A nice ‘day out’ so to speak about a trophy I’m not bothered about, but do feel for the lads as it was a cruel way to lose.
MB’s team selection almost paid off and he was brave with his CB pairing who did very well, leaving Low and Taf on the bench could not have been an easy decision.
Tiredness took its toll, with Scowen / GMac / Kone looking absolutely knackered, but it was tough to freshen up at 0-0. That said, Vokes was preparing to come on just prior to their first goal.
Hindsight is wonderful, but Vokes had an immediate impact aerially so perhaps an earlier change could have helped.
I’m a massive Scowen fan, but I feel the presence of Potts just pushes him out of position too much. Time and again he was the closest player to Kone and this just isn’t his game. Added that Leahy then gets forced over to LB.
If I could play the game again I’d have preferred McCarthy at LB and a midfield 3 of Potts / Scowen, Butcher, Leahy.
I’m a massive Scowen fan, but I feel the presence of Potts just pushes him out of position too much. Time and again he was the closest player to Kone and this just isn’t his game. Added that Leahy then gets forced over to LB.
I think we were 4-1-4-1 yesterday with Scowen in one of the more forward centre mid roles, and a big part of his job was pressing the defenders when they had possession. Really there's nobody better in the squad at that job than Scowen so I think it was a good call, and for most of the match it worked well. Personally I prefer the wide forwards doing that job but I think it was tactically the right thing for yesterday's game to have Josh doing it to save GMac's legs for when it really matters. They did seem to eventually work out how to get past it though.
Very good performance from the Wycombe end yesterday. Thought we out-sang the Posh supporters and kept going for 90 minutes.
Also, really do need to adopt a lower league Spanish side so we can all pile over and go to a game with La Media Inglesa crew. What a great bunch.
Feel a bit down obviously (when we finally get to see us win there again it's going to be very very good) but 3 points on Wednesday would go a long way to soothing that.
The selections at centre half were spot on. Taff and Low do not have pace, they are imperious in the air and superb on the ground but against 4 quick attacking players they were not the right pairing especially as Leahey and Grimmer were up against excellent and quick wingers.
It's a squad game. Posh had almost 80% possession as they calmly like to pass around at the back. Kone worked hard to close down within reason (and not as the people sat behind me believed we should be) but you cannot expect a 38 year old and a guy who was probably touch and go to play to press for 90 plus minutes. So you look at the bench, and you have energy in Taylor and guile in Vokes and Wheeler. You wanted a Bez, a Hanlan, maybe even a KVY, you needed energy with 15 minutes to go and we didn't have it.
On the day I wasn't too upset with the final result. In the context of the 8-2 aggregate league score I was disappointed we didn't win of course.
Yesterday highlighted what work needs doing to the squad moving forward. We have come a long way since the days of having half the squad as central midfielders to a more balanced set-up. And be capable of making meaningful changes to threaten the opposition more.
Just read through the comments in the cold light of day and I agree with most of what has been written apart from whoever wrote that the season has been a ‘disaster’-really? Like everyone else I was surprised at the choice of CBs but they both played well and in hindsight it’s understandable why MB chose to select defenders with pace against a very athletic team. Forino in particular had a great game. We played much better than we did against Sunderland but in truth Peterborough were marginally the better team although it would have been good to go into extra time with momentum after Taylor’s excellent goal. We have the core of a good League One squad and with the right additions in the summer I think we can look forward to next season with real optimism, not that this campaign is over yet!
I know the rent a quote Peterborough chairman says that they will lose money on yesterday but does anyone have any idea how much was worth to us? Obviously I would like to apologise to Reading, Derby etc on only having 42000 fans there (15000 Wycombe, 22000 Posh, 5000 Reading?) but there must be a shilling in there for us.
The winners get £100k prize money, the losers £50k. Add in share of gate receipts plus prize money from previous ties and I think we did pretty well out of a competition that has its critics.
