First time this season

[andgarod]

Having reflected on yesterday which was the first time I had watched them this season
Southwood kept the score down
Davis poor didnt win many headers and at fault in all 3 goals
Did he get the assists for 2 and 3- lets hope he has more in the tank
Didnt see him organising anyone
Long and Freestone average
Williams was better than expected
Smith poor headers were weak and to often square or back pass
Midfield Hammond showed some nice touches in the last 20 but boy against man I was going to put in the other midfielders but they are missing as they were yesterday
Keena did he touch the ball
Street tried hard and got 2 or 3 balls across the face of goal but no one in the box
Olly - injured
Goodwin reminded me a bit of Alsop
Ferry looked good in his cameo
Management team weak
Ref forgot his black shirt surely the linos can see the shirt pulls even if the ref cant
MOM Southwood

[Fuller]

Sounds about right. Add in Thompson who’s clearly an experienced player at this level, but who is finding his way back after nearly a year out injured and then no proper preseason. Give him time and I’m sure he’ll be an important player for us.

[Shade]

Thought Freestone was easily our motm yesterday but wisely nothing was announced.

[1985CTFC]

I know they outplayed us..but I am struggling to remember if Southwood had to do a flying save all match. Will rewatch the game maybe tonight and see how many decent saves he had to make.
I agree Freestone MOTM ..but maybe a bit slow to close down D Charles for the first goal. But he always shows a desire, can't fault him for that.
Curtis was no where near their first goal!!!! Hardly to blame!

[andgarod]

re Curtis that is the point nowhere

Southwood had s3everal diving saves before they scored and a few after they scored

[Broadway Brian]

Freestone MOTM for me, although none announced as has been mentioned. Threw himself endlessly into blocks and they wouldn’t have found it quite so easy with 3 Freestones in the back line.

Sercs has had 2 shockers in the league so far but plenty of credit in the bank.

Goodwin is silent and passive. Would love to see him play p****d off.

[Jerry St Clair]

Freestone MOTM for me too.

A word on Williams too, who I thought was ok in the circumstances. He is clearly a classy player so hope he pushes on.

[longmover]

A couple of things I noticed, from the off Davis was screaming at Southwood to come and get the ball when it had gone down their left wing channel, I presume he new he had no chance of chasing the ball down (he'll get beat or concede a free kick), thing is there were a few occasions where Southwood was creeping closer and closer to the vertical line of his 18 yard box and could tell he wasn't best pleased with the pressure he was put under.

Long was also spending most of time looking at the linesman and hoping he raised his flag rather than the attacking player who had got in behind him (again).

Just too slow at this level.

[tunnelvision]

I know they outplayed us..but I am struggling to remember if Southwood had to do a flying save all match. Will rewatch the game maybe tonight and see how many decent saves he had to make.
I agree Freestone MOTM ..but maybe a bit slow to close down D Charles for the first goal. But he always shows a desire, can't fault him for that.
Curtis was no where near their first goal!!!! Hardly to blame!

Not sure if Davies or Freestone was supposed to be marking Charles, however Davies seemed to be, until he got drawn towards the ball leaving Charles unmarked. At the moment Davies is a liability and has been slow (both in thought & action) and error prone in all the games I've seen him play.

Others have made good points, so will try not to repeat them. However, from looking fairly solid in pre-season, if a bit goal shy, we now look pretty clueless on the basics. Some thoughts are :-

Street looked our best attacking threat, but why is he playing right wing? Isn't that what wing backs are for? Williams barely got out of our own half, whilst Smith only made a couple of forward forays late on. Would like to see Street more central where he can do some damage and also link up better with Keena.

Midfield is non-existent. We don't keep the ball well enough and barely put in a tackle to win it back. Hammond works hard and shows some promise, but lacks experience. Thompson obviously not match fit yet. Sercs largely missing in action, which is disappointing. What's the answer? No idea, but I don't think it was on our bench, unless we play Ferry centrally.

Defending we don't do enough to block shots from the edge of the area, allowing opponents to take pot-shots at will.

We have no discernible patterns of play, other than try to get down the right flank and win a corner. No point crossing into the box, as there's rarely anybody in there!

We lack adequate cover (numbers & quality) for many positions, partly through injuries but also lack of recruitment. This will probably get worse as 1st choice players are over-played and will inevitably pick up more injuries.

