Shrewsbury Town and Cotterill, two names which Doncaster Rovers have little reason to love. Cotterill was Portsmouth manager when he accused Rovers players of pressuring the ref into sending off one of his players, the perpetrator of an obviously illegal tackle on Hayter, when the referee had his card out almost before his unfortunate victim hit the ground. To his credit he is a survivor, having managed or coached 10 clubs in his career and reading between the lines, it may be that coaching is his forte. Shrewsbury are a team where I have memories of losing unluckily at home in crucial games although we did manage a win last time they came here.
Cotterill’s achievement at Shrewsbury is remarkable. Since arriving (apart from one minor cup defeat) his team have performed really well. We are part of a very difficult sequence of fixtures during which they have drawn at home to Accrington and Charlton and won away at Hull and Lincoln and beaten Oxford in the FA cup in between.
At Hull, reports suggest they very much deserved to win with a strong first half performance, possibly catching the home side on a bad day, but Cotterill’s postmatch interview suggests that they prepared well, underlining his coaching abilities. Against Lincoln they seized upon some playing out from the back for their only goal and as always we must be careful not to get caught out there. You tube highlights show some impressive inter-passing yet again illustrating that there may not be too much of a gap between top and bottom of this league.
So they come to us with confidence and are unlikely to be “Parking the bus". What we need is to adapt imaginatively. It is perhaps to our advantage that we are not as predictable as some teams given the youthful talent, so it might be difficult for Cotterill to devise a comprehensive plan. I am coming to the view that by varying the personnel, our shape changes to some extent depending on the playing characteristics of who is in the team. You wonder whether the attendant unpredictability confuses our players too sometimes, but at least it means that there is an in-built alternative to Plan A.
Okenabirhie and J-J together might be an interesting starting combination and I wonder whether DM will restore Wright at the expense of Butler. I suppose he could even give Anderson a rest.
It will be a genuine test for a team aspiring to go top of the Christmas tree!
It is a time for the coming of all the faithful, so I will not veer from that path and predict 3-1 and Taylor with the first goal against his old club, alternatively Snowman, sorry, Whiteman.
Now for into the hen house to count the eggs...
In 2016 the EFL looked back 20 years at the leaders of the various leagues at Christmas and came up with the following:
Christmas Day leaders to win the title: 50%
Christmas Day leaders to win promotion: 70%
Christmas Day leaders to claim at least a Play-Off spot: 100%
I wish all Shrews a Happy Christmas, but do not spoil ours please.
DPL v Shrewsbury
posted on 22/12/20
BVZ: “Snap”!
posted on 22/12/20
Going for top spot! - the most attack-minded starting line-up for some time. I thought Moore might be tempted to rest one or two - James seemed a little tired on Saturday, as did Whiteman.
I'll stick with 3-1 to the Rovers as I have said for a few games, and stay with the guy on the right wing to score the first i.e. Taylor.
It seems 3-1 is the popular choice.
posted on 22/12/20
John Jules at left back! I guess the plan is to play everybody in that position at some point!
posted on 22/12/20
Best wishes for Christmas everyone 👍
Rovers 3-1 Shrews
Okenabirhie to score.
C'mon Rovers ⚽⚽⚽
posted on 22/12/20
Rovers sort of in control, but concentrating everything down the right with Taylor seemingly unwilling to risk long fast sprints up the wing. Oke looking confident and Richards seeing a lot of the ball, but J-J not too involved yet. James is adopting a very defensive role and not using the left flank at all.
A bit too much passing back to Lumley; it went back to him 7 times in one sequence and there was no serious pressure.
Some variation needed in the 2nd half.
Missing Sims
posted on 22/12/20
Shrewsbury did the simple things well; Rovers believed they had as much time as they wanted to do the complicated things, but not as well. They wasted their own time and then fell over each other being over-intricate through a tightly organised defence on the overcrowded right side, particularly in the first half. James did not provide much of an attacking force from back left and forward of this was largely an unused space.
