Let's talk about the Wigan Athletic game

[DonnyBazR0ver]

For me Whiteman was the catalist for the second half turnaround. He played 5 round the corner blind passes to nobody. After one or two he's got to make sure he takes his time and finds the pass. That set the tone and put us on the back foot and got more hesitant.

That needs looking at because you can't accept that sort of turnaround. When things go wrong, you:ve got to resort to getting the basics right. Doing simple things to get a foothold back in the game.

[Lesonthewest]

Wigan should think themselves lucky to get 3 points, had we been anything like our first half performance we would have won that comfortably, should have been out of sight by half time.  Personally I thought they were bang average. As for us, first half O'Driscoll like passing & movement, second half Dickov. Though Darren left it far too late to bring on Feji, their centre backs looked poor & we should have exploited them, & I didn't get the John substitution, unless injury? James is far better going forward. Plenty of positives in the first half, & another day those chances go in & someone gets a pasting.

[DonnyOsmond]

Tbf with the Taylor chance it wasn't the fact he didn't hit it first time, with the work he did he put himself in a great position and was a sitter not to just slot that in corner.

Yeah there was a man in the way if he hit it first time. He did well to work himself the chance.

[steve@dcfd]

The young players will learn from that defeat. But looking at the chances we had first the best fell to Taylor and Coppinger twice their finishing as never been good. Copps and Taylor played well first half but they both should have finished their chances. John Jules should have done better with his as well.

[danumdon]

What started out as looking like we had full measure of Wigan ended up looking like a disappointingly missed opportunity. The chances we missed in the first half should of had us well on the way to dominating the match, but the lack of composure and quality cost us.

Whiteman's control of the midfield slowly drifted second half with Gomez and Richards never really at the races today.

Not sure what Darren had in mind bringing John on after the hour, i thought he might have kept James on, gone to three at the back with James and Halliday as wing backs with Richards or Gomez making way, Copps off killed our remaining creativity. Feji should have been a straight swap with JJ.  Williams looks an odd choice, like a poor mans Blair.

Need to put this one to bed and kick on, i think we still lack a creative midfielder and another striker.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

The only thing we were lacking was between the ears. All the players are capable of much better in the second half.

Taylor had a contrasting game to last week where this time he made wrong choices. But, he wasn't on his own. We made life too easy for Wigan who didn't have to do alot to win the game.

Another shocking piece of play was Fejiri not getting a shot off deep into the area when he had ample chance. That's unacceptable for a centre forward.

I think DM wanted to go to a back three but we couldn't pull it off because the movement stopped and we couldn't get back on the front foot for long enough. Gomes went missing as it looked like he wasnt sure what do do. Similar with Richards.

Hopefully, it's a learning curve but our senior players should know better by now.

[Colemans Left Hook]

For me Whiteman was the catalist for the second half turnaround. He played 5 round the corner blind passes to nobody. After one or two he's got to make sure he takes his time and finds the pass. That set the tone and put us on the back foot and got more hesitant.

That needs looking at because you can't accept that sort of turnaround. When things go wrong, you:ve got to resort to getting the basics right. Doing simple things to get a foothold back in the game.

judging by the good comments Whiteman got on here in the first half and your comments above ,,,,, it's as if some team like Forest saw the first half performance and put a bid in at half time

hopefully after a rolloking he will learn from this.

[Bristol Red Rover]

Interesting to try JJ and Fej together, pleased DM did that. needs more work but I can see that being one of many options in our game. I think that decision was more to do with Copps tiring and being on a yellow though.

Disappointed with Fej when he did come on, that one attack when he ended up falling over on the goal line was gutless/weak for a player trying to make it in the team and with the energy of fresh legs. Not a good game for JJ but still the gulf in class between him and Fej stood out.

[scawsby steve]

I still think we're a couple of players short. We've a squad of only 20 senior players, and we had to have a youngster on the bench today.

[dickos1]

I think fej is going to be rusty due to his lack of game time. I’d give him a run in the side alongside jj.
I’d give Taylor Richards a rest now too and maybe give Williams a run next week

[jmt23]

Crikey... some stick for Fej. He had how much of a game to get into? after sitting on a bench for three games, and then coming on when the players couldn't find a pass.

Bottom line we lost it in midfield, and because Wigan were told to aggressively pressure high up the pitch. Whiteman, Gomes And Taylor Richards couldn't cope.

As good as we were in the first half, Wigan were better in the second.

[BillyStubbsTears]

If that had been boxing, the ref would have stopped the bout at half time. But we gave every impression of getting cocky in the second half. Like someone has said, Whiteman playing blind passes, the defence playing some suicidal balls, Gomes trying to nutmeg a player inside our own box.

