A different perspective on yesterday

[deebee]

Many are criticising the first half yesterday, as an attacking force I must agree I have moaned before that one striker up front does not work for us. BUT I have to congratulate the team on a fantastic defensive show to keep it to one nil. Ok you may say we were lucky, we have been unlucky in not scoring in the past at the end of the day we kept it out and that has got to be good defending. A special mention to Ian Lawler who made some brilliant stops in the second half and glad we kept Copps on till the end shows he can last 90 mins. Now looking forward to next week it was nice to go home happy.

[Donnybax]

I really don't think it was a fantastic defensive display first half. It was sheer luck it wasn't about 4-0 we were all over the place.

[Bessie Red]

We were terrible defensively for the whole of the first half & MK should have been out of sight by half time. Lawlor did well to keep us in it no thanks to the clowns in front of him. Second half totally different & we defended well!!

[RedJ]

If Coppinger had taken his chance (took one too many touches imo) and Blair had had the composure to do something other than pass straight back to the keeper when he f**ked up his clearance it could've been more for the Rovers too. I'm sure Blair had another good chance as well but I can't remember off the top of my head.

[donnievic]

U must of been on sumthing if thought that was a good defensive half more like prob worst we have played all season

[Donnywolf]

Its hard to remember every game and although I say "cant remember us playing that badly or that well in a game" I am sure there will have been better / worse games - its just hard to recall them

The game that I was reminded of yesterday though (half way through first half) was the Brentford game (in the Crossbar Season). They took us to bits and completely ran us ragged - should have been out of sight score wise but were only leading 0-1 when we scored 2 wonder strikes in second half I think)

At the end of the game their players were strewn all over the pitch and must have been wondering "how the hell did that happen". As the Rovers Fans left - just like yesterday they were all grinning and I said to my Mate "any sign of Dick Turpin cos that was daylight robbery !"

Then I remembered that we were going to play them last game of the Season and said "shit - they will be going all out to beat us now for revenge so weve just made it even harder". Well we all know what happened then as well of course

COYR - tremendously poor all round in first half but much better in second half and the game is 90 to 95 minutes long after all !

[RedJ]

I remember that game. I don't remember if they were wonder strikes (I have a feeling one of them was) but I'm fairly sure they were after 80 minutes. Certainly fairly late goals at least.

[drfchound]

If Coppinger had taken his chance (took one too many touches imo) and Blair had had the composure to do something other than pass straight back to the keeper when he f**ked up his clearance it could've been more for the Rovers too. I'm sure Blair had another good chance as well but I can't remember off the top of my head.

Not often that I disagree with what you write RedJ but the Copps chance I think you are referring to wasn’t missed because of him taking a touch too many.
I remember us doing well to get the ball to Copps in a very tight situation, surround by defenders.
He did one of his “shift the ball shimmies” and as he tried to hit the shot a defender threw himself at it and blocked.
Probably only Copps or Rowe in our team have the skill to get a shooting opportunity from such a difficult starting position.
It was great defending that prevented the shot from getting through to goal.

[RedJ]

Can see exactly why he did take an extra touch but didn't think he should have. Though as you say, perhaps it was the pressure of the situation - after all, he isn't a striker, so he won't have the kind of instinct you need to be able to score from that position.

[mrfrostsdad]

We were absolutely awful defensively in the first half! Certainly the worst of the season. We were all over the place and only good goalkeeping and the woodwork kept it at 1-0. Had we been 4 down we really couldn't have grumbled. The defence couldn't pass or head (or even throw) the ball to someone in a red shirt.
Having said that, MK were excellent in that first half. Their movement off the ball, passing, shooting and speed in build up play was better than anything I've seen this season.
For some reason, in the second half they stopped doing everything they did well in the first. Probably because we started on the front foot and didn't let them have the ball so much

[mrfrostsdad]

ps Lawlor made one save in the second half. They only had one attempt (header) on target in the second half. And it was a great save