| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? 10:56 - Feb 12 with 1814 views | unstableblue |
(Courtesy of knappers)
Bolton 19 âï¸
Shrewsbury 18 🔥
Derby 15 ðŸ
Wednesday 13 🦉
Wycombe 12 ðŸ‘ðŸ¼
Charlton 12 🔴
Plymouth 11 🟢
Morecambe 10 ðŸ¦
Barnsley 10 ðŸ‘ðŸ»
Burton 9 🟡
Lincoln 9 😎
Peterborough 9 😅
MK Dons 7 ⚪ï¸
Exeter 7 âž–
Oxford 7 🟡
Pompey 7 🔵
Ipswich 7 🚜
Fleetwood 6 ðŸŸ
Bristol Rovers 6 ⛽ï¸
Port Vale 5 🙃
Accrington 5 🔴
Cheltenham 2 âž–
Forest Green 2 🟢
Cambridge 2 🟡
That’s why our excellent 2022 form that saw us top and in top two… is becoming a distant memory for many it seems
What have been the games:
D 1-1 Lincoln, didn’t fully turn up, but had enough chances to win it, Lincoln don’t lose at home
(W 4-1 Rotherham FA cup, superb displays)
D 1-1 Plymouth - Humdinger of a battle, went ahead deservedly, switched off in final minutes, deflected away goal
D 1-2 Oxford - poor first half showing; but game should have been called off for fog
W 4-0 Morecambe - masterclass from Town, blew them away first half, job done
(D 0-0 Burnley - gave run away championship leaders a real battle and test)
D 1-1 Cambridge - terrible and unacceptable first half display, but enough chances to win in second
(L 1-2 Burnley - great pressing display, rightful plaudits from Kompany and Burnley fans)
D 1-1 Sheff Weds - gave a strong, confident and incredibly in form Weds a boost by missing pen, got completely overwhelmed, but a great fight back and strong second half display has them on the ropes
P6 W1 D4 L1
We’re now 8 points off Plymouth and 6 off Weds (who have a game in hand). Automatics gone unless we go and win the next 4 on the bounce, 4 cup finals.
Lincoln, Oxford, Cambridge are where it’s going wrong. Sheff Weds play like we did in those games, and yet still grind a win. We need better and more consistent finishers in my mind. Weds have those in abundance. They take the chances when they come. Hopefully we have improved this with Broadhead.
That Exeter away game was such a strong away display, that we haven’t continued, the team:
Town: Walton, Donacien, Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns, Humphreys, Morsy (c), Davis (Vincent-Young 74), Chaplin (Edwards 64), Harness, Ladapo. Subs: Hladky, Edmundson, Camara, Ahadme, Jackson.
Critically Harness turned up for that game. Do feel the patchy nature of he and Chaplin’s displays is a root cause.
Let’s go and smash Bristol Rovers
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 10:59 - Feb 12 with 1748 views | bobbyramsey |
Where's it gone wrong?
Where do you start, so much has gone wrong.
Those stats look horrible don't they? [Post edited 12 Feb 2023 11:01]
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:05 - Feb 12 with 1681 views | FrimleyBlue |
it's followed 2 further months of bad results. |  |
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:15 - Feb 12 with 1641 views | pointofblue |
People understandably argue Charlton killed our momentum; should Exeter have helped us regain it? The trouble is, it was followed by two cup games against Portsmouth and Buxton, where I assume most of us thought rotation was more than acceptable.
When we returned to league action, against Fleetwood, we made one change from the side which defeated Exeter - Edwards for Harness, who I think picked up an injury against Portsmouth. For the most part we dominated but conceded a late deflected equaliser. Instead a building momentum, we stalled. It almost killed us as much as the Charlton comeback did. |  |
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:24 - Feb 12 with 1614 views | unstableblue |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 10:59 - Feb 12 by bobbyramsey |
Where's it gone wrong?
Where do you start, so much has gone wrong.
Those stats look horrible don't they? [Post edited 12 Feb 2023 11:01]
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“So much has gone wrong, where did you start?”
I look at this season a bit more positively perhaps. And I don’t think that much has gone wrong!
But for me it all went wrong in 3 games, in 3 displays
Lincoln, Oxford and Cambridge
We’d be 7 points better off and in the top two.
