Happy to retrieve a point, and good character shown, but a frustrating performance and a perfect example of how the defence is holding us back.
Blackpool came to frustrate and did so. We did struggle a bit to break them down but fair enough they defended well and that will happen sometimes.
But Blackpool didn’t create much either. If you keep it tight and 0-0 then you would say we’ve been patient, worn them down, and then looked to have the momentum to go on and win it with the subs.
Instead, we’ve given away two soft goals, one of them inexcusable, and then we’re chasing the game. Fortunately our attack has rescued it for us, but they should have been winning us 3 points, not rescuing 1.
It is a huge positive, though, that we seem to have moved past the old problem of always losing if we concede first.
We still look like a mid table side but at least now we look like one that could become a promotion contender.
Very much in agreement.
Sometimes I think our fans believe teams should just roll over and concede easy goals - and when we struggle to break teams town automatically for some it’s because we are crap or playing crap - giving no credit to the opposition team.
Ive seen us play crap plenty of times, and that was not us today.
Blackpool as well as every team in this division are no mugs, and it’s not going to be easy to score for periods when they have 11 men behind the ball and are playing really compact.
Like you mention our problem is remaining tight at the back ourselves. It’s the sort of game I said at half time that if it was 0-0 we would win, but we ended up having to chase.
4th game during this run that we have turned around a losing position and avoided defeat. Appears Leaburn/Tedic struggled to make an impact. Hoping Edun will be back after the international break as think we’ve missed not having a proper left back in last matches.
Leaburn shown up by Chuks. Tedic shown up by Tyreese. But I can rarely remember a substitution improving us as dramatically as Asiimwe for Twatson. From watching an uninterested sieve to a machine of intent and menace. Awful from several members of the starting eleven. Won't hold too much against Hector and Thomas who, while flawed, gave it their all
I think this is harsh on Watson. I think what could be perceived as "lack of desire" is more down to lack of fitness and sharpness. Appleton saying now that he lacks fitness from a lack of football. No pre season and started his first game what, a week ago?
Absolutely agree he wasn't good, and didn't think he's been great in any of his games so far, but I think he's better than what we've seen. He was a very solid player for MK Dons, solid if unspectacular, and I think he'll be that again. I think it'd also worth remember that Asiimwe is much better going forward, especially when the game opens up, than he is at defending.
Thomas was obviously not great. If Edun isn't fit after the break then we might need to get creative at LB. Hector was good apart from the massive mistake which is a sentence you could write for him three or four times this year. I think he's had, what, three individual easily preventable mistakes that have led directly to goals this season. He has to either cut that out or be dropped. I don't know what it is, he hasn't had a lot of football in the last two years and maybe that catches up with your legs and speed of thought, but he can be good at reading danger for 89 minutes but if he creates danger in the other minute he can't stay in the team.
I do think we look so much better when the game opens up. Appleton is talking about how we have to get better after we beat the first press, and we really do. Fraser should help with that when he starts. But this team still lacks a natural RW and LB cover and it makes us uneven and predictable.
International break probably comes at a good time. Hoping we'll get more players back afterward. This squad is deep and there's a lot of talent, it's just uneven.
Bizarre game. Terrible first 50 until the first subs. Then we're dominant after the next subs come on, until Hector gives them a 2-0 lead.
Then it's Blackpool's turn for terrible defending. They're 2-0 up, but somehow manage to concede a breakaway goal.
A CBT special, Chuks being unplayable but also hitting the upper tier of the Covered End with a shot.
Surely that's got to end the Tedic on the right experiment, as he was all at sea there. Jones ran to the dressing room after being taken off, so maybe ill rather than injured.
Thomas at LB is looking really clumsy now. A position we have neglected for too many seasons now (Edun's availability included).
Aneke was worth the ticket price for me. When we're on top of teams we just need to try testing the goalkeeper more, rather than smashing so many shots off target.
Feel sorry for Hector as I think he was having a good game but that mistake is going to be honed on.
