Harrogate have gone through a tough succession of fixtures recently with very creditable results. They’ve lost narrowly against Grimsby and Leeds away, and Salford and Walsall at home, but they have beaten Borrow away and Cheltenham at home and drawn with Colchester.
Irrespective of current form they always provide a difficult test and we have never beaten them since they joined the EFL with the current record P5, W0, D1, L4.
Rovers are still not the consistent force which they ought to be considering their resources and management and we are again in the familiar position of hoping with limited justification that recent player additions will add strength and not just replace moderate performers with new moderate performers. We’ve been moving the deckchairs around long enough.
If we were just playing some other average League 2 team what I have said so far might have been a standard assessment of our chances. How it needs to be adjusted to deal with the bogeymen of Harrogate I don’t know. It may help that not many current Rovers have been in more than the odd previous Rovers teams beaten at their hands…maybe.
However, If they fail again, I am unlikely to forgive them easily because persistently losing to a meagrely resourced team like Harrogate is unacceptable if we are ever going to escape from the League 2 dungeon. Even if they win, it needs to be a good performance to encourage miserable me.
So 3-0 Street, Ennis, Sharp.
DPL v Harrogate Town
posted on 24/1/25
A good summary Donaldo. I guess most games are important in some way but this is a key game. If we can overcome the Harrogate hoodoo then things will look a lot brighter for us. I've a feeling it won't happen though and a draw is the best we'll get. Then Barrow away with a new manager would become even more important. Two tricky fixtures that could define our season. Id settle for 4 points from the 2 games. So I'm going 1-1 for the Harrogate game. Molyneux, Sharp
posted on 24/1/25
It is certainly time for us to beat these guys, but they have been difficult to beat recently. However, I'll go for a win for the Rovers at 2-0, even though they have not let one league goal in since December. I was going to say Olowu for the first, but it seems they must be defending set pieces well. Hence, I'll also go with Street. If he doesn't start, I'll say Sharp. If neither starts, the getting back to form, Molyneux.
posted on 25/1/25
2-1 to Rovers. Molyneaux.
posted on 25/1/25
Rovers 3-1 Harrogate
Ironside to score ⚽
We have to beat them sometime.🤔
posted on 25/1/25
An industrious yet almost ineffectual performance until we reverted to true League 2 style via Clifton’s no-nonsense approach.
Sophistication (if you can call it that) without a quality end-product has proved ineffectual repeatedly, yet McCann persists…
It’s not much fun is it, unless you get pleasure out of just gazing at the League table.
posted on 26/1/25
As Donaldo says, not an inspiring win. At least we broke the hoo-doo! Certainly not League One Performance.
I was beginning to think "Why do I get up to see this boring footie, and why do I stay with it when I could have switched to see the Cherries destroy the Florets?"
I do not like what we see these days on Rovers+ as too many times they show a replay of a meaningless event while the game is still going on. Also shots of the crowd while the game is playing.
This coupled with the current schedule when too many games are too early Pacific Time means I will not renew this summer...maybe will do if we are promoted!
posted on 26/1/25
It would be a great shame to lose your perspective Micky even though I understand your feelings. In fact, they are not far away from mine when it comes to listening to a commentary like yesterday. Liam Hoden, the ex DFP journalist who took over the Rovers Media Department is now a decent radio commentator, so he is doing his bit, but the quality of the football, which admittedly is better than last season up to this point, is just so lacking in end product. This kind of attritional points-gathering has denied us the by-product of exciting football which we tasted on that run last year,
The feeling when Rovers score is unique, but the joy that good football brings to me is largely restricted to what I see in PL matches on TV. Oh for the days of SOD’s Championship side and the lovely football (admittedly not always with hatfuls of goals) that we saw more often than not.
I think that the cream of footballing skill has risen way above league 2 with PL clubs stuffed with largely unseen squad players with the same profile repeated at a slightly lower level amongst Championship clubs. We even draw loanees from League 1 suggesting that even they have reserve players of greater talent than we have at the top of L2.
We really have to get out of this league to at least provide the hope of Championship football again.
posted on 26/1/25
I think you're both right. GMs style is geared to league 1 / championship style but his players aren't. Charlie Crew looks a good prospect. Compared to Ben Whiteman by the FP. But he's a raw loanee. It's the creative midfielder we're lacking who can provide better service for the forwards. Can't see GM changing his style so it's going to be tough to get out of L2.
posted on 26/1/25
Well, our super-optimism was rewarded (4/5 anyway) but it was close to fulfilling Nookie's expectation. So generally, relative positions were maintained.
Rovers 1 (Clifton) : Harrogate 0
>>>>>>> Scorer Score > Result Bonus > Total > Pts B/F >>> O/all
Donaldo>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 55 >>>>>> 58
PDXMickey> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 111 >>>>> 114
Crazy>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 50 >>>>>> 53
Mooligan>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 92 >>>>>> 95
Nookie>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 47 >>>>>> 47
>>>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 12 >>>> 0 >>>> 12 >>> 355 >>>>>> 367