At Lincoln the players didn’t fire, simples, but we still should have won with chances in both halves
Oxford did us tactically initially, but players didn’t turn up fully again, and the fog made it a lottery
Cambridge, players didn’t turn up, end of, but the three chances second half were enough to win it
But in 2023… we’ve added 3 really promising players in Hirst, Broadhead and Clarke (yes the latter had poor moments yesterday, but he’s going to be good). We’ve seen Humphreys further progress. We spanked Morecambe in a wunder display (don’t forget Boxing Day and Oxford as well), the crowds continue to flock back and enjoy the games.
Player performance and being clinical - is that the managers fault, in part. But he’s a rookie. And for me we’re still doing well. And this season has so much more to offer.
Let’s just finish really strong | |
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:34 - Feb 12 with 1576 views | Sharkey |
I wonder what odds you could have got on New Year's eve on Shrewsbury winning six on the bounce . Not the toughest fixtures, but still quite some achievement by Cotterill and his staff.. |  | | |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:34 - Feb 12 with 1571 views | unstableblue |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:15 - Feb 12 by pointofblue |
People understandably argue Charlton killed our momentum; should Exeter have helped us regain it? The trouble is, it was followed by two cup games against Portsmouth and Buxton, where I assume most of us thought rotation was more than acceptable.
When we returned to league action, against Fleetwood, we made one change from the side which defeated Exeter - Edwards for Harness, who I think picked up an injury against Portsmouth. For the most part we dominated but conceded a late deflected equaliser. Instead a building momentum, we stalled. It almost killed us as much as the Charlton comeback did. |
Yeah I agree… I think your point about team change not being significant between the league games is key, and a myth buster
Seasons and fortunes always need a bit of luck to build momentum and confidence… as well as good quality players who are well coached.
We’ve yet to have the luck, it will come.
Charlton the players got sucked into the frenzied excitement of the best away crowd in seasons.. and forgot to the see the game out.. they were at the final whistle… our confidence should have built
Exeter was superb.
Fleetwood was just incredibly unlucky… two deflection like that! Fleetwood didn’t roll over in that game… but we should have got a second
But the season isn’t over … let’s build momentum and fully embed the new team… and get consistent
The Evans injury is a problem | |
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:35 - Feb 12 with 1565 views | pointofblue |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:24 - Feb 12 by unstableblue |
“So much has gone wrong, where did you start?”
I look at this season a bit more positively perhaps. And I don’t think that much has gone wrong!
But for me it all went wrong in 3 games, in 3 displays
Lincoln, Oxford and Cambridge
We’d be 7 points better off and in the top two.
At Lincoln the players didn’t fire, simples, but we still should have won with chances in both halves
Oxford did us tactically initially, but players didn’t turn up fully again, and the fog made it a lottery
Cambridge, players didn’t turn up, end of, but the three chances second half were enough to win it
But in 2023… we’ve added 3 really promising players in Hirst, Broadhead and Clarke (yes the latter had poor moments yesterday, but he’s going to be good). We’ve seen Humphreys further progress. We spanked Morecambe in a wunder display (don’t forget Boxing Day and Oxford as well), the crowds continue to flock back and enjoy the games.
Player performance and being clinical - is that the managers fault, in part. But he’s a rookie. And for me we’re still doing well. And this season has so much more to offer.
Let’s just finish really strong |
The worrying thing about Cambridge and yesterday is a reoccurrence of the same theme - a poor to shambolic first half. The promising thing is we managed to sort ourselves out for the second, but we cannot keep giving teams a 45 minute headstart. | |
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:55 - Feb 12 with 1466 views | TalkingBlues |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:24 - Feb 12 by unstableblue |
“So much has gone wrong, where did you start?”
I look at this season a bit more positively perhaps. And I don’t think that much has gone wrong!
But for me it all went wrong in 3 games, in 3 displays
Lincoln, Oxford and Cambridge
We’d be 7 points better off and in the top two.
At Lincoln the players didn’t fire, simples, but we still should have won with chances in both halves
Oxford did us tactically initially, but players didn’t turn up fully again, and the fog made it a lottery
Cambridge, players didn’t turn up, end of, but the three chances second half were enough to win it
But in 2023… we’ve added 3 really promising players in Hirst, Broadhead and Clarke (yes the latter had poor moments yesterday, but he’s going to be good). We’ve seen Humphreys further progress. We spanked Morecambe in a wunder display (don’t forget Boxing Day and Oxford as well), the crowds continue to flock back and enjoy the games.
Player performance and being clinical - is that the managers fault, in part. But he’s a rookie. And for me we’re still doing well. And this season has so much more to offer.
