You can see the work that’s been done over the past year to improve the quality of interplay, we’re very technical. But I’d have them on a week of finishing drills.

Plymouth are awful, they’ve been so lucky here. They can’t get in our box and we’re letting them off the hook time and again.

Hedges miss was a blow for us, mentally. We began forcing it too much. There’s a lot of good pressing and build-up, but the extent to which we’ve applied this isn’t sustainable and we have looked more vulnerable as the game has gone on. Some poor decision-making from the senior players (Gally and Hedges). Adam Wharton might be struggling with the load and the fact that teams are targeting him. Big lessons to learn for his career, but understandable that he’s challenged by this. JRC is the better RB outlet, but Brittain better than Pickering. Moran has a good brain and an excellent touch. Clearly a young player, learning his trade but has a lot of intelligence and spark.

Their tails are up here, we need to be very organised for the rest of this half and reset at half time.

Plymouth are shit, we need to punish them quickly here. No room to let them think they’re in with a shout.

That is staggering but who amongst us can say they didn’t think “shit, he might still miss this?”

Trav has been really solid today. Worked so hard and been effective.

Scotty Wharton. I pray you have a good game.

That was sublime. Looked good in real time, but slo-mo replay is stunning.

Sammy would want to have done a lot better with his chance but it wasn’t gilt-edge. Really don’t like laying into our players but something is up with Dolan. No composure at all and while he’s not usually so, he’s lost the little bit he did have. Has the ongoing contract issue got anything to do with it? Siggy can’t recover soon enough. Wharton looking the player he is: very naturally talented but still raw and prone to lapses. Improves us enormously, though. We’ve created some good opportunities but nothing excellent. The short corner/free kick routines are getting predictable, although the low corner to the edge of the box was a good thought. Even still, switch it up occasionally. Leonard’s got a long afternoon to come, up against to burly and tricky centre backs, but did well to read where the danger would be and nearly turned it in at the far post. With time and improvement on physicality, he’ll profit regularly from those runs. 6/10 half so far.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0g7pq08/player?chromeless Rosenior quite measured and complimentary of us. Sounds a little frustrated with his own team and possibly aware we could/should have edged it.

Agree. I think Gallagher for Dolan and the same, with Ennis and Gallagher rotating with Szmodics and Hedges staying wide right. It’s desperately upsetting to lose as we did. Hull offered a little bit but killed us with three balls over the top. I know it’s a bit retro, but it’s not unheard of. Falling for it once is understandable/it happens. Three times in a game is maddening.

I don’t think it’s THAT Adama Traore.

✅ Aye

You don’t build a meritocracy without making everyone earn their place, so I agree.

I’d start the same as Rotherham, except switch out Markanday for Hedges. Bring Markanday and Ennis on later, against tired legs, assuming we’ve worked Hull hard through the game. Dolan, Szmodics and Leonard press effectively and anything close to nerves that Hull might have, we should capitalise on. Travis could be switched for Tronstad, but I don’t think Travis has lost the shirt just yet (I was critical of his captaincy in the Rotherham game, but he’s still of great use in the channels and the middle). Tronstad to either help shore up a lead or allow A Wharton/Buckley via sub to push on for a goal. I think Rosenior has the makings of an intelligent manager and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them sit off us and see what we make of having the ball. Tight affair, but we looked excellent at Ewood against West Brom, so I’ll go for 3-2: Leonard, Szmodics (pen, redemption) & Ennis late.

I hear what you’re saying, I just think he leads by example and he’s vocal and has visibly high standards. He holds people accountable on the pitch and I think that’s the role. He’s also amongst the action all the time. I like JRC a lot, but he just strikes me as a bit of a mard-arse, sometimes.

A word on Travis: he started out really bright and was grafting well, finding space in the channels to stretch them and caused a lot of problems. He put himself about well and was unlucky not to have got their #3 sent off, which was a clear and blatant elbow, out of frustration. VAR sends him off. Having said that, he was too casual with Szmodics after his penalty miss (needed something more than “it’s alright, mate, chin up,”) and went missing after the first goal. This is where the issue is for me. He’s got the armband, but he’s not the captain. I think Hyam would be a steady shout for it, but clearly JDT saw something in Szmodics at half time that made him comfortable keeping him on and whatever that is is what helped him come out and score two goals in the second half - two good goals - after one of the worst first-half performances I’ve seen in a Rovers shirt (and I was there for all of Corrado Grabbi.) It must be hard to change captain mid-season, but if there is a change for whatever reason, I think Szmodics looks the right choice, from what we see on the pitch.

Still looks less than sharp, so a few more cameos like this and I think he’ll be something really good for Rovers. Added a lot of things we don’t have a lot of.

I think adjusted with today’s inflation rates, you were bang-on.

We’ve at least looked like we have enough in us to take advantage of a numerical advantage, which is different from last season. We’ve done enough to win this, more than enough, but we’ve let ourselves down with the first half performance. We should’ve been battering these really, but from where we were at half time, a point isn’t that disappointing.

This man is living in the future.

Well, leaving Szmodics on is vindicated, all of a sudden.

Can’t help but think Ben Benson looks like a really aggy bar manager/McDonalds manager when he’s stood doing the subs. Worked for so many of them and they were proper wet, brownnoser grasses.

Madness.