Handball ref? V Cheltenham away, 4th Oct, 7.45.

[Mar]

We seemed to be letting Cheltenham dictate the tempo and playing into their hands. Don't think we matched them for effort and paid the price for it. Needed to shut them down before they could get a head of steam.

[TANGODANCER]

Makes it all the more important we win on Saturday or the momentum could be lost. Forest Green away, Barnsley at home, a seemingly easy one ( oh yeah) , then a tough one. Suddenly, I'm not as confident as I was. Problems seem to be with us not the opposition . Sounds like but for Traf we could have got a real hiding tonight.

[Worthy4England]

We seemed to be letting Cheltenham dictate the tempo and playing into their hands. Don't think we matched them for effort and paid the price for it. Needed to shut them down before they could get a head of steam.

There were numerous problems. We weren't pressing very well at the top end of the pitch. When we got the ball and tried to move it forwards, it either broke down on the flanks and came straight back, or broke down through the middle and came straight back or was a bit of a punt where we invariably lost the first ball and the second. Either way, when it made it's way forwards, it didn't stick there very long. So all our movements were largely on the turn and backwards...

I actually thought Thommo, MJ, Santos and Johnston played fairly creditably under pretty constant pressure, but as Insano observes, there was little/no let up, because we had no genuine outlets. Didn't stick with Charles or Bod largely. Dempsey was pretty anonymous, but there wasn't much in the way of service from Jones & Iredale. Aimson got plenty of stick and didn't play well, but I'm not quite sure of who he was meant to play the ball to, because none of them were holding it, even if he hit them with it.

Felt overall like "wrong game plan" - but we clearly need to work out what to do, in the event Bradley isn't available. You could clearly see why Evatt might not have wanted to play Pompy away...

[Prufrock]

There's a fundamental tension. You can't press high with wing backs against teams who don't want to play out. You can get away with it at home (no suprise our best away performance was away at MK with another big carpet) but all you really do then is play a slightly stunted version of a 433 we played with MJ dropping in.

That's made even worse when you don't have any actual wing backs in the squad. It's the most important position in that shape and we haven't got any. It's not quite Brocky at LWB in L2 but it's not far off.

I think it's a combo of having success at Barrow with it (non league is a different sport almost to this) plus seeing Rotherham and Wigan go up with a 5 last year. You can absolutely do that, but they didn't have 60% of nothing possession. They went to Cheltenham and played their have with better players and won. We're caught between two stools

The sooner we get this year's inevitable shape change the better.

Between December last year, and March last year, two things happened. We went to 3 instead of 4; and we didn't have a midfield of Thomason, Johnstone and Delf. Evatt has given far too much weight to the former.

[officer_dibble]

Really poor - whatever team or formation it is we need to be able to play a different game on a tight pitch. We resorted to aimless hoofs forward and lost possession time and time again. Only Dapo did anything differently when he came on. Charles tried to drop back a bit as well but right through that side everybody used the ball poorly. With hindsight Morley might have been better instead of Thomason - at least he demands the ball from the centre backs.

Not sure what FGR pitch is like but if I was their manager I would be working on making it as narrow as possible and not giving us the space to play on the back of last night.

We need a Plan B for these games.

[Bruce Rioja]

Setting up differently would have given them something to think about as well. Too stubborn at time Evatt.

Indeed. Saturday's now taken on a different level of importance. He can't simply put last night down to being a bad day at the office. I've already seen him blame the players for a lack of endeavour on their part. Really, Ian? I don't think simply cracking the whip solves anything here.

[BWFC_Insane]

Setting up differently would have given them something to think about as well. Too stubborn at time Evatt.

Indeed. Saturday's now taken on a different level of importance. He can't simply put last night down to being a bad day at the office. I've already seen him blame the players for a lack of endeavour on their part. Really, Ian? I don't think simply cracking the whip solves anything here.

I did think we lacked intensity. But he didn’t give them the best chance. And it’s not like you couldn’t predict this before the game.

[The_Gun]

Slightly disappointed, although not surprised, that Evatt has not held his hands up and accepted he set the team up wrong.

Yes, the players didn't cover themselves in glory, but they weren't put in a position to succeed and I think Evatt should admit to that. If we say Thomason is primarily a holding/sitting midfielder then we've essentially set-up with seven defensive players, one 'box-to-box' midfielder and two strikers. How were we expecting to create anything?

[Bruce Rioja]

Setting up differently would have given them something to think about as well. Too stubborn at time Evatt.

Indeed. Saturday's now taken on a different level of importance. He can't simply put last night down to being a bad day at the office. I've already seen him blame the players for a lack of endeavour on their part. Really, Ian? I don't think simply cracking the whip solves anything here.

I did think we lacked intensity. But he didn’t give them the best chance. And it’s not like you couldn’t predict this before the game.

Exactly, that's basically what I'm saying. If Evatt's trying to absolve himself here though and push the blame wholly onto the players then I think he's either embarrassingly arrogant or naive, and I don't think he's naive.
I wait with interest, as I'm sure we all do, to see Saturday's team and formation.

