Thought we controlled the first half without causing them too much trouble. Magennis with our best chance. Header but couldn't tell from the other end whether it was cleared off the line or hit the inside of the post.
Two quick goals killed us in the second half and we gave up. Our one and only and predictable tactic from that point was to get Marshall to keep lumping it into their box to no effect.
There was zero support in numbers for Magennis or any of our attacks. We were poor in the second half.
Oh, and do we really expect promotion when we're bringing on KAG and Reeco to try and rescue a result at 2-0 down? No squad depth.
Line up as I called it with Bauer back to CB, Sarr to LB and Da Silva into midfield.
Pretty even first half with both sides going for it and I thought we shaded it not only on opportunities created. In fact the travelling faithful thought we had scored with the best move of the match on the half hour with Josh I think hitting the post with a header from an acutish angle. At the other end Amos made a fantastic tip over from close range to keep us all square at the break. People may get frustrated with his distribution which wasn't that bad today but he's a keeper first and foremost and he'll do for me
Start of the second half the substitution that was to be our undoing and was the difference between the two sides, Josh Morris, entered the fray. Two wonder strikes after about an hour within a couple of minutes decided the game. The first from a free kick after a debatable Kashi 'foul' was smashed past the two man wall left footed to Amos' right, he having positioned himself to his left expecting a right footed curler from the other player standing over the ball. Undeservedly behind we then conceded a second goal a few minutes later which effectively was game over despite our efforts to salvage something from the game. That man Morris again cut in from the left 30 yards out and buried a worldly in the top right hand postage stamp as we looked at it at the far end of the pitch. Nominated man of the match for 45 mins of individual brilliance says it all.
No one had a stinker for us, a few average performances from Sarr, Josh and Marshall who had little end product. Our man of the match for me was JFK who is in a rich vein of form. A draw would have been a fair result had it not been for a more prolific Josh upsetting our applecart.
Some you win, this one we didn't .We go again Tuesday v P'boro COYRs
ATM the game, with some great views in the main stand not far from the away dug out.
RedChaser has it as I saw it and only a few things to add.
1) Disappointed that Marshall failed to convert his chance. Really should have scored.
2) Thought Magennis had headed us into the lead following a great cross. The keeper in fact made a finger tip save that pushed it onto the post.
3) Terrible free kick to give away. Morris is left footed (he never kicks with his right said Robinson yesterday!) Amos should have covered his right post better.
4) Morris's second goal (with his right foot) was stunning. One of the goals of the season as he went round three of our players before hitting it. He is a real classy player and changed the game as soon as he came on. Their other sub (Holmes) also had a great game.
5) Overall I felt we were the better team and looked a lot more dangerous. Played some lovely one touch football.
6) Ricky was my MOM though he does try to beat the whole team. Other than that our best performers were Konsa and DaSilva.
Managed to speak to an ex player at length prior to the game. He bought up the subject of the ownership saying we were looking more stable now, which surprised him, as RD was still there. He was particularly scathing of KM saying she was ''out of her depth, inexperienced in not only football but management as a whole and unapproachable''.
There is one problem and that is the lack of strikers in our squad. Robinson should have addressed this pre season. But he chose to make attacking midfielders his priority. He signed Reeves, Clarke, Marshall & Fosu. Clarke and Fosu are great signings, Marshal show promise, however Reeves looks a complete waste of space, and now 1 week from December he still hasn’t completed 90 minutes of a league game for us.
I would have preferred that Reeves signing on fee and wages had been spent on a second striker, because Josh Magennis is a great target man, but he really needs someone playing alongside him to feed off the knock downs. Unfortunately KAG and Dodoo are not up to this.
I fear that the set up that the 4,5,1 set up that Robinson has decided on is not working, and ultimately come the end of the season we will be lucky to make the top 6 and a play off place.
