Semi Final Match Thread

[malcd1]

We have had loads of spineless performances but on the big occasion this has to be up there with the worst.

The only other match I can think of that rates anything like this was Watford in the play off final in 1999. That was another occasion where we didn't look like scoring never mind winning.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We have had loads of spineless performances but on the big occasion this has to be up there with the worst.

The only other match I can think of that rates anything like this was Watford in the play off final in 1999. That was another occasion where we didn't look like scoring never mind winning.

Good comparison, that. I was thinking of Tranmere in the League Cup semi but that awful Watford day felt very similar.

[Raven]

Come on guys,

We've had our knee jerks. I for one wanted a refund yesterday but lets not get at each other.

It was expensive yesterday but we knew it before we went. If we'd won 5-0 it wouldn't have mattered. We can go on and on about the performance but what's that going to acheive. Lets put this one to bed as a "Rabbit in the headlights" and concentrate on the next game.

Looking at how Davo reacted on twitter shows that we aren't the only ones hurting.

Still want my refund!

[BWFC_Insane]

We have had loads of spineless performances but on the big occasion this has to be up there with the worst.

The only other match I can think of that rates anything like this was Watford in the play off final in 1999. That was another occasion where we didn't look like scoring never mind winning.

Good comparison, that. I was thinking of Tranmere in the League Cup semi but that awful Watford day felt very similar.

It did except the Watford game was less of a shock as we'd been very fragile and unpredictable that season. And never really looked settled given the quality we had. And Watford had done us in the 2 league games as well that season!

[norm the jedi]

Bristol City - Sherpa van or summat....
my first time at Wembley with Wanderers that were a pretty desolate experience...

Tranmere play off is up there an all.......

[TANGODANCER]

Never been to the new Wembley, only the old one, but the pitch looked huge on screen. I know it's not that much bigger then the Reebok surface-wise, but it gave a sense of being overwhelmed right from the off. The feeling grew as time went on, especially after the second goal.

[TKIZ!]

That was my first experience at Wembley to Norm. I think Keith Curle played for Bristol City that day and they just looked better than us.

[Dr Hotdog]

That 90+ minutes can compare to the entire campaign England had at last summer's World Cup. So much expectation and then a completely gutless flop. Really bizarre day.

What the heck was up with Jussi for the 2nd, 4th and 5th goals?
In fact, what on earth was he doing for the 5th? Seriously. That was probably the most bizarre piece of 'goalkeeping' I've ever seen. Fat lad just chipped it into the middle of an empty net as our Finn was trying to swat something on the ground. Shit. Compounded.

[Zulus Thousand of em]

That 90+ minutes can compare to the entire campaign England had at last summer's World Cup. So much expectation and then a completely gutless flop. Really bizarre day.

What the heck was up with Jussi for the 2nd, 4th and 5th goals?
In fact, what on earth was he doing for the 5th? Seriously. That was probably the most bizarre piece of 'goalkeeping' I've ever seen. Fat lad just chipped it into the middle of an empty net as our Finn was trying to swat something on the ground. Shit. Compounded.

Watch it in slo-mo - if you can stand it. Fat lad pinged it towards goal and it took a deflection off Cahill. Not sure Jussi could have done much about it. Now as for the defending prior to fat lad's shot...

[HMX]

Jussi appeared already to be moving to the right corner to save it, and it came off Cahill's thigh and somehow made it in. Urgh

[Il Pirate]

Yeah that was really strange, I didn't see one Stoke fan celebrating on the way back.

They were as sombre as we were.

3 'oldish' Stoke fans I met on the fastcat back to the IoW could only moan about how much it will cost to go the final!

[Tombwfc]

Blaming Jussi is one of the odder ways to vent your anger. Less odd than blaming Howard Webb I suppose.

I still think the Carling Cup was worse - that was a real chance to actually win a cup and we threw it away in similar swift fashion. It's hard to be that devastated when you've been so comprehensively shit, and then outplayed. That and the 'Boro game did feel like anybodies to win, whereas yesterday it seemed slightly inevitable that it would be Stoke's day.

It is very easy to get disillusioned after games like yesterday. After being on this cup run, seeing the sucess of Stoke and Birmingham and even the trip to Wembley, I can definately see why people would find it hard to be that enthusiastic about finishing 8th in the Premier League. Really, so what?

