Positives v Negatives

[ralphindevon]

I’m just going to go with a positive.

I got to meet the great Mick Hartford 

[KegCity]

Defended well. Dickie looks solid to me.

Negatives are we were very predictable when we chose to build through the midfield and most of the time chose to bypass them entirely. 

[Merrick's Marvels]

59 minutes ago, weepywall said:

I thought the atmosphere today was awful, all felt good before the game nice buzz, get in the ground and it was flat as a pancake, disappointing all round today.

They spunked all their energy waving flags and throwing smoke bombs on West Street 3 hours before kick off mate. 

Given the weird mixture of booze and coke that was probably ingested at that time, they all felt flat as a pancake by 3pm.

Cos it's not the old East End, Dolman or Grandstand that gets the place rocking is it? 

So respect to S82 and we'll let them off today. 

Alternatively... what was there to get excited about once we'd kicked off? What comes first, the chicken or the egg? 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Merrick's Marvels

[RedReg]

The booing at full time after a 1-1 draw in the first game of the season was comical. 

[mattjb]

1 hour ago, Bar BS3 said:

I think most were surprised not to see Conway & Sykes in the starting 11.

Especially with AS out injured, surely you want your strongest players filling in elsewhere.

I thought he ran willingly & did OK generally - as he usually does (I'm not a hater of his atall) but there is no way that starting Cornick over Sykes is picking your strongest possible 11 - imho.

The rest of the team was pretty straightforward selection, granted - but baffling by way of leaving 2 or 3 of your most attacking threats on the bench, against an average team, coming into the season off the back of a crap pre-season, at home, in front of a sell out crowd - it felt like an opportunity missed and so it proved to be. 

Agree 100% as did others in the group I was with . 

[Merrick's Marvels]

1 hour ago, Dullmoan Tone said:

I think most would have started Conway - who was very disappointing when he finally arrived. Thought he was caught flat footed and moved too easily off the ball.

I’m also far from convinced even a fit Weimann can play the Scott role. Only Nige seems determined to get his most experienced players on the pitch which is playing Andi out of position.

I’m also convinced most would have made changes much earlier, it was obvious they were much the better team in the final third of the match.

I agree 100% (out of likes for the day). Today Conway looked like a child playing a man's game - which is what he is, tbh. Weimann is NOT a midfield player - certainly not one in a team that wants to keep the ball. He's a forward- a good one. Substitutions? How about Sykes for Cornick after 5 seconds or here's an idea... Sykes from the start. Not that he's Tom Finney, either. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Merrick's Marvels

[Dr Balls]

Poor team selection given the opposition. Poor performances across the pitch from most of those who did play. All the positivity from pre-season dissipated in less than 45 minutes.

Which makes me question our pre-season build up. After the “walks in the park” against League 2 teams, our last 2 pre-season matches were against League 1 opposition. We drew against Cheltenham, who today lost to Shrewsbury and beat Portsmouth 1-0, who needed a 92 minute equaliser to draw with the Sags. Hardly testing opposition.

So come, the first physical and competitive Championship team that we face, we look pretty toothless, and pretty similar or possibly even worse than last season. Without a major improvement, anyone hoping for the playoffs needs to take a bit of a reality check.

[Merrick's Marvels]

31 minutes ago, Stockwood gate said:

We are just so easy to play against sit deep and give us no space in  behind , we need a big striker

I kind of agree but would make this observation: 

Preston's central striker was thin as a rake, no more than 5'11" and had no pace  - yet every single ball into him stuck.

So we don't need a "big" striker - we need one that's better than Wells or the boychild Conway at hold up play (they're both basically "finishers" and not enough else). Conway had a wake up call today - he was dismissed today as an irrelevance by their CBs. 

I'd have picked him start though! So what do I know. 

[johnheadbcfc]

Unsure of all the Conway comments tbh, service was awful. Conway made a decent run and Williams pass was like sunday league reserves standard.

