Ignoring the ref...

[Silvio Dante]

And yes, it was a goal that shouldn't have been disallowed.

However, for 90 minutes of football we had 75% possession. In all that, we worked their keeper seriously what, once, twice?

If we are going to be in the top six, and I said this after the Bolton game, teams will come and sit. Tonight, we didn't break Burton down and love or hate their tactics, they deserved the point for that. I actually think we'll get more from Leeds as they'll come out, but without a shadow of a doubt, we need to look at our lack of penetration and solve it against teams that come to defend. It was there against Bolton, it was there today.

We're doing great this year. But the black spot is when a team sits against us and we need to combat that, asap.

[shelts]

Just lacking that cutting edge in the last third , unfortunately you have to pay top money for that and hope you don’t get a Tomlin! 

[Super]

Agree with that Derby had a go and we were superb but we struggled tonight and against Bolton with teams that sit back. No imagination or quality in the final third.

[T R]

The game was calling out for Matty Taylor tonight 

[WesM]

We have to accept that this is how it's going to be. The national team have found themselves in a very similar situation. Yeah it's anti-football, but these smaller clubs are in a dog-fight, if they came and tried to outplay us, they'd get thumped. Like it or not, this is the challenge. Not enough craft or guile in midfield I'm afraid.

[Silvio Dante]

4 minutes ago, Threshing Red said:

The game was calling out for Matty Taylor tonight 

Totally agree. At half time I checked to see if MT was on the bench and was disappointed he wasn't as his dragging players out of position and creating gaps was absolutely what we needed tonight

[Fordy62]

7 minutes ago, Threshing Red said:

The game was calling out for Matty Taylor tonight 

Yep. Thought the very same thing myself. 

[T R]

2 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Totally agree. At half time I checked to see if MT was on the bench and was disappointed he wasn't as his dragging players out of position and creating gaps was absolutely what we needed tonight

not a moan at him but why didn't johnson see that aswell? 

[cockneydave]

9 minutes ago, Threshing Red said:

The game was calling out for Matty Taylor tonight 

Couldnt agree more!!!

[Bar BS3]

11 minutes ago, WesM said:

We have to accept that this is how it's going to be. The national team have found themselves in a very similar situation. Yeah it's anti-football, but these smaller clubs are in a dog-fight, if they came and tried to outplay us, they'd get thumped. Like it or not, this is the challenge. Not enough craft or guile in midfield I'm afraid.

How dare you compare us to that pile of shite..!!

[SedRA]

4 minutes ago, Threshing Red said:

not a moan at him but why didn't johnson see that aswell? 

Taylor is carrying a knock. Should be back for Leeds...

[stephenkibby.]

Just now, Fordy62 said:

Yep. Thought the very same thing myself. 

What the same Matty Taylor that isn't a championship level player?

[PHILINFRANCE]

12 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

Yep. Thought the very same thing myself. 

I thought you were on a night shift .

[ZiderEyed]

Thing I noticed is how well they forced us out wide and then snuffed out both our wingers. Need people to just shoot.

[Fordy62]

25 minutes ago, stephenkibby. said:

What the same Matty Taylor that isn't a championship level player?

Have I ever said that?

[Robbored]

39 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Totally agree. At half time I checked to see if MT was on the bench and was disappointed he wasn't as his dragging players out of position and creating gaps was absolutely what we needed tonight

He's injured. That's  why he wasn't in the squad.

[Wrongagain]

Can’t ignore the ref- Reid was bullied constantly, almost every time his marker went to ground the ref gave a foul against him - had that been honest decisions we would have seen Reid booked before HT and he would have seen red after the restart - total crap and there should be an official complaint lodged over his conduct

[RobintheRed Red]

58 minutes ago, Robbored said:

He's injured. That's  why he wasn't in the squad.

Alan how can you get injured doing fuckall

[joe jordans teeth]

1 hour ago, RedSA said:

Taylor is carrying a knock. Should be back for Leeds...

