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Post by shatter2 on Aug 15, 2022 19:19:17 GMT
Excellent response for the PNE MDF thanks for the contributions.👍 Ok back to our match against the Robins tomorrow evening our first of three in the West/Wales. Checked the temperature for kick off at Ashton Gate and it will have dropped about 15° on the cauldron of Saturdays Kenilworth Road. The best manager in the football league (Nigel) is apparently getting some stick from his own fans, let's increase their ire with a good result. COYH!! Bristol Trivia. Our new acquisition Luke Freeman played for the Robins from 2014 to 2017, making 105 appearances and scoring 10 goals. And of course Kaldini now plays for them, give him some appreciation for his time at Luton.  Nigel checking that an opposition player is ok, |
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Post by bms on Aug 16, 2022 14:39:39 GMT
A Most Dreadful Confession
I hereby declare that I, BMS, a ticket holder for this evening’s game at Aston Gate, will instead be attending St James Park to watch Exeter v Wycombe. Yes, Wycombe, the Bishop and all that.
How can this be, you rightly ask?
In return I can only offer the following
- that instead of driving myself for about a total five hours , or leaving our game midway through the second half to catch the final train back (should it even be running) I will be driven for less then two hours in total and enjoy the company of family and extended family members.
I can only offer my most sincere and deepest apologies to all fellow Fools and trust that you will one day find it in yourselves to forgive me.
(PS - the other reason is that like some of you I want a reminder of all things League One just case our goal drought lasts into the New Year and we find ourselves…well, you can guess the rest)
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Post by Wimbo on Aug 16, 2022 17:43:55 GMT
A Most Dreadful Confession I hereby declare that I, BMS, a ticket holder for this evening’s game at Aston Gate, will instead be attending St James Park to watch Exeter v Wycombe. Yes, Wycombe, the Bishop and all that. How can this be, you rightly ask? In return I can only offer the following - that instead of driving myself for about a total five hours , or leaving our game midway through the second half to catch the final train back (should it even be running) I will be driven for less then two hours in total and enjoy the company of family and extended family members. I can only offer my most sincere and deepest apologies to all fellow Fools and trust that you will one day find it in yourselves to forgive me. (PS - the other reason is that like some of you I want a reminder of all things League One just case our goal drought lasts into the New Year and we find ourselves…well, you can guess the rest) I always enjoyed my visits to Exeter; excellent welcoming supporters bar and decent food kiosk. |
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Post by 8two on Aug 16, 2022 17:50:29 GMT
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Post by greeno on Aug 16, 2022 20:43:20 GMT
A Most Dreadful Confession I hereby declare that I, BMS, a ticket holder for this evening’s game at Aston Gate, will instead be attending St James Park to watch Exeter v Wycombe. Yes, Wycombe, the Bishop and all that. How can this be, you rightly ask? In return I can only offer the following - that instead of driving myself for about a total five hours , or leaving our game midway through the second half to catch the final train back (should it even be running) I will be driven for less then two hours in total and enjoy the company of family and extended family members. I can only offer my most sincere and deepest apologies to all fellow Fools and trust that you will one day find it in yourselves to forgive me. (PS - the other reason is that like some of you I want a reminder of all things League One just case our goal drought lasts into the New Year and we find ourselves…well, you can guess the rest) Excellent decision Dave. |
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Post by 8two on Aug 16, 2022 21:01:59 GMT
Well, on the positive side, there's not many sides in the Championship who will make Bristol look like world beaters.
That was awful and as with previous games we really didn't have a clue and unlike the Preston game where Campbell played well, tonight nobody excelled and we looked like a potential League 1 outfit and the odds of doing a Barnsley would have shortened.
A constant flow of aimless high balls with no particular target which as in previous games the opposition gobbled up. It makes all the close passing triangles, rectangles, polygons and even parallelograms regularly seen in training and warm-up seem a complete waste of effort as they are never duplicated during a game, kick and rush springs to mind.
Bloody rubbish.
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Post by mkhat on Aug 16, 2022 21:56:34 GMT
We really weren't at the races again tonight. Lots of supporters are angry but we are never in reality going to recreate what we had last season. That said it was a very forgettable performance with soft goals conceded and once again never looking like scoring ourselves. I'm convinced once we get a win some confidence will return but it's a question of when not if at the moment. There is no point calling it a crisis though and west brom and Middlesbrough aren't far off where we are in the league. Let's hope for those precious 3 points on Saturday and a better performance.
