The worst 42 minutes of football I have witnessed at the Valley for a while and there are plenty of contenders for that accolade over recent seasons. Lethargic, aimless, shapeless, clueless and hopeless. Not one shot on target versus Fleetwood Town at home before May's goal and they could have scored three.
One great goal out of the blue and a much better second half.
Much needed win and deserved by the end but let's not deceive ourselves about where we are as a football team .
The Division 3 table does not lie and there are serious flaws with out defensive set up.
Echo most of what's been said so not a lot to contribute.
First half really was that bad, second half was better but - make no mistake about it - it was still miles off being a promotion worthy performance, speaking of miles....
Great seeing Leaburn back out there, will admit I thought it was a bad decision at the time but he didn't look off the pace at all big big news if he's back and ready for some proper game time.
A special mention to May and Chem Campbell, May took his goal well and made someone look a twat in the match thread sloting that goal away right after the "boneesque" air shot. C. Campbell is looking good, big strong 10 would like to see him more.
Extra special mention to Anderson who turned his game around big time not surprisingly once Leaburn came on, looked a totally different player.
Eden has attracted a lot of criticism but I am not sure why. Fleetwood did play a lot of long balls to the big bloke on Eden first half (similar to the way teams used to target Solly) and that bit was tricky, but I thought Fleetwood were generally better in the air at all player to player match ups. In the woeful first half I thought Eden was the least bewildered of all of our players, and was always trying to get things going in an attacking sense, but I did think the Eden Chem CBT triangle got a bit messy and. Players were a bit too much on top of each other, sometimes negating good passing and playing opportunities.
He didn't have a good game Seth, he didn't even get close to the fella who crossed for Stockley's opener.
I thought Edun was dreadful in the first half - Fleetwood were left with acres of space and he neglected his defensive duties.
He was crap in the second half too tbf. Awful touch. He's been good every other game though so hopefully just an off day
Eden has attracted a lot of criticism but I am not sure why. Fleetwood did play a lot of long balls to the big bloke on Eden first half (similar to the way teams used to target Solly) and that bit was tricky, but I thought Fleetwood were generally better in the air at all player to player match ups. In the woeful first half I thought Eden was the least bewildered of all of our players, and was always trying to get things going in an attacking sense, but I did think the Eden Chem CBT triangle got a bit messy and. Players were a bit too much on top of each other, sometimes negating good passing and playing opportunities.
He didn't have a good game Seth, he didn't even get close to the fella who crossed for Stockley's opener.
I thought Edun was dreadful in the first half - Fleetwood were left with acres of space and he neglected his defensive duties.
He was crap in the second half too tbf. Awful touch. He's been good every other game though so hopefully just an off day
Hope so. He's been messed about with a bit in terms of positioning. Midfield at Oxford was just a bit weird.
Clearly a very poor first half and if we hadn’t equalised the half time crowd reaction would have been vile. Whatever Pearce said at half time worked as we stated second half really well and overall deserved the win. The referee’s performance was atrocious - they were constantly time wasting with no yellow cards, missed the Stockley handball, their player that took out Anderson which started the melee and fouls on our players that he would give for similar on theirs. Looking at Fleetwood I thought their two fullbacks had strong games and much better than ours
Fleetwood were like us.....didnt take their chances when they were ahead. They should have been 3 up at HT.....and Mays equaliser dragged us back into it. Only 1 winner from then on & we really should have been out of sight before TWELVE mins were added.
Leaburn made a difference & so does a natural goalscorer.
Someone needs to have a word with Alfie; that's four bookings now- ALL of them needless.
I would agree that at least two of them including yesterday's were needless, in the sense that a referee less full of his own self-importance would not have given them. Terry Smith said that there was some banter between Alfie and the keeper before and after the penalty. Perhaps you could therefore help Terry understand why Alfie got a booking and not their keeper? Because given that it was all about the penalty, you can be sure the keeper started it. That's what it's about. It's called sledging in cricket, and nobody gets booked for it.
