Back Four had a mare defending the waterlogged end of the ground, individually & collectively. However they are constantly exposed by a midfield unit with no defensive awareness. We are too easy to play against at the moment and struggle whenever the opposition counter attack. Harriott and Pritchard failed to support the full backs again (as at Bournemouth), Cousins allowed his direct opponent to run off him and score with a free header on the opening goal and Gower doesn't seem to be able to protect the centre backs in the way Andy Hughes does.
Need to sort the midfield out and stop the defensive problems at source.
First goal, sloppy, unprofessional, great header and no excuses. Second, their bloke who crossed for the goal looked a mile offside when the ball was passed to him in the build up, but then you've got to carry on a deal with it and we didn't. third goal, absolute shite but the poor pitch played a big part and there's no question the Charlton half was much more waterlogged and harder to deal with than the Donny half (at that time). I was sitting West stand near the half way line and from the off it was obvious that the North goal area and the East touch line were waterlogged more than elsewhere.
Hamer had no chance with the goals but also had no real saves to make yet their keeper had a great game. Donny did the basics very well but we played the better, more intricate passing football (when we didn't hoof it!) but half the time the pitch stopped us from doing so. When we actually played football we looked good I thought!
Did their bloke deserve the sending off? yes, He was stupid and both were yellows.
Did Donny deserve to be winning? Yes, they were more clinical, can't just blame the pitch but it did have an influence. If it had been 0-0 or even 1-0 the Ref would have called it off earlier but because it was 3 he was clearly loathed too. I understand why he didn't want to and to be honest I didn't want him to either because it looks like we got lucky and I don't want it as an excuse.
I'm usually a glass half empty guy but I personally wanted the game to carry on, not just because of being seen to "get away with it" but because I genuinely thought we had a great chance to turn it round.
Funny how Dickov was all animated at 3-0 about calling the game off but at 3-1 with 10 men and having to defend the North end second half wasn't as fussed (although I'm sure he'll be saying publicly what a travesty it all was). I do respect the fact he hasn't changed though. He was a horrible c*** as a player and is an horrible c*** as a manager.
I thought the first was a wrong decision for the throw in that led to the goal, second offside and third rain affected?
Perhaps I was just looking for excuses, it conjured up memories of WBA away in the cup all those years ago so felt a little justice was done with the postponement, the pitch was unplayable in parts and had the score been 0-0 they would have stayed off. Fair play to Donny players grabbing forks and brushes to muck in and get it back on.
Well done to Len Glover as well for the "after you Claude" reference, some classic ITMA, Tom Handley's radio show in the 40's paved the way for catchphrase comedy and the likes of the fast show decades later.
We used a get out of jail card yesterday, the pitch was a lottery and I doubt many defenders would have enjoyed defending the North Stand goal yesterday. Have to make it count though, starting now.
Morrison has always been a Libility. Hamer was dropped last season after a few dodgy displays. But Powell is stuck now after Button went to Brentford...
Looking again on TV all three goals were the result of awful marking. For the 2nd I can forgive a youth player making a mistake but the other two were criminal defending and really nothing to do with the conditions. I felt that the players particularly Morrison and Hamer psyched themselves out over the conditions, whereas Donny just got on with it, albeit they had the better end.
Not mentioned elsewhere but I thought Cort looked good
I felt that the players particularly Morrison and Hamer psyched themselves out over the conditions, whereas Donny just got on with it, albeit they had the better end.
Doncaster's body language was much better than ours - Rob Jones is a natural leader if ever I saw one.
Surely just as hard to attack at that end then to defend at that end? Don't understand people saying Doncaster had to defend a better end
You have a lot more to lose defending.
Indeed. It is a lot harder defending a ball holding up than coming onto a ball attacking it.
So an attacking team, taking ball past defenders, picking out a team mate and that team mate controlling ball in the terrible conditions and getting a shot off is harder than a defender, any defender kicking the ball forty yards up field or into touch?
It's "harder" because there is more at stake. That is the case regardless of conditions.
Mistakes were more likely however because of the conditions around our penalty box and no, that wasn't the same for the Doncaster defenders. Unfortunately, we never got to see how they would've performed in the second half.
