Three points, but..

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Boxer Blade

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Happy to come away with the win and the first two were quality in both build up and
finish but I thought the first half was again so slow and boring most of the time and
some of the passing was awful and billy's hold up play was not up to his usual standard,
second half was better, Billy played really well as did done but I think the spark was the
introduction of wallace, thought he played really well, overall? A wins a win but still
expect more from the team in both pace and skill, I don't think we are a million miles away
 

I can't believe we won that but Rochdale are a more-than-decent team at this level. They pressed us back because they are extremely organised and, in players like Mendez-Lang, sliced through us like a knife through butter. Every 50-50 ball was won by them. Every clearance we made went straight to one of our players.

With around 22 minutes left, NA was preparing J C-R to come on as our final sub. We survived their free-kick just outside our box, brought Reed on and they promptly scored. So, from a position where NA was looking to relieve the pressure on our defence by utilising J C-R to, at least, take the ball into their corner, we had now used our last sub., had a tiring attacking threat, no more attacking options and a winner for 'dale seemed on the cards. We looked to be holding on for our win with over 20 minutes to go - far to long to hope for that (Clough-esque). The way they were bursting into our area almost at will made a goal (or another penalty) seem inevitable.

Once again, our goalie was far busier than the opposition man in a home game.

However...we won. I knew this would be a stern test and it proved so. I thought Done was superb as the final whistle approached - doing enough so that Rochdale couldn't commit 100% to attack. Young Che's brace was fantastic, especially the second after brilliant work by Sharp - probably the goal of the season.

But - and I know goals win matches - for me the MoM was Billy. Without his tireless hustling, running and pressing their back four, Che's goals would have probably come to nought.
 
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It was far from the performance of a top 2 team but we are capable of better. It wasn't made particularly easy by the team selection - McEveley and Coutts in particular.
 
well mourinhos finding it hard to win games and hes officially got englands best squad so we cant moan when we do win

try a headline wasnt great but we got 3 points , like most promoted side get along the way
 
Well I had a blazing row with some cunt who told me to "fuck off to Hillsborough" when I criticised Uniteds contant backwards movement. 3-2 is a win and I'm happy for it but it's hardly resounding.
 
well mourinhos finding it hard to win games and hes officially got englands best squad so we cant moan when we do win

try a headline wasnt great but we got 3 points , like most promoted side get along the way

Days like today are maybe the other side of the Bury and Colchester games: things evening themselves out over time.
 
Happy to come away with the win and the first two were quality in both build up and
finish but I thought the first half was again so slow and boring most of the time and
some of the passing was awful and billy's hold up play was not up to his usual standard,
second half was better, Billy played really well as did done but I think the spark was the
introduction of wallace, thought he played really well, overall? A wins a win but still
expect more from the team in both pace and skill, I don't think we are a million miles away

So we scored two goals from "quality build up and finish" and our "passing was awful." Sorry but I'm a bit confused!
Baxter was outstanding today, great runs into the box at one end, heroic blocks at the other and capped by a sublime piece of skill, playing Adams in for the first goal. For every one of those passes that hit the target, expect 4 or 5 to miss - and that's from a good player. Yes, a few passes went astray but all in all we passed and moved with intent and could have scored 2 or 3 more goals from end to end transitions.
 
So we scored two goals from "quality build up and finish" and our "passing was awful." Sorry but I'm a bit confused!
Baxter was outstanding today, great runs into the box at one end, heroic blocks at the other and capped by a sublime piece of skill, playing Adams in for the first goal. For every one of those passes that hit the target, expect 4 or 5 to miss - and that's from a good player. Yes, a few passes went astray but all in all we passed and moved with intent and could have scored 2 or 3 more goals from end to end transitions.

Good post, and I completely agree - and the poster who rightly said when the equalised we could have been stumped because we had rolled with dice with the Reed/Coutts subsitution - you then need a bit of quality, and Baxter delivered with a great corner to Collins' head.

Baxter's ball to Adams I could watch all day. Class. And exactly, some passes dont come off, but others do, and that how goals are scored.

For me we won the game today because, Adams, Baxter and Sharp had that bit of class.
 
You can't complain about a lack of goals this season!
I thought we played quite badly in the first half but scored 2 quality goals. We gave them far too much time and space, inevitably conceded a very poor equaliser and then went straight down the other end and scored from a corner following another quality move that won the corner. Going forward with Billy, Matty and Che we looked potent. In midfield we were not strong enough again and we alwayd looked shaky at the back. Thought Freeman had a great game though and made one fantastic tackle to prevent a certain goal from Mendez-Laing who was dangerous all game.
 

I can't believe we won that but Rochdale are a more-than-decent team at this level. They pressed us back because they are extremely organised and, in players like Mendez-Lang, sliced through us like a knife through butter. Every 50-50 ball was won by them. Every clearance we made went straight to one of our players.

