Smells Like Kean Spirit
Senior Member
Only plus today is that Travis starting to look like his old self. Otherwise very frustrating today.
-
NEXT GAME:no idea
Sometime in August
Kick off unknown pm
No idea where
Definitely the Championship
QPR ‘Hoopoe’s’ v Rovers: 6th February 2021
- Thread starter Barmitzvah Boy
- Start date
Old Darwen Blue
Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
How on earth did we lose that, qpr are crap.
Wilpshire Blue
Senior Member
Don't let women lead you astray
Smells Like Kean Spirit
Senior Member
Fast women and slow horses ODB...Don't let women lead you astray
Wilpshire Blue
Senior Member
Smells Like Kean Spirit
Senior Member
Starting to look like our form and results depend either on the month or the moon phase. 
How many times have we heard the phrase "If you don't take your chances you'll get beaten?" Well it was perfectly illustrated today. A combination of profligate finishing, good defending and goalkeeping, careless passing, a post and Lady Luck all combined to keep the Rovers score at a big fat NIL. Sure QPR started well and could have taken the lead via our Old Boy Todd Kane who blazed wide when he should really have at least forced Kaminsky into a save, but from 30 minutes on the Rovers were the team most likely to bring home the bacon today. Fair play to QPR who harried and chased, never allowed us to relax and did carry a threat going forward. At times it was end to end and made for an enthralling contest, albeit a little blood and thunder and short of real quality.
As so frequently happens a horrible scruffy goal can decide the outcome and so it was today. A goalmouth scramble from a somewhat generous free kick saw Lenihan head the ball against the back of Barbet and fall kindly for him (Barbet) to lay it back to centre half Cameron whose half hearted shot cannoned of a few legs before reaching Jarred Branthwaite who stretched out one of his telescopic legs and diverted the shot (which I believed to be missing anyway) directly back to the feet of Barbet who side footed the scrappiest of goals inside Kaminsky's right hand post. At the time this was a hammer blow as the Rovers had been looking like the team most likely to score.
Cue the usual by now 3 substitutions, newbie Harwood-Belllis, Lewis Holtby and Bradley Dack came on with Nyambe, Davenport and Rothwell withdrawn from the action. Last week the multiple sub tactic worked a treat, this week it had the opposite effect. Harwood- Bellis looked like what he is a raw kid, although tbf he's hardly had chance to rem his teammates names and make any position his own as yet, Bradley Dack hardly had a touch whilst Lewis Holtby lasted just a dozen or so minutes before he was injured after being caught dawdling on the ball on the edge of our penalty area, and had to be replaced by Ben Brereton. By then Gallagher had also been replaced by Dolan. Was it QPR by performing a turtle act by pulling 6 men along the back line or was it the Rovers by now in a disjointed formation that bogged our attacking threat down? I'm not sure but from the substitutions on the Rovers didn't really ever look like scoring.
One thing that I think we can all agree on was perfectly illustrated today. When a team sits back in defence the Rovers seem at their worst threat wise whilst our best and most effective attacks are when we hit teams on the break. These things cannot be arranged of course but going forward it is imo imperative that we score first. Do that and we can pick any team off that pushed forward and leaves space at the back. The trick is to turn the defenders around to face their own goals.
Kaminsky 7 Cut out a few of QPR's hopeful crosses and played his now usual role as sweeperkeeper . Just a point and no doubt he's instructed to begin our breakaways by getting the ball upfield asap but on occasion when we are under the cosh, keeping hold of the ball and dawdling with it might serve to take the sting out of our opponents. First 15 minutes of this match QPR were hitting us with all they have got and we were struggling to keep the ball and appeared to be intent on giving possession straight back to them.
Nyambe... 5 Caught very cold at the start of this match and played like he was half asleep. Roasted down the wing more than once in those opening minutes and according to the ifollow team was getting another roasting from Tony Mowbray on the touch line.
Lenihan... 7 A strong game for Darragh. He got his head onto just about everything that came his way.
