Excellent 3 points but absolutely dreadful. Wigan are a decent side but we lack cohesion, creativity and purpose. Defence played well but going forward we looked clueless. Be interested to see what Bloomfield has to say about the performance.
A lot of things to learn from these two recent fixtures, but thoroughly pleased we’ve come out of them with six points, which arguably flatters us. Fantastic results. Bigger picture - we have broadly been so much better in 2024 than in late 2023. A lot to be positive about.
I don’t understand what the tactics were especially given how comfortable we were in the first half.
Five at the back didn’t work earlier in the season and it doesn’t now.
The only good thing was this complete failure of a change was rectified. But we were lucky that Wigan’s finishing was pretty poor and Franco made a couple of good saves.
So concerned about the future. It looked like Richard Thomas was pulling the strings for the five at the back change but it was so difficult to understand. Fortunately it didn’t cost us today.
Vokes the wrong sub. Not a reflection on the man but he was not able to close their back line or offer any threat. And we gave him shit service. I assume Bez was injured? Maybe Kone an option but his defending is …. unpolished.
The five across the back yielded the usual horror show.
Raffizoli again extraordinary performance.
One of the worst 45 minutes for a long time. But a win is a win.
We’ve given away so many points we deserved this season I’m fine keeping a few we should have shared. And we we excellent in the first half don’t forget.
We just dont have good enough wide defensive players to employ a back 5, all of them are lacking in something; McCarthy is decent going forward but cant cross & defensively he stands off his man too much, KVV is injured but also looks suspect defensively, Leahy isnt quick enough over a whole game to get up & down the wing, Grimmer is decent defensively & is improving going forward but is a little slow at recovering if he loses the ball up the field. Add to that Leahy looks uncomfortable as a left CB.
All our players look so much more comfortable with 4 at the back and a screening DM (or two) in front of them, I just dont get why we dont stick to this.
Not the worst 45 minutes by a long shot. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing second half and the team defended resolutely and limited Wigan to very few, if any, clear cut chances. Wasn’t pretty, in fact damn ugly but I’m sat here with my win bonus whisky attempting to bring my heart rate down! We looked good first half but lacked an out option second half. If those were the tactics they worked - clean sheet 3 points and 47 in total.
Perhaps I’m alone in my thoughts! We were much the better team 1st half but scored a fortune goal. 2nd half was all Wigan yes, but other than 1 x header which went wide we were comfortable. At the start of the 2nd half we almost scored a header ourselves though in fairness. 1st half Campbell totally pegged back their left midfielder, but they switched up a bit at half time and he was getting beyond us, and if you remember they were starting to get a few corners and crosses into our box, added to that the header we had just missed I think Vokes came on for his aerial ability in both boxes. I imagine we went to a back 5 to stop their left midfielder but then were forced back to a back 4 as one more Grimmer foul and he could have been booked again. By no means a classic, and a drab 2nd half but tactically I think we we reacted well against a decent Wigan side that we made look very ordinary in the first half.
Criticism of Vokes seems to me very unfair. On Saturday it was his arrival that meant we actually kept the ball occasionally when it was punted upfield. I agree that we should be leaving someone upfield for when we win the ball but it should surely be someone with pace.
Comments
What is the point of Vokes coming on he has contributed nothing again we may as well play with 10 men...Too slow!!!
Phew
Oh yes! Massive character at the end.
Exciting though and superb three points.
A win's a win but I wouldn't want to watch that every week.
What’s that when it’s at home?!!
I fully expect Wigan to be challenging for the playoffs next season so that’s a very positive sign.
We really made that hard for ourselves
super performances from Ravazolli & Lonwijk, but all the defenders more than earned their wages today
You need him in the box for that to be useful, even in the opposition half would help.
Even more to brighten the day up is PNL getting an utter thumping
Without the 6 point deduction they wouldn’t be that far off, would they? Haven’t seen the table.
I think it was eight, and yeh they’d be right up there.
Another club who would like to transfer for @bluntphil.
