Norwich 2-1 Bolton.

Beckford was missing again time for someone to step up.

Pratley played well worked really hard but he's called Pratley so just cosh him without actually watching his input.

 Mills really disappointing only Dervite and the Keeper played well at the back, distribution in general was poor and final third non existant. At least Lennon say's it how it is. Work in progress.

Too many aimless balls lumped up and easily dealt with by their CB's - I can't remember Lonergan rolling it out once.

Our only real creative player, Mark Davies, seemed to be playing far too deep - he needs to play just off the front man / men.

Mills is a liability and needs flirting and the entire back four looked shaky all night.

Beckford was an anonymous passenger throughout.

When Craig Davies came on he started winning balls in the air, a la Kevin Davies but unlike KD, he seemed to then struggle to retain possession.

And there's no point knocking it about in our half if you then bang it up to the lone striker as soon as you hit the halfway line.

5/10 last night.

gloswhite wrote:I couldn't believe how bad Ream was. it got to the point where, even when he wasn't under pressure, he was giving the ball away.
Overall, we were pretty poor, but we played (some), controlled football, but not for long. I saw no real shape in the team, and this tippy tappy passing shit is all well and good, but somebody, anybody, has to have a go at goal now and then. I reckon we had most of our possession between our goal and half way, by a long chalk. Everyone was waiting for somebody else to do something, and as for running off the ball, it was non-existent.
I think Lennon is waking up to the fact that its not just previous tactics that put us where we are, but average players, who cannot seem to raise themselves out of their lethargy.

I'd add that whenever we started to build a decent move we turned over possession through bad passing and/or poor movement as though the recipients weren't sure if the pass was coming to feet or to the space they were moving towards. That kills confidence and causes swings in momentum.

And as I've said all along, it's the player quality not the tactics which is why we are in the shit and the task facing Lennon can't just be solved by good player management and motivation. Sure he's done that better than Dougie so far, but unless he manages to recruit it remains a turd-polishing exercise. Wigan and Blackpool matches are becoming increasingly important to our season.

Pratley was one of the better performers in my opinion. Trotter came on and honestly was anonymous.

Mills was absolutely awful in the moments that it mattered. He's fine putting his head on long balls but when he's tested one on one he's useless.

Dervite was forced to come out from the back time and time again and then turn around and go back because our midfielders don't show for the ball, when they do show for it Mills ignores them and fucks it out of play. 

up front was very poor, Beckford must be on his last legs now with Lennon, Clayton came on, scuffed a great chance but his movement and workrate was higher than Beckford, Craig Davies is the same. 

Still stand by the fact first half we were the better team without really creating too much, second half Norwich were far far better but we still had a chance to nick a point.

Also the ref should have sent O Neill off all day long. Absolutely bottled it. 

and Lafferty throwing Threlkeld down by his head probably should have been spotted too.

We need some genuine pace in the team as well.

We look far too ponderous going forward.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:
Still stand by the fact first half we were the better team without really creating too much, second half Norwich were far far better but we still had a chance to nick a point.

We weren't the better team in either half HN. We were genuinely poor throughout. That's why I'm still gobsmacked that had Clayton scored we could have come away with a draw. That would have been a travesty though.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Also the ref should have sent O Neill off all day long. Absolutely bottled it. 

What happened? must of missed this.

scottjames30 wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Also the ref should have sent O Neill off all day long. Absolutely bottled it. 

What happened? must of missed this.

Nasty tackle on Chungy I think.
He'd already been booked.
Like Hipster said,the ref bottled it.

wanderlust wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:
Still stand by the fact first half we were the better team without really creating too much, second half Norwich were far far better but we still had a chance to nick a point.

We weren't the better team in either half HN. We were genuinely poor throughout. That's why I'm still gobsmacked that had Clayton scored we could have come away with a draw. That would have been a travesty though.

