Good insight here from Benson's occassional Standard column
Phil didn’t berate us as we’re close to getting it right
When you're winning and scoring goals, you don't really get many phone calls from your friends in football, but if you lose 4-0, you'll get loads.
Unfortunately, my phone never stopped ringing last Saturday after we'd been beaten at home by Brighton.
The last thing you want to do after a result like that is chat about it but rather than turn off the phone, it's important to grit your teeth and take the calls. My old manager at Dagenham, John Still, used to tell us never to get too high or too low, which was great advice.
It's not that your fellow players are taking the Mickey, either. They've just seen the result and are interested to know what went wrong and how it came about.
I was telling them that I didn't think we'd played that badly, which might sound strange. Of course, we didn't play well but I thought we played worse against Notts County earlier in the season and we won 1-0.
At the moment, the problem is our decision making; knowing when to hit the ball long and when to pass it short. We're not always doing the right thing at the right time but I feel we're so close to getting it right. We're not quite there but I can see it clicking soon.
After the Brighton game, I expected a rocket from our manager Phil Parkinson but it didn't really happen. His style was to think carefully about what he was going to say next and speak in a reserved and measured manner, which worked just as well as if he'd been shouting and hollering.
He made us feel as though we'd let him
down and that he was disappointed in us, so it had just as good an effect as throwing teacups would have had.
When you have a result like that, you probably think about it that evening and then forget about it, which is pretty much what the manager has done. With a six-hour coach journey to Carlisle tomorrow, we all need to find ways of passing the time but I wouldn't recommend dwelling on the Brighton game.
I like to keep my mind active on away trips so I'll probably play Tiger Woods PGA Tour and other computer games on my iPhone. A few of the boys like to play Mario Kart and have a tournament going, which always kills a couple of hours and our forward, Akpo Sodje, surprised me when I saw the box set of the BBC drama The Tudors on his seat.
It's the last thing I expected Akpo to be watching, because he's never given any impression of being interested in history. Perhaps he'll soon be giving us lectures about Henry VIII and his six wives before training. Or maybe not.
When we get to the hotel, Akpo will have to tear himself away from tales of Tudor England because we all usually have a swim and a warm down before having our evening meal together. Then, it's time for bed.
You can pay £50 to have your own room on away trips but I'm tight, so I share with another forward, Pawel Abbott. Luckily for me, Paw doesn't snore and he goes to bed at a reasonable hour, so he's no problem.
I've had a couple of bad room-mates in my time, such as one who woke me up at 2.30am because he was having a shower. He'd go to sleep, wake up, decide he needed a shower and then go back to bed. Bizarre.
At Carlisle, the key is to put in a performance for 90 minutes. We've put in a couple of 45s where we've looked good but we have to do that over the whole game on Saturday.
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Still Addickted has already posted this
: - )
A messy ninja w*nk by any chance?
well he's a nice man so what did you expect Paul? Let's see if it has the desired effect, though I doubt it.
My thoughts exactly.
Really, we're not. Still no more excuses, we're really close to turning that 4 nil into something beautiful.
I dont think its so much he is a nice guy, just teh old hair dryer treatment does not really work for the modern day pro and any message that needs to be given will simply just go in one ear and out the other.
He confirms what we all suspected , that it isnt in Parky's nature to deliver a rocket and throw the tea cups when the players let him (and us) down.
The admission that we played worse when we beat Notts Co than we did in losing 4-0 to Brighton is interesting. Since Orient way back on Aug 13, we've only won two league games, Notts Co and MK Dons, and we were terrible in both of them.
That's why I'm slightly sceptical about his view that ''we're so close to getting it right''. I'd like to believe it - but the evidence of my own eyes tells me otherwise. As for ''I can see it clicking soon'', you have to wonder if it will be soon enough to save Parky his job.
Not sure what I think of this:
''When you have a result like that, you probably think about it that evening and then forget about it, which is pretty much what the manager has done.''
Part of me says good idea, move on. Part of me says it's going to take a bit more than that to work out why it went so horribly wrong and address the problems.
But as I say, interesting stuff and a bit more insightful than most of the post-match guff we get fed.
that was my thoughts, and if i'm honest i've found the soundbytes since Saturday mildly encouraging. No matter how people dress it up as simply words, its clear the players are still with the manager, and that can sometimes be half the battle.
It just has to be turned into action now.
that was my thoughts, and if i'm honest i've found the soundbytes since Saturday mildly encouraging. No matter how people dress it up as simply words, its clear the players are still with the manager, and that can sometimes be half the battle.
It just has to be turned into action now.[/quote]
When I see the players busting a gut to save the managers job then I'll believe that he has their support, rather than just an underperforming player spouting the company line.
Thought it was really good. I'd imaging over 50% of footballers wouldn't be able to link Tudors with Henry VIII. Not a massive illumination of genius, but certainly esoteric compared to most footballers.
Parky's style was to think carefully.... Shame he's not able to do that game time. There can be one or two glaring weaknesses in our game that he doesn't seem able to analyse game time: One being MK Dons only threatening at set pieces, so bring Abbott on early to help defend them and support Benson up front who was swamped by their 2 cds; but no he made the change at the standard UK manager time of past 2/3 - 70 min.
Parky needs to learn not just what is being coached but maybe he needs to change how he does things.
But part of me can't help wishing that there had been a bit of unbridled ranting after last week. It is not always the way to do things, but sometimes just a bit of yelling shows it really matters to someone...
Anyway, let's hope it brings the right response this afternoon, another key match.
I agree with NLA, the proof is in the coaching and it's very hard to acknowledge that there will be changes when you see the players making the same mistakes week-in, week-out.
My mate worked at a midtable League 1 side very closely for a number of seasons, a club that never expected to achive much but the players and management were very happy go lucky. If they got a good result it was enjoyed, as Benson says it was important not to take the highs too high or the lows too low, but I do believe the weight of expectation that is layed on to a squad by the fans, owners and then the management can have a negative effect and you can almost feel the levels of anxiety when the team trots out onto The Valley pitch.
All this 'it's just a matter of time' talk is grasping at straws and however messy it can be playing badly but nicking a 1-0 win would be very valuable to the club today.
Hope you were there today, then...because I saw it.