I'm feeling more pessimistic about this season than I have done for a long time, as I doubt we have the resources to rectify the issues we're facing.

[Fuller]

I know they outplayed us..but I am struggling to remember if Southwood had to do a flying save all match. Will rewatch the game maybe tonight and see how many decent saves he had to make.
I agree Freestone MOTM ..but maybe a bit slow to close down D Charles for the first goal. But he always shows a desire, can't fault him for that.
Curtis was no where near their first goal!!!! Hardly to blame!

Not sure if Davies or Freestone was supposed to be marking Charles, however Davies seemed to be, until he got drawn towards the ball leaving Charles unmarked. At the moment Davies is a liability and has been slow (both in thought & action) and error prone in all the games I've seen him play.

Others have made good points, so will try not to repeat them. However, from looking fairly solid in pre-season, if a bit goal shy, we now look pretty clueless on the basics. Some thoughts are :-

Street looked our best attacking threat, but why is he playing right wing? Isn't that what wing backs are for? Williams barely got out of our own half, whilst Smith only made a couple of forward forays late on. Would like to see Street more central where he can do some damage and also link up better with Keena.

Midfield is non-existent. We don't keep the ball well enough and barely put in a tackle to win it back. Hammond works hard and shows some promise, but lacks experience. Thompson obviously not match fit yet. Sercs largely missing in action, which is disappointing. What's the answer? No idea, but I don't think it was on our bench, unless we play Ferry centrally.

Defending we don't do enough to block shots from the edge of the area, allowing opponents to take pot-shots at will.

We have no discernible patterns of play, other than try to get down the right flank and win a corner. No point crossing into the box, as there's rarely anybody in there!

We lack adequate cover (numbers & quality) for many positions, partly through injuries but also lack of recruitment. This will probably get worse as 1st choice players are over-played and will inevitably pick up more injuries.

I'm feeling more pessimistic about this season than I have done for a long time, as I doubt we have the resources to rectify the issues we're facing.

Agree with all that Tunnelvision. I thought Davies was poor Saturday, first goal he moved away from Dion Charles when Long was already covering the other central forward. Charles then had all the time in the world. Second goal he gave way the foul with a poor challenge for the free kick they scored from. Third goal was a poor clearance by him. Expect better of an experienced pro.
I hope this doesn’t turn into a repeat of the beginning of the 2008/09 season under Downing. Poor recruitment over the summer after Gillespie left, panic on the last day of the August window, and then he was sacked a week or so later. We know what happened then. We all hope that doesn’t happen, but the warning signs are there as you say.

[Warwickshire Robin]

Another thing that is confusing to me so far this season is the non-usage of Dan Adshead.

Wade seemed to be really talking him up in preseason but now the season proper has started he can't get in the Cup team ahead of Ellis Chapman and on Saturday when most of the rest of our midfield was either injured (Bonds, Olayinka), AWOL (Sercs) or already off the pitch (Thompson) he is overlooked for our no 1 wingback.

Not suggesting he would make a huge difference, haven't seen enough of him but is he the new Charlie Brown?

On Curtis Davies, the jury still very much out for me. Has looked well of the pace so far and seems to be undermining Southwood, Freestone & Long's confidence at the moment. Doesn't seem to be bringing much in the way of organisation and lacks any composure on the ball, the big hoof away being the only string to his bow. On the positive side it has been a baptism of fire for him so far against good sides in Birmingham & Bolton so hopefully one or two more games against slightly easier opposition may well help him find his feet but suffice to say we are missing Caleb Taylor as much as Alfie so far this season.

[Robin]

I have seen all three games and the common theme has been a lot of by passing the midfield with long curling balls for the front two to chase. Midfield clearly isn't working and needs tweaking with Olayinka and Bonds seemingly both out long term. Thompson looks like he could be good but is clearly getting back to fitness, Sercombe won't play every game and Hammond looks promising but possibly inconsistent. I'm not convinced Adshead or Chapman add much but probably won't be loaned out/sold due to injuries.

Defence lacks pace and composure on the ball too but Shrewsbury (a side widely expected to be towards the bottom of the league) didn't really trouble us but Birmingham and Bolton moved our defence around effortlessly.

Upfront we need options beyond Keena and Street desperately but that is more the icing on the cake rather than the root of our issues.

