Dudestalker
Vital Reserves Team
I am not sure Leam is happy to change from his preferred system
Sheffield Wednesday
- Thread starter runcornfan1978
- Start date
ZAKKY
Vital Football Hero
I am not sure Leam is happy to change from his preferred system
Stubborn managers who aren't open to change dont normally last long
moonay
Vital Football Legend
I am not sure Leam is happy to change from his preferred system
We're still 2nd in the league chaps. Other than the opening game, this is the manager's first loss (in the league). Lets not get overly concerned about him moving from his preferred system just yet.
Made in Wigan
Vital Champions League
Reading some of these comments would lead me to think we’d just been humped 5 nil by Morecambe, not beaten by a single goal by a newly relegated Championship team that still possess a Championship squad.
Did we play for the 90 minutes? No. Could we have done better? Yes. We’d just won the previous five so picking the same team seemed a reasonable decision for me. They scored from two howlers - cut them out and the pattern of the game may have been different. I could only watch on tv last night but as soon as we conceded we put them under a lot of pressure and without a couple of superb saves would have got back in that match. Second half both keepers excelled themselves but we never gave up trying to get something from it. Yes we could have done x, y, z better but at least the team was fighting and didn’t give up. All teams lose matches, but given there was no lack of effort I can accept that. We barely survived last season, had only five players at the end of it and now sit second in the table in the embryonic stages of a brand new teams development. I think a little perspective is needed.
Did we play for the 90 minutes? No. Could we have done better? Yes. We’d just won the previous five so picking the same team seemed a reasonable decision for me. They scored from two howlers - cut them out and the pattern of the game may have been different. I could only watch on tv last night but as soon as we conceded we put them under a lot of pressure and without a couple of superb saves would have got back in that match. Second half both keepers excelled themselves but we never gave up trying to get something from it. Yes we could have done x, y, z better but at least the team was fighting and didn’t give up. All teams lose matches, but given there was no lack of effort I can accept that. We barely survived last season, had only five players at the end of it and now sit second in the table in the embryonic stages of a brand new teams development. I think a little perspective is needed.
ZAKKY
Vital Football Hero
Good sides don't play this awful long ball, and I suspect he's playing this way because our midfield is weak (no disrespect to Naylor)
PS Is Power suspended at weekend as CLatic said ?
moonay
Vital Football Legend
Is it "awful" long ball? I think it's light years away from hoofball. Yes, there are lots of balls from defence straight to our front players, but (as has been debated previously) they're much flatter and more targetted than a simple long ball.
I actually agree that he's (currently) playing this way because he's no-one to take on the role that would be needed to change it ....... .but it's not worked badly so far, has it?
Given our initial run of fixtures, he probably took on a cautious approach, trying to ensure that we didn't get battered every week ........ and I think we're all impressed with the way it turned out.
I wouldn't say our midfield is "weak", but I'd agree that it could be more creative. Going forward, I imagine that Bayliss may well see some game time, but I'm not sure if that would mean in place of Cousins/Naylor, or more likely, McClean .......though that might then mean a shift in formation.
It'll be interesting.
Edit - as for Power, yes, I think he is, which I imagine will mean Darikwa back at RB, and either Pearce or Bennett in at LB.
Kendal Blue
Vital Reserves Team
Thought it was a cracking game and felt we deserved more. Both teams had chances to score more and both keepers did a great job of keeping the score down.
The first was a ridiculous mistake. If Amos is coming that far then his shout should be loud enough that you hear it in the stands. Either way, there was no need to come out with no strikers barring down. But it's an error you very rarely see and nothing more needs saying to either of them.
Disappointed in Whatmough for the second. He was naive and should have done better. But he's been exceptional so far and improving his decision making is what will take him to the next level.
They were big and strong all over the park. They rarely got brushed off the ball or lost out in 50/50's. I actually thought the diagonal balls to Lang worked well. He makes some stunning runs but really needs to work on composure when 1 on 1.
Naylor was MotM for me. Calm with the ball, broke down play and started a lot of the forward momentum.
