Morning all. Not the result we hoped for and a very disjointed 2nd half. Subs were strange at times and not sure where everyone ended up playing. Thought when Evans went off we started to panic a little at the back. We lack a bit of height and physical presence up front. Not sure Pritchard is playing well enough at the minute to justify a starting place. A long shot but if cirkin is fit why not try alese up top. He's strong a good physical presence. Sometimes need must. It's not a disaster we have a lot of young kids playing their first few games in this league. I'm sure they will come good they are exciting to watch but we will have frustrating days like this last couple of games. Keep the faith lads and lasses.
I’m very happy clappy at the minute, we’re a work in process, the aim was consolidating we’re looking good enough to aim abit higher than that when everyone is fit and firing, do need to start winning our home games but tough without a focal point upfront, we are good young side just have to take the rough with the smooth and hopefully make the additions in the next 2/3 windows to really kick on
Could be right, I am not itk as to why the Broadhead deal fell through. But we should have had other options lined up. I suspect Broadhead was the banker and Simms the plus 1.
I agree. But there were 2 or 3 times last night he got passed the ball under pressure and looked up to see nobody giving him a hand or making a move. No option to keep it simple. You could see his frustration. There were, of course, those times where he had the simple pass and dilly dallied as well!!
That's enough of an admission imo. There's no point dwelling on things, as Mowbray said. We can't make players come to the NE and I'd guess Broadhead is one of those. How much does one season really benefit him whether it's financially or in game time .... ... I'd say pretty much equally between us and Wigan, geography was probably the decider.
Looking at things realistically I'd compare us with Boro. They've had years to build a squad and 'push on', they brought in a manager many wanted here and they've had a stable ownership ... ... they're in a relegation place while we're a point off the play-offs. I think we'll be able to play our best game at Swansea and I'm expecting a win ... ... on the plus side, two clean sheets back to back
I think we saw a clear example of what experience brings to a team last night between the two halves. The kids all look promising but football nouse is still missing.Need to give the back three plus Evans a lot of credit for the effort over the last two homes game . I think they have been outstanding in the defensive side .
I can actually see how Evans, Neil and Ba will compliment us well in a midfield 3. With Evans breaking up the play, Neil creating from deep and Ba being the runner breaking forward. I think that makes us more compact in midfield as well and gives us a strong base. Squeezing a number 10 in and making it 4-2-3-1 isn't as effective in my opinion.
Not too down hearted about the result, we're still in a learning curve. Two positives for me were the clean sheet and the way we defended 12 or so corners when they're height advantage was immense, same against Preston. Think Patto only had one punch out and one really good save to make. Appleton changed his plan at HT and closed down our playing out from the back far better than they did first half, and when we don't have a target man we had to play to feet as much as possible which at times was a bit hairy. See Gooch gets singled out again even though he's being given the ball and nobody offering him a pass. isn't that four games unbeaten now so a nice little run and keeps us top half which if I'm honest I'd settled for pre season. Things could be better of course but they could also be a lot worse, just ask the smoggies.
PS. Forgot to mention we nearly nicked it in injury time, they're keeper makes the save of the of the game to keep our Clarke's header.
I think you are right about a 433. I have always preferred that formation and I think we have the squad for it. Evans and Neil have become a superb pair in my opinion, with them complimenting each. Ba or Matete (who I still have hopes for) would be a good option to put in there with them. I hesitate to say it but I would be tempted take Pritchard out and go 433 once Stewart is back.
being honest, i was very surprised when we started the season with only two strikers, it basically said to me that we will be playing one up front all season with a back-up just in case...we then went with two up front so having at least one other option now looks like it would have been a shrewd, forward thinking move and as it currently stands unless we go for some out of contract player we are stuck until january and unfortunately players are usually out of contract for a reason. while i am sure the argument will continue, i feel that overall the recruitment team have done well considering the direction the club is taking, mistakes have been and will be made and there is not a team in history that can boast a 100% brilliant record in recruitment (recent example: lukaku...any team would have had him in the squad but it just did not work out for him). back to the game, we must be doing something right because we have now had two games in a row where 'league one' tactics were employed against us, stupid little things like tapping the ball away at throw ins, falling over at the slightest contact, pretending to have an injury in fact anything to slow the game and tempo down and we have to take some satisfaction from that, it shows we worry teams. this has always been a strange league, one step away from the riches of the 'big league' but also one bad season away from obscurity in div 3 and teams that are near the bottom are going to do whatever they can to grab a point and we cant really blame them, our job is to stop them getting that point by taking all three ourselves and i am sure we have more than enough in the squad to see us safe at least. would having a striker on the pitch guaranteed wins in the last two games?...no one can say for certain but chances were created that we would expect to be put away, cant fault preston or blackpool for how they played but i honestly feel they are games we would have lost easily the last time we were in this league so again, there is improvement there but we are not world beaters...yet.
Part of me wonders if Neil started playing 2 up front to try and force Speakman's hand when it came to transfers. He'd played 1 up front the whole time he was here but there abandoned that 2 games into the season. A 3rd striker would have been brilliant, but as we saw with broadhead - how many of them would sign knowing they will sit on the bench?
Getting a " third" striker and expecting him to be able to have a real impact when called on is certainly not an easy thing to do. But sometimes it's just having someone who is comfortable back to goal and can let players play off him. A more limited player than Stewart probably and they aren't lying around on the dole. But, though I can't think of many clubs with only two strikers, that's what we've got and we'll haven't get on with it. Thought we got out maneuvered a bit in the second half. And, if teams are set on closing you down at the back, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a ball over the top out wide. The wide men have to be on their toes for this, but we have them. A couple of good balls like that means a team can't push up as far or as much. If it's good enough for City, who don't mind doing it sometimes, it should be good enough for us
I was just thinking that myself. Irresponsible. Although it worked in terms of results, why the sudden change which increased the risk of injury to an weak (in terms of depth) area? Maybe he already knew he was off at that point and didn't give a ****.
It shows how far we've come that we can believe we should've won every game this season ... ... Coventry/wonder goal, QPR/fluke keeper, Sheff Utd/ red card, Boro/Stewart injury, Preston/referee, etc. Sometimes it's just not your day or it doesn't click. I can convince mesel we should've won every game with better subs, etc, but sometimes it's just a mix of all kinds of things and the 90 minutes just isn't long enough ... ... or just a few minutes too long
I think this season has surprised all of us tbh. We were hoping that the young lads would come good and I think they've surprised us with how well they've taken to this league and THAT goal against Reading showed us just how good this team could be when it totally clicked.
Just got a six day ban from Facebook for saying the ref should have been shot with ****e for not playing an advantage when we scored.