This in spades. Been saying it from the start of the season, and even from the day we signed Reeves. Put all his eggs in one basket, and being a financial advisor I know that that is not a good idea !! Now his eggs are broken & he has no other option than KAG & RHF (wont mention Dodoo as he is obviously a worse option than putting Sarr up front ) and KR even saying that we may have to look at the youth systemfor out attacking options (really ??? ...........Umerah or Hanlan ??? players who can't score for lower league sides). That is not something a team serious on promotion should be looking at mid season.
Another season wasted & I fear another season next year in this poxy league, going to places like KIngstonian, Gillingam, Bury & Rochdale.
How bad was Marshall's miss? If we'd gone 1-0 up, I suspect we'd have got more as they chased the game. We desperately need a clinical finisher in January.
Bad. Again. He was clean through, as he was against MK Dons, and let the keeper pounce on him with a poor touch.
Though all around he was very poor today. His crossing was anywhere from erratic to awful. And he's now missed a fair few chances. Nothing terrible that can't be undone with a couple goals, and after such a long layoff it's completely reasonable that it takes a while to get back up to speed. But I think he's gotten off a little easy given the stick Ben Reeves has gotten (not wrongly). Both were out for a long time and both are making their way back to form and full fitness.
there's a reason Marshall has spent his time knocking around the lower leagues. He's not very good. He's 32 now, nothing's going to change.
Disagree with that - i think he will be a major player for us this year. Looks a real threat. Regularly beat his man - on the outside - and got good crosses in tuesday night - didnt see him today and know he is carrying a knock and ideally wouldn't have played today.
any idea when Best is signing?
nope - signing him obviously hasn't gone as smoothly as expected.
Puzzling, really, when you consider we have the contract expert as chief executive and there isn’t even another club to negotiate with.
she's negotiating with herself, a tricky business. In all honesty following KR's comments the other day about looking to the academy it sounds like Roland won't sanction another wage onto the wage bill. If that is because a sale is close then great. If not I don't expect the situation to change in January, in fact I'd bank on a couple of sales and a couple of loan replacements.
I think the interesting thing is that the situation seemed to change. I doubt if that was because Robinson hadn’t considered the young players.
The available transfer funds / players we want to sign, always starts to change about a month before the window opens.
It's after matches like this I wonder how good most managers are.
If I were an owner and saw that match, I would ask KR the following...
"What, specifically, are you going to do in PRACTICE the next few days, to make this team better?"
I don't think owners ask this enough. In the real world, when things don't go well, any good CEO or manager would ask "What specific actions are you going to make tomorrow? I think most managers don't know how to answer that question. They just keep going with the same old-same old. Maybe they change a lineup a bit. This is one reason managers never seem to get better or evolve. Because they are not really sure how to change things.
If I were a reporter I would do my job and ask them that specific question. I would worry about any manager that could not precisely answer that question.
And factor in an owner who isn't interested in success.
He is - he wants promotion so he can get the deal he wants to sell but let's not start all that again
He isn't interested enough in promotion to fund it though.
You could be 90% confident of automatic promotion if even a quarter of the Lookman transfer fee had been reinvested in the squad, ie £2M ish.
So why no protests the Belgians are still taking the pish. The beginning of September I spoke to a few people on here at the ground, If we miss out on automatic promotion by a few points it will be down to the fact we only have one striker. Nearly everyone on here can see if we had another decent striker to take the pressure off Josh we would probably have a couple more points than we have. If there was no 8 million then fair enough I don't even expect the Belgians to put much back in. But come on would of only probably taken at most £2 million. Probably makes it worse than last season because I think the extra striker would be the icing on the cake.
It's after matches like this I wonder how good most managers are.
If I were an owner and saw that match, I would ask KR the following...
"What, specifically, are you going to do in PRACTICE the next few days, to make this team better?"
I don't think owners ask this enough. In the real world, when things don't go well, any good CEO or manager would ask "What specific actions are you going to make tomorrow? I think most managers don't know how to answer that question. They just keep going with the same old-same old. Maybe they change a lineup a bit. This is one reason managers never seem to get better or evolve. Because they are not really sure how to change things.
If I were a reporter I would do my job and ask them that specific question. I would worry about any manager that could not precisely answer that question.