 

Ah well 3 points at the den it will have to be

[Wrongagain]

29 minutes ago, mattjb said:

Agree 100% as did others in the group I was with . 

Cornick no better now than when he arrived, Sykes offers so much more and Weimann wasted in midfield - if we don’t need or have a decent centre forward where will the promotion winning goals come from ? I won’t mention the ref either - if I write what I feel is the truth I’ll get banned!

[Loosey Boy]

This time last season after one game (make that two), we had nil points! At least this season, we are off and running after our first game

Not great today but….in years gone by, we lose that game…..

[glastored]

Who was the twelve year old on the Preston subs bench? Number 24. He was shorter than Jay Dasilva! When he was warming up before the match I assumed he was a school kid who had won a competition to be on the pitch with his idols, until I saw that he had a squad number.

[Mr Popodopolous]

3 hours ago, weepywall said:

I thought the atmosphere today was awful, all felt good before the game nice buzz, get in the ground and it was flat as a pancake, disappointing all round today.

Glad someone else mentioned that.

Given the positivity across pre-season, the big crowd (although that can sometimes negatively impact atmosphere), the Flag Day...I thought the atmosphere was very average, perhaps less than that but it was not good.

[Show Me The Money!]

4 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Glad someone else mentioned that.

Given the positivity across pre-season, the big crowd (although that can sometimes negatively impact atmosphere), the Flag Day...I thought the atmosphere was very average, perhaps less than that but it was not good.

The tempo with which we started the game didn't help. For the first home match of the season the first half was dire. Like struggle to stay awake dire.

Bell's one chance when he should really have scored was the only real attempt on goal from either side

Edited August 5, 2023 by Show Me The Money!

[Robbored]

4 hours ago, glynriley said:

Fair play to you mate that you can find something positive. For me that was an awful performance from front to back. Vyner pretty much the only player who’s in credit. 

I’m a big fan of Nige but he got it all wrong for me today. 

If Nige got it wrong it was because he underestimated the opposition and I doubt a manager of his vast experience would make that kind of error.

Fact is that Preston were excellent, bossed midfield and stopped us getting in behind thereby nullifying our forwards pace. The game was drawn thru the two set ups and tactics cancelling each other out.

1-1 was about right.

[PHILINFRANCE]

17 minutes ago, glastored said:

Who was the twelve year old on the Preston subs bench? Number 24. He was shorter than Jay Dasilva! When he was warming up before the match I assumed he was a school kid who had won a competition to be on the pitch with his idols, until I saw that he had a squad number.

Rodriguez-Gentile, a 16 year old Brazilian.

He is apparently a hot prospect, and linked with both Liverpool and Man United.

[Open End Numb Legs]

Forget the football! It seems the pitch is too sticky, the clock doesn't work right, not enough pies in the ground and wrong crowd in the Lansdown!

Sky Sports should be mentioning all of this in their live reports (with just a final note to say that the score was 1-1).

[Gert Mare]

Positives - We didn’t lose. Zak Vyner looked very composed. 2nd half he was excellent. Dickie had a solid debut. Players looked fit. Worked hard off the ball.

Negatives - Looked nervy after taking the lead. Slow and predictable build up play. Struggling to see any quality in Cornick. Equaliser had been coming and we failed to take control of the game. Missed Alex Scott in midfield. Think we would have been more creative had he been fit.

[DaveF]

Watched the game with a couple of non City fans and they both picked out Bell as our best player. 

Vyner MOTM for me, we were lucky to get a point.

[mozo]

6 hours ago, GrahamC said:

On the plus side I thought Zak was outstanding, Dickie very good, Wells too & thought Joe Williams was better than any of the 3 that started In midfield. Good as well that Sam Bell is off the mark.

Negatives were Tanner’s distribution was poor, the midfield looked sluggish & Max made a right mess of it when he came a long way to punch the ball clear.

Fair result & with Weimann presumably unavailable now & the Scott saga rumbling on, a few things for Nige to ponder.

