bexhill reds

******* hell, a home win. How did they manage that. Good touches by the players at the end of the game. So proper dogged performances, Atkinson, HNM, Wells, Martin and Bents.

1 minute ago, old_eastender said:

Yep, Wells has worked hard today, but poor in front of goal.

Offside too much for a player of his experience…

Just now, Ivorguy said:

But are you seeing them through rose coloured spectacles?

 

We have to play our game and press opposition whatever they often ref do

conce trace on our game, lads

Nope he really is poor, Barnsley could introduce a mad axeman as a substitute and this **** wouldn’t see a problem with it…

1 minute ago, Andy082005 said:

Anyone know if the DVD of this game will be on sale soon? 

Halloween horror show?

1 minute ago, JonDolman said:

This ref is a bit mental isn't he. Some clear fouls we can all see and he's not giving any of them

Utterly hopeless, can see him giving them a penalty at this rate…

A question for those football thinkers and analysts amongst us, why do our full backs play so narrow, there always seems to be space wide allowing time for the crosses to come in? I don’t get that

1 minute ago, Ryan_BCFC said:

We may be ahead but the performance is still far from  convincing. 

Personally don’t care, if we get 3 points out of this I’ll take them.

4 minutes ago, redsince1994 said:

State of the officiating here. Free kick was about 10yds too far forward. Blatant handball from them in our box

This ref is utter shit….he’s reffing like a lad’s dad at an under 9s game… no ******* clue

Lost the plot a bit here. **** me nakhi, what the **** was that….

4 minutes ago, JamesBCFC said:

For about 10 minutes or so, ending in the 5 minutes before they scored we were on top and the only one looking like scoring.

 

Was it great? Absolutely not.

Was it shit? No.

 

Time you get a grip.

In fairness, aside from the goals, we’ve been poor, how many games do they collectively need to have to work out that Martin is not a target man…too much lumping the ball up hoping he’ll win it. Not his game and nor should it be ours, I get a pragmatic playing style, but not the pseudo-hoofball shite. No wonder we concede so many goals given that we mostly give the ball back…

4 minutes ago, CotswoldRed said:

Keystone Cops running Robins TV today. 

Just today??????

17 minutes ago, westonred said:

Might as well take Wiemann and Martin off give Bell and Benarous a go couldnt be any worse

Changed your mind?

Just now, stevep38 said:

Gives them something to hang onto now. You watch all the timewasting, fiening injury starting. 

Especially with a ref that does not want to give that much… need a quick goal

What the **** was Martin doing, ran away from the bloke taking the throw in rather than hold him up, letting him take the quick throw with our defence all over the shop. Shit defending but totally disorganised due to the speed of the throw. Really poor from a seasoned pro.

17 minutes ago, BasSavage88 said:

Of course he was, he set us up to sit back with no striker on the pitch camping on the edge of our box inviting pressure. 

Everything that happened last night was caused by Pearson 

I don’t agree, but you have your view on Pearson which I suspect no amount of debate is going to change….

Lots of good exchanges which sped up my 2 hour train commute. But off to work now…

4 minutes ago, Clutton Caveman said:

Pace, what pace, when was the last time you saw O'Dowd leave a defender in his wake. How this guy survived the cull I just don't know. 

I dont think he’s the answer to our problems and he’s not lived up to the promise, but was the only resource left on the bench that could have played that role.

2 minutes ago, RedRock said:

I get this.

In six months there should be a tangible improvement in fitness levels. Britton, may have started under Nige massively unfit (why, academy coaches?). He should now at least be capable of sustaining 10 minutes of Championship level football. 
 

So, there should have been a choice between putting CoD on or Britton off the bench for the last 10. Not a difficult one is it, particularly when you constantly play the ‘hit and hope’ high balls. …although that’s another debate. 
 

