Following from a very impressive and profesional performance by the Rovers at Weston Super Mare we go to resume the league matches, away at Spotland against Rochdale.
Rochdale have continued where they left off after last seasons' promotion and are in 8th place in the division, 8 points in front of us although they have played a game more than us.
They have scored more than twice as many goals than us in the league so far and have the third best goal difference in League One.
Their good start to the season can in part be put down to them not having a big turnover of players in the summer (unlike us) and on a fans forum that i read, the Rochdale fans consider this team to be their best ever one.
That information tells me that we won't find it as comfortable on Saturday as we did in the last game and our boys will have to be at their best to get something from the match.
It could be argued that if we win it would be the best result of the season so far.
The game starts a run of 5 away games in our 7 league games up to the end of the year, another stat that will make life difficult for the team as we try to improve our league position.
Past history of games between the Rovers and Rochdale is that we have won 54, drawn 17 and lost 34 and the last time Rochdale beat us was in 1998, five games ago.
From the memory banks i recall hitch hiking with my pal as a fifteen year old lad to watch the Rovers at Rochdale one Saturday.
That was before the building of the M62 so we went via Woodhead, i think we got about five lifts to get to Spotland but luckily one of my cousins had gone on a Yorkshire Traction Supporters Club Bus and he had a word with the driver who very kindly let us travel home with them.
Hopefully the win on Tuesday will instill belief into the team and with the players we now have available we should be good enough to climb up the table.
Over to my 606 pals for your comments.
ROCHDALE V ROVERS THREAD
posted on 23/11/14
Lanza - cheers mate.
xon - dash ish ein crakker ov a link.
posted on 24/11/14
My 606 friend, Mooligan, keeps hitting us with a stat about how many points from a certain number of games we have achieved.
Because it includes the run of 1 point from the last 7 games of last season i thought that i would do a more realistic view of what our record over the last 30 games is like when compared to other teams in our division.
In our last 30 games we have won 35 points from 90 available.
Bristol City are top of the division but if you look at their record, they have only got 50 points from the last 90, which doesnt sound particularly great when you put it like that.
Notts County, in the play off places, have 49 from 90.
Oldham, just outside the play offs, have 44 from 90.
Crewe, at the bottom of the table have 31 from 90.
The teams who came down with us last season are as follows:
Barnsley 32 from 90.
Yeovil 26 from 90.
The three points for a win makes a big difference to the points to games ratio when matches are lost and because we were relegated last season that is always going to be a big factor when highlighting those figures.
Glancing at Bristol Citys' situation you wouldn't think that they have dropped 40 points in their last 30 matches would you.
The one common thing about all the clubs i have mentioned is that they have all still got the same manager that they had 30 games ago.
posted on 24/11/14
.... And Dickov is still shjte!
posted on 24/11/14
That is what i expected from you xon, a very considered and informative response.
<xonnotgoodatcreativethought>
posted on 24/11/14
OK OK, Dickov is totally and utterly shjte, all so was a shjte player, has a disgusting manager record and needs to sod off very rapidly! Maybe manager Frickley Athletic or something. Better?
posted on 24/11/14
I'm on Hitler's side on this one!
posted on 24/11/14
LOL. Don't hold back though, say what you really think pal.
Not sure Frickley would be wanting him though mate if they saw the Hitler clip.
posted on 24/11/14
I have now caught up with events at the weekend and whilst there is no pleasure in being right when we do badly, here was something to celebrate. I do believe that they built on the confidence of the cup win and repeated the style they had shown at W-S-M.
First though, Rochdale’s opening goal was very worthy of a good moan. They all played to the whistle and did not seem to try to intercept the cross or challenge the scorer. So you cannot expect easy forgiveness for that one. A fact which not everybody will be aware of, but which is worth noting, is that Rochdale have a relatively poor home record, but enough of the context, and on to what was good.
From their goal onwards the highlights suggested that instead of the old approach of long balls pursued at speed, they passed their way up the field and there were shades of the old SOD patient build-up and real skill and it looked attractive too.
PD has claimed recently that they have always had a passing policy, but the evidence suggests that either they have totally failed to adhere to it for most of the time or that it is in fact relatively new. It has been heartening though to see that most of them can still do it that way.
Whilst they are playing like this and winning points and looking attractive as well it is cruel to be abusive about the manager. Whether this new-found slickness is the product of the collective wisdom of the players themselves (following the discussions that Copps spoke of a few weeks ago) or of PD and his management team I do not know, but whatever has inspired them has certainly delivered results in the last week. And Dickov will obviously not go or be sacked whilst it continues.
So I am prepared to believe that there is hope for a push towards the top. Dickov still sounds a bit smug about it all and has quite a long way to go to convince me that he knows what he is doing, but perhaps he has discovered something in himself and the team that will carry us on.
I cannot blame people for still being unhappy with him and I am not convinced that he is sufficiently analytical to cope with setbacks, build on strengths and get the best out of everybody, but this ability may improve and develop on the back of success.
When managers do not succeed they usually get sacked quickly and often never get another job in management, so it is difficult to judge whether they might have improved with experience. In the much-quoted Ferguson case, do we really know whether he was always good and just needed time or whether he was incompetent to begin with and then got better? Amongst lower division managers DIckov has certainly had far more opportunity than most to learn by his mistakes and he surely cannot afford another whole string of them from here on in.
posted on 24/11/14
Donaldo
However, there are many cases of lower league managers staying in their jobs longer than PD, Gary Johnson and Danny Wilson are but two.
Looking further back, there was Dario Gradi at Crewe who managed Crewe for 24 years.
He won a couple of promotions but also suffered relegations.
His win percentage was just over 32% in his whole career.
In modern football terms i agree that PD would have been sacked by some clubs but i also think that the club probably see that he has potential to become a very good manager and i think it is a credit to the Rovers that they don't do the knee jerk reaction that other clubs do.
Managers need time to build and our relegation didn't help with that because we lost virtually a whole first team in the summer.
An average nine months in the job in our division is just a joke, no-one can build any foundations with that amount of time.
Now that the squad is strong i do think that we will push on from here and have a right good go at the play offs.
I wonder what reaction we will see on here if we do get into the top seven or eight this season?
Most of us would have been happy to avoid another relegation when the season started.
If we get into the top few and miss the play offs i bet that some of us will still call for a sacking, citing a failure to do so.
posted on 24/11/14
*insert xon comment here*