I think all fair points. It's unfortunately one of the things in Britain where tactics and methods just aren't discussed in press conferences. I agree it's unfortunate, I think it's one of many, many reasons why managers don't evolve (especially those who become managers so young like Karl and I fear Chris Powell). But the tactical side of the game isn't given the same scrutiny. I think that's starting to change, but there's a long wayy to go.
And factor in an owner who isn't interested in success.
He is - he wants promotion so he can get the deal he wants to sell but let's not start all that again
Which isn't what was meant by success.
No but let's not kid ourselves that he isn't interested in getting promoted
Possibly , but there’s a lot of difference between wanting promotion to better than club & making fans happy to promotion so you can quickly flog the business so you don’t have to ‘fund’ it anymore!
And factor in an owner who isn't interested in success.
He is - he wants promotion so he can get the deal he wants to sell but let's not start all that again
Which isn't what was meant by success.
No but let's not kid ourselves that he isn't interested in getting promoted
Possibly , but there’s a lot of difference between wanting promotion to better than club & making fans happy to promotion so you can quickly flog the business so you don’t have to ‘fund’ it anymore!
We played well but got beaten by two wonder strikes - this is all part and parcel of a 46 game league season - no doubt it will happen again before the end of the season.
Sometimes, as at home against Wimbledon it will be Ricky Holmes winning us the points when we don't really deserve it or it will be surviving a battering as we did at Bradford and nicking a goal to win 1-0.
Losing for the first time in 10 League games is no disgrace, we just need to build again.
And factor in an owner who isn't interested in success.
He is - he wants promotion so he can get the deal he wants to sell but let's not start all that again
Havent had a go at you on this thread once @Doucher because alternate views are not a bad thing to have but to suggest he gives a toss about us is just wrong, plain wrong.
He could not have shown less interest if he tried, he could not give a shit about you, me or our beloved football club, FACT
We played well but got beaten by two wonder strikes - this is all part and parcel of a 46 game league season - no doubt it will happen again before the end of the season.
Sometimes, as at home against Wimbledon it will be Ricky Holmes winning us the points when we don't really deserve it or it will be surviving a battering as we did at Bradford and nicking a goal to win 1-0.
Losing for the first time in 10 League games is no disgrace, we just need to build again.
I totally agree, but its not the losing that most of us on here are worrying about, its the lack of strikers, or specifically, the lack of options to change things around or even rest Magennis.
The defeat had been coming, as anyone who had been to the last 2 home games could tell you. Its not the fact that we let 2 gaols in, which were a bit special, but the fact that, as someone has just posted, we have only scored 8 goals in the last 8 games. That in itself will not get you promoted. You can't win 1-0 every game, and so the main concern is how are we going to be able to score more & therefore win games. The longer this situation goes on the worse it will get. Magennis can't play 90 mins every single game & even if he does there needs to be a Plan B or a change of personnel during the game if things aren't going well. I think we all agree that KAG, Dodoo (and to some extent) Hackett Fairchild aren't the answer, and even worse, KR is now saying that the answer may "lie within the youth system". That is not the answer
And factor in an owner who isn't interested in success.
He is - he wants promotion so he can get the deal he wants to sell but let's not start all that again
Havent had a go at you on this thread once @Doucher because alternate views are not a bad thing to have but to suggest he gives a toss about us is just wrong, plain wrong.
He could not have shown less interest if he tried, he could not give a shit about you, me or our beloved football club, FACT
agreed - i'm sayiing he wants promotion, thats all
And factor in an owner who isn't interested in success.
He is - he wants promotion so he can get the deal he wants to sell but let's not start all that again
Havent had a go at you on this thread once @Doucher because alternate views are not a bad thing to have but to suggest he gives a toss about us is just wrong, plain wrong.
He could not have shown less interest if he tried, he could not give a shit about you, me or our beloved football club, FACT
agreed - i'm sayiing he wants promotion, thats all
he may want promotion but he's not prepared to fund it. Therefore he doesn't want it enough.
