We need to be more ruthless in front of goal

[Filo]

Should have won that in a canter, in the end we were slightly hanging on

[Alickismyhero]

It was a poor performance full stop. I cant single anyone out as having a good game.

And while I am in the mood 4 good crosses out of twenty made is just not good enough.

We can play better than that performance.

[RoversInSpain]

Thought Fleming, Olowu, Sterry (what a great run and cross that was), Clifton, Kelly all were decent today. TSL did absolutely nothing wrong.

[steve@dcfd]

6 of the first half eleven are new players it will take time to gel whether we supporters like it or not. It will get sorted I believe but we won’t be as fluid yet.

[The Dav]

I thought big Joe at the back saved us on a few occasions, maybe a godsend that woody was out as I thought Joes pace helped today ! I still can’t work out how we’re trying to play ? We’re going to come up against much better team than Morecambe who will test us much more. I do love Billy and Ironside but neither did much today !

[RoversInSpain]

6 of the first half eleven are new players it will take time to gel whether we supporters like it or not. It will get sorted I believe but we won’t be as fluid yet.

it’s easy to forget we had another big turnover in players over the summer, only this time we’ve got 6 points from 3 games, encouraging, but some folk seem to think we are Man City, the finished article.

[ravenrover]

Olowu MoM

[Scooter]

It was a poor performance full stop. I cant single anyone out as having a good game.

And while I am in the mood 4 good crosses out of twenty made is just not good enough.

We can play better than that performance.

It is interesting how we all see it different.
I thought there was some good performances. On another day we would have scored three or four

I think some fans are unhappy unless we roll teams over. We have won a game we would have lost this time last season

Teddy did well. As did Fleming and Clifton. Kelly was impressive and my MoM

[BillyStubbsTears]

Olowu MoM

Bailey for me. He is so consistent in making the right choices, it's easy to take him for granted. But yes, Olowu played well.

[sf9944]

It was a poor performance full stop. I cant single anyone out as having a good game.

And while I am in the mood 4 good crosses out of twenty made is just not good enough.

We can play better than that performance.

It is interesting how we all see it different.
I thought there was some good performances. On another day we would have scored three or four

I think some fans are unhappy unless we roll teams over. We have won a game we would have lost this time last season

Teddy did well. As did Fleming and Clifton. Kelly was impressive and my MoM

Yes I tend to agree.  We became a bit ragged second half but even then, and throughout, we looked like the team most likely to score. Thought the performance was similar to Accrington but without the goals. 

Was very impressed with Kelly until he tired and Im sure he will get better with games.  Also shouts for Fleming (excellent), Olowu and Clifton.  Enjoyed the game and believe we have a high ceiling with this team.

[Padge_DRFC]

Kelly will be a good player for sure for us. However second half mistakes crept in a lot where a decent opposition would have took advantage of us

Oluwu is quality. Should get an extra wage for cleaning up for Anderson committing like he does week in week out and arriving late

[IDM]

Haven’t seen any of todays game as I was at work, but I read we hit the bar/post 3 times..  another few cm the other way and they bounce in and we’ve won by 3 or 4 despite not being at our best yet.

Fine margins eh.?

[RobTheRover]

Fleming's yellow card was a great decision, I thought.......

[BradwellRover]

Haven’t seen any of todays game as I was at work, but I read we hit the bar/post 3 times..  another few cm the other way and they bounce in and we’ve won by 3 or 4 despite not being at our best yet.

Fine margins eh.?

Exactly this, plus a few goal line scrambles/clearances.

We did get a bit ragged, but we were unlucky not to be out of sight by then.

3 games, 6 points = 2ppg. That’ll do.

[Spilsby Red]

Anderson was shocking today. Very slow. Passing esp first half.
To slow in build up in first half, second half slightly better. To much overdoing passing. Could have had clear shots in second half rather than pass pass pass.
Missed Ironside first half. As much as I admire Sharp he doesn’t offer what Ironside does.
Gibson and Molyneux of it today but service let them down to.
Bailey just does what he does. Kelly looked good. Impressed with Clifton and his work rate.

[Campsall rover]

We had 3 cleared off the line and hit woodwork twice.

Apparently we were awful. Come on get real on another day we would have won by 5 goals.

Yes 2nd half we gave ball away far too often and let Morecambe back in with a shout.
We are still work in progress and this team will only get better as the season goes on.

