12 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Jake Garrett?! I just don't get it at all.

He had a great game, esp as he was on a yellow since about the 10th minute. I've not read beyond here yet but I hope you've acknowledged since that this was a bit of a hasty point of view.

12 hours ago, matt83 said:

Also the manager says himself we’re not aiming for the play offs despite being there for most of the season. So if the manager is happy with midtable nothingness from 3rd hardly a good incentive to get bums on seats. 

Every manager near the top of the table plays down their chances in public! Kompany's brief was to get promoted, as was Heckingbottom, neither of them will say they've nearly done it. Arteta has only recently admitted being in a title race and they're a similar distance ahead of City as we are behind top two, having been top all season! I very much doubt that behind the scenes JDT is telling the players "try your best, but don't worry if it's too much, I'm here for 3 years." 

You could see today, the way he was urging the team to push up on 90 mins, that he shows passion & desire to succeed, but he just doesn't yet have the right raw materials to be able to find a consistency of performance.

I think JDT is a victim of his own success to a point, and is also a victim of the stagnation (at best) that has plagued the club from before he arrived. He can't do much more with this squad than have us where we are IMO and, after everything that's gone on at this club in the last decade, if folk aren't tolerant of being in 3rd position at just past the halfway point with a comparatively young, threadbare squad that was tipped by many to be fighting relegation when JDT arrived, then I truly do not understand that rationale.

16 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Is Jan 2st now "White Flag Day"?

It's not a must win game ... well not if you're happy with finishing the season 7th or lower or find it ok to finish 30 points behind Burnley as reasonably predicted by a Dingle poster on here.

I can only assume that those who don't play to win don't play.

(Sorry for the delayed reply, I started writing this at HT and have not had chance since then to finish it until now!)

Come off it, no league game on 2st(!) of Jan is must win.  If we finish 7th then it's an improvement on anything Mowbray achieved in his tenure & in far more difficult circumstances. The brief when he arrived was not to finish top 2 or even top 6, so why is he now being judged against that benchmark? If anything you could argue he's a victim of his own success if this is the sort of OTT reaction that comes from a short run of bad form that sees the top two press ahead whilst we stay at the head of the chasing pack.

It's almost like if he had us 8th or 9th with a record like W11 D5 L8, with the 2 defeats to Burnley & Preston being draws, some people would be happier & calling it a solid start to his tenure. Yet that team would be 4 points worse off than we currently are.

As for Burnley, let's stop obsessing with them for now; for many reasons that are nowt to do with JDT, right now sadly they're in a different league to us in all but name, so let's just focus on us. 

On that point, great result today in difficult circumstances. We were comfortably the better side & could've won it more comprehensively, but a win is a win. Many around me were complaining it was not intensive, entertaining or convincing enough, but in context it was a great result. 3rd game in 7 days, the 2nd of which was with 10 men for a half, on a v leggy pitch with another poor ref against an opponent who, albeit bottom 5, had drawn their last 4 and were technically in better form than us. JDT was urging the players to get out faster towards the end but I don't think they had the legs, so it wasn't a tactic of his to sit so deep I don't think. I was a bit concerned at changing formation when JRC went off but we needed Travis' steel in the middle so when JRC went off there was sense & logic to switching to 3CBs & wingbacks. We lost some momentum but never really looked in trouble.

A good time now to give some rest to Ayala, Gally, BBD, Pickering & Dack, to bring in the Whartons, Edun, Mola, Hirst & Markanday etc. for the cup next weekend. 

1 hour ago, booth said:

Yes I did, and I thought I explained why in the post.

We're playing an out of form Cardiff, the current run is becoming close to a TM spiral and if you look at the table there's not many points between us and 15th place.

That doesn't make it a must win game though; to say it does is hyperbolic in the extreme & unnecessarily adds pressure to a situation which is far from as dire as some would have us believe.

Anyway, Happy New Year all the same! 🙂🎆

6 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i think it`s the fact the football is terrible,the worst since the end of the mackay era and/or  the kean shambles,at least with mowbray you got a couple of good performances after 5 bad ones

Short memory here, the death spirals under Mowbray were so named for a reason!

