25b

Got a good feeling about tomorrow, dont know why, but I'm looking forward to it. Should tell us a lot about who we are and where we could end up. 2.1 victory, Sadlier first goal.

2-2, Ennis, Anderson

With 4 wins, 2 draws and 14 points, 3rd in the table and a game in hand Ipswich look very good at first sight, but their only serious tests have resulted in a home draw against Sunderland and 1-0 away win at Burton. So the blogger who recently suggested 100 points and the same number of points as a realistic ambition may be a trifle ambitious.

On the other hand, despite success against higher placed teams, Rovers have only played once away from home, so where we sit with two games in hand, might also be a trifle unrealistic.

If they do manage an immediate bounce-back it will be a quite notable turn-around from their miserable exit from the Championship. Having not experienced life at this level for a very long time they may not appreciate the size of the task ahead. Neither Portsmouth nor Sunderland found it easy, the former having been well-funded yet frustrated for at least the last 2 campaigns.

Despite strands of optimism, it will be a big crowd that will be rooting for them and 1-1 is my guess, Anderson/John/Whiteman the scorer.

I was really looking forward to being there, but alas I am not back home yet.

I originally thought we had no hope after seeing how many goals they had scored, but subtracting their 5-0 win over Bolton, we have almost identical records although we have let on 2 more goals. OK, we have only played one on-the-road, but I think we may sneak a win, but will predict 2-2 with Whiteman scoring the first.
I may change the scorer predictiction after I see the team tomorrow,

RTID

I'm also going for 2-2. Ennis - Copps if Ennis is not playing.

1-1 whiteman

Ipswich 2-1 Rovers
Taylor to score
Hope that I am wrong.

Small Azza (who is nearly 6ft)

Ipswich 1-1 Rovers
Copps to score

Ipswich2rovers1 blair

The best football I've seen from the Rovers this season - except for the finishing! We should have been 2-0 up at halftime. Ipswich came back in the second half, but we still created chances. Taylor missed the best chance. When the ball reached him he had an almost open goal, but he either lost sight of the ball or was surprised it came directly to him. Anyway a great chance missed. Another wasted opportunity was when May broke through on the right, had three Rovers players in better positions on the left, but went for glory himself. Sheaf hit the post twice, and others went near. Our defence was pretty solid (a clean sheet!). Lawlor had little to do but came up with a good save and a very good save when he had to. He did badly mis-judge one cross, but got away with it. The back four hardly put a foot wrong, and Halliday had his best game so far (of the ones I've seen). I was very nervous about him early in the season, but that was poor judgement on my part. Both Bens played well, but Sheaf's passing in the second half got a little sloppy at times. I thought Blair played well until he was substituted, but Copps had a quiet game. May was his lively self when he came on, but Sadlier did not get into the game very much. Ennis was unfortunate not to score and created chances for others, and helped on defence as well. Kiwomya wasn't on long enough to make any real judgement. Overall, a performance that shows a promising future, but can understand why DM was a little disappointed.

After our match I watch the Canaries beat Man City - you could have made some money betting on that!

OK is our beach ball about to burst? . Can we go further than a golden mile? Will Anderson continue to be our tower of strength? Will we continue to be a pleasure Beach to watch? Usually a bogey team for us but surely we can win this one. I'm going 2-0, Anderson Sheaf.

No - Yes - Yes - Yes - Yes.

Shall I end there or shall I bore you with my views? Well, sorry, do something else if you like.

It has almost been eerie this start. Foreboding preceded game 1 which we got through perhaps slightly better than I expected and then Rochdale away looked a rather worrying prospect, but we emerged with a draw. Still, I felt uneasy and Lincoln and Rotherham after their good starts seemed to be where we would finally hit the wall, but we didn't.

Ipswich would surely be the test of the early season and some kind of defeat seemed the likely fate. But it didn't turn out that way; we outplayed them and they were the ones to claim that they needed time to gel and that they were capable of much better.

