Let's talk about the Walsall game

[selby]

  I think I could just leave it at The OP and get a response this week, to think I used to want a run of two victories on the bounce just a month or so ago and now  look what we have gone and done.
  We the supporters can enjoy this, but the staff from top to bottom should be congratulated  for turning the season around and at least restoring some pride, lets hope against the odds we can carry the form and results on right to the end.
 Walsall came from behind to win at Tranmere 3-1 today after going behind and when they beat us at Walsall employed a passive press just putting bodies between us and their goal  and capitalised on our mistakes when we made them, and won at Tranmere with less possession and half the number of corners, but had more shots, they are good at it.
  Their game is built on a good defence, and quick direct counter attacks so will need to be watched carefully at the back, and the supply to quick forwards needs stopping at source with hard work up front and in midfield when we have not got the ball.
 What do we have to do, quicken our build up and unsettle their putting men between their goal and the ball by playing it forward quickly, and attack their back line at every opportunity.
  Hopefully we will make as few changes as any injuries allow and we can keep our run of wins going, it will not be easy.
  Will Faal come back to haunt us? can we cope with their five men in midfield? can our flair players like Molyneux and Craig play their expansive game against a side good at counter attacking football, can we keep our standards and winning run going? Are you going to the game?
 Lot's to discuss, lots hopefully to look forward to, please have your say.
 

[Chris Black come back]

They are not good away from home. Very comfortably worse than their league placing. They concede a lot away from home, as the fifth worst away defence. They’ve managed a single clean sheet in the last 12 away games. Score a few though. Form overall is decent with only two defeats in last 12 games, oddly against Forest Green and then getting annihilated 5-0 by MK ‘Dons’. Both were away.

[Dabbermoo]

IMO we change nothing in the way we play unless injuries dictate a change in the starting 11, the strength in depth on the bench is remarkable, the starting 11 in the past 13 games hasn't changed much at all apart from 1 player here and there.
As long as we play our game we win, as stated Walsall turned things around today but what donny haven't had to do in the last 6 games is chase a game or come from behind, we have scored goals, a few games we should have scored a lot more but that's by the by. Confidence must be sky high, the tactics employed have been bang on and goals are being shared around the team so much more and there is no longer a reliance on JI getting the goals. Perfect opportunity to see ZW back and starting if HB is out due to his calf tightness. Just hoping there's another 8000 home fans this Tuesday to roar on the lads, get the drummer busy again and even get the trumpet from today in there too. 3 points on tuesday,  3 home goals and another clean sheet. Onwards and upwards.

[selby]

  We can only have one thought on our minds now, and that is to win this game before moving on to the next one. Win and pressure increases on ourselves and the teams above us, and because of the position in the league Walsall are in the pressure is even greater them being one of the teams we must take points off.
  Every game is now a cup final the pressure even mounting on us the supporters and our every move being watched by people who don't even go to games as my daily walking of the dog confirms with people stopping me and starting the conversation off " what's happened to the Rovers, they are doing well now" and to be fair they always sound pleased at the turn around and my difficulty in explaining how it has happened.
  It is a good question really, I think a lot of us were more frustrated because we always thought we were better than what we were showing, but how many thought we were this good?
  Enjoy the feeling and the moment, there is a small possibility it could even get better, let's hope so, and if not, let's go down fighting, a thing we can play a part in with our support loud and proud.

[adamtherover]

Faal has already scored his goal against us, in the away game, it was always going to happen..  so that "curse" has been and gone..  let's just enjoy the fact that we now have hakeeb instead...

[Campsall rover]

  We can only have one thought on our minds now, and that is to win this game before moving on to the next one. Win and pressure increases on ourselves and the teams above us, and because of the position in the league Walsall are in the pressure is even greater them being one of the teams we must take points off.
  Every game is now a cup final the pressure even mounting on us the supporters and our every move being watched by people who don't even go to games as my daily walking of the dog confirms with people stopping me and starting the conversation off " what's happened to the Rovers, they are doing well now" and to be fair they always sound pleased at the turn around and my difficulty in explaining how it has happened.
  It is a good question really, I think a lot of us were more frustrated because we always thought we were better than what we were showing, but how many thought we were this good?
  Enjoy the feeling and the moment, there is a small possibility it could even get better, let's hope so, and if not, let's go down fighting, a thing we can play a part in with our support loud and proud.

