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Banging_Them_In wrote:good news that Benners is up and about

He's not Jeremy Beadle! :na:

Proverbial game of two halves. First half we were very good, slick with our movement, passed it nicely put Swindon under pressure and looked a good side. Swindon had one chance where they broke clear and Ricey made a good block but other than that we were the better side. Ball should have scored when he inexplicably didn't head the ball, whether he thought he was going to get clobbered I don't know but he should have buried it. We had ample chances to get good balls in but our crossing was poor throughout the game and is an area we have to get better with.

2nd half we were poor, whether we were tired or whatever I don't know bu we eased off. Swindon got better no doubt about that and they peppered our goal, Rice had to make another 3 excellent saves before their winger cut in fell down, penalty given. Soft but could see it coming, Ricey with more heroics turns it aside but we didn't get any sort of lift from it. We didn't create a thing in the second half, Benyon comes on for the excellent Hawley and is promptly dumped on the deck and carried off. Once that happened I thought we were done for. The game was delayed for ages and within 2 mins we were 1 down. Again down their left hand side their winger had all the time in the world to put a cross in which found their striker sliding in to make it 1-0. We never rallied, we never had kitchen sink in fact we should have lost by more. A horrific back pass by Thompson sent their forward in one on one and again Rice saved us.

Basically I'm seeing some positive signs but we need to improve, get a bit fitter and tighten up. Tonge's positional sense is a worry, time and again they had acres down our right flank, Bodin again was so poor. I would like Chappell and Cameron to start on Saturday. Chappell had a good game, had the beating of the full back but final ball wasn't great. Up front again we looked good, Hawley's protection of the ball, link up play and work rate was excellent. He tried second half understandably but had a good 60-70mins and I expect him to be a key player for us over the season.

Again man of the match was Rice who was absolutely outstanding with a cluster of superb saves and a penalty save as well.

Just got back from the game, Elliot Benyon is ok I saw him getting on the coach, he's a bit sore and has concussion. He was knocked out cold and can't remember any part of the game. Ricey was quality as everybody has said, our finishing let us down tonight when we did have a couple of clear cut chances we fluffed them. Ball did hold the play up brilliantly but I thought Nial Thompson was poor when he came on he gave the ball away continuously one in particular which was appaling, playing a bad back pass blindly straight to their forward. Hawley showed some good touches but I thought Harding was hardly in the game. Some people are critising tonge about his positioning, but it's very obvious what he is being asked to do the full backs are being asked to tuck in tight and then when the ball is played out to the winger to get out to them. They are just carrying out instructions it's not bad positional sense.

You're not wrong, Super, frigging Thompson did more for Swindon than their MOTM. Let's hope that's a one off.

Hawley looked class, despite not being fit. He ran rings around his man at times. Ball was also good, despite his bizarre decision to flail a leg in the general direction of one particular pass instead of heading it into the net.
Bodin tried first half, but was outshone by Chappel who gave his man a torrid time out wide.
The football was excellent first half, we really played some good stuff.
Second half, Swindon made a couple of changes, took off a couple of million pound Tottenham kids and replaced them with a couple of 5 million pound Tottenham kids and that changed the game.
Despite Ricey being MOTM, it really wasn't one of those games. We should have been 4-0 up at HT and out of sight.
As it was, second half they managed to be much more clinical than us. They won a pen which was soft but easy to give, good save from Ricey who was bloody miles off his line when the ball was kicked. The other one looked to have crossed the line, but we'll never know for sure. Their goal was alright, but it wouldn't have happened if not for the Benyon assault. Our lads were still thinking about Elliot when their guy got free and hacked a dreadful shot miles wide, only for his teammate to slide in at the far post and knock it in.
So, once again, we're out of this ridiculous competition. The positives are many chief among them is the absolute battering we will give to the crap of L2 (Accrington, D&R etc) if we play like we did first half.

Matt.

BBC reckons they got the post twice. Anyone remember these?

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote:You're not wrong, Super, frigging Thompson did more for Swindon than their MOTM. Let's hope that's a one off.
As it was, second half they managed to be much more clinical than us. They won a pen which was soft but easy to give, good save from Ricey who was bloody miles off his line when the ball was kicked. The other one looked to have crossed the line, but we'll never know for sure. Their goal was alright, but it wouldn't have happened if not for the Benyon assault. Our lads were still thinking about Elliot when their guy got free and hacked a dreadful shot miles wide, only for his teammate to slide in at the far post and knock it in.
So, once again, we're out of this ridiculous competition. The positives are many chief among them is the absolute battering we will give to the crap of L2 (Accrington, D&R etc) if we play like we did first half.
Matt.

