Bristol Rovers - 25 November

[DavesaRam]

Underwhelming, unconvincing first half where we had more shots on target, but probably should have gone in at half-time two goals down! I quad constantly puzzled by our number 9 who kept turning up on the wing (as ever) and even at centre half! We maybe edged it marginally, but let ourselves down with through balls hitting defenders, or final passes being poor. 

Second half started very sloppy but quickly picked up, and NML made the goal almost out of nothing. Sadly Warne got us sitting back and defending our lead from about 70 minutes, which se are really good at - not. 🙄 A bsffling tactic. Similarly when Bird went off, although it was to go 3 at the back - who’d have thought the Rams would do that. But having lost our best player, we replaced our most creative midfielder with …… a centre half! What we did was ket Bristol back into the game, and their equaliser was inevitable, as was the scorer.

What the change in formation did was let us olay tgr ball out wide and put crosses in at an increased rate, and there was a lot of running done in the closing section if the match, so the manager was happy! Thankfully Fornah knicked the ball and kept going, and played a cut back to a team mate for the winner.

MOM went to NML, quite rightly, but him aside Bird was our stand-out player, operating at a different level, as Jono said.

The best thing though was the tribute to B4 which came from all around the ground, including the Bristol fans, who put on a good show all match long. But it was disappointing the Chris Martin dissed the Derby fans, even when the South Standers sang for him. Shame.
 

Bye, Chris.

Well we won, but how I don’t really know. Right - who’s next?

[BramcoteRam84]

First half was awful and I actually thought we deserved to be losing. Second half while we didn’t play great was a massive improvement, we should’ve put the game to bed before they equalised but great character to win it - brilliant cameo from Fornah. 
 

Put ourselves in a decent position with some very winnable games coming up, starting Tuesday against vale, we need an away performance!!

COYR!!!! 🐏 🐏 🐏 

[Millenniumram]

Think that first half was one of the worst 45 minutes of football I’ve ever seen, contributed to by both sides. Luckily their players put about as much effort in as ours did.

Better second half, and just about deserved the win. Unconvincing, but top 6 is progress at least. Putting Sonny Bradley on to go 3 at the back almost killed us AGAIN though. When will he learn…

[Comrade 86]

Surely time for a poll, no?
 

[Matchday Fred]

All about the result, a win is a win. Top six and massively think our luck in second half season will change for better. Huge opportunities to upgrade midfield and attack so we should look forward positively believing top two is easily within reach. 

[valakari]

Its still s*** football...all this manager is bothered about is defence and athletes...so boring, so poor.

The wins are mainly because the opposition are so bad..the standard is abysmal, and we really need to get out of it this season!

[BaianoPOTY98]

Got to say the Sonny Bradley thing really infuriates me, why does he keep bringing him on (I presume to close the game down) with 15/20 minutes to go playing at home when we should be pushing to put the game to bed🤬

Looking forward to Tommo coming, will Warne ever dare drop Smith and Hourihane to try Tommo, Fornah and Bird together?

[BaianoPOTY98]

2 minutes ago, BaianoPOTY98 said:

Got to say the Sonny Bradley thing really infuriates me, why does he keep bringing him on (I presume to close the game down) with 15/20 minutes to go playing at home when we should be pushing to put the game to bed🤬

Looking forward to Tommo coming, will Warne ever dare drop Smith and Hourihane to try Tommo, Fornah and Bird together?

Meant Tommo coming back lol 🙈

[Rambam]

Warne is the Southgate of League One football. If we win, it is in spite of him. To start Smith ahead of Fornah is just criminal. 

[Anag Ram]

2 hours ago, BaianoPOTY98 said:

Got to say the Sonny Bradley thing really infuriates me, why does he keep bringing him on (I presume to close the game down) with 15/20 minutes to go playing at home when we should be pushing to put the game to bed🤬

Looking forward to Tommo coming, will Warne ever dare drop Smith and Hourihane to try Tommo, Fornah and Bird together?