And as for the added time this too is getting ridiculous. It simply isn't on to regularly have games going on for 100 minutes or more. FAPL players may benefit from expensive fitness and conditioning regimes which can help players manage this regularly but not lower down the leagues, even if not all clubs have such a threadbare regimes as Charlton's (source: Mr C.F.H. Methven). This is not the way to "clamp down" on time wasting. And once again I say, it's time to ensure absolute transparency for the "customers" who pay for all this, by giving the 4th official a time- piece that connects to stadium clocks and which he stops and starts for exactly the amount of time that he or the ref are assuming to add on. And the final whistle sounds automatically bang on 90.00 and not a few seconds later because the ref is curious to see how the last seconds' corner turns out. Then we'll see a few changes in how this is handled...
For their goal we had two players marking their winger, but one of them (Jones) peeled off and dropped back to defend any cross. This left the winger one on one with Edun. Although Tayo could have done better, a winger in that situation has the upper hand. The cross sailed over Jones’s head (he had no one to mark) to Stockley, for a simple headed goal.
When our wingers were on the ball in wide positions (CBT and Campbell) they had two, or even three men on them.
Surely we’ve always got to do similar. It’s so basic. If a CB happens to be one of them, then someone has to get back to cover for them.
3 points far more important than the performance yesterday. We have played a lot better this season and lost. Previously I think there is a good chance we draw that game suffering a last gasp equaliser. Onwards and upwards build on those 3 points now
Eden has attracted a lot of criticism but I am not sure why. Fleetwood did play a lot of long balls to the big bloke on Eden first half (similar to the way teams used to target Solly) and that bit was tricky, but I thought Fleetwood were generally better in the air at all player to player match ups. In the woeful first half I thought Eden was the least bewildered of all of our players, and was always trying to get things going in an attacking sense, but I did think the Eden Chem CBT triangle got a bit messy and. Players were a bit too much on top of each other, sometimes negating good passing and playing opportunities.
He didn't have a good game Seth, he didn't even get close to the fella who crossed for Stockley's opener.
I didn’t really say he had a good game, but I do think the criticism has been more than I would aim at him for the reasons I said. I will repeat my other point that in general Fleetwood won nearly all heading duels all over the pitch.
Fair comment, it worries me with kids playing we do not have the physicality to impose ourselves on the opposition.
@sam3110 ‘By heading him in the chest perhaps. The question you should be asking is if Clare would have dealt with it seeing as he was right back last season.’
Surely any big centre back worth his salt would glue himself to Stockley in that situation? Doesn’t matter if Stockley was at the back post. Another example of our defence not fully functioning yet, for me.
@sam3110 ‘By heading him in the chest perhaps. The question you should be asking is if Clare would have dealt with it seeing as he was right back last season.’
Surely any big centre back worth his salt would glue himself to Stockley in that situation? Doesn’t matter if Stockley was at the back post. Another example of our defence not fully functioning yet, for me.
The defending for their goal was shambolic from start to finish, letting the ball bounce, no closing down, giving them time and space to put a cross in. It’s a nice header from Stockley, but what came before it was shocking from us.
Aerial dual Stockley v Anderson there’s only going to be one winner, Jones who goes to the near post and Hector the only one who could deal with the situation if he’s switched on but doesn’t. Poor from an experienced CB pairing who otherwise did ok.
Eden has attracted a lot of criticism but I am not sure why. Fleetwood did play a lot of long balls to the big bloke on Eden first half (similar to the way teams used to target Solly) and that bit was tricky, but I thought Fleetwood were generally better in the air at all player to player match ups. In the woeful first half I thought Eden was the least bewildered of all of our players, and was always trying to get things going in an attacking sense, but I did think the Eden Chem CBT triangle got a bit messy and. Players were a bit too much on top of each other, sometimes negating good passing and playing opportunities.
He didn't have a good game Seth, he didn't even get close to the fella who crossed for Stockley's opener.
