We’re one of that strong top ten and have every chance of getting in to the top six. Worth remembering that seven of those ten will be back again next year.
Good performance today against a robust and streetwise side. They seemed confident in their defence and managed the referee better than we did.
Just watched the highlights and it’s definitely a pen for us. Reminded me of those endless decisions that seemed to go against us in the Championship last season.
Just got home. Ref was shocking , didn't give any big decisions didn't help that his assistants didn't offer much missed /bottled the penalty but soon put flag up for a foul when a defender ran into Bayo during a good attack for us.
I thought it was noticeable that Rotherham defended with 3 centre backs that rarely, is ever, went chasing the ball. It meant there was space out wide with nobody coming across to double up with their wing back. But equally there always seemed to be that block of three defending the box at all times. When we did get into dangerous positions, it made it tough to pick out the final ball.
Pleasing to see us go toe to toe with top of the league and probably just about edge the game with some decent football. Although the fact we played well and Rotherham still came away with an away draw goes to show how solid they are.
@Wetherby_blue said:
Just got home. Ref was shocking , didn't give any big decisions didn't help that his assistants didn't offer much missed /bottled the penalty but soon put flag up for a foul when a defender ran into Bayo during a good attack for us.
In a whole ocean of awful referees the guy today really was one of the worst. Too far from the game, totally immobile and just too random in his whiste blowing.
Just a few minutes after the Anis penalty he blew for exactly the same foul in the centre circle. At least he was lucky that a really bad tackle didn't happen. It could have got quite nasty.
Good performance. Lack of clear cut chances in the second half was a bit frustrating. Horgan looking happier in a fluid role. Wing exceptional. Against a weaker defence we would have had a hatful.
I must have missed the fantastic skillful football Rotherham fans think they played it looked like they were hoofing it as much as...possibly even more than...we were.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:
Good performance. Lack of clear cut chances in the second half was a bit frustrating. Horgan looking happier in a fluid role. Wing exceptional. Against a weaker defence we would have had a hatful.
Why do they hate Wing btw?
He was on loan there and then went to Sheff Wed but can't explain why they may dislike him.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:
Good performance. Lack of clear cut chances in the second half was a bit frustrating. Horgan looking happier in a fluid role. Wing exceptional. Against a weaker defence we would have had a hatful.
Why do they hate Wing btw?
Rotherham fans are famously 66ers and loyalists of Ramsey's wingless wonders, where the young chuckle brothers were physios
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:
Good performance. Lack of clear cut chances in the second half was a bit frustrating. Horgan looking happier in a fluid role. Wing exceptional. Against a weaker defence we would have had a hatful.
Why do they hate Wing btw?
He was on loan there and then went to Sheff Wed but can't explain why they may dislike him.
“ Former Rotherham loan boy Lewis Wing was in the play-off-chasing Wycombe side and being booed by away fans who remembered the comments he made in the summer about not wanting to return to the club.”
“ (Paul Warne) was trying to get me back all the way through the summer,” the player said. “I enjoyed my time there. It served its purpose but I didn’t really want to go back. I did my time there.”
No wonder they're not appreciating those comments, as honest as they are!
Rotherham were an odd side weren't they. Haven't seen anyone boot it as high so often as they did.
Clearances would go 100 feet in the air repeatedly.
We obviously kept them quiet, but it shows how well you can do in a league with a solid almost unbeatable defence.
Just 6 defeats by mid March speaks volumes.
Morning after. My only thought after a thoroughly decent performance - how did we feck up those six games so badly?
We need one or two others to go on a similar run now and to keep this level of performance up. The latter I have confidence in.
Much will depend on those around us, were doing well again but I'm not sure I see us going on a massive winning streak now but you never know.
At times we've been lacking in defensive and midfield cover this season and despite having good options we haven't scored freely enough to cover the defence when it's been a problem. We have a good squad but not the depth of some.
Can anyone point me to a decent highlights package? One was shared in Facebook that was only two minutes long and didn't include either penalty shout or any of Mehmetis running .
Confused by the lack of club response to the Rotherham Akinfenwya chanting yesterday. Against MK Dons we appeared to be on the verge of a walk off. A tannoy announcement condemned the chanting. The post match PR talked about it.
Yesterday whilst the chanting wasn't as loud it was said more often. No response or comment from the club at all. What's changed and are the club ok with this abuse now?
How the challenge on Mehmeti isn't a penalty I don't know.
