We were on top but Rovers slowed the game down to break up our rythym -incredible that the ref didn't double the added time. Martin has great skill and ability but no football brain. For me, we would have been far more effective in the final third with Sodje in his place.
should av buried em played some nice stuff ,but just lacking the end product ,racon yet again was superb when he puts the effort in along with his footballing ability he is a good player and hopefully he could be a key figure in getting us promoted ,NSS probably wont agree but i thought francis had a good game .
Agree with the general consensus. Thought we played quite well and but for two world-class saves from their keeper which you're entitlted to feel acbit hard done by in this league would have won.
Only complaint is Sodje should have come on at least 10 mins earlier if not H/T
enjoyed last night, some super football was played at times by us. Martin is starting to really enjoy himself, although he does over do it a lot of the time. Thought BR were one of the worst sides I have seen this season, until Hoskins came on, for lack of touch and ability
Looking on the Rovers forum they reckon they controlled the midfield..LOL
I thought they were awful and we were unlucky. I liked the way they did try and attack but when we scored ours they just put the team coach in front of the goal.
What was wrong with Martin in the first half he seemed desperate to be subbed, first Jacko pointed it out to the bench, then he went and had treatment on the sidelines while Akpo warmed up and a few minutes later he indicated that he needed to be subbed.
They parked the bus, we allowed them to get men behind the ball. We didn't show enough urgency or quality of final ball until Reid and Apko came on and we pressed them higher up the pitch with more pace and power.
Martin has tricks, but overdoes it at times - however when he went wide with Reid on the opposite wing we stretched them. Without their keeper making three world class saves (how he saved Benson's shot at the end of the first half god only knows), we'd have won the game.
However, given how we played Saturday, I'd have taken 4 points in hindsight and only Sheff Wednesday closed the gap. We played worse on Saturday and won and we got a draw last night.
Apko and Reid cause the opposition lots of problems, so with Ansiyah coming back, Parky will have some conundrums about who to play wide and who to play down the middle. A vast improvement from the Ginger Pele also, so well done him.
Martin continues to frustrate. Supreme skill at times, but when you've just nutmegged someone, should you really try it again half a second later with a Cruyff turn?! If he can be coached to make better decisions, he can play at a higher level than League 1.
Thought McCormack and Sodje both made a difference after coming on. Very encouraging to see the team not panic after falling behind, and refreshing to see us continue to commit men forward after equalising.
Martin got a kick in the head 1st half and walked away but then went down like Gillian Mckeith and his knees buckled under him. Think he must have been feeling the after affects as they kept checking him out. Wouldn't be surprised if he had a bit of double vision.
Bristol Rovers were organised & well drilled, they won't win many friends playing that way but to be fair to them they have just played the top two away from home & not been beaten. Ends I am afraid justify the means in their case.
As for us, a bright start fell away as the game wore on, we needed the first goal, they got it, we woke up had a right go & got the least we deserved for our evening's efforts. The unbeaten run continues, missed opportunity yes, end of the world hardly.
no complaints from me. Did more than enough to win without ever really playing well and as Henry said we'll play worse and win and better and lose but that's football. I'm still not sure what to make of Benson. Does some things well but on a couple of occassions I thought he could/should have got on the end of a couple of decent balls in but didn't, not really the poacher type. Martin also frustrates. Got all the skill and tricks but imo flatters to deceive. Needs to produce more end product. Akpo was a nuisance when he came on but I'm not sure who to, us or them. No doubt he rattled them but he refused to shoot when he should have done and when put clean through showed that he has no pace. I liken him to Lisbie in that they are both better when they have no time to think. All in all though an entertaining game and I left happy.
Bristol Rovers definately the most negative team I have seen in a long time. And there keeper had a typical world class performance.
Re-itirate what has been said about Martin, he could of easily won that game for us but needs to become more of a team player and not try so hard to be the hero. Racon had a good game and felt he ran the game, McCormack didn't look to bad when he came on, mad a couple of great tackles, was Semedo injured? Fortune looked good, Doherty a bit wobbly. Francis crossing leaves a lot to be desired 90% of the time. Benson had a quiet game and never really got into anything.
Frustrating point but we had a good go, nothing to get upset about.
Only my second game of the season in person but was a huge improvement on what I saw a few weeks back.
