[WakeyTerrier]

I suppose I'm frustrated more than anything 1 step forward against Millwall and 2 steps back against Wolves.

Yes we had 31 shots but how many top draw saves does the keeper actually make, most of the saves were routine. From the moment Wolves were in front I never thought they even looked like losing. I said to Mitzi at half time that our lot needed to work harder in the second half because Wolves just seemed to find a man every time, that pattern continued in the second half.

I could kick something right now thinking about it

[Denners]

Wouldn't bother kicking afobe... Sounds like he goes down to easy and there'd be little satisfaction in that!

[theo_luddite]

Win one, lose one, win one, lose one - next up Bornmuff.

Was listening to Aynuk and Ayli commentating on Radio WM last night. They are usually so far up Wolves backsides they make Popey look like he absolutely hates Leeds. They certainly gave the impression that we were on top far more than Wolves and would have been well worth at least a point if we could have got the ball past Kuszczak more than once. Once they went 2 up they were just suckering us into letting them pick us off with a quick but good ball upfield rather than the hoof-ball they resorted to down here. First half stats showed we were way down on possession, but by the end we had the lions share. (Lack of) quality of finishing and Kuszczak conspired to keep us out.

So we finished up with 3 points a piece v Wolves - better than 2 draws for the points.

So what odd on 3 points from Bornmuff? We know they likely won't sit back much either, but could also just try to hit us on the break if we let them get in front. It will be a good measure of where we are since that awful first game of the season.

1½ points a game at the moment on our current run of games - the mid-table mediocrity that some of us craved for is guaranteed on that basis.  

[EastLondonTerrier]

Would take that mediocrity all day long Theo. Finishing higher than we did last season is progress, however slow it may be. I'll always get frustrated when we put in good performances and then get beat the next week but its the championship and I'm slowly accepting that there are some teams who will more than likely beat us soundly because of the money they can spend on players and the absolutely ludicrous parachute payments they get to spend on players wages. That's life. Until we start producing our own players who are top quality, increasing our fairly average gates and producing more money than we spend that's the way it will be for now.

[WakeyTerrier]

Christ on a bike, I've just managed to bring myself round to watching the highlights.

The goals we give away are shocking, goal number one Butterfield panicky hoof giving the ball away followed by Wallace half hearted attempt to cut the ball out.
Goal number two, Coady OG, not quite sure what his position is supposed to be, he's either marking thin air or marking the man in which case he's a) the wrong side of his man(as in should be been attacking the ball from the deadline out not the other way around) b) wrong side of the defender (as in between the defender and the goal not the defender and the corner flag)
Goal number 3 more comedy defending which ends up with not one but 3 of our defence on the ground not doing very much between them
Goal number 4 cheaply give the ball away in midfield, striker giving the freedom of the Town, one defender plodding back.

we need to loan a CB pretty damn quick because Wallace looks a liability at times

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[Marco4]

I saw them again this morning (SSN show them as they come in) and there's some utterly appalling defending going on - though admittedly, it looks a little late on as though its from running backwards after being caught on the break than just being crap.

[jjamez]

it looks like there was a lot of shambles in that side.

first goal butterfield scuffs, but all wallace had to do was stick a leg out and he would have deflected the ball, but he didnt, probably because it was too much to think about.

second goal...we have butterfield on the front post coady marking a zone outside the front post, where is the man on the back post? teams have done away with that now, the amount of times where someone standing on the post would block the chance is unbelievable. stick bunn or scans there, you know, someone who you dont want marking a big player... leave the other up top.

third goal, robinson gets dragged out because smith stands off, man free over on their right because of it, robinson dives in, smith finally goes to close down, but too late, wallace and smith then decide to roll in the mud and watch, rather than get up and have a second attempt at defending. more wallace than smith, smith tried doing something laid on the ground, wallace just laid there.

fourth goal, a simple ball bounces off coady, who stands there, along with robinson who is now out of position and butterfield. edgar and hudson get split. why didnt hudson put in a dispairing slide? maybe he didnt want the own goal to his name...

also look at the state of the pitch. why is it so bad? PPG pitches arent that bad, so why is the stadium. I know there is a different groundsman on the training grounds as to the stadium. maybe its time for change there, as it is all too constant that the pitch is crap and the guy doesnt seem to do anything about it. the weather doesnt help, but i dont think that is an excuse

[EastLondonTerrier]

I thought the goals would at least be of some quality but my word, that is absolutely shambolic. Wallace looked like bambi on ice and we badly need Lynch back or a loanee in there. Don't see why Smith was put straight back in, he looks more of a liablity there than Edgar 100 percent. Those two need to kick on this season otherwise I'd only have them as squad players. We can't have only two of our back four who are solid. Really really poor goals to concede. I'd give all of them a rocket this week. Shambolic.

[Lord Snooty]

I'm not bothered about last night. As far as I am concerned that was a freak result and we are much better than that scoreline suggests. I just hope that we don't go on a post new year confidence slump like in the last couple of seasons.
We have a revenge mission to accomplish on Saturday. Bournemouth are no better than we are only that they are a team full of confidence. We need to support the boys. Which fair enough the crowd did last night. The only booing was directed at the ref.

[Terrier1987cas]

I saw them again this morning (SSN show them as they come in) and there's some utterly appalling defending going on - though admittedly, it looks a little late on as though its from running backwards after being caught on the break than just being crap.

I'm pissing myself at the thought of our midfield being high enough up the pitch to get caught on the break!

---

Key differences last night:

- They had more than 1 player who was willing to run with the ball (Afobe, Sako & Dicko in particular ran through us from the off) whereas we just had Scanz who was back to his usual trick of having no end product
- They were strong and well positioned at the back whereas we were weak and all over the shop
- They regularly broke with pace, and when they broke they had men up in support of their forward line whereas we lumped the ball long all night with no support for Miller or Vaughan
- They had a manager who made subs that could change a game whereas we have Chris Powell who brought a winger on for a winger and a centre half on for a centre half

Afobe watch:

Delighted to see he's developed into a top footballer like I always said he would, and I still think he has more about him than Rhodes and expect him to play at a higher level. He occupied 3 positions throughout the evening and we couldn't handle him in any of them. I particular liked him playing in the hole when we became even more stretched than we already were, where he would drop into space (too much space mind), turn with the ball and either play a ball out wide or run past 2 or 3 players. End product sometimes lacking but he's a proper footballing brain on him and has that priceless ability of knowing where the space is and knowing what he's going to do with the ball a few seconds before he has it. Dived a couple of times but it's part and parcel of the game, nobody kicked up a fuss in the first half when Vaughan kept throwing himself on the floor.