Goals Conceded - Has The Flood Been Dammed?

[The Right Honourable Les Q]

Apologies for the serious point here, but has anyone 'done the math'? And let's hope the person responsible for counting the attendance isn't asked to help with this.

Anyway, goals conceded up to and including Swindon = shed loads.

And goals conceded since then = less than half the above figure

Is that about right? I would tot it all up myself, but I struggle with counting myself (cough TAXMAN!!)

So, SOD says we, the "people," "only see the negatives," apparently. Let's consider a POSITIVE. Good teams are built from the back, and since Swindon, the goals conceded have slowed considerably from the flood in the first seven games.

Might this explain, in part, the poverty of attacking play, in recent games? Carlisle excepted.

If we can continue to be mean, defensively, then this might be the platform from which better things come from. SOD has said, or indicated, that the emphasis has been on defending effectively. This comes first. The 'fancy' stuff comes after. And last night it paid off, as Crawley buckled in the last quarter.

A sign of something to build on? A glimmer of hope? A 'positive'?

[ashton_fan]

Things have looked up since Parish and Shorey have come in, and improved again with Osborne last night. It's getting sorted.

[Rich_s]

It's a glimmer of hope and no doubt.  If baby steps can be achieved on a regular basis, such as increasing the number of clean sheets we have, nicking wins  here and there, then there is positives.   

 

I'm hoping that the baby steps will  eventually feed through to the quality of the football as there's no getting away from it the football is DULL and really hard on the eyes. I'd reluctantly accept watching dross for the remainder of the season if it meant avoiding the drop into Div 2.

[Kid in the Riot]

Let me help you out there, old boy.

 

First 8 games (up to and inc Swindle) conceded 19

 

Last 7 games conceded 8

 

Tightening up for sure.

[RedYoshi]

First 8 games (up to and including Swindon): 19 goals, at 2.38 gpg.

 

Last 7 games: 8 goals, at 1.14 gpg.

 

So yes, most certainly trending in the right direction.

 

 

Meanwhile, goals scored:

 

First 8 games: 13 goals, at 1.625 gpg.

 

Last 7 games: 10 goals, at 1.43 gpg.

 

Trending in the wrong direction, but not even slightly as sharply as goals conceded.

 

 

Good news all round, really.

[The Right Honourable Les Q]

Let me help you out there, old boy.

 

First 8 games (up to and inc Swindle) conceded 19

 

Last 7 games conceded 8

 

Tightening up for sure.

Thank you, young man. Lovely. We need someone at the club who can help count the "beans," if you can tear yourself away from that riot

[The Right Honourable Les Q]

First 8 games (up to and including Swindon): 19 goals, at 2.38 gpg.

 

Last 7 games: 8 goals, at 1.14 gpg.

 

So yes, most certainly trending in the right direction.

 

 

Meanwhile, goals scored:

 

First 8 games: 13 goals, at 1.625 gpg.

 

Last 7 games: 10 goals, at 1.43 gpg.

 

Trending in the wrong direction, but not even slightly as sharply as goals conceded.

 

 

Good news all round, really.

Thank you, sir. Those figures look convincing. Dare we hope to believe that something is stirring in this SOd transition?

[RedYoshi]

Thank you, sir. Those figures look convincing. Dare we hope to believe that something is stirring in this SOd transition?

 

Dare as you like, my good man. Sometimes, believing is all we have.

[Welcome To The Jungle]

Must say the Shorey has look dodgy in the last 2 games, but heck, 7 from 9...coyr

[Opeth67]

So let's just hope we don't lose the next league game 11-0! 

[Show Me The Money!]

I have to admit I quite liked the look of the back four once Moloney went off and Osbourne moved to right back. We looked pretty solid.

 

Moloney worries me as he looks completely shot of any confidence.

[bearded_red]

While none of us should get carried away with one clean sheet (I think we can all rest easy knowing SO'D certainly won't be) the difference in our play without the ball since the Swindon game has been clear.

 

That day we actually looked a very good team going forward and should/could have scored more than the 2 we did, but whenever Swindon managed to get the ball they looked like they would score. Simply cutting through us with ease. There were a few positive reviews of that game on here, but as I said at the time you will never win a game of football at any level defending like that.

 

Since then even in the games where we haven't played well I don't think you could ever accuse is of being overrun or ever thinking 'well we've got to concede a goal soon surely'. Our keeper hasn't been overworked at any stage since that game and the goals we have conceded have usually came out of nowhere. Even on Saturday when Oldham outplayed us at times I don't think we were ever completely hanging on..

 

Unfortunately we have still been making some school boy mistakes and they have led to goals, but thankfully last night we managed to avoid them. After having a dodgy 45 minutes at Swindon you would also have to say that Williams has been superb. It is becoming increasingly easy to forget how young he is.

 

Personally I feel that as the run without a clean sheet has continued we have increasingly became a bit more negative and concentrated on trying to be solid knowing that we have someone in our team who can score out of nothing at the other end. If you look at the QPR team that won the league under Warnock they were built around being solid and difficult to score against as they knew they had Taraabt who could go and win them a game without actually creating any real pressure on the opposition's goal. I'm not suggesting we should be looking to just shut up shop and hope from a JET piece of magic every week, but while our confidence in keeping clean sheets is still low it could be the way to go.

[The Right Honourable Les Q]

No, agree with "Bearded" it's about first things first. We had to stem the flow of goals.

8 conceded in the last 7 games is eye catching. That includes Flint's clanger at Port Vale. Of the games we have lost, only one has been by more than the one goal (Posh), so, we are becoming, "harder to beat." If we continue to be so, then I would hazard a guess that we will collect more points. If we don't buckle and make daft errors, defensively, the opposition will. The pressure will switch to them. Then we must take advantage.

You can look at things from many different angles. We are only above the dotty line down to goal difference (because we have stopped shipping shedloads!) and have only won twice. The entertainment level is very poor. SOD still making critical comments about the crowd (shocking) but I wanted to look for a positive. I'm not saying everything has changed and is sorted. Just that the stats indicate a turnaround, defensively, and that this could be the platform, the spark, for something to happen. And I mean getting into mid-table, at best. But it also indicates that SOD is achieving something, in training, with the players.

We've been tight for seven games. We need to be tight for another seven/ eight, and see how many points we pick up.

If this happens, then we might witness some confidence, and some of competent pass and move that everyone wants to see. The hoof ball is crass, but the goals conceded is changing. Let's see if this continues

[TV Tom]

First 8 games (up to and including Swindon): 19 goals, at 2.38 gpg.

 

Last 7 games: 8 goals, at 1.14 gpg.

 

So yes, most certainly trending in the right direction.

 

 

Meanwhile, goals scored:

 

First 8 games: 13 goals, at 1.625 gpg.

 

Last 7 games: 10 goals, at 1.43 gpg.

 

Trending in the wrong direction, but not even slightly as sharply as goals conceded.

 

 

Good news all round, really.

True, and we are the top scorers in the bottom half of the division, the defence has needed sorting out for the past 3 years

[brad blit]

A major factor has to be Williams who has been most consistent of all centre backs recently and looking better every game at the moment, there was a moment last night when the ball was bobbling round edge of penalty box and one of Crawleys players was about to shoot, and he was the only player to throw his body on the line and block the ball. Really is looking like a superb buy right now and will hopefully get better with more league experence - lets not forget he only played a handful of games at Aston Villa so it was a baptism of fire at the start.