Can't help thinking that Thompson should not be played in a fullback position. If he has pace, shouldn't he be on the wing, or even a striker?

When Benyon was injured, the lads appear to have had some of the stuffing knocked out of them, when they should then have been even more focussed and determined to get a result from the game. Disappointing.

That said, I agree with Matt, the signs are indeed very promising that we will be a force to be reckoned with in League Two this season - along with Oxford, Newport, Cheltenham, Morecambe, Wimbledon, Portsmouth, Burton, etc. etc..

Hardly fair to critcise Thompson who isn't a full back. I know he got the cross in for the equaliser on saturday but he should be brought on to play on the wing which is his position.
The two reports from Royalgull and Fl are different.
Tonge is a worry because he looked weak on saturday so to me it wouldn't be any surprise if he struggled again last night.
Leadbitter to me still looks a far better full back than Tonge - in fact both our full backs are looking a bit suspect.
FL's usual rant is just daft - we should have won 4-0, yeah right. And as for beating crap like Accrington - well they had an excellent victory at a championship side last night.
League 2 may not actually be as weak as what it was last year.
Seems we had a good spell just before half time last night and missed a couple of sitters.
But we created nothing in the second half, precious little on saturday and but for our keeper and a bit of luck we could well have conceded eight goals in the first two matches.
No forward has found the net yet so absolutely no evidence that we will hammer anyone for me.

To be fair Nial came on for Tonge but it was not a like for like switch, we went more towards three at the back as we were chasing the game. he drops in when we haven't got the ball but as soon as we got possession he was bombing down the line in a very advanced position. But at the end of the day we all no he is not a right back but he is a footballer and passing to someone on our team should be a gimme but some of his passing was awful especially the attempted back pass.

brucie wrote:Hardly fair to critcise Thompson who isn't a full back. I know he got the cross in for the equaliser on saturday but he should be brought on to play on the wing which is his position.
The two reports from Royalgull and Fl are different.
Tonge is a worry because he looked weak on saturday so to me it wouldn't be any surprise if he struggled again last night.
Leadbitter to me still looks a far better full back than Tonge - in fact both our full backs are looking a bit suspect.
FL's usual rant is just daft - we should have won 4-0, yeah right. And as for beating crap like Accrington - well they had an excellent victory at a championship side last night.
League 2 may not actually be as weak as what it was last year.
Seems we had a good spell just before half time last night and missed a couple of sitters.
But we created nothing in the second half, precious little on saturday and but for our keeper and a bit of luck we could well have conceded eight goals in the first two matches.
No forward has found the net yet so absolutely no evidence that we will hammer anyone for me.

We were good first half, Swindon were dreadful and we could have scored a couple of goals but for a combination of poor crossing, bit of bad luck and Ball failing to head home what seemed an easy chance. 4-0 is a bit OTT but we should have been in front. 2nd half we didn't have a shot and Ricey's had to make 4 great saves as well as a penalty save to stop us getting mullered.

Take supergulls point about the system and method of tucking in and going wide but on a fair few ocassions Tonge was nowhere to be seen, their left winger was their best player and we gave him too much time and space. I think Tonge is better han our previous two full backs but i'm not sure he's got the engine to be bombing up and down, i'd sooner him just stick to being a full back for now.

Could undersand the switch to bring Thompson on because that was the move that ultimately earned us a draw Saturday but he was a fish out of water last night and I personally would have liekd to have seen Sullivan have the last 10minutes.

We just need to give this group a little bit of time, were some real positives yesterday. Pearce was lots better than he was on Saturday, Harding had a better game and looks a steady player, Chappell was busy and had a really good first half and Hawley got through an excellent 70 minutes. Looks a good target man in terms of the ball sticks to him when he gets it, he's a clever player and he'll get goals in League 2.

As on the OS, it was the tactics last night with the very high pressing (which I'd say worked fairly well) which meant that Tonge was caught out once or twice.

