To start: Brentford are a bloody good team and there's no shame in losing to them. Well managed and they've done a great job at getting in very talented players. They'll be a Premier League side next year.
That out of the way, that one bloody well hurt. As many have already said, the subs that were made on 53/4 minutes should have been made at least ten, if not 20 minutes later. I know Bowyer probably had Saturday in mind, but you're 0-1 up right now, focus on that. Bringing on Lapslie for Williams with 40 bloody minutes to play including stoppages completely kills your out ball.
Low and behold, we play better with Williams and Field than Pratley and a less mobile striker (though Hemed has looked good) because we can actually pass the ball around at times. And that keeps us from tiring, which keeps us from tiring later in games. Once again, Bowyer asked the team to chase for most of the second half, and low and behold they tired, and Cullen lunged in when he didn't need too (look a nailed on pen for me), and on more than one occasion they left Dasilva unmarked and he finally beat us.
Bowyer needs to be more bold. No, his bench isn't great. But there is a trade off in football, particularly when it comes to resting with the ball. And we seem to have gone the way of giving it away completely and just chasing for the last 30+ minutes of games. And as with Friday, it's a very risky game to play, and when it doesn't work, it looks bad. Again tonight it looked bad.
Huge credit needs to go to Bonne, Field, JFC, and big Naby. All were absolutely excellent. Hope all four start on Saturday. They will be able to show their class against a weaker side in Reading.
I may be Naby Sarr's biggest fan, sure, but I'm sure I speak for many of us when I say that Lockyer, Pearce and Sarr are almost mandatory starters for the rest of the season - we look SO much better. Oshilaja can cover both wing-backs and we can consider our best forward options with that as the extremely solid basis
I do like that combination as a back 3, it's a real shame that Doughty can't last the 90 and that for some reason Purrington is completely out of favour
A disappointing result made doubly disappointing by the fact that we led so long. We ran out of steam in the end and as so often happens the better team punished the weaker one once tiredness set in. I'm not blaming the players, the manager or the subs. I'm not blaming the ref, the penalty or Thomas the Tanks big magnetic whiteboard. It was strength in depth that was our problem. Duchatelet, Nimer, Southall and all associated parasites hold your hands up. This mess is your fault.
A bit of a sickener but there was, realistically only ever going to be one winner after Brentford equalised in the 75th minute. We defended doggedly and with great determination but they attacked relentlessly and we just couldn’t get out, especially with Williams and Doughty no longer on the field. The lads gave everything to chisel out a draw against top class opponents but we inevitably tired - mentally as much as physically - and left their guy free from a short corner to bend in a beautiful cross for the winner.
A sad end to the evening but there were several positives:
- we pushed a very good, in-form side all the way and came close to getting something out of the game;
- we defended well and with great resolution in the face of a second half onslaught, even if the pressure eventually told;
- there was a very good contribution from Jonny Williams in his first meaningful appearance after the restart. A shame he couldn’t last longer than 55 minutes but there should be more to come from him in the last four games;
- a goal from Macauley Bonne and one that will hopefully do him the world of good;
- Luton and Barnsley conveniently played out a draw to keep them 5 and 4 points behind us respectively.
On to the last four games and, hopefully, a win on Saturday against Reading, which will almost certainly set us up for survival.
Things like this need to stop from all teams... Or is Football turning into American Football with four quarters rather than two halves now?
Drinks break my arse.
He was giving them a full on lecture - it's supposed to be a one minute drinks break. How many Brentford players are holding a drinks bottle in that picture?
Bowyer and Jacko use the drinks break to convey tactical messages too. Nowt wrong with this, especially given his side then went on to score twice within ~10 minutes. It's good coaching as far as I'm concerned. Their fullbacks getting so far forward caused us all kinds of problems.
I agree with some of the other posters here - Charlton played well, put ourselves in a great position against the top in-form side in our league but couldn’t quite hold out.
I hope LB is able to use the positives to reignite the side for the next few fixtures. We are clearly competitive - that should be a great motivation for the final few weeks.
PWR - Absolutely gutted by the result after that performance but we have to be proud of the performance put in by the lads. No sensible prediction gave anything but a drubbing. I was certainly worried about the possible effects on our goal difference.
What is for certain is that we weren't as good after the changes. At least the other results today were kind. Let's hope for more of the same tomorrow and Thursday.
