Highlights

Once is enough tbh.

Their second goal just shows our abject propensity to fail to look after the ball and every other dangerous moment they have is characterised by us absolutely failing to put any pressure on the ball or the player with it. Our sharpness and pressing just isn’t there. That’s p1ss poor in my book. Offensively we look dangerous and effective, but without the ball we are sloppy, slow and slack. It’s not good enough. There’s no excuse for it.

Thank you for posting that

Agree with Chaos above, that 2nd goal is poor on so many levels by so many players  

It's bizarre, as Hurst was obviously very experienced defensively and so are Pearson and Davies, yet the players still look terribly disorganised and are making awful, basic blunders like for their second goal today.

You'd think that the coaching staff would have been able to knock most of these out of the team by now, but perhaps the players just aren't up to the task? Either that, or the much-noted lack of confidence is the issue.

Both our goals were from sloppy defending on the part of FGR, especially the second.

At least we are scoring regularly now, so tighten up at the back and we can move up the table. Had we managed to win today, we would have gone up to 16th and out of the bottom 8.

Quoted from ginnywings

Both our goals were from sloppy defending on the part of FGR, especially the second.

At least we are scoring regularly now, so tighten up at the back and we can move up the table. Had we managed to win today, we would have gone up to 16th and out of the bottom 8.

This is part of the wider biased view....in essence every goal you concede is down to poor defending at some point, our second yesterday was just as bad defensively as their second.
We do however seem to be experiencing alot more of what you may consider basic errors, diving in, not tracking runners from midfield and spacing.
Have said most of this season pur players do defend a bit schoolboy-ish...ball watching and getting sucked in to the ball.
There should be enough defensive eyes on the coaching staff to identify the problems but coaching the remedy into players is a different matter.

I’m 9 hours ahead and only caught up with the highlights a few hours ago.

My thoughts:

1. Exiles like Mayaman who watch Town matches at weird local times have my upmost respect. I set an alarm and slept through it!

2. Our defending…the usual sloppiness. None of which can be excused by the difficult conditions:

a. 1:18 - why aren’t the rest of the defence absolutely screaming at Maher to bring the ball down? It’s Stroud, not a loud away match at Galatasaray. 1:29 - midfielder not tracking runner again (Green this time). 1:31 - Maher dragged towards left back (again); Mullarkey not spotting the danger earlier and closing the gap between him and Rodgers (again!), leaving Omotoye completely unmarked in the centre. If the cross had made it, Omotoye would have had a tap in. Great save by Cartwright mind.

b. 2:56 - where is our midfield?

c. 3:20 - what is Green doing? You can’t just let someone pass you in the middle of the pitch like that. It’s like Holohan wafting a leg in the same situation in the last match. Just defend properly and stop looking for the lazy, cowardly option. I’d be embarrassed going back into the changing room at half-time if someone did that to me. Green wasn’t even beaten by skill. I’ve seen Frenchmen drop a bigger shoulder when you ask them a question.
3:28 - the posters having a go at the ref about the penalty decision - I don’t know how you have come to that decision. Maher’s wafted a leg in the box and was asking for trouble. It’s difficult to tell whether Maher gets any of the man or ball or both or neither. It appears that the ball is spinning which would suggest Maher gets a touch (on the ball). It’s a theatrical fall admittedly but you can see why the ref has given it. Maher gives him the opportunity to. The lack of strong complaints from Maher suggests he thinks it is a pen.

d. 4:12 - deary me, where to start…Foul throw from Glennon, Green caught on the ball in a daze - a poor mistake but a goal isn’t certain. The probability increases when Rodgers dives in to a challenge he’s never going to win. He’s lucky he doesn’t connect with the player or we would have been 1-0 down with 10 men. Again, it’s just lazy - defend properly and stay on your feet!

3. Cartwright has shown a lot of spünk. He looked unconvincing in his early cup performances and his footwork wasn’t great for Slough’s free kick at their place. He made a couple of great saves and generally looked solid since (deservedly) replacing Eastwood, showing enough confidence to admonish our defenders. I don’t think Crocombe would do any better behind this defence (and midfield) than Cartwright is doing currently.

