Scunny Post Match

[Lillehamring]

WE HAVE TO START TAKING OUR CHANCES!

, Get a decent goalscorer, Please. I'm not blaming today solely on the strikers, and it's probably looks like it but i'm not slagging the striker off, they are playing well, they are at their best, possibly playing above their level - But i'm afraid it worries me and need changing IMO.

Somehow we are still third, I'm worried now going into the Forest game with them scoring, and us not scoring many, on the other hand they might be on a high ready to be knocked down, and they might be the victims of our backlash.

Disappointed.

the problem with this post, is that it is unmitigated tripe...

we could have had more goals in the 1st half, yes, but not because our strikers were crap... waggy's goal was technical perfection: chest thigh left boot chip, lovely.... fryatt had two chances, one that a great last gasp slide kept out, the second which a backbreaking finger tip save prevented.... kermo had two chances a tricky one under pressure that he just didn't get quite enough on and a text book downwards bullet header.... i have no problems with that.

the problem was that as the game went on we crceated less and less, i don't recall any of our strikers being presented with a goal scoring opportunity in the 2nd half, despite running their socks off.

we sat behind the ball and tried to play on the break, yet king and wellens were just not supporting these breaks and it was easy for scunny to put 2 or 3 men on the man with the ball.

pearson went for a tight game, to sneak a goal on the counter and we did that, scunny did enough to show that that ploy rarely works

[Guest ttfn]

ok,

this was not about poor defending, for 92 minutes we were rock solid, and even then the goal was kind of a freak goal.

this was not about the ref, tho he gave them a lot and could easily have red carded one of their players

this was not about the subs

and this was definately not about the strikers - their keeper made two top class saves

...scunny maybe low in the league but they had the fourth best home record, and played some lovely pass and move footy in the midfield, only their poor final ball and our resolute defending kept it at 0-1 for so long. they were, IMO the better footballing side.

this was about us scoring early and sitting back just trying to play on the counter. this was about scunny's decent home midfield overwhelming what turned into something akin to a 4-2-2-2 formation for us.

for 90 minutes after we scored, we did what plymouth did last week, put 10 men behind the ball, and they did what we did last week, they eventually had a bit of luck and sneaked a late goal.

it feels weird, i should be gutted, but i feel like we picked up a point in a game we deserved nothing more from....

I agree with you about our lack of ambition but we were definitely worth the 3 points. Having a lot of the ball (as they did) means nothing unless you create chances and they got lucky at the end.

[Captain...]

Swings and roundabouts....been countless occasions where he's made brilliant switches.

He makes brilliant substitutions when we are looking for goals, but when we need to close out the game we tend change the front 2 and nothing else, it happened against reading and could have cost us if they hadn't been so dire in front of goal.

At times he doesn't have the options but today we had Oakley on the bench perfect for a bit of composure and experience to help us close out the game, DNG just ran with the ball until he lost it and Howard is looking past it.

[Lillehamring]

He was brilliant today, really gave their back four trouble. Getting more and more disappointed in Gallacher, he's physically weak, can't tackle...so god knows where he's been employed in midfield.

Fryatt's getting increasingly frustated.

i thought gally was pretty good, 1st half at least, he covered loads of ground, played some great balls and tackled hard

[CosbehFox]

He makes brilliant substitutions when we are looking for goals, but when we need to close out the game we tend change the front 2 and nothing else, it happened against reading and could have cost us if they hadn't been so dire in front of goal.

We employed the same tactics as we did against QPR. Glanford Park is a small pitch, so pushing up is a dangerous game as one mistake and the strikers are. Against Reading, Campbell and Howard came on and we stretched the game...Howard should have scored on that occasion. Today we tried the same.

[Matt]

The reason we weren't 3-0 up at half time is because the keeper pulled off 2 blinding saves and s****horpe defended very doggedly it was not a great performance, but our problem was in the midfield, not enough composure on the ball, a couple of nice passes and a bit of movement would usually breakdown with an aimless punt* or having to knock it back to the defenders. 4 strikers on the pitch is 2 too many, playing with wide men gives us more options rather than trying to play down the middle all the time.

*Admittedly a few of these came off and Fryatt and Waggy looked very dangerous playing off the shoulders of the defenders pouncing on these punts forward. Although sometimes I thought they got in each others way a couple of times and are maybe too similar to play together.

Fair enough, as I said I only heard radio, BBC, Sky commentary as I was out, Gutted I couldn't watch the stream.

I still stand by my comments of we have to start taking out chances though, Maybe their Keeper and defence kept them in it today but many times we have made loads of chances and then just wasted them - This is how I understood it today, You tell a different story and presuming you watched it on the stream (?) you have a better view on it than me.

[CosbehFox]

i thought gally was pretty good, 1st half at least, he covered loads of ground, played some great balls and tackled hard

I just don't believe he's a midfielder...it doesn't help having a Dad watching next to me who hates anything 'fancy'.

[Lillehamring]

I agree with you about our lack of ambition but we were definitely worth the 3 points. Having a lot of the ball (as they did) means nothing unless you create chances and they got lucky at the end.

we adopted the mentality of teams plaing for a draw, we got a draw... three points doesn't come into it.

having a 1-0 lead (as we did) means nothing unless you keep it

[Captain...]

Exactly, people are quick to forget the countless substitutions that have really made an impact for us this season. I can't particularly see the problem with the substitutions today anyway - switching two forwards for another two forwards (who are bigger and stronger) seems logical to me?

Logical yes, if we didn't already have 4 forwards on the pitch, if Waggy or Fryatt were tired than take them off, play Kermo or Gally in their normal positions and bring on a midfielder or 2 to stop us being overrun, I think Kermo and Gally would have made a good front 2 in that situation.

