mozo

57 minutes ago, RedM said:

It certainly has a feel of a win instead of the last couple of home draws where I walked away feeling like we had lost. 

Great game from both teams, really enjoyed seeing Tanner etc and I’m very hopeful for the future with our home grown and young players from elsewhere like Atkinson. This was the first game I really felt Nahki was ‘ours’ at last too, no lack of effort from him today.

I was a bit gutted Massengo missed out through injury, he would have loved it today.

And our crossbar played a blinder again!

From the TV footage I've still got no idea how he stretches and the ball goes when it goes 

2 minutes ago, bobbyhutchscurlymullet said:

Absolutely changed the game, showed the aggression and directness I remember from his Wigan days. 

Might need to work on his scoop pass though. The one he tried came down with snow in it. 

The scoop pass was hilarious  

The full game (in 4 parts) can be found on YouTube for those that haven't seen it.

I'd only heard commentary today but having watched the game too I was really impressed. We competed with Fulham really well.

Great point for us.

6 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Definitely a tricky one for AJ against a quick moving, technically gifted, southpaw. I keep reading that Usyk might be too small to beat him, which I think is nonsense. The bloke's 15 stone+ and 6ft 3! Of course AJ is bigger and has a reach advantage but Usyk is still big enough to cause an upset.

AJ will need to stamp his authority on Usyk early in the fight. Would be good to see AJ land some big shots early on to deter Usyk from coming forward which he managed against Pulev in his last fight to good effect. If he does that then I could see him going on to get the ko. If he doesn't then it could be an awkward night for him that goes to the scorecards.

I think Usyk could win this. AJ needs to relax and be his devastating self but I worry that he is prone to overthinking and losing his way.

On 31/08/2021 at 13:37, Silvio Dante said:

We didn’t - I got injured and the club fixed a game up. Both inconsiderate. We need to do it though.

It might be worth scheduling some virtual runs first and get us in the swing of OTIB RC participation?

Make the first one very loose and free. We all run on the same day and try to clock up a combined milage which we can try to beat next year.

See how much traction we get and build a variety of events as we go?

What was he actually doing on the pitch? Does he sit on the bench?

1 minute ago, Supersonic Robin said:

A draw at home to Luton isn't the end of the world, and the same can be said of our other failures to win at home this season. When you look at it collectively though, you'd really be expecting a win or 2 from Blackpool, Swansea, Preston and Luton.

I'm still confident in saying that we're notably better than we were last season, and I'm still not worried about relegation. Would just be great to get the monkey off our backs at home and inject a bit more positivity into AG.

Very disappointing tonight though.

I completely agree with your summary as of now but a couple of defeats could change my mind and two tough games coming up now.

1 minute ago, INCRED said:

We lost it in midfield this evening and failed to pick up second balls or show any indication of changing this, they were more physical and we could quite easily have lost this by 3 or 4 

I actually disagree with that and thought we won lots of second balls. I just thought Luton were better than us when they did have possession, just like I thought Preston showed more quality than us with the ball.

Be interesting to see which opinion the stats back up.

1 minute ago, RedM said:

We were lucky to get a point, again. Bentley (and our woodwork) was the busier of the keepers by far. 

By the way RedM, how busy is our woodwork this season?! I think Bentley's bar has had some action in at least three games so far.

I actually thought we were much better tonight in attack than vs Preston, but much worse in defence.

That said, the squad clearly has its limitations and maybe we should all be chuffed that we've only lost twice this season out of 7 games.

I'm guessing Pearson's comments will be that we're a work in progress. 

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Great minds.  I was looking at CH last night and seeing if MA was now director at Ipswich, he is.  I had a look at Gamechanger quickly but didn’t check the year.

Mike O’Leary - West Brom, Oxford, Alicydon Ltd, Ipswich

Mark Ashton - ditto

As we know already.

There is no doubt that Mark Ashton took his eye off the ball here, and Steve Lansdown took his eye off of Mark Ashton.

 

And Jon Lansdown had his eye on a nice holiday home in the Bahamas...

8 hours ago, Marco the red said:

Put it this way, I went with my non city supporting mate - he thought Preston were the better team and created clear cut chances, we got into decent positions and did nothing with it. I thought it was a pretty poor game all round but wss disappointed with us not seemingly playing any decent football at all bar HNM

I think the performance (forget results) was much better vs Cardiff than vs Preston so it's natural to be a little disappointed. 

Equally, I'd be happy if we see an improved performance on Wednesday, irrespective of the result.

6 hours ago, Marco the red said:

I thought our performance lacked any creativity and virtually no passages of play that didn't end up with a hoof up the channels or up to Martin. I thought it was a poor watch and I think to call us "average" would have been kind.

Disappointed with the selection, I can understand Baker against Cardiff, but a Preston side with a back 3 makes  no sense to me, he looked like a rabbit in the headlights the moment he got over half way.

Pearson went ultra Conservative and ultra safety first IMO. Season of transition so I am not too critical but have to say I was disappointed and I think Atkinskn had the only clear cut chance, fortunate to get a point as Preston had some golden chances.

