Will be interesting to see that challenge on Grimmer again. It looked awful to me, absolutely no intent to play the ball. Was surprised the ref only produced a yellow.
The game itself was frustrating to say the least. Not a bad performance, but we do look blunt up top, something we need to address in the summer. The slow start did for us. Lincoln not a team to concede first against, as they're extremely well organised and not afraid to employ the dark arts!
The last paragraph of this is absolutely spot on @Glenactico. It should never be confused with a lack of passion or care - I think the players absolutely do care and they certainly haven't downed tools - but all the niggly fight in the team that made us so hard to beat seems to be gone. And I'm not really sure it's a Bloomfield vs Ainsworth thing - it felt a bit like this at the start of the season too. We have to find our new identity without our old generals.
I'd also add (and I can't believe it's not been mentioned already) that the malaise on the pitch is completely prevalent in the stands as well. For a game with something riding on it I couldn't believe the lack of atmosphere around the place today. There was more noise from the Frank Adams and Family Stand than the terrace - we have to find a way to at least make AP a little bit intimidating for opposition teams. Plange was barely booed after his assault today!
I guess the theory is our recent form. You can't replace players like Mehmeti and Mawson easily. That's nobodies' fault, but it has significantly weakened us. As good as Vokes is, I feel he has never really reached full fitness this season and as our only major goal threat now, we have been "found out" by other teams, It's fairly easy to defend against. Mehmeti was not. With that in mind, and the ever growing likelihood that Taff may be going - and possibly McCleary, unless we replace them and improve - our squad is destined for a bottom half finish. That's fine. We have punched above our weight for years.so have got used to it - but it's not a given.
We have had a lot to cheer about over the last 5 or 6 years - it feels kind of dull with nothing to get excited about, but we are a well run club and this is our transition period. Every successful team goes through one. We will be back.
As far as the more passive team atmosphere, I do think that has been shown in how abysmal we have been in second halves all season (relegation contender in 2nd halves). We have only had one game where we have equalized from a second half deficit (Charlton A) and have scored very few late goals.
I am not sure what has caused this diametric shift from late late show to early early birds - could it be something as simple as Bayo leaving, after the havoc he used to cause? It is certainly not a lack of quality players or effort, but it has been very strange. Apart from the one match referenced above you have turned off any game as soon as we trailed in the second half this season without missing a fightback of any kind.
That being said, to me it has also been a massively snakebitten season, with anything that can go wrong going wrong in many ways. 8th or 9th (looks like the Portmouth game will be the 'Winner takes 8th' cup final) is an astounding finish in the context of our history (5th best finish ever) and it is all the more strange when the season has been so deflating at so many points (goalkeeper issues, injuries, Mehmeti, GA etc.)
We have been punching above our weight for sometime and although we haven’t reached the playoffs, from my perspective it’s been a good season. We been unlucky with injuries at key times of the season and certainly not helped not having a proper goalkeeper for the first few games. However we do lack a real goal scoring threat and although we have signed Vokes again, he needs to capture his first season form for us to be successful next season. Blooms needs to be given time and a pre season, with his own signings to establish himself. My concern currently under Blooms is the intensity of our play seems to have disappeared. We have become too nice to play against. I know he talks about evolution as opposed to revolution but is he going to have the players to play the football he wants. We have resigned players I was not expecting and with have a half dozen more through the door , we can be competitive next season.
Lincoln are very well organised and I can see how they have got good results against most of the top teams. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them pushing for a playoff place this time next year.
I thought Freeman was having a good game and disappointed to see him replaced by Campbell so early.
Campbell is quite clearly very right footed. If he is to be any threat then surely use him as a right winger.
Tin hat on - Hanlan is not good enough.
we need a proper fox in the box striker to play with Vokes, who is wasted playing up front on his own. That man could possibly be TJ but if not that would be the main new signing I would wish for
Who knows whether Taf will sign. If he doesn’t we need one more proper good CB. I like Willis who looks very solid and composed and if his past injury looks like holding up would like to see him signed on.
obviously disappointing for the play off dream to end today. However I think the squad will benefit for a good long break to come back fully fit and refreshed for a good preseason
looking forward to next season with a good established squad with 2 or 3 exciting new signings and maybe 2 or 3 of this years development squad being signed into the main squad.
