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Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Reports and reaction from the 2007-08 season as Walsall finished 12th in League 1
ShropsSaddler
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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:49 am

Simon of Sedgley wrote:Sadly sometimes size does matter no matter how skillfull you may be.


Not quite true Simon. The fact is that modern football IS a physical game. Therefore you either need a) physical attributes or b) EXCEPTIONAL skill. There have been some superb tiny players over the last 20-30 years (Mr Buckley for one, Peter Beardsley etc) but the thing they all have in common is that they really have some special skill. McDermott, from what I have seen, has NOT got that.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:50 am

Simon of Sedgley wrote:Sadly sometimes size does matter no matter how skillfull you may be.


...and it matters even more when you're not skilful at all.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:04 am

Bristol Fan wrote:
Simon of Sedgley wrote:Sadly sometimes size does matter no matter how skillfull you may be.


...and it matters even more when you're not skilful at all.


:D

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:31 am

I'm laughing but it's harsh.
Shouldn't really be up to McDermott to try and sort this out.
He will however enjoy a good career as an amateur - I'm convinced of that, genuinely.

Deeney really is at a crossroads now.
A goal or two will make all the difference, otherwise Gary Birch in a gimp suit is waiting for a strike partner.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:37 am

Don't knock the Birch-meister. Folks at Telford tell me they've REALLY missed him since he's been injured and they have suffered a huge dip in form in his absence. Added to which, pie takings are WAY down :lol:

Fair point though. Deeney will go the same way if something doesn't change soon and, in some ways, does remind me of Birch (but with three times the workrate!)

As for McDermott, yes I reckon a decent non-league career at the Conference North/South or lower level.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:01 pm

Last night pretty much summed up why we won't be in the playoffs this season. After we went 1 down, we had no plan B other than to hoof the ball into Bristol Rovers half, which suited them down to the ground.

I thought Smith had a solid game considering he had to deal with one of the best target-men in the league, in difficult conditions. The same could be said of Gerrard, to be fair. Other than that, there wasn't really a lot worth talking about.

Whoever said last night's effort was a good game needs to get watching some more football. If I wanted to see a row of defenders hofing the ball long to a 37 year old bald striker who can't jump, I'd go and watch the fourth division of the local Sunday league, where it's expected.

The tactical decisions all came without reason. Our best player in attacking terms in the first half was Betsy, who looked well up for the game and seemed to be enjoying the stick he was getting from their fans. So what do we do? We play him on the wing in the second half and don't give him the ball, of course. Similarly with Holmes, who's consistently been our sole attacking threat from midfield since Sweeney left. He wasn't helped by being backed by a right-footed left back, as a couple of others have said, but how do you expect your good players to perform if you don't give them the ball?!
I was both surpsised and disappointed to see us playing with such little width in general.

Mooney's legs have gone, and so has his Walsall career, as disappointed as I am to say it. I struggle to see how Deeney has a future in League football at times, but he contributed much more than Mooney when he came on, which makes him the man to start the next game. That really does highlight the 'bare bones' nature of our squad, but there's nothing we can do about that now.

My final point regarding the way we played is this....
I reckon we probably had about 65-70% of the possession last night, and yet couldn't create a decent chance to score. They used the ball so much better than us, it was unreal. And we're talking about a side who were winless in 10 games and in a bit of a battle to stay up. I remain hopeful that we'll be able to rectify things on Saturday, but with absolutely clueless decisions like the ones made by both the manager and his players last night, 'hope' is about all I can muster.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:25 pm

[quote="WFC_Rob"]Last night pretty much summed up why we won't be in the playoffs this season. After we went 1 down, we had no plan B other than to hoof the ball into Bristol Rovers half, which suited them down to the ground.

I thought Smith had a solid game considering he had to deal with one of the best target-men in the league, in difficult conditions. The same could be said of Gerrard, to be fair. Other than that, there wasn't really a lot worth talking about.

Whoever said last night's effort was a good game needs to get watching some more football. If I wanted to see a row of defenders hofing the ball long to a 37 year old bald striker who can't jump, I'd go and watch the fourth division of the local Sunday league, where it's expected.

Mooney's legs have gone, and so has his Walsall career, as disappointed as I am to say it. I struggle to see how Deeney has a future in League football at times, but he contributed much more than Mooney when he came on, which makes him the man to start the next game.

:lol: great summary

Deeney to start :?: , you have taken over from me as the over optimistic one. Deeney did an exceptional job as ball boy :P

Why not start Deeney he's in great goalscoring form, now let me think.... :idea: without checking I would say our most prolific strikers/players from January per mins on pitch would be Ishy or Nicholls.
What did Nicholls do :?:, Why is he not getting another chance.

