Post by stevek192 on Sept 2, 2018 9:16:43 GMT
I know its only early days and nothing is won or lost in September but IMO it was very important that we didn't lose this fixture. With only 3 points from 5 games it would be very easy to fall adrift and find ourselves bottom of the pile and with strikers who can't seem to score goals and defenders who can't keep a clean sheet we really need to start getting some confidence in our play at both ends as the squad does have ability which through many reasons is not being fulfilled at the moment. Anyway in truth this was a game where if parity in numbers had remained we would probably have returned home with the points as Shrewsbury were pretty hopeless to be honest and didn't really look like scoring however a draw was probably a fair result as apart from the penalty I can't recall us having another shot on target. It was a game more memorable for passes that went astray rather than anything else and a game ruled by a referee that was poorer than the two teams.
Bonham 7.5 A very good debut and definitely the best goalkeeping display this season. I wouldn't say he had an enormous amount of work to do but what he did do was help install a bit of confidence in the back four as he showed a willingness to leave his line and take control of things.
Leadbitter 5 Looks very rusty and for me gets caught out too often too far forward which when you have a questionable defence is leaving the central defenders very open. Is he the best right back at the club? I am not convinced but at least he possesses the pace to get back and retrieve situations which he did a couple of times in the first half. The long period out last season appears to have taken its toll and he looks half the player he was. Not sure what he was doing with the goal conceded but found himself dragged to the near left hand post and rocketed a volley just inside that post and high up in the net. it was stunning finishing!!
Martin 5 An OK debut that turned into one minute of madness that saw him get a warning for a poor tackle when he was already on a booking and then make a needless rash tackle to end his game early and really in all honesty cost us two points. It was clear that he was a bit rusty and hadn't played much football this season but I would say he will do a reasonable job and at the very least give us more options.
Lockyer 8 MOM This was for me Tom back to his very best making numerous well timed challenges and marshalling his men well. Should have done better on the far post with a half chance in the first half but overall this was a much improved defensive performance as Shrewsbury ; whilst not being good; do possess some pace on both wings and a couple of big awkward customers up top who assisted by the referee were difficult to get the ball off.
Craig 7.5 Pushed Lockyer for Man of the match with a solid, commanding performance where little went past him. I very much hope that DC hands him the captaincy next week rather than making Ollie Clarke captain as Tony has all the captaincy qualities whilst Ollie is far too quiet and needs to concentrate on his own performance to get consistency to his game.
Rodman 2 Terrible is the only way to describe his performance against his previous employers. he looked slow and hesitant from start to finish and the only real surprise was that he came out the second half! The frustrating thing is that I think we have a really good winger who has the talent and it is for this reason alone that I would persevere with him to play himself into form.
O Clarke 7.5 Ollie appears to be getting back to his form of the season before last and at the moment is carrying the midfield with both Matthews and Upson struggling. Won the penalty and put himself about with a customary booking but there will come a time shortly where we have to choose between him and Upson as we do lack creativity with both of them in the midfield and it has to be said that as a unit we gave the ball away far too often.
Upson 6 An average performance as he struggles to find his form. This is a big problem as at the moment we have half a team injured and half the team struggling to find their form. Upson appears to me to have a lot of quality but is struggling to fit into DCs system and whilst our midfield is capable of dominating possession they are also very prone to giving simple passes away cheaply and not having any real pace to get the ball back.
Matthews 4 Struggled to get into the game and too often lost the ball cheaply and I would say "cheaply" is a key word on our team performances at present as we struggle at times to pass a ball from A to B.
Payne 6.5 Did ok and tried his hardest to lead the line but he had little support and pretty well fought a lone battle similar to what Ellis had to do last season. I fail to understand how, with all the coaches we have there is a complete failure to find a combination of strikers that can work as a team instead of miles apart. Nichols and Payne were seeming to be trying to get as far away from each other as possible which might be Ok to make room for midfielders when we have Sercombe or even Bennett there but yesterday with a very defensive midfield it just didn't work. I put the blame firmly with DC and Marcus as I fail to see just what is done in training when half the team play as if they have never met their colleagues before. Payne scored his second of the season with a penalty which looked like it was almost saved by the keeper but had the pace to go into the net.
