Worryingly bad

[les@donr]

Newport are our bogey side especially at their place. Thankfully we only have to play them twice this season. A team learns more from its defeats than its victories. We learn from this, and become a better and stronger team.

[Avsuptem]

I admit to being one who thought we would walk this league this season but now thinking again. I believe we have some of the divisions best players in nearly every position on the pitch but Newport made them all look ordinary. Fare play to them for that. Our Roy of the Rovers Molly was strangely anonymous yesterday for example  I just hope Newport have not provided the rest of the teams in league 2 a blue print on how to stop us winning.

[graingrover]

think Grant’s post match analysis was good .

We all built up our expectation levels for the second half that were suddenly dispelled  when the opposition went ahead from being one down .Individuals’ body language changes ,each ball becomes something to attack like life depends upon it and the team rationale goes out of your head for a while .When another goal is conceded during  that period when the individual mind set is ‘ offline’ ……..
I think lessons will be drawn as a team of how to handle the situation better when that happens and let’s face it in the next 60 or so games still to be played we will go behind again in matches .
Football is a physical job but has to be played in the head to ensure energy flows and decision making are not destroyed by the unexpected .
I hope all body language and conversations on Monday remain upbeat ...Chastised is an old fashioned word but that is what we should be but not deflated .

[GazLaz]

Senior and Broadbent the issue. Both not very good. We need a passer in midfield, changes will be made next Saturday for sure.

[Padge_DRFC]

Wonder how long Close is out for? Probably the only one who can really control things. Him and Westbrook played okay last season however with what's available I can never ever see both playing in the same team.

[pib]

Matter of time until Kelly starts you would think.

[roversdude]

Newport are our bogey side especially at their place. Thankfully we only have to play them twice this season. A team learns more from its defeats than its victories. We learn from this, and become a better and stronger team.

Even Schofield managed to win there
Yesterday the better team on the day won. You can learn more from a defeat sometimes and I’m sure Grant will be on it

[Filo]

Senior and Broadbent the issue. Both not very good. We need a passer in midfield, changes will be made next Saturday for sure.

Fleming was a massive upgrade on Senior when he came on, I think Broadbent would be better utilised up the pitch, Anderson and Wood struggled with the pace of the Newport forwards

[Chris Black come back]

Wonder how long Close is out for? Probably the only one who can really control things. Him and Westbrook played okay last season however with what's available I can never ever see both playing in the same team.

It was not so long ago “2-3 weeks” but Grant has now downgraded to a more vague “it takes time”.

He hasn’t played since 30 January.

[Pancho Regan]

I'm not going overboard about this, but I think it's legitimate to have some concerns.

Don't forget how absolutely key the three January loans were to last season's miracle. It's perfectly reasonable to wonder if we have replaced them with players of a similar standard.

McCann seems to rate Broadbent in the Craig role, but I am sceptical. Today was very reminiscent of what we looked like for 30 matches last season until we found a midfielder who could take on the press and make it irrelevant.

Kelly showed some signs of being able to do that in his cameo today. We're going to need someone to do it.

One defeat and it’s doom and gloom.

Get a grip.

[drfchound]

I'm not going overboard about this, but I think it's legitimate to have some concerns.

Don't forget how absolutely key the three January loans were to last season's miracle. It's perfectly reasonable to wonder if we have replaced them with players of a similar standard.

McCann seems to rate Broadbent in the Craig role, but I am sceptical. Today was very reminiscent of what we looked like for 30 matches last season until we found a midfielder who could take on the press and make it irrelevant.

Kelly showed some signs of being able to do that in his cameo today. We're going to need someone to do it.

One defeat and it’s doom and gloom.

Get a grip.

Agreed Pancho, a bit knee jerk perhaps.

“I’m not going overboard with this” but heads the thread with Worryingly bad and opens up with “That was seriously cack. Back to first half of last season performances.”

[Padge_DRFC]

Senior and Broadbent the issue. Both not very good. We need a passer in midfield, changes will be made next Saturday for sure.

Fleming was a massive upgrade on Senior when he came on, I think Broadbent would be better utilised up the pitch, Anderson and Wood struggled with the pace of the Newport forwards

If Broadbent is going to make it he's only going to do where McCann has stuck him now. He did okay not amazing. The game wasn't lost because as previous poster mentioned he and Senior aren't good.

Our right back is useless mainly at defending. Only RB I know that ends up further away from a winger than when first engaging. Bailey had to do better for the second. Then then the 3rd is just a joke all round.

Bad day in the end. Wouldn't ever be taking Gibson of for yeboah. Massive downgrade.

