Just back, or still there

Quoted from Hagrid

Yeah tactics were wrong, clifton should never have started and he was at fault for the first. Was great to score but second half poor defending and exhaustion just cost us, we looked dead. Which is a wory with exeter saturday. Couldnt get the atmosphere going we was too spread out as support

I don't think tactics would have made any difference. A bunch of quality young players who were itching for a chance to show what they can do ran us ragged, it's a big difference when they can pick and choose which wonder kids to sign and they get the best facilities and coaches to learn from. Too much quality,too much pace, too much strength. Jolley had no real illusions of getting a result and gave the fans what they want to see, a bunch of local lads walking out at Stamford Bridge. They tried but just didn't have enough to deal with them.

I guess if anything people can now move on from cup glory fever and we can focus on the league. Exeter will be a whole different game to Chelsea.

Quoted from promotion plaice

We were on the coach directly in front of you, didn't see the crash but saw the aftermath.

At least you had a shorter walk to the ground than we did.

Hope it all got sorted.

Yeah we had a short walk, but had no idea where our coach was after the game!!

Yes I would have started with Cook and Ogbu, had Gibson and Pollock at centre back and Hewitt at fullback.

But it doesn’t matter much because Chelsea were a class above.

We started really nervously and backed off too much, gifting 2 goals.  At that point it could have been 10-0.

Cracking goal from Green.  If we had got in at 1-2 and then come out guns blazing, then who knows.  

At the end, Chelsea were playing with 4 or 5 players up front and ran rings around us.

Hanson gave it everything up front and Max Wright was class both in attack and defence - he is going far.  I was with.a Chelsea season ticket holder and he was full of praise for Wright.  He also said we should have played a more physical game against a side who were low on confidence before tonight.

Magnificent support and gutted for the players because their effort didn’t deserve that score line.

Onwards and upwards.

I think the second half showed exactly why we played to contain first half. It may not have looked like it at times but we went out the second half to have a go, and they tore us a new one. Had we not given away a needless penalty at the end of the first half it would have only been 2-1 against a high quality team, half of who could probably afford to buy GTFC after a few months worth of wages.

It's easy to point to tactical errors in hindsight, but in reality the game was never dependent on how we played, but how they played. Unfortunately for us, they were on it today.

Just to rub salt into the wounds Chelsea have got Man Utd in the next round. We could have beaten them  

I thought the selection was a bit iffy but to be quite honest looking at their pace, work rate, ball control, vision, fitness, finishing, closing down and nice hair cuts we could have fielded 13 outfield players and still lost.

Like Stamford Bridge it’s changed a fair bit since we where last there, all the staff and stewards very polite & helpful.

Just a shame that a small minority of Town supporters insisted on having a punch up in the ground and the Met failed to stop both sets of bell choppers getting at each other outside the ground.

Enjoyed that. Not the result we wanted but the goal was great and for five minutes after it I thought we could maybe give them a proper game but it wasn't to be. Chelsea were quality and the gulf in both the technical and physical ability was evident. The Town fans were great and I'm proud of the lads for giving it a go.

That being said, I'm worried about the way Jolley set the team up. Going man for man marking can work, he's done this before with us and he did it with success against Malmo when in Sweden. However, that can only work when there isn't too much physical or technical difference between the players. It may have worked in Sweden where, no offence to Swedish footballers, but even the best Swedish players don't play in their league. It will not work against England internationals and World Cup winners. You are essentially saying, we are going to match you man for man and because of that the lads never had a chance tonight. You've got to set up to be hard to break down and have a system in place that makes the team greater than the sum of it's parts. Their movement created huge holes all the time because we weren't keeping a shape (it took me ages to work out what our set up even was) and their superiority shone through. Luckily Macca kept the score almost respectable.The fact that Jolley set up like this which, in my opinion, is so completely wrong in the circumstances makes me question his tactical understanding of the game and that's a big concern going forward. I think he's recognised and addressed the fact we lacked physicality in the squad and had no presence up front which meant the ball kept coming back. But I think with the players at our disposal now, he should be getting more out of them.

Quick word for Max Wright, he was great. Deserves to be starting games.

Back at my Cockfosters hotel....

A good day out had by most and i have to say the facilities and staff at Stamford bridge are fantastic

Our selection was very strange I thought and even though I'd like to see Clifton do well as a local lad I really don't see how he's keeping Cook out of the starting lineup. Max looked so energetic when he came on and I think his confidence to run at players is incredible every time I've watched him. It was great to be able to celebrate a wonder goal at least.

We'll draw a line under this one anyway and move onto more important games starting with Exeter on Saturday, I'm heading down there tomorrow to make a long weekend of it so hopefully the boys won't let me down Saturday

Whilst the OP does make some good points it’s a ludicrous overreaction to us getting humped by a team who won a European trophy last season.

Massive spaces in the middle of the pitch - watching Chelsea attack in the first half it was as though we missed 2 central midfielders - they were almost walking the ball up the edge of our box.  

Chelsea players were very impressive - great angles, pinging the ball about, not breaking a sweat.   Just a shame that we didn;t dig in for the first 30 mins.  

Good luck to everyone driving back up north -