On a side note - for anyone that's ever been to Sheffield, did it not seem odd that Wednesday would chose an away kit that made them look like pigs?
The first was a ridiculous mistake. If Amos is coming that far then his shout should be loud enough that you hear it in the stands. Either way, there was no need to come out with no strikers barring down. But it's an error you very rarely see and nothing more needs saying to either of them.
Disappointed in Whatmough for the second. He was naive and should have done better. But he's been exceptional so far and improving his decision making is what will take him to the next level.
They were big and strong all over the park. They rarely got brushed off the ball or lost out in 50/50's. I actually thought the diagonal balls to Lang worked well. He makes some stunning runs but really needs to work on composure when 1 on 1.
Naylor was MotM for me. Calm with the ball, broke down play and started a lot of the forward momentum.
On a side note - for anyone that's ever been to Sheffield, did it not seem odd that Wednesday would chose an away kit that made them look like pigs?
king_dezeeuw06
Vital Football Legend
Quite a lot to chew over from that game.
Sheffield did their homework on us, they knew we'd be going long a lot and they knew that Iorfa and Dunkley (plus Hutchinson and Patterson in midfield) would have the beating of Wyke. They also knew from watching us against Sunderland that if you press us high we are not composed enough to play through the pressure that well and will go long more. So they picked their team to deal with us and i think tactically they left themselves with quite a negative team removing most of their flair players to leave them without much creative spark but they got lucky with the goals and once they had the lead their tactics and personnel were perfect to deal with our threats.
I think it's 100% Amos' fault for the own goal, the situation was under complete control, Power did the right thing in that position for me fully expecting that to trickle back to the keeper who'd be in position. But for whatever reason Amos made the premature decision to rush out to potentially sweep a ball he didn't need to worry about. It's one of those that if we had that same situation 100 more time i bet that wouldn't happen again. A freak goal and absolutely no blame on Power for me, any natural right back probably would've done the same. I think Amos has been great this season and made some good saves last night but unfortunately that was a bad one from him.
Up until that point Sheff Wed had picked quite a defensive minded team with arguably 2 centre backs in midfield ontop of the 2 at the back and hadn't threatened, i think they came to keep it tight and try and contain us rather than coming to go toe-to-toe. If we didn't give them the lead i think we'd have won that - but goals change games and they were already the second best defence in the league and had a team built to defend already on the park and they were set up to hold that lead.
From that point we were frantic in our pursuit of an equaliser, but that urgency although commendable also meant we rushed things and took risks we wouldn't if we weren't hell bent on trying to put things right. We laid siege to them for the rest of the first half but they weathered the storm by the skin of their teeth and for me i think that was as one sided a 1-0 as you get by half time.
Second half we came out with just as much urgency and again rushing everything, while Sheffield came out pressing us much higher and forcing us into long balls and mistakes. But the second goal really took the wind out of our sales. Whatmough has successfully shepherded out balls loads of times this season, but if you look at the position he is in, it's not really the type of ball you can do that - but i think that the manner of the first goal was making us take risks we normally wouldn't in a desperate attempt to get back on the attack and Whatmough just got it wrong. But still Gregory did well to nip it off Whatmough and played a perfect pass and Patterson's finish was sublime so you've got to give a bit of credit as well as pointing out the obvious mistake. I think without the earlier own goal Whatmought wouldn't have taken that risk that backfired so badly.
After they went 2 up i felt we were rocked and Sheff Wed had a really good spell before we started to get our foothold again and got back on top. We pressured really hard and got the penalty and created chances but just couldn't force the deserved equaliser.
We pushed so hard after the set back, exactly the type of upping in intensity and tempo us fans want to see, if you get the equaliser then you praise it as a great response. But I think we maybe got a bit too carried away and lost our patients too much which allowed mistakes to creep in that we normally wouldn't make which cost us. In hindsight i'm sure the players and management would've been more composed knowing that if they keep playing their own way rather than rushing everything they could still equalise and win the game, but we effectively went a bit 'double or nothing' for the equaliser and lost the gamble. I think if they scored a good goal it might not even have gone down like that , but the desperation to make up for the self inflicted first goal made us lose a bit of perspective. But that is easy to say in hindsight at the time with the emotion of the game i was in full support of us going all out for the equaliser - even though it left us open to maybe go 2-0. So that's just one of those things that the end result dictates if the decision was a good one or not. I don't really blame them for that but it's probably a valuable lesson not to lose all your patients when there is so much time left in the game.
