Bristol Rovers thread (was: 1st half almost over)

[Dave the OAP]

I will probably get flamed for this, but I thought we were dreadful today. defence was Ok, midfield created bits an pieces but the finishing was dire!

Rovers were there for the taking and we didnt have the guile to beak them down.

We desparately need a striker who knows where the goal is!

 

[Scotty Mac]

The problems in this team are Revell (total waste of space), Hammond (the least inspirational captain in the history of football), and El Abd. Other than that I genuinely think we've got a reasonably good team. Revell and El Abd can (and will) be easily replaced by Forster and Lynch/Butters, it's what happens with Hammond and the lack of creativity that concerns me.

revell and el abd are just donkeys though - hammond actually has talent, you don't win player of the season if you don't - its just that he doesnt seem to be doing it at the moment, and getting the best out of him is something that wilkins needs to consider as a matter of urgency, if for nothing else than that we have f*** all else options

 

[chez]

He hasn't let a goal in for over three games!! And his kicking was pretty good today, as it was at Bournemouth (and Swansea for that matter).

The problems in this team are Revell (total waste of space), Hammond (the least inspirational captain in the history of football), and El Abd. Other than that I genuinely think we've got a reasonably good team. Revell and El Abd can (and will) be easily replaced by Forster and Lynch/Butters, it's what happens with Hammond and the lack of creativity that concerns me.

Come on. I know you're a Kuipers fan but surely not even his greatest fan cant defend him today!! His handling was bad and the kicking was nothing short of diabolical. I agree with you about el-abd he was nothing special but I think hammond will be a great captain in years to come - maybe he's a bit young at the mo.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

GOOD efforts? You mean the one where he was one on one with the keeper, and needed only the slightest hint of skill to lift the ball and score, but instead he hopelessly swung and whacked it into the goalies body? Or the one in the first half where he only had one defender to beat in order to be through, but instead ran towards the corner flag? What a CLOWN (Revell, not you BoF!).

In the second half, didn't he have a volley saved in spectacular style? Or am I dreaming. I probably shouldn't have included the one-on-one as being a good effort. It wasn't as bad as the Bristol Rovers effort in the first half, after the El-Abd debacle, but he should have buried that.

The one if the first half, he had Robinson and O'Callaghan waiting in the middle didn't he? NEVER RUN IT WIDE!

I agree that he should have been hauled off earlier.


As for your point about Hammond (in another post). I thought he had a fairly good game today, certainly better than his previous performances (NB I have only been to the home fixtures).

 

[chez]

What did he do wrong then? His kicking was ok, not amazing, but ok. His handling was fine apart from one instance in the first half when he punched when he could have caught. Plus, on Tuesday night he was excellent, and not bad at Swansea either. I'm prepared to admit he's not in world-class form, but he's also far from our biggest problem.

You think so? In my opinion his kicking was so bad it was embarressing and any kind of handling he had to do was done badly. If today is anything to go on he should be dropped for the next game. Absolutely awful. I hear what your saying about the previous games but I didnt see them, I'm just going on todays awful performance.

 

[Scotty Mac]

Plus, on Tuesday night he was excellent, and not bad at Swansea either.

excellent at bournemouth?! i cant remember him having to do one thing at bournemouth

 

[Scotty Mac]

Well Bournemouth raped us in the first half - someone was keeping them out. Even Forster praised him in the argus for that.

i dont remember him making one save though, or claiming one cross. all he did was organise and sweep up. he was solid, but hardly excellent - except for his kicking, which compared to what it has been like in the past, was superb, even from backpasses

speaking of which, i had from potter a brief text "el abd in backpass nightmare". anyone care to embelish?

 

[Screaming J]

Not exactly a brilliant result, but I would have taken a point before Kick-off.

I agree with this. they are (allegedly) a decent side, and more experienced than us. I was predicting a defeat today, so to keep a clean sheet and go up a place in the league was a bonus for me. I am sure if I wasn't 300 miles away and had actually gone to the game I'd feel a bit different; but............

 

[Trigger]

For 84 minutes we played without a striker up front

 

[Barrel of Fun]

"el abd in backpass nightmare". anyone care to embelish?

The ball was bouncing about on our left flank, perhaps a quarter of the way up the pitch. El-Bad looked indecisive as to whether he should boot it into touch or try the backpass. I think Kuipers shouted for the ball, so he abandoned plan A and went for it. He ended up dribbling the back pass a mere 5 metres back towards Michel (20 metres out from goal). The winger crossed it in and then the Rovers striker completely fluffed his effort, dragging it wide. All it needed was a bit of power and placement and it would have been a certain goal. Kupiers collected it and ended up kneeing Whing in the process, as they both slid in to collect it.

 

[Starry]

Thats the 5th time this season that they have scored a winner in the last 5 minutes, 50% of there league games!!

So so hope we end there unbeaten run!

Just be sure your team can play for 90minutes and not the 75 everyone else in this league can manage.

 

[Scotty Mac]

The ball was bouncing about on our left flank, perhaps a quarter of the way up the pitch. El-Bad looked indecisive as to whether he should boot it into touch or try the backpass. I think Kuipers shouted for the ball, so he abandoned plan A and went for it. He ended up dribbling the back pass a mere 5 metres back towards Michel (20 metres out from goal). The winger crossed it in and then the Rovers striker completely fluffed his effort, dragging it wide. All it needed was a bit of power and placement and it would have been a certain goal. Kupiers collected it and ended up kneeing Whing in the process, as they both slid in to collect it.

and yet some people argue el abd is a compotent player

excellent scenes

 

[Theatre of Trees]

speaking of which, i had from potter a brief text "el abd in backpass nightmare". anyone care to embelish?

El Abd had been on for about a minute when under no pressure he gave a short back pass back to Kuipers, there forward broke drew in Elphick crossed it to the other forward who swang at it with his right foot missed the ball hit his left standing leg and bobbled towards a grateful Kuipers. Not sure which was more laughable, the back pass or the attempt at goal. And that was their only chance.

Thought the only thing we didn't do was finish, Revell missed 3 chances, a header he nodded too far down, a superb half volley which the keeper saved really well and the one on one when the keeper somehow managed to get an outstretched leg to it; Robinson missed a couple, putting a one on one wide of the post; and Cox forced the keeper into a couple of saves he needed to parry. In patches we played some good pass and move football and created a fair amount of chances today whereas Bristol Rovers offered very little but doughty defending a tactic which shows in their record with grinding out results away and failing to win at home. The thing we don't have is consistency, we bossed the first 20 minutes then lost momentum with the injury and lost our way. Second half we dominated but failed to put our chances away. Another day we might have scored 4.

 

[BensGrandad]

Am I the only person who thought that El Abd did ok nothing special but little wrong.

Savage and Revell were a complete waste as was Cox and Hammond.
Whing did ok but he is not he same player as when we had him on loan. Richards was better than he has been except for his distribution which is appalling and certainly not as good as Rents. Jake had a reasonable game and caused them problems but couldnt put the ball in the net. O Callaghan was ok but again seems have dropped in standard from when he firsty came here, is trhat down to our coaching? Kuipershad very little to do but his kicking and digeneral disribution was again poor, he takes much to long to decide what to do with the ball.

The one bright spark who is growing in stature week in week out Tommy Elphick.

I am concerned about Wilkins, White and Chapman they showed that they are lost as to how to correct the faults and to make matters worse Wilkins said on SCR it was a good all round performance, which game was he watching?