And rightly so. He's there to stop the opposition scoring goals, not help them. Him and Thomas are accidents waiting to happen and they offer nothing at the other end. I'd have kept Inniss over both of them, despite the obvious drawbacks.
Leaburn is not a back to goal central striker. He is more of a Lyle Taylor type and needs to roam so he can get the ball to feet in a position to beat the defender.
Leaburn shown up by Chuks. Tedic shown up by Tyreese. But I can rarely remember a substitution improving us as dramatically as Asiimwe for Twatson. From watching an uninterested sieve to a machine of intent and menace. Awful from several members of the starting eleven. Won't hold too much against Hector and Thomas who, while flawed, gave it their all
I think this is harsh on Watson. I think what could be perceived as "lack of desire" is more down to lack of fitness and sharpness. Appleton saying now that he lacks fitness from a lack of football. No pre season and started his first game what, a week ago?
Absolutely agree he wasn't good, and didn't think he's been great in any of his games so far, but I think he's better than what we've seen. He was a very solid player for MK Dons, solid if unspectacular, and I think he'll be that again. I think it'd also worth remember that Asiimwe is much better going forward, especially when the game opens up, than he is at defending.
Thomas was obviously not great. If Edun isn't fit after the break then we might need to get creative at LB. Hector was good apart from the massive mistake which is a sentence you could write for him three or four times this year. I think he's had, what, three individual easily preventable mistakes that have led directly to goals this season. He has to either cut that out or be dropped. I don't know what it is, he hasn't had a lot of football in the last two years and maybe that catches up with your legs and speed of thought, but he can be good at reading danger for 89 minutes but if he creates danger in the other minute he can't stay in the team.
I do think we look so much better when the game opens up. Appleton is talking about how we have to get better after we beat the first press, and we really do. Fraser should help with that when he starts. But this team still lacks a natural RW and LB cover and it makes us uneven and predictable.
International break probably comes at a good time. Hoping we'll get more players back afterward. This squad is deep and there's a lot of talent, it's just uneven.
Fair enough, I just saw someone happy to amble about, not get forward, not support play and take the easy option every time. His body language in the second half was diffident at best. He was begging to be substituted and was
Have to say I think those two goals have masked a major problem with intensity and desire.
A home game on the run we’re on and we should be bossing the game. Bullying opponents.
We’re way too powderpuff.
Well played Chuks, May and CBT for dragging us back into it.
I don’t understand how words like powderpuff can be used to describe this team when we’re in the top 8 for goals scored.
Blackpool’s game plan away from home is all about sitting back, relying on their solid defence and making the opponent look powderpuff for long periods. That’s what they do really well.
If we ignored all the moments where we’ve scored we’re not very good at scoring…
Leaburn is not a back to goal central striker. He is more of a Lyle Taylor type and needs to roam so he can get the ball to feet in a position to beat the defender.
In the first half surely we could have swapped Miles and Tedic over.
Happy to retrieve a point, and good character shown, but a frustrating performance and a perfect example of how the defence is holding us back.
Blackpool came to frustrate and did so. We did struggle a bit to break them down but fair enough they defended well and that will happen sometimes.
But Blackpool didn’t create much either. If you keep it tight and 0-0 then you would say we’ve been patient, worn them down, and then looked to have the momentum to go on and win it with the subs.
Instead, we’ve given away two soft goals, one of them inexcusable, and then we’re chasing the game. Fortunately our attack has rescued it for us, but they should have been winning us 3 points, not rescuing 1.
It is a huge positive, though, that we seem to have moved past the old problem of always losing if we concede first.
We still look like a mid table side but at least now we look like one that could become a promotion contender.
Very much in agreement.
Sometimes I think our fans believe teams should just roll over and concede easy goals - and when we struggle to break teams town automatically for some it’s because we are crap or playing crap - giving no credit to the opposition team.
Ive seen us play crap plenty of times, and that was not us today.
Blackpool as well as every team in this division are no mugs, and it’s not going to be easy to score for periods when they have 11 men behind the ball and are playing really compact.