You’d have to ask the fans who their favourites are. One man’s/woman’s favourite is another’s under-performer. I think Forino is one of the players the vast majority of fans have as a favourite and Wing (at least until recently) also has plenty of admirers. You may recall that concern was expressed on here about the possibility that he might be lured away.
The point I was making (not too clearly perhaps) was that some players may have been biding their time until today’s mathematical certainty about which division division we’ll be playing in next season.
Your point about late goals is interesting. Would love to see some stats. I would guess it's a mixture of a few ingredients:
Bayo (the lift he'd give us when he entered the field gave you the belief that anything could happen)
Characters in the squad now vs then
Age of squad now vs then
We played to our strengths, which was shithousery, mixed with occasional magic. Teams have figured us out and can go toe to toe with us now. We've been "Wycombe'd" by more teams this season than I can remember.
I think we are massively lacking in creativity. JJ isn't the same as he was. We have not got a single player that can whip a decent cross in on slide a pass....to.....nobody.
Regarding Freeman, while acknowledging I am a Freeman apologist, I would also point out that he seems to fit into the style of play MB wants much more than GA, and with all the other factors referenced, I would be surprised if he is let go. That being said, MB did substitute him today when he was the most creative player in the side, so maybe I am completely mistaken!
I find it interesting that MB has changed the style straight away. Does that mean he was not a fan of the GA way despite playing and coaching through it? GA built this squad to play a certain way. To implement a change during a playoff push seems a little risky, and it hasn't paid off. Would it have been safer to see it out and get the job done ugly?
I'm all for changing style, but we had an identity that I quite liked. I also liked that nobody else liked it! I can't help but feel this should be done off-season.
Out of interest, when was the last time we gave a team a proper pasting? I remember a 5-0 vs Burnley quite vividly.
It is odd isn’t it? Can’t quite put my finger on the reason. Possibly the loss of talismanic players. Maybe also that the squad is just a bit old and doesn’t really have another gear at 85 mins.
Around Jan and Feb when we beat Bolton and Derby at home I thought we were playing some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen from a Wycombe team. We had that bite and tenacity Gaz instilled, perfectly combined with some real quality players as well.
The results during that period are the reason we’ll still achieve a good position in the table. And in some respects I’m fairly pleased we’ll place well, despite really only performing to our best for a couple of months during the season. On the other hand, it is really disappointing to see the season fizzle out in such meek fashion when we’ve seen the team is capable of being so competitive when at their best.
Just got home after 430mile round trip, disappointing result today, poor ref, 2 well taken goals by Lincoln. Bumped into the Lincoln team at Leicester services and joked with Sorenson that his goal was a miss kick, he said the game was not great and was shocked with how we played. I also said to keeper that he had an easy day and mentioned a nice clean sheet bonus. Onto to next week, hopefully we can beat the Saturday curse ready for next season
Our 5-0 league wins from memory are Burnley (H), Northampton (A) & Hartlepool (H). We beat Chesterfield in the FA Cup by that score line a few years back too.
I make this point quite regularly, it’s ridiculous that we’ve been in the Football League so long and have only won 3 games 5-0 and have never scored more than that.
That’s not to say we haven’t had some fantastically entertaining games, it would just be nice to blow teams away once in a while.
The 4-0 at Cambridge away last season is probably the last time we came close, although 3-0 at Peterborough & Barnsley this season isn’t too shabby either.
Without doubt, our performances against Derby and Bolton were real highlights with regards to team evolution. Sadly, for various reasons, we’ve gone significantly backwards since.
10 games in we were talking about a relegation battle so finishing a minimum of 9th is some achievement if the Gasroom early forecast is anything to go by....
Sun 4 Dec PORTSMOUTH H W 2-0 6306 (1828) Mehmeti, McCleary
Sat 10 Dec Lincoln City A D 0-0 7536 (239)
Sat 17 Dec IPSWICH TOWN H W 1-0 7602 (2612) Hanlan
Mon 26 Dec BRISTOL ROVERS H W 2-1 6664 (1203) Wheeler, Wing
Thu 29 Dec Plymouth Argyle A L 0-1 15579 (427)
Sat 1 Jan Peterborough United A W 3-0 7483 (530) Wing 2, Tafazolli
Sat 14 Jan SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY H L 0-1 8302 (2572)
Tue 24 Jan OXFORD UNITED H W 2-0 5935 (1481) Vokes, Mehmeti
Sat 4 Feb Port Vale A W 3-0 7237 (389) Hanlan, Jacobson (pen), McCleary
Sat 11 Feb DERBY COUNTY H W 3-2 7167 (1853) Vokes, Wing 2
Tue 14 Feb Accrington Stanley A W 2-0 1900 (201) Scowen, McCleary
Sat 18 Feb BOLTON WANDERERS H W 1-0 6544 (1475) Wing
But talking about relegation or missing the playoffs after ten games was completely ****ing stupid in my humble opinion. Disappointing end to the season down to a mixture of injuries and the managerial disruption but of all the games this season this one was the most disappointing for me as we had all of our best players out there. They should have won that.
