Lets talk about the Chorley F.A. cup game

[selby]

   A game between two sides that set the season off in great form, and now seem to have hit the buffers, Chorley having not won a game in their last five, and have just lost their last two games to the two sides jostling them for top spot in The National League North  Bradford Park Avenue, and Spennymoor Town.
  Many supporters will expect us to get through this tye easily, but as we all know  that is not in our DNA, if a team can make it hard in cup football the Rovers are that team having thrown a fortune away in funds that could have been very useful over the decades I have lived in hope of us being the giant killers this season, and been bitterly disappointed.
  So please excuse me if I seem to live in hope rather than expectation.
   Team selection could be interesting, not many players showing up well at Charlton, and Grant will have a difficult time deciding whether to stay loyal to the majority of the team he has gone with since August and try and get some confidence back or bring in players who have not featured much this season.
   No doubt Chorley will be a better side than we think, and full of enthusiasm, and just longing to be the talk of the sports world by taking our scalp and getting nationwide publicity.
  Me I would bring Wright back injury allowing, Assess Wilks off the field issues and bring him in for Taylor if OK, and Crawford for Blair. So much the same team as the early season games.
   What would you do?

[The Red Baron]

I don't think Wright is likely to be ready for next week but there is a chance Tommy Rowe could be involved.

Interestingly Chorley have been on a poor run since the draw was made, at which point they were unbeaten. They (like us) have lost their last three games. Maybe they have taken their eye off the ball because of the Cup draw, but you can't switch form on and off.

[idler]

Chorley were unlucky to lose to Bradford Park Avenue.

[roversam]

Rovers were unlucky to lose against Sunderland.

[steve@dcfd]

The team should be the best eleven players GM selects no fringe players. This will depend on fitness but no messing about treat this game as a league game.

[selby]

  Steve, I agree, I see the next two cup games as very important to the club for us to continue to improve, and from a financial point of view, with good prize money to be won and also gate receipts.
  A good cup run brings in the floating fan as a team progresses something we have failed to do, even when the club seem to have had a favourable draw in the past, Exeter in the past and last season Rochdale being two examples of clubs we lost to going on to riches.
   I would also put out a strong team at Notts County.

[RoversAlias]

Last season we got through to a big tie with Arsenal in the EFL Cup, a year before that we got through to face Stoke in the FA Cup, so it's not like we never do it. We're probably only just through our karmic levelling out from the remarkable 2005 run in the Carling Cup anyway.

[selby]

  RA, if you compared our cup record to most other clubs over the 67 years I have watched them, and put us in a league format, I dread to think where we would be in the table, and I was at the cup game against Aston Villa the highlight.

[phil old leake]

Unfortunately I fear for us against Chorley. The players should be good enough but Chorley are playing well and will be full of confidence at home. I’m hoping we put a full strength team out

[RoversAlias]

  RA, if you compared our cup record to most other clubs over the 67 years I have watched them, and put us in a league format, I dread to think where we would be in the table, and I was at the cup game against Aston Villa the highlight.

I'm not so sure. Cup runs and clubs enjoying a big upset are a rarity for a reason. A good number of clubs have not had a run like we did in 2005, or got days out at places like the Emirates as we have.

I agree that that win over Villa was the highlight of the run, what a performance from the Rovers that night against very strong opposition.

[selby]

  RA, I was thinking about the series of replays we eventually won in the 1950s. The league cup is different, up to recently most big clubs came into it in the second round, and most from the start, therefore we had a better chance of a big side draw.
   Now the European qualifiers are only a few games off a final, and it is the same few teams that reach the final, most teams being eliminated before they enter the fray.
   The lowest point losing to Frickley. Even when we were in the Conference we did not always qualify for the first round proper, historically we have been very poor.
    Even when we won the fourth division Championship in the sixties with a good side, I think I am right in saying Wigan then a non league side Knocked us out of the cup in an early round the same season.

[idler]

  RA, I was thinking about the series of replays we eventually won in the 1950s. The league cup is different, up to recently most big clubs came into it in the second round, and most from the start, therefore we had a better chance of a big side draw.
   Now the European qualifiers are only a few games off a final, and it is the same few teams that reach the final, most teams being eliminated before they enter the fray.
   The lowest point losing to Frickley. Even when we were in the Conference we did not always qualify for the first round proper, historically we have been very poor.
    Even when we won the fourth division Championship in the sixties with a good side, I think I am right in saying Wigan then a non league side Knocked us out of the cup in an early round the same season.

Yes and a bloke with a broken leg got a hat trick in that replay if I remember right.
A bigger disappointment was losing at home to Swansea in the third round about three years later.

[scawsby steve]

  RA, I was thinking about the series of replays we eventually won in the 1950s. The league cup is different, up to recently most big clubs came into it in the second round, and most from the start, therefore we had a better chance of a big side draw.
   Now the European qualifiers are only a few games off a final, and it is the same few teams that reach the final, most teams being eliminated before they enter the fray.
   The lowest point losing to Frickley. Even when we were in the Conference we did not always qualify for the first round proper, historically we have been very poor.
    Even when we won the fourth division Championship in the sixties with a good side, I think I am right in saying Wigan then a non league side Knocked us out of the cup in an early round the same season.

Yes and a bloke with a broken leg got a hat trick in that replay if I remember right.
A bigger disappointment was losing at home to Swansea in the third round about three years later.