So it is certainly time for re-assessment for me. Either we are better than the fancied teams we have so far encountered or something else? I had the same feelings in the season that Dean Saunders took us to the top of the League, a sense of unreality; how were we doing it?

I don't think it's a dream any longer and I am beginning to believe.

Blackpool are not in very good form at the moment after an excellent start under a competent manager (Grayson), a firmer financial base and renewed local support. So they are obviously capable of providing tough opposition.

That said, their 3 victories were against Southend, Oxford and Bristol Rovers and their latest games which they have lost have been against Coventry and MK Dons who could be real forces this season. Where that puts them in the entire scheme of things is somewhat uncertain at this point, but there is reason to believe that they may have performed recently at below their potential.

As a club the Keepmoat has been a happy hunting ground for them and we have a much better pitch than they have at home, so a win will have to be hard-earned, but I think I will go for that - 3-1 and Anderson/John with the first goal.

It will be interesting to see how Husband has developed in the 5 years since he left us. He only appeared 3 times for Middlesbrough, but 19 times for Norwich which is his current club and he has had quite a bit of Championship loan experience with Fulham and Huddersfield, but has only really played regularly when loaned to Fleetwood before moving south this season to the other end of the tram tracks.

Rovers2 pool1 whiteman

Don, I assume that in your review of the early matches, you were confident we would win against Fleetwood.

1-1 Ennis

4.0 to the mighty ziggers, Sadlier first goal if he starts or Ennis. Big things happening at the KM this season 😁

Rovers 3 Tangerine Seasiders 1; Blair with the first goal.

Rovers 2-1 Blackpool
Sadlier or May if not playing

Funny game. Blackpool were solid throughout. Indeed any number of times the Rovers players played the ball back and forth across the field looking for but not finding a way in. Ennis was up against two very big lads and although he got a couple of shots away you really couldn't see where the goals were going to come from, at either end. Alas, Rovers gave the ball away a lot. One almost catastrophic kick out by Lawlor typified this. The ball was gifted to an attacker in the centre but Lawlor then redeemed himself with an excellent point blank save. Disjointed and attritional - it was not a fun watch, and it had draw written all over it until injury time. Rovers were pressing for the win, but I was horrified to see Tom Anderson in the final third with the ball in play. Sure enough a fast break on the right had their forwards and what was left of our rearguard haring back in a line towards Lawlor. When the cross was played in almost inevitably it was bundled home. Not a good performance from us, but we almost got away with it.

A frustrating game to say the least - the Rovers did not look as good as last Saturday I suppose mainly because Blackpool did not let us be that good. Frustrating here as we had an electrical storm that took out a local transformer and I did not see the last ten minutes plus added time. When I lost coverage a draw seemed a fair result. Two tough games ahead!

Anderson was instructed by DM to go forward.

We gave the ball from the first minute till the 93rd and got punished.
Many poor performances.
We seemed flat footed and not up for it in the first half and I could not have complained if we were 2 down at half time lawlor kept us in it.
Taylor needs to get on the game more.
When he does he looks good but just dont see him enough.
Sadlier was in my opinion our best player and can only think he was taken off for a fitness reason.
May was shocking again.
26 did well when he came on and looked inventive.
We played like strangers at times not knowing where and when players were going to make a run hence the giving the ball away.

I thought that momentum was better in the first half and I was thinking that they were always trying to get the ball forward from midfield then, yet in the second they were unnecessarily cautious in building attacks.

I was very impressed with Taylor and he seemed ignored or deliberately uninvolved, possibly tired or excluded by the variation in the system in the second.

Lawlor was lucky to get away with his mistake in the second half and I felt he might have made a better attempt to save the goal if he had moved off his line sooner.

We are capable of playing with flair as we showed up to half time, but Blackpool were allowed to gain in confidence as we became less adventurous.

I agree with you Donald Lawler should have been a yard or more off his line before the cross came over, then he could have taken the cross. A goalkeeper should dominate his six yard box but Lawler doesn't.