How true is this!

[Chris Black come back]

Paul Goodwin in Free Press summarising our two games against Birmingham this season and how this reflects our general approach under both SOD and Deano:

\"Unforced errors, poor defending, conceding late goals, surrendering the lead, conceding from set pieces, gilt-edged misses - Rovers’ two games with Birmingham represent a recurring tale of woe.\"

All so totally predictable. Any team presses any of these buttons and we surrender.

[Snods Shinpad 2]

Pretty much sums up the past eighteen months. It's been a god awful run of form and as Hoola pointed out in a thread not so long back, credit to the supporters for not throwing the teddy out of the pram and for turning up despite the inevitablity of Rovers receiving a good hiding nine times out of ten.

That our marking from crosses has been so poor for so long (all teams have to do to score is knock a long ball in to the back post), and our inability to add some steel to midfield despite it being glaringly obvious to everyone, is a mystery. Both SO'D and Saunders failed to address these issues and we've had a truly miserable run.

Having said all that, I've enjoyed every minute of it. Even the losses.

Rovers are back to being a bit crap again.

I'm used to it.

[Chris Black come back]

Soft touch, push over Donny. This seems to have been the case ever since the 2004 Championship season. A winning mentality needs to be instilled.

[Standanista]

Paul Goodwin sums it up pretty well.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Soft touch, push over Donny. This seems to have been the case ever since the 2004 Championship season. A winning mentality needs to be instilled.

Between 05-06 and 08-09, under Penney and O'Driscoll, we conceded 192 goals in 184 league games.  That's 1.04 goals conceded per game. Typically, teams that make the play-offs concede 0.9-1.1 goals per game. That tells me that for those 4 years at least, we had a f**king rock defence.


Or were the other teams just no good at putting in decent set-pieces for those four seasons?

[Chris Black come back]

Point was bottling it at crucial moments: 94th minute of Arsenal game December 2005, away at Cheltenham May 2008 etc.

Defence is a key part, but mentality is another. Difference between a great team (basically our performance over the last decade) and a legendary team.

Still. Mustn't grumble.

[The L J Monk]

Point was bottling it at crucial moments: 94th minute of Arsenal game December 2005, away at Cheltenham May 2008 etc.

Defence is a key part, but mentality is another. Difference between a great team (basically our performance over the last decade) and a legendary team.

Still. Mustn't grumble.

Equally, you could point to plenty of times when we didn't bottle it. Playoff final, JPT final...

[SiBo]

I bet every supporter of a team not at the top of their division says the same things such are the margins between success and failiure. I wonder if we broke down the stats over the past two seasons how many goals we have actually conceded from corners and set-pieces. I know there is always that ominous nervous silence that falls around the ground every time the opposition get a corner or free kick near our box but I wonder how often they actually do score from them and how much of our worry is because of 'near misses'. We could actually be a team that is brilliant at judging it just right! Can't argue with the late goals thing though.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Point was bottling it at crucial moments: 94th minute of Arsenal game December 2005, away at Cheltenham May 2008 etc.

Defence is a key part, but mentality is another. Difference between a great team (basically our performance over the last decade) and a legendary team.

Still. Mustn't grumble.

Equally, you could point to plenty of times when we didn't bottle it. Playoff final, JPT final...

Play off semi. Penalties vs Man City. Basically, we HAVEN'T been a set of bottlers. We've had a fantastic ride for a decade and now things are swinging backwards. The lesson is that we should cherish the great times when they happen, not find reasons to moan. We have enough reasons to moan when things really ARE crap.

Those of us who complained when we were in the astonishing run of 13 wins from 15 games in 2003. Those who complained the Penney only took us to consecutive top 10 finishes in L1. Those who complained that O'Driscoll's sides didn't entertain. Maybe they/we should take a moment to reflect just what it is that we want from football.

[Jonathan]

Those of us who complained when we were in the astonishing run of 13 wins from 15 games in 2003. Those who complained the Penney only took us to consecutive top 10 finishes in L1. Those who complained that O'Driscoll's sides didn't entertain. Maybe they/we should take a moment to reflect just what it is that we want from football.

Put it there - we agree unequivocally on all counts.

[hoolahoop]

Hmmmm I'll second an excellent post from BST once again, these are tough times but NOT bad times some of us have seen many of them in the past decades.
Unless you are one of the top 5/6 clubs in the country , footy will always be cyclical. When I was young Florists, Saints, Foxes, Weeds, Fowls , Rams etc. were always Premiership/Div.1(in those days) clubs, just look where they are/have been for the last few years. This happens, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride (sometimes)

[Chris Black come back]

Point was bottling it at crucial moments: 94th minute of Arsenal game December 2005, away at Cheltenham May 2008 etc.

Defence is a key part, but mentality is another. Difference between a great team (basically our performance over the last decade) and a legendary team.

Still. Mustn't grumble.

Equally, you could point to plenty of times when we didn't bottle it. Playoff final, JPT final...

Play off semi. Penalties vs Man City. Basically, we HAVEN'T been a set of bottlers. We've had a fantastic ride for a decade and now things are swinging backwards. The lesson is that we should cherish the great times when they happen, not find reasons to moan. We have enough reasons to moan when things really ARE crap.

Those of us who complained when we were in the astonishing run of 13 wins from 15 games in 2003. Those who complained the Penney only took us to consecutive top 10 finishes in L1. Those who complained that O'Driscoll's sides didn't entertain. Maybe they/we should take a moment to reflect just what it is that we want from football.

The question is rather how can we as a poorly supported team (tentatively) in the Championship wring that extra few drops from our vaguely damp cloth? Yes a winning mentality comes with winning but equally the culture is costless, but needs to be instilled from top to bottom in the club. No excuses, no toleration of failure. This mindset is free and does not depend on resources, attendances or rich foreign backers. We seem to have tolerated failure/mediocrity too often over the last few seasons.