Jump to content

Bristol Rovers v ICT


Dmacca

Recommended Posts

A great day/evening for me, never thought I would see this fixture, Rovers have a history of doing Scottish pre season tours, lets hope this game leads to a trip to the TCS soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No link but line up

Tuffey

Aldred

Tokely

Proctor

Gillet

Morrison

Laing

Tansey

Ross

Shinnie

Foran

Subs:

Esson

Polworth

Stevenson

Hayes

Greig

Smith

Edited by BA
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No link but line up

Tuffey

Aldred

Tokely

Proctor

Gillet

Morrison

Laing

Tansey

Ross

Shinnie

Subs:

Esson

Polworth

Stevenson

Hayes

Greig

Smith

Foran

Thats 10

Don't know what you're talkin about :tongueincheek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good to see Nick Ross getting on the scoresheet - the only thing missing in his game last season was that he didn't get in on the business end of things quite as often as you would hope a young player of his quality would. Hopefully an omen for the season to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I arrived 10 mins late as I still believed it was a 7.45 kickoff (obviously it turned out not to be!) so I had difficulty working out who was who at times, what with all the new or previously unseen faces on the pitch. Now, I realise that the team tonight is probably not our preferred starting eleven, but it's not that far off what we could be seeing in the SPL, especially if injuries strike. Let's just say the jury remains out...

Their first goal - the penalty looked very much like a dive from the other end of the pitch, their left winger tore Proctor to shreds (happened quite a bit tonight), cut inside the box and impressively fell over Tokely's feet - there wasn't an outstretched leg or anything... There wasn't much more action in the first half, a few attempts on goal at both ends but nothing very exciting - wasn't majorly impressed with Foran in the lead striker role, he looked pretty weak there, really hope he doesn't play there this season.

In the second half Bristol Rovers made something like 9 changes and still looked pretty good. They used the width of the pitch really well, whereas we insisted on playing balls down the middle of the park, expecting people like Nick Ross to compete with some giant centre backs. Ironically, our first goal came from exactly that, a bouncing through ball out did their defender and Nick finished it really well. With substitutions coming thick and fast in the second half we seemed to mostly have an attacking threat based on midfielders - not a recognisable striker among them. Good to see Jonny Hayes getting a run about in the second half - some nice touches and running, but still probably not 100% yet.

The frustrating thing was that we really lacked width, we didn't have anyone out on the the right wing for long periods of the second half, and it really held us back. Bristol's second goal came from McLaggon (who looked very good) running at Proctor, and he shot across goal from a very tight angle (all the Bristol fans around me had started groaning that he'd gone too far) when suddenly the ball was in the back of the net. Our second goal came from finally having someone out on the right, Hayes kept the ball in on the touch line, crossed low into the box and the defense just stood and watched as Nick Ross stuck the ball in the net. After that we had some more attacks, again by using the right wing! Why it took so long to realise this I don't know... I think our formation didn't really help matters.

Defensively speaking, if we have to rely on Proctor at RB all season we will struggle. He was good going forward, but did not cope well with their pacey wingers. The rest of the defence looked OK though, and Aldred did a decent job. The midfield didn't look all that good as an attacking force - we controlled the ball well, and put some good passes together, but the central 3 did not look remotely attacking minded - our number 8 (Tansey or Morrison?) spent a lot of time running towards our players in possession instead of in to space - still early doors there it seems. Nick Ross and Shinnie were good in their supporting roles, but Foran is not suited to the leading striker role he seemed to be in today. And we clearly had no proper striker to replace him upfront when he was subbed (tactical sub) in the 2nd half.

Nevertheless, it was a pleasant evening out, and there was some good footy on display by both teams. But I do think that there is still a lot of work to be done.

  • Agree 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. : Terms of Use : Guidelines : Privacy Policy