Nothing to add to any comments on todays game,would just like to question that with football for a fiver,crowds increase,so why did our brain dead stadium organisers not see that perhaps just for this game the normally shut mens toilet in the east stand might be needed instead of people having to queue for 10 minutes and then be late getting back for the 2nd half.
Amazing how people see a different game. Blokes in front of me thought Taylor was harshly treated, found 10 times and the ref ignoring it. I disagreed from the outset. I wouldn’t have given a foul for any of them. To be honest, I was surprised Bowyer didn’t take him off near the end. He never looked like scoring anyway.
I think Taylor *was* fouled a couple of times early on, but they weren’t clear enough to be given, and he let that get to him.
But for the last three weeks we’ve been bemoaning his absence, and now he’s back we’re laying into him big time. Perhaps deserved, but also perhaps just a bit OTT?
This is where Bowyer needs to earn his money, and bring about an improvement.
The best I've seen us play this season has been when our strikers have been splitting and pulling wide which dragged their centre backs out of position and created space for Aribo and Fosu to drive into the box from deep.
Obviously Karlan's pace was pretty key to playing this way but the other thing that was key was the make up of the midfield. We had Bielik as the physical presence at the base who ran things. We have ONE passer in Reeves then we had Aribo and Fosu who were under instruction to get into the box.
More recently that make up has changed. We have been playing 3 passers in the diamond none of whom like to drive into the box. Williams at the top of the diamond doesn't work for that reason. This has meant that when the strikers have split there was no one coming through the middle so now they don't bother splitting making us even more narrow as there is no width in this formation.
I know Fosu has gone off the boil of late and he's been a bit hot and cold this season but when he has been on it we have been excellent. The way he drove down the middle against Gills was brilliant.
I don't know the way forward as I don't think split strikers will work well without a Pacey striker.
I would certainly be considering a move to 3 at the back to give us some more width to use that as a way to get balls in to the strikers and allow us to fit in another passing midfielder. Certainly our pattern of play needs to adapt to the players we have available.
Amazing how people see things thought Parker was ok and in fact better than Taylor, Parker won some good headers but Taylor was playing too far away from him to benefit, how many times does Purringtom find himself alone at the back post and not convert.
Taylor doesn't really hold a position - he seems to end up all over the pitch. If the service was better he probably wouldn't feel so desperate to chase the ball down.
We have our Charlton back ? The frustrating team that would make a nun swear. We get over 17K and we get a turkey 1st half and a bum steer in the 2nd.
The first half was the worst 45 minutes I have seen at the Valley this season. If Blackpool were sharp in attack we should have been 3-0 down and game over. Reeves who normally reserves the home games for his best, had a mare with the free kick summing up his 1st half. Williams final ball was shocking from the right in 2nd half. Parker was average but at least tried a couple of shots that were blocked. Taylor has ambitions to be a wrestler and got his mandatory booking. Bauer made more mistakes than he had all season. Cullen always puts in a shift but his passing was poor at times. Phillips kicks were out of the Deano manual. Marshall played well with his pace and industry but the final ball is poor.
Some positives. Purrington is half decent. Dijksteel is strong and will improve with games(hopefully) Aribo had a good game overall on his come back. Igor looked Sharp for 10 minutes.
The shining light other than some skill from Aribo was the best player by a distance in 2019, Naby Sarr.
Football For A Fiver ... big crowd, even bigger disappointment.
As usual, a massive pile of steaming brown stuff gets served up when there's a big occasion.
I don't care what sort of form Blackpool were in coming into this match or how good their defence had been; if we're serious about promotion we must win these matches at home.
It was good to have Aribo back in the side, he'll need to be on top of his game to make up for the rest of the midfield being awful.
Crossing and passing were our weak points today ... again. When we did complete our passes they were often too slow allowing the defence to get back; crosses either hit the first man or sailed over everyone's head.
