back in the car from the Brighton (H) game

[Terminal Boardom]

Watched it online having decided not to venture into town to watch it. All I can add is that Pog was unfortunate to pick up a second yellow. Otherwise, utter dross.

[North Somerset Royal]

What was written on the red bibs they wore when they came out on the pitch. Was sure it was RIP (someone)?

@JasonRoberts30: RIP DOM shirts worn today by RFC team in dedication to Dom Wilkinson..worked at the Club and was a friend to me and part of our RFC family..@JasonRoberts30: Our thoughts are with Dom and Bobby Wilkinson's family...people like that are the heartbeat of our club..he will be missed!!!

[AkpansBFF]

Just watched pogs bookings, the first one was a slight touch and a very very late fall so he should have been booked for diving as it was such a late time to go down then pogs second if you watch carefully he has his foot stood on so he went down a lottle late, but to sum up the guy in the first tackle went down later and that could easily have been them getting a yellow and pog winning a free kick

[creative_username_1]

Didn't hear any homophobic chanting in y25.

man shouted pansy behind me in the north stand

You were prolly just blocking his view, don't take it to heart m8

[bobby1413]

Awful atmosphere today. Loads of, as expected, homophobic chanting because everyone was bored. Some of our fans are an embarrassment.

Ref was dire. We were dire in the final third. Bridge did look class when he came on though.

In Y25 - barely heard any noise. Also didn't hear any homophobic chants.

[AirRaidSiren]

Awful atmosphere today. Loads of, as expected, homophobic chanting because everyone was bored. Some of our fans are an embarrassment.

Ref was dire. We were dire in the final third. Bridge did look class when he came on though.

In Y25 - barely heard any noise. Also didn't hear any homophobic chants.

I was in Y25 and heard some 'homophobic' chants towards the Brighton fans. Well, 'we can see you holding hands' chant, is that homophobic? 'Does he take it up the arse?' chants I also heard by a few of our supporters. All banter imo.

My thoughts on the game

McCarthy 7.5
Gunter 7
Morrison 6
Pearce 6
Kelly 5
Guthrie 6.5
Karacan 6
Williams 6
Drenthe 6
Alf 5
Pog 5

Bridge 7
Blackman 5
HRK 6

Apart from his stupid acting, I thought Pog tried hard and the effort was there with no service given to him. He certainly was more of a pain in the arse than Alf was at that time. Alf was pretty anonymous throughout the game.

I was disappointed with our midfield, with Guthrie showing some class with his passing but he did give the ball away a few times in the first half. Williams run around like a headless chicken and Karacan didn't do much, apart from the two shots on goal. Drenthe was a huge disappointment.

Kelly was non-existent. I thought Gunter had a decent game, but I'm worried about the Pearce-Morrison partnership at this time of the season. They're too inconsistent. Hopefully they will blossom as the season progresses.

We lacked width until Bridge came on, who I thought played very well.

Overall a shit game, a shit performance and roll on Wednesday. We will get better.

@P!ssed off:- Our home support is diablolical. Our atmosphere is flat and no wonder away supporters take the piss out of our ground all the time.

[bobby1413]

Awful atmosphere today. Loads of, as expected, homophobic chanting because everyone was bored. Some of our fans are an embarrassment.

Ref was dire. We were dire in the final third. Bridge did look class when he came on though.

In Y25 - barely heard any noise. Also didn't hear any homophobic chants.

I was in Y25 and heard some 'homophobic' chants towards the Brighton fans. Well, 'we can see you holding hands' chant, is that homophobic? 'Does he take it up the arse?' chants I also heard by a few of our supporters. All banter imo.

...

@P!ssed off:- Our home support is diablolical. Our atmosphere is flat and no wonder away supporters take the piss out of our ground all the time.

Oh I didn't hear that strangely enough :-\

The atmosphere was shit. However, I don't think many other clubs have a better atmosphere on the whole. The whole day had a dull feel to it, maybe it's a Sunday early kick off thing + sky tv + shit weather.

