimistic poster on this site recently. Recognising that changing managers now would be futile is just common sense.

Bbtc, I was referring to my own comments about brabin last week - i suggested we should keep him if you remember ? Although we are sticking with him, I have great reservations about him. That is all I was saying.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Agreed. I think we all have great reservations about him.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Given that our current form is play-off material I still think we'll make it. Can't disagree with any of the assessments about the game stated above, I won't waste 10 paragraphs slagging off Forest Green as they simply don't deserve it.


For me the lack of a goalscorer is a concern obviously but we're not actually making that many clear cut chances to benefit an inform striker. The final ball on Saturday was often the wrong one and I know you could argue "ah well IF we had a good striker he'd make chances for himself" but I still feel we are not playing to the system we employ: the two wingers did not get behind the back line nearly enough on Saturday for example.

The teams around aren't exactly on fire. It's still all to play for. Next two are very winnable. Let's see where we are after that.

 

[Ian]

Wrexham, Dover and Braintree are top of the form table after the last six games played. Wrexham on 16pts, Dover on 13 and Braintree on 12. We are 10th with 9 points. Ohh and then you've got Eastleigh and Grimsby in 5th and 7th. I'd say teams around us are pretty much on fire.

Dover and Braintree still have 2 games in hand on us. We're going to have to win a lot of games remaining.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

If we win six of the last seven games we would finish on 81 points, and no side has achieved that total and failed to make the play-offs in the last decade.

However, I appreciate that is still a very big if and we could still be buggered by our goal difference, which is not great. However, as TT64 alludes to, if we play at our best you would expect us to win the next four games, which would make life interesting when Wrexham come to town.

Going off-topic, I thought I should also mention the Fan Park which was heaving on Saturday, with plenty of home and away fans enjoying a pint. A great initiative by the club and the Trust, which should benefit us financially.

 

[Ian]

If we win six of the last seven games we would finish on 81 points.

Come on..

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Come on..

We did actually win six out of seven just after Christmas.

Yes, I am in denial.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

If we win six of the last seven games we would finish on 81 points, and no side has achieved that total and failed to make the play-offs in the last decade.

However, I appreciate that is still a very big if and we could still be buggered by our goal difference, which is not great. However, as TT64 alludes to, if we play at our best you would expect us to win the next four games, which would make life interesting when Wrexham come to town.

It's a very big if - not impossible, but unlikely given current form/tactics/players/manager. We've been unable to get any real momentum, dropping too many points. However, our rivals can win away against mid-table sides and beat Cheltenham at home. In our favour, we do have a strong squad on paper, which could stand a couple of injuries without being affected as clubs with fewer resources.

Going off-topic, I thought I should also mention the Fan Park which was heaving on Saturday, with plenty of home and away fans enjoying a pint. A great initiative by the club and the Trust, which should benefit us financially.

I was interested to hear this. Was it a big tent in the car park? Were the fans unsegregated? It sounds a great idea. I'll bet there was no trouble and would have been a great money spinner for the club. Once more people hear about it (home and away fans) and the weather gets warmer, it should be really popular.

 

[drwhoman]

An interesting comment by Shaun Garnett on the official site, comparing Gary with Johnny King. Drawing a long bow me thinks! I remember Johnny as a player. A real terrier.

 

[Boz]

I was interested to hear this. Was it a big tent in the car park? Were the fans unsegregated? It sounds a great idea. I'll bet there was no trouble and would have been a great money spinner for the club. Once more people hear about it (home and away fans) and the weather gets warmer, it should be really popular.

It's in the area behind the main stand. A few Forest Green fans there, no segregation and no problems at all. It was run by the club, taken over by The Trust, who've introduced some real ales and was doing good business.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Thanks, Boz. Rovers and real ale. It's making me think about moving back to the Wirral!