This is a basement encounter. Bottom-of-the-form table vs second bottom.
If our Rovers lose this, I fear that we will have hit the rocks. If Moore were still manager the Board would be considering his position. He put together an adventurous young team that seemed to be going places. The best player, what in the old days we used to call the “midfield general", decided that he wanted to go and the price seemed fair. Could the Board envisage that his loss, notwithstanding a seemingly promising-to-start-with replacement in Bostock, would be so apparently significant?
They invested further in Sims who unfortunately has not been his pre-injury self and J-J, then Taylor, and Sims too got injured. These events worsened what it is now clear was a more delicately balanced situation than we realised, but most followers felt that the 2021 Rovers would be a renewed and not weakened force to be reckoned with.
It might have resembled the situation which existed when Saunders left, but I don’t think that there was any accompanying loss of a significant player. As has been pointed out too, there was an experienced manager in Brian Flynn and a true leader on the pitch in Jones to take over.
So it boils down to the choice of manager to replace Moore. Butler was the mistake and you would not really even put him alongside Jones. Jones had charisma. Briefly managing the Belles, no longer a significant force and well adrift of the upper echelons of the women’s game is far short of the kind of proper experience needed for the role. So the Board made a very bad, but not unpopular decision.
Butler is not exactly “blaming" the players, but neither does he seem to be taking responsibility himself, so you might question where he believes he stands in the current situation.
I will hazard a guess at the result in the next day or so.
DPL v Bristol Rovers
posted on 4/4/21
Joey Barton did well at Fleetwood and did not leave because of incompetence and now he is the motivator at Bristol Rovers who have yet to get going. They have not had a good season, but JB has not yet had a proper opportunity to make his mark.
They were unlucky at Ipswich on Friday and seemed superior on the stats, so there is probably slightly more reason for optimism than in the DRFC camp. They have beaten Accrington 4-1, Shrewsbury 2-1 and only lost 1-0 to Sunderland since Barton took over, but the last 6 games have been mostly narrow losses.
I hope we will win, but realistically, can you go for more than a draw, so I’ll say 1-1 - Bogle/Anderson
posted on 4/4/21
Unless AB changes the system he's wedded too we won't score. I don't think he will do so its 1-0 to Bristol Rovers.
posted on 4/4/21
Don’s Diary - Sunday: Just seen Newcastle come back from 2-1 to get a draw against Spurs. The non-stop effort and the massive energy that they put into winning the ball and running, keeping going, making themselves ready for the ball and running into space was a joy to see. If only there was a bit of that on show from Rovers. Steve Bruce would probably be very angry with his team if they did not show that degree of commitment to the cause. I wonder what AB says to his men after matches? Does he expect to get by on skill alone?
posted on 4/4/21
I haven't commented on the last game as I've only seen the highlights. Even the DFP mentioned words such as "slow" and "ponderous", and even though the highlights only show the better bits, they seemed like good words to use. There seems to be a total lack of real effort, coupled with the inability to think quickly to decide on the next thing to do. As Donaldo says there was much effort from struggling teams such as Newcastle, Fulham, and BHA in the Premiership today - I've seen highlights from all of them. Felt sorry for Fulham who were good and held off Villa until the 76th minute.
As far as the Rovers collapse, I see many reasons, but I do not put Moore's departure at the top as the slide had begun before he left.
To me #1 is the loss of Whiteman - I did not realise how important he was to us, not just setting up attacks and scoring himself, but his work just in front of the back four. To me, it seems Anderson and Wright are making more mistakes than in the past, and the lack of Whiteman could be a factor.
#2 - injuries to key players, especially Sims and Taylor
#3 - the lack of a striker with some quality to score, not just being able to "hold up the ball well", not that I agree we have one that can constantly do that, Bogle being the best we have.
I've no idea what I would do if I was AB. We thought we had a very good back four, and although we are losing some games by just one goal, we are fortunate we have not shipped more goals as Halliday and James are getting beaten far too easily. When Taylor was fit, the Halliday - Taylor partnership on the right did well, but now Halliday gets exposed too easily. Maybe at the moment our best back line could be Wright, Anderson, John and Horton.
However strengthening our back line will not solve our scoring problem. Of the rest of the players, I would only automatically play Smith and possibly Copps. Based on his form prior to his recent injury, I would have added Bostock, but he has been poor since he came back. I'd try starting Smith and Robertson in front of the back four - Robertson seems to put in some effort, although sometimes a little reckless.
If AB can save the season and, say, finish in the top eight, he would deserve the permanent job.
As far as the Bristol game, I'll stay positive with a 2-1 win with Anderson scoring.
It is a good job we got points on the board earlier on. However, we are mathematically safe even if the bottom six win all their last games and we get 4 points from the last 10 games - not an impossible task for our lot!
posted on 5/4/21
Gas 1-2 Rovers
Okenabirhie to score.⚽⚽
C'mon Rovers
posted on 5/4/21
Rovers are still failing to get into good scoring positions in the box with crosses misdirected and moves breaking down before a shooting position is reached. Copps is a bit off the pace, but his goal was excellent.
I think we’re are too slow in building attacks, so we often find ourselves up against the whole of the well-organised Bristol Rovers defence.
Mr Barton has got his team well-trained in surrounding the ref and making the most of even the slightest contact.
1-1 looks fragile, but more so in terms of the first “1”, unless AB can provide some H-T inspiration for a change.
posted on 5/4/21
We don't seem to have any threats on the bench either unless Gomes regains his early season form
posted on 5/4/21
Again, you could not honestly say our Rovers were the better side; their Bristol namesakes outclassed them at times. There wasn’t much that Rovers did that equalled Bristol apart from Balcombe’s performance whose display kept the score down.
I haven’t got the patience to list the shoals of shortcomings which flooded into all aspects of our play. We seem to find trouble, invite challenge, risk losing the ball, take unnecessary chances and choose bad options. And all at half the speed of the opposition. And the substitutions had little impact.
The players must take the blame and which ones who play is the responsibility of the manager. Whether Moore could have done better is a moot point, but whether AB or someone else could is very relevant.
posted on 5/4/21
Surely its now time for the board to take some action? They can't now believe AB is up to the job short or longer term. Nor should they allow him to negotiate contracts. Its time a formal process was started to appoint a new manager so he or she has a chance to settle in before the end of the season and have a full pre season .
posted on 6/4/21
I just can't say enough about how frustrating it is! Today, we started brightly, and Copps scored a good goal, then we seemed to rollover and play dead!
How about three Donny players allowed them to get out of the corner and play a ball into a good area so a player can have a great shot at goal is beyond me, and then Richards careless pass gave them the second goal.
It is hard to blame a manager with these basic faults unless he has totally lost the changing room. Maybe, as a player, he does not criticize enough, but we are going fully downward at the moment.