I see no ships; only hardships. V Pompey away, Tues 28th Feb. 7-45.

[Worthy4England]

There's no point grumbling at the ref, when you've been second best all over the park for 89 of the 90 minutes...

[BWFC_Insane]

Are we a better side when Bradley isn’t playing? Two 5-0’s he comes back in and we lose two aways and have a dodgy game against Port Vale.

I suspect answer is no. But interesting how results have gone in this period:

[BWFC_Insane]

There's no point grumbling at the ref, when you've been second best all over the park for 89 of the 90 minutes...

This. We were lucky to get 1. If they’d won 5-0 that would reflect the game. I think it’s reasonable and probably wise to be concerned by form since two 5-0’s.

[Mar]

I'd be very interested to see a graph of where we've had free kicks here. I can't seem to remember us getting a free kick in the opposition half.

Us attacking right to left:
.
Screenshot 2023-02-28 at 21.40.35.png

Nice one. Do you have the oppositions for comparison by any chance?

[Mar]

There's no point grumbling at the ref, when you've been second best all over the park for 89 of the 90 minutes...

I disagree. Complexion of the game changes when we get a decent rub of the green from the ref. Loads of instances in this game that should've been given as fouls and would've undoubtedly given us some reprieve or the ability to get bodies forward. As it stands, the standard of the refereeing has given us problems tonight as its felt one way.

Portsmouth were the better side on the night and probably deserved the result. What they didn't need was a leg up from the ref and linesmen. Less so the linesmen but still.

82nd minute for example, ref gives a free kick in pretty much the same position where Portsmouth's 1st goal for a nothing foul. Almost as if it worked well the first time lets give them another. Lo and behold, that free kick leads to a corner, that leads to a goal. Unnecessary pressure.

[LeverEnd]

There's no point grumbling at the ref, when you've been second best all over the park for 89 of the 90 minutes...

I disagree. Complexion of the game changes when we get a decent rub of the green from the ref. Loads of instances in this game that should've been given as fouls and would've undoubtedly given us some reprieve or the ability to get bodies forward. As it stands, the standard of the refereeing has given us problems tonight as its felt one way.

Portsmouth were the better side on the night and probably deserved the result. What they didn't need was a leg up from the ref and linesmen. Less so the linesmen but still.

As poor as the ref was, we were poorer. Absolute shite. You have to expect to be on the wrong end of it from refs sometimes. We've had our lucky breaks from refs this season too, although in football the injustices always seem to stand out more!

I haven't seen many games this season, but when I have I'm often at a loss to understand how we're top six. Some on here will tell you I'm a Jonah who should just stop watching and I'm inclined to agree!

[Mar]

As poor as the ref was, we were poorer. Absolute shite. You have to expect to be on the wrong end of it from refs sometimes. We've had our lucky breaks from refs this season too, although in football the injustices always seem to stand out more!

I haven't seen many games this season, but when I have I'm often at a loss to understand how we're top six. Some on here will tell you I'm a Jonah who should just stop watching and I'm inclined to agree!

We were bad first half, decent at the start of the second and then capitulated as soon as Kachunga came on. It's almost as if that rallying cry of defending resolutely had just gone out the window by the disruption of players.



I'm a little bit baffled as to why we're playing a Tuesday night fixture when we're already 3 games ahead. We've played more than every team in the league now. Hopefully the lack of congestion going forward does us some favours.

[officer_dibble]

This was a rearranged game was it not? From international call ups? We agreed to the date and if I recall correctly there were not many options.

There’s a lot of football to be played - all the teams below us won’t win all their games, and looking at the number of games they will all have a lot of midweek matches as well…some (most?) with smaller squads than us.

I do think anyone harboring hope of catching Sheff weds/Ipswich/derby even Plymouth probably rethinks now!

[BWFC_Insane]

This was a rearranged game was it not? From international call ups? We agreed to the date and if I recall correctly there were not many options.

There’s a lot of football to be played - all the teams below us won’t win all their games, and looking at the number of games they will all have a lot of midweek matches as well…some (most?) with smaller squads than us.

I do think anyone harboring hope of catching Sheff weds/Ipswich/derby even Plymouth probably rethinks now!

Automatics is gone. I think we are fighting for 5th/6th outside chance of 4th.

Would be disastrous if we drop out the play offs but once again it’s hard to see us winning them. Need to try and find form at the right time. So a tight run in where we squeeze in might help.

But I fear more and more teams are finding out that we struggle against an effective press.

[Worthy4England]

There's no point grumbling at the ref, when you've been second best all over the park for 89 of the 90 minutes...

I disagree. Complexion of the game changes when we get a decent rub of the green from the ref. Loads of instances in this game that should've been given as fouls and would've undoubtedly given us some reprieve or the ability to get bodies forward. As it stands, the standard of the refereeing has given us problems tonight as its felt one way.

Portsmouth were the better side on the night and probably deserved the result. What they didn't need was a leg up from the ref and linesmen. Less so the linesmen but still.

82nd minute for example, ref gives a free kick in pretty much the same position where Portsmouth's 1st goal for a nothing foul. Almost as if it worked well the first time lets give them another. Lo and behold, that free kick leads to a corner, that leads to a goal. Unnecessary pressure.

Every week, someone bangs on about us not getting the rub off refs. Especially if we've lost. I agree that some of the refereeing quality isn't very good. I don't hear it much when the ref gives us a whopper and some folks hardly glance at our fouls, that they belabour when they go against us.

I mean are you really suggesting in the 82 minute, the ref contrived to give a foul in the same place as they'd scored from because he wanted then to win? Not buying it mate...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I'd be very interested to see a graph of where we've had free kicks here. I can't seem to remember us getting a free kick in the opposition half.

