I saw...

[Colin C No.3]

Some good footballers out there in red shirts yesterday, but not a good team...yet.

I was impressed with Knoyle who got up & down the right hand side & kept at it so given this was his first full 90 minutes in the league he clearly has a good 'engine', looked comfortable on the ball, not frightened to get a tackle or header in despite his relatively looking small physic & can pick a pass. Our MOTM for me.

Barlow was always looking to get on the ball & again was comfortable on the ball going past players & looking to pick a pass. Like Knoyle, he's a great acquisition for us.

Seaman scored a very good goal & can only get better the more games he plays at this level. If he continues to put himself about & play like he did yesterday he'll have suiters sniffing after him.

Smith had a better second half as he grew into the game. Again a good footballer who was 'asking' for the ball in centre midfield & played some nice passes forward attempting to initiate attacking play.

In Dahlberg we have a young keeper who commanded his area, one particular solid punch out from a corner sticks in my mind, but he caught plenty despite being put under intense pressure, often unfairly yet only picked up on once by a poor ref. His distribution was excellent with only one poor kick that went into touch if my memory serves me well. Just what Louis Jones needs if he's to 'push on'.

Gardner had an excellent game given he was only given a contract that morning! He took up some good positions, looked strong in shielding the ball & drew a couple of fouls. A solid player.

Cukur struggled to make an impact with often two defenders around him but won a couple of headers although again there were challenges (leaning over him, sly shoves as he went up for the ball) made on him that everyone bar the officials, but he'll learn how to combat that, it's why he's here.

Williams did ok alongside Anderson, he won his fair share of battles & was never caught out of position. The centre back pairing can take some time to mould into a partnership but Williams knows this position as does Tom so I have confidence it has the makings of a strong 'unit'. Tom didn't have his best of games & his mis header & follow up challenge allowed the ball fall into a melee of players where there followed a ping pong of shots & blocks but any failed clearance led to the ball ending up at the Wimbledon's players feet with just a tap in from 9 yards to equalise.

Their second goal from a free kick right on the edge of the box was a goal from the moment McCormick placed the ball (we know how good his free kick taking is from his time with us), the wall was 'set up' abysmally. Given the wall was set up eight yards from Dahlberg with 5 players more or less in the centre of the goal & a player lying down behind the wall to block the ball as the wall jumped, he needn't have bothered. Rowe & (John?) peeled off to the right of the wall with Rowe a yard from the wall & John two men's space to his left there was a ready made gap between them for McCormick to execute his party piece.

There's clearly more work needed on communication in training & I've no doubt RW will address that. Once these players can begin to learn one another's games, who they can rely on to be making THAT run, who they can trust to play a one two with, who will hold the ball who will be wide they have the individual qualities to become a team & grow together as a TEAM. But it will take time, how long depends on the quality of training, trust in their own & their team mates ability & patience alongside encouragement from us, the supporters.

We still have players coming back from injury & illness plus maybe a couple of more loanees to add to the group. We lost 2-1 not 4-0. Have a little faith & trust in RW & accept we are starting from scratch. Stop knocking the owners & the management team. There are plenty of clubs out there in League 1 & some in The Championship who would gladly swap like for like.

[Filo]

I thought Cukur did we’ll considering he was up there isolated, far better than Bogle and will be a handful at this level. I thought Close was poor. Tommy Rowe is wasted at Left Back. Big error in positioning of the wall from Pontus the keeper, especially as he put himself on the side of the goal that the ball went

[DearneValleyRover]

Close really disappointed me, he was virtually invisible on the other hand Bostock looked good when he came on. Lots of work to do on the training ground is needed to mould them into a cohesive unit

[Avsuptem]

I greatly admire the positive vibes on this thread and the astute anaysis of yesterday's game. But, despite being an optimist too i have not been so worried about our prospects since the pre - JR dark days. I do not criticise the board either who have kept us alive and kicking over recent years in a responsible way but i do not swallow the season of consolidation and destination championship rhetoric either. I dont think the owners have any serious ambition to go up a division as it would require funding that cannot be self sustained from potential club revenues. I am afraid we are heading in the other direction.

[Padge_DRFC]

Barlow was awful.

