Could have been 5-5 or more if both teams had taken their chances and both keepers hadn't pulled off real class saves!
Positives:
Collin - very sound in goal - couple of great saves. Didn't have a chance with either goal. Starts against Fulham for me.
Full backs - Buxton is a good solid FB and Richardson did OK at LB although he tired late on and got a bit wayward with his passing.
JCH - first name on the team sheet - strong, enthusiastic, great in the air and created a couple of great chances.
Derbyshire - ran his heart out. Giving him the benefit of the doubt with his miss. He did the hard work, beating the keeper but I reckon he hit the ball high to avoid the last defender which unfortunately took it over the bar.
G.Ward - had some good moments and grew into the game.
Negatives:
Collins and Halford are not good enough. Collins is ***bersome and has no distribution ability apart from a hoof. Asleep for the second goal. Halford is laborious and inspires no confidence at the back. I'm not sure what he brings to the team as Captain - looks pedestrian and lacking interest. Thorpe and Rawson must be developed for me.
Ledesma - needs to man up. Very lightweight on the ball - cost us the first goal - poor at picking up oppositions midfield players. Whoever voted him man of the match should call in at Specsavers in the morning.
Maguire - has the desire and ability but doesn't look match fit yet.
Newell - not his best performance but should be played as an advanced midfielder where he can influence the attack more.
Evans/Raynor - please sit down and stop shouting orders at the players at set pieces. If they don't know what they're doing on the pitch, it's because you haven't trained them properly in the week! Let them do what they're paid for.
Set pieces - 3 of our set pieces from good positions went out of play without anyone touching them. Disappointing.
Overall - a good cup tie and a great second half. Norwich were excellent and had some real quality, so it was no mean effort to push them so close. Rotherham played some good stuff and created many chances. The raw material is there. We need the best 11 to be picked and a leader to be identified as Captain (I'd go for Smallwood if fit). Hate to say it but Morgan was light years ahead of our current CBs.
Much much better. I actually thought Newell was MOM, agree about the CB's Halford is shocking. Collin did his cause a power of good tonight & I was glad to see him back. Rudd, their RESERVE keeper was their MOM, especially the save from Newells long range effort!!
i listened to the match onm radio sheffield in my own unique way as i couldnt go to the match i as was out of the area. and i heard john brecks repeat what he said on saturday why why are the players hoofing it upto derbyshire on his own. this has got to be the fault of the abuse the ref no matter what band aka evans lead singer raynor backing singer black the in effective voice coach.
but seriously if brecks is seeing its ineffective why is evans still doing it .. but on a positive note they seemed to be playing better but he has to stick with collin in goal but he wont the team has to be collin the back 4 has to be buxton rawon/thorpe collins/wood white/mattock ledesma newell ward maguire jch derbyshire in a 4 3 3 i just dont rate halford sorry in defence make the opponents pack defence or play 3 4 1 2 in attack which can become 5 3 2 when we lose the ball we have the players white and buxton are fast enough to be wing backs have rawson thorpe woods/collins as the back 3 midfield white ledesma newell/frecks/halford buxton maguire behind derbyhsire and jch
-- Edited by hillsborough miller on Wednesday 26th of August 2015 06:47:59 AM
I was about to post the same about the set pieces GM, it was as though they had attended a training session between them, almost pub football like.
We competed and it looked like the Rotherham of old who play with heart, except for Halford who looks like a "pay day player" ducking out of headers, hiding for some of the corners, and shocking at the back.
the gaffers next big challenge is to drop Halford (and possibly Collins) and I think we will improve, I fear Halford will always play unless injured Though.
A good game to watch, especially neutrals with end to end attacking from both teams. Shame that the Rotherham public failed to turn up in any numbers but looking at other attendances on the night, we did okay. Our attendance was helped by a surprisingly large travelling support of 1,029 which helped to provide a good atmosphere.
As for the players, SE finally suc***bed to playing Collin in goal, Mattock was again injured so once again we had a player, this time Richardson, playing out of position at left back. Smallwood was injured but the starting eleven looked as good as we've fielded this season.
My Ratings were as follows:-
Collin: 8 Proved that he's so much better than Roos, offered a calming influence to the defence and the home support. Made a few good saves and ought to start as first choice from here on in.
Buxton: 7 Our best defender on the night, looks like a great addition. Did little wrong.
Richardson: 5 Played out of position looked uncomfortable throughout and his kicking was dreadful.
Collins: 5 Another poor display, looks past his sell by date. Slow and pedestrian and totally out of position for their second goal.
Halford: 4 Looks disinterested for the most part, doesn't seem to offer anything as Captain. Often caught in possession, hesitant and lacks pace.
Newell: 6 Not his best performance but still looks like a gem of a signing and will improve.
Ledesma: 6 Voted man of the match? What? Drifted in and out of the game but did okay.
G Ward: 6 Another okay sort of night for him. Improving but still caught in possession too often.
Frecklington: 5 Only played 16 minutes hence the score.
Derbyshire: 7 A bit of an enigma, one minute brilliant, the next woeful for me. How did he miss that second half chance? Needs eight or nine scoring opportunities to score one goal. Never stopped trying though. Will score 10 or so times a season.
