"Leeds kindly light....V Leeds at home 3-0'clock Sat 15-12-2018

[irie Cee Bee]

What do people expect against now top of the league? We set up well today. There were probably 4 or 5 times that we were in an attacking position 3 v 3, running at their goal and we just had nothing, ran into their players, got tackled or missed the obvious pass... Not sure what Parky can do about that. I don't think today was a disaster.

It wasn't a pen for me either, tangled legs.

That Clarke and Shackleton look like very decent young players for Leeds. Both would walk into our team, obviously.

So we must have no expectation to win? Tired of the excuses every week; playing a top team, playing against million pounds players, playing against teams who spend millions etc.etc.. might as well throw in the white flag.

[enrdentw]

Buckley was useless, wasted the ball so much today. 3/10

[enrdentw]

What do people expect against now top of the league? We set up well today. There were probably 4 or 5 times that we were in an attacking position 3 v 3, running at their goal and we just had nothing, ran into their players, got tackled or missed the obvious pass... Not sure what Parky can do about that. I don't think today was a disaster.

It wasn't a pen for me either, tangled legs.

That Clarke and Shackleton look like very decent young players for Leeds. Both would walk into our team, obviously.

So we must have no expectation to win? Tired of the excuses every week; playing a top team, playing against million pounds players, playing against teams who spend millions etc.etc.. might as well throw in the white flag.

Well, the difference was a 10million quid striker they brought off the bench...

[Peter Thompson]

You have to have shots on target to score goals....we rarely have a single shot on target in any game

We create fcuk all, our movement is shocking, our passing is piss poor - league 2 level, we play like a team of absolute strangers who have never trained together, and we play at such a slow tempo - these are professional players who have played differently / better at other teams they have previously played for.

These players are capable of better - the football is abysmal, tactics, style of play abysmal because they are managed & coached by league 1 management & coaching staff - and before anyone comes back with Julian Darby....did any of you watch him play for us, hardly creative & attacking.

[Harry Genshaw]

It's feckin bobbins. As said by someone earlier we seem to go into every game set up to stop the opposition rather than what we could do.

That said, I didn't expect much today against top of the league but I did hope we might fashion the odd chance. However, apart from the first 8 minutes, where it looked as though we'd be over ran, we limited them to very little too.

Step forward one Will Buckley. The shit house has got the heart of a pea and appears to be playing in carpet slippers. It was his needless waste of possession that cost us the game in the end although we could have no complaints.

Looked a penalty to me and to be honest that was our only chance of having a shot on target.

Woeful, wet and miserable.

[Peter Thompson]

What do people expect against now top of the league? We set up well today. There were probably 4 or 5 times that we were in an attacking position 3 v 3, running at their goal and we just had nothing, ran into their players, got tackled or missed the obvious pass... Not sure what Parky can do about that. I don't think today was a disaster.

It wasn't a pen for me either, tangled legs.

That Clarke and Shackleton look like very decent young players for Leeds. Both would walk into our team, obviously.

So we must have no expectation to win? Tired of the excuses every week; playing a top team, playing against million pounds players, playing against teams who spend millions etc.etc.. might as well throw in the white flag.

Well, the difference was a 10million quid striker they brought off the bench...

But didn't we bring on a £7M winger off the bench....

[enrdentw]

What do people expect against now top of the league? We set up well today. There were probably 4 or 5 times that we were in an attacking position 3 v 3, running at their goal and we just had nothing, ran into their players, got tackled or missed the obvious pass... Not sure what Parky can do about that. I don't think today was a disaster.

It wasn't a pen for me either, tangled legs.

That Clarke and Shackleton look like very decent young players for Leeds. Both would walk into our team, obviously.

So we must have no expectation to win? Tired of the excuses every week; playing a top team, playing against million pounds players, playing against teams who spend millions etc.etc.. might as well throw in the white flag.

Well, the difference was a 10million quid striker they brought off the bench...

But didn't we bring on a £7M winger off the bench....

Yes, that was 2 years ago, we didn't pay that for him and he's worth about 10% of that £7m now...

[nicholaldo]

What do people expect against now top of the league? We set up well today. There were probably 4 or 5 times that we were in an attacking position 3 v 3, running at their goal and we just had nothing, ran into their players, got tackled or missed the obvious pass... Not sure what Parky can do about that. I don't think today was a disaster.

It wasn't a pen for me either, tangled legs.

That Clarke and Shackleton look like very decent young players for Leeds. Both would walk into our team, obviously.