Well I had us finishing 5th before our opening match v Harrogate Brian
I only had ( Top 3 ) Stockport, Notts County, Bradford
( play offs ) Wrexham above us, Mansfield and Gillingham making up the play offs.

If we hadn’t had all those injuries in Nov / Dec / Jan who knows how well we would have done. Top 3 possibly.
I expected a slowish start and said I would be happy with top 10 end of November. ( we wish eh )

GM had a huge job to turn round a set of players who had been consistently losing games of football for 2 full seasons. That takes some time to change a team from having a losing mentality to a winning one.
I think it took Grant a bit longer than he was expecting it to take but all those injuries 14 players out at one stage made his task to get the team into the top end of the league almost impossible.

Now we have a settled side and along the 4 additions in January who have been massive we see the true ability of this squad.
If we don’t make the dream happen this season then I am hugely confident we will achieve it next season.

Back to the OP yes I think we will scrape home v Walsall.
Our momentum and belief will get us the 3 points imo.

[ncRover]

Faal has already scored his goal against us, in the away game, it was always going to happen..  so that "curse" has been and gone..  let's just enjoy the fact that we now have hakeeb instead...

Looking at his minutes he rotates with the veteran Jamille Matt.

J Matt got 66 mins yesterday so looks like Faal will start.

Mo v Joe Olowu should be tasty.

[adamtherover]

Faal has already scored his goal against us, in the away game, it was always going to happen..  so that "curse" has been and gone..  let's just enjoy the fact that we now have hakeeb instead...

Looking at his minutes he rotates with the veteran Jamille Matt.

J Matt got 66 mins yesterday so looks like Faal will start.

Mo v Joe Olowu should be tasty.

Faal has already scored his goal against us, in the away game, it was always going to happen..  so that "curse" has been and gone..  let's just enjoy the fact that we now have hakeeb instead...

Looking at his minutes he rotates with the veteran Jamille Matt.

J Matt got 66 mins yesterday so looks like Faal will start.

Mo v Joe Olowu should be tasty.

in the first couple of mins Jo needs to go old skool on him, nothing serious, just let him know it's a contact game and don't forget who gave you your break.. try and unsettle him from the off....

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Well Joe did a great job on Mullin and I hope he doesn't allow himself to get wound up by Faal.

Faal did a number on TLT to score at their place, when TLT was more worried about Mo than the flight of the ball and totally lost his focus.

[Nudga]

Tickets not selling as well as the Wrexham match which is disappointing. Maybe we were "here to see the Wrecsam"?

[Juddy]

Two extras coming with us one from Castleford neither been before hope we put on a show

[streathamdave]

Tickets not selling as well as the Wrexham match which is disappointing. Maybe we were "here to see the Wrecsam"?

Possibly, but people have all sorts of reasons for being able to attend some games and not others.

[Campsall rover]

Think if we get over 7.000 that would be good.
It’s unlikely Walsall will bring more than 500 on a Tues eve.

[GazLaz]

Tickets not selling as well as the Wrexham match which is disappointing. Maybe we were "here to see the Wrecsam"?

Just came to comment on ticket sales. More tickets available than I thought there would be.

[colincramb]

Tickets not selling as well as the Wrexham match which is disappointing. Maybe we were "here to see the Wrecsam"?

Just came to comment on ticket sales. More tickets available than I thought there would be.

Let’s be honest. The bumper crowd last week had nothing to do with our great form. It was directly about the circus team we were playing. That’s the harsh reality

[normal rules]

Think if we get over 7.000 that would be good.
It’s unlikely Walsall will bring more than 500 on a Tues eve.

Walsall have a lot to play for. If we were going there this Tues night I reckon there would be 1000 going.

[Colin C No.3]

I don’t think the ‘extra’ Rovers support came about as a result of any ‘Wrexham circusism’ (predictive text nearly had me putting circumcision in!).

People knew there would be a good atmosphere (a large away following) the Rovers were/are on a great run, it was a decent evening weather wise & a good game (which it certainly was) was on the cards.

An evening for dads to bring their kids to, an evening for stay away support to return. Apart from weather conditions & a smattering of away supporters compared to the 2,000+ Wrexham supporters, nothing is different.

