Yellows & the Blues

Oh shut up gaffer, within 1 minute of announcing, both Sunderland & Wycombe score!

 

Come on Ipswich!

 

Pointless subbing Sears now!

 

Never have understood bringing a sub on with just a couple of minutes left

 

Agreed, waste of bloody time making subs this late.

 

4 wins in 18...not a bright stat! Sorry guys, but our season is fading fast.

 

Gets worse, Jackson off!

 

Now we only have injury prone strikers Sears and Keane available for the next few games!!

 

Not happy Townies. Dear oh dear. We need some cheer.

 

We need Evans to go at any cost and start again.

 

Bollocks, ****in' useless referee has ruined this one in the end. Oxford got all the decisions in the match.
We had a lot of good play but just can't bloody score.

 

The officiating is always going to be poorer in division three compared to the divisions above, and a poor referee should not lose you games.

We had more than enough opportunities to win today, but we didn’t take them and we failed to keep a clean sheet again. An inability to beat a half decent team in League One is becoming a tired habit. The fact we probably won’t even get a play off place should be an embarrassment to manager, coaching staff, players, and the owner. It’s inexcusable.

Look at that Oxford squad and compare it to ours - we’ve got the better players on paper, but the opposition are set up better and are better coached. It’s becoming a frequent criticism that we look out of our depth against a semi-good opposition.

 

Four wins in 22 now. Sack this inept manager.

 

How does sacking Paul Hurst look now? Nobody can say with hindsight we could have been worse off by sticking with him.

It can’t be all the managers and players we have had going back ten years.

Sacking the manager gets us nowhere with Evans running the club.

 

We can’t sack the owner, so the next best thing to change is the manager, and it’s clear something has got to give. We can’t let Lambert continue how he is. His position is surely untenable, especially if this run continues. Four wins in 22, just let that statistic sink in. Absolutely shocking for a club of our size and with our aspirations. We might have a chance with somebody else, we won’t with this manager and his win ratio, recent CV, and record at the club. He does not have the answers to our issues.

The manager should ultimately take responsibility, but like Hurst, I do sympathise with Lambert in that he hasn’t been given enough backing in the transfer market and the structure of the club is terrible.

Only Mick McCarthy has got this club consistently performing to or above its standards during Evans’ ownership. His other managers have been poor, and that’s a criticism both of Evans and how he runs the club and how he equips his managers.

I’m so angry with how the club has been performing, how it’s been run, and what we have become over the past couple of years.

 

And the crazy thing is, if he had coughed up for one bleedin striker, just one player in the window, we could have won at least 2 of recent games and been challenign for top 2 again.Now we are strikers short, and we have some difficult games ahead.

 

Well I've ended up pretty frustrated at the end of that match.

We made all the attacking play in the first half, creating chance after chance, but the finishing was wayward with a few shots flying too high and others getting blocked by defenders. Our 3-4-1-2 was getting the better of Oxford and although they looked tidier than us with the ball we kept them at arm's length for most of the first 45. Losing the goal in the 44th minute was not ideal and would have given Oxford a confidence boost.

Second half we started on the front foot again, creating yet more chances that were not taken. Oxford, like most teams we've played this season, were organised and play better football than us, it's certainly not the first time I've said that. We changed shape at about 65 minutes and the game got away from us at that point. We no longer had the same attacking threat and Oxford had some good passages of play. We started to get frustrated and the game got scrappy in the last twenty.

The first goal was crucial in this match and we didn't get it. Another case of not scoring when on top and then losing a goal out of nothing that gives the opposition something to hold on to.

Holy - better than Norris, Holy had a good game today.
Earl - not bad, not great. Helped Garbutt in attack when we were in our original shape but that was lost after the system change.
Chambers - pretty good, got caught out a couple of times when up against Taylor but didn't make any telling mistakes. As I said last week, his ability to make a good pass out to the channels helps us attack more than Wilson does in the centre.
Woolfenden - great first half, he looks comfortable on the right side of the three and he really was the main attacking threat in the first half. He made a lot of forward runs. Just like Garbutt on the other side, his attacking threat was greatly diminished when we switched to a back four.
Garbutt - some good attacking play from Luke, shame the front three can't put his passes away.
Nolan - sorry, thought he was poor again. Really hasn't done any better or worse than Huws. I do feel Huws has a better long range shot though, it doesn't look like Nolan is capable of scoring. For crying out loud, our last regular scoring central midfielders were the likes of Norris and Bullard, that's how far you have to go back!
Downes - man of the match again. Flynn is rapidly becoming a good box to box midfielder. He keeps the ball very well, balances attack with defence and leads by example.
Edwards - was involved with a lot of the good play down our right hand side but still isn't good enough. He just doesn't make enough happen for a winger.
Judge - normal Judge performance. You think he's going to pull the strings and make those perfect passes and assists. Then the reality that he isn't that good becomes clear again. Too many 6/10 matches for a player we'd like to rely on for creativity.
Keane - played the best out of the two strikers today but suffered from poor finishing.
Jackson - too many poor first touches that if he had got it right would've seen him clear. It didn't look like a downward stamp on the Oxford player to me, more like a kick to the shin or something. I haven't seen it played back yet. Jackson's red card should give Sears a chance to get minutes.

All in all, a frustrating match that for the most part was decent to watch without scoring any goals. The change of shape in the second half let the game get away from us and I don't see the bloody point in subs being made in the final few minutes. What do you actually expect is going to change doing that, I mean seriously?

Most other clubs would have sacked their manager after the recent run of results. I don't know if that's the answer but Lambert needs to figure out a way to get goals and win matches.

 

We won’t be sacking the manager - he has a 5 year contract. And it will not make any difference if we do unless we are prepared to pay competitive wages and transfer fees.

 

If you don't get the right players, you'll always struggle.

When you shop at Poundland, you don't get quality

 

A good manager will make the team better than the sum of its parts. A good manager will implement a programme, strategy, and culture that will make the club achieve above its expectations. Paul Lambert is not one of those managers. Examples of this in League One this season include Mark Robins, Joey Barton, Karl Robinson, and Gareth Ainsworth. Most of these managers have next to nothing to spend in the transfer window. Some are working for financially bankrupt clubs. Spending the most money does not equate to success. It helps, but it is not the sole reason for failure.