Bristol Rovers v Cheltenham Town

[Jon Palmer]

Team news, live updates and reaction all here this evening: https://bit.ly/BristolRoversEFLTrophy

[Swiss-Robin]

Cool.

But who is playing exactly?!?

[Si Robin]

The team will probably be announced around 7:00 (I'm sure it's 7:00 when it's a 7:45 kickoff)

[Jon Palmer]

Full team news on the way at 6.45pm, but James Olayinka has travelled: https://bit.ly/BristolRoversEFLTrophy

[Swiss-Robin]

Full team news on the way at 6.45pm, but James Olayinka has travelled: https://bit.ly/BristolRoversEFLTrophy

Yeah. Whatever.
I lost interest now.

[Shade]

Full team news on the way at 6.45pm, but James Olayinka has travelled: https://bit.ly/BristolRoversEFLTrophy

Yeah. Whatever.
I lost interest now.

Chance would be a fine thing.

No Bonds or Thompson in the squad, hopefully both just being rested?

[art vandalay]

Bonds is on international duty.

[Swiss-Robin]

Bonds is on international duty.

Gawd knows why?!?

[HamTown]

Wow Keena. Talk about things not going for us

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Wow Keena. Talk about things not going for us

Dammit. Could have been just what AK needed to get going this season.

[I-Love-CTFC]

My dead nan would have scored that. https://twitter.com/chxrlie67/status/16 ... 49132?s=20

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

My dead nan would have scored that. https://twitter.com/chxrlie67/status/16 ... 49132?s=20

Awkward height, leaning back, off the shin rather than boot. Dare we say it bobbled up? Poor miss, regardless.

[Swiss-Robin]

Already another humiliation.

[Jerry St Clair]

After all the talk of the EFL trophy being a watershed for Duff and maybe this game would be for Wade, it looks like it might be seminal.

This sounds like a calamity.

[Alf]

This is just embarrassing. We’re clueless. What on earth do we do on the training ground?

[Ihearye]

My dead nan would have scored that. https://twitter.com/chxrlie67/status/16 ... 49132?s=20

Awkward height, leaning back, off the shin rather than boot. Dare we say it bobbled up? Poor miss, regardless.

Think you must have covered all the standard excuses there. Doesn't appear to be leaning back, off the shin is his fault, bobbled?
But you are right, a poor miss

[1985CTFC]

They are just walking and passing through us. Nearly all of them are lacking confidence, and all over the place.
Still they banged in lots of goals in the warmup shooting practice.
Luckily only a cup game and not a league one.
Wade needs a good rethink after this game.

[paperboy]

My dead nan would have scored that. https://twitter.com/chxrlie67/status/16 ... 49132?s=20

Awkward height, leaning back, off the shin rather than boot. Dare we say it bobbled up? Poor miss, regardless.

Think you must have covered all the standard excuses there. Doesn't appear to be leaning back, off the shin is his fault, bobbled?
But you are right, a poor miss

Not sure poor miss does it justice.

We started brightly too, but then a well worked Rovers goal and then we imploded catastrophically.

Ian Randall trying to be impartial on Rovers comms.

[paperboy]

Well we've now scored - !! Woo woo.

A Rovers defender showing us how to finish.

[Shade]

Not sure if the score or Mr Halliwell's constant "you know, uh, uh, uh, you know" on "commentary" is worse.

[CTFCfan99]

Not sure if the score or Mr Halliwell's constant "you know, uh, uh, uh, you know" on "commentary" is worse.

Or both of them being convinced that was a Ferry og when he was nowhere near it

[paperboy]

.and now Rob Street scores!!

an OG obviously. Still good practise I suppose.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Looks like we were close to making it 3-2 before their 4th.

As dire as the performance may be, a kick away from making it 1-1 and then close to 3-2 shows it is still fine margins and the individual moments making the difference.

[CTFCfan99]

Looks like we were close to making it 3-2 before their 4th.

As dire as the performance may be, a kick away from making it 1-1 and then close to 3-2 shows it is still fine margins and the individual moments making the difference.

That is certainly the most positive way of looking at it.

Always try to take the positives but ultimately we need to start getting results in the next few games or a change might be the only option.

Hopefully we can put in a similar performance to last season at Exeter.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Looks like we were close to making it 3-2 before their 4th.

As dire as the performance may be, a kick away from making it 1-1 and then close to 3-2 shows it is still fine margins and the individual moments making the difference.

That is certainly the most positive way of looking at it.

Always try to take the positives but ultimately we need to start getting results in the next few games or a change might be the only option.

Hopefully we can put in a similar performance to last season at Exeter.

Indeed. All it takes is for a few of the moments and fine margins to go in our favour and all of a sudden we have won three in a row without necessarily deserving to.

[1985CTFC]

Looks like we were close to making it 3-2 before their 4th.

As dire as the performance may be, a kick away from making it 1-1 and then close to 3-2 shows it is still fine margins and the individual moments making the difference.

