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Arthur Whittle

Backs to wall in all 4 games

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Preston away, backs to the wall for 90 minutes. Barnet backs to the wall for 45 minutes. Southampton backs to the wall for 60 minutes. Hull backs to the wall for 80 minutes. So out of a possible 370 minutes we have been on the backfoot for 275 minutes. Does not sound great does it? Hardly promotion form? Well on the plus side we have only lost 1 game but i am concerned by the amount of time we are spending defending. Now the newspapers are not biased and acording to there stats this is the problem. I am sure with time it will get better but we do not really need another season of "just settling down". perhaps its the tactics? What does make me laugh though is how many people are saying hwo much we miss huckerby. Are we now a 1 man team. PG is doing a good job i feel but i am concerned by the amount of pressure we are being put under. Lets be honest, Preston and Southampton have sold large chunks of there teams without replacements but we have supposedly replaced our departed heroes.

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No "Binner" taunts here Arthur.

We do look negative at times, its almost as if we are playing a "don''t let them score/what we have, we hold" policy. I''d rather, to use a football cliche, let the opposition worry about us, rather than the other way round. Why be so cautious away from home? Surely when playing away from home, the pressure is on the opposition to dictate the game and come on to us, so why let them do just that, as we did with Preston and Hull? If PG can get the formation and game plan to take the game to the opposition, then, if we settle and get into ot quickly, the other team are going to feel unnerved, their game plan might have to be revised and its going to be their fans getting restless, not us watching 90 minutes of nervy football by a team that frequently looks as if its terrified of losing, rather than looking forward to winning.

There are plenty of positives to have come out of the Summer and the first 4 games, but there is still that fear that we can''t perform away from home and that we won''t play the sort of positive game that we could expect, given the quality of players in this squad and what they are capable of. With respect to Hull, we shouldn''t be going there and looking to "grind" out a result, we should be seeing it as a guaranteed point and very very good chance of three. Ditto Preston now-look at how their season has started, that 0-0, which looked decent, seems a bit disappointing now!

Watched Southampton vs Stoke on The Championship earlier and whilst its easy for TV to distort things, it looked a cracking game with two teams who weren''t afraid to use pace and to utlise that to attack and create chances. We might have beaten Southampton last Saturday but they look a decent team and they''ll be pulling away from us if they keep what they are doing up and we continue our way of playing-safety first-at the moment, especially away from home.

 

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I have to agree the "we didn''t have hucks" excuse is wearing thin now. Admittedly we haven''t played with a fully fit squad but Hucks alone doesn''t make the difference, especially not in the way he did 3-4 years ago.

I think the problem of "relaxing after scoring" we''ve had should disappear but it needs to do this asap. It was a disappointing result yesterday since I thought it was a very winnable game but a few too many mistakes cost us (once again defensive ones).

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quite how we can have our "backs to the wall" against a team we scored 5 against in 31 minutes is beyond me... Barnet were not going to get back into the game.. the game was won! why play at a high tempo and take shot after shot when the game is over?

jas :)

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I can see what Arthur''s getting at but it is still way too early to draw any conclusions, particularly as we have not yet had the chance to play with a settled side.  The fact is that we''ve played only 3 games that count (Barnet was only relevant in that winning as comfortably as we did must have built some confidence), and two of these were away where you would expect to soak up a fair amount of pressure whoever you are playing. 

To be fair to the side we need to wait before we can say how we think things will pan out, but it does seem that we need to try to get someone in to give us that extra creativity that we miss when Hucks is injured.  IMO we are no different to any other side which would miss their best player when he is out, but we do need to try to lessen the impact.

 

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It certainly is something to be concerned about, i believe.

We havent played by any means the better teams in the league judging by the 3-4 match table. The Barnet game, however, is different as we had won the game, still the dissapointment of letting in two goals is a shame.

Preston, a goaless draw. I believe this is the only game where we were ''too negative''. Colchester went to Preston to win the game, we let them attack and just defended.

Still, too early to tell by all accounts.

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it is still the old "prudence without ambition" sell big, buy small, build a hotel, have a lovely restaurant and a new bar, b**locks to the football team, surely to god you can see that? The board and their lack of funds to give Grant the chance to buy quality players, not cheap and inferior replacements will continue to hold us back. Witness Sheffield Utd last night. They buy Beattie for 4 Million with a view to geeting back to the premier, he scores, job done with 3 points as a stepping stone back to 50 million quid.. This league is there for the taking but not, unfortunately with a board that does not put the football side first.

and yes, you are qite right, Souhampton were robbed and we were lucky not to be behind against Barnet. Oh sorry, must put my Delia tinted glasses back on.

