Post-match Thread: Athletic vs Wycombe Wanderers | Saturday 25th March 2023

So bored. So meh. So pointless. The lack of comments on this thread shows everyone thinks so too. I couldn't be arsed going to go to the draw against the mighty Accrington Stanley but got persuaded to go to day... Anything thinking of going next Saturday to see us grind out a draw against stellar Shrewsbury is either insane/stupid/has no life/no mates.

Doomer Jon said:

So bored. So meh. So pointless. The lack of comments on this thread shows everyone thinks so too. I couldn't be arsed going to go to the draw against the mighty Accrington Stanley but got persuaded to go to day... Anything thinking of going next Saturday to see us grind out a draw against stellar Shrewsbury is either insane/stupid/has no life/no mates.

Or just supports their team because it's their team. 

I know he’s a bit like marmite at the moment but I just don’t rate Albie at all. Some have said he had one of his better days today but I couldn’t see it. Wild shooting, including the ‘shot’ which led to Miles’ goal. Forever passing backwards. Very rarely running with the ball to create something. Wayward/pointless/safe passing more or less the whole game. He never seems to play with a confidence that you would feel he should have by now. A lot of what he does seems to be by luck rather than judgment if it works out. 

king addick said:

Can't stand Wycombe..one of those teams you know..

There were good passages of play today going forward and we do have some talent here for sure.

Off the ball though..our shape was awful today and looked so shaky..more so than usual. 

One thing I feel needs looking at is our fitness...aware DH didn't make subs but we looked lethargic pretty early I felt. Understand it's a long season but other teams seem so much fitter and I feel that's where teams who aren't maybe as talented footballing wise, beat us through sheer hard work. 

It's a point and maybe something to build on but genuinely feel an in-form Shrewsbury will be a tougher test. 

He's playing Morgan because Kilkenny & Payne are worse. 

billysboots said:

thickandthin63 said:

Thought Albie had a decent game.It is obvious that not all of his long passes will come off,but he played some real beauties today.Over all we played ok but could have done with fresh legs for the last 10 minutes.Hector and Inniss look a good pairing but we are never far from a coronary inducing moment.

Agree that Innis and Hector look a good pair, Innis has been markedly better since he has been paired with Hector. Perhaps it takes the pressure off a bit. 

Think maybe Inniss has improved since he was paired with Ness. He seemed to enjoy taking the newbie under his wing, but oddly, Ness’s calmness helped his mentor. Agree that Inniss and Hector are a decent pairing. Both will make the odd mistake of course. More than Ness will perhaps. 

killerandflash said:

JamesSeed said:

billysboots said:

thickandthin63 said:

Thought Albie had a decent game.It is obvious that not all of his long passes will come off,but he played some real beauties today.Over all we played ok but could have done with fresh legs for the last 10 minutes.Hector and Inniss look a good pairing but we are never far from a coronary inducing moment.

Agree that Innis and Hector look a good pair, Innis has been markedly better since he has been paired with Hector. Perhaps it takes the pressure off a bit. 

Think maybe Inniss has improved since he was paired with Ness. He seemed to enjoy taking the newbie under his wing, but oddly, Ness’s calmness helped his mentor. Agree that Inniss and Hector are a decent pairing. Both will make the odd mistake of course. More than Ness will perhaps. 

Albie’s game was similar to Charlton’s today. Some good moments, but some howlers too. 

How did he miss what was virtually an open goal in the first half? Why did he push that guy over in front of our bench? Why did he keep giving the ball away? And even the goal came from a mis hit shot. But he did pop up with some good tackles, and worked hard. Is that enough though?

Clare had a few minutes where everything went totally Pete Tong. Didn’t he twice hit the ball straight out of play, and one free kick straight to the opposition? That’s out of character for him. 

AM-B pulled off one of the best saves I’ve ever seen  live. It looked a goal all the way, and how he got there I’ll never know. (Excuse the clichés). He’s a seriously good keeper, and we’ll be lucky to hang on to him for long. 

And as most have said, Campbell just keeps improving. He had his full back on toast all afternoon, and in a year or so could develop into some player. 

Otherwise it was all a bit ordinary. 

The cutback to him wasn't great though, it seemed fired into his feet rather than being in front of him to run onto. Having watched both the Sky and ITV highlights, neither showed that incident, suggesting they didn't consider it a major moment.

