The Swan and Cemetery

20 minutes ago, HappyClapper said:

I echo all the praise. Fantastic from them both. And what a carrot for the other talented players in the academy that there is a genuine pathway. Well done to all involved in their development.

And at risk of stating the obvious, without endless loans (which can be the right thing, just good to see a couple not need them) and straight into Championship football, which whilst not always technically stunning, is a number of light years ahead of the park kick around nonsense found in depths of League Two. Shows the academy really firing these days, fair play to all involved. 

7 minutes ago, ZiderEyed said:

Benarous' disciplined really surprised me - for a boy making his first few steps in men's football, he kept demanding the ball after he got battered, kept his shape (for the most part) when he had to track back, closed down his man with real guts and determination - a genuinely good performance.

Was meant to go tonight but can't afford the train right now, so gutted I missed out on the inevitable celebrations (have one for me if you're reading/posting on OTIB in the pub).

Signs of an NP resurgence? Or is that a bit presemptuous?

I’m going for lots of steps backwards so far this season, but slightly more forward, given the circumstances. Starting to get a tune out of players I’ll confess to having written off (Eg O’Dowda and Vyner) and introducing some exciting youngsters. And in a fair few of the games this season, despite some terrible last few minutes, we’re starting to see shape and lots of effort. That might not be all we’re aiming for, but it’s a start. Even injuries are better, we still get plenty of them, but seem to be fewer season ending types that we had in abundance last season. 

A light drizzling of January window activity and think we can finish in the 9th to 16th bracket and that in my view, represents decent progress. 

Just now, ZiderEyed said:

Hard running from Martin and Weimann cannot go unnoticed. That quick to the ball, intense City, backed up by noisy fans at AG is a hell of a combination.

UTFC

Yep, thought both were great tonight, Martin murdered them in the air and did some great closing, Weimann Duracel bunny fantastic towards the end. It’s been mentioned before and think a fair challenge, that we don’t have enough players at the peak of their careers mid to late twenties, but tonight, both Dad’s Army and the yoof were fantastic. 
 

Very dodgy first 15 mins or so and hardly entirely safe thereafter, but plenty of chances created ourselves and looked to be a proper connection between defence, midfield and forwards. Think where Benarous plays makes a huge difference to a better shape, along with having attack minded wing backs (albeit think Vyner needs to concentrate a bit harder to cover Scott, Baker seemed a lot better covering O’Dowda on the other side). Can’t claim I had either Benarous or Scott/O’Dowda as wing backs on my “come on Nige/Curtis, it’s obvious what to do” list, so fair play, credit where it’s due. 

As others have said, fans great as well. The celebratory, rather than terrified, mood at about 90 mins was great to see/hear. 

Struggling to believe I’m longing for BCTV commentary team, but there it is. Ludicrously biased, particularly Goodman. 

5th in the 1st half league table vs 23rd in the 2nd half league table does indicate some things to work on, so biggest positive for me yesterday was finishing the game strongly. That at least hints that maybe we can improve how we perform in the second 45, whilst hopefully continuing to be strong in the first. 

10 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Back three cost us that game tbh. Panic defending set in from minute 46. They set the tone by literally clearing the ball anywhere and it just kept coming back. All the composure shown in the first half went missing. As for the keeper, try coming off your line now and again and perhaps catching the odd cross.

Defensive mindset does appear to be that the only job is to win the first ball, where it goes, whether under pressure or not, often doesn’t seem to occur as also being critical. 

That said, overall, a fair few encouraging signs to build on. 

Think it’s tonight’s result that’s the exception rather than the rule, teams can improve by playing in tournaments against better teams.

Luxembourg won 5 games in their first 134 World Cup qualifiers and 3 out of 8 this time.

Faroe Islands 2nd bottom of group. 

Gibraltar about as bad as their first go in 2018, but it does take time. 

Malta most goals they’ve scored in 13 World Cup qualifying attempts (back to 1974) and most points (admittedly only 5) as well.

Liechtenstein marginally better than 2018, but have gone backwards vs 2014 and earlier. However a 1-1, 0-1 and three 0-2s this time, so still not being hammered every game.

Even San Marino’s travails have allowed Andorra to their best record ever! And San Marino themselves lost two matches 2-0 and two 3-0, so not tonight’s result repeated consistently. 

