Rovers v Shrews

[Boz]

So after the York debacle, the chance to make things better again comes against table-topping Shrewsbury, managed by former Rover Micky Mellon. A few ex-Rovers on their coaching staff too.

Our trip to the Greenhaus at the start of the season, saw Rovers fail to hold onto a lead, going down 2-1 to a couple of late goals, in a game characterised by wrong substitutions, which was a hallmark of Rob Edwards' stint in charge. At the time we played, they had a number of new players in the line-up, who had yet to gel. The Shrews have also signed a striker in Tyrone Barnett, who likes scoring against us, it wasn't as though they were lacking in decent forwards already. Despite the home advantage, my feeling is this will be a much tougher one than back in August.

It will be interesting to see what changes Micky makes post York. A number of players with first team experience featured in the Cheshire Senior Cup 1-0 defeat at Northwich Victoria last night, so won't have advanced their case for being included in the starting line-up. Shrewsbury are quite a physically strong side, while developing a lot of their attacks from out wide. It is desirable to have players in front of the full-backs who can offer something defensively, maybe also playing Laird for his height in the middle. It was puzzling why McGahey started ahead of Thompson in defence last Saturday, but having made the change, suspect the Blades loanee will keep his place. Hopefully Donnelly starts up front rather than tucked out on the wing.

Prediction: There will be a good turnout from Salop, maybe even a thousand. However, I suspect the home turnout will drop a little, so somewhere around 5.6k again.
If you're looking for omens, the referee Mr Mark Brown last took charge of a Rovers game in the corresponding L1 fixture a couple of seasons ago, sent off Liam Palmer and we lost 0-2 and slumped from the promotion places to 11th. Anything could happen, but it should be an improvement on last weekend.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

We are having another rollercoaster season with good and bad results virtually alternating. On that basis we should get at least a point, so I'm sticking my neck out and predicting a 1-1 draw.

In League Two this year, any team can match any other on their day, so I hope our Micky's team selection is more savvy and their Micky underestimates us. If our players pull their fingers out and the crowd get behind them, there could be a shock result.

 

[bigmart]

can only see an away win 2 1 for them

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Above all else, we need to be organised and competitive on Saturday and on that basis I would revert to five at the back. Shrewsbury have won 16 of the last 20 games and, as Boz states, have an embarrassment of riches in terms of personnel. However, they have only won 4 out of 14 away from home and if our attitude is right I think we can get at them.

I would play a side something like this:

Fon

Taylor
McGahey
Thompson
Dugdale
Holmes

Laird
Jennings
Koumas / Molyneux

Odejayi
Donnelly

Apparently Shrewsbury have already sold 900 tickets, so it will be another healthy gate. With results going against us this week, we could really do with a win from this game, let alone a point.

 

[Ian]

Difficult to predict at the moment as Rovers are so inconsistent. Lets hope the bad spell over the last few games is over and we give thema game.

I do think well have to be at our best as this will be a tough game and we'll do well getting a point never mind three.

 

[Colin K]

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Indeed.

An excellent performance from Rovers and a thoroughly deserved victory. The only disappointment is the sloppy goal we conceded, which Shrewsbury did not deserve and which made the closing stages a little more anxious than they should have been. Credit to Mickey for getting his team selection right, tweaking the side by bringing back Laird, who made a major contribution today.

I thought the first twenty minutes were very tight, with both sides probing and playing some decent football. The first goal was always going to be crucial and today's game shows the value of having Donnelly in the side; a tight match and he gets one fairly difficult opportunity (set up cleverly by Laird) and slots it away coolly. We were rampant for ten or fifteen minutes thereafter, and I was delighted that Danny got a goal his performances this season deserved; great hunger to win the ball in an attacking area and he finished the chance like Cafu.

In the second half we sat too deep at times, and the goal we conceded was poor, but in general I thought we managed the game very well, slowing the play when we had to while still posing an attacking threat. Shrewsbury created next to nothing in all honesty and resorted to humping balls into the box in the closing stages.

Individually, our front three caused them no end of problems, with JMW unrecognisable from last week and Donnelly having another excellent game. Unlike some recent matches, they worked in unison and the wide players fed off Odejayi's lay-offs. I thought Max had his best game for weeks and was very good in possession. Defensively Thompson won everything in the air, Danny was excellent as always, and Taylor got forward to support the attack very well. I would reserve special praise, however, for Marc Laird. I think he showed today what he offers the team, as the midfield looked far more solid due to his presence and he was also decent on the ball and involved in both goals. Jenno still looks slightly off the pace to me and Dugdale's distribution was not great at times, but they are minor quibbles in what was an excellent display. At no stage did we look twenty places worse than Shrewsbury, and I think today's game shows we are building good foundations for next season.

