Match Thread Bristol Rovers(A) @15.00 2nd April

Gary Jones must be so frustrated having to commentate on this shower every other week after the good times he’s had at the club.
He doesn’t need to prepare any notes on the opposition as it’s the same old same old commentary most weeks.

 

Problem is with our fans is if we win next week everyone forgets just how poor we've been this season. But hey, at least it's sustainable

 

League two shocker (not) as distinctly average team beaten by potential automatic promotion rivals.

Put aside wishful thinking, the match went as expected. We all know our team isn't good enough, seen it all season.

 

Don’t worry Our owner will open his purse to strengthen the squad . We’ll let’s put it this way if he doesn’t not sure where the money will be coming from as season ticket money won’t pay the rent and all the other massive bills that come with a strong squad

 

High agency fees, poor recruitment and today underlined our weaknesses. Lot of work to be done and highlights how ruthless we need to be in clearing out all under performers. A world of difference between todays opponents and ourselves.

 

This was awful to watch. So frustrating. This annual clear out has been necessary. Highlighting players who have done well once they leave is wrong. They maybe be playing with better players, strategies etc.

We have not had a structure at this club that had made recruitment a key priority swapping and changing according whether the manager likes it or not.
As I have said previously, this next season we must invest not only in recruitment but the management team so that they are working in harmony.

To be honest, I don’t think Bristol Rovers were that good, but they looked much better than us. We don’t need a squad of lg 2 players. We need to have good lg1 players. How many? I trust MH and will leave it to him.

 

Yep, Lavery and Robinson made us all worry at the time of signing them and our major signing of Gilliead made me gulp when we signed him from relegation threatened Scunthorpe.

 

That is down to the defence. You can scream all you like about Bass, but a high level of shots puts any goalkeeper under pressure and liable to concede.

 

Same next week anarl. We ain't getting owt at Northampton.
Joint 18th.
And yet some are praising the club for not putting prices up.
Absolute shambles.

 

I thinks its Gary Jones fault .........every time he commentates we are shhhbaber

 

I really hope we will get a very realistic assessment from Hughes tonight, he doesn't need to protect the players anymore as they have had adequate to impress him, but the fans really could do with no more pulling the wool over our eyes. We are only interested in genuine hope for next season

 

Whole new back line for me. Sign them early and get them used to playing together.

 

I HATE THIS TEAM

 

The commentators on the radio at the start were the same.
Getting all gooey eyed because Rupp came out and “spoke” to the media.
FFS. He said absolutely nothing of any worth and we are supposed to be grateful because the prices aren’t going up.

 

Tbf Jon Proctor wasn’t a clear out, most saw a good player there and he’d have probably stayed had Parky stayed. You say the others are doing well but you have to judge them against where we got shit, we were a league 1 side for the others time here and they are clearly league 2 players as that’s where they have spent their careers since granted Dieng is having a purple patch, point is those we clear out often go downwards and a part of the decline, until we get recruitment right we’ll have to clear big numbers out you can’t keep the same squad that could see us end around 20th. For those saying they maybe different under Hughes, other than playing the ball about a bit more our PPG is actually worse than under Adams, a fair bit worse if you go back to before he stupidly got rid of one of our 2 CBs. The squad needs a overhaul, can’t get shut of every player but without big changes we aren’t going to league 1 anytime soon. Not many of this lot will have the chance to go to better clubs, there were times we were begging that players would stay and with good reason.

 

Embarrassing.

Rump and Sparks should be embarrassed this shambles is on them.

Every single player needs to be shown the door at the end of the season.

If Sparks continues to play a lump of lard like Andy Cook next he can fook off too.

 

Sustainable being the key word again
I can't see the club generating enough money on its own to assemble a side capable of pushing for promotion next season even more unlikely is Mr Rupp funding it and our "proud custodian" to curry favour no doubt has frozen season ticket prices again
Even Pep couldn't get us promotion next season on the feeble budget Mark Hughes is going to be presented with
Promotion won't come till Mr Rupp goes it's that simple

 

My only worry about Hughes is that his lack of experience of League 2 football might lead him to think that some of these players are worth keeping. There's not one player I'd be sad to see leave. I hope Glyn Hodges can give him the appropriate advice.

 

I'm sick of hearing about budgets holding us back. A lot of clubs in the hunt for promotion on budgets less than ours.

It's how we use the budget that matters. The recruitment has been woeful for years now and hopefully Hughes utilises it far better and doesn't leave us with such an unbalanced squad too like Adams did.

We had one of the best budgets in league 1 the season we were relegated for example.

 

Agree with most of this.

I do think at this level a balanced team is more important than the individual players (to some extent, not completely) as we've managed to make average L2 players like Will Atkinson and Garry Thompson look special when we've got it right. Just two examples.

At the minute, we can't field two proper centre backs. We have one centre forward that we've flogged to death up front on his own all season. And to make matters worse, we've very few goals in our midfield.

To me, that's basics.

Get the balance right, and if the quality improves in our or five areas, we'll look a team transformed imho.