Like you mention our problem is remaining tight at the back ourselves. It’s the sort of game I said at half time that if it was 0-0 we would win, but we ended up having to chase.
This and this. Agree with you both.
We played well today. So did Blackpool. Both third tier sides with issues that can be exposed. Draw was fair.
Appletons in game management has been flawless so far. The subs and their timing have been spot on.
His game management is starting to look poor. He could have sorted out the problem during the first half, the same issue as the other night was happening again and we had no width and were making it easy to defend against.
If he had brought Chuks on earlier he may have risked him not managing gthe rest of the game.
Leaburn shown up by Chuks. Tedic shown up by Tyreese. But I can rarely remember a substitution improving us as dramatically as Asiimwe for Twatson. From watching an uninterested sieve to a machine of intent and menace. Awful from several members of the starting eleven. Won't hold too much against Hector and Thomas who, while flawed, gave it their all
I think this is harsh on Watson. I think what could be perceived as "lack of desire" is more down to lack of fitness and sharpness. Appleton saying now that he lacks fitness from a lack of football. No pre season and started his first game what, a week ago?
Absolutely agree he wasn't good, and didn't think he's been great in any of his games so far, but I think he's better than what we've seen. He was a very solid player for MK Dons, solid if unspectacular, and I think he'll be that again. I think it'd also worth remember that Asiimwe is much better going forward, especially when the game opens up, than he is at defending.
Thomas was obviously not great. If Edun isn't fit after the break then we might need to get creative at LB. Hector was good apart from the massive mistake which is a sentence you could write for him three or four times this year. I think he's had, what, three individual easily preventable mistakes that have led directly to goals this season. He has to either cut that out or be dropped. I don't know what it is, he hasn't had a lot of football in the last two years and maybe that catches up with your legs and speed of thought, but he can be good at reading danger for 89 minutes but if he creates danger in the other minute he can't stay in the team.
I do think we look so much better when the game opens up. Appleton is talking about how we have to get better after we beat the first press, and we really do. Fraser should help with that when he starts. But this team still lacks a natural RW and LB cover and it makes us uneven and predictable.
International break probably comes at a good time. Hoping we'll get more players back afterward. This squad is deep and there's a lot of talent, it's just uneven.
Fair enough, I just saw someone happy to amble about, not get forward, not support play and take the easy option every time. His body language in the second half was diffident at best. He was begging to be substituted and was
For me it's how little he gets forward that's the big give away that he's not fit enough. I get what you're saying and I saw the same, and I felt he got done time and again 1-v-1 on Tuesday, but I think it's worth reserving judgment until he gets more minutes in his legs.
If we're still having this conversation in 3-4 weeks then it's time to be very concerned.
Our passing and intent in the first half was very poor. Watson the only spark. Just passing it across a back line is achieving absolutely nothing, especially being done in such an unconvincing manner.
CBTs strike was as good as his earlier miss was poor. Sidefoot can be your friend inside the penalty box.
Leaburn shown up by Chuks. Tedic shown up by Tyreese. But I can rarely remember a substitution improving us as dramatically as Asiimwe for Twatson. From watching an uninterested sieve to a machine of intent and menace. Awful from several members of the starting eleven. Won't hold too much against Hector and Thomas who, while flawed, gave it their all
I think this is harsh on Watson. I think what could be perceived as "lack of desire" is more down to lack of fitness and sharpness. Appleton saying now that he lacks fitness from a lack of football. No pre season and started his first game what, a week ago?
Absolutely agree he wasn't good, and didn't think he's been great in any of his games so far, but I think he's better than what we've seen. He was a very solid player for MK Dons, solid if unspectacular, and I think he'll be that again. I think it'd also worth remember that Asiimwe is much better going forward, especially when the game opens up, than he is at defending.
