v Stoke City (h) - 4/10/25, k/o 12:30pm

[roverandout]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

Wish we had the Stoke keeper, it'd make a world of difference. One of the best I've seen, including the Prem.

Toth is a good solid keeper.  Hasn't done much wrong 

[Exiled_Rover]

4 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

Under Val we will struggle, but we are not nailed on to go down...Ipswich result stands and it's a different story.

Ipswich result stands, referee knows what a penalty is midweek and suddenly you're thinking "we'll be alright this season, but won't pull up any trees".

[Rover down South]

I don’t usually put the boot in on our players, but I’ve slated Kargbo and De Neve this week.

Fair play to both. Nice finish from Kargbo today.

Another solid performance from Cantwell. Kind of reminds me of when Sven made Beckham captain. No one expected it or really agreed with it, but bought the best out of him. Can see that in TC. Fighting hard for the team. Good to see after he had his critics last season.

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, Exiled_Rover said:

Ipswich result stands, referee knows what a penalty is midweek and suddenly you're thinking "we'll be alright this season, but won't pull up any trees".

"If my Aunty had balls......"

[Tom]

I rate Toth, he has a good knack of pushing the ball out of the danger zone when making saves which is a novel idea that Pears never grasped 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

Paul Gallagher on sky commentary, sounds like he watches every Rovers game good lad despite his years at PNE and Stoke. Always really liked him, when he came through at first looked like hed have a great premier league career but couldnt stick. Quality in the Championship.

He just lacked real pace, apart from that he could have been a regular in thst team. He had a good football brain.

[...]

2 hours ago, Andy said:

The attendance reminds me of Reserve games at Ewood, back in the late '90's.

Dire.

At least the weather has held off, seems to be brightening up a bit now in the Ewood area.

Oh god I remember going to those was a weird vibe

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Toth is a good solid keeper.  Hasn't done much wrong 

I think he's poor.

Coin toss between him and Pears.

Not the major issue though. Cantwell and Alebiosu apart we lack any real quality anywhere over the pitch.

That Emerald Isle Chap who thought Ohashi would get 15-20 goals this season has gone a bit quiet.

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, Tom said:

I rate Toth, he has a good knack of pushing the ball out of the danger zone when making saves which is a novel idea that Pears never grasped 

He pushes the ball straight back out in front of him.

Lucky he wasn't punished today.

[superniko]

4 minutes ago, Tom said:

I rate Toth, he has a good knack of pushing the ball out of the danger zone when making saves which is a novel idea that Pears never grasped 

Hmmm pushed a few straight back into the box today - just that Stoke don’t really have a striker with instinct

Agree, that I think he’s a decent keeper though, and clearly better than Calamity 

Edited 3 hours ago by superniko

[AvRover]

6 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Stoke don't look anything special.  Yet they're third. Just shows a bit of ambition and a good appointment goes far

Yep, and that was us 12 months ago. You need the raw quality for, say, top 4 but an average team can bungle top 6 (like Blackpool and Huddersfield)

We just happen to be one of the teams that is on for a poor season unless this squad gels and improves with time. 13th-15th at best.

At the end of the day the club is in purgatory, relegation and collapse to League Two like Bolton might be the best thing for the club to shock it out of stasis and force Venkys to sell.

I seriously doubt anyone would see a viable business model in the club and actively want to buy it though. Clubs in the South East like Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton are much better 'franchises' to invest in.

[RevidgeBlue]

6 minutes ago, AvRover said:

I seriously doubt anyone would see a viable business model in the club and actively want to buy it though. Clubs in the South East like Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton are much better 'franchises' to invest in.

Completely disagree there.

Properly run we're no less attractive a proposition than any other non parachute team trying to get into the PL They're all a licence to lose shitloads of money.

[Mattyblue]

If foreign owners are giving the Dingles a good go, then there would be no issue here.