[Si Robin]

The biggest problem was in midfield for me. They looked like a group that had met that morning which, to be fair, wasn't all that far from the truth.

All three, Thompson, Hammond and Sercs, are clearly good players in their own rights, but up to last Saturday, Thompson had been in the door for two weeks and Hammond for 9 days. It's clear the plan was to have Sercs and Bonds as the base whilst Thompson worked his way back to full fitness - but Bonds' injury has thrown a massive spanner in the works.

If we can get them playing as a unit, we will be ok, but Sercs was off it last Saturday and if he's not on it we tend to be in trouble.

[1985CTFC]

The biggest problem was in midfield for me. They looked like a group that had met that morning which, to be fair, wasn't all that far from the truth.

All three, Thompson, Hammond and Sercs, are clearly good players in their own rights, but up to last Saturday, Thompson had been in the door for two weeks and Hammond for 9 days. It's clear the plan was to have Sercs and Bonds as the base whilst Thompson worked his way back to full fitness - but Bonds' injury has thrown a massive spanner in the works.

If we can get them playing as a unit, we will be ok, but Sercs was off it last Saturday and if he's not on it we tend to be in trouble.

Spot on. Been a lot of workload on Sercs with Bonds gone and Thompson not up to speed and a young lad come in, So I wouldn't blame Sercs. A one man midfield at times.
It just feels we need to push the whole team up 10 to 20 yards. Risky with little pace in CB but sometimes you have to take a risk.
You watch teams like Man City their defence at times are camping midway in oppos half. I know we are not Man City!. But surely we can push the whole team up to help support mid and strikers. Play some short passes rather than a 30 40 yd ball up to the front. Only to be swallowed up by man mountain lg1 CB's

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

The biggest problem was in midfield for me. They looked like a group that had met that morning which, to be fair, wasn't all that far from the truth.

All three, Thompson, Hammond and Sercs, are clearly good players in their own rights, but up to last Saturday, Thompson had been in the door for two weeks and Hammond for 9 days. It's clear the plan was to have Sercs and Bonds as the base whilst Thompson worked his way back to full fitness - but Bonds' injury has thrown a massive spanner in the works.

If we can get them playing as a unit, we will be ok, but Sercs was off it last Saturday and if he's not on it we tend to be in trouble.

Spot on. Been a lot of workload on Sercs with Bonds gone and Thompson not up to speed and a young lad come in, So I wouldn't blame Sercs. A one man midfield at times.
It just feels we need to push the whole team up 10 to 20 yards. Risky with little pace in CB but sometimes you have to take a risk.
You watch teams like Man City their defence at times are camping midway in oppos half. I know we are not Man City!. But surely we can push the whole team up to help support mid and strikers. Play some short passes rather than a 30 40 yd ball up to the front. Only to be swallowed up by man mountain lg1 CB's

I am sure against some teams we will try and play higher up. Just we were concerned by Bolton’s attack.

Last season a deeper line worked well at home to Ipswich, Sheff Wed, etc so no doubt we tried to replicate that.

Awaye from home a high line be risky. When we got slapped 5-0 away at Sunderland the high line was kamikaze to the extent of being laughable, such was the ease at which Pollock and Long were done for pace with players getting in behind at will.

The risk with Davies alongside Long is that it becomes like when Downes/Parslow were a clown partnership in L2, or like Boyle/Long in L1 when pace was agonisingly lacking to the extent one felt sorry for the player.

Bradders must be faster than one of Davies and Long, so maybe a bold decision needed to drop one of them.

[Robin]

Have you seen Bradbury much RCS? Whilst I do feel he is is solid cover he has a very slow turning cycle and has been exposed by that in several games (the Exeter horror show especially). He's better at heading the ball away and more suited to covering left side of defence. The problem is largely in midfield but weighing that with the lack of pace in the back three is probably contributing to that also.

[Si Robin]

The Exeter horror show was over a year ago - I think he proved in the games towards the end of last season that he's much better than he showed in that one game.

In fact, it's hard to think of another poor performance that he had, and I think you do him a disservice by constantly referring back to that one game.

For all his goals, no-one keeps referring back to the horror show that Alfie May had against Accrington.

NOTE: That's not to put Bradbury on the same level as Alfie, or to state that Bradbury is prime Bobby Moore.