Oluwu in with Wood for me next game.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I'm not going overboard about this, but I think it's legitimate to have some concerns.

Don't forget how absolutely key the three January loans were to last season's miracle. It's perfectly reasonable to wonder if we have replaced them with players of a similar standard.

McCann seems to rate Broadbent in the Craig role, but I am sceptical. Today was very reminiscent of what we looked like for 30 matches last season until we found a midfielder who could take on the press and make it irrelevant.

Kelly showed some signs of being able to do that in his cameo today. We're going to need someone to do it.

One defeat and it’s doom and gloom.

Get a grip.

I think you're rather overreacting here.

Did I think that performance was bad and a worry? Yes.

Do I think the reason it worried me is that the key failing was similar to the problems we had before February last year, namely an inability to get our game going under an aggressive press? Yes.

Do I think Craig was a key part of our revival last year? Yes.

Do I think that Broadbent has shown little sign of being of that calibre? Yes.

Those four points are reasonable to discuss.

Did I say the season is f**ked and I've given up now? No, of course I didn't because THAT would be a doom and gloom overreaction.

[dickos1]

It is an overreaction no doubt!
After a few games last season people were saying craig was not good enough.
It’s a bad result, that’s all it is, we will have plenty more bad results this season, and I expect overreactions galore then too

[BillyStubbsTears]

It is an overreaction no doubt!
After a few games last season people were saying craig was not good enough.
It’s a bad result, that’s all it is, we will have plenty more bad results this season, and I expect overreactions galore then too

Which of the specific four things I pointed out do you disagree with?

[dickos1]

Are you going to be worried after every defeat?
Craig was great for us but Kelly could be just as good, Kelly has looked better than craig did after the same game time.

[dickos1]

It’s a defeat, there are 46 games over a season if you didn’t think we’d suffer a defeat during those games or a poor performance across 46 games then you were always setting yourself up for disappointment

[ncRover]

McCann got his team selection wrong. Simple as that.
But he’s one of the best managers at this level and has plenty of different players at his disposal, so that won’t happen very often.

[Campsall rover]

We were no no near as bad as we were in the match at Newport last season.
We made a couple of mistakes which cost us with goals conceded.

Look at the stats last season and look at them on Saturday.

It’s was a blip, it happens. We will learn from this game and it will focus the players on keeping the standards needed for 90+ mins every game.

If we get beat by Morecambe on Saturday then I will be a little concerned but I think we will see a big reaction to that defeat.

We will lose between 6/10 games this season even if we win the league.
So defeats happen. No team goes 46 games without losing a game or in fact quite a few.
Stockport had 5 points from their 1st 6 games last season and they finished as Champions.

If we win on Saturday we will have 6 from 3 games.

It’s where we are after we Play Notts County away in the last game that counts not after 2 games.

Let’s not have a crisis discussion after every defeat.
If we lose 3 on the trot then we can start being a bit concerned.

[Lesonthewest]

Still not read any 'overreaction' posts. Read some very good points & critique from the game, but nope, no overreaction.

[dickos1]

The statement worryingly bad is an overreaction in itself. Some won’t think it’s an overreaction because that’s their mindset, to be negative and believe that’s ok.
That’s fine

[pib]

BST, please forgive me if I'm wrong, but it feels like on quite a few occasions there is a reluctance on your part to praise our manager and his output and effect on the team. I've had debates with you in the past about his first spell, in which (I'm paraphrasing) you didn't think it was a particularly impressive achievement for him to have got us to the L1 playoffs in 2019. Again, please do correct me if I've misjudged this, but it feels a bit like when you have to give him credit, you do so through slightly gritted teeth, but have no hesitation making strong judgements when things don't go so well.

So when you post on here at 5:15pm straight after one defeat (and let's face it, just one poor half of football) on the second game of the season, and after winning the first two, that it's "worryingly bad" "cack" and "back to first half of last season performances" (a period in which it took us until our 8th league game to win), I personally think it's understandable that you'd get a bit of pushback on that. Especially given your only real comment on the team as a whole last week after a 4-1 win in which we barely had to get out of 3rd gear, aside from individual praise for Jordan Gibson's goal, was "isn't it amazing what happens when you spend more money than the opposition" or words to that effect.

Not trying to make this a personal thing, but isn't it understandable in that context that this would be seen as a bit of a strong and slightly knee-jerk reaction?

