v Stoke City (a) - 10/3/23

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

14 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

We were very poor last night. I hate football when we've actually performing well. I often think I'm one of those that is passionate but has the ability to not let it ruin the day. In reality as a Rovers fan I've just become accustomed to expect failure. Being able to let things go really goes out the window when you start to belive. It's the hope that kills you.

I was so wound up last night, firstly by our performance and then by the spineless referee. 

After some time to calm down, Alex Neill did a number on us. They let us have the ball at the back and their press suffocated us whenever we tried to go forwards. We became unsettled and constantly misplaced passes. The quick switches of play also destroyed us. Dolan was terrible for not tracking back, but I also think Pickering twice followed his man more centrally leaving so much space.

We didn't deserve a thing from the game. I'm hopeful that under JDT we have a habit of bouncing back. Top 6 is the aim. A win at Reading and playoffs are still a possibility. 

We play Reading at Ewood.

[arbitro]

We didn't play well last night and deserved 'nowt but it wasn't a Burnley, Preston or Rotherham type performance. We simply didn't do what we are good at and allowed Stoke to dominate us physically. As with any defeat it's how you react and Wednesday is the perfect opportunity to get back to winning but we simply have to impose ourselves on Reading with the high tempo, pressing game that suits our players. 

[BankEnd Rover]

1 minute ago, arbitro said:

We didn't play well last night and deserved 'nowt but it wasn't a Burnley, Preston or Rotherham type performance. We simply didn't do what we are good at and allowed Stoke to dominate us physically. As with any defeat it's how you react and Wednesday is the perfect opportunity to get back to winning but we simply have to impose ourselves on Reading with the high tempo, pressing game that suits our players. 

Yeap, we’re as good as anyone in this league when we press and get at teams from the first minute.

Luckily we have a very winnable game to get the reaction we need.

 

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Overall deserved to lose - but yet another Championship match decided by turning points - had Jagielka played Gallagher would have been able to out sprint him when put through, if the referee had spotted a very clear hand ball we would have gone in 2-1 at half time (appreciate they should have had a penalty, but they scrored shortly after anyway), if the referee had yellow carded them for persistent fouling some of our moves might not have broken down like they did.

Of course you can flip that around, and say Stoke could have scored rather than hitting the bar, Pears soap hands would have dropped to one of their players rather than ours

Overall I think we had too many players a little off the pace last night - and this against a Stoke side obviously in a bit of a purple patch of form. Also, I think O'Neill had analysed our tactics - and to be honest part of the reason for the loss was losing the tactical battle

Edited March 11, 2023 by DavidMailsTightPerm

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Last night was a shocker. We played like we’d been made to walk to Stoke. There was no athleticism on show anywhere on the pitch. I don’t think we won a 50/50 ball all night until the game was over. Collectively, and I include the manager in this, we were clueless. I said it last night but after 20 minutes you could see they were playing through us in midfield and there was a huge gap between Travis and Buckley at the front of the back four and Dolan, Szmodics and Thomas further up field. Stoke played in this gap all night.

We should have taken one of those three off, probably Szmodics, and brought on Morton or Hedges to re-inforce the midfield. Instead of which it was more of the same until the game was well and truly lost. The inability of the team and manager to be able to retrieve the game from losing positions is deeply worrying. I was going to point out that both the really good recent wins, Leicester and Sheff U, came after we’d scored first but I didn’t want to appear negative. They also could have both been classed as no pressure “ free hits “ . Last night wasn’t and we folded under pressure.

There doesn’t seem anyone on the pitch or on the bench that can gather the players together and sort out what’s going wrong in real time. As I say deeply concerning.

Pears 5 Looked nervous after his misjudgement of the early cross ball. Obviously he was also rattled by having to play with the ball at his feet too much. Personally I don’t blame him for that. Outfield players in a better position were bottling it and giving him the ball to solve the problems.

JRC 5 Not at the races, fluffed an early decent shooting chance. Got exposed in too many 2 v 1 situations.