Let’s just finish really strong |
The startling thing for me, is that one of the major upsides of the system we have enshrined, is that players are meant to be freely swappable (using the metrics based recruitment we employ) without any loss in performance levels, yet that is exactly the opposite of what we've seen on the pitch. The manager is clearly scratching his head and can't seem to pinpoint the best XI, or squad for that matter.
We still play Broadhead out of position, impeding his natural front foot game (he's a 9, not inside forward) and the same with Hirst, who is asked to be a hold up man, against his natural instinct to play behind the defence. The defence is another matter entirely, looked very comfortable for the first part of the season in a 3 CB formation, but then extremely fallible for the last 15. IMO, we have to play 4 at the back with Leigh on the left side of defence (who is far superior to Davis in every aspect other than attacking) with Davis further up (as he normally plays) I can't believe Leigh is not a starter in that position every week, he's shown more than enough, mental decision by McK and JD should be starting on the right side, 2 no-brainers for me. Clarke should be competing with Burns for that right mid spot. |  |
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| Whooooa on 12:15 - Feb 12 with 1407 views | unstableblue |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:05 - Feb 12 by FrimleyBlue |
it's followed 2 further months of bad results. |
“2 months of bad results” you say.. do you mean mixed results?
Take December? Fluky draw to a double deflected Fleetwood equaliser after dominating
Great Peterborough win.
Terrible first half at diabolical Wycombe, gifted goal, missed chances
Best performance of season against an inform Oxford
Weak start against Pompey but spirited fight back
It’s not bad, it’s not good enough… but it included performance of the season. Take out Oxford game and I’d agree.
2 Dec 19:45 Fleetwood Town H 1 - 1 22801 7 Davis
10 Dec 12:30 Peterborough United H 2 - 1 24849 3 Chaplin
17 Dec 15:00 Wycombe Wanderers A 0 - 1 7602 7 Morsy
26 Dec 15:00 Oxford United H 3 - 0 28072 7 Evans
29 Dec 19:45 Portsmouth A 2 - 2 18849 6 Morsy | |
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 12:18 - Feb 12 with 1373 views | Pendejo |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 11:15 - Feb 12 by pointofblue |
People understandably argue Charlton killed our momentum; should Exeter have helped us regain it? The trouble is, it was followed by two cup games against Portsmouth and Buxton, where I assume most of us thought rotation was more than acceptable.
When we returned to league action, against Fleetwood, we made one change from the side which defeated Exeter - Edwards for Harness, who I think picked up an injury against Portsmouth. For the most part we dominated but conceded a late deflected equaliser. Instead a building momentum, we stalled. It almost killed us as much as the Charlton comeback did. |
If Charlton was a corner turned, and I would agree with that assessment, then surely coming back from 2 down against the Wendies is the next corner turned, potentially.
If they, the players, want automatic promotion then they gotta earn it, not for us necessarily but for themselves; individually and collectively.
I have been going to games for 46 years; spoilt by the Robson era, from missing a handful of games a season to attending a handful. When not at a game I "can't" do iFollow, nor can I scroll the scores on BBC, ESPN or whatever (a more recent thing), I don't read football reports, other than Phil's (though not always, sorry).
What I do happen to do is look at the stats, partly because much of my work has had a stats bias, and what I keep seeing is more shots than the opposition, we are the division's top scorers, yet I read about our profligacy in front of goal... Top scorers!
Goals against? Same as top of table Plymouth, but they shipped 5 of those in an early hammering at Charlton as are less costly than;
Charlton's 4th
Wendy's off side equaliser
Fleetwood's late equaliser
Plymouth's late equaliser
Disallowed goal to put us 3-2 up v Barnsley
10 points.
Now is not the time for seasonal post mortem (despite above), now is about giving them strong, positive, vocal backing.
I was at Old Trafford in March 1995 after the game we out sing Manure fans all the way back to the city centre.
No idea what atmosphere was like yesterday, but there are games where the fans are palpably nervous which transmits.
Time for some feck it lets make a noise!
If you got this far, see you at MKD! |  |
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| Whooooa on 12:28 - Feb 12 with 1312 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Whooooa on 12:15 - Feb 12 by unstableblue |
“2 months of bad results” you say.. do you mean mixed results?
Take December? Fluky draw to a double deflected Fleetwood equaliser after dominating
Great Peterborough win.
