Swindon town V Bristol Rovers official matchday thread

[JOHNNY REEVES]

i blame the early kick off.

[suttonred]

We'd be giving out far worse stick if we had won 4-0 and 3-0. Accept we were second best both times , and move on.

[Bennett]

gk - what he had to do he did badly (1st goal he was flat footed, wall setting for 3rd, palming ball to 4th)
full backs - couldn't pass, tackle, time or judge a run all day
centrebacks - looked very exposed, always looked scared with a fast player against them
wingers - tried hard but the lack of fullback assistance forwards meant they were exposed and had to just lump rubbish balls into the box
centre mid - douglas looked good enough, ferry...not so
strikers - no decent ball, when it did stick with them they were completely isolated.

subs were strange, we brought on ritchie and he did little, pericard looked ok holding the ball up but was again isolated.

how sheehan stayed on is beyond me, how he kept taking our set pieces was a bigger mystery


i'm pissed off but still retain some hope for the season

[sonicyouth]

we wasted our chances early in the first half, rovers punished us by taking their chances and as a consequence we drifted out of the game and rovers took over and played pretty well. in the second half we came out looking a bit livelier and then totally died after they scored their fourth.

a superlative display of piss wizardry.


(i'm most pissed off at paying to watch that, blah)

[Luci]

Come on Luci, be a good sport and admit they've given us a couple of proper beatings. Fair play to 'em (through gritted teeth).

They have.  But they're a long way off being promotion contenders.  Just injecting some realism!

[studs]

As long as we go on a good run like we did the last time they beat us i dont care! we are going up we are going up!!!

[Processed Beats]

Poor performance all round, but Rovers weren't necessarily amazing today They basically took their chances, which is what we've been going on about all season.

What is it with Lucas and free-kicks? By my counting thats the third or fourth that he's conceded now, admittedly he isnt the tallest but our walls and defense are
Full backs didnt link up with their wide men well, which left us flat and fairly one-dimensional. I thought Ward had a mare, but did show glimpses. Douglas and Ferry were alright, JPM wouldnt have been my MOM though. Austin and Billy were also kept out of the game by their podgy centre-halfs, but we did create chances and probably should've scored them but for some decent goalkeeping.

All in all, a negative scorline, but not the worst performance in the world. We need Milwall and Huddersfield to drop points today, and these next four and five games are pivotal for our promotion push. I'll be happy with five points from the next three away

[Rustle]

Just got in,I thought we were by far the better side and still trying to work out how we lost that game,had sheehans free kick not hit the post and rolled along the line i think it would have been a different story,they score a goal against the run of play and the rest is history.

Im not to worried tho it was one of those games where everything fell in the oppositions laps and they took their chances.It just wasn't our day and i dont believe they wanted it more either,we started brightly enough but im wondering if we should have played ourselves in rather than go at it like a bull in a china shop style.

Just maybe we was a bit to eager.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

We didn't deserve to lose that 4-0. 2 goals against the run of play, 1 free kick that shouldn't have been given and crap defending for the other. We must have had more shots on goal than them. Really strange game that. Started really well. Sheehan hit the woodwork from a free-kick as usual and then Charlie missed a great chance.

After the 1st went in though our heads dropped. That was the killer for me. We didn't clear our lines from a corner and their lad has managed to turn and slot in for the 2nd and then it's an uphill struggle from there. I don't know what the free-kick was for really. Seemed to be given for nothing. Good execution from Lines and it's game over at half time. We still had chances even at 4-0 but it just wasn't happening. We had one of those games where we just defended poorly and didn't get the luck in front of goal.

Douglas played well. Ferry and JP were alright. Sheehan had a really poor game with poor distribution, no support for the strikers, Ward was marked out of the game (Rovers done their homework on us again) and Manks and JP didn't link as well as they have done. First off day i've seen Cuthbert have at CB. He was off the pace today and couldn't deal with Kuffour.

Well i'm shocked at the scoreline but I guess the run had to go at some point. We need to do what we have done after previous defeats and go on another run.

[axs]

That was wovers cup final, let them enjoy it.

[nailseagas]

We'd be giving out far worse stick if we had won 4-0 and 3-0. Accept we were second best both times , and move on.

Fair play to you! its just a bit of banter and i would fully expect it back the other way...

personally think we will finsh 8th or 9th & you lot 7th or 6th!! depends on how both teams take thiss result we have some so say esaier games to come ( exeter, yovile, tranmere, southend) .

[Batch]

Bloody odd game that. We controlled most of it, and whilst far from peppering their goal created a few chances. Sheehan hitting the post, Austin's shot being well saved, Paynter hitting the post, McGovern's (?) drive being well saved.

Yet defensively we were a shambles. Greer getting done for pace by Kuffour and no cover on. Good finish though. Ward hashing a clearance. Ferry giving away the free kick and god knows what happened with the fourth. Fair play, Rovers too their chances well, scoring our from six.

Looking objectively it wasn't a 4-0 type of game. And we created a few chances despite not scoring for 2 games now.

But I don't want to look objectively today. We got dicked by Rovers. Again. It hurts.

Season defining spell coming up now. No need for panic yet!

[Bennett]

oh one more rant - the stupid bookings we picked up at the end for ridiculous challenges was pathetic.

if you want to show some fight mr sheehan try when we're in touching distance of the other team

[Spud]

Rovers were the better team after the first 20 mins & deserved to win.

Absolute shocking performance, crap defence, crap service to the strikers & no fight in the team.

[DV]

That was odd.

First half Rovers went forward about 3 times all against the run of play and scored 3 (well taken finishes)

Second half, they naturally sat back and wasted time, went forward for the first time and scored.

They must have scored 4 times from 5 shots at that point

I didnt even think they were that good generally. It was their clinical finisher and that was the difference.

We probably had more possesion, more shots and most of the game was played in our final 3rd.

14 corners ffs