League Two Rovers v Swindon

[Ian]

Are we just going 442 for this one?

 

[bigmart]

No Charlie Austin for them, Hepburn Murphy starts

 

[Boz]

Cogleys nexts move will be interesting. At 27 he won’t want to go and sit on the bench anywhere. Bolton may well end up in the championship next season via the play offs and I’m not sure JDC is at that level. Time will tell.

I’m hoping one of the South Yorks teams sees off notlob in the play-offs. Ideally with Nors or Vaulks playing a part.

Tend to agree with you about JDC limit. Think the best deal he could get on a football basis would be with a top end L1 side, but if they go up he’d get a crack at the Championship that way.

 

[Boz]

Good that Saunders and Hemmings fit to start. Only 6 subs and as normal not including a keeper. We’ll do well to take anything out of this

 

[Sparky]

Must be 4-4-2 surely as couldn’t play chalmers as one of the two in a the diamond

 

[Sparky]

A lot of empty seats in the kop…..pitch in excellent condition given the time of the season

 

[bigmart]

Saunders gives us the lead.

 

[Ian]

Better from Rovers. Much more positive.

 

[Boz]

Apart from the Saunders goal after a decent cross from Hawkes, we’ve done little. Swindon haven’t been able to convert greater possession into goals yet. Full-backs seem to have been told to mainly stay back. Reckon we need at least another goal to see us get something.

 

[Boz]

Saunders replaced, presume carrying a knock.

 

[Boz]

Goody was right. I actually enjoyed the second half, even got through the thunder and lightning at the end, despite being astraphobic. Harvey Saunders got MoM but a great game from Tom Davies at the back and an impressive cameo from Turner-Cooke too. In the end could have been more comfortable than a single goal.

 

[Am on mobile]

I really wanted the 4 goals to make that burger

 

[Sparky]

I didn’t think we were great to be honest and Swindon will think they should have got something from the game. They dominated possession with 66% and 11 shots compared to our 7. Obviously we got the goal and hawkes should have doubled it in the second half. Swindon missed Austin and were fairly toothless.
Even second half at times the kop were getting frustrated when we went backwards and I’m not sure the 4-2-3-1 formation suited us. Hemmings put a couple of balls into the box and no one one was on the end of them.

Agree that Turner Cooke was impressive but the win was far from convincing in my opinion. Davies MOM for me and a win is a win so I shouldn’t grumble too much.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I broadly agree with Sparky, but I do think the performance was an improvement on the previous games under Dawes. We stuck to the basics with the 442 and were much more solid defensively than we have been recently, and Swindon were largely restricted to half chances. It is amazing what happens when you revert to the tactics favoured by Mellon.

There was good work in the build up to the goal by both Hemmings and Hawkes and it was an excellent finish by Saunders, attacking the front post as the strikers have generally failed to do this season. Harvey is under contract for another year, so it is important to us that he finishes the season strongly. That is two goals in four games now, which is a start for him. Elsewhere, I thought Hemmings, Hendry, O'Connor and the two centre halves all had good games.

It was a role reversal with the last three matches really, as Swindon dominated the ball for long periods without looking totally convincing, and we managed the game pretty well. Typical of so many of the narrow victories we have ground out this season.

We were getting a bit overrun in midfield at the start of the second half, so I think Dawes was right to switch to 4411 to give us more of a foothold. I thought Turner-Cooke looked more comfortable playing off the striker than he does out wide, and I agree it was his best performance to date.

We move back into the top half and Palios suggested in his programme notes a managerial decision will be made 'in the next couple of weeks', so hopefully there will be an appointment soon.

 

[MancunianWhite]

I thought my Saunders to score anytime and both teams to score bet was coming home

 

[Boz]

Purely on the possession point Sparky raises the stats are very similar to the Carlisle game, favouring the away team by roughly 2:1. Yet in both cases the home teams won.

I don’t think Swindon offered much in an attacking sense, the closest they came to a goal in the second half was the bodies on the line incident. Maybe they’d have done better with Austin in the team, but can only beat what’s in front of you.

 

[Sparky]

Purely on the possession point Sparky raises the stats are very similar to the Carlisle game, favouring the away team by roughly 2:1. Yet in both cases the home teams won.

I don’t think Swindon offered much in an attacking sense, the closest they came to a goal in the second half was the bodies on the line incident. Maybe they’d have done better with Austin in the team, but can only beat what’s in front of you.

Yes I agree possession means very little if you can’t do anything meaningful with it.

Morecambe got promoted under Derek Adams a season of two ago and had close to 30% possession in every game.

 

[keep the faith]

agree a win,s a win but that was for me painful to watch, if today is the future then I fear a long hard struggle next season.

 

[bigmart]

A typical end of season game with nothing at stake, good goal by Saunders

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

A win is a win, and I would usually take any win at this time of the season, and every time we do manage to put one on swindle it makes me happy.
Hoewever, I will have to admit that I've been entertained by kids football, more than what I sat through this afternoon. And I'm getting used to this drivel. Swindle were bad, we weren't much better.
Just really frustrating, good thing I have my season ticket, cos I wouldn't want to pay for that!
Was it a sub 5k crowd. There was plenty of lonely seats in the stand!