Last Time Out...
Last time out I was questioning Donny's fitness or more exactly their ability to manage their fitness over the full ninety minutes especially after what we in Switzerland refer to as an "Englische Woche"(a week where matches are played Saturday-Midweek-Saturday).
Did the lads go and prove me wrong as I hoped they would? I don't know about that but they did manage to get something out of the game against a team that many fancy to challenge at the top this season and a team that are in good form. I'll take that!
Lets start with the positives. First of all, Rovers shooting looked a lot better than it has done of late in this one. 20% of shots on target against Watford has turned into 60% on target v Forest. And of course we got two in the back of the net courtesy of the big cheese himself, Federico Macheda (Macheddar...get it....OK nevermind).
Now, I read a couple of people on the forum stating that even though Macheda scored two goals, he wasn't man of the match. Paul Keegan was thought by several to deserve that award. Concensus of opinion suggested that Macheda's chances had been put on a plate for him.
Well, I neither watched the match nor listened in due to being at a rock festival with nothing that could be described as an internet connection so I cannot comment on Keegan. But on Macheda I will say this. To get them put on a plate, you have to first come to the table...ie get in position. Macheda did that very well indeed. Two excellent runs earned him the easy finishes from which he benefitted. I thought the second in particular was a great team goal with Ritchie Wellens showing his unselfish streak and great vision to notice that while he had a good chance, Macheda had found a position where it was going to be difficult to miss.
While Donny's finishes were efforts we might expect to end up in the goal, Forest's were nothing like that. Neither of them gave Ross Turnbull any chance whatsoever. First Chris Cohen smashed into the top corner from just inside the area before in the 85th minute, Andy Reid did something similar from just outside of the area.
Were there any negatives? Unfortunately, yes. From the highlights it was clear that Reece Wabara and James Husband were continually being caught by Forest wide players getting down their outside. From reading the forums, I'm not sure it was particularly their fault on this occasion. Rovers played a 4-3-2-1 formation with no natural wide players in midfield. They had, of course been employing Cotterill and Coppinger out wide and whilst neither of that pair has particularly good defensive credentials, from what I have seen, Coppinger at least does get in the way of opposition attacks somewhat on the right hand side. In any case, a bit more protection for the full backs looked necessary from what I saw.
The other thing is Forest out-shot Donny 2:1 in that match. There were quite a few scuffs and mis-hits that let us off but still, they created a lot of chances. Too many in fact.
A final point is that very lopsided shot profile as the game goes on. Rovers started off matching their visitors in terms of shots but as time went on, we were out-shot 3:2, 4:1 and 5:1. OK, there is a good argument that for a long period, Donny were 1 goal up and so had placed the prerogative on their opponents to attack. But they didn't take too much advantage of any gaps being left. A shame really, as I did see Rovers have two excellent chances to extend their lead when they did get forwards.
But, we got a draw. Not bad at all!
Meanwhile...
Lets move on and talk about the Owls. Well, there's only one thing worse than having won just the one game this season so far and that's what Sheffield Wednesday have done. Prior to their tonking by Birmingham last Saturday, which we will discuss in more detail, they had recorded four draws on the bounce; at home to Millwall and Yeovil and away to Leeds and Middlesbrough. Those sides are currently placed 17th, 22nd, 13th and 16th respectively. Compare and contrast with the draws gained by Rovers against the 6th, 9th and 11th placed clubs and you start to be concerned for the Owls.
Birmingham City played host to the Owls on Saturday and I am sure it was a match where the Wednesday would have been looking for at least a point before the game bearing in mind Birmingham were suffering their worst league start for 25 years. A 4:1 defeat was probably as bad as it could have gone!
Looking at the 30 minutes of highlights available (for some reason not on Owls' player), the first thing I saw was Michail Antonio making a bit of a nuisance of himself. First he cut in with a strong run from the left before shooting tamely. Then he showed good strength to shrug off his marker on the right before playing the ball into the box. Again the chance ended with a weakly hit shot - but Antonio, we may have to watch him.
But I didn't see much effort from Wednesday off the ball in the early exchanges shown by Blues player. On a couple of occasions I watched Birmingham knocking the ball around deep in Wednesday territory without the inconvenience of defenders snapping at their heels. The opener came when David Murphy intercepted brilliantly in midfield, simultaneously playing a perfect pass with the outside of his foot out to Chris Burke. Cutting in from the right, Burke's shot could only be pushed by Kirkland into the path of Jesse Lingard who crashed the ball into the open net. A second nearly came as Burke played a long ball out of defence that was completely misread by Kamil Zayette in the Owls' defence. David Green was in on goal and would have scored but for quick and brave reactions by Kirkland. Kirkland again came to Wednesday's rescue when Chris Burke, who was making a pest of himself on the right, as he has done at this level for years, won a free kick.
Burke crossed and the ball was cleared to the edge of the area where Lingard volleyed in goalwards forcing Kirkland to athletically tip over. But Lingard was soon to get his second anyway. Wednesday were simply out-muscled in the centre of midfield as Wade Elliot surged through. A simple ball to his left allowed an unmarked Lingard to finish low to Kirkland's right. Lingard completed a first half hat-trick on a dream debut for the Blues. Again he was unmarked and was in almost exactly the same position from where he had netted his brace. Paul Robinson this time played the killer ball, another easy one as he was not pressurized at all.
