v Sunderland (h) 18/10/2022

[Tugayisgod]

11 minutes ago, 47er said:

Elliott in the stand---great to see. Wonder if he was running the rule over Morton for Klopp?

(as well as enjoying himself of course).

Top guy

[rigger]

3 hours ago, JHRover said:

The simple answer to that is more season ticket holders.

We should have upwards of 14,000 of those given that's what PNE and Bolton have, there's absolutely no reason we couldn't.

Unfortunately it is too late now, as sales are done and the prices set. Anything from here on in will be minimal numbers and club is constrained on pricing because they can't make a habit of undercutting the season ticket rate.

Want more fans? Don't charge top prices, get season tickets on sale sooner and promote them better. PNE were going round Garstang putting flyers through doors. We did nowt.

Sadly it won't make any difference. The aim here isn't to increase numbers but to increase immediate cash flow. So Waggott will repeat it all over again next summer and then we can have this same discussion next autumn after a further price rise and drop off.

I realise that the club have to be careful about pricing and not undercutting season ticket holders. But there are a lot of fans from outlying areas, with present situations such as rail strikes, could the club not put on transport to try to get people to go again. Even if it fails, it would be better than doing nothing and would show that at least the club is trying.

[booth]

1 hour ago, SAFCfaninpeace said:

Well that was a disappointing game from our perspective. Awful officiating gifted two goals to you instead of giving us a good chance to go 1 up. Missing a striker for half our games this season is killing us and Stewart still not due back until the new year. Mind, we’ll be some force when he’s back and IF he can stay fit! Comfortable mid table finish for us I think. Could have been so much more with a striker. 

Gifted?

Replays were inconclusive about the penalty shout and from a couple of angles show that Hedges had his foot on the ball before your player went down.

Offside was inconclusive from the angles provided. If it was offside it was very close.

You were shit, don't mistake possession for good play. Tony calls himself a performance based manager and values posession and tapping the ball around over three points. I've seen that performance from Rovers many times and we soon realised that's a classic TM performance. Lots of huff and puff but frustrating and very little end result. He never ever learns and if he does hit upon a winning formula he can't help himself but tinker.

Also Tony doesn't like to play with strikers. And if he does he plays them on the wing (or even full back!). Ross Stewart will be sold and replaced with a low scoring winger. He'll be playing your oldest defensive midfielder as a false 9. He likes to experiment does bonkers Tony.

Get used to the last couple of points. That's Tony, it gets worse!

[tomphil]

We probably got away with one with the penalty shout but we've had a few turned down already this season.

VAR might have given it but from the refs view at the other side it would definitely appear to be ball touched before man. He didn't seem to go out of his way to try and even it up second half.

[Ossydave]

We had a blatant free kick on Garrett waved away right on the edge of the Sunderland box not long before the penalty claim as well, so may well have been in front before the incident.  Shoulda/Woulda/Coulda.

 

[Reginald]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Is this statement correct - “ it is not possible to be off side from a throw in, a corner kick, or a goal kick “ ? 
 

I always thought you couldn’t be off side from a ball played backwards - which by definition a corner is if it stays on the pitch.

It isn't to do with whether the ball is played backwards, it's whether you're ahead of the ball when it's played. It's entirely possible (but unusual) to be offside to a ball played backwards, e.g. if you're ahead of the ball but run back to retrieve it. And it is not possible to be ahead of the ball when a corner is taken.

On the inverted full backs thing, are we maybe over thinking it a bit? Could it not just be that Pickering was out of contention and Brittain is happier on the left than Hedges?

[RoversTilliDie]

Last night was a 6 pointer in breaking the wlwl sequence, rovers won it in style with a solid display in defence. Great performance from BBD and Scott Wharton on target to round things off. This teams beginning to gel and play like a team. We could see a bigger crowd Saturday. Lets enjoy the moment while it lasts, Rovers top of the league.

[tomphil]

SHOULD see a bigger crowd on Sat.

To be fair If that Sunderland game was on a Saturday and no tv we'd have been looking at around 18k, good old SKY always does for Rovers gates.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

You are correct in everything you write. However the goal came from a free-kick when Hedges played it into Wharton who was marginally offside when the ball was played. At this level I don't believe that assistant referees should be missing that.