Should stop carrying this mystery man a knock about

[nickolas]

6 hours ago, Threshing Red said:

The game was calling out for Matty Taylor tonight 

Or Đurić. 

He is so dominant in the air that game requires plan B and some aerial onslaught instead. 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

And yes, it was a goal that shouldn't have been disallowed.

However, for 90 minutes of football we had 75% possession. In all that, we worked their keeper seriously what, once, twice?

If we are going to be in the top six, and I said this after the Bolton game, teams will come and sit. Tonight, we didn't break Burton down and love or hate their tactics, they deserved the point for that. I actually think we'll get more from Leeds as they'll come out, but without a shadow of a doubt, we need to look at our lack of penetration and solve it against teams that come to defend. It was there against Bolton, it was there today.

We're doing great this year. But the black spot is when a team sits against us and we need to combat that, asap.

Many it seems didn't like the way Burton "played" seems they played to get what they came for and succeeded. Its more or less a repeat of the last time they visited so we or LJ should not be surprised, more worrying is we should have had a plan to deal with it.

Much tougher tests to come over the coming weeks against probably as more, "professional" and savy teams, they will test us and we will see just how far LJ and our team/squad has come....since...about this time last season.

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

The game reminded me of recent England internationals, and City experienced the same difficulties that England have recently.  In a game like this you need a bit of luck and we had none at all, and the referee only added to our problems.  Burton defended incredibly effectively and despite their negative attitude and appalling timewasting, deserve credit for that.  What they set out to do was very unusual at this level; even Millwall and Bolton, who had a similar game plan had some attacking ambition.  I am struggling to think of another game quite like it and can only recall cup matches with lower division opposition.  Yes, City failed too find the way through but I wouldn’t be too despondent.  There won’t be many matches like this one.

The injury to Korey Smith didn’t help.  Not only did it disrupt the midfield, but it took away a substitution that we might have used to our advantage in the second half.  Eliason was very very poor and might have been replaced by O’Dowda or Leko at half time.

[Major Isewater]

6 hours ago, joe jordans teeth said:

Should stop carrying this mystery man a knock about

Showumni .

[Son of Fred]

8 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

And yes, it was a goal that shouldn't have been disallowed.

However, for 90 minutes of football we had 75% possession. In all that, we worked their keeper seriously what, once, twice?

If we are going to be in the top six, and I said this after the Bolton game, teams will come and sit. Tonight, we didn't break Burton down and love or hate their tactics, they deserved the point for that. I actually think we'll get more from Leeds as they'll come out, but without a shadow of a doubt, we need to look at our lack of penetration and solve it against teams that come to defend. It was there against Bolton, it was there today.

We're doing great this year. But the black spot is when a team sits against us and we need to combat that, asap.

They will do it all the more now-both Burton & Millwall shut us out with little problem by killing the game,and it will have been noted that we don't deal with it...

Would play Taylor v teams that come to 'shut up shop.

 

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, Robert the bruce said:

They will do it all the more now-both Burton & Millwall shut us out with little problem by killing the game,and it will have been noted that we don't deal with it...

Would play Taylor v teams that come to 'shut up shop.

 

Could we not, let them have the ball and give them more space (after all we have a good defence don't we) then have them, while they are more spread out and not so condensed. Piling the pressure on does not always work, hit them in short sharp shocks; ala police smashing a door in.  

[Bazooka Joe]

Against teams like Millwall, Bolton and Burton who simply come for a 0-0, you just gotta go all out to get an early goal, and force them to play a more open game.

 

[Red-Robbo]

9 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

And yes, it was a goal that shouldn't have been disallowed.

However, for 90 minutes of football we had 75% possession. In all that, we worked their keeper seriously what, once, twice?

If we are going to be in the top six, and I said this after the Bolton game, teams will come and sit. Tonight, we didn't break Burton down and love or hate their tactics, they deserved the point for that. I actually think we'll get more from Leeds as they'll come out, but without a shadow of a doubt, we need to look at our lack of penetration and solve it against teams that come to defend. It was there against Bolton, it was there today.

We're doing great this year. But the black spot is when a team sits against us and we need to combat that, asap.

