If We Want Promotion..

[Lew-T]

Then we really need to defend better as a team, the goals we conceded were so poor. And we nearly conceded straight after their first one from our mistake in midfield!

I thought both our wing backs were poor tonight and the weak link in the team if I'm honest, the guy on the right had so much room and Bryan was left caught on a few occasions.

This is only constructive criticism, I understand we're still unbeaten but in the long run if we want to win the league and even compete at the next level, we need to sharpen up when defending now whilst we have time to.

Apart from that, we go another point clear and have beaten our record. You Reds!

[One BCFC]

At times we lack concentration and that comes down to inexperience at the back sometimes.

However, tonight it wouldnt quite fall for us and we never beat Bradford so onto Barnsley now I say.

[Aaron-Bcfc]

In my opinion at 2-1 Ayling should have been swapped for Osbourne purely to add some height in the box, as the only way they were going to score was through a set piece. Agree that wing backs were poor tonight, Bryan had an off day and Little struggles a bit when like tonight he comes up against a full back with as much pace and power as him

[OldlandReddies]

Really think you guys are going well over the top. Tonight was a good point against a strong Physical side who will take plenty of points off the top sides this season.They have the 3rd best record away from home this season and you can see why. Last season they would have won at Ashton Gate. This season we are made of sterner stuff. Embrace it. COYR's !!!!!!

[pongo88]

If we want promotion - strengthen the team in January. Good mangers are a bit ruthless and replace good players with someone who is even better. Fourteen games unbeaten is fantastic but in addition to promotion this season the club should be looking to the future in the Championship.

[screech]

In my opinion at 2-1 Ayling should have been swapped for Osbourne purely to add some height in the box, as the only way they were going to score was through a set piece. Agree that wing backs were poor tonight, Bryan had an off day and Little struggles a bit when like tonight he comes up against a full back with as much pace and power as him

 

Osbourne was called just before they scored their goal.

[WTFiGO!?!]

If we want promotion - strengthen the team in January. Good mangers are a bit ruthless and replace good players with someone who is even better. Fourteen games unbeaten is fantastic but in addition to promotion this season the club should be looking to the future in the Championship.

I don't think ruthlessness is a necessity. Osborne said something along the lines of him being glad the team were doing well - the cynic in me would also be glad to be payed a four-figured weekly wage to sit on the bench, and the team do well - but that's beside the point. The over-riding feeling I'm picking up is that spirit is good in the camp, we've got some quality footballers and a manager capable of taking charge of it all. And Uncle Stevie L providing the pocket money. More money than sense, that boy!

I'd love to see the two Steve's putting their heads together for January and making more quality recruits (which City fan wouldn't?) but remember it was 'squad players' who made the cutting edge at Coventry, and Father Wilbraham.

Don't think 'ruthlessness' is a word we want bandied about re playing squad recruitments

[Wanderingred]

Really think you guys are going well over the top. Tonight was a good point against a strong Physical side who will take plenty of points off the top sides this season.They have the 3rd best record away from home this season and you can see why. Last season they would have won at Ashton Gate. This season we are made of sterner stuff. Embrace it. COYR's !!!!!!

Under no circumstances is twice throwing away a lead at home to draw against a mid table side a "good point". It was 2 points needlessly dropped and very dissapointing. Dont get me wrong, im not grumbling as We cant win every game but theres no point pretending it was a good result because it wasnt.

Addressing the issue of being able hold onto leads should be the main focus of this team now.

[Aizoon]

Bryan had a total mare tonight. Is he carrying an injury or what?

[cidered abroad]

That was a "Bittersweet" game tonight.

We got fourteen games undefeated since the start of the season and should be very proud of the squad and management for achieving that.

The bitter part is another game where we have not gained the points our attacking deserved because firstly we were not clinical with the chances we made and secondly because we have surrendered a winning lead again. This has happened too often in October and has cost us six points that would have put us almost out of sight at the top.

I'm sure SC and his coaching team will be doing all they can to redress this failing before it really does harm our promotion charge.

[Spike]

The only thing that worries me is we're undefeated but still drawn half as many as we've won. As nice as it is right now being 6 points clear if Preston win their games in hand it's only 1 with a lot of tough fixtures ahead. 

if you look at League One last season Wolves drew only 10 all season and lost 5, whilst Doncaster the season before who had a lot less points than Wolves when they won it drew 9 and lost 12. We've still got 32 games to go and we're half way to the amount of draws Wolves and Doncaster got, yes our wins are great but I don't see this being a team that goes undefeated all season, in fact I see this as a team who are more than likely to draw a lot of games when we need wins and that is my main concern.

 

Looking at the play off positions of those two seasons the teams had similar records as the champions only replacing wins with draws, so what I'm getting at is we have to stop drawing games and be a bit more aggressive, it's better to win 3 and lose one than it is to win 2 and draw 2, by winning 3 you get your 9 points, by getting as many draws as wins you come out with 8.