[Warwickshire Robin]

The biggest problem was in midfield for me. They looked like a group that had met that morning which, to be fair, wasn't all that far from the truth.

All three, Thompson, Hammond and Sercs, are clearly good players in their own rights, but up to last Saturday, Thompson had been in the door for two weeks and Hammond for 9 days. It's clear the plan was to have Sercs and Bonds as the base whilst Thompson worked his way back to full fitness - but Bonds' injury has thrown a massive spanner in the works.

If we can get them playing as a unit, we will be ok, but Sercs was off it last Saturday and if he's not on it we tend to be in trouble.

Spot on. Been a lot of workload on Sercs with Bonds gone and Thompson not up to speed and a young lad come in, So I wouldn't blame Sercs. A one man midfield at times.
It just feels we need to push the whole team up 10 to 20 yards. Risky with little pace in CB but sometimes you have to take a risk.
You watch teams like Man City their defence at times are camping midway in oppos half. I know we are not Man City!. But surely we can push the whole team up to help support mid and strikers. Play some short passes rather than a 30 40 yd ball up to the front. Only to be swallowed up by man mountain lg1 CB's

I am sure against some teams we will try and play higher up. Just we were concerned by Bolton’s attack.

Last season a deeper line worked well at home to Ipswich, Sheff Wed, etc so no doubt we tried to replicate that.

Awaye from home a high line be risky. When we got slapped 5-0 away at Sunderland the high line was kamikaze to the extent of being laughable, such was the ease at which Pollock and Long were done for pace with players getting in behind at will.

The risk with Davies alongside Long is that it becomes like when Downes/Parslow were a clown partnership in L2, or like Boyle/Long in L1 when pace was agonisingly lacking to the extent one felt sorry for the player.

Bradders must be faster than one of Davies and Long, so maybe a bold decision needed to drop one of them.

On the evidence so far I personally would like to see Freestone have a go as the middle of the back three, he is by far the quickest of our current crop of central defenders, and play Bradbury on the left and Longy on the right.

[Shade]

Surely, if we have a slow defender, we want them in the middle as the guys on the left and right are more likely to have to deal with guys running down the sides of the area. This is where Bradbury was having most of his issues when playing left of the three and coming up against fast wingers/forwards. I didn't really see all too much wrong with the defence against Shrewsbury, apart from one unfortunate Williams header that Southwood saved, which fell for Bowman to knock in.

Smith, Long, Bradbury, Freestone, Ferry, right to left, would be our best 5 at the moment, imo.

We sometimes say players are in credit (such as Sercs in an earlier post)...well, Davies is in a fair bit of debit already. Apart from if one of the yellows had been a red, he couldn't have had a much worse start to his playing time at CTFC.

[Warwickshire Robin]

Surely, if we have a slow defender, we want them in the middle as the guys on the left and right are more likely to have to deal with guys running down the sides of the area. This is where Bradbury was having most of his issues when playing left of the three and coming up against fast wingers/forwards. I didn't really see all too much wrong with the defence against Shrewsbury, apart from one unfortunate Williams header that Southwood saved, which fell for Bowman to knock in.

Smith, Long, Bradbury, Freestone, Ferry, right to left, would be our best 5 at the moment, imo.

We sometimes say players are in credit (such as Sercs in an earlier post)...well, Davies is in a fair bit of debit already. Apart from if one of the yellows had been a red, he couldn't have had a much worse start to his playing time at CTFC.

I would rather have a quicker guy in the middle of a three so he has a chance of covering the other two, but that's just my personal preference. You are probably right that the way to do it is the other way and it looks like Wade agrees so that is all that matters really! However, definitely agree on those five being the starting personnel whatever order they play in!

[Shade]

I understand the covering idea but, in my view, the middle guy can be a little slower as they should all start in a line when running back, leaving the middle one slightly more time to get across and cover if necessary, as the player cutting in would need to run further or adjust his body for a cross, if that makes any sense. I guess it partly depends on whether you have one defender of the three who is slow, or two! I kind of see the middle centre back almost as an old fashioned sweeper, just one that plays the same line as the other two centre backs!

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I understand the covering idea but, in my view, the middle guy can be a little slower as they should all start in a line when running back, leaving the middle one slightly more time to get across and cover if necessary, as the player cutting in would need to run further or adjust his body for a cross, if that makes any sense. I guess it partly depends on whether you have one defender of the three who is slow, or two! I kind of see the middle centre back almost as an old fashioned sweeper, just one that plays the same line as the other two centre backs!

