Tyrone Shoelaces

Yeah, it just crossed my mind how I feel about today’s game and how I felt setting off for Ewood for the 3rd division promotion game all those years ago. It’s like chalk and cheese, whatever happened to excitement at a football match ? We had a few really good players then and a few not so good but all of them gave 100% for the club. They’d be on peanuts compared with what the current lot are on but they left nothing out on the pitch that afternoon. The starting 11 played the whole game, none of this coming off after 60 minutes because they “ need a break “. For the old timers still interested - Rovers that day - Jones Heaton, Hawkins, Fazackerley, Burgin Metcalfe, Oates, Parkes. Beamish, Hickman, Martin. Scorers - Beamish, Hickman 2, Martin 2 Att - 17, 818. How many of them would get in the current team ? I’d say most of them. What I wouldn’t give for Roger Jones in goal today ! Anyway, come on Rovers put a smile on my face on Saturday night for once.

Dunny will be sniffing around the job.

Bo Diddley - Before You Accuse Me

I just think I was lucky. If Fred Pickering, Mike England and Keith Newton had come through the youth team now they’d have been gone before they’d hardly pulled the shirt on like Phillips.

The Capitols - Cool Jerk

How many got “ in “ and then got out.

The Honey Cone - Want Ads Massive No 1 in the US, 1001 over here, strange how tastes were different then.

SSH ! It might work.

Definitely. This season is going to be one of those seasons were the team fourth from bottom is going to need a more than average number of points to stay up. Apart from us and Rotherham everybody else is fighting for their lives.

I agree about us being out numbered in midfield all the time.

That was really bad the other night, it looked like he was trying to get out of the way of the ball.

You’re dropping Buckley, who was possibly our best player on Tuesday night, yet you’re prepared to play Telalovic who two managers obviously don’t rate in the slightest. I’d be amazed if Brittain is available after coming off with a long standing groin issue.

That’s always been the case. Players will play through the pain barrier if their team is near the top. Lose your place in the side and you might not get it back in a winning team. When you’re struggling it’s the other way around.

Doris Troy - Just One Look

That tells you all you need to know. We were relying on the teams down at the bottom staying there. That was never going to happen.

How many teams look worse than us at the moment ?

Maybe, maybe not. He doesn’t look wide awake.

I agree with you on turnover ball. We seem so grateful to actually get the ball back that we have to have three of four touches before we’re ready to release it.

Ned Miller - From A Jack To A King

They offered nothing all game apart from sprinkling niggly fouls around. The guy that came flying in on Buckley ? could have had a red card on another day. They got lucky with the goal and they would have been happy not to set foot in our half again for the rest of the game. 3 points went begging for us. We won’t have a better chance this season. How they beat Southampton is a mystery.

20 minutes of Dack and Co was usually enough to see most teams off. After that we coasted. No team is going to play well for 90 minutes but we rarely played well for more than 30 minutes in 46 games. Maybe 2 or 3 games. Lots of the football on show was pretty turgid.

More reflections after waking up at 5-00 am and with the game still going on in my head. Wahlstedt, one eminently saveable shot to save in 90 odd minutes and it’s a goal. As somebody else said “ like an outfield player playing in goal “. And not a very good one at that. Ritchie Smallwood, when he had to be the emergency keeper that time, was way better. Brittain, other people are saying he had a good half. Not for me, he passes it straight back to the centre halves too much for my liking. I thought the idea of wing backs was to give us some width ? It’s a shit idea, at our level it’s full of players who can’t really attack and can’t defend either. Not many Ashley Cole’s in this league. He gets injured a lot for no apparent reason, like several other players in this squad. Hyam, did ok I suppose. Three centre halves at home against Millwall ? It’s a bit desperate. MacFad, probably the pick of the three for me. I ’don’t like it when he comes lumbering out with the ball. Wharton, again, did ok without pulling up any trees. Opponents exploit his one footedness by pushing him onto his right foot when he comes forward with the ball. Pickering, so so game. He’s another one footed player. Came inside crowding the play all the time when he went to right back. Rarely got forward from left back in the first half. Buckley, played an absolute shocker of a cross field ball right from the kick off that got intercepted. What a way to start the game ! After that a mixture of good and bad. At least he can get his head up on the ball. He was trying to thread a needle with the ball most of the time. Not enough runners for him forwards. Garrett, I thought he played well and I was surprised he got subbed, especially has he hadn’t received his usual yellow card by then. He’s raw but there’s a player in there. Him and Buckley would be better in a three but that’s obvious. Dolan, I keep saying I like Dolan but he’s starting to frustrate me. He keeps running up blind alleys and losing the ball. Totally ineffectual last night. Maybe he needs to go back on the left side. The right should suit him but nothing is happening for him and he doesn’t combine well with Brittain. Sammi, scored a great goal but apart from that struggled to get into the game. Not through lack of effort but lack of support. Started to drop too deep. That’s where you don’t want him as he’s liable to play silly balls. Gally, he’d been playing 30 minutes before I noticed he was playing. Totally ineffectual. Watching Obafemi - he isn’t the answer either but at least he looked to be a threat in possession. Subs Siggy - did the minimum as usual. Good pass at the second attempt to Sammi for the goal. Chrisene - ok, not much of note. Ayari, ok, see Chrisene. Markanday, ok, see Ayari That’s one of our problems - 4 subs, and apart from the Siggy pass for the goal none of them did anything worthy of note. One of their subs scored a goal and looked a threat. As for the game - one paced walking football for most of the time. A really slow tempo that rarely speeded up. When you play 5 at the back and 2 just in front in it stands to reason most of the play isn’t going to be in their last third, where you’d like it to be, but in central midfield where we were out numbered. We play in front of opponents all the time, we never get them turned around. We didn’t create one clear chance all game. Not one ! The goal came courtesy of an awful pass from their defence to Siggy. We’ve nobody who can do the un-expected and catch an opponent on the hop. It’s all basic, stuff. The contrast between last nights game and the Newcastle game was glaring. Why can’t we up the tempo a bit, be brave ? Getting a point a game is unlikely to keep us up. The “ deadmen “ at Xmas, Sheff Wed and QPR are winning games. For me the juries out on Eustace, he’s got a shit, injury prone, squad that start feeling sorry for themselves at the drop of a hat. Keeping us up is a big ask but he’ll live or die by that.

They were really lucky with the goal. Their guy was playing the ball back into midfield until a rebound turned it into a killer pass into our box. That and Wahlstadt diving out of the way of the shot. If I saw the “ Dog And Duck “ second team keeper let that one in I’d be shaking my head. Having said that we got lucky with our goal. Siggy played an awful pass to one of their players. They then played an even worse one straight back to Siggy and he managed to get it right at the second attempt. Nice pass which Sammi dispatched like the second coming of Jimmy Greaves.

We’ve got nobody who can carry the ball into our opponents danger areas. Nobody who can commit opponents and then beat them. Either out wide or through the middle. Up front, with the exception of Sammi, we are toothless. Could you see Gally scoring the goal that Obafemi got ? He was lucky that his pass back into midfield got a rebound that made it into a pass into our area but he reacted quicker than anyone to get a shot away. Gally would have been trying to get the ball out of his feet.

The Essex - A Walkin’ Miracle