Brucie, with all due respect, it's hard to go to a team like we did last night, playing under a manager whos trying to get the full time gig so he wasn't going to field a reserve team. Tonge was up against their best player in Pritchard and coped well enough for me. Certainly better than Leadbitter would have done, as DL was a bit of a liability defensively at times last year. The 10 minute spell before half time saw the 11 Swindon players within 30 yards of their own goal, such was the constant pressure. We were just unfortunate, Downes' goalbound header blocked by Hawley a yard out (couldn't get out of the way), then Ball inexplicably not heading the ball from 5 yards out. Add in chances for Mansell, Chapell, Bodin, Harding and Ball again and you can see just how dominant we were in that spell.

The big positives for me last night were the combination of Hawley and Ball upfront, they both worked very well in the first half. Swindon put two men on Ball in the second half which worked effectively. Chapell was very good in the first half, but seemed starved of service in the second. Manse and Harding both did well. Also glad to see Benyon is up and about as it did look quite alarming.

Billy Bodin must be close to being dropped though. In a game like that I expected him to be really up for it, but he wasn't (bar one or two times in the first half). The worst bit was when he was put through on goal but he was so slow a defender got back and pushed him off the ball.

Thought Pearce was very solid though slightly fortunate not to concede a penalty in the first half. I don't actually think the penalty was a foul as Pritchard was conning the ref all night long with his diving antics. Top save by Ricey, who was lucky with the shot that was 2-feet over the line but the ref didn't give it.

All in all I was quite happy, especially the first half. Plenty of positives, so fingers crossed we'll pick up that first win on Saturday before Oxford come to town!

EDIT: This is pretty much similar to what Royal has just said!

Also agree re Bodin. I wanted him to do well last night, I would have picked him but on what I've seen of the 3 wingers he is by far the weakest of them and shouldn't be in the side on Saturday, my heart sank when he went up front following Elliot's injury.

You don't come across defenders like Darren Ward too often in league Two. This was always going to be a hard game. Everyone manipulates stats for there own reasons but why has no one mentioned the lights of Oxford 4-1 winners on Saturday , lost 4-0 to Charlton. Would you now be saying we looked fantastic on Saturday terrible on Tuesday oh we're in trouble?

Swindon reserves would get into our team, ( we all wanted to sign Benson) there quality is far superior to ours we lost 1-0 as is expected.

Plenty of positive and negatives but you'd have to think against a lower league opposition how much could we negate the negatives etc.

royalgull wrote:Also agree re Bodin. I wanted him to do well last night, I would have picked him but on what I've seen of the 3 wingers he is by far the weakest of them and shouldn't be in the side on Saturday, my heart sank when he went up front following Elliot's injury.

Yep. Cameron did nothing last night but he showed enough promise on Saturday to warrant another start for me. The standout winger for me so far has been Chapell - early days but he looks like he's going to make a real fist of his time here and try and make a good career for himself, something which BB seems to be lacking at the moment unfortunately.

Who said we are in trouble? - certainly not me. What has Oxford losing or winning got to do with us?
They had a great win on saturday and a predictable defeat last night. We had an average performance on saturday scraping a draw and had a predictable defeat last night as well.
Saying Swindons reserves would get into our team means absolutely nothing either. Equally Brightons reserves would get into Newports team, Middlesbrough's reserves would get into Accringtons team - you could go on and on.
None of that is an excuse for losing. We expected to lose last night and we did - simple as that.
Its early days so far and we can only get better (I hope).
Clearly our wingers our two classes better than what we had last season. Striker wise, Howe however much you love him or hate him hasn't been replaced - we don't have anything as good as him.
Pearce looks a good replacement for Saah. Rice has morphed into a goalkeeper and Harding looks solid in midfield.
Full back's seem to be a problem - I think we now have two who can't run.
Bodin continues to be a massive let down.
So as I said before its all positives and negatives. Morecambe and Oxford will give as a far clearer indication of where we actually stand - far clearer than last nights game.

Agree that Tommo isn't a full back, but in this instance, it's irrelevant. His catastrophic mistakes were not caused by his inability to correctly position himself to defend a corner, or to expertly show his man down the line, as may be expected of a specialist defender. The errors he made were in judgement and passing, two things expected of any footballer anywhere in the world, regardless of position.

Does anyone else think that Pearce will get more bookings this year than Rene did last?

Matt.