JCH: 7 Did well and caused their defence all sorts of problems with his pace and strength. He will be a real asset and is improving all the time.
Maguire: 5 Can't recall much about his contribution after replacing Frecklington. Drifts in and out of the game. Looked a bit lost last night and didn't appear to know where he was supposed to be playing. Is he struggling for fitness? Tired at the end!
White: 6 Did okay and offered something new with his mazy runs along the wing.
Green: 6 Good goal from him but missed badly with a header which would have taken the game into extra time. Despite scoring looks way past his best.
Our best performance by some distance last night against decent opposition. Big positive was that this team of strangers appear to be gelling as a unit. Collin was immense in goal and should be first choice now. JCH continues to improve and Newell and Grant Ward will get better.
Negatives were the form of our two centre backs, neither of whom are good enough at this level. Richardson at left back didn't work. Why play him out of position?
Finally, what's happened to Wood and Bowery, neither of them were on the bench?
Big game Saturday which offers a quick climb off the bottom of the league.
A good game to watch, especially neutrals with end to end attacking from both teams. Shame that the Rotherham public failed to turn up in any numbers but looking at other attendances on the night, we did okay. Our attendance was helped by a surprisingly large travelling support of 1,029 which helped to provide a good atmosphere.
As for the players, SE finally suc***bed to playing Collin in goal, Mattock was again injured so once again we had a player, this time Richardson, playing out of position at left back. Smallwood was injured but the starting eleven looked as good as we've fielded this season.
My Ratings were as follows:-
Collin: 8 Proved that he's so much better than Roos, offered a calming influence to the defence and the home support. Made a few good saves and ought to start as first choice from here on in.
Buxton: 7 Our best defender on the night, looks like a great addition. Did little wrong.
Richardson: 5 Played out of position looked uncomfortable throughout and his kicking was dreadful.
Collins: 5 Another poor display, looks past his sell by date. Slow and pedestrian and totally out of position for their second goal.
Halford: 4 Looks disinterested for the most part, doesn't seem to offer anything as Captain. Often caught in possession, hesitant and lacks pace.
Newell: 6 Not his best performance but still looks like a gem of a signing and will improve.
Ledesma: 6 Voted man of the match? What? Drifted in and out of the game but did okay.
G Ward: 6 Another okay sort of night for him. Improving but still caught in possession too often.
Frecklington: 5 Only played 16 minutes hence the score.
Derbyshire: 7 A bit of an enigma, one minute brilliant, the next woeful for me. How did he miss that second half chance? Needs eight or nine scoring opportunities to score one goal. Never stopped trying though. Will score 10 or so times a season.
JCH: 7 Did well and caused their defence all sorts of problems with his pace and strength. He will be a real asset and is improving all the time.
Maguire: 5 Can't recall much about his contribution after replacing Frecklington. Drifts in and out of the game. Looked a bit lost last night and didn't appear to know where he was supposed to be playing. Is he struggling for fitness? Tired at the end!
White: 6 Did okay and offered something new with his mazy runs along the wing.
Green: 6 Good goal from him but missed badly with a header which would have taken the game into extra time. Despite scoring looks way past his best.
Our best performance by some distance last night against decent opposition. Big positive was that this team of strangers appear to be gelling as a unit. Collin was immense in goal and should be first choice now. JCH continues to improve and Newell and Grant Ward will get better.
Negatives were the form of our two centre backs, neither of whom are good enough at this level. Richardson at left back didn't work. Why play him out of position?
Finally, what's happened to Wood and Bowery, neither of them were on the bench?
Big game Saturday which offers a quick climb off the bottom of the league.
Bowery, has messed up his recent chance. He was played in an awful position but still, he didnt show anything against preston. Deserves to be dropped. Met 3 villa fans on way back from QPR and they were in no doubt that the Bowery we have seen is the real Bowery and it aint going to get any better.
Wood seems to have been harshly treated. Hasnt looked anything but ok on the few occasions he has played and it makes fans wonder if we are missing out on a good defender especially because he seems so full of heart.
Im hopeful GW can turn his obvious talent to something effective and alongside Newall we could have some cut and trust. These two seem to have some real energy and desire to take it to the opposition and its energy we love. Im all for Frecklington being dropped at present.
Halford does seem like a very accomplished player at times, but he is also an absolute liability. This is not an easy one to sort out but maybe he should just be dropped otherwise SE and co spend countless hours agonising over what will maybe turn out to be a fools errand.
Collins is ok in my eyes. I think he is better than Morgan-just mind.
Ledesma is going to be another alsoran unless he gets some real confidence and theres a position in which he can really shine.
Bowery will be loaned out to Bury, was given his chance and didn't take it - could be the last we see of him in a Rotherham shirt. JCH on the other hand looks like he means business and wants to stay in the side, was a nightmare for their defenders last night. Ladesma, caught in possession AGAIN and it cost us the first goal as we were out of position as they broke quickly - a good player at times but frustratingly bad at other times. Second goal was just a quality cross and finish, can't blame Collins for that. The cross should have been stopped by Richardson and Newell.
