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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms 18:48 - Aug 10 with 1722 viewsLankHenners

Frustrating to come away feeling like Town threw that away somewhat, but perhaps it's more pertinent because it showed us that we are our own worst enemy and that the reasons we went down last year are still lingering in the background which leaves one feeling a tad uncomfortable.

Far from doom and gloom though, we played well in the first half, never fully in control but comfortable with some great individual performances from Skuse and Downes in particular. Having those two keep things steady with calm passing, solid tackles, winning 50/50s, neat interceptions etc. to allow the other 4 attacking players to go at it will see us do alright for now at least if we keep up the 442.

Still we struggle to really create many good clear chances with decision making either a little hesitant or rushed with no-one able to find the sweet spot in the middle. Norwood was unlucky with the ball not quite falling right or Sunderland putting a good block in whilst Garbutt had too much time to think with our best chance from their error.

I hope Jackson was genuinely fouled for his booking otherwise he wasted a perfectly good opportunity to shoot, not that it affected the game hugely, and Garbutt did well to make the most of some limp leg waving to finish (whether he meant it to find the corner or Jackson mattereth not).

Lambert got the subs all wrong today and the first one was a bigger error than most could have anticipated when Alan Judge, pretty much unanimously agreed to be in the upper echelons of the division in terms of ability, came on for Garbutt. If we can't put him in behind the striker with every other position filled and balanced then he shouldn't be in the team. Obviously rusty, he drifts inside too much, clogging up the space and isn't sharp enough to pick out the right pass. As much as he's not really up to much, Roberts would have been a better like-for-like switch to keep that energy and tenacity on the left side if nothing else.

The second half was neither team's game but we were at least looking relatively comfortable and Sunderland looking like they could play all weekend and not score. The error from Chambers was woeful from a man who had played well and knows better than to try and let a slowing ball trickle out when under pressure. Everyone gets caught out and it's an absolute gift.

Goals change games and all that but the worrying part for me was the reaction to it. Heads dropped, players looked de-energised and a little bit of belief was being lost by us and gained by Sunderland, who, whilst still looking pretty poor, started to wake up.

Dozzell seemed like the wrong choice if he was coming on in a proper position, let alone stuck out on the right. Since Judge had come on, and particularly after the equaliser, we looked misshapen and awkward, Norwood, Jackson and Judge playing sort of up front and everyone else sort of behind but with no cohesion. Bringing Roberts on too late to do anything was a waste as well.

Holy had little to do although his handling was a bit suspect, although being very generous the wind could have had an impact there. His kicks, wind assisted or not, will be an asset, even if they only mean the play gets shunted all the way into the opposition final third.

Donacien was so-so - solid enough though looked like he was particularly spooked by the equaliser, looking a bit more wobbly afterwards. Needs to attack with more conviction. Kenlock looks like a League 1 full back - was getting away with things he wouldn't have done against better opposition last season. Didn't see enough from him going forwards today either. Chambers was having a good game up to the horror mistake which is a shame for all involved, whilst Woolfenden looked a player - misjudged a couple of long balls but some assured big chests and passes with a few good recovery challenges when needed.

Garbutt looks better than I thought he'd be - good energy, confident, looks a well-balanced LM so a shame to see him leave injured which rather exposed our lack of depth there. Rowe quietly had a good game, one Mick McCarthy would have enjoyed but he didn't quite get it right when he had the chance to create something. Skuse and Downes had great games, other than the obvious numerical difference you wouldn't have thought they were up against more players in midfield. Downes probably pips his senior partner to MOTM but a special shout out to Skuse for the sublime outside of the foot pass to Norwood in the second who should have done better (although was put off by Jackson trying to challenge for the same ball).

Jackson really put himself about well for most of the game though isn't the best in the air and is someone who really needs to sort that decision making out, especially as his pace means he's often the one who picks up a pass in time and space to do something useful with it. Norwood is brilliant off the ball and it was a case of not quite for him with it today - he's clearly trying just a bit too hard as he snatched at a few things that a player with a few goals under his belt wouldn't have done.

4 from 6 isn't all that bad in reality but difficult not to inspect the negatives after that because for all the positives, and there certainly were some on display, it'll be those things that stop us really pushing on to where we want to be, and no amount of 'well we played well before that' is going to change anything.

Lots of comments afterwards along the lines of 'if that's the best League 1 has to offer we'll be fine', but I rather fear Sunderland aren't that, and they missed their chance to get promoted when it was there for them to grab hold of last time around. We need to make sure we don't do the same.

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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 19:05 - Aug 10 with 1634 viewsDarth_Koont

Good post.Agree with almost all of that.

FWIW I don't think we had any real claims for a penalty today. Jackson was shouldered off the ball pretty firmly but fairly so I think a yellow card for diving was also very harsh.

All in all, I think we're still a work in progress with injuries as well as self-belief hangover from last season to work through before we're at our best. On that score 4 points from 6 is perfectly acceptable.

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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 19:16 - Aug 10 with 1591 viewsDublinBlue84

Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 19:05 - Aug 10 by Darth_Koont

Good post.Agree with almost all of that.

FWIW I don't think we had any real claims for a penalty today. Jackson was shouldered off the ball pretty firmly but fairly so I think a yellow card for diving was also very harsh.

All in all, I think we're still a work in progress with injuries as well as self-belief hangover from last season to work through before we're at our best. On that score 4 points from 6 is perfectly acceptable.


Happened right in front of me practically, never a penalty but never a yellow either, he went down very easily but he was touched so it's never a yellow.

