Let's talk about the Crawley Town game

[Chris Black come back]

Crawley haven’t won in their last 10 away games.

[Panda]

Crawley haven’t won in their last 10 away games.

Why did you have to say that?! 

[ncRover]

Crawley haven’t won in their last 10 away games.

0-0 is 10/1

[sedwardsdrfc]

Tomlin would be a disaster out wide unless it's in a 3 up top where he doesn't have to track back. If he has to track back from there it'd give us a major weak spot to exploit.

[Thorney]

I wonder if he'll go with two up top, I can't see it as that means Tomlin goes wide or out of the side.  We've looked best when using the wide players.  Either Tomlin needs to get further forward off Miller or we drop him out I think.

This is a game/team that an on song Lee tomlin would rip to bits. If played in the right formation and tactics mind

[Herbert Anchovy]

We’ll win today

[andyst79]

Looks like a 4-4-2 line up today

[phil old leake]

Looking at the thread ‘caller on praise or grumble’ it would appear that some are not happy.  Was it not a good result

[Alan Southstand]

The result was needed, but the performance still left a lot to be desired. You wouldn’t have bet on a 4-1 win at half time!

[Redroy]

Pleased with the result. Pleased with Close and him getting more minutes. Pleased with taking advantage of a bit of a flukey pen decision (IMO) and putting the game to bed.

Not pleased with our performance up until the pen against a very poor team. Shaky at the back again.

Anyway it was a must win and we got the win.

[Panda]

5,711 attendance with 3 men and a dog from Crawley.

This is the lowest home league attendance this season i think.

[since-1969]

Pleased with the result. Pleased with Close and him getting more minutes. Pleased with taking advantage of a bit of a flukey pen decision (IMO) and putting the game to bed.

Not pleased with our performance up until the pen against a very poor team. Shaky at the back again.

Anyway it was a must win and we got the win.

The players are responsible for todays result , as they were for all the previous once . McSheffrey need more support from the top or appoint the right man from the off !!

[sedwardsdrfc]

Thing is Crawley are awful it doesn't require a great preparation or organisation to beat them. GM should get credit for changing the system to be more attacking but not a lot of credit overall.

Dickov used to always dig a win out every few games to stave off the axe. Hope this is the start of a consistent run of improvement rather than just a result against a team so poor we can't help but beat them. If not we're just prolonging an actual improvement

[Branton Red]

Allowing for the quality of the opposition I thought even the 1st half was a huge improvement on the utter dross of the last 2 league games.

Yes it wasn't great, and we looked shaky at the back, but there was more tempo and quality to the play and we were the better side up to the break.

Second half Crawley went to pieces after the 2nd goal and Rovers were good enough and ruthless enough to give them the thumping they deserved.

Close added some quality to the midfield and we looked better for dropping Tomlin and adding a second forward.

[drfchound]

Agreed that Agard made a big difference to our attacking play today.
We had a dodgy start and I noted that our first kick of the ball in their box came after fifteen minutes.
Crawley moved the ball better than us in the first half and their numbers 7 and 10 were very good players.
Defensively though they always looked dodgy.
The two goals in 6 minutes inthe second half killed them though.
The goal by Hurst was fantastic and could well get the L2 goal of the month award.
I didn’t realise how quick he is, not many players in L2 can run with the ball as quickly as he did today and provide an end product.
In the end we were good value for our win.

[Prez]

Surprised no one has mentioned Hirst"s goal.

Excellent individual goal from the young lad.

[Panda]

Surprised no one has mentioned Hirst"s goal.

Excellent individual goal from the young lad.

All of his goals for us have been quality tbf.

[Filo]

Surprised no one has mentioned Hirst"s goal.

Excellent individual goal from the young lad.

Picked the ball up in his own half and just out paced the whole Opposition back line

[drfchound]

Surprised no one has mentioned Hirst"s goal.

Excellent individual goal from the young lad.

I mentioned it Prez, in the post before yours.

[Prez]

Surprised no one has mentioned Hirst"s goal.

Excellent individual goal from the young lad.

I mentioned it Prez, in the post before yours.

Apologies Graham for some reason didnt see your post before i posted.

Must be the Red wine.

[drfchound]

Surprised no one has mentioned Hirst"s goal.

Excellent individual goal from the young lad.

I mentioned it Prez, in the post before yours.

Apologies Graham for some reason didnt see your post before i posted.

Must be the Red wine.

Excused matey.

[StocksArmy]

Im not fooled tonight. We will cime unstuck once we play somebody better than Crawley.

[PDX_Rover]

Pleased with the result. Pleased with Close and him getting more minutes. Pleased with taking advantage of a bit of a flukey pen decision (IMO) and putting the game to bed.

Not pleased with our performance up until the pen against a very poor team. Shaky at the back again.

Anyway it was a must win and we got the win.

The players are responsible for todays result , as they were for all the previous once . McSheffrey need more support from the top or appoint the right man from the off !!

Don’t take the brown acid.

[sedwardsdrfc]

I’m probably been over critical of him but, while I think he’s due credit for going 442, a big part of me thinks that he has just done this after stumbling on it vs Lincoln in the second half.

It’s not a change as deep as we all hope it’s just following and thread he’s found by accident. If we played better with say a back 5 we’d start the next game like that. There is no deeper idea of how he wants the game to be played.

This is why long term I reckon he’ll always struggle to do anything other than par at best.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Were we better balanced without Rowe and Tomlin in the starting XI?

[Campsall rover]

Were we better balanced without Rowe and Tomlin in the starting XI?

I think with a fit Ben Close we are DBR
Use Tomlin as an impact player in last 25/30 mins depending on match situation.
Could make a case for Rowe replacing Molyneux as he isn’t producing.

Once we get Molyneux and Biggins playing to their potential then we have a squad which will give GM lots of options.
As it stands I would say yesterdays team is the best one at home and Rowe in for Molyneux away from home as a possible option.

[Colin C No.3]

Were we better balanced without Rowe and Tomlin in the starting XI?

We were better balanced because we played 442 so George had a ‘proper’ strike partner in Agard for the first time, better for having Close in midfield who had the legs (until he pulled up with cramp on 60 odd minutes) & vision to play incisive forward passes.

Molyneux had his best game I’ve seen him play for us thus far in as much as he had more of the ball than in any other game. Wether that was due to the poor quality of the opposition remains to be seen. For me he still hasn’t lived up to ‘the hype’ surrounding his signing. He’s getting plenty of game time so should be chipping in with more running with the ball past defenders, incisive balls into the box & an odd goal or two (as young Hurst is managing with aplomb!) wouldn’t come amiss.

Because of that I’d replace him with Tommy Rowe in that midfield.

The back four is still ‘a work in progress’. Crawley cut through the defence far too easily at times. Their goal straight after Olowu’s was an embarrassing ‘training session exercise’, we seemed to have completely switched off. A ‘better’ side could have had a couple of goals more than they did.

[Chris Black come back]

Hurst has overachieved expectations while Molyneux underachieved.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Rowe has to play on the left of a midfield 4 if fit.  it’s his best position.

Molyneux and Hurst fight it out for the other wide position imo and Hurst is 1st choice atm

[ncRover]

Good assist for Molyneux yesterday. He linked play nicely but did give the ball away plenty. Once he hits form he can be explosive.

Would Hurst be as effective on the right?