[dave the minion]

Utter shite. Promotion - not a chance.

Woah there! Slight overreaction me thinks...

Reality check please.
We're still 6th, and win our game in hand we go joint 3rd.
We're 3rd in the last 5 form table with 4 wins and a loss. 12 points out of 15.
We're tracking just below the 2 points per game target Evatt sets as a high bar
I suspect we've still got one of the best defensive records in the whole country (can't imagine the 1 goal conceded last night makes much difference)

Its a blip. No more than that. A dissapointing, frustrating and annoying blip, but just a blip.

These things happen, we can't win every game. What we do need to do is get over it, move on, and see if how many points we can get from the remaining 15 available in the league before the month is out....

[officer_dibble]

If it’s a one off fair enough. We’ve failed to score in another away game…and didn’t look like creating a chance. we need to find a way to win at grounds like that. I’m not convinced we have yet, in which case I don’t see us going up.

[TANGODANCER]

Utter shite. Promotion - not a chance.

Woah there! Slight overreaction me thinks...

Reality check please.
We're still 6th, and win our game in hand we go joint 3rd.
We're 3rd in the last 5 form table with 4 wins and a loss. 12 points out of 15.
We're tracking just below the 2 points per game target Evatt sets as a high bar
I suspect we've still got one of the best defensive records in the whole country (can't imagine the 1 goal conceded last night makes much difference)

Its a blip. No more than that. A dissapointing, frustrating and annoying blip, but just a blip.

These things happen, we can't win every game. What we do need to do is get over it, move on, and see if how many points we can get from the remaining 15 available in the league before the month is out....

Making sense for me. Every team has a bad day now and then. One thing I do agree with Insaney on ( very rare occasion) is that there will be many a game like that in this league. Ears will prick at the news that a team not winning can take Bolton out. It's a tough Deguelo league and wins will be a case of fortune favouring the brave. We have a class keeper, a good defense and two good strikers. It's a case of fill in the gaps for the rest which frankly, last night weren't at the races (no Cheltenham pun intended.)

[BWFC_Insane]

Utter shite. Promotion - not a chance.

Woah there! Slight overreaction me thinks...

Reality check please.
We're still 6th, and win our game in hand we go joint 3rd.
We're 3rd in the last 5 form table with 4 wins and a loss. 12 points out of 15.
We're tracking just below the 2 points per game target Evatt sets as a high bar
I suspect we've still got one of the best defensive records in the whole country (can't imagine the 1 goal conceded last night makes much difference)

Its a blip. No more than that. A dissapointing, frustrating and annoying blip, but just a blip.

These things happen, we can't win every game. What we do need to do is get over it, move on, and see if how many points we can get from the remaining 15 available in the league before the month is out....

Proclaiming it a blip is a bit premature. The game revealed the exact sort of problem we had last season in similar fixtures.


It’s also a league where I’m not sure you can afford many blips if you want to be contenders. We’ve already lost to SW and Plymouth and now to Cheltenham. You probably can’t afford losses to get to double figures if you really want that top 6. And there are a lot of games like this.

And plenty of top teams we will come up against like SW and Plymouth.

In a tough league where the top 8 look like they won’t make many mistakes a performance like last night is a concern. Everyone can lose a game here or there. But we were played off the park last night by someone not close to that top 8. The nature of it ain’t a fluke. The concern has to be we still can’t show the consistency required for whatever reason.

[irie Cee Bee]

We were thoroughly outgunned by a team below us. Not the end of the world but as things stand, we cant afford to lose, or draw for that matter to teams like Cheltenham if we want to go up. Lots been said already about our wing backs in this game which I agree with. We did not have any on the pitch, and in the system that we play, our wing backs are our attacking outlet. If they are not available, change the system to a back 4 where Jones and Iredale are more comfortable.

One thing for sure, Bradley and Trafford are without doubt "our" best players. Without them both on the pitch, we will lose many, despite the "great" squad options we now have at our disposal. It appears to me also, that the players need a run of games to get sharp. Having too many rotation options doesn't seem to be working as too many players .. Dapo, Baka, Dadbod, Morely, Aimson, Sadlier.. seem to be playing way below their potential due perhaps to lack of game time pace.

[TANGODANCER]

For some reason there's a different vibe about our games right now. Hate to admit it, being a perpetual rose-tinter, but I felt it even before we kicked off against Cheltenham. Maybe the weather had some effect on our moods and performance, but I think they attacked us with some venom, something we don't seem to have right now.

Peterboro was a single gaol near thing, but we got the points. but losing to Tranmere on penalties a right kick in the tenderloins and you'd think the B lads getting tonked by Blackpool would inspire some fight in us. Losing is always painful, but doing it after holding out for 80 mins...We need to be more attack aggressive. Some/most, may disagree, but starting with Bod and Charles was a mistake for me. Kachunga could have replaced one of them and save the other as a power point, not a desperation move. The homer's game plan was simple; get stuck into us and attack. Like I said previosly, the back and front are fine if the middle is working. Yesterday it wasn't. Other teams will be taking note (and heart) seeing the mighty Whites lose. Get off the canvas and fight.