Branthwaite ... 7 Another solid performance from the 18 year old loanee. This kid is looking better and better each week. Was caught out late on by attempting to beat his a QPR striker on the half way line with no one behind him. He recovered but he could have been left very red faced. It's still a learning curve for him though.
Bell.... 5 Reminded us all why Mowbray has been in such a rush to replace him. A nervous and jittery display which he cannot seem to conquer.
Rothwell... 6 Put himself about in the middle but every time Arma sped past his defender down the left and crossed or pulled the ball back Joe was nowhere to be seen. Elliot spewed a glorious chance, Davenport and Gallagher also missed harder opportunities but the guy who really should be at the edge of the box is Rothwell. Also we never saw one of his trademark runs from deep today.
Davenport... 7 Solid midfield display. Booked harshly early doors for what was effectively a collision. If he'd stayed down, clutched his head and pretended a head injury I'm pretty sure he'd have got away with the yellow. A bit more experience and he might. Hit a screamer from outside the box only to see it clear the bar.
Travis... 8 Best game back since his injury. He was all over the pitch and for the first time looked confidant on the ball and was timing his tackles well. More of the same Lewis please.
Elliot... 5 I've no idea what the conditions of his loan are but I'd say this lad who isn't 18 for a couple of months desperately needs resting. If he did anything good today I must have missed it. His dead ball kicks were poor and he was guilty of the miss of the match. Probably easier than Kane's for QPR but Todd Kane isn't supposed to be a future Liverpool superstar is he?
Gallagher... 6 Solid enough game from Big Sam. He's never going to be a lethal finisher is he? He's never going to be as good as Danny Graham with his back to goal either. But then again we all knew that when TM agreed to give Southampton £5m quid for him.
Armstrong... 7 Poor old Arma. He blazed away on occasions and failed to hit the target but on the 3 occasions that he was on the nail either Dieng pulling off two super saves, a defender's desperate lunge to block a definite goal or the near post conspired to thwart him. Today he could easily have scored two and must have been frustrated not to as his main rival Ivan Toney has now hit 5 in a week and is leaving him standing. Unfortunately football is like that and sometimes the more you try the harder to score it gets. On the plus side he was skinning his rather tardy marker at will, that is until TM for some odd reason replaced him down the left with Brereton! FFS either leave him there and concentrate on getting people into the box in support or at the very least play Dolan down that side. Moving Armstrong inside with QPR packing the centre of defence effectively ended his threat.
Subs
Dack (Rothwell 62) 5 Had very little influence on the proceedings and was caught offside to end a promising move.
Harwood-Bellis (Nyambe 62) 5 Seemed to have been thrown on without any instructions on where to play and what to do. If he had instructions he didn't adhere to them.
Holtby (davenport 62) 6 Another who was having not much influence on proceedings. Only lasted less than 15 minutes before injury forced him to make way for Brererton. Shame tbh because he'll prob miss the PNE game on Friday and at Deepdale I made him MoM.
Dolan... (Gallagher 74) 6 Big mistake here as TM obviously instructed Armstrong to get in the middle after his pace and trickery had the upper hand down the left side, struck me that Dolan should have been the one pushed out wide left.
Brereton (Holtby 78) 5 Never got into the game. Managed to do a 'BB' on the touchline to give QPR a throw in by frustratingly getting his feet mixed up.
Tony Mowbray... 4 A poor match by the manager. Sent out a team that simply didn't compete for 15 minutes and could easily have been behind. His substitutions and subsequent tactics were abysmal and served mainly to end our second half threat which until the 60th minute had been quite considerable.
Referee Tony Harrington... 5 Did OK but a little too fussy for my liking. When Refs hand out cautions and free kicks too easily early in the match they make a rod for their own backs and have difficulty letting similar events go unpunished later in the game.
Grief! I can't tell you how much better I like writing this stuff after a win!
