IanABS94
Guest
We'll probably concede shortly as Cooper will no doubt not give instructions to the squad so we'll be all over the fucking place.
IanABS94
Guest
Brilliant support from Charlton fans, we've been outsung all game.
IanABS94
Guest
Where the hell did they get 7 minutes from?
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Where did 7 minutes come from
IanABS94
Guest
Cooper just sitting on his arse looking beyond uninterested. Must be wonderful to play for...
IanABS94
Guest
Decent second half but holy hell that second half was brutal. Let's remember that Charlton have 14 injured first team players. We barely scrapped by their reserves and U21's. Not even close to good enough.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
A Labored second half of attack and defense and Charlton coming too close for comfort as we rued missed opportunities.
We’re a 45 minute team. Against better we would have been undone in the second half
We’re a 45 minute team. Against better we would have been undone in the second half
KVetch
Key Player
A lot of missed chances to bring the goal difference up. The 2nd half was dreadful. 3 points and they're back in the playoffs, just barely.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
And Cooper sticks around ... he's got more lives than a cat.
Borini
Key Player
What a load of rubbish. We scrape a win against a team of reserves and Darren Pratley. Routs was awful . Mike was walking gingerley BEFORE the kick off...should not have been on the field! Celina was terrible when he came on. Borja was great though. Ran the channels and held up and linked play well.We won't mention him missing an open goal . Dhanda had his first good game for us . His running forward with the ball was a complete surprise! ( No wonder he got subbed!). We played well first half by not giving the ball to Grimes. Second half was appalling. 45 mins of retreating and defending against a team of nobodies. What is the matter with Andy Pandy? Why did we not score 5 in the second half???.?
IanABS94
Guest
100% agreed about everything, especially Mike. That was a shambles of a decision to give him the start given he was clearly questionable before kickoff.
Borja had a very good game in my opinion aside from that miss; he held the ball up brilliantly, it's just a shame that we don't seem to want players to run off of him.
CroJack
Key Player
Muhaha...
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Couldn't believe our second half performance after a very good first 45.
Cooper sent them out to defend a one goal lead ! For most of the second half we played with a line of seven players on the edge of our box with 2 in front of them. As a result we invited them onto us and played panicked hoofball .
Blooperman has to go , Dhanda was having a great game so he takes him off for Celina. Routledge should have been the one to give way as he gave the ball away every time he received it , his passing stats must be the worst ever ! Celina was mostly uninterested and lazy .
A big shout out to Cabango who was superb tonight.
What the hell has happened to Woodman's distribution ? He won't let the ball go early and waits for everyone to be marked up and gives the ball to marked players all the time, giving us no chance of quick counters at all.
Cooper sent them out to defend a one goal lead ! For most of the second half we played with a line of seven players on the edge of our box with 2 in front of them. As a result we invited them onto us and played panicked hoofball .
Blooperman has to go , Dhanda was having a great game so he takes him off for Celina. Routledge should have been the one to give way as he gave the ball away every time he received it , his passing stats must be the worst ever ! Celina was mostly uninterested and lazy .
A big shout out to Cabango who was superb tonight.
What the hell has happened to Woodman's distribution ? He won't let the ball go early and waits for everyone to be marked up and gives the ball to marked players all the time, giving us no chance of quick counters at all.
CroJack
Key Player
Ok first half, some good build up play, but we are wasteful in the final third. Dhanda better than Celina as ATM, at least he can hit the target with some power.
We should have scored 3 goals both against Barnsley and Charlton, and if we don't start scoring more goals better teams will punish us.
Still don't understand why Peterson is not in the match squad, but glad to see Bidwell out.
We should have scored 3 goals both against Barnsley and Charlton, and if we don't start scoring more goals better teams will punish us.
Still don't understand why Peterson is not in the match squad, but glad to see Bidwell out.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Andy Pandy and Teddy (aka Leon) are the idiots running the asylum. Both know nothing. We had a team of several internationals on the field, five players that have played in the Premier league .... the return on effort is abysmal. We won but we scraped a win from a game that should have been declared over by half time. We should have coasted dominantly in the second half on a 3 goal lead bossing the ball, confidently giving the likes of McKay and Kalulu game time to demonstrate their worth. We saw dross.
Ridiculous.
Ridiculous.
Watched the game with and courtesy of @Jackflash and many thanks for that, JF. Before the game, in Rossi's, we had MONSTER portions of steak pie, mushy peas, chips and gravy, which neither of us managed to eat more than half. TIP: If you do the same, ask for the smaller/senior portion which we had the time before and it's an ample enough graze. After coffees we met up with Bos and Blobs in Frankie and Bennies and it was a pleasure as always to see them. But who was the other guy who joined us? JF said it was BTG and I didn't know as I'd never met him! PM on its way, BTG.
As for the game, it was interesting to see how once again we almost contrived to throw away some more points on our home turf as Charlton pounded us with long balls at the end. After a decent first half, we again fell away with sloppy passing, little movement and heads down football. If Leon thinks for a nano-second that that is acceptable then, as much as I like the little guy, he can go out the door with Cooperman. THIS SHIT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH, LEON!!
Cooper claimed that the players were tired in the second period because of the fixture load but it was the same for Charlton who, in addition, were missing 14 players from their squad and having to play a number of youngsters. Good job for us their first team wasn't playing!! As always, I suggest that our fitness levels are severely lacking and I reckon that Bielsa would piss himself laughing at the level we are at. Btw, have to agree with Blobs that young Cabango had a very sound game and looks every inch a star in the making. Some stats:
POSSESSION: 55-45 SHOTS: 14-7 OT: 3-5 CORNERS: 7-5 FOULS: 8-9 GOALS: 1-0
Look at the shots on target. We got 21.4% and they managed 71.4% which accounts for the fact that we scored only one goal and weren't out of sight by half time. Mind you, that disgrace of a midfield of ours simply ran out of gas and everything else in the second half and if I'd had to play as a striker in front of them, I'd have been having a 'gentle' word in their ears after the game that would've been heard in the Mumbles!