Unless the World Cup is automatically Germany Vs Brazil every time, because every other team has a worse record, then think okay for qualifying to be a reasonably broad church. 

6 minutes ago, redsquirrel said:

not if its titled FTG  like it should be

Okay, I’ll compromise: “FTG (but Joey B’s an absolute ledge and should be just ahead of Colin for the City job)”

13 hours ago, Northern Red said:

******* hell can we at least keep this thread for taking the piss out of them?

Plenty of other threads for the resident miseries to whine about how shit everything about City is.

Think we maybe also need a ‘Gas are amazing’ thread along the lines of “Nailsworth is like, OMG, a Mecca of world football, so being 14th in the same league is a massive achievement… thread”. Feel it also needs something about BS7 having the best kit, stadium and supporters, but thread title might get a bit lengthy. 

If all time then guess Harry Thickitt needs a shout given two best outcomes in our history, but doubt many of us remember seeing his team. 
 

For me Dicks and Cooper out front by a margin from everyone else, then Jordan first spell. After that all shades of beige. 

15 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

Stats can paint many a flawed picture - like the one continually quoted on here by those who used to trumpet that we hadn’t won at home for an horrendous amount of months - when they conveniently included the months when we played zero games to exaggerate the bad run - another fave of mine is the triv question ‘which is the only club Barcelona has never beaten in European Competitions’ ? Answer - Dundee United, played 4 won 4 vs Barca ... stats can be accurate and informative but they can equally be amazing and misleading ...

Pretty sure you’ve done well to win none, when playing against a team whose all time highest scorer in Europe is the legendary Ralph Milne. 

When we had Ashton everyone was livid with him meddling too much in the playing side, now Gould isn’t giving an in depth appraisal of latest coaching techniques and players individual fitness levels, we’re appalled by that as well. 

3 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

That’s my first and last ever contribution to the pun epidemic on this forum

Surely that’s a pundemic? 

This is what we need to give some respite from our own soulless travails: a dilapidated/higgledy-piggledy ground where pretty much everyone has a restricted view, packed to the rafters and Nobes pulling the strings for a 6th tier outfit. Knew it was going a salve to all that’s awful when a cardboard FA cup, covered in foil, appeared. St Albans on track to knock out the Goliath’s of Nailsworth and maybe go on a run that sees D Noble’s quadtrick getting our temporary appointment, Colin, the sack. 

9 minutes ago, Red Zeppelin said:

On the contrary after focusing on watching Bakinson for a 10 minute period in our turgid 2nd half - I put the game's failure to convert our extra player down to this guy.

It became quite stark that while he uses the ball well when he receives it directly, but he fundamentally does not show for the ball. Every time we built the initial phases of play from Bentley or defence, he stood still and either pointed two arms to his feet, or one arm out to the fullback. There was no yard of movement to create an angle and drag the opposition out of shape. Contrast to Massengo who didn't stop running and always created options.

Such an opportunity missed yesterday, if only we had a midfielder who could have grabbed the chance to run the show. Bakinson just used the ball well when the game worked around him, and happened to become available to make nice passes.

Interesting how we all see it differently, thought Massengo was poor, lots of energy, but largely pointless and often uses it to recover from poor positional play. Critically yesterday, he let Godden run off him for their winner. 

3 hours ago, Olé said:

Agree with all of that, and in a second half where we did next to **** all, he more or less made and finished our goal against the run of play

And was critical to our first, Martin spends far too much time back to goal (due to how we use him), he’s pretty good when he gets his head up, facing their goal, see well placed/timed pass for O’Dowda. Bakinson saw Martin in space and played it to him quickly. It was a simple ball, but requires a forward looking intelligence and ability to execute that think only Bakinson has (maybe James). Also far less likely to constantly look for low percentage hero passes in the way Palmer tends to, lots of simple balls, but also the ability to pick a great pass.
 

Mentioned it somewhere else, but he’s not helped by teammates’ (not just strikers) inclination to run the same lines ahead of him, very often two ahead running towards goal in the same lane, rather than one making a cross field/in-out run to create space. 

Things are grim, but of the players NP has actively recruited/retained, Weimann and Tanner played yesterday, Simpson always likely to be bit part and James, King, Baker and Atkinson all injured. A few more fit (inc Williams) and think we’d look a lot more solid. FFP means we’ll lack depth to the squad so injuries will hurt us and contracts mean difficult to finish the job of moving on the dead wood. If we can manage a couple of tweaks in January, think we can survive this season, just about. Think it’s a long term project for anyone and not sure any obviously better candidates to NP who’d fancy the job. 

