First 30 minutes I was thinking we looked ok. We scored and threatened. Then Newport got a goal from a corner (completely free header on the six yard line) and we fell to pieces. They were really unlucky not to get another before half time when they hit the bar/post with Morris just watching.
The second half was back to the Mark Yates horror shows. Our only tactic was to launch the ball long for Meite to challenge for. Our passing through the middle was so poor it is hard to describe. The substitutions made the team worse which as Taj was having a complete mare in the second half is saying something.
Bad, bad and bad.
Jim Baker
Good summary Jim. On a positive note the pitch looks good.
We always look stifled and crowded out at home. Teams suffocate us and we resort to hoofing and attempting wonder passes.
Conversely, on Saturday at Barnet we found space all over the pitch and could've racked up a cricket score.
No idea if Barnet's pitch is bigger or whether it's the way teams setup differently home and away, but all home games follow a similar pattern and it's claustrophobic to watch never mind to play in.
I thought we matched them pretty well until they scored. After that they were better organised, shut us down quickly, and deserved their win. I know we hit the post from a free kick but that would have been a lucky point had we got it. I'm very disappointed with the manner of their goals - both conceded with headers from corners. I didn't think Newport were particularly good, but they were better than us. Both teams played a lot of hoofball, which wasn't pretty to watch.
Complete and utter crap - How Bully must feel having Taj selected over him is a mystery.
The Newport 'keeper will surely feel no need to put his kit in the wash basket tonight.
I have said before and I'll say it again WE HAVE NO WINNERS IN THE TEAM.
JTG
How anyone gets selected over Taj, including Reggie the Red is a mystery? If we keep losing at home we will be scrapping it out with the rest of the relegation fodder in the league (maybe we are already?).
Post by Red, Red & Red on Sept 26, 2017 22:18:43 GMT
Well at least out of favour Cox (sat in the west stand) didnt thump any west standers abusing the Tadzmanian devil and we actually scored getting an attempt on target but after absolute sh1t previous home performance the lowest crowd in for league two football at the Broadfield was perhaps not surprising. Flash in the pan at High Barnet and normal lacklustre disorganised chaotic shambles resumed. Defensively we are worst than laughing stock. Shape dissapeared when they scored and at that stage you are looking for the manager to er...manage..what did this joker do? fvck all he couldnt organise a p1ss up in a brewery never mind plan b or any plan. If you saw Notts and not tonight it was basically more of that but far worse. Its not like Newtport were any good! A very sad day for theis greatest of all great football clubs when you have such a shower. Set pieces again, what the fvck do we do in training? There was no cohesion in the side particularly when they levelled from a horror defensive pathetic shower, if HK is a real man of any sort he will put his hands up after that and say he is not up to it. Teams have off days and on days but we are inconsistent and the cracks are all over the place is falling down with no rescue mission. The manager, squad and set up is not good enough for the basics. Drop to non league and we will nose dive. that is certain and you will see less than 1000. One or two swallows dont make a season. One or two defeats dont send us down but the trend and lack of hope within the club is making people vote with their feet. If the owners dont or cant act and soon, i cant see us staying up.
i think we must understand re the barnet game is they had 6 first team regulars out injured which played into our hands, however you can only beat whats in front of you
back to tonight the 2nd half was the worst half of football i have seen since MY days we had no ideas, no ball winners, no passion, no guts we rolled over and let a very average team make us look complete fools, Kewell has had 10 games now the 2nd worst start to an EFL league season maybe its time for an experienced coach to come in and help him
Post by broadfielddave on Sept 26, 2017 23:51:17 GMT
Yeah Jim's pretty much nailed it to be honest. First half hour we were good (although I put that down to them looking particularly bad), then they equalise and the game is totally different. They play much better and we play much worse. No rhyme or reason about our football, it was just 11 lads in Crawley shirts not doing much with a football for an hour.