I think if we had scored in the opening 15mins when we were well on top we would have rolled them over by 3 or 4 goals. We looked very good at points but felt we sometime over-complicated things. trying to force defence splitting passes when taking our time would and using the simple ball would have been the best option. I welcome the ambition but sometimes the team just need to think a little bit.
defensively i thought we did okay but because Bristol were sitting back a bit our defense were pushing up with threatened to cause us problems as we are not blessed with a pacy back line.
I am still impressed with the improved fitness of the team this season compared to the last few years, whoever is taking charge of that needs to be commended because the players lasted a lot better than their opposite numbers.
all in all a good performance if not the ideal result.
Can`t win every game. Not even Man Utd have that luxury. Played ok without the killer touch on the night. Not too worried by that performance but concerned about how our injuries are going to impact. Semedo of course went off and Doc was limping from that dead leg. With Martin obviously seeing two footballs after his kick in the head I just wish he could have scored with one of them ;0) With Brighton not winning no real damage done. COYR
Am i the only one who thought Doherty had a really good game??? The marks given for him in the ratings were quite low. I thought both him and Fortune controlled things well.
I seem to remember he won every header and 50/50 that was in front of him and his distribution in playing the ball out of defence was exceptional, those two Gerrard-esque passes from inside our own half to Sodje were sublime.
Although results on the night mean that we are no nearer or father away from Brighton, what worries me is that the others are closing in on us from below.
[cite]Posted By: Red5[/cite]Am i the only one who thought Doherty had a really good game??? The marks given for him in the ratings were quite low. I thought both him and Fortune controlled things well.
I seem to remember he won every header and 50/50 that was in front of him and his distribution in playing the ball out of defence was exceptional, those two Gerrard-esque passes from inside our own half to Sodje were sublime.
[cite]Posted By: Red5[/cite]Am i the only one who thought Doherty had a really good game??? The marks given for him in the ratings were quite low. I thought both him and Fortune controlled things well.
I seem to remember he won every header and 50/50 that was in front of him and his distribution in playing the ball out of defence was exceptional, those two Gerrard-esque passes from inside our own half to Sodje were sublime.
[cite]Posted By: Red5[/cite]Am i the only one who thought Doherty had a really good game??? The marks given for him in the ratings were quite low. I thought both him and Fortune controlled things well.
I seem to remember he won every header and 50/50 that was in front of him and his distribution in playing the ball out of defence was exceptional, those two Gerrard-esque passes from inside our own half to Sodje were sublime.
Doc had a cracker. Won everything.
My man of the match.
The ball to set up the Sodje header was sublime but he also gave the ball away very badly at least twice
Not a great game to watch and a lot of the credit (if that's the right word) should go to Rovers. Their tactic was to break up the play and destroy our rhythm so every throw or freekick took an absolute age. Amazed the ref only played 2 minutes and 4 minutes of added time. In fact I think he should get a very big black mark for this from his assessor. Allowing this to happen, shortchanges the paying fans. As for us, it was a 1-0 performance. We were definitely the better team but lacked urgency, especially in the final third. I felt there was a belief the goal would come at some point and we were reluctant to really push for it. The Bristol goal came out of the blue and shook us up. We looked more urgent after that and probably needed the extra 5 minutes the ref should have given us!
My main gripes were Martin and Sodje. Yes he can produce great moments of skill but his judgement is so bad it's frightening. I suspect he plays on instinct but needs to find a bit of inner compusure from somwhere so that he can make the right choices at the right times. There will be days when he comes off and is unplayable but more when he is a liability as I thought he was to the team last night. Now Sodje - I'm not going to argue with anybody who says he is a bit of a lump who lacks technique. But it is plain for all to see that he worries defenders with his physicality. As was pointed out above, his introduction pushed Bristol back and you could feel the panic in their defensive ranks. Don't blame him for the header, he did everything right, just keeper pulled off a great stop.
If Anyinsah isn't fit, Sodje is the replacement. Whilst I think Anyinsah is the better player- they provide the same sort of problem for defences and this helps the team. I would love to see Sodje play with Anyinsah - We have only seen 10 minutes or so of this against Notts County and I thought together they were unplayable and won us the match. Parky is fanatstic in the way he has brought in excellent players under extremely difficult circumstances but I wish he could see the dynamic that I think could make us virtually unstoppbale. I'm sure he will stumble on it at some point but why cant he see it?
[cite]Posted By: MuttleyCAFC[/cite]Parky is fanatstic in the way he has brought in excellent players under extremely difficult circumstances but I wish he could see the dynamic that I think could make us virtually unstoppbale. I'm sure he will stumble on it at some point but why cant he see it?