You just don't do that. We did and we got exactly what we deserved.

That match was there for the taking, but we seemed to come out after half time like we'd won it already and it was Copacabana-time.

[since-1969]

We spent months without a recognised striker until Feji came and now what do we do .. we put a unknown and untried in his place and leave Feji on the bench . Come on  DM explain please what is to be understood here !!

[danumdon]

Fej looks and played like his nose has been put out, finished last season well bar getting sent off which led him to miss  some matches, started pre season well and looked to be rounding into some form then gets his legs swiped from under him.

i would of liked to see him start the season up front with JJ coming off the bench, having to fight for his spot.

We need Darren to put his arm around Fej and get him firing again.

[scawsby steve]

If that had been boxing, the ref would have stopped the bout at half time. But we gave every impression of getting cocky in the second half. Like someone has said, Whiteman playing blind passes, the defence playing some suicidal balls, Gomes trying to nutmeg a player inside our own box.

You just don't do that. We did and we got exactly what we deserved.

That match was there for the taking, but we seemed to come out after half time like we'd won it already and it was Copacabana-time.

I agree with all of that, and this is where DM really earns his crust, because he needs to kick all their arses in training this week, and show them what's acceptable, and what isn't.

[Colemans Left Hook]

If that had been boxing, the ref would have stopped the bout at half time. But we gave every impression of getting cocky in the second half. Like someone has said, Whiteman playing blind passes, the defence playing some suicidal balls, Gomes trying to nutmeg a player inside our own box.

You just don't do that. We did and we got exactly what we deserved.

That match was there for the taking, but we seemed to come out after half time like we'd won it already and it was Copacabana-time.

I agree with all of that, and this is where DM really earns his crust, because he needs to kick all their arses in training this week, and show them what's acceptable, and what isn't.

and what made it worse was i came on here at half time  and saw we were "murdering them at 0-0"  Peterborough and Portsmouth were both losing and i thought  if Rovers won (seemed just a matter of time) and Portsmouth lost they would never catch us .

....... Peterborough turned 0-1 down  into 3-1 in the second  half and Portsmouth came back from 2-1 down to win 4-2 and JM started on the bench   . Yes there are many twists and turns in a season but at half time there was a "triple" twist.

Question Will DM punish the squad by fielding a strong team against Oldham

[Bentley Bullet]

Wigan looked incapable of stopping us from giving them a good hiding, and if Taylor had scored that sitter we probably would have got a hatful. It seems frustration played a part after that and the unimaginable happened. A draw would have been a poor result but to lose seems unforgivable at the moment.

[RoversAlias]

We spent months without a recognised striker until Feji came and now what do we do .. we put a unknown and untried in his place and leave Feji on the bench . Come on  DM explain please what is to be understood here !!

John-Jules was unplayable in the previous two games, let's be fair. It's good to have options.

Okenabirhie missed a chance he should have buried last week when he came on and he had 25 minutes to impact the game today. Simply put, he was not good enough and I have no idea what he was thinking when he was put clean through and ended up on the byline flopping to the floor.

He's got the talent, but it has deserted him in these sub appearances. If he is feeling put out because TJJ starts ahead of him then his attitude isn't good enough, you can't expect to start all the time just cos, but that is speculation and it might just be a case of things not coming together for him on this occasion. I'm confident he will shine before long and he may well get a start in one of our next few games.

[drfc1951]

We spent months without a recognised striker until Feji came and now what do we do .. we put a unknown and untried in his place and leave Feji on the bench . Come on  DM explain please what is to be understood here !!

DM doesnt have to explain anything,he picks the team he thinks will do a job.

[EasyforDennis]

Has nobody considered that the Wigan players got a good bollocking at half time and told to buck their ideas up for the second half? Which is exactly what they did. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Has nobody considered that the Wigan players got a good bollocking at half time and told to buck their ideas up for the second half? Which is exactly what they did. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

But that doesn't explain the self-inflicted stupid mistakes that we made.

Bursik didn't play a suicide pass to the edge off the box because they were playing well. Coppinger and James didn't switch off and leave their right back with 20 yards of space to pick a cross for the goal be side they were playing well. Gomes didn't try a nutmeg in our box because they were playing well. We simply stopped doing the disciplined stuff we did in the first half.

[Filo]

Has nobody considered that the Wigan players got a good bollocking at half time and told to buck their ideas up for the second half? Which is exactly what they did. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

Top and bottom is we switched off, and got sloppy, DM can take some blame for that by not recognising it early enough and changing things, also our senior players did n’t step up to the plate when the going got tough. It’s not the end of the world but we can’t have Jekyle and Hyde performances like that too often

[steve@dcfd]

We can look at the second half and pick holes in it. We can say Feji should have started. But we created golden chances first half. So if Taylor, Coppinger twice and JJ had taken their chances we would not be discussing the second half. Three of those chances the goal keeper didn’t have to save because they missed the goal.