We played well but got beaten by two wonder strikes - this is all part and parcel of a 46 game league season - no doubt it will happen again before the end of the season.
Sometimes, as at home against Wimbledon it will be Ricky Holmes winning us the points when we don't really deserve it or it will be surviving a battering as we did at Bradford and nicking a goal to win 1-0.
Losing for the first time in 10 League games is no disgrace, we just need to build again.
I totally agree, but its not the losing that most of us on here are worrying about, its the lack of strikers, or specifically, the lack of options to change things around or even rest Magennis.
The defeat had been coming, as anyone who had been to the last 2 home games could tell you. Its not the fact that we let 2 gaols in, which were a bit special, but the fact that, as someone has just posted, we have only scored 8 goals in the last 8 games. That in itself will not get you promoted. You can't win 1-0 every game, and so the main concern is how are we going to be able to score more & therefore win games. The longer this situation goes on the worse it will get. Magennis can't play 90 mins every single game & even if he does there needs to be a Plan B or a change of personnel during the game if things aren't going well. I think we all agree that KAG, Dodoo (and to some extent) Hackett Fairchild aren't the answer, and even worse, KR is now saying that the answer may "lie within the youth system". That is not the answer
There's not going to be an answer though golf. I don't think we will get anyone in January and we will play Magennis till he drops
Comments
Another season wasted & I fear another season next year in this poxy league, going to places like KIngstonian, Gillingam, Bury & Rochdale.
They could easily all be relegated.
You could be 90% confident of automatic promotion if even a quarter of the Lookman transfer fee had been reinvested in the squad, ie £2M ish.
If I were an owner and saw that match, I would ask KR the following...
"What, specifically, are you going to do in PRACTICE the next few days, to make this team better?"
I don't think owners ask this enough. In the real world, when things don't go well, any good CEO or manager would ask "What specific actions are you going to make tomorrow? I think most managers don't know how to answer that question. They just keep going with the same old-same old. Maybe they change a lineup a bit. This is one reason managers never seem to get better or evolve. Because they are not really sure how to change things.
If I were a reporter I would do my job and ask them that specific question. I would worry about any manager that could not precisely answer that question.
The beginning of September I spoke to a few people on here at the ground,
If we miss out on automatic promotion by a few points it will be down to the fact we only have one striker.
Nearly everyone on here can see if we had another decent striker to take the pressure off Josh we would probably have a couple more points than we have.
If there was no 8 million then fair enough I don't even expect the Belgians to put much back in.
But come on would of only probably taken at most £2 million.
Probably makes it worse than last season because I think the extra striker would be the icing on the cake.
We played well but got beaten by two wonder strikes - this is all part and parcel of a 46 game league season - no doubt it will happen again before the end of the season.
Sometimes, as at home against Wimbledon it will be Ricky Holmes winning us the points when we don't really deserve it or it will be surviving a battering as we did at Bradford and nicking a goal to win 1-0.
Losing for the first time in 10 League games is no disgrace, we just need to build again.
Win = good performance
loss = terrible performance
It's black and white.
Havent had a go at you on this thread once @Doucher because alternate views are not a bad thing to have but to suggest he gives a toss about us is just wrong, plain wrong.
He could not have shown less interest if he tried, he could not give a shit about you, me or our beloved football club, FACT
The defeat had been coming, as anyone who had been to the last 2 home games could tell you. Its not the fact that we let 2 gaols in, which were a bit special, but the fact that, as someone has just posted, we have only scored 8 goals in the last 8 games. That in itself will not get you promoted. You can't win 1-0 every game, and so the main concern is how are we going to be able to score more & therefore win games. The longer this situation goes on the worse it will get. Magennis can't play 90 mins every single game & even if he does there needs to be a Plan B or a change of personnel during the game if things aren't going well. I think we all agree that KAG, Dodoo (and to some extent) Hackett Fairchild aren't the answer, and even worse, KR is now saying that the answer may "lie within the youth system". That is not the answer
I don't think we will get anyone in January and we will play Magennis till he drops