And just like that out of nowhere we revert to the absolutely worst finishing from everyone involved imaginable. Chance after chance and absolutely no clue how to take a good shot. Pub level finishing.

Massively disappointed but it comes down to the manager failing to keep the team consistent and motivated enough.

Big misses there from both our strikers, need to do better. Don't envy the players though that rain looks miserable, and no fans to cheer them on.

Delightful day, I will always remember hearing the news for the first time, it was like celebrating a cup final goal. 

2 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

I know everyone is gonna shoot me down re: the fee/expectations....

 

But interested to see what the “never a player” crew have to say about his performances this season.

The one side of his game that has definitely improved is he is finally using his physicality a lot better, and his basic footballing skills like passing and running with the ball had slightly improved - though they were starting off close to 0.

There is a limited way in which he is useful to the team right now, but by the evidence he still can't shoot and hardly can we rely on him to change the game or create something special. He has a long way to go still. But showing improvement is always a good sign. 

Well these past couple of games have been absolutely delightful. Would love to see Dolan play with Dack, what a cracker pair those would be.

Everyone did well today - ironically maybe Armstrong didn't have a great day. Derby though looked souless. 

wow.

All else I can say is keep going, don't let up.

Well that's that then on further transfers. I guess the only hope now is to get a fairy godmother in to turn Bell into a good defender until all this is over. 

Either way, surely the already stupid and idiotic "financial fair play" rules will have to be thrown in the bin? I cannot imagine how it is possible for any club that is not allowed to bring in fans to be generating enough profit to maintain its expenditure without owner support. Not unless you can buy yourself the best lawyers in the business, like City. 

4 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I don't think that's fair - we've never struggled to score goals at this level.

If Wycombe have anything to worry about it's that they didn't trouble us at the back.

Well the strange thing is that we always struggle to score against opposition we are heavily expected to beat....this is the first time in a long long while we've put a team to the sword when it's really been expected of us. 

Dear me, God help Wycombe if they are shipping 5 goals against Rovers.

On the other hand, really exciting score for us. Ama is a our top star obviously. And Dolan is rising very fast. Especially with Dack hopefully not too far off, we can have a solid attacking force. The key will be strengthening the team before the transfer window closes to make the best out of it and not miss the opportunity. 

Sorry but that looks like an atrociously weak team. Whoever is injured or waiting for fitness, it looks like last year's (inadequate) team but with major holes. How does TM keep his job is beyond me. 

13 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

Didnt glean anything like that from the interview that I saw.

 

Care to elaborate?

He made no mention at all of our deep defensive frailties that led to the goals and the failures in the transfer market to strengthen or even to cover the positions where players have left, like Tosin. And he talks this fantasy nonsense about how "if we play like this for the rest of the season we'll be in the top six" - as if everything is fine, just some bad luck yesterday.

He has failed to build a defence and cannot get the job done on the transfer market, and that is what cost us yesterday and will cost of for the rest of the season unless we get several quality defenders in very soon.

TM's post match comments continue to be astonishing, it's like there's no fans, players, club anything that exists except the picture in his mind of sitting on a table talking to the Venkys. Or the phone version of that. Everything that TM ever says is aimed at producing a nice little ring in their ears, logic and reality be damned. 

Yep. 100% of the defeat caused by TM's failure in the market to bring defenders. Nothing else to say. 

TM failed to get defenders in, TM said a day ago that he is "not worried about that," lack of defensive quality costs us easily avoidable goals right from the start.

Can a more painfully obvious outcome even be written. 

2 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Good team 

2-1 Rovers Armstrong double

Not quite the fearless leader photo chosen there for Tony.

Best of luck to Kaminksi, he's being thrown in the deep end. As a keeper in a new country you need to build up a bit of confidence, and he has to do that now without a proper defence. I just hope he has what it takes mentally if in the first few matches things really don't go our way, which they likely won't. 

Looks like the first exciting signing in a long while.

Makes absolutely no sense why he is not allowed to train with the team though since he has been regularly tested. These rules will harm smaller clubs a lot more than others. It's not the end of the world if Silva doesn't train with Chelsea right away. But we have to begin our season with our third (fourth?) choice keeper. Not sure if anyone is standing up for clubs like ours in this regard. 

9 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Christ, I was just reading that article about what next for our sponsorship options and a series of thoughts occurred to me.

The pre-season match schedule starts on Saturday and we have...

No sponsor

No shirt

No season tickets

No signings

No senior goalkeeper

No budget yet (it appears)

It makes you want to add 'no hope' at the end, but it's early for that call. Has to be said though that even by the standards of the last few seasons, and even with the shadow of covid over us, this is particularly precarious. It's been a long time since we had this sort of shambles when the pre-season was getting underway, even under Venkys. Things need to start happening.

New season begins 3 weeks from now, not sure how it's too early for the "no hope" call. We are in critical trouble and I don't see anyone running the club who can get us out of it. 

Unfortunately this is why I don't feel sorry we don't have him anymore, these kind of stunning mistakes seem a permanent feature of his game. 

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Some thoroughly entertaining and laughable logic on display here.

The chance of Joe Hart either being willing or affordable enough to come here is remote so its a non starter for me.

It all seems to have come from a rumour from Alan Nixon a year ago, that was predictably totally dismissed by Mowbray, yet for some reason the name has never gone away, possibly because of who he is.

I would be pretty shocked if Hart could find another Premiership club or other top flight club in a significant league that would offer him regular football. His stock has dropped massively in the last few years, whether it's with us or someone else he probably needs to lower his demands considerably if he wants to rebuild his career. 

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18593677.rovers-loanee-drops-hint-long-term-future-lies/

I think Walton is a bit delusional. I do actually rate him and I do believe he has been better than Reya, but there is no way he is Premiership quality. 

Glad we saved our fight and commitment to get results for the portion of the season that matters, well fucking done.

Opening game next season 0-2 at home to Luton of course. 

TM is the king of surprising but utterly pointless and too late upsets. It shows why we need to get rid of him as soon as possible - we have talent in the squad that can win games, but only when they feel free and under no pressure. TM is utterly incapable of harvesting that into consistant performances and results, and that 100% falls on him.