Agree with SHG, at what point this season have we proven to be a first or second placed team in this poxy shit league? Too many key injuries, regular naff performances and sporadically naive management. Saying that we should be capable of a stab at the playoffs.
All in all a slow uninteresting Boxing day, "topped off" by an insipid Charlton bank holiday result. Onto the next one.
We are too inconsistent and thankfully so, are most of the sides in this division. I accept we have a long list of injuries and possibly Bowyer scored a bit of an own goal when he let his intentions be known to players like Ajose and Marshall that they were surplus to requirements. Neither of those players seem remotely interested in the games I've watched and possibly, arguably, they should have been competing for places in our side with more of a purpose. Ajose 2 seasons back scored a hat-full for Swindon and when we signed Marshall from Bradford, a lot of their fans said we'd signed a real player at this level. I can't help but think if we had those 2 on song, we'd be turning more results in our favour than we currently are.
That said, Bowyer has worked wonders under the tight and uninterested Belgian and whilst we have only lost twice in 9, it is so frustrating and almost undoes the efforts at places like Fratton Park. I expect they will go on and turn in a masterclass at Barnsley now.
Crap performance, all looked leggy and lacklustre, Fosu back to his worst for us, never passing quickly and giving the ball away in dangerous positions, Pratley, despite the goal, looked pretty poor and wasn't a worthy replacement for Aribo. Need another player who can create things from a deeper position, Fosu and Reeves really let us down in that regard
This.
Should never have taken Bielik off. Chucking a kid on to help us hold the game is not going to help him develop.
Not just a kid, but a kid who lacks positional discipline and has not looked good in the middle two in a flat 4-4-2. Also, given the collision I'm a bit worried about his concussion.
A poor performance. We have tended to play to the level of our opposition, and I think at times moments have quality have meant it hasn't caught up to us. But today it did. We had a maybe 5-10 minute spell where we were decent, but apart from that, listless.
Pearce at fault for both goals for me. Fosu was poor. Pratley looks like a 20-year-old while Bielik continues to look like an experienced player. Only Bielik, Bauer, Steer, and Reeves were decent for me.
We need to get better at controlling games. Sometimes that means just knocking the ball around to relieve pressure, particularly away from home. We tend to drop off and invite teams on to us, and while that sometimes works in the form of a bend don't break defense, when teams have a quick and mobile attack as we saw today, they cause us problems when our CBs get turned.
If there is a bright side, it's that Coventry seem to be able to expose a lot of our weaknesses in a way other teams largely haven't.
If we can make the play offs and get Cullen, Grant, Aribo, Lapslie, Clarke, Vetekeole, Ward and Page back and fit and fresh we will have a very decent chance.
Get to the Championship and RD will realise his best chance of getting his cash back is us in the PL and drop £100m more on transfers and wages as we cruise the division next season.
Disappointed with what sounds a poor performance but not going to go overboard. The odd under par result is to be expected, just feel for those who made the trip.
Real problem is that we’ve got another tough one Saturday and our fit squad is getting smaller by the day.
If we can make the play offs and get Cullen, Grant, Aribo, Lapslie, Clarke, Vetekeole, Ward and Page back and fit and fresh we will have a very decent chance.
Get to the Championship and RD will realise his best chance of getting his cash back is us in the PL and drop £100m more on transfers and wages as we cruise the division next season.
We’re top eight not top two. We’ve proved already we are not incapable of a really dodgy result. Forget the top two shit. Let’s concentrate on getting into and winning the playoffs.
I wouldn't be so downbeat, Shooters.
It's League One. We've got some good players for the standard of division. We've been winning games with only half a team. We've got more midfielders injured than available to play. Maybe Bowyer needs to adapt his formation to suit the players actually available .... but then he's the manager, I'll leave that to him.
We're still 4th in the division. Some of our rivals won today, some of them lost. Long way to go yet. Let's just enjoy the ride and see what happens.
We are fourth after a brilliant run of form that I think we're unlikely to repeat this season.