Also if we're going to play two in midfield, any two other than Smith and Tajbaksh. Neither were terrible, but if you play two in there they both need to be comfortable on the ball and able to keep some control of the middle of the park. Smith has his plus points but he's never controlling a midfield, while Taj is probably our 6th best centre mid. Perhaps there were fitness issues but any two of the three guys on the bench (Randall, Bulman and Payne) would have been better from the start.
And if Meite is up front, try telling the defence not to hoof long balls to him. He's never beating League Two defensive grocks in the air.
Second half display was one of the worst I have seen at home for a long time. Newport were stronger, quicker and better organized. Kewell needs a home win really soon or he is in trouble as the gates are going to collapse.
I think from the opening games we will do enough to stay out of trouble - wins here and there and a couple of teams already struggling.
However our home form in 2017 has been dire and a crowd of 1400 odd should be more worrying than the result.
Let's face it out summer transfer activity was pretty feeble and we are now largely back to Drummy's team which as last season showed wasn't good enough.
Verheydt - injured. Bulman/Camara/Randall/Doherty - bench. Sanoh - never plays. Lewis - ?? Please tell me what the point of signing that lot really was?
Starting to have echoes of previous seasons - one good win shortly followed by a disappointing defeat or two and it tends to equal mid table obscurity. I still maintain that this is a good achievement for a club of our size, but we will need to push on in some way at some point and I really feel the only way to do that is build some consistency and give a manager atleast more than one season.
Not sure how Taj is being picked as our worst player when Randall was on the pitch........... Only 8 minutes but he managed to do nothing at all.
After the first substitution we lost all shape totally. If I were to move my left winger to the forward line I would instruct another to take a wider role - this appeared not to happen and we had no one for a while to pass to.
We should have gone to three at the back and pushed more into midfield where we were being overrun. We have enough pace in the back to cover breaks, our problem was winning the ball in midfield - and keeping it!
Yet again we were bullied by a physical team, I was impressed that Yorwerth was not losing his cool, but Roberts was seriously targeted and totally unprotected by the referee. How many times were our players blatantly pushed off the pitch trying to keep the ball in play? I lost count.
I noticed that our owner was there last night, along with a bunch of cronies. This left me wondering if HK played Taj for his benefit, because I can think of no other reason why such an incompetent player would play in place of Bulman or even Cox. Taj would struggle at conference south level. It was amusing that upon his substitution he applauded the fans that were actually cheering the fact that he was no longer going to participate.
Our marking at corners was dreadful, both goals were uncontested headers from corners. Why can't McInierny get a start? He was our best central defender last season.
Another thing that was evident last night was the amount of our players that seem to slip over at crucial times, the Connolly one was a classic. Is this is a footwear issue and is it down to players wearing blades rather than studs?
Post by thad in exile on Sept 27, 2017 10:05:09 GMT
Bumped into Lee who was still recovering from the price of cheesy chips & reiterated my point - in Kaby & Cox thread - about set-pieces. I said we never score from them and he said teams rarely score from corners anymore. So typically we score a header from a free kick and hit the post another and concede two dollies from opposition corners. It was more Hari Kari than Harry Kewell and im not sure why he is getting so much stick and the normally brilliant Glen Morris has not even been mentioned?
Bumped into Lee who was still recovering from the price of cheesy chips & reiterated my point - in Kaby & Cox thread - about set-pieces. I said we never score from them and he said teams rarely score from corners anymore. So typically we score a header from a free kick and hit the post another and concede two dollies from opposition corners. It was more Hari Kari than Harry Kewell and im not sure why he is getting so much stick and the normally brilliant Glen Morris has not even been mentioned?
I thought about what i said to you regarding goals from corners Thad.I still maintain though that goals from corners are rare,but only if the defence mark players properly and the keeper is over 6 foot and commands the box.Unfortunatly for us we have neither. As for the £4 cheesy chips that deserves its own thread.