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Post by Lake on Aug 17, 2022 7:04:48 GMT
We really weren't at the races again tonight. Lots of supporters are angry but we are never in reality going to recreate what we had last season. That said it was a very forgettable performance with soft goals conceded and once again never looking like scoring ourselves. I'm convinced once we get a win some confidence will return but it's a question of when not if at the moment. There is no point calling it a crisis though and west brom and Middlesbrough aren't far off where we are in the league. Let's hope for those precious 3 points on Saturday and a better performance. I imagine Saturday can only be better, surely. |
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Post by 8two on Aug 17, 2022 7:08:45 GMT
Think there might be a few Bobberman points gained on Saturday
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Post by Wimbo on Aug 17, 2022 8:18:40 GMT
A very poor performance and of the outfield players, only Freeman IMO played reasonably. Our defence for those two goals was simply awful as we let the Bristol attackers find all the space they wanted: as a group, our defenders simply lost any spacial awareness.
At this stage, I am very disappointed with this season's recruitment from our feeder club, Barnsley: touch, vision, and threat are all missing: maybe it’s just settling in process!
So, the target remains as 47 points and sat nav having old favourites such as Accrington, Wycome Industrial Estate & The Burton Bridge Brewery reinstated but in truth anything can happen as Forest and Norwich have found out in the past after poor starts to earlier seasons.
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Post by 8two on Aug 17, 2022 8:47:24 GMT
Unless I'm missing something, the two attacking signings from Barnsley were part of a team who were relegated for not scoring enough goals.
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Post by hatterinSW19 on Aug 17, 2022 10:16:01 GMT
Unless I'm missing something, the two attacking signings from Barnsley were part of a team who were relegated for not scoring enough goals. They were also part of a team that made the play-offs the season before  Just for context, our opening 10 games last season were WLWLDDDDLW. The difference was we got everyone onside by tonking newly-promoted and ultimately-relegated Peterborough on the opening day, and game-managed a 1-0 at ultimately-relegated Barnsley soon after, but then we didn't win again until 29th September.... |
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Post by Wimbo on Aug 17, 2022 11:46:03 GMT
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Post by rutlandhatter on Aug 17, 2022 12:08:20 GMT
I think Osho is most useful as a defender.
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Post by proudhattersince74 on Aug 17, 2022 13:36:10 GMT
Wow! I did think that we over-achieved last season with, as NJ puts it, small margins working in our favour. However, I didn't expect the lacklustre ineptitude that too many players displayed last night.
This is going to require one hell of an effort to stave off a relegation battle ... not only because other teams who under-performed last season have identified their weaknesses and recruited to plug those holes but because our budget only allows us to bring in workers rather than craftsmen. Our game out of possession means that we work 40%-50% harder than most other teams who have better quality players - the type of players who know where to be positioned on the pitch rather than chasing the ball all around it covering every blade of grass twice in doing so. I've looked at Bell's positioning, decision making and commitment over the last two matches and cannot believe that he wasn't subbed at any point.
Unfortunately, all of the other Championship clubs plus those entering from above and below look at the same players to bring in and we simply cannot compete with the wages offered by others so we have Lidl players whilst others shop at Waitrose. Therefore, our only way to compete is by sheer effort and endeavour - both of which were missing in wheelbarrows last night. Once behind, did anyone really think we'd have enough about us to get back into the game when our attacking tactics rely entirely upon a long high ball to one of two forwards who are marshalled by three defenders?
The midfield is the engine room and every team we've played so far have won that battle. Newport, Preston and Bristol City dominated our midfields by sheer willingness to run and run harder than our midfielders. Burnley, as Potts said post-match, won so much in that department that the defence felt like it was a 4-0 defeat - presumably meaning that they covered lots more ground than a 1-1 scoreline suggests.
Naismith is a big miss as he made space for midfielders to turn and make decisions by carrying the ball out from the back. Long balls over midfield onto the foreheads of the opposition defence's heads means that our midfield have zero influence on our forward play. That, in itself, is so bloody wrong that I have to question the tactics conjoured up by our management. The old saying about insanity springs to mind ... yet we don't seem to have a plan B. Even when the personnel were changed at HT and they had 30 minutes against 10 men, we still couldn't involve our midfield enough to create anything. Frustratingly, Bristol City appeared to have an extra man or two when they attacked via the same long ball tactic that doesn't work for us - yet it had our defence turned and chasing.
Much of that was because Bristol City's strikers were running off the shoulders of our defenders (or simply running through/between them) searching for space. I wish I could say the same for Adebayo who seems content with minimal running so he has enough energy to jump for long, high, balls ... usually without any success.
Bloody frustrating? Yes!
Bloody worrying? Yes!
Bloody annoying? Yes!
When you look at Birmingham's and Preston's shape, it was going to take a skilful lock picker to open them up. If that's the way to approach away games then so be it. But we need to look closely at the work rates of certain players in that first half to get anywhere near the shape we had last season. Positionally, Bree and Bell look completely lost and we don't have the pace in the team to compensate once they have be bypassed. To think that we sold Kioso and signed a disappointingly lackadaisical Woodrow in a team that needs high energy workrates is even more bewildering.
COYH
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