I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly.
I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly.
I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly.
I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly.
I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly.
I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly. I must never bet on a preseason friendly.
Thought this kind of game was exactly what was needed. Got minutes into lots of the players, hot humid conditions, wasn't the prettiest performance and Sutton gave us a good competitive game. Goalkeeper commanded he's box well and looked strong when coming for the aerial balls.
Clean sheet is aways a plus, The signing from Rochdale looks solid and I thought Clayton again showed promise in certain areas. Kirk also showed in glimpses the player we missed last season.
That’s Bolton relegated and MK above us in mid table on goals scored then.
To be fair both MK and Bolton were better teams than us last season and I don't think we've added anywhere enough quality to finish above them this year.
I wish we'd focus on our own shortcomings rather than worry about others - tongue in cheek or not.
We've played dog shit sides in our pre season friendlies compared to what we'll face from the top 6 in League 1 and so it's concerning when we create jack shit against dog shit.
I'm not worried if we concede goals but pre season friendlies should be about creating, shooting and trying to score. I didn't see a lot of that today.
Patient build up play from the back? Don't make me laugh. This is snails' pace passing along the back line until all the outlets are covered and all the receiver can do is pass it back again. Even when we finally manage to cross the halfway line it's likely to come back again. Then it gets lumped forward in desperation. What's new about Garnerball?
While Sutton is quite close to Greenwich it takes forever to get to and finding out they had no beer in the ground and then they ran out of u repriced bottles of water, not the best use of a Saturday.
The heat and lack of competitive meaning won't have helped today but I do think we are still missing that one talisman who can produce a moment of brilliance even in a turgid game.
Unfortunately those are rare, expensive and probably sought by lots of teams so unless we unearth another Kermorgant buried in reserves somewhere I'm not sure where to look.
Proper meltdowns over a friendly which we didn’t even lose, we’ve got some flappers.
The heat and lack of competitive meaning won't have helped today but I do think we are still missing that one talisman who can produce a moment of brilliance even in a turgid game.
Unfortunately those are rare, expensive and probably sought by lots of teams so unless we unearth another Kermorgant buried in reserves somewhere I'm not sure where to look.
Proper meltdowns over a friendly which we didn’t even lose, we’ve got some flappers.
That’s fair, my comment was more aimed at the apocalyptic posts about our coming season.
Watching from my sun lounger, that was a very lacklustre performance. A lot of it can be put down to the heat but it’s a waste of time having all of the possession in the world if you don’t do anything with it. Absolute basic principle of the possession game is pass and move. There was no movement today hence hardly any chances being created. We are devoid of quality players and we need to get our fingers out and get a few in before the end of the transfer window otherwise we’re in for more mid-table mediocrity this coming season, I’m afraid.
It was a dull friendly like the majority of those games are.
The most promising thing for me is that triangle down the left of Fraser, Kirk and Sess/Clayden.
We saw a different side of Stockley with him dropping deep and playing others in rather than battling CBs in the air higher up the pitch. I don’t think he’s as bad at it as some believe but neither is he the second coming of Yann. The more patient passing style should mean balls are easier to control, under Jackson and Adkins he was higher up the pitch battling against CBs.
I’m hoping McGrandles is what we need in the middle. We’ll need to up the tempo at times and JFC and Fraser together might be too similar. Garner might even end up exploring Dobson higher to make use of his energy with one of the other CMs in that more deep playmaker role.
Also hoping the remaining signings are mostly attacking players to give us more options and add more quality to that side of our game.
That’s Bolton relegated and MK above us in mid table on goals scored then.
To be fair both MK and Bolton were better teams than us last season and I don't think we've added anywhere enough quality to finish above them this year.
I wish we'd focus on our own shortcomings rather than worry about others - tongue in cheek or not.
We've played dog shit sides in our pre season friendlies compared to what we'll face from the top 6 in League 1 and so it's concerning when we create jack shit against dog shit.
I'm not worried if we concede goals but pre season friendlies should be about creating, shooting and trying to score. I didn't see a lot of that today.
I’m not fully convinced either but we can’t read too much into today. It’s a friendly for fitness with no one pushing too hard. A league game is always different with players pressing and tackling more aggressively, making runs they might not bother with in a friendly, and everything at a higher tempo in general.
Hopkirk was a good player but unfortunately his legs have gone.
Been out all afternoon so reading the thread without knowing the score. Wonder if the temperature will allow Aneke to get many minutes? Look I just reaching HT so I'm living in the past !
Second half I saw at least 3 of our older fans being taken away by the St John Ambulance gang. Hope everyone's OK. It was pretty unpleasant for those who didn't manage to find a shady spot.
Comments
Clean sheet is aways a plus, The signing from Rochdale looks solid and I thought Clayton again showed promise in certain areas. Kirk also showed in glimpses the player we missed last season.
Onto the next one
I wish we'd focus on our own shortcomings rather than worry about others - tongue in cheek or not.
We've played dog shit sides in our pre season friendlies compared to what we'll face from the top 6 in League 1 and so it's concerning when we create jack shit against dog shit.
I'm not worried if we concede goals but pre season friendlies should be about creating, shooting and trying to score. I didn't see a lot of that today.
Was it really necessary to brazenly include your helmet in the picture Tom?
This site has gone downhill.
Unfortunately those are rare, expensive and probably sought by lots of teams so unless we unearth another Kermorgant buried in reserves somewhere I'm not sure where to look.
I'm really looking forward to the start of the season now. I think we are 3 signing short of a good team this season
The most promising thing for me is that triangle down the left of Fraser, Kirk and Sess/Clayden.
We saw a different side of Stockley with him dropping deep and playing others in rather than battling CBs in the air higher up the pitch. I don’t think he’s as bad at it as some believe but neither is he the second coming of Yann. The more patient passing style should mean balls are easier to control, under Jackson and Adkins he was higher up the pitch battling against CBs.
I’m hoping McGrandles is what we need in the middle. We’ll need to up the tempo at times and JFC and Fraser together might be too similar. Garner might even end up exploring Dobson higher to make use of his energy with one of the other CMs in that more deep playmaker role.
Also hoping the remaining signings are mostly attacking players to give us more options and add more quality to that side of our game.
Hopkirk was a good player but unfortunately his legs have gone.
Been out all afternoon so reading the thread without knowing the score. Wonder if the temperature will allow Aneke to get many minutes? Look I just reaching HT so I'm living in the past !
Always best to give players more than ten minutes