[westongeezer]

Why do we insist in playing off the wings and lobbing into no one! Alfs great but hes only 3 feet tall, can't we try playing a little narrower down the middle.

[AirRaidSiren]

In Y25 - barely heard any noise. Also didn't hear any homophobic chants.

I was in Y25 and heard some 'homophobic' chants towards the Brighton fans. Well, 'we can see you holding hands' chant, is that homophobic? 'Does he take it up the arse?' chants I also heard by a few of our supporters. All banter imo.

...

@P!ssed off:- Our home support is diablolical. Our atmosphere is flat and no wonder away supporters take the piss out of our ground all the time.

@bobby1413 "Oh I didn't hear that strangely enough :-\

The atmosphere was shit. However, I don't think many other clubs have a better atmosphere on the whole. The whole day had a dull feel to it, maybe it's a Sunday early kick off thing + sky tv + shit weather."

Yeah, there was at least a handful from Y24 chanting. The same area/idiots who were mocking Shane Griffin when he passed the ball forward against Oman. They're right bellends.

As for the atmosphere being shit, isn't it most home games nowadays? Hence why I've stopped going to most. Bloody boring atmosphere. To be honest, many complain about the band but if it wasn't for them yesterday, the atmosphere would of been even worse. At least they were trying to bring some life into our morgue.

[Brum Royal]

Most of my points have already been made, so I won't repeat, however:

1. Surprised to see Jem getting low r8ings from most people, he was everywhere, in particular back tracking and making recovery tackles when we got hit on the counter a couple of times second half. Had a few good shots, and worked well with Guthrie. I would have had him MotM ahead of McCarthy tbh. A bit like with James Harper, a lot of Jem's work seems to go unnoticed by the majority, but he is actually one of our more influential players.

2. I've been to all the away games, but yesterday was my first home match, and I texted this point in to BBCRB which got read out. In the games I have seen this season, the quality of our crossing has been consistently terrible, Adie sort of brushed it away by saying Bridge put in four good crosses yesterday, but there were so many crosses that went too deep (HRK and Gunter) or didn't beat the first man. Drenthe seems to be insistant on putting everything to the near post when he takes set pieces (presumably a tactic from Adkins, as everything at Bolton went to the back post), but when Guthrie was taking set pieces second half, they seemed to be more consistantly into the middle of the goal.

3. Drenthe was taken off before he got sent off I think. Probably lucky not to have got a second yellow for having a little swipe at one of the Brighton players not long after Pog got sent off.

4. A lot of our play is too slow and laboured. On the occasions we pass the ball quickly between players we start to open sides up a little more, but too often we look very ponderous on the ball and more conscious of not giving it away rather than looking to be proactive (presumably a confidence issue).

5. I'm not convinced taking goal kicks out to either of the centre backs on the corners of the 18 yard box is a gr8 idea, especially when most of the time it results in a panicky ball back to McCarthy for him to lump the ball up field when he could have done that from the goal kick anyway under a lot less pressure.

[kwik-silva]

Most of my points have already been made, so I won't repeat, however:

1. Surprised to see Jem getting low r8ings from most people, he was everywhere, in particular back tracking and making recovery tackles when we got hit on the counter a couple of times second half. Had a few good shots, and worked well with Guthrie. I would have had him MotM ahead of McCarthy tbh. A bit like with James Harper, a lot of Jem's work seems to go unnoticed by the majority, but he is actually one of our more influential players.

2. I've been to all the away games, but yesterday was my first home match, and I texted this point in to BBCRB which got read out. In the games I have seen this season, the quality of our crossing has been consistently terrible, Adie sort of brushed it away by saying Bridge put in four good crosses yesterday, but there were so many crosses that went too deep (HRK and Gunter) or didn't beat the first man. Drenthe seems to be insistant on putting everything to the near post when he takes set pieces (presumably a tactic from Adkins, as everything at Bolton went to the back post), but when Guthrie was taking set pieces second half, they seemed to be more consistantly into the middle of the goal.

