Bristol Rovers (H) League - Saturday 30/12/06

[Aldridge_saddler]

The bandage thing made me reminiss of A) Ada Viveash in his bandage and (even funnier) B) Zigor in his "pop-up" stlye bandage..... ah the memories :lol: :lol: :lol:

That was one of his best post pedro games for us against sheffield wednesday?

In all honesty today we have been great at being able to shut out games and we paid the price twice, almost three times for poor defending.
Roper was clearly injured in the first half and never really recovered.
Dobson well we all know :evil:
Pitch didn't help but not to be used as an excuse for a poor performance.

[sid swifty]

Does anyone know todays attendance?

[Stu]

is he instructed to wimp out of challenges and duck out of headers?

Is Sam instructed to fall down? Is Fox instructed to not get within 35 yards of goal or constantly drift in field? Is Butler instructed to give away daft free kicks that cost goals?

No, of course they're not, and Wright isn't.

But your looking at a League 2 footballer, not a Championship footballer.

[Stu]

Does anyone know todays attendance?

Just under 6000, 5942 or something like that.

[geoffwhiting]

Does anyone know todays attendance?

Can't remember precisely Sid, but I recall it was just under 6,000, i.e. 5,9xx.

[geoffwhiting]

Sometimes Stu, we are just SO together.

Then there are the OTHER times! :lol:

[Stu]

Sometimes Stu, we are just SO together.

I'm a happily married man thank you GW... My missus would not appreciate such overtures I'm sure.

:lol:

[sid swifty]

Thanks...could't go today...it was my grandaughters 1st birthday party...more than my life's worth to miss that... :D

[SaigonSaddler]

Does anyone know todays attendance?

5991

FACT!

[geoffwhiting]

For one of the few times in recent matches, I can't complain too much and I still don't know how we only got a point from that game.

The Gasheads only offered a threat from set pieces (and Martin Butler was superb in creating both their goals for them), whilst Phillips made 3 1 on 1 saves from Butler (2) and Sam with some good goalkeeping, whilst we messed up the final ball numerous times with Wright and Pead not taking advantage after good play.

The one complaint I do have is about Martin Butler... Its no point holding the ball up superbly, when he decides to have a "Tommy Wright-esque" day and give away a stream of constant needless free kicks. I had a go at Fox for it at Boston, so I have to do the same with Butler.

1st goal - Bloke is going nowhere, running after the ball to the touchline. Butler obviously thought it would be funny to see if he could shove him over the wall for no reason. Result = Goal

2nd goal - Bloke on the halfway line, actually facing his own goal, offering no threat. Butler decides to see if he wants to swap shirts, result, one long ball in the box and its 2-2.

I'm not directly blaming Butler as we failed to deal with either set piece, but those constant needless free kicks cost us 2 points today and I fully expect MK Dons to be top at 5pm on Monday. For a seasoned professional, he really should have known better on both occasions.

I'm not mentioning another abject performance from Fox, as he clearly isn't a left midfielder to me, today he constantly kept coming inside, which was infuriating when the flanks were the best places to play football.

2 points dropped, without doubt, but a decent performance that warranted 3 points.

Agree absolutely Stu, except I'm not altogether with you on the Fox performance.

Bristol were NO threat except set-pieces, but we offered them far too many of them, and paid for it disastrously after we appeared to have won the game late on.

Could NOT believe the bloke (Chris I think his name was) on WM after the game, saying that Butler and Dobson should be dropped - he obviously doesn't want us to get promoted then! Although MB gave away needless free-kicks today and they cost us, those incidents are far outweighed by his hard work and commitment in this and other games.

[geoffwhiting]

Sometimes Stu, we are just SO together.

I'm a happily married man thank you GW... My missus would not appreciate such overtures I'm sure.

:lol:

I was referring to the timing Stu, I'll leave the rest to Jess !

Much to YOUR and MY relief! :lol:

[Cannock]

Relief ????? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Dirty old men. Tsk.

[latviancheese]

Today i dont care about the result or the performance. I was in hysterics when i saw dobson come running onto the pitch with the bandage on his head and winning the ball. Could not sto laughing all the way home. Dont know why it just gave the chuckles. Reminded me of a world war one trooper coming over the top of the trenches.

well i was thouroghly entertained anyway :lol:

Otherwise the pitch didnt allow us to play football today, and whats with DD being scared of making substitutions now?

I never felt happy being one goal up and Rovers scored of two scrambles but the second one looked like inept defending to me.

Fox aint a winger, why does he keep coming inside?

Still its good too see we pass it around more, even though the pitch stopped us from doing that.

[BathSaddler]

Does anyone know todays attendance?

5991

FACT!

Actually, 5,941. Not sure what the away following was though.

[Stu]

I think the F2G banner accounts for about 200 of those 1900 seats in the away end... There end block was pretty spares, and there were gaps throughout.