It's a clear barge from behind with no attempt to play the ball. In the Premier League yesterday that was a penalty and a red card.
To me the key thing yesterday was the way Horgan controlled the attacks with his playmaker role. He put in so many quick and perceptive passes which allowed Mehmeti and McCleary to do their thing. Clever one-twos, spreading the ball wide, quick flick-ons, deadly crosses across the box, even one or two defence-splitters. Exactly the sort of class performance we assumed we'd regularly get from him. The new formation gives him the freedom to do this, playing a free role ahead of two central midfielders. It's going to be the key to the run in. It's just a shame we haven't used him effectively since that first international break when he lost his place in the team. If we had, I expect we might have been at the top end of the play-off pack rather than chasing a slot at the bottom of it.
Agree with most of what’s been said about yesterday. We look a better team since reverting to a back four and deserved to win on our second half performance in particular. Astonishingly bad decision on the Mehmeti penalty incident.
The situation will change from week to week and I would say to the couple of posters who think we’re out of play off contention that all of the teams around us will be experiencing similar anxieties. It’s important now to keep our nerve and apply that oldest of cliches ‘take every game as it comes’ and I firmly believe that we are still very much in the mix.
@aloysius I mentioned yesterday that we seem a much better side with Horgan in it, even though, good footballer as he obviously is, what he does is not ‘hit you over the head’ fantastic. But you’ve described it beautifully and really astutely in your post what he does and what he brings to the team. And I tend to agree that we’d be a fair bit better off if he’d been in the side more since that international break. He’s becoming again another important player to retain for next season (as he’s out of contract) but given his stint at the club I can’t help but feel he’ll move on in the Summer.
@PrinceOfCrowell said:
I think we have a great chance of the playoffs. A couple of teams above (Oxford especially) have very difficult run ins so 79-80 points should see us there.
They all just seem to keep winning around us at the moment though and have done for several weeks.
Looking at fixtures remaining against the other promotion contenders (realistically down as far as Portsmouth in 10th).
Plymouth still have to play 7 of the top 10, Oxford 5, Ipswich and Pompey 4, everyone else 3.
In the last two promotion campaigns we tended to do poorly in the league games against the other top teams, but were very good at picking up points against everyone else.
Before yesterday I was assuming we would win 2, draw 2, and lose 1 of the 5 home games. Away games I'm assuming 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. That would give 79 points, which could be right on the edge.
@ReturnToSenda It's on the extended highlights for subscribers. Unfortunately, the incident that's not is McCleary's breakaway in the first half where he went shoulder-to-shoulder with Ihiekwe, the latter went to ground and a free kick was given with McCleary in an excellent position. That looked to me an utterly astonishing decision given what had been allowed before (though I think that one was given by the linesman). A comparison of the challenge on Mehmeti vs the challenge between Ihiekwe and McCleary would be interesting to say the least.
My complaint with yesterday's ref was that I thought he'd set the benchmark with some relaxed decisions about Smith's robust treatment of Stewart which were then not remotely reflected in the rest of the game - for either side. It was a really poor performance - loads of arbitrary decision-making, so far as I could tell.
Many around me did not think the Mehmeti incident was a penalty, though I did. On the highlights, I thought it was more from the side than the back, but still it didn't seem like the defender was in the position to make that challenge legitimately.
The McCleary challenge, admittedly at the other end of the pitch, looked like an utterly regulation shoulder-to-shoulder, which Ihiekwe astonishingly (given his size) came off worst in.
What I'll say about the ref yesterday, was that it was an incredibly difficult game to control. Both sets of defenders were repeatedly manhandling Vokes and Smith. He seemed to let most go, but was at least consistent. I thought the free kick given against McCleary in the 1st half half when he was in a great position was a poor decision, but he did give a pretty much identical one in our favour for a foul on Stewart in the 2nd half.
We were very unfortunate not to get a penalty for the foul on Mehmeti. No attempt to play the ball at all from the Rotherham player.
So yeah, some poor calls from the referee, but not an easy game for him and he was at least consistent, even if sometimes it seemed to be consistently wrong.
Kaikai. Played arguably his best two games for the club, not seen since.
To me he would have been the option yesterday and not Bayo. Vokes has been (man)handled well by their defence and something different was needed. Kaikai with his deep runs would have been perfect for me but nowhere to be seen.
