Morning All!
Well 1 point from a possible 9 is not what we were expecting nor is it championship winning form. I and I'm sure everyone of you will be hoping we see this through and crawl over the line and secure the title.
The last 2 games have been dominated by poor inept refereeing decisions and performances, maybe Plymouth fans or have bets on them? However also we haven't seemed to be as prolific since Grimsby only hitting the net 3 times and Marquis not amongst 1 of them. Have we depended on his goals too much?
All that aside we need to focus on the last 2 games and 6 points. A win and anything but from Plymouth will see us win the league Saturday so fingers crossed.
Points scorers from the past few games are as follows.
Mansfield
Result - win
Score - 1-0
Scorer - Rowe
Crowd - 9903
Donaldo and selbyrover picked up 6 points each for the correct result and scorer.
3 points each for Ottersrevenge, AussieLad, Uthred, BVZ, Mickey, Crazyrover, Mooligan, King Chomprrr, SmallAzza and myself all for the correct result
YorkshireLad with 3 points for the correct scorer.
Colchester
Result - draw
Score - 1-1
Scorer - Baudry
Crowd - 4720
A couple of big pointers in Donaldo and Nookie both with 8 points each for the correct result and score
The only other points scorers were for attendance. Nookie and YorkshireLad with 5 points each for being within 100 of the attendance. AussieLad, BVZ and Uthred with 4 points each with Donaldo, Mickey and Crazyrover with 2 points, Mooligan and KingChomprrr with 1 point each
Blackpool
Result - loss
Score - 0-1
Scorer - none
Crowd - 6914
No points scorers for results and scores so it's straight to the attendance.
Mooligan with 5 points for being within 100 of the attendance
AussieLad with 4 points, Selbyrover and YorkshireLad with 3 and Uthred with 1.
Wycombe
Result - loss
Score - 1-2
Scorer - May
Crowd 4587
Another low points scoring game where BVZ Picked up 8 points for the correct scorer and also 5 for being within 100 of the attendance
Uthred and myself with 4 points each for being within 200 of the attendance. AussieLad and Crazyrover with 3 points and YorkshireLad with 2.
We desperately need this win to secure the league and although Exeter are good on the road I think we'll get it this Saturday.
Rovers 2-1 with Copps scoring first and a crowd of 8000 🔴⚪🔴
AussieLad 225
Mooligan 221
Donaldo 216
YorkshireLad 213
BVZ 212
Uthred 212
Azza 210
KingChomprrrrr 191
Cheltenhamrover 182
Mickey 172
SmallAzza 165
Crazyrover 144
Selbyrover 143
Ottersrevenge 57
Dpl v Exeter
posted on 29/4/17
Wasn't sure why Marquis was left on his own up front. Copps is good but a second striker he isn't. Presumably the idea was to get the lion's share of possession but with passing like ours in the first half that wasn't on. Exeter were tight, tidy and scored with a well worked routine. Brilliant equaliser from Copps after excellent work by Rowe and it looked on again. Rovers were certainly more focused in the second half but once the penalty was given, despite Lawlor saving twice (?) no-one got back and it went in. After that it was mayhem and we ended up with four forwards on none of whom could break down the Exeter defence. Not a good performance but fair play to Exeter, like Wycombe and Plymouth they did what they had to do. Happy to be promoted and you never know, if we win at Hartlepool and Grimsby stick it to Plymouth......
posted on 29/4/17
Just noticed that Hartlepool managed no shots on or off target in their game with Cheltenham today.
posted on 29/4/17
Bottlers! pleased we're promoted but the season's ending poorly. We should have had this league wrapped up by now it's pathetic! We haven't played well since Grimsby! Pompey 6-8 weeks ago were 17 points behind us. Hartlepool are bound to throw everything at us, think we'll finish 3rd if I'm honest.
posted on 29/4/17
I really dont want to talk about the game but I to question fergie team selection.
Hes done a great job at getting us promoted at the first attempt.
Great finish 26.
Fantastic ball from MOM MCULLOCK.
What I need to mention is our pathetic fans how exited when the 3rd goal went in .
They should hang their heads in shame.
We had to drive back to N.yorks for a function never considered going early infact stayed for the players walk around after the game.
RTID
posted on 29/4/17
Lanza, are you me in disguise?
Your thoughts are the same as mine.
Mass exodus when it went to 3-1 but we have seen that before I suppose.
Wrong to start with one up front today, Williams should have started especially in a home game.
Marquis was isolated most of the time.
I barely spoke on the way home, really disappointed.
I have to question DF with the mysterious decisions since promotion was secured.
Players out for the season making sudden comebacks etc.
Did he think it was going to be easy to wrap the title up with what have essentially been fringe players making up the team?
I am going up to Hartlepool next week but fully expect Plymouth to win at Grimsby.
posted on 30/4/17
The run - in was against a whole string of teams chasing the play-offs, all relatively solid in defence and good on the break.
They seemed to be a challenge that we should have dealt with, but I certainly underestimated the quality they put up and perhaps DF and the players did too. So it was not simply that we faded and I think we did, but that we needed something extra to maintain existing momentum. Perhaps even more of the same just might have been enough, not to win them all, but to carry us over the line. But it wasn't there.
posted on 30/4/17
The highlights reveal an atrocious defensive performance.
Lawlor did not move soon enough to give him a chance to stop the first goal and I wonder whether his line of sight was obscured by one of our defenders. If so, how did that happen?
For the penalty there were only 3 or 4 defenders coming in on the follow up that were awake enough to challenge the second and third strikes. Other teams have a mass of bodies in the way almost immediately. Where were the other 6 or 7 members of the team? Organisational failure.
Third goal. How many times have we seen this type of individual naivety?
We shall get punished even more seriously next season for these types of defensive lapses and it implies chaotic organisation. When we were scoring more goals we probably ignored them but now they are staring us in the face.
posted on 30/4/17
Incidentally we were congratulating ourselves for winning when we played badly - the alleged "sign of a good team" - earlier in the season without really examining what needed rectifying.
The team that win playing badly, scraping through, riding their luck, game after game are now top and it despite my criticisms, it would be very unfair, if they in all their negativity were to snatch the title out of our hands in the eleventh hour.
posted on 30/4/17
25b
posted on 30/4/17
Don, on the goals questions:
I was right in line with the shot for the first one.
It was a well worked plan and the shot came through a crowd scene.
Even from the stands I didn't see the ball until it was almost in the goal.
There is no way that Lawlor could have seen it.
Can't comment on the defenders after the pen coz it was at the other end.
For the third goal, Alcock was looking for someone in advance of him to either make va run or come short to receive a pass.
It didn't happen so he turned away and had a poor touch and was caught out.
If the players ahead of him had been more alert it wouldn't has happened.
However, overall it WAS an atrocious performance.
Possibly the only player to come through with a decent performance was McCullough.
I do think we have blown the title at the 11th hour.