Doncaster Rovers
- Thread starter Cueball
- Start date
Oscarbon
Vital Champions League
I hope I am wrong. He simply shines in every game and is now becoming a goal machine.
ExiledViking
Vital Squad Member
Swings and roundabouts, ain't it?
There was 3 added minutes at the end of the first half - which I thought was excessive.
And then we had a 20 minute half time break.
It seems the officials we had yesterday need to go back to school.
Lazysid
Vital 1st Team Regular
20min half time was due to Doncaster playing silly buggers, it's happened a couple of times to us this season waiting for the opposition to come out.
Thupthetics
Vital Youth Team
Maybe the officials just don't understand the difference between 3 and 4.
ExiledViking
Vital Squad Member
It's because the Away changing rooms are in the middle of the East Stand.
They have to walk half the length of the Stand, to get out onto the pitch.
Tree and Crown
Vital Squad Member
The liner on the West side only looked old enough to be at school, probably on a YTS or whatever they call it these days.
ExiledViking
Vital Squad Member
30 goals in his career so far, with exactly half of those scored for us.
Sounds like we're doing something right, doesn't it?
Made in Wigan
Vital Champions League
They walk that distance at Craven Cottage or Turf Moor and don’t seem to need an extra 5 minutes at half time. I saw Darwika raising this with the idiot in charge but he seemed clueless. Like their time wasting from early they then came out and did warm up drills.
Covid restrictions are now eased, so I’m not sure why the away changing room is not yet in use.
jeffs right
Vital Football Hero
This is do stupid. Why on earth opposition sides can not use the normal changing rooms is daft even if it's some sort of Covid thing.
jeffs right
Vital Football Hero
This is not the first time a player puts on his magic Wigan boots and miraculously changes.
Think Heskey, Bramble, Nzog, Powell.
ExiledViking
Vital Squad Member
I suppose it's to cover the club's back, more than anything else.
ExiledViking
Vital Squad Member
To be fair, Powell did score a few for Crewe before going to Man Utd.
His was more of an attitude (and injury) issue.
runcornfan1978
Vital Squad Member
Where we are is a team still in the process of gelling. And I believe Leam still does not know his best team &/or formation yet. I honestly don't care if we batter teams or not irrespective of where they are in the league. Whether you win 2 - 1 or 8 - 0 against your opposition, you still only get 3 points for it at the end of the day.
I'm just over the moon at the moment where we stand as I was expecting us to be around mid to lower half of the table at this stage.
The_Pon
Vital Reserves Team
I think the general atmosphere around the club helps a lot of players. Staff, fans, and squadmates alike tend to buy into the family culture the club seems to embrace: we're (most of us) more patient with players than a lot of clubs, where people are on players' backs if they don't hit the ground running and impress from day one. That takes pressure off players, knowing that the club and those around the club will continue to back them if it takes a bit of time to settle into the squad and way of playing.
Players who don't feel under pressure can play more freely and some players really benefit from that.
Some obviously don't... some players need pressure to thrive, and so not everyone we sign makes a success of it. Players like Keane, Powell etc. who've had a hard time at former clubs, though, are the ones who probably thrive most at Latics, since they'll take a while to fully get the monkey off their back and re-find their mojo; we give them the time and space to do that where other clubs don't; we see a lot of players 'bounce back' at Latics, and I'm convinced that the club's atmosphere has a lot to do with it.
TRUE BELIEVER
Vital Football Hero
He was at the game, saw him before kick off and after the final whistle in a grey tracksuit along with Aasgaard and other members of the squad not in the team.
king_dezeeuw06
Vital Champions League
It wasn't a sexy game but I thought it was the first different test we've had in the league from playing top of the table sides and it was always going to show us something about this group.
I think we showed signs of evolution in our play - still far too many long diagonal balls from Watts losing posession but I think Naylor and Cousins both showed a lot more for the ball and Max and Darikwa were pushing higher than in previous games that made playing out a lot easier and meant it was less long balls overall. Hopefully we'll continue to do this more and more as those long balls to Wyke's head often get lost set the opposition on the counter. We are a bit crap at long ball and much better at football so I thought there was signs of progress in that regard. Wyke is battling and working hard but he's not a target man and we need to stop asking him to be a Kieffer Moore when he's more of a Grigg type poacher. It's doing him and our other players a disservice. I'm not against long ball if it's effective but if you look at the number of times it turns over posession to the opposition rather than us keeping it I think it's probably more helpful to our opposition to look for it so often than it is too us. It's exactly what happened with Moore and we had to learn the hard way that even though he was a miles better target man than Wyke going long can work if mixed in with other good play but constant 50/50 ball wasn't effective. Thankfully it's not been as costly a learning curve in L1 but we certainly need to improve on our overall play if we want to really make the rest of the league sweat.
