IAN LAWLOR

[DearneValleyRover]

Personally he’s a big step up from Mitchell so welcome back Ian

[Campsall rover]

I want to just clear up my view on the signing of Ian Lawlor.

I was very surprised to say the least. Not on my radar that’s for sure.
Not because I think he is not good enough for us in League 2

On reflection he is good enough.
I always thought he was a very good keeper when he was with us last time apart from taking crosses.
For the size of him he should have been much stronger in the air when under pressure from opposing players.
He more often than not stayed on his line or was hesitant and not confident when he did come to try and collect a cross.

His shot stopping was probably as good as any Keeper we have had over the last 20 yrs. Certainley any keeper who was ours and I include Sully.
Sam Johnstone and Senny Deing are the only ones who were better as shot stoppers.

Lawlor’s distribution was always pretty good also which in todays football is important.
I always thought he had the edge on Marosi as a keeper.
Others may disagree but Marosi I always thought had a big mistake in him every few games, also he was far from convincing on crosses.
Having said that Marosi went on to have a better career than Lawlor so what do I know.
Opinions eh

So I want to just say welcome back Ian Lawlor hope you have a very successful and enjoyable time at DRFC in your second spell at the Club.

[Bollinger]

McCann played over 500 games as a pro and has been a manager for 350 matches. I think he is in a half decent position to judge whether Lawlor is a decent keeper or not.

[Campsall rover]

We haven’t appointed a new goalkeeping coach yet have we?

[Filo]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

[DonnyOsmond]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

[Filo]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

Easily, by a Country mile

[DonnyOsmond]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

Easily, by a Country mile

Statistically he isn't but if you're not into facts then fair enough.

[dickos1]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

All about opinions but for me he’s a much better keeper than Mitchell

[Bentley Bullet]

Opinions eh! SOD's a legendary Rovers manager but he didn't know a good player when he saw one! I'm sure those of us who said Mark Wilson (for instance) was crap would have done a better job than SOD.

Welcome back, GM, and good luck. You're gonna need it!

[Sod This For a Laugh]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

Easily, by a Country mile

Statistically he isn't but if you're not into facts then fair enough.

Statistically Brown was better than Knoyle but that was definitely not the case on the pitch

[Chris Black come back]

Caveat being we don’t know for definite that he is going to be first choice or whether we are going to sign another keeper - but defensively we have been extremely poor for several seasons now and a material part of this has been the absence of a consistently solid keeper.

This has been an obvious weakness since 2019 to have a good keeper who we owned and could play a part of a credible defensive unit. We are not talking here about some benchwarming or squad decision, it’s a major and specialist role as part of a back 5/6.

Given the importance of this role it is mystifying we have ended up back with a player who only a few short seasons ago precisely nobody thought was the solution to this problem.

[Ldr]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

Easily, by a Country mile

Statistically he isn't but if you're not into facts then fair enough.

This reminds me of a piece I did for kwcr back in the day. Statistically we got more points at the time with Gary O’Connor in the team rather than Dean Williams. Was he a better keeper than Williams? Not in a million years

[Chris Black come back]

Once you equalise statistically for the quality of the teams being faced and whether home or away, the subjective point is whether the defence as a unit works better with perhaps a less talented keeper in goal but who communicates and organises better, or a very talented keeper who doesn’t integrate into a unit and makes that whole unit worse. World class saves are one thing but if it is 1:1 striker v keeper then something has gone wrong with the defence for that to happen.

[DonnyOsmond]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

Easily, by a Country mile

Statistically he isn't but if you're not into facts then fair enough.

Statistically Brown was better than Knoyle but that was definitely not the case on the pitch

Depends on the metrics you're using to suit your agenda. Brown is better in some areas than Knoyle and either Copps doesn't know how to judge what is required for a role in the team or he was showing certain metrics to make the fans happy. I personally wasn't there so no sure what was on the screen.

[pib]

Brown was a lot better on the metric of jogging back into defensive positions really slowly when we lost the ball.

[ForsolongaRover]

My first reaction was disbelief and I immediately remembered how pleased I was when Marosi displaced him. Was it McCann who released him?

Lawlor’s main fault was decision-making. Should he come out or stay on his line? Should he bother to try to stop a shot which could be heading to the top corner? So he was either indecisive or just slow to make up his mind. Unfortunately Jones has the same problem. So we risk having two with identical limitations. Mitchell, like Marosi, would always have a go at a save.

In those circumstances there is a tendency for the shot to be classified as unstoppable or the GK unsighted, but it happens more for the Joneses and the Lawlors of this world than most. As for distribution, was not Lawlor in the era when the long goal kick out wide to the half-way line was the norm?

Perhaps we should trust that GMcC knows what he is doing.  Being picked up again by a former manager who has sought you out from a distance of 300 miles must boost your confidence.

