Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: selby on March 04, 2026, 10:12:24 am
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A long journey that takes us to a game against a team that took us to the cleaners in the reverse fixture here at the Eco, looking on the day that they were far superior to us, and after last nights lack lustre display with a cup final place at stake one wonders just how we are going to lift ourselves to the challenge.
It's now the business end of a not too bad a season up to press with the cup runs in mind, but now has us very much looking over our shoulder in the wrong half of the division.
Every division nowadays seems to follow the premiership with a distinct differences in class between the bottom half of the divisions and the top 10 clubs. We are certainly in that bottom half, Plymouth capable of being up there but have under achieved up to press and need a consistent winning run to force themselves into the promotion hunt after a poor start we helped to get back on track somewhat and gives them an outside chance.
Something therefore at stake for both sides for very different reasons with Plymouth needing to have a finish to the season like us last year.
Our team selection is a conundrum in itself with a big squad who are much a muchness with just a handful of consistent players who can carry a team at this level. If they are off it or marked out of the game both in attack and at the back we are always going to have a hard time of it, especially when teams know our style of play and the weakness's we have.
We are however capable of playing with some flair and can put in some very good performances that coincide with the players showing a lot of energy, especially in mid field, hard to replicate over a long season, but the need for it clear if we are to stay out of the relegation zone, and for that we need a solid base at the back, Byrne and Bailey in central defence very much my choice for that, the full backs again nothing between them and with both keepers looking in form a good sign we are as good as we can be there.
Not a Close lover but he has done well lately which has took some time and we have busy players in mid field who always put a shift in and wide men who are good players but because of our style are the players other sides try to nullify by getting two defenders around them all the time when they have the ball.
Up front like our central defence is our main problem, all work hard, every team make it hard for them, and the service they get is not always that great, and they plough a lonely furrow a lot of the time when we don't get players up there around them.
We are what we are and only one thing is the target, staying up, and getting some sort of result at places like Plymouth will go a long way to achieving our only goal now.
Can we do it? It will have been a decent season if we do with some good performances between some not so good, can we get some consistency in our game? how many points would be your target to stay up? Can we get a result at Plymouth after the gulf in class displayed at the Eco between the teams? a long journey, are you going to the game? will you have a pasty from the vans outside the ground?
Lots to discuss and talk about, please have your say.
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I shall try the pasty.
Choosing the personnel to get us a result with the squad of players we have I shall leave to the manager because quite frankly I wouldn’t know where to start.
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You can’t use the league table to judge Plymouth due to their poor start.
For the last three months they have been a strong play off level team. They won two games in a row even before we lost to them.
One thing that may be different now though is Tolaj is injured. Oseni who also enjoyed himself that last game against us has struggled for fitness recently.
Bim Pepple could be one to look out for. He got a brace playing up against McGrath in our heavy away defeat to Chesterfield last season.
We have been in decent form recently. I think when McCann has had got a good tune out of the squad in recent years, he has known his strongest XI and kept it simple. I worry he could be having a bit of a wobble given last night’s post match interview.
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It’s a new ground for me so I’m going. Driving down Friday afternoon as I didn’t want to drive there and back in a day.
I’m hoping the sun is out and we see some goals
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We can't play our top scorer and main goal threat at centre back
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Cleverley made a proper mug of McCann in the game at Eco other month so hopefully McCann can repay the favour here.
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Scooter look for the pasty van and get one for the journey back it will beat any motorway stop.
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Donnybax, its a tough one but it got us promotion last season and I also think it's his best position and with Byrne gives us some pace at the back and hopefully some consistency.
We don't score enough goals even with him in midfield to keep making mistakes and shipping goals at the back the way we do.
We have conceded the second most goals in the division and a goal difference of minus 19 goals, with many of them being gifts, carry on and staying up will prove difficult.
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Plymouth were not at all far superior, we were winning until we gifted them 3 goals in the first half, and then a penalty in the 2nd.