It made no sense yesterday. Nelson had Martin in his pocket and Rovers were toothless.

Bradley immediately assumed Martin duties and no one jumped against CM for the goal.

When your central pairing is performing well why complicate things?

I can only imagine Ward isn’t fully fit because he’s better than several of our starters. 

Similarly, Wilson is a far better player than Barkhuisen and his introduction made a difference (again).

A tough watch but I’m really pleased we ground out the win.
 

 

[WystonRam]

Only highlight of the game was Fornahs run for the second goal. 

[Shuff264]

We weren't great, but we were good enough to beat Rovers and deserved the win.

Still worried about our attacking play as it is so one dimensional, and our inability to progress the ball from deep is a real concern. We were only able to create chances once the game became stretched, against a low block we still look clueless.

Defence had a good game, thought midfield was fairly nonexistent aside from Bird, looked better once Fornah came on, and in attack we are entirely reliant on NML.

A good 3pts but not necessarily a great performance.

[Chester40]

Very quiet on here. I think no one was particularly enamoured with yesterday's performance even if the 3 points were crucial.

The Warne-outers know another win, Derby nestled in the playoffs and top 2 being within sight means their vociferous calls for him to go are going to fall on deaf ears.

However,  as a Warne-in'er... it was a tough watch for periods yesterday.  The first half was scruffy, untidy and lacking in quality. The substitutions definitely helped us and we probably just about deserved the goal and I felt we looked brighter then.

Bristol rarely troubled us and the equaliser was a hammer blow out of nothing. I just didn't see us scoring but Fornah showed real class and NML who was head and shoulders above the rest going forward grabbed the winner.

Don't think Bristol deserved much but we weren't great either. Our final ball and most of our deadball delivery were pretty terrible.

Take the win and can start to look up but the midfield looks one-paced, we didn't really have much width and had little menace in front of goal. Players to come back are going to be vital. 

It felt like a backward step with our to n fro performances but this time we still got the job done. Really need to kick on now and use the squad better.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Chester40

[Van der MoodHoover]

41 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

Very quiet on here. I think no one was particularly enamoured with yesterday's performance even if the 3 points were crucial.

The Warne-outers know another win, Derby nestled in the playoffs and top 2 being within sight means their vociferous calls for him to go are going to fall on deaf ears.

However,  as a Warne-in'er... it was a tough watch for periods yesterday.  The first half was scruffy, untidy and lacking in quality. The substitutions definitely helped us and we probably just about deserved the goal and I felt we looked brighter then.

Bristol rarely troubled us and the equaliser was a hammer blow out of nothing. I just didn't see us scoring but Fornah showed real class and NML who was head and shoulders above the rest going forward grabbed the winner.

Don't think Bristol deserved much but we weren't great either. Our final ball and most of our deadball delivery were pretty terrible.

Take the win and can start to look up but the midfield looks one-paced, we didn't really have much width and had little menace in front of goal. Players to come back are going to be vital. 

It felt like a backward step with our to n fro performances but this time we still got the job done. Really need to kick on now and use the squad better.

It's all been said about Warne I think. So maybe many have just decided to support the team.

It doesn't look like much will change unless either...

- we have an unusually busy (and successful) January

- the older players "gas out" ( haven't heard that used for a while) and results slump from Feb again.