Us attacking right to left:
.
Screenshot 2023-02-28 at 21.40.35.png

Nice one. Do you have the oppositions for comparison by any chance?

It’s from WhoScored chalkboard. https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/16487 ... uth-Bolton

[TANGODANCER]

When we actually stop thinking we're better than we are and remember we're one of quite a few with the same ambitions and start playing aggressive football using what skills we have, then we might start winning with some conviction. We have to hope a long jag of 270 miles twice over feels a lot better when you win, or at least don't lose. I'm not complaining about unfairness, just that 3-1 to them could so easily have stayed at 1-0 to us with some fight. Get over it and move on.

[Harry Genshaw]

We just seemed to make poor choices all over the park. Trafs kicking, Morley's free kick, Santos and Bradley's daft bookings and Lee seemingly begging for 2 yellows in quick succession. Our poor play encouraged them and galvanised the crowd.

However, Dempseys effort goes in on the hour mark (what a pass from Shola) and we're home and dry. Still could be worse. We deserved no more than a point from these last 2 games and we got 3. Take it on't chin, move on.

[GhostoftheBok]

I wrote a whole thing, but who cares after a game like that.

We took the excuses available and didn't show up. If either of the big lads was fit enough to start then Evatt got it wrong, if not (and regardless) the players on the pitch didn't get close.

I expected a reaction today following the individual performances against Vale, but today was as bad individually and worse tactically.

That Shrews win against Wycombe is doing us a big favour as things stand.

Insane is right that the autos now look mildly problematic. We've gone from chasing a long shot to needing a miracle. If we lose again in the next 3 it'll get to the point where we need to try and find a virgin to sacrifice. I'd suggest we try looking in "Crazy Corner", I suspect there are loads there.

[BWFC_Insane]

I wrote a whole thing, but who cares after a game like that.

We took the excuses available and didn't show up. If either of the big lads was fit enough to start then Evatt got it wrong, if not (and regardless) the players on the pitch didn't get close.

I expected a reaction today following the individual performances against Vale, but today was as bad individually and worse tactically.

That Shrews win against Wycombe is doing us a big favour as things stand.

Insane is right that the autos now look mildly problematic. We've gone from chasing a long shot to needing a miracle. If we lose again in the next 3 it'll get to the point where we need to try and find a virgin to sacrifice. I'd suggest we try looking in "Crazy Corner", I suspect there are loads there.

A big lad up front? I thought the front two played well. The only part of the team who did really. Nlundulu looks absolutely shite so I’d rather we didn’t see him again in a hurry.

The problems were in midfield and at the back. We had no control on or off the ball. And we couldn’t play through their press kept trying and in making a mess of it simply encouraged them. Why didn’t we hit the two forwards in the channels earlier as that generally brought success the few times we did?

Bradley is also on last nights performance not worth his place at the minute.

[dave the minion]

I wrote a whole thing, but who cares after a game like that.

We took the excuses available and didn't show up. If either of the big lads was fit enough to start then Evatt got it wrong, if not (and regardless) the players on the pitch didn't get close.

I expected a reaction today following the individual performances against Vale, but today was as bad individually and worse tactically.

That Shrews win against Wycombe is doing us a big favour as things stand.

Insane is right that the autos now look mildly problematic. We've gone from chasing a long shot to needing a miracle. If we lose again in the next 3 it'll get to the point where we need to try and find a virgin to sacrifice. I'd suggest we try looking in "Crazy Corner", I suspect there are loads there.

A big lad up front? I thought the front two played well. The only part of the team who did really. Nlundulu looks absolutely shite so I’d rather we didn’t see him again in a hurry.

The problems were in midfield and at the back. We had no control on or off the ball. And we couldn’t play through their press kept trying and in making a mess of it simply encouraged them. Why didn’t we hit the two forwards in the channels earlier as that generally brought success the few times we did?

Bradley is also on last nights performance not worth his place at the minute.

Dan and Bradley on your little hate list now I see.... Moved on from blaming everything on Santos and god knows who else, now they've shown that they are not as shit as you were saying?

[boltonboris]

The ref was shite, but he wasn’t the reason we lost. We lost because we couldn’t match their intensity for long enough in the game, understandably, given our schedule and the fact that our decision making defensively was shocking.

The first goal. What the F was that defensive line about?? Whose idea was that when the ball was going to hold up in the wind?!

After that we were mentally and physically knackered and they made us pay. No complaints.

[boltonboris]

To say that Bradley was shite is bollocks, too. Fights for everything and did nothing wrong. Not sure who you would rather have in that spot, but he certainly wouldn’t be as good.

Too many players were off it last night. Some were shite in the first half and grew into it, most were shit from the get go

[BWFC_Insane]

To say that Bradley was shite is bollocks, too. Fights for everything and did nothing wrong. Not sure who you would rather have in that spot, but he certainly wouldn’t be as good.

Too many players were off it last night. Some were shite in the first half and grew into it, most were shit from the get go

I agree too many off pace but Bradley was one of them.

[BWFC_Insane]

The amount of 'tiredness' talk is concerning. I get we've had a busy schedule. Its not that unusual though. And we've not played THAT many games this season. Bradley looks done in but had two weeks off with suspension. Is this a Bielsa situation where we've just run them into the ground in training and its too much? But we were flying two weeks ago so seems unlikely...

Or is it that Evatt in keeping talking about fatigue is putting that into the players heads?

We've absolutely dropped off. That happens. It could be form or whatever. Just one of those things. But say Dempsey looked dead on his feet last night and he didn't play the Accrington game.

Adeboyejo's hamstring went during the warm up apparently.

I suppose we just don't know - Saturday is massive - win and we've got a full week till Ipswich. Lose and things start to get a bit sweaty.