Excellent 3 points but absolutely dreadful. Wigan are a decent side but we lack cohesion, creativity and purpose. Defence played well but going forward we looked clueless. Be interested to see what Bloomfield has to say about the performance.
It was looking extremely hairly over the Xmas period but I feel that we have all but achieved safety now. Stress levels beginning to drop a little.
A lot of things to learn from these two recent fixtures, but thoroughly pleased we’ve come out of them with six points, which arguably flatters us. Fantastic results. Bigger picture - we have broadly been so much better in 2024 than in late 2023. A lot to be positive about.
Last few results have done is the world of good. We are actually winning football matches that I think pre- Xmas we would have lost.
What an horrendous second half performance.
I don’t understand what the tactics were especially given how comfortable we were in the first half.
Five at the back didn’t work earlier in the season and it doesn’t now.
The only good thing was this complete failure of a change was rectified. But we were lucky that Wigan’s finishing was pretty poor and Franco made a couple of good saves.
So concerned about the future. It looked like Richard Thomas was pulling the strings for the five at the back change but it was so difficult to understand. Fortunately it didn’t cost us today.
Vokes the wrong sub. Not a reflection on the man but he was not able to close their back line or offer any threat. And we gave him shit service. I assume Bez was injured? Maybe Kone an option but his defending is …. unpolished.
The five across the back yielded the usual horror show.
Raffizoli again extraordinary performance.
One of the worst 45 minutes for a long time. But a win is a win.
We’ve given away so many points we deserved this season I’m fine keeping a few we should have shared. And we we excellent in the first half don’t forget.
We just dont have good enough wide defensive players to employ a back 5, all of them are lacking in something; McCarthy is decent going forward but cant cross & defensively he stands off his man too much, KVV is injured but also looks suspect defensively, Leahy isnt quick enough over a whole game to get up & down the wing, Grimmer is decent defensively & is improving going forward but is a little slow at recovering if he loses the ball up the field. Add to that Leahy looks uncomfortable as a left CB.
All our players look so much more comfortable with 4 at the back and a screening DM (or two) in front of them, I just dont get why we dont stick to this.
Not the worst 45 minutes by a long shot. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing second half and the team defended resolutely and limited Wigan to very few, if any, clear cut chances. Wasn’t pretty, in fact damn ugly but I’m sat here with my win bonus whisky attempting to bring my heart rate down! We looked good first half but lacked an out option second half. If those were the tactics they worked - clean sheet 3 points and 47 in total.
We’ve been saying this all season. It is quite worrying that our coaching staff are none the wiser. We are not mugs on this platform.
Exactly this - I love gaining undeserved points, as long as there are not too many undeserving displays!
I think I saw Vokes playing as an extra centra back for the last five minutes? Did my eyes deceive me!
Great first half. Second half and the tactics not good but we came away with 3 points and now up to 47 points.
Onto Northampton.
Perhaps I’m alone in my thoughts! We were much the better team 1st half but scored a fortune goal. 2nd half was all Wigan yes, but other than 1 x header which went wide we were comfortable. At the start of the 2nd half we almost scored a header ourselves though in fairness. 1st half Campbell totally pegged back their left midfielder, but they switched up a bit at half time and he was getting beyond us, and if you remember they were starting to get a few corners and crosses into our box, added to that the header we had just missed I think Vokes came on for his aerial ability in both boxes. I imagine we went to a back 5 to stop their left midfielder but then were forced back to a back 4 as one more Grimmer foul and he could have been booked again. By no means a classic, and a drab 2nd half but tactically I think we we reacted well against a decent Wigan side that we made look very ordinary in the first half.
Oh and we’ll done to Ravazolli, he is looking much more assured than he did earlier in the season👏
I think you missed the Ravazolli saves.
Criticism of Vokes seems to me very unfair. On Saturday it was his arrival that meant we actually kept the ball occasionally when it was punted upfield. I agree that we should be leaving someone upfield for when we win the ball but it should surely be someone with pace.