Just Back

Vernam should also get special praise.  He chased everything down and run his sock off.  Panicked the keeper into putting the ball out of play once.  He epitomised the excellent team spirit at the moment.  He has good ball-control and skill in tight positions and likes to make direct runs forward.

They are the top scorers in the division but we restricted them to only 2 clear chances.  We handed them one chance.  Macca did what he  is good at and saved it.  They also missed an open goal when they hit the bar.

For us, Embleton was close to goal and should have hit it with his left foot instead of taking a further touch and losing it.  We could have won 2-0 on another day (or even last night).

We have come a long way since those 6 horrible defeats.  Confidence is always vital in football.  Jolley was very unlucky with so many players out.   Let us hope that he has learnt from the mistakes that he made during that run.

On reflection I have to say the last 4 games (especially the last 2) have given me huge encouragement for the future.

TBH I had started to feel my interest waning after nearly 60 years attending BP but my frustration with the way in which the club is run, may have hurt like hell but I was kidding myself if the football in  front of me didn’t mean anything.

I genuinely feel there may be something to stirring amongst this team. Fully accept that we are a million miles away from the finished article and would stress there will certainly be defeats, set backs and dark days along the way, but there are signs of the sort of team I expected Jolley to produce.
Yes, it has taken us much longer than I expected but we are looking better organised, playing the ‘high press’ style and moving the ball quicker and with purpose.

I would love everyone to really get behind the team, follow the stripes and be loud and above all proud of our team.

Watch this space the playing side could yet take off despite of the board

The result was great but for me I was pretty frustrated with how we played, and I thought we were lucky to come out with all 3 points. Specifically some of my issues were
1. Uaually too slow in thought and deed when getting possession. What might have been opportunities in possession wasted by beung too slow. A general lack of movement.
2. This leading to frequent occasions when we get the ball in the middle of the pitch but lack of options means they press us and we quickly end up going backwards. This eventually leading to a pass back to macca and a hoof forward and inevitable loss of possession. If we r going to emd up hoofing it forward anyway we would be better off having the outfield player who first got the ball in the middle of the park playing it forward. Not the goalie from the edge of the box.
3. Compounding the loss of possession is the danger of screw ups inherent in this tactic, a perfect example of which happened but was well saved by Macca.
4. For all that our build-up play usually tends to be fairly slow and deliberate when we get a free kick in the middle of the park we suddenly always seemed to try and take it quickly side ways. Because we are not well equipped to play the quick game we didn't manage anything or worae we then conceded possession and were on the back foot.
5. We still look mostly toothless in front of goal.

There were some definite good points such as Thomas well taken goal, rose, vernhams running, Harry's energy, the central defence and defence/keeper in general looking well organised keeping  Colchester very restricted opportunities wise, apart from the RHJ moment of madness.

Brilliant turnaround resultwise over the last 4 games but still loads to work on I think.

Quoted from toontown

The result was great but for me I was pretty frustrated with how we played, and I thought we were lucky to come out with all 3 points. Specifically some of my issues were
1. Uaually too slow in thought and deed when getting possession. What might have been opportunities in possession wasted by beung too slow. A general lack of movement.
2. This leading to frequent occasions when we get the ball in the middle of the pitch but lack of options means they press us and we quickly end up going backwards. This eventually leading to a pass back to macca and a hoof forward and inevitable loss of possession. If we r going to emd up hoofing it forward anyway we would be better off having the outfield player who first got the ball in the middle of the park playing it forward. Not the goalie from the edge of the box.
3. Compounding the loss of possession is the danger of screw ups inherent in this tactic, a perfect example of which happened but was well saved by Macca.
4. For all that our build-up play usually tends to be fairly slow and deliberate when we get a free kick in the middle of the park we suddenly always seemed to try and take it quickly side ways. Because we are not well equipped to play the quick game we didn't manage anything or worae we then conceded possession and were on the back foot.
5. We still look mostly toothless in front of goal.

There were some definite good points such as Thomas well taken goal, rose, vernhams running, Harry's energy, the central defence and defence/keeper in general looking well organised keeping  Colchester very restricted opportunities wise, apart from the RHJ moment of madness.

Brilliant turnaround resultwise over the last 4 games but still loads to work on I think.

I am sure you are right in your assessment but I just wonder how important those things are just now. After 6 defeats, the manager’s first aim has to be to stop losing silly goals and so stop losing games. Clearly they have worked on that probably to the detriment of some of the other things you mention. I have been critical of the manager during that 6 game run but I do think he has learned a lesson and got his priorities right. Much like you, I would love to see some flowing football, swifter passing on the deck etc., but the first thing on the agenda is a clean sheet. No manager can sustain his job without points in the bag.

I remember a few seasons ago in the conference Mansfield had a atrocious start but then stormed on to promotion , wouldn't it be just fantastic if we could emulate that sort of performance ?