[Devon White]

Its taken me until now to try and write something at least sensible instead of outright rage.
Cost £300 for the round trip.
Coyle got the team and subsequest tactics wrong and not one of our players decided he was a professional footballer and put that into the game.

We move on, would still have this situation than anything we had with that last manager, sorry cant remember his name.
IT WAS A BIZARE DAY, Well done to our fans for the superb support, up until the 4th goal and then it was a sense of what have I paid for.
Top 10 finish and a semi - final, good season.

[seattle_wanderer]

Bristol City - Sherpa van or summat....
my first time at Wembley with Wanderers that were a pretty desolate experience...

That was my first trip to Wembley as well, with the added fun of coming from Bristol (and returning) on a National Express coach full of Brissle fans..... Ahh the memories..

So the moral of the story is just to give it 25 years, and after that this defeat might not taste as bad as it does now.

[Eborted]

Thought I'd come here to document my thoughts.

Coyle- He played the team I would have played...I'm sorry but Elmander was brilliant in the centre against Wham and Petrov was looking mighty fine as well. Klasnic may do feck all else but let him swing his foot at the ball and theres a good chance it's going into the back of the net. It didn't work out that way did it. He has to take a lot of the blame for this not because of the team he picked but the way we approached the game and lacked any cohesion or ideas. Maybe he told them to approach it like any other game to stop them worrying about the hype while Pulis fired up Stoke to the brim...who knows. He's the reason we got to Wembley anyway and I'm sure he'll reprove his worth soon.

The Players - All were shockingly shite and I'm not saying the ones that I'm about to mention were any worse than the others but there's a few I want to pass comment on.

Firstly Jussi. This game is yet further proof that he is fading fast. I'm only a shitty 5 a side keeper but I would be gutted at not saving the 2nd. The 1st and 4ths I maintain would have been more than likely kept out by a top class premier league keeper. Jussi was a hero in the Allardyce era, one of the reasons we were so successful but the past 2 seasons in particular he's been declining at a speedy rate. YES he will of course make great saves on occasion of course he fecking will doesn't every fecking professional keeper? However recently he's been letting in a lot that many would keep out. Not obvious howlers but ones that show he's off the pace. I don't believe Bogdan is ready to start and while AL-Habsi may have the occasional shocker in him I'd rather have a keeper whose capable of saving the shots that fly by Jussi. People need to start realising he's not reaching some Van der Sar esque twilight years he's a spent force. I remember Allardyce had the balls to drop him when he wasn't performing. Will Coyle? Doubt it.

Steinsson sounds like an absolute wonderful guy but he doesn't have what it takes there third was fecking cringey to watch. Robinson may put his heart and soul into the game most of the time but he's a fecking liability. However he hasn't been playing football for the last 2 weeks which 1 yellow card away or not I think is barmy. It's his fecking fault he's in that position. If he's our fecking best left back don't leave him out for personal reasons.

Personally- 6 trips to wembley and cardiff and one win, 4 trips to Wembley and feck all (I missed the Reading game as I was a young lad who had already been treated to the league cup final). You would think were used to it but yesterday hurt so much. Never have I seen such a shambles. Never have I seen players looking so lost etc etc blahdy blahdy blah, it was probably the worst 2 hours of my life....

[Devon White]

Thought I'd come here to document my thoughts.

Coyle- He played the team I would have played...I'm sorry but Elmander was brilliant in the centre against Wham and Petrov was looking mighty fine as well. Klasnic may do feck all else but let him swing his foot at the ball and theres a good chance it's going into the back of the net. It didn't work out that way did it. He has to take a lot of the blame for this not because of the team he picked but the way we approached the game and lacked any cohesion or ideas. Maybe he told them to approach it like any other game to stop them worrying about the hype while Pulis fired up Stoke to the brim...who knows. He's the reason we got to Wembley anyway and I'm sure he'll reprove his worth soon.

The Players - All were shockingly shite and I'm not saying the ones that I'm about to mention were any worse than the others but there's a few I want to pass comment on.

