Just back and a bit more..

I'll say it again.  Worst group of players since relegation season, and I don't see any light on the horizon.

I am more convinced that Slade does not know what he is doing,thought that as soon as saw starting line up,time to pull the trigger.

Absolutely dire game.

We had a good 3/4 minute spell at the end of the first half and then suddenly woke up when we equalised at the end and had a strong 5 minutes in injury time.

So about 8/9 minutes out of the 90 we looked like a football team.

Scratching for positives- we've ground out a point when not playing well. (Although listening to Slade on RH you'd think we played well). That's about it.

I'd have concerns for how fragile these players are mentally if it takes for us to equalise right near the end for them to wake up and play with some energy and intensity. Why weren't they fired up like that from the moment we went 2-1 down. Were they just feeling down and sorry for themselves until our goal perked them up again. That's worrying me.

I'd love to know if our back 4 just hoof the ball forward into an "area" because that's what they're told to do, or if it's then choosing to do it. Either way it's getting us no-where fast. I appreciate it'd be useful to have that longer pass or more direct option in your locker but it doesn't work as our primary game plan and we're not good enough at doing what would make it work.

We're lucky we were up against an equally dire side tonight.

One thing that crops up in every game is how many free kicks we give away, which indicates players who are slow in thought or deed, and in some cases both. Seem to be on the back foot a lot and lose more first balls than we win. We are also very easy to score against and i can't remember many goals that the opposition have had to really work to get. Two poor sides that didn't have enough nous to win the game and the Dembele love in is fading fast. All fart and no follow through. Give DJ a start and get Jones back in the side. He's the only consistent scorer we have.

Sorry to go against the prevailing narrative, but I don't think we were nearly as bad as most seem to think. In fact, I'm wondering if there is some sort of mass hysteria going on here because I don't recall people in the stand around me moaning anything like as much as I'm seeing here.

Did we play well? Well, no, but we still managed some periods of decent play, still had a lot more shots than them, forced many more saves, won a lot more corners, and had what looked like a certain penalty denied before we got the deserved equaliser. Dembele also missed the easiest chance of the game so we should have gone in with a half-time lead.

Are Colchester as terrible as everyone seems to think? Well, no, because they are only 4 points behind us and we're closer to the play-offs than the relegation spots.

Honestly, I've seen us play much worse than that against weaker teams in the past couple of years with not nearly the same sort of outpouring of angst that is around at the moment.

We finished last season in 14th position. After an indifferent start to this season we're currently in 13th position with 80% of the remaining games to play. Why the hysteria?

My take is that Slade hasn't decided on his strongest team as yet, hence the chopping and changing, but the players certainly haven't helped as we've been decent one week yet poor the next. A general lack of pace remains an issue but, as Colchester showed, having quick and athletic players isn't the be all and end all of football.

I'm very surprised that there is so much criticism of the defence in particular. Their first goal came from a goalkeeping error, the second came because the midfield didn't track the runner but otherwise we defended very solidly including at plenty of set pieces against a tall team. If you want to criticise the distribution, fair enough, but let's not pretend that the overall defending was bad.

1 point gained rather than 2 points lost in my opinion after that poor show.

It has to be said that was a really poor game, a largely poor performance against poor opposition.

There was a 5-10 min spell towards the end of each half when we came alive. I think there were mediocre performances all over the pitch, Summerfield (not his biggest fan) was a bright spot. Berrett was average, and Woolford was anonymous. There first was embarrassing, seemed to go straight through Macca. Hooper did the one thing he seems to be good at which is putting it in the net when given a decent shooting opportunity. Dembele was so close to burying a couple of chances but that final 'end product' people are saying he is lacking was still elusive.

2nd half, first attack and they take the lead. The subs took too long to make because Woolford and Vernon were anonymous all night. We at least fought back and made it 2-2 and had enough chances to justify that.  

It has to be said the atmosphere is poor around BP at the moment, and the interest is waning already in what looks a largely ordinary bunch of players, massively compounded by Slade's dire hofball tactics. For christs sake Town get it on the bleedin' deck!

I am worried about Saturday. If we lose heavily i fear for what will happen to the already sinking atmosphere, on the up-side it is a chance to put on a good performance in front of a large crowd and get people interested again, so for pity's sake get it down and play on the deck!

Fair enough Maringer but it's the overall experience that is dire. You know we won't win if we go behind. There is no atmosphere or buzz about the place whatsoever. If a team has a poor record generally, they always seem to break that run against us. They had lost all their away games to date, yet they could have easily left with the three points. We just don't look at all menacing. We look bang average and mid table and when we do actually create something, we manage to fudge it up. The defence isn't that bad i agree, yet we are still giving away soft goals almost every game and far too many free kicks.

Uninspiring is the word.

Poor game, poor players, poor manager with poor tactics.

Quoted from jonnyboy82

Crap.

Sorry but just crap , I just see a team who will avoid relegation and a club who will be dwindling on 3k gates as that's what John fenty deserves.

There is nowt about us and this was as bad as football gets , the fog luckily made it harder to see the hoofball on display.

I blame the players to a certain extent but I blame the manager more tonight , we lost last week so we drop Sam Jones and stick with the Care home defenders that seem to be never up for changing around .

The young lad from Norwich did more tonight and last week in 15 mins than Woodford did in 165 minutes .

I just can't see what our aim is and if we really want to do anything as I'm sorry Russell but your ten year old tactics don't show anything Marcus bignot did or couldn't do , you are as inconsistent as him and the only difference is you have learned all you can and he was still learning.

John promised us a real assault  on the league a real good go and he got his man to take us to the next level but I'm afraid as were many when you did this that Russel slades ship sailed about 5 clubs ago and he is not the answer to whatever it is you are trying to do.  .

I even left my Lincoln tickets tonight as I just cannot be arsed.

You'll be there.