Whilst Viner and Dickie did some decent defending, they were both guilty of long balls which didn't reach their targets, which I found really frustrating, especially as an easier pass was always on. 

[mozo]

For me the first 20 minutes was shocking. We were just so loose and wasteful with the ball. 

The positive was that we eventually started passing it around. And we scored. 

But the second half was mostly us being outplayed.

[Rudolf Hucker]

4 hours ago, WoodsDTES said:

Tanner-45 passes 68.9%

The reality was worse than the stats portray imo. So many of Tanner’s 45 passes were backward to Vyner or O’Leary; too few were played forward with any attacking intent.
 

I like George and have been generally impressed with him. Like so many other City players on Saturday (and our singers and tellers) he seemed nervous, unsettled and on edge in the first half. Let’s hope that it was a one off. 

[Cityboy1954]

6 hours ago, GrahamC said:

On the plus side I thought Zak was outstanding, Dickie very good, Wells too & thought Joe Williams was better than any of the 3 that started In midfield. Good as well that Sam Bell is off the mark.

Negatives were Tanner’s distribution was poor, the midfield looked sluggish & Max made a right mess of it when he came a long way to punch the ball clear.

Fair result & with Weimann presumably unavailable now & the Scott saga rumbling on, a few things for Nige to ponder.

You saw a different game to me 

[Cityboy1954]

6 hours ago, GrahamC said:

On the plus side I thought Zak was outstanding, Dickie very good, Wells too & thought Joe Williams was better than any of the 3 that started In midfield. Good as well that Sam Bell is off the mark.

Negatives were Tanner’s distribution was poor, the midfield looked sluggish & Max made a right mess of it when he came a long way to punch the ball clear.

Fair result & with Weimann presumably unavailable now & the Scott saga rumbling on, a few things for Nige to ponder.

You saw a different game to me the midfield was crap james williams too old sluggish the new lad done okchasing down everything cronick was his usual self think Nige got it wrong when scitt goes if thats what were left with god help us.

[WoodsDTES]

29 minutes ago, Rudolf Hucker said:

The reality was worse than the stats portray imo. So many of Tanner’s 45 passes were backward to Vyner or O’Leary; too few were played forward with any attacking intent.
 

I like George and have been generally impressed with him. Like so many other City players on Saturday (and our singers and tellers) he seemed nervous, unsettled and on edge in the first half. Let’s hope that it was a one off. 

Do you think he may have been more involved/progressive with Sykes in front of him instead of Cornick who seems to be an easy option for a long ball/aerial duel?

[W-S-M Seagull]

Sammy Bell scoring (I think it's going to be a big season for him) and I suppose it took us 3 games last season to pick up a point so that has to be some sort of positive. 

I also think in the past we would have lost yesterday's game.

[W-S-M Seagull]

7 hours ago, RedReg said:

The booing at full time after a 1-1 draw in the first game of the season was comical. 

S82 did boo Joe Low on his debut so it's no surprise that they booed at the end of the game today. Not quite sure I've ever experienced that before on the opening day. Very bizarre and I'm actually embarrassed for them. 

Maybe they should have booed themselves cos their own singing performance was below par today also. 

[Garland-sweden]

Not mutch was working. Defence ok, not good with a late goal but Preston was the better team. They got the midfield and we did not played well. 

[Guest]

Positive; another championship season, Negative; still need a ball holding/goalscoring Targetman for the likes of Bell/Conway to feed off, until we sign one we arent leaving this div. (Cornick aint it)

Edited August 6, 2023 by wtf

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Wrongagain said:

Cornick no better now than when he arrived, Sykes offers so much more and Weimann wasted in midfield - if we don’t need or have a decent centre forward where will the promotion winning goals come from ? I won’t mention the ref either - if I write what I feel is the truth I’ll get banned!

Cornick, a bench warmer at best, he will never lead our front line against this divs tough defenders, (sorry mate) another Galley/Cheesley type urgently required