Rams to the slaughter?

[thebish]

Again: 22 shots, which is good, but only having 4 of them on target is not. I'd rather that than getting 1 of 3 on target, but a bit of accuracy wouldn't go amiss.

Freedman: (quotes from BBC)
"This is the first time in my management career at Bolton that I'm going to say I am frustrated. There's a lot of suggestion there that we've got a good team, we just need to gel them together a little bit and stop losing goals at crucial moments in football matches.
"It's certainly a spirited performance but it's a game we should win. There was loads of plusses, it's just you score a couple of goals and where you are right now you think that's going to be enough for you but it doesn't quite work that way.
"We are trying very hard; we're in training double sessions, we're working with the players we've got and we're trying our very best to put it right."

oooof - I REALLY hope he didn't say that bit!

[Athers]

Just seen the highlights. Might have to downgrade Mills, statuesque for their goals. We really fecked defensively. Baptiste was just standing watching Spearing fly into an ultimately unsuccessful tackle, then jogged back as the player ran into the yawning defensive chasm he'd left behind him yet again and crossed for an easy tap-in. Wish Crystal Palace had nicked him now. What a donkey. maybe we should play him up front? He is our top scorer after all.
As for Dougie's comments, according to an Iles tweet he claimed Beckford is struggling because he is 'trying too hard'. My laptop nearly went through the window at that point.

My guess in fairness is that he means mentally instead of just doing what comes naturally as it did at leeds for a spell Beckford is over conscious of what he needs to do and anxious about failing. It's different to a workrate thing and different to Ngog who has never really been a goalscorer.At least with beckford there is the knowledge that should he click and get his head right he can score goals.That's why Freedman took a gamble on him. If it pays off then its money well spent.

The weirdest moment for my last night was when Beckford made something out of a high hoof, beat a man, got into the box and made space for a shot, only to cut back again twice and eventually fluff it. The 'beating man again' is exactly the sort of thing N'gog does (see his run at Blackburn), whereas I'd expect Beckford to just fire it first chance he gets.

[LeverEnd]

Did you get there Bruce? What's your take on tonight?

Indeed, Tango, and I'd say that William's pretty much nailed it with his assessment. Two points to add though - I thought that Hall was an absolute handful, often unplayable in the first half and looks to be a fantastic prospect. He tired as the second half wore on but overall I was delighted with him. Second point is - I haven't seen any highlights whatsoever but when I do I want to look at Ginger's positioning and lack of endeavour to deal with the balls across on both of their goals, especially the second one which looked to me as though he could have thrown his cap on it. As I say, I haven't seen a replay and I could well be wrong.

I'd agree that Hall has talent but wasn't impressed last night. had his moments first half, totally anonymous 2nd. I took a dislike to his diving as well, did it a couple of times and also just fell over on other occasions. My mate asked if he was wearing Vaz Te's old boots. I'm obviously in the minority though as he got plenty of applause when he was subbed, but I just didn't see it last night. For me he shows flashes but as a starter needs to contribute more. I hope he stays in though because he is a genuine prospect and we're not exactly overburdened with those.

I was a tad surprised when I read your comments about Hall, I think I normally agree with most of the stuff you write. I thought we lost all movement once he came off. At least he looked like he wanted the ball. Tierney looked up for the fight, as did Spearing, about time he was given the armband in my opinion.

I do wonder if Eagles has been told to be a bit greedy as we're not getting goals from the strikers at the moment. Either that or he played very selfishly last night, lucky for him it worked out with a great goal.

I think I developed an element of bias because I disliked his going down too easily, then when Derby were there for the taking he was the one who could have done it but offered little. I generally have an aversion to wingers who drift in and out of the game and fall over at the slightest touch!
Having said all that I do think he's promising and hoe he gets plenty more game time.

[LeverEnd]

The weirdest moment for my last night was when Beckford made something out of a high hoof, beat a man, got into the box and made space for a shot, only to cut back again twice and eventually fluff it. The 'beating man again' is exactly the sort of thing N'gog does (see his run at Blackburn), whereas I'd expect Beckford to just fire it first chance he gets.

I thought that, mentioned to my cousin at the time that he'd caught Ngog's disease.

As for the Dougie comment, I realise what he means is that Beckford wants it too much. It's just a very irritating choice of words when JB is playing as poorly as he is, and his workrate is minimal. I know what his game is supposed to be about, but he could try occasionally to make something happen for himself.

[wonka]

The goals are now on YouTube. I was at the game last night, but can now scrutinise how we gave away 2 soft goals.