How many times have we heard the phrase "If you don't take your chances you'll get beaten?" Well it was perfectly illustrated today. A combination of profligate finishing, good defending and goalkeeping, careless passing, a post and Lady Luck all combined to keep the Rovers score at a big fat NIL. Sure QPR started well and could have taken the lead via our Old Boy Todd Kane who blazed wide when he should really have at least forced Kaminsky into a save, but from 30 minutes on the Rovers were the team most likely to bring home the bacon today. Fair play to QPR who harried and chased, never allowed us to relax and did carry a threat going forward. At times it was end to end and made for an enthralling contest, albeit a little blood and thunder and short of real quality.
As so frequently happens a horrible scruffy goal can decide the outcome and so it was today. A goalmouth scramble from a somewhat generous free kick saw Lenihan head the ball against the back of Barbet and fall kindly for him (Barbet) to lay it back to centre half Cameron whose half hearted shot cannoned of a few legs before reaching Jarred Branthwaite who stretched out one of his telescopic legs and diverted the shot (which I believed to be missing anyway) directly back to the feet of Barbet who side footed the scrappiest of goals inside Kaminsky's right hand post. At the time this was a hammer blow as the Rovers had been looking like the team most likely to score.
Cue the usual by now 3 substitutions, newbie Harwood-Belllis, Lewis Holtby and Bradley Dack came on with Nyambe, Davenport and Rothwell withdrawn from the action. Last week the multiple sub tactic worked a treat, this week it had the opposite effect. Harwood- Bellis looked like what he is a raw kid, although tbf he's hardly had chance to rem his teammates names and make any position his own as yet, Bradley Dack hardly had a touch whilst Lewis Holtby lasted just a dozen or so minutes before he was injured after being caught dawdling on the ball on the edge of our penalty area, and had to be replaced by Ben Brereton. By then Gallagher had also been replaced by Dolan. Was it QPR by performing a turtle act by pulling 6 men along the back line or was it the Rovers by now in a disjointed formation that bogged our attacking threat down? I'm not sure but from the substitutions on the Rovers didn't really ever look like scoring.
One thing that I think we can all agree on was perfectly illustrated today. When a team sits back in defence the Rovers seem at their worst threat wise whilst our best and most effective attacks are when we hit teams on the break. These things cannot be arranged of course but going forward it is imo imperative that we score first. Do that and we can pick any team off that pushed forward and leaves space at the back. The trick is to turn the defenders around to face their own goals.
Kaminsky 7 Cut out a few of QPR's hopeful crosses and played his now usual role as sweeperkeeper . Just a point and no doubt he's instructed to begin our breakaways by getting the ball upfield asap but on occasion when we are under the cosh, keeping hold of the ball and dawdling with it might serve to take the sting out of our opponents. First 15 minutes of this match QPR were hitting us with all they have got and we were struggling to keep the ball and appeared to be intent on giving possession straight back to them.
Nyambe... 5 Caught very cold at the start of this match and played like he was half asleep. Roasted down the wing more than once in those opening minutes and according to the ifollow team was getting another roasting from Tony Mowbray on the touch line.
Lenihan... 7 A strong game for Darragh. He got his head onto just about everything that came his way.
Branthwaite ... 7 Another solid performance from the 18 year old loanee. This kid is looking better and better each week. Was caught out late on by attempting to beat his a QPR striker on the half way line with no one behind him. He recovered but he could have been left very red faced. It's still a learning curve for him though.
Bell.... 5 Reminded us all why Mowbray has been in such a rush to replace him. A nervous and jittery display which he cannot seem to conquer.
Rothwell... 6 Put himself about in the middle but every time Arma sped past his defender down the left and crossed or pulled the ball back Joe was nowhere to be seen. Elliot spewed a glorious chance, Davenport and Gallagher also missed harder opportunities but the guy who really should be at the edge of the box is Rothwell. Also we never saw one of his trademark runs from deep today.
Davenport... 7 Solid midfield display. Booked harshly early doors for what was effectively a collision. If he'd stayed down, clutched his head and pretended a head injury I'm pretty sure he'd have got away with the yellow. A bit more experience and he might. Hit a screamer from outside the box only to see it clear the bar.
Travis... 8 Best game back since his injury. He was all over the pitch and for the first time looked confidant on the ball and was timing his tackles well. More of the same Lewis please.
