The quality back then......

[Bentley Bullet]

That's highly likely because other sides spent enough money to have strength in depth.

Example; How much salary was Birmingham SUBSTITUTE Zigic on?

[colincramb]

The reading game at home sticks out for me as a turning point. Think we were 1-0 up with about 10 to play when they equalised. We went balls out for a winner and lost 3-1, when a point was enough

[Dutch Uncle]

That's highly likely because other sides spent enough money to have strength in depth.

Example; How much salary was Birmingham SUBSTITUTE Zigic on?

The figure of 70K a week was being bandied about

Even half that would have been more than 3 times any Rovers player

[Chris Black come back]

If they were paying that big wazak 70k a week then no wonder the old bill came calling.

[drfchound]

You can hardly blame Dickov for missed chances by the players.
PD got the team playing good football, got the team putting the ball into the box and the likes of Sharp regularly missed sitters.

[drfchound]

Williams misses another sitter just before half time at Chesterfield.
Anyone going to blame Df for that?

[essexrover]

I was in a meeting with a Leicester fan last week and even he said it was never a penalty. 

It was outside the box wasn't it?

Bloody right it was !! Please don't keep reminding me 

[hoolahoop]

He didn't seem able or willing to change players or tactics when necessary though.
Look at the Birmingham game for just one instance. We were bossing the game for an hour until Husband cocked up. They then brought on Zigic and ran us ragged. We rarely improved when bringing subs on under PD.
He always seemed tactically lacking compared to other managers. How many times did you look at our selection or system and think that we had got it wrong?

Idler I agree and think you are being disingenuous too . Zigic was a top top player , PD never had an ace up his sleeve like that.

At any level that was superb football and there were many reasons for that freefall that were outside his control - injuries at the wrong time, refereeing decisions and a team that started to believe it couldn't win. Few managers can sort that lot out. Imo Paul Dickov can take a bow for that positive after all you have given him a right kicking.

[idler]

One point in those final games was a very poor return. We should have ground a draw or two out. Didn't we have 4 home games after the Leeds match?
He looked a forlorn man on the touchline.

[Sammy Chung was King]

When our side was in the championship, we were fighting against not having anywhere near the resources of others, injuries to an already small squad.
 When games were tight we were on the end of a few poor decisions, we also had an inexperienced manager at that level, and in the end only just got relegated through complacency setting in.

[Bentley Bullet]

The reading game at home sticks out for me as a turning point. Think we were 1-0 up with about 10 to play when they equalised. We went balls out for a winner and lost 3-1, when a point was enough

How the bloody hell did we know a point was going to be enough at the time?

[NickDRFC]

The reading game at home sticks out for me as a turning point. Think we were 1-0 up with about 10 to play when they equalised. We went balls out for a winner and lost 3-1, when a point was enough

How the bloody hell did we know a point was going to be enough at the time?

🎣🎣🎣

[idler]

We didn't but one point is always better than none.
Like this season, if we had got draws against Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Peterborough at home we would be in a far healthier position.
Even beating Shrewsbury rather than Wigan would have put us in a far better position as Acko said.
Sometimes if you can't win make sure that you don't lose. Every time that you get nothing from a game it increases the pressure on the next game.

[Bentley Bullet]

Idler, how do you know when you can't win? How can you make sure you don't lose? Do you play deep, as to invite the opposition to attack you for 90 minutes, and don't go in your opponent's half in case you expose your defence? Do you make all eleven players stand on the goal line for 90 minutes? What if we'd done that, and by some miracle managed a draw  in that penultimate game in the Championship against Reading? Would we have got the champagne out in celebration of retaining our place in the Championship?

What if we did all that.............And then Birmingham beat Wigan at home the following Tuesday?

What would we have ALL said?........I'll tell you......

 DICKOV YOU w**kER!

[idler]

I never called Dickov a w**ker at any stage that he was with us BB.
In my opinion he was tactically inept on a regular basis.
How many teams have come to the Keepmoat not to lose over the last few seasons? Loads, and most of them managed it.
SOD changed his philosophy and we played horrible turgid football to stay in the championship.
The following season's opening game at Brighton was different again, we had a right go at them.
Most good managers get the defence and midfield sorted to concede as few as possible. Look how many games Bradford City have won in the last few weeks.

[Bentley Bullet]

Idler, teams generally don't play games to draw since the 3 points for a win was introduced. Away teams go out to win, just as much as the home team does.

I don't believe teams have come to the Keepmoat not to lose, they've come to win, and the reason for loads of them being successful is for no other reason than we're crap.

[idler]

I'll put it another way, a team can come to close down and not be too adventurous knowing that they will get the odd chance. This can make them hard to break down.
Another team can be more expansive leaving gaps at the back. This approach can lead to games where you lose directly due to missing chances.
We manage to both miss chances and give easy goals away.
We have conceded simple goals all season whereas we have had few given to us.

[Bentley Bullet]

Teams that leave gaps at the back when attacking do so because they are not very good - like Rovers.

[BobG]

Do you remember the last few games of that SOD season we escaped relegation? The difference in style, in approach, in attitude was a chasm - it was enormous. Why do you think they played so differently those last few games BB? Quite successfully too as it turned out.

Cheers

BobG

[Bentley Bullet]

Do you mean season 2010/11, when we scraped 21st place?