Note to DD, start Nicholls and Ishy on Saturday (in a fluid 3 man attack with Betsy), Bournemouth need the points more than we do, counter attack dream with Ishy & Nicholls

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:33 pm

Simon of Sedgley wrote:
WFC_Rob wrote:Last night pretty much summed up why we won't be in the playoffs this season. After we went 1 down, we had no plan B other than to hoof the ball into Bristol Rovers half, which suited them down to the ground.

I thought Smith had a solid game considering he had to deal with one of the best target-men in the league, in difficult conditions. The same could be said of Gerrard, to be fair. Other than that, there wasn't really a lot worth talking about.

Whoever said last night's effort was a good game needs to get watching some more football. If I wanted to see a row of defenders hofing the ball long to a 37 year old bald striker who can't jump, I'd go and watch the fourth division of the local Sunday league, where it's expected.

Mooney's legs have gone, and so has his Walsall career, as disappointed as I am to say it. I struggle to see how Deeney has a future in League football at times, but he contributed much more than Mooney when he came on, which makes him the man to start the next game.

:lol: great summary

Deeney to start :?: , you have taken over from me as the over optimistic one. Deeney did an exceptional job as ball boy :P

Why not start Deeney he's in great goalscoring form, now let me think.... :idea: without checking I would say our most prolific strikers/players from January per mins on pitch would be Ishy or Nicholls.
What did Nicholls do :?:, Why is he not getting another chance.

Note to DD, start Nicholls and Ishy on Saturday (in a fluid 3 man attack with Betsy), Bournemouth need the points more than we do, counter attack dream with Ishy & Nicholls


A very, very good suggestion.

Ishy, Betsy and Nicholls up front, stick holmes behind them , and play Dobson and N'Dour as holding players. Play like the mighty royal madrid! 4-2-3-1 :D

.....Then I woke up

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:35 pm

People go to the games, read the posts on here about the blindingly obvious tactical disasters made by Money and then still spout off their favourite mantra about him being the best Walsall manager ever. Do they save this post to paste whenever somebody dares criticise?

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:38 pm

One step forward - two steps back

Shocking

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:45 pm

tinned wrote:People go to the games, read the posts on here about the blindingly obvious tactical disasters made by Money and then still spout off their favourite mantra about him being the best Walsall manager ever. Do they save this post to paste whenever somebody dares criticise?

All managers make questionable decisions during the 46 x 90 minutes of football matches they involve themselves in every season. The wider context to the situation regarding our manager is that he seems to have had his hands tied and is now left in a position where his decisions regarding tactics and team selections are far more evident because of the lack of quality he has available.

I thought he got things wrong last night, but in fairness to him, he took action knowing that we needed something from the game. It was just a shame that action had to take the form of Deeney, Ishmel and McDermott because at least 2 of those 3 players don't have the quality.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:57 pm

WFC_Rob wrote:
tinned wrote:People go to the games, read the posts on here about the blindingly obvious tactical disasters made by Money and then still spout off their favourite mantra about him being the best Walsall manager ever. Do they save this post to paste whenever somebody dares criticise?

All managers make questionable decisions during the 46 x 90 minutes of football matches they involve themselves in every season. The wider context to the situation regarding our manager is that he seems to have had his hands tied and is now left in a position where his decisions regarding tactics and team selections are far more evident because of the lack of quality he has available.

I thought he got things wrong last night, but in fairness to him, he took action knowing that we needed something from the game. It was just a shame that action had to take the form of Deeney, Ishmel and McDermott because at least 2 of those 3 players don't have the quality.


I think I emboldened the word 'quality' in an earlier post which we seem to agree on. We have a distinct lack of quality, and this does influence managerial decisions, and capacity.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:38 pm

WFC_Rob wrote:Last night pretty much summed up why we won't be in the playoffs this season. After we went 1 down, we had no plan B other than to hoof the ball into Bristol Rovers half, which suited them down to the ground.

I thought Smith had a solid game considering he had to deal with one of the best target-men in the league, in difficult conditions. The same could be said of Gerrard, to be fair. Other than that, there wasn't really a lot worth talking about.

Whoever said last night's effort was a good game needs to get watching some more football. If I wanted to see a row of defenders hofing the ball long to a 37 year old bald striker who can't jump, I'd go and watch the fourth division of the local Sunday league, where it's expected.