I've only seen the goals from yesterday but will watch highlights. Thank heavens for NML. The folks were very bored 

[Archied]

It’s always interesting to read the match thread the morning after a game you have been at especially with the group of warne out at all costs kind of monopolising the forum a bit theses days ,anyway here goes my take,

first and foremost a game we really needed to win for us moving forward and for b4 , we had a really good break away up the field on 37 minutes which I really felt and we were going to score from at nil nil  and that would really have made my day but I know b4 would have shrugged it off fully believing we were going to go on and win anyway 🤷🏻‍♂️, I stood and put my hands together for the lad, 

the game , two div one teams in reasonable form on similar points going at it , both trying to play a bit of football cancel each other and themselves out with moves breaking down in congested final thirds and some poor choices and final balls , they came the closest to taking the lead with a shot of the post , not a great first half but far far far from the worst half of football I’ve ever seen as one poster describes it 🤷🏻‍♂️I never heard boos at half time but maybe I wasn’t looking for them , I did hear Paul warnes derby army ringing out from the south stand which nobody mentions so maybe the warne out number are not as some would have us believe,

second half slightly better and the crowd lifted a bit , we scored and I felt we would gone on to win it from there but we gave a silly free kick away and they score , ffs , not to worry , we go up the other end and re take the lead , well done boys and we should have made it 3-1 with a great break but a last ditch tackle saved them , was a bit concerned with Bradley coming on for an injured bird but at the end of the day that can go either way with the manager carrying the can ,, today we won 🤷🏻‍♂️,

wasn’t pretty , but it was everything I go to games for , emotions down , up ,down , up , edge of seat , final whistle , win , back to the car with a smile and happy , a man of simple pleasures 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

 

[Tamworthram]

7 hours ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

First half was awful and I actually thought we deserved to be losing. Second half while we didn’t play great was a massive improvement, we should’ve put the game to bed before they equalised but great character to win it - brilliant cameo from Fornah. 
 

Put ourselves in a decent position with some very winnable games coming up, starting Tuesday against vale, we need an away performance!!

COYR!!!! 🐏 🐏 🐏 

I agree. The first half was pretty dire (but not quite as bad as some are describing it). Two poor league one sides showing little invention and cancelling each other out although I also had Bristol slightly ahead on points at the break (and not just because of them hitting the post). Pre-match, I predicted 2:2 amongst the group I sit with. At half time I revised my guess to 0:0.

Neither team seemed to have the ability to convert the few half chances so it was quite appropriate that the first was an own goal. Having said that though, credit to NML for beating his man and putting in a dangerous cross that, although it didn’t reach a Derby player, was very difficult for the defenders to handle.

The second half was a big upgrade but still not great entertainment until the final 10 minutes (plus half an hour of time added on).

A lot was made on RD of winning three league games on the bounce but, they were all of course at home. If we can back them up with a win on Tuesday (and then ideally a win against Orient) my feelings for our chances will move a little more from hope to expectation.

COYR.

[Tamworthram]

1 hour ago, WystonRam said:

Only highlight of the game was Fornahs run for the second goal. 

That was THE highlight but, whilst it was a pretty dire game of little quality from either side, there were the a handful of other bright moments but they were all too isolated.

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

I can’t say I was particularly impressed yesterday. Wildsmith, Nelson, Cashin and NML did well but the rest were pretty ‘meh’.

I don’t understand playing Smith in an attacking midfield role - just play Sibley or Fornah there as they are far more mobile, as was demonstrated. 

I thought their number 6 looked a far better midfielder than any of ours. As for putting Bradley on, it’s getting tiresome and never works - it just hands impetus to the opposition and normally results in a goal! Not a fan.

Lovely round of applause for B4. Well done all. 
 

UTR 🐏🐏

[CBRammette]

52 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

It's all been said about Warne I think. So maybe many have just decided to support the team.

It doesn't look like much will change unless either...

- we have an unusually busy (and successful) January

- the older players "gas out" ( haven't heard that used for a while) and results slump from Feb again.

I've only seen the goals from yesterday but will watch highlights. Thank heavens for NML. The folks were very bored 

Yes thank goodness for NML but felt for Collins earlier in a perfect position but NML delivered worst ball across ever. The best thing about NML recently has been his continued threat later on in games when previously he would have really faded by that point 

[jono]

8 hours ago, Comrade 86 said:

Surely time for a poll, no?
 

I’m up for that, as long as you’re not the one dancing on it