I think 2x CB’s. I fully expect to lose either of Taf or Forino to QPR now they look safe and neither of them appear to be consistently fit.
Although to be fair, perhaps Forino’s body will be used to the rigours of pro football after the summer. He has been very fast tracked and gained a shed load of muscle and strength over the past 18 months, which wouldn’t surprise me if this is why he had been injury prone.
We have missed Gape and Thompson so much over the past few seasons. I know Scowen is like a double pivot in one, but I would still have loved to have one or both of Dom/Curtis available to play alongside him. They have both added attacking nous to their games (Dom's passing has been exceptional in his short bursts of appearances and Curtis was scoring more regularly before his injury). I am absolutely gutted for them (and for us) that injuries have blighted their recent careers so much.
Comments
Thought similar.
We love the quality of some of our players but we have an exceptionally low number who will improve.
@ReturnToSenda is the man for this.
But I believe you can have 22 and no-one under 21 counts in that. Not sure if your first team keeper counts in it though, or for some reason doesn't.
So assuming the keeper does count, and before we release anyone we'd have the 19 below
That'd leave space for 3 more signings (assuming no-one else in the development crew has aged accordingly and is kept on).
Max
Grimmer, JJ, Taf, Forino, McCarthy, Obita, Willis, Wakeley
Scowen, Gape, Thompson, Wing, McCleary ,Freeman, Wheeler
Vokes, Hanlan, De Barr
It's hard to see Wakeley being kept on though, so that'd free a 4th space at least.
8 of those are not currently signed on for next season, personally I'd probably let about 4 of them go
Yep, it'll be interesting how ruthless Bloomfield is.
We certainly need a couple of attacking players to come in, and without any doubt a quality centre back, maybe 2 if Taf goes.
Will be interesting to see that challenge on Grimmer again. It looked awful to me, absolutely no intent to play the ball. Was surprised the ref only produced a yellow.
The game itself was frustrating to say the least. Not a bad performance, but we do look blunt up top, something we need to address in the summer. The slow start did for us. Lincoln not a team to concede first against, as they're extremely well organised and not afraid to employ the dark arts!
The last paragraph of this is absolutely spot on @Glenactico. It should never be confused with a lack of passion or care - I think the players absolutely do care and they certainly haven't downed tools - but all the niggly fight in the team that made us so hard to beat seems to be gone. And I'm not really sure it's a Bloomfield vs Ainsworth thing - it felt a bit like this at the start of the season too. We have to find our new identity without our old generals.
I'd also add (and I can't believe it's not been mentioned already) that the malaise on the pitch is completely prevalent in the stands as well. For a game with something riding on it I couldn't believe the lack of atmosphere around the place today. There was more noise from the Frank Adams and Family Stand than the terrace - we have to find a way to at least make AP a little bit intimidating for opposition teams. Plange was barely booed after his assault today!
To be fair, the kickoff wasn’t his fault.
Wheeler ran into the centre circle before the ball was kicked, so he rightly called him back.
Two Lincoln players had gone charging down the wing, and Lincoln kicked off again with them still in our half, so again rightly called back.
If he’d allowed that to continue and they’d passed to one of those two players and a goal resulted, there’d have been uproar.
Sometimes they just can’t win.
I guess the theory is our recent form. You can't replace players like Mehmeti and Mawson easily. That's nobodies' fault, but it has significantly weakened us. As good as Vokes is, I feel he has never really reached full fitness this season and as our only major goal threat now, we have been "found out" by other teams, It's fairly easy to defend against. Mehmeti was not. With that in mind, and the ever growing likelihood that Taff may be going - and possibly McCleary, unless we replace them and improve - our squad is destined for a bottom half finish. That's fine. We have punched above our weight for years.so have got used to it - but it's not a given.
We have had a lot to cheer about over the last 5 or 6 years - it feels kind of dull with nothing to get excited about, but we are a well run club and this is our transition period. Every successful team goes through one. We will be back.