Must be gutting losing to an injury time overhit cross. I didn't see the game but, 29% possession, were you sitting back hoping to hit them on the counter or did they push you back? Still, 12 shots from so little ball is not a bad effort.
I have no idea if this will motivate your team for Wednesday, see them deflated or just plain knackered.
Obviously I'm hoping for a Rams win. On form it should be but form doesn't win games.
We need to move heaven and earth to get Forino on a new contract. Obviously its a risk with his injury record, but he could potentially make us a lot of money in the next couple of years. How many central defenders have his pace at this level?
Trouble is Josh is so good you want him everywhere. He's such a good ball winner (the best I've ever seen at our level) and normally you put that sort of player in a deep role. But he's really good pinching it higher up the pitch and creating a turnover that can lead directly to a chance of goal for us too.
In a game where we're not trying to hold much possession (setting aside for a moment whether we should have held onto the ball more) having him high up the pitch is part of our counter attacking threat.
Posh are quite happy passing across the back line for half an hour so most of that possession was back there. In the first half we pressed really high, forced some mistakes, and for the first 40 or so minutes were the better team for it. Somewhere around 55 / 60 minutes though, we stopped pressing altogether - presumably an instruction from the bench with the goal of changing to a counter attack - but in my opinion it was a mistake. At one point, I was actually unaware that the ball was in play as one of the Peterborough defenders was casually strolling forward with it and we were all casually strolling backwards. I thought I'd missed a refereeing decision and everyone was moving into position for a free kick. If we'd been able to keep up the high press I think we'd have won - that certainly worked twice against them in the league.
The train I was on back to Biscuitville didn't have any jubilant Reading fans on, though there were a fair few Wycombe shirts on evidence on the people getting out at Reading.
Wasn’t too upset - I am devastated and feel so sad for the lads who gave a good account of themselves. Yes the match highlighted the issues we know we have but we were beaten by a freak goal.
If you could splice Potts and Scowen into one player you would pretty much have the perfect midfielder. Potts needs to learn to either be more physical (which is tough) or to avoid the physical side and focus on his creativity (which is a luxury in the modern game). I think Butcher, Potts and Leahey for next season will be brilliant. A proper left back needs to be recruited as the top priority.
Posh played a very patient game as they were moving the ball from side to side looking for some gaps which they tried to find but were shut down at various points. However, this game plan did cause them problems. From goal-kicks and our high press, they sometimes gave the ball away in difficult positions for them to recover from and this led to a few of our best chances. If there was a stat looking at "Clear-Cut Chances" I think Wycombe would have had more, Posh only had a few and Rav was very good to stop them.
Based on yesterday's performance, if a Prem / High Championship side is willing to pay £5-£10 million for Ronnie Edwards, then Forino is worth that and then some. Their Centre Backs looked weak yesterday and not what you expected from Edwards & Knight
I agree with you 100% @TheAndyGrahamFanClub. If we can keep most of the squad together, our full-backs is the one area that we need to look at to improve. As I mentioned, JJ (prob) won't be here and I'm not sure if McCarthy will be either with his injury record. KVY has spent a long time out with injury. Grimmer is a good right back for our smaller pitch at home however, on the larger & wider pitches, he does struggle against a quicker winger with balls over the top.
Comments
Hopefully there’s another reason other than the obvious one that jumped into my mind. But it might only be obvious to me and not a wider audience.
Was happening in our block. Just seemed like a bit of random fun. I think you're reading too much into it.
When we lost to Sunderland, my tube train home was packed with Sunderland supporters. Surprising, given I left when the final whistle went.
I only saw a handful of Posh fans after the whistle yesterday so assume that a majority stayed?
There's always a few trying to beat the traffic, even spotted a few leaving our end at 1-1 which seemed ridiculous.
A nice ‘day out’ so to speak about a trophy I’m not bothered about, but do feel for the lads as it was a cruel way to lose.
MB’s team selection almost paid off and he was brave with his CB pairing who did very well, leaving Low and Taf on the bench could not have been an easy decision.
