Recent Posts

Reading about this refurb job makes me a bit sad. I can't get excited about it. Can go to some games and there is next to nobody really sat in the south stand.

Is there anybody on here that doesn't already sit in the south stand going to be moving into the new one?

my son is 14, I got him a under 16 last year and wanted to do it again this year

I thought we were well on course for a comfortable win until the enforced break seemed to kill our momentum. We had some decent chances, scored a very good goal and in the main looked comfortable.

Our right hand side was on fire for that first half and here’s something that me and the lads I go with have been moaning about for months on end that joey does with tactics….. When we insist on playing keep ball across the back, (usually when Coutts or Finley play), they just drop deep and join in with the centre halves and slow everything down, meanwhile we have the fullbacks or wingbacks pushing high up the pitch. So high in fact that they end up standing next to their winger or fullback so that when they eventually get the ball they have nowhere to go, except backwards again. They have no space in front of them, no chance to play 1-2s or exploit space behind because of the tactics. This has happened time and again with whoever has played that position, whether it be hoole, gordon, Sinclair, gibbons, Clarke or Anderson and they just haven’t been able to be effective going forwards and I think it’s stifled us. However this last few games we’ve not played like and that I think that’s allowed us more freedom out wide, it’s allowed the fullbacks room to play and as a result we’ve certainly seen that get the best out of gibbons for example and even seen gordon get beyond their fullbacks more too. Joeys obsession with slow and boring side to side keep ball was killing those players out wide and I think it was all in the hope we could find some space with keep ball for the front 3 to work some magic. Unfortunately results haven’t followed, but we have to settle on that back 4 and try and build again. I’m also convinced our weakest link is Connolly, I think he’s had a poor season and when I look back at the games we had a good spell when he was out of the team and we were playing a back 4 of gibbons, Thomas, Gibson and Gordon. Until the derby game when JB ripped it all up and started to tinker too much. For me I’d be replacing him with Gibson as soon as he’s fit. I watched yesterdays goals back this morning and I think the second goal could have been avoided had Connolly been covering around. Quansah gets caught under the ball, Gibbons has to leave his man and it looks like he slips as he goes in. But Connolly was marking no one and was too far to the left for me.

The subs made us too disjointed. Anderson was ineffective as full back, he’s better in front of a full back I think. Coutts came on and slowed us down again too, having said that Bogarde was having little effect on the game as it wore on. Balcombe single handedly (pardon the pun) managed to breed uncertainty and change the atmosphere against him. Also going long ball second half didn’t suit us, we stopped doing what we were doing well for that first half an hour when we were getting around them.

We were standing on the west terrace yesterday and were convinced there was an offside on their second, the player that headed it looked a couple of yards offside. If so it’s yet another poor officiating decision.

Maybe the way forward is to play more like we did v Ipswich? Play as a more defensive unit to make us stronger? There’s still some positives to take out of things I think. Tweak it and build it around Gibbons, Quansah, Gordon, ward, Sinclair, collins, Ipswich performance evans, Bogarde and Ipswich performance Anderson.

I'd play the same team and set up exactly how we did against Ipswich.

The most important thing given our recent run is to get the first goal. If we have to wait until the 92nd minute like Pompey did on Tuesday night, so be it.

The system we played on Tuesday worked. Everyone seemed to know their job and understood what was expected. Everyone put in a 7 or 8/10 performance.

It might not be how we want to play long term but to stop the rot and grind out some results to ensure we're in L1 next season, I think it's the way to go.

It might mean we end up drawing 0-0, but that wouldn't be a disaster. At least Burton don't pick up 3 points.

We've just go to get to 50-54 points by any means necessary.

If we're on top, hopefully Sinclair and Anderson can play a bit higher up and support Collins. If we're on the back foot that can drop a bit deeper.

We can always go more attacking later in the game if necessary.

As someone pointed out above, prior to conceding a last minute winner at Portsmouth on Tuesday, Burton had won 3 on the spin, so they're in good form and shouldn't be underestimated.

Strangely the one game we seem to get our sh** together defensively Collins (and also coburn when he came on) looked our worse player. I’m not too sure Collins is good enough for championship personally when you compare him with previous strikers lambert, Hayles, Stewart, Roberts etc he seems way off

Couldn't make the game but were there any positives from the game? Was the performance an improvement?

Looking at things more positively, going away to Lincoln and playing more than half the game with 10 men a 1-0 defeat doesn't sound too bad.

As for Ipswich it's a hit for nothing. There should be no pressure on the players for this.

Glad he’s getting football and doing well. I don’t think Barton would have played him much, not his kind of player.