We need a team of Naby Sarrs: awesone in defence, great moving forward into midfield. He even shew us his shoulder drop this afternoon which left the Blackpool player looking like a mug and opened up the pitch for His Royal Sarrness. The only thing missing from his game at the moment is a goal ... although some (for example, Pearcey on comms last week) have said BeckenSarr is the best finisher at the club.
A few weeks ago our promotion challenge looked like this:
After the last few matches it' starting to turn into this:
The next few weeks (Wombles and Donny away, Pompey at home, and on TV) will be crucial, especially as we're likely to be without Lyle for the Donny and Pomley matches as he's nailed on to get booked against his former club.
I never like Football for a fiver. Full of plastics.
Queues for ticket collection at north stand were ridiculous yesterday.
Anybody wanting to buy buy a ticket for a fiver could walk right up and buy one, but the queue to collect pre-bought tickets stretched back to the club ship.
There were more than a few people in the queue who had bought print at home tickets that had never arrived. I myself would have happily bought print at home tickets and scanned in off my phone, but am sick of them not arriving.
The fact that there is nothing on the website saying:
a) you can use print at home tickets from your phone screen
and
b) that there is a problem with emailing out print bag home tickets and what you should do if yours never arrived (people yesterday queued up for ages only to be told to go to west stand ticket office, or somewhere, when they got to the front)
There is clearly an issue that needs to be fixed with tickets, but poor management isn’t fixing it.
Lets be fair their defenders came and did a job on Lyle to wind him up and it worked and the ref never protected him once.
The problem is Lyle reputation is being noted by defenders and Referees. Yes he was fouled on occasions yesterday but he is making a rod for his own back. He has this habit of getting entangled with the defender every time. Without watching it back on video we can't be sure on all the 10 incidents. Some were clearly fouls. We all love Lyle for his effort but the team talks of our opposition after the Accrington assaults will centre on Taylor's inability to not get involved in a tussle.
Lets be fair their defenders came and did a job on Lyle to wind him up and it worked and the ref never protected him once.
I do party agree. But it's also that Taylor now has a reputation on this league and defenders know about it.
It’s not pretty to watch, but if a defender has been told that he’ll have Taylor in his pocket if he winds him up in first 10 minutes, that defender is going to do it.
Taylor needs to learn to play with his strengths. He could be a 20 goal striker in 3rd division 3 if he thinks more with a football brain instead of feeling hard done by with every tackle or ref decision.
All opinions I know but think it’s crazy Dijksteel is getting so much criticism. Thought he started shaky but had a really strong second half. They tried to attack him but it didn’t work. So they targeted Purrington.
Special note to their assistant. He spent the whole game moaning and trying to get Taylor sent off. Wanker.
Queues for ticket collection at north stand were ridiculous yesterday.
Anybody wanting to buy buy a ticket for a fiver could walk right up and buy one, but the queue to collect pre-bought tickets stretched back to the club ship.
There were more than a few people in the queue who had bought print at home tickets that had never arrived. I myself would have happily bought print at home tickets and scanned in off my phone, but am sick of them not arriving.
The fact that there is nothing on the website saying:
a) you can use print at home tickets from your phone screen
and
b) that there is a problem with emailing out print bag home tickets and what you should do if yours never arrived (people yesterday queued up for ages only to be told to go to west stand ticket office, or somewhere, when they got to the front)
There is clearly an issue that needs to be fixed with tickets, but poor management isn’t fixing it.
lots of people order a cheap promotional ticket for collection or not received a print at home one turn up close to kick off and have to queue shocker... surprised it’s not front page of this morning’s Sun
Lets be fair their defenders came and did a job on Lyle to wind him up and it worked and the ref never protected him once.
I do party agree. But it's also that Taylor now has a reputation on this league and defenders know about it.
It’s not pretty to watch, but if a defender has been told that he’ll have Taylor in his pocket if he winds him up in first 10 minutes, that defender is going to do it.
Taylor needs to learn to play with his strengths. He could be a 20 goal striker in 3rd division 3 if he thinks more with a football brain instead of feeling hard done by with every tackle or ref decision.