Taylor does not amount to much without his rapid dribbles up the right wing, so he needed to come off and Lokilo was his slightly more useful replacement, but he doesn’t always see the best pass. Having played out from the back they seemingly expecting the perfect risk-free forward pass option, yet they persisted in the same approach, repeatedly failing to draw Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury defended very well and without resorting to anything crude, did not need luck to keep us out; they matched Rovers in defence and in their midfield and generally played within themselves. Despite not overcommitting to attack they were worrying dangerous in the occasions when they got into our box. Their players knew what was expected and none looked uncomfortable in what they were doing.
Cotterill won the tactical battle and his team did it with some style.
Rovers need to revisit their strategy; and just as I was rationalising their play as taking them away from predictability.
posted on 22/12/20
At half time, I said to my wife we would lose 1-0. I agree with Donaldo about Taylor - seems to be still concerned about his injury and will not risk his normal dynamic acceleration and pace. The passing back drove me nuts - got close to throwing something at my computer screen. Near the end and being 1-0 down, I expected a little more urgency in our play - only Halliday showed any sense of urgency, and then not every time.
It was probably the most I've been frustrated in a game.
posted on 23/12/20
Moore said: "From my perspective and I said this to the boys, I'm really happy with the performance. I always look for a performance from the players and I don't tend to look too much at the result. The boys gave a good account of themselves and I felt we dominated the game from start to finish.”
SOD would sometimes say that about performance and it would often be true, but the difference was that we would have dominated not just possession, but created lots of chances and had the opposition on the back foot and largely ineffective.
Obviously it is “about results”; results are the measure of progress in a league. Fans care about them and to hear that the manager pretends they don’t matter to him is unacceptable when the team get what they deserve.
To tell “the boys” he’s happy suggests that they did OK and it is obvious that they didn’t.
The fact was that they (and DM too) did not recognise that what they were doing, the way they were doing it or the effort they were putting into it was not good enough to succeed. It was as though they believed that success was inevitable if they just carried on playing exactly the same. If anything might have changed things for the better it was speed, not waiting till all their defence was assembled before proceeding.
I agree that only Halliday seemed to understand what was needed. James was not at his most effective at the back and although Richards was one of the most industrious he very often chose the wrong option. They collectively failed to use the full width of the pitch.
posted on 24/12/20
Collectively it was well done for the Burton match with Mooligan gaining a distinction followed by Micky and BVZ correct on two counts.
Versus Shrewsbury we all feel let down, still, but since we do not support a PL team, we can take it without it spoiling a happy Christmas - I hope.
Burton A 1 : Rovers 3 (Okenabirhe)
>>>>>>> Scorer > Score > Result Bonus > Total > Pts B/F > O/all
Donaldo>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>> 3 >>>>> 55 >>>>>> 58
PDXMickey> 0 >>>>> 4 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>> 7 >>>>> 42 >>>>>> 49
BVZ>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 4 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>> 7 >>>>> 16 >>>>>> 23
Crazy>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 35 >>>>> 35
Mooligan>> 4 >>>>> 4 >>>>> 3 >>>> 5 >>>>> 16 >>> 48 >>>>>> 64
Cheltenham 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>>>> 0 >>>>>>>> 0
Nookie>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 56 >>>>>> 56
Selby>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 19 >>>>>> 19
Lanza>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>>>> 0
>>>>>>>>>> 4 >>>> 12 >>>> 12 >>>> 5 >>>> 33 >>>> 271 >>>> 304
Rovers 0 : Shrewsbury T 1
>>>>>>> Scorer > Score > Result Bonus > Total > Pts B/F > O/all
Donaldo>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 58 >>>>>> 58
PDXMickey> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 49 >>>>>> 49
BVZ>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 23 >>>>>> 23
Crazy>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 35 >>>>> 35
Mooligan>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 64 >>>>> 64
Cheltenham 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>>>> 0 >>>>>>>> 0
Nookie>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 56 >>>>>> 56
Selby>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 19 >>>>>> 19
Lanza>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>>>> 0
>>>>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>>> 0 >>>> 304 >>>> 304
posted on 25/12/20
Cheers Donaldo
Would have preferred the Rovers to be top at Christmas⚽