Olowu m.o.m. imo.  Clifton had his best game for us and is starting to look the player I thought we had signed. He will be a big player for us this season.
Kelly excellent 1st half but tired in the 2nd and GM was right to take him off. He will be a very good player for us also.
Bailey Mr Dependable, never has a bad game. Wasn’t his best today but still decent.
Fleming is an excellent signing and Sterry had a good game.

Molly had an off day and Gibson wasn’t at his best. We need these 2 to really be consistent because they are our match winners with both assists and goals.

When we get 8/9 of the team playing at the top of their game we will be very formidable.

So much more to come and I am still backing us to win the league because we are only in 3rd gear right now.

2 big games coming up v Port Vale & Gillingham. Will be happy with 4 points from those.
It’s not where we are after 10 games that counts it’s were we are after 35/40 and ultimately after 46   

It’s a marathon not a sprint.

[ravenrover]

10 games us used as a marker of how we are performing, yes it means nothing  for the end of the season

[Lesonthewest]

Made hard work of it, but on another day a couple of those chances go in we win comfortably. The one cleared off the line from Yeboah, the deflection from Sharp onto the post, & a few just wide of it.

Great 3 points ground out. MOTM for me was Kelly, going to be some player for us this  lad. Bailey, Clifton, & Olowu were very good. Thought we were wastefull in possession 2nd half & invited a poor side to have more possession than they should have had.

[colfromdonny]

Surprised that Sharpy squared the ball , initially I thought he'd missed a sitter, should have been more ruthless in front of goal.......oh

[CJK]

I thought we struggled to make the ball stick in the final third, probably as a result of Ironside not starting. Sharp worked hard but it changed the dynamic of the team with no Ironside. Thought Gibson was poor, Moly didn't have much room to manoeuvre.

Set pieces are something we must surely work on in training but in a game they're so poor. Several good positions totally wasted by really poor execution.

Will take winning when not at our best though.

[Guernsey Exile]

We had 3 cleared off the line and hit woodwork twice.

Apparently we were awful. Come on get real on another day we would have won by 5 goals.

Yes 2nd half we gave ball away far too often and let Morecambe back in with a shout.
We are still work in progress and this team will only get better as the season goes on.

Olowu m.o.m. imo.  Clifton had his best game for us and is starting to look the player I thought we had signed. He will be a big player for us this season.
Kelly excellent 1st half but tired in the 2nd and GM was right to take him off. He will be a very good player for us also.
Bailey Mr Dependable, never has a bad game. Wasn’t his best today but still decent.
Fleming is an excellent signing and Sterry had a good game.

Molly had an off day and Gibson wasn’t at his best. We need these 2 to really be consistent because they are our match winners with both assists and goals.

When we get 8/9 of the team playing at the top of their game we will be very formidable.

So much more to come and I am still backing us to win the league because we are only in 3rd gear right now.

2 big games coming up v Port Vale & Gillingham. Will be happy with 4 points from those.
It’s not where we are after 10 games that counts it’s were we are after 35/40 and ultimately after 46   

It’s a marathon not a sprint.

I watched the full game and find this the best assessment.
We won, it could of been 5 but we could and probably should have been down to 10.
Winners take fine margins.
Let's look forward to Tuesday

[jmt23]

I found Bailey slowed the game and any momentum. It's good to look and act calm and composed, but it really didn't help today. Not the only one BTW, but most guilty in the last two games.
Clifton was my MOM, he has a great skill you can't teach - in the right place at the right time, always a goal threat, and unlucky not to have 5 or 6 this season already.

3 points in the bag, lets move on.

[pib]

We controlled the first half and had the best chances throughout the game. On another day we win 2 or 3-0 and nobody bats an eyelid about the performance.

Even the second half when we lost our way a bit, we still could’ve scored a couple. No idea how we didn’t score from the Sharp chance first half, and Yeboah should really lift it and put that chance away 2nd half too.

Need to be more clinical and kill the game off so it doesn’t give the opposition that initiative, and to be fair to Morecambe they took that and made it a contest 2nd half. But this is a team with quite a few new signings and that is clearly still finding the right formula.

I thought Olowu was good, as was Bailey. Fleming, Kelly and Clifton all put in encouraging performances. Clifton has some engine on him. The wingers were both quiet and our set plays need to improve significantly.