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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 19:18 - Aug 10 with 1579 viewsMullet

Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 19:16 - Aug 10 by DublinBlue84

Happened right in front of me practically, never a penalty but never a yellow either, he went down very easily but he was touched so it's never a yellow.


The bloke shoved him in the back.

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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 20:01 - Aug 10 with 1431 viewsLankHenners

Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 19:05 - Aug 10 by Darth_Koont

Good post.Agree with almost all of that.

FWIW I don't think we had any real claims for a penalty today. Jackson was shouldered off the ball pretty firmly but fairly so I think a yellow card for diving was also very harsh.

All in all, I think we're still a work in progress with injuries as well as self-belief hangover from last season to work through before we're at our best. On that score 4 points from 6 is perfectly acceptable.


I wasn’t really at the right angle to see the contact properly but either way agree it was a harsh yellow.

On the ref, I’m not sure he or the linesmen made a decision in confidence all game - they seemed to guess at absolutely everything with no consistency as to what constituted a foul and any right decision seemed to be by chance more than anything else. Probably par for the course in League 1.

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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 20:18 - Aug 10 with 1373 viewsSteve_M

Yeah, agree with that. Judge was disappointing, not just positionally but his use of the ball was poor, he tended to make the right decisions but execute them poorly so hopefully that will come.

The goal we conceded was straight out of last season, just such a poor error where there should have been little danger. At least we didn't compound it by losing which looked more likely than us getting a second at that point.

Above all though, we look like a team that has forgotten how to win. There was some of that last week but it was really obvious in today's second half. Hopefully that'll come soon as well.

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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 20:29 - Aug 10 with 1318 viewsLankHenners

Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 20:18 - Aug 10 by Steve_M

Yeah, agree with that. Judge was disappointing, not just positionally but his use of the ball was poor, he tended to make the right decisions but execute them poorly so hopefully that will come.

The goal we conceded was straight out of last season, just such a poor error where there should have been little danger. At least we didn't compound it by losing which looked more likely than us getting a second at that point.

Above all though, we look like a team that has forgotten how to win. There was some of that last week but it was really obvious in today's second half. Hopefully that'll come soon as well.


Yes, conceding from situations where it looks unlikely is not a good habit to have and something we need to kick. We’re a team that’s been losing for 18 months so it’s not going to happen overnight but we need to build that confidence up or we’ll find this season very frustrating.

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Thoughts on today - bright for the future but a cloud still looms on 21:06 - Aug 10 with 1229 viewsolimar

Agree with all of that. The point about "if Sunderland are the best the division has to offer" was going through my mind in the first half, because if we can put them away with relative ease, then maybe the general quality of our individuals might be high enough to see us through regardless of the bits that arent quite functioning.
However, there is a possibility that Sunderland may turn out to be not all that good anyway, and the bigger point is that, by the end of the game, we hadnt actually put them away with relative ease, but had let the game slip through a combination of the core issues which plagued us last year.
It is possible that we simply believe we are better because we pass it around competently and confidently, dont particularly create too much, score an average amount of goals, dont kill off games and continue to make mistakes at the back to let the opposition in. With the end result that we ultimately are just as good/bad as any of the others.

I wasnt quite so positive about Norwood. Its no criticism of his performance generally, because he worked incredibly hard, closed down brilliantly, laid the ball off well and made some good runs to find space. All of that is good stuff, but fundamentally, as the season progresses, we just need his goals above anything else- we didnt work too many opportunities for him and, when we did, he snatched at the chances. The shot straight at the keeper when it opened up on the edge of the box in the 2nd half was a shame and he was frustrated too.
It will be no criticism of him as a player at all, but we need the goals, more than the closing down, laying the ball off, getting involved in the approach play.

I thought Jackson looked much more comfortable again in a front two. He seems to know his role, knows the channels to run and basically gets involved in the game so much more and positively too. Like Norwood, he was a bit of a handful for them and, as a pair, there is a bit of promise about them.

Yet, again, it needs goals from one or other or, ideally, both of them. If one of them scores 15-20 goals and the other gets 8-10 doing the kind of stuff they are doing now, then that will be great. But someones has to be the one getting that 15-20. If it isnt appearing the case in the next 5-6 games, then PL will be starting to look around at other options and.... we dont really have any.

Judge was dreadful, not sure if that was about the wind, the position he played, his fitness, but would agree it was a bad choice to bring him on. It probably seemed the only choice, given the quality of options on the bench, but in that case it may have been better to just switch the formation as we did last weekend.

Rowe looks to be a player with a confidence about what hes doing, I think he could be an asset this year, but hes going to need to nail it down in the next couple of weeks before Edwards is back. If he can play on the left (or Edwards is, finally, given that option) then we may have a better option than sticking Judge out there.

I was surprised not to see Huws at the end, partly because it perhaps needed a player of his quality to make a bit of sense of it all, but also because of the galvanising effect it would have had on the crowd and the player himself.

All in all, we looked like we lacked a plan B, either to deal with the injury to Garbutt (and I suspect it might be a few weeks for him, which looks to be a blow which is bigger than I might have imagined a couple of weeks ago), or to kill the game off when in front. I think thats a bigger issue than the defensive mistakes- there will always be mistakes there, Chambers will continue to make them, so will Woolfenden (but the former will get absolutely pilloried for all of his), but we need to do it at the other end or in front of them, first and foremost. Once we are doing that, it will take the pressure off the defence and allow them to be able to function without the knowledge that one slip is going to cost us points because the rest of the team cant offer them any leeway. That will be a big help. And the keeper is going to be throwing in a few aswell, Im pretty sure, so its a necessity really.
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