just back

Defence looked poor, aswad thomas was defensively shambolic, crossing was total awful today, like it often is, it was a,brainless display today, MOTM was artus and naylor , no real tactics today apart from hoof, liam hearn looked good

Quoted from AndyGTFC

Just not good enough today, especially in the final third.

Cambridge weren't anything amazing, they just got a bit of luck with the goal and we didn't ever really look like scoring. We did get the ball down quite a bit first half and were in the final third plenty of times but we tried too much at times and nobody seemed to want a shot. Second half was just a lot of huffing and puffing with very little end product.

Fantastic to see Hearn back though, he showed glimpses despite being out for so long and a half fit Hearn is probably better than half of our strikers to be honest.

Everyone should enjoy Wembley next week and then get back to grips with the league so that we've got a bit of momentum heading into the Play-Offs.

Well said Andy.

Was actually quite impressed first half, Naylor and Artus linked up quite well, both are comfortable on the ball and do not panic. Thought we pretty much controlled the half, moved the ball well and were patient but a little shot shy and wasteful when in good wide positions.
Pearson and Marshall having good opportunities, Marshall's chance after professional work by Brodie who refused to accept a no contest drop ball and insisted on a contested one.
Their goal out of nothing really...Mckeown again failing to command his area, Naylor backpedalling towards his own 6 yd box with no real pressure....should have been a big shout and collect by Mckeown....lessons not learned from the Kiddy game first goal, that time Naylor didnt go for it as he expected Mckeown to collect so this time he had to go for it. Look at the difference in goalkeepers today, Pope for them came and took nearly every ball into the box and outside the box for that matter especially first half. Very impressed with him.
Second half we just didnt seem to get started, Artus tired understandably and i would have liked to have seen the centre mid change a little earlier as we lost the momentum in there.
Poor points....full backs pretty poor distribution from both, Brodie highly innefective, Devitt disappeared second half as did Marshall.
Miller, Pearson and Naylor pick of the bunch.

To say we were crap is being kind.

We are doing what we do best and that is cracking under pressure.

The managers have to take some of the blame with the selection and transfers over the past few weeks.

eg bringing in lenny henry lewis but was a waste of a wage as we have adequate cover up front, bringing in the lad from hull but playing artus in front of him today who has hardly played all season..

For me a few bizzare decisions from the management.

Getting ross hannah back then dropping him after a game but lenny henry comes in ahead of him.

The whole feeling at the minute seems to me we are short in quality and we certainly need some more craig disleys and derek nivens as these two have now shown how bad we miss them.

It's been headless chicken time from Itchy and Scratchy ever since New Year when Pond and Nielson went and the January signings / loans have been a joke

Frustrating day.

Goal was arguably unlucky (wasn't a free kick IMO) but getting a little tired of lethargic starts and seeing Town only get their tails up when they go a goal down.

To be fair I thought some of the passing play was fairly good ealy doors but generally, I haven't got a clue what the tactics were.

While he didn't have a great one, Brodie can hold the ball up and made a few things happen but just don't see any point in lumping it up to him in the air.

Cook won a few flicks on but was generally disappointing as hell.
I hope he bounces back but given the dillema of who now plays on Tuesday I think the managers have dropped a small bollock.

Thought we were crying out for someone like John-Lewis to hold the ball up.

Pretty amazed when Hearn came on.
Is he the answer for Tuesday ? God knows...

Now the pitch didn't help matters (we showed a general lack of ball control and were sloppy all day).
But Cambridge had the right idea - kept it simple RUN, PASS and MOVE.

We were don't run much, PASS and watch.
What hacked me off today was a massive lack of support from the midfield (and even defence) when we went forward.
2 or 3 players would break and the others would just look on offering no support.
Fact Pearson tried to dribble and take on players himself sums where we are.
Not really good enough !

Cambridge were a lot more fluent in their running too.

Thought Artus had a good game and was one of the few who used skill to RUN, and turn to give himself options.

Say what you like about Wood and Colbeck but we were crying out for some drive forward.