I think I agree. The exception being the the occasions the centre back has to cover twice as much ground in the same time. I.e. making a diagonal run to block a cross means running the long side of a triangle (think from the D to the side of 6 yard box to block a cross at the near post to cover an L/RCB), whereas the side fullback would just have to run straight back (short side of triangle) to get to the same point in the same time.

Here’s a thought when Ferry is fit….Williams at LCB or even CB?

I remember when Cotterill switched from 2 CBs to start with 3 CBs against Brighton with Anthony Griffin playing in the middle/sweeper to nullify Bobby Zamora’s pace. An absolute tactical masterstroke I still don’t recall being bettered to this day.

[triggo]

Olayinka big miss
Thought he was undervalued by the commentary team in the first match.
Only player who looked like he could be beat a player.
If we keep just hitting channel balls , even in this league we will get nothing.
Both of the forwards need thru balls , playing off the last man.
As it stands we are short of personnel and strategy.
NO surprise there tho, Wade can only play the hand he has been dealt with !!!!
Could be a long long season .... hope not tho !!!!

[shevates]

Bobby Gould away to Wigan, full backs switched, Julian Alsopp right wing, deveney centre forward, drew nil nil first side to stop wigan scoring at home for 40 odd games I believe. Nutter

[Red Duke]

Bobby Gould away to Wigan, full backs switched, Julian Alsopp right wing, deveney centre forward, drew nil nil first side to stop wigan scoring at home for 40 odd games I believe. Nutter

So what was it like to watch? I just can't imagine Julian on the wing! I can remember Damian at Leeds having an outstanding game playing on the wing, was it a bit like that?

[Si Robin]

It was absolutely horrific.

Wigan were completely baffled though and Devaney came closest to scoring near the end.

[shevates]

It was Bizarre Si, never seen anything like it

[asl]

Jules was trying to keep the ball in the corner to waste time in the first half!

[Shade]

Tactical masterstroke or so bad and baffling that it came good?!

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Bobby Gould away to Wigan, full backs switched, Julian Alsopp right wing, deveney centre forward, drew nil nil first side to stop wigan scoring at home for 40 odd games I believe. Nutter

So what was it like to watch? I just can't imagine Julian on the wing! I can remember Damian at Leeds having an outstanding game playing on the wing, was it a bit like that?

Dagenham, 28th December 2009.

Yates’ first win as manager.

Alsop flying down the wing and whipping in a pearler of a cross for Richards to head the opening goal.

One of the best end of game celebrations I have been in during a league fixture. Up there with Elland Rd and Guiseley (not often compared!) in terms of unity of joy between fans, manager and players.

One of the last games I went to with my footy mad American friend before she went back to New York. Spurs fan, so enjoyed Hutton setting Josh Low (if I recall correctly) clear to score the second.

Both goals are surely combinations which only ever happened once?!

[1985CTFC]

I know they outplayed us..but I am struggling to remember if Southwood had to do a flying save all match. Will rewatch the game maybe tonight and see how many decent saves he had to make.
I agree Freestone MOTM ..but maybe a bit slow to close down D Charles for the first goal. But he always shows a desire, can't fault him for that.
Curtis was no where near their first goal!!!! Hardly to blame!

I know the game is done and dusted but I have watched it back.
I was right Southwood had 1 save to make and a 1 gather from a long shot from either Morley or Charles.
But they did have a number of shots flying over and wide.
The stick for Curtis I think is a little undeserved.
Looking back at the replay they played a quick(wall pass) 1 - 2 and Charles was the 2 and in my opinion Freestones player. Curtis was marking the 1.
Second goal he gave the freekick away so no dispute there.
Third goal he was stretching to cut out a ball going across him to avoid going in to the box and it went to Charles. Longy was a little asleep and didn't react in closing Charles down. How that was Curtis fault is beyond me, full stretch to stop ball going across goal..what was he supposed to do?
Anyway all water under the bridge now. But the boo boys for Curtis is disrespectful to a player who has played at the highest level and it seems he is being picked on in my opinion without justification in regard to the Bolton game.

Got it off my chest now. Robins to win tonight,,,Curtis to head the winner..to shut some people up.