I disagree that they "deserve a point".

I expect such teams to "park the bus" - no problem there.

What I don't expect is players to throw themselves to the ground, writhing, every time we get into a dangerous position. 

That isn't a tactic. It's cheating pure and simple. 

You can't take the ref out of the equation.  Had he not been happy to collude with this, we'd have actually seen a game of football and - given our dominance - the ball would almost certainly have been in the net more than once.

It might not take a genius to realise that when a Burton's player goes down "fouled" for about the 30th time, that there is a lot of simulation involved. A simple yellow would gave stopped this and allowed the 18,000 of us to watch a football match instead of a bad am dram production.

Instead the farce was green-lighted by Linnington.  You can tell he knew these "injuries" weren't serious. Their physio wasn't waved on and even the guy clutching his head wasn't required  to go off to get treatment.  No City players were booked for these alleged persistent  "fouls".

He didn't even add the time wasted by these tactics on.  What a farce having 5 minutes of extra time in the first but only playing about two of it, as the clock was allowed to run on during Korey's injury and substitution. 

This may all sound like sour grapes, but it isn't.  I abhorr cheating. We rely on referees to stop matches degenerating into farces like last night. 

If football is "played" like it was then all the time, I'd never bother to watch it.

No wonder only 78 Burton's fans turned up.

[Northern Red]

We should probably take it as a compliment that teams are happy to come and play like that against us now in the hope of getting a point. Not so long ago they'd have turned up fancying that they could get all 3.

[BRISTOL86]

I thought we played into their hands in the first half, and played too much in our own half. 

It was obvious from minute one that they offered no offensive threat whatsoever so we should have been forcing the game up the pitch. 

That being said, for all their antics, they were organised and effective defensively. 

I said after Bolton that we are much better against sides who want a game of football than sides that want to let us have as much of the ball as possible. Luckily there are more of the former than the latter in this league but we need to work on our ability to deal with this sort of side. 

However it must be said that you simply can't ignore that refereeing performance. I've never seen anything quite as shambolic. It's hard enough playing when they have 11 men behind the ball, but 12?

[DaveInSA]

9 hours ago, Threshing Red said:

The game was calling out for Matty Taylor tonight 

according to the bristol evening post, he was injured

 

[BRISTOL86]

2 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

I disagree that they "deserve a point".

I expect such teams to "park the bus" - no problem there.

What I don't expect is players to throw themselves to the ground, writhing, every time we get into a dangerous position. 

That isn't a tactic. It's cheating pure and simple. 

You can't take the ref out of the equation.  Had he not been happy to collude with this, we'd have actually seen a game of football and - given our dominance - the ball would almost certainly have been in the net more than once.

It might not take a genius to realise that when a Burton's player goes down "fouled" for about the 30th time, that there is a lot of simulation involved. A simple yellow would gave stopped this and allowed the 18,000 of us to watch a football match instead of a bad am dram production.

Instead the farce was green-lighted by Linnington.  You can tell he knew these "injuries" weren't serious. Their physio wasn't waved on and even the guy clutching his head wasn't required  to go off to get treatment.  No City players were booked for these alleged persistent  "fouls".

He didn't even add the time wasted by these tactics on.  What a farce having 5 minutes of extra time in the first but only playing about two of it, as the clock was allowed to run on during Korey's injury and substitution. 

This may all sound like sour grapes, but it isn't.  I abhorr cheating. We rely on referees to stop matches degenerating into farces like last night. 

If football is "played" like it was then all the time, I'd never bother to watch it.

No wonder only 78 Burton's fans turned up.

Did you see their 23 Buxton (captain?) laughing to the south stand as his team mate feigned head injury? Disgusting. 

[Red-Robbo]

2 minutes ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Did you see their 23 Buxton (captain?) laughing to the south stand as his team mate feigned head injury? Disgusting. 

They high-fived the cheating**** when he miraculously sprang to life after wasting four minutes. Says it all.....