 

[GroundsmansFork]

Have to agree with the comments about Laird. Thought he played a big role in the win. We just need to believe in ourselves, like we did today and we'll be alright.

 

[Ian]

Agreed with above comments. One of our best results this far. We were unlucky not to be 3-0 up at HT. Quality is there. We can score goals and like groundsmans fork says, we need to believe. Laird was very effective in midfield and gave maximum effort and I thought Donnelly was involved heavily in play. There not much too him physically but he put himself about and was good on the ball too.

We really need to go on a run to get us away from the bottom pack. There's still only three points from us a second bottom.

 

[frenchrover]

Best performance for some time....Man of the Match for me today was Marc Laird, never stop running, harrying the opposition and set up Donnelly for the first goal. Also stand-out performances from Odejayi, particularly in the second half when he was left up front as the sole striker, his hold up play and determination to keep the ball was exemplary, also from Danny Holmes whose drive up and down the right side resulted in a well taken second goal. Despite a much improved team performance, I'm still a little disappointed in Powers contribution. Also mention should be made of Fon Williams brilliant double save in the first half, world class.
So let's look forward to a similar showing down at Portsmouth on Tuesday.
SWA.

 

[Boz]

The opening 20 minutes or so, the visitors looked more likely to score than Rovers, not so much due to their attacking ability, aside from one peach of a cross from the the left which only needed a touch, more down to Rovers' tendency to play the wrong ball in and about the last third of the pitch. Dugdale and Jennings, being particular culprits. Things changed around the half-hour mark, with a well-worked goal created by Laird and cooly finished by Donnelly. A few minutes later, a great interception and finish from Danny Holmes put us 2 up and Myrie-Williams hit the post about 5 minutes after.
Expecting the visitors would come at all guns blazing second half, but despite having more possession, we didn't seem to be tested too much and dealt with most things capably, with one or two chances notably a Max Power free-kick to extend the lead. The Shrews left-back Demetriou sustained a bad injury after a collision with Odejayi, which required about 9 minutes of treatment, oxygen and being stretchered from the pitch. Hope the lad's ok. However when the game resumed, the break seemed to have had a negative effect on Rovers, who resorted to defending deeper and struggling to keep the ball and it wasn't a surprise that the Shrews pulled back one back. Micky's response was to replace Myrie-Williams with McGahey and go 3 at the back with Taylor and Holmes as wing backs. It worked to an extent, but my preference would have been to switch to 451 with either Molyneux/Koumas coming on, so that we weren't defending so deep. However we clung on to a welcome 3 points.

Almost all of the Rovers side played well, agree with RLC that Myrie-Williams and Max Power improved vastly from York and everyone that Laird made a significant difference. The one I have reservations about is Dugdale, who now he's not alongside Goodi/Ash Taylor doesn't look as competent as his loan stint last season.

6 goal Pompey coming up next...

 

[bigmart]

A very important and huge result that and deserved too, Laird made a big difference today got stuck in well along with Max too. Doesn't do much for the nerves with so much added on time today.

Just a quick comment about the ref I thought he was awful gave us virtually nothing all day and missed a blatant handball when they hit the bar.

 

[Boz]

Regarding the ref, I thought he was poor too, but equally bad for both sides. Kept blowing-up rather than let the game flow, but let some worse things go unpunished. Odejayi was manhandled on a number of occasions without sanction, yet the second half free-kick he gave us on the edge of the box for similar was generous. I didn't see the late handball incident, presume that's what OFW got booked for protesting about, but he didn't take any action for Woods taking out Power on the edge of the Shrews box deep into stoppage time, aside from the free-kick. Woods also seemed to get lucky for what looked like a bit of aggression with the ball-boy near the end.

Demetriou has been released from hospital, which is good.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Agree with the comments about the ref. In addition to the points mentioned, the game should probably have been stopped when Demetriou went down injured, but Power was also hacked down by Woods in the build up to that incident: it seemed the ref was going to give him a deserved booking, but when play restarted he had apparently forgotten about the incident and did not even give him a talking to. The handball was comical, a blatant punch on to the crossbar by Collins, which all of our players spotted but the officials missed.

In general, I think the standard of refereeing at this level is pretty appalling.

 

[bigmart]

Agree with the comments about the ref. In addition to the points mentioned, the game should probably have been stopped when Demetriou went down injured, but Power was also hacked down by Woods in the build up to that incident: it seemed the ref was going to give him a deserved booking, but when play restarted he had apparently forgotten about the incident and did not even give him a talking to. The handball was comical, a blatant punch on to the crossbar by Collins, which all of our players spotted but the officials missed.

In general, I think the standard of refereeing at this level is pretty appalling.

totally agree the refs are getting worse

 

[Ian]

The officials are terrible this season. I know it's quite a physical league but when your players are getting pulled over and have all manner of arms/elbows in their face and the ref doesn't blow, it's mind boggling.