Pre-Match Thread Forest Green Rovers v Southend United, Wednesday 21st May, 19:45ko, play off semi final

[RHB]

Absolutely pointless me naming who I want to start, I'm leaving it entirely down to Kev and Co. They will need to see whether Noor Husin has recovered enough physically (he looked totally drained when he came off), and maybe Kav to start instead. Only one wish for this game - be the best you can be - squad and fans, that will do for me. I'm having a very excited moment currently.

 

[Ruprecht FGR Supporter]

I'd steak one of my kidneys that FGR will chicken out. Lambs to the slaughter! Hope nobody has a beef with those thoughts.

Gammon you Blues!!!

I'll get my fleece.

See what you have done there....veggie clever!

 

[Supershrimper]

With the exception of Cav for Noor same team as Thursday.

Bring on Kendall and Bonne 2nd half and let them face a hopefully tiring defence.

Hoping for a win but not as confident as Rochdale.

 

[amsemp]

Off topic, but watching back the highlights how good was Cav’s corner for Kendall’s winner. Absolutely superb delivery.

 

[Fitz]

Cav for Noor and Kendall for Walker

Saving Leon and Bonne for impact at 60 mins. Part of me thinks they should both start, loved the balls down the channels the other night, changed the game

 

[Blues4LifeDan]

Good. But walking and being fully fit are 2 completely different things.

Especially with the energy we are going to need to battle their 3 midfielders to come out on top. Games are normally won and lost in midfield.

Sercombe, McCann and May certainly have the edge in regards to quality over our midfield 3. However, it's our energy, grit and determination that could win the battle. Therefore, whomever is picked, they have to be 100% on it.

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

Off topic, but watching back the highlights how good was Cav’s corner for Kendall’s winner. Absolutely superb delivery.

I’ve often said that Cav takes the best corners of our current squad

 

[Pak Power]

I don’t think Innis is fully fit

 

[Blues4LifeDan]

I’ve often said that Cav takes the best corners of our current squad

TBF, they never looked good before because we never had a towering CB at the back post to aim at, so his deliveries would often drift out of play. Goodliffe is such a weapon, it's what we thought Crowther would be after getting so many at Kings Lynn.

 

[meerkat54]

As the saying goes “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it “ . Think we will win 3-2 within 90 minutes.
Can’t wait to book my family tickets to see us beat Oldham in the final at Wembley. COYB’s

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

I'd go with the same line up. I'd ask Walker to get in amongst and hassle Innis. We know he has a short fuse, so I'd want to try and light that.

Save Bonne, Leon and Cav for the last 30 ish if all is going to plan.

As has been mentioned, Innis has to be taken care of at defensive free kicks and Goodliffe has a vital job to do there.

We need to plan for Harry's pace, I am sure we will. And Doidge will have to kept a close eye on, when he comes to the party.

If we can start faster and get into their half early, as we didn't against Dale, then I'm hoping for a better start than last week. Bridge owes the team a performance and this would be the ideal game to do it.

I'm hoping for more from Ollie and Noor. If his knee isn't 100% then Cav has to start, we can't gamble on a game like this.

To be fair to Walker we need to feed him inside the box and Coker and Kaf need to bear that in mind. Walker needs to show more movement and availability and up his work rate to create space for himself.

I hope we play on the front foot and give them more to worry about. We can beat them, but we will have to be on the top of our game.

 

[Jim Levenstein]

Same team, changing it would be silly imo

 

[Blues4LifeDan]

I'd go with the same line up. I'd ask Walker to get in amongst and hassle Innis. We know he has a short fuse, so I'd want to try and light that.

Save Bonne, Leon and Cav for the last 30 ish if all is going to plan.

As has been mentioned, Innis has to be taken care of at defensive free kicks and Goodliffe has a vital job to do there.

We need to plan for Harry's pace, I am sure we will. And Doidge will have to kept a close eye on, when he comes to the party.

If we can start faster and get into their half early, as we didn't against Dale, then I'm hoping for a better start than last week. Bridge owes the team a performance and this would be the ideal game to do it.

I'm hoping for more from Ollie and Noor. If his knee isn't 100% then Cav has to start, we can't gamble on a game like this.

To be fair to Walker we need to feed him inside the box and Coker and Kaf need to bear that in mind. Walker needs to show more movement and availability and up his work rate to create space for himself.

I hope we play on the front foot and give them more to worry about. We can beat them, but we will have to be on the top of our game.

Such a good point regarding the Innis short fuse. I also feel Bonne would be perfect to ignite that too. We also know Gus can be a master at that also.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Innis is also been out with an injury and is, to my understanding 60/40 for Wednesday, so he will be even more rusty and we can hopefully pressure him, then there could be a mis-timed tackle or two, where he may pick up bookings.

