Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Bruce Rioja » Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:41 am

Absolute 4ucking shite. Stockdale had the easiest night of his life despite playing behind nine men for 30 minutes. Truly 4ucking awful. Oh, and only one decent penalty shout - the other two were just from folk getting giddy.
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:59 am

It was awful. I'm not even sure I could describe it as that. Birmingham came for a draw and got a win, bet they can't believe their luck.

Major issues:
1) Henry and Derik were both shocking. Sideways or backwards passing, in each others way.
2) ALF - he is trying his best. He's not playing badly. But sorry, we need a target up front to play with him. Brum played off their target men. We had nothing, and I mean nothing up front.
3) Vela - worthless, utterly worthless. He's not championship quality IMHO.
4) Ameobi - was puffing his inhaler every 10 minutes and was abysmally bad. Clearly not fit.
5) Buckley - what is the point of this man?
6) Taylor - solid but cannot attack to save his life.
7) Henry did his hamstring then a minute later so did Kirchoff. Shit.
8) Burke - shite. Beevers - shite.

Birmingham realised very early on that if they stuck 10 behind the ball we were utterly incapable of playing through them. We tried and failed. Then resorted to long hopeful diagonal balls to Ameobi who clearly was suffering with asthma.

We're going down and frankly with the players we've got and are likely to be able to bring in, I'm not all that sure that is a bad thing. We're woefully short of any quality to compete in this division. We've won games through sheer effort and togetherness but cannot do that week in week out. I think after last night with the injuries and general mood we'll struggle to win more than one more. And that won't be enough, we may not even manage that. Feel we've hit another slump period.

Oh and we badly miss Pratley. My god would he have made a difference last night.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Wed Apr 04, 2018 10:05 am

Well, that definitively answered the thread-title question...

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by malcd1 » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:01 am

The worst bit personally for me was I persuaded my 9 year old son to go. We watched around 8 to 10 matches last season and he enjoyed going especially when we won. Last night he was bored to tears and it might be quite a while before he will consider going again. I am fighting a losing battle at the moment with BWFC where my son is concerned.

We had around 17,000 home fans in the ground including quite a few kids (School holidays and cheap tickets) and they put in a performance like that.
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Prufrock » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:13 am

Christ it's like a girls school in the 20s. If one of you faints BWFCi is going down too.

Good to see PT back too.

Sounds like they were shite. Well, there's a reason we are where we are, they're going to be shite sometimes. Especially where the onus is on us to be creative.

Barnsley is a massive must not lose, Burton looks pretty must win. Still wouldn't swap our position for anyone below us, but that was less than ideal.
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:14 am

malcd1 wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:01 am
The worst bit personally for me was I persuaded my 9 year old son to go. We watched around 8 to 10 matches last season and he enjoyed going especially when we won. Last night he was bored to tears and it might be quite a while before he will consider going again. I am fighting a losing battle at the moment with BWFC where my son is concerned.

We had around 17,000 home fans in the ground including quite a few kids (School holidays and cheap tickets) and they put in a performance like that.
On a personal level, I feel for you, mate.

On a wider level, this is far from the first time this has happened. I'm wary of confirmation bias but it feels like an annoyingly high number of times that when there's an unusually big gate, the team lets us down. That's not just under Parky (who gets credit for the Peterborough promotion party) but many other managers: Freedman vs Blackpool, Coyle at Wembley of course, even Allardyce's lot vs Grimsby in the club's first big Bring The Kids marketing drive – I posted some links and thoughts in another thread, when we were discussing how to get the gates up. Well, for all the business acumen, the main thing is: when the fans do come, don't play like total dogshit.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:20 am

Prufrock wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:13 am
Christ it's like a girls school in the 20s. If one of you faints BWFCi is going down too.

Good to see PT back too.

Sounds like they were shite. Well, there's a reason we are where we are, they're going to be shite sometimes. Especially where the onus is on us to be creative.

Barnsley is a massive must not lose, Burton looks pretty must win. Still wouldn't swap our position for anyone below us, but that was less than ideal.
Dispassionately this is true. But last night was a huge game against a relegation rival where we were at home and couldn't force their goalkeeper to do a thing all night. Even after they went down to ten. And Brum were poor....very poor.

We've won one away all season and now will have to win at Barnsley or Burton or possibly both.

Last night was very significant....the players knew it too. It showed when it comes down to the real crunch, this group tries, but doesn't really have it. Their faces at the end showed they knew it too.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:20 am

Prufrock wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:13 am
Christ it's like a girls school in the 20s. If one of you faints BWFCi is going down too.