[Son of Fred]

51 minutes ago, glos old boy said:

Could we not, let them have the ball and give them more space (after all we have a good defence don't we) then have them, while they are more spread out and not so condensed. Piling the pressure on does not always work, hit them in short sharp shocks; ala police smashing a door in.  

Unlike the Police hopefully we can smash the right door in......

[Always Believesham]

Burton are getting a lot of credit for ‘defending well’ and being ‘organised’ - I don’t think much of what they did last night was by design at all. There were hacked clearances to no mans land, a limited number of tackles which took the ball off us and a few clearing headers which went more sideways than out of their box.

We weren’t up to standard creatively last night and the only way to get round teams that break up the game like that is to be more efficient with the possession we had. Too wasteful in possession, too risky with ‘flicks and trick’ and no where near enough shooting. Crosses were poor and often delayed too long, unfortunately it was an off colour city showing.

A disappointing result but not losing and not conceding is a bit of a relief - hopefully there’ll be lessons learned in time for a couple of high profile games coming up

[stephenkibby.]

12 hours ago, Fordy62 said:

Have I ever said that?

Probably not.  Was aimed more at those that were writing him off after a handful of games last season.

 

[Ian M]

But we DID break Burton down.

We shouldn't have to break down a referee as well, they should be here as a facilitator not as an opponent.

If the legitimate goal had been allowed to stand we may well have gone on to win by a couple, as we did against Bolton, due to them finally attempting to score a goal themselves.

[1960maaan]

3 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

What I don't expect is players to throw themselves to the ground, writhing, every time we get into a dangerous position. 

That isn't a tactic. It's cheating pure and simple. 

You can't take the ref out of the equation.  Had he not been happy to collude with this, we'd have actually seen a game of football and - given our dominance - the ball would almost certainly have been in the net more than once.

It might not take a genius to realise that when a Burton's player goes down "fouled" for about the 30th time, that there is a lot of simulation involved. A simple yellow would gave stopped this and allowed the 18,000 of us to watch a football match instead of a bad am dram production.

In the first 20/25 minutes , I can't remember them doing that. We were on top and they were being dragged around but I don't remember them falling over too often. Then the Ref started giving then really soft free kicks and they seemed to play on it and milked it for all it was worth. That the Ref then didn't realise and continued doing it is another mark against him in my book, along with some rough treatment they got away with. There was only one bad foul that I recall , but if you are consistent then they should have been pulled up a lot more.

They played us , the game and the Ref well. We weren't clever enough to get round them and the Ref was just inept.

[Red-Robbo]

8 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

In the first 20/25 minutes , I can't remember them doing that. We were on top and they were being dragged around but I don't remember them falling over too often. Then the Ref started giving then really soft free kicks and they seemed to play on it and milked it for all it was worth. That the Ref then didn't realise and continued doing it is another mark against him in my book, along with some rough treatment they got away with. There was only one bad foul that I recall , but if you are consistent then they should have been pulled up a lot more.

They played us , the game and the Ref well. We weren't clever enough to get round them and the Ref was just inept.

I think "they played us" is a very forgiving way of saying "they cheated - effictively", but yes, as the game progressed and it became clear Linnington would blow for a foul every time they fell over and stop play as soon as he saw a yellow shirt hit the grass, they did become more outrageous. 

I think even old Colin W&nker would have been embarrassed by some of that dramatics. 

Can anyone make a good anagram of Nigel Clough?

[downendcity]

4 hours ago, glos old boy said:

Could we not, let them have the ball and give them more space (after all we have a good defence don't we) then have them, while they are more spread out and not so condensed. Piling the pressure on does not always work, hit them in short sharp shocks; ala police smashing a door in.  

Heard Glenn Hoddle on Talksport earlier in the week, discussing England's problems in breakdown down teams that come to Wembley to shut up shop, despite having overwhelming possession.

One comment he made was that in Spain Real M and Barca have similar problems, but that they have players capable of going past defenders to deal with the problem. Perhaps we should have used O'dowdy and Leko last night, as both seem to have this ability.

