If there are any positives to take from that, Blackman was superb and probably kept the scoreline down by a few, and Gape looked pretty decent when he came on.
Looking at the team sheet before hand it was obvious we'd struggle.
So it proved. Luton by far the better team. 4-1 was harsher on them than it was on us.
At the moment we simply don't have enough variety, skill and pace in our for players to cause teams much trouble. And unfortunately we look down on confidence as well as ability.
Bottom five looks very likely without a dramatic reversal.
I'm still confident that when our cavalry return (PCH, Weston and O'Nien) we'll be fine. We're injured hit at the moment and it can't get any worse after Portsmouth. 2/3 weeks they should be arriving to inject pace, skill and help out frontline.
I think we played a very positive game but I think the score line did not reflect our Patten of play,and as we are a club with less player's than some non league clubs and of course short of mony!the dive to the relegation zone has been mutch faster than my expectations!.
Can someone who went to each of the last three games please answer one question - did we play today like we did against Colchester or against Northampton? I think the answer to that will indicate whether there's real hope still or whether we need to batten down the hatches for a long struggle.
The decision to drop Pierre is odd but he may be out of sorts as he did not get his move.
Recruitment, tactics and organisation all are questionable since the turn of the year. I certainly don't want GA to go but there must be some serious soul searching of our ACTUAL position and not some of the embarrassing spin of late.
We played nothing like against Col U or Northampton. I'd describe it as being similar to our Boxing Day win in terms of attack, reasonably direct but not completely bypassing the midfield - harrying a little and starting attacks from reasonably advanced areas. A little bit of Hayes beach football added in with mixed results. Poor final ball and decision making. The difference was a Luton defence who didn't buckle under pressure and looked competent, combined with our defence looking like a Southern League South outfit playing against Spain.
What's the betting for Ainsworth to stick to as he sees it the positives of todays performance in his interviews later,i won't be watching them and Goal Rush on Channel can **** off tonight. GGrrrrr!
had the misfortune of being right amongst the angry young lot in our support today (them all coming in late as usual, and unsurprisingly finding most of the best seats taken)
The abusive language at all of our players, taunting the away fans, and even some racism from one was probably the worst I've been amongst.
Topped off by some kid called Lewis who clearly has some issues, finally getting kicked out, after spending 45mins mouthing off under a steward's nose, finally only kicked out after he started taunting our fans, and someone took exception to it, and almost got himself beaten up.
The game? 1st half awful, 30mins of second half really good, last 15, awful
If the Trust had any bottle they would take action to ban those 'supporters' causing trouble. It can't be that difficult to identify these individuals.
I'm still waiting on the Cavalry of PCH, Weston and O'Nien, but when GA made the decision to keep the old war horses, I knew we were in for a slugfest, if we didn't have a good start and here we are. A lot agreed and shocked that GA thought them worthy of extensions to their contract. I certainly was.
Just hope those mentioned return sooner than later and as for Pierre, very weird he wasn't selected to play, can we read much from that?
@ "It's been the same all season Wycombe win next to no first ball, very little second ball and most of the time if it is won, it is squandered, passed backwards or lumped upfield".
So that leaves sideways as the preferred option then?
Probably just thought the team that won 3-0 in midweek deserved to keep the shirts.
If you listen to our most vocal mob, De Hav should be in above Pierre as he plays it on the ground more!
Never mind he's half the player in every other way.
@Malone said:
Probably just thought the team that won 3-0 in midweek deserved to keep the shirts.
If you listen to our most vocal mob, De Hav should be in above Pierre as he plays it on the ground more!
Never mind he's half the player in every other way.
I thought Dr Havilland looked way out of his depth, albeit in tough circumstances against a very tricky side.
@Malone; I agree with you there, but if DevHav was getting the run around in the first half, make the change, hard decision I know, as lot don't agree with substitutions like that, but I do, if you can see it, change it or sub said player, who's having a mare.
One of the best things about Gary Waddock was that he insisted the keeper roll the ball out from the back whenever possible. This was designed to a) reduce scrapping for the first or second ball, and b) encourage the entire team to think in that short pass mindset whether they personally have the ball or not. I think it mostly worked, especially when rolling out to the fullbacks.
@Malone agree with you, they were the idiots calling for Ainsworth at the end. However, matey boy who called him out did not nearly got himself beaten up. The kid who got kicked out shit himself.
Gaz probably took the view that at this level there's more of a risk in players being played into trouble, getting quickly closed down, than there is a gain.
I remember at Crawley, Brown rolled it to our defence twice, and both times we came very close to losing it.
Gaz decided early on that it's a percentage game, pack your key central positions with height and be strong there.
It is a bit shocking how we are at the moment, but I think I'm one of the few who thinks, yes, we have 5 of our first choice 11 out, so probably not surprising.
