How many more times

[ZLF 271]

will worthy stick with inept defenders?   I know he had no real alternatives today (Shackell is nearly as invisible as McVeigh it seems) yet once again we are unlikely to get anything out of a game due to some more woeful defending allowing an average Villa side the chance to walk this game.  I am struggling to see us keeping another clean sheet this season.

 

More than enough of the season has gone for worthy to have done something about it particularly on the training field - and perhaps Mr Rick Waghorn can justify to me his comment about Fleming being excellent all season?  Perhaps he meant excellent for a div 1 player appearing in a league to far.

 

At least defensive signing, if not two,  who can lead the back four is a must - and before the boro game otherwise downing and hasselbaink will tear us apart.

OTBC 

[Bird Table 0]

Utter rubbish again from NCFC so far today, with only Francis and Ashton coming out of the first half with any credit. There''s only one place we''re going, and that''s back down. It''s not a case of being pecimistic anymore, it''s just common sense.

[NavMan 0]

Marmite - finally it is nice to hear from someone who is not wearing yellow and green glasses.  The fact we are going down has been written on the wall for a long while now its just I thought I was the only person who could see it!!!

[LinkNR9 0]

According to Sky Sports, we''re "an utter shambles". Oh well, at least we might win a few games in the Championship.

[AJ 1,218]

i think its time worthy gets a kick up the bum!

Hes ment to be saving our skins, not giving them easy goals...... Please, please please tell us why Mcveigh isnt even on the bench, i mean he is one of our better players!!!!!

[kennyfoggo 0]

it has been said many, many times on here. there is a large freakin great need for quaility in midfield....Lee Hendry ran the whole dam show..

disappointed and dejected..wheres the left over chrissie beer

[knowhatimean 0]

Its beginning to look inevitable now that we will be relegated. Credit to Worthy for bringing in Ashton but what the hell is he doing. Once again his choice of tactics is laughable. He did not give the lad a chance today sticking him up front on his own. Hes played the whole of his career with another striker up front with him so to throw him in like that is just plain dumb. I agree that we need some new faces in defence and also midfield but i think it is too much to ask considering the amount spent on Ashton. Please look at your tactics worthy and get back to basics sharpish so we can get a few wins under our belt.

[shropshire canary 0]

I''m trying hard not to be defeatist, but having been at the game today ZLF you are absolutely right we were a defensive shambles.

The only player in the back 4 who looked remotely comfortable was the Doc.

Even the midfiled when they did drop deep just got in the way or stood and watched too much.

Drury had an absolute ''mare in particular.

We have GOT to do something to shake this up - at least Shackell made the bench today though so I suppose that''s progress!

Come on Worthy you played as a defender so you must know that this is what will kill us this season now as we appear to (hopefully) have given ourselves a little more fire power up front, but that''s no good if we are always chasing the game.

[BedsCanary 0]

Green: Solid, mostly, but should have saved the second goal

Drury: The worst player on the pitch today and far, far from Premiership quality. Gave Villa two goals

Fleming got lost on the M6.

Doc: Did alright. Solid.

Eddy: did ok.

Brennan: Did some good things at times but seemed to dissapear from the pitch for long periods at a time.

Francis: Off the pace of the game and seemed to struggle to make quick decisions. Did OK though.

Jonson: Tried hard but his final ball was poor

Hucks: Our best player for 75% of the game but seemed to give up completely towards the end of the game.

Mullers: Absolutely shocking! Almost as bad as Drury. We may as well have played with 10 men for the first half.

McKenzie: Made a nuisance of himself as usual the ball bounced off him alot as usual.

Ashton: Fought and battled and looks comfortable playing Premiership football. But not on his own, six miles from the nearest Norwich shirt.

 

And we need to stop playing in those horrid green away shirts. The colour''s depressing!

