Bristol Rovers v Exeter City Matchday Thread

[STURTZ]

As an end of year appraisal of GC's first steps into City management I would just point at individual results we have had and exclaim that there aren't many there where we haven't done as well as or, on occasions, better than expected. To have done this with an unfamiliar team whilst being able to experiment with line ups and formations has been impressive. I also think that Caldwell has done well to retain the respect, happiness and enthusiasm of an already strong team.
I think the majority of City fans have accepted GC into the fold and are supporting him to succeed. Of course there are always going to be a few that throw the towel in at the first opportunity are suspicious of his motives and refuse to give any praise for success, that's their prerogative of course.
I find it hard to imagine MT would have done any better in the circumstances.

 

[Sexton Blake]

Choices need to be made - At this moment they where wrong choices, for reason's I Keep highlighting and won't go over again. Lets hope he has learnt the errors and we can move forward.

I think thus far, Most people agree with my points around selection / Tactics, especially Nombe, most agree my conclusion is harsh. I am happy to accept the conclusion is harsh, but based on what i have seen, I am not convinced by Caldwell or his approach. But he is going to have time to prove me wrong as he ain't going anywhere anytime soon and I am sure you will find my posts to show in a few years if he can prove himself (Of which i will be happy to concede as I Will be happy he has done well, as ultimately i want anyone to do with ECFC to do well). I am conflicted as I do not call for Managers to be sacked easily and this is probably showing in my posts. I genuinely want to be proven wrong.

Either way, I think I will stop banging on now, everyone knows where I Stand at this point on the subject and We just seem to be going round and round in circles on the subject making the same points over and over. I Want to be wrong and will be delighted if / when I am proven wrong. I will try and be objective on each game I see and i will confirm when I feel i got this wrong.

January is going to be a huge month for us, we need to strengthen the side and bring in a couple of CB's (assuming Stubbs doesn't return) who have really quality and experience at this level. We also need a back up for Nombe, as we have proven via selection that was cannot play without him at this point as he is too important to how Brown, Stanno and Jay play. January is going to be a rollercoaster.

A number of individuals have commented about not starting with our top striker Sam Nombe and suggesting GC has been wrong to do so.

Personally I don’t think the reason is as obvious as everyone thinks.

GC would have realised very early on that first and foremost his priority had to be to concentrate on improving our defensive play.

The players were all new to him and he needed time to get to know their strengths and weaknesses both individually and as a group.

Long gone are the days of 1 2 3 5 when full backs just defended looking after their respective wingers and centre halves marked their opposing centre forward today we have at least 8 outfield players with some defensive duties.

Consequently it has been quite a task for him to develop a way of playing to get the best out of the players available to him.

IMHO as good a striker as Sam is he can’t be expected do it all and like any striker needs the support of others to create chances for him and therefore there was little point in throwing him into the mix until GC had found a way of playing to provide this support without sacrificing what he was trying to achieve defensively.

I believe he is now close achieving this and we will see more of Sam in tomorrow’s game against Oxford which will be a serious test as to how well GC’s ideas are working.

 

[Andy_H]

Barton ought to be asking his clubs hierarchy why they chose a "local ish derby " to take part in the Shelter campaign ? if his team is like every other team in the lower leagues then they are inconsistent so they have 23 home fixtures to choose from just like every other team do ,it would never have been mentioned if they were 5 up at half time and went on to win the game would it ,the bloke is a gosh*te clown and the very idea that the reason they were 2-0 down at h/t is because of the kit clash is the best excuse going ,not only does it make Barton look stupid (as usual) but it makes me wonder if the Rovers player actually know their own team mates ? cos you can't tell me that after training with them all season virtually everyday that in one 45 minutes of play wearing a different colour shirt they were that crap ? excuse after excuse is just the norm now when a team plays crap and scousers certainly no how to churn the excuses out .

Reading JB's interview this bit stands out for me;

"It was a bit of a calamity, it was a show of support for the Homeless charity but for some reason Exeter din't wear Red & white, which is not their fault."

Which suggests that he, obviously, wasn't aware of what the title of the event - 'No Home' shirt, was. ECFC wear Red & White at HOME, and one of two different colours away, Joey. Anybody with even half an brain cell could work that out!!!

 

[Rosencrantz]

I actually thought their home kit was more of a clash with our sky blue than the kit they wore in the first half. The whole changing of kit is just a distraction from a poor first half for them. Also they had their yellow and green away kit they could have worn. Surely they don't just have one set if they couldn't get it clean and dry in time.

 

[SEA Grecian]

January is going to be a huge month for us, we need to strengthen the side and bring in a couple of CB's (assuming Stubbs doesn't return) who have really quality and experience at this level. We also need a back up for Nombe, as we have proven via selection that was cannot play without him at this point as he is too important to how Brown, Stanno and Jay play. January is going to be a rollercoaster.

Why is it going to be such a huge month. Yes, we need to add some strength in depth but this group of players has exceeded expectations to get us comfortably into mid-table and I don't see any reason why they can't continue to do that for the rest of the season.

 

[dontpassback]

Reading JB's interview this bit stands out for me;

"It was a bit of a calamity, it was a show of support for the Homeless charity but for some reason Exeter din't wear Red & white, which is not their fault."

Which suggests that he, obviously, wasn't aware of what the title of the event - 'No Home' shirt, was. ECFC wear Red & White at HOME, and one of two different colours away, Joey. Anybody with even half an brain cell could work that out!!!

Not the brightest is mr Barton

 

[exeips]

Sigh. We've won one game since November and only 2 in the league since November. If we hadn't snatched a win Caldwell would've had A 9% win ratio.

Funny you say we snatch a win against Bristol Rovers but fail to mention when we battered Sheffield Wednesday, only for them to snatch a draw!

 

[SaintJames]

Funny you say we snatch a win against Bristol Rovers but fail to mention when we battered Sheffield Wednesday, only for them to snatch a draw!

like I said myopic. It's a terrible affliction that only a PE teacher can correct in certain extreme conditions

 

[Benjisheps14]

Funny you say we snatch a win against Bristol Rovers but fail to mention when we battered Sheffield Wednesday, only for them to snatch a draw!

And in fairness battered Morecambe away and were very unlucky not to get the 3 points.

Tomorrow will be a real test and will give some insight into just how much we have improved (Bolton aside) over the last couple of weeks.

 

[Spoonz Red E]

Reading JB's interview this bit stands out for me;

"It was a bit of a calamity, it was a show of support for the Homeless charity but for some reason Exeter din't wear Red & white, which is not their fault."

Which suggests that he, obviously, wasn't aware of what the title of the event - 'No Home' shirt, was. ECFC wear Red & White at HOME, and one of two different colours away, Joey. Anybody with even half an brain cell could work that out!!!

To cut Joey Barton some slack on this ...

I'd take it the process should have been this - if everyone was in the loop.

[1] Home club agrees not to play in home strip and informs the away club of the alternative being used.​

[2] Away club chooses their best placed strip to avoid similar colours.​

With Rover's choice of strip - if we had known - we may well have chosen to play in red & white.

So he's not sure what went wrong but he does absolve us of any blame.

Which is fair comment.