Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Home V Bristol Rovers Saturday 16th October @ 3.00pm

It’s all about the xG. Nothing else matters

 

Felt like a loss did that. Poor recruitment left us with no quality to come off the bench today. You can see why Adams is reluctant to use subs.

Contrast that to Barton been able to bring on Barnsley loanee Luke Thomas at half time who made such a difference. Thomas and Whelan dominated midfield in that 2nd half and they deserved their point.

All that said, we should have been out of sight at half time, very good first half performance but some more woeful finishing

 

Eisa injured again, Ridehalgh with what looks like a muscle injury and the team blowing out their arse halfway into the second half again. The sports science department needs a serious revamp.

 

Didn't even really need "decent" ones. Just some fresh legs to keep the ball up the pitch. We didn't need a goal threat really. Just better ball retention to alleviate the pressure at times.

 

That was incredibly frustrating. If we knew what to do in the final quarter of the pitch we'd have hit them for 6, possibly by half time.

What I personally found the most 'bittersweet' if you will, is that once they first equalised we instantly upped the tempo and pressed and attacked and immediately went ahead. Then we sat back again. If we carried on with the mentality that we are level per-say we could have possibly gone further and further clear. I'm not a football manager, obviously, but they were my initial thoughts. They were shite and we allowed them to get in the game.

 

So those like @Bronco and @Bigrod who thought last weeks away point was a good one because we had two home matches.

Well it’s two points from 6.

We’re not good enough to start thinking a draw is a good result for us.

As a team we lack quality.

 

Pitman looked awful to be honest looked like he could barely move

 

Parkinson came in inheriting the worst squad in the club's modern history with the aim of keeping us up, it was clear relatively early to see what he was trying to do and, though it wasn't pretty, it worked.

Adams has been lined up for this job, with the aim of a promotion push, since last December. From interviews it doesn't take much reading between the lines to understand he had input into our recruitment last January and he was here in the summer. I am yet to work out what he is trying to do with the team, although he is clear that nothing is his fault.

I'm not saying he should be sacked but he isn't impressing so far, I couldn't care less what he did at Morecambe.

 

Not before January we can't. Out of contact only until then. Adams must be a nightmare of a manager to work for if you're not in the match day squad. I feel for the lads who get 5 minutes or no minutes week after week.

 

Very much my thinking. I had a 18 month sabitical from alcohol, Covid lockdowns and in that time, I tried to reassess the way I function and think.
I try/tried to remove stresses from my life and function with more of a smile on my face (work in progress). Football and the match day result ain't as important now as the social aspect.

 

Lavery and Robinson need to be in their agents’ ears asking them for a move in January, it will suit players and club.

 

I think we need a reality check here.
I was annoyed as all of us with the fact we did not end up with 3 points.
The first half display by our front players was as good as I can remember and I go back a bit and I go to all the home games.
If we were less than 5 goals up at halftime, Bristol Rovers will have got away with larceny.
The fact we were only one up was massively disappointing.
Callum Cooke and Vernam played as well as we could imagine in the first half.
Callum's vision and precision and willingness to attack was outstanding. His passing was worthy of a much higher level
Vernam was a revelation causing mayhem with his pace and directness and took that into the second half having created the second goal.
I imagine they both ran out steam at a similar time because we stopped getting the ball to Vernam after Cook scored.
Overall our attacking display was outstanding and just a word of praise for Andy Cook and his workrate and willingness to show. Cook is also having physically to fight all opposing centre halves under this season's new refereeing regime where they allow anything and let them get on with their
physical battle. I believe that the massive workload Cook is expected to achieve is having a detrimental impact on the quality and regularity of his finishing.
We have a good side well capable of achieving promotion. DA is I am sure aware of our squad limitations in offensive positions.
Injuries to our front players will have upset the early season applecart but the performance on Saturday in the first half should enable us all to stop the criticism and allow the season to take shape.

 

The Gas had a good win last week, saved Barton his job but cost Beech his. Had it on good authority if Bristol had lost we would likely have been up against Flynny this week. But your right Rod, 6 points Sat and Tues just the job.

 

Do we not have a cardboard cut out..?

 

Probably, but I'm not sure he'd have kept 2 clean sheets in the last 2 games.

 

That mental strength Adams has been on about was nowhere to be seen in the last 10-15 minutes. Far too many of them switched off and thought they'd done enough.

 

I think the above posts have covered it.

We weren't fit enough and Bristol Rovers were too strong for us in the last quarter.

We completely lost our shape and composure. Whacking aimless balls out of defence with over ten minutes left on the clock.

Very frustrating as we played some good football, but we weren't good enough across the whole game.

 

Agree the two subs we made were Scales and Foulds, and look at the remaining options on the bench… Should have been out of site really though only ourselves to blame, we were hanging on at the end but shouldn’t have needed to be.

 

I’m getting vibes of 2011-12 from a few fans(not a majority it must be said) when plenty were calling Parky Plonkinson. Then we had a regime going through managers and more likely to be in non league than league 1, before they made the best decision they ever made and stood with him despite a terrible season and let him put his stamp on the club. The rest as we know is history, but we can always learn from it. Back him and I’m confident we’ll be league 1 within 2 years, get rid and I think we’ll be non league within 3.

 

Whilst I don't think he's anywhere near as good as he thinks he is, there's no dispute that Adams has to be given time. We can't keep on hiring managers every six months with the consequent upheaval that causes.

Certainly, it's too early to judge him and, even though we've been generally average, such is lack of quality in the division, a play off place shouldn't be beyond us.