It's a Catch 22 situation: Taylor's growing reputation means the refs don't give him the protection and free kicks that are deserved, this then winds him up and he exaggerates the fouls to draw the officials' attention to his treatment, which makes the ref more determined to give nothing.
This culminates in stroppiness from Lyle and more bookings.
A pretty demoralising performance and one where it’s hard to find many positives. Scraping the barrel, I suppose there were a few slivers of consolation:
-we drew a game we could easily have lost, especially after an atrocious first half performance;
-a bravura performance from Joe Aribo, who was head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch. Especially creditable after six weeks out (although it’s tempered by the knowledge that he’s unlikely to be our player next season);
-another clean sheet for Dillon Phillips;
-another assured and classy performance from Naby. As @JamesSeed suggests, put him on free kick duty and get Naby to apply the lash from the edge of the box instead of another inept, floated chip into Row Z by Reeves; and
-Lyle Taylor managed to avoid a second yellow card, despite repeated histrionics, which the fussy and attention-seeking referee could easily have taken exception to. Very immature.
On the negative side:
-we were powderpuff up front. Lyle had by far his worst game for us and poor Josh Parker had a bit of a nightmare;
-the normally excellent Josh Cullen was out of sorts, particularly in the first half, when he seemed to be fazed by Blackpool man-marking him;
-our final ball was, with the exception of Joe Aribo, very poor - as it has been in recent weeks; and
-the insipid performance was unlikely to encourage any of the first-timers to come back for more.
Overall, another very worrying performance from a team with play-off aspirations. All we need now to top off a miserable February is an inept performance at Wimbledon next week (and we’ve had a few of those) - a month that promised so much and has delivered so little.
The highlight of the day was our first visit to The River Ale House on Woolwich Road, a short walk from Westcombe Park and a 20 minute walk from the ground. Excellent beer and bar snacks and a really nice atmosphere - https://mobile.twitter.com/riveralehouse?lang=en
The usual excellent summary from Blucher. We always go to the same game which I like.
Lets be fair their defenders came and did a job on Lyle to wind him up and it worked and the ref never protected him once.
I do party agree. But it's also that Taylor now has a reputation on this league and defenders know about it.
It’s not pretty to watch, but if a defender has been told that he’ll have Taylor in his pocket if he winds him up in first 10 minutes, that defender is going to do it.
Taylor needs to learn to play with his strengths. He could be a 20 goal striker in 3rd division 3 if he thinks more with a football brain instead of feeling hard done by with every tackle or ref decision.
It's a Catch 22 situation: Taylor's growing reputation means the refs don't give him the protection and free kicks that are deserved, this then winds him up and he exaggerates the fouls to draw the officials' attention to his treatment, which makes the ref more determined to give nothing.
This culminates in stroppiness from Lyle and more bookings.
Well, I thought it was worth a fiver just for Sarr's 50yd cross field pass to Marshall , in the 2nd half , that boy has got great skill for a big chap. Shame Marshall couldn't do much with it , but a highlight in an otherwise poor game.
On another matter, I thought Nya Kirby looked impressive for them. A name to watch for the future.
But: what if we did get promoted? Present squad isn't anywhere near good enough to survive in the Championship and Roland has us in limbo...In the event that we went up via the Play-Offs our only chance of survival in the Championship in 2019-2020 would be that the sale of the club (to whoever buys it) finally takes place in June/July and the new owners (whoever they are) put fresh money into the club to keep us at that level. Lot of variables there.
On another matter, I thought Nya Kirby looked impressive for them. A name to watch for the future.
But: what if we did get promoted? Present squad isn't anywhere near good enough to survive in the Championship and Roland has us in limbo...In the event that we went up via the Play-Offs our only chance of survival in the Championship in 2019-2020 would be that the sale of the club (to whoever buys it) finally takes place in June/July and the new owners (whoever they are) put fresh money into the club to keep us at that level. Lot of variables there.
Well, I thought the 2nd half was our best midfield performance of the season. In the past after some pinball victories I remember reading glowing reports here and thinking ahh really yeah....? I suppose so... Last night the team was driving forward as a unit with penetration, some one touches and our wingers got behind their defence on many occasions.