I would expect the crowd to be touching the 8,000 mark which would be a decent turn out.

[graingrover]

This club is growing healthily as are Dons ( 2500 in attendance yesterday ) and Belles .Club Donny is firmly on the map .
I think that the Dons ‘innovation’ of extending and enhancing their match day experience by having the stadium open at 10am and staging youth matches before the first team game is a good idea .It seems natural  for a Community club to do that sort of thing whenever possible .

[andysly]

The Wrexham game was obviously a more attractive fixture for floating fans same happens at every club through the divisions.
Probably lose a few of those to Madrid v City and Arsenal v Munich on the telly

[colincramb]

I don’t think the ‘extra’ Rovers support came about as a result of any ‘Wrexham circusism’ (predictive text nearly had me putting circumcision in!).

People knew there would be a good atmosphere (a large away following) the Rovers were/are on a great run, it was a decent evening weather wise & a good game (which it certainly was) was on the cards.

An evening for dads to bring their kids to, an evening for stay away support to return. Apart from weather conditions & a smattering of away supporters compared to the 2,000+ Wrexham supporters, nothing is different.

I would expect the crowd to be touching the 8,000 mark which would be a decent turn out.

Possibly there were a few other factors at play (half-term) but if we’d have been playing any other team in the league that had a reasonable away following (Stockport, for example) I’m still pretty sure less home fans would have turned up.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Yep absolutely, Wrexham brings with it a circus and people want to see that, like it or not.

Quite clearly there's a lot of work to do to get fans back in the door regularly, but those of us that are there will no doubt be right behind them.  I'd expect about 6500 tomorrow being a Tuesday night etc, which would be an uptake on previous Tues night games.

Hopefully we go with a largely unchanged line up, it's working well.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

If the weather holds there could be quite a few walk ups. 7500 to 8000 would be great.

[ravenrover]

As of 1 hour ago Walsall had sold 282 tickets as per the official club twitterX

[rich1471]

As of 1 hour ago Walsall had sold 282 tickets as per the official club twitterX

That's poor for a team who could go into 7th place ,even for a night game

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Looks like Biamou out and needs a scan to assess the damage.

That's a blow to us and leaves Ironside shouldering the burden up top. We can't mope about it and just keep taking our chances.

[tyke1962]

It's fantastic for the Rovers faithful after some really thin gruel of the last few seasons .

Can you do it ?

Big ask in my opinion because you've no margin for error with the amount of games left to play .

However , this is football and almost anything can happen , has happened and will continue to happen .

I wouldn't be putting a great deal of money on it personally but I said Leicester would choke in the run in and they did the exact opposite and won the PL comfortably so what do I know .

All the best tomorrow night .

[Campsall rover]

Think if we get over 7.000 that would be good.
It’s unlikely Walsall will bring more than 500 on a Tues eve.

Walsall have a lot to play for. If we were going there this Tues night I reckon there would be 1000 going.

They are not as well supported as us though. They may bring more. Who knows.

[Campsall rover]

As of 1 hour ago Walsall had sold 282 tickets as per the official club twitterX

That is really poor.
But they are not supported as well as they should be.
Mostly Villa Wolves fans and a few West Brom & Birmingham supporters also.
You think we have a problem with Leeds & Both Sheffield clubs. I would say Walsall have it worse than us
Those 1st 2 rivals are literally on their doorstep.

[Alan Southstand]

I’m not that bothered how many Walsall bring, as we’re not playing the supporters! It’s just as disappointing to me that we can’t muster as good a home crowd as attended the Wrexham game. I totally get the ‘circus’ thing, but we’ve followed that game with an excellent away victory!

[Nudga]

As of 1 hour ago Walsall had sold 282 tickets as per the official club twitterX

That is really poor.
But they are not supported as well as they should be.
Mostly Villa Wolves fans and a few West Brom & Birmingham supporters also.
You think we have a problem with Leeds & Both Sheffield clubs. I would say Walsall have it worse than us
Those 1st 2 rivals are literally on their doorstep.

Which is absolutely fine. My issue is Walsall taking the piss out of our away support when we played them, and not just one or two knobs on twitter.
At the time, they were only averaging 54 more than us on away followings.