The title says it all. Tonight's talking points: Listening to the internet commentary it sounds like we were simply outclassed. There seems to be a problem with Leon Johnson and GW - what is going on there? Not even on the bench. A nightmare for Bennett and Kiernan in central defence? Problems in the midfield - we miss Bloomfield's tenacity, and the left side is far too unbalanced. The Strevens left wing experiment should be finished with, surely? Excellent win for Bury tonight puts further pressure on us at the top - whilst Chesterfield seem to be running away with the league the other auto promotion spots are now congested - response required against Aldershot on Saturday. Thoughts from anyone at the game, rocky et al?
A very poor performance against a good side by all accounts. We're still in a strong position so no need to over react (see Gas Room) but we need to find some consistency as plenty of teams below us are very capable of going on a good run. Thoughts on the team - Bennett will no doubt be the scapegoat, fairly or not. Good to see Bloomfield and Westwood get on, we're a better side with them in it. Strevens at left mid is not working, bring Betsy back on Saturday.
i wasnt at the game as i am still recovering from an illness but listening to the game we were beaten by a far better side on the night so we cant complain on that point.my concerns are that leon and westwood should have been at the heart of our defence and not a rookie and bennett,i wont slag off any of our players when i am at the game but as i have said time and time again leon is our best defender and bennett is nowhere near as good as him,and i will go as far as saying he should never wear a blues shirt again ,bring on the abuse.i am also annoyed that we keep on playing strevens left midfield he hasnt got a left foot has got no pace and will never beat a man and get a cross into the box,betsy is a far better option and i would rather have played beever on the wing tonight at least he would have hassled their midfield and defenders all night. waddock has to learn from his mistakes and fast he got it wrong tonight and we cant afford anymore woefull performances like this again.thats twice we have been humiliated away from home the other one was crewe and its just not good enough.
I was there and it was far worse than you think. Chesterfield were far, far, far, far better than us. There tactics were spot on they exploited our unbalanced left hand side kept there players on the right wide and made foster and strevens play on there weaker left feet. The midfirld two of montrose and lewis were simply over run purely to the hounding and unity of the chesterfield players they hunted in packs and kept winning the ball in our defensive third applying pressure straight on to what was a terrible centre half combination and resulting in most of the half being played in our third, consequently with rendell and pitman looking very isolated figures. Second half fared a little better but not much. They eased off more if anything. The worrying thing for me was that waddock seemed to have no idea as to how to rectify the situation. It took until about the 70th munute for him to do anything and then it was like for like replacement. But for me the more disappointing thing was the lack of fight. You can accept losing but what is totally unacceptable was the lack of commitment and desire to get themselves back into the game. The passing was atrocious, the midfield were overrun, the left side was completely shocking and all this without even mention of bennett who was not the worst wycombe player on the pitch. This may seem an overreaction but i thought i'd wait a while before posting to calm down it was that terrible but no time has not helped i'm still seething. I have a mate who is a QPR fan and his exact words to me were when waddock was appointed was 'HE's brilliant when its going well, but when it goes wrong he doesn't have the answers' I thought it was sour grapes at the time i guess the next few games will prove if he is correct.
Completely agree Gravey, Bennett was poor but definitely not the worst and i think his major problem last night was the pace of Davies. I dont believe in having a go at players while they are on the pitch and disagree with some chants against him last night. That defeat has been coming for a while, we have been lucky against some poor sides that there finishing is awful and nikki bull has saved us. Last night we came up against a good side that punished us for any mistakes we made. Nikki bull kept the score down but cant stop everything. We looked slightly better when betsy and bloomers came in but not much better, betsy always gives an outlet and can relieve pressure even if his final ball/decision making is poor at times and bloomers looked to get the ball down and pass to feet. Too may passes went astray and it felt like they had more players than us. Chnges should have been made at half time, if they had been we could have got something out of the game. I think Waddock has been brilliant so far and my only criticisms are he makes changes far too late and has no plan b! As for LJ this is just a rumour so far but Southend on loan apparently, they must have fallen out?
Disappointed but we were beat by what has been describes as a much better side. Agree with what has been posted above (start with Betsy!!!!) and hopefully we can pick it up and get a result on Saturday!
Our next 3 games are Aldershot (H) Barnet (A) and Stevenage (H). Three perfectly winable games to get us back on track.
I think it may be harder than it seems. Aldershot have only won two, but equally lost just two of their 13 games since Dean Holdsworth took over. They have stabilised defensively somewhat and have 2 or 3 decent forward players (Vincenti, McGlashan). The added spice with all the connections between the clubs will make it IMO anything but straightforward. Barnet had an excellent win against Lincoln on Saturday and though they always look vulnerable defensively, their strikeforce of Kabba and McLeod is potentially a deadly partnership. Stevenage meanwhile will be no easy match - a direct and physical side who could cause us problems, especially after their progress of recent weeks. However, I am sure GW will demand a response in the next few matches. Last night was very poor but I hope the players can move on from it - certainly from the reaction of Montrose and Bull they were very displeased with the performance. I do think there are some things the manager can address (team selection, timing of substitutions for example) and if he does I'm confident we'll go up. It's tight at the top but we've been there before!
Agreed JS, there are no easy games in this league. But we should be going into these 3 confident of winning them and, if we do, things will be looking rosy again. Until the next defeat anyway.
i agree with js the next three games are gonna be tough for one reason or another and i think we need at least 6 points from those games to stay in with a chance of the auto positions
Agree completely with you JS the results of the next 3 will define what happens to the rest of the season, however having said that i think if we can find another 8 wins from the remaining games that should be good enough. I'm still seething about the game but it has to be kept in perspective we are still second, we still have it all in our hands, and it was only 3 points. Granted it may have been coming but you never know it could be the kick up the backside the team and the management need to kick on and get over the line.
the rumour is that we are going to get a couple of loan players in till the end of the season to help us get that automatic place.if we do i hope they are experienced players and not rookies like kiernan,nothing against the bloke but i feel we have better players than him already at our club.