I have said loads of times over the years if we are going to lose we just need to go down swinging for the fences and i think we certainly did that. It's a complete contrast to the loss to Sunderland a week ago where we went down with a whimper. There was absolutely no lack of intensity, urgency, effort, fight, etc. But i think we also had no luck on the night - every deflection or loose ball seemed to fall perfectly for them and against us and ultimately Amos' uncharacteristic error completely changed the game. It gave them a undeserved lead to defend that they probably wouldn't have got otherwise with the lack of creativity on the pitch and it also completely put us off our normal game - but we still created good chances but their keeper had a MOTM performance and every ball that dropped in the box fell to a Sheff Wed player to scramble clear rather than us tap it in. It was a mountain we just couldn't quite climb.
We played a lot of long ball, but it was a mix of the ineffective hopeful hoof for Wykes head (i don't think he won any against Dunkley and Iorfa) and the more targeted balls short into Wykes chest and into the channels for runners which caused them problems. Some of that was down to Sheff Weds pressing and our urgency but i think Sheff Wed were set up and wanting us to go that route as it was more into their strength than ours.
I'm absolutely not against long ball if we do it effectively, but our best play often comes from when we play through the opposition with movement and i think we did some of that but we just need to get better at it so when teams are starting to sit deep expecting those long balls we can make use of all the space they concede and look for passes. That's what changed when we went from a slog to great in the Champ relegation season, teams went from knowing all you had to do was sit deep and deal with long balls for Moore to knowing if they sat that deep we'd use the space to hurt them, so they had to push out to deal with midfield that in turn meant when we went long Moore had more space and wasn't crowded out. We haven't got that balance yet.
I think that Naylor is getting involved more and more which is a big help, but i think Cousins for me just isn't taking enough responsibility for getting play going. Both Naylor and Cousins sit very deep and they both needs to be willing to step out with the ball when there is time and space to turn and find a forward pass, i think Naylor is progressing but still has more he could do but i feel Cousins progress has been a bit stagnant in that regard. I think Cousins is good when you are in the lead at keeping it calm and doing the simple things, but when you are behind he isn't doing enough. We're not talking about asking him to become a play maker, take players on and try and take big risks, but just when the centre halves have the ball show for it more and when he gets the ball in space turn and carry it and look for a pass rather than so often just laying it off to someone else and holding his position. On occasion we've seen him do this effectively but just not enough - I think he just needs to be a bit more positive. He plays as if he is the only def mid, but with us having 2 he can afford to get involved knowing he has someone besides him to cover.
IMO the centre is where we have been missing a man all season - we all too often have the def mids so deep and the attacking mids so high that there isn't an easy link pass between the 2. We often end up going down the flanks which is fine, but the middle of the pitch is a rich area we just aren't exploiting enough - you often look and that area is always empty. For me that is the area we probably need to focus on - i don't think we need a specialist player, but we just need more movement so we've got players moving into that space to make sure we always have options to create openings. Look at what Sunderland did the previous week with their movement - it caused us so many issues and i think that is what we will hopefully be aspiring to.
Out of the current top 4 the 3 teams around us all had much easier home games, Sunderland did their bit but MK and Plymouth both blowing easier home games missed the chance to jump us which was good. Wycombe and Rotherham winning also gets them back in the pack. But so far this season Sunderland are by far the best team and i don't think there has been anything else to fear - including from Sheff Wed. It's a long season and as disappointing and frustrating as last nights result was it will happen to everyone including Sunderland in the upcoming weeks - i think there's nothing really to get too down about or worried. We are still learning how we need to play and i still don't think we are anywhere near the finished product, we've got to where we are despite being far from perfect, so we just need to keep focusing on bringing out our full potential.