The first Derby goal seemed like a defensive howler. Baptiste was clearly out of position - but this can always happen when full backs attack. There should be someone covering (Ream/Eagles?) in these cases. Anyway, even after the cross comes in, we still had Mills/Ream/Wheater defending it. Mills sticks his foot out but misses it. And both Wheater and Ream were beaten for pace and outrun by Russell. Bogdan had no chance really.

For Derby's 2nd goal there was an element of luck. Hughes initially shot, and their other striker somehow controlled the shot before passing to Russell, again giving Bogdan no chance. But there was no luck about our defending - poor marking and lack of pace from Wheater/Mills/Baptiste, despite outnumbering them 3 to 2.

Despite the 2 goals, we did actually look a lot better, we had loads of possession, and kept up the pressure for the whole of the 2nd half. Eagles was on fire before fading towards the end, Hall looked like a handful, Chungy showed some of the old skill... but there's no a lot of end-product. Beckford is not getting any service, but neither is he making the right runs or getting into good positions.

Ream had another good match, and I like the pairing of him with Spearing. I would start with the same team at Brighton, but would replace Hall with Pratley keeping Eagles/Chungy on the wings. Our defence needs more organisation & discipline, and I would keep Spearing/Ream in front of the defence to keep it better protected/covered - with instructions not to venture too far forward. Whenever Eagles or Chungy get possession, I'd like to see Beckford making more runs.

Beckford is the same sort of player as Anelka (but a bit shitter) - he is never going to win headers, so we need to play to his strengths. If we insist on putting crosses in, we have nobody to win them, apart from Cravies. Is Cravies fit right now?

[thebish]

Beckford is the same sort of player as Anelka (but a bit shitter) -

[coffeymagic]

I thought I'd posted this earlier on, seems it never stuck.

Anyway, from what was said on Radio5 last night it seemed like quite a good game. In isolation that's ok, a 2-2 draw isn't a bad result against Derby.

However in the current mess we're in it's just another nail in the League One coffin isn't it? Another defeat on Saturday and I reckon that's it done and dusted - no way back.

I can only thank the lord that we have 'brain in a jar' Lennie Lawrence guided Dougie through these hard times.

'Lenny, it's fish and chips twice, pie and chips three times, fish chips and curry sauce once and pudding and chips twice. Four cans of Vimto and get whatever you want. What was that Lenny? Can you keep the change? No. Bring it back.'

On the subject of N'Gog when he first signed I thought we'd picked up a £5m £60k a week bargain as I'd seen him score some good goals for Liverpool and couldn't understand why they wanted rid.

Now thinking I back what I'd actually saw him do was score some SPECTACULAR goals for Liverpool.

You never saw him with a one-on-one, or a brave header or tapping one in from a yard it was all hit'n'hopes from the edge of the box. Not a good striker for me.

I know there's a reason Wayne Rooney is at Man United and David N'Gog is at Bolton but ffs - Rooney's scored 200 goals on his own, how long would it take you to work out how long it's taken our strikers to score 200 goals between them.

It wouldn't surprise me if SKD, Pedersen, Jardell or any of the other fuds we've had front have taken 10 years between them to hit that mark.

Boooo! indeed. Boooooooooo!

[danardif1]

I thought I'd posted this earlier on, seems it never stuck.

Anyway, from what was said on Radio5 last night it seemed like quite a good game. In isolation that's ok, a 2-2 draw isn't a bad result against Derby.

However in the current mess we're in it's just another nail in the League One coffin isn't it? Another defeat on Saturday and I reckon that's it done and dusted - no way back.

I can only thank the lord that we have 'brain in a jar' Lennie Lawrence guided Dougie through these hard times.

'Lenny, it's fish and chips twice, pie and chips three times, fish chips and curry sauce once and pudding and chips twice. Four cans of Vimto and get whatever you want. What was that Lenny? Can you keep the change? No. Bring it back.'

On the subject of N'Gog when he first signed I thought we'd picked up a £5m £60k a week bargain as I'd seen him score some good goals for Liverpool and couldn't understand why they wanted rid.

Now thinking I back what I'd actually saw him do was score some SPECTACULAR goals for Liverpool.

You never saw him with a one-on-one, or a brave header or tapping one in from a yard it was all hit'n'hopes from the edge of the box. Not a good striker for me.

I know there's a reason Wayne Rooney is at Man United and David N'Gog is at Bolton but ffs - Rooney's scored 200 goals on his own, how long would it take you to work out how long it's taken our strikers to score 200 goals between them.

It wouldn't surprise me if SKD, Pedersen, Jardell or any of the other fuds we've had front have taken 10 years between them to hit that mark.

Boooo! indeed. Boooooooooo!

