Bristol Rovers

Good save, Holy gets low quickly

 

Nowt wrong with that tackle from Downes in my opinion

 

Looks promising, pressure on, need that goal then all to play for.

This is the most important half this season, win it and take 3pts against a spirited team, and we go on to a bright Xmas period taing good points here and there, and keep top 2 place, with injured players coming back.

Lose it, and it could be a real downer, gloomy for home crowd in the winter who needed right warming up, and bad for the club & players confidence.

 

Poor result, patches of fine play, not enough creativity. Must win against Pompey to hold our nerve.

If Evans doesnt see sense in getting in at least a striker & centre back, then we shall reap what we have sown.

 

We need somebody to supply the service more importantly, gaffer.
I think we're alright at CB and strikers with Sears to come back. What we desperately need is that one midfield creator or tricky winger to make it all happen. Nolan, Dozzell and Judge are not the answer at the moment. Bishop coming back may improve that a bit though.
Maybe look at getting a LB so that Garbutt can play further forward.

 

So that was a frustrating game today.
We had good periods of pressure but lacked the final ball on each occasion. It's the story of the season. Nearly every team we've played have looked more organised with a clear way of playing and good understanding between team mates that has generally caused us more problems than we have to other teams.
The corners and free kicks were poor today and whilst the build up play was decent at times the attack would fizzle out in the final third, with us failing to find the right ball to allow a clear sight of goal.
We did have a couple of good chances that really should've ended in a goal but it just wasn't to be.
Paul Lambert made a bunch a changes to the team again and the constant rotation is not helping us form a solid first team with good understanding on the pitch.

Holy - good kicking today, got down low really quickly to make a good save to his left
Garbutt - probably our best attacker today but he took some poor corners that were easily caught by the 'keeper
Wilson - solid enough
Woolf - my man of the match today. Solid and calm in defence he also made several runs forward to try and make something happen
Skuse - looked a bit lost at times but also made a few sweet passes and attacking play down the right hand side. Not somebody I want to see at RB regularly.
Dozzell - mostly anonymous today, he got brushed off the ball too easily too often and couldn't get his passing going
Downes - pretty good. Should probably be our sitter in the future because we badly need somebody in there to be the creative one. Him and Bishop may work well in the middle of the park
Nolan - didn't do enough again today. Blazed a few shots over the bar and didn't make enough defence splitting passes to really affect the attacking play
Norwood - Joe Garner mark 2. Spends more time looking for the foul and whining at the ref than finding the space to receive passes. Needs to improve
Keane - tried hard to make things happen. His first touch is getting better but he was also guilty of dropping too deep to look for the ball. I feel he needed to stay centrally up top to be more effective
Jackson - doing all the running again. He was the one that was available the most and did some good work with Skuse down the right hand side

All in all we need to be better.
Paul has been using the rotation policy to help prevent injuries and keep players fresh but it hasn't helped us really. We've still picked up injuries to key players and the team looks lost as a unit with a lack of cohesive play apparent. I've noticed for a long time that we are weak at throw-ins with static players not finding room to receive the ball and not enough urgency to take advantage of other teams while they are getting back in shape.
Our wing play is poor and our biggest threat is from the full backs. Georgiou hasn't played enough and was brought on way too late today.
Lambert's subs haven't affected the game and he doesn't change tactically on the fly to combat or counteract the opposition.

 

The defence was nowhere to give them 2 simple goals and then we started to play well, Norwood scored a great goal just before half time and that was about it, Nolan put a free header over the bar and I couldn't see who but another header went gamely to the keeper from 3 yards.
At half time the stats read 62% possession to Town so its obvious we play tippy tappy football mainly in our own half but create very few clear cut chances.
Keane doesn't look up to the job playing fancy flicks to no one and unable to play simple passes to a team mate, Holy continually kicks straight into touch and looks a bit lost, the midfield is paper thin with Downes and Skies giving everything but Dozzell and Nolan seem to be on the fringes and contributing little to the performance.
All in all I think we have some players who are barely 3rd division standard who are getting shown up for what they are when we play the better teams, but this is still only the 3rd division for Christ's sake.
Although its all to play for I fearwe have been found out.

 

Lambert really needs to settle on a first 11 and stick with it as closely as possible (injuries and suspensions aside).

 

Frustrating period for us at the moment, I agree we really need to start finding a settled side. But the positives are we're still second with a game in hand despite a bad run of form and lots of injuries.

I've heard a lot of doom and gloom recently but I think we need to get a bit of perspective most fans I heard at the start of the season said they expected a play-off finish to be a good season. Not many of us expected to have as good a start as we've had. After the start people seemed to expect we would walk the league but our squad isn't as good as people think for a number of reasons:

1. This is practically the same squad which took us down last season. Getting out of a losing rut is difficult. Let's face it, it was a pretty awful squad and we've lost our best player of the past few seasons
2. We only have 2/3 players who have alot of experience at this level or above (Chambers, Skuse and Judge although that was a few seasons ago)
3. We have alot of young players lacking experience (Woolfenden, Downes, Dozzell, Dobra, Kenlock)
4. We have many injury prone players who have played little football in the past few years (Keane, Judge, Huws, Bishop)
5. We've had alot of injuries to players this season or over the summer (Chambers, Sears, Nolan, KVY, Norwood, Garbutt, Nsiala, Nydam, Roberts, Lankester, Rowe, Judge, Folami, Morris)
6. We've relied on 2 strikers who've little experience at this level or above infact both have earned their moves following 1 good season in league 2.

Based on all these facts I think Lambert has done bloody well. I don't like rotation but actually I don't think he's had a great deal of choice due to injuries and fitness. If we had a fully fit squad I'd agree his rotation policy is ridiculous but we haven't all season.

I'm a big big fan of Sears and think him and Norwood or Keane could form a superb partnership as his movement is top class. Unfortunately we won't be able to rely on him this season. As I've said if in January we are still top 2 and are able to strengthen at CB and another striker I think we can have a very good season.

After the pessimism of over the summer think we need a bit of perspective on our situation and I bloody hope ME backs his manager. Lambert has done alot to improve us and the community surrounding the club, we're lucky a manager like him stuck around

 

How f**king embarrassing

 

How f**cking embarrassing indeed, fancy losing 0 2 to Blackburn at home !!

 

Two was to look at this.

A correction or wheels falling off. Either way we have lost the momentum from early season and Lambert cannot be free from blame. This felt like a game to get back on track with. We lost. Adds to the suspicion that our current approach has been found out.

Sticking with the positives though, if we're going to have a blip now is the best time. Time to recover and gives a bit of oomph to argument for strengthening in January

 

Lambert was wearing white trainers with a black suit Friday night. I don’t know if we can win the division with decision making like that.