Without much outlet 1st half could see Cambridge were edging us backward more and more.

Marshall looks low on confidence had a poor one and piddled about.
While Hatton was a mixed bag and not a huge deal better IMO, sloppily giving the ball away too much + putting his crosses too near the keeper.
I'm starting to wonder how much more he really offers that Brad doesn't.

Devitt probably my MOM and the centre backs did well too but even Aswad didn't look on song today.

To be fair I think it was just one of those days where nothing FELL right (again) but while it wasn't a good performance we looked devoid of gameplan.

A days training on ball skills and a good think about what our tactics actually are wouldn't go amiss IMO.

Normally I wouldn't "take a point" but if you asked me for Tuesday, I'd be half tempted to !

I'm not Frankie Artus's number one fan but he was a class above anything else in a black and white shirt in the first half. I hope Thanoj was watching and takes note of how to find with unerring accuracy someone wearing the same colour shirt. Add the tackling (particularly the two on the edge of our box to snuff out imminent danger) and you are left with the feeling that maybe the forgotten man should have been considered three or four games ago.
Other than that and Naylor's all-action performance there isn't very much positive which can be said about the whole 94 minutes.

Cambridge wouldn't have scored a goal of their own making if we'd still been playing now. It does show what decent delivery into the box can do though. Ours as with all of the matches I've seen since Christmas was woefully shocking. The number of times players with the ball throughout the team chose the wrong option was nothing short of remarkable.
Brodie's ball control skills were about the same as those exhibited by a squash court wall.

The main problem-as has been alluded to by lots of posters over the season-is that we don't have anyone on the bench with the ability to change the game or even take it by the scruff of the neck. All you get is more of the same which makes it extremely frustrating. I'm sure someone will be able to correct me but I cannot remember us winning a game after going behind this season.

The sad fact is that the Gods haven't smiled on us regarding injuries to key players at the wrong time.

Fantastic to see Liam Hearn return but thought that the decision to play him smacked of a measure of desperation.

No spirit or quality today.  When not giving passes away, or crosses straight to their keeper, we spent the time trying (unsuccessfully) to keep the ball in play.  Colbeck came on and removed all doubt - by letting the ball run out of play most times when he got it.

Naylor MOM despite scoring an own goal and missing our best chance. An old head on young shoulders. He was always organising play or encouraging others  The fact that he is only 20, a loanee and making his home debut says everything about today.

Many of us have posted about the lack of quality and experienced cover for CM.  Why though have the forwards and wide players gone so far off the boil?

Welcome back Liam. He should have one or 2 goals in him this season.  No one else seems to.

We need Disley and Niven back very quickly.  Their stock will have risen considerably during their absence.

We need to ensure that we get the third or fourth playoff spot.

Ultimately, if none of your attacking players (strikers and wingers) do anything, you're going to struggle to get any kind of result.

That said, I was very disappointed by our response in the second half especially when they looked the more likely to score, despite their limitations. I was impressed by their No. 17 who covered masses of ground and won plenty in the air, linking play decently. Also, their keeper was rock solid, catching pretty much every cross that came his way.

The obvious difference between the two teams today was the delivery of crosses and set pieces. Their No. 11 whipped in some excellent balls (when he wasn't rolling around on the floor), and they scored from one of these and came close from one or two others. On the other hand, too many (i.e. practically all of them) of our crosses/corners/free-kicks were lofted into the box for their tall keeper to catch with ease.

A distinct lack of nouse on show today and the injury to Pearson was really the nail in the coffin of any automatic promotion hopes.

Regardless of next week's result (which I'm not hopeful about), I only hope we can drag ourselves back into some half-decent form so we firstly can make it into the play-offs and secondly have some momentum when we do.

Incidentally, I'm not too sure why so many people are having a go at Colbeck. He did OK when he came on, winning a few corners and did a damn sight more than Marshall managed when he was on the pitch.

That one occasion where the ball ran out of play (after he'd made an interception), there was a clear bobble which led to it being run out.