I'm quite proud of them last night, arguably prouder of them in that loss than some of the earlier wins where we were comfortable as there was obviously faults, but i thought i saw a lot of good too. I think our luck was out and even though there were things we could do better i think it's those fine margins that swung it against us.
Sheffield did their homework on us, they knew we'd be going long a lot and they knew that Iorfa and Dunkley (plus Hutchinson and Patterson in midfield) would have the beating of Wyke. They also knew from watching us against Sunderland that if you press us high we are not composed enough to play through the pressure that well and will go long more. So they picked their team to deal with us and i think tactically they left themselves with quite a negative team removing most of their flair players to leave them without much creative spark but they got lucky with the goals and once they had the lead their tactics and personnel were perfect to deal with our threats.
I think it's 100% Amos' fault for the own goal, the situation was under complete control, Power did the right thing in that position for me fully expecting that to trickle back to the keeper who'd be in position. But for whatever reason Amos made the premature decision to rush out to potentially sweep a ball he didn't need to worry about. It's one of those that if we had that same situation 100 more time i bet that wouldn't happen again. A freak goal and absolutely no blame on Power for me, any natural right back probably would've done the same. I think Amos has been great this season and made some good saves last night but unfortunately that was a bad one from him.
Up until that point Sheff Wed had picked quite a defensive minded team with arguably 2 centre backs in midfield ontop of the 2 at the back and hadn't threatened, i think they came to keep it tight and try and contain us rather than coming to go toe-to-toe. If we didn't give them the lead i think we'd have won that - but goals change games and they were already the second best defence in the league and had a team built to defend already on the park and they were set up to hold that lead.
From that point we were frantic in our pursuit of an equaliser, but that urgency although commendable also meant we rushed things and took risks we wouldn't if we weren't hell bent on trying to put things right. We laid siege to them for the rest of the first half but they weathered the storm by the skin of their teeth and for me i think that was as one sided a 1-0 as you get by half time.
Second half we came out with just as much urgency and again rushing everything, while Sheffield came out pressing us much higher and forcing us into long balls and mistakes. But the second goal really took the wind out of our sales. Whatmough has successfully shepherded out balls loads of times this season, but if you look at the position he is in, it's not really the type of ball you can do that - but i think that the manner of the first goal was making us take risks we normally wouldn't in a desperate attempt to get back on the attack and Whatmough just got it wrong. But still Gregory did well to nip it off Whatmough and played a perfect pass and Patterson's finish was sublime so you've got to give a bit of credit as well as pointing out the obvious mistake. I think without the earlier own goal Whatmought wouldn't have taken that risk that backfired so badly.
After they went 2 up i felt we were rocked and Sheff Wed had a really good spell before we started to get our foothold again and got back on top. We pressured really hard and got the penalty and created chances but just couldn't force the deserved equaliser.
We pushed so hard after the set back, exactly the type of upping in intensity and tempo us fans want to see, if you get the equaliser then you praise it as a great response. But I think we maybe got a bit too carried away and lost our patients too much which allowed mistakes to creep in that we normally wouldn't make which cost us. In hindsight i'm sure the players and management would've been more composed knowing that if they keep playing their own way rather than rushing everything they could still equalise and win the game, but we effectively went a bit 'double or nothing' for the equaliser and lost the gamble. I think if they scored a good goal it might not even have gone down like that , but the desperation to make up for the self inflicted first goal made us lose a bit of perspective. But that is easy to say in hindsight at the time with the emotion of the game i was in full support of us going all out for the equaliser - even though it left us open to maybe go 2-0. So that's just one of those things that the end result dictates if the decision was a good one or not. I don't really blame them for that but it's probably a valuable lesson not to lose all your patients when there is so much time left in the game.
I have said loads of times over the years if we are going to lose we just need to go down swinging for the fences and i think we certainly did that. It's a complete contrast to the loss to Sunderland a week ago where we went down with a whimper. There was absolutely no lack of intensity, urgency, effort, fight, etc. But i think we also had no luck on the night - every deflection or loose ball seemed to fall perfectly for them and against us and ultimately Amos' uncharacteristic error completely changed the game. It gave them a undeserved lead to defend that they probably wouldn't have got otherwise with the lack of creativity on the pitch and it also completely put us off our normal game - but we still created good chances but their keeper had a MOTM performance and every ball that dropped in the box fell to a Sheff Wed player to scramble clear rather than us tap it in. It was a mountain we just couldn't quite climb.