[Barmby Rover]

Lawlor in his first stay at Rovers was incapable of jumping into any sort of crowded box to catch a ball, I used to sit behind him screaming at him to catch, even when under no pressure he would punch the ball out to put the goal under more pressure. If he is to be No.1 I hope he has learned, but if he has only been a bench warmer at Dundee then you wonder if he has.

[ncRover]

Let’s see. Things like character, trust and how well a player settles are all important in assembling a squad that is more than the sum of its parts.

He is less error prone and better at kicking than Mitchell at least. But no one can deny it is underwhelming if Ian is no.1. If Sammy had suggested this a week ago you’d have all laughed at him.

If Jones doesn’t sign and the likes of Tom King, Joel Dixon or Alex Cairns are still available (all better and realistic options to those putting the club down) then we should make a move like that.

To the positivity police - it’s wishful thinking and complacency that has got us from top of league 1 to 18th in league 2 in 2.5 years. Everybody is entitled to an opinion.

[steve@dcfd]

Quote
If Jones doesn’t sign and the likes of Tom King, Joel Dixon or Alex Cairns are still available (all better and realistic options to those putting the club down) then we should make a move like that.

Maybe keepers like that will cost more than Jones and Bottomley put together we have wait and see.

[i_ateallthepies]

We either trust the manager or we piss and whine about everything he does.
Embarrassing response on here

I'm really sorry. I rarely react like this about a player. I've said my piece so we'll just have to see how he performs. I hope he proves me wrong.

I'm catching up after a weekend away and I'm only on page 2 so, sorry if this has already been said but I thought your account must have been hacked.

[Sammy Chung was King]

He might sign a commanding centre back that deals with all the balls into the box.
He has been signed for his speed in distribution of the ball. He wanted solid and someone he could trust. Also he wouldn’t want a lot of his budget going. Jones will have an opportunity to stake a claim to be number one as well, which personally I wouldn’t have done, but I’m not the manager.

[Upton Rover]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

He’s a massive upgrade on last season, enough said

[GazLaz]

Some folk need a reality check, we ate currently a lower half L2 side, what to folk expect? Is he the best keeper we have ever had? No! Is he the worst keeper we have ever had? No! Is he an upgrade on last seasons keeper? Yes!

Get a decent defence in front of him and we can tolerate the odd bollock

Get real folk instead of finding something to whinge about everytime the club does something!

But he's not an upgrade on last seasons keeper.

Easily, by a Country mile

Statistically he isn't but if you're not into facts then fair enough.

Statistically Brown was better than Knoyle but that was definitely not the case on the pitch

That was a myth peddled by Schofield!! Completely untrue based on any known evidence.

[watto-drfc]

I remember fans moaning about Gary Woods. Remember we won the league with him in goal. Let's trust Grant and get the buzz back at the keepmoat

[Chris Black come back]

We need to be thinking about a defensive unit. He had that in front of him, we don’t. Also don’t forget that when it really mattered, he got dropped at end of season for Sullivan.

[roversdude]

Interesting that GM contacted him a couple of weeks ago

[drfchound]

We need to be thinking about a defensive unit. He had that in front of him, we don’t. Also don’t forget that when it really mattered, he got dropped at end of season for Sullivan.

Woods played all season apart from the last two games.
Also we don’t  know yet whether we will have a strong defensive unit in front of Lawlor. I suspect we will do.
I can’t believe the melt down over this.
Let’s give the new manager a chance to get his team together.

[NickDRFC]

We need to be thinking about a defensive unit. He had that in front of him, we don’t. Also don’t forget that when it really mattered, he got dropped at end of season for Sullivan.

Woods played all season apart from the last two games.
Also we don’t  know yet whether we will have a strong defensive unit in front of Lawlor. I suspect we will do.
I can’t believe the melt down over this.
Let’s give the new manager a chance to get his team together.

If we’d signed a keeper from the bench of a side in the Scottish Championship, I wouldn’t blame people for wondering why. The fact that we’ve done that, and it happens to be a keeper who really wasn’t very good at all when he was last with us, means it’s pretty understandable why so many are questioning it. It might turn out great and he’ll have a brilliant season, but the odds are against it and it’s no surprise there’s so much scepticism.

[drfchound]

We need to be thinking about a defensive unit. He had that in front of him, we don’t. Also don’t forget that when it really mattered, he got dropped at end of season for Sullivan.

Woods played all season apart from the last two games.
Also we don’t  know yet whether we will have a strong defensive unit in front of Lawlor. I suspect we will do.
I can’t believe the melt down over this.
Let’s give the new manager a chance to get his team together.

If we’d signed a keeper from the bench of a side in the Scottish Championship, I wouldn’t blame people for wondering why. The fact that we’ve done that, and it happens to be a keeper who really wasn’t very good at all when he was last with us, means it’s pretty understandable why so many are questioning it. It might turn out great and he’ll have a brilliant season, but the odds are against it and it’s no surprise there’s so much scepticism.

Lots of keepers aren’t at their best until they hit 30.
Scepticism in itself wouldn’t be such a surprise though but some of the comments are way beyond that.