5. I'm not convinced taking goal kicks out to either of the centre backs on the corners of the 18 yard box is a gr8 idea, especially when most of the time it results in a panicky ball back to McCarthy for him to lump the ball up field when he could have done that from the goal kick anyway under a lot less pressure.

1. Made a few good blocks as well

2. I didn't think our crossing was that bad tbh, just thought that they were bigger and stronger than ALF and that line of attack is never going to work.

5. I remember that happening once (?) yesterday?

[Brum Royal]

Most of my points have already been made, so I won't repeat, however:

1. Surprised to see Jem getting low r8ings from most people, he was everywhere, in particular back tracking and making recovery tackles when we got hit on the counter a couple of times second half. Had a few good shots, and worked well with Guthrie. I would have had him MotM ahead of McCarthy tbh. A bit like with James Harper, a lot of Jem's work seems to go unnoticed by the majority, but he is actually one of our more influential players.

2. I've been to all the away games, but yesterday was my first home match, and I texted this point in to BBCRB which got read out. In the games I have seen this season, the quality of our crossing has been consistently terrible, Adie sort of brushed it away by saying Bridge put in four good crosses yesterday, but there were so many crosses that went too deep (HRK and Gunter) or didn't beat the first man. Drenthe seems to be insistant on putting everything to the near post when he takes set pieces (presumably a tactic from Adkins, as everything at Bolton went to the back post), but when Guthrie was taking set pieces second half, they seemed to be more consistantly into the middle of the goal.

5. I'm not convinced taking goal kicks out to either of the centre backs on the corners of the 18 yard box is a gr8 idea, especially when most of the time it results in a panicky ball back to McCarthy for him to lump the ball up field when he could have done that from the goal kick anyway under a lot less pressure.

1. Made a few good blocks as well

2. I didn't think our crossing was that bad tbh, just thought that they were bigger and stronger than ALF and that line of attack is never going to work.

5. I remember that happening once (?) yesterday?

2. If we had been slinging it in to the mixer and ALF had been losing headers then yes I would agree with you, but my point is that most of the crosses don't seem to be hitting the right areas - either being well over hit or not getting past the first man.

5. Pretty much every goal kick these days is taken short to a centre back on the corner of the 18 yard box.

[Dave the rave]

Agree about the playing off the wings sentiment.
We've always been slow to get bodies in the box plus I lost count how many times we either failed to beat the first man or the delivery of the cross was poor quality.

I like Karacan as a player and the effort he puts in but today he was muscled off the ball too easily on a number of occasions.

Shame ALF showed too much of the ball when he seemed through early on.

It shows we don't have a quality outlet up front.

McArthy was quality.

I'm not going to comment on the Ref or Pog's sending off except to say football has brought what we saw on itself.

[melonhead]

Just watched pogs bookings, the first one was a slight touch and a very very late fall so he should have been booked for diving as it was such a late time to go down then pogs second if you watch carefully he has his foot stood on so he went down a lottle late, but to sum up the guy in the first tackle went down later and that could easily have been them getting a yellow and pog winning a free kick

pogs first booking was almost exactly the same as his second, but in reverse
which is what makes it so oxf*rd ridiculous

[kwik-silva]

Most of my points have already been made, so I won't repeat, however:

1. Surprised to see Jem getting low r8ings from most people, he was everywhere, in particular back tracking and making recovery tackles when we got hit on the counter a couple of times second half. Had a few good shots, and worked well with Guthrie. I would have had him MotM ahead of McCarthy tbh. A bit like with James Harper, a lot of Jem's work seems to go unnoticed by the majority, but he is actually one of our more influential players.