It was the first time we conceded the first goal and the first time we conceded in open play - it's the type of physiological / mentality test that many some promising sides struggle with - but our response was instantaneous and it showed good character and will build vital confidence that we can come back from setbacks. Against Sunderland we completely capitulated after we conceded but that wasn't the case yesterday so hopefully another sign of progress.
It was the first time we played a side who are in theory an easy opponent and we all know in football complacency so easily sneaks in and the pressure of being the favourites results in lacklustre displays where the inferior quality side outworks the better players. But we went into this game with just as much intensity and work rate as we have other games, there was no complancency and that is a very good quality to have. Dare I say that is what wins you titles.
Our game management in the later stages of the game was imperfect but significantly improved from our previous outings. We kept the ball pretty well killing time, dragging the Doncaster players all over the pitch to mentally and physically wear them down while saving our energy and showed more patients to find openings rather than being rushed into posession losing long balls all the time. Another sign of progress.
Like all the games we've played this season and got positive results we've not played that great football, but we've looked fitter, more organised, more physical, battled and worked harder than our opponents. We've kind of played like a team with low quality players who make up for what they lack in pure spirit and graft - yet we're actually more the team with superior quality who are the ones who don't work as hard due to their talent. That is a very good sign in my book as it suggests the mentality and attitude are right and with the ability we have you have to be hopeful that the standard of football will improve as time passes. The talent we have and the mentality we've shown so far should be a promotion chasing combination. Football is a funny game so you cant take anything for granted but if we can retain our spirit and refine the tactics to making the most out of what natural talent we can stay in the top 2. We have had a good start of the season despite not really playing much good football and got results by more blood and thunder than quality - so imagine what we could do if we start to play some good football.
It goes without saying the miscommunication for their goal was a mess but other than that the defence was very solid. Whatmough is a absolute beast at this level, Watts has been very impressive and unlucky not to score a couple, Darikwa looks so good at left back and Power's set piece delivery has picked up where it left off from his last spell - excellent. He's clearly showed signs he's not quite a natural defender but I think he's bringing a lot to the position you don't get from natural defenders. I think he's definitely our new right back rather than makeshift.
Naylor is so strong defensively and Cousins I don't think has really shone yet but has been quietly efficient and growing in influence.
McClean is like a man possessed and his movement and work ethic have improved us. Lang struggles to get in the game due to the long balls and clearly isn't a natural right winger but he is always a threat when he gets the ball - there's a lot more to come from him. Keane is like a harder working Nick Powell at this level - looks too good for this league - Richardson deserves a lot of credit for getting so much out of him when everyone else failed. But I've watched the video back a few times and I thought his winner was fractionally offside. But with some of the other key calls going against us I think that it was maybe our luck balanced out.
Wyke did very well for Keane's winner and worked so hard for the team but he lost the majority of long balls played into him and was out muscled in his hold up play a few times. We're still not playing to his strengths but he is still a physical presence who is occupying defenders which is valuable but he needs good service and at the moment he's largely feeding off scraps. I'm happy with his effort but he needs a lot more support than the team are giving him at the moment.
Still plenty of room for improvement but a lot of very encouraging early signs and progress is slowly being made. Overall I think everyone knows we aren't the finished product yet so continuing to pick up wins while we are working out how to play to our best is excellent. You need to be able to find ways to win when you aren't at your best if your aim is promotio and we've been doing that so far.
I think we showed signs of evolution in our play - still far too many long diagonal balls from Watts losing posession but I think Naylor and Cousins both showed a lot more for the ball and Max and Darikwa were pushing higher than in previous games that made playing out a lot easier and meant it was less long balls overall. Hopefully we'll continue to do this more and more as those long balls to Wyke's head often get lost set the opposition on the counter. We are a bit crap at long ball and much better at football so I thought there was signs of progress in that regard. Wyke is battling and working hard but he's not a target man and we need to stop asking him to be a Kieffer Moore when he's more of a Grigg type poacher. It's doing him and our other players a disservice. I'm not against long ball if it's effective but if you look at the number of times it turns over posession to the opposition rather than us keeping it I think it's probably more helpful to our opposition to look for it so often than it is too us. It's exactly what happened with Moore and we had to learn the hard way that even though he was a miles better target man than Wyke going long can work if mixed in with other good play but constant 50/50 ball wasn't effective. Thankfully it's not been as costly a learning curve in L1 but we certainly need to improve on our overall play if we want to really make the rest of the league sweat.