Elliot... 5 I've no idea what the conditions of his loan are but I'd say this lad who isn't 18 for a couple of months desperately needs resting. If he did anything good today I must have missed it. His dead ball kicks were poor and he was guilty of the miss of the match. Probably easier than Kane's for QPR but Todd Kane isn't supposed to be a future Liverpool superstar is he?
Gallagher... 6 Solid enough game from Big Sam. He's never going to be a lethal finisher is he? He's never going to be as good as Danny Graham with his back to goal either. But then again we all knew that when TM agreed to give Southampton £5m quid for him.
Armstrong... 7 Poor old Arma. He blazed away on occasions and failed to hit the target but on the 3 occasions that he was on the nail either Dieng pulling off two super saves, a defender's desperate lunge to block a definite goal or the near post conspired to thwart him. Today he could easily have scored two and must have been frustrated not to as his main rival Ivan Toney has now hit 5 in a week and is leaving him standing. Unfortunately football is like that and sometimes the more you try the harder to score it gets. On the plus side he was skinning his rather tardy marker at will, that is until TM for some odd reason replaced him down the left with Brereton! FFS either leave him there and concentrate on getting people into the box in support or at the very least play Dolan down that side. Moving Armstrong inside with QPR packing the centre of defence effectively ended his threat.
Subs
Dack (Rothwell 62) 5 Had very little influence on the proceedings and was caught offside to end a promising move.
Harwood-Bellis (Nyambe 62) 5 Seemed to have been thrown on without any instructions on where to play and what to do. If he had instructions he didn't adhere to them.
Holtby (davenport 62) 6 Another who was having not much influence on proceedings. Only lasted less than 15 minutes before injury forced him to make way for Brererton. Shame tbh because he'll prob miss the PNE game on Friday and at Deepdale I made him MoM.
Dolan... (Gallagher 74) 6 Big mistake here as TM obviously instructed Armstrong to get in the middle after his pace and trickery had the upper hand down the left side, struck me that Dolan should have been the one pushed out wide left.
Brereton (Holtby 78) 5 Never got into the game. Managed to do a 'BB' on the touchline to give QPR a throw in by frustratingly getting his feet mixed up.
Tony Mowbray... 4 A poor match by the manager. Sent out a team that simply didn't compete for 15 minutes and could easily have been behind. His substitutions and subsequent tactics were abysmal and served mainly to end our second half threat which until the 60th minute had been quite considerable.
Referee Tony Harrington... 5 Did OK but a little too fussy for my liking. When Refs hand out cautions and free kicks too easily early in the match they make a rod for their own backs and have difficulty letting similar events go unpunished later in the game.
Grief! I can't tell you how much better I like writing this stuff after a win!
Old Darwen Blue
Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
Great report Theno. For the life of me I don’t know why Gallagher wasnt put in the centre of the attack with Armstrong and Elliot on the flanks. Elliot was playing the false nine role at times.
Robin
Senior Member
It’s good that Lenihan has found his way back to good performances. His first half this season was dreadful and in my opinion he should have been dropped to bench. He and Branthwaite looks solid at the moment. Bell should never be in a starting eleven and hopefully we will get rid of him in the summer. One thing that I’ve been thinking of lately is Rothwells performances. Can we afford a player who only do really well, let’s say, every third or fourth game? That guy has so much talent and pace in him but unfortunately rarely shows it. Where does it all go wrong? In my opinion if he would perform good regularly he would soon be a player for Premier League.
Old Darwen Blue
Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
I fully agree Robin, for me Rothwell just doesn’t do enough. A “Hollywood goal” now and again won’t suffice to keep that place once Dack is fully back.
In his defence a factor could be that like Arma Rothwell has become a player the opposition are told and have been prepared to play special attention to.
Just to add, yesterday I couldn't suss Mowbray's intentions as we frequently saw Davenport and Trav joining in with the attack and Rothwell staying deep. Also there was a bit of a mish mash up top with Elliot not offering himself wide much and squeezing play too much into the middle, Gally occupying the middle with Arma out left. It's not a formation that has particularly worked well in the past and out of those forwards only Armstrong played well.