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Cleverley tweaked things pretty early after we scored and took advantage of us through the middle. McCann couldn’t counter it.
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McCann's made his bed a bit with his clear lack of prioritisation of the Vertu game. That puts more pressure on this for me, and it'll be a tough place to go against a team in pretty decent form. Anything other than a decent showing will turn the screw for McCann in my opinion. Not a 'must win' but definitely a 'must do better' than our last two and a half outings.
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It’s a new ground for me so I’m going. Driving down Friday afternoon as I didn’t want to drive there and back in a day.
I’m hoping the sun is out and we see some goals
Good luck with that. I am 7 short of the 92 but Plymouth and Exeter are 2 of them but my zeal or mojo has gone . It feels terminal and though Ive seen first class games at 130 plus Grounds and 91 Rovers games at different Grounds I have to concede the 92 dream is stone dead
Unless I win big and arranged a huge tour of the ones left
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Very tough game. Plymouth have been pretty much the best team in L1 in the last 10 or so games, bar the Rotherham match at the weekend. They had played Cardiff, Luton away and Rotherham away in a week though, and it was their 4th away game in two weeks. Scheduling plays its part in results.
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Pretty impressive recent home league form - played 5, won 3, drawn 1, lost 1. They’ve scored in their last 8 consecutive home league games and when the opposition usually score in our away games, that’s terminal for us. Suspect this is a defeat for us no doubt with some odd tinkering that ultimately does more harm than good. Would take a decent performance and 1-0 defeat now.
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The squad for this game are travelling down today after training. They will be based in the Bristol area according to Ricky Charlesworth, train tomorrow in prep for Saturdays match. Match squad will be interesting based on the Managers comments post game Tuesday.
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What offers hope is that Plymouth are apparently down the bare bones with well over a dozen of the first-team squad injured at present. Hence, the Rotherham result. That said, we'll still need a much-improved all-round performance to get three points.
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What offers hope is that Plymouth are apparently down the bare bones with well over a dozen of the first-team squad injured at present. Hence, the Rotherham result. That said, we'll still need a much-improved all-round performance to get three points.
Let’s hope we just ‘turn up’.
If they are down to bare bones then hope springs eternal.
1-0 to Rovers.
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I hope Frankie is fit, just because he seems to work best with our “style”, if you can call it that. There is no point whatsoever playing Sharp up front on his own. Hanlan is an improvement but we expect him to play like Joe Ironside it seems when he is not.
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If they are down to bare bones then hope springs eternal.
Trouble is, Usher, their ‘supposed bare bones’ are probably better than our first team. And when I say that, it really depends on what version of our first team turn up!
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Tolaj is a massive miss for them, one of the best strikers in League 1. However, they still have Pepple, who's done damage to us before, and Herbie Kane looks like being available. He'll want to impress against his old team.
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Our biggest problem is that most top half teams and Luton and Plymouth who came down last season have players with more class than us.
Stockport in mid field and central defence a good example.
Despite that we can at times reach the required standard mainly with hard graft and a couple of our better players such as molly being on it and allowed room to play, and others being at the top end of their ability on the same day.
If we can do that on enough days to the end of the season we can stay up, don't and it is going to be hard, and we will need other results of other sides to go the right way for us.
Another thing that could go for us is not being so ridged with our style of play, and like the Stockport game we don't look to nullify the oppositions main threats, again using the Stockport game as an example man marking Norwood, who dictated play.
On the other foot Molly is doubled up on every game.
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Our Preseason was poor .
Our recruitment was poor .
Our loans were poor.
Our expectations of how we had a strong squad was over stated from the outset set .McCann has done his best with a L2 squad and without the financial support to bring in players who are proven L1 quality it was always going to be difficult.
But the biggest short coming was to continue Billy Sharp as our main striker when it was obvious that this area was or weakest part of the pitch as Owen Baileys goals have saved the club from relegation .,I can’t see supporters wanting another season of under achievement.