The problem is, can we wait until they're all back.
I don't like how O Nien and Bean have suddenly been upgraded to "Long term" injuries.
O Nien was on crutches today! Whilst strangely, for what must be a much worse injury, Muller was able to stroll around next to him!
Luke seemed to be walking around okay last Saturday - very worrying if he's had a relapse. Unless it's some kind of show for the fans to prove the extent of the injury crisis.
Far more depressing than the scoreline was seeing O'Nien with his right ankle in one of those protective cast boots, limping across the pitch on crutches. There's no way he's coming back in the near future. Why the club couldn't have been honest about his injury is completely beyond me.
I took some positives from today. Blackman was excellent - kept three certain goals out by dint of his long arms and sharp reflexes. I liked the way Ainsworth changed the system about, starting with a 4-5-1 with Hayes on the right, moving to a 4-4-2 and ending with a 3-4-3 with Jombati in midfield (where he played better than in defence). Yes, we conceded a fourth goal on the break - but it was nice to see us throw caution to the wind and actually attack all-out for a bit.
There was also, for 15 minutes, a sense that the team actually believed in itself, could challenge for balls without fouling; could win them and play a quick, clever pass; could run with the ball at the feet and actually get into the box and get a shot away. That short period was orchestrated by Bloomfield, Rowe and Thompson and was good to see.
However for the rest of the match it was another listless performance where the players looked scared to have the ball and desperate to punt it anywhere as soon as possible. They don't appear to have much confidence in themselves or each other, despite the midweek win, and I didn't see much leadership on the pitch - other than for that short period when we realised we could actually compete with Luton without whacking the ball to no-one.
It was also nice to be in a stadium almost at capacity and, even if legroom is non-existent, I like the eccentricities of the ground and the atmosphere it generates. I found the behaviour of the Facebook Yoof Crew quite amusing - other than the casual racism towards the end which well overstepped the mark - though I wonder whether the cult hero status of Will De Havilland (on the basis he's so much better than Aaron Pierre, apparently) will last as long as last season's Gozie Ugwu. given today's performance.
Comments
If there are any positives to take from that, Blackman was superb and probably kept the scoreline down by a few, and Gape looked pretty decent when he came on.
Looking at the team sheet before hand it was obvious we'd struggle.
So it proved. Luton by far the better team. 4-1 was harsher on them than it was on us.
At the moment we simply don't have enough variety, skill and pace in our for players to cause teams much trouble. And unfortunately we look down on confidence as well as ability.
Bottom five looks very likely without a dramatic reversal.
"while leaving your best defender on the pitch"- should have said "on the bench."
I'm still confident that when our cavalry return (PCH, Weston and O'Nien) we'll be fine. We're injured hit at the moment and it can't get any worse after Portsmouth. 2/3 weeks they should be arriving to inject pace, skill and help out frontline.
I think we played a very positive game but I think the score line did not reflect our Patten of play,and as we are a club with less player's than some non league clubs and of course short of mony!the dive to the relegation zone has been mutch faster than my expectations!.
Fuck me Brittany wanderer, have they upped your dose of antidepressants?
1 league win 1n 13and we.ve been awful since the start of 2016 i need some antidepressants!
Can someone who went to each of the last three games please answer one question - did we play today like we did against Colchester or against Northampton? I think the answer to that will indicate whether there's real hope still or whether we need to batten down the hatches for a long struggle.
The decision to drop Pierre is odd but he may be out of sorts as he did not get his move.
Recruitment, tactics and organisation all are questionable since the turn of the year. I certainly don't want GA to go but there must be some serious soul searching of our ACTUAL position and not some of the embarrassing spin of late.
We played nothing like against Col U or Northampton. I'd describe it as being similar to our Boxing Day win in terms of attack, reasonably direct but not completely bypassing the midfield - harrying a little and starting attacks from reasonably advanced areas. A little bit of Hayes beach football added in with mixed results. Poor final ball and decision making. The difference was a Luton defence who didn't buckle under pressure and looked competent, combined with our defence looking like a Southern League South outfit playing against Spain.
@Wig_and_Pen hope that answers your question
What's the betting for Ainsworth to stick to as he sees it the positives of todays performance in his interviews later,i won't be watching them and Goal Rush on Channel can **** off tonight. GGrrrrr!
had the misfortune of being right amongst the angry young lot in our support today (them all coming in late as usual, and unsurprisingly finding most of the best seats taken)
The abusive language at all of our players, taunting the away fans, and even some racism from one was probably the worst I've been amongst.
Topped off by some kid called Lewis who clearly has some issues, finally getting kicked out, after spending 45mins mouthing off under a steward's nose, finally only kicked out after he started taunting our fans, and someone took exception to it, and almost got himself beaten up.