As for Dack taking Rothwell's place ODB then sorry but I don't see Dack being anywhere like back to his best as yet.
Just to add, yesterday I couldn't suss Mowbray's intentions as we frequently saw Davenport and Trav joining in with the attack and Rothwell staying deep. Also there was a bit of a mish mash up top with Elliot not offering himself wide much and squeezing play too much into the middle, Gally occupying the middle with Arma out left. It's not a formation that has particularly worked well in the past and out of those forwards only Armstrong played well.
As for Dack taking Rothwell's place ODB then sorry but I don't see Dack being anywhere like back to his best as yet.
khmerblue
Senior Member
The highlights I've seen Arma was so unlucky yesterday,the miss by Elliot was terrible and the goal by Qpr was so scrappy,young Jarrad should have just let the ball roll past him and then cleared.I think TM should go to 3 at the back now,but there is more chance of Evans starting on Friday.Wing backs is what we need.
Smells Like Kean Spirit
Senior Member
Fine review Theno. Agree that Davenport and Travis were strong performers in midfield yesterday. Ironic that we finally get a strong midfield showing, although less so from Rothwell as others have noted, and still lose. On another day we would have got something mind.
Smells Like Kean Spirit
Senior Member
If we did go down the wing back route KB, Mowbray should look to use Brererton and Douglas out wide. Brereton has the fitness and the odd flash of talent to potentially play the role Brett Emerton used to fill for us. Douglas isn't a great defender, but he does knock a decent ball in from the wings. Who would give way for Evans? It would have to be Rothwell on yesterday's performance!
Evans Trav and Davenport? Not really enough creativity there imo SLKS.
Also I wouldn't mind giving Dolan a start on the left. He's had a run in the 1st team and then he's been rested on the bench. Classic blooding of a young player (Elliott needs the same). One real strength that I see in Dolan OFF the ball is his willingness and instinct to run into the danger area and get on the end of things when an attack is coming down the other wing. Something some of the others don't do.
Our strong points when we look most dangerous is when we break from defence and when we use the width and get to the by line. Effectively it's when we get past the defenders and get them facing their own goal line. When we play too many triangle in midfield we get nowhere. The more time we spend on the first two the better our results are likely to be.
Also I wouldn't mind giving Dolan a start on the left. He's had a run in the 1st team and then he's been rested on the bench. Classic blooding of a young player (Elliott needs the same). One real strength that I see in Dolan OFF the ball is his willingness and instinct to run into the danger area and get on the end of things when an attack is coming down the other wing. Something some of the others don't do.
Our strong points when we look most dangerous is when we break from defence and when we use the width and get to the by line. Effectively it's when we get past the defenders and get them facing their own goal line. When we play too many triangle in midfield we get nowhere. The more time we spend on the first two the better our results are likely to be.
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khmerblue
Senior Member
I said there more chance of Evans playing as TM seems to rate him,I don't.Wing backs is a good option as we seem to struggle to get our best players on the pitch.I cannot believe city have lent us the centre back not to play.
If we played the 3 centre backs, the wing backs do not have to be full backs.With Travis and Davenport in midfield it will allow us to get Dack / Arma/Rothwell/Elliot on the pitch at the same time.Id add Holtby but he is a walking sick note.The other places will be filled by the rest of the Squad.
If we played the 3 centre backs, the wing backs do not have to be full backs.With Travis and Davenport in midfield it will allow us to get Dack / Arma/Rothwell/Elliot on the pitch at the same time.Id add Holtby but he is a walking sick note.The other places will be filled by the rest of the Squad.
I agree. He´s going to end up like one of those David Bentley types that had it, but lacked the attitude and work ethic.
I must say though that many people seem to think Holtby is more than what he actually is. He seems to get a free ride because he once played in the Premier League and at International level or something.
He´s another 1 in 5 games player and worse still he´s a lot older and also somewhat of a sicknote.
