Animal Wars... T'rotters v T'ykes ('t'home Sat 2/12/17)

[twilight]

Little or Alnwick MOTM but our defence was shocking, Alnwick made a few good saves to keep us in it, but that must be the most bizarre refereeing ever...which one of our players wasn't booked!!

[BWFC_Insane]

Oh and Wheater back in asap, that Burke lad....not good.

[officer_dibble]

Is that the first goal by a defender this season? (No cos Burke got one last home game 🤫)Great result. Well happy with that. Didn’t feel like we would let it slip either when we went 2-1 up. Possibly cos Barnsley were a bit crap.

Buckley seems handy but is that as fit as he gets? Never a 90 minutes man if so.

[DJBlu]

Little or Alnwick MOTM but our defence was shocking, Alnwick made a few good saves to keep us in it, but that must be the most bizarre refereeing ever...which one of our players wasn't booked!!

Couple of shouts for more penalties. The blatant push on Madine in the second half was laughable.

[TANGODANCER]

We're partly a good side, but I'm sure every side in the Championship knows we're vulnerable as the game goes on. It's like a battery gradually wearing out and eventually dying. I'd say they're all told to keep attacking us and eventually we'll surrender
The ref today sounded really crappy (any views on that from the match goers?) and I was dreading a second penalty for them. I'm far from pessimistic, but we need to keep winning a few and getting up the table. No daft talk of winning prizes, just avoiding relegation until we can rebuild. Right now, we are vulnerable and teams know it and play on it. We are no better than quite a few around us talent wise, and only attitude and effort will get us there. I still believe we can do that.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

View from the West Stand Upper:

Get the feck in!!

A very important victory. It is rare this season to have a feeling that man for man we have better, stronger, quicker, more talented players, but this was one of those few occasions, perhaps the only occasion thus far. Therefore it would have been a huge blow not to have made our superiority count with three points, but the old Leaditis kicked in, and we could easily have blown it. We let Barnsley back in it straight away after taking the lead first half, by being disorganised straight from the kick off after our goal, with Buckley getting some attention on the touchline as they kicked off, Ameobi switching sides, and the next time we touched it Alnwick was picking it out of the net following Burke's rash challenge. Then Barnsley slightly upped the game early in the second half as we became a gibbering mess and they could easily have scored from numerous scrambles in our box. Hopefully now we are off the bottom we can start to get more confident in seeing these games out, it seems to be mental thing. Barnsley were poor and a lot of sides in this league would have punished us. Anyway all good in the end as we won and looked a significantly better team than them and they are now becoming part of the race to the bottom, one which they have all the attributes to win.

Little had an awesome game and looks our best right back for many years. He was the biggest factor in us scoring our goals and for me was clear Motm.

Madine standing over a crucial penalty is the stuff of nightmares. I could barely look and had every faith that he would hit a powder puff penalty that the keeper would be able to save whilst planning distribution for the subsequent counter attack. Perhaps Madine had just enough element of surprise to even out the contest, given he has (understandably) taken few penalties and the keeper didn't realize he could have gotten up and dived again after initially going the wrong way. Well done Gaz, but it might be beneficial if one of our other players risked a broken nose and took the ball out of his hands for the next one.

The referee was utterly terrible. Henry and Pratley got booked seemingly for being pushed and shoved. Buckley clearly got fouled, tried to regain his balance before going over as he homed in on goal, and the referee either missed the original foul or doesn't understand the concept of the advantage rule. He missed numerous other fouls and seemed reluctant to give our penalty which seemed as blatant as they come. Then, luckily he and his fourth official decided Vela's right hook merited only a yellow card. Phew. A Velaless BWFC for the next three games would've been a huge blow.

Overall reasons to be optimistic. More evidence that we aren't a bad side at this level at all now. Little and Robinson are very decent full backs. Henry has made us a nastier proposition to play against. Vela too has added steel. Pratley has joined the midfield party. Ameobi looks a class act more often than not, and Buckley has real potential on the other side. Madine, when not taking penalties, has improved vastly from last season and is a decent Championship centre forward now he is putting the tap ins away. If our central defence could improve (I would go Wheater / Burke) and we add a little quality (a cheeky loan move for CYL perhaps?) and we cure the Leaditis, we have a side that could challenge much higher up this league. On the other hand injuries or suspensions to any of Little, Henry, Pratley, Vela or Madine and we might be mortally wounded.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I really think we should be leaving these threads to Brizzle Wanderer. His recent track record is a bit more decent than your recent disaster

He'd better be coming up with a Nobel prize winning title for the next game, I'm telling thee!