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

[quote]I''m trying hard not to be defeatist, but having been at the game today ZLF you are absolutely right we were a defensive shambles. The only player in the back 4 who looked remotely comfortable was the...[/quote]

Having just looked through the remaining fixtures I honestly cannot see where the next win is coming from (before anyone complains I will be a season ticket holder next season whatever division we are in).In the local press we have Worthington saying we will stay up, Fleming says we will fight them on the pitch then come Saturday afternoon what happens half the players don''t bother trying. The only place I want to see the action is on the pitch not half hearted comments in the EEN. 

Mr Worthington must accept the blame, tactics are wrong, players are not motivated from the first minute, how many times this season and  last have we heard  we didn''t turn up for the first half.   I honestly don''t think we are as fit as some teams in the premiership. Coaching is poor.

We appear to want to do things on the cheap there has been a loan option available to this club since August we have not filled it now we are playing 18 year old players that have done nothing except the headless chicken impression. Mc Veigh came on as a sub against Man Utd and scored now he is not even a sub why. We could do with a loan signing with a vast experience of the premieship but I think this might knock Mr W''s ego. 

I''m sorry to sound so pessimistic but to most supporters an away trip costs around £100 which to most people is a reasonable amount of money but there again if you are on £8000+ a week whats a hundred. 

[3pmkickoff 0]

I don''t know if you were at the game zipper but the defense can''t take the majority of the blame for this defeat. The amount of space we gave Villa in midfield was absolutely criminal and constantly put our defence on the back foot. I agree that Drury had a mere today but part of this is due to having little cover from Hucks on the left. On the plus side I think the Doc is getting better with every game.

[FilletTheFishWife . 0]

2 goals scored in the last 7 games. I think questions equally need to be asked about our attacking qualities as much as our defending. We were totally outplayed today [Saturday].

We gave villa the initiative today with the formation 4-5-1.

we needed to be more positive from the start - and go for a win not a draw - with one of the 3 strikers on the bench starting instead of mulryne who''d done nothing in recent performances to justify keeping his place.

Green 7 Edworthy 7 Fleming 6 Doherty 6 Drury 5 Jonson 5 Mulryne 4 (McKenzie 6) Brennan 7 Francis 7 Huckerby 7 Ashton 7

[ZLF 271]

I want to add that I am very supportive of the board and keeping worthy as the manager adn given the current injury crisis I accept that the manager had little options with personnel. 

 

My main gripe is that ALL season we have fallen short, in terms of quality not feet and inches, of what is needed to defend Greenos goal - he must be the most needlessly over worked player in the prem facing clearly preventable shots due to woeful defending from the back four and today the midfield.  Despite how obvious this deficiency has been to me the coaching staff appear to have done nothing at all about it except blame it on Helveg (dropped after two games:laugh and then Drury, yet doing nothing about the root of the problem, a lack of positional sense, communication and leadership from any of the back 4.   Most of this should be addressable on the training pitch yet the performances are getting worse not better.  Its not that they are slower (very few times caught fr pace for goals) or poorer in the air (despite the lack of height few goals have come from this ''problem'')  the issue is all mental, concentration and positional.

 

For these reasons alone Shacks is not the messiah either, he cant have the leadership yet can he?, and some experience is needed to replace the chocholate teapots currently ''leading'' the defence. 

 

It is this very reason I am so frustrated and annoyed, with a firmer defence playing for a full game and actually playing defenders who can defender than rather than run all day like a headless chicken we could be mid table by now.  This would  not cost us a fortune and even with the players at the club could probably have done so much better.

 

The likes of Mullers and Brennan clearly are NOT prem standard, Bentleys quality is missed and the dismissal of McVeigh is mystifying, he too is not prem class but he IS better than either of those two.

 

Having said that there are 4 clubs fighting for 3 relegation spaces and there is still time for us to be that lucky 1 team avoiding the drop - come on worthy extra coaching is needed.

 

OTBC

 

If I wanted a long distance runner I would have signed Pheidippides,  instead we have a quality defender yet keep him on the bench behind Eeyore.

[Northern Canary 0]

I agree with pretty much everything that Beds Canary said. however i dont think green was to blame for anything as he was just totally exposed on so many occasions