Regency, I take it you didn't see the game. We were never going to be in the game. If Keena scored the sitter maybe a flicker of optimism, but all through the first half they walked and passed through us with ease. Wade did damage limitation second half with a 4-5-1 which stemmed the flow through us a bit. But they took their foot of the pedal so that was the reason they didn't get more. Still, patched up in the second half was better. Couldn't be worse. Malcolm did well I thought considering the circumstances. Plenty of effort but confidence is drained. Special mention to the Williams both of them.
Need a big lift in the next 10 days and a performance against Exeter like last year. Shhhhhousery at its finest it was. But we won.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Looks like we were close to making it 3-2 before their 4th.

As dire as the performance may be, a kick away from making it 1-1 and then close to 3-2 shows it is still fine margins and the individual moments making the difference.

Regency, I take it you didn't see the game. We were never going to be in the game. If Keena scored the sitter maybe a flicker of optimism, but all through the first half they walked and passed through us with ease. Wade did damage limitation second half with a 4-5-1 which stemmed the flow through us a bit. But they took their foot of the pedal so that was the reason they didn't get more. Still, patched up in the second half was better. Couldn't be worse. Malcolm did well I thought considering the circumstances. Plenty of effort but confidence is drained. Special mention to the Williams both of them.
Need a big lift in the next 10 days and a performance against Exeter like last year. Shhhhhousery at its finest it was. But we won.

I said it was dire and don’t disagree with anything you say there. You say yourself an equaliser would have given a flicker. Who knows, that may have caused a spark and full ignition. It’s a moment which didn’t go our way and we stayed awful as a result.

Sometimes when moments keep going against you something needs to be changed to change fortunes. There’s only so many things the manager can change and even fewer the Board can change.

[Uppy]

We’ve been a patient club and that’s helped with our stability but I don’t know how anybody isn’t deeply concerned at the moment. Only consolation I have is that I thought the same 11 months ago and Wade turned it round.

[Jerry St Clair]

Over an hour since the final whistle and no news from JP or Halliwell. They normally have some quotes out by now………

[Shade]

Maybe the delay was down to Wade trying to count up the injured. 7 injuries, apparently. Thank f#!$ the game this Saturday is postponed.

[Haitch]

So so so bored of the way we approach games, standing off the ball yet again, not wade out yet but something has to change.

mood doesn’t look good on social media and rightfully so, think there was a laugh and a giggle about how s#!t we are in the terrace, shame the team seemed to be scared of the 86 of us and only a handful seemed to show some sort of appreciation for those that made the journey to watch that utter dross.

The moment that summed us up to a T was when we were down 3-1, managed to score but with 0 shots on target…

[Benctfc]

Another poor performance. My takes from the match would be I'm unconvinced by the 4-3-3 as our midfield is bypassed and overrun too easily time to revert back to 3-5-2 in my opinion.

I thought Adshead started the game well and in a better team i think he would look okay he just doesn't fit our style. Wouldn't mind seeing him in a midfield 3 with Bonds and Peupion. There are a few players who we know are better than they are showing at the moment (Sercombe,Keena,Ferry) this has to be a confidence issue as talent is there. As for Wade it appears social media has turned on him. In my opinion there is nothing to gain in sacking him until he has had at least a few matches with the new signings and then reviewing it at that point. Lose the next 2 though and the pressure will push him out the door unfortunately.

[Garby74]

2 or 3 more games.

Looking on the list below.
Nothing too shabby about top 5.

https://www.bettingodds.com/news/next-f ... ember-2023

I prey the board are already carrying out due diligence. Just in case

[Robin]

If Karl Robinson is willing to go to Fleetwood then you'd hope he'd be willing to come here too but he strikes me as the wrong person to have in a relegation dog fight as he likes to play nice on the eye possession football which we are incapable of right now. Also I don't see Cotterill coming back either.

[Si Robin]

I said on the Pod WhatsApp chat last night - and will probably say it on tonight's recording - I'm not Wade out at all, but I'm not sure I'd be disappointed if I woke up today and he was no longer in charge.

I feel for the bloke because in his two summers in charge he's had to deal with shedloads of backroom upheaval. He's been massively hindered this year by the loss of, arguably, the best player in the club's history, and a pocket of fans who've been calling for his head since his second competitive game in charge last year.

With that being said, on more than a couple of occasions this season, we have not looked remotely competitive. We can look at the 1-0 defeats and say those games could/should have been 0-0, but that's not good enough. If we come away saying we had chances in those games and fell the wrong side, then there's a defence, but the defence being it should have been 0-0 is c!#p I'm afraid.

Last Saturday felt like a massive leap in the right direction - I agree with Wade in his post-Rovers interview that we should have won that game. It's telling that their keeper was in the League 1 team of the week. However, despite being a tinpot trophy game, it was crucial to build on that last night. We failed, massively. You can use injuries and international call-ups as an excuse, but it doesn't excuse us not being competitive again.

I said a while ago that the first 10 games of the season determine Wade's position - he's got two more to save his job in my view, and Exeter and Peterborough away are bloody tough games to get something from.