Match Day Thread Wycombe team / game / match thread

after two disappointing results, dire defending and mixed performances town face Wycombe at home .
with only goal difference keeping town out of a relegation place things could not be tighter
town need to turn things around , can Ricketts work some magic ?, can town turn up? can we avoid a third consecutive defeat ?

Wycombe results may not look very good with only one point out of a possible 18 but three of the defeats were against teams in the top seven and the draw was against Sunderland, so that run of results is deceptive.

town cant afford to go behind and then face an uphill battle trying to get back in the game, i have no idea what ricketts can do with the defence but we badly need them to improve.

not my choice but i suspect one of these combination up front Holloway / campbell or Payne / Campbell
will Edwards not playing in the week i suspect he will start but i would hope Docherty will
i hope Haynes starts as left back and if Bolton is not fit will sears be given a chance as right back with williams and waterfall as centre backs .i know we dont tend to play four at the back but something has to change.

if we are to get something from this game town must start brightly , work harder , be better in defence and play till the final whistle.

 

https://www.shropshirestar.com/spor...-for-physical-test-against-wycombe-wanderers/

 

i am a pessimist and even i dont normally feel this pessimistic before a game ! so let us hope i am wrong and have a nice surprise.

 

when i heard the line up i thought Aprils fool's day had come early.
i would be interested to hear the justification in putting Ferjiri, grant and docherty on the bench .we badly need to have a battling performance yet two players who battle are on the bench ,we badly need to score two players who have a chance of that are on the bench.

88 minutes we Arnold is towns MOM three vital saves, one following a horrible sliced clearance forcing the save of the game.tactically not at the races i saw 88 minutes of clueless, dire, ineffectual rubbish. in that time the Wycombe keeper made one save. you cant blame holloway and Campbell when they get no service , you could see Campbell shaking his head periodically i presume in frustration.
Waterfall goes off after his second head injury i hope he is ok as he looked a bit unsteady as he got up, i thought he had a good game.so there you are you need a cool head to co ordinate the centre of the defence, if there was ever a need for saddler that was it but we have beckles who's clumsy foul in a very dangerous area and a well taken free kick 0-1 , only a few minutes later he does exactly the same and they get another free kick.

Whalley was the only spark that looked as if he could contribute to something happening. i like laurent but he struggled today ,Golbourne had a horror show in defence.

Ferjiri comes on for Campbell and in the 88/89 Dochorty comes on an injects a badly needed energy and direct play whilst keeping it on the ground, Beckles saves his blushes and scores a header, Whalley gets a penalty coolly take by Norburn.

we manged to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. despite the win this result cant paper over, a bizarre team selection and a truly awful 88 minutes of football.

 

just have to hope Ricketts learns from today and starts Haynes, Grant ,Docherty and Ferjiri for the next game.

 

Spot on Zen - we were absolutely clueless today until Docherty came on and goodness knows how we won it. Lets hope it is a bit of a turning point . Docherty and Grant would be my two players of the season - I could not believe they were on the bench when I heard the team announced. Edwards and Goldbourne may have something to offer us next season but at the moment what we need is running and battling (and Docherty's directness and shooting). Fair play to Arnold for keeping us in the game and also to Whalley who never stopped trying despite his obvious frustration with the tactics we were employing. I hope it can only get better next week. I cannot remember a season like this when we are only one point above the bottom four but two below midtable - any team from Plymputh down who go on a bad run now will probably get relegated.

 

will keep coming through thick and thin ,whilst i have never done it there has been a few games this season were i thought why not go home. whilst i appreciate opinions are divided about some of the crowds behaviour , yesterday frustrations reached a point were they vented there opinions and feelings. who knows what the answer is but the board would have heard the message and despite his post match interview some part of Ricketts will have heard it as well.
i have supported town for some time and that 88 minutes of dire football is up there in the worst performance by a town team.


my heart sank when i heard the team Ricketts had selected.it was the main topic of conversation prior to the game for many of the fans around me.

under Coyne town players responded they knew what they were doing and seemed to be enjoying there football. i dont know if this is right but it seems the players are as confused as the fans.

Askey lost the support of many fans and Rickeets bizarre team selection may have alienated a number of fans.