As far as the more passive team atmosphere, I do think that has been shown in how abysmal we have been in second halves all season (relegation contender in 2nd halves). We have only had one game where we have equalized from a second half deficit (Charlton A) and have scored very few late goals.
I am not sure what has caused this diametric shift from late late show to early early birds - could it be something as simple as Bayo leaving, after the havoc he used to cause? It is certainly not a lack of quality players or effort, but it has been very strange. Apart from the one match referenced above you have turned off any game as soon as we trailed in the second half this season without missing a fightback of any kind.
That being said, to me it has also been a massively snakebitten season, with anything that can go wrong going wrong in many ways. 8th or 9th (looks like the Portmouth game will be the 'Winner takes 8th' cup final) is an astounding finish in the context of our history (5th best finish ever) and it is all the more strange when the season has been so deflating at so many points (goalkeeper issues, injuries, Mehmeti, GA etc.)
How long was Mellor signed for? He may not count as a youngster next year. Looks like he has been starting on the left of midfield for Rochdale.
I think we can assume that Horgan will be freeing up one space.
Max
Grimmer, JJ, Taf, Forino, McCarthy, Obita, Willis, Wakeley
Scowen, Gape, Thompson, Wing, McCleary ,Freeman, Wheeler
Vokes, Hanlan, De Barr
I think we will release: Freeman, Wakeley, Taff and possibly Gape and/or Thompson.
We have been punching above our weight for sometime and although we haven’t reached the playoffs, from my perspective it’s been a good season. We been unlucky with injuries at key times of the season and certainly not helped not having a proper goalkeeper for the first few games. However we do lack a real goal scoring threat and although we have signed Vokes again, he needs to capture his first season form for us to be successful next season. Blooms needs to be given time and a pre season, with his own signings to establish himself. My concern currently under Blooms is the intensity of our play seems to have disappeared. We have become too nice to play against. I know he talks about evolution as opposed to revolution but is he going to have the players to play the football he wants. We have resigned players I was not expecting and with have a half dozen more through the door , we can be competitive next season.
A few thoughts after todays very even game
Lincoln are very well organised and I can see how they have got good results against most of the top teams. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them pushing for a playoff place this time next year.
I thought Freeman was having a good game and disappointed to see him replaced by Campbell so early.
Campbell is quite clearly very right footed. If he is to be any threat then surely use him as a right winger.
Tin hat on - Hanlan is not good enough.
we need a proper fox in the box striker to play with Vokes, who is wasted playing up front on his own. That man could possibly be TJ but if not that would be the main new signing I would wish for
Who knows whether Taf will sign. If he doesn’t we need one more proper good CB. I like Willis who looks very solid and composed and if his past injury looks like holding up would like to see him signed on.
obviously disappointing for the play off dream to end today. However I think the squad will benefit for a good long break to come back fully fit and refreshed for a good preseason
looking forward to next season with a good established squad with 2 or 3 exciting new signings and maybe 2 or 3 of this years development squad being signed into the main squad.
COYB
You’d have to ask the fans who their favourites are. One man’s/woman’s favourite is another’s under-performer. I think Forino is one of the players the vast majority of fans have as a favourite and Wing (at least until recently) also has plenty of admirers. You may recall that concern was expressed on here about the possibility that he might be lured away.
The point I was making (not too clearly perhaps) was that some players may have been biding their time until today’s mathematical certainty about which division division we’ll be playing in next season.
Often people say something is the worst, or the best "ever", or the classic nonsense about a player doing stuff they've "never seen before".
But I can honestly say I've never seen a ref take a couple of minutes to manage to get the game going.
He was checking his watch for some reason when it was already 3pm, so he clearly wasn't waiting for 3pm.
Refs surely don't have to wait for the hands of the clock to get to a particular round number, rather than just have a digital watch!?
1 year for Mellor.
He and Horgan I've taken as absolute certainties to be gone.
Wakeley I can't see staying. Taf will make his own decision to go. Gape we think is in contract, but Thompson must be struggling.
But Freeman is always a favourite to have around as a non moaning squaddie.
Great post.
Your point about late goals is interesting. Would love to see some stats. I would guess it's a mixture of a few ingredients:
I think we are massively lacking in creativity. JJ isn't the same as he was. We have not got a single player that can whip a decent cross in on slide a pass....to.....nobody.