Nichols 5 Just an average performance and didn't ever look like ending his long goal drought with little creativity on our part and a formation that appears to be set up to cover our defensive frailities rather than a unit that attacks as well as defends. At present I just can't see how we are ever going to become an attacking threat as Dc does not seem sure if he wants to play just with one up front or whether he wants to create a partnership. Can Reilly or Jacubiak provide the answer? Who knows and we don't seem likely to find out any time quick as we seem to get more and more defensive and inconsistent totally lacking any creativity in the final third.
Broadbent 7 Did well when he came on and made a couple of important blocks
Bennett 7 Livened us up without really creating a final ball but to be fair to him when you are down to ten players it is very difficult to change the game.
Ref 0.5 My only surprise was that he gave us a penalty as gave us nothing whatsoever in the other 89 minutes. No consistency whatsoever with his decision making and I really wonder what we have to do to get the rub of the green from referees. The least you expect is consistency and other than being crap this referee had no consistency whatsoever.
DC - Seems to have a real problem at the moment. I am not in the slightest bit interested in how players are doing in training or measurements of how much effort they have put in during the week. I want to see a team that perform on the day and give the fans something to cheer about. I don't want to hear moans about the budget when probably only two out of the six teams we have played in the league have a bigger budget than us and what is the point anyway of signing players when we can't score goals and two strikers still haven't made a start.
Shrews 5 Looked like a team who had lost most of their players and until we went down to ten players I just couldn't see them scoring. They did at least have a pace factor in their armoury which we seem to lack completely as we look laborious in everything we do.
Crowd 7 Reasonable turn out in the circumstances and pretty noisy and supportive but in truth our game is lacking any real punch at the moment and very much like drinking a flat beer!
So we accept a point as a reasonable result considering again having to play a longish period with ten players and for the first time in probably years we have a better away record than home! Where do we go from here? I would ask what the hell do the players do in training as at the present we look like a team who just haven't played with each other. The passing is lethargic with far too many going straight to the opposition even when the distance involved is only a few yards and there just doesn't seem to be any real pattern to our play
We move on to next Saturday with a "local derby" against Plymouth who are actually below us in the league and I pray will remain so after Saturdays game. We will have Lines back but will lose Lockyer to International duty and I dread to think how DC will cover that and talking about cover he will need to cover our cover for the left back position. The consolation at the moment is that we do have a lot of players who are struggling for form and thankfully or hopefully is only temporary and add to this we have never started well under DC so hopefully things can only get better! UTG.
Bonham 7.5 A very good debut and definitely the best goalkeeping display this season. I wouldn't say he had an enormous amount of work to do but what he did do was help install a bit of confidence in the back four as he showed a willingness to leave his line and take control of things.
Leadbitter 5 Looks very rusty and for me gets caught out too often too far forward which when you have a questionable defence is leaving the central defenders very open. Is he the best right back at the club? I am not convinced but at least he possesses the pace to get back and retrieve situations which he did a couple of times in the first half. The long period out last season appears to have taken its toll and he looks half the player he was. Not sure what he was doing with the goal conceded but found himself dragged to the near left hand post and rocketed a volley just inside that post and high up in the net. it was stunning finishing!!
Martin 5 An OK debut that turned into one minute of madness that saw him get a warning for a poor tackle when he was already on a booking and then make a needless rash tackle to end his game early and really in all honesty cost us two points. It was clear that he was a bit rusty and hadn't played much football this season but I would say he will do a reasonable job and at the very least give us more options.
Lockyer 8 MOM This was for me Tom back to his very best making numerous well timed challenges and marshalling his men well. Should have done better on the far post with a half chance in the first half but overall this was a much improved defensive performance as Shrewsbury ; whilst not being good; do possess some pace on both wings and a couple of big awkward customers up top who assisted by the referee were difficult to get the ball off.
Craig 7.5 Pushed Lockyer for Man of the match with a solid, commanding performance where little went past him. I very much hope that DC hands him the captaincy next week rather than making Ollie Clarke captain as Tony has all the captaincy qualities whilst Ollie is far too quiet and needs to concentrate on his own performance to get consistency to his game.
