DPL v Sunderland

No threat or much else really.
They were organised, we clearly lack any real quality⚽😐

It is not easy to find crumbs of comfort in this loss. In fact I can find none at all. Too few - well, all except one of Wellens permanent recruits who played today, seem prepared to put themselves out. I wish they could just show some of the qualities which mark the experienced professional. More of what Rowe gives and from which we saw briefly from Bogle, would provide some foundation on which a performance might be built. Instead we get wasteful contributions from the likes of Dodoo and Hiwula who look as though they have never played the game at any sort of professional level. Gardner was better than either of those two. When the defence did stop the attacks, clearances went anywhere and those two never seemed to be ready to use the ball when it came their way and never seemed able to retain controlled possession. Almost all the time they seemed to have no idea of what to do.

If there had been one or two sensible effective professionals beyond the three mentioned to breed a bit of confidence amongst the youngsters, we might have been able to occasionally compete, even if we did not have enough to get a point, but Wellens’ recruitment leaves a miserable legacy. And I thought Dickov was bad… Wellens owes us.

I had a forlorn hope we might avoid relegation but I'm resigned to the fact its going to be nigh on impossible whomever takes over. Not enough time even if we strengthen the squad in January.

I haven’t given up hope and I think GMcS’s post match interview was very perceptive. Instead of complaining about the ref (who I thought was good to us) you can imagine Wellens going on about the penalty and everything else he could think of as excuses, whereas GMcS focused on the shortcomings of his youngsters without criticising them overtly. He gave constructive views on where they need to improve and showed that he is is perceptive and sophisticated in his analysis.

He seems far more astute than Wellens or Moore and I would welcome him as the new manager. Yes, we are 6 points adrift, 7 taking account of the goal difference, but you might speculate as to how many Under 23 L1 teams (- because that was effectively the strength of what we put out) would only lose 3-0 including an OG and a penalty against an in-form Sunderland?

Incidentally I believe Portland Oregon unusually had a (very) white Christmas and consequential power “outages” and MickeyPDX may well have had more important concerns than DRFC in the past few days. We must hope all is well.

Donaldo, thanks for your concern. Luckily our NW part of Portland did not get a big hit, but going over the West Hills into the city itself could be a problem (we did not try!). However, Wednesday through Saturday are not looking great - not too much snow but overnight temperatures down to about -7C which causes ice problems on the roads. We live at about 200ft asl, but to go into Portland we have to go to about 1000ft.
As far as the Rovers are concerned, I've not completely given up hope, but after the Sunderland game it is becoming more difficult. Having read why the team was picked, I feel sorry Gary M, and as Donaldo said, his port match interview was realistic.
I've watched the "highlights", but do not think I can watch a replay of the whole game.
I've almost lost track of how many loanees we have - is it just Dahlberg, Galbraith, Smith, Vilca and Cukur - and so the rest are ours until their contracts run out? Not a great welcome to a new manager.
If we have a break clause on Vilca and Cukur we should use it, but will the "owning" clubs exercise a break on Galbraith, Smith and Dahlberg? Jones seems to be improving with game experience, but I thunk I'm more confident with Dahlberg between the sticks.

It's difficult to describe one's emotions regarding Rovers at the moment. Anger perhaps, disappointment possibly, bemusement, anxiety, helplessness, frustration. Things will change from this week on and I'll always have Hope whatever the future holds. The Editor of our fanzine says there is too much anger at the moment and following your favourite team should always be fun. I'm not sure I'd describe it as ever being fun rather a passion or infatuation in my case. You can be a true fan and be angry at times. But then as Bill Shsnkly said "Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure you it's much more serious than that"

Greeting one n all, hope you had a better Christmas than our beloved Rovers. The @#$% up that is our management recruitment, looks like it has reared its ugly head again. Last time.
Rumours were flying all over about the boards first choice of manager wanting 24hrs to talk it over with his family, then turned us down. Hence the announcement of wellens a day later.

This time, the rumour is its happening again with McSheffrey turning down the job, the board are trying desperately to sort it out, resulting in the announcement being tomorrow or the day after.

Personally, I hope he has turned it down as the last 2 got thrown under the bus and gave the board an excuse. This time though, there's a lot saying if McSheffrey does get it, then that's them done with the club.

After Baldwin spouting off about the calibre of ex managers with Premier and Championship experience putting in for the roll, then they give it to our own U18s manager, there's going to be nowhere for the board to hide this time.

Be very interesting to see if we actually buy any players as his lordship sir Gav, has said we've got irons in the fire and players lined up. Trouble is, if he said its raining, I'd have to look outside.

Its raining outside!

He’ll need his best mac and umbrella . More like body armour to take the flak. I’ll be happy if he just gets us in a position where we can compete and play some decent football. Like all decisions the board have a 50 % chance of this one being right. Though I’d put Rovers chance of survival way below that.