Couldn't go today. Had a prior engagement. Playing golf. When I saw that Church started I felt vindicated. Can't comment otherwise. Can't go Tuesday. Having heart surgery on Monday (yes really). Please don't start Church. Will just make me feel better.
Posting as I saw it before being influenced by other views.
Reading were a workmanlike side and it was easy to see why they are in and around the play-offs. I thought we competed with them for much of the match but it was always evident that they had the cutting edge we lacked and that if they scored they would win.
Yeovil becomes even bigger now and I hope that Riga (metaphorically) castrates NLA between now and Tuesday because we are going to need his big balls on and off the pitch.
I'm not one to slag players off as a general rule unless they don't try but Church was a disgrace today. The whole ground was yelling to him that he was offside yet he had to "interfere with play" and surrender the initiative of one of our few threatening attacking moments in the match. Petrucci looks a loan out of the Hovi / El Khalej / Pouso school too and his fannying thereby losing the ball cost us the goal.
1st half I was quietly confident we could get a point or more. 10 minutes into the second half I had a feeling Reading would nick it. Harriott got into some decent positions only to put in a misplaced pass or heavy cross. Ajdarevic looked like his goose was cooked 40 minutes in, stopped running around and when he had the ball did not move 3 feet with it. When you think he is one of our more creative players you know that our chances will diminish when he is done before half time. Just wish we had another player like Poyet on the wing that had that bit of guile to take players on. Wilson and Wiggins were limited going forward and I think they are missing that partnership with the players on the wings in front of them like we had with the Solly/Wilson combination early season. Slag off Church as much as you like but he is not a target man and needs another striker to work with. Yes, he wasn't great today and certainly should have been livelier when caught offside in the second half but you can't blame him for the loss. 8 games to go and it is vital we get results against Yeovil and Barnsley yet you see these two scoring goals each week which means we need to dig out the sort of performances we had against Leeds, B'mouth and Forest. Anyway looking forward to Yeovil as we only score on Tuesdays!!!
4-5-1 is a great formation if you can turn it into 4-3-3 when attacking too often we were in a position to put the ball into the penalty area and at best we were out numbered but mostly there was no one there and that is our problem first third and middle third we compete, final third ... nothing
Couldn't go today. Had a prior engagement. Playing golf. When I saw that Church started I felt vindicated. Can't comment otherwise. Can't go Tuesday. Having heart surgery on Monday (yes really). Please don't start Church. Will just make me feel better.
Starting with both AA and Jackson, then taking both off was odd, as they're our main dead ball takers. I'm sure either would have done better with the direct free kick we had, and I'd never seen Callum Harriott take corners before.
I thought Harriott on the right was the best option available - time and time again he beat players or linked up with others really well but the final delivery was never good. Except when he had to take the corner at the end?
Looked like our most likely chance on goal was going to come from the central midfield which shows just how poor our options are upfront.
Really hope the formation and team.. and substitutions are razor sharp on Tuesday as that is obviously the first of two opportunities to bury our competitors.
Attacking wise we are so poor. Reading stepped it up second half, but probably wouldn't have scored if Petrucci decided to shoot rather than lose the ball.
Big game Tuesday, 3 wins will be enough IMO keep the faith.
We shaded the first half, playing some decent passing football without really looking like scoring - except for that nice run from Cousins which sadly ended with a sponge foot like pat-a-cake shot straight at the keeper. Reading were all over us in the second half and we were lucky to get nil. I can only think that Riga withdrew Astrit early and played Church for 90 minutes to keep the more powerful Obika fresh for the more important Yeovil match. Jeez - I am so, so praying we win on Tuesday.
With all the other teams around us winning or drawing, it's a bad, bad day for CAFC. Black Saturday.
Pick them up and have them go out and batter Yeovil on Tuesday, Jose. We just don't look capable of fighting back into a game when we're down. If we don't score first we could be well and truly f****d.
Think it's quite an over reaction, we lost 1-0 to a team in the play off places and by most accounts we matched them for a large part of the game.
Would the reactions be the same had Yeovil and Millwall not won today? Course not people would be saying 'encouraging display' 'we go again Tuesday' etc etc.
We may have lost, Millwall and Yeovil may have won today but I know whose position I'd rather be in..
So frustrated with our players reluctance to shoot. If you don't shoot you will never score. Not sure why the hell Church played today. Not been even on the bench in last 3 games and then suddenly in the team. He is definately not the answer up front!!!!
Scored a goal in training apparently.
More than he does when they practice shooting before the match!!!
Having said that though if you watch all of them the % of shots they get on target is truely shocking. A professional footballer under no pressure from edge of penalty area should in my opinion pretty much always hit the target!!! Our players come nowhere near that.
"move on forget itTuesday is the game" what utter feckin bolox. never in 40 plus years have i seen a team more likely NOT to score a goal. If we had gone for the game today instead of playing (for nothing) then maybe a tad less pressure would be on the team Tuesday---do you understand that ?
Church on his own up front ? please thats just shit.
Reza playing deep ? Obika--fell over three times in 3 mins when he came on A half descent CAFC would have smashed Reading ---- also shit.
Couldn't go today. Had a prior engagement. Playing golf. When I saw that Church started I felt vindicated. Can't comment otherwise. Can't go Tuesday. Having heart surgery on Monday (yes really). Please don't start Church. Will just make me feel better.
Church, why? I can understand resting Reza as he played the full 90 at Leeds and Tuesday is more important but why not play Obika or if really necessary Sordell. Thought there were a couple of passengers today. Too many games have caught up with Jacko, Church was very poor and Harriott even worse. First touch terrible, passing terrible, decision making terrible, in short terrible. The back four and Poyet were once again outstanding, Cousins needs a rest, but beyond that we were abject.