We understood Bows defensive subs when playing the kids but options are different atm. He does sometimes opt for the backfoot approach more often than front. Not many teams can play that way and do justice to the great Italian teams of old!
Now the dust has settled here's my two penneth on the game........
Gutted we threw away a lead but as I was expecting a 3-0 defeat overall I'm not too displeased.
I thought the first half team was about the best we've put out since the re-start & would love to see it replicated over the remaining 4 games. Much better with 3 at the back (with Sarr as part of the 3) and Doughty is much better than Oshilaja as a left wing back. Thought the midfield did well but would maybe like to see Morgan in for JFC......but no great shakes if not.
However. All the good work over the first 60 mins was undone by the substitutions. I understand that William's may not be able to play the full 90 AND we were probably looking ahead to Saturdays match & looking to rest legs etc.......but please don't bring on Lapslie to replace Williams ffs ! If you are going to take off about your only attacking midfielder at least replace like for like. Either McGeady, Morgan or Oztumer (who is nowhere to be seen). Having subbed both Williams & Field we lost any momentum that we had & meekly surrenderd the space in front of our 18 yard line. Once that happened the inevitable was likely to happen......which it did.
I don't know if Doughty was injured (didn't look like it to me although he did run into the advertising hoardings so could have been) but I would have pushed him further upfield & put Purrington at LB. He is at least left footed (unlike Oshilaja). Or brought Davison on. Just something a little more attacking so that we could at least move forward with the ball rather than keep getting stuck going nowhere.
Anyways. Still hopefully we can get out of this mess. With Wigan's situation looking a bit clearer I'm hoping that another 4 or 5 points might just do it......as long as we dont lose to Wigan Saturday week. A big 3 games coming up. Stay unbeaten & we will be safe.......and Bows can go back to Leeds knowing that we can let them win. Double bubble for him.
Second half we barely strung two passes together. They have a better squad blah blah blah but you cannot sit on the edge of your box for 45 mins and expect anything else.
To then make subs that create even less of an outlet is once again tactical suicide. Bowyer makes this mistake too much for me, he needs to get out of the cycle.
Shuffle the pack, change shape, whatever it takes to relieve some sort of pressure. Impossible ask of the players.
Luckily other scores went our way tonight.
Lets hope EFL uphold the Wigan points deduction otherwise I think we're goners. We just haven't got the strength in depth, we have numbers but not the quality. It might have been different had a certain striker (in more ways than one) had earned his money & seen out the season. Let's hope he doesn't slip getting out of the shower before he has a chance to sign his supa dupa contract elsewhere.
I can feel the frustration of many on here re: Bowyer’s subs, but it must be very hard to work out what’s best when playing a team like Brentford. When they have that much of the ball it will drain you both physically and mentally. I personally would’ve liked to have seen a like for like sub in McGeady coming on for Williams, or for the subs to have been made a little later so as to not invite pressure, but we had a game plan and although Brentford are night and day ahead of us in terms of quality, we almost got something.
As others have mentioned, the season will be defined by the results against Reading, Brum and Wigan. All 3 of these will be tough and for different reasons from last night, mainly the emphasis on us having to create and score.
Last night for me was a good effort and it was one of those, are we going to get away with it type approaches. We didn’t, and although it’s harder to take having held on for so long, for me the way Brentford play football and the amount it took out of us not to have had the ball for so long, I can’t really complain.
I liked Bonne up top on his own rather than with Hemed. I don’t believe those two have have hit it off and I think Bonne responds to the role of the loan forward more from a psychological point of view. Maybe Bowyer can find a way for McGeady and Williams to play on sat, I don’t know?
Fingers crossed Millwall beat Boro tonight, but you can absolutely see them losing just to complete the misery for us after Friday
Brentford are a very good side and if they can manage to get promoted this year I could see them quickly becoming established in the Premier League with maybe 3 or 4 signings to strengthen. It's no disgrace to lose against them. We put in a very good defensive performance but the chances of withstanding that kind of relentless, withering second half pressure without conceding are very slim.
I thought substituting Jonny looked a bit premature. He was still running strongly and had been one of our best players. Sam Field also played very well but I guess he got hooked because of the knee injury - although tbf that did look a bit innocuous. Macauley had his best game since the resumption and took his goal well.
We need to beat Reading in Saturday. If we match last night's fight and endeavour, but aim to do it further up the pitch, we've got a decent chance. Despite hammering Luton recently, it looks from the possession and shots stats that Reading were thoroughly outplayed by Huddersfield last night.