Carter 5 Looked rattled all night. He needs to cut out the habit of hanging out a foot and playing it straight to the opposition.

Hyam 5 Another one who had a night to forget. Not his usual self at all.

Pickering 4 Got caught playing too centrally for the goals. Ended up marking nobody. Hardly crossed the half way line until late on.

Thomas 3 Not in the game at all. Left JRC to deal with two opponents most of the night.

Buckley 4 The game passed him by. I don’t like him playing deep. He either plays further forward in the Szmodics role or he doesn’t play at all.

Travis 5 Did his best but got lost in the chaos. Possibly our MOM.

Dolan 3 Awful defensively. What he was doing for the second goal especially only he knows. He was shoulder to shoulder with the scorer. I did notice their guy bumped him just as the ball was on it’s way and got away with it.

Szmodics 3 Looked a Peterborough level player last night. Exemplified by that good crossing opportunity he had that he put more or less straight into touch.

Gallagher 4 I thought he worked hard but my oh my his touch is dreadful. His sense of anticipation is worse,  the ball has actually got to arrive before he realises it’s on it’s way. Nicely judged shoulder header at the end. Got lots of flicks ons but they don’t go anywhere.

Brittain looked bright when he came, what a great cross for the BBD header. Hedges was ok and and Garrett made a slight difference in midfield, at least he’ll put a foot in. BBD at least looked like he wanted to be out there and scored a nice header. All four came on way too late. The game was gone.

We played in front of them all night - came away with  nothing. Got around the side twice - two goals. I rest my case.

All in all a really depressing performance, play like that against Sheff U and the dingles and we’ll get well and truly dicked.

I don’t usually mention the ref,  but he was crap missed two clear pens. One in a melee of players but the other was a clear a handball as you’ll see all season. I’m sure he “ missed “ ours because he knew he’d fucked up on theirs. He was looking right at the play. Gave us nothing all night apart from missing the pen they should have had. Gally gets shoulder charged over - play on. BBD shoulder charges one of their players over - free kick in a dangerous spot. His eyes must have been painted on.

Edited March 11, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[dallydally]

21 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Last night was a shocker. We played like we’d been made to walk to Stoke. There was no athleticism on show anywhere on the pitch. I don’t think we won a 50/50 ball all night until the game was over. Collectively, and I include the manager in this, we were clueless. I said it last night but after 20 minutes you could see they were playing through us in midfield and there was a huge gap between Travis and Buckley at the front of the back four and Dolan, Szmodics and Thomas further up field. Stoke played in this gap all night.

We should have taken one of those three off, probably Szmodics, and brought on Morton or Hedges to re-inforce the midfield. Instead of which it was more of the same until the game was well and truly lost. The inability of the team and manager to be able to retrieve the game from losing positions is deeply worrying. I was going to point out that both the really good recent wins, Leicester and Sheff U, came after we’d scored first but I didn’t want to appear negative. They also could have both been classed as no pressure “ free hits “ . Last night wasn’t and we folded under pressure.

There doesn’t seem anyone on the pitch or on the bench that can gather the players together and sort out what’s going wrong in real time. As I say deeply concerning.

Pears 5 Looked nervous after his misjudgement of the early cross ball. Obviously he was also rattled by having to play with the ball at his feet too much. Personally I don’t blame him for that. Outfield players in a better position were bottling it and giving him the ball to solve the problems.

JRC 5 Not at the races, fluffed an early decent shooting chance. Got exposed in too many 2 v 1 situations.

Carter 5 Looked rattled all night. He needs to cut out the habit of hanging out a foot and playing it straight to the opposition.

Hyam 5 Another one who had a night to forget. Not his usual self at all.

Pickering 4 Got caught playing too centrally for the goals. Ended up marking nobody. Hardly crossed the half way line until late on.

Thomas 3 Not in the game at all. Left JRC to deal with two opponents most of the night.