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

I’m 9 hours ahead and only caught up with the highlights a few hours ago.

My thoughts:

1. Exiles like Mayaman who watch Town matches at weird local times have my upmost respect. I set an alarm and slept through it!

2. Our defending…the usual sloppiness. None of which can be excused by the difficult conditios:

a. 1:18 - why aren’t the rest of the defence absolutely screaming at Maher to bring the ball down? It’s Stroud, not a loud away match at Galatasaray. 1:29 - midfielder not tracking runner again (Green this time). 1:31 - Maher dragged towards left back (again); Mullarkey not spotting the danger earlier and closing the gap between him and Rodgers (again!), leaving Omotoye completely unmarked in the centre. If the cross had made it, Omotoye would have had a tap in. Great save by Cartwright mind.

b. 2:56 - where is our midfield?

c. 3:20 - what is Green doing? You can’t just let someone pass you in the middle of the pitch like that. It’s like Holohan wafting a leg in the same situation in the last match. Just defend properly and stop looking for the lazy, cowardly option. I’d be embarrassed going back into the changing room at half-time if someone did that to me. Green wasn’t even beaten by skill. I’ve seen Frenchmen drop a bigger shoulder when you ask them a question.
3:28 - the posters having a go at the ref about the penalty decision - I don’t know how you have come to that decision. Maher’s wafted a leg in the box and was asking for trouble. It’s difficult to tell whether Maher gets any of the man or ball or both or neither. It appears that the ball is spinning which would suggest Maher gets a touch (on the ball). It’s a theatrical fall admittedly but you can see why the ref has given it. Maher gives him the opportunity to. The lack of strong complaints from Maher suggests he thinks it is a pen.

d. 4:12 - deary me, where to start…Foul throw from Glennon, Green caught on the ball in a daze - a poor mistake but a goal isn’t certain. The probability increases when Rodgers dives in to a challenge he’s never going to win. He’s lucky he doesn’t connect with the player or we would have been 1-0 down with 10 men. Again, it’s just lazy - defend properly and stay on your feet!

3. Cartwright has shown a lot of spünk. He looked unconvincing in his early cup performances and his footwork wasn’t great for Slough’s free kick at their place. He made a couple of great saves and generally looked solid since (deservedly) replacing Eastwood, showing enough confidence to admonish our defenders. I don’t think Crocombe would do any better behind this defence (and midfield) than Cartwright is doing currently.

It's a lot worse than we thought!

One thing that is noticeable is that players very rarely string two good games together.

Holohan and Green have both had good games recently but then looked completely lost the very next game. It has happened to so many of our players this season it is bizarre.

My only reasoning is that natural footballers look good most of the time, but ours look good sometimes, sporadically when a particular game suits them. We need in future to have more naturally gifted players who are happy to receive the ball, control and dictate the play. The Slough midfielder the other night (number 8 I think) was a cut above our lot; instant control, always looking for the ball and directing play.

Quoted from moosey_club

This is part of the wider biased view....in essence every goal you concede is down to poor defending at some point, our second yesterday was just as bad defensively as their second.
We do however seem to be experiencing alot more of what you may consider basic errors, diving in, not tracking runners from midfield and spacing.
Have said most of this season pur players do defend a bit schoolboy-ish...ball watching and getting sucked in to the ball.
There should be enough defensive eyes on the coaching staff to identify the problems but coaching the remedy into players is a different matter.

I agree wholeheartedly. I mentioned against Slough that the defence looked very schoolboy at times, and were often all dragged over toward the play, leaving unmarked players at the back post, from which they hit the post and we got away with it.

It's not just the defence either. The midfield has got to wake up and track the runners too.

My hope is that these things can be ironed out watching play backs of the game and getting it right on the training pitch. If we can tighten up in this area, we can start to win a few, because we are scoring enough goals.