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Post by ProudSalopian on Dec 23, 2023 19:01:03 GMT 1
Can't fault any of the players but it's a hard watch. Yes I know the conditions made it difficult but it wasn't a one off, when we have the ball we don't know what to do with it.
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Post by shrewswolf on Dec 23, 2023 19:05:29 GMT 1
If Dunkley had scored it would have been a great moment taking us into Christmas and vindicated the game plan but it wouldn’t have made what I watched any better.
We are embarrassingly basic. We can’t pass. We can’t attack.
Fair play P’boro were excellent & I do expect them to beat us but they weren’t the reason for our inability to keep the ball when we did have it and some frankly pitiful touches.
I still think we have a relegation battle in us but hopefully this Christmas period will put that to bed.
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Post by ProudSalopian on Dec 23, 2023 19:10:27 GMT 1
Did I imagine it but when we went 2 1 down, did we bring on a left back (Benning) and put him at right wing?
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Post by Valerioch on Dec 23, 2023 19:22:02 GMT 1
Did I imagine it but when we went 2 1 down, did we bring on a left back (Benning) and put him at right wing? If you imagined it then I did too - embarrassing 😂
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Post by Feedo Gnasher on Dec 23, 2023 19:24:16 GMT 1
Could’ve been about 5-0 to Peterborough that, but for their wastefulness up front. They controlled the game throughout but for us to have not a single shot on target in a home game (Shipley’s a clear mis-hit cross) is really dire. The chasm in quality that appears every time we play a top side never gets any easier to stomach.
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Post by zenfootball2 on Dec 23, 2023 19:56:16 GMT 1
This was a performance and result I expected, we have a very limited team, who can't pass, can't hold up the ball and lack creativity, The gulf in ability was there for everyone to see.
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Post by Scarecrow on Dec 23, 2023 19:57:01 GMT 1
Losing has become normalised at this club. Rightly or wrongly, this season is the first time I’ve ever seen such apathy from our supporters to the point of fans criticising others who refuse to accept losses at home against some of the bigger teams. Yes Peterborough and Pompey are much better teams than us, but it’s hardly the gulf of Man City visiting Sheffield United.
Turgid stuff the last two games, we lose playing Rickettseque football. Wouldn’t it be better to have lost and actually enjoyed seeing some quality on the ball and creativity.
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Post by Feedo Gnasher on Dec 23, 2023 20:05:42 GMT 1
Losing has become normalised at this club. Rightly or wrongly, this season is the first time I’ve ever seen such apathy from our supporters to the point of fans criticising others who refuse to accept losses at home against some of the bigger teams. Yes Peterborough and Pompey are much better teams than us, but it’s hardly the gulf of Man City visiting Sheffield United. Turgid stuff the last two games, we lose playing Rickettseque football. Wouldn’t it be better to have lost and actually enjoyed seeing some quality on the ball and creativity. You look at Luton Town’s recent home results in the Premier League, beating Newcastle today, drawing with Liverpool, giving Arsenal and Man City almighty scares losing 2-1 and 4-3, and yet as you say we’ve become accustomed to shrugging our shoulders and accepting our fate.
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Post by tarporleyblue on Dec 23, 2023 20:09:01 GMT 1
1-5 at home in a week.
vs the top 2 if said but over 180+ minutes highlights the lack of quality in our starting eleven as things stand.
Only crumb of comfort was that we were better than last week.
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Post by chirkshrew on Dec 23, 2023 20:10:12 GMT 1
Very turgid.....hope the coaching staff see it🤔🤔 this 5-3-2 thing doesn't work,as I've said many many times,maybe with 3/4 new signings,and somebody to drive us forward from midfield,we might improve 🤔🤔
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Post by chirkshrew on Dec 23, 2023 20:15:02 GMT 1
We played much bigger teams in the 80s,and I looked forward to playing them, because I knew town would give em a game,and more often than not beat them.the only difference being,we had a bloody good team then!!!😃😉
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Post by supermac11 on Dec 23, 2023 20:27:48 GMT 1
The gulf in quality attacking-wise was massive. So often we look like we're playing a team from a division above. We work hard to win the ball but more often than not then we just shovel it forward with little purpose and lose it. After 5 years of this, we can and should aspire to be better otherwise what's the point.