He should definitely be targeted imho.

 

[dusterman]

I'd go with the same line up. I'd ask Walker to get in amongst and hassle Innis. We know he has a short fuse, so I'd want to try and light that.

Save Bonne, Leon and Cav for the last 30 ish if all is going to plan.

As has been mentioned, Innis has to be taken care of at defensive free kicks and Goodliffe has a vital job to do there.

We need to plan for Harry's pace, I am sure we will. And Doidge will have to kept a close eye on, when he comes to the party.

If we can start faster and get into their half early, as we didn't against Dale, then I'm hoping for a better start than last week. Bridge owes the team a performance and this would be the ideal game to do it.

I'm hoping for more from Ollie and Noor. If his knee isn't 100% then Cav has to start, we can't gamble on a game like this.

To be fair to Walker we need to feed him inside the box and Coker and Kaf need to bear that in mind. Walker needs to show more movement and availability and up his work rate to create space for himself.

I hope we play on the front foot and give them more to worry about. We can beat them, but we will have to be on the top of our game.

We did in the league game and had success, you’d hope we would again. FGR are streetwise, need to keep our powder try at the back, better than we did at Rochdale.

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

Innis is also been out with an injury and is, to my understanding 60/40 for Wednesday, so he will be even more rusty and we can hopefully pressure him, then there could be a mis-timed tackle or two, where he may pick up bookings.

He should definitely be targeted imho.

He started their last game but came off after only 13 minutes

 

[Blue Yonder]

I cannot see the point of starting with two of our most effective players from Thursday (Leon and Bonne) on the bench with two of our least convincing (Walker and Bridge) starting. People talk about them as impact subs but it reads like we're going to give the other team a head start then really start trying with our best eleven after an hour. Lets have some impact from the 1st minute. For a while in the second half last week we saw players stuck with the ball under their feet, twisting and turning to find an outlet and not finding one as Rochdale were strong at closing down. With the introduction of Bonne in particular, if all other avenues were closed we were able to thump one to the corner or play in behind the full back and he had the pace and power to make something of it. (helped by them playing such a high line). For our equaliser Walker does not make the run Bonne did followed by the the first time cross hard, low and accurate. Bridge doesn't attack the six yard box at the far post like Leon did to finish the move off. We were never getting back into that game without the changes.

 

[Ipswhrimp]

Off topic, but watching back the highlights how good was Cav’s corner for Kendall’s winner. Absolutely superb delivery.

I’ve often said that Cav takes the best corners of our current squad

I've said the same myself. It was quite some time after Cav joined that we first saw him take corners, and it was a revelation. Those left-footed in-swingers are lethal. If memory serves, Bridgey was getting first dibs on all the corners.

TBF, they never looked good before because we never had a towering CB at the back post to aim at, so his deliveries would often drift out of play. Goodliffe is such a weapon, it's what we thought Crowther would be after getting so many at Kings Lynn.

I don't agree with you here. It's just been such a long time since we've seen that weapon utilised that people have forgotten how good Cav's corners are.

 

[Pak Power]

I cannot see the point of starting with two of our most effective players from Thursday (Leon and Bonne) on the bench with two of our least convincing (Walker and Bridge) starting. People talk about them as impact subs but it reads like we're going to give the other team a head start then really start trying with our best eleven after an hour. Lets have some impact from the 1st minute. For a while in the second half last week we saw players stuck with the ball under their feet, twisting and turning to find an outlet and not finding one as Rochdale were strong at closing down. With the introduction of Bonne in particular, if all other avenues were closed we were able to thump one to the corner or play in behind the full back and he had the pace and power to make something of it. (helped by them playing such a high line). For our equaliser Walker does not make the run Bonne did followed by the the first time cross hard, low and accurate. Bridge doesn't attack the six yard box at the far post like Leon did to finish the move off. We were never getting back into that game without the changes.

But don't you think that the first eleven, mores especially Walker and Hopper have worn out the defence so that the impact the subs can have makes them look better?

It is a 90+ minute game afterall with the possibility / probability of extra time, so the use of the squad is key.
Kev pointed this out in his pre match video of the Rochdale game, almost predicted the extra time.

Same starting eleven for me, and it is for the above mentioned reasons that I respectfully disagree with you.

 

[It'sGrimUpNorth]

After being an advocate for Maher out and thinking we was truly done at 3-1 at Spotland, I am going to keep my big mouth shut and trust in whatever Kev and the team decide on.

COYS