Why the hell we didn’t tap into the loan market or just get someone out of contract for free is beyond me. Martin is being flogged to a standstill, literally. If Nige is playing the ‘high ball, hold it up’ game then you need a second big bloke up front to alternate with Martin. 

Arguably the loan market these days is as expensive as buying a player, it’s no longer getting the young lad from the Prem reserves or the older player who’s not part of the manager’s plans. There’s not only the wages to pay but the loan fee as well. Clubs like Chelsea have made a business out of it….

2 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Motivate the players.  Teach them not to constantly surrender the ball in the last thirty minutes and go back and back.  We could all see it, why not Pearson?

Baker’s tackle was reckless but the issue was that we were letting Forest have the ball and run at us all the time.  How many City supporters believed on the 85th minute, say, that we were going to win that match?  We were inviting Forest to come at us.  Baker was just the fall guy.

I agree with what you are saying, but it has to be more of a resource issue than coaching, how many of the players left on the pitch last night are natural ball holders, you can coach all you like but if that’s not in their make up you’re not going to change it.

I think O’Dowda was an attempt to make the pitch bigger and cause Forest to keep at least 2 players up around him, but then we did not play to that idea in that regard by just pumping long to him rather than balls in between channels and over the top.

Defending deep has been our weakness for a while, but I think it’s going to need a player investment to change. 
 

Just now, BasSavage88 said:

Nige saying stuff for the happy clappers to cling on to so they stay on side. 

Last night was his fault

Why? 
 

what could he have done differently with the resources available to him last night.

NP was not the cause of Baker diving in, nor the 90 seconds of madness that followed that. 

2 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Only part of a reason why they got the ball into the position they did to win the penalty. 

I think we were playing kind of a 5311 by the end with Palmer in behind O'Dowda. But Palmer occasionally went central left and kind of made it 541. Just seemed like too much room on our left, as Weimann took up a wide right position and no one on the left side in a similar role protecting Dasilva.

Palmer and O'Dowda going to the player with the ball and an easy pass into the Forest player who then had plenty of time to pick his pass.

 

Massengo could come but really its something O'Dowda and Palmer have to do better at together. 

 

 

The biggest mistake was this though of course! Baker got away with one first half where he needlessly went to ground and got a toe to the ball before their player hit the post. And this time again it was poorly judged. He did some good bits of defending, but he has always had a mistake in him. 

It was painful watching those final 10 or so minutes. On Baker again, he for some reason with just minutes left at 1-0 up kicked a ball out of play when there was an easy pass to Massengo right next to him in space. He also headed a ball out for a throw when it looked like he could have nodded it to one of our players. Giving away possession when no need to is frustrating. Just invites more pressure.

Massengo was a bit sloppy givoing the ball away twice. Once a heavy touch when dribbling, and another time a pass down the line, but if he'd looked up then O'Dowda was stationary wanting it to feet. 

At one point as they had the ball on our left and we had 9 players in our box and Weimann running up top out of the picture, our team stood and no one engaged assuming their player was going to put the ball in first time. So he dribbled towards our box and then we had to engage, luckily putting in a poor overhit cross. Things like that show a lack of cohesion.

Palmer looked a bit lost imo. He lacks game intelligence which Pearson has said himself. Things like O'Dowda pressing their player down the right channel, Palmer cutting out the goalkeeper as a back pass option, all spot on up till then. So the player has to chip it down the line where Weimann heads it towards Palmer now in a striker position. Palmer had not thought about getting back into an onside position and in a position to receive a ball if we won back possession and commits a foul. Might not seem a big thing but all these little things is what means we can't keep possession.

On O'Dowda, he didnt really do anything that actually worked, but he could have been played in on goal twice. Once Dasilva attempted to pass to feet when O'Dowda had started to make a run and would have been in with loads of space behind to attack. Would have been quite a simple chipped ball, though would have meant Dasilva using his right foot!