I get the frustration of the last few games, but overall this squad & backroom team, given the challenging situation that existed when JDT walked through the door, have exceeded expectations, have they not? It's not fair to say that all the wins are fortunate and the defeats well deserved.

No team has been promoted or relegated on 1st Jan. JDT has a huge task on his hands and won't get everything right, nor will he turn us into the perfect team in a few months. The club is working with a budget of peanuts behind the scenes.

A bit of a reality check is needed. Someone mentioned tomorrow being a must win game, why put that much pressure on a match on New Year's Day??

I'm gonna confidently predict a win. Would be nice to see both Whartons start,and Markanday get a run out too to see what he can do, but whatever happens tomorrow I do believe that JDT has more of a clue what he is trying to achieve than most people seem willing to give him credit for.

7 hours ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

When was the last time you saw that at Rovers?

I was definitely entertained on Thursday in the first half and so was everyone else imo, there was not a murmur of discontent at half time about any aspect of the performance. 

If we can produce football like that regularly, with the squad we have plus some decent January additions, then there's no reason we can't stick around the top 6, where none of us thought we had a chance of being back in July.

Folk are way too impatient nowadays, give the guy a break.

I'm quite happy with that lineup. There's 4 first team regulars with decent experience, (Travis, Hedges, Szmodics & Scott W) plus 5 young talents looking to impress, plus Hirst & Pears.

I think that's about right given the context.

As for Forest,a strong team in terms of the players but nothing to be scared of & they'll likely be a bit rusty.. I'd expect them to win but we'll give a good account of ourselves I reckon

I'm giving it a miss today, it's usually an hour's drive for me which last season took nearly 3 hours, only to get within 500yds of Ewood for it to be postponed. I can't afford to waste that amount of diesel this year!

That was dire. 

Got it all wrong.

First proper cock up for me from JDT, we shouldn't be putting in a performance like that in game 21 when there's so much riding on it.

Overall he's been excellent so I'm not going to go ballistic on him, but he needs to admit that was completely unacceptable from everyone involved, barring TK.

5 weeks to the next match is a long time to wait for a chance of redemption.  

Well up for this, Sky day pass bought, England about to win T20, can Rovers make it a perfect day??

My heart is well in charge of my head just now, 2-1 Rovers victory coming up!!

3 hours ago, roverandout said:

Yes but every tournament.  Rooney Beckham Gerrard owen

If we were to lose Maddison it would hardly be as critical as losing any of those, given he was last name on the squad list. Rees James is far more impactful, and his injury was weeks ago.

We're gonna do rubbish anyway, regardless. 

I think we should (and will) keep Diaz until summer. Maybe he already has a pre-contract agreement lined up abroad, hence how certain he is he will be here until summer?

Venkys won't sell unless everything is right for them. BBD now epitomizes the spirit & morale at this club, he wants to stay on, the fans want him to stay on, JDT wants him to stay on. Making money can't be Venkys motivation behind their ownership in view of them having lost it hand over fist, so it makes no sense to lose such a crucial asset (a la Rothwell, but magnified 10x).

It's a risky strategy, no doubt. But on balance that would be the most sensible thing to do. Losing him for £0 in summer sounds mad, but even if we are still in the Championship it doesn't affect FFP too much on my understanding.

Cracking result last night, everyone did their bit, not least all 10 eligible outfield players scoring their penalty.

Can only be a good confidence building thing for all concerned. 

Theres a great article on the website about Szmodics, including a video that he posted that either his family or friends shot from in the stand showing him taking his penalty, clearly big Hammers fans like him, but willing him to score nonetheless!

VAR will be in operation for this one won't it?

Another way for us to be shafted I guess!!

10 hours ago, Blue blood said:

It's a fair point they do have time to develop. And I hope they do surprise us. Bereton certainly did after 2 years of showing nothing coming good, so it's possible but it's more the exception than the rule. Maybe we should pack them both off to South America. 