Thomas was obviously not great. If Edun isn't fit after the break then we might need to get creative at LB. Hector was good apart from the massive mistake which is a sentence you could write for him three or four times this year. I think he's had, what, three individual easily preventable mistakes that have led directly to goals this season. He has to either cut that out or be dropped. I don't know what it is, he hasn't had a lot of football in the last two years and maybe that catches up with your legs and speed of thought, but he can be good at reading danger for 89 minutes but if he creates danger in the other minute he can't stay in the team.
I do think we look so much better when the game opens up. Appleton is talking about how we have to get better after we beat the first press, and we really do. Fraser should help with that when he starts. But this team still lacks a natural RW and LB cover and it makes us uneven and predictable.
International break probably comes at a good time. Hoping we'll get more players back afterward. This squad is deep and there's a lot of talent, it's just uneven.
Fair enough, I just saw someone happy to amble about, not get forward, not support play and take the easy option every time. His body language in the second half was diffident at best. He was begging to be substituted and was
For me it's how little he gets forward that's the big give away that he's not fit enough. I get what you're saying and I saw the same, and I felt he got done time and again 1-v-1 on Tuesday, but I think it's worth reserving judgment until he gets more minutes in his legs.
If we're still having this conversation in 3-4 weeks then it's time to be very concerned.
Fair enough. He has a couple of weeks to get up to speed now. He'd best make the most of them
Leaburn is not a back to goal central striker. He is more of a Lyle Taylor type and needs to roam so he can get the ball to feet in a position to beat the defender.
Spot on, I said this after the Wycombe game and it was very evident today. His talents are completely wasted there.
We controlled so much of the game without really creating much for the first 70mins. Their defence martialed us and organised well. On the other hand our defence gifted them 4 gilt edges chances I remember; they scored 2; headed one straight at AMB near the end and Rhodes (I think) woeful first touch when set through saved us in the first half. Didn't make them work for any of those chances at all. The entire back 4 are not good enough currently. Hector looks a busted flush and Watson T a total dud so far.
Leaburn shown up by Chuks. Tedic shown up by Tyreese. But I can rarely remember a substitution improving us as dramatically as Asiimwe for Twatson. From watching an uninterested sieve to a machine of intent and menace. Awful from several members of the starting eleven. Won't hold too much against Hector and Thomas who, while flawed, gave it their all
I think this is harsh on Watson. I think what could be perceived as "lack of desire" is more down to lack of fitness and sharpness. Appleton saying now that he lacks fitness from a lack of football. No pre season and started his first game what, a week ago?
Absolutely agree he wasn't good, and didn't think he's been great in any of his games so far, but I think he's better than what we've seen. He was a very solid player for MK Dons, solid if unspectacular, and I think he'll be that again. I think it'd also worth remember that Asiimwe is much better going forward, especially when the game opens up, than he is at defending.
Thomas was obviously not great. If Edun isn't fit after the break then we might need to get creative at LB. Hector was good apart from the massive mistake which is a sentence you could write for him three or four times this year. I think he's had, what, three individual easily preventable mistakes that have led directly to goals this season. He has to either cut that out or be dropped. I don't know what it is, he hasn't had a lot of football in the last two years and maybe that catches up with your legs and speed of thought, but he can be good at reading danger for 89 minutes but if he creates danger in the other minute he can't stay in the team.
I do think we look so much better when the game opens up. Appleton is talking about how we have to get better after we beat the first press, and we really do. Fraser should help with that when he starts. But this team still lacks a natural RW and LB cover and it makes us uneven and predictable.
International break probably comes at a good time. Hoping we'll get more players back afterward. This squad is deep and there's a lot of talent, it's just uneven.
Fair enough, I just saw someone happy to amble about, not get forward, not support play and take the easy option every time. His body language in the second half was diffident at best. He was begging to be substituted and was
For me it's how little he gets forward that's the big give away that he's not fit enough. I get what you're saying and I saw the same, and I felt he got done time and again 1-v-1 on Tuesday, but I think it's worth reserving judgment until he gets more minutes in his legs.
If we're still having this conversation in 3-4 weeks then it's time to be very concerned.
