Haven't read through the thread yet and appreciate it is a friendly but that really whet the appetite for this season.
Not making any rash predictions as it's a highly competitive league but I think this will be an exciting season.
May need to hold fire on my preconceived ideas on Bakinson as he can certainly play based on that!
Hartridge, Harvie, Bishop all really good signings. Loads more balance with left footed players and Leahy in midfield. Kone looking beast mode out there. A fitter, younger, more athletic team and a good defined shape, we looked a real team tonight.
Great post! I think there are definitely things you can look for in pre-season, and one for me was the ability to manufacture goals. Scoring three, hitting the bar three times, and generally being an absolute nuisance to a Champo side may bode well in that department!
Leahy at the 10 instead of the 3.
Kone with a summer under his belt (and perhaps first claim on the striker role).
Bakinson with some nice, crisp passes.
GMac and Sadlier in full 'twisted blood' mode.
I don't think it means we wallop Wrexham 6-0 out of the blocks, but we looked very cohesive today/tonight.
Having posted that, I do feel compelled to mention some of the "older guard" - Grimmer and GMac looked bang up for it, and Scowen just oozed class, he seems to get better every season. What about that step over in the lead up to the Bakinson shot.
Bloomfield seems to have built up a real united hungry squad and it's great to see.
I hope tonight's back 4 is the same that starts v Wrexham.
I failed miserably to set the match up on my laptop but eventually succeeded on my apple iPhone. Difficult to identify individual players but they all seemed to be pinging the ball around very confidently and coherently on the deck. Some very impressive stuff.
First time I’ve seen players fighting (a couple of times) in a so-called friendly and another feature which we’ve not seen much in recent years was the slide tackle, so easy to mistime, and, in a game threatening to boil over at times, rather a risky tactic.
I’ve a feeling that the slide tackle has become more prominent since the move to Harlington. At the Marlow Road training ground a slide tackle probably risked laceration by flint stone.
Plenty of thoughts about tonight but my biggest takeaway was just how fit we looked. Around the 75th minute mark we looked very sharp and lively, despite making few subs, against a Watford side with plenty of fresh legs.
Matt says we’re against a Chelsea XI tomorrow BCD. And he is cognisant of last season’s disjointed pre-season (as suspected) and has refined approach this season. Some other interesting bits. Worth watching on WanderersTV. Exciting stuff.
After trawling through the posts on their forum where they blamed the heat, here is some interesting Opposition View:
”The way Wycombe played is exactly how millwall will play so in that sense it's good practice!”
”Quick word on Wycombe - I'd honestly consider not playing a "friendly" against them for a very long time after that. They were b3ll3nds throughout, even aside from their tw@ttish goal. The terrible ref didn't help matters though - he didn't card any of them for some nasty challenges early on, then didn't blow his whistle when Hoedt went down badly injured and we stopped playing to call for physio attention. Sure you should normally play to the whistle, but it's meant to be a friendly ffs. Wycombe's antics combined with the ref letting them get away with it really riled our players up and in the end he only bothered to get his yellow cards out when our players acted on their subsequent frustrations.”
“As other posters have said their first was twattish on their behalf, no whistle but a friendly and not a good look. They were also shithousing all game, can't remember so much shirt pulling in a long time and a few efforts to get out lads in trouble, ref seemed to see none of it.”
Valiantly lose to a supposedly bigger team - we become said teams fans second team, lots of credit for the fight and shows how well the opposition did to beat us.
Beat a fairly poor supposedly bigger team - we are a disgrace, who are these upstarts daring to tackle and score against us.
After watching the first goal incident back, i cant see if there is any foul on their player? am i right in thinking it was the same guy who had spat with Kone moments before? to me it looks like he was still wound up and tried to con the ref pretending he was fouled and in fact hurt himself when he threw himself to the floor? quite frankly we had every right to carry on and score. Play to the whistle.
Irrelevant. It was our performance that mattered and even if we had played like that and lost the display gave cause for cautious optimism about the season ahead. I have no idea what team Watford fielded against Gillingham but their squad last night was at full strength.
That was not their full strength squad. Only three of their starters last night played more than 1000 minutes for them last season. Two of those were taken off at half time and replaced with teenagers.
Five. Plus Lubala and Kone would’ve comfortably got 2000+ mins over a full season if they weren’t signed in January.