Rodman 2 Terrible is the only way to describe his performance against his previous employers. he looked slow and hesitant from start to finish and the only real surprise was that he came out the second half! The frustrating thing is that I think we have a really good winger who has the talent and it is for this reason alone that I would persevere with him to play himself into form.
O Clarke 7.5 Ollie appears to be getting back to his form of the season before last and at the moment is carrying the midfield with both Matthews and Upson struggling. Won the penalty and put himself about with a customary booking but there will come a time shortly where we have to choose between him and Upson as we do lack creativity with both of them in the midfield and it has to be said that as a unit we gave the ball away far too often.
Upson 6 An average performance as he struggles to find his form. This is a big problem as at the moment we have half a team injured and half the team struggling to find their form. Upson appears to me to have a lot of quality but is struggling to fit into DCs system and whilst our midfield is capable of dominating possession they are also very prone to giving simple passes away cheaply and not having any real pace to get the ball back.
Matthews 4 Struggled to get into the game and too often lost the ball cheaply and I would say "cheaply" is a key word on our team performances at present as we struggle at times to pass a ball from A to B.
Payne 6.5 Did ok and tried his hardest to lead the line but he had little support and pretty well fought a lone battle similar to what Ellis had to do last season. I fail to understand how, with all the coaches we have there is a complete failure to find a combination of strikers that can work as a team instead of miles apart. Nichols and Payne were seeming to be trying to get as far away from each other as possible which might be Ok to make room for midfielders when we have Sercombe or even Bennett there but yesterday with a very defensive midfield it just didn't work. I put the blame firmly with DC and Marcus as I fail to see just what is done in training when half the team play as if they have never met their colleagues before. Payne scored his second of the season with a penalty which looked like it was almost saved by the keeper but had the pace to go into the net.
Nichols 5 Just an average performance and didn't ever look like ending his long goal drought with little creativity on our part and a formation that appears to be set up to cover our defensive frailities rather than a unit that attacks as well as defends. At present I just can't see how we are ever going to become an attacking threat as Dc does not seem sure if he wants to play just with one up front or whether he wants to create a partnership. Can Reilly or Jacubiak provide the answer? Who knows and we don't seem likely to find out any time quick as we seem to get more and more defensive and inconsistent totally lacking any creativity in the final third.
Broadbent 7 Did well when he came on and made a couple of important blocks
Bennett 7 Livened us up without really creating a final ball but to be fair to him when you are down to ten players it is very difficult to change the game.
Ref 0.5 My only surprise was that he gave us a penalty as gave us nothing whatsoever in the other 89 minutes. No consistency whatsoever with his decision making and I really wonder what we have to do to get the rub of the green from referees. The least you expect is consistency and other than being crap this referee had no consistency whatsoever.
DC - Seems to have a real problem at the moment. I am not in the slightest bit interested in how players are doing in training or measurements of how much effort they have put in during the week. I want to see a team that perform on the day and give the fans something to cheer about. I don't want to hear moans about the budget when probably only two out of the six teams we have played in the league have a bigger budget than us and what is the point anyway of signing players when we can't score goals and two strikers still haven't made a start.
Shrews 5 Looked like a team who had lost most of their players and until we went down to ten players I just couldn't see them scoring. They did at least have a pace factor in their armoury which we seem to lack completely as we look laborious in everything we do.
Crowd 7 Reasonable turn out in the circumstances and pretty noisy and supportive but in truth our game is lacking any real punch at the moment and very much like drinking a flat beer!
So we accept a point as a reasonable result considering again having to play a longish period with ten players and for the first time in probably years we have a better away record than home! Where do we go from here? I would ask what the hell do the players do in training as at the present we look like a team who just haven't played with each other. The passing is lethargic with far too many going straight to the opposition even when the distance involved is only a few yards and there just doesn't seem to be any real pattern to our play
We move on to next Saturday with a "local derby" against Plymouth who are actually below us in the league and I pray will remain so after Saturdays game. We will have Lines back but will lose Lockyer to International duty and I dread to think how DC will cover that and talking about cover he will need to cover our cover for the left back position. The consolation at the moment is that we do have a lot of players who are struggling for form and thankfully or hopefully is only temporary and add to this we have never started well under DC so hopefully things can only get better! UTG.