 

I dont think there will be another change of manager this season and Ricketts will probably be given close season and the first few months of next season to bring in some more of his own players. I do agree there is something not quite right about this side (they seem to lack fight and urgency) and that is a real worry but everyone can learn and there could be the makings of a decent manager in him (even Alex Ferguson was sacked once in Scotland in his early management days).

 

i dont think they will sack him either , if he then continues next season in the same vain we will be stuck with the players he has brought in, look at the players he brought in during january, only Campbell and williams have shaped up.

 

A frustrating game to watch. Edwards wasn't what we needed yesterday. It felt odd feeling Waterfall was a loss due to injury as having Bolton beside him seems to be working well. Bolton is looking a good player and does some really tough tackling. We were constantly knocking the ball long and chasing it, only to see it coming back down the pitch. Arnold made a range of crucial saves and deserves the MoM, however ttheir goal was down to Arnold to save but couldn't reach it. Doherty coming on sorted out matters and we suddenly seem to play much better football.

Ricketts starting with Edwards is a thing that has had mixed responses, however we need the raw charging power and drive of Docherty within the starting squad. Norburn does a lot of the dirty stuff alongside some forward runs too, plus Norburn taking spot kicks is a plus. Laurent is probably the one to drop for Grant. Whalley needs to be in the team as he terrifies opposition defense, but he shouldn't be a wing back!

 

it was obvious to everyone apart from Ricketts

 

Unless things change for the very much better soon. I think we will be after a new manager again before the end of the season.

 

i have a horrible feeling that even if we are relegated .he will have another chance next season and if it is as dire as this he get the push mid season ,then we face having a new manager with a team someone else has picked, he has three year contract the only a but is that somone i know told me askey had a six month clause in his contract so he did get some money but not the full amount ,if that is the case if they decide no thank you he will going in April.

 

www.shropshirestar.com/sport/football/shrewsbury-town-fc/2019/03/18/shrewsbury-verdict-jeers-then-cheers-but-a-priceless-win/

"It is difficult to ignore the borderline toxic atmosphere that was directed at the Shrewsbury boss for much of the second half until Town found the net.

It felt like turning the clock back some four or five months to the end of John Askey’s reign, where fans unleashed vicious chants at full-time against Salford City.

The verbal volley directed at Ricketts made for a toe-curlingly awkward scene. Greg Docherty, the hot topic of debate, was warming up to a constant chorus of his name, while ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ and even ‘Danny Coyne’s Barmy Army’ . The latter, with Town’s popular first-team coach sharing a dugout with the manager, is surely unhelpful."

 

I think in general we are quite easy on managers compared to some other clubs but there have been so many dire performances this season that all the chickens are coming home to roost now and Ricketts as the current manager will bear the brunt of it, rightly or wrongly. He makes some fair points about that where we are now is our usual recent level in this league. Then he goes on to say he needs time to match what happened last 'miraculous 'season. But remember that Hurst made an instant impact with the team he inherited, then made some brilliant permanent and loan acquisitions and virtually every single player in that team had the season of his life. That was not a miracle, but a triumph of talent, drive and man management. Ricketts is a novice manager who has shown little sign that he is taking the team in the right direction and his position will be tenuous until he does. Keep it simple Sam, you are not managing Barcelona, just decide who your best eleven players and formation are and play them until the end of the season and hopefully we will stay up.

 

the topic of conversation prior to the game was the bizarre team selection that and 88 minutes of dire football ,seems to have been a turning point for a number of fans.( in that they ran out of patience)
he is at least clear now what the more vocal fans think . he persistence with long balls and rotation is another source of frustration.
he is right about our level in league 1 we have apart from Hurst been a bottom table team. we will not get an experienced assistant and that was a major oversight.. he is learning on the job and he will make mistakes , unfortunately keeps makes making the same mistakes .
i dont see him dropping the rotation and not playing the best 11 is baffling and to me impacts on continuity .

 

Rumours of Grant and Doherty fighting have surfaced. I hope these are untrue as they are both great players.

 

i hope this is not true just what we dont need, they need to keep there fighting spirit for the game not each other.

 

Must've been true!