I was more entertained this afternoon than at any time last season. Harper & Evans looked great signings, Burns and especially KVY played well. Yes, we need 2 more CBs cover and there were too many stray passes but that's to be expected of a team with 8 new players in the starting line-up. I have faith this team will come good. Top 6 as the team gel by October.
Just back and don’t have too much to add to what’s been said above.Most of the new signings look an improvement on what we had last Season.There’s definitely a very positive vibe about the place and with more signings to come I’ve faith PC will sort out our defensive frailties.Without gifting them two goals the likes of Morecombe are easily beatable.
Just back from game, I think we look a world away from last season, we look like we want to attack at every opportunity with players that have ability, Harper and Evans are quality Fraser is a player that will frustrate fans one day and another will be amazing IMO. I’m encouraged by what I saw and was certainly entertained. The Ref was way out of his depth utter dog ****.
All this is terrific, but I’m not sure we have the luxury of bedding players in this season to go for promotion next. We have four or five matches to get some wins on the board or be left behind and it sounds as though for all the attacking promise the defence is in a bit of a mess.
We need a left footed centre back. Don’t want to be critical after 1 game. As others have stated, Evans and Harper look like they could be a top partnership. Bit worried that no one seemed to be wide left. KVY needs minutes as certainly didn’t have the pace he had previously. Of all the debutants, the 1, I was least impressed with was Burns but the best thing is that this team has goals in it. Don’t think it will be boring watching us this season
Great to see proper front foot football for the first time in years and years. Sounds like lots of positives and certainly moving in the right direction which is all you want to see, progress. I'm still surprised given our circumstances we are one of the favourites for top spot and this result completely reflects that, good going forwards we have quality but very much a work in progress against a team who are favourites for relegation. I'm a fan of Woolfenden and think he is a victim like many of our youngsters of being poorly managed and not coming into a team full of leaders. Hopefully we'll sign a couple of players at the back who can support him and improve him as a player. Our first choice defence as it is certainly isn't good enough.
Brilliant atmosphere yesterday and definitely feels like there’s been a bit of investment in the stadium. Also, brilliant to see you can pay for food and drinks via card! Although the beer selection (Carling and IPA) isn’t the best … As for the match, I think the comments accurately reflect what we saw. Definitely a team that needs minutes on the pitch - with eight players making their debuts today. I thought KVY, Donacien (when he came on), Evans, Harper, and Fraser had good games. Wolfenden, Penny, and Chaplin struggled. Pigott was largely anonymous. Certainly some signs of encouragement. We looked a lot more threatening on the ball and weren’t afraid to get the ball forwards quickly. Harper and Evans were midfield linchpins, with some brilliant sprayed balls out to the overlapping fullbacks. Definitely can see what style of football we want to play. Unfortunately, defensive mistakes (what was Wolfenden thinking for their second) and signs of unfamiliarity cost us the three points. I was encouraged we had the fight and character to come back from behind twice, although we’ll have to step up the performance against better teams in this division.
Seeing the result (just as a scoreline) yesterday was disappointing. It felt like despite a very loudly shouted renewal of the team and club, nothing had really changed. In fact in comparison to the last two seasons flying starts it was very deflating, and I started making mental parallels with Hurst's renewal. Reading the thread makes me hopeful there's real positives to build from, but need the first win of the season sooner rather later or belief will ebb away quite quickly.
A fresh start,a new hope…..things WILL get better! Whilst I can understand your concerns about the comparison with Hurst’s revolution,Mike,I truly believe this time the players brought in are an improvement on what we had before.At last we’re trading up not down.
Evans and Harper have already proven that they are better than anything we have had in the midfield for many years!! The defence is pretty shocking tbh but it will be addressed within the next few weeks, that is guaranteed! Yes it's gonna take a few weeks for the team to start gelling but I honestly think they will tear it up from October onwards.
I agree the defence needs sorting but I also feel the with the marauding runs of the full backs they are put under quite a bit of pressure if we lose the ball which they will have to be able to deal with.
Feck me, The Grinch is about early this year!! Yorkie showing his usual 'we're doomed, doomed i tell ya' self
There was plenty of blind optimism and praise for the atmosphere when Lambert took over and I called that right, so let’s give it four more games and see where we are Spanish.
I agree Hampy whilst I'm pleased with progress both on and off the pitch, I'm still struggling to think we will be in the mix for promotion this season. We've almost tried to build a football club in 2 months. Even though I've only seen clips of the match I felt the feeling which I probably haven't felt for 15 years (ish) watching Ipswich. We played front foot football with intent and probably for the first time since the mid Magilton days we backed it up with quality and character, it did really feel different and honestly brought back the feeling of why I used to enjoy watching football (rather than watching it out of loyalty). We are certainly moving in the right direction, we have a manager who is proven, behind the scenes we are getting effective staff in place and the signings on the whole are exactly the type of player we should be signing, however there should be some caution due to: - our defence hasn't really been improved upon since last season, there are still gaps and Penney is one of the signings on paper who I didn't have a great back story to get excited by (he's played very few games for his age). With the attacking intent of our team and the players we have, I'm sure we will sacrifice some stability at the back but we need more experience and leadership back there. - going from a threadbare defense we seem to be going the opposite in terms of our forward players. I'm not really arguing over the quality as I've been impressed with the recruitment but actually have we got too much, literally we've got 9 or 10 players (excluding El Mizouni and Dobra) who would expect to be in the first team and I think that will be very difficult to manage. I can't imagine many of them will stick around if they're not getting the game time. - we lack any cover in central midfield - Cook's results since taking over have been abysmal
No you Fecking moron, give it the season and see where we end up. Still, even if we go up...I'm sure you will twist it somehow to prove you was right, we all know you can never be wrong, you're worse than Boris!!
We don’t need to give it the season Spanish, if we want to make the auto places we need to hit the ground running. We might have a poor start and make the play offs but that’s a bit of a lottery.