Watford were missing Asprilla, Sema, Louza, Ngakia. Bachmann (first choice GK) was on the bench. A few others were missing that regularly start for them.
By comparison we were full strength. Only missing Vokes.
It’s not fair to suggest Watford were full strength. Speak to Watford fans and they’ll tell you they’ve got a big issue with injuries at the moment.
Well, I attended the game with a friend who is a Watford season ticket holder and his view - confirmed by the Watford manager on their website this morning- was that they are missing only 3 of their squad because of injury. Anyway, it was our performance that mattered and we still looked impressive against players many of whom are internationals and Championship regulars.
Does anyone know whether Portsmouth played the majority of their regular starters in the “practice match” last Saturday?
If that contest was behind closed doors, as I’m pretty sure it was, we won’t have the benefit of their fans’ feedback of course but, whatever the relative strengths of the selected squads and the number of personnel changes made in the course of the match, seven goals and numerous near misses against two Championship clubs has to be extremely encouraging.
Sorry for stating a FACT that you took the wrong way solely because it was me that made it. It was intended to merely temper expectations as a result of beating a poor Championship side. However, your statement that Watford was at full strength indicates that you didn't do your homework for once. Last seasons regulars missing from their starting 11 yesterday were Bachmann, Louza, Asprilla, Pollock, Sema, Dele Bashira, Kayembe and Bayo. Five of those are full internationals.
I personally believe our current squad will at least make the play offs.
Comments
Thought Hartridge, Harvie & Bishop all looked good especially the 2 defenders.
Barkinson looked a little off the pace but showed some really good touches.
Thought the triallist gave a good account of themselves.
Overall a really good pre-season run out & a decent result.
They have all learned a hard lesson today then about what happens when you come over expecting easy games against bucks boys!!
Do we realistically need the players being linked to us?
Sounds like a generally pretty secure runout
On the face of it.... possibly not..... with our luck with injuries however?..... most certainly so! 😅
Haven't read through the thread yet and appreciate it is a friendly but that really whet the appetite for this season.
Not making any rash predictions as it's a highly competitive league but I think this will be an exciting season.
May need to hold fire on my preconceived ideas on Bakinson as he can certainly play based on that!
Hartridge, Harvie, Bishop all really good signings. Loads more balance with left footed players and Leahy in midfield. Kone looking beast mode out there. A fitter, younger, more athletic team and a good defined shape, we looked a real team tonight.
Great post! I think there are definitely things you can look for in pre-season, and one for me was the ability to manufacture goals. Scoring three, hitting the bar three times, and generally being an absolute nuisance to a Champo side may bode well in that department!
Leahy at the 10 instead of the 3.
Kone with a summer under his belt (and perhaps first claim on the striker role).
Bakinson with some nice, crisp passes.
GMac and Sadlier in full 'twisted blood' mode.
I don't think it means we wallop Wrexham 6-0 out of the blocks, but we looked very cohesive today/tonight.
Having posted that, I do feel compelled to mention some of the "older guard" - Grimmer and GMac looked bang up for it, and Scowen just oozed class, he seems to get better every season. What about that step over in the lead up to the Bakinson shot.
Bloomfield seems to have built up a real united hungry squad and it's great to see.
I hope tonight's back 4 is the same that starts v Wrexham.
I failed miserably to set the match up on my laptop but eventually succeeded on my apple iPhone. Difficult to identify individual players but they all seemed to be pinging the ball around very confidently and coherently on the deck. Some very impressive stuff.
First time I’ve seen players fighting (a couple of times) in a so-called friendly and another feature which we’ve not seen much in recent years was the slide tackle, so easy to mistime, and, in a game threatening to boil over at times, rather a risky tactic.
I’ve a feeling that the slide tackle has become more prominent since the move to Harlington. At the Marlow Road training ground a slide tackle probably risked laceration by flint stone.
Plenty of thoughts about tonight but my biggest takeaway was just how fit we looked. Around the 75th minute mark we looked very sharp and lively, despite making few subs, against a Watford side with plenty of fresh legs.
Matt says we’re against a Chelsea XI tomorrow BCD. And he is cognisant of last season’s disjointed pre-season (as suspected) and has refined approach this season. Some other interesting bits. Worth watching on WanderersTV. Exciting stuff.
That last line took me back to playing for a Marlow based team yonks back.
We had to spend 10mins pre game clearing flints off the pitch!