Sam Field was the big change for me. When he went off, we went from playing well on the counter and fairly comfortable defending to sitting on the edge of the 18 yard. This change exacerbated by JW at the same time.
George Lapslie was the archetypal headless chicken when he came on.
The drinks break by Frank changed the game for them. He moved a CB into midfield and sat Benrahma between 2 blocks. Immediate change as he started to get on the ball in the penalty area.
Brentford clearly score a lot from longshots and so LB style works quite well against them.
Once we lost Dougthy, Field and Williams it was carnage.
I can't fault that effort from all the players, yeah chasing shadows for 60minutes will lead anyone into a mistake.
I don't blame the subs, actually thought all the subs came on and done their bit probably bar chucks but he had a hard task considering he's not actually playing very good.
We earned a point on our goal difference by not getting a hammering.
Great goal, some great switching of play, hit the bar to goal 2nil up against THE best side in the league in my opinion.
I'm sure some of these ur supporters should just pick Liverpool or City to support just to save their health.
I'm still just feel really privileged watching Charlton play when 2months back it was a very remote possibility, let's not forget we were down before they decided to finish the season.
I can feel the frustration of many on here re: Bowyer’s subs, but it must be very hard to work out what’s best when playing a team like Brentford. When they have that much of the ball it will drain you both physically and mentally. I personally would’ve liked to have seen a like for like sub in McGeady coming on for Williams, or for the subs to have been made a little later so as to not invite pressure, but we had a game plan and although Brentford are night and day ahead of us in terms of quality, we almost got something.
As others have mentioned, the season will be defined by the results against Reading, Brum and Wigan. All 3 of these will be tough and for different reasons from last night, mainly the emphasis on us having to create and score.
Last night for me was a good effort and it was one of those, are we going to get away with it type approaches. We didn’t, and although it’s harder to take having held on for so long, for me the way Brentford play football and the amount it took out of us not to have had the ball for so long, I can’t really complain.
I liked Bonne up top on his own rather than with Hemed. I don’t believe those two have have hit it off and I think Bonne responds to the role of the loan forward more from a psychological point of view. Maybe Bowyer can find a way for McGeady and Williams to play on sat, I don’t know?
Fingers crossed Millwall beat Boro tonight, but you can absolutely see them losing just to complete the misery for us after Friday
Bonne by himself worked for the goal as JFC got up to support him, without him being there as well we wouldn't have scored as well
That was something which worked well under Robinson, who got JFC making really good runs into the box from midfield, as they can be hard to defend, and surely Bowyer himself is the perfect person to continue that coaching
Comments
That out of the way, that one bloody well hurt. As many have already said, the subs that were made on 53/4 minutes should have been made at least ten, if not 20 minutes later. I know Bowyer probably had Saturday in mind, but you're 0-1 up right now, focus on that. Bringing on Lapslie for Williams with 40 bloody minutes to play including stoppages completely kills your out ball.
Low and behold, we play better with Williams and Field than Pratley and a less mobile striker (though Hemed has looked good) because we can actually pass the ball around at times. And that keeps us from tiring, which keeps us from tiring later in games. Once again, Bowyer asked the team to chase for most of the second half, and low and behold they tired, and Cullen lunged in when he didn't need too (look a nailed on pen for me), and on more than one occasion they left Dasilva unmarked and he finally beat us.
Bowyer needs to be more bold. No, his bench isn't great. But there is a trade off in football, particularly when it comes to resting with the ball. And we seem to have gone the way of giving it away completely and just chasing for the last 30+ minutes of games. And as with Friday, it's a very risky game to play, and when it doesn't work, it looks bad. Again tonight it looked bad.
Huge credit needs to go to Bonne, Field, JFC, and big Naby. All were absolutely excellent. Hope all four start on Saturday. They will be able to show their class against a weaker side in Reading.
A bit of a sickener but there was, realistically only ever going to be one winner after Brentford equalised in the 75th minute. We defended doggedly and with great determination but they attacked relentlessly and we just couldn’t get out, especially with Williams and Doughty no longer on the field. The lads gave everything to chisel out a draw against top class opponents but we inevitably tired - mentally as much as physically - and left their guy free from a short corner to bend in a beautiful cross for the winner.
