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Tommy |
December 15, 2018, 10:18pm |
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One of those games in terrible conditions when you're happy to come off the pitch with three points. Thought we scrapped hard against a team who showed a little bit more quality on the ball at times. A draw would have been a fair result but it's nice to win these sort of games. Embleton and Macca were the difference in enabling us to win today. Macca made a couple of decent saves and Embleton's shooting boots from long distance were key for the winning goal that Thomas followed up well to finish. Will feel a lot more confident when M Rose is on the pitch if we ever get another pen as our opener only just squeezed past their keepers hands. I thought Thomas did well up front on his own and Vernam had a decent first half. We were a bit lightweight and exposed in midfield at times second half. Pringle sees a pass really quickly and is a delight to watch, but him and whoever plays in front of Fox, whether it be Embleton or Vernam leave our full backs overloaded and really exposed at times. With the wind holding the ball up second half making it easier for their big fella to hold it up and harder for our defenders to defend against him coupled with the freedom of the flanks, Swindon found it easier to push us back than we did them in the first half. Our midfield defending out wide is a bit of an achilles heel for us and if I were an opposing manager, I'd be looking to exploit those areas. Having said that, we competed, battled and secured a hard fought victory. It was the sort of game that we would have easily lost over the past two years so well chuffed tonight with another three points. Things still to improve upon, but let's hope that picking three points up in games like this becomes a welcome habit..
Good insight Bigdog. I'm intrigued what your thoughts are today on our defensive performance before and after Collins went off? I know you've been very "vocal" on here about how you believe DC holds us back in certain ways. And I've read one or two people saying we defended too deep in the second half. This isn't a dig or sarcasm, I wasn't at the game and I know you'll have been paying attention to how (and where) we defended. I know when defending a lead it's easy to drop a bit deeper, it just happens, and the conditions weren't ideal for either team, but just wandered what your observations might have been.
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Stew0_0 |
December 15, 2018, 10:45pm |
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I think our first half disciplined performance won us the points today. We got to grips with the wind against better and quicker and at times came forward well with the ball on the deck. Swindon, especially there keeper and centre halves were curling them into touch to give us possession back. In fairness their keeper wasnt very good and didnt catch a ball all game. Credit goes to the back 5 and whitmore when he came on, pringle in patches and Embleton, Clifton and Thomas worked there socks off. Macca was deservedly MOM We seem to have a real reslience and fight for the cause at the moment so with that in mind i will say we deserved to win. Bring on the county!
UTM
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HertsGTFC |
December 15, 2018, 11:10pm |
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Good insight Bigdog.
I'm intrigued what your thoughts are today on our defensive performance before and after Collins went off? I know you've been very "vocal" on here about how you believe DC holds us back in certain ways.
And I've read one or two people saying we defended too deep in the second half. This isn't a dig or sarcasm, I wasn't at the game and I know you'll have been paying attention to how (and where) we defended.
I know when defending a lead it's easy to drop a bit deeper, it just happens, and the conditions weren't ideal for either team, but just wandered what your observations might have been.
JT was biggng up our defending on RH but the fact that Macca got MOTM suggests it wasn’t that good.
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Bigdog |
December 15, 2018, 11:12pm |
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Good insight Bigdog.
I'm intrigued what your thoughts are today on our defensive performance before and after Collins went off? I know you've been very "vocal" on here about how you believe DC holds us back in certain ways.
And I've read one or two people saying we defended too deep in the second half. This isn't a dig or sarcasm, I wasn't at the game and I know you'll have been paying attention to how (and where) we defended.
I know when defending a lead it's easy to drop a bit deeper, it just happens, and the conditions weren't ideal for either team, but just wandered what your observations might have been.
First half the wind naturally pushed us back, but was too strong for Swindon to play throughballs without running out of play. Having played both at centre half and centre forward, I would say it's easier to play against the wind going forward as the ball will hold up more to be able to compete for it or turn the defence and put them under pressure and easier to defend against such a strong wind as it's difficult for a marked forward to get hold of it. Passes forward need to be really accurate whereas passes against the wind don't need to be as the ball holds up in the air to give time to compete. Also crossing with your natural foot from your natural flank is more dangerous against the wind as it's easier to bend into that uncertain area between defence and keeper and with a wind like today swirl around a bit. Swindon put a few balls in like that second half which put us under a bit of pressure. So the wind pushed us back first half, while second half I thought Swindon's play pushed us back. At times their centre midfield drove through our centre midfield and our full backs were a little exposed at times. We were quite deep both halves. The first half I'd give credit to the wind, the second half I would give the opposition credit for pushing us back. Swindon played the ball on the ground much better than we did. To compare the two halves would be like comparing chalk and cheese when it came to the very different challenges we faced in both. I thought DC did quite well before he went off, probably a bit too deep at times which gave their midfield too much time to play and left Clifton and Hessenthaler a bit exposed. For his first game back for nearly a month, I thought AW did really well after he adjusted to the pace of the game. It's weird but playing against the wind defensively many would instinctively think the best thing to do would be play deeper when it's completely the opposite and facing the wind you should play a little deeper to cut down the danger of the ball behind which holds up in the wind. In an ideal world it would be great if we were good enough to push up in both scenarios but I guess at this level there are always compromises not always with the defenders themselves and sometimes more to do with what happens in front of them including the quality of possession the oppo have. In Woolery, I thought Swindon had the best midfielder on the pitch and he really bossed it second half and was really surprised he got substituted near the end. They didn't seem to threaten as much after that and we played out the final ten minutes relatively comfortably. On the whole in other games I think the AW/HD partnership play naturally at least 10 yards closer to our midfield than a DC/HD partnership. It closes down the space for the opposition to play in, get shots off and keep their heads down. They're generally prevented from shooting rather than having shots blocked with last minute lunges that fly anywhere and more importantly our defenders stay on their feet more too. At the same time it closes down the space on the flanks which means that the full backs push up to our wide men more who when closer in attendance are able to support Hendrie and Fox better. I thought Pringle cheated a bit today and when Hessenthaler was moved out to the right after Pringle was substituted, he did more to support Hendrie than Pringle did all game. Pringle is a luxury player who I enjoy watching with the ball but I'm not sure if he's a long term fix due to his lack of pace and willingness to work defensively. On the other side Fox did well but their full back had the freedom of the park second half to put some dangerous balls in after Vernam went off and it left us unbalanced as neither Embleton or Clifton fully assumed that role. So, it was hard to compare DC and AW today as DC played most of the first half and AW the rest and all of the second and both faced very different propositions..
