The Dorothy Com Trophy, Rochdale away. Ist Oct. 7-45.. Tues

[DJBlu]

Zouma saved by the offside flag.....phew,,,,I'm convinced the instruction to all is "run at Zouma in the box"!

I'd say the message is run at Hobbs, when his slow arse gets near, pass it round to the exposed players.

Zouma has been really good this game. Almost faultless. Did have my heart in my mouth when he lunged in on the tackle you are on about. It was a clean tackle and there would not have been a penalty.

[officer_dibble]

fecking pennos again
Not looking good for Wembley lads
Was hoping we might get ‘the’ win tonight, need a striker (and a better final ball)
Crawford picked up second half. Full backs decent. Zouma (marshalled by Bridcutt) probably stand out. Shame Lowe couldn’t stamp his authority a bit more...should be a 8/10 player at this level with his calibre.

[officer_dibble]

Beaten, again!

One day...
One day...

[DJBlu]

We lose 5-3.

Absolutely all over em and we lose. Playing well and losing. Not really a good sign.

Should really say drawing.

[TANGODANCER]

Ah well, all too familiar a story, but we're getting better...from the sound of things....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Absolutely all over em and we lose. Playing well and losing. Not really a good sign.

It's not the best, but it's much better than "cowering on the edge of our box and getting beaten", as was the previous two years.

[officer_dibble]

We’re a striker and a bit of nous in the top third of the field off winning. The striker needs to get match fit fukin sharpish. The nous, is hopefully Crawford, Buckley et al but I certainly see sense in that link with Ben Marshall. Politics not a ready starter yet and Verlindens hit and miss

[Harry Genshaw]

Sooner we're out of this joke competition the better. It's another night of getting fitness levels up and playing together so some positive news. Now onto that first win in 6 days time

[Branagan]

Sooner we're out of this joke competition the better. It's another night of getting fitness levels up and playing together so some positive news. Now onto that first win in 6 days time

100% agree with this sentiment. As for the performance itself. Plenty of nice build up without being able to find the last man or take a decent strike. It'll come. And at least I'm enjoying watching Bolton again.

[nicholaldo]

A fairly sobering result on the face of it. Hopefully it's one of those where the performance deserved better.

[BWFC_Insane]

We lose 5-3.

Absolutely all over em and we lose. Playing well and losing. Not really a good sign.

Should really say drawing.

It’s missing goals that is all. Performance is ok. Not say we were all over them. But final ball is not very good. And we are playing sans striker.

[officer_dibble]

Sooner we're out of this joke competition the better. It's another night of getting fitness levels up and playing together so some positive news. Now onto that first win in 6 days time

Bollocks
I want Wembley, chanting feck the EFL as we lift their trophy
Next season, maybe

[BWFC_Insane]

Pleased that Sonny Graham got a chance and Hill spoke warmly about him post match and suggested he would be kept around the first team.

I'm not a great judge but what I've seen of all our youngsters my view is Graham has the best chance of making it as a fully fledged professional football player. Only turned 17 in June. But to me was the standout against Bradford and will get better.

[Branagan]

We lose 5-3.

Absolutely all over em and we lose. Playing well and losing. Not really a good sign.

Should really say drawing.

It’s missing goals that is all. Performance is ok. Not say we were all over them. But final ball is not very good. And we are playing sans striker.

We were all over them first half. Don't think Matthews had to make a proper save. Then they came into it second half, or we trailed off again, and then yes all in all you'd have to say 1-1 was fair. But, agreed, the difference was finishing our attacks with goals. Once that happens consistently, and I think it will eventually, we could kill a lot of teams in this league off quite quickly.

[BWFC_Insane]

We lose 5-3.

Absolutely all over em and we lose. Playing well and losing. Not really a good sign.

Should really say drawing.

It’s missing goals that is all. Performance is ok. Not say we were all over them. But final ball is not very good. And we are playing sans striker.

We were all over them first half. Don't think Matthews had to make a proper save. Then they came into it second half, or we trailed off again, and then yes all in all you'd have to say 1-1 was fair. But, agreed, the difference was finishing our attacks with goals. Once that happens consistently, and I think it will eventually, we could kill a lot of teams in this league off quite quickly.

There is a distinction we aren't creating loads of chances and missing them. We are not great at the final ball. So I don't think its a simple fix of a striker and we're sorted - though it clearly helps. At times we're a little one dimensional - we don't really have an option of pace for a ball in behind. Nor do we have a target to hold it up when Murphy isn't playing (or O Grady). I do think we need to mix our play up a bit more - but probably need other options fit and available to do so.

[Branagan]

Yes sorry I agree. What I mean by not finishing attacks with goals is - we're not even getting to the shot. We seem to be great at passing it neatly around the box or bursting into crossing positions only for it to come to fizzle out before the killer ball. So yes, it isn't necessarily the strike that's missing it's the actual clear cut chance before it. IMHO anyway.