The meeting with Morecambe, a newly promoted member of League 1 is seen as pivotal to our hopes of recovery from the bad start.
If matches were decided by the strength of positive rhetoric from club insiders and ultra-loyal supporters who advocate patience and an unshakable faith in their manager we would be “up there" snapping at Sunderland’s heels.
Not expecting everything (or in Rovers’ case) anything to happen straight away certainly fits where we are right now having scarcely moved from “Square 1". So, Morecambe will provide a real test of our relative strength. Lose or even fail to win against them will confirm our label as “Strugglers", because they are seen as fellow runners in the Relegation Stakes.
I have difficulty visualising how we will beat any reasonably competent team because we are not reasonably competent ourselves. Morecambe score goals, 12 of them and have notably drawn away at Ipswich and beaten Sheffield Wednesday at home, so it would be difficult to argue that they are less competent than Rovers.
Some good news comes in that Anderson will be back and they certainly need someone who can head the ball because the seemingly almost complete absence of such skill in defence does seem like an important missing attribute of a team operating at this level.
There may be more inherent skill in the forward line than when the numbers seemed to comprise those of make-shift ability, but it is based around hope rather than solid expectation.
I wish I could honestly believe that there was something that I found genuinely encouraging. I do not think it helps when managers always seek to excuse bad performance by citing instances of bad officiating. With all things equal, over time, teams probably benefit as much as they lose by mistakes in refereeing and you never hear the serial complaining managers ever talking about cases where they have benefitted from “bad decisions" in their team’s favour. In most kinds of work, people who perform unsatisfactorily rarely have some technical defence which their manager goes out of his way to highlight. Yet in football they are often let off the hook by a manager’s complaint about an offside. In the last match the off-side was not “blatant" and the man was not marked as he should have been, so the defenders’ failure was effectively eliminated by the manager’s outburst against the ref.
I cannot believe we will win – so I’ll say 0-2.
DPL v Morecambe
posted on 18/9/21
Something went wrong - we had five shots on target!
However, we still have to thank our big Swede - but he has to improve his distribution.
Some bright pieces of play, but still too many mistakes and poor passes. The first time I saw Hiwula I thought he could become a good addition, but I do not know what has happened to him as to me he was poor today. However Smith is beginning to show why maybe Wellens brought him in. Perhaps he is now nearer fully recovered from his brush with Covid as he showed more energy and fight.
Hopefully the win will give the team more confidence as there are difficult games ahead.
posted on 18/9/21
BVZ, I think they changed the rules on goalies and red cards a few seasons ago. Unless it is deemed violent conduct, a goalie gets a yellow on top of the penalty. For just bringing down an attacker, a straight red for a goalie and a penalty was considered a double jeopardy for the team. I think it was changed after Courtois playing for Chelsea got two or maybe three reds in one season (I think the third was for handling outside the area and denying a scoring opportunity).
I've convinced myself Pontus was just trying to grab the ball, although it was impossible because their guy was in the way! I'll watch again on highlights for amusement as we got away with one for once.
posted on 20/9/21
I give RW credit for actually acknowledging the let-off which balances the alleged off-side goal v Wigan.
I have started to write things about the game several times and have finally concluded that it was a bit better overall, but that the new forwards were disappointing. They made poor decisions, failed to control the ball, did not pass it well and in Vilca’s case, did not seem to get involved much.
Rowe and the two young midfielders are the hardest workers; the rest of the outfield need to put in a bit more effort to match
posted on 21/9/21
RW complains about paying Williams and Bogle but rules out using them in any circumstances. Poor judgement and thinking. It's a false dawn I think.
posted on 21/9/21
It will be interesting tonight boys, I've heard city will be playing a younger side as they have another game tonight in another cup competition. Oh how we would love to be so lucky 🤣
On the down side, some of the worlds best up coming teenagers will be on display, could be a night to remember, just hope they've left their shooting boots at home 👍
posted on 21/9/21
I'll miss most of the game - I've come out of retirement to do some wine-related work for an ex-customer. Probably be rewarded by a good bottle of wine - could be better than watching a possible massacre!
posted on 21/9/21
The corner has been turned in results and it now has to be sustained. Unless there are objections, I think Crazy's late naming of the goalscorer is acceptable.
Selby's ability to predict scores continues - well done - a comfortable lead albeit in worrying times.
Rovers 1 (Rowe) : Morecambe 0
>>>>>>> Scorer > Score > Result Bonus > Total > Pts B/F >>> O/all
Donaldo>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 9 >>>>>> 9
PDXMickey> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 9 >>>>>> 12
BVZ>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>>>> 3
Crazy>>>>>> 4 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 7 >>>>> 9 >>>>> 16
Mooligan>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 21 >>>>>> 21
Nookie>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 21 >>>>>> 21
Selby>>>>> 0 >>>>> 4 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 7 >>>>>> 27 >>>> 34
LixmKing>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>>> 6 >>>>>>> 6
>>>>>>>>>> 4 >>>>> 4 >>>>> 9 >>>> 0 >>>>> 17 >>>> 105 >>> 122
posted on 21/9/21
I missed all the game - maybe I should stop watching and we could win more!
posted on 23/9/21
I did not follow the game closely but kept an eye in the live text.
The extended highlights showed Rovers playing some good football, although the opposition were not as impressive as I would have expected. Perhaps their best young players were in the EFL team vs Wycombe.
On the downside, there were 3 Man City shots that Jones had to deal with, all "in the centre of the goal". Two of these were saved - he could not get out of the way! But the first one saw Jones move out of his goal towards the attacker. He did not spread his arms and legs to make a barrier; it was as though he felt that it was appropriate to only make a token effort to intervene and of course the ball passed him into the goal. And then he followed up with his familiar gesture of frustration aimed at his defender colleagues. Presumably he blamed them.
Their goalkeeper was not impressive seeming to stand still and watch the ball go by him, but he is not likely to have to play for the first team. There was a shot later on in the game which saw Jones in typical frozen mode - just watching as it hit his post.
If you look at Wikipedia he had 6 loans to non-league clubs and got only 3 games for one of the teams, Gainsborough Trinity which you would have thought would tell Rovers something.
How did we ever decide to continue to employ him?
posted on 25/9/21
Tnank you Donaldo, that's very kind of you. I wouldn't have had a problem with you not allocating the scorer points at all - if was my temporary brain freeze - but thank you very much.