2 minutes ago, Olé said:

He has a lot to learn (see Tuesday after Matty James went off) but the level of anticipation among City fans for him to do something wrong is ridiculous. No idea why he has become the latest "failure in waiting" when he is the only player that plays the ball forward and takes responsibility, today at least he did that more than anyone and never left the "box" in front of defence. 

Yep, he’s often been poor in terms of concentration, but he was a lot better than Massengo today, did a decent screening job generally and got some good balls forward (tricky when a lot of times our forward players make the same run, in the same lane). Also took the shot for our second from outside of the box, good to see someone prepared to have a go. 

Fontaine played 70% of his games in Scotland in the 2nd tier, Vyner did alright, but he didn’t have the Scottish press salivating. Last week Scottish teams drew away at Brondby and won away at Ferencvaros. It’s obviously not the heyday of Aberdeen beating Real Madrid and Dundee Utd losing a European Cup semi final to Roma, but the standard is nowhere near as poor as lots seem to think. 

19 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Is this in the same league where Marley Watkins regularly plays & even Liam Fontaine is still a squad player?

Not really sure this helps, we need to move on players who aren’t up to it, not get them back.

No Colin Cramb (still the only player to have appeared in all 4 English and all 4 Scottish divisions?), but Fontaine must be one of relatively few to have played in 6 (all 4 English, plus top 2 Scottish leagues)? 

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

Or have self-motivated staff, that just need gentle direction here and there.

I’m glad my manager doesn’t need to manage 95% of the work I do.  I understand the guidelines, processes, my role in the term, because my manager is clear.  My manager then allows me to execute within those things above.  I don’t need “well done Dave”, I don’t need “have you done that yet Dave”.

Yep, a better leader/manager will be good for ensuring the organisation/team is heading in the right direction and that will make folk happier, but a poor manager needn’t impact your own self respect to do your best (and for most people, it’s not their direct manager paying their wages, so opportunity to pay some respect to that as well, by doing your best). 

2 minutes ago, old_eastender said:

True, but you ain't going to find out without giving them a chance, 30 mins say, not just 10 mins at the end of a game. For me today would have been perfect to bring Benerous on, as COD just went missing in action for the 2nd half (after a good 1st half).

1st half table: 6th

2nd half table: 23rd

Fitness, resilience, something else? 

56 minutes ago, samo II said:

Said a while ago (after the third one) it was a worrying trend and someone tried to take me to account on it.

While I don’t feel good for saying so, this kind of seals it - we have a problem.

The nature of their winner is really disappointing and strongly indicates lack of intrinsic ability to deliver commitment/effort. It wasn’t a punt into the box with their goalkeeper up, a series of ricochets and a lucky deflection… it was a 5-a-side canter, with their players running with the ball and off the ball, whilst no one made an effort to get near them. I doubt any of our players consciously thought “I can’t be arsed”, more an indication that not enough are hard wired to push themselves to the absolute limit for the cause. 

Think a fair few of Baker, Atkinson, James, King and Williams could expect to start and as a min would strengthen the bench. When we’ve had some/most/all (?) of them playing, we haven’t looked amazing, but have looked more solid. If the international break allows a few to come back, that would help a lot.
 

A small squad resulting from FFP and some big wage earners that I’m sure we’d love to move on, does leave us in a precarious position. If we could get a couple out (seems unlikely, who would want them?) and a couple in (feasible if loans?) in Jan, we’ve a decent chance of staying up. Then further adjustments in the summer and some of the more promising younger players having had championship experience, maybe we move forward in 22/23. Difficult times though. 

1 minute ago, Numero Uno said:

Have you played at any sort of level at all? Seriously, did you rely on the Manager and Coaching Staff to motivate you? Didn't you have any self motivation and enthusiasm for the game? Honestly?

Couldn’t agree more - tactics, set up and so on, fair enough to call out manager and coaching team. But desire/effort, if someone needs someone else to do that for them, when they’re earning potloads compared to the average person, there’s something badly wrong with them. Have some pride. Care about doing your best for the supporters travelling and paying their hard earned cash.