Buckley 4 The game passed him by. I don’t like him playing deep. He either plays further forward in the Szmodics role or he doesn’t play at all.

Travis 5 Did his best but got lost in the chaos. Possibly our MOM.

Dolan 3 Awful defensively. What he was doing for the second goal especially only he knows. He was shoulder to shoulder with the scorer. I did notice their guy bumped him just as the ball was on it’s way and got away with it.

Szmodics 3 Looked a Peterborough level player last night. Exemplified by that good crossing opportunity he had that he put more or less straight into touch.

Gallagher 4 I thought he worked hard but my oh my his touch is dreadful. His sense of anticipation is worse,  the ball has actually got to arrive before he realises it’s on it’s way. Nicely judged shoulder header at the end. Got lots of flicks ons but they don’t go anywhere.

Brittain looked bright when he came, what a great cross for the BBD header. Hedges was ok and and Garrett made a slight difference in midfield, at least he’ll put a foot in. All three way came on way too late. The game was gone.

All in all a really depressing performance play like that against Sheff U and the singles and we’ll get well and truly dicked.

I don’t usually mention the ref,  but he was crap missed two clear pens. One in a melee of players but the other was a clear a handball as you’ll see all season. I’m sure he “ missed “ ours because he knew he’d fucked up on theirs. He was looking right at the play. Gave us nothing all night apart from missing the pen they should have had. Gally gets shoulder charged over - play on. BBD shoulder charges one of their players over - free kick in a dangerous spot. His eyes must have been painted on.

Generous marks those!!!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, dallydally said:

Generous marks those!!!

I tell it like I see it. Who was it said “ put all the players in a big sack and hit it with a big stick. You won’t be punishing the innocent “ ?

Edited March 11, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[AllRoverAsia]

I just watched the Sky extended highlights to see if we were as bad as I thought.

We were and so was that object posing as a Referee, both were appalling and gutless in tandem.

I hope I never see Dolan exposed to defending in a LB position again especially against pace and crosses. He made a major contribution to our conceding the first 2 goals. On the first he lost his man and was done for pace. On the second he lost his man and FFS then ducked out of a header. He has no real pace in a sprint race.

I don't fault Dolan completely, JDT made a tactical error that exposed his shortcomings in a very dangerous part of the pitch.

The 3rd was a classic Rovers balls up. Laughable and I did.

Maybe it because we are not used to a perfect pitch and more used to the Ewood scrubland. That's my lame excuse 

[Ossydave]

The most obvious thing to take away from last night (I guess we kinda knew anyway), is that if we are to win games our defence needs to play well. Collectively they were all poor last night hence the result. Perhaps we do rely on them a bit too much....

We really mustn't be too despondent though, we were always gonna get the odd loss thrown in before the end of the season, we need to make sure it is just the odd one now though.

 

[Ossydave]

3 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

 

Maybe it because we are not used to a perfect pitch and more used to the Ewood scrubland. That's my lame excuse 

We looked world beaters on Leicesters carpet of a pitch.....

[Crozzy]

3 hours sat on m6 last night. Normal run would have had us home at 11.30 tops, didn’t get through the door till past 3am. 🤦‍♂️

 

going back through the game now…. Hyam was a stonewaller (knew that as I saw it at the time) but how has he not seen Gayle handball it when he’s right there? Not even an iffy one of his hand position, his arms go to the ball and are well away from his body and that must have been 10 yards from the ref with no one blocking his view. Penalty there could have got us right back in it before half time. We weren’t good enough but the ref has to give both of those. If I was that shit at my job I’d have my P45 and be on my way. Officiating has gotten so so poor in this league 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

6 minutes ago, Crozzy said:

3 hours sat on m6 last night. Normal run would have had us home at 11.30 tops, didn’t get through the door till past 3am. 🤦‍♂️

 

going back through the game now…. Hyam was a stonewaller (knew that as I saw it at the time) but how has he not seen Gayle handball it when he’s right there? Not even an iffy one of his hand position, his arms go to the ball and are well away from his body and that must have been 10 yards from the ref with no one blocking his view. Penalty there could have got us right back in it before half time. We weren’t good enough but the ref has to give both of those. If I was that shit at my job I’d have my P45 and be on my way. Officiating has gotten so so poor in this league 

We’d have to score from the pen first. Who would you have down as the taker ? 