Because he's not such a good manager as you, Muttley?
Hey, I'd never in a million years be able to pull of the signings he has ;o). Know you're being a bit sarcastic but surely it's not just me that thinks you put out a team that your opponents don't want you to play! Imagine you are an opposing defender- how would you feel about facing Anyinsah and Sodje. I think it's not a prospect to relish.
Also, somebody needs to get a coach to sit with Martin watching a tape of last nights game -1-2-1. I think they need to stop it at various points and ask - what should you have done there. I think this would improve him as he does have a special talent but it won't take him anywhere if he can't harness it. It is probably why he is playing in league 1 at the moment.
Comments
Only complaint is Sodje should have come on at least 10 mins earlier if not H/T
I thought they were awful and we were unlucky. I liked the way they did try and attack but when we scored ours they just put the team coach in front of the goal.
Martin has tricks, but overdoes it at times - however when he went wide with Reid on the opposite wing we stretched them. Without their keeper making three world class saves (how he saved Benson's shot at the end of the first half god only knows), we'd have won the game.
However, given how we played Saturday, I'd have taken 4 points in hindsight and only Sheff Wednesday closed the gap. We played worse on Saturday and won and we got a draw last night.
Apko and Reid cause the opposition lots of problems, so with Ansiyah coming back, Parky will have some conundrums about who to play wide and who to play down the middle. A vast improvement from the Ginger Pele also, so well done him.
Thought McCormack and Sodje both made a difference after coming on. Very encouraging to see the team not panic after falling behind, and refreshing to see us continue to commit men forward after equalising.
As for us, a bright start fell away as the game wore on, we needed the first goal, they got it, we woke up had a right go & got the least we deserved for our evening's efforts. The unbeaten run continues, missed opportunity yes, end of the world hardly.
Re-itirate what has been said about Martin, he could of easily won that game for us but needs to become more of a team player and not try so hard to be the hero. Racon had a good game and felt he ran the game, McCormack didn't look to bad when he came on, mad a couple of great tackles, was Semedo injured? Fortune looked good, Doherty a bit wobbly. Francis crossing leaves a lot to be desired 90% of the time. Benson had a quiet game and never really got into anything.
Frustrating point but we had a good go, nothing to get upset about.
I think if we had scored in the opening 15mins when we were well on top we would have rolled them over by 3 or 4 goals. We looked very good at points but felt we sometime over-complicated things. trying to force defence splitting passes when taking our time would and using the simple ball would have been the best option. I welcome the ambition but sometimes the team just need to think a little bit.
defensively i thought we did okay but because Bristol were sitting back a bit our defense were pushing up with threatened to cause us problems as we are not blessed with a pacy back line.
I am still impressed with the improved fitness of the team this season compared to the last few years, whoever is taking charge of that needs to be commended because the players lasted a lot better than their opposite numbers.
all in all a good performance if not the ideal result.
I seem to remember he won every header and 50/50 that was in front of him and his distribution in playing the ball out of defence was exceptional, those two Gerrard-esque passes from inside our own half to Sodje were sublime.
Doc had a cracker. Won everything.
My man of the match.
The ball to set up the Sodje header was sublime but he also gave the ball away very badly at least twice
I thought so too.
Mine too.
Phew, thought I was losing it. Cheers!
My main gripes were Martin and Sodje. Yes he can produce great moments of skill but his judgement is so bad it's frightening. I suspect he plays on instinct but needs to find a bit of inner compusure from somwhere so that he can make the right choices at the right times. There will be days when he comes off and is unplayable but more when he is a liability as I thought he was to the team last night. Now Sodje - I'm not going to argue with anybody who says he is a bit of a lump who lacks technique. But it is plain for all to see that he worries defenders with his physicality. As was pointed out above, his introduction pushed Bristol back and you could feel the panic in their defensive ranks. Don't blame him for the header, he did everything right, just keeper pulled off a great stop.
If Anyinsah isn't fit, Sodje is the replacement. Whilst I think Anyinsah is the better player- they provide the same sort of problem for defences and this helps the team. I would love to see Sodje play with Anyinsah - We have only seen 10 minutes or so of this against Notts County and I thought together they were unplayable and won us the match. Parky is fanatstic in the way he has brought in excellent players under extremely difficult circumstances but I wish he could see the dynamic that I think could make us virtually unstoppbale. I'm sure he will stumble on it at some point but why cant he see it?
Because he's not such a good manager as you, Muttley?
;o)