 

I didn't see the whole game but that's the impression I got too, especially regards those persistent floaty long balls down the centre and left.

Pearson was positively glowing with praise after the game which I can only assume is to preserve the positive mentality in the camp.

6 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Not aimed at the poster you replied to but there is a view that:

Home game + attacking line-up = home win

As you say if only it was that simple.  Comes from the same camp as:

3 forwards = more goals

Its a bloody tough division.  I thought we started a bit sluggish (opening 5/10) then controlled the next 25 mins, before we got sloppy for last 10 of first half.  Second half we started brightly enough, then there was a spell of it being a bit like basketball, end to end, as the game stretched, and then we came in a bit strong at the end.

the graphic above kinda reflect that….it shows how many passes we allowed PNE in 15 minute chunks.

I do actually think our left side (Baker and Pring) weren’t that cohesive yesterday.  Pring didn’t really get much change out of the very dirty Van den Berg, but I don’t think he helped himself by playing so wide, especially out of possession.  Baker a bit ponderous on the ball.

Weve been pretty creative from set-pieces this season, and I think yesterday’s lack of quality let us down….both from James and overuse of throw-ins.

It's no surprise that Baker looked ponderous. We all know that he's not comfortable on the ball and won't cause the opposing full back problems. 

So from that perspective he's the defensive option and we suffer going forward when he's at left back.

I'm surprised he started and got 90 minutes. I think Pearson picked the wrong horse for this course.

You also mention that 3 forwards doesn't equal more goals, well we ended with 4! I don't get the substitutions tbh.

From the little that my Robins TV connection let me see, we played pretty agricultural football and underperformed across the park.

People talking about whether it's a good result, but performance wise, was it not the first game that we were clearly second best in this season?

On 03/09/2021 at 21:06, Lanterne Rouge said:

The Smiths tribute band. Has anyone seen them? They`re playing a gig near me soon and I was wondering if it was worth going.

I saw them at Glastonbury (presume there is only one Smiths tribute band) and they sounded just like the real thing.

26 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Nice one Fevs. I just had a read.

One comment that resonated is "perhaps 19 signings was a bit excessive..."

Yes! How many of those signings were recruited because they fit very specific requirements? Is it possible that a load of them will soon become surplus to requirements and have fans scratching their heads wondering why they signed them, even if they were good players on paper? Will it be a squad or a team? We shall see...

21 minutes ago, BCFCGav said:

Thanks mate. Sounds good to me, can’t expect him to pull up trees against a stubborn Warnock side. I hope he gets a chance against Reading or Swansea from the start, have a feeling he could be a real hassle.

Yeah again he was mainly out wide and didn't have much opportunity to influence the game, much like when Conway came on at fGR

I think there are morsels of positives to be taken from the two league games. We've dominated the play and got the ball in attacking areas.

We're a competitive team but getting edged out of the outcomes we have worked for. 

Fitness and concentration still an issue and a lack of killer instinct at both ends but we're not rubbish.

So, in summary, the positive is that we're not completely shit!

Massive confirmation bias game for me...

I've said Vyner's not a full back.

Weimann, Wells and Palmer are so lacking in quality in the final 3rd.

Just now, RedM said:

Just home. I think I’m going to sleep on it before I want to think about football again...oh and ‘Boro is going to be too soon for me I think! 

It was nice to be at an away game again though

I was at the game... It was like watching a mid-table league one match with some neat stuff but also plenty of agricultural football from both sides.

Janneh was the only City player who looked sharp and he's got to feature on Saturday. He played mostly wide left but swapped with Bell at times. Personally, I'd prefer to see him central where Wells was.

I also thought Nagy looked pretty lively while he was on. Quite a few have asked about Massengo. Not great, in my opinion. It was one of those games he sometimes has where everything bounces off him. He did come close to scoring his first goal when the ball was smashed against him and rebounded just wide of the far post. He also had a shot blocked.

Bell looked put of his depth to me. He did have some nice touches here and there but didn't look like a threat to the defence.

Pring was steady. He went on one good run late on. Moore was left CB and also looked pretty reliable.

Not sure what the injury was that ended the night for Williams. He went in for a challenge and then hobbled a bit and signalled to come off. He looked gutted as we walked to the tunnel which was just as Janneh bagged the equaliser. Williams politely clapped but still looked pretty miserable.

I was hoping Scott would come on but I guess Nige wanted to give everyone a run out.

In summary, we had a makeshift line up so understandable lack of cohesion, but we didn't look like a team made up of Championship players. 

I worry that a poor result at Boro will see morale back where it was last season. 

6 minutes ago, Wiltshire robin said:

Didn’t manage to make the game yesterday but going by stats and peoples opinion of the 92 mins before the equaliser we were a lot better and more attacking than last season ?

or is it all doom and gloom still?

Definitely better in most departments.

Perhaps losing the lead highlights, however, that we still have issues with our fitness or our mindset or both.

Just now, Sleepy1968 said:

We had two missed chances in the first half that must have had an xG of about one between them ...

Yeah I think the Weimann one had an xG of 8...

Does anyone know the xG for yesterday? 

I would have thought that it was notably higher than 1?