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Bigdog |
December 15, 2018, 11:21pm |
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JT was biggng up our defending on RH but the fact that Macca got MOTM suggests it wasn’t that good.
Jolley was bigging up our defending too. Swindon are a pacy side on a decent run and a lot better than most in this division. Even though they're mid-table at the minute, I expect them to be in and around the play-offs at the end of the season. Sometimes you have to give the oppo credit. Swindon are a much better side than Cheltenham, yet Cheltenham had more clear cut chances last week..
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promotion plaice |
December 15, 2018, 11:31pm |
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I'm no tactical expert but it looks to me that Jolley likes us to sit deep against the better teams to stay in the game early on, the only trouble with that is there's little outlet so the ball keeps coming back at us. Then if we nick a goal we still sit deep to protect our lead and rely on the counter attack when they commit men forward to try and level the score.
The most pleasing thing for me is that our second-half performances have vastly improved recently.
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Mrs Doyle |
December 16, 2018, 5:16am |
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Yeah probably one of the coldest days for a long time a biting strong wind and then lashing down with icy rain. In between both teams struggled against the elements to play any sort of controlled football. I thought apart from their keeper they handled the conditions better but our defence held firm and Macca made at least two cracking saves. Definite peno from where I was which Thomas thankfully hit it with enough power to prevent the keeper saving it despite getting a good hand to it. Their goal was well struck with the wind putting extra pace on it. (Jonney on the spot )Thomas did well to adjust himself for the winner after their keeper could only parry Embers fierce shot back out to him.
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monkeyboy |
December 16, 2018, 8:51am |
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I enjoyed the game and the winbut blimey we tried to shoot ourselfs in the foot more than once. At times defensively some of the team seemed to doze off to what was happening around them which in turn led a to a spell of hoof ball to no one. They had some obvious quality players in there ranks with some pace as they ran through our defense at times almost like they was not there.
It was a workman like showing today were on other days could have seen us smashed out of sight.
The tall lad upfront for Swindon looked a real handful and good on the deck too for a big lad.
I did notice Fox was very slow to get back at times today which made him look a bit lazy but this is probably down to who is in front of him not supporting enough.
I think we are looking like a player short for me, with pretty much 5 in the midfield we still seem lightweight, to me it looks like we need a good defensive mid as we struggle in the gap between defense and midfield and thats where a lot of there threat came from yesterday.
Attacking wise i think we look very capable now but we cant keep hoofing the the one man, it does not work. Shame Welsh does is not upto it now(according to some) as he would have probably snuffed out a lot of there attacks before they got started.
Collins going off did not really seem to make a lot of difference to me, there pace was still a threat and Whitmore didnt get to grips with it.
Macca won us that match and fully deserves the credit.
Donkey of the week for me Pringle, not one of his better games at all. good player when on song though.
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devs |
December 16, 2018, 10:41am |
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Winning ugly Never a bad thing Can't always be 5-2 like v Tranmere Poss unlucky to lose at Cheltenham Poss lucky to win yesterday Football is a fickle mistress!
Onward.....
PS: Tondeur on RH (admittedly not noted for his cup half full attitude) thinks keeping Embleton is 50/50 He implied Sunderland want him to try a 'bigger club' But struggling to see how that works L2 - why move him sidewards? L1 - why let one of your possible promotion rivals have him? Championship - no go
Strange...
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speedy |
December 16, 2018, 10:48am |
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Winning ugly Never a bad thing Can't always be 5-2 like v Tranmere Poss unlucky to lose at Cheltenham Poss lucky to win yesterday Football is a fickle mistress!
Onward.....
PS: Tondeur on RH (admittedly not noted for his cup half full attitude) thinks keeping Embleton is 50/50 He implied Sunderland want him to try a 'bigger club' But struggling to see how that works L2 - why move him sidewards? L1 - why let one of your possible promotion rivals have him? Championship - no go
Strange...
Theres a club up the round from us in league 1 who certainly aren't rivals to sunderland this season. Put in a clause that he can't play against them and hope he takes points away from those at the top. It makes sense to me at least. Hope we can keep him!
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