We played a lot of long ball, but it was a mix of the ineffective hopeful hoof for Wykes head (i don't think he won any against Dunkley and Iorfa) and the more targeted balls short into Wykes chest and into the channels for runners which caused them problems. Some of that was down to Sheff Weds pressing and our urgency but i think Sheff Wed were set up and wanting us to go that route as it was more into their strength than ours.
I'm absolutely not against long ball if we do it effectively, but our best play often comes from when we play through the opposition with movement and i think we did some of that but we just need to get better at it so when teams are starting to sit deep expecting those long balls we can make use of all the space they concede and look for passes. That's what changed when we went from a slog to great in the Champ relegation season, teams went from knowing all you had to do was sit deep and deal with long balls for Moore to knowing if they sat that deep we'd use the space to hurt them, so they had to push out to deal with midfield that in turn meant when we went long Moore had more space and wasn't crowded out. We haven't got that balance yet.
I think that Naylor is getting involved more and more which is a big help, but i think Cousins for me just isn't taking enough responsibility for getting play going. Both Naylor and Cousins sit very deep and they both needs to be willing to step out with the ball when there is time and space to turn and find a forward pass, i think Naylor is progressing but still has more he could do but i feel Cousins progress has been a bit stagnant in that regard. I think Cousins is good when you are in the lead at keeping it calm and doing the simple things, but when you are behind he isn't doing enough. We're not talking about asking him to become a play maker, take players on and try and take big risks, but just when the centre halves have the ball show for it more and when he gets the ball in space turn and carry it and look for a pass rather than so often just laying it off to someone else and holding his position. On occasion we've seen him do this effectively but just not enough - I think he just needs to be a bit more positive. He plays as if he is the only def mid, but with us having 2 he can afford to get involved knowing he has someone besides him to cover.
IMO the centre is where we have been missing a man all season - we all too often have the def mids so deep and the attacking mids so high that there isn't an easy link pass between the 2. We often end up going down the flanks which is fine, but the middle of the pitch is a rich area we just aren't exploiting enough - you often look and that area is always empty. For me that is the area we probably need to focus on - i don't think we need a specialist player, but we just need more movement so we've got players moving into that space to make sure we always have options to create openings. Look at what Sunderland did the previous week with their movement - it caused us so many issues and i think that is what we will hopefully be aspiring to.
Out of the current top 4 the 3 teams around us all had much easier home games, Sunderland did their bit but MK and Plymouth both blowing easier home games missed the chance to jump us which was good. Wycombe and Rotherham winning also gets them back in the pack. But so far this season Sunderland are by far the best team and i don't think there has been anything else to fear - including from Sheff Wed. It's a long season and as disappointing and frustrating as last nights result was it will happen to everyone including Sunderland in the upcoming weeks - i think there's nothing really to get too down about or worried. We are still learning how we need to play and i still don't think we are anywhere near the finished product, we've got to where we are despite being far from perfect, so we just need to keep focusing on bringing out our full potential.
I'm quite proud of them last night, arguably prouder of them in that loss than some of the earlier wins where we were comfortable as there was obviously faults, but i thought i saw a lot of good too. I think our luck was out and even though there were things we could do better i think it's those fine margins that swung it against us.
king_dezeeuw06
Vital Football Legend
I also thought the ref at times did a good job letting the game flow and not blowing up for petty nothing fouls but then he'd let Sheff Wed get away with blatant fouls but blow up when we did the same. I also thought he was awful at dealing with Sheff Wed's obvious time wasting that started in the first half and went on throughout. The blowing up early after about 2 minutes worth of time wasting he booked the keeper for when we were still on the attack was beggars belief.