Comments
We’re one of that strong top ten and have every chance of getting in to the top six. Worth remembering that seven of those ten will be back again next year.
Good performance today against a robust and streetwise side. They seemed confident in their defence and managed the referee better than we did.
understatement alert.
I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like L2.
Check out the form of league leaders Forest Green, and to a lesser extent, Tranmere.
https://www.skysports.com/league-2-table
We are certainly in the hunt and when we get the ball down and play, we are a match for anyone in this league.
Just watched the highlights and it’s definitely a pen for us. Reminded me of those endless decisions that seemed to go against us in the Championship last season.
Hopefully better luck on Tuesday
Just got home. Ref was shocking , didn't give any big decisions didn't help that his assistants didn't offer much missed /bottled the penalty but soon put flag up for a foul when a defender ran into Bayo during a good attack for us.
Good game despite being a 0-0.
I thought it was noticeable that Rotherham defended with 3 centre backs that rarely, is ever, went chasing the ball. It meant there was space out wide with nobody coming across to double up with their wing back. But equally there always seemed to be that block of three defending the box at all times. When we did get into dangerous positions, it made it tough to pick out the final ball.
Pleasing to see us go toe to toe with top of the league and probably just about edge the game with some decent football. Although the fact we played well and Rotherham still came away with an away draw goes to show how solid they are.
We had them all over the place down the left. Just a shame we couldn't deliver that killer ball.
In a whole ocean of awful referees the guy today really was one of the worst. Too far from the game, totally immobile and just too random in his whiste blowing.
Just a few minutes after the Anis penalty he blew for exactly the same foul in the centre circle. At least he was lucky that a really bad tackle didn't happen. It could have got quite nasty.
Good performance. Lack of clear cut chances in the second half was a bit frustrating. Horgan looking happier in a fluid role. Wing exceptional. Against a weaker defence we would have had a hatful.
Why do they hate Wing btw?
I must have missed the fantastic skillful football Rotherham fans think they played it looked like they were hoofing it as much as...possibly even more than...we were.
He was on loan there and then went to Sheff Wed but can't explain why they may dislike him.
The things you get up to @LX1.
Rotherham fans are famously 66ers and loyalists of Ramsey's wingless wonders, where the young chuckle brothers were physios
“ Former Rotherham loan boy Lewis Wing was in the play-off-chasing Wycombe side and being booed by away fans who remembered the comments he made in the summer about not wanting to return to the club.”
https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/view,no-change-at-the-top-onthewhistle-report-wycombe-wanderers-0-rotherham-unit_41127.htm
I guess these are the comments:
https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/view,loan-star-lewis-wing-liked-rotherham-united-but-admits-on-eve-of-nys-return_39407.htm
“ (Paul Warne) was trying to get me back all the way through the summer,” the player said. “I enjoyed my time there. It served its purpose but I didn’t really want to go back. I did my time there.”
No wonder they're not appreciating those comments, as honest as they are!
Rotherham were an odd side weren't they. Haven't seen anyone boot it as high so often as they did.
Clearances would go 100 feet in the air repeatedly.
We obviously kept them quiet, but it shows how well you can do in a league with a solid almost unbeatable defence.
Just 6 defeats by mid March speaks volumes.
Morning after. My only thought after a thoroughly decent performance - how did we feck up those six games so badly?
We need one or two others to go on a similar run now and to keep this level of performance up. The latter I have confidence in.
@PBo - that “I did my time there” comment sounds like he thought it was a sentence. Let us hope he enjoys his time at Wycombe a bit better than that.
They also had one or two decent ball players. 18 Rathbone looked combative and 24 Smith was a right hand full.
Nice detective work @PBo by the way.
Much will depend on those around us, were doing well again but I'm not sure I see us going on a massive winning streak now but you never know.
At times we've been lacking in defensive and midfield cover this season and despite having good options we haven't scored freely enough to cover the defence when it's been a problem. We have a good squad but not the depth of some.
Can anyone point me to a decent highlights package? One was shared in Facebook that was only two minutes long and didn't include either penalty shout or any of Mehmetis running .
Confused by the lack of club response to the Rotherham Akinfenwya chanting yesterday. Against MK Dons we appeared to be on the verge of a walk off. A tannoy announcement condemned the chanting. The post match PR talked about it.
Yesterday whilst the chanting wasn't as loud it was said more often. No response or comment from the club at all. What's changed and are the club ok with this abuse now?
