Let's talk about the Morecambe game

[Alan Southstand]

3 points but deary me! Awful game.

We look like strangers!

[colincramb]

Yeah weren’t great. That being said we score 4 on another day. Early days but Matty Craig is a massive loss

[Chris Black come back]

Positive - 2ppg and promotion form, with a clean sheet in this game despite a makeshift defence.

Negative - the three sides we have beaten thus season are currently bottom, third bottom and fifth bottom. The side we lost against is in the play off places. 

[BillyStubbsTears]

3 points but deary me! Awful game.

We look like strangers!

Careful!

[RoversInSpain]

Can’t really understand some of the doom and gloom
….Didn’t play that well today, mainly by giving the ball away with sloppy passing in the 2nd half which gave Morcambe momentum, however how we didn’t score 5 I’ve no idea, and considering TSL only had one save from THE free kick and 2 tip overs from corners, god help the opposition when we do play well.

[Copps is Magic]

The good, the bad and the ugly today.

First 30 minutes there was a clear gulf in quality, after that we somehow let them back into a game they had no right to be in. Set pieces - bad. Some ugly defending to do. Lucky perhaps not to get a player sent off, but I thought Olowu did a very good job of mopping things up.

[Prez]

Yeah weren’t great. That being said we score 4 on another day. Early days but Matty Craig is a massive loss

Craig and Adelakun are losses from last season without doubt, but Kelly looked very good. Yes we looked disjointed today at times, but we were easily the better team.

[Copps is Magic]

Yeah weren’t great. That being said we score 4 on another day. Early days but Matty Craig is a massive loss

Craig and Adelakun are losses from last season without doubt, but Kelly looked very good. Yes we looked disjointed today at times, but we were easily the better team.

Adelakun is less of a loss because Gibson is a very good replacement. He nearly scored an excellent goal today.

[Nudga]

That referee was bloody terrible.  How can he keep giving their goalkeeper a free kick when it's the keeper making the challenge?

[vaya]

That referee was bloody terrible.  How can he keep giving their goalkeeper a free kick when it's the keeper making the challenge?

He appeared to finally give up actually judging things around the 55 minute mark and started guessing from them on.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It's three points. That's the positive, but anything less would have been unforgivable. The first half performance from Morecambe was as bad as anything I've seen since we returned to the League.

The concern is that we're still not looking like a unit with a system to play to.

Kelly certainly has something, no question, but he's raw and McCann was right to take him off when he did - he lost the ball 2-3 times in dangerous positions in the 10 mins before he came off.

Overall, we'll bank the 3 points, and we never really looked in danger. But I was hoping for a better performance against a side that I'd lump on to go down.

[drfchound]

That referee was bloody terrible.  How can he keep giving their goalkeeper a free kick when it's the keeper making the challenge?

He appeared to finally give up actually judging things around the 55 minute mark and started guessing from them on.

Agreed, he had a decent first half but was shocking after that.
Probably the most unbelievable thing was just before the first Hirst free kick.
He paced out ten yards and drew a line on the ground.
Then went back to get the “wall” to move back the the line, about two yards behind them, but when they didn’t go back he simply drew another line where they had stood.
Pathetic refereeing.

[RoversInSpain]

It's three points. That's the positive, but anything less would have been unforgivable. The first half performance from Morecambe was as bad as anything I've seen since we returned to the League.

The concern is that we're still not looking like a unit with a system to play to.

Kelly certainly has something, no question, but he's raw and McCann was right to take him off when he did - he lost the ball 2-3 times in dangerous positions in the 10 mins before he came off.

Overall, we'll bank the 3 points, and we never really looked in danger. But I was hoping for a better performance against a side that I'd lump on to go down.

Since we returned to the league I can give terrible performance from teams, and here’s one
Doncaster Rovers 0 Morcambe 5

[Upton Rover]

That referee was bloody terrible.  How can he keep giving their goalkeeper a free kick when it's the keeper making the challenge?

I thought he had a good game, we should have been down to 10men

[ncRover]

Are there enough runs in behind from Gibson and Molyneux?

[Fal]

That referee was bloody terrible.  How can he keep giving their goalkeeper a free kick when it's the keeper making the challenge?

He appeared to finally give up actually judging things around the 55 minute mark and started guessing from them on.

Agreed, he had a decent first half but was shocking after that.
Probably the most unbelievable thing was just before the first Hirst free kick.
He paced out ten yards and drew a line on the ground.
Then went back to get the “wall” to move back the the line, about two yards behind them, but when they didn’t go back he simply drew another line where they had stood.
Pathetic refereeing.