That said it didn't take too much to clock those other guys weren't good, and the signs have been that both these chaps are pretty poor. I think I'd feel more comfortable not naming them so if I saw a definable quality in them, some potential. But I can't think of one thing they are showing which is decent or promising, a strength or an asset if you like. They aren't fast, they don't have presence, they don't strike me as that quick nor predatory or good in the air. Maybe it's a bit early to judge but the early signs imo are very discouraging. And Hirst certainly doesn't look anywhere near worth spending 4 million on. 

Well I guess we'll see more of what they're about tonight because they're almost certain to start, injuries permitting.

I could agree that their initial performances have been a little underwhelming, but I wouldn't go further than that at this stage on such a small sample size. Looking back through their careers, they both know generally where the back of the net is, Hirst has size on his side (plus a dad who knew a thing or 2 about scoring), and Vale has shown good awareness and link-up play IMO. Of course, for both of them it's mainly about goals, like all forwards, so let's give them more opportunities to convert chances & see what that does to their confidence. 

19 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

 

Not sure why you are so keen to defend JDT's use of two of the worst forwards in Rovers history. 

Sorry to pick you up specifically on this as I know it's a widely held view amongst many on here, but isn't this just a tad premature? They've had the grand total of what, 6 x 90 mins between them in 3 months? Much of which has been 20 mins here, 30 mins there, and often in away performances where generally the team has played poorly anyway?

And you're putting them in the same basket as Chris Brown, Joe Nuttall, David Goodwillie, Anthony Stokes, Liam Feeney et al?

Give the guys a break, c'mon!

Hahahahahaha!!!!

I'm sure his card is marked by many clubs as one to follow as he just seems to play the game in such a natural way, it's instinctive for him, not practiced.

But I think we hold all the cards on this one, which is one of the big pluses of the GB/JDT era for me with the likes of Phillips, Garrett, Batty, Vale, Barnes et al also all being tied up long term.

He's just signed a new contract so we can name our price. Plus as a local boy & fan, he will appreciate being a first teamer here more than being a "who's he?" anywhere else.

Of course, if he does well here over the next 18 months & we don't go up we will lose him, but he's young & has a clear pathway to first team football. No way will we lose him in the summer imo.

Queen - Let Me Entertain You

https://youtu.be/LmeOC0OTY_Q

It has the impressive "duh-duh" intro beat for when the teams are waiting in the tunnel, the explosion into noise as they enter the pitch, and a decent family-friendly first verse to welcome everyone during handshakes. Plus of course it includes the reason we're all there - to be entertained!!

The only downside I can see is that the first words are, "Hey, it's a sellout", but we can maybe gloss over that...

It's a shambles of a situation & whilst it doesn't directly affect me, I really feel for fans on both sides who, 2 days prior to scheduled KO, have no idea if, when or where the match will take place.

The EFL should be stronger on this & any postponement should result in a forfeiture in our favour, but the difficulty is that to some extent a precedent has already been set in respect of the fiasco earlier in the season re the commonwealth games, which resulted in games being postponed. I know the circumstances are different but I'm sure if we got the 3 points from this both Coventry & the other teams whose games were postponed would appeal.

It really is ridiculous on all levels.

2 hours ago, Realistic Rover said:

Tad harsh on Gally for me. Yes he had a good chance saved but held it up well, ran himself into the ground and linked play well at times. Love watching him at the moment and I believe he’s a massive ‘confidence’ player. Definitely playing with confidence at the moment. 

I wasn't at the game and am only going off what I read on here (I know, I know!). I'm one of Gally's bigger fans, I think he's massively underappreciated by most on here so I'm pleased that, in your eyes at least, he did his bit.

28 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Mark Atkins giving his opinions on the game along with post-match interviews with JDT and Szmodics

 

 

What a guy!!!

On a side note, there's one young Hull fan who ought to be getting a clip round the ear hole tonight (much like some posters on here probably given the last couple of hours' shenanigans!).