Let's talk about the Mansfield Town game

[Padge_DRFC]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Any one of them bar Faal and Biggins tonight. Rightly brought off. Should have brought on Hurst tonight though.

[StocksArmy]

Credit where its due tonight, the defence looked much more stable. Olowu and Bailey never put a foot wrong. A propper team performance which makes recent weeks even more baffling. Still dont believe for a single second this group can be more consistent but, it was a very good effort.

[ScillyRover]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Dare I say it? … Olowu. Didn’t put a foot wrong and I’m normally one of his biggest critics.

[Redroy]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Difficult. Moly ran himself into ground, Olowu excellent, Ironside a f**king unit and touch as always. But everything goes through Close, so MOM tonight for me. Was excellent

[Butchers Red]

Pride restored - very well done to the lads.

Olowu / Biggins - both showed balls and class tonight

[Paul Simpson]

Brilliant!! Why has it taken this long to put in a performance like that! Thankfully we’ve finally ditched the 3 at the back/wb set up which clearly doesn’t suit this set of players. Well done to the lads for that battling performance

[ncRover]

How did we set up? Looked like 4 at back but what about rest of side? Worked a treat whatever it was.

4-3-3

Olowu and Bailey as centre backs so much better for not having Anderson to care for. Senior outstanding defensively and Sterry good going forward and linking with Moly (who was also dangerous further forward).

Close in the deep midfield role everything went through him.

Ironside in a sort of roberto firmino role? Was class whatever it was.

Only dodgy thing was asking Faal to do defensive work on the left side.

[BillyStubbsTears]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Bailey was superb. Ironside close behind.

[BillyStubbsTears]

And yes, Close played very well.

[Sammy Chung was King]

We need to turn that draw into a win in the next game. It’s all about consistency.

[RoversInSpain]

That was excellent from the team tonight. On the front foot for long periods, everyone had energy and fight.
More of this and we’ve got a chance to improve and develop.

[Filo]

I think a new forward may well take Faal’s place in that formation

[scawsby steve]

The performance of the season for me. God knows where it came from.

The thing now is consistency. The lads know now they've got it in them, which in itself should boost their confidence.

Everyone was much braver on the ball tonight, and please, GM, stick to a back 4 for the remaining games.

[ravenrover]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Any one of them bar Faal and Biggins tonight. Rightly brought off. Should have brought on Hurst tonight though.

Biggins was excellent tonight, don't know what game you were watching

[drfchound]

What a nice surprise.
I’ve been out with the family tonight and didn’t get to follow the game.
Not been home long and am catching up on what happened and it seems that we have done the biz tonight.
Looking forward to the MKD game now and just hope we can pick up a win to make this point a valuable one.
Good that the bottom two lost too.

[ForsolongaRover]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Dare I say it? … Olowu. Didn’t put a foot wrong and I’m normally one of his biggest critics.

It was an entire team transformed and playing for the manager once again as well as each other. Olowu was a man transformed, so composed, passing the ball immaculately. Perhaps he does play better without Anderson beside him. Close had the opportunity to show why some people think he is so good, but he did not engage as much as he might have done and played it safe most of the time. In contrast, Biggins involved himself a lot, but made some bad decisions and it was apparent that being on the ball and sustained attacking was something most of the players weren’t used to and perhaps they don’t know what to expect from each other. The team-player of the match for Rovers was Ironside, always working hard, and never selfish.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Maybe times up on the back 5 now. Never helped us defend better and if anything the more defenders you have the more it brings the opposition on to you

[scawsby steve]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Dare I say it? … Olowu. Didn’t put a foot wrong and I’m normally one of his biggest critics.

It was an entire team transformed and playing for the manager once again as well as each other. Olowu was a man transformed, so composed, passing the ball immaculately. Perhaps he does play better without Anderson beside him. Close had the opportunity to show why some people think he is so good, but he did not engage as much as he might have done and played it safe most of the time. In contrast, Biggins involved himself a lot, but made some bad decisions and it was apparent that being on the ball and sustained attacking was something most of the players weren’t used to and perhaps they don’t know what to expect from each other. The team-player of the match for Rovers was Ironside, always working hard, and never selfish.

What did you think of Louis when he came on?

[Paul Simpson]

I recall Olowu being good in a cb 2 pairing and was pleased he accepted a renewed contract . He always looked solid and dependable previously when playing in a 2 imo. He looked good in games with Ollie younger as I recall. Well done Joe!!

[albie]

Ollie Younger....forgotten man!

Is he fit yet, and worth a deal until the end of the season to prove his fitness?
Olowu with Younger is a better pairing than with Anderson/Wood IMO.

[pib]

That was much more like it!

A very respectable performance and result.

I think the system change helped a lot, but our whole outlook was chalk and cheese from the Notts County performance. We showed a lot of tenacity, energy, got the ball down and played some decent stuff at times, and I’ve come away from the ground thinking that we could’ve nicked a win if we’d had a bit more quality at the top end of the pitch.

Fair play to the team and GM. More performances like that and we won’t be worrying about going down.

Senior, Bailey, Olowu and Sterry all played really well. Molyneux and Ironside were good. Midfield 3 worked really hard.

Can’t complain at all with that. Just a shame we could only muster under 900 to witness it live.

[scawsby steve]

Ollie Younger....forgotten man!