For me, it's less about that than it is about performances. How many times have we really dominated games this season? Even 60 minutes of games. Looking back at the last few, not today, first half against Gills we were good (after first 5 minutes). We were quite good against AFCW but they were woeful. Against Pompey they absolutely battered us in the second half and we hung on. Maybe Walsall, going back about six-seven weeks. And I think that means we should expect a drop off in results rather than an improvement.
Now, obviously the bright side is that we keep getting results. But we can't keep expecting that when we play to the opposition's level.
I think playoffs would be a good result for a squad that lacks balance and strength in certain areas, along with a management team (of two) in their second full seasons in coaching. But short of drastic improvement the kind of which I haven't really seen signs for, I think top six-eight is about our level.
They’ve been brilliant over the last 6/7 games. Brush yourselves down lads, realise this is a great opportunity to push on and get automatic promotion....and go again.
Seemed to us that the pitch played a part in this result. It looked OK from the stand, but when the back 5 tried their passing business the ball was bobbling quite a lot. They seem to ditch doing that part way through the first half, having to play longer balls which meant midfield couldn't control things as easily.
Frustrated by this result. Bowyer turned it round post Blackpool and we’ve just won 7 out of 8 so I wouldn’t put it past him to get us up and firing again. However, doing this without Aribo and now Lapslie will be a tall order. Barnsley unbeaten in 15 at home
Is he having a laugh, we've played 3 games in 11 days! That's hardly a packed schedule.
It is when you're not able to play so many of your 1st choice players, and there's no one else to bring in to make changes ..... bar untried kids. And you've picked up another injury, there's players carrying niggles like Taylor and Grant - plus others like Solly and Pearce who shouldn't really be playing twice a week.
Three days until the next game, away against a promotion rival. It's bare bones time again. I don't believe he's having a laugh.
At the game, think I'll stop going for a while because the last few times I've watched us in person we have looked woeful. Just didn't ride our luck today.
Same old cliche of they looked like the team fighting for promotion we looked like the mid table strugglers. Midfield was awful except Bielik who I thought looked like the best player on the pitch. Pratley is a fridge freezer, don't care if he scored if we had a better player we would get the ball moving quicker and get more chances. Reeves weren't bad when he was on, Fosu was crap. Less said about Ajose the better.
I don't know what else to say really. Certain players are more than good enough to be promotion contenders and could play at the level above (Taylor, Grant, Aribo etc) and certain players we could replace with non league and it wouldn't make a difference (Pratley, Ajose, Fosu(based on today's performance).
If we had a midfield 3 every game of Cullen, Aribo and Bielik I would say we would finish inside play offs with ten games to go, but we are too much of a patchwork team to make it that comfortable. I reckon anywhere between 4/6th is a very decent season for us sadly and then it's the lottery. Luton, Sunderland and Pompey look the obvious ones for autos.
I don't buy Aribo's injury either, when he got injured it didn't seem that bad, I reckon he is gone in January, hopefully I'm wrong.
At the game. Very poor flat performance. No player stood out and I wouldn’t give anyone more than a unremarkable 5.5 out of 10. Very disappointed in Reeves today.....after Saturday I was looking for another stand out playmaking performance.....instead he was inexplicably a shadow of the player we know he can be. Although Coventry were the better side overall, it wasn’t really by that much of a distance to have warranted a victory. On 90 minutes the board was put up for 5 minutes extra time. After about 1min 30 secs the injury to their player held up play for nigh on 10 minutes. But that should of course have had no bearing on the 3 + minutes remaining. On resumption of play he played for approximately a further minute. I and the other guys I was with were amazed he blew up for full time as there was clearly at least another 2 minutes or so to go and we were trying our damndest to throw the kitchen sink at them.....very disappointing piece of refereeing to be honest.
Someone on Player Marks has given Pearce a full 3 points more than Reeves, which I think is fairly cast-iron proof that some people like to mark on reputation rather than the empirical evidence of having, y'know, watched the actual game. Pearce is having a good season but he is far from perfect even at this level and his flaws were on full display today. Hopefully he goes back to his better self at Barnsley
At the game. Very poor flat performance. No player stood out and I wouldn’t give anyone more than a unremarkable 5.5 out of 10. Very disappointed in Reeves today.....after Saturday I was looking for another stand out playmaking performance.....instead he was inexplicably a shadow of the player we know he can be. Although Coventry were the better side overall, it wasn’t really by that much of a distance to have warranted a victory. On 90 minutes the board was put up for 5 minutes extra time. After about 1min 30 secs the injury to their player held up play for nigh on 10 minutes. But that should of course have had no bearing on the 3 + minutes remaining. On resumption of play he played for approximately a further minute. I and the other guys I was with were amazed he blew up for full time as there was clearly at least another 2 minutes or so to go and we were trying our damndest to throw the kitchen sink at them.....very disappointing piece of refereeing to be honest.