 

I honestly think we'll have a bad patch this season where we'll start falling behind and see ourselves fall into the play offs and miss out on automatic promotion if we can't see out games by winning them and keeping clean sheets. This month we haven't kept a clean sheet yet and that's what I want to see, it's great we're getting goals but the defence still doesn't look like a title winning defence.

I personally hope in January we sure up the defence by adding taking the ruthless approach, for far too long we've been the "nice team" giving jobs to lads we like and having a friendly demeanor with the players that are paid to do a job. I hope we've learned from those mistakes and can build on what we have rather than just hoping it's enough.

Oh and just as a note, I'm not saying I'm not happy with our situation, I am, I just don't want to see the club sit on what we have, I want to see us continue to push and improve. The best clubs don't go "oh that's good enough", they go out and look where they can improve and act on it.

[Decent Bantam10]

Under no circumstances is twice throwing away a lead at home to draw against a mid table side a "good point". It was 2 points needlessly dropped and very dissapointing. Dont get me wrong, im not grumbling as We cant win every game but theres no point pretending it was a good result because it wasnt.

Addressing the issue of being able hold onto leads should be the main focus of this team now.

League tables really matter this early you won't be calling us midtable side when we are in the playoffs come end of the season lad. we was 4th not long ago just had a little blip that's football though.

[Monkeh]

League tables really matter this early you won't be calling us midtable side when we are in the playoffs come end of the season lad. we was 4th not long ago just had a little blip that's football though.

spot on,

to win promotion you need to earn 2 points a game avg, we are well above that,

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

Then we really need to defend better as a team, the goals we conceded were so poor. And we nearly conceded straight after their first one from our mistake in midfield!

I thought both our wing backs were poor tonight and the weak link in the team if I'm honest, the guy on the right had so much room and Bryan was left caught on a few occasions.

This is only constructive criticism, I understand we're still unbeaten but in the long run if we want to win the league and even compete at the next level, we need to sharpen up when defending now whilst we have time to.

Apart from that, we go another point clear and have beaten our record. You Reds!

 

I think you're quite right.  Little and Bryan had, by some distance, their worst games of the season.  The fact that we conceded four goals in our first eight league games this season, and have conceded eleven in our last six games must be a concern.  We are simply giving opposition teams too much room and failing to deal with set pieces.

 

My worry is that for the first time last night I thought some of the players looked jaded.  Elliot had some neat possession, but his final ball was almost always wrong; Bryan and Little were poor ; Wilbraham looked a shadow of the player he was half a dozen games ago; Freeman ran around a lot and had a lot of possession, but ultimately to little effect.  I think we are at the point where we need to freshen things up, but I worry that the squad isn't big enough to do this effectively.  Can we realistically expect to play almost the same XI all season and keep the run going?  Ok, we did it in 1975, but the demands of football have changed.

[djb6162]

The only thing that worries me is we're undefeated but still drawn half as many as we've won. As nice as it is right now being 6 points clear if Preston win their games in hand it's only 1 with a lot of tough fixtures ahead. 

if you look at League One last season Wolves drew only 10 all season and lost 5, whilst Doncaster the season before who had a lot less points than Wolves when they won it drew 9 and lost 12. We've still got 32 games to go and we're half way to the amount of draws Wolves and Doncaster got, yes our wins are great but I don't see this being a team that goes undefeated all season, in fact I see this as a team who are more than likely to draw a lot of games when we need wins and that is my main concern.

 

Looking at the play off positions of those two seasons the teams had similar records as the champions only replacing wins with draws, so what I'm getting at is we have to stop drawing games and be a bit more aggressive, it's better to win 3 and lose one than it is to win 2 and draw 2, by winning 3 you get your 9 points, by getting as many draws as wins you come out with 8.

 

I honestly think we'll have a bad patch this season where we'll start falling behind and see ourselves fall into the play offs and miss out on automatic promotion if we can't see out games by winning them and keeping clean sheets. This month we haven't kept a clean sheet yet and that's what I want to see, it's great we're getting goals but the defence still doesn't look like a title winning defence.

I personally hope in January we sure up the defence by adding taking the ruthless approach, for far too long we've been the "nice team" giving jobs to lads we like and having a friendly demeanor with the players that are paid to do a job. I hope we've learned from those mistakes and can build on what we have rather than just hoping it's enough.

Oh and just as a note, I'm not saying I'm not happy with our situation, I am, I just don't want to see the club sit on what we have, I want to see us continue to push and improve. The best clubs don't go "oh that's good enough", they go out and look where they can improve and act on it.

Its good to see somebody holding a slightly diffrent view when it comes to improving the squad.

we arer scoring at the rate of 2.14 per game, i think only MK dons and Swindon can compare with that.