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Post by chirkshrew on Dec 23, 2023 20:37:41 GMT 1
Well, hopefully we stay up this season,and from then on in the summer/pre season,change formation from 5-3-2 to either 4-4-2,or 4-3-3, otherwise the fans will vote with there feet,and stop watching this boring,turgid,ultra defensive s**te,that we play 🤦🤦
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Post by harboroughshrew on Dec 23, 2023 20:51:21 GMT 1
That was certainly an improvement from last week as we stayed in the game until the very end when we nearly pinched a point against a very talented attacking team. Our limitations have been well documented on this thread but the lads are still clearly fighting for MT. With a few players retuning from injury and a couple of decent additions in January surely we can replicate the 27 points from the first half of the season and stay up. Assuming we do that it will be next season where we can judge where the new structure is taking us and look at ways of getting the team more in the game further up the pitch.
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Post by chirkshrew on Dec 23, 2023 21:01:35 GMT 1
The coaching staff,have got to have a complete rethink on the formation for next season.you can't keep having or watching the away team attacking us for 90 mins,at home matches,that is beyond criminal.its been going on now for the last 5 yrs,and supporters are getting absolutely fed up with it......if they're happy with that..... there's something wrong with them!!!🤷🤷🤦😪
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Post by camdenshrew on Dec 23, 2023 22:04:47 GMT 1
Yes, I can face being beaten by a better team but why do we make it even more difficult for ourselves? Whose bright idea was it to play the left-footed Benning on the right side of midfield? Why did it take so long to sub the ineffectual Bowman? Why don't we leave somebody on the halfway line as an outball when defending corners/set-pieces?
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Post by peterjones1 on Dec 23, 2023 22:29:18 GMT 1
It's the great footballing contradiction isn't it. Those on the football side regularly tell us it's a results business and in that regard I think Matty Taylor can, with some justification, point to our current league position and (relative) comfort from danger and say he's achieving at least equal if not better than most of his predecessors at this level. However, having charged me £24 for attending today, those on the non-football side are absolutely pricing us within the entertainment business and far too often results and entertainment just don't go hand in hand.
I've not been to many games this season so don't feel overly qualified to comment but on each occasion I've been staggered at how many basic things we seem to do badly. Simple, easy six yard passes missing their intended target by several feet. Straightforward through balls massively over hit miles out of play. Trailing with five minutes to go yet dropping everyone back to defend a corner when Posh had left three players back.
We actually showed some reasonable tenacity in winning the ball high up the pitch on several occasions yet the contrast to when Peterborough did the same was incredible. They'd win the ball and multiple players would be racing forward, making different runs, providing options. We'd win the ball and the movement was just non existent. I couldn't quite believe how many of our players have absolutely no desire to receive the ball.
I've been a Town fan plenty long enough to appreciate this is far from the worst side we've had and we've been infinitely worse to watch in the past but there's also never been such a wide range of alternatives to an afternoon at the football. This is far from an isolated STFC problem but if you want to charge the prices we're charging then it needs to be a hell of a lot more appealing.
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Post by Worthingshrew on Dec 23, 2023 22:37:03 GMT 1
Well, hopefully we stay up this season,and from then on in the summer/pre season,change formation from 5-3-2 to either 4-4-2,or 4-3-3, otherwise the fans will vote with there feet,and stop watching this boring,turgid,ultra defensive s**te,that we play 🤦🤦 We were playing boring, turgid, ultra-defensive football last season too, but fans have still turned up in numbers this season. Whether they’ll accept it for much longer is another question.
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Post by Pilch on Dec 23, 2023 23:08:57 GMT 1
as far as im concerned, we were playing 2nd in the league, everything pointed to them winning, as it happened , in the last minute of the game, we smashed the bar in what could have been a 2-2 result, anyone who would rather paint a negative picture, go ahead, unlucky town, good effort, better luck next time
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Post by shrewdshrewssupporter on Dec 23, 2023 23:35:56 GMT 1
Against 2nd in the league and a close game, so probably not a barometer of where we are as a whole.
Two points to note though.
Our press is effective and intentional. I would assume that Taylor has coached into the some trigger points to activate the press, and we do this well. Peterborough had a few nervy moments as a result.
On a less positive note, our attacking structure looks rather lacking. There were a number of times where we had an opportunity to counter with Winchester or Kenneth; they had Bowman and Udoh ahead of them and very little other option (credit to Bennett, he did run rather a lot to get up the pitch but was set so deep that it was to little avail). Lots of promising opportunities squandered because there was no outlet or ability to play through the midfield in that counter.
