Wigan showed last Friday that rovers are not quite the invincible they have been made out to be so far. But they did so by matching rovers physically for the first hour, turning it into an arm wrestle, and then it was Wigan who found that extra spark of quality in the last fifteen minutes when the game was in the balance. Also thought it telling that, when put under pressure in those last fifteen minutes, it was rovers who lost their shape and started pushing for that extra magic pass a bit too often.


The question from our perspective is can we replicate the physical intensity that Wigan showed for 60/65 minutes? I think that is where the doubts creep in for most of us. The key for us is how we utilise the bench and how we avoid the drop-off in intensity which decisively swung the game their way two weeks ago. If it's a close game on the hour mark, the crowd will become an increasing factor in our favour, but if they are eighteen points up at the break (as they have been in the last four derbies) it will kill the atmosphere again. We have to find a way of staying in the contest and keeping a vociferous crowd involved to stand any chance of grabbing a win.


Can't make my mind up on the Herman-Knight conundrum, do we continue to run them as a pair from the start or split them so that one of them is always on the park. I will trust JC judgement on this, as the man who has got most things right so far, but if we had another duo to match those two I would back us against anyone right now. I can't escape the feeling though that the first set of interchanges at around the 20-25 minute mark will go a long way to deciding the outcome tomorrow.


The last four derbies have effectively been done by half-time, so it would be nice to buck that trend for a start, and then hopefully kick on from there. Losing last week has also put some pressure onto them, a second loss in a row may sow seeds of doubt in their minds, whereas a win means they simply pick up the thread again after a momentary aberration. But that is something we may potentially be able to feed on, especially if it does become a close game.


My gut feeling is they will again have too much firepower out wide for us to contain (we had the devil's job containing Wire in last week's second half when they moved it wide quickly) and I worry that if they get a roll on we might find it difficult to stop them, but this team has been confounding all our expectations since kick-off on night one and I sense their internal belief is growing with every week and they are relishing being given a weekly challenge to prove themselves again and again. If we do go down it won't be for lack of effort, that's for sure, it's just a question of can we stay in the physical fight and, if it is a close game, can we produce the moment of quality at the optimum time.


Reckon it's going to be a thumping atmosphere once again, let's hope it's as noisy as hell with thirty seconds left on the clock! Either way, my stomach will be doing its usual somersaults come 12:30 tomorrow!!! I love these games and hate them in equal measure!!! There are times when I wish I'd taken up stamp-collecting as a hobby, it sure would have been a good less stressful than sitting in that ground tomorrow will be. I've made myself nervous just by typing out this post, God help me!!!!! 

I've just seen a photo on twitter of the moment before cust and morgue collide, literally a split second before, and morgue is on his feet and his and custs heads at the same height so he was obviously falling so why no mitigation and a yellow card. No idea how to link to a photo on twitter (x) but Trevor gibbons posted it.


Custs hands inches from the ball

Good to see Cust not banned for the next game (even though it means he's playing against Wigan!).   He's a good player and nice to see him getting back to form after a pretty horrible couple of years clearly hampered with injuries. 


I thought the red was ridiculous when you consider his intention was chasing the kick in the in goal and not tackling Morgue, who didn't have the ball until a fraction of a second before Cust arrives.  Until that point it was anyone's ball.


So accidental head collision and a yellow at worst.


  

I do think given the criteria for red/yellow and pressure to make decisions in 5 seconds the referees on match day have a difficult job. If anything a yellow card or less should be default and the disciplinary panel should link with all concerned have all video and take as long as they need to come to a decision. Perhaps the panelist?s should be vetted for allegiances too. In hindsight which the panelist?s should have and a lot more a yellow was appropriate at most. It ruined the game and rendered the outcome nigh on certain with an hour to go. Think the bunker statement in union might help. If completely exonerated the opposite team could lose a player for 10 to even up. Might be unworkable but a thought 

To be fair, they have done this all season until Friday given it was the first red card of the year.  Had it been blatant foul play then fair enough but given it was an in game collision then yellow seems to be what they have been doing so not sure on the reason for the change on Friday.  Morgue was also clearly dropping in height if you roll back a second or two

 Part of issue is that nobody except Cust who would say whatever to demonstrate innocence knows his intentions. So recent neutral ex pros need to input somewhere in the system. I also think collision at a lower than shoulder height is mitigating in itself. The game is too quick to make adjustments at the last minute. I could go on but I?m boring myself silly. It really needs forensically addressing, taking account of head injury as otherwise it will ruin the game. Look at old footage of MacDermott v Sironen c1990 that?s proper redcardery v cust