With around 22 minutes left, NA was preparing J C-R to come on as our final sub. We survived their free-kick just outside our box, brought Reed on and they promptly scored. So, from a position where NA was looking to relieve the pressure on our defence by utilising J C-R to, at least, take the ball into their corner, we had now used our last sub., had a tiring attacking threat, no more attacking options and a winner for 'dale seemed on the cards. We looked to be holding on for our win with over 20 minutes to go - far to long to hope for that (Clough-esque). The way they were bursting into our area almost at will made a goal (or another penalty) seem inevitable.

Once again, our goalie was far busier than the opposition man in a home game.

However...we won. I knew this would be a stern test and it proved so. I thought Done was superb as the final whistle approached - doing enough so that Rochdale couldn't commit 100% to attack. Young Che's brace was fantastic, especially the second after brilliant work by Sharp - probably the goal of the season.

But - and I know goals win matches - for me the MoM was Billy. Without his tireless hustling, running and pressing their back four, Che's goals would have probably come to nought.

they scored their second before Reed came on......give the kid a break
 
Happy to come away with the win and the first two were quality in both build up and
finish but I thought the first half was again so slow and boring most of the time and
some of the passing was awful and billy's hold up play was not up to his usual standard,
second half was better, Billy played really well as did done but I think the spark was the
introduction of wallace, thought he played really well, overall? A wins a win but still
expect more from the team in both pace and skill, I don't think we are a million miles away


Thought we'd got a Blades v Rochdale thread?
 
Entertaining match against a team I was expecting a tough game from as last season they were 1 of the few to attack instead of parking the bus. As good as che adams finishing was the assists for 1st 2 goals fantastic. Cant put finger on why we are great in attack at home but poor away. 11 in 3 now at home & 3 in 3 away

few defensive mistakes lazy leg for penalty & Cant switch off again like we did midway through 2nd half letting Rochdale come bacj at us as it so nearly cost us 2pts.

Also 1 more thing imagine If che adams scored in final min of added time after running 60yds beating 4 men. Wouldve been 1 of best solo goals at lane id seen for a long time
 
Didnt Reed come on at 2-2? Which was already far too late as Coutts had barely been able to move for the last 20 minutes before that. I was gobsmacked it took Adkins so long to drag him off
 
Well, that was entertaining!

Rochdale looked a very good side to me, as good as I've seen at the Lane this season. No fear about them at all.

A pretty even game all in all which we shaded, like others have said, because of moments of individual excellence (including Kieran Wallace's superb driving run that led to the corner for the 3rd).

Some very good individual performances out there within a set-up in which it still looks like we're searching for our new Adkinsesque identity. Scougs's injury didn't help, & the shape wasn't great I thought when Jose was pushed further forward in the 2nd half (with Bash having a pretty anonymous half as a sitting midfielder after looking excellent at centre-back in the 1st). Thought young Harrison played well, Kieron Freeman was as consistent as ever, Kieran Wallace put in a real star turn during the 2nd half (he gets better & better) & that both Billy & Doney put in heroic shifts up top. Louis Reed steadied the ship in fine fashion when he came on. And Che Adams's finishing shows that we've got three top class finishers at the club now - just a shame he couldn't snatch a hat-trick at the end after that mazy run, but he had a fine all-round game too I thought.

Satisfying really. Far from perfect, but an exciting game against a very decent side at this level which we won. That'll do me.

Vital three game sequence, all very winnable, coming up now...
 
Didnt Reed come on at 2-2? Which was already far too late as Coutts had barely been able to move for the last 20 minutes before that. I was gobsmacked it took Adkins so long to drag him off
He came on just before Rochdale's 2nd equaliser. If McEveley or scougall wasnt injured then Coutts would have been subbed at half time. He was limping badly after that tackle before half time
 
He came on just before Rochdale's 2nd equaliser. If McEveley or scougall wasnt injured then Coutts would have been subbed at half time. He was limping badly after that tackle before half time

I know your usually spot on with the facts silent but i could swear that Reed came on more or less straight after they equalised because i moaned at the time that it was far too late
 
Can't complain about the win, and one or two decent performances, but there was nothing to convince that we may be capable of turning the corner and mounting a serious promotion push, Oldham and Fleetwood look winnable but there again so did Port Vale, you just don't know from one week to next what your going to get from these players.
 
they scored their second before Reed came on......give the kid a break

I know your usually spot on with the facts silent but i could swear that Reed came on more or less straight after they equalised because i moaned at the time that it was far too late


I wasn't trying to insinuate that we conceded/collapsed because Reedy came on - far from it. My main beef was with NA and how he seemed to have made a tactical error/length of time taken with this substitution.

As a win, it was 'a sum of the parts' rather than a good team display. As others have said, there were some pretty sublime individual cameos out there - including young Louis.

Also we can't underestimate the deliberate 'challenge' that effectively ended Scougall's game. At the time, it looked worthy of a red card. We had a similar assault in the same spot by (I think) Bury on J C-R. Expect Adams to be targetted similarly.
 

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