Good to see PT back too.

Sounds like they were shite. Well, there's a reason we are where we are, they're going to be shite sometimes. Especially where the onus is on us to be creative.

Barnsley is a massive must not lose, Burton looks pretty must win. Still wouldn't swap our position for anyone below us, but that was less than ideal.
I'm habitually in agreement with you, Pru, and as wary as you are of over-reaction. But I'm also aware that you and I are at a great geographical remove. I'm yet to hear such positivity from any poor bugger who actually paid for and sat through last night's performance.

No, I wouldn't swap our position with anyone below us, and yes, it was always likely that three games would define our season: Birmingham, Barnsley and Burton. The first of those didn't go too well. And I'm aware that of the eight games we've played against sides currently in the bottom six, we've only won two, lost two (at home!) and drawn four; more widely in this division, we've also managed one away win in 20 attempts. In the end, draws at Barnsley and Burton might be enough, but it's not good for the arse.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by TANGODANCER » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:55 am

BWFC_Insane wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:59 am

We're going down and frankly with the players we've got and are likely to be able to bring in, I'm not all that sure that is a bad thing.
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Prufrock » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:57 am

No quarrel with anyone slagging off last night, universal view seems to be it was appalling. Big game, big opportunity, big crowd and they f*cked it.

My problem is the anti-Panglosses who are now convinced we're doomed and everything is bad and they knew it all along and sell them all, and others coincidentally reappearing after 6 months to bang on about how shit they all are.

It'll be reet. Being away to and in front of Burton and Barnsley probably helps. It's going to have to given our usual away record.
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by GhostoftheBok » Wed Apr 04, 2018 12:26 pm

Meh. We're not doomed off the back of it, it was just a chance to be almost certain we'd stay up. If we'd won that I'd not have had a worry, as we'd have taken confidence into the remaining home fixtures. The trouble is that, as I've said on here before, it's our home form that'll decide things. If we play like that, we absolutely will go down. The more pressure we are under, the more likely we'll see that happen again and again.

There's now 4 games left that'll decide it. Millwall and Forest at home (best of luck against Wolves, lads) and Barnsley and Burton away. When you look at that home display and the fact that Burton and Barnsley will be well up for the home games, we are now in serious shit.

I'll continue to back Parky, given the promotion and us being just above water - but I'm yet to see any evidence that he knows how to get us attacking as a team. Stay up or go down, we need to not just get better results next season but look like a team that understands how to score goals.

Also, our set-pieces are garbage. You'd think, given our lack of goal threat in open play, that Parky would have got those spot-on. No sign of that.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:26 pm

https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2018/april/ ... -chairman/

Ken unimpressed. Perhaps Ken if you'd spent a little less time berating the players on the club site, and a little more time working to refinance this mess we'd not be reliant on a squad of misfits with little quality. Also if you hadn't flogged our top scorer in January we'd probably be safe by now.

Our issue isn't lack of effort. Its lack of ability within the squad. Brum aren't great but had two relatively big strikers, a powerful athletic midfield player, one player of real quality in Jota and a couple with pace.

We had no pace. Nobody with the quality of Jota, and absolutey no target up front, plus the gormless Derik in midfield.

Pay peanuts and you get....

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:31 pm

BWFC_Insane wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:26 pm
https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2018/april/ ... -chairman/

Ken unimpressed. Perhaps Ken if you'd spent a little less time berating the players on the club site, and a little more time working to refinance this mess we'd not be reliant on a squad of misfits with little quality. Also if you hadn't flogged our top scorer in January we'd probably be safe by now.

Our issue isn't lack of effort. Its lack of ability within the squad. Brum aren't great but had two relatively big strikers, a powerful athletic midfield player, one player of real quality in Jota and a couple with pace.

We had no pace. Nobody with the quality of Jota, and absolutey no target up front, plus the gormless Derik in midfield.

Pay peanuts and you get....
While I largely agree with you, the gormless Derik – in the final three months of a Lennon/Eddie contract - is probably on substantially more peanuts than almost all of his team-mates. Which is bananas.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Wed Apr 04, 2018 3:48 pm

Parky quotes, per official site.
https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2018/april/ ... gham-city/
It was always going to be a tight match. First of all, it was disappointing to concede from a set play. We probably had the best moments in the first half. Games at this stage of the season are always going to be separated by detail. I thought we had a decent period for ten minutes when Birmingham went down to ten men in the second half.