Tiredness took its toll, with Scowen / GMac / Kone looking absolutely knackered, but it was tough to freshen up at 0-0. That said, Vokes was preparing to come on just prior to their first goal.
Hindsight is wonderful, but Vokes had an immediate impact aerially so perhaps an earlier change could have helped.
I’m a massive Scowen fan, but I feel the presence of Potts just pushes him out of position too much. Time and again he was the closest player to Kone and this just isn’t his game. Added that Leahy then gets forced over to LB.
If I could play the game again I’d have preferred McCarthy at LB and a midfield 3 of Potts / Scowen, Butcher, Leahy.
Oh and the green card things, WTF was that about? You at least expect it say ‘lift me up when the teams come out’ or something!
To be fair, there were instructions printed on it.
Where did the green things even come from?
I’m a massive Scowen fan, but I feel the presence of Potts just pushes him out of position too much. Time and again he was the closest player to Kone and this just isn’t his game. Added that Leahy then gets forced over to LB.
I think we were 4-1-4-1 yesterday with Scowen in one of the more forward centre mid roles, and a big part of his job was pressing the defenders when they had possession. Really there's nobody better in the squad at that job than Scowen so I think it was a good call, and for most of the match it worked well. Personally I prefer the wide forwards doing that job but I think it was tactically the right thing for yesterday's game to have Josh doing it to save GMac's legs for when it really matters. They did seem to eventually work out how to get past it though.
Very good performance from the Wycombe end yesterday. Thought we out-sang the Posh supporters and kept going for 90 minutes.
Also, really do need to adopt a lower league Spanish side so we can all pile over and go to a game with La Media Inglesa crew. What a great bunch.
Feel a bit down obviously (when we finally get to see us win there again it's going to be very very good) but 3 points on Wednesday would go a long way to soothing that.
The selections at centre half were spot on. Taff and Low do not have pace, they are imperious in the air and superb on the ground but against 4 quick attacking players they were not the right pairing especially as Leahey and Grimmer were up against excellent and quick wingers.
It's a squad game. Posh had almost 80% possession as they calmly like to pass around at the back. Kone worked hard to close down within reason (and not as the people sat behind me believed we should be) but you cannot expect a 38 year old and a guy who was probably touch and go to play to press for 90 plus minutes. So you look at the bench, and you have energy in Taylor and guile in Vokes and Wheeler. You wanted a Bez, a Hanlan, maybe even a KVY, you needed energy with 15 minutes to go and we didn't have it.
On the day I wasn't too upset with the final result. In the context of the 8-2 aggregate league score I was disappointed we didn't win of course.
Yesterday highlighted what work needs doing to the squad moving forward. We have come a long way since the days of having half the squad as central midfielders to a more balanced set-up. And be capable of making meaningful changes to threaten the opposition more.
Just read through the comments in the cold light of day and I agree with most of what has been written apart from whoever wrote that the season has been a ‘disaster’-really? Like everyone else I was surprised at the choice of CBs but they both played well and in hindsight it’s understandable why MB chose to select defenders with pace against a very athletic team. Forino in particular had a great game. We played much better than we did against Sunderland but in truth Peterborough were marginally the better team although it would have been good to go into extra time with momentum after Taylor’s excellent goal. We have the core of a good League One squad and with the right additions in the summer I think we can look forward to next season with real optimism, not that this campaign is over yet!
Extra time would have been a fair reward for the game overall and for the amazing fight back after their goal.
I agree with @TheAndyGrahamFanClub Blooms would love to have had Bez Lubala and Brandon Hanlan available.
@MorrisItal2 isn't your last statement just football management for everyone in a nutshell?
I know the rent a quote Peterborough chairman says that they will lose money on yesterday but does anyone have any idea how much was worth to us? Obviously I would like to apologise to Reading, Derby etc on only having 42000 fans there (15000 Wycombe, 22000 Posh, 5000 Reading?) but there must be a shilling in there for us.