We didn't score...
But if we play like this in the future (Sarr as Libro, Taylor and Parker as team) we will.
Sorry, which game are you talking about ? I'm sure you're on the wrong thread :-) .
And typical football for a fiver day kid a few rows in front spent the whole game on a tablet
Surely that's a rather pathetic comment, mate.
Would you rather have said youngster running /climbing around , kicking the seat in front, screeching & whinging all the time etc etc ?
Whilst I'd rather our youngest grandson ( 3yrs) watched the whole 90 minutes enraptured by the scintillating action on the pitch , that was always unlikely to happen.
So, after being very good, sitting in his seat etc for around 60 mins, he then turned to watching Peter Rabbit on his Mum's ipad, whilst sitting on her lap....
We need the next generation to become Addickted.
And hence, have to put up with a modicum of "annoying" behaviour ....such as quietly using an ipad during a match.
Don't believe that lad was spoiling your afternoon.
And typical football for a fiver day kid a few rows in front spent the whole game on a tablet
Surely that's a rather pathetic comment, mate.
Would you rather have said youngster running /climbing around , kicking the seat in front, screeching & whinging all the time etc etc ?
Whilst I'd rather our youngest grandson ( 3yrs) watched the whole 90 minutes enraptured by the scintillating action on the pitch , that was always unlikely to happen.
So, after being very good, sitting in his seat etc for around 60 mins, he then turned to watching Peter Rabbit on his Mum's ipad, whilst sitting on her lap....
We need the next generation to become Addickted.
And hence, have to put up with a modicum of "annoying" behaviour ....such as quietly using an ipad during a match.
Don't believe that lad was spoiling your afternoon.
And typical football for a fiver day kid a few rows in front spent the whole game on a tablet
Surely that's a rather pathetic comment, mate.
Would you rather have said youngster running /climbing around , kicking the seat in front, screeching & whinging all the time etc etc ?
Whilst I'd rather our youngest grandson ( 3yrs) watched the whole 90 minutes enraptured by the scintillating action on the pitch , that was always unlikely to happen.
So, after being very good, sitting in his seat etc for around 60 mins, he then turned to watching Peter Rabbit on his Mum's ipad, whilst sitting on her lap....
We need the next generation to become Addickted.
And hence, have to put up with a modicum of "annoying" behaviour ....such as quietly using an ipad during a match.
Don't believe that lad was spoiling your afternoon.
Agree Fanny when i started taking my son, i arrived prearmed with pencils and paper to keep him occupied, pre internet.
The real real football for a fiver people were the guy sat behind me trying to impress his girl spouting nonsense. Thank god for old age and the ability to take out my hearing aid.
And typical football for a fiver day kid a few rows in front spent the whole game on a tablet
Surely that's a rather pathetic comment, mate.
Would you rather have said youngster running /climbing around , kicking the seat in front, screeching & whinging all the time etc etc ?
Whilst I'd rather our youngest grandson ( 3yrs) watched the whole 90 minutes enraptured by the scintillating action on the pitch , that was always unlikely to happen.
So, after being very good, sitting in his seat etc for around 60 mins, he then turned to watching Peter Rabbit on his Mum's ipad, whilst sitting on her lap....
We need the next generation to become Addickted.
And hence, have to put up with a modicum of "annoying" behaviour ....such as quietly using an ipad during a match.
Don't believe that lad was spoiling your afternoon.
Agree Fanny when i started taking my son, i arrived prearmed with pencils and paper to keep him occupied, pre internet.
The real real football for a fiver people were the guy sat behind me trying to impress his girl spouting nonsense. Thank god for old age and the ability to take out my hearing aid.
Each to their own Kap, but I couldn't imagine taking my young child to a football match, armed with pencils and paper to keep them occupied!! I personally just don't get that at all. Take them when they are ready and want to go.