What side was the lineman on ? I’ve seen plenty of cock ups when play has been right in front of them by the touchline. You can find yourself too close to the action.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[ben_the_beast]

Biggest thing from Rovers is that even when struggling on the ball we look like we are becoming an outstanding unit defensively. Even when we look poor we're getting better at restricting opportunities when the opposition is dominating. 

We're most vulnerable when we're trying to play it out from the back. I'm hoping that having 3 in midfield gives more options to our back line and we give it away in dangerous situations less. In addition to being able to link the defence and forwards better. 

Dom Hyam is the man. Best defender we've had since Phil Jones. And after Diaz our biggest asset. We've completely pulled Coventrys pants down with his signing. No coincidence to see them struggling so much without him.

[superniko]

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

That Patrick Roberts looked absolutely class for Sunderland, as a few other posters have mentioned. Even though they were all over us towards the end though, I don’t feel like they had that many clear cut chances in reality.

Strange one Roberts - was loaned out everywhere and when he did finally leave City it was only a 6 month contract to Sunderland in League 1. 

They'll push top 6 with himself and Clarke for sure.

[RoversTilliDie]

Great to see Harvey Elliot back at Ewood last night. Pity he will be returning to Anfield.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

10 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

What side was the lineman on ? I’ve seen plenty of cock ups when play has been right in front of them by the touchline. You can find yourself too close to the action.

The linesman was on the Riverside and should have seen Wharton offside. Even if he thought Wharton hadn't touched it, he is interfering......but who cares?

The ref was spot on for the penalty that was never was. Hedges clearly plays the ball first then there is contact.

One correct decision, one incorrect we would still have won one-nil.

Bye Bye Mowbray, please never darken our doors again.

By the way, Corry Evans lasted longer than his occasional 70 minutes he used to put in with a Rovers shirt on.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

3 minutes ago, superniko said:

Strange one Roberts - was loaned out everywhere and when he did finally leave City it was only a 6 month contract to Sunderland in League 1. 

They'll push top 6 with himself and Clarke for sure.

I wouldnt be surprised if Roberts gone in Jan, or playing right back. It is the Tony way.

[Hasta]

2 minutes ago, RoversTilliDie said:

Great to see Harvey Elliot back at Ewood last night. Pity he will be returning to Anfield.

To be fair, even though they haven't started the best, Elliot has never looked out of his depth when I've seen Liverpool play this season. He's doing well and, even though there'll never be a connection to Rovers for him again, it's good to see. Good he's probably come back to see some mates last night as well.

 

[superniko]

8 minutes ago, Hasta said:

To be fair, even though they haven't started the best, Elliot has never looked out of his depth when I've seen Liverpool play this season. He's doing well and, even though there'll never be a connection to Rovers for him again, it's good to see. Good he's probably come back to see some mates last night as well.

 

We had Elliott and the 2nd top scorer in the league (as well as the 2nd top scorer the season after) all in the same team but still failed to make the playoffs! Almost feels more of a missed opportunity than how we threw away last season. We looked unreal at times in the Elliott season but just couldn't defend. If only we had Hyam, Wharton and a fit Ayala!

[roversfan99]

Brilliant to see us at the top of the league at any point, even if it is because we have played more games than most. Was an excellent result from an average performance in which Sunderland dominated big chunks but lacked their injured strikers and we benefitted from massive refereeing mistakes which we will take every day of the week. We made lots of stupid errors on the ball in the first half and struggled to manage the game in the second half but here was lots of determination and guts to get us over the line, aided by the referee and 2 bits of quality.

Kaminski made another great save and the stand out defender again was Hyam, not amazing on the ball and nearly cost us in the first half but reads the game very well and when we struggled to manage the game in the second half, inviting on pressure, he was the main man in the defensive wall stopping them. Wharton has not been at his best this season and made one or two mistakes again but he is a good defender. Carter is an upgrade on Phillips at the moment but not a Championship regular standard, clumsy on the ball and sometimes a little rash.

Brittain is not a left sider and Hedges is not a wing back and they contributed in making us a little disjointed simply by being out of position, as much as both are very competent players at this level. Hedges has loads going for him, superb skill to win the free kick and the ball in was excellent, and his shot at the end was so close to being goal of the season, but he was caught out a few times defensively because he is not a wing back. Brittain is a good player but he kept coming inside, the problem is that we don't have any adequate alternatives to him and Pickering really. Morton again impressed me, Garrett was tenacious and let no one down although wasn't man of the match which was awarded to him IMO because it was his debut rather than being stand out.

