How About We Start Playing Like a Home Team, Stevie?! | Vital Football

How About We Start Playing Like a Home Team, Stevie?!

Trev_GFC

Trev_GFC

Vital 1st Team Regular
<4K home fans today at rollover Priestfield. Come on Lovell, how about we start playing like a fucking home team?! Since our wobble began the players have been seemingly under instruction to hoof the ball upon gaining possession.

Midfield and wide players: how about getting the ball down, turn and look for a forward pass or run with it?

Eaves isn’t a talisman, he makes our hoofball slightly more productive. Without playing the ball through midfield we’re rolling over and inviting pressure.
 
Might help if we learnt how to pass the ball to a team mate. I have never seen so many wayward passes in my life. Absolutely aweful.
 
Couldn’t agree more Trev. 4 wins in 21 home games (and IMHO not much chance of increasing that tally against Blackpool & Plymouth) is total shyte. Only Bury have a worse record at home. Without SL and the amazing string of away wins at the start of this year and we would have been dead and buried.
‘58 called it, since the win at Pompey, which probably put us safe, this squad has been on the beach (Margate, not Marbella).
 
Detritus said:
Probably when the atmosphere is like a home support...
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We’ve been shit at home even under the feel-good Lovell stage. The atmosphere hasn’t been particularly toxic. Away fans don’t make enough of a din either. You saw last night even with 4K that all stands are singing. That’s better than 4K with no atmosphere other than a home ultra block but 500 away fans making a reverberating sound.
 
Gordon_Road_Mat said:
That's the chicken and egg argument. The crowd started getting into it in the 2nd half last night when we actually tried to attack, but then it died down again when we ran out of ideas.
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Never used to be a chicken and egg argument. Fans used to get behind their team regardless and actually try to motivate the team in to doing well if they were doing badly. The fans accepted the players were limited and supported them to try to better themselves.

The players arent there to motivate us to generate noise. Its the other way around. We want the players to play better to get results, so we need to pull our fingers out. Its not chicken and egg at all for me.
 
alphabet_king said:
Never used to be a chicken and egg argument. Fans used to get behind their team regardless and actually try to motivate the team in to doing well if they were doing badly. The fans accepted the players were limited and supported them to try to better themselves.

The players arent there to motivate us to generate noise. Its the other way around. We want the players to play better to get results, so we need to pull our fingers out. Its not chicken and egg at all for me.
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On the whole, I agree with you, it should be unconditional and the fans should support the team from start to finish regardless of the performance.

In truth though, there's a threshold that plays into it all. Only winning 4 home games in 21 and playing absolutely dire is one of those. The team picked up a little bit in the second half, and the crowd responded, but it died down soon enough after.

What's worse is when some fans start turning on some of our players. There was one guy in particular in the Gordon Road Stand who took advantage of the small crowd to shout abuse at Ogilvie and Hessenthaler. What good would that do really?
 
As I wrote elsewhere, I'd keep Holy, Ehmer, Zakuani, Eaves and Parker. Bob Dylan wrote: 'What good am I if I'm like all the rest' and that goes for Hess [totally ineffective], Byrne [improved to mediocre level], Wagstaffe, O'Neill [lost whatever he had], Martin [became a liability], Nugent, Ogilvie, Nash [out of sight], Wilkinson [doesn't give a damn], Garmston [I feel for him] and so on. Recall Oldaker, Oldsmobile or Old Firm Derby but it won't make a difference.
 
Always love those "I would get rid of X" posts that conveniently ignore existing player contracts.

Wilkinson (and a number of others) is here for another year unless we pay up his contract, as I doubt you'll find anyone willing to take him off our hands.
 
So we spend a good chunk of what budget we have paying off players we deem not to be good enough, leaving us a lower budget to attract better quality replacements?
 
Unfortunately I think the former might be the case, I can see a good number of the current lot still being here next season. Byrne said he was already in discussions regarding a new deal, Ehmer has recently signed one, Eaves and Wilkinson have another year. I suspect the more injury prone members of the squad won't be getting new deals though, which is a shame as they are some of our better players when properly fit.

On a slightly different note, how Ogilvie remains on Spurs books I have absolutely no idea.
 
HerrLjunga said:
Unfortunately I think the former might be the case, I can see a good number of the current lot still being here next season. Byrne said he was already in discussions regarding a new deal, Ehmer has recently signed one, Eaves and Wilkinson have another year. I suspect the more injury prone members of the squad won't be getting new deals though, which is a shame as they are some of our better players when properly fit.

On a slightly different note, how Ogilvie remains on Spurs books I have absolutely no idea.
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Out of sight out of mind
 
I think it’s a bit too hot for Wayne today, bless him.

As I see it we don’t have the right personnel to ‘play like the home team’. Our strengths are clearly more suited to playing away. I’m sure Lovell knows this and hopefully he’ll be given adequate funds to address the issue in the summer.

With a couple of useful additions this team might do okay in League Two next season.
 
To me the home crowd are just as much to blame as the players. The accusation against the players is that they think its job done and are on the beach.
The home fans are worse because not only do they seem to have no comprehension that we can still go down if we dont address this form but apart from about four games they only get going for a maximum of thirty minutes a game.

If they want to stay in this division then they need to get behind the team from the start at home. Agree with AK here but would add that in previous times if we needed a goal and the board went up with four added minutes then the crowd would be trying to suck the ball into the net, not anymore. Maybe its why I have always enjoyed away games.

You can moan about the quality of player we have but mostly they give everything they have, as for the crowd ...........
 
Not sure what you mean by a team that's more suited to playing away. During the purple patch, ie wins at Charlton, Peterboro' up to the Portsmouth game, we often looked like the home team. At Rotherham, the home side didn't really get a look in and they'd won five on the trot at home. At Scunthorpe and Fleetwood, the home side hardly created a chance because they were defending like crazy. At home, we're probably used to teams defending and we can't break them down while away it's often more open. We certainly never parked the bus with SL; whereas with AP, we never even got on the bus. Adequate funds, SL's more likely to get Green Shield Stamps.
 
Wayne.Kerr said:
Not sure what you mean by a team that's more suited to playing away. During the purple patch, ie wins at Charlton, Peterboro' up to the Portsmouth game, we often looked like the home team. At Rotherham, the home side didn't really get a look in and they'd won five on the trot at home. At Scunthorpe and Fleetwood, the home side hardly created a chance because they were defending like crazy. At home, we're probably used to teams defending and we can't break them down while away it's often more open. We certainly never parked the bus with SL; whereas with AP, we never even got on the bus. Adequate funds, SL's more likely to get Green Shield Stamps.
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