FWIW, and we're all entitled to have different perspectives, I didn't think it was that terrible on Saturday. The second half performance wasn't great, but in my view that was less due to structural/tactical issues with the team and more individual sloppiness/errors. I know they put us under pressure but I think Molyneux should retain the ball in the build-up to the first goal even in spite of their pressing (not helped by Clifton losing his footing - not for the first time in the game - if he hadn't I think there was perhaps a 50/50 chance he wins the ball back), the second one comes from our throw-in and Ironside delaying releasing the ball for too long, a trait I think he's guilty of a bit too much, and the third one you can't legislate for Anderson getting completely caught under the ball and missing his header, it was a howler.

First half I think we were pretty good. I know Newport had spells of pressure and a couple of good chances, but it's always a tough place to go and they notoriously make it difficult for us. Perhaps the one worry is that we didn't really turn the screw enough when the game state changed and we went behind, and we continued to be sloppy after that rather than coming out with renewed impetus and belief, but I think we have a good and robust enough group of players for that to come good. It's only the second game of the season and there are always wrinkles to iron out - I can't remember a Rovers season, even the most successful ones, where we've been in brilliant form right from day one of the season. And we still have Kelly, Fleming, Sbarra, and a few others to come in and have a real bearing on things.

[Lesonthewest]

Wondered how long it would be before the 'negative' word came, true to form there it is, even though noones being negative, or having a negative mindset, just honest opinions on what they see, but that's fine. Even our own manager used the word concerning.

[Campsall rover]

You only have to look at 2003/04
We were mid table until end of Sept. The 3-3 draw after being 3-0 down at Cambridge on 30th Sept got our season going. We then went on a great run.

Far too much concern on the defeat at Newport imo.
The “worryingly bad” is an over reaction in itself BST and our performance was no where near the poor level it was this time last year.
I think it was possibly a blessing losing that game. It will kick start our season and stop any complacency before we have 4 very tough games after the Morecambe game.
It will focus the players on the task ahead. We have to earn the right to get promoted and the players will see that big time now.
GM will not allow standards to drop.

Port Vale, Gillingham, Mk Dons & Chesterfield are going to test us as to where we are as a team over the next 4 weeks after the Morecambe game.

[Alan Southstand]

What we have to remember is the team that finished last season isn’t the team that started this season. We’re missing the 3 players who helped to transfer our form from also-Dan’s to table toppers.

Yes, we’ve replaced those 3 and some think we’ve done well on that front. Gibson for Adelakun, Kelly for Craig and TSL for TLT. I’d tend to agree with Gibson, but the other 2 - I’m not sure. TLT, for me, on what I’ve seen so far, was/is the better keeper. I’ve yet to see Kelly, so can’t really comment.

These lads and others brought in over the summer are going to take time to really have an impact and that should be measured against our early season form. On the ball, we seem very good at times but it’s when we havn’t got it that concerns me. E.g. If Sterry was having a torrid time v their winger, why didn’t we double up on him and nullify the threat? Hopefully, these small adjustments will be worked on this week and ironed out.

[ncRover]

https://youtu.be/a1CbJ1hiosg?feature=shared

The save at 4:06 here from Sharman-Lowe is brilliant. Had this been TLT there would be multiple posts on here waxing lyrical. Saved Wood an embarrassment there.

[Campsall rover]

Newport 1st goal surely Baker-Richardson is offside.

2nd one Ironside got caught in possession and then Sterry got bullied.
Strike was unstoppable.

3rd goal Anderson misses his header and no cover behind him.

Plenty to learn from there. Just a bad day for us. We won’t give those sort of goals away every week.

[McCammon egg n chips]

Well this is fun to watch. BST, who struggles giving GM positive praise at the best of times..

Versus Dickos, who can't help but defend the manager. Doesn't matter if it's Schofield, McSheffrey, Dickov, Fergie, literally any manager we've ever had. If they are our current manager, Dickos must defend them at all times.

Fun season ahead boys.

[NickDRFC]

Well this is fun to watch. BST, who struggles giving GM positive praise at the best of times..

Versus Dickos, who can't help but defend the manager. Doesn't matter if it's Schofield, McSheffrey, Dickov, Fergie, literally any manager we've ever had. If they are our current manager, Dickos must defend them at all times.

Fun season ahead boys.

This made me laugh out loud, well played!

[dickos1]

Well this is fun to watch. BST, who struggles giving GM positive praise at the best of times..

Versus Dickos, who can't help but defend the manager. Doesn't matter if it's Schofield, McSheffrey, Dickov, Fergie, literally any manager we've ever had. If they are our current manager, Dickos must defend them at all times.

Fun season ahead boys.

Called for Schofield and dickov to be sacked and also never defended Moore,
But yes I do defend the managers in general against the ridiculous negativity that is often found on here, negativity that has been proven to be incorrect time and time again