Harry Lyons I think Idler; and Wigan were only in the Cheshire League at the time.

[The Red Baron]

Unfortunately the thread from earlier about Chorley last night has vanished. Last night they were playing Bamber Bridge in the Lancashire FA Trophy. This was the line up:

 Eccles, Challoner, O'Brien, Lussey, Anson, Jordan, Glynn, Whitham (C), Wilson, Noble-Lazarus, Cottrell; Subs: Lee, Lenehan, Carver, O'Keefe, Meppen-Walter.


Last Saturday, when they played Spennymoor in the League, this was the team:

Urwin, Challoner, Blakeman, Teague, Leather, Meppen-Walter, Glynn, O'Keeffe, Wilson, Almond, E. Newby. Subs: Cottrell, A. Newby, Whitham, Carver, Anson.


Looks like last night's team was mainly reserves, so any scouts might have been a bit misled. They lost both game, btw.

[RoversAlias]

Is that Reuben Noble-Lazarus, former Barnsley wonderkid?

[since-1969]

It should be a game for McCann to fire up the team and get back to scoring goals with more confidence. Marquis needs a Hat trick he has so many chances that go unfinished it would help centre his abilities more if he has a top game. Our defence has been lacking concentration at set prieces and Team like Chorley make them their biggest weapon so they too need a good game. 0-5 is my prediction and anything else would be a poor showing .

[GazLaz]

I’ve just seen that we are 13/8 with -1 goal on the handicap market. I’ll be having my biggest bet of the season.

[Colemans Left Hook]

Unfortunately I fear for us against Chorley. The players should be good enough but Chorley are playing well and will be full of confidence at home. I’m hoping we put a full strength team out

oh no they are not I was shocked when the bloke on sky sports said they had NOW lost their last 3 matches last time they lost in the league  -- looked at the table and they had only 3 losses all season

but it's true just checked

seems they have caught the  infectious "facupitis disease" to a man

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chorley+fc&oq=chorley+fc&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3.9218j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#sie=t;/m/09tchj;2;/g/11fx7x0cxy;mt;fp;1

 

[Bristol Red Rover]

They did well against teams that are in the lower part of the league not so good against the higher teams they played more recently.

[selby]

  It is a cup game against a league 1 team, them and the rest of football are just waiting for us to slip up.
   I am sure Grant will not let it happen, but if we go there with the attitude all we have to do is turn up, we will be in for a big surprise.
  It is not a game to take lightly at all.

[the vicar]

They have a massive 3 at the back that takes no prisoners, but it is a very wide pitch so could be ideal for us, they do pass it about at times but they mostly play it long, so as long as we keep it on the floor keep the passing game and get behind them we should win BUT I would not play Tommy Rowe in this game as they will hit us ever time we get the ball

[Michael Shaw]

This game is a MUST WIN to regain confidence. GM can't afford to mess about and must play our strongest team. Losing is unimaginable.

[drfchound]

Grant tends to play weakened teams in cup games.

[the vicar]

Maybe not in the FA Cup

[idler]

I think that the possibility of a lucrative draw to raise funds to strengthen the squad will mean a strong team turning out. Let's just hope that they turn up as well.

[drfchound]

I think that the possibility of a lucrative draw to raise funds to strengthen the squad will mean a strong team turning out. Let's just hope that they turn up as well.

Mmm,I thought that in the League Cup too.

[dknward2]

Seen as this is our only cup left as I very much doubt we will get anywhere in that other one, I’m sure GM will put out the best he has but it will be down to the players actually playering rather than playing as if it’s the first time they have met

[selby]

   Chorley fully deserved to get the replay, they stuck to what they do well, and coped with most that we threw at them with ease, and when needing a little help got away with giving a penalty away.
 So where does that leave us? sadly out of form, the same players that were poor at passing, and keeping their shape  under the last manager, making the same mistakes they were two years ago, a goalkeeper who would make me nervous carrying a cup of coffee, and an attack that at the moment do not look to be able to finish the easiest of chances.
   Andrew has stopped driving into the area going forward, Mason and Blair look like they can't pass water at the minute,and even with ten men and only one man up, Chorley managed to find room in the centre of midfield to look dangerous in the last few minutes.We have a lot of work to do to improve in all areas, with the substitutes not  looking able to make much of an improvement.
   At least we managed to salvage a replay, which may yet be televised and us make something out of it.

[since-1969]

   Chorley fully deserved to get the replay, they stuck to what they do well, and coped with most that we threw at them with ease, and when needing a little help got away with giving a penalty away.
 So where does that leave us? sadly out of form, the same players that were poor at passing, and keeping their shape  under the last manager, making the same mistakes they were two years ago, a goalkeeper who would make me nervous carrying a cup of coffee, and an attack that at the moment do not look to be able to finish the easiest of chances.
   Andrew has stopped driving into the area going forward, Mason and Blair look like they can't pass water at the minute,and even with ten men and only one man up, Chorley managed to find room in the centre of midfield to look dangerous in the last few minutes.We have a lot of work to do to improve in all areas, with the substitutes not  looking able to make much of an improvement.
   At least we managed to salvage a replay, which may yet be televised and us make something out of it.

It shows how far we’ve come this season , when we’re happy to get a replay !

[grayx]

A bit worrying when we play chorley down to 10 men with 30min left and cant win