The game? 1st half awful, 30mins of second half really good, last 15, awful
If the Trust had any bottle they would take action to ban those 'supporters' causing trouble. It can't be that difficult to identify these individuals.
I think a lot of us could instantly reel of 10-15 names of those whose absence would make games a lot more enjoyable for us all.
although that Lewis kid I believe is already banned from homes.
Re Blackman - Chelsea are probably quite pleased he is getting plenty of work to do.
I'm still waiting on the Cavalry of PCH, Weston and O'Nien, but when GA made the decision to keep the old war horses, I knew we were in for a slugfest, if we didn't have a good start and here we are. A lot agreed and shocked that GA thought them worthy of extensions to their contract. I certainly was.
Just hope those mentioned return sooner than later and as for Pierre, very weird he wasn't selected to play, can we read much from that?
@ "It's been the same all season Wycombe win next to no first ball, very little second ball and most of the time if it is won, it is squandered, passed backwards or lumped upfield".
So that leaves sideways as the preferred option then?
Probably just thought the team that won 3-0 in midweek deserved to keep the shirts.
If you listen to our most vocal mob, De Hav should be in above Pierre as he plays it on the ground more!
Never mind he's half the player in every other way.
It was a matter of time before we got hammered - too poor for too long and we are now getting found out. LONG winter ahead.
I thought Dr Havilland looked way out of his depth, albeit in tough circumstances against a very tricky side.
@Malone; I agree with you there, but if DevHav was getting the run around in the first half, make the change, hard decision I know, as lot don't agree with substitutions like that, but I do, if you can see it, change it or sub said player, who's having a mare.
One of the best things about Gary Waddock was that he insisted the keeper roll the ball out from the back whenever possible. This was designed to a) reduce scrapping for the first or second ball, and b) encourage the entire team to think in that short pass mindset whether they personally have the ball or not. I think it mostly worked, especially when rolling out to the fullbacks.
It's a shame Gareth abandoned that immediately.
@Malone agree with you, they were the idiots calling for Ainsworth at the end. However, matey boy who called him out did not nearly got himself beaten up. The kid who got kicked out shit himself.
Gaz probably took the view that at this level there's more of a risk in players being played into trouble, getting quickly closed down, than there is a gain.
I remember at Crawley, Brown rolled it to our defence twice, and both times we came very close to losing it.
Gaz decided early on that it's a percentage game, pack your key central positions with height and be strong there.
It is a bit shocking how we are at the moment, but I think I'm one of the few who thinks, yes, we have 5 of our first choice 11 out, so probably not surprising.
The problem is, can we wait until they're all back.
I don't like how O Nien and Bean have suddenly been upgraded to "Long term" injuries.
O Nien was on crutches today! Whilst strangely, for what must be a much worse injury, Muller was able to stroll around next to him!
Luke seemed to be walking around okay last Saturday - very worrying if he's had a relapse. Unless it's some kind of show for the fans to prove the extent of the injury crisis.
I thought Luke was out with a shoulder injury.
Really worrying to hear about O'Nien. I thought it was a shoulder injury? And there was no mention of crutches when he was on player the other week.
Far more depressing than the scoreline was seeing O'Nien with his right ankle in one of those protective cast boots, limping across the pitch on crutches. There's no way he's coming back in the near future. Why the club couldn't have been honest about his injury is completely beyond me.
I took some positives from today. Blackman was excellent - kept three certain goals out by dint of his long arms and sharp reflexes. I liked the way Ainsworth changed the system about, starting with a 4-5-1 with Hayes on the right, moving to a 4-4-2 and ending with a 3-4-3 with Jombati in midfield (where he played better than in defence). Yes, we conceded a fourth goal on the break - but it was nice to see us throw caution to the wind and actually attack all-out for a bit.
There was also, for 15 minutes, a sense that the team actually believed in itself, could challenge for balls without fouling; could win them and play a quick, clever pass; could run with the ball at the feet and actually get into the box and get a shot away. That short period was orchestrated by Bloomfield, Rowe and Thompson and was good to see.
However for the rest of the match it was another listless performance where the players looked scared to have the ball and desperate to punt it anywhere as soon as possible. They don't appear to have much confidence in themselves or each other, despite the midweek win, and I didn't see much leadership on the pitch - other than for that short period when we realised we could actually compete with Luton without whacking the ball to no-one.
It was also nice to be in a stadium almost at capacity and, even if legroom is non-existent, I like the eccentricities of the ground and the atmosphere it generates. I found the behaviour of the Facebook Yoof Crew quite amusing - other than the casual racism towards the end which well overstepped the mark - though I wonder whether the cult hero status of Will De Havilland (on the basis he's so much better than Aaron Pierre, apparently) will last as long as last season's Gozie Ugwu. given today's performance.