Boxing Clever...Shrewsbury Home 26th Dec.

[BWFC_Insane]

^^ Thursday? Satdi, innit?

All the same this time of year. I have no idea what day is what. Today felt like a Saturday.

Anyway, it was pretty shite, but we won. Playing badly and winning always works for me.

[LeverEnd]

^^ Thursday? Satdi, innit?

All the same this time of year. I have no idea what day is what. Today felt like a Saturday.

Anyway, it was pretty shite, but we won. Playing badly and winning always works for me.

We do it with regularity and yes I'll happily accept it. The way I see it is that to win games while playing as poorly as today is a testament to Parky's organisational skills. This is where the whole set piece thing so criminally ignored by Lennon comes in.
Thought Madine played well today, but the three around him were well below par. Clough improved 2nd half but nkthing worked for Sammy and Vela looked like a headless chicken. They're allowed a bad one though the way they've played.
Very impressed by Wilson again today. Can't remember the last time we had 2 solid full backs.

[TANGODANCER]

The message must surely have gone out amongst League One managers that we are vulnerable in the last twenty or so? Whilst happy to listen to the views of match-goers over my audio version, it's happened far too often to be ignored. I'll admit that being in front and defending your lead (and points) is far different than chasing the ace from behind, but we really do need a bit more control maybe in midfield, because the back four seemed under constant pressure in that period.
Views?

Oh, and that penalty claim. What's the score on that?

[Nicko58]

Playing badly and winning is fine, but I think today it was down to a combination of good fortune and them being crap in front of goal rather than our organisation.

Still, it was important to win after the Chesterfield game and we have.

[Nicko58]

The message must surely have gone out amongst League One managers that we are vulnerable in the last twenty or so? Whilst happy to listen to the views of match-goers over my audio version, it's happened far too often to be ignored. I'll admit that being in front and defending your lead (and points) is far different than chasing the ace from behind, but we really do need a bit more control maybe in midfield, because the back four seemed under constant pressure in that period.
Views?

Oh, and that penalty claim. What's the score on that?

Theirs or ours?

It looked like their lad was tripped from where I was in the WSU but I could be wrong. I didn't get a good view of ours.

[BWFC_Insane]

The message must surely have gone out amongst League One managers that we are vulnerable in the last twenty or so? Whilst happy to listen to the views of match-goers over my audio version, it's happened far too often to be ignored. I'll admit that being in front and defending your lead (and points) is far different than chasing the ace from behind, but we really do need a bit more control maybe in midfield, because the back four seemed under constant pressure in that period.
Views?

Oh, and that penalty claim. What's the score on that?

Just think we didn't play well. Bottom line. And when we had decent possession our better players looked poor and made the wrong choices.

Ultimately that can leave you under pressure.

Madine did well. Rest of the team as an attacking force were basically non existent.

I think that when you don't score that many goals you will be defending leads at the end of games more often than not. That or losing lots...

[twilight]

I agree we didn't play well, but we were in control until the last 20 minutes of the game. We seem to switch off and let the opposition get back into the game, and if they score, then it's a nervy last part of the game, and it seems to be a regular pattern.....just can't seem to understand why, unless we get a little tired?

[LeverEnd]

Playing badly and winning is fine, but I think today it was down to a combination of good fortune and them being crap in front of goal rather than our organisation.

Still, it was important to win after the Chesterfield game and we have.

Taken as one game I'd agree, but we've managed it in a number of games now so there must be more to it than luck. There's no one on the bench to make a difference up front if anyone loses form long term though.
I'd much rather see derik in instead of Thorpe though, he's more likely to see a forward pass. Thorpe at home is excessively negative I think.

[BWFC_Insane]

I agree we didn't play well, but we were in control until the last 20 minutes of the game. We seem to switch off and let the opposition get back into the game, and if they score, then it's a nervy last part of the game, and it seems to be a regular pattern.....just can't seem to understand why, unless we get a little tired?

Is it a regular pattern? I'd argue it isn't. Have we conceded many if any late leads?

The pattern this season is if we score first, we probably win. Happy with that pattern.

Like I say you will have nervy finishes when you are only leading 1 or 2 nil most of the time.

[LeverEnd]

I agree we didn't play well, but we were in control until the last 20 minutes of the game. We seem to switch off and let the opposition get back into the game, and if they score, then it's a nervy last part of the game, and it seems to be a regular pattern.....just can't seem to understand why, unless we get a little tired?

We came out poorly for the 2nd half I thought. Again.even against Gillingham we did that but then picked up. I'm not expecting 90 mins of brilliance but it's an odd one.

[Burnden Paddock]

We seem to come out for the second half these days as though we already have the game in the bag. God only knows what Parky tells them, but today was the 3rd or 4th time that this has happened in the last 6-7 home games. That's fine when you turn it back on and win 4-0. Not so good when you are praying for the final whistle as we were today and also to a greater extent against Coventry!

Couldn't see their penalty appeals, but the linesman clearly had his flag up. I thought we were denied a stonewall penalty when their defender turned away from the linesman and palmed the ball away.

All in a all, a win is a win. I just wish we would make things more comfortable for ourselves, rather than living the last few minutes out biting our nails.