In the second half Birmingham and Lingard's fourth came from a predictable route. A ball out to the right and Chris Burke who again beat Reda Johnson - twice to be precise before driving into the box to pull back for Lingard to finish. Four goals on his debut for the Manchester United Loanee. Good stuff! If David Moyes feels he needs to recall players to strengthen his squad, Lingard is obviously far better than Federico Macheda. He will learn more staying with the Rovers!
The Owls' scant consolation came from another familiar championship source, a Stephen McPhail free kick. This one was about 35 yards out and was lifted into the middle of the penalty area where Kamil Zayette flicked a header into the goal having lost his marker. Very little positive to say about Wednesday on this performance. Just a few decent runs by Antonio early on and another half decent run by Maghoma were worth noting. Other than that, the full backs in particular were awful, surely good reason to start Cotterill and/or Coppinger. Marking slack, lazy off the ball and casual on it. Surely Wednesday won't put in two performances that bad in a row.
While there are no easy away ties in Championship football, and most of the home ones are tricky too, Rovers have got to fancy this one. Certainly on the evidence of Wednesday's weekend, they are a team for the taking. With Rovers having no midweek game (I knew there was some reason for allowing Leeds to beat us in the League Cup), they should be fresh. Cotterill and Coppinger were both rested on Saturday so they will be fully rested against fullbacks not capable of handling tricky wingers.
But I'm not going to allow myself to get too carried away. David Jones will surely have told certain Owls' employees exactly what he thought of their work last weekend. They are also at home so will pick up some motivation from their home crowd. For Jones, I am sure it will be win or be checking situations vacant on Monday. I hope he is checking that column. I love it when managers get sacked having lost to the likes of Donny!
Enjoy the match everyone.
Lets move on and talk about the Owls. Well, there's only one thing worse than having won just the one game this season so far and that's what Sheffield Wednesday have done. Prior to their tonking by Birmingham last Saturday, which we will discuss in more detail, they had recorded four draws on the bounce; at home to Millwall and Yeovil and away to Leeds and Middlesbrough. Those sides are currently placed 17th, 22nd, 13th and 16th respectively. Compare and contrast with the draws gained by Rovers against the 6th, 9th and 11th placed clubs and you start to be concerned for the Owls.
Looking at the 30 minutes of highlights available (for some reason not on Owls' player), the first thing I saw was Michail Antonio making a bit of a nuisance of himself. First he cut in with a strong run from the left before shooting tamely. Then he showed good strength to shrug off his marker on the right before playing the ball into the box. Again the chance ended with a weakly hit shot - but Antonio, we may have to watch him.
But I didn't see much effort from Wednesday off the ball in the early exchanges shown by Blues player. On a couple of occasions I watched Birmingham knocking the ball around deep in Wednesday territory without the inconvenience of defenders snapping at their heels. The opener came when David Murphy intercepted brilliantly in midfield, simultaneously playing a perfect pass with the outside of his foot out to Chris Burke. Cutting in from the right, Burke's shot could only be pushed by Kirkland into the path of Jesse Lingard who crashed the ball into the open net. A second nearly came as Burke played a long ball out of defence that was completely misread by Kamil Zayette in the Owls' defence. David Green was in on goal and would have scored but for quick and brave reactions by Kirkland. Kirkland again came to Wednesday's rescue when Chris Burke, who was making a pest of himself on the right, as he has done at this level for years, won a free kick.
Burke crossed and the ball was cleared to the edge of the area where Lingard volleyed in goalwards forcing Kirkland to athletically tip over. But Lingard was soon to get his second anyway. Wednesday were simply out-muscled in the centre of midfield as Wade Elliot surged through. A simple ball to his left allowed an unmarked Lingard to finish low to Kirkland's right. Lingard completed a first half hat-trick on a dream debut for the Blues. Again he was unmarked and was in almost exactly the same position from where he had netted his brace. Paul Robinson this time played the killer ball, another easy one as he was not pressurized at all.
In the second half Birmingham and Lingard's fourth came from a predictable route. A ball out to the right and Chris Burke who again beat Reda Johnson - twice to be precise before driving into the box to pull back for Lingard to finish. Four goals on his debut for the Manchester United Loanee. Good stuff! If David Moyes feels he needs to recall players to strengthen his squad, Lingard is obviously far better than Federico Macheda. He will learn more staying with the Rovers!
The Owls' scant consolation came from another familiar championship source, a Stephen McPhail free kick. This one was about 35 yards out and was lifted into the middle of the penalty area where Kamil Zayette flicked a header into the goal having lost his marker. Very little positive to say about Wednesday on this performance. Just a few decent runs by Antonio early on and another half decent run by Maghoma were worth noting. Other than that, the full backs in particular were awful, surely good reason to start Cotterill and/or Coppinger. Marking slack, lazy off the ball and casual on it. Surely Wednesday won't put in two performances that bad in a row.
So what will happen?
But I'm not going to allow myself to get too carried away. David Jones will surely have told certain Owls' employees exactly what he thought of their work last weekend. They are also at home so will pick up some motivation from their home crowd. For Jones, I am sure it will be win or be checking situations vacant on Monday. I hope he is checking that column. I love it when managers get sacked having lost to the likes of Donny!
Enjoy the match everyone.
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