Not a classic anyway but the game was spoiled by over-officious refereeing. A ridiculous number of yellow cards in what was a competitive but never nasty match.
We improved in the second half and might well have grabbed an equaliser but overall I don’t feel we can complain too much about the result. Feel bad for Camara - that was a bad error for their goal but otherwise he was decent.
Jack Payne doesn’t deserve all the brickbats he gets on here. He obviously lacks physicality but in my opinion he was one of our better players today. Tayo Edun had another very strong cameo. I’m looking forward to seeing him play when he’s fully fit and integrated.
But more than anything else, today confirmed that we badly need a few quality additions. Without reinforcements our squad is top ten at best. I remain hopeful that the squad going into September will be substantially stronger than the one we saw today.
The issue with Payne is he’s an attacking midfielder or winger who doesn’t create enough, whether it’s for himself or others. If he started every game I wouldn’t expect him to get into double figures for goals or assists. In his position he needs to be more of a threat.
Frustrating performance because I can see genuine seeds of quality in there. A good partner for May, remove the stupid mistakes, even a week or two more to get fitness up and this team could be pretty good.
There's some very obvious weaknesses still and the depth isn't there for a whole season but we're very close to a good thing, but not close enough yet.
Don’t you come on here suggesting there’s green shoots of recovery, I’ve just sharpened my pitchfork and the torch is ready to set light to. Just need to know where we are all meeting up 😉.
If we make 4 or 5 decent signings, even 3 or 4, what we have is bloody good to build on. I understand that to get the good ones you might have to wait but we will drop points in the meantime so the sooner the better.
On train back to Norwich. Just very typical. Highlights to new owners where we are and challenging this season very unlikely unless decent investment. Though we were better team second half but toothless. Never confident we would score.
Frustrating performance because I can see genuine seeds of quality in there. A good partner for May, remove the stupid mistakes, even a week or two more to get fitness up and this team could be pretty good.
There's some very obvious weaknesses still and the depth isn't there for a whole season but we're very close to a good thing, but not close enough yet.
This line or similar is repeated every season and I don't believe we've ever been to being good as people think.
Five players short of giving it a good go in my opinion. Nothing up front again. Didn’t deserve to lose but we gifted them the goal . Can’t stand seeing Payne run around like a headless chicken anymore. Also shown that whilst Anderson could have a good career, he isn’t ready yet
Missed the first 20 mins due to a dodgy stream. Hard to know what to make of it all. The temptation is to mump, moan and wet the bed but we should very easily have returned with at least a point. Too early to draw firm conclusions. Without rapid investment this squad looks way short of top six, especially given our injury curse. But the irony is that with Leaburn back and our best 11 all fit and well practised we could easily be decent. The problem is of course that by the time we do that we will be 15 points adrift and playing catch up. And we have very little depth. He wasn’t the worst today but Kirk and his mate DJ and the likes of Payne need jettisoning and the yoof is willing but should be used sparingly and occasionally. Some of the new guys look like an upgrade on last year - Camara despite his howler today and Edun certainly and I’m reserving judgement on Lloyd who has a bit of the Harry McGuire school of clumsiness about him. It is perhaps a bit much to expect everything to fall into place just because there has been a takeover. Next season is probably the one where we should have expectations. But it would only take a couple of decent signings and a bit of luck with injuries to have us hoping. The first should be in hand, the second - Nurse!!!!!!!
I’m surprisingly encouraged. Peterborough will be in or around the play-offs come the end of the season and we more than matched them, despite it being glaringly obvious to all that we’re 3-4 players short of where we need to be.
I’m surprisingly encouraged. Peterborough will be in or around the play-offs come the end of the season and we more than matched them, despite it being glaringly obvious to all that we’re 3-4 players short of where we need to be.
Am I the only one that thought it was pretty clear their players on the whole were better than ours?
They had more technical ability and played it around us quite nicely.
Sure the game was even but comparing the two sides they were better.
I’m surprisingly encouraged. Peterborough will be in or around the play-offs come the end of the season and we more than matched them, despite it being glaringly obvious to all that we’re 3-4 players short of where we need to be.
Am I the only one that thought it was pretty clear their players on the whole were better than ours?