It was the first time we conceded the first goal and the first time we conceded in open play - it's the type of physiological / mentality test that many some promising sides struggle with - but our response was instantaneous and it showed good character and will build vital confidence that we can come back from setbacks. Against Sunderland we completely capitulated after we conceded but that wasn't the case yesterday so hopefully another sign of progress.
It was the first time we played a side who are in theory an easy opponent and we all know in football complacency so easily sneaks in and the pressure of being the favourites results in lacklustre displays where the inferior quality side outworks the better players. But we went into this game with just as much intensity and work rate as we have other games, there was no complancency and that is a very good quality to have. Dare I say that is what wins you titles.
Our game management in the later stages of the game was imperfect but significantly improved from our previous outings. We kept the ball pretty well killing time, dragging the Doncaster players all over the pitch to mentally and physically wear them down while saving our energy and showed more patients to find openings rather than being rushed into posession losing long balls all the time. Another sign of progress.
Like all the games we've played this season and got positive results we've not played that great football, but we've looked fitter, more organised, more physical, battled and worked harder than our opponents. We've kind of played like a team with low quality players who make up for what they lack in pure spirit and graft - yet we're actually more the team with superior quality who are the ones who don't work as hard due to their talent. That is a very good sign in my book as it suggests the mentality and attitude are right and with the ability we have you have to be hopeful that the standard of football will improve as time passes. The talent we have and the mentality we've shown so far should be a promotion chasing combination. Football is a funny game so you cant take anything for granted but if we can retain our spirit and refine the tactics to making the most out of what natural talent we can stay in the top 2. We have had a good start of the season despite not really playing much good football and got results by more blood and thunder than quality - so imagine what we could do if we start to play some good football.
It goes without saying the miscommunication for their goal was a mess but other than that the defence was very solid. Whatmough is a absolute beast at this level, Watts has been very impressive and unlucky not to score a couple, Darikwa looks so good at left back and Power's set piece delivery has picked up where it left off from his last spell - excellent. He's clearly showed signs he's not quite a natural defender but I think he's bringing a lot to the position you don't get from natural defenders. I think he's definitely our new right back rather than makeshift.
Naylor is so strong defensively and Cousins I don't think has really shone yet but has been quietly efficient and growing in influence.
McClean is like a man possessed and his movement and work ethic have improved us. Lang struggles to get in the game due to the long balls and clearly isn't a natural right winger but he is always a threat when he gets the ball - there's a lot more to come from him. Keane is like a harder working Nick Powell at this level - looks too good for this league - Richardson deserves a lot of credit for getting so much out of him when everyone else failed. But I've watched the video back a few times and I thought his winner was fractionally offside. But with some of the other key calls going against us I think that it was maybe our luck balanced out.
Wyke did very well for Keane's winner and worked so hard for the team but he lost the majority of long balls played into him and was out muscled in his hold up play a few times. We're still not playing to his strengths but he is still a physical presence who is occupying defenders which is valuable but he needs good service and at the moment he's largely feeding off scraps. I'm happy with his effort but he needs a lot more support than the team are giving him at the moment.
Still plenty of room for improvement but a lot of very encouraging early signs and progress is slowly being made. Overall I think everyone knows we aren't the finished product yet so continuing to pick up wins while we are working out how to play to our best is excellent. You need to be able to find ways to win when you aren't at your best if your aim is promotio and we've been doing that so far.
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I’m enjoying the away players having to make that long walk on and off the pitch. It’s our home and we need to make things uncomfortable for the visitors. Also knowing they are directly under the East Stand, I bet they hear all the fans above in the concourse which can’t be helpful to get focused, not to mention the lesser facilities they’ll have. Knowing those Bolton players will have been sat in the dressing room after the penalties listening to Bolton get battered echoing above them makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
LaticsA
Vital Youth Team
Donny knew what our game plan would be. But, so do the rest of us anyways
https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.u...s-in-doncaster-rovers-defeat-at-wigan-3380110
https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.u...s-in-doncaster-rovers-defeat-at-wigan-3380110
