Match Day Thread Town v Brizzle Rovers

And now straight into watching the England match

 

Match report coming SD.

 

Kane scores after 6 minutes, incorrectly ruled offside.

 

Just the assured start we desperately wanted, but some usual Town defensive errors & weakenesses, I hear.
Glad to hear there was some sparkle and creative stuff up front.

Another chance for players to shine on Tuesday, then Wigan up for our first League game proper. A tough opener, but at PR with no crowd, who knows?

Still cant get my head round all the injuries, we have discussed this so many times, grrr!

I look forward to our Saturdays once again, and it will take some getting used to, and glad SD enjoyed being up with the larks at 7am, whatever birdies over there!

No-one can say when we shall be able to trundle up the A12 to lovely Suffolk again, and how clubs will manage the gradual opening up safely. Bit of a nightmare if you ask me. Only takes one idiot.

 

80% a decent side...

The frustrating days of watching Town hopelessly punt the ball forward to an isolated forward and hopefully stringing half a dozen passes together before fumbling away possession appear to be behind us (for now).

Post-Covid Town can keep possession, pick out passes, whip in crosses and put chances away.

There are weaknesses through the side - today Chambers at make shift right back, Dozzell sleepily offering nothing at either end of the pitch and up front Drinan and later Hawkins trying to find their feet. But genuinely excellent performances from the majority of the side made it men against boys today.

It’s not about individuals - although there were some good individual showings - Holy assured in goal, Woolfy commanding the defence, Ward showing all his quality, Bishop at his best and Judge turning in the kind of performance we haven’t seen since he signed permanently, all topped off by Freddie looking dangerous with every touch. Ndaba deserves a mention too... he only had a short outing and was troubled only once, but dealt with the danger so effectively. It’s about the hard work that has clearly been put in over the summer - to work on set pieces, on our passing game, on getting into dangerous positions, on closing down and on our shape and mentality.

Make no mistake - Bristol Rovers were terrible - but last season we saw plenty of flat performances against terrible sides.

It’s only one match and there is of course the Cambridge result to stop us getting too carried away, but it certainly feels like a manager and a squad who are up for it and need fear no-one. For the first time in a long time, Town were not content to try to protect a narrow lead.

Whether we can be promoted probably depends on the extent that Evans helps Lambert to fill some of those gaping holes in the squad. But a fantastic start and positives all over the pitch.

Some of the movement - particularly the goals and some of the chances that we didn’t quite put away - as good as it gets at this level.

 

Great report Yorkie,let’s hope we can keep our foot on the pedal.

 

Good write-up Hampy, and I'd agree with pretty much all of that. It was definitely an improved team performance and a strong result. I also enjoyed how we looked more confident on the ball, with encouraging patterns of play and stronger individual performances compared to what we witnessed in the final couple of months last season, before the lockdown. The first goal for me, Nsiala splitting the defence with a great through ball for Drinan - who pulled back a low cross for Sears to convert - looked straight from the training ground and appeared indicative of a greater self-belief within the team. Examples like that hopefully flies in the face of the rumoured dressing room problems and divide between Lambert and some of the players. I don't think we have many fans of Paul Lambert on here, as well as among the wider fanbase, but it's clearly important that we need to achieve promotion this season and we'll need Lambert to get good results to do that.

The concerns for me is that Bristol Rovers are a relatively weak opposition. Our issue last season was not beating teams in the bottom half of the table, where Rovers finished last season and will most likely do so again, but against stronger opponents where we consistently struggled to win games. I know a few on here are not overly bothered about XG (expected goals) statistics, but last season we had one of the lowest in the division, which determines how creative a team are and how efficient our strikers are converting chances. Scoring goals, regardless of how they are converted, is clearly the most important thing in football - so I hope we can continue with good attacking moves.

Regarding the individual assessments, I think you're being a tad harsh on Dozzell. I thought he had a good game. Obviously he's not the physically strongest, and that showed in the first half, but he made some good passes and got better as the game went on. I'd argue that Jon Nolan was probably the player on the pitch who struggled the most, but I'm splitting hairs here as I think it'd be incredibly harsh to suggest any player had a poor game. I was impressed with Nsiala, Chambers, and Drinan - a trio who I thought should be phased out throughout this season. It's only one game, and not against the strongest of sides, but hopefully we can use this victory to go on a run.