Just like watching the first team: everyone passing responsibility under the guise of passing the ball, play 50 passes going nowhere then lose the ball and be in immediate trouble.

Quite the game, can’t beat coming back from two down to win, happens very rarely.

As to next season, I’m not too bothered which keeper we retain, I like Brittain, Phillips as the 3rd centre back plus ANO, replace Pickering if we can but low priority. Personally I love a midfield 3 of Wharton, Bucko and JRC, with Garrett backing up. Then we need two strikers, good ones, so an inspired lower league find and a top 6 loanee. Sammy in behind them with Dolan and Hedges on the bench.

34 minutes ago, bazza said:

Jim, you keep harping on about Luton being a small, tinpot, little club who don't deserve to be in the top or even the second tier.

Back in the early 1950s I remember the Rovers (with players like Kelly and Quigley etc.) battling against all the L's each season. These clubs were Liverpool, Leicester City, Leeds Utd and Luton Town.I considered them all to be big powerful clubs.

The smaller ones of that era (to me) were the likes of Plymouth Argyle, Lincoln City (who once thrashed us 8-0 at their place), Rotherham Utd and Doncaster Rovers.

Renrag will remember those days.

I agree. FA Cup finalists the year before our last appearance, won the League Cup well before we did, they also have 18 wins against our 13 head to head. So, not giants of the game but not tinpot either. 

Somewhat amazingly, they got relegated from the old first division to the 4th then promoted back to the first all in the space of 14 years.

Despite all the problems, it’s been obvious for a few games now we are getting awful luck. Watched the Derby 4-2 highlights earlier and we got two deflected goals, no such fortune for us recently and a lot of misfortune. Maybe it’ll all come back on the last day.

Maybe he was ready a while back but expecting a rather slight 18-yr-old to have bossed the midfield twice a week every week is OTT. Plus he’s played the last 3 and we amassed two points so we clearly have bigger issues on winning promotion than how often he’s played.

Next season I expect him to be first name on the sheet.

I thought only JRC showed the required cojones tonight, our Pound Shop Savage was nowhere to be seen.

That’s the kind of goal Diaz used to score

Brereton is a disgrace. Spent all half hiding, trying to look busy while avoiding doing anything. Fuck off out of this game, out of my club.

S Wharton sent to Siberia for the Preston goal. Bare bones team, the subs will will in for us.

About fucking time SG

Every Gallagher involvement has been shit and Brereton hugging the touchline does not bode well

It’ll be 3 in midfield when we have the ball. Ridiculous that Sam Gallagher gets the key spot in the key game but, in reality, there’s no-one else.

3-0, the charge gathers steam.

13 hours ago, arbitro said:

Seven shots on target from a full back.

Amazing.

 

More than Sam Gallagher has had this year, I’ll wager.

On reflection:

Pears - in live time I thought he might have come out for the first one but then a toe-poke was all that would’ve been required to score.

JRC - Not a stellar defender but he does give us something different in possession and he calls out others for doing something crap

Carter - I like him but this was a bad one, not helped by his senior partner alongside him.

Hyam - Got done every which way by #24, who left him for dead multiple times thanks to little feints and runs, which combined to give him plenty of time and space to flick on Slabhead’s punt for the first goal.

Pickering - Best of a bad lot, seems to have grown into that role.

Travis - back to his pre-benching worst.

Morton - Might help if he joined in a bit.

Hedges - Another I like but not wide right

Sammy - Involved in what few good things we did.

Brereton - Sunning himself on the left touchline - he was even there for a corner from the other flank - unbalances the team. He just doesn’t get involved enough.

Donkey - I watched a lot of him off the ball and he doesn’t test his marker at all. I can’t even tell what his game is, because it isn’t holding it up, coming short, running the channels, turning his man etc. He had four clear chances - Inc. two goal line sitters - and either completely missed or mishit all of them. Maybe Mowbray had the right idea putting him wide left: at least you get the workrate but he fucks up promising situations  a lot less.

On 05/04/2023 at 08:30, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

As I shall be putting in a rare personal appearance, 0-2.

Should’ve put a Mercer on it. We got crucified today, outclassed all over the pitch, all through the game. Sam Gallagher is even worse in the flesh, so depressing to watch their #24 in comparison. 

As I shall be putting in a rare personal appearance, 0-2.

It’s a strange one: hopeless for two years, half decent for six months then for the next six months pretty much every shot/header went in. This season I think he’s been no more than decent, but his increasingly common habit of sticking to the left touchline is limiting us. In his purple patch he got a lot of six-yard box goals and he is mostly too wide to get those now, with those chances going begging thanks to half-a-second-too-late Gallagher. 

3 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

JDT said that we had been playing five across the back throughout when we lost the ball, in answer to a similar point made to him by Andy Bayes.

We did IMO. Hedges was more often than not first to confront their winger and JRC made only a couple of his trademark forays. The issue for me was the subs absolutely did not perform to the required level. But, even so, we lost because of a stupidly deflected goal and abysmally poor centre forward play - both from the same player. If Szmodics had played in Gallagher rather than vice versa, would we have scored that goal? Not a chance. I’ve been worried for a while now that Gallagher will ultimately cost us promotion.

As I recall their coaches travelled up overnight and they were all over town centre at 8am. There was green paint on walls for many years after.

15 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

It is flawed. 

Friends have gone to uni and studied a masters in sports analysis and they taught the students that xG is effectively a pointless stat.

I was thinking that when Sheffield’s centre half beat four players, had what seemed a very scorable position but then scooped into Pears’ arms. Was that a high probability xg? For a forward in that position, yes, but for a CH who had run half the length of the field, lost his balance beating Carter and was on his wrong foot, not at all.

I wonder if this is the price for JDT staying onboard? Huge climbdown for Broughton - maybe he works for JDT now.

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

The last few games have been different and today the penny dropped for me as to what I think is a fundamental difference. The last few games have seen some interplay between the centre halves but not the full backs who are pushing higher up as this is happening. Invariably it's a two v one with the centre halves against a central striker.That means that our opponents can't press too high as their wide players are deeper to stay with our full backs. Prior to a few weeks ago you could have tethered our back four with a piece of string and the full backs were involved in the square passing. 

Clearly this is not the only change as I believe the tempo and intensity is far higher than it's been for some time but this and some other subtle changes have been huge in my view.

You’ve nailed it, Tony. During the game I found myself wondering “Where are all the Pickering sideways/back passes onto Hyam’s weaker foot?”, the answer being he wasn’t there. 

12 minutes ago, Andy said:

I’m not sure about this; I think we’re seeing JDT’s strategy now.

Just the players are braver and more confident in performing it.

Add to that the disappearance of Kaminski and Ayala who were crap at playing it out, Smodzics emerging, JRC being signed from Boca Juniors, Thomas, the man-management of Travis and Dolan getting a run of starts.