Most liked posts in thread: Away v Chesterfield 23rd July

I would imagine the starting line-up today is almost the same as MH had in mind for next week, so don't kid yourself it was a weakened team

 

I’m in the camp that players need to be able to think on their feet and adjust, and that the management need to give them the freedom and responsibility to do so. We’re all hoping that Smallwood will be the leader on the pitch who can make that happen. What was disappointing about yesterday, and concerning if repeated, is just how little he influenced the game. Hopefully he becomes more influential as the squad gets to know each other.

Some things we might learn from yesterday.

Harrat and Osadebe
If we are going with 4-2-3-1 then on yesterday’s showing we can’t play both of them at the same time. Both left their fullbacks exposed (they swapped on occasion but generally Harrat was on the right and Osadebe on the left). Osadebe got better at this, but Harratt left Halliday often with 2 on 1. Chesterfield had the freedom of our left side for much of the match.

Harrat’s best moment was a superb chipped finish over the advancing keeper’s head when through 1-on-1,, chalked off for offside. He shot from the left side of the box after a move involving Osadebe. By then however Chesterfield had had 2 goals disallowed for offside, both from good crosses after skipping past the fullback, with the Centre Halves struggling. Harrat’s instincts are to be up with whoever is leading the line. Going to need a fair bit of coaching to shoehorn him into yesterday’s formation/pattern. So...

Chapman
A nailed on starter in the wide right slot (on yesterday’s showing...). We threw in the towel after the 3rd went in and there we’re multiple subs from both benches. Nevertheless they kept their very useful left back on for a while and Chapman changed the dynamic for a bit, simply by playing as a winger. He gave Halliday, who had a very unhappy afternoon, a target for balls down the line, and suddenly they were worrying about us rather than the other way around. Halliday was even able to overlap and attempt a couple of crosses himself before he was replaced by Threlkeld (who didn’t disgrace himself, for the Threlkeld watchers out there). Chapman then seemed to be moved centrally and Ford replaced him on the right. He did ok, and was aggressive when he needed to be. Crashed a shot off the bar late on.

Smallwood, East, Walker
Walker seemed to be trying to play on Oliver’s shoulder, as it were. Fair enough, but the net effect given how Osadebe and Harrat were performing was that we effectively had a front 4 detached from the rest of the team. Huge acreage of grass for Chesterfield to roam into when our moves broke down. Smallwood and East left struggling with so much space to cover, the former manfully, the latter, well boyfully. He applied himself and he’s neat and tidy but, he is lightweight.

Sutton got a few mins, was similarly effective as East had been. The strikers were isolated for the most part. Cook when he came on must have thought it was Groundhog day. One shot he had that rolled into the keepers gloves was the first attempt of the 2nd half, on about 72 mins. The score line didn’t flatter the opposition. Let’s hope we look back on it as a good learning experience.

 

Jeez guys its a friendly. No medals or cups for winning today, leave the winning for next week.

 

10 games !!!!! 10 games !!!!! You watch the mass meltdown if we lose next Saturday these lot who are waiting for it to go wrong should learn a lesson from 1998 and how badly that season ended and how brilliantly it finished but they won’t .............. October is the time to judge what we are doing not pre season not the first few games like you said 10 games in

 

A 3-0 defeat in a friendly and some are writing the season off already. Have faith, it might take a few months for a team to gel but we are in a far better position as a club to try and move forward. No guarantees we will but let's not see a defeat in what is a meaningless game result wide dampen the enthusiasm.

 

The worry for me is Chesterfield have just demonstrated how effective the high press is from stopping us playing.

Although it's a friendly, to be stopped from playing so effectively by a team from the division below is a bit of a blow. Particularly the week before the big kick-off. Hopefully it will do us a favour and give us all a bit of a wake up call and lessons are quickly learned from this.

 

It was only a friendly guys, just the same as it was when we beat Sunderland and waxing lyrical including myself after a very good performance, the business end starts on Saturday.

 

I actually think this thread is fabulous. Go back to DA times and you would have little to no interest amongst the fans for any of the pre season games but suddenly MH arrives , we recruit some real talent and we are all keen as mustard again.

 

That's not strictly true. Maybe the numbers were fewer in terms of attendance at the games, but to say there was little to no interest amongst the fans is well wide of the mark. There was a lot of optimism and excitement around during pre season last year and a lot of talk about it being our year. Didn't turn out that way but it's rewriting history a bit to say fans weren't interested or excited about our prospects during Adams pre season. They were, and I clearly remember Fordy telling everyone on here to stop getting carried away because results in pre season mean nothing.

 

It was pleasing to hear that another pre season match has been organised-a behind closed doors fixture.
A pity that the interviewer didn't ask about the injury/illness state of those missing from today's squad.

 

Give it 10 games into the season. We'll have a decent idea of how we're likely to fare by that point.

We're neither as good as 'beating a championship side 2-0' or 'losing 3-0 to a conference side' would indicate. We're still building a team, and pre season friendlies aren't a huge indicator of whats ahead.

All in all, a decent preseason, but now the real work begins. I personally think we might start slowly.

 

All this talk of them nullifying us I’m not so sure Broncs, we’ve shown over the years against higher league opposition in far more important matches than this that a lower league club can out play a higher one. I’m sure the likes of Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland were all scratching their heads after we beat them. Sometimes you just hold your hands up and say they were the better 11 on the day, the players need to make sure they don’t replicate such performances when it actually matters. Thankfully that game had as much on it as a park kick about.

 

I have emailed Chesterfield re livestream. As soon as I get a reply I’ll post it.

 

If there's no live feed and you want to see Dom mug off Creswell, or Coufal the Luton V WHU friendly is live streamed free

How To Follow…

• Saturday's match will be streamed live on our YouTube channel, on whufc.com and our official mobile app. You can follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and reaction for you after the final whistle.

 

Let me take you back to 1990

Bradford City 2-1 Red Star Belgrade

city finished 7th in the old third division

Red Star won the European cup at the end of that season

that’s how much you take notice of friendly games ............ we beat a championship club 4 days ago but lost to a non league club today please sum that up ??????

you can’t frendlies mean nothing at all

 

The better you start the season the better you can ride out the inevitable poor run later on. Treat every match as vital it’s the way to go

 

beat a championship side Tuesday night and no doubt we where nailed on to go up

lose to a non league side on Saturday and it all doom and gloom welcome to the wacky world of BCFC

 

A link to anyone wanting to listen on your pc or Laptop.
https://www.radio-uk.co.uk/1866-sport

 

I reckon the first 9 on the teamsheet will start next Saturday with a choice then of Oliver/Harratt or Cook/Angol.

 

Aye. Maybe a reality check is just what we needed. Friendlies are friendlies.