Quoted from toontown

The result was great but for me I was pretty frustrated with how we played, and I thought we were lucky to come out with all 3 points. Specifically some of my issues were
1. Uaually too slow in thought and deed when getting possession. What might have been opportunities in possession wasted by beung too slow. A general lack of movement. We all see games differently but I thought the speed of thought and passing was light years away from anything we have seen since being back in the football league.
2. This leading to frequent occasions when we get the ball in the middle of the pitch but lack of options means they press us and we quickly end up going backwards. I would much rather see us at least TRY to retain possession by going from side to side , and sometimes backwards, to keep the ball moving and tire the opposition, this is how opportunities can be created This eventually leading to a pass back to macca and a hoof forward and inevitable loss of possession. If we r going to emd up hoofing it forward anyway we would be better off having the outfield player who first got the ball in the middle of the park playing it forward. Not the goalie from the edge of the box.
3. Compounding the loss of possession is the danger of screw ups inherent in this tactic, a perfect example of which happened but was well saved by Macca.
It is a price we have to pay if we want to play out from the back and a passing game. Mistakes WILL happen but I would much rather see us try and play a passing game than a boring route one hoof it forward. Each to there own I guess.
4. For all that our build-up play usually tends to be fairly slow (disagree)and deliberate when we get a free kick in the middle of the park we suddenly always seemed to try and take it quickly side ways. I was encouraged that we tried to take free kicks quickly, get the ball moving, trying to catch the opposition out. We have been done over by this many times over the years Because we are not well equipped to play the quick game we didn't manage anything or worae we then conceded possession and were on the back foot.
5. We still look mostly toothless in front of goal.  Patience is a virtue, we don’t yet look like scoring loads of goals but for me I see a solid platform, a willingness to play a quicker game, mostly along the ground, that will, as they get better gain more confidence create more opportunities. With encouragement I think we will improve in front of goal

There were some definite good points such as Thomas well taken goal, rose, vernhams running, Harry's energy, the central defence and defence/keeper in general looking well organised keeping  Colchester very restricted opportunities wise, apart from the RHJ moment of madness.

Brilliant turnaround resultwise over the last 4 games but still loads to work on I think.

Everyone agrees (I think?) that there is loads of work to do but we have gone from drowning to getting our heads above water in a short space of time. Games like Saturday and Tuesday are decided by fine margins, just like some of the earlier games that we lost or drew, we could/should have had more points v Lincoln for example.
Just think we, as fans need to try and buy into the football we are trying to play, it certainly wasn’t anything approaching hoof ball on Tuesday IMO, and not get on the backs when we try and retain possession by playing it sideways and backwards

Hope this isn't perceived as negative but against both Exeter & Colchester, there were a couple of opportunities to get a shot away that we didn't take - I'd like us to be a bit braver in the final third.

Quoted from toontown

The result was great but for me I was pretty frustrated with how we played, and I thought we were lucky to come out with all 3 points. Specifically some of my issues were
1. Uaually too slow in thought and deed when getting possession. What might have been opportunities in possession wasted by beung too slow. A general lack of movement.
2. This leading to frequent occasions when we get the ball in the middle of the pitch but lack of options means they press us and we quickly end up going backwards. This eventually leading to a pass back to macca and a hoof forward and inevitable loss of possession. If we r going to emd up hoofing it forward anyway we would be better off having the outfield player who first got the ball in the middle of the park playing it forward. Not the goalie from the edge of the box.
3. Compounding the loss of possession is the danger of screw ups inherent in this tactic, a perfect example of which happened but was well saved by Macca.
4. For all that our build-up play usually tends to be fairly slow and deliberate when we get a free kick in the middle of the park we suddenly always seemed to try and take it quickly side ways. Because we are not well equipped to play the quick game we didn't manage anything or worae we then conceded possession and were on the back foot.
5. We still look mostly toothless in front of goal.

There were some definite good points such as Thomas well taken goal, rose, vernhams running, Harry's energy, the central defence and defence/keeper in general looking well organised keeping  Colchester very restricted opportunities wise, apart from the RHJ moment of madness.

Brilliant turnaround resultwise over the last 4 games but still loads to work on I think.

I think you're getting far too caught up in what we did and not looking at the opposition too. We were playing a team that even after beating them are in the top 5. They passed well, had pace and power in their team, they pressed as hard as we did, defended well and looked to have a bit more quality on the ball than us. Yet we still beat them and restricted them to only 2 clear chances which is the same as what we created.

A draw would have been a fair result, but we lost or drew plenty that we deserved to win earlier on in the season. I don't see how you can complain about the performance when we beat a team near the top of the league and every player is clearly giving everything during the games.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Hope this isn't perceived as negative but against both Exeter & Colchester, there were a couple of opportunities to get a shot away that we didn't take - I'd like us to be a bit braver in the final third.

Personally I would rather focus on what we did do rather than our shortcomings.
That is for the training ground😜

Quoted from pen penfras

I think you're getting far too caught up in what we did and not looking at the opposition too. We were playing a team that even after beating them are in the top 5. They passed well, had pace and power in their team, they pressed as hard as we did, defended well and looked to have a bit more quality on the ball than us. Yet we still beat them and restricted them to only 2 clear chances which is the same as what we created.

A draw would have been a fair result, but we lost or drew plenty that we deserved to win earlier on in the season. I don't see how you can complain about the performance when we beat a team near the top of the league and every player is clearly giving everything during the games.

Yes a good battling performance rewarded with the 3 points.I will take that all season . Have to give special praise firstly to Macca for that save and the penalty save Saturday and also Collins who since his 2-3 poor games has been back to his best and Tuesday night he was at times almost Futcheresque with his reading of the game.I still worry about our lack of goals and efforts on goals from decent positions but pretty sure it will come with time.UTM