Firstly Jussi. This game is yet further proof that he is fading fast. I'm only a shitty 5 a side keeper but I would be gutted at not saving the 2nd. The 1st and 4ths I maintain would have been more than likely kept out by a top class premier league keeper. Jussi was a hero in the Allardyce era, one of the reasons we were so successful but the past 2 seasons in particular he's been declining at a speedy rate. YES he will of course make great saves on occasion of course he fecking will doesn't every fecking professional keeper? However recently he's been letting in a lot that many would keep out. Not obvious howlers but ones that show he's off the pace. I don't believe Bogdan is ready to start and while AL-Habsi may have the occasional shocker in him I'd rather have a keeper whose capable of saving the shots that fly by Jussi. People need to start realising he's not reaching some Van der Sar esque twilight years he's a spent force. I remember Allardyce had the balls to drop him when he wasn't performing. Will Coyle? Doubt it.

Steinsson sounds like an absolute wonderful guy but he doesn't have what it takes there third was fecking cringey to watch. Robinson may put his heart and soul into the game most of the time but he's a fecking liability. However he hasn't been playing football for the last 2 weeks which 1 yellow card away or not I think is barmy. It's his fecking fault he's in that position. If he's our fecking best left back don't leave him out for personal reasons.

Personally- 6 trips to wembley and cardiff and one win, 4 trips to Wembley and feck all (I missed the Reading game as I was a young lad who had already been treated to the league cup final). You would think were used to it but yesterday hurt so much. Never have I seen such a shambles. Never have I seen players looking so lost etc etc blahdy blahdy blah, it was probably the worst 2 hours of my life....

ITS GOOD THERAPY EBORTED, GOOD THERAPY

[thebish]

anyone who thinks they will ever truly be over it is kidding himself...

let's test this theory with a simple sequence of words....

Dean
Holdsworth
Aston
Villa

[officer_dibble]

HAd a shite day today at work as im sure everyone has. People have tried to not speak to me but even people wanting to show sympathy I have held in contempt. I've been such a grumpy bastard,

Losing is fine. Losing 5-0 to a team below us in the league having just wilted and died without so much as a whimper...absolutely disgraceful.

There are players there who have tarnished careers with BWFC. People like Kevin Davies, Jussi. I'm not sure if I can ever forgive them. When I see that list of all time appearances and Jussi will be on it (hopefully nowhere near hopkinsons record - should be dropped for good now) I'm sure I will come back to this day where he played like an absolute soppy nice person.

I read what I wrote on p13 and yeah normally I cringe a bit at post match + beers knee jerk bollocks after football has ruined my day out...I was fecking right. To the word. I would still transfer list every single one of those bastards. Would you want any of them in the trenches with you? Would you bollocks. They would probably sit there on twitter "Lolling" whilst we all got killed!! I know I'm wrong, I know Coyle will sort this out, but I've had the season absolutely f*cking ruined and I'm going to rant about it!

Yeah I know I will get some shit for that but thats what it feels like...enjoyed some cracking games this year, yet what will I remember? complete capitulation.

I see Kevins apologised. Looks like it really hurt him. And yet I dont care how he feels...well I do...I want him to hurt, I want the money grabbing mercenaries to feel an inch of my pain. To a man (well mouse) they all wilted. We deserve better. They should be fined, as a group what everyones tickets cost and donate it to charity...or even better our transfer kitty to replace them next year.

Horrible match. Has certainly put me off next week; I was already double booked...not any more. At the moment I can well see myself avoiding the football again until next season...and I hope we change some personnel...all this time devoted to looking on here, going to the game, getting worked up about going to Wembley etc etc absolutely ruined. I hold the players in complete contempt and totally responsible. Yes Coyle got his team wrong, but he didn't tell those wankers to go out there and not try did he.

Epic rant but glad its out of my system. Couldn't give a flying f*ck how the season finishes now. Means nothing.

[officer_dibble]

anyone who thinks they will ever truly be over it is kidding himself...

let's test this theory with a simple sequence of words....

Dean
Holdsworth
Aston
Villa

Thats moved to the 'happy place' in my head and been replaced in the 'nightmare bin' by the 80 minutes i managed yesterday!

[truewhite15]

anyone who thinks they will ever truly be over it is kidding himself...

let's test this theory with a simple sequence of words....

Dean
Holdsworth
Aston
Villa

I'd take a thousand, a million of them. I'd relive that moment again and again, if it meant I didn't have to ever relive yesterday again.