Right at the end when it was a morecambe throw right at the corner flag and their player took it level with the penalty area was laughable.

[ravenrover]

That referee was bloody terrible.  How can he keep giving their goalkeeper a free kick when it's the keeper making the challenge?

I thought he had a good game, we should have been down to 10men

Why? Olowu was covering behind Fleming which the ref was clearly explaining to the moaning Shrimpers, assuming that is the incident you mean

[BillyStubbsTears]

That referee was bloody terrible.  How can he keep giving their goalkeeper a free kick when it's the keeper making the challenge?

He appeared to finally give up actually judging things around the 55 minute mark and started guessing from them on.

Agreed, he had a decent first half but was shocking after that.
Probably the most unbelievable thing was just before the first Hirst free kick.
He paced out ten yards and drew a line on the ground.
Then went back to get the “wall” to move back the the line, about two yards behind them, but when they didn’t go back he simply drew another line where they had stood.
Pathetic refereeing.

Right at the end when it was a morecambe throw right at the corner flag and their player took it level with the penalty area was laughable.

I think there's been a policy decision to ignore players pinching 10-12 yards. It was very noticeable at the Euros.

[DonnyOsmond]

Are there enough runs in behind from Gibson and Molyneux?

Nope, Gibson doesn't look like that kind of player currently, great player though.

[McCammon egg n chips]

3 points but deary me! Awful game.

We look like strangers!

I've sat through 90 mins on cold Tuesday nights in the not too distant past where we've done absolutely nothing, got a pasting and wondering why I keep coming.

Your description of "awful" is so far detached from reality it's just laughable.

I've never been a happy clapper. But wow, have people completely lost their minds here? We win 1-0 and it's an awful game.

We admittedly looked a bit disjointed and frustrating not to score more than 1 against what looked a poor side. But we had plenty of good plays, chances that should've gone in etc.

It wasn't a stunning victory but it was far from an awful game.

[McCammon egg n chips]

Yeah weren’t great. That being said we score 4 on another day. Early days but Matty Craig is a massive loss

Matty Craig, who took about 4/5 games at this level to warm up.

We are lacking a bit in that area but the solution might already be on the pitch..

[BradwellRover]

Kane also took a good few games to get up to full 90 mins. It is a lot different from PL youth football and takes some adjusting.

[ncRover]

Are there enough runs in behind from Gibson and Molyneux?

Nope, Gibson doesn't look like that kind of player currently, great player though.

Well then this is the main problem. Not whoever is or isn’t in midfield

[selby]

  Not the greatest of performances but hitting the woodwork a few times didn't help and how many would be ecstatic if they had gone in and we  had come away with a big score win with exactly the same performance.
  For us to do what we want to do and get near the top of the division we need the Eco to be our fortress and pick points up away as well.
  A good habit is winning when you don't play that well, and after the shock last week I will take the win because we will play well and lose this season.
   We are away to a decent start even though  we are nowhere near as good as we can be  as we have a team that can improve as a collective and individually with experience.
  Let's go for another good unbeaten run.

[coventryrover]

I thought Flemming was excellent.  Took one for the team first half too

[BillyStubbsTears]

I think the perfectly reasonable concern is that we've played three of the bookies' top 4 favourites to go down, and we haven't really got a system working yet.

We've got 6 points, which is great of course, but we are going to have to play a lot better than we've done to date if we are going to get anything from the next two games.

[ncRover]

If no wide forwards are making runs in behind Joe and Billy up top are going to struggle to be effective through no fault of their own

[BillyStubbsTears]

I thought Flemming was excellent.  Took one for the team first half too

Very good going forward but he was regularly out of position against their No7 in the first half. That No7 along with the No8 were the only two players who looked remotely up to L2 standard. The rest looked like National League North players.

[RoversInSpain]

Folks are raving about Gillingham. Walsall in top three, guess what? neither scored a hatful v Morcambe.
1-0 I think.
Morcambe were under an embargo so looked doomed.Hence the favourites to go down.
They’ve recently had that sorted and brought in nearly 20 players, so maybe they’re in a better place than they’re given credit for.

[BillyStubbsTears]

They weren't in a better place that first half. They were utterly dreadful. Misplaced simple passes, a retreat to their 30 yard level every time we got the ball, total absence of any physical aggression or threat, and a keeper that we know well is as trustworthy as Jermaine Jenas with a mobile.

They were absolutely awful.