DPL v Accrington Stanley

Looking back a little further than the last 6 games, Accrington have almost as bad a record as us, so if we can play as well or better than at the weekend we could win and of course this is essential if we want the chance to make the top 6.

So I’ll say 1:0 and J-J to score if he starts, otherwise Copps/Anderson.

We don't seem to do well against Accrington.
So I will go for;
Accrington 1-2 Rovers
Okenabirhie to score.⚽⚽😉

One change - Sims ill apparently. This weakens us slightly, and I wonder how long J-J will get. DFP says still just 30 minutes.
I'll go for broke with a 2-0 win for the Rovers, with goals coming from James in the first half and J-J in the second.

Despite Stanley out-shooting us 26 : 4 (11 : 2 on target), the Rovers lost the game rather than Stanley winning it. Rovers just gave too much space to their attackers, giving them plenty of opportunities and time to shoot. They really should have scored several, not have to rely on Rovers gifting them the game through two instances of brain-fade that gave them two penalties.
I liked the way Richards often won the ball back, but they closed down our attackers far too easily.
The best move was when J-J should have scored a second, after have scored a good first. It is sad to think what we may have done this season if he had not been injured.
Hull blew their chance of confirming promotion, and can we deny Peterborough an auto-promotion slot?
I see Ryan Mason is taking charge of the Spurs to the end of the season. Quite a big thing for a 29 year-old whose promising playing career was cut short by a fractured skull.

Yes, so disappointing and back to earth with a bang. Copps, Richards and later John-Jules offered the only hope in attack and the defence, with a good measure of luck and incompetent shooting from Accrington, somehow prevented any goals from open play. The passing and ability to find open space and mutual support was way below the expected standard; again the impression was that Rovers had 3 or 4 fewer men that their opponents.

I can imagine some people will just blame Balcombe, but without his speed and agility there would have been 4 or 5 goals from open play.

This team would struggle in League 2; they were outclassed. Okenabirhie cannot cope when he is close-marked; Bogle can. Although Halliday gets stick, he will at least run at defenders. All Wright does is pass it backwards and then point upfield to whoever he sends the ball to, unwilling to take the challenging option himself. There cannot be many Rovers fans either who would dispute that his foul was a stone-wall penalty.

I wish some of them would show a bit more fight.

It is strange with goalkeepers these days as refs treat them to the extreme, both for and against.
When jumping for the ball, any contact with an attacking player is mostly a foul against the attacker;
Even when definitely doing for the ball, if they fell an attacker, it is a penalty. That was not the case a few years ago. In the play-off final against Leeds, I seem to remember their GK taking down Hayter fairly early in the game and nothing was given.
I agree today Balcombe had a good game except for one earlier fumble from which he recovered, and the penalty. What was frustrating for me was that he got caught like that at Lincoln. One area he needs to improve is his longer range kicking. Jones more often found a Rovers player out on the wings than Balcombe does.
I was disappointed that James did not provide the attacking threat he did earlier in the season, and what has gone wrong with Bostock?
At least, for now, Oxford stumbled out of the play-offs. My cousin is a good lad - we only have friendly goes at each other over football.

Micky: your point about Goalkeepers is a good one. When players feel any contact from a keeper they go down irrespective of whether it is enough to unbalance them. And of course no player can really touch a goalkeeper in a challenge. We also see players in possession of the ball falling over as soon as there is any contact. Lokilo does it all the time, but we have had a few refs recently that have not been taken in by slight contact from behind and provided they are even handed, the game flows and no one should complain. Probably the most difficult decisions come when players jostle for position for a high ball; is there an offence or not?

There was a lot of hype around Bostock when he arrived and began to play and I did not notice how one-footed he is at first; we don’t need players who decide they will not put themselves out or take risks if others do not seem bothered. Copps is obviously committed and the players who always try to make something of their possession, like Richards, J-J, Anderson, Smith, Bogle, Robertson, Halliday, and Horton, Greaves and Sims when they play are to be commended. But those who never risk a forward pass, a run into space or a tackle are the reason we have sunk into torpor. I can’t help thinking that they need someone to shout at them to exert themselves more on the training ground, or are those in charge worried that they might be too tired?

For Butler to say that we matched Accrington in work rate and that the first penalty was “a bit soft” suggests that he is not nearly objective enough in his judgement. It was a most unsatisfactory team performance. How can you improve things when you can’t make an accurate assessment?

Any thoughts on who we'd like to see as manager and which players contracts you wouldn't renew?

As far as the next manager, I’ve no idea who is out there, and would be interested in a lightly supported (compared with some other local teams) South Yorkshire team? Don’t take offence as to the “lightly supported” as I know you all are as committed as I am - after over 70 years, I’m still RTID. Some of my American friends think I’m crazy. What about Mourinho 😡🤯🤭!!!
Players are a difficult issue. We are going to have to rely on some loan players, and I know we never can keep what we have, but Balcombe, Smith, Sims, J-J and Richards could be the core of a good team.
Out of current players:
GK: I’d keep Jones and know nothing about Bottomley
Defenders: I’d keep Horton, Halliday, Anderson, James, Butler
I know nothing about Seaman and Blythe, and need to seriously look at Wright and Amos - Wright has been a little weak of late.
So called “Mid-fielders”: I’d want to keep Taylor, and obviously Copps if he wanted to go further, Greaves, Hisani and Ravenhill.
So called “Forwards”: I’m not happy with any of them except J-J.