[ravenrover]

Please expand, Padge

[the vicar]

You could not get a good idea of how Barlow was as it is his job to be the fox in the box, but he found himself out wide putting balls in there for others, but he needs to get in there in the danger zone

[DonnyBazR0ver]

You could not get a good idea of how Barlow was as it is his job to be the fox in the box, but he found himself out wide putting balls in there for others, but he needs to get in there in the danger zone

Yes he was having to track back more often than what you want a goalscorer to be doing.

[mpc123]

Unfair on close considering he has not trained or played that much recently.

Lots more to come from the whole team I'm sure.

[the vicar]

That’s right he had to clear a few dangerous situations first half.  We need him to be the last man up on the half way line on defending for the ball coming out to him, and in the middle on attack

[Bentley Bullet]

Did Luke McCormick use to play for us?

[rover-n-out]

A good analysis of the game from Colin C, and I concur with that, it will take time, but I saw enough today to think given game time we will start to gel.
Someone please remind me how long it took SOD to get to the playing style he wanted the team to be at. Richie has stated he wants his team to emulate the way SOD had his team playing, so judging on today's performance it's gonna take time.Patience is needed from us all I believe.

[Michael Gibson]

Barlow and gardener were shocking!!! Seaman was good and the partnership with knoyle might reap dividends down the right.

[Donnywolf]

My Dad [grhs] told me never to judge a man on one appearance

Im now a few years off catching SS and BB and I still live by it

I nearly "cracked" when seeing Herbie Kane on his debut when those around me were praising him I just said ..... My Dad told me never to judge a man on one appearance so the jury is out

5 minutes into the next game Herbie produced an ourageous bit of skill and I said f*** it 1 game and 5 minutes is long enough to judge - hes brilliant

So I will judge in a game or two as there could be some good players in there who maybe didnt play well yesterday and similarly some who flattered to deceive
 

[Harrogate Rover]

Did Luke McCormick use to play for us?

Knowing how you sometimes get players mixed up BB i think you might be thinking of Ross MacCormack and Luke McCullough.   

[Dutch Uncle]

Did Luke McCormick use to play for us?

Knowing how you sometimes get players mixed up BB i think you might be thinking of Ross MacCormack and Luke McCullough.   

IIRC we did have two youth players some years ago called Jake McCormick (ca 2012) and Joe McCormick (ca 2016)

[GazLaz]

Cukur was poor. Absolutely slow as a boat, likely to be nowhere near fitness admittedly.

[albie]

Very poor defending for both goals.

First Williams, then Anderson, made a mess of headers there to be won.
The lad who scored was offside when the pass was played (freeze frame the vid), but the situation should have been dealt with, both earlier challenges should have been won.

The wall is poorly set up, and invited the strike to the left of the keeper.
He positioned as though this was unlikely, but before it was taken I thought that is an invitation.

In attack, how many strikes on target did we manage...you don't score if you can't work the keeper!

[Campsall rover]

Did Luke McCormick use to play for us?

Knowing how you sometimes get players mixed up BB i think you might be thinking of Ross MacCormack and Luke McCullough.   

It was Colin C who said he played for us. BB was just asking the question. 
No he has not played for us. He is on loan from Chelsea as far as i  am aware.

[Bentley Bullet]

Did Luke McCormick use to play for us?

Knowing how you sometimes get players mixed up BB i think you might be thinking of Ross MacCormack and Luke McCullough.   

Ahaa! I was referring to Colic C No.3's claim that he did in a post above!

[godlike1]

For someone who couldn't get to the game or watch it some useful comment and potential seeds of some sort of hope. I'm contemplating going to Hillsborough on sat but thinking we need 10-15 games to get going this year then see where we are. Will it be a battle to survive or outside bet for playoffs?

I'm suspecting the former.

[RoversAlias]

Did Luke McCormick use to play for us?

Knowing how you sometimes get players mixed up BB i think you might be thinking of Ross MacCormack and Luke McCullough.   

It was Colin C who said he played for us. BB was just asking the question. 
No he has not played for us. He is on loan from Chelsea as far as i  am aware.

He isn't on loan, Wimbledon signed him this summer on a permanent contract. Excellent young player, he was at Bristol Rovers on loan last season.

He's never played for us, so not sure who Colin C mixed him up with.