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I really think we should be leaving these threads to Brizzle Wanderer. His recent track record is a bit more decent than your recent disaster

He'd better be coming up with a Nobel prize winning title for the next game, I'm telling thee!

You got lucky because it was against the one team worse than ours...though even then I wasn't wholly confident

[Bruno3]

Three points was vital and it feels good to be out of the bottom three but have to say we rode our luck (yet again) and against a side with better finishers we'd have blown a 2 goal lead (yet again). We didn't get anywhere near there box for the first twenty minutes of the second half - is this following instructions to sit back as we always seem to do or just panic setting in? Alnwick was man of the match for me. Beevers is just a shadow of last season and I would leave Burke in with Wheater. Little and Robinson had good games and the partnership of Little with Ameobi is great to watch. I just don't see what Buckley has to offer - defensively his positional sense is non existant and, if he does get anywhere near an opponent with the ball his "tackling" doesn't even get as strong as powder puff. Attacking wise he isn't the fastest and, apart from winning free kicks when his long uncoordinated legs get tripped up, he gives nothing. Armstrong is infinitely better and should always start ahead of him. As for Madine - boy does he split opinion. Apart from the goal and just about managing to convert the penalty he is just someone for Beevers to lump the ball up to when he runs out of ideas (which doesn't take him long). ALF should be starting. If Madine's not there we'd have to play it to feet which Ameobi, Vela, Little, Robinson and Armstrong are well able to do (I've not included Pratley and Henry for obvious reasons). It's a shame that Noone and Sammi seem to like playing in the same wide right position cutting in as they'd be a real threat with one one each wing.

[BWFC_Insane]

Three points was vital and it feels good to be out of the bottom three but have to say we rode our luck (yet again) and against a side with better finishers we'd have blown a 2 goal lead (yet again). We didn't get anywhere near there box for the first twenty minutes of the second half - is this following instructions to sit back as we always seem to do or just panic setting in? Alnwick was man of the match for me. Beevers is just a shadow of last season and I would leave Burke in with Wheater. Little and Robinson had good games and the partnership of Little with Ameobi is great to watch. I just don't see what Buckley has to offer - defensively his positional sense is non existant and, if he does get anywhere near an opponent with the ball his "tackling" doesn't even get as strong as powder puff. Attacking wise he isn't the fastest and, apart from winning free kicks when his long uncoordinated legs get tripped up, he gives nothing. Armstrong is infinitely better and should always start ahead of him. As for Madine - boy does he split opinion. Apart from the goal and just about managing to convert the penalty he is just someone for Beevers to lump the ball up to when he runs out of ideas (which doesn't take him long). ALF should be starting. If Madine's not there we'd have to play it to feet which Ameobi, Vela, Little, Robinson and Armstrong are well able to do (I've not included Pratley and Henry for obvious reasons). It's a shame that Noone and Sammi seem to like playing in the same wide right position cutting in as they'd be a real threat with one one each wing.

Wow, loads of this I disagree with.

For me Burke is too green to be starting. Beevers was shaky but I think he missed Wheater big time. Burke was all over the show at times.

Buckley looked good to me - he offered quality on the ball that Armstrong doesn't possess. Robinson cannot defend to save his life and whilst his pace is great, he causes a lot of issues for our back four.

Madine was great. Start ALF? Not in a million, billion years. Madine is playing well and the idea that we'll be able to cope without an outlet upfront is laughable.

I'm also as yet to see what the fuss about Noone is. Every time he comes on he makes no impact and weakens the team defensively.

[Bruce Rioja]

Didn’t feel like we would let it slip either when we went 2-1 up. Possibly cos Barnsley were a bit crap.

Ooof. I didn't share that feeling with you at all, Dibs. In fact, I thought we needed a fourth.