After trawling through the posts on their forum where they blamed the heat, here is some interesting Opposition View:
”The way Wycombe played is exactly how millwall will play so in that sense it's good practice!”
”Quick word on Wycombe - I'd honestly consider not playing a "friendly" against them for a very long time after that. They were b3ll3nds throughout, even aside from their tw@ttish goal. The terrible ref didn't help matters though - he didn't card any of them for some nasty challenges early on, then didn't blow his whistle when Hoedt went down badly injured and we stopped playing to call for physio attention. Sure you should normally play to the whistle, but it's meant to be a friendly ffs. Wycombe's antics combined with the ref letting them get away with it really riled our players up and in the end he only bothered to get his yellow cards out when our players acted on their subsequent frustrations.”
“As other posters have said their first was twattish on their behalf, no whistle but a friendly and not a good look. They were also shithousing all game, can't remember so much shirt pulling in a long time and a few efforts to get out lads in trouble, ref seemed to see none of it.”
Interesting perspective. I would go as far as saying Watford were one of the most dirty, physical, thuggish teams we’ve played in years.
You should know by now:
Valiantly lose to a supposedly bigger team - we become said teams fans second team, lots of credit for the fight and shows how well the opposition did to beat us.
Beat a fairly poor supposedly bigger team - we are a disgrace, who are these upstarts daring to tackle and score against us.
I'm just hoping the move away from Marlow Rd may lessen our training ground acquired injuries.
After watching the first goal incident back, i cant see if there is any foul on their player? am i right in thinking it was the same guy who had spat with Kone moments before? to me it looks like he was still wound up and tried to con the ref pretending he was fouled and in fact hurt himself when he threw himself to the floor? quite frankly we had every right to carry on and score. Play to the whistle.
I guess we should have not tried so hard and let them win as it was only a friendly.
It was right in front of me - definitely no foul but more of an awkward fall
Gillingham beat them 2-0 so don't read to much into last night's game.
Yes agree with that. Lean and mean all round.
In particular, I thought Sadlier looked much more athletic.
Maybe as result of him consistently getting hooked around the 60-70 minute mark last season, he’s put a bit of extra pre-season work in.
Possibly a lesson learned from last season where we didn't look fully fit until 4 or 5 games in?
Irrelevant. It was our performance that mattered and even if we had played like that and lost the display gave cause for cautious optimism about the season ahead. I have no idea what team Watford fielded against Gillingham but their squad last night was at full strength.
That was not their full strength squad. Only three of their starters last night played more than 1000 minutes for them last season. Two of those were taken off at half time and replaced with teenagers.
How many of our starters played more than 1000 minutes for us last season?
Five. Plus Lubala and Kone would’ve comfortably got 2000+ mins over a full season if they weren’t signed in January.
Watford were missing Asprilla, Sema, Louza, Ngakia. Bachmann (first choice GK) was on the bench. A few others were missing that regularly start for them.
By comparison we were full strength. Only missing Vokes.
It’s not fair to suggest Watford were full strength. Speak to Watford fans and they’ll tell you they’ve got a big issue with injuries at the moment.
Well, I attended the game with a friend who is a Watford season ticket holder and his view - confirmed by the Watford manager on their website this morning- was that they are missing only 3 of their squad because of injury. Anyway, it was our performance that mattered and we still looked impressive against players many of whom are internationals and Championship regulars.
Side note: the replays on last night's stream were mostly infinitely better than they've ever been on iFollow's feed. Promising.
Does anyone know whether Portsmouth played the majority of their regular starters in the “practice match” last Saturday?
If that contest was behind closed doors, as I’m pretty sure it was, we won’t have the benefit of their fans’ feedback of course but, whatever the relative strengths of the selected squads and the number of personnel changes made in the course of the match, seven goals and numerous near misses against two Championship clubs has to be extremely encouraging.
It took us pretty much 1/3 season to register that many goals when we were in the Championship!
Sorry for stating a FACT that you took the wrong way solely because it was me that made it. It was intended to merely temper expectations as a result of beating a poor Championship side. However, your statement that Watford was at full strength indicates that you didn't do your homework for once. Last seasons regulars missing from their starting 11 yesterday were Bachmann, Louza, Asprilla, Pollock, Sema, Dele Bashira, Kayembe and Bayo. Five of those are full internationals.
I personally believe our current squad will at least make the play offs.