Crawley Town / Wanderers Match Thread

[Tals-biggest-fan]

is it wrong for me to want the team to go against him and basically say its us or him type thing.

[Jakerbeef]

He's utterly incapable of connecting those conceded goals to his change in formation.

It really doesn't matter with this "we should have taken our chances" nonsense.

Coyle, a strikeforce of Rooney/VanPersie would have trouble when conceding 2 goals per game.

[bobo the clown]

is it wrong for me to want the team to go against him and basically say its us or him type thing.

I think that's close. Really.

CYL said it, Knight has said it, Bogdan's decision to throw the ball ... clearly against instructions ... say it. The players know why they are struggling. I just hope to fck that someone in the changing room told him it was his fecking fault. With a bit of luck a big ruck follows.

[TANGODANCER]

Coyle: "We put ourselves in a good position with the early goal and it should have been the foundation to see us through. It was hugely disappointing to concede those two late goals."

Pretty obvious most folk would ask "why did we do that?" Not really a manager knocker, never have been, but I really hope he doesn't do what he did last match; show the team a video of what they did wrong, I really do. " Don't change a winning side" was something kids in our junior school team saw the logic of. Was there any need to make the last sub at all?

[Athers]

So hang about, we played the formation we all want for the first time since about February and it was a success.....

POSITIVES

[Vertigo]

The team selected didn't seem like much of a 'weakened' side, which worries me a bit. But I have been comforted with the news that it was Coyle's fault again.

For anyone who was watching, were we underwhelming when leading 1-0? Or was it comfortable?

[Prufrock]

is it wrong for me to want the team to go against him and basically say its us or him type thing.

I think that's close. Really.

CYL said it, Knight has said it, Bogdan's decision to throw the ball ... clearly against instructions ... say it. The players know why they are struggling. I just hope to fck that someone in the changing room told him it was his fecking fault. With a bit of luck a big ruck follows.

Making a pretty big jump in faith, there, Bobes.

[Prufrock]

"Bolton might have made seven changes but you can only beat what is in front of you."

.

Lolcano. That's ace.

"We were in a good position to win but we didn't manage it."

.

Give you a couple of guessing why . The answer rhymes with Bowen Doyle.

[H. Pedersen]

I remember making excuses for Megson's team selection and tactics to the bemused locals (and more besides) whilst in Lisbon.

I'b be beyond intrigued to understand how this situation is different.

It's very different. Lisbon was essentially a deliberate effort to get eliminated from the UEFA Cup. In that sense, it was a success.

Coyle wasn't trying to get knocked out tonight. He selected plenty of first team players. That was a team that could get a win, and in fact was winning. Our elimination was not part of some grand design to focus on the league. It was the result of another tactical failure by a bad manager.

[bobo the clown]

is it wrong for me to want the team to go against him and basically say its us or him type thing.

I think that's close. Really.

CYL said it, Knight has said it, Bogdan's decision to throw the ball ... clearly against instructions ... say it. The players know why they are struggling. I just hope to fck that someone in the changing room told him it was his fecking fault. With a bit of luck a big ruck follows.

Making a pretty big jump in faith, there, Bobes.

The match went the normal long-kick route for the first period. In tghe second, as this continued the fans booed it ... he began to roll it out. The next match he had reverted to the long boot again ... I assume back "on message" after a serious bollocking.

I'm happy to believe he took his own decision for that time.

[Prufrock]

My point being you are assuming there are instructions to begin with.

He kicked it long at the start of the Forest game until the crowd got on his back again (some perhaps a little bit too much, one dickhead behind me bollocking him for not playing a one-touch pass square to a marked Tyrone Mears from a bouncing back-pass which was aiming in the direction of the back of the net). Way-back-when, there was an interview where someone (possibly pea-head) said we don't work on shape or owt in training, just ball work. At the time I assumed they meant they don't do shadow play (and clearly not set-pieces) but I'm starting to honestly think they spend all week stood in a circle playing piggy in the middle.

It looks like our set piece instructions consist of:

Defending: everyone back, try to vaguely match up with someone your height then head it first.

Attacking: Everyone big to the back post; drift it towards that area, head it back across goal and hop it goes in.

I don't think he's got as far as telling Boggers to go either long or short yet.

[H. Pedersen]

It looks like our set piece instructions consist of:

Defending: everyone back, try to vaguely match up with someone your height then head it first.

Attacking: Everyone big to the back post; drift it towards that area, head it back across goal and hop it goes in.