But i liked the ref overall trying to not blow for everything - i just wish he'd have been consistent and punished them for their time wasting. How Johnson never got a yellow for his multiple throw-ins wasting was crazy.
moonay
Vital Football Legend
Some good points there KDZ. I'd argue that without knowing whether or not Amos shouted, it's difficult to apportion blame for the first goal, but I completely agree that Whatmough has earned the right to make a drop bollock with his performances so far.
I don't see the point of Sunderland comparisons (given their reserves played ours) but I fully agree that we're still developing, and should be proud of what we've achieved so far.
I don't see the point of Sunderland comparisons (given their reserves played ours) but I fully agree that we're still developing, and should be proud of what we've achieved so far.
king_dezeeuw06
Vital Football Legend
The Sunderland comparison was the application and response. Against Sunderland we crumbled under pressure and rolled over and died while against Sheff Wed we got fired up and swung for the fences. I don't think it matters who is on the pitch the work rate, urgency, fight etc should be there even if they aren't your most talented players.
For me you look at where the ball is on the pitch when Power goes up, he is running towards his own goal with Sheff Wed players around him, if he leaves it one of the opposition would get it, if he tries to head it out for a throw or back up field at that angle it likely falls to them too. By far the best option was to go back to the keeper. The ball is way too far out for Amos to sweep and Max has it comfortably covered, there was nothing to shout for other than 'head it back to me' and with that in mind it just made no sense for Amos to come so far out to collect Max's header. I can't see what Amos could've shouted that would've changed anything, I think he just misjudged the situation and came out like he was going to collect a ball on the edge of the box that wasn't ever likely to ever reach him while Power did the right thing.
Made in Wigan
Vital Champions League
In fairness to Amos I think he has been really good so far, seems a more than competent all round keeper. Thought he was culpable for the own goal though Power has taken responsibility for it.
moonay
Vital Football Legend
It sounds like Amos did call then, but Power either didn't hear, or didn't heed it.
See above KDZ ..... if Amos shouted, then Power should have left it, full stop. Amos would have got to it easily ............ though I do agree that the better option would have been Amos staying in his 6 yard box, and Power knocking it back, safely.
It was a different team (for us) though. It's like comparing an U23 or U18 result or performance.
ExiledViking
Vital Squad Member
Lots of side to side and backwards passes last night, due to either being too slow or too hesitant to push the ball forward.I must admit, I was a little surprised by some of those stats myself .... not necessarily the shots ones, but certainly the possession and successful passes.
I certainly thought that Wednesday were the better team for probably over half the game, and so the stats don't reflect that, but I stand by the opinion that we could have won the game. The got both their goals directly from our defensive errors, whilst it's fair to say that we should have buried at least 2 of the very good chances we created.
Still can't get over those passes though ........ although I suppose I'd have to concede that probably around 80% of them would have been in our half !
Reminded me a bit of the dark side of Roberto's rein... The bit were he tried to get us to play "Tiki Taka" but ended up with "Kicki Kakka" instead
Looking at the goal again it looks like Amos was making his way to where he thought Power would knock the ball to and Power knocked the ball back to where he thought Amos still was.
At the end of the day it was one of those things that happen in football, hopefully the management and team will learn lessons from yesterday and get back to winning ways on Saturday.
As has been said before we need an attack minded midfielder who can provide the passes that can unlock a defence, I only remember seeing one such pass by Taylor to Lang in the second half that should have resulted in a goal.
At the end of the day it was one of those things that happen in football, hopefully the management and team will learn lessons from yesterday and get back to winning ways on Saturday.
As has been said before we need an attack minded midfielder who can provide the passes that can unlock a defence, I only remember seeing one such pass by Taylor to Lang in the second half that should have resulted in a goal.
Mighty Bongsmon
Vital Squad Member
It's probably a lack of communication between the pair of them that caused it but I don't think your view of what was happening at the time is correct.
Max Power doesn't have a Sheff Wed player within 8 or so yards of him when he heads it. Had he just left it then due to the speed of the ball & how it would have bounced away, there's no way that either of those Wednesday players would have got anywhere near the ball before Amos
If Power had left it and Amos had carried on his run then he'd have got to it easily (outside of the box) & headed it or hoofed it out of touch as you see plenty of keepers doing week in week out.