So we must have no expectation to win? Tired of the excuses every week; playing a top team, playing against million pounds players, playing against teams who spend millions etc.etc.. might as well throw in the white flag.

Have hopes of winning, certainly, but not expectations. Not today.

The excuses you list don't become any less valid because they're tiring. Defensively, we're Championship standard but offensively we're not and that's mostly a financial thing. I wouldn't be against us playing two up front in an effort to alleviate the problem provided Magennis is one of them but collectively speaking, there aren't three other clubs that have less attacking ability than we do.

If I remember rightly, it was Prufrock who stated that our chances of staying up are dependant on Ameobi playing thirty plus matches. That's increasingly proving to be the case.

(All in my opinion, obviously)

[Lost Leopard Spot]

You have to have shots on target to score goals....we rarely have a single shot on target in any game

We create fcuk all, our movement is shocking, our passing is piss poor - league 2 level, we play like a team of absolute strangers who have never trained together, and we play at such a slow tempo - these are professional players who have played differently / better at other teams they have previously played for.

These players are capable of better - the football is abysmal, tactics, style of play abysmal because they are managed & coached by league 1 management & coaching staff - and before anyone comes back with Julian Darby....did any of you watch him play for us, hardly creative & attacking.

It's no good PT. You're banging your head against a brick wall. It's the same as Brexiters v Remainers: opinions are cast in stone. We can see Parkinson is shit, but those who believe in him think he's performing miracles...

[nelson66]

I was a fully paid up Darby hater when he "played" for us....couldn't pass tackle shoot or run... other than that he was ace

[nicholaldo]

I suspect that no-one really cares by this point, which is fair enough, but apparently, the penalty shout was nailed on.

[Jugs]

Ireland has been injury-free for almost 4 weeks. I can't understand at all why PP is taking so much time with him. We need him.

[TANGODANCER]

Ireland has been injury-free for almost 4 weeks. I can't understand at all why PP is taking so much time with him. We need him.

Gee, I'm so sick at heart that our once so proud club can't even give us an odd win to make Sundays cheery. I can stand a fair amount of disappointment but right now I'm rally sick to the teeth. I can't imagine how the season-ticket holders must feel.

[DJBlu]

I suspect that no-one really cares by this point, which is fair enough, but apparently, the penalty shout was nailed on.

100% nailed on. Referee poorly placed but linesman should have seen it.

Anyone else getting sick of Ben Alnwick being beaten at the near post? He's been completely rooted for 3 goals in the past 2 games. His reflexes are that of a sloth at the minute.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

According to WhoScored.com, we average 2.6 efforts on target per game, the division's second-lowest: Ipswich are worse. So far, so obvious, but the opposite doesn't apply: the team who've averaged the most efforts on target is Brentford (5.5), who are 19th in the only table that matters. Then it's Villa. Bristol are 5th (14th in the proper table), Preston 7th (15th), Rotherham 11th (20th). It's not just quantity, but quality.

Even so, there's a point there somewhere. I note enrdentw's argument that Hobbs had a header cleared in the six-yard box, but I can only go off the recorded datasets, and according to the reported figures this was only the second time this season we've not troubled the goalkeeper: the other, unforgivably, was at Ipswich. But we don't trouble them enough. Not for the first time, Nicholaldo's quietly right: the defence is probably playing at Champo standard - only 10 teams have conceded fewer than us. But the attacking end is nowhere near good enough: we've only scored 15 in 22, or roughly a goal every game and a half. Barring our fellow dead men Ipswich, everyone else is averaging at least a goal a game.

It's eminently possible that Parkinson is driving with the handbrake on, and his exit would help us score more; but equally, and sadly, it's also likely that you would have to give the likes of Buckley, Wildschut, Noone, Doidge, Oztumer and (his bright start being a false dawn) Magennis a hell of a lot more chances before they rewarded you with enough goals. And as any expression of attacking purpose must necessarily have a concomitant effect on defensive solidity, it's also possible that throwing more men forward might just mean we get beaten more easily. It's really not hard to imagine Doidge raising a half-hearted hand to celebrate a consolation in a 3-1 defeat as we spiral inevitably toward relegation.

[officer_dibble]

I’m not convinced by the defence either; I think a lot of teams we play take advantage of our woefully inept attack and ease off - like if we were to score yesterday (say hobbs header late on) Leeds could click up a gear and score again. Their sub striker cost £7m, ours was playing basketball till he was 16 and is on loan from a league two side. We levelled in the 88th minute last week and Norwich still had time for a winner.

