DPL vs Oldham Athletic

Thanks for the reports. The commentary made it sound as though it went rather dead for us in the second half.

“It was bad luck that Butler slipped, but if we had kept the ball the situation would not have arisen. If we have it the other side can’t score”. Thus spoke the manager.

Does keeping the ball not require as much skill as any other aspect of the game? Surely it does, so whilst the proposition may sound simple – which it is – the execution is not.

There is a tendency to get forced further and further back into your own territory, so that if you lose it the opposition are very well placed to take advantage.

We do attack better than we defend even if the attacking does not produce enough goals, so really that ought to be the permanent policy.

In the dying minutes the opposition are eager to score and knowing that our record shows we are vulnerable, they will feel they have the advantage. So we really ought to try to surprise them and go all out on to the attack. Following a predictable pattern plays into their hands especially when we are not good at “keeping the ball” as result after result proves so painfully.

Every fan will have a different view of every game. I was impressed with Oldham's attacking play down the wings which contrasted with our lack of width. Mason and Garrett may well defend adequately but compared with Blair, Andrew and Toffs they don't give us much going forward. Yesterday none of our midfield four played consistently down the wings, or if they did I missed it. We were far too narrow and spent the game trying to drive attacks through the centre. Clearly you can only deploy your fit players but I think Alfie Beestin would have been far more effective had he played out wide on the right. Marquis has the aggression, Mandeville and Beestin have the ball skills but May has the speed. Pity we can't roll them into one player.

Another very frustrating game - especially on iFollow where you only see where the camera is. I really felt for Buts as he made a great goal line save, scored a goal, and then his slip caused the equalising goal - he was very brave to be interviewed after the game.
May should have scored when clean through, and then the game would have been different, probably. a 3-0 win.
I agree with DF that luck seems to be against us, but that is no excuse with the talent we have. Scoring is our problem. If you look at the table you have to go high to find teams that have conceded fewer goals, but only the bottom 5 have scored fewer.
I'm not with the adoration of Marquis over the last few games - OK he hassles and causes problems, but his job is to put the ball in the net. Maybe he is not getting the service he did last season, and in this game he had two shots early that went wide in the same place - last season they would have been on target.
To me, one of the biggest disappointments is Whiteman, as since his hatrick he has been almost invisible in some games, especially this one.
Also Rowe in this game seemed reluctant to go forward - other than his great cross for the goal.
What do you all think about Houghton? Last game he was great, this game a little invisible? If Luke is going to be fit (???), do we need Houghton?
Probably my biggest disappointment in this game was Mandeville. Last season he was going great guns until his injury, but this season he has not really taken the chances offered. His close ball control is normally way above Marquis, but in this game he just seemed to give away the ball too often.
What was missing in this game was the transition from defence to attack. Hopefully, when Copps and Blair are fit that problem will be solved.
I hope you all do not think I'm too negative, but I've enjoyed being able to see complete games, worts and all, on iFollow.
If I feel depressed, I just think of the times of standing at the Rossie end at Belle Vue in the days of the old Second Division.
RTID

Pdx.
Houghton or Wildman both showed little adventure.
Rowe was in the game both defensively and trying to open up their defence.
Back 4 were ok.
To be fair to May he has made a big step up and its probably what you get when you sign a player from a very low league.
Marquis is doing a lot of his work out wide so consequently when he puts the ball in the box there is no one there

As you say Micky you are not able to gauge an entire team performance as well from the TV as when you are actually there. I haven’t even seen the extended highlights yet because for the first time that I can remember they have not been put up the day following the match. And again surprisingly the post-match interviews were made available before they were; maybe criticism is having some effect.

So I have even less to base comment on than usual. I did think that May’s chance was of a type that I have seen many top PL strikers miss. Marquis’s chance made by Beestin who is as impressive as Mandeville was on occasions last season was as good an opportunity with more time to take aim (and miss the target).

There is a marked reluctance to tackle, to attempt to even make contact with the opposition or the ball perhaps fearing a foul. In the first half Obadeyi gathered the ball half way inside his own half and ran all the way into our penalty area encountering 5 Rovers players and the only one who really challenged him was Beestin on the edge of the area. Garrett made a half-hearted attempt to tackle him as his run began in his own half and then ran after him all the way without challenging him even when he caught him up. Butler tried to get near him to tackle him on the edge of the box, but was fended off and Beestin actually made contact with the ball! Mason and Houghton jointly attempted to tackle him in the box, but he eluded them and passed to his team-mate who shot more or less straight through Lawlor. Butler anticipated the danger after being fended off by Obadeyi and charged back to the goal-line and made his clearance. Lawlor then berated his defence presumably to distract attention from his failure to get his body in the way of the shot straight at him.