[Bbrovers2288]

I was bashing them mid game but actually after we conceded I thought we responded well and worthy of the point if not all 3. Still alarm bells with the quality we have. 
kargbo- applaud the balls to bounce back and be counted after his error midweek, he is still a bit of a headless chicken but can cause confusion clearly, nearly won it too.

de neve looked good when he came on and I had all but wrote him off, but some nice crosses that Riberio was failing to do from that side. Still annoyed me when he wimped out a coming together with keeper and defender when ball was there to be won.

gudjohnssen- yea not great but I’m willing to give him a bit more time, we have had plenty of strikers in the past that have looked terrible and then caught fire, brereton in recent memory. 
 

alabioso is the only summer signing that’s been ready made for championship, others are lightweight and look generally pretty poor. Sorry I will say mccloughlin is pretty solid, he is fine. But still that summer transfer window is looking pretty horrific. Gestede being a champ player and a big strong lad at that, you would think he would know the type of player that would excel , I do think we are small/weak and a genuine lack of quality 

will take the point but it’s still very worrying times ahead 

[Guy N. Cognito]

13 minutes ago, superniko said:

Hmmm pushed a few straight back into the box today - just that Stoke don’t really have a striker with instinct

Agree, that I think he’s a decent keeper though, and clearly better than Calamity 

The jury might still be out on Toth, but as long as he keeps Pears out of the sticks I'm not complaining. 

[Miller11]

That point papers over a few cracks. The biggest worry is that it took us ripping up Ismael’s “tactical plan” and throwing the kitchen sink at them for us to look remotely competent.

12 minutes in and I could see what Stoke’s game plan was. 9 games in and I’m still struggling to see what Ismael’s is.

I don’t think we really contained them, they were pretty wasteful with their final ball. Alebiosu had his toughest test but also pulled off an unbelievable bit of defending. Miller a good shout for MOTM. Midfield bypassed too often, Gudjohnsen mostly anonymous then fluffed his lines. Impressed with De Neve and Kargbo responded to recent criticism in the best possible way.

Also worth mentioning that Ash Phillips looks like he’s developing into an absolute monster of a centre back. 

[Ossydave]

Disappointed not to come away with a win after a decent last half hour or so. Prior to that it was dire. Good job Cantwell has a good head of hair as he must feel like pulling the lot out as he plays forward and his options are nonexistent, he’s clearly on a different level to those around him. Gudjohnsen has some way to go to not go down as a complete dud, missing an absolute sitter and doing little else all game. Kargbo looked to get a shot in the arm after his well taken goal although should have had at least 1 more. I admit I rolled my eyes when De Neve came on but he too played well, maybe partly as he was running at tired legs. Morishita a million miles from the apparent live wire he was against Watford, not sure what’s going on there. Defence did ok, Ribeiro the pick of the bunch and played some good balls in the attacking 3rd. 
 

Much like Swansea midweek, Stoke weren’t great either. 
 

Can only hope we’re still in a period of new players gelling because if we don’t improve we’re gonna be around the bottom 3 all season. There were at least a few positives from today, I struggled for any midweek apart from maybe Alebiosu. 

[Torgeir]

25 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

No we didnt.

Apart from the result  not standing there were still 10- 15 mins to go.

 

We beat them but will have to beat them again to get the points. 
 

Coventry away next will be a mountain to climb for these lads. 

[Mike E]

2 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

If foreign owners are giving the Dingles a good go, then there would be no issue here.

Doesn’t even need THAT much money here. Should be breaking even with decent marketing efforts and better use of Ewood Park as an asset.

Any prospective owner should be straight back onto Adidas to reignite the club shop.