I was behind the goal, and it looked easier to score than miss. But it was quite a pacey pass, agreed. Albie is our most frustrating player. 

Telling that DH made no subs - a message about fitness to the team in the week he said next season is about players who can do it Sat / Tue/ Sat?

I quite enjoyed today - plenty of effort all round. 

I thought the ref was ok first half but second half crawled into Wycombe's pocket. I hate Wycombe. A total anti-football team. They cleaned out 3 of ours but by then we had 4 yellow and they had none?  I want us to be good enough to put crap like Wycombe to the sword. Constant niggly play, fouls that the ref never gave, retaliation he never saw (this does sound like it was the ref who was the problem).
At least we didn't lose. But the ref was awful. Wycombe were awful. Charlton? Well the word entertainment ought to feature at some point. 
Dirty northern bastards

They were better in terms of physicality, we were better in terms of quality. A draw was a fair result and I think Holden, if he is backed has a framework to build on for next season.

Whilst still not great, the pitch actually looked a bit better. Also, not sure how the goal was Morgan's fault. He wasn't were the ball was but close to it. It could just as easily hit him on a lucky day. The fault was the player shouldn't have been allowed to have an unchallenged header from where he was.

billysboots said:

thickandthin63 said:

Thought Albie had a decent game.It is obvious that not all of his long passes will come off,but he played some real beauties today.Over all we played ok but could have done with fresh legs for the last 10 minutes.Hector and Inniss look a good pairing but we are never far from a coronary inducing moment.

Sorry can’t agree with this. Played the usual few Hollywood balls which are great.  Passed to the opposition frequently. Completely mis hit the first chance of the game when he was unmarked on the edge of the box. Fouled unnecessarily and frequently . Was at fault for their goal as he was on the post, vacated his position and the ball went where he was supposed to be. 

Agree that Innis and Hector look a good pair, Innis has been markedly better since he has been paired with Hector. Perhaps it takes the pressure off a bit. 

I think people overlook the importance of a two man team in that central defensive role. Where they work as a team, one comfortable in committing to an action with the other covering him then it works better. One of the best examples I’ve ever seen is the pairing we saw when Jorge costa played alongside Fortune and they seem to know each other’s strengths and fortune could do the running about bit and Costa simply mopped up everything that was a danger after that.

I thought Morgan was having a good game yesterday but something happened when he got booked and his body language just looked like the life had been drained out of him. I suspect I wasn’t the only one to notice something looked wrong because a few players looked like they were trying to boost his spirit afterwards. Personally, I would have taken him off at that point.

king addick said:

Covered End said:

king addick said:

Can't stand Wycombe..one of those teams you know..

There were good passages of play today going forward and we do have some talent here for sure.

Off the ball though..our shape was awful today and looked so shaky..more so than usual. 

One thing I feel needs looking at is our fitness...aware DH didn't make subs but we looked lethargic pretty early I felt. Understand it's a long season but other teams seem so much fitter and I feel that's where teams who aren't maybe as talented footballing wise, beat us through sheer hard work. 

It's a point and maybe something to build on but genuinely feel an in-form Shrewsbury will be a tougher test. 

He's playing Morgan because Kilkenny & Payne are worse. 

Didnt mention Morgan 😂

Yes, sorry I quoted the wrong comment.

Fortune 82nd Minute said:

Bailey said:

I think it's worth looking at the age of our front three and how many games they have between them. Wycombe were missing their front two today and were probably only going to score from a set piece. Our front three looked a threat all afternoon, it may disappoint people with the result but Charlton's youth will get better and certainly be more enjoyable to watch than some of the recent dross.  

But sadly unless we get a new owner in who is prepared to fund properly a club losing £8 million a year, we won't get to watch our talented youth players as they will be sold to fund our losses.

Can you really see Leaburn being here next season to lead our line?

In the case of Leaburn, yes I can. Assuming this takeover happens, it's unlikely that a new owner would immediately sell his prize asset, although it has happened before with Yann, a few weeks into Duchatelet's reign. There is a message that the new owner needs to send out, if he wants to get the fans backing and their hard earned cash, it will be difficult enough to set the pricing at the gate and selling our one consistent goal scorer would surely blow that out of the water. There will be other departures before Leaburn and there certainly need to be incomings before sales. 

was a better game to watch than the last few but been contemplating sitting in a different stand or parking in a different place next year - just to add some excitement