 

equally and perhaps more worrying is we are conceding at the rate of 1.07 (not too shabby i guess), only MK dons and Sheffield United of the top 6 are worse than us though.

BUT .........in the last 6 games however the position has gotten much worse

in those last 6 games we are down to 5th in the form league overall and Preston who are my tip to win it (if we dont) are top.

goals conceded in the last six games for us are 11, that up to a rate of 1.8.

 

so given that we have 80% of this squad on the score sheet a defender who cant make match day squad and one which has been frozen out for nearly 7 months now, i tend to agree with spike.

 

i think we should think carefully before we feel the need to spend anothe million pound or so on a striker.

 

incidentally and of some interest looking at last nights results

i went to to watch us against Notts county and i thought they (Notts County) were awfull that day, really poor and had gone back from a side i had admired watching at AG last season.

 

since their defeat to us their record is only bettered by Preston

i think that proves something about this league, it will keep changing and there will be no gimmee's no easy games no pushovers.

last night was 2 points thrown away imo, and if we are to avoid the lottery of the playoffs, we simply cant repeat that kind of result at home, and in that manner.

[BCFC_Dan]

I think it's tactical as much as anything else.

 

My first non-televised game this season was Chesterfield and whilst I think the tactics in that game, once Burns had come on for Smith, were not the usual and probably a mistake, they are still set up in a way that makes Keegan's Newcastle look cautious.

 

I think it would be possible to switch to a more defensive set up, though obviously at a cost to the attacking potency, but Cotterill's comments gave the impression that he had chosen to focus on strengths rather than weaknesses: we don't have the players to produce an effective side with a solid defence, so concentrate on the attack.

 

My hope is that there is training ground and scouting work being done in the background to allow a more solid team to be produced in the future. It's wonderful being able to score 3 goals a game but if you rely on it it becomes a huge problem. Our last relegation season started off with the team scoring 3 goals a game, then collapsed when they couldn't sustain that rate. We might score our way out of the division this year but we'd quite possibly concede our way back into it the year after.

[spudski]

From what I've observed, we play at our best when attacking and looking to score.

We play at our worst, when sitting back trying to 'hold' a lead.

Our weakness, is positioning when defending crosses.

 

If we can tighten up our positioning at crosses, then I think we can still improve on our win rate.

 

The formation we play, is set up to be offensive.

It can be exploited though, if teams look to get in behind the hole left by our wingbacks.

 

With the players we have in our squad, I think SC is playing the right way...he's playing to the strengths of our best players.

 

Bradford came for a draw yesterday, but could have nicked a win, because they really did their homework on us.

You could see where they were exploiting our weaknesses. Behind Bryan and Little.

They also pushed high on Agard and Wilbs and made the space behind them small...we couldn't penetrate that last third so well.

 

We dominated the middle of the park. They controlled their last third well and used the channel effectively.

[red panda]

The only thing that worries me is we're undefeated but still drawn half as many as we've won. As nice as it is right now being 6 points clear if Preston win their games in hand it's only 1 with a lot of tough fixtures ahead. 

if you look at League One last season Wolves drew only 10 all season and lost 5, whilst Doncaster the season before who had a lot less points than Wolves when they won it drew 9 and lost 12. We've still got 32 games to go and we're half way to the amount of draws Wolves and Doncaster got, yes our wins are great but I don't see this being a team that goes undefeated all season, in fact I see this as a team who are more than likely to draw a lot of games when we need wins and that is my main concern.

 

Looking at the play off positions of those two seasons the teams had similar records as the champions only replacing wins with draws, so what I'm getting at is we have to stop drawing games and be a bit more aggressive, it's better to win 3 and lose one than it is to win 2 and draw 2, by winning 3 you get your 9 points, by getting as many draws as wins you come out with 8.

 

I honestly think we'll have a bad patch this season where we'll start falling behind and see ourselves fall into the play offs and miss out on automatic promotion if we can't see out games by winning them and keeping clean sheets. This month we haven't kept a clean sheet yet and that's what I want to see, it's great we're getting goals but the defence still doesn't look like a title winning defence.

I personally hope in January we sure up the defence by adding taking the ruthless approach, for far too long we've been the "nice team" giving jobs to lads we like and having a friendly demeanor with the players that are paid to do a job. I hope we've learned from those mistakes and can build on what we have rather than just hoping it's enough.

Oh and just as a note, I'm not saying I'm not happy with our situation, I am, I just don't want to see the club sit on what we have, I want to see us continue to push and improve. The best clubs don't go "oh that's good enough", they go out and look where they can improve and act on it.