They had more technical ability and played it around us quite nicely.
Sure the game was even but comparing the two sides they were better.
I thought over the whole game, we shaded it. They have different strengths and weaknesses to us. If we had a cutting edge we would have beaten them. A couple of players could address that.
May is lively but he needs service Dobson is quality but he can't do it all himself Payne, and Kirk. If they were just squad players we'd be ok. But they aren't. We need better. Our attacking options are very poor.
Defensively we're average. Therefore we need to improve that but going forward we simply have no invention.
Nobody to play between the lines. Nobody to do something different, something creative.
Taylor will improve set pieces. Leaburn will help the attacking line but if we rely on Fraser and CBT for impetus, we simply won't have enough.
JCH did fuck all today yet still hit the post. Their 22 was different gravy. We are behind Peterborough. By quite away.
At the end of the transfer window we MAY start to catch up but we'll be a couple of months off them.
Let alone Pompey, Bolton, Barnsley.
We've had the same issues for a long time. I don't want to hear the transfer window goes to end of August etc. We want out of this division now. I fear that isn't going to happen.
Our patterns of play are too rigid. Too obvious.
Better than last year? Most likely. Not good enough for promotion? Even more likely.
No way are we miles behind Posh! There was nothing in it today!
I’m surprisingly encouraged. Peterborough will be in or around the play-offs come the end of the season and we more than matched them, despite it being glaringly obvious to all that we’re 3-4 players short of where we need to be.
Frustrating performance because I can see genuine seeds of quality in there. A good partner for May, remove the stupid mistakes, even a week or two more to get fitness up and this team could be pretty good.
There's some very obvious weaknesses still and the depth isn't there for a whole season but we're very close to a good thing, but not close enough yet.
This line or similar is repeated every season and I don't believe we've ever been to being good as people think.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by close. 4-5 more signings of the May/Camara calibre and I genuinely think we'd have a team that could face most others confidently....
... but we need probably 7-8 of that sane quality to have anything like a squad that could do it over a whole season. And that most likely won't happen in one season, and of course over 2 or more seasons you lose players as well as bringing them in and end up needing more players, and so the circle goes around.
The problem is that as you say we have indeed been here before, lots of times and every time it ends up dribbling away and the owners get bored or their flaws and foibles get in the way.
Let's say that while I HOPE for better things I certainly am not EXPECTING them.
I’m surprisingly encouraged. Peterborough will be in or around the play-offs come the end of the season and we more than matched them, despite it being glaringly obvious to all that we’re 3-4 players short of where we need to be.
Am I the only one that thought it was pretty clear their players on the whole were better than ours?
They had more technical ability and played it around us quite nicely.
Sure the game was even but comparing the two sides they were better.
I thought over the whole game, we shaded it. They have different strengths and weaknesses to us. If we had a cutting edge we would have beaten them. A couple of players could address that.
Their passing was better, they were more well-drilled. Their technical ability was higher than ours. We had missed passes and miscontrols all over the place.
One game doesn't really indicate overall ability. We could've won today but if we start with this same line-up all season we don't finish above them.
I’m surprisingly encouraged. Peterborough will be in or around the play-offs come the end of the season and we more than matched them, despite it being glaringly obvious to all that we’re 3-4 players short of where we need to be.
Am I the only one that thought it was pretty clear their players on the whole were better than ours?
They had more technical ability and played it around us quite nicely.
Sure the game was even but comparing the two sides they were better.
I thought over the whole game, we shaded it. They have different strengths and weaknesses to us. If we had a cutting edge we would have beaten them. A couple of players could address that.
Their passing was better, they were more well-drilled. Their technical ability was higher than ours. We had missed passes and miscontrols all over the place.
One game doesn't really indicate overall ability. We could've won today but if we start with this same line-up all season we don't finish above them.
I think if you only watched the first half you could make that point I suppose. I agree we can't win anything with this line up because we don't have enough goals in it but it is a solid foundation.
Frustrating performance because I can see genuine seeds of quality in there. A good partner for May, remove the stupid mistakes, even a week or two more to get fitness up and this team could be pretty good.
There's some very obvious weaknesses still and the depth isn't there for a whole season but we're very close to a good thing, but not close enough yet.