Agree on the ref front, I felt the ref had a perfect game up until that point. Not saying that we would have got anything anyway but we must have only for 2 minutes or so of the 5, anything could have happened
PWR. Just got back. Pretty poor, we missed Aribo. No complaints about the result which means Coventry City have done the double over us. Coventry weren't cynical or rubbish, they were like a lot of the more honest teams in this division who work hard, maximise what they have, and there is always one or two who can hurt you. Worried about their player who was carried off, and also for young George with two successive head injuries. can't see him playing for a couple of weeks at the very least. Not much to say beyond a feeling of disappointment after the schlepp, and thinking we have to now win at Barnsley which is a big ask. The positives for us were the introduction of Marshall and to an extent Grant which improved our second half performance. I am actually not that sure that either of Ajose's feet actually touched the ball in the first half. Belik was probably our best player in a team that looked pretty fatigued. I wrote at half time about this, but we are having a series of away games, like Rochdale, Blackpool and now today where we were poor and to an extent not well prepared by the management. Thinking we have good players and that should be enough only gets you so far, opponents should still garner respect when regarding their style, strengths and weaknesses, and the quality of any individual players they have. Thinking that maybe man for man you're better without added extras is a recipe for failure in this league, we are not playing mug footballers and against mug clubs with mug managers. Yes today might have been a draw, a win even due to something or another, but it was Coventry who had the something, they who had the 'another' and they now have the three points.
Reeves was pretty good and I was amazed when he came off tbh
Bowyer said he altered the formation a bit ....... flattened the diamond to play 2 widemen, to counter the oppos exposing our fullbacks. Marshall is a strong runner, hard working, able to stretch play and cover his fullback.
You can see his thinking .... plus keeping Reeves more fresh for the next game in 3 days time.
It's a shame that Aribo was missing . And that Fosu on the other wing was so ineffective.
Comments
All in all a slow uninteresting Boxing day, "topped off" by an insipid Charlton bank holiday result. Onto the next one.
That said, Bowyer has worked wonders under the tight and uninterested Belgian and whilst we have only lost twice in 9, it is so frustrating and almost undoes the efforts at places like Fratton Park. I expect they will go on and turn in a masterclass at Barnsley now.
A poor performance. We have tended to play to the level of our opposition, and I think at times moments have quality have meant it hasn't caught up to us. But today it did. We had a maybe 5-10 minute spell where we were decent, but apart from that, listless.
Pearce at fault for both goals for me. Fosu was poor. Pratley looks like a 20-year-old while Bielik continues to look like an experienced player. Only Bielik, Bauer, Steer, and Reeves were decent for me.
We need to get better at controlling games. Sometimes that means just knocking the ball around to relieve pressure, particularly away from home. We tend to drop off and invite teams on to us, and while that sometimes works in the form of a bend don't break defense, when teams have a quick and mobile attack as we saw today, they cause us problems when our CBs get turned.
If there is a bright side, it's that Coventry seem to be able to expose a lot of our weaknesses in a way other teams largely haven't.
Get to the Championship and RD will realise his best chance of getting his cash back is us in the PL and drop £100m more on transfers and wages as we cruise the division next season.
Real problem is that we’ve got another tough one Saturday and our fit squad is getting smaller by the day.
For me, it's less about that than it is about performances. How many times have we really dominated games this season? Even 60 minutes of games. Looking back at the last few, not today, first half against Gills we were good (after first 5 minutes). We were quite good against AFCW but they were woeful. Against Pompey they absolutely battered us in the second half and we hung on. Maybe Walsall, going back about six-seven weeks. And I think that means we should expect a drop off in results rather than an improvement.