 

Don't worry about Preston - they've got a tricky November as well, as they are playing us     

[CIDER NOT CIDRE]

I hate to say it but I think the loss will come soon however I honestly think maybe that's what we need. The last so many games we haven't dominated or looked completely comfortable. I can't think when the last clean sheet we kept was but it wasn't recent and one day the goals just won't go in and we won't be able to outnumber the amount we concede. 

 

Like I said though maybe we need a loss to keep us on the straight and narrow. 

 

Now, don't get me wrong I'm absolutely loving this run, after 5 or so years of misery it feels great but I just get the feeling we need to prepare for it to end. I'm an optimistic person so I'm not trying to be negative/pessimistic however I'm just saying what I see.

[Red-Robbo]

Under no circumstances is twice throwing away a lead at home to draw against a mid table side a "good point". It was 2 points needlessly dropped and very dissapointing. Dont get me wrong, im not grumbling as We cant win every game but theres no point pretending it was a good result because it wasnt.

Addressing the issue of being able hold onto leads should be the main focus of this team now.

I know what you're saying - I'm disappointed too - but I thought Bradford were the most able side I've seen at AG this season. Organised and with a lot of skill. We needed a measure of luck to stay in the game. I can't imagine them staging mid-table for long.

Agree with the point the OP was making about the wing-backs.

[ChippenhamRed]

Since our goal difference is the best in the division, doesn't this suggest that we're getting the balance about right, even if it comes at the expense of clean sheets?

 

I'm not saying we can't improve defensively, but it does tend to suggest that the fundamental tactics/formation we are using are serving us well.

[And Its Smith]

Top of the league and six points clear and people being negative. Too many draws? Nonsense. We are top!

[spudski]

Top of the league and six points clear and people being negative. Too many draws? Nonsense. We are top!

Yep...that's the attitude.

I wonder if you would be happy if SC had that attitude?

He was mighty pissed off through a lot of yesterdays game... I was watching his reactions.

It's looking at your weaknesses and continually wanting to improve them, that makes you Champions.

I'm sure SC will be doing that.

Glad there are a few fans on here that like to talk football and about the pros and cons of our team.

Much better than the lot that sing when we're winning and moan when we're not.

[Decent Bantam10]

agree monkeh you done well though gd start.

[And Its Smith]

Yep...that's the attitude.

I wonder if you would be happy if SC had that attitude?

He was mighty pissed off through a lot of yesterdays game... I was watching his reactions.

It's looking at your weaknesses and continually wanting to improve them, that makes you Champions.

I'm sure SC will be doing that.

Glad there are a few fans on here that like to talk football and about the pros and cons of our team.

Much better than the lot that sing when we're winning and moan when we're not.

I understand what you are saying but you miss my point. We aren't drawing too many games as we are top. If we keep this up then we win the league and would win it by drawing lots of games. The point I was responding too is irrelevant.

[Aizoon]

Yep...that's the attitude.

I wonder if you would be happy if SC had that attitude?

He was mighty pissed off through a lot of yesterdays game... I was watching his reactions.

It's looking at your weaknesses and continually wanting to improve them, that makes you Champions.

I'm sure SC will be doing that.

Glad there are a few fans on here that like to talk football and about the pros and cons of our team.

Much better than the lot that sing when we're winning and moan when we're not.

 

Good points - but it shouldn't stop us supporting the team when we're there.

[Jevans]

was at the game and at 2-2 saw osbourne warming up but according to dad on the radio at 2-1 the commentators said he was all ready to come on, don't know what happened there?

[Major Isewater]

agree monkeh you done well though gd start.

You still ere ? put the kettle on we'll talk about a possible transfer to a real football club ,And i don't mean Rovers . ;0)

[spudski]

Good points - but it shouldn't stop us supporting the team when we're there.

Exactly...support the team when you are at the ground...get behind the lads...give encouragement.

I heard some right shit being spouted by some of our supporters last night.

Some of them are either too pissed to see, or they don't understand 'Support' and football.

Why instead of shouting 'FFS ****** move your ******* arse you're useless'...can't they shout 'C'mon ****** you can do it...C'mon...Know you can'? Encourage not deride...

 

As for the forum...some seem to see everything as perfect, and have a go at people for being 'negative' instead of seeing it as 'constructive criticism' and a want for improvement.

Yet they are the most destructive when we are losing...there is no in between...it's either we are sh1t or we are gods gift to football...no realism.

 

 

was at the game and at 2-2 saw osbourne warming up but according to dad on the radio at 2-1 the commentators said he was all ready to come on, don't know what happened there?

He was about to come on just before their second equaliser. SC held him back and went for the win instead.

[And Its Smith]

was at the game and at 2-2 saw osbourne warming up but according to dad on the radio at 2-1 the commentators said he was all ready to come on, don't know what happened there?

City went 2-1 up and Osbourne started warming up to come on and shore up the defence. Then they equalised so obviously that sub was no longer warranted