Terrible first half at diabolical Wycombe, gifted goal, missed chances
Best performance of season against an inform Oxford
Weak start against Pompey but spirited fight back
It’s not bad, it’s not good enough… but it included performance of the season. Take out Oxford game and I’d agree.
2 Dec 19:45 Fleetwood Town H 1 - 1 22801 7 Davis
10 Dec 12:30 Peterborough United H 2 - 1 24849 3 Chaplin
17 Dec 15:00 Wycombe Wanderers A 0 - 1 7602 7 Morsy
26 Dec 15:00 Oxford United H 3 - 0 28072 7 Evans
29 Dec 19:45 Portsmouth A 2 - 2 18849 6 Morsy |
As someone pointed out on here yesterday, we are outside of the playoffs in a table based on the last 23(!) games:
https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:league-one/form/matches:23/type
I still think we’ll get things and pick back up (actually think Broadheads FK yesterday was a season changer and we’ll pickup momentum from here) but we really need to stop pretending that it’s just individual bad results, bad luck or (insert other excuse). Reality is that results have been mixed and ultimately not good enough for some time, and if we don’t pick up a decent haul over the next few games then we could enter April looking over our shoulders just to hold onto a playoff place |  |
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| Whooooa on 13:32 - Feb 12 with 1146 views | pointofblue |
| Whooooa on 12:28 - Feb 12 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
As someone pointed out on here yesterday, we are outside of the playoffs in a table based on the last 23(!) games:
https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:league-one/form/matches:23/type
I still think we’ll get things and pick back up (actually think Broadheads FK yesterday was a season changer and we’ll pickup momentum from here) but we really need to stop pretending that it’s just individual bad results, bad luck or (insert other excuse). Reality is that results have been mixed and ultimately not good enough for some time, and if we don’t pick up a decent haul over the next few games then we could enter April looking over our shoulders just to hold onto a playoff place |
Interestingly, Wednesday’s last minute equaliser against us has seen them go on a run of thirteen wins, six draws and just one defeat, after starting the season dropping eight points from eight games. It sparked an excellent run of firm so let’s hope yesterday does the same for us. | |
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| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 14:06 - Feb 12 with 1038 views | OldFart71 |
Where has it all gone wrong ? Simple. Can't score enough, can't defend. Defensively we are far too lax. Players, not just Wolfenden, switching off at vital moments. Until we have a combination like a Beattie & Hunter, Mowbray and Venus or even a Chambers and Berra or even Butcher and Osman we will continue to fail. McKenna brought Wolfenden back from the brink of leaving, maybe it would have been best if he had. That's not to say the other three centre backs have been faultless and neither have the fullbacks. Maybe having too many players is as bad as not having enough. Trying to keep them all happy by rotating. They may be all of similar ability but their traits are possibly different and when one is subbed for another quite often momentum is lost. Freddie Ladapo should in my opinion start as he is far more effective than bringing on as a sub. | | | |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 14:40 - Feb 12 with 917 views | HighgateBlue |
| League One points in 2023 thus far where’s it gone wrong? on 14:06 - Feb 12 by OldFart71 |
Where has it all gone wrong ? Simple. Can't score enough, can't defend. Defensively we are far too lax. Players, not just Wolfenden, switching off at vital moments. Until we have a combination like a Beattie & Hunter, Mowbray and Venus or even a Chambers and Berra or even Butcher and Osman we will continue to fail. McKenna brought Wolfenden back from the brink of leaving, maybe it would have been best if he had. That's not to say the other three centre backs have been faultless and neither have the fullbacks. Maybe having too many players is as bad as not having enough. Trying to keep them all happy by rotating. They may be all of similar ability but their traits are possibly different and when one is subbed for another quite often momentum is lost. Freddie Ladapo should in my opinion start as he is far more effective than bringing on as a sub. |
I wonder if McKenna would even pick a combination like some of those - the need to be able to play the ball out prettily from the back seems to trump all other considerations. It seems to be hard to make that work in League One unless you're clinical. We have been the opposite of clinical sadly.
I'm not convinced we've upgraded Ladapo in the transfer window either. Our results appear to indicate that we haven't upgraded the team at all, despite spending yet more money. I do appreciate that on the eye Clarke and Broadhead have had positive contributions, but we're certainly no better overall.
I feel for the likes of Aluko, who is so so talented, but clearly isn't going to get many starts in the league with our ever-growing squad.
If we go up through the playoffs, which we very well may, all will be forgiven, and we'll doubtless do at least OK in the championship. |  | | |
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