A sad end to the evening but there were several positives:
- we pushed a very good, in-form side all the way and came close to getting something out of the game;
- we defended well and with great resolution in the face of a second half onslaught, even if the pressure eventually told;
- there was a very good contribution from Jonny Williams in his first meaningful appearance after the restart. A shame he couldn’t last longer than 55 minutes but there should be more to come from him in the last four games;
- a goal from Macauley Bonne and one that will hopefully do him the world of good;
- Luton and Barnsley conveniently played out a draw to keep them 5 and 4 points behind us respectively.
On to the last four games and, hopefully, a win on Saturday against Reading, which will almost certainly set us up for survival.
What is for certain is that we weren't as good after the changes.
At least the other results today were kind. Let's hope for more of the same tomorrow and Thursday.
Gutted we threw away a lead but as I was expecting a 3-0 defeat overall I'm not too displeased.
I thought the first half team was about the best we've put out since the re-start & would love to see it replicated over the remaining 4 games. Much better with 3 at the back (with Sarr as part of the 3) and Doughty is much better than Oshilaja as a left wing back. Thought the midfield did well but would maybe like to see Morgan in for JFC......but no great shakes if not.
However. All the good work over the first 60 mins was undone by the substitutions. I understand that William's may not be able to play the full 90 AND we were probably looking ahead to Saturdays match & looking to rest legs etc.......but please don't bring on Lapslie to replace Williams ffs ! If you are going to take off about your only attacking midfielder at least replace like for like. Either McGeady, Morgan or Oztumer (who is nowhere to be seen). Having subbed both Williams & Field we lost any momentum that we had & meekly surrenderd the space in front of our 18 yard line. Once that happened the inevitable was likely to happen......which it did.
I don't know if Doughty was injured (didn't look like it to me although he did run into the advertising hoardings so could have been) but I would have pushed him further upfield & put Purrington at LB. He is at least left footed (unlike Oshilaja). Or brought Davison on. Just something a little more attacking so that we could at least move forward with the ball rather than keep getting stuck going nowhere.
Anyways. Still hopefully we can get out of this mess. With Wigan's situation looking a bit clearer I'm hoping that another 4 or 5 points might just do it......as long as we dont lose to Wigan Saturday week. A big 3 games coming up. Stay unbeaten & we will be safe.......and Bows can go back to Leeds knowing that we can let them win. Double bubble for him.
Last night was a free hit really, most people expected nothing and we got nothing.
The next 3 games will define our season. Win 2 and we'll be safe.
think we will need 5/6 points out of remaining 12 without having to Rely on Wigan getting a points deduction.
Only saving grace is everyone around us seems to not be able to score either.
As others have mentioned, the season will be defined by the results against Reading, Brum and Wigan. All 3 of these will be tough and for different reasons from last night, mainly the emphasis on us having to create and score.
I liked Bonne up top on his own rather than with Hemed. I don’t believe those two have have hit it off and I think Bonne responds to the role of the loan forward more from a psychological point of view. Maybe Bowyer can find a way for McGeady and Williams to play on sat, I don’t know?
I thought substituting Jonny looked a bit premature. He was still running strongly and had been one of our best players. Sam Field also played very well but I guess he got hooked because of the knee injury - although tbf that did look a bit innocuous. Macauley had his best game since the resumption and took his goal well.
We need to beat Reading in Saturday. If we match last night's fight and endeavour, but aim to do it further up the pitch, we've got a decent chance. Despite hammering Luton recently, it looks from the possession and shots stats that Reading were thoroughly outplayed by Huddersfield last night.
George Lapslie was the archetypal headless chicken when he came on.
The drinks break by Frank changed the game for them. He moved a CB into midfield and sat Benrahma between 2 blocks. Immediate change as he started to get on the ball in the penalty area.
Brentford clearly score a lot from longshots and so LB style works quite well against them.
Once we lost Dougthy, Field and Williams it was carnage.
I don't blame the subs, actually thought all the subs came on and done their bit probably bar chucks but he had a hard task considering he's not actually playing very good.
We earned a point on our goal difference by not getting a hammering.
Great goal, some great switching of play, hit the bar to goal 2nil up against THE best side in the league in my opinion.
I'm sure some of these ur supporters should just pick Liverpool or City to support just to save their health.
I'm still just feel really privileged watching Charlton play when 2months back it was a very remote possibility, let's not forget we were down before they decided to finish the season.
We won't go down I'm 100% sure.
That was something which worked well under Robinson, who got JFC making really good runs into the box from midfield, as they can be hard to defend, and surely Bowyer himself is the perfect person to continue that coaching
Idiot.