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Post by chirkshrew on Dec 23, 2023 23:50:04 GMT 1
But it's not been about today or last week has it...... it's been going on for the last 4/5 yrs......we are supposed to be an established league 1 team by now,and should be playing some kind of controlled attacking football....or at least having a go at doing it.i'll stick it till the end of the season,but if it doesn't improve for next season,I'll watch from a distance,and so will a few others,I have no doubt
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Post by southshropblue on Dec 23, 2023 23:53:59 GMT 1
as far as im concerned, we were playing 2nd in the league, everything pointed to them winning, as it happened , in the last minute of the game, we smashed the bar in what could have been a 2-2 result, anyone who would rather paint a negative picture, go ahead, unlucky town, good effort, better luck next time yes hitting the bar was unlucky but equally Peterborough missed a number of sitters themselves I think a realistic (not negative) take would have been 5-2
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Post by chirkshrew on Dec 24, 2023 0:17:02 GMT 1
Yep,posh should of scored 5/6...but how come???....we set up as an ultra defensive team......no way should they be having 5/6 decent chances...should they??🤔🤔 It's not working is it,and never has done.....may as well go out with all guns blazing,in my eyes,and have a bloody good go at it🤷🤷🤷
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Post by camdenshrew on Dec 24, 2023 8:11:55 GMT 1
Yep,posh should of scored 5/6...but how come???....we set up as an ultra defensive team......no way should they be having 5/6 decent chances...should they??🤔🤔 It's not working is it,and never has done.....may as well go out with all guns blazing,in my eyes,and have a bloody good go at it🤷🤷🤷 The defence looked very brittle at times. Posh were having a lot of fun down our left side and it was alarming to see their second goal was almost a mirror image of Pompey's last week. An attacker just ran into our box unchallenged and played a square ball to Kyprianou for a tap-in. I just hope we can pick up some points in the next three and make some early signings otherwise the pressure will be right back on Taylor going into the Wrexham game.
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Post by theriverside on Dec 24, 2023 8:13:16 GMT 1
We’ve played a direct style of football under previous managers going back many years. Anyone harking back to the days of us knocking it around like Brazil will have very selective memories. We’re a league one side and naturally will have many limitations.
However if we’re going to play this way, at the very least we should expect us to be mildly effective at it. Not the case though, I lost count of the number of times we’ve pumped it long and there’s been no reaction from players who needed to be making runs off the ball anticipating the flick on. That said, maybe they’ve noticed that we can’t even get the flick on right. One of many depressing observations from yesterday’s game - a header won by Mata in the 79th minute was the first aerial challenge that any of our forward players had won (also the only thing of note he offered in the whole time he was on). It summed up one of the most powder puff attacking performances I’ve seen from us - completely owned on our own pitch and it needs sorting before we’re dragged into the mire. With their improved form recently, I’m seeing Cheltenham as a real banana skin on Boxing Day……
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Post by shrewswolf on Dec 24, 2023 9:27:04 GMT 1
There was a moment in the second half where two of our lads hacked clearances directly up in the air and so the wind brought it back towards us and then Feeney did the same with his header. Somehow we kept the ball from this and it found its way to Udoh up top who did something just as poor. This 10 seconds summed up our ability on the ball but did add to the entertainment factor because it was so poor it was funny.
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Post by belfastshrew on Dec 24, 2023 9:46:51 GMT 1
Peter and his Bruhs are a Championship team in waiting.
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Post by floreatsalopia1 on Dec 24, 2023 9:49:47 GMT 1
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Post by ProudSalopian on Dec 24, 2023 9:50:54 GMT 1
Against 2nd in the league and a close game, so probably not a barometer of where we are as a whole. Two points to note though. Our press is effective and intentional. I would assume that Taylor has coached into the some trigger points to activate the press, and we do this well. Peterborough had a few nervy moments as a result. On a less positive note, our attacking structure looks rather lacking. There were a number of times where we had an opportunity to counter with Winchester or Kenneth; they had Bowman and Udoh ahead of them and very little other option (credit to Bennett, he did run rather a lot to get up the pitch but was set so deep that it was to little avail). Lots of promising opportunities squandered because there was no outlet or ability to play through the midfield in that counter. That's the frustrating thing for me. I'd be a bit more forgiving of the 'sit deep and let them have the ball' tactics if when we got the ball we were able to counter attack at pace. But we can't, everything is so slow and we don't get enough men forward.
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Post by Valerioch on Dec 24, 2023 10:30:02 GMT 1
Having slept on it, yesterday hasn’t got any better. If anything, it’s got even worse. Talk about spreading some Christmas cheer, we were absolutely s**te, the type of performance that’s left me thinking can I be arsed to pay the best part of 400 notes to watch it again next season
I can’t be the only one feeling that. I said on another thread last week, we will sleep walk into a relegation battle, we’re so lucky to have this many points, worst football I’ve seen in my life, even worse than Ricketts-ball
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