I'd be stunned if the instructions were that detailed.

[steve leake]

No credit to Crawley then?

[H. Pedersen]

How much credit do you really expect for outsmarting Owen Coyle?

[IggyTheDawgster]

Is Coyle a spy or something. What the hell. It's like he's trying to nosedive the club into a cliff.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Match report submitted to the Dancer.

Crawley were decent enough, but they looked a hell of a lot better after our final substitution.

[Verbal]

Ugh.

Firstly it was a pleasure to meet those kings of the airwaves Chris and Geoff, as well as DSB. Hopefully some TW hellos around the south east will become a regular occurrence.

Vela's injury was a shame. I think he was set to be the defensive-minded midfielder, and his substitution saw Andrews shift back to accommodate Pratley. We started pretty shakily and our vulnerability to set-pieces was apparent, with them hitting the post early doors. But gradually we grew into the game and while it wasn't comfortable it wasn't a struggle, either.

Afobe's goal was lovely. The first real bit of class in the game from Petrov (who was excellent) saw him put through the young striker, who finished with confidence. His injury was again a shame. I didn't see what happened but he was holding his left side for a while before he went off.

Petrov was our stand-out attacking player. He put in a number of fantastic balls and had his fullback for breakfast, lunch, dinner and every snack in between. Davies linked up quite well when he came on, and actually competed for headers with the defence, causing some trouble. Andrews grew into the game and at one point was dominating the midfield, anchoring very well and for all of Crawley's possession they didn't do much with it for a lot of the game

But...there's always a but...

The change at 1-0 to bring Davies on for, er, Davies. Sparky wasn't having his best game - quite Guthrieesque at times. But we were solid. We were difficult to get through. Knight was in good form, Ream wasn't as bad (though one moment in the first half evoked memories of Cid's meltdown against Everton) and the fullbacks, though not exactly covering themselves in glory, did their bit. Crawley were knocking at the door, of course they were, they were chasing the game. The Davies/Davies substitution unlocked it for them.

Both goals came from 20-30 yard runs from halfway which were not tracked at all. The first one was a decent strike, but Crawley were allowed to bring it up to the 20-yard mark without so much as a tackle. Anyone within that range would fancy their chances.

The second one...well, it was at t'other end of the ground and I'm not going to start blaming the midfield for the 5'4 Ajose being unmarked six yards out. But to allow the Crawley centre half to carry the ball from inside his own half to about 30 yards out before laying it off wide...you just can't do that. All it takes from there is a good ball, bit of skill or a defensive f*ck-up (which we ain't exactly immune to) and you've conceded. From what was nothing.

Another worrying thing was the off-ball movement. It didn't exist. As said above Petrov had a blinder, putting in ball after ball in the danger area. Not one of our strikers gambled on any of them, until Sordell's attempt at 1-1 when he really should have scored. Similarly at throw-ins, free-kicks, even when we broke from midfield we didn't seem to stretch them. We just stopped, looked wide, and then if that didn't work we looked back. It's not that we're not capable of it either, as we showed at 1-1 we could get through them with little clever interchanges. But it was very rare. It wasn't a team out there, it was a bunch of individuals.

Crawley played well, but we lost that rather than they won it. And I fear that the latter part of that sentence will be popping up again and again on this forum unless this 'regime', whatever you want to call it, either changes itself drastically or is removed altogether.

[General Mannerheim]

lovely little ground, and that Redz bar is a brilliant facility! nice surprise to find it open after the game too! #positives. shame about the half dozen or so travellers who could not get in!

saw Mark Davies in the car park by himself later on, he was openly annoyed and upset at the result and more-so his substitution. him talking like that to us proves Coyle has zero respect from the players. it was the same when i met Klasnic last year - how long can it go on!?

[Lord Kangana]

I remember speaking to Stelios and Andranik in early 2008, both told me how much of a c*nt they thought Megson was. I doubt these days theres many happy footballers.

[Verbal]

lovely little ground, and that Redz bar is a brilliant facility! nice surprise to find it open after the game too! #positives. shame about the half dozen or so travellers who could not get in!

saw Mark Davies in the car park by himself later on, he was openly annoyed and upset at the result and more-so his substitution. him talking like that to us proves Coyle has zero respect from the players. it was the same when i met Klasnic last year - how long can it go on!?

It is nice that, had a (very) swift pint in there before kick off with the podcast lads.

Interesting. Did he say anything in particular? Did feel sorry for him. Didn't have his best game but he was part of a solid set up...