This line or similar is repeated every season and I don't believe we've ever been to being good as people think.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by close. 4-5 more signings of the May/Camara calibre and I genuinely think we'd have a team that could face most others confidently....
... but we need probably 7-8 of that sane quality to have anything like a squad that could do it over a whole season. And that most likely won't happen in one season, and of course over 2 or more seasons you lose players as well as bringing them in and end up needing more players, and so the circle goes around.
The problem is that as you say we have indeed been here before, lots of times and every time it ends up dribbling away and the owners get bored or their flaws and foibles get in the way.
Let's say that while I HOPE for better things I certainly am not EXPECTING them.
4-5 players of that quality needed isn't close. That's half your starting outfield that needs replacing on that basis.
1-2 players would be close imo, but we all know we need mors than that.
Work rate was good, but until as a club, we iron out the constant carelessness with the ball, we will fail to make inroads against sides like Posh.
It's pretty simple stuff. We do something good but immediately after do something sloppy. Over hit passes are a constant. Poor decision making..I could go on.... I feel like a broken record. Love the fact we are willing to play youngsters but I just don't think Anderson is ready. Maybe with a settled , more experienced side you could start to introduce him. But again. We don't have the luxury.
As I just said on the match the other thread, we could easily have nicked a draw, and there'd be much more positivity if we had. A big 'if' I know.
Positives for me were;
AMB who looked very good today. Decent distribution as well. Ness. Much better performance. Great tackle at the end. Dobbo, extremely good today. He's some player, not just a tackler. Corey. Again our biggest threat. Could have had a goal and/or an assist today. The brothers, Asiimwe and Anderson. Great performances bearing in mind their ages. Edun, again looked good apart from the final free kick. Camara, decent performance, barring the howler.
We clearly need more quality. A target man for May to work around is key.
See to me they looked very inexperienced and probably shouldn't be starting. Were some of our weakest players.
I’d agree on Anderson (maybe time to be an impact sub for a while) but Asiimwe looks the part. Without even allowing for his tender age you can’t tell me he didn’t play well.
A defeat that doesn’t deserve an over reaction. Hopefully we’ll strengthen in the right areas before the window closes.
We need to do the sort of thing we did in our last promotion season. We made good late additions. Sandgaard would be saying we have enough, the difference now is the message we are getting is that we will make signings.
As I just said on the match the other thread, we could easily have nicked a draw, and there'd be much more positivity if we had. A big 'if' I know.
Positives for me were;
AMB who looked very good today. Decent distribution as well. Ness. Much better performance. Great tackle at the end. Dobbo, extremely good today. He's some player, not just a tackler. Corey. Again our biggest threat. Could have had a goal and/or an assist today. The brothers, Asiimwe and Anderson. Great performances bearing in mind their ages. Edun, again looked good apart from the final free kick. Camara, decent performance, barring the howler.
We clearly need more quality. A target man for May to work around is key.
See to me they looked very inexperienced and probably shouldn't be starting. Were some of our weakest players.
I’d agree on Anderson (maybe time to be an impact sub for a while) but Asiimwe looks the part. Without even allowing for his tender age you can’t tell me he didn’t play well.
Comments
They had more technical ability and played it around us quite nicely.
Sure the game was even but comparing the two sides they were better.
... but we need probably 7-8 of that sane quality to have anything like a squad that could do it over a whole season. And that most likely won't happen in one season, and of course over 2 or more seasons you lose players as well as bringing them in and end up needing more players, and so the circle goes around.
The problem is that as you say we have indeed been here before, lots of times and every time it ends up dribbling away and the owners get bored or their flaws and foibles get in the way.
Let's say that while I HOPE for better things I certainly am not EXPECTING them.
One game doesn't really indicate overall ability. We could've won today but if we start with this same line-up all season we don't finish above them.
1-2 players would be close imo, but we all know we need mors than that.
It's pretty simple stuff. We do something good but immediately after do something sloppy. Over hit passes are a constant. Poor decision making..I could go on.... I feel like a broken record.
Love the fact we are willing to play youngsters but I just don't think Anderson is ready. Maybe with a settled , more experienced side you could start to introduce him. But again. We don't have the luxury.