I thought Edun was dreadful in the first half - Fleetwood were left with acres of space and he neglected his defensive duties.
He was crap in the second half too tbf. Awful touch. He's been good every other game though so hopefully just an off day
Yep. Absolutely no control on that through ball to CBT to win the penalty.
Aerial dual Stockley v Anderson there’s only going to be one winner, Jones who goes to the near post and Hector the only one who could deal with the situation if he’s switched on but doesn’t. Poor from an experienced CB pairing who otherwise did ok.
Without sparking too much controversy, do you think it was a mentality issue, timid maybe? Stockley is a bit of a unit for a centre forward and tough in the air, were our defenders avoiding the aerial dual? I saw a fair few times players didn't fancy the aerial dual with Innis and Stockley last season and would shy away sometimes.
Only throwing it out there as it is odd he wasn't marked and I feel like football is pretty simple when it's stuff like this. You stick your big bloke on their big bloke in the box. That's why Pearce was so successful in certain games because he would always take on the opposition's target man & which would complete nullify a threat
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The worst 42 minutes of football I have witnessed at the Valley for a while and there are plenty of contenders for that accolade over recent seasons. Lethargic, aimless, shapeless, clueless and hopeless. Not one shot on target versus Fleetwood Town at home before May's goal and they could have scored three.
One great goal out of the blue and a much better second half.
Much needed win and deserved by the end but let's not deceive ourselves about where we are as a football team .
The Division 3 table does not lie and there are serious flaws with out defensive set up.
First half really was that bad, second half was better but - make no mistake about it - it was still miles off being a promotion worthy performance, speaking of miles....
Great seeing Leaburn back out there, will admit I thought it was a bad decision at the time but he didn't look off the pace at all big big news if he's back and ready for some proper game time.
A special mention to May and Chem Campbell, May took his goal well and made someone look a twat in the match thread sloting that goal away right after the "boneesque" air shot. C. Campbell is looking good, big strong 10 would like to see him more.
Extra special mention to Anderson who turned his game around big time not surprisingly once Leaburn came on, looked a totally different player.
Excellent 3 points and something to build on.
Whatever Pearce said at half time worked as we stated second half really well and overall deserved the win.
The referee’s performance was atrocious - they were constantly time wasting with no yellow cards, missed the Stockley handball, their player that took out Anderson which started the melee and fouls on our players that he would give for similar on theirs.
Looking at Fleetwood I thought their two fullbacks had strong games and much better than ours
And as for the added time this too is getting ridiculous. It simply isn't on to regularly have games going on for 100 minutes or more. FAPL players may benefit from expensive fitness and conditioning regimes which can help players manage this regularly but not lower down the leagues, even if not all clubs have such a threadbare regimes as Charlton's (source: Mr C.F.H. Methven). This is not the way to "clamp down" on time wasting. And once again I say, it's time to ensure absolute transparency for the "customers" who pay for all this, by giving the 4th official a time- piece that connects to stadium clocks and which he stops and starts for exactly the amount of time that he or the ref are assuming to add on. And the final whistle sounds automatically bang on 90.00 and not a few seconds later because the ref is curious to see how the last seconds' corner turns out. Then we'll see a few changes in how this is handled...
The question you should be asking is if Clare would have dealt with it seeing as he was right back last season.’
Surely any big centre back worth his salt would glue himself to Stockley in that situation? Doesn’t matter if Stockley was at the back post. Another example of our defence not fully functioning yet, for me.
start to finish, letting the ball bounce, no closing down, giving them time and space to put a cross in. It’s a nice header from Stockley, but what came before it was shocking from us.
Only throwing it out there as it is odd he wasn't marked and I feel like football is pretty simple when it's stuff like this. You stick your big bloke on their big bloke in the box. That's why Pearce was so successful in certain games because he would always take on the opposition's target man & which would complete nullify a threat
I think Sandgaard took them with him