Jan [Kirchhoff] came on and pulled his hamstring. We did have a period when we were disjointed and it wasn’t clear to everybody that Jan had pulled his hamstring and we maybe should have brought him off. We had enough possession and got into enough areas, but we just couldn’t find that moment of quality tonight to unlock the door or put the ball in the back of the net.

I’ve only seen the first one [penalty appeal] and it’s a definite penalty - I can’t believe the referee didn’t give that. Birmingham got a penalty against Ipswich on Saturday, which was never a penalty, and that won them the game. Tonight, they had the rub of the green. Maybe in the last six games, things might go for us. It was certainly a very tough call not to get.

We’ve come a long way as a group, both the players and staff. We’re going to fight tooth and nail in these last six games. When you get beat at home, you’ve got to accept an element of criticism. We’ve got to stand strong together. Now the aim in the last six games is to give absolutely everything we’ve got and show real courage and desire.

I don’t have to tell you how tight it is at the bottom – everyone can see the table for themselves. We always said we wanted to give ourselves a chance after the terrible start we had. We’re still in with a very good chance. I’ve got a lot of belief in this group of players that we can retain our Championship status. We’ve got to be ready for one almighty battle.

We’ve got a couple of days now to regroup as a squad and get together. We’ll have to think carefully about picking a team which we feel will get us a result.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Prufrock » Wed Apr 04, 2018 4:05 pm

Good to see Chairman Berk demanding 120% from the players, the regulation 110 clearly not sufficing.
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Wed Apr 04, 2018 4:25 pm

Prufrock wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 4:05 pm
Good to see Chairman Berk demanding 120% from the players, the regulation 110 clearly not sufficing.
I'm disappointed he's not aiming for at least 50000% 120 seems a bit low really....lack of ambition.

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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by TANGODANCER » Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:15 pm

Ah, memories...All this relegation talk reminds me of a poster I did on here of Gary Megson, Nolan and co, celebrating "The Great Escape" way back in the dark ages...just gave me a smile remembering... :wink:
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Harry Genshaw » Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:41 pm

I'm not chucking the towel in yet but I do wonder what it must be like watching a side that creates say, even just 3 or 4 chances a game.

Adam Armstrong, written off by some on here as a waste of space, shows he actually does have ability when (a) he's played in his natural position and (b) his team mates play to his strengths rather than launching the ball 10 feet above hud head. Alf must be yearning for that kind of service
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by Lost Leopard Spot » Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:59 pm

Athertonian wrote:
Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:38 pm
Spineless shower of wankers. Only Le Fondre and Vela showed interest, the rest did not know how important that game was. Parky needs to sort that lot out quicker than later else were going down. We can't create chances let alone score bloody goals.

If that shower of shite can't bother turning up then I'm not bothered neither. I stopped going away because it was utter garbage and so glad I did. That tonight has probably made many more Wanderers feel the same.
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Re: Will we be beating the Blues, or singing the blues? BWFC v Birmingham 3/4/18 8pm

Post by bristol_Wanderer3 » Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:03 am

Belated view from the West Stand Upper:

First of all I have purposely not read the posts above before posting this:

Our players seemed particular nervy especially in the first half. We seemed half a yard slow and didn't react quickly to loose balls, and maybe because of this there was no attempt at creativity and we just played in a very safe, cautious and largely aimless manner.

There were hardly any chances in the whole game. This was actually a very similar game to the one at St Andrews that I attended in August. A fair result would definitely have been 0-0. It was almost like we were content with 0-0 from the start. Unfortunately we let Juke run onto a free kick unmarked, and then it always looked like it was going to be 0-1 even after they went down to ten men.

For some unknown reason we seem to want to play extra passes around our defence when we are behind to poor teams at home, when exactly the opposite is needed. We needed to play at a high tempo, to pressure them into mistakes and make it clear they were in a battle. Instead we just took a few extra passes to do what we were always going to do, which was knock it aimlessly long in the rough direction of ALF who was surrounded by four or five players half a foot taller than him. In that respect this was a precise replica of the Burton game, except then we had Madine which at least gave this tactic some plausibility.

Flanagan, Taylor and Alnwick looked ok. ALF tried but had a ridiculously thankless task given how we played. The rest were all below par imo. Henry doing his hamstring again could be a disaster.

Their 4800 were at times very loud and with 16300 of ours in, including some young uns who were presumably there for the first time, this was a big chance to increase our fan base. We miserably failed to do that. Unless those occasional supporters have a particular masochistic streak that is.

People who sit around me are convinced we are going down. After this it is hard to see us picking up many more points and we seem reliant on Barnsley not having a decent run to stay up.

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