Not to be pedantic, but Jardel had scored 298 league goals in 321 games when he came to Bolton. Yes he was the size of a small country and had suffered some bad injuries, but he was an incredible striker in his day.

[coffeymagic]

I'm not disputing the goal scoring of ANY centre forward before he's put pen to paper but once he pulls that white shirt over his head it's all stop isn't it?

Plenty of 'trying hard' and 'doing a lot off the ball' when what we need is someone who does a lot ON the ball.

We can't go on sacking managers and replacing them with another one of the '18 Month' brigade but how long do we put wiht Dougie Fresh and his get Fresh Crew?

Fug it.

[bobo the clown]

It wouldn't surprise me if SKD, Pedersen, Jardell or any of the other fuds we've had front have taken 10 years between them to hit that mark.

Boooo! indeed. Boooooooooo!

Not to be pedantic, but Jardel had scored 298 league goals in 321 games when he came to Bolton. Yes he was the size of a small country and had suffered some bad injuries, but he was an incredible striker in his day.

... & despite it all he scored something like 3 in 10 for us.

[LeverEnd]

I'm not disputing the goal scoring of ANY centre forward before he's put pen to paper but once he pulls that white shirt over his head it's all stop isn't it?

Plenty of 'trying hard' and 'doing a lot off the ball' when what we need is someone who does a lot ON the ball.

We can't go on sacking managers and replacing them with another one of the '18 Month' brigade but how long do we put wiht Dougie Fresh and his get Fresh Crew?

Fug it.

Dougie's brought Beckford in to change all that, and I can confirm he has done neither of those things.

[CAPSLOCK]

You lot having a go at Beckford...

You wrote Anelka off, too, didn't you

[jaffka]

You lot having a go at Beckford...

You wrote Anelka off, too, didn't you

Comparing Beckford with Anelka

[CAPSLOCK]

Yeah, exactly what I'm doing

[jaffka]

Yeah, exactly what I'm doing

[Tombwfc]

Beckford is now nearly 30 and is still yet to score ten league goals in a season outside of League One.

Don't waste your life waiting for him to come good.

[coffeymagic]

Who wrote Anelka off? No one I know.

One of the best centre forwards we've had at this club. Clinical, fast, skilful, always thinking and always one step ahead. And his little 'butterfly celebration' classy.

When he had the ball I never once thought 'Here we go, let's see where this ends up this time.' I knew where it was going - back of the net!

His arrival at the club showed we were still forward thinking, ready to take teams on and good enough to attract players of his calibre.

Now look at us. Beckford? Sordell? SCD? N'Gog? We might as well pick someone out of the crowd than have this shower wandering around aimlessly don't have a footballing braincell between them and none of them are fit to lace Anelka's boots.

So, no I don't anyone in their right mind would dream of slagging Anelka and you'd have to have some kind of mental disorder to speak about them in the same breath.

[thebish]

Who wrote Anelka off? No one I know.

CAPS is claiming that the people who are having a go at beckford also wrote anelka off... the personal pronoun suggests it is people on this Forum - people who might be reading his post.

I suspect he is wrong.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Beckford is now nearly 30 and is still yet to score ten league goals in a season outside of League One.

Don't waste your life waiting for him to come good.

Bloody realists!
I assume we couldnt afford or attract another anelka and actually Beckford was as good as we could afford at the time.If you look at what we paid for Ngog and Sordell it kind of suggests that genuine quality strikers who can be relied on for goals are quite expensive.The only option s are to borrow a young one from a premiership clubs reserves(short term) or hope to get lucky with someone who has potential but is playing at a lower level. I have a feeling 24 clubs in the championship may be looking for the same thing .
Gambling 1m on Beckford was totally justifiable in the circumstances and we can only hope he gets a couple of goals soon and finds a bit of belief.

[thebish]

Beckford is now nearly 30 and is still yet to score ten league goals in a season outside of League One.

Don't waste your life waiting for him to come good.

Bloody realists!
I assume we couldnt afford or attract another anelka and actually Beckford was as good as we could afford at the time.If you look at what we paid for Ngog and Sordell it kind of suggests that genuine quality strikers who can be relied on for goals are quite expensive.The only option s are to borrow a young one from a premiership clubs reserves(short term) or hope to get lucky with someone who has potential but is playing at a lower level. I have a feeling 24 clubs in the championship may be looking for the same thing .
Gambling 1m on Beckford was totally justifiable in the circumstances and we can only hope he gets a couple of goals soon and finds a bit of belief.

yeah... too right... which is why I had high hopes of this secret underground subterfuginous ace scouting network that Dougie taps into where he used to find ace and previously unheard of players for nowt at Palace...