Now, obviously the bright side is that we keep getting results. But we can't keep expecting that when we play to the opposition's level.
I think playoffs would be a good result for a squad that lacks balance and strength in certain areas, along with a management team (of two) in their second full seasons in coaching. But short of drastic improvement the kind of which I haven't really seen signs for, I think top six-eight is about our level.
COYRs
These injuries are depressing me
And you've picked up another injury, there's players carrying niggles like Taylor and Grant - plus others like Solly and Pearce who shouldn't really be playing twice a week.
Three days until the next game, away against a promotion rival. It's bare bones time again. I don't believe he's having a laugh.
astonishing decision to take our only effective midfield off, hope he’s not hurt?
Coventry pressed us when they could and played wide, cheating really!
Inevitable they scored 2nd half.
A long drive for little return, but that’s Charlton for you!
Same old cliche of they looked like the team fighting for promotion we looked like the mid table strugglers. Midfield was awful except Bielik who I thought looked like the best player on the pitch. Pratley is a fridge freezer, don't care if he scored if we had a better player we would get the ball moving quicker and get more chances. Reeves weren't bad when he was on, Fosu was crap. Less said about Ajose the better.
I don't know what else to say really. Certain players are more than good enough to be promotion contenders and could play at the level above (Taylor, Grant, Aribo etc) and certain players we could replace with non league and it wouldn't make a difference (Pratley, Ajose, Fosu(based on today's performance).
If we had a midfield 3 every game of Cullen, Aribo and Bielik I would say we would finish inside play offs with ten games to go, but we are too much of a patchwork team to make it that comfortable. I reckon anywhere between 4/6th is a very decent season for us sadly and then it's the lottery. Luton, Sunderland and Pompey look the obvious ones for autos.
I don't buy Aribo's injury either, when he got injured it didn't seem that bad, I reckon he is gone in January, hopefully I'm wrong.
Very poor flat performance.
No player stood out and I wouldn’t give anyone more than a unremarkable 5.5 out of 10.
Very disappointed in Reeves today.....after Saturday I was looking for another stand out playmaking performance.....instead he was inexplicably a shadow of the player we know he can be.
Although Coventry were the better side overall, it wasn’t really by that much of a distance to have warranted a victory.
On 90 minutes the board was put up for 5 minutes extra time. After about 1min 30 secs the injury to their player held up play for nigh on 10 minutes. But that should of course have had no bearing on the 3 + minutes remaining. On resumption of play he played for approximately a further minute. I and the other guys I was with were amazed he blew up for full time as there was clearly at least another 2 minutes or so to go and we were trying our damndest to throw the kitchen sink at them.....very disappointing piece of refereeing to be honest.
Just got back.
Pretty poor, we missed Aribo. No complaints about the result which means Coventry City have done the double over us.
Coventry weren't cynical or rubbish, they were like a lot of the more honest teams in this division who work hard, maximise what they have, and there is always one or two who can hurt you.
Worried about their player who was carried off, and also for young George with two successive head injuries. can't see him playing for a couple of weeks at the very least.
Not much to say beyond a feeling of disappointment after the schlepp, and thinking we have to now win at Barnsley which is a big ask.
The positives for us were the introduction of Marshall and to an extent Grant which improved our second half performance. I am actually not that sure that either of Ajose's feet actually touched the ball in the first half. Belik was probably our best player in a team that looked pretty fatigued.
I wrote at half time about this, but we are having a series of away games, like Rochdale, Blackpool and now today where we were poor and to an extent not well prepared by the management.
Thinking we have good players and that should be enough only gets you so far, opponents should still garner respect when regarding their style, strengths and weaknesses, and the quality of any individual players they have. Thinking that maybe man for man you're better without added extras is a recipe for failure in this league, we are not playing mug footballers and against mug clubs with mug managers.
Yes today might have been a draw, a win even due to something or another, but it was Coventry who had the something, they who had the 'another' and they now have the three points.
Marshall is a strong runner, hard working, able to stretch play and cover his fullback.
You can see his thinking .... plus keeping Reeves more fresh for the next game in 3 days time.
It's a shame that Aribo was missing . And that Fosu on the other wing was so ineffective.