In his relatively few minutes for us he has an assist and won a penalty so he can and, I believe, will get forward more as he gets fitter.
Morgan was a good substitution for us for a change. Seriously, Blackpool looked assured defensively until Aneke came on then they looked as bad as us. There are lots of things the defence needs to work on and one to add to the list is the amount of times we head an unchalleneged ball to opponents. 18 shots to their 5 says we deserved to win that but we still have to hone some basics and I would have taked a point when it was 2 nil late on.
once again we're the late goals comeback kids .. shows we keep right on to the end of the road .. we need to be a LOT sharper at the start of the journey though .. the good run goes on, JUST
Comments
Sometimes I think our fans believe teams should just roll over and concede easy goals - and when we struggle to break teams town automatically for some it’s because we are crap or playing crap - giving no credit to the opposition team.
Ive seen us play crap plenty of times, and that was not us today.
Blackpool as well as every team in this division are no mugs, and it’s not going to be easy to score for periods when they have 11 men behind the ball and are playing really compact.
Like you mention our problem is remaining tight at the back ourselves. It’s the sort of game I said at half time that if it was 0-0 we would win, but we ended up having to chase.
Poor blokes can't wait to get back into the dressing eoom!
Absolutely agree he wasn't good, and didn't think he's been great in any of his games so far, but I think he's better than what we've seen. He was a very solid player for MK Dons, solid if unspectacular, and I think he'll be that again. I think it'd also worth remember that Asiimwe is much better going forward, especially when the game opens up, than he is at defending.
Thomas was obviously not great. If Edun isn't fit after the break then we might need to get creative at LB. Hector was good apart from the massive mistake which is a sentence you could write for him three or four times this year. I think he's had, what, three individual easily preventable mistakes that have led directly to goals this season. He has to either cut that out or be dropped. I don't know what it is, he hasn't had a lot of football in the last two years and maybe that catches up with your legs and speed of thought, but he can be good at reading danger for 89 minutes but if he creates danger in the other minute he can't stay in the team.
I do think we look so much better when the game opens up. Appleton is talking about how we have to get better after we beat the first press, and we really do. Fraser should help with that when he starts. But this team still lacks a natural RW and LB cover and it makes us uneven and predictable.
International break probably comes at a good time. Hoping we'll get more players back afterward. This squad is deep and there's a lot of talent, it's just uneven.
Then it's Blackpool's turn for terrible defending. They're 2-0 up, but somehow manage to concede a breakaway goal.
A CBT special, Chuks being unplayable but also hitting the upper tier of the Covered End with a shot.
Surely that's got to end the Tedic on the right experiment, as he was all at sea there. Jones ran to the dressing room after being taken off, so maybe ill rather than injured.
Thomas at LB is looking really clumsy now. A position we have neglected for too many seasons now (Edun's availability included).
Aneke was worth the ticket price for me. When we're on top of teams we just need to try testing the goalkeeper more, rather than smashing so many shots off target.
AMB was very assured today and kept us in it.
Him and Thomas are accidents waiting to happen and they offer nothing at the other end. I'd have kept Inniss over both of them, despite the obvious drawbacks.
Blackpool’s game plan away from home is all about sitting back, relying on their solid defence and making the opponent look powderpuff for long periods. That’s what they do really well.
If we ignored all the moments where we’ve scored we’re not very good at scoring…
We played well today. So did Blackpool. Both third tier sides with issues that can be exposed. Draw was fair.
If we're still having this conversation in 3-4 weeks then it's time to be very concerned.
CBTs strike was as good as his earlier miss was poor. Sidefoot can be your friend inside the penalty box.
On the other hand our defence gifted them 4 gilt edges chances I remember; they scored 2; headed one straight at AMB near the end and Rhodes (I think) woeful first touch when set through saved us in the first half. Didn't make them work for any of those chances at all. The entire back 4 are not good enough currently. Hector looks a busted flush and Watson T a total dud so far.
Knew he'd come good for us eventually