The problem is that on Tuesday Yeovil will score so we will need to score at least twice, maybe more, for a win. A draw wouldn't be a disaster but a defeat would but in reality we need to win. I live in hope but, on today's performance, I can't see where it is going to come from.
The boys ran out of steam and we all know that we are an underpowered squad particularly in terms of forward players.
We just have to move on from one game to another and see what transpires. It ain't going to be boring so we just have to buckle up and await the ride which will be undoubtedly bumpy to say the least.
I have my ticket for the seaside for the first Saturday in May and we may well be needing a result in order to be the club to have scored the least number of goals in a tier 2 season and still avoid relegation! That single thought encapsulates both our strength and our weakness!
Hang on in there boys and girls - it's not a dull mid table season end for the fans of the red & white ;-)
I fear for us now Yeovil will terrorise us and once they score will have nothing to offer! Totally shocking display We shouldn't slate church today because he's always shite Today the rest of the team were as bad Why has no one got the bottle to run the ball into the box towards goal and have a go Pussy footing sideways passing wins u nothing
I thought we were awful today, one shot at goal, technically poor in a number of areas. I note the criticism Church attracts but there were times on more than one occasion where he made good runs but there was no delivery. He cant do anything without the ball. We had such an opportunity to build on Tuesdays result-we did not and never looked likely to. This has nothing to do with Riga-Powell-RD-put simply we are not very good-END OF.
Definitely nothing to do with whether it's Riga or Powell. Everything to do with the fact that last summer there was no money to strengthen the squad. There is a limited amount you can do in the January transfer window and the loan window.
We have to keep on going with the squad we have and hope we have enough to keep us up. Think we will just make it.
Oh, forgot, seems today that Hamer had been to the Thuram school of goalkeeping :-(
Yes liked to punch not catch but hey that pen save will live on in the memory for quite a long time (or at least the time it would take me to grow 'the beard').
Comments
Reading were a workmanlike side and it was easy to see why they are in and around the play-offs. I thought we competed with them for much of the match but it was always evident that they had the cutting edge we lacked and that if they scored they would win.
Yeovil becomes even bigger now and I hope that Riga (metaphorically) castrates NLA between now and Tuesday because we are going to need his big balls on and off the pitch.
I'm not one to slag players off as a general rule unless they don't try but Church was a disgrace today. The whole ground was yelling to him that he was offside yet he had to "interfere with play" and surrender the initiative of one of our few threatening attacking moments in the match. Petrucci looks a loan out of the Hovi / El Khalej / Pouso school too and his fannying thereby losing the ball cost us the goal.
Tuesday is massive.
Looked like our most likely chance on goal was going to come from the central midfield which shows just how poor our options are upfront.
Really hope the formation and team.. and substitutions are razor sharp on Tuesday as that is obviously the first of two opportunities to bury our competitors.
we are still as shit as before, we just pass it round the back four more
wooo hoooo, we don't hoof it anymore, we just do something just as pointless instead
Big game Tuesday, 3 wins will be enough IMO keep the faith.
Like to see Reza and Obika start up front
With all the other teams around us winning or drawing, it's a bad, bad day for CAFC. Black Saturday.
Pick them up and have them go out and batter Yeovil on Tuesday, Jose. We just don't look capable of fighting back into a game when we're down. If we don't score first we could be well and truly f****d.
Would the reactions be the same had Yeovil and Millwall not won today? Course not people would be saying 'encouraging display' 'we go again Tuesday' etc etc.
We may have lost, Millwall and Yeovil may have won today but I know whose position I'd rather be in..
Roll on Tuesday
Having said that though if you watch all of them the % of shots they get on target is truely shocking. A professional footballer under no pressure from edge of penalty area should in my opinion pretty much always hit the target!!! Our players come nowhere near that.
Church on his own up front ? please thats just shit.
Reza playing deep ?
Obika--fell over three times in 3 mins when he came on
A half descent CAFC would have smashed Reading ---- also shit.
Best of luck btw
Church, why? I can understand resting Reza as he played the full 90 at Leeds and Tuesday is more important but why not play Obika or if really necessary Sordell. Thought there were a couple of passengers today. Too many games have caught up with Jacko, Church was very poor and Harriott even worse. First touch terrible, passing terrible, decision making terrible, in short terrible. The back four and Poyet were once again outstanding, Cousins needs a rest, but beyond that we were abject.
The problem is that on Tuesday Yeovil will score so we will need to score at least twice, maybe more, for a win. A draw wouldn't be a disaster but a defeat would but in reality we need to win. I live in hope but, on today's performance, I can't see where it is going to come from.
We just have to move on from one game to another and see what transpires. It ain't going to be boring so we just have to buckle up and await the ride which will be undoubtedly bumpy to say the least.
I have my ticket for the seaside for the first Saturday in May and we may well be needing a result in order to be the club to have scored the least number of goals in a tier 2 season and still avoid relegation! That single thought encapsulates both our strength and our weakness!
Hang on in there boys and girls - it's not a dull mid table season end for the fans of the red & white ;-)
Yeovil will terrorise us and once they score will have nothing to offer!
Totally shocking display
We shouldn't slate church today because he's always shite
Today the rest of the team were as bad
Why has no one got the bottle to run the ball into the box towards goal and have a go
Pussy footing sideways passing wins u nothing
We have to keep on going with the squad we have and hope we have enough to keep us up. Think we will just make it.
Lets see what Roland does over the summer.....
Why wasn't Poyet in the first team in August?
What a crap footballing day
Oh, hold on...