Is he fit yet, and worth a deal until the end of the season to prove his fitness?
Olowu with Younger is a better pairing than with Anderson/Wood IMO.

The rumour is that we're signing a young Irish CB, Albie.

[danumdon]

Fantastic effort from all the team tonight from what was a really enjoyable match to watch.

Everyone bar none was up for this game so a big well done to the management for getting the players into the right mindset, this was a massive game for us as it would of been very easy to roll over and take a beating but the team came together tonight and showed the guts and determination to do well that we've all been desperate to see.

As for the game, it was ironic that what turned out to be the worst official we've had this year allowed the game to flow enough for it to be a belter, I'm still none the wiser how he chalked out our early goal? if it was for foul play then you would never see a goal again with this berk in control, very poor. It must of been playing on his mind soon after as he then evened it up by not giving them a stonewall penalty, if that had been for us we would of all gone ballistic. Some of his interpretations for fouls, advantage and time management were just plain bizarre!

As for the lads really difficult to pick out any individuals as i thought the whole team stepped up but Ironside was immense in his work rate and desire, a special mention to our much maligned defence should also be noted, they all performed very well, Bailey and Olowu stood firm against a much vaulted forward line, both full backs worked tirelessly throughout with great link up play between Sterry and Moly, i said earlier in the week that i thought Sterry would be good for the whole match and he stood up well, a real shame he's been out for so long as i'm quite sure if he'd played the majority of games we would of benefitted massively.

We now need to think about the latter part of this season post transfer window, if we can get a couple of players in who can improve us playing a 433 as tonight then we should finish far stronger, its looked like GM didn't think he had the personnel for this formation, a couple of injuries may have just saved our season.

If we can reproduce the intensity, fight and determination that we expended on this game for the rest of the season we will be on the right path to kick on, well done all.

[ForsolongaRover]

who's everyone's MOTM?

Dare I say it? … Olowu. Didn’t put a foot wrong and I’m normally one of his biggest critics.

It was an entire team transformed and playing for the manager once again as well as each other. Olowu was a man transformed, so composed, passing the ball immaculately. Perhaps he does play better without Anderson beside him. Close had the opportunity to show why some people think he is so good, but he did not engage as much as he might have done and played it safe most of the time. In contrast, Biggins involved himself a lot, but made some bad decisions and it was apparent that being on the ball and sustained attacking was something most of the players weren’t used to and perhaps they don’t know what to expect from each other. The team-player of the match for Rovers was Ironside, always working hard, and never selfish.

What did you think of Louis when he came on?

I worried a bit, but he was not seriously tested. It’s very obvious that he is coached to remain on his line as is Lawlor and whether it suits either of them is questionable. It allows opposition set-pieces to be planned with the certainly that the keeper won’t challenge unless the ball is right under the bar. With Lawlor seemingly vulnerable to possibly persistent injury problems, there seems to be a case for a third senior goalkeeper. And that’s as positive as I’m going to be.

[roversdude]

Funny how in the box and Michael shaw haven’t commented (well in the box commented that we were getting beat)

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I thought it was an all round team effort. The midfield and back line were composed enough by doing the basics well enough to give Mansfield alot to think about.

Senior, Bailey, Olowu and Sterry performed very well. There was sufficient composure there to give us a  bit of a platform. Close was busy as usual, and whilst Biggins is a sandwich short of a picnic, he did some good things tonight.

Maybe a bit miffed that Faal played a wider role and struggled to make a mark on the game, you wonder whether his head is in the right place.

Overall, a very pleasing result and performance to stop the rot.

[Arsenal Of The North]

Makes a big difference when you’re not carrying 3-4 players through a game! Much more enjoyable last night and nice to see we had a threat at the top end.

Olowu best game for a while, no Anderson so make of that what you will

The two full backs really helped with control and finding passes forward.

Midfield, Rowe and biggo much more improved, taking passes to feet and turning and playing through the thirds

Molly had a blinder, the ability to get him self between player and ball to nick the ball back really helped setting up our attacks, makes me wonder if we have held him back playing him as a wing back most of the season.

Ironside- man of the match. What a man what a player!


Only question I have, is why did he bring kulaya on over hurst? Something has gone on behind the scenes I would imagine. Shame the little flicks around the corner last night would have been perfect for hurst to link off Ironside

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

It's a funny one with Hurst. Probably our best player last night but he's not done anything much since he returned from injury.  I suspect McCann wanted a more physical presence hence Kuleya came on.

I also agree on Biggins. Let's be honest his passing is poor for this level but he ran his socks off and I'll never criticise that.  Very unlucky not to score aswell.  I thought we looked way better when Rowe moved further left, he had a decent game last night.

Please stick with 4-3-3

[bigal]

The performance of the season for me. God knows where it came from.

The thing now is consistency. The lads know now they've got it in them, which in itself should boost their confidence.

Everyone was much braver on the ball tonight, and please, GM, stick to a back 4 for the remaining games.

[wilts rover]

It's a funny one with Hurst. Probably our best player last night but he's not done anything much since he returned from injury.  I suspect McCann wanted a more physical presence hence Kuleya came on.

I also agree on Biggins. Let's be honest his passing is poor for this level but he ran his socks off and I'll never criticise that.  Very unlucky not to score aswell.  I thought we looked way better when Rowe moved further left, he had a decent game last night.

Please stick with 4-3-3

According to Grant in his interview we didn't play 4-3-3. It was a diamond.