Just Back

Ok, here we go.

We started flat, very flat. No pressing, no urgency and it looked like a gentle pass around the back in a testimonial from the first minute.

Exaxctly the opposite of what we saw at home to Bradford.

When you start like this, it is always impossible to then up the enerhy and intensity and to asd to the difficulty, the atmosphere at BP reflected back what we were seeing and was also flat.

Wht we were not on it from the off is beyond me. We are not good enough to be in stroller mode.

Barrow (like a few teams last season) have done their homework on Town under DA. Press the midfield and let the defenders take the ball and then all press quickly.

Result was Eastwood, Rodgers and McJarret had the most touches of the ball in the whole game - either between themselves or giving it away after 8 passes to one another and then launching an aimless long one up field.


Barrow? Played football but with a purpose and looked to progress and not see possession as the goal.


2 superb corners and 2 goals could have been much worse had they taken their chances and the nice header from Rose on the stroke of half time saved Artel from 5200 boos.

First 5 mins of 2nd half was better and we were inlucky not to equalise with 1 good move (to add to the 1 good move and hoal in the 1st)

TBH, after then, Barrow controlled the game and I have not seen us look that impotent since last seasons hammerings phase.

I am worried tbh.

Not saying we are going to get relegated, but its gone from optimism to fear this evening.

Where is our threat coming from when Vernam doesn't play
well?

Not looking forward to Bromley at the minute.

Green - thank you for running ur blooody socks off. Wish that endeavour and desire was shared.

For what it's worth, I thought Greeny had a good game. Town POTM by a country mile.

Teams have already worked out we have no plan B. They just let our defenders have it knowing rose was isolated so we’d have to try to play out and give the ball away.

Stands out a mile how small we are and the lack of physicality.

Gear up for plenty of excrement teams bullying us out of games. We haven’t played a decent team yet either other than Notts county. Worrying signs.

The defence get stick which is justified but for me the midfield don't escape criticism. No-one wants the ball enough or is prepared to find space.

Quoted from barralad

The defence get stick which is justified but for me the midfield don't escape criticism. No-one wants the ball enough or is prepared to find space.

Exactly. It’s ok for Green to run around but he only does it with the ball not without the ball. I’m not knocking his effort but it has to be with a purpose. It’s no good having the ball if there’s no one to pass to which is how and why Rodgers and McJannet spent the afternoon passing to each other.

Quoted from 141255

Teams have already worked out we have no plan B. They just let our defenders have it knowing rose was isolated so we’d have to try to play out and give the ball away.

Stands out a mile how small we are and the lack of physicality.

Gear up for plenty of excrement teams bullying us out of games. We haven’t played a decent team yet either other than Notts county. Worrying signs.

Yup

Have we started training in defending set pieces yet? Maybe we should have started earlier.

Quoted from Lincspoacher

Wht we were not on it from the off is beyond me. We are not good enough to be in stroller mode.

Barrow (like a few teams last season) have done their homework on Town under DA. Press the midfield and let the defenders take the ball and then all press quickly.

They decided to aggressively press Hume meaning he had no-one to pass to. Artell should have fixed this immediately.

Some overreactions on here, I think.

We were very poor for the first 30 minutes, our midfield was dominated (their No. 8 was running the show), our passing went to pieces under the pressure - more needlessly misplaced simple passages than we've had in total in the past couple of games - and they looked like they would score every time they got a set piece. Their extra pace across the pitch was telling and they weren't bad footballers either. The second ball kept falling to them time and again, sometimes fortunately, but it's not all by chance when you keep getting it back so often.

However, for the last 10 or 15 minutes, we managed to get into it a bit more, got in behind a couple of times and then scored following a good bit of play and an excellent cross and header.

For the first 20 minutes or so of the second half we looked on top but the real failing was that we got in behind them down the wings quite lots of times times, but never managed to find a player with the cross. Too many hit straight into the hands of the keeper or rolling behind all our players. I don't doubt that Artell will mention these wasted opportunities - can't call them a chance, obviously. On another day, we might have nicked an equaliser, on another day they might have had another.

I'm not going to get my knickers in a twist about a poor performance which led to a defeat. The main thing is to make sure we don't play like that first 30 minutes too often.

My main concern is that the squad is very thin, in part due to the injuries at the moment, especially in midfield. When we make subs, it doesn't improve the team and we completely lost our shape for the last 15 minutes or so. One of the reasons some of the players, midfielders especially, are looking so knackered is that they've had to play almost all of each game because of lack of other options. Still created the odd half chance after the subs today but nothing came of them and we didn't put them under any concerted pressure.

It was frustrating how we were so tentative and passed the ball across the back throughout the game, needlessly at times, but I think that was a reflection that the midfield weren't getting themselves into position to receive the ball. Still, there was no reason that the players couldn't have shifted it faster than they did.

I think we've got plenty of ability this season which should be enough to see us finish in mid-table, but we've got to do more when we get in behind teams over and over again (more touches in the opposition box than them again today), but never force the keeper into a save. I'm hoping we'll improve a good bit when Thompson returns and hopefully Luker and Obikwu will be able to add a lot to the attack as Barrington doesn't look like he can at the moment.

Barrow decent side, physical strength in areas we couldn't match and from previous weeks they have shown they are a threat from set pieces. They are top of the league I believe...or at least were at some point today.

We didn't get going at all, they knew what we wanted to do and limited it by and large.

Second half we showed more but for the times we got around the back we couldn't pick out a player or they just defended it better.

I do feel we need either a change in set up up front as we don't really offer a threat in the box or additional firepower....and not for the first time i felt our substitutions made us weaker.

You have to acknowledge Barrows strengths as well as our own shortcomings on this one I feel.