Burton (H) - August 21st

Think the long ball game from the huge gaping hole in centre mid when first half especially AO’C or McG had the ball up to half way and not one of Akpan or Wright we’re in a position to take it, would like to see the stats of passes from central defence -> forwards compared to central midfield-> forwards.
Payne’s biggest threat shock came when he was inside, MC was patting himself on the back last night about people being surprised he was out wide, but for me it just wasted him and for the goal and just previous he was central.
Must mention how nice it is in Scannell to have a wide man we can trust in doing something consistently with the ball.

 

Good three points last night but we are going to struggle if we don’t sort our attack out.
The team need to work out how each other play quick.
Scannel (as well as he played) tries to run down the wing for a cross everytime. Burton put two on him and squashed it most times. He needs to learn how to play it into Payne earlier. And on the floor. I saw payne having a couple of words with him.
His tracking I think is excellent. In fact everything else was good but I don’t think crossing it into Doyle is going to work too good.
I think miller needs to play more too. That lad has a good engine. Didn’t stop until subbed and has a lot of ability. Looked more dangerous than Doyle.
Defo think wyke would of been better in this team.
Defensively we road our luck and gave away a lot of fouls. Some teams will punish us if we keep doing that.
Good three points as I think it’s important that we scrap some points in early doors while the team are felling. but when this team work each other out and learn to play with each other I think we will do well this season.

 

He was on radio leeds/ifollow and he was honestly about five times better than Andy Kiwomya. As good to listen to as Matt Kilgallon when he was injured a while ago. Good knowledge.

 

A good response from the players last, who all fought hard and worked their socks off.

Scannell was the stand out performer. He gave their left back a torrid time, and his work rate was phenomenal, ever willing to track back and help out Mellor and Riley.

Payne grew into the game more and more, and was far more effective when roving in a more central role. The dilemma for Collins is how to get the best out of him and still try and play 2 up front

I thought Wright had a much improved game, and provided the pass of the night in the second half, with that beauty to Scannell, which Scannell unfortunately wasted, blasting high and wide.

Akpan still worries me, hes a big enough unit not to shirk tackles, but he did so with a couple of 50/50's in the first half. He always looks too lethargic to me, maybe a current fitness issue, or is it just his style?

O'Connor the pick of the defenders, although I think Chicksen gets far too much over the top criticism from some at times.

Finally, the problem area, up front. Doyle not getting much of a sniff at the moment, reduced to a couple of speculative long range efforts that didnt trouble the keeper. Miller works his socks off, but is not very effective alongside Doyle, and I'm struggling to see where enough goals are going to come from for us to mount a serious challenge on the top 6. We are desperate for a much more powerful striker to work alongside Doyle, not Bruenker though! It would have been good to see Doyle alongside Wyke. Wyke is going to be a huge miss I think, and I cannot imagine how they will be able to bring anybody in on loan, experienced and good enough to do what he did for us.

I actually enjoyed last night, very open game, although we were fortunate on the night that Burton wasted a host of decent chances. Jake Buxton really impressed me for them in central defence, didnt realise he played for them.

The crowd were very supportive and loud at times, especially when we were digging deep to protect our precious 1 goal lead.

Lets hope we can follow this up with a more convincing performance against Wycombe, and more importantly another 3 points, which would give us a satisfactory 9 points tally from the first 5 games

 

My first game this season and my take:

Keeper, decent enough. One duff clearance but other than that did well

Centre half’s both look good individually but looked like they met just before kick off.
Chicksen was ok. No change on previously.
Not impressed by Mellor or Riley.

Akpan laboured a bit and took a while to get up to speed but improved as the game went on.
Wright was the standout performer behind Scannell (poor first 20 though).

Scannell and Payne both look very good.

Front two- worked hard but very little service. Both made clever runs but often ignored.

Decent result. You can tell we have good players but you can tell they’ve not been together long and that they don’t understand a system yet.

 

I was right at the other side of the ground but for anyone closer, was Doyle's header in the first half an absolute sitter that he missed? Surely he should be putting them away?

 

Pleased with what I saw and certainly a big step up from the Barnsley (and from I’d heard about) the Southend performances.

What does worry me is although we seem to have a lot of players we very much lack strength in depth.

Up front is still the biggest concern. Nice to see 2 up front which we’ve blatantly been crying out for. I thought Collins had a unnecessary snipe about just going 1 up front in previous games when he was interviewed on the pulse after the game, so no doubt we’ll be subjected to that still a lot this season. Thought Miller played well, Doyle seems to be trying but not getting too much, were blatantly not playing to his strengths yet. I didn’t understand why MC took off Miller and brought on Gibson. Payne may have moved central but Gibson isn’t good enough and consistently gave the ball away. Although I don’t rate Bruekner at all he would have given a presence up front to try and hold the ball up. As such we did zero up front the last 10 minutes and instead just invited the ball to keep coming back as nobody could hold it up other than Scannell. We need a decent, physical forward who can do that as inevitably we will concede late goals if we simply try to hang on.

Other than that much happier driving back home last night.

 

Interesting. I thought Akpan was the stand out in the middle and Wright was patchy! Akpan grew into it in the second half but Wright was often quiet but had some good moments. Need an improvement from both really.

Good to grind out a win like that even if we didn't play that well. We really needed it and it gives the players some confidence going into the Wycombe game.

O'Connor excellent again at the back and McGowan seems well suited to him as a centre back pairing - they should get better. Chicksen was better but still unsure on both Mellor & Riley. Scannell was excellent in both getting us up the field and tracking back, if he can find that end product then what a player he'll be. I enjoyed Payne coming in off the left. No idea how good Miller & Doyle actually are because all I've seen is them trying and usually failing to get on the end of long punts. Fair play to Collins for trusting in three young players to see the game out - Riley (21), Gibson (20) & Colville (19).

I think Gary Jones summed it up well on the radio. At home, 442 shows a statement of intent to try and win the game. We weren't perfect last night but it looks like 442 could work better. I would understand Collins using the one up front / 4231 away from home but 442 against Wycombe please!

 

I watched Doyle for 15 minutes last night when the match got a bit tedious. His positioning is absolutely superb, the issue is delivery to him and support. Once we get both right I'm sure he'll score bucket loads.

 

We're ninth not nineteenth. Win on Saturday and we'll be top six.

Sort out the three problem areas (LB, CM & support for Doyle) and we'll be ok, possibly even play offs

 

Wyke & Doyle would have smashed this league to bits.

 

We'll smash a very fragile Wycombe to bits

 

They can’t head a ball to save their lives. CIA h should realise if you play with wingers you need a big chap at times to get their head on the crosses or don’t cross the ball !!!!!

 

Yeah rite

 

Collins obviously follows you on here. His comment in the T &A "People love negativity around the club at this moment."

 

Just about hits the nail on the head.

 

After listening to MC after the game it is obvious he keeps a keen eye on what is posted here, It is obvious that after all the advice on here to go 4-4-2 he has at last taken notice and switched to a system everyone here knew would suit us better despite him playing other systems that did not work, So C&B posters take a bow because last nights win was as much the result of your postings as of anything MC did

 

Bad crew that lot .

 

Or cross with pace. Up to the striker to then find space in the box. Long looping diagonal crosses wont work