Like I said I find it very difficult to criticise NP because of what he has done for us, but I didn't like the formation today and I didn't understand the subs.

[Lillehamring]

I just don't believe he's a midfielder...it doesn't help having a Dad watching next to me who hates anything 'fancy'.

he is no midfielder, but today, from an attacking point of view, he was the best midfielder we had.

i thought kingy and wellens defended well, but didn't support the attack which gallagher did.

as i said elsewhere, we pretty much ended up playing 4-2-2-2, with kingy and wellens the back 2...

[Captain...]

Fair enough, as I said I only heard radio, BBC, Sky commentary as I was out, Gutted I couldn't watch the stream.

I still stand by my comments of we have to start taking out chances though, Maybe their Keeper and defence kept them in it today but many times we have made loads of chances and then just wasted them - This is how I understood it today, You tell a different story and presuming you watched it on the stream (?) you have a better view on it than me.

Yes I was watching the streem, (thanks to whoever posted the link on here, I normally assume there isn't a streem if it's not on sky)

[Matt]

Yes I was watching the streem, (thanks to whoever posted the link on here, I normally assume there isn't a streem if it's not on sky)

I think it's the main game on the BBC highlights show, Normally whatever game is the main game on the highlights show a stream is available.

[Salieri]

It was almost a classic away performance. I thought we'd nick it 1-0 and we were of course robbed at the end. We controlled the game for large periods, defended stoutly and created a few chances, i certainly wouldn't say we sat back on the lead.

S****horpe offered very little and never really looked like scoring which is testament to our performance. It's a fine line between success and failure and had we held on the mood would have been very different on here and people would be praising a very professional job done. We got out of jail against Plymouth last time but were on the receiving end today.

It's disappointing and definitely 2 points dropped but we're still in very good shape.

[Anish]

On the coach on the way back from the game. First half we were good and looked threatening going forward, could have had a couple more goals but for some excellent goalkeeping. Second half was poor, we sat back and invited pressure. We couldn't keep possession and created nothing.

It looked like pearson switched to 442 in the second half with yann and gallagher on the wings. They were both ineffective and gallagher was caught out time and time again with scunny's right back bombing forward at will. Yann looked a real handful in the air and would've been a goal threat if played up front, but pearson got his tactics wrong imo. We need to start using our natural wingers like adams, dyer and gradel.

Lastly, howard and n'guessan were the wrong subs. Howard is nothing more than a lump now and should go and n'guessan isn't good enough up front

[Candidcamera]

This is two matches for Gallagher when he he is a waste. Kermorgant is fitting in nicely. The two substitutions were all wrong today. We were defending an away win. Also, I have my doubts about Howard in a match like this. He has no pace. N'Guessan was lazy and hopeless when he was the player who could have taken off the pressure. Having siad that I agree we should have been 2 or 3 goals up. Wellens and King excellent again.

[The Doctor]

Where are you getting that from?

the bbc website

[purpleronnie]

presumably last week's last minute goal wasn't beyond bad? 93rd minute, 3rd minute, 46th minute, it makes no difference.

Scunny were bound to get a lucky break some time. We're third, comfortably, and the best is still to come from our team. I'd have taken a draw, and refuse to be despondent.

Of course not you muppet I mean last minute goals against us, I dont think its happend as much as it used too but we do seem prone to it.

[leftsideoverhere]

Disappointed with the result but that's two games with late goals and we've got four points from them.

Can't be too down about that.

Thought Waghorn was excellent today. Kermo also very good, and only their keeper prevented this game not being all over by half-time. I think our problems partly related to feeling like it was a stroll, so while Scunny upped their game in the second half, we didn't.

The substitutions weren't particularly misconceived, but I think some frustration with only being one up against a poor side, coupled with possibly some desire by Dany and Steve to become heroes instead of playing out the game, led to us being overstretched at the end.

I kind of share the frustration others have expressed about us not winning these games three or four nil. Newcastle and West Brom are doing that, and we're not. But I think we need a sense of perspective again. We weren't expecting to be mixing it with the for the automatic promotion places, and chasing big wins rather misses the point about what NP has accomplished here this season so far.

City remain a work in progress. Big positives today from Big Yann and Waggy, and we shouldn't let a last-minute sickener take too much away from the progress we all know is happening.

[Tommeh]

On the train ack now, naturally very disappointed to concede so late but you can't begrudge them the point, no way did we do enough to get the win. Will completely forget this result if we win next week.

Waghorn was our best player and whilst the changes needed doing, Gallagher really should have made way instead.

Also the side stand was clearly the place to be. Coincidence that we created the atmosphere stood up?

[Budweiser]

Gutted whichever way I look at it !

Should have taken are chances, didn't.

Opposite last week really so im not going to complain too much.

Wondering why he brought on Steve though.

[iancognito]

It's a bit of a downer after all the good work in the first half but we're still 3rd, still in reasonably good form and have a lot to be positive about. Maybe it's 2 points dropped but plenty of other teams will drop points like this at the likes of Scunny and Doncaster, so it's hardly a major fail.

[harpendenfox]

Of course not you muppet I mean last minute goals against us, I dont think its happend as much as it used too but we do seem prone to it.

and that was my point. We're no more prone to conceding late on than we are at any other time. Of course the disappointment feels more intense, just as the exhilaration was so great last week

[Guest]

So annoyed it's untrue

We should have been further ahead by the end of the first half anyway, but their keeper earned them an underserved point today

[lavrentis]

Disappointed but I thought we bossed the majority today, thought we deserved the win.

Didn't lose though so onwards to Forest...

[leftsideoverhere]

So annoyed it's untrue

We should have been further ahead by the end of the first half anyway, but their keeper earned them an underserved point today

If he "earned" it, it can't have been completely undeserved, can it? I think you're right though, it was their keeper who had the biggest impact on the game.