The good modern defender gets himself between the attacker and the ball; he engages closely; he gets on top of his opponent so he can hardly move. Kongolo can do it and so often he will emerge with the ball when you cannot really figure out how. But that’s what Man City do all the time. We retreat like Continental defenders did 40 years ago relying on hacking down the opposition of they got close enough to shoot… … except that we don’t stop them at all. It is no wonder that the number of fouls we commit is low; we don’t make enough tackles.

From what I see, for all the promise in constructive midfield play and building attacks our defending is bad. It isn’t as though we fall to breakaway goals; time and again the defence is massed, but timid. We have the solidity of Butler and Baudry, but there is no one in the Brian Stock, Richie Wellens mould in the midfield.

The evidence is plain; it is not all bad luck and extra-time goals; we even let a very moderate side like Ebbsfleet score twice. The players must get some better defensive coaching; otherwise even the super-faithful will find the excuses incredible and lose belief.

Perhaps there are two people who could benefit from advice from their Scottish fathers.

The first half was a non event apart from the fantastic goal line clearance by Butler and the great save by their keeper from May.
Both teams cancelled each other out but I thought that Oldham looked a slightly better than us.
After the break we improved a little but clear chances were hard to create.
As has been said, we played mostly through the middle and their centre backs dominated.
May didn't make much of an impact, understandable I suppose after his lay off and Marquis, for all his effort, didn't really look like scoring.
Mandeville was really poor when he came on, his main contribution was passing to Oldham players.
I was surprised that Baudry went on in place of Garret unless the latter had a knock.
The biggest shock was bringing Rodney on though as he is not the man you need when you are trying to hang on to a lead.
Copps missed the game due to a hip injury he picked up on Wednesday and we really missed his influence (sorry Lanza).
Overall I think a draw was a fair outcome but we continue to scratch along at a point per game and improvement is needed if we are to pull away from the bottom of the division.

Yep hound.
Baby Lanza screamed in my ear....why Kongolo

Thanks Hound.

Butler must have thought I can't expect the rest of the defence (including Lawlor) to deal with this, so Ill get back to the goal-line and it's a good job he did - not for the first time. Lawlor does not seem to read these situations very well.

Promotions are often built on a solid defence and the opposite marks those who get relegated and surely this is where there must be most scope for improvement.

TBF don, our defence isn’t really the problem is it.
We aren’t conceding loads of goals.
It is the other end of the pitch where the problems are.
As for the Butler clearance off the line incident, it is unfair to have a pop at Lawlor over that although I know you have a downer on him.
The shot was extremely powerful and low, very difficult for any keeper to get down to.

I think the problem is at both ends of the pitch, but there seem to be pronounced rectifiable technical and tactical weaknesses in both the timing of goals conceded and the failure to routinely break down attacks when defenders are present in numbers. An inability to hold on to a 1:0 lead or retain 0:0 is fundamentally a defensive problem.

Anyway several of our participants foresaw 1:1 but only Micky was in the same ball-park on the crowd forecast. Lanza who opts out of that usual lucrative source of points was the only one who tipped Butler who was the obvious MoM at both ends of the pitch.

Uthred and PDXMicky (who is surely the leading witness, expert witness indeed, of our trials and tribulations home and away) lead the way. And religiously getting up for a 7am local time KO in the middle of winter does require quite a degree of dedication, but the true Yorkshireman will always be motivated to get his money's worth.

Rovers 1 (Butler): Oldham 1 Att: 7831
………………..….Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo ………… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 86 ……. 86
PDXMickey ……. 1 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 1 ……. 92 ……. 93
Yorks Lad …….. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 61 ……. 61
BVZ. ……..…….. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 73 ……. 73
Crazy …….……… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 68 ……. 68
Uthred …….…… 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 6 ……. 87 ……. 93
Mooligan …..…. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 6 ……. 76 ……. 82
King Chmprr …. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 47 ……. 47
Small Azza ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 3 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 6 ……. 60 ……. 66
Aussie Lad. ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …… 0 …….. 5 ……… 5
Azza ……..…..… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 60 ….. 60
Cheltenham …. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……… 0
Nookie ……….… 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 6 ……. 12 ….…… 18
Selby …….……… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 …... 3 ……. 58 ……. 61
Lanza …….….. 0 …….. 3 ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ..…... 3 ……. 4 ……… 7
……………..……. 1 …….. 3 ……. 12 ….. 15 ……. 0 …... 31 … 789 ….. 820