The tactical decisions all came without reason. Our best player in attacking terms in the first half was Betsy, who looked well up for the game and seemed to be enjoying the stick he was getting from their fans. So what do we do? We play him on the wing in the second half and don't give him the ball, of course. Similarly with Holmes, who's consistently been our sole attacking threat from midfield since Sweeney left. He wasn't helped by being backed by a right-footed left back, as a couple of others have said, but how do you expect your good players to perform if you don't give them the ball?!
I was both surpsised and disappointed to see us playing with such little width in general.

Mooney's legs have gone, and so has his Walsall career, as disappointed as I am to say it. I struggle to see how Deeney has a future in League football at times, but he contributed much more than Mooney when he came on, which makes him the man to start the next game. That really does highlight the 'bare bones' nature of our squad, but there's nothing we can do about that now.

My final point regarding the way we played is this....
I reckon we probably had about 65-70% of the possession last night, and yet couldn't create a decent chance to score. They used the ball so much better than us, it was unreal. And we're talking about a side who were winless in 10 games and in a bit of a battle to stay up. I remain hopeful that we'll be able to rectify things on Saturday, but with absolutely clueless decisions like the ones made by both the manager and his players last night, 'hope' is about all I can muster.



i agree with everything apart from starting with deeney, he does nothing for me what so ever, start with nicholls on the right and mooney and betsey upfront, nicholls is a far better than deeney IMO.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:11 pm

bleed_red_n_white wrote:
WFC_Rob wrote:Last night pretty much summed up why we won't be in the playoffs this season. After we went 1 down, we had no plan B other than to hoof the ball into Bristol Rovers half, which suited them down to the ground.

I thought Smith had a solid game considering he had to deal with one of the best target-men in the league, in difficult conditions. The same could be said of Gerrard, to be fair. Other than that, there wasn't really a lot worth talking about.

Whoever said last night's effort was a good game needs to get watching some more football. If I wanted to see a row of defenders hofing the ball long to a 37 year old bald striker who can't jump, I'd go and watch the fourth division of the local Sunday league, where it's expected.

The tactical decisions all came without reason. Our best player in attacking terms in the first half was Betsy, who looked well up for the game and seemed to be enjoying the stick he was getting from their fans. So what do we do? We play him on the wing in the second half and don't give him the ball, of course. Similarly with Holmes, who's consistently been our sole attacking threat from midfield since Sweeney left. He wasn't helped by being backed by a right-footed left back, as a couple of others have said, but how do you expect your good players to perform if you don't give them the ball?!
I was both surpsised and disappointed to see us playing with such little width in general.

Mooney's legs have gone, and so has his Walsall career, as disappointed as I am to say it. I struggle to see how Deeney has a future in League football at times, but he contributed much more than Mooney when he came on, which makes him the man to start the next game. That really does highlight the 'bare bones' nature of our squad, but there's nothing we can do about that now.

My final point regarding the way we played is this....
I reckon we probably had about 65-70% of the possession last night, and yet couldn't create a decent chance to score. They used the ball so much better than us, it was unreal. And we're talking about a side who were winless in 10 games and in a bit of a battle to stay up. I remain hopeful that we'll be able to rectify things on Saturday, but with absolutely clueless decisions like the ones made by both the manager and his players last night, 'hope' is about all I can muster.



i agree with everything apart from starting with deeney, he does nothing for me what so ever, start with nicholls on the right and mooney and betsey upfront, nicholls is a far better than deeney IMO.

Nicholls is arguably better than Deeney, but I don't think our team has the make-up of a team who can play without a relatively tall striker who's decent in the air. For me, Deeney won more in the air last night and held the ball up better than Mooney, so should start. I'd pair him with Betsy, who looked the most likely to cause them problems before being wrongly moved out wide. There is a case to be made for Nicholls starting on the right on Saturday. He can't do any worse than Sonko.

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:30 pm

Id go with this:

Ince

Weston Smith Gerrard Sansara

Taundry Davies

Holmes

Nicholls Ishmel (wingers)

Betsy

:P :D

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Re: Bristol Rovers (H) League 1 Tuesday 15/4/08.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:01 pm

Wednesbury Saddler METFAN wrote:Id go with this:

Ince

Weston Smith Gerrard Sansara

Taundry Davies

Holmes

Nicholls Ishmel (wingers)

Betsy

:P :D


Unfortunately, while Leeds keep losing we have to at least pretend that we think we can make the play-offs and not play unproven kids like Sansara and Davies (although as soon as we are out of contention mathematically then I'd have the likes of them in). :wink:

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