Totally expected overreactions in places ... ... If we'd lost down at Cardiff, and won the next four, the 'expert' analysis would be totally different. Games are played quickly over 90 minutes, it's not like taking ages considering your next chess move. Sunderland's biggest mistake, yesterday, was coming up against a side who also wanted to win. That's football.
He did , but Proveda and Isidor looked poor last time out with the U21's , so its not that unusual . I suspect the pointless International games affected the performances of our players yesterday, especially Ballards. I also think the performance of Plymouth took a lot of people by surprise, having said that a draw would have been a good result imol and we were very very close to achieving it. OaU
Tough game and very disappointing to not come away with a draw in the end. Another game for Mundle, Rigg, Mayenda, etc and they will have learned a lot from the adversity. Shows we have a way to go to wrestle games back in our favour when it’s not going well. Credit to Plymouth for their performance.
When I saw that announced the other day I thought "fook no" Was busy yesterday so didn't watch the game. Kept checking the score. Thought we might of clawed back a draw or even sneaked a win. Disappointing to level with 4 minutes to go, then lose FFS. Hopefully we will have learnt a lesson and bounce back against the smogs.
Usually in the past, most of us would of been hoping for a draw or a close loss at south coast away games. I bet most of us were hoping or expecting a win yesterday. If we bounce back with a convincing win against Boro we can put it down as a blip. We are improving under Regis, but sometimes you go back a bit before going forwards again. Was still a close game and to score two goals away.
We were the better side most of the first half and should have had a bigger lead. Mundle, who i think was the best player on the field, came close and that might have nailed it. That said the well drilled press and organisation was missing all game, particularly in midfield. Rigg did some good things first half but when they started pushing us in midfield I think he struggled. Neil wasn’t the best either. Jobe was probably the best of our midfielders but it was his worst game and Cirkin wasn’t getting into that midfield space as often. I’d say we lost the game in midfield. I think a change there was needed even just to give us a a more physical body or two. Teams are going to want to win so they are going to force the issue especially at home and that’s all they did. I thought we might hit them on the break like we can when they did but it didn’t happen. Our learning has to be about what we do when we are pressured. A slightly more sturdy target outlet up front would be one of my additions and Browne overseeing that press. Ballard didn’t seem right all second half either. Didn’t seem assured. It got to him.
So the ref booked the wrong man with the Edwards/Mundle incident, Edwards later went on to get booked and get the winner. Class.
It could be that but let's not forget he got injured in preseason so didn't get the minutes and conditioning the others did. He could be up to speed but imo players always seem to struggle if they didn't get a proper preseason in them at the start of a season
It happens. We got out done yesterday second half by sloppy mistakes. We didn’t control the second half at all but once again didn’t actually look like conceding. If we look at the three goals the most clear chance imo was the first where patto makes a brilliant save the second should be dealt with easily by Ballard the third should’ve been dealt with by Patto from the first shot and then we’ve just not reacted we conceded 3 but certainly didn’t look like conceding three if that makes sense. They will learn from it and we will win games and lose games. Still very confident this season will be successful and I said even after the four wins I think we’ll be top 6
Just a very disappointing day at the office. We move on and how we now react to that defeat is important. Hopefully we see the better side of us and take 3 points next Saturday. Important to get back to winning ways.
I think we need to isolate the boro game because form etc goes out the window in a game like this. I’d be happy with a draw and back to winning ways the week after. Just put on a better performance and I’ll be happy
Disappointing, but that's football. Ballard went from hero to zero, same as lots of other players have done. Cassimiro against Liverpool for example. Just wasn't our day, I would like to see that new center back start and I wouldn't have dropped Browne. But, that's only my opinion. Roll on next week.
I see the knives are out after one defeat. A learning curve and reality check I see it as for RLB, we can’t win them all
Good post. Your point on Alese is a very valid one mate. We definitely miss his pace. Big week ahead particularly in view of the likely need to introduce Mepham. Maybe Browne back in for Boro game. Interesting to see if any of the other new lads are involved.
I don't think we should make too many changes, we dominated the 1st 4 matches so we aren't all of a sudden a bad team so I wouldnt be making 3/4 changes like some are suggesting Mepham in for Ballard and probably Browne in for Rigg would be my changes but that's it
Crazy how one bad performance discounts every other game. 4 good performances shows more consistency then one bad teams will lose. Leicester lost 11 times last season. Ipswich 6. They came top two. You can’t possibly play well every single game unless your Man City
Totally, emotions are always raw after a defeat but we haven't turned into a bad side because of 1 poor half Hopefully bounce back next weekend