[Bruno3]

Three points was vital and it feels good to be out of the bottom three but have to say we rode our luck (yet again) and against a side with better finishers we'd have blown a 2 goal lead (yet again). We didn't get anywhere near there box for the first twenty minutes of the second half - is this following instructions to sit back as we always seem to do or just panic setting in? Alnwick was man of the match for me. Beevers is just a shadow of last season and I would leave Burke in with Wheater. Little and Robinson had good games and the partnership of Little with Ameobi is great to watch. I just don't see what Buckley has to offer - defensively his positional sense is non existant and, if he does get anywhere near an opponent with the ball his "tackling" doesn't even get as strong as powder puff. Attacking wise he isn't the fastest and, apart from winning free kicks when his long uncoordinated legs get tripped up, he gives nothing. Armstrong is infinitely better and should always start ahead of him. As for Madine - boy does he split opinion. Apart from the goal and just about managing to convert the penalty he is just someone for Beevers to lump the ball up to when he runs out of ideas (which doesn't take him long). ALF should be starting. If Madine's not there we'd have to play it to feet which Ameobi, Vela, Little, Robinson and Armstrong are well able to do (I've not included Pratley and Henry for obvious reasons). It's a shame that Noone and Sammi seem to like playing in the same wide right position cutting in as they'd be a real threat with one one each wing.

Wow, loads of this I disagree with.

For me Burke is too green to be starting. Beevers was shaky but I think he missed Wheater big time. Burke was all over the show at times.

Buckley looked good to me - he offered quality on the ball that Armstrong doesn't possess. Robinson cannot defend to save his life and whilst his pace is great, he causes a lot of issues for our back four.

Madine was great. Start ALF? Not in a million, billion years. Madine is playing well and the idea that we'll be able to cope without an outlet upfront is laughable.

I'm also as yet to see what the fuss about Noone is. Every time he comes on he makes no impact and weakens the team defensively.

Wouldn't the world be a dull place if we all agreed.

[boltonboris]

Pleased with the result, pleased with how much a threat we looked on the break second half and very pleased with a good number of individual performances. Even more pleased that we've managed to find last season's shithousery. Niggly fouls, time wasting, dragging people into scrappy battles and getting them wound up. Beautiful

Worried though, that we looked weak at the back and that Alnwick had to keep us in the game at times.

The openness of the match actually benefited us for once.

[BWFC_Insane]

Pleased with the result, pleased with how much a threat we looked on the break second half and very pleased with a good number of individual performances. Even more pleased that we've managed to find last season's shithousery. Niggly fouls, time wasting, dragging people into scrappy battles and getting them wound up. Beautiful

Worried though, that we looked weak at the back and that Alnwick had to keep us in the game at times.

The openness of the match actually benefited us for once.

I agree, there are lots of good things. But also the main issue is we can't defend. Even at 3-1 with 80 minutes gone I was far from certain we'd win, and not just because I never like to count my chickens (or am a pessimistic old sod), but because we don't look capable of sitting in and blocking a team's route to goal. We sit in and they go through us. Perhaps having two primarily attacking fullbacks in our team has altered the balance somewhat...we are ridiculously weak defensively out wide. Perhaps the midfield just tire as the game goes on and we lose protection of the back four?

Whatever it is, it needs addressing, because IF we are to stay up we will need to defend better than Saturday and recent matches. We will need to win games 1-0, 2-1 and see out tight encounters. My worry is that I struggle to see us winning many away from home given how little possession we have and coupled to the fact that we seem to be able to concede chances alarmingly regularly, for a team with two strong centre halves and two stopper midfield players. Once Vela's legs start to tire I feel we're always really in trouble in games.

[officer_dibble]

Didn’t feel like we would let it slip either when we went 2-1 up. Possibly cos Barnsley were a bit crap.

Ooof. I didn't share that feeling with you at all, Dibs. In fact, I thought we needed a fourth.

I completely understand that. With absolutely no reasoning at all - just felt we wouldn’t on saturday. Call it a premonition!

[officer_dibble]

BTW
Alnwick, shout for player of the season thus far!

[twilight]

Well we might have been 3 v 1 up in the 90th minute but when I saw 7!!! minutes I was nervous as hell ! And I also couldn't watch Madine's penalty.. when somebody behind me said Madine had never missed a pen, I said has he ever taken one...has he?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

when somebody behind me said Madine had never missed a pen, I said has he ever taken one...has he?

Classic example of not listening to The Bloke Behind You: Madine missed one for us, at home, two years ago against our next opponents. In fact, before Saturday he’d apparently failed five times in his eight attempts, which shows two things: he’s got balls, but he probably shouldn’t be taking penalties...

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/gary-ma ... eler/66994

[twilight]

Thanks DSB!! I don't remember it, so thought the bloke may have been right....He talks a load of crap and I don't usually listen to him

[Bruce Rioja]

Hmm. Not great stats, and if the keeper had stayed on his feet on Saturday he'd have missed another.