Prudence and deeper in debt and no chance of changing it.

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[quote user="jas the barclay king"]

quite how we can have our "backs to the wall" against a team we scored 5 against in 31 minutes is beyond me... Barnet were not going to get back into the game.. the game was won! why play at a high tempo and take shot after shot when the game is over?

jas :)

[/quote]What is it with you and barnet!The fact is we should won against barnet with the reserves playing. The real facts are we were poor against  preston  ,  lucky against southampton - rubbish Versus Hull  .  If this form continues we will spend all season near the bottomGRANT OUT

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Agreed one hundred and ten per cent Ronbol!,why do people all of a sudden think things are going to take a magic turn for the better like a lot of guys have been saying for the last two seasons!!. Time for excuses are well and truly up and how Grant said he is disappointed to let alone come away with one point  is just beyond reality!?!

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[quote user="tilly"] "Supposedly replaced our departed heroes" Who on earth are these departed heroes ?
[/quote]

Terry Allcock? Kevin Keelan? Duncan Forbes? Kenny Foggo? Martin Peters? Ted MacDougall? Justin Fashanu? Kevin Drinkell? Chris Sutton?

Roy Blower?? [;)]

Surely not Earnshaw, Etuhu, Hughes, Safri or Thorne!

 

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[quote user="ronbol ronbol"][quote user="jas the barclay king"]

quite how we can have our "backs to the wall" against a team we scored 5 against in 31 minutes is beyond me... Barnet were not going to get back into the game.. the game was won! why play at a high tempo and take shot after shot when the game is over?

jas :)

[/quote]

What is it with you and barnet!
The fact is we should won against barnet with the reserves playing. The real facts are we were poor against  preston  ,  lucky against southampton - rubbish Versus Hull  . 
If this form continues we will spend all season near the bottom

GRANT OUT

[/quote]

What is it with YOU and judging Grant before he''s had a chance? =/

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[quote user="ronbol ronbol"][quote user="jas the barclay king"]

quite how we can have our "backs to the wall" against a team we scored 5 against in 31 minutes is beyond me... Barnet were not going to get back into the game.. the game was won! why play at a high tempo and take shot after shot when the game is over?

jas :)

[/quote]

What is it with you and barnet!
The fact is we should won against barnet with the reserves playing. The real facts are we were poor against  preston  ,  lucky against southampton - rubbish Versus Hull  . 
If this form continues we will spend all season near the bottom

GRANT OUT

[/quote]

Are you suggesting we should have played our reserves. We can only beat what is in front of us and we beat Barnet well - 5-2 is a good score against any league side

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[quote user="Cobain18"][quote user="ronbol ronbol"][quote user="jas the barclay king"]

quite how we can have our "backs to the wall" against a team we scored 5 against in 31 minutes is beyond me... Barnet were not going to get back into the game.. the game was won! why play at a high tempo and take shot after shot when the game is over?

jas :)

[/quote]What is it with you and barnet!The fact is we should won against barnet with the reserves playing. The real facts are we were poor against  preston  ,  lucky against southampton - rubbish Versus Hull  .  If this form continues we will spend all season near the bottomGRANT OUT [/quote]

Are you suggesting we should have played our reserves. We can only beat what is in front of us and we beat Barnet well - 5-2 is a good score against any league side

[/quote]I agree you can only beat whats in front, but barnet are hardly bleeding arsenal! So whats our excuse for preston and hull?

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]

[quote user="tilly"] "Supposedly replaced our departed heroes" Who on earth are these departed heroes ?
[/quote]

Terry Allcock? Kevin Keelan? Duncan Forbes? Kenny Foggo? Martin Peters? Ted MacDougall? Justin Fashanu? Kevin Drinkell? Chris Sutton?

Roy Blower?? [;)]

Surely not Earnshaw, Etuhu, Hughes, Safri or Thorne!

 

[/quote]

I like it , Nutty you lovely young man[;)] I wish i had thought of that one myself [:D] arrdee.

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[quote]Preston away, backs to the wall for 90 minutes. Barnet backs to the

wall for 45 minutes. Southampton backs to the wall for 60 minutes. Hull

backs to the wall for 80 minutes. So out of a possible 370 minutes we

have been on the backfoot for 275 minutes. Does not sound great does

it? Hardly promotion form? Well on the plus side we have only lost 1

game but i am concerned by the amount of time we are spending defending[/quote]I seem to remember Worthington using a very defensive midfield, almost a "back 8" early in the promotion season, it''s what gave us all those clean sheets early in the season, and gave us such a low goals conceded tally.  If you''ve got pacey forwards, why not hit teams on the break and soak up the pressure ?

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