Started taking my son when he was 5 (17 years ago), but only when I felt he was ready and he wanted to go. It's not affected his allegiance at all and he is still a home and away regular. Quite admirable when you consider he's lived all of his 22 years (bar the first 3 months) in Norwich.
Not a criticism at all by the way, I just wouldn't take a child to football if I felt I needed to facilitate extra-curricular activity to keep them occupied.
I may of missed it because I struggle to read all the comments after a lukewarm performance ?
Why wasn't Fosu on the bench ? Other than the fact he has been Harriottesque for most of this season. I agree with Chris Solly that he is the most skilful player at the club But he has an inability to make the right call when to stick or twist.
Sad to think that the player who picked up the mantle from Ricky Holmes is now struggling to get in the 18.
The old man just gave us a a clip round the ear and a look to promise more to come if me or my brother didn't stop farting about start and watched the generally piss poor action on the pitch... didn't do me any harm!
Hello. great day out and the football wasn't bad either. Started and ended the day drinking in Blackheath and the mood was buzzing. Easy transit to the ground but you really need to sort the away concourse out, it gets far too packed. I thought our crowd (over 550 which is pretty decent) were a bit subdued but we were either drunk or confused at focusing on football again.
Thought we started really well and it took you 20 mins plus to get on even terms. You started the 2nd all guns blazing and I really felt you'd score but our defence was, again magnificent. The game then evened put and a draw was a very fair result. Another great away point after our draw at Sunderland and we live in hope of sneaking into the play offs.
For you, the centre back, Sarr ? was immense, the little winger on the left looked lively and Taylor needs a slap. Such a talented player but far too many histrionics. Great noise for the start of the 2nd from the north stand and, as usual, a very friendly away day.
Comments
But for the last three weeks we’ve been bemoaning his absence, and now he’s back we’re laying into him big time. Perhaps deserved, but also perhaps just a bit OTT?
This is where Bowyer needs to earn his money, and bring about an improvement.
The best I've seen us play this season has been when our strikers have been splitting and pulling wide which dragged their centre backs out of position and created space for Aribo and Fosu to drive into the box from deep.
Obviously Karlan's pace was pretty key to playing this way but the other thing that was key was the make up of the midfield. We had Bielik as the physical presence at the base who ran things. We have ONE passer in Reeves then we had Aribo and Fosu who were under instruction to get into the box.
More recently that make up has changed. We have been playing 3 passers in the diamond none of whom like to drive into the box. Williams at the top of the diamond doesn't work for that reason. This has meant that when the strikers have split there was no one coming through the middle so now they don't bother splitting making us even more narrow as there is no width in this formation.
I know Fosu has gone off the boil of late and he's been a bit hot and cold this season but when he has been on it we have been excellent. The way he drove down the middle against Gills was brilliant.
I don't know the way forward as I don't think split strikers will work well without a Pacey striker.
I would certainly be considering a move to 3 at the back to give us some more width to use that as a way to get balls in to the strikers and allow us to fit in another passing midfielder. Certainly our pattern of play needs to adapt to the players we have available.
The frustrating team that would make a nun swear. We get over 17K and we get a turkey 1st half and a bum steer in the 2nd.
The first half was the worst 45 minutes I have seen at the Valley this season. If Blackpool were sharp in attack we should have been 3-0 down and game over.
Reeves who normally reserves the home games for his best, had a mare with the free kick summing up his 1st half.
Williams final ball was shocking from the right in 2nd half.
Parker was average but at least tried a couple of shots that were blocked.
Taylor has ambitions to be a wrestler and got his mandatory booking.
Bauer made more mistakes than he had all season.
Cullen always puts in a shift but his passing was poor at times.
Phillips kicks were out of the Deano manual.
Marshall played well with his pace and industry but the final ball is poor.
Some positives.
Purrington is half decent.
Dijksteel is strong and will improve with games(hopefully)
Aribo had a good game overall on his come back.
Igor looked Sharp for 10 minutes.
The shining light other than some skill from Aribo was the best player by a distance in 2019, Naby Sarr.
