Bolton 2-2 Shrewsbury

Unfortunately, some things remain the same last night - Cogs and others had plenty of chances to cross the ball quickly but turned around and passed backwards, the result is they have time to pack their box and no gaps for our lads.  Our lack of moving the ball quickly has cost us again IMO. Now to be fair their second goal was probably goal of the season from their perspective. Just one of those things. A split second of composure from Iredale with the last kick and the chatter would be different today. Also, with all that we still had 25 shots believe it or not. 
Now the pain is easing, the review is that we were the better team again - we were unlikely to make the Autos and in my mind, we are still favorites for the playoffs.
Also, technically a third-place finish is an improvement over last season - if you fancy a year over year advancement although it might not feel that way at the minute.

Our shortcomings were on full view again last night. 
At the end of the day, the likes of Pompey, when the pressure is on, find a way to win. 
We find a way to lose.
We'll certainly be the best team in the play offs, but that self destruct button is always in play, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

karlypants wrote:

Shrewsbury should be literally a walk in the park even on a Tuesday bloody night.

That is the trap that a lot of Wanderers fans fall for - thinking we have a divine right to win games against teams who are lower down in the league. I really hope that the players haven't been taking that disrespectful attitude. To win, you have to play well individually and as a team, stay focused, keep your discipline, cut out mistakes and take your chances - and as much as anything else hope that you're lucky enough to get the rub of the green with the things you can't control like bad refereeing decisions, freak goals, the bounce of the ball etc etc.

If we had any right to win against mid-table and lower half teams we'd have been crowned champions weeks ago.
Burton A 1 -1, Wigan H 0 - 4, Reading A 2 - 1, Bristol H 1 -2, Leyton (A) 1 - 0, Wigan A 1 - 0, Northampton A 1 - 1, Exeter A 2 -2  - that's 21 points right there down the pan, more than enough to stroll the league and you can add another 2 points dropped at home to Shrewsbury to that.
It's not the games against the likes of Pompey, Derby and Posh alone that decide where we finish - it's failing to win against mid and lower table teams who some fans (hopefully not the players) don't show enough respect to.

You don't half talk guff at times,

It's nothing at all to do with our players taking "a disrespectful attitude" towards lower table teams!

You seem to always miss the fact that there are TWO teams on the pitch and the opposition has their own game plans to do what's best for them and stop or limit the threats they see from us.

It should be blindingly obvious to all of us now that Evatt has only one way of playing - he once said that his 'plan B' is playing 'plan A' but doing it better!

Teams KNOW what to expect for it and unlike us, they plan for it and find ways of blunting us.

This is exactly what the Shrews manager Paul Hurst did...

The Shrewsbury boss opted to go with a back three against Ian Evatt’s side and was pleased with how the game panned out.

“We had looked at a lot of the teams who had got results against Bolton and a lot of them had played a three,” he explained.

“Doing that against two centre-forwards - and playing with two holding midfield players against their two eights, wing-backs matched up – all of a sudden, their spare man is one of the centre-backs.

“While they are comfortable on the ball, they are a long way from goal. We also felt having two up front, when we did clear a ball we had a bit more chance of putting them under pressure or getting hold of it.”

It ISN'T a coincidence that we've struggled against mid table teams progressively over the season as they have studied the matches we've played week on week, looked at how teams have set up against us, and seen what other teams have done to get points off us.

We all know that we ARE NOT a physical side, we DON'T do the unexpected, and we always play the same way and can't beat teams that set their stall out to park the bus and spoil the game as much as possible by time wasting when they are holding on to a draw or win.

Evatt-ball is effective of slicing through teams that come to attack us or teams that we can overwhelm - but teams that bully us or defend in depth we simply struggle with - and those generally speaking are the teams midtable and lower.

There's simply no point us wasting time tippy tappying it from side to side through out all the game when we can't find a way to play it through them or they won't be drawn out.

Santos standing with his foot on the ball is a clear sign that the team (and manager) can't work out what to do to win these types of games.

Shrewsbury need points to stay up, they set themselves up to do their best to get some - and they did.

We on the other hand were playing for a miracle of winning our remaining games and Derby getting tonked by two teams at the bottom, in order to go up automatically, whilst going out to face Shrewsbury with the same team set up that failed against all those teams you've named above.

Shrewsbury IS a worse team than us - the league table at the end of the season will show that, we have been one of the best teams.

What we haven't been though is a team that can adapt and perform against teams who are intent to bully us and/or park the bus.

We all KNOW that - you'd think by now Evatt would have come up with ways to overcome that.

Up to now he hasn't.

Sluffy wrote:You don't half talk guff at times,

It's nothing at all to do with our players taking "a disrespectful attitude" towards lower table teams!

Well nobody, especially you, is qualified to say what attitude our players took in the games we lost. Which is why I wrote that I hope they weren't disrespectful - because I don't know either.

The guff is all yours my friend.

wanderlust wrote:

Sluffy wrote:You don't half talk guff at times,

It's nothing at all to do with our players taking "a disrespectful attitude" towards lower table teams!

Well nobody, especially you, is qualified to say what attitude our players took in the games we lost. Which is why I wrote that I hope they weren't disrespectful - because I don't know either.

The guff is all yours my friend.

Professional paid footballers on what £3,000 per week at the very least, some paid double and more, most of the squad brought in on fees which these days would include psychiatric testing to gauge the strengths (or weaknesses) of the individuals players personality traits.  Who train and play with team mates almost daily throughout a nine month season, assessed by several coaches and the manager, on an almost daily basis all whom bond together through team building exercises and pre-season and mid-season 'trips' away together, who are drilled to work as a TEAM, picked, selected and benched by Evatt if they don't.  Motivated before and at half time during all games by the manager (and fellow senior players) and worked on throughout the whole season by professional motivational coaches, collectively (and individually)...

...and if that isn't enough to motivate anyone, your own players will bollock you (even fight with you!) on the pitch if you somehow let the rest of the team down with your attitude (in this case "a disrespectful attitude" towards lower table teams).

If ANY professional league club has "a disrespectful attitude" towards lower table teams, I'd be utterly amazed, and the manager simply would not be in a job long if he failed to motivate his team to be professional against anyone, higher or lower than them, anywhere in the league pyramid.

Evatt certainly doesn't allow it as can be evidenced by him on several occasions  demanding more goals in games where we were already winning by 4 or 5 goals anyway!

Mate, you seem to spend half your life watching and talking about football, but you simply don't understand it, you can't see any depth within it at all.

You just see what is on the surface and not how it is far deeper than that otherwise you wouldn't make silly comments about players possibly having "a disrespectful attitude" towards lower table teams, as you have!

These are the sort of things pub team players might have, but not professional athletes (which they are) with all that entails, as I've point out the obvious to you, above.

You remind me of that saying about knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing in that you 'see' football but you've no idea what is really going on, or why it is.

I don't believe you've actually ever played proper competitive games, as you clearly don't see the game from a player (or team unit), or opposition teams game plans perspectives at all, you might think you do from playing 5 a side with your employees or whatever it was that you once did, but you clearly don't.

You can only see it from a fan perspective only.

It's a free world though, if you think I'm talking out of my arse that's up to you because I'm absolutely certain that you do.

Kia ora.