[niteowler]

It took SOD up to boxing day at Notts Forest with a 4 1 win to come good and the rest his history !

[Chris Black come back]

It took SOD up to boxing day at Notts Forest with a 4 1 win to come good and the rest his history !

We had largely been playing very well before that result, but just couldn’t buy a win. Yesterday was not a good performance. Hopefully one to build on from though.

[pib]

Poor yesterday and no doubt AFCW deserved the result, but there were a few glimmers of hope IMO.

Seaman looked bright and was probably our best attacking player.

Dahlberg looks good. Question marks possibly with the free kick but other than that he did very well.

Smith showed some glimpses of a good player and will get better with time I’m sure.

Bostock did well when he came on and definitely made a difference.

Rowe and Knoyle both did well.

We need to improve massively though. There was no discernible pattern of play or organisation with the ball. We gave it away far too easily and never really got any control, which led to pretty much no chances created. I have to admit that I expected the tactical side to show through and thought we’d see some early signs of Wellensball but it looked more like something from the back end of last season at times.

Early days though. Players to come in hopefully, and a few to return from injury and others to gain full fitness. Hopefully those factors will generate a big improvement.

[Alickismyhero]

A good analysis of the game from Colin C, and I concur with that, it will take time, but I saw enough today to think given game time we will start to gel.
Someone please remind me how long it took SOD to get to the playing style he wanted the team to be at. Richie has stated he wants his team to emulate the way SOD had his team playing, so judging on today's performance it's gonna take time.Patience is needed from us all I believe.

Rover and out

If my memory serves me well we were playing very poorly till Christmas. I was sitting next to an employee from Bournemouth at Watford. We chattered at half time, as you do, and I said Sean's style of play is not working and I can see him reverting to a long ball game. She was adamant that Sean would not change his style of play. She was right he stuck by his style and we went on to produce probably the best results in the league in the second half of the season.

I picked up on the way Sean wanted the team to play at Luton that season. We lost, Sean took the dogs abuse from the stands, but he convinced me that this bloke is my kind of manager. My view will never change Sean is the best manager we have every had and I go back the best part of 60years.

[rover-n-out]

Thanks for your insight AMH, and I also vaguely remeber SOD and the team getting some stick on the forum saying "this style of play is just not working".
Of course, all that changed on Boxing Day at Forest with that 1-4 victory.

All in all, taking into account the time span from August to December, that's around half the season over before we saw what Sean was trying to achieve.

Let's hope Richie can achieve the same within a shorter period of time, or this forum will go into meltdown. 
Let's see where we are at Christmas eh?
Thanks once again. R&O. 

[Colin C No.3]

Thanks for your insight AMH, and I also vaguely remeber SOD and the team getting some stick on the forum saying "this style of play is just not working".
Of course, all that changed on Boxing Day at Forest with that 1-4 victory.

All in all, taking into account the time span from August to December, that's around half the season over before we saw what Sean was trying to achieve.

Let's hope Richie can achieve the same within a shorter period of time, or this forum will go into meltdown. 
Let's see where we are at Christmas eh?
Thanks once again. R&O. 

I totally agree. But we should be 'thankful' that in his podcast with Copps, Richie aspires to that kind of football. He said those days at Rovers playing under SOD were the best he'd had & performed at in his playing career. He's been 'dealt with a worst set of cards' player wise than SOD had, so he's maybe 5-0 down to start with compared with what SOD inherited player wise so c'mon, let's give the man a chance & put things & times into perspective. RW deserves that at least?

And yes hands up, I got confused with Ross McCormack/ Luke McCormick!!

[drfchound]

It took SOD up to boxing day at Notts Forest with a 4 1 win to come good and the rest his history !

That win at Forest on Boxing Day was actually 4-2.
It was of course the first season back in the Championship and we had struggled to pick up points up to then.
However, SoD had had plenty of stick from some fans before then.
His first season with us in L1 didn’t get off to the best of starts and some fans were calling for his head at that time.

[dickos1]

It took SOD up to boxing day at Notts Forest with a 4 1 win to come good and the rest his history !

That wasnt sods first season though, that was in the championship in our first season season there.
When sod first took over we weren’t very good for quite a long time