Its all very well sticking to nice drills, patterns of play and all that BUT at 1-0, Wolves couldn't stick 2 passes together and were worse than an under 11's side who haven't played together for 6 months.... At times like this, you HAVE TO HAVE a manager who is smart enough to recognise the fact, change tactics AND PUT THE GAME TO BED. Put Baldock on, attacking formation to go for the second and there was no way back for them from there. There's no point in starting to attack from 2-1 down, this is what separates top managers from the rest. In a massive, MASSIVE game that has a major bearing on our survival chances, like previous away games, he played it safe (again) and it has probably cost us our NPC status First major black mark for SoD for me....
If we won 1-0 he would of been a tactical genius. Games change within a matter of minutes as we seen today. I think Barnsley proves anything can happen when you change players. We took off A defensive player and replaced him with attacking midfielder at 5-1 up. We then went on to win 5-3. I would of rather have seen another defensive minded player come on at 1-0 70th minute. Oh well. We move on I suppose.
Shiny, this was the big one, we HAD to win it to keep our destiny in our own hands - Wolves were WOEFUL and there for the taking and this would have put them bottom and, IMO, pretty much killed them off. Now we have to win 5 of our last 8 and even if we win all 4 home games, if the manager won't even try and win an away game (not for the first time), we're finished...
I agree it was a must win. I personally cant see us winning all our home games. Bolton nope, Birmingham nope. Charlton now is the only away game I can see us getting a point at
Although listening on BBC Bristol doesn't give you a great insight in to the game I was somewhat surprised what we did when ahead 0-1. The local fans were on the back of their team and we should have pulled out the knife and stuck it right between their shoulder blades and the game could have been done and dusted. Instead we fell back and relied on our defence to hold the game for us, and although we have been solid of late it was a massive mistake on Sean's part which might well come back to be the nail in our coffin. Bad decision all round and I'm surprised to hear Prem getting on the case of our manager but he's absolutely right in calling this a botched tactical error on Sean's part. Could have been so much different.
Like you said Mike, this is surival of the fittest, it was them or us and we didn't try and put them to the sword when we had the chance... I didn't think it possible but, having listened to SoD'd post match interview, I am even more incandescent with rage describing it as an improvement on the 4-1 home defeat in December and Tom Heaton's words "we were comfortable at 1-0" really stuck in my craw. You hear comments about 2-0 being a dangerous score and no one is EVER comfortable at 1-0 I wonder if anyone realises what a key role Wolves have played in our season. When they came to us in December, they had only taken 3 points from their last 27 and this time, IT WAS EVEN WORSE and without the 6 points we have given them, they would probably have been sunk already before today as THEY HAD ONLY WON 4 OUT OF THEIR LAST 27 GAMES, INCLUDING US IN DECEMBER SO, ONLY LOSING 2-1 to a team like this is DEFINITELY NOT A SIGN OF IMPROVEMENT and failing to try and kill them off will turn out to be a fatal blow to our survival hopes.. The minimum requirement was to HAVE to beat all of the teams around us as this would deal them a potentially fatal wound and Wolves were a team with relegation written all over it so how ironic that the 6 points we gave them might just be enough to save them.
Terrible, same sort of thing as Brighton, needed to get some bloody forwards on, this time settle for a holding win and came unstuck - oh well, fingers crossed.
I really can't believe some of the other bloody results today...... At this rate I reckon teams wanting to avoid the drop are gonna need 55 points or even more.
Still thing it will go down to the last game of the season, and we might just might survive it. But games like today we should of attacked them when we went 1-0 up they were wobbling on the ropes. Oh wait ain't that what they done to us at our place?
I was there today - I think Baldock should have come on for Davies earlier (pace is a threat) What's going on with Albert? far from his best!
I don't think Albert has been with us all season and by that I mean he only appears to play at the required level when he sees fit. We don't need that kind of player at AG because if you look back over the last few seasons we seem to hold the record for underperforming players that lack commitment. If we do go down to the last game of the season needing a win to stay up then I suggest you need to look at our lack of desire to win away games to understand that at least the season ticket prices should be cheaper next season in League 1.
All of the other clubs around us are at least having a go away from home and in Barnsley and especially Peterborough's case, its working. We are on the edge of a precipice and right now, a 20-loss is the same as a 1 goal loss, i.e. it's still a loss AND WE NEED WINS Have a go SoD and we will support you whatever the outcome - try and defend us a point, especially against our next couple of away games it will not go well cause, we AIN'T THAT GOOD AT DEFENDING...!!!
Err, yes he did cos he set us up not to lose to a team with their own supporters on their back and confidence at an all time low following 4 wins in 27. Had we beaten them yesterday, THEY WERE DOWN... Look at the manager at Barnsley for example - he has obviously decided that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being aggressive and has instilled in his players that they are fighting for their lifes so act like it. Go at them and try and kill them off would have been the attitude of Barnsley, Peterborough and Sheffield Wednesday but instead, we get the timid approach and we got exactly what we deserved and in our current circumstances, this is simply not good enough...