Mind you, having said all that I'd agree that the best options were either what Power tried to do or let it go out for a Latics throw. What I suspect happened is that Power didn't shout what he was going to do & Amos did likewise & they ended up with that mess.
Power's other mistake from looking at the footage on skysports was that he never looks where Amos is. True I don't think a player should expect him to be where Amos was, but he should have looked before deciding to head it back
Amos's other mistake was misjudging when he should come out for balls hit over the top. The sweeper keeper malarky is supposed to be for when the ball drops behind your defence - that ball dropped square on Power's head & he didn't really have any need to be where he ended up
Made in Wigan
Vital Champions League
I think it was Powers ball to deal with. To be fair he did and it was a comfortable cushioned header back to the keeper - or would have been if he hadn’t come out to the edge of the box. It was farcical for sure and reinforces the need for positive communication across the defence but other than that I don’t see it as a problem from either player that’ll be ongoing as it’s something easily rectifiable.
We are going to be beaten a few more times this season, so it is important for us to keep picking up points, so we end up in a play off place at the end of the fixture programme, and who knows what will happen then. For many of us that would be a successful end to the season.
jocklatic
Vital 1st Team Regular
I fear your right Dragnet but some of us ( myself included) have been carried on the crest of a wave that has seen us go to the giddy heights of top of the table whilst not gelling as a team & are kinda thinking what happens when we do gel which in turn leads us to dare dream of bigger & better things than the play offs.....no doubt silly mistakes like yesterday dent us a little but hope is still there despite the long long season ahead & tough opponents like Sunderland, Sheffield & dare I say it noblot
TRUE BELIEVER
Vital Football Hero
I think KDZ has summed the game up well and needs nothing adding to it.
We made two individual mistakes and it cost us the game. In my opinion the keeper is at fault for the first and a rush of blood saw him coming for a ball that was not his to deal with, Power had the situation under control.
Whatmough made an uncharacteristic mistake and we paid for it, move on.
I thought the game swung from one end to the other and was played more as a championship game than a L1 one. Sheff Wed's side was packed full of Championship experience and yet, according to the stats, we had more possession, more shots, more on target etc, etc. We more than matched them for effort and application but just lacked that little bit of luck to beat a keeper on top form.
We need to take this on the chin and learn from it. If we continue to play in a similar fashion, with the effort and passion shown last night, we will no doubt win more games than we lose and remain in the mix for at least a play off finish. That said we are still a side in transition and should we manage to put it all together and bring in the missing pieces of the jigsaw in January then we could easily be pushing for automatic promotion.
The pleasing aspect of last nights game for me was the fact that the players heads never went down despite conceding two poor goals and they were pushing for an equaliser right up to the ref blowing early.
Move on and look towards the weekend and a difficult trip to Gillingham, a ground that we don't normally get too much luck at, and hopefully normal service will resume and we come home with the points.
We made two individual mistakes and it cost us the game. In my opinion the keeper is at fault for the first and a rush of blood saw him coming for a ball that was not his to deal with, Power had the situation under control.
Whatmough made an uncharacteristic mistake and we paid for it, move on.
I thought the game swung from one end to the other and was played more as a championship game than a L1 one. Sheff Wed's side was packed full of Championship experience and yet, according to the stats, we had more possession, more shots, more on target etc, etc. We more than matched them for effort and application but just lacked that little bit of luck to beat a keeper on top form.
We need to take this on the chin and learn from it. If we continue to play in a similar fashion, with the effort and passion shown last night, we will no doubt win more games than we lose and remain in the mix for at least a play off finish. That said we are still a side in transition and should we manage to put it all together and bring in the missing pieces of the jigsaw in January then we could easily be pushing for automatic promotion.
The pleasing aspect of last nights game for me was the fact that the players heads never went down despite conceding two poor goals and they were pushing for an equaliser right up to the ref blowing early.
Move on and look towards the weekend and a difficult trip to Gillingham, a ground that we don't normally get too much luck at, and hopefully normal service will resume and we come home with the points.