The frustrating thing is that we very much had it in us to finish in the playoffs this season.
Obvious reasons utterly derailed things, but it needed so little extra to what we've seen in the last 12 or so games to do it.
One worry is we haven't even managed to win 2 in a row yet.
A few years ago we had a worryingly long terrible midweek record.
We seem to have acquired a much more worrying Saturday record!
Regarding Freeman, while acknowledging I am a Freeman apologist, I would also point out that he seems to fit into the style of play MB wants much more than GA, and with all the other factors referenced, I would be surprised if he is let go. That being said, MB did substitute him today when he was the most creative player in the side, so maybe I am completely mistaken!
I find it interesting that MB has changed the style straight away. Does that mean he was not a fan of the GA way despite playing and coaching through it? GA built this squad to play a certain way. To implement a change during a playoff push seems a little risky, and it hasn't paid off. Would it have been safer to see it out and get the job done ugly?
I'm all for changing style, but we had an identity that I quite liked. I also liked that nobody else liked it! I can't help but feel this should be done off-season.
Out of interest, when was the last time we gave a team a proper pasting? I remember a 5-0 vs Burnley quite vividly.
Extremely disappointing.
Not one Lionel Ritchie ref
Waste of a tenner
It is odd isn’t it? Can’t quite put my finger on the reason. Possibly the loss of talismanic players. Maybe also that the squad is just a bit old and doesn’t really have another gear at 85 mins.
Around Jan and Feb when we beat Bolton and Derby at home I thought we were playing some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen from a Wycombe team. We had that bite and tenacity Gaz instilled, perfectly combined with some real quality players as well.
The results during that period are the reason we’ll still achieve a good position in the table. And in some respects I’m fairly pleased we’ll place well, despite really only performing to our best for a couple of months during the season. On the other hand, it is really disappointing to see the season fizzle out in such meek fashion when we’ve seen the team is capable of being so competitive when at their best.
Just got home after 430mile round trip, disappointing result today, poor ref, 2 well taken goals by Lincoln. Bumped into the Lincoln team at Leicester services and joked with Sorenson that his goal was a miss kick, he said the game was not great and was shocked with how we played. I also said to keeper that he had an easy day and mentioned a nice clean sheet bonus. Onto to next week, hopefully we can beat the Saturday curse ready for next season
@thecatwwfc, that was in the nineties, wasn’t it?
Our 5-0 league wins from memory are Burnley (H), Northampton (A) & Hartlepool (H). We beat Chesterfield in the FA Cup by that score line a few years back too.
I make this point quite regularly, it’s ridiculous that we’ve been in the Football League so long and have only won 3 games 5-0 and have never scored more than that.
That’s not to say we haven’t had some fantastically entertaining games, it would just be nice to blow teams away once in a while.
The 4-0 at Cambridge away last season is probably the last time we came close, although 3-0 at Peterborough & Barnsley this season isn’t too shabby either.
Without doubt, our performances against Derby and Bolton were real highlights with regards to team evolution. Sadly, for various reasons, we’ve gone significantly backwards since.
This run is why we are where we are....
10 games in we were talking about a relegation battle so finishing a minimum of 9th is some achievement if the Gasroom early forecast is anything to go by....
Simply astounding stat. I know it felt like I waited for ever to see us score 5 in a game and we finally did it...only for Cheltenham to score 5 too!
@thecatwwfc you like to talk about how everyone talks. I don't remember having a talk about relegation at any point.
But talking about relegation or missing the playoffs after ten games was completely ****ing stupid in my humble opinion. Disappointing end to the season down to a mixture of injuries and the managerial disruption but of all the games this season this one was the most disappointing for me as we had all of our best players out there. They should have won that.
I think 2x CB’s. I fully expect to lose either of Taf or Forino to QPR now they look safe and neither of them appear to be consistently fit.
Although to be fair, perhaps Forino’s body will be used to the rigours of pro football after the summer. He has been very fast tracked and gained a shed load of muscle and strength over the past 18 months, which wouldn’t surprise me if this is why he had been injury prone.
We have missed Gape and Thompson so much over the past few seasons. I know Scowen is like a double pivot in one, but I would still have loved to have one or both of Dom/Curtis available to play alongside him. They have both added attacking nous to their games (Dom's passing has been exceptional in his short bursts of appearances and Curtis was scoring more regularly before his injury). I am absolutely gutted for them (and for us) that injuries have blighted their recent careers so much.