Brereton was man of the match, he ran himself into the ground to the point that I was worried about a potential injury, superb goal too. Gallagher was not particularly effective nor were the subs Vale and Dolan, and the fact that we were still solely reliant on Brereton on the counter attack tells you how they did.

The Dack and Szmodics situations naturally overlap because of their position, Szmodics runs round all day and really grafts, once he did really well to force Even if we were a really intense pressing side which we aren't, just running off the ball and trying your best isn't enough to become a good player, Elliott Bennett ran all day but he was shit, on the ball is at least as important (probably moreso) and the jury is still out on Szmodics in that regard. He has had occasional quality in a Rovers shirt (his 2 goals were well taken and his assist v Rotherham was excellent) but often he struggles to get on the ball and when he does, his decisions can be wrong or his technical ability can let him down. Yesterday he once did well to get to the byline in the first half and nearly forced an own goal but he also hit a shot nowhere near the target and chose to wrongly cross to Brereton (who did remarkably well to avoid a goal kick concession) in the second half, improvement is needed there to start every game. So a mixed bag from him.

I stand by the fact that Dack would offer more than any other sub last night, assuming he doesn't start. The social media stuff with his wife is not ideal but it's a woman made "famous" by reality TV and trying to promote a new show getting attention, the people sucking up to/arguing with her on there really do puzzle me, why you would spend your time doing that I have no idea. 

Lots of talk on here and elsewhere about the dislike of Mowbray and the potential booing and negative reaction, as expected it never materialised aside from one or two jovial "Mowbray, whats the score" chants.

[Admiral Nelsen]

19 minutes ago, superniko said:

We had Elliott and the 2nd top scorer in the league (as well as the 2nd top scorer the season after) all in the same team but still failed to make the playoffs! Almost feels more of a missed opportunity than how we threw away last season. We looked unreal at times in the Elliott season but just couldn't defend. If only we had Hyam, Wharton and a fit Ayala!

 

I was saying the same before kick off yesterday when talking about Mowbray. Last season was the most frustrating considering how well we had done before Christmas, but the season before was the one where we really should've expected to get in the top six with the squad we had. 

 

We were a bit unlucky with injuries, especially in defence, but it was still a badly missed opportunity. We also should've took the opportunity to extend Brereton's contract when he started looking like a player that year, but there's an element of hindsight there!

[Butty]

I thought Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts were both really impressive, Pritchard as well is a tidy player. They’ll be a force when they get their strikers Simms and Stewart back fit, glad we got to play them without those two. 

[lraC]

6 hours ago, OsloRover said:

Have you never watched us on Sky before?

Of course, but I prefer Rovers TV and other foreign channels. 

[tomphil]

10 minutes ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

I was saying the same before kick off yesterday when talking about Mowbray. Last season was the most frustrating considering how well we had done before Christmas, but the season before was the one where we really should've expected to get in the top six with the squad we had. 

 

We were a bit unlucky with injuries, especially in defence, but it was still a badly missed opportunity. We also should've took the opportunity to extend Brereton's contract when he started looking like a player that year, but there's an element of hindsight there!

Sunderland were so so similar last night to Rovers the season before last.

That's not a dig either considering they've only just come back up they look very comfortable in 2/3rds of the pitch. A lot of youth though and a lot of naivety like us now although when playing his possession game we had plenty experience.

Best thing that ever happened was getting rid of Evans and not keeping Holtby and Trybull on loan it gave us an exciting half a season because he had to change it.  I can see him taking Sunderland down the possession route given what we saw last night but maybe it'll suit them if they have someone who can score.

[Crozzy]

The second goal, Wharton was offside but he was pushed offside so maybe that’s why the linesman let it go 

[AllRoverAsia]

Hedges never touched the ball prior to connecting with Clarke. It was Clarke's foot that moved the ball.

Wharton was offside.

Full stop.

[Fraserkirky]

I thought their Clarke lad looked excellent.

[rigger]

7 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Hedges never touched the ball prior to connecting with Clarke. It was Clarke's foot that moved the ball.

Wharton was offside.

Full stop.

The ref didn't think so.

Full stop.