How the challenge on Mehmeti isn't a penalty I don't know.
It's a clear barge from behind with no attempt to play the ball. In the Premier League yesterday that was a penalty and a red card.
To me the key thing yesterday was the way Horgan controlled the attacks with his playmaker role. He put in so many quick and perceptive passes which allowed Mehmeti and McCleary to do their thing. Clever one-twos, spreading the ball wide, quick flick-ons, deadly crosses across the box, even one or two defence-splitters. Exactly the sort of class performance we assumed we'd regularly get from him. The new formation gives him the freedom to do this, playing a free role ahead of two central midfielders. It's going to be the key to the run in. It's just a shame we haven't used him effectively since that first international break when he lost his place in the team. If we had, I expect we might have been at the top end of the play-off pack rather than chasing a slot at the bottom of it.
Agree with most of what’s been said about yesterday. We look a better team since reverting to a back four and deserved to win on our second half performance in particular. Astonishingly bad decision on the Mehmeti penalty incident.
The situation will change from week to week and I would say to the couple of posters who think we’re out of play off contention that all of the teams around us will be experiencing similar anxieties. It’s important now to keep our nerve and apply that oldest of cliches ‘take every game as it comes’ and I firmly believe that we are still very much in the mix.
@aloysius I mentioned yesterday that we seem a much better side with Horgan in it, even though, good footballer as he obviously is, what he does is not ‘hit you over the head’ fantastic. But you’ve described it beautifully and really astutely in your post what he does and what he brings to the team. And I tend to agree that we’d be a fair bit better off if he’d been in the side more since that international break. He’s becoming again another important player to retain for next season (as he’s out of contract) but given his stint at the club I can’t help but feel he’ll move on in the Summer.
Looking at fixtures remaining against the other promotion contenders (realistically down as far as Portsmouth in 10th).
Plymouth still have to play 7 of the top 10, Oxford 5, Ipswich and Pompey 4, everyone else 3.
In the last two promotion campaigns we tended to do poorly in the league games against the other top teams, but were very good at picking up points against everyone else.
Before yesterday I was assuming we would win 2, draw 2, and lose 1 of the 5 home games. Away games I'm assuming 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. That would give 79 points, which could be right on the edge.
I see the blatant pen didn't make the highlights. Funny that ?
@ReturnToSenda It's on the extended highlights for subscribers. Unfortunately, the incident that's not is McCleary's breakaway in the first half where he went shoulder-to-shoulder with Ihiekwe, the latter went to ground and a free kick was given with McCleary in an excellent position. That looked to me an utterly astonishing decision given what had been allowed before (though I think that one was given by the linesman). A comparison of the challenge on Mehmeti vs the challenge between Ihiekwe and McCleary would be interesting to say the least.
My complaint with yesterday's ref was that I thought he'd set the benchmark with some relaxed decisions about Smith's robust treatment of Stewart which were then not remotely reflected in the rest of the game - for either side. It was a really poor performance - loads of arbitrary decision-making, so far as I could tell.
Many around me did not think the Mehmeti incident was a penalty, though I did. On the highlights, I thought it was more from the side than the back, but still it didn't seem like the defender was in the position to make that challenge legitimately.
The McCleary challenge, admittedly at the other end of the pitch, looked like an utterly regulation shoulder-to-shoulder, which Ihiekwe astonishingly (given his size) came off worst in.
What I'll say about the ref yesterday, was that it was an incredibly difficult game to control. Both sets of defenders were repeatedly manhandling Vokes and Smith. He seemed to let most go, but was at least consistent. I thought the free kick given against McCleary in the 1st half half when he was in a great position was a poor decision, but he did give a pretty much identical one in our favour for a foul on Stewart in the 2nd half.
We were very unfortunate not to get a penalty for the foul on Mehmeti. No attempt to play the ball at all from the Rotherham player.
So yeah, some poor calls from the referee, but not an easy game for him and he was at least consistent, even if sometimes it seemed to be consistently wrong.
Thought it was a pen on first view but didn't know if that was classic bias. So it's good to see people think the same after a rewatch.
Such a shame that ball that was played through to Hanlan was just short of being superb as that would have have one heck of am introduction for him.
Kaikai. Played arguably his best two games for the club, not seen since.
To me he would have been the option yesterday and not Bayo. Vokes has been (man)handled well by their defence and something different was needed. Kaikai with his deep runs would have been perfect for me but nowhere to be seen.