[drfchound]

We can look at the second half and pick holes in it. We can say Feji should have started. But we created golden chances first half. So if Taylor, Coppinger twice and JJ had taken their chances we would not be discussing the second half. Three of those chances the goal keeper didn’t have to save because they missed the goal.

The keeper save two shots from Copps so it was two saves he made, not one.

[drfchound]

Has nobody considered that the Wigan players got a good bollocking at half time and told to buck their ideas up for the second half? Which is exactly what they did. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

But that doesn't explain the self-inflicted stupid mistakes that we made.

Bursik didn't play a suicide pass to the edge off the box because they were playing well. Coppinger and James didn't switch off and leave their right back with 20 yards of space to pick a cross for the goal be side they were playing well. Gomes didn't try a nutmeg in our box because they were playing well. We simply stopped doing the disciplined stuff we did in the first half.

Point of order BST.
I have seen two posts of yours which says that Gomes tried a nutmeg in our box.
He actually succeeded to complete the nutmeg.
Your post seems to me to suggest that he failed to do it.

Now I agree that it was very risky and I did gasp when he did it but he was in a tight situation and maybe instinctively did it.
Credit to him though for getting out of it ok.

[RoversAlias]

Coppinger's best chance was one he skied to be fair so Steve may have been referring to that.

[drfchound]

Possibly RA but I think it would be odd then not to include all three of the efforts by Copps seeing as the first two were very similar and both produced decent saves by the keeper.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Has nobody considered that the Wigan players got a good bollocking at half time and told to buck their ideas up for the second half? Which is exactly what they did. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

But that doesn't explain the self-inflicted stupid mistakes that we made.

Bursik didn't play a suicide pass to the edge off the box because they were playing well. Coppinger and James didn't switch off and leave their right back with 20 yards of space to pick a cross for the goal be side they were playing well. Gomes didn't try a nutmeg in our box because they were playing well. We simply stopped doing the disciplined stuff we did in the first half.

Point of order BST.
I have seen two posts of yours which says that Gomes tried a nutmeg in our box.
He actually succeeded to complete the nutmeg.
Your post seems to me to suggest that he failed to do it.

Now I agree that it was very risky and I did gasp when he did it but he was in a tight situation and maybe instinctively did it.
Credit to him though for getting out of it ok.

Apologies if it sounded like he failed.

Failure or success is irrelevant. TRYING it is the issue. It was bloody stupid and indicative of the attitude that we came out with in the second half.

[drfchound]

Has nobody considered that the Wigan players got a good bollocking at half time and told to buck their ideas up for the second half? Which is exactly what they did. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

But that doesn't explain the self-inflicted stupid mistakes that we made.

Bursik didn't play a suicide pass to the edge off the box because they were playing well. Coppinger and James didn't switch off and leave their right back with 20 yards of space to pick a cross for the goal be side they were playing well. Gomes didn't try a nutmeg in our box because they were playing well. We simply stopped doing the disciplined stuff we did in the first half.

Point of order BST.
I have seen two posts of yours which says that Gomes tried a nutmeg in our box.
He actually succeeded to complete the nutmeg.
Your post seems to me to suggest that he failed to do it.

Now I agree that it was very risky and I did gasp when he did it but he was in a tight situation and maybe instinctively did it.
Credit to him though for getting out of it ok.

Apologies if it sounded like he failed.

Failure or success is irrelevant. TRYING it is the issue. It was bloody stupid and indicative of the attitude that we came out with in the second half.

I said myself that it was risky but also said why he might have had to do it.
Unless we were in his shoes we don’t know do we.
It’s a lot easier not to make mistakes when watching than it is playing.

[dam]

Has nobody considered that the Wigan players got a good bollocking at half time and told to buck their ideas up for the second half? Which is exactly what they did. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

Taken from Wigan's website :-

“We were probably fortunate to go in level at the break because we didn’t really get going and we were a bit sloppy in the way we started the game.

“I felt we should have got up the pitch a bit further and got in and around people but what we asked of them at half-time they have gone and done in the second-half and I thought we were magnificent in the second-half; we created problems, got in and around them and played some excellent football ourselves, scoring a great goal to get the three points.

“There were some things said at half-time between the players and the staff and that is all part and parcel of it; sometimes when you’re not playing well you have to get a grip of each other and say a few things sometimes that people don’t want to hear. [However], the players and staff, we’re all in it together and it is a good mix – the players are responding to what we want from them and full credit to them for the second-half because they performed really, really well against a really good side who are full of confidence and scoring goals.”