It's a funny old game | Vital Football

It's a funny old game

PhilK66

Vital 1st Team Regular
We get hammered for 73% of the game with Oxford missing gold edged chances but win.

Morecambe top L2 with a goal difference of minus 7.

It's why I love footie.
 
Looking at Morecambe's results they beat Oldham and Southend both looking very poor on the stats having failed to win in five .Port vale and a impressive win against Cheltenham who could go top with they win their game in hand on Tuesday night. I heard Cambridge United look useful this year so the single defeat could be against a good side.
 
Am I the only one who upon reading "it's a funny old game" pictures David Baddel dressed as Jimmy Greaves saying Ricky Otto?
 
We get hammered for 73% of the game with Oxford missing gold edged chances but win.

Morecambe top L2 with a goal difference of minus 7.

It's why I love footie.
I wouldn't say we got hammered. They had an enormous amount of possession but their finishing was awful, we had a lot less possession, but our finishing was superb, although we too should have scored more with their keeper making worldie save.
Anyway, I lost count of the times last season where I texted my mate after we'd lost to tell him we'd had loads more possession, to which he'd say it doesn't matter, the only stats of any importance are the goal stats!
 
It was similar in the League 1 Playoff final. Oxford had loads of possession and missed chance after guilt-edged chance. Wycombe defended well and got the goals that mattered with their rare attacks, and are now in the Championship as a result!
 
It was similar in the League 1 Playoff final. Oxford had loads of possession and missed chance after guilt-edged chance. Wycombe defended well and got the goals that mattered with their rare attacks, and are now in the Championship as a result!

Couldn’t help but notice some MK Dons fans on the weekend lamenting how once again they had “dominated” (ie more possession) a good opposition in Pompey, and had played really well but lost the game.

Sounding familiar. I hope they do it next weekend too 👍
 
MK
Couldn’t help but notice some MK Dons fans on the weekend lamenting how once again they had “dominated” (ie more possession) a good opposition in Pompey, and had played really well but lost the game.

Sounding familiar. I hope they do it next weekend too 👍

Without wanting to sound like a boring statto (too late) MK Dons average the highest possession in our league at 67.7% while we are rock bottom at 35%, but they have scored 4 and we've managed 9 (3rd most in the division) so can see what might happen on Saturday. Hope it continues!
 
MK


Without wanting to sound like a boring statto (too late) MK Dons average the highest possession in our league at 67.7% while we are rock bottom at 35%, but they have scored 4 and we've managed 9 (3rd most in the division) so can see what might happen on Saturday. Hope it continues!

Yeah, I saw those stats.

So that’s 3 of the bottom 4, MK, Oxford and Blackpool, seem to play lovely, high possession, “pretty” football. I wonder what Burton play like?
 
If you score an early goal or lead for much of the game as we did on Saturday, you can let the opposition have the ball. Keep things tight, maintain your defensive shape and try to strike on the counter.

Seems to be working for us so far, and might explain why some sides lower down the division (i.e. those losing for a higher proportion of their games) seem to have more of the ball.
 
I wouldn't say we got hammered. They had an enormous amount of possession but their finishing was awful, we had a lot less possession, but our finishing was superb, although we too should have scored more with their keeper making worldie save.
Anyway, I lost count of the times last season where I texted my mate after we'd lost to tell him we'd had loads more possession, to which he'd say it doesn't matter, the only stats of any importance are the goal stats!

Fully agree with this. Possession is becoming less and less important in football these days. Oxford had more possession and lots of chances, spurning several sitters but we not only scored three but their keeper was the one who had to make the only two genuinely great saves in the game (Bonham made some tidy ones, but nothing outstanding). We fully deserved the win, albeit it could have easily been 5-5. I'd also add that we comfortably beat Blackpool and deservedly beat Wigan whilst both of them had much more possession.

As OSK points out - and Quest in the highlights package threw up some stats - MK Dons are one of the biggest in terms of possession in the division and their stats v Pompey on Saturday were even more extreme than ours on Saturday (and in fact they not only had a lot more possession and shots than Pompey, but also shots on target, which wasn't the case in our match), yet lost. We've seen Pompey play several times over the past few season and their style - as you'd expect from Kenny Jacket - is very similar to our style which doesn't rely on possession, but more on physicality, defending from the front and not being afraid to go direct. Pompey have done fairly well in recent seasons, so it again shows you don't need to keep the ball to have success.

Should make for another interesting match on Saturday with differing styles.