How many of those players would play for another team in this league? I’d wager 0...even Olkowski who looked the business in August has probably had more 5/10 games than 8/10.

Basically we are like a break for most teams - get a goal up and slack off cos we ain’t troubling you.

[jonnybwfc]

We're not half as bad as I thought we might be. Haven't been to a game for a couple of months.

I didn't see the first 15 minutes for reasons below **, but I only saw Leeds have two shots. A 0-0 was probably the right result, and could easily have been 1-1 with the penalty.

What struck me about the game was just how many time Leeds gave us possession in their own third, only for our first touch or final pass to be woeful. Must have happened 7 or 8 times, largely due to Vela harrassing them. Leeds just kept giving the ball over, safe in the knowledge that we wouldn't hurt them, even if we had 50 chances of 3 vs 3. In hindsight, Oztumer could have come on earlier, he seems to the be the only one with a decent first touch, and eye for a pass. The rest panic and have no idea what to do. Ameobi could have been the difference.

Noone and Buckley must be the two worst wingers in the division. How many times can you take the wrong option, or just plain fall over the ball.

** About missing the first 15 minutes of the game ...

1) I usually book online on the morning of the game. The website was down in that it would take me through to the final confirmation page, which would not load. Tried for over 3 hours.

2) 2 hours before the game, called the 'BWFC ticket office', clearly managed somewhere else, and a Russian fellow told me 'tickets for today's event are only open to season ticket holders'. WTF ?!

3) So thought I'd just queue up at Bolton Central. 15 minutes before the game, they have a power failure, and need to sort that before restarting their computers, to get the booking system up and running again. So in the queue for 20-25 minutes, and miss the first 15 minutes of the game.

I take Ken's advice in trying to be 'loud and proud', but with crappy weather, a losing streak, no chance of us troubling their keeper, a club run by a donkey, and goodness knows how many other reasons to not go, surely they should make the process of getting a ticket easier.

[Jugs]

I suspect that no-one really cares by this point, which is fair enough, but apparently, the penalty shout was nailed on.

100% nailed on. Referee poorly placed but linesman should have seen it.

Anyone else getting sick of Ben Alnwick being beaten at the near post? He's been completely rooted for 3 goals in the past 2 games. His reflexes are that of a sloth at the minute.

I've been sick of him all season. It's probably PP's orders, of course, but the amount of time he takes to take a goal kick when the score is 0-0 is unbearable.

[Jugs]

According to WhoScored.com, we average 2.6 efforts on target per game, the division's second-lowest: Ipswich are worse. So far, so obvious, but the opposite doesn't apply: the team who've averaged the most efforts on target is Brentford (5.5), who are 19th in the only table that matters. Then it's Villa. Bristol are 5th (14th in the proper table), Preston 7th (15th), Rotherham 11th (20th). It's not just quantity, but quality.

Even so, there's a point there somewhere. I note enrdentw's argument that Hobbs had a header cleared in the six-yard box, but I can only go off the recorded datasets, and according to the reported figures this was only the second time this season we've not troubled the goalkeeper: the other, unforgivably, was at Ipswich. But we don't trouble them enough. Not for the first time, Nicholaldo's quietly right: the defence is probably playing at Champo standard - only 10 teams have conceded fewer than us. But the attacking end is nowhere near good enough: we've only scored 15 in 22, or roughly a goal every game and a half. Barring our fellow dead men Ipswich, everyone else is averaging at least a goal a game.

It's eminently possible that Parkinson is driving with the handbrake on, and his exit would help us score more; but equally, and sadly, it's also likely that you would have to give the likes of Buckley, Wildschut, Noone, Doidge, Oztumer and (his bright start being a false dawn) Magennis a hell of a lot more chances before they rewarded you with enough goals. And as any expression of attacking purpose must necessarily have a concomitant effect on defensive solidity, it's also possible that throwing more men forward might just mean we get beaten more easily. It's really not hard to imagine Doidge raising a half-hearted hand to celebrate a consolation in a 3-1 defeat as we spiral inevitably toward relegation.

Hastily flogging ALF during a cup game without having a clue about how to replace his Champo experience was a sackable offence IMO. Whoever was guilty - Ken or PP - has messed things up big time with that one.

It's no secret on here that I loved ALF and regarded him highly. If he had to go because he wanted away - *sighs* okay, fine. But at least have the business sense to line up an adequate replacement before releasing your best natural goalscorer from his contract. Jesus wept.

[Athertonian]

Didn't go yesterday but was told we couldn't string three passes together. PP changing the side again, and playing one up front. He also changed a forward for a forward, negative again.