In my opinion we were. Norwich carried the greater threat throughout I agree with that.

scottjames30 wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Also the ref should have sent O Neill off all day long. Absolutely bottled it. 

What happened? must of missed this.

He got Chungy studs up on the Knee, a booking every single day of the week. 

2 minutes later he swings the cross in for their second goal.

Oh him, i remember that, he should've walked .

Just watching Wolves Vs Brum and it's not brilliant but Wolves can go top on their own if they either win or draw.

Narridge are currently joint top with them, Derby and Watford.

Narridge didn't batter us last night, they just took their chances and we didn't create any.

The point I'm trying to make is, there doesn't appear to be a massive gulf in terms of quality between the top teams and the rest - Birmingham are shite but they're more than holding their own against a team at the top of the league.

I reckon that if we can get a couple of decent creative players on loan and someone who can hit the back of the net consistently, we'll be ok this season.

We had the majority of possession last night but it was in the defensive areas. I don't think the difference was simply Naaaaarch talking their chances - more that they were far more coherent and patient in possession coming forward and almost every time they had the ball the final outcome was a shot or good defensive work. We on the other hand, kept giving the ball away when we got to the halfway line. Not seen the stats but I'd imagine that Naaaaaarch had twice as many goal attempts than we did despite our greater possession. 
We simply didn't dominate the ball in their half of the pitch. Naaaarch let us have possession in our own half (similar to Dougie's approach) but as soon as we crossed the halfway line we ran into a wall.

Being a "local" are you saying it's not "Narridge" and should be "Naaaarch"....?

I'll bow to your local knowledge, but can you confirm how many "A's" should be employed, as you've varied between 4, 5 and 6 in your last post.

Is it quite a fluid rule, ie dependent on the context and desired inference or did you simply lose count?

wessy wrote:
Pratley played well worked really hard but he's called Pratley so just cosh him without actually watching his input.

Pratley gets into good positions but usually loses the ball due to a lack of quality. At best, he gives us five hopeless contributions, for every decent one.
I seem to remember Dougie also seeing something in him at first, and he went on a good run.
If he could get back to that level (and keep it up for longer than a few months), he's worth persevering with. Personally, I've got major doubts.

the problem we have is that we have far too many average centre mids who can't pass or retain possession for longer than 3 passes and we have no real width or pace out wide. I'm hoping for a 442 diamond formation on Tuesday with Mavies playing behind the front 2.
As for the defence get Ream back at centre half and drop Mills, he is forever making mistakes and hoofing it long to no one in particular.

I wonder if Mason and Clayton would make a good combination up front? 
Both busy players, but it'll have to be ball to feet and that's were we'll fall down. 
Cavies is a poor man's SKD I'm afraid, and Beckford is conspicuous by his hiding. 
SKD's head on for nob ends third last week was top drawer!!

Back today had the match recorded.Mills didn't do nothing to stop Jerome for the first goal piss easy nod to a Norwich player who played him back in.He should have been pulling his jersey whatever,one for the team.(pathetic).
Then ONeil should have been off.Then the 2 nd goal.
Why was Trotter brought on did he touch the ball or make any meaningful contribution.Pratley,Beckford both contracts up at end of season Thank God!.
Clayton missed a sitter from a killer ball from Mavies,all he had to do is take the ball past the keeper n put it in the empty net,but he tried to dink it over shocker.

Then Craig Davies is introduced cuases mayhem n chungy nips in 2-1 but time was up.Beckford n Pratley should of been taken off for Clayton n Davies after an hour.
There's improvement another foot n Mavies run would of been a penalty.

Believe we played well v Brentford seen Danns goal n Mavies at his best hope we do Cardiff 3 points would make up for the loss last night.
We need a clinical striker.Hope this Thai consortium takeover bet Breadmans buzzing 20% discount for Bolton fans on Ladyboy brides. 

He will be licking his lips as we speak.

Don't know why my post said 5-26 AM must be in a different time zone weird try this see if it changes back on my I pad.