I enjoyed my day 2 hour drive to Sunderland watched the match with the relatives and then 2 hour drive home. Game was lost in the in the first 5 mins with the goalkeeper doing a great impression of Kelvin Davis. Got on top last 20 minutes of first half and then second half played higher tempo and created enough to win the game. Get into the final 3rd comfortably but final ball from both wing backs is poor - is that because the strikers have not made the space or the actually delivery is poor. Maguire is the best attacking player we have. The lad from Millwall has a good touch but looks short of fitness.
Always a lot of strange results on day one of the season , pity we decided to put out the wrong team to enter in to the spirit of things , gifting the lead as early as the third minute was a nightmare start and the team appeared to lose confidence in our keeper resulting in giving the opposition too many chances . At least we managed to equalise and could have managed a win if we had carried a bit of luck .However we must do BETTER or the pressure will be on PP very quickly .
It's almost like Parkinson was doing and saying all the right things in pre season, but when it came to the crunch he bottled it and stayed pretty much as close to last season as possible. Flanagan should be 5th choice centre back, and Dobson should never be starting ahead of Scowen. We should have known he wasn't going to give Neil or Diamond an opportunity too. Naive. Disappointed.
Flanagan was not the problem today. Bailey Wright was terrible lucky to stay on the pitch and not give a way penalty in the 1st half. Dobson was poor 1st half second half he upped the tempo and the performance improved. Power was as ineffective in the 1st half as well. PP needs to go 4 4 2 and the 2 would be Maguire and Graham for me
A bit concerning the amount of folk saying Burge was a bit ****. I was expecting a conservative line up as we have a conservative manager but he has to give chances to some of the others after today.
Yeah, I was going off thread a bit, and just generalising what I'd like to see. Should have known he wouldn't have the balls to be braver in his selection.
Although the stats indicate we dominated the game... the only stat that really matters says 1-1 It is the same problem as last season as regards goals...now with Grigg and Wyke joined by Graham the problem is compounded Also many reports say the keeper is crap as well I have kept up with my sesson ticket... not sure why...more in hope than expectation...even if i could go to the game I am not sure I would go! It hurts to admit it but as the squad stands, we need an Aiden Mcgeady!!!!
Our style of play was summed up after 3 seconds of the game today, we took the kick off and rolled the ball into the right back spot where it was launched 50 yards up the pitch and possession lost. This typified our first 45 mins in particular, hoofing the ball up and aimless passing. To be honest the players didn't look as though they knew what they were doing. Nick Barnes summed up PP perfectly in his pre-match slot with Benno, When announcing the team he said it was exactly what he had predicted on Friday night, he also said PP is conservative with a small c when it comes to making changes and he pretty much picks the same team week after week regardless of results with injuries being the main driver for change. PP had made his mind up on this team a week ago and put it out against Hull, a game in which we couldn't score, yes a few decent chances missed but most teams in the football league miss chances every game, it's hardly a stat to celebrate and to get excited about. PP puts out his 2nd team in effect vs Aston Villa under 21's and obviously the result was as expected but we've played other under 21's before and struggled. What else were the likes of Wyke and Scowen expected to do in order to get in front of Dobson and Grigg? Both played well over the 90 mins and deserve to be in front of those 2 players in the starting 11. Will Grigg finished last season out of the team and outscored by big Charlie but after scoring less goals in pre-season than Wyke is somehow promoted back into the starting 11. I'm sorry but I saw enough against Hull to confirm that he is never going to score goals for us unless it is literally put on his toe 8 yards out. Maguire and Gooch scored 25 goals between them last season yet he drops Gooch from the starting line up which is crazy, he made an instant impact when came on and is one of our best players and deserves to be in the starting 11. As expected none of the young lads got anywhere near the squad, they may as well get Mumba's number and find out how he coped with being frozen out completely. I predict none of these lads will get anywhere near the 16 for months. To summarise, the players are too comfortable under PP, if your in the first 11 you are safe as houses and there is little pressure on you to deliver as he never makes a change at half time let alone changing his starting 11. He should have had the balls to start Graham, Scowen and Arby for me, get all the new lads in and send a message to those who have ultimately failed last season. How is Graham going to get match fit, surely not be playing 15 or 20 minutes here and there. It's one game but he is already on borrowed time, that starting 11 needs to change next week at Oxford with Graham, Gooch and Scowen as a minimum having to start.
You know mate, I am. They were poor, but despite us playing really badly we had a lot of chances and should have won in spite of the team selection. I think the only thing that will deflate that for me is if he replaces the suspended Dobson with Leadbitter. if I’m clear, the reason I remain confident is I feel that regardless who is in charge we’d chop the manager if we had a slow start, a new owner would have no interest in keeping him, and the current owner couldn’t begin to afford another League One campaign. I was fuming yesterday, and maybe a little harsh on Dobson who, just like Power who I’d pick first, would be fine alongside Scowen or anyone with a bit more creativity. I still feel we are best in league, we weren’t alone in failing amongst the fancied sides, in fact none of the really fancied sides won which was unusual. I genuinely stand by that if Scowen played we win 3-1 or more, they had nothing about them.
Not a single player who can run direct at opposition ..crosses when delivered are normally after the defence have re set in the box and very easy to defend. Better squad than last year but no creativity or pace..same struggle to break anybody down at home.Long season ahead
I find some of the posts on this utterly predictable. Yesterday was pretty disappointing but to suggest PP is on borrowed time after one league game utterly ridiculous. People calling for certain players to play cos they've had a good 45 minutes against Harrogate. The only time I've seen Scowen play in a competitive match he was useless. Now hes the saviour in midfield. You dont get anywhere by making knee jerk decisions. We dropped points cos of a useless keeper. Rovers never had another shot the rest of the game. Yes, its disappointing but a bit of perspective needed
Where did I mention scowen or suggest PP should be sacked.? I said we are stronger than last year but are too indirect and slow to get into the opposition before they reset. If you want to watch that all season then fair enough ..I don't it just a repeat of the last 1.5 seasons.....
Thought yesterday’s performance was poor but we salvaged a point , very surprised not much has been said about the blatant time wasting and gamesmanship from Bristol Rovers . SAFC came out at half time and were on the pitch waiting for the opposition to reappear and had to wait a good two minutes - an old ploy , once they came out they continued the delay by doing some exercise drills , this set the tone for the second half with their players going over like ninepins to frustrate us . One of their players who was off the pitch actually rolled back on to the pitch to get play stopped , I am sure a couple of their players actually hurt themselves due to their theatrics-served them right . The referee who wasn’t any great shakes ended up adding 8 minutes injury time on but we could not capitalise to get a win.
Always leave it until the day after a game b4 posting. Thought it was ok tbh. The bad start was definitely a hindrance and we have to start off games at a higher tempo. Certainly some of the comments I've seen are harsh. For a first league game I'd say..must do better.