[Nicko58]

I agree we didn't play well, but we were in control until the last 20 minutes of the game. We seem to switch off and let the opposition get back into the game, and if they score, then it's a nervy last part of the game, and it seems to be a regular pattern.....just can't seem to understand why, unless we get a little tired?

We came out poorly for the 2nd half I thought. Again.even against Gillingham we did that but then picked up. I'm not expecting 90 mins of brilliance but it's an odd one.

I just think that Parky's quite content to sit on a lead and see the game out, and it's hard to argue that it doesn't work for us given our league position. Whilst I'd prefer us to take the initiative and kill games off early, I can take hanging on to win each week if it gets us promoted. Today we rode our luck though, and a better team might well have won it.

[Jakerbeef]

I dunno, we were conceding regularly from late pressure in previous seasons. Now we get late pressure and regularly don't concede. Neither is a coincidence. We are doing some thing different even if we are not controlling the game late we are keeping them out of the onion bag better. Ill put that down to Parky. A goal cushion is better but we seem to be regularly successfully holding out. Fine by me.
I bet you it doesn't dry up all of a sudden either.

[Bruce Rioja]

I find it a little disingenuous to say that either we played crap or that they are a poor side, The way it looked to me was that they've sent their scouts along and seen that if they were to have a chance of getting something out of the game then they'd need to rapidly close down Clough, Vela and Ameobi - something that they did expertly well.

What I was really pleased with therefore was how our lads recognised this and sent defenders forward (Wheater scoring two) and how quick we were to get the ball to Madine for him to hold up and play others in.

Shrewsbury very nearly walked away with at least a draw today. They had a game-plan which almost worked for them, bearing in mind that they had a penalty appeal which the lino had awarded and that they also hit the bar. Some respect and moderate reflection is due here, I think.

[Jakerbeef]

Stuff that. Pissing this league. Scrubbers!

[TANGODANCER]

Whatever we're doing, halfway throught the season we are two points away from topping the league and seven points above our nearest challengers. Based on our record of the last couple of seasons, that makes pretty good reading to me. Keep it up lads, nobody wins them all and a scruffy Bradford win counts just the same points wise as a Barcelona one.

[Nicko58]

I dunno, we were conceding regularly from late pressure in previous seasons. Now we get late pressure and regularly don't concede. Neither is a coincidence. We are doing some thing different even if we are not controlling the game late we are keeping them out of the onion bag better. Ill put that down to Parky. A goal cushion is better but we seem to be regularly successfully holding out. Fine by me.

Most of the time it is down to Parky's system, and of course the players, and that's fine by me as well. Today though, they had a gilt-edged chance in the second half with the goal gaping and failed to put it away; hit the underside of the bar which luckily bounced outwards; and were then denied what appears to have been a penalty when the referee overruled the linesman.

I bet you it doesn't dry up all of a sudden either.

Me too.

[Nicko58]

I find it a little disingenuous to say that either we played crap or that they are a poor side, The way it looked to me was that they've sent their scouts along and seen that if they were to have a chance of getting something out of the game then they'd need to rapidly close down Clough, Vela and Ameobi - something that they did expertly well.

What I was really pleased with therefore was how our lads recognised this and sent defenders forward (Wheater scoring two) and how quick we were to get the ball to Madine for him to hold up and play others in.

Shrewsbury very nearly walked away with at least a draw today. They had a game-plan which almost worked for them, bearing in mind that they had a penalty appeal which the lino had awarded and that they also hit the bar. Some respect and moderate reflection is due here, I think.

You're right, particularly on them doing their homework and us sending our defenders forward once we realised that we weren't going to be able to play through them. Although, they aren't down near the bottom of the league for nothing. Perhaps it's fair to say that a team with better forwards and even better luck might well have won it?

[BWFC_Insane]

I find it a little disingenuous to say that either we played crap or that they are a poor side, The way it looked to me was that they've sent their scouts along and seen that if they were to have a chance of getting something out of the game then they'd need to rapidly close down Clough, Vela and Ameobi - something that they did expertly well.

What I was really pleased with therefore was how our lads recognised this and sent defenders forward (Wheater scoring two) and how quick we were to get the ball to Madine for him to hold up and play others in.

Shrewsbury very nearly walked away with at least a draw today. They had a game-plan which almost worked for them, bearing in mind that they had a penalty appeal which the lino had awarded and that they also hit the bar. Some respect and moderate reflection is due here, I think.

Aye they did do well. They were right on top of Spearing and Thorpe and perhaps exposed their relative basic ball playing ability.

We didn't play well though, even taking that into account. Just never quite clicked into gear.

[CrazyHorse]

I find it a little disingenuous to say that either we played crap or that they are a poor side, The way it looked to me was that they've sent their scouts along and seen that if they were to have a chance of getting something out of the game then they'd need to rapidly close down Clough, Vela and Ameobi - something that they did expertly well.

What I was really pleased with therefore was how our lads recognised this and sent defenders forward (Wheater scoring two) and how quick we were to get the ball to Madine for him to hold up and play others in.

Shrewsbury very nearly walked away with at least a draw today. They had a game-plan which almost worked for them, bearing in mind that they had a penalty appeal which the lino had awarded and that they also hit the bar. Some respect and moderate reflection is due here, I think.

This.