I naively still think we would have got a result out of the game - definitely think the goalmouth at the North end favoured the attacking side.
Looking back on yesterday I think you may be right. Dickov and Powell probably agreed together on this. Us on the ascendency and Dickov working on being down to 10 men it could go pear shaped.
Both teams had to play on the pitch... All 3 goals were down to crap defending.. Basics you learn as a child like play to whistle.... Talk to each other... Pick up and mark early!!
Surely just as hard to attack at that end then to defend at that end? Don't understand people saying Doncaster had to defend a better end
You have a lot more to lose defending.
Indeed. It is a lot harder defending a ball holding up than coming onto a ball attacking it.
To be fair, you have to have played football in similar conditions to know that. Also when you are attacking you know what you are going to do, the defender has to anticipate and when the pitch is sodden it isn't very easy. The pitch was not that bad for the first though so that was poor defending -althouh tbf it was still more difficult than normal to defend. I recall their keeper making a couple of great saves too!
the first goal, after 90 seconds or less, had NOTHING to do with the pitch. It had EVERYTHING to do with switching off from a throw in, rank bad professionalism. That immediately put us on the back foot. We were atrocious defensively and spent more effort moaning about the pitch than we did actually defending.
Comments
Need to sort the midfield out and stop the defensive problems at source.
Second, their bloke who crossed for the goal looked a mile offside when the ball was passed to him in the build up, but then you've got to carry on a deal with it and we didn't.
third goal, absolute shite but the poor pitch played a big part and there's no question the Charlton half was much more waterlogged and harder to deal with than the Donny half (at that time). I was sitting West stand near the half way line and from the off it was obvious that the North goal area and the East touch line were waterlogged more than elsewhere.
Hamer had no chance with the goals but also had no real saves to make yet their keeper had a great game. Donny did the basics very well but we played the better, more intricate passing football (when we didn't hoof it!) but half the time the pitch stopped us from doing so. When we actually played football we looked good I thought!
Did their bloke deserve the sending off? yes, He was stupid and both were yellows.
Did Donny deserve to be winning? Yes, they were more clinical, can't just blame the pitch but it did have an influence.
If it had been 0-0 or even 1-0 the Ref would have called it off earlier but because it was 3 he was clearly loathed too. I understand why he didn't want to and to be honest I didn't want him to either because it looks like we got lucky and I don't want it as an excuse.
I'm usually a glass half empty guy but I personally wanted the game to carry on, not just because of being seen to "get away with it" but because I genuinely thought we had a great chance to turn it round.
Funny how Dickov was all animated at 3-0 about calling the game off but at 3-1 with 10 men and having to defend the North end second half wasn't as fussed (although I'm sure he'll be saying publicly what a travesty it all was). I do respect the fact he hasn't changed though. He was a horrible c*** as a player and is an horrible c*** as a manager.
Having the 5 accross the middle meant they had a lot of protection and cover whereas now they barely get much.
Perhaps I was just looking for excuses, it conjured up memories of WBA away in the cup all those years ago so felt a little justice was done with the postponement, the pitch was unplayable in parts and had the score been 0-0 they would have stayed off. Fair play to Donny players grabbing forks and brushes to muck in and get it back on.
Well done to Len Glover as well for the "after you Claude" reference, some classic ITMA, Tom Handley's radio show in the 40's paved the way for catchphrase comedy and the likes of the fast show decades later.
Thought Morrison & Wiggins looked poor. We badly need a defensive midfielder, thought Gower looked average but impressed with Cousins.
I really wish Hammer would come and catch sometimes, he just stays on his line most of the time & hands the initiative to the opposition.
Hope Powell can sort it as it really doesn't looked good at the moment.
Not mentioned elsewhere but I thought Cort looked good
Mistakes were more likely however because of the conditions around our penalty box and no, that wasn't the same for the Doncaster defenders. Unfortunately, we never got to see how they would've performed in the second half.
Dickov and Powell probably agreed together on this.
Us on the ascendency and Dickov working on being down to 10 men it could go pear shaped.