Fantastic open letter from Bloomfield. Very proud to support this club, especially with him at the helm
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub my understanding is that we got £110k for reaching the final, plus 45% of a 42k gate + Sky tv fee + the (limited) merch revenue.
The winners get £100k prize money, the losers £50k. Add in share of gate receipts plus prize money from previous ties and I think we did pretty well out of a competition that has its critics.
Must be gutting losing to an injury time overhit cross. I didn't see the game but, 29% possession, were you sitting back hoping to hit them on the counter or did they push you back? Still, 12 shots from so little ball is not a bad effort.
I have no idea if this will motivate your team for Wednesday, see them deflated or just plain knackered.
Obviously I'm hoping for a Rams win. On form it should be but form doesn't win games.
We need to move heaven and earth to get Forino on a new contract. Obviously its a risk with his injury record, but he could potentially make us a lot of money in the next couple of years. How many central defenders have his pace at this level?
Trouble is Josh is so good you want him everywhere. He's such a good ball winner (the best I've ever seen at our level) and normally you put that sort of player in a deep role. But he's really good pinching it higher up the pitch and creating a turnover that can lead directly to a chance of goal for us too.
In a game where we're not trying to hold much possession (setting aside for a moment whether we should have held onto the ball more) having him high up the pitch is part of our counter attacking threat.
Posh are quite happy passing across the back line for half an hour so most of that possession was back there. In the first half we pressed really high, forced some mistakes, and for the first 40 or so minutes were the better team for it. Somewhere around 55 / 60 minutes though, we stopped pressing altogether - presumably an instruction from the bench with the goal of changing to a counter attack - but in my opinion it was a mistake. At one point, I was actually unaware that the ball was in play as one of the Peterborough defenders was casually strolling forward with it and we were all casually strolling backwards. I thought I'd missed a refereeing decision and everyone was moving into position for a free kick. If we'd been able to keep up the high press I think we'd have won - that certainly worked twice against them in the league.
The train I was on back to Biscuitville didn't have any jubilant Reading fans on, though there were a fair few Wycombe shirts on evidence on the people getting out at Reading.
Wasn’t too upset - I am devastated and feel so sad for the lads who gave a good account of themselves. Yes the match highlighted the issues we know we have but we were beaten by a freak goal.
Never happy to lose.
Totally, totally agree. Absolutely spot on.
Also very much enjoyed the managers walking out in suits before immediately changing into tracksuits. All very bizarre, but appreciated the effort.
If you could splice Potts and Scowen into one player you would pretty much have the perfect midfielder. Potts needs to learn to either be more physical (which is tough) or to avoid the physical side and focus on his creativity (which is a luxury in the modern game). I think Butcher, Potts and Leahey for next season will be brilliant. A proper left back needs to be recruited as the top priority.
Posh played a very patient game as they were moving the ball from side to side looking for some gaps which they tried to find but were shut down at various points. However, this game plan did cause them problems. From goal-kicks and our high press, they sometimes gave the ball away in difficult positions for them to recover from and this led to a few of our best chances. If there was a stat looking at "Clear-Cut Chances" I think Wycombe would have had more, Posh only had a few and Rav was very good to stop them.
Based on yesterday's performance, if a Prem / High Championship side is willing to pay £5-£10 million for Ronnie Edwards, then Forino is worth that and then some. Their Centre Backs looked weak yesterday and not what you expected from Edwards & Knight
I agree with you 100% @TheAndyGrahamFanClub. If we can keep most of the squad together, our full-backs is the one area that we need to look at to improve. As I mentioned, JJ (prob) won't be here and I'm not sure if McCarthy will be either with his injury record. KVY has spent a long time out with injury. Grimmer is a good right back for our smaller pitch at home however, on the larger & wider pitches, he does struggle against a quicker winger with balls over the top.
Someone my mate brought left before penalties at the Southend game.
That felt bizarre. Though maybe he was the wise one!