And another time O'Dowda made the defender think he wanted a ball by Weimann down the line, and once his movement had dragged his defender towards the touchline then O'Dowda had created space for a change of direction and a ball over the top for him to be away. Weimann thought O'Dowda wanted it the way he was initially going down the line and possession was lost.

I wonder if it would have been better to have gone 442 with Weimann and O'Dowda pressing together up top. Bring Pring on instead of Palmer. I think we looked a bit all over the place, though generally we did defend our box well until those final crazy moments. At least with the 442 it's more simple for the players to know their roles and might have helped defend our wide areas better. 

I think back to Swansea away win last season, and how at 2-1 up Swansea struggled to get the ball near our goal. Wouldn't it be better to have better pressure in attacking areas. Weimann still had loads of energy and we know he prefers counter attacking when up top. I think back to O'Dowda and Watkins playing up top at the end of the Boro 3-1 win and really helping relieve pressure. Pressing well and giving them something to worry about.

At that point it is all about finding ways to stop the pressure. Our way seems to be defend our box and look unorganised in front of it and poor in possession. Well that could have worked fine, and has in the past plenty of times. But you have to be spot on defending the box and also sometimes rely on that bit of luck. If Tanner didnt play so well then we would have conceded earlier than we did I am sure. And going by this season we seem to panic defending when trying to see out a win.

 

Ran out of likes, but great post…

got to move away from the Rourke’s Drift type of defending, and certainly not try to do it for long spells as we did last night, where’s Michael Caine when you need him….

Just now, AshtonGreat said:

He inherited some good players 

I was not just referring to the playing side, but he did inherit a large squad, a big wage bill and a whole heap of players approaching the end of their contracts. There are some good players there and with the right additions it’ll be a good team. I’ve been impressed with the incomings with the budget he’s had to play with. 
 

Perhaps I’m over optimistic, but I do think that Pearson will turn this club around, if given the time and support.

58 minutes ago, MarcusX said:

Pearson inherited an absolute shambles. 12? players out of contract, a fair bit more deadwood with no funds for mass upheaval.

I'm disappointed Pearson hasn't had more of the "new manager bounce", there's been almost none which is rare for a new manager. I thought his presence and experience alone would give us a lift.

I still think he's the best manager we could have attracted in terms of a "name", and probably the biggest we've had in my time watching City.

Names don't win games though, so although I still back Pearson and I really want him to do well, I'm starting to get nervous about where we are heading

January could be interesting, especially if our table position brings forward the summer recruitment plans. You could well see a couple depart to fund arrivals, that said unless it’s someone approaching an out of contract situation, Jan sales rarely bag quality..

1 hour ago, Top Robin said:

It is frustrating that Cooper turned it round in a couple of games at Forest and Nige is struggling a bit here. 

Cooper just needed to rearrange the ornaments on the mantelpiece, inherited good players that Houghton couldn’t get a tune out of, Whereas Pearson has got to polish a very large turd with a very limited supply of polish….. 

We’ve got to allow time and patience, as I don’t think there is anyone more qualified to  turn this club around right now.

2 minutes ago, GasDestroyer said:

Bristol City FC is a poison chalice for any manager currently. Badly run for years. All been said on here many times.
As stated in the thread above, Ashton & co emptied the piggy bank. There is nothing left to spend. There are players that need to be sold ASAP but noone wants to buy them. I was slated for saying it after the 1st game but this is a relegation fight all season.
Barnsley home game is looking like a key game to me.

Which is why I still think Pearson is the best option to bring in, he’s been there before, and you get the impression is not afraid to point out the problems before him. It’s clear that the entire football side of the club needed change, and that’s never going to be an overnight success, and I suspect the benevolent owner may not have liked some of the things he’s been told, but you get the impression he’s prepared to listen.

I genuinely don’t believe that we’re about to enter a relegation fight, and I do believe we’ll eventually win at home this season, but we’re going to have to score 2 or more to guarantee it.

still bloody annoyed about last night though even after a night to sleep on it….