As for the game, it was interesting to see how once again we almost contrived to throw away some more points on our home turf as Charlton pounded us with long balls at the end. After a decent first half, we again fell away with sloppy passing, little movement and heads down football. If Leon thinks for a nano-second that that is acceptable then, as much as I like the little guy, he can go out the door with Cooperman. THIS SHIT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH, LEON!!
Cooper claimed that the players were tired in the second period because of the fixture load but it was the same for Charlton who, in addition, were missing 14 players from their squad and having to play a number of youngsters. Good job for us their first team wasn't playing!! As always, I suggest that our fitness levels are severely lacking and I reckon that Bielsa would piss himself laughing at the level we are at. Btw, have to agree with Blobs that young Cabango had a very sound game and looks every inch a star in the making. Some stats:
POSSESSION: 55-45 SHOTS: 14-7 OT: 3-5 CORNERS: 7-5 FOULS: 8-9 GOALS: 1-0
Look at the shots on target. We got 21.4% and they managed 71.4% which accounts for the fact that we scored only one goal and weren't out of sight by half time. Mind you, that disgrace of a midfield of ours simply ran out of gas and everything else in the second half and if I'd had to play as a striker in front of them, I'd have been having a 'gentle' word in their ears after the game that would've been heard in the Mumbles!
For me too it was a pleasure to be in the company of these guys once again, especially as I will be departing for Turkey in the coming week,also nice to finish my visit with a win, albeit not the best of performances. Will probably be back over for a shorter visit some time in June,and look forward meeting up again.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Ivor , as well as all your other problems you can now add dementia to the list as you met BHG the last time we were in F&Bs !
My apology to BHG , only just picked up your text , my phone was switched off
My apology to BHG , only just picked up your text , my phone was switched off
No, it's not just me/us carping about fitness levels; WOL journos said in their ratings that no less than FIVE of our players fell off the pace in the second half (that's half our outfield team) and specifically mentioned Grimes, Byers, Routs, Borja and Ayew whilst, in addition, Dhanda, who'd had a decent game, had to be subbed. I've no issue with Ayew because he works his tail off in game after game, his performances papering over the cracks in the team. Borja also put in a good stint in this game holding the ball up well and battling alone up front.
Our problem, sorry I sound like a stuck record, is in midfield, the engine of the team. Over 90 minutes, it performs like a Ford Ka rather than the Ford Mustang that we'd all like to see. WOL agreed, saying that in the second half our midfield became 'alarmingly passive'. Cooper defended this by referring to the stress and strain of the heavy Festive fixture list. Really?? Oh diddums for those poor 20 grand a week players who are so abused by our heartless club, many of whom were rotated anyway to give them some rest. And what about Charlton then? Didn't they, and every other Championship team come to that, also have the same stressful fixture list to contend with?
I recorded the game and watched the first half back when I got home, intending to watch that grisly second half performance some time today. In fairness, that was an impressive, though far from faultless, display in the first period where, with a little more composure, not to say shooting ability, we could have put the game to bed. We didn't and were then subjected to Charlton pressure as our midfield capitulated. AGAIN!!!!!!!!! Fitness issues, Mr Cooper, nothing more and nothing less. When the going gets tough our midfield find they have no legs to deal with it and respond. How else can you justify our Jekyll and Hyde performance? Ford Mustang (ish) first half, decidedly Ford Ka in the second!
You need to be FIT to play this game properly. I know this from personal experience when the impossibility of combining my business with training, put a firm end to my footballing "career", such as it was, because my legs could no longer obey what my head was telling them to do. And how much more critical is this at a professional level when you are competing against other professional players, most of whom are properly fit because their manager DEMANDS IT OF THEM.
That first half was heartening as it showed that our team have the players to perform well but, turning it on for just 45 minutes a game, wins you nothing and this has to be addressed asap.
Our problem, sorry I sound like a stuck record, is in midfield, the engine of the team. Over 90 minutes, it performs like a Ford Ka rather than the Ford Mustang that we'd all like to see. WOL agreed, saying that in the second half our midfield became 'alarmingly passive'. Cooper defended this by referring to the stress and strain of the heavy Festive fixture list. Really?? Oh diddums for those poor 20 grand a week players who are so abused by our heartless club, many of whom were rotated anyway to give them some rest. And what about Charlton then? Didn't they, and every other Championship team come to that, also have the same stressful fixture list to contend with?
I recorded the game and watched the first half back when I got home, intending to watch that grisly second half performance some time today. In fairness, that was an impressive, though far from faultless, display in the first period where, with a little more composure, not to say shooting ability, we could have put the game to bed. We didn't and were then subjected to Charlton pressure as our midfield capitulated. AGAIN!!!!!!!!! Fitness issues, Mr Cooper, nothing more and nothing less. When the going gets tough our midfield find they have no legs to deal with it and respond. How else can you justify our Jekyll and Hyde performance? Ford Mustang (ish) first half, decidedly Ford Ka in the second!
You need to be FIT to play this game properly. I know this from personal experience when the impossibility of combining my business with training, put a firm end to my footballing "career", such as it was, because my legs could no longer obey what my head was telling them to do. And how much more critical is this at a professional level when you are competing against other professional players, most of whom are properly fit because their manager DEMANDS IT OF THEM.
That first half was heartening as it showed that our team have the players to perform well but, turning it on for just 45 minutes a game, wins you nothing and this has to be addressed asap.