Are we usually that awful?

[Chesney Christ]

Sorry for the negativity but I just cannot believe how poor we were last night. I have been to very few games this season (before you all jump on my back, I am only 22 and want to commit myself to playing football, rather than watching it, until I am past it and over the hill - and thus I cannot get to many games) and so I have not really been aware of what sort of standard we were playing at.

I went to about 15-20 games last season and about 15 games in the Div2 championship winning season (nearly all away games as I was living in Stoke) and remember us playing some good stuff back then - even under the much maligned Taylor, but what I saw last night was little better than Conference standard. We made no attempt whatsoever to pass the ball and just hoofed everything to Iwelumo - do we usually do that?

How on earth have we made the play offs playing like this? Is the standard poorer than it was two years ago? Have we been genuinely lucky? Or are we usually infinitely better than that?

 

[Yoda]

Who gives a f***? We're going to Cardiff!!!!!!!

 

[Chesney Christ]

edited

 

[Simster]

The only thing that is really worrying me at the moment is the appalling lack of understanding that Iwelumo and Knight are showing.

Yesterday was indeed a shocking performance but you don't finish 4th in the league by playing crap every game.

 

[Easy 10]

We are a well organised, solid team with an outstanding defence, and we are extremely difficult to beat. Frankly, thats all you need in this division. But we are obviously not what you could call a "passing side", and having Iwelumo up front just encourages the aimless long ball and punts down the channels.

It ain't pretty, but its effective. That won't be enough for D1 though...we will need more than that to survive. The bedrock of the team is the defence, and at least that is sorted. But its pretty clear we do need more creativity in the team.

 

[Chesney Christ]

The only thing that is really worrying me at the moment is the appalling lack of understanding that Iwelumo and Knight are showing.

Yesterday was indeed a shocking performance but you don't finish 4th in the league by playing crap every game.

So we're usually a lot better than that?

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

We are much worse this season than the previous 3.

Infact Mr McGhee has disproved that old adage that you can infact " make a silk purse from a sows ear ".

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

We were dreadful for the first 100 minutes, some of the forward play was sub-Conference level. Dire. But when it got to the point where it was all about fighting spirit then the Swindon heads started to go down and the Albion got to work bigtime.

 

[London Irish]

It ain't pretty, but its effective. That won't be enough for D1 though...we will need more than that to survive.

I bet it will be enough!!!! Direct football is fine if your strikers can do the biz. Alas, we will need a better targetman than Big Chris when we go up. The harsh truth is he's a squad player at Div 1 level, not a front-liner. He could very well get the winner at Cardiff and not get a contract.

 

[chez]

The way we played was totally dictated by the way the tie panned out. For instance Swindon went all out attack at home because they presumed they would have no chance at withdean given Brightons home form especially recently. Because of this Brighton were forced to defend all match thuc making us look shit. The home leg was about a team hell bent on keeping a clean sheet - very few teams can look good playing for a 0-0 draw. As THPP said it wasnt until the last 20 minutes (when swindon were hell bent on keeping a clean sheet) that we started to play good football. Had the 1st leg finished 0-0 then you would have seen a much better Brighton performance last night.

DOES ANY OF THIS MAKE ANY SENSE?

 

[London Irish]

YES - SPOT ON

 

[Incredigull]

Yes ! Usually saved for away trips !!

 

[king Wombat]

i dont know why we need to hoof the ball. Carpenter & reid can pass the ball well enough, hart and piercy/or jones can run at players.

Iwelumo wins headers but never seems to find knight with the flick ons.

I think its come about from the defence just constantly humping it up the park.

I think we look much more dangerous when we pass the ball.

 

[Bwian]

i dont know why we need to hoof the ball. Carpenter & reid can pass the ball well enough, hart and piercy/or jones can run at players.

Iwelumo wins headers but never seems to find knight with the flick ons.

Iwelumo never finds Knight because Leon doesn't understand big Chris in the way Gary Hart did last night. Lack of anticipation or lack of desire from Leon? Bit of both methinks last night-but why? At Swindon and for the previous couple of games he upped his work rate and looked all the better for it.

Still-when it comes right down to it WE'RE GOING TO CARDIFF and I personally don't give a flying f**k how we managed it.

 

[Zebedee]

i dont know why we need to hoof the ball. Carpenter & reid can pass the ball well enough, hart and piercy/or jones can run at players.

Iwelumo wins headers but never seems to find knight with the flick ons.

I think its come about from the defence just constantly humping it up the park.

I think we look much more dangerous when we pass the ball.

Anyone remember that first half at home to Plymouth? The passing was sublime and we looked unbeatable that night. What's changed since? Damned if I know.

 

[Lush]

Leon and Iwelumo don't have an understanding because Iwelumo has no ball control IMHO.

Big Chris wins the ball - and nods it down. It could go anywhere. A workhorse like Harty has more chance of finding it, but Leon?

It's the same if Big Chris gets a ball to feet. It pings 10 yards across the pitch in ANY OLD direction.

Yes - we need a big target man to play up front with Leon - but Big Chris aint the man. Benjamin was better but maybe not even HE is the solution....

This is a fanciful suggestion and not meant to distract from the comments above but could we convert one of our more mobile centre backs into target men? Virgo? El-Abd?

 

[London Irish]

Anyone remember that first half at home to Plymouth? The passing was sublime and we looked unbeatable that night. What's changed since? Damned if I know.

We've lost our silky midfield playmaker Paul Watson.

 

[London Irish]

This is a fanciful suggestion and not meant to distract from the comments above but could we convert one of our more mobile centre backs into target men? Virgo? El-Abd?

STEADY. We've made our Big Chris bed and we now have to lie in it, at least until May 31st.

Poor Leon isn't the perfect foil for Big Chris, he wants the ball at his feet, not to go running in fifteen different directions and have some 50/50 fight with some big ape of a defender to get it.

Leon has to play, but a 3-man front line involving OGH playing closer to Big Chris, and Leon behind them might work

 

[Chesney Christ]

The way we played was totally dictated by the way the tie panned out. For instance Swindon went all out attack at home because they presumed they would have no chance at withdean given Brightons home form especially recently. Because of this Brighton were forced to defend all match thuc making us look shit. The home leg was about a team hell bent on keeping a clean sheet - very few teams can look good playing for a 0-0 draw. As THPP said it wasnt until the last 20 minutes (when swindon were hell bent on keeping a clean sheet) that we started to play good football. Had the 1st leg finished 0-0 then you would have seen a much better Brighton performance last night.

DOES ANY OF THIS MAKE ANY SENSE?

Nope. Nothing excuses long ball. The reason we were defending so much is that we were constantly giving them the ball to attack with - can you not see that? The best way to preserve a lead is possession football - simple as.

 

[Lush]

STEADY. We've made our Big Chris bed and we now have to lie in it, at least until May 31st.

Poor Leon isn't the perfect foil for Big Chris, he wants the ball at his feet, not to go running in fifteen different directions and have some 50/50 fight with some big ape of a defender to get it.

Leon has to play, but a 3-man front line involving OGH playing closer to Big Chris, and Leon behind them might work

AGREE TOTALLY 100% - on all 3 points!!!