Anybody wanting to buy buy a ticket for a fiver could walk right up and buy one, but the queue to collect pre-bought tickets stretched back to the club ship.
There were more than a few people in the queue who had bought print at home tickets that had never arrived. I myself would have happily bought print at home tickets and scanned in off my phone, but am sick of them not arriving.
The fact that there is nothing on the website saying:
a) you can use print at home tickets from your phone screen
and
b) that there is a problem with emailing out print bag home tickets and what you should do if yours never arrived (people yesterday queued up for ages only to be told to go to west stand ticket office, or somewhere, when they got to the front)
There is clearly an issue that needs to be fixed with tickets, but poor management isn’t fixing it.
Yes he was fouled on occasions yesterday but he is making a rod for his own back.
He has this habit of getting entangled with the defender every time. Without watching it back on video we can't be sure on all the 10 incidents. Some were clearly fouls. We all love Lyle for his effort but the team talks of our opposition after the Accrington assaults will centre on Taylor's inability to not get involved in a tussle.
It’s not pretty to watch, but if a defender has been told that he’ll have Taylor in his pocket if he winds him up in first 10 minutes, that defender is going to do it.
Taylor needs to learn to play with his strengths. He could be a 20 goal striker in 3rd division 3 if he thinks more with a football brain instead of feeling hard done by with every tackle or ref decision.
Special note to their assistant. He spent the whole game moaning and trying to get Taylor sent off. Wanker.
This culminates in stroppiness from Lyle and more bookings.
Aribo was clearly our best player for the first 60/70 mins.
Understandably having been out for 6/7 weeks, he faded a bit towards the end and Sarr who grew in stature, possibly shaded him for MOM.
However, I thought it was an outstanding performance for a young lad who has been out injured for so long.
I'm sure you're on the wrong thread :-) .
Would you rather have said youngster running /climbing around , kicking the seat in front, screeching & whinging all the time etc etc ?
Whilst I'd rather our youngest grandson ( 3yrs) watched the whole 90 minutes enraptured by the scintillating action on the pitch , that was always unlikely to happen.
So, after being very good, sitting in his seat etc for around 60 mins, he then turned to watching Peter Rabbit on his Mum's ipad, whilst sitting on her lap....
We need the next generation to become Addickted.
And hence, have to put up with a modicum of "annoying" behaviour ....such as quietly using an ipad during a match.
Don't believe that lad was spoiling your afternoon.
The real real football for a fiver people were the guy sat behind me trying to impress his girl spouting nonsense. Thank god for old age and the ability to take out my hearing aid.
Started taking my son when he was 5 (17 years ago), but only when I felt he was ready and he wanted to go. It's not affected his allegiance at all and he is still a home and away regular. Quite admirable when you consider he's lived all of his 22 years (bar the first 3 months) in Norwich.
Not a criticism at all by the way, I just wouldn't take a child to football if I felt I needed to facilitate extra-curricular activity to keep them occupied.
Why wasn't Fosu on the bench ?
Other than the fact he has been Harriottesque for most of this season.
I agree with Chris Solly that he is the most skilful player at the club But he has an inability to make the right call when to stick or twist.
Sad to think that the player who picked up the mantle from Ricky Holmes is now struggling to get in the 18.
Hello. great day out and the football wasn't bad either. Started and ended the day drinking in Blackheath and the mood was buzzing. Easy transit to the ground but you really need to sort the away concourse out, it gets far too packed. I thought our crowd (over 550 which is pretty decent) were a bit subdued but we were either drunk or confused at focusing on football again.
Thought we started really well and it took you 20 mins plus to get on even terms. You started the 2nd all guns blazing and I really felt you'd score but our defence was, again magnificent. The game then evened put and a draw was a very fair result. Another great away point after our draw at Sunderland and we live in hope of sneaking into the play offs.
For you, the centre back, Sarr ? was immense, the little winger on the left looked lively and Taylor needs a slap. Such a talented player but far too many histrionics. Great noise for the start of the 2nd from the north stand and, as usual, a very friendly away day.
Good luck for the rest of the season.....