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Owen Baileys goals have saved the club from relegation
Not yet, they havn’t!
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I think he’s given us the opportunity and the rest of the players need to step up as he’s done !!
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In PvO I said we lose, but I am still hoping I am wrong, Plymouth are a strong outfit, with far more money behind them than we could ever imagine at this stage. Herbie Kane will no doubt have a really strong performance against a former club, I just hope we can put on some sort of decent performance.
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In the Box, he has been great attacking the six yard box in attack, and he has energy in mid field, but the late runs are now being picked up, and he is either being blocked, fouled or has a covering player going with him in the last few games.
In central defence he provides pace that helps all our other central defenders who lack in that department, so not only is he good in that position, Byrne would have more confidence in his own game and aerially ne is also an improvement, and certainly when players run direct down the middle is more likely to get a tackle in.
I am interested to know your thoughts of why the second worst defence record in the division by only one goal is not more to blame than our attack for the position we are in. If you don't conceded you get a point at least.
Attacks win cups defences win leagues.
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If you can’t prove a threat to teams they run all over you . We are predictable because of our lack of upfront goal threat . Too many players just going through the motions in games ie passing on when running at defenders would be better , poor crosses into no man’s land and lack of inventiveness at free kicks or corners. The reliance on Mols to keep providing the killer pass or cross is also predictable as teams know if you stop Mols your halfway their to getting a result. But our worst habit is not working hard in both half’s of the game. We were a very good L2 side but a very average L1 side .
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The plus today was that for much of the game we operated a decent press. Downsides were some fairly ropey defending and absolutely non-existent threat up top. Still, you’d have probably taken a narrow defeat and half decent performance.
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The plus today was that for much of the game we operated a decent press. Downsides were some fairly ropey defending and absolutely non-existent threat up top. Still, you’d have probably taken a narrow defeat and half decent performance.
Plymouth had the players to win this , we just looked around for someone to take charge upfront !! All wind and P***
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We have a lg2 player at best in Hanlan & a forty year old with no pace in Sharp.
That’s it. That’s your ‘strike force’.
Teams double/ treble up on Mols & so where does the pace & ‘trickery’ come from to get in behind teams.
It’s going right to the wire.
We’re at the point where we’re hoping the teams below & around us keep dropping points.
What a sad situation.
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In the 75 years have been going to the Rovers games I have seen some good indifferent and poor sides a lot worse than our present team.
But, the ones that have in most games have had to score two or three goals to win games of football, most of them have had poor seasons in the bottom half of the division they were in.
What we did show today was effort and ambition which was a big improvement on Tuesdays display.
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Once again, it's just basic concentration levels and ball watching that have let us down again.
I think the players obviously tried to put recent form behind them and get on the front foot to win the game, so fair play for going out with the right approach.
Always going to be a tough ask today but we were very much in the game so we gave ourselves a chance.
Got to keep doing it and believe we can win a few more games.
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We were the best team for most of the first half but you watch thinking we need to get 3 up.
We are just too easy to score against. The opposition know that. We don’t seem to head a ball and we are wide open far too often.
As a few others have said we do seem rather slow all over the pitch.
When McCann throws all the forwards on together to chase the game I just don’t think it works.
We move on.
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In the 75 years have been going to the Rovers games I have seen some good indifferent and poor sides a lot worse than our present team.
But, the ones that have in most games have had to score two or three goals to win games of football, most of them have had poor seasons in the bottom half of the division they were in.
What we did show today was effort and ambition which was a big improvement on Tuesdays display.
Agreed Selby, yet maybe the differing qualities of opposition are a partial cause of that too.
I actually don't think Rotherham are a bad team at all, based on seeing them a few times, TV etc. Where they are doesn't make their manager, their team, their individual players rubbish. There are very slight differences to being middle of the table and maybe a chance of play offs. Stay up this year and strenghten again and its possible. What we need to be is patient and support.