[drfchound]

We also have plenty of players who are brimming with talent.
Give them time to gel and I feel sure they will do us proud.

[LincsRover]

I think we’d all agree we weren’t at our best yesterday yet we won 1-0. I know it’s a cliche but don’t pundits say it’s the scruffy 1-0’s when not at your best that wins the league and gets you promoted rather than rolling over poor teams? Job done, onwards and upwards!

[ncRover]

We’ve got 6 goals from an xG of 4.4 so we are putting away the chances we get.

[BillyStubbsTears]

We’ve got 6 goals from an xG of 4.4 so we are putting away the chances we get.

I think it's a bit more nuanced than that.

We scored two worldies against Accrington, and were presented with a chance by the awful touch of Morecambe's keeper (which takes nothing away from Clifton's work, but that wasn't a "chance" we created.)

We've scored 3 goals so far from penalty area chances we have created. There's room for improvement on the taking of chances.

[ForsolongaRover]

We’ve got 6 goals from an xG of 4.4 so we are putting away the chances we get.

I think it's a bit more nuanced than that.

We scored two worldies against Accrington, and were presented with a chance by the awful touch of Morecambe's keeper (which takes nothing away from Clifton's work, but that wasn't a "chance" we created.)

We've scored 3 goals so far from penalty area chances we have created. There's room for improvement on the taking of chances.

I think you’re being very diplomatic BST.

Watching a full match replay when you know the result is an endurance test, but I think that being there, hoping for a win, tends to cause you to blot out the good bits from the other side and to overrate your own side’s efforts. Having now watched the full match replay, I can’t say that I found  much of the football either good or entertaining.

We seemed to be too easily dragged down to the level of a team who have had less than a month together preseason, but were good enough to stifle what little enterprise Rovers were able to produce.  Some of the meaningless passing around at the back reminded me of the Schofield style. When a defender was bold enough to try and find someone upfield it was depressing to see the number of times the pass was intercepted, although, particularly in the first half,  our forward players seemed too lethargic to find space.

Early on, only Kelly ran at the defence with the ball and not quite so prominently we saw fellow newcomer Fleming take the ball up the wing and another recent newcomer was on hand to grab the (rather fortunate) goal.

The much-criticised ref made his worst mistake in our favour, but is scarcely mentioned. Fleming pulled their player back when he was through on goal, just a yard or so outside the box with Olowu yards to his left and only level with the play so in no position get over to tackle him. So a clear red card.

That aside, there is a less controversial point that the match illustrated. This is McCann’s problem with the two strikers.

It was not obvious how Sharp would fit into the plan to begin with. He, in particular, needs players around him to provide him with the ball and he hardly seemed involved yesterday. At one point he came back into midfield to try and work something, but it seemed a symptom of something more fundamental. Ironside is more self-sufficient, but I wonder whether the team “infrastructure” is flexible enough to adjust mid-game to accommodate them individually? McCann could finish up with both of them disenchanted and you wonder whether he really thought through how he would manage them.

[ravenrover]

I find it amazing that people think it should have been a red for Fleming, the player was wide of goal Olowu was cruising back covering, a yellow all day long
Now the clothes liner by Joelinton on Bournemouth keeper should have been a straight red even if there were only.minutes to go

[ForsolongaRover]

I find it amazing that people think it should have been a red for Fleming, the player was wide of goal Olowu was cruising back covering, a yellow all day long
Now the clothes liner by Joelinton on Bournemouth keeper should have been a straight red even if there were only.minutes to go

I’ve looked at the footage several times from the full match replay and the situation is as I described it. The Morecambe commentators were incensed and they said that “red” was the collective view after half time discussions with all those in the Press Box! There really was no way that Olowu could have got to the Morecambe player. The only rationale that could be applied is that their man was about 5 of yards short of the box, but he was in a central rather than a wide position and only had TSL to beat. If you are going to do an analysis of the event you would note that the ref’s position did not him a good perspective on Olowu’s distance from the fouled player, because he could not have properly judged his (in)capability to reach him to make the tackle. Also, he gave himself only 12 seconds to make his decision, probably not long enough to get the assistant’s view before he made the decision on red or yellow. If the collective opinion is that the referee was bad I’m afraid that this is only further evidence of that fact. Have a proper look at it - it’s at just over 37 minutes in the full match replay.