| Poor display for the travelling 400 18:45 - Apr 2 with 1322 views | gerry_us |
An inept display, especially from me who couldn’t find the restaurant for a meet-up with Durham. Hope you got home OK Durham. Never seen you so despondent; me neither come to think of it.
However, an even more inept display from the U’s who totally underestimated a rejuvenated Notts. County side. How we didn’t have a plan to negate two very professional players in Ameobi and Stead I fail to understand. The fact that big George got himself booked inside 15 minutes certainly meant that he was unable to support Eastman as he would have liked at the back. In truth, after a long and stern talking to from the referee, George, within a couple of minutes went through with a tackle that I was convinced would result in a red card; fortunately, only yellow. After that Ameobi and Stead won everything up front and probably 3-1 loss rather flattered the U’s. One bright spot was Porter’s goal that if scored in the Premier would probably be candidate for goal of the season. From where we were stationed it looked top left corner from when it left his boot.
Did management recognise that only a win would be any good to us at this late stage of the campaign? At no stage did we show the intensity or guile required to break down what was a very nervous looking Notts. County defence and an equally fallible looking goalie. All we persisted with was the ball bypassing the mid field for Porter to knock down….to who?
Even when County had settled for 2-1 and timewasting very early in the second half it took until 70 minutes to bring on Bonne and Fosu. Unfortunately, they never had the opportunity to get into the match and we conceded again and it could have been more if truth were told.
This must be one of the worst displays I have seen from a U’s side for many a year and was not what 400+ travelling supporters expected or deserved. Roll on next season when we will hopefully keep some of our more important players fit for a whole season, unfortunately in Div.2
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| Poor display for the travelling 400 on 18:59 - Apr 2 with 1315 views | oxfcolu |
Seen the highlights and we couldn't defend. What do you do as there is nobody left to bring in to shake it up. It looks like we will have to wait until next season. |  | | |
| Poor display for the travelling 400 on 19:18 - Apr 2 with 1308 views | Leadbelly |
Why will it be any different next season? We have been unable to defend for several seasons but nothing changes...other than the standard of play is even worse in League 2 so we haven't conceded as many goals.
We don't seem to learn from our mistakes. We will have the same management team next season and i doubt the squad will be improved greatly. I'd love to be proved wrong but i fear next season will be more of the same. [Post edited 3 Apr 2017 1:20]
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| Poor display for the travelling 400 on 20:57 - Apr 2 with 1287 views | mfb_cufc |
Spot on, Leadbelly. We have been so predictable away from home for years. It would be easy to blame it on the amount of injuries, but it is no coincidence we have had one internal appointment after another, all playing the same way. This philosophy of playing an isolated one up front home and and away, has never worked, but we insist on playing that way. Also when Guthrie was injured, his natural replacement Bonne has never been given a chance to play in his favoured position. When we go a goal behind away from home, the best we can hope for is a draw. The last time we came from behind to win an away league game, was Rotherham in 2005. |  |
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| Poor display for the travelling 400 on 09:19 - Apr 3 with 1242 views | BlueStripes |
I'm just waiting for some joker to come on here and start banging on about how we can still make the play-offs! 3 points from the last 8 away games says it all really. If it wasn't for our half decent home record, we'd be scratching around at the bottom with Orient and Newport (and what's the betting doomed Orient will complete the double over us at the end of the month!). We're going to end up mid-table at best and all-in-all it's been another very disappointing season. At no stage did we ever look convincing play-off candidates and I fear it will be more of the same next season if changes are not made. I still think the squad we have are good enough to challenge for promotion from this division but I'm not convinced that John McGreal is the man to lead them there. His cave-man tactics of lumping the ball up to a solitary striker (especially away from home) are just not producing results and it seems it's only him and his management team that can't seem to see this. Combine this with the fact that we still can't defend properly and you have a team that's going nowhere fast! | | | |
| Poor display for the travelling 400 on 13:32 - Apr 3 with 1212 views | noah4x4 |
It's not that long ago that fans moaned about "too much pretty football", and not being sufficiently "direct" and "trying to walk the ball into the net". Now folk are moaning about being too direct and a lone striker. But were we not playing two up front on Saturday? Sadly, Pyke was pretty anonymous and Bonne didn't touch the ball in his first ten minutes. We badly miss the pace and agility of Dickenson and Guthrie.
The fact is we are also missing Slater and Garvan, just as we did in our earlier poor run at the start of the season when Guthrie was forced to plug our midfield deficiencies. People moaned about McGreal "playing Guthrie out of position " but I can see, with hindsight, exactly why he did, notably with Szmodics, Loft, Slater and Garvan all injured; and a lack of midfield creativity. Lapslie is solid, Dickenson is fine wide, but Murray has yet to fully find his feet and Wright runs up blind alleys. We hence have little connectivity between defence and attack.
Suddenly we fired again with Garvan back and Guthrie forward. But now we are back to where we were before; with a catalogue of injuries. Fosu and Wright have tried, and Fosu has worked as an impact player off the bench when opposition legs are tiring. Wright has been a headless chicken, albeit better in the last two games. Without a midfield "general" (Garvan/Slater) we have struggled.
Frankly, from where we were in November I am delighted how this season of rebuilding has gone given our astonishing poor luck with injuries and the lack of protection from referees. How many have been crocked by awful tackles that have gone unpunished? Get people fit and we have a platform. However, we must learn from the financial mistakes of Portsmouth, Coventry, Morecambe and Leyton Orient. It's time to back our Chairman and his prudence. Be patient, enjoy the football, and cease moaning. We might not gain promotion, but at least we are battling at a level where we can compete. Division One or Championship is not realistic on average gates under 4,000. |  | | |
| Poor display for the travelling 400 on 07:18 - Apr 4 with 1130 views | durham_exile |
Gerry, thanks for the comments, yes I got home safely at about 7.45pm.
Agree with all your thoughts re Saturday!!!
Enjoy your holiday.
Up the U's |  |
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