2. I've been to all the away games, but yesterday was my first home match, and I texted this point in to BBCRB which got read out. In the games I have seen this season, the quality of our crossing has been consistently terrible, Adie sort of brushed it away by saying Bridge put in four good crosses yesterday, but there were so many crosses that went too deep (HRK and Gunter) or didn't beat the first man. Drenthe seems to be insistant on putting everything to the near post when he takes set pieces (presumably a tactic from Adkins, as everything at Bolton went to the back post), but when Guthrie was taking set pieces second half, they seemed to be more consistantly into the middle of the goal.

5. I'm not convinced taking goal kicks out to either of the centre backs on the corners of the 18 yard box is a gr8 idea, especially when most of the time it results in a panicky ball back to McCarthy for him to lump the ball up field when he could have done that from the goal kick anyway under a lot less pressure.

1. Made a few good blocks as well

2. I didn't think our crossing was that bad tbh, just thought that they were bigger and stronger than ALF and that line of attack is never going to work.

5. I remember that happening once (?) yesterday?

2. If we had been slinging it in to the mixer and ALF had been losing headers then yes I would agree with you, but my point is that most of the crosses don't seem to be hitting the right areas - either being well over hit or not getting past the first man.

5. Pretty much every goal kick these days is taken short to a centre back on the corner of the 18 yard box.

Sorry, I meant I only remember it then being hoofed back upfield once. There were quite a few crosses where the defence nipped in front of our guys and just got a head on it, but I agree a lot also went over their head

Shame ALF showed too much of the ball when he seemed through early on.

Totally forgot about that, was too busy celebrating as I had Pog to score first. How silly of me.

[melonhead]

Why do we insist in playing off the wings and lobbing into no one! Alfs great but hes only 3 feet tall, can't we try playing a little narrower down the middle.

thats what we did with our no winger set up.
didnt really work.
the only time we did manage to get anywhere near their box was later on from the wings

[melonhead]

2. If we had been slinging it in to the mixer and ALF had been losing headers then yes I would agree with you, but my point is that most of the crosses don't seem to be hitting the right areas - either being well over hit or not getting past the first man.

.

a cross is a percentage ball. when you only have 1 or two in the box, its almost always going to miss your target

[Maguire]

1. Surprised to see Jem getting low r8ings from most people, he was everywhere, in particular back tracking and making recovery tackles when we got hit on the counter a couple of times second half. Had a few good shots, and worked well with Guthrie. I would have had him MotM ahead of McCarthy tbh. A bit like with James Harper, a lot of Jem's work seems to go unnoticed by the majority, but he is actually one of our more influential players

Agreed.

I'm really not a big fan of Karacan but thought he had a decent game yday, got through tonnes and tonnes of work, and troubled the keeper a couple of times too.

[Cureton's Volley]

Awful atmosphere today. Loads of, as expected, homophobic chanting because everyone was bored. Some of our fans are an embarrassment.

Agreed there was lots and it wasn't even original, funny, or meant by any means as 'banter' by the same knuckle-dragging idiots who were desperate to get it going every time there was enough excitement and noise for them to hide behind. (note - this was in Y26, which probably says it all)

The only banter which was even mildly amusing and original (for us anyway) was RE: Shit in the dressing room

[ZacNaloen]

1. Surprised to see Jem getting low r8ings from most people, he was everywhere, in particular back tracking and making recovery tackles when we got hit on the counter a couple of times second half. Had a few good shots, and worked well with Guthrie. I would have had him MotM ahead of McCarthy tbh. A bit like with James Harper, a lot of Jem's work seems to go unnoticed by the majority, but he is actually one of our more influential players

Agreed.

I'm really not a big fan of Karacan but thought he had a decent game yday, got through tonnes and tonnes of work, and troubled the keeper a couple of times too.

Indeed. Several good blocks and recovering tackles up and down the pitch, troubled the keeper, passing was assured etc

Not an issue with his performance at all. I imagine he went off because he was knackered.