Matchday megathread, Bristol Rovers v Barnsley

What’s it contributing to the 1 st team

 

A very fair point but, football is the most important unimportant thing in the world.

 

Read back through this board after the 2 games v Bolton people actually thought Cosgrove would come good. Like having a man down when he comes on. Watters was gash today but might aswell have kept him on instead of bringing Cosgrove on he offers less than nothing.

 

True Cole got treated awfully by the fanbase and on this board.

People.had belief in Cosgrove after his 2 games in the play offs.

 

Agree at least Watters can run about abit but Cosgrove just kills the game for us he offers nothing

 

Goals wins game, they took the few chances they had we wasted the many we had.

 

Still not quite sure how we contrived to lose that game. For all the talk of lacking a top striker (which I agree with) we’re still one of the top scoring sides in the league & the likes of Phillips, DKD & Russell regularly chip in with goals. Just a bizarre, frustrating afternoon.

 

And the depressing thing is we could have put some clear daylight to rest of the play off contenders today.

I've not been a big fan of our recruitment but this is on the head coach and players. We could have been more ambitious with our starting line up but even taking that into account the players that started should have been good enough to get a result today. Their attitude was poor and as a result we were far too casual. Our experienced players went missing and we were lacking leadership throughout the game.

 

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
The opposition today were as bad as I've seen in years and we lose.
Never seen as many chances go begging.
JESUS!!!!!!

 

This in a nutshell; momentum is a powerful thing and the break last week hasn’t helped us.

 

100% agree.

 

5 wins in 7 and we’re still well in the top 6 fight. Poor day at the office even if we’ve been reasonable between both boxes. Yes it’s frustrating and there’s room to improve but it’s crazy how people jump on the back of players/managers/owners on here, it’s like the only acceptable thing these days is to win convincingly every week. Hats off to those who travelled today.

 

Humphrey’s did same as Watters when he came......he missed chances

 

Fans will moan about not having a striker but end of day we’ve let 3 in and we deserve nowt, can’t be conceding 3 to Bristol Rovers 4 against Orient etc, vey poor at the back

 

at least Watters is on the end of things, Cosgrove on the other hand is just a waste of a shirt.

 

Absolutely woeful.

Clarke has to take most of the blame. For reasons I'm looking forward to hearing, he disrupts a winning team, bringing back Roberts who looked miles off the pace, as though he was towing a caravan. And his obsession with Connell is only harming the player. He doesn't deserve to start ahead of Nwakali on recent form. So why change it? Then, to cap it off he brings on Cosgrove for another 10 minute cameo of ċrap. Honestly, I'd rather he chucked Pines on.

I'm proper annoyed after this one. First time this season really. Because they've strung a good run of results together, had a week off after the postponement last weekend and were playing a side who were practically begging to be defeated. And they perform like that.

The amount of chances squandered was embarrassing to watch. As were the feeble attempts to defend.

I've no doubt some will say it was just one of those days. Or point to all the great chances, the lovely stuff that crafted them. But if you're not ruthless, you're going nowhere.

I wanted to end on a positive, by saying I liked the look of Farrugia going forward. But then I saw his 'defending' for the third goal.

Three months without ale, and this is the closest I've been to heading to the pub.

 

It worries me that a manager thinks that Nwakali is worse than either Connell, Russell or Phillips. I don’t see them in training but I see them every week and it’s pretty obvious to me. If the guy in charge can’t see something so glaringly obvious it’s a huge concern. It also should be for the owners - if the model is to sell our best players - why is Nwakali sat watching like me?

Also - I get we need a striker - I really do - this lot are worse than Ian Chandler but even with Haaland we would have needed to score 4 today. Most weeks we would need to score at least two. The last game we kept a clean sheet - the last four games we have won and started to look stronger and if nothing else more organised. Those four games included Pines for 75% and McCarthy for 100%. On the back of a clean sheet why did the manager think it right to drop McCarthy for Roberts. Why the week before did he think it right to drop Pines for a half fit Earl (subbed before the hour) what message does it send out? Certain players just need to turn up and say they are fit and they start? How does that build competition in the squad - how does it build a squad that’s all in it together? The constant changes and painfully clear favourites he has (I’m not even going to start on my favourite subject - MDF) has been an issue people have raised all season - it’s raised its head again today. When he had injuries and the team picked itself we won four on the bounce - it seams to me that the manager/couch is watching too much sky sports, playing too much Football Manager and thinking he’s some gnome version of Caudio Ranieri

 

Exactly mate, yes we have missed chances but we don’t lose if we don’t concede

 

Thing is none of Phillips Russell or dkd are really strikers. Watters Cosgrove and Humphrys all disappointing.