I was guessing about 1000-1200 Gasheads, which made for a disappointing Saddlers crowd of around 4700 - 4900, but after 3 games in 6 days its understandable.

[SaigonSaddler]

Does anyone know todays attendance?

5991

FACT!

Actually, 5,941. Not sure what the away following was though.

5,941 NEW FACT!

[Duke]

2 points dropped for me. On a heavy pitch with a tough away game less then 48 hours away why did'nt DD use any subs ? that i feel cost us the 3 points.
Performance wise disappionting first half , better second . Dobson, Pead did ok Sam very much improved Dann outstanding what a prospect .
Fox very poor i lost count of the number of crosses he over hit . Butler ran his heart out , but tends to give away needless free kicks , all in all we can and must do better.

[tinned]

I can't believe people are coming on here saying Fox played well !!!!

He's never anywhere near the touchline, he keeps coming inside and we lose all shape. When he does rarely get the ball there is no end product, too often it's a ball passed backwards or sideways. I'm no major fan of Wright (although I've had less reason to moan at him lately) but his end product is way, way more impressive than Fox. If he makes more obvious mistakes then it's down to the fact that the ball his played to his wing about 500% more than Fox's. At least he's in position and available for a pass.

I started yesterdays game with the real intention of looking for the positives in Dobson's game. Oh well, I tried I suppose. Somebody mentioned above about Roper being injured, wonder how that happened :? Actually there is one thing he does to perfection, that is getting in the bloody way :x

A mistake from DD yesterday was not putting on any subs, terrible mistake. A common mistake he makes is by putting all 11 men in our own box when we're defending a corner. I just don't see the reasoning in this unless we're 1 goal up with 10 minutes to play. All it achieves is letting the oppo camp themselves deep i our half. Don't understand it, don't (and never will) agree with it.

[Bernie]

Phil made a great posting last week after the Wrexham match about DD's use of attacking subs.

Thing is, it's all very well DD coming out with great insights like "it's not Ishy's type of game"... But what exactly is his type of game?

If we're losing, he's too much of a risk
If we're winning, he's too much of a risk
If we're drawing, he's too much of a risk

When we were a goal up just after half time DD did not want to change a winning formation.

When they drew level after 65 minutes he thought that he had better keep things as they were just in case.

When we scored again on 88 minutes he did not want to change anything - not even to waste a bit a time.

When they levelled on 90 minutes it was too late.

[ShropsSaddler]

Well, as others have said, I don't think we played too badly at all yesterday. How many teams this season have we played badly and got a 1-0 win? It was probably about time to even it out!!

Usual ridiculous comments from some as soon as we don't win a game!

Player by player;

Ince - not a lot to do, did well when he had to
Westwood - ANOTHER excellent game and yet still I hear some muffled booing when his name's read out!!!
Taylor - made the first goal with an attacking run from deep, didn't do it again all match! Orders from the bench perhaps?
Roper - clearly injured early on and didn't look quite the same player for the rest of the match
Dann - had some good moments, great goal but let's not think he's the finished article. He doesn't hold the line well in defence, several times yesterday he played a Rovers forward onside when he could have stepped up with the rest of the defence
Wright - as others have said, if you are always the attacking outlet, your mistakes are more noticeable. If we had half that amount of interest and attacking intent on the left side, it would be ok to criticise Wright. That said, he had a bit of a mare! :-) But he KEPT asking for the ball...perhaps some who call him a coward would do well to remember that.
Pead - was anonymous 1st half but really came into it 2nd half
Dobson - well here we go again, target for the boo boys! I thought he had an excellent game again, breaking up attacks as he's meant to. No, I can't explain why he misplaces a simple 5 yard pass sometimes...but then, if he didn't, he'd be playing in a much higher league! I've now heard several people even blaming Dobson for the Rovers 1st goal because he wasn't on the pitch!!!!????!!!!
Fox - as others have said, came inside far too often so we had no width on the left. I thought he showed some enthusiasm for the game but he was very ineffective
Sam - his best game in a Walsall shirt for 70 minutes, linked really well with Butler, held the ball up well. Looked tired towards the end though and should have been replaced.
Butler - another superb effort and AGAIN deserved a goal. Noted the comments by others about the fouls that lead to the goals but surely it's up to us to defend freekicks from halfway and beyond a bit better?
Mr Money - I heard his comments about subs but not sure I can concur. Certainly no room for Keates, Bradley but I think Bedeau could have replaced Sam to some effect or even stick Demontagnac up front to worry them with his pace

[Duke]

good post Shrops, what has Westwood got to do to please some fans.
he hardly put a foot wrong yesterday

[Jolly Johnny]

Yep I agree with those last two posts as well. Westwood had a very good game and can't really remember a mistake other than misjudging that cross early in the first half. Comes inside to cover centre defence well too. No more boos please!!