The other suggestion Hoddle made was yours. He suggested that England concede possession, let the opposition have the ball and then hit them on the break. 

Its been noticeable of late that at all levels there are many teams doing well but having far less possession than the opposition and that counter attacking seems to be a very effective way of playing.

 

[downendcity]

9 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

I think "they played us" is a very forgiving way of saying "they cheated - effictively", but yes, as the game progressed and it became clear Linnington would blow for a foul every time they fell over and stop play as soon as he saw a yellow shirt hit the grass, they did become more outrageous. 

I think even old Colin W&nker would have been embarrassed by some of that dramatics. 

Can anyone make a good anagram of Nigel Clough?

I think the anagram of Nigel is "not in his father's league". 

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

4 hours ago, glos old boy said:

Could we not, let them have the ball and give them more space (after all we have a good defence don't we) then have them, while they are more spread out and not so condensed. Piling the pressure on does not always work, hit them in short sharp shocks; ala police smashing a door in.  

I think that’s a very good point and I thought the same last night.  We needed to let them have the ball and invite them to come at us, but by holding on to the ball all the time we allowed the to pack the defence.  

[Fiale]

When teams get 11 men behind the ball and they show no real threat surely you need to mix things up. Could we not have gone to a back three. A just pounded them with crosses and balls into the box until something smashed, bounces or deflected into the net.

 

Continually trying to play narrow against a wall of players just seems futile. We really need to work on our plan But as it will probably happen a lot more.

[DaveInSA]

4 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

I disagree that they "deserve a point".

I expect such teams to "park the bus" - no problem there.

What I don't expect is players to throw themselves to the ground, writhing, every time we get into a dangerous position. 

That isn't a tactic. It's cheating pure and simple. 

You can't take the ref out of the equation.  Had he not been happy to collude with this, we'd have actually seen a game of football and - given our dominance - the ball would almost certainly have been in the net more than once.

It might not take a genius to realise that when a Burton's player goes down "fouled" for about the 30th time, that there is a lot of simulation involved. A simple yellow would gave stopped this and allowed the 18,000 of us to watch a football match instead of a bad am dram production.

Instead the farce was green-lighted by Linnington.  You can tell he knew these "injuries" weren't serious. Their physio wasn't waved on and even the guy clutching his head wasn't required  to go off to get treatment.  No City players were booked for these alleged persistent  "fouls".

He didn't even add the time wasted by these tactics on.  What a farce having 5 minutes of extra time in the first but only playing about two of it, as the clock was allowed to run on during Korey's injury and substitution. 

This may all sound like sour grapes, but it isn't.  I abhorr cheating. We rely on referees to stop matches degenerating into farces like last night. 

If football is "played" like it was then all the time, I'd never bother to watch it.

No wonder only 78 Burton's fans turned up.

This is exactly the review that my brother gave me...

[Red-Robbo]

1 hour ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Can anyone make a good anagram of Nigel Clough?

Actually, I'll answer my own question:

Colin Huge Log seems quite apt....

[Bianconeri]

7 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

Actually, I'll answer my own question:

Colin Huge Log seems quite apt....

Not enough O’s mate. You need fork handles

[AppyDAZE]

9 hours ago, Ian M said:

But we DID break Burton down.

We shouldn't have to break down a referee as well, they should be here as a facilitator not as an opponent.

If the legitimate goal had been allowed to stand we may well have gone on to win by a couple, as we did against Bolton, due to them finally attempting to score a goal themselves.

I said it last night and i'll say it again. He was their best player. Defended them right til the final whistle (and the bloke could hardly wait to blow it btw)

[Major Isewater]

19 hours ago, downendcity said:

I think the anagram of Nigel is "not in his father's league". 

To be fair as the great Brian Clough once said ;

" I would n't say I'm the best manager in the league but I would say I'm in the top one " 

[downendcity]

Just now, Major Isewater said:

To be fair as the great Brian Clough once said ;

" I would n't say I'm the best manager in the league but I would say I'm in the top one " 

...ah, but he did say that before he knew that his son would go on to be become a manager as well!