I think Collins did ok, he made a few outstanding blocks and challenges, imagine him and Rawson that would be better. he does the basic quite well, he should have cut out the cross for the 2nd goal.
Buxton - a very good full back, keep him fit
Collin, great saves, distribution is awful, so many attacks for the opposition comes from his kicking.
halford - Needs dropping, worst player on the pitch, still think Smallwood poor form is due to not getting the captaincy, prime example of a shocking decision by Evans.
Ward and Newell were refreshing in midfield two young lads that did well against premier league players, keep them there, he won't because he will be over cautious on Saturday.
JCH excellent 1st half, hardly saw him 2nd half that was because their tactics changed and they doubled up on him.
Derbyshire - works so hard really tries, awful finisher, not sure whether he keeps playing due to his work rate, would only score 20 goals in a season if we created 120 chances for him, conversion rate is abysmal. That miss was shocking, he had the time to take a second and side foot it in, the defender wasn't back in position, keeper was out of the game it was a 100% open goal. he panicked, rushed due to lack of confidence. We need a goalscorer signed otherwise we are doomed, we are not scoring enough of the chances created and Derbyshire is the worst for that.
Overall we played well and if we play that well on saturday we have a chance of 3 points, that will depend on Evans decision making, that worries me.
Now my moan
Evans and raynor are an absolute disgrace at the side of the pitch, it is embarrassing and the chairman needs to act now, it makes the club look terrible. Constant shouting at officials, mocking officials but worst is shouting instructions at the players from the kick off "get here" "go there" etc. For gods sake you have them all week are they that bad that they don't know where they are playing and what do do. He needs to shut the F up. raynor what does this bloke bring, it is like Evans has brought his slightly backwards mate to work with him.
Don't think we can say too much about Richardson. A right footed defender playing left back has to be one of the most difficult poisons to fill, when he won the ball he then has to swap the ball to his right side to get it up the line or pass it back into the box, gives the attacking player every chance of getting it back. I thought he did well considering. Isn't ledesma also right footed on the left?
-- Edited by Fliker on Wednesday 26th of August 2015 11:27:21 AM
yeah with whats been said Halford has a couple of big mistakes in him every match at minute any could cost us a goal and put us on the back foot in a game, got to take some chances out of all those we created, Matt runs himself into the ground that miss give him a big break for that, improving a lot at minute a win saturday could be a big boost and set us on our way, i did notice Evo diving about all over the place on the touch line being opposite the bench to see it, looked like he was doing some type of keep fit regime arms and legs all over in a jump suit funny in a way and dont look right really for the boss to be having a hizzy fit all the time in the tech area, i hope he dont blow his top every time hes in the dressing room. a good night 7 of us went in the end,
Richardson played out of position true. Why do we persist in this? No wonder that Mattock was labelled sick note by Owls fans. Strange how differently we view players performances, I thought Collins was awful, albeit not as bad as Halford, some thought he was good? Opinions, we all have those.
Agree with someone on here who says we need that striker and quickly if we are to stay up though. Surely SE can see that, everyone else appears to be able to see it. Before everyone starts going on about the cost, why not try for someone in League One, who is on top of their game at present?
Some rumours that Bowery is indeed about to leave on loan, Bolton are allegedly interested! Bizarre if we let him go there as they will definitely be rivals for those three relegation spots come May. We shall see.
Don't think we can say too much about Richardson. A right footed defender playing left back has to be one of the most difficult poisons to fill, when he won the ball he then has to swap the ball to his right side to get it up the line or pass it back into the box, gives the attacking player every chance of getting it back. I thought he did well considering. Isn't ledesma also right footed on the left?
-- Edited by Fliker on Wednesday 26th of August 2015 11:27:21 AM
Good observation. One thing about Richardson is he is a great Pro.
did collins and halford play together as centre halves at forest, as they dont appear to know what the other is doing. The attacks just went straight through the middle of them both, with neither picking up a player...
I wonder if Collins and Halford played together as when we went to Forest the other week, their fans kept going on about "the two lumps" as our centre backs and how slow they both were!
Don't think we can say too much about Richardson. A right footed defender playing left back has to be one of the most difficult poisons to fill, when he won the ball he then has to swap the ball to his right side to get it up the line or pass it back into the box, gives the attacking player every chance of getting it back. I thought he did well considering. Isn't ledesma also right footed on the left?
-- Edited by Fliker on Wednesday 26th of August 2015 11:27:21 AM
Good observation. One thing about Richardson is he is a great Pro.
IMO Richardson is not a first choice RB let alone a LB. Totally at fault for both goals, yes Ledesma gave the ball away in midfield for the first but other than keeping a nice straight line, Richardson was poor. Left the flank wide open for both goals just to keep "a good shape" poor, poor, poor
Watch your man and make a challange dont just wave your arms n shout expecting others to do your job.
Chris - don't think you could leave Newell out - I'd prefer him to be alongside Maguire or Frecks. Your back 5 is about as strong and pacey as it gets within our squad. Agree Halford is worth a go as a holding midfielder. However, if he fails there, I don't see a future for him with us.
