last night - a different view

Quoted from oochiad

Thanks, great post. Ridiculous the reaction on her last night.

Quoted from LondonMariner43

I'm waiting for a bunch of red crosses after posting this, but here goes.

I watched last night's game on TV and it was one of the least entertaining games of football I've ever watched.  It reminded me of my son's U16 team on a bad day.

However, up until the goal, I thought Town were the better team. Newport play a % game, with loads of long balls and throws into the box and the hope that Amond gets on the end of something.  I thought we defended well against this barrage and I was particularly impressed with Gibson.  Also, we were missing Hendrie and Pollock wasn't expecting to play but came in at the last minute and did ok - I thought he was unlucky to get red.  Their first goal was disappointing and maybe with a specialist full back in that position we wouldn't have left Amond in space to shoot.

Newport's long ball and pressing game makes it really hard for the opposing team because time on the ball is limited and so we end up with long balls back and forth and loads of head tennis.  Despite the commentators being massively biased, at the end of the first half, they acknowledged that we had been the better side.  We were the only side that attempted to get the ball on the deck and pass it, even if it didn't happen often.  We created as many chances as Newport, arguably more.

In midfield, Robson had a poor game and we wasted lots of free kicks with poor execution.  However, I really liked the clever through ball he played to Rose in the second half.  We had a few other moments where we actually made a clever pass and created a chance but they didn't go our way.

Overall, we were playing away at a team who have only lost 3 times this season and have one of the best defensive records in the league and play very unattractive football.  Against that, we had 5 first time players missing - Ohman, Wright, Hendrie, Hanson, Ogbu.

Yes its was a terrible game but I am not writing us off in the way everyone else seems to be.

Quoted from marinette

That's exactly the question I've been asking since last night.  We started the season positively, picked up a few points, showed some team spirit and a great ability to fight back after being behind - not just once but repeatedly.  I felt quite comfortable with it all, and even dared to hope that we'd get better as the team developed.  Town fans reacted superbly when we were hammered by Chelsea, but I did wonder how the players themselves would respond ... I needn't have worried because they rolled their sleeves up, made the long journey down to top of the league Exeter and came away with an inspirational win.  They couldn't have responded any better.

So how has it gone so bad, so quickly?  Jolley's departure (especially the nature of it) was a surprise, and I'm not sure what I expected afterwards, but it certainly wasn't a performance like last night's. I'm not one to give up when things go wrong, and have always been fiercely proud of our club, but last night was incredibly hard to take.  It's not as if Newport were even that good!  How come we let them pull all the strings?  We just seemed to continually launch the ball,never knowing (or even caring?) where it would land and inevitably, nine times out of ten, it went to a Newport player.  On the rare occasion we did manage to get on the end of it, Newport players were straightaway chivvying and forcing our players into making hurried and misplaced passes, or just taking it off our players and making it look easy.  It's been looking a little bit like that for the last few matches I've seen, but what I saw last night was the absolute pits.

London Mariner's post did remind me that players like Ohman and Hendrie were missing, we didn't have Ogbu's unpredictability, or the battling qualities of Max Wright, (not to mention Hanson)  - and I think I was in need of that reminder, so thank you.  And IF we were better in the first half, then that helps a bit too - as I didn't watch the full match  - but what I did see was dire.

Anyway, I'm wondering now, do we need new players as well as a new manager, or can these current players regain some of their self respect and turn things around?   Whatever the outcome in our next match, I hope they can at least put up a bit of a fight rather than rolling over and letting the opposition make us look like no-hopers.  We'll be getting a new manager soon, and the players really need to think about their futures.  In a way I'm glad that last night was a cup game - it's made me not want to even think about what could happen in the league this season.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

We are much better than last night suggested - you would be hard pressed to think what was on show last night was the same squad (and it is a squad game afer all) that played so well against Bradford, Port Vale and Exeter.

My theory (well guess) is something went badly wrong behind the scenes - if the players got wind of Jolley applying for other jobs (or something worse) and the camp has been badly disrupted as a result. Once team spirit is dented, it takes a while (and in this case a new manager) to restore some order.

One has to ask - if and around the time of the Exeter and Chelsea games Jolley was applying for other jobs - what the hell has gone on to make him do that??

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

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I suspect it was before these 2 games, it will have been when the Cowley's left..
Casey Stoner once said about Valentino Rossi " his ambition outweighs his ability"....how wrong he was but that statement rings so true about Jolley..
I honesty think he's arrogant enough to think he's a good manager and thought he was better than GTFC...
Well guess what Mr J....you were wrong and I'm not sure if some if the frustration of bring turned down didn't come out in his tirade...

Quoted from Roast Em Bobby

My theory is that we’ve fallen away since Max got injured.