[Bbrovers2288]

13 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

Disappointed not to come away with a win after a decent last half hour or so. Prior to that it was dire. Good job Cantwell has a good head of hair as he must feel like pulling the lot out as he plays forward and his options are nonexistent, he’s clearly on a different level to those around him. Gudjohnsen has some way to go to not go down as a complete dud, missing an absolute sitter and doing little else all game. Kargbo looked to get a shot in the arm after his well taken goal although should have had at least 1 more. I admit I rolled my eyes when De Neve came on but he too played well, maybe partly as he was running at tired legs. Morishita a million miles from the apparent live wire he was against Watford, not sure what’s going on there. Defence did ok, Ribeiro the pick of the bunch and played some good balls in the attacking 3rd. 
 

Much like Swansea midweek, Stoke weren’t great either. 
 

Can only hope we’re still in a period of new players gelling because if we don’t improve we’re gonna be around the bottom 3 all season. There were at least a few positives from today, I struggled for any midweek apart from maybe Alebiosu. 

Thought Riberio was awful , loads of good positions and don’t think he found a rovers player once. Surely he wasn’t the best defender, worst for me 

[bluebruce]

44 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Wish we had the Stoke keeper, it'd make a world of difference. One of the best I've seen, including the Prem.

Bizarre to me that he's still in this league. Every time I see him play us, he's a game changer. Must have his share of duff performances throughout the season to have been left malingering in the Championship at Stoke.

Or he really, really loves oatcakes.

Edited 2 hours ago by bluebruce

[Mercer]

A good deserved point which I didn't see coming at half time.

Toth made important saves to keep us in the game and other than Ribeiro (whose form is deteriorating quickly) I thought defensively we were okay.

Just don't rate Gardner-Hickman.

Thank goodness we have Cantwell - an enormous shift again to go with his ability.

For once, De Neve looked lively and useful when he came on and needs to kick on whilst, hopefully, Kargbo's goal will do wonders for his confidence.

Morishita annonymous for the second game this week and a big concern given we chased him all summer whilst Gudjohnsen, again, worryingly offered nothing (2 very good chances spurned in 2 games with very poor touch / control) - think another dud to add to a long list of Rovers' centre forwards who have bombed.

Next 8 league games take us to the end of November and looking at those fixtures, I would be surprised if we come away with more than 5 points.  Very worrying times.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Mercer

[DE.]

11 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Bizarre to me that he's still in this league. Every time I see him play us, he's a game changer. Must have his share of duff performances throughout the season to have been left malingering in the Championship at Stoke.

Or he really, really loves oatcakes.

From the reviews I've done this season he is generally very good, but definitely has mistakes in him too. 

[CaptainBeanfart]

36 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

If foreign owners are giving the Dingles a good go, then there would be no issue here.

This is so far off the truth. They were in the Premier League and had qualified for Europe the year that foreign owners bought them. We'd have to do something similar to be appealing to foreign money. 

[arbitro]

After being critical of the manager recently I think he deserves some praise today for his substitutions. Ohashi for Gudjohnsen was a no brainer given the latter's lack of appetite but I wasn't too enamoured when Kargbo and De Neve came on. Both have us some pace and width and suddenly we were on the front foot and getting in behind. Kargbo could have had a hat trick and De Neve was a real threat.

I wasn't too disappointed with our first half show and felt we should have scored at least one goal. I don't like making scapegoats and I can live with players not playing well but I don't accept players who don't out a shift in and Gudjohnsen tell into that category. I can't remember him sprinting at all and I was genuinely surprised when he came out for the second half.

In the final analysis I feel slightly disappointed with a draw (although I would have snatched your hand off for that when they scored). We created some decent openings but don't have the type of player who can take advantage of them. 

Hopefully we can work on some things over the next two weeks and play consistently like we did in patches today.

Alebiosu was our best player again today. His two last ditch tackles were of a high quality and his forays forward were really good. Our centre backs were generally good but Ribiero is out of form. TGH and Tronstad looked decent together and Hedges maintained his early season form. Morishita was disappointing again. I know it's early but I was expecting more from him. Cantwell over elaborated at times but he is still out most creative player by a country mile.

Coming from behind was something we don't do too often so that was satisfying.

We are in a scrap but some of the stuff I saw gives me hope that we can compete.