[Crozzy]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We’d have to score from the pen first. Who would you have down as the taker ? 

Probs Gallagher or Szmodics? Could have changed the game. Either way it’s very poor from the ref. Just as poor him missing Hyams on Smallbone too

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, Crozzy said:

Probs Gallagher or Szmodics? Could have changed the game. Either way it’s very poor from the ref. Just as poor him missing Hyams on Smallbone too

He’d got a bit of excuse for the Hyam one, Crowded goalmouth and all that. A blind man on a galloping horse would have spotted the handball.

Gally on a pen ! Jesus, I hope I never have to see that.

Edited March 11, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Crozzy]

18 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

He’d got a bit of excuse for the Hyam one, Crowded goalmouth and all that. A blind man on a galloping horse would have spotted the handball.

Gally on a pen ! Jesus, I hope I never have to see that.

Maybe Sorba Thomas?

got to say, amazing what happens when we put a couple crosses in the box isn’t it

 

[AllRoverAsia]

An appalling showing on a Friday night makes for a very long weekend.

Not nice.

[Gav]

8 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

An appalling showing on a Friday night makes for a very long weekend.

Not nice.

Egg chasing later Asia, something to get the blood flowing if we can hammer the French. 

[Gav]

2 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

We have an unnerving tendancy to collapse like a pack of cards at times...seen it too many times this Season.We should have been playing with confidence and an all out will to win last night in our position.This team is frustrating at times with its Peak and Trough performance.

Well get battered at Sheffield in the Cup if we play like that,a certainty.

We played exactly like that at Bramall Lane earlier in the season and got hammered SG.

We've come on leaps and bounds since then.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, Gav said:

Egg chasing later Asia, something to get the blood flowing if we can hammer the French. 

Don’t get your hopes up.

[Gav]

15 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Don’t get your hopes up.

We are some way off Tyrone, a bit like Rovers, in a transition period.

[Stonesrick]

1 hour ago, dallydally said:

Generous marks those!!!

Absolutely spot on marks those. 👏👍

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

43 minutes ago, Crozzy said:

Maybe Sorba Thomas?

got to say, amazing what happens when we put a couple crosses in the box isn’t it

 

Mm, Thomas. Wouldn’t that have been his first touch of the ball ?

Edited March 11, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[MarkBRFC]

3 hours ago, goozburger said:

I predicted a loss and was supposedly "flapping" against all you cocky bastards, so I'll lap up all the credit about to come my way! 😤

We turned up for the first and last ten minutes. Stoke turned up for the other 70 and sliced through our midfield and defence like butter.

That's all she wrote. I've seen worse from us this season, but I had a feeling we'd turn out "one of those" performances.

Anyone who has watched football could see that result coming.

There were quite a few on here who thought we only needed to turn up to win because "they are 16th".

[lraC]

When I looked at the recent predictions thread for the remaining games, I could not bring myself to do it. Although we have been on a decent unbeaten run, we were always capable of returning to type and that's exactly what we did last night.

My hope now is that we do not do that in the "six pointers" as we do have some crucial games in the next ten, with Coventry at home, Luton at home and Millwall away, all being crucial games.

I do believe we can make the top six and can still afford the odd slip up, but please do not do it too often lads.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Any of the surviving old timers who saw us lose at home to West Ham 3-1 after winning 8-2 at their place a couple of days previously will never risk trying to predict Rovers results.

There was a cartoon in one of the daily papers showing people selling cricket style score cards instead of programmes outside Ewood Park on the morning of the game !

Edited March 11, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces