Most liked posts in thread: Away vs Cambridge United - Sat 15 Feb 2020

I agree. I was furious when he brought Paudie on and said we would end up losing the game.

 

Don't blame the ref Stuart, defending was appalling...Devitt ( not even on the bench I know) instead of the useless Paudie would have been a better choice...

 

he took the credit on Tuesday night with the changes he made at half-time and fairly so - he has to take the criticism and responsibility for today too. poor game management, poor substitutions and poor change in shape from the manager today.. not good enough.

if you concede an equaliser in the last two minutes, there is no way you should be conceding another but we sat back again and tried to defend on the edge of our own box - like we did against Grimsby, like we did against Stevenage. luckily Hanson and Tom Soares weren't more composed in the 90th+ minutes in the previous two matches or we could be looking at 2 losses and a draw rather than a win, a loss and a draw. thankfully we're not.

 

Seasons over.

Not going to dwell on this result, the teams ruined far too many a Saturday for me to care.

But I have to say, that defending for the 2nd goal is atrocious. All those players we have in the box and a man runs free, the ball is simply rolled through uninterrupted 3 yards out from the goal? Can O'Donnell not collect? How is no one challenging the cross?

 

I thought they were actually doing alright until we went to a back 5.

 

I sit corrected then whilst I eat my steak and chips. Tell you what it's bloody hard work trying to be positive on here.

 

It’s a scandal that Devitt wasn’t even on the bench.

 

Well, yes, but we've seen it all before. When he brought Paudie on I was shouting no, no, no. All it did was create a gaping hole in our midfield and indecision in central defence. Madness and a completely predictable outcome.

 

Late goals costing us again. I asked it before but are we fit enough? Or just no confidence in the side?

 

The Paudie sub cost us that game no question. Put us further on the back foot and lost a man from the midfield. Flashback to that walsall away game when we threw away a 3 goal lead and McCall made a similar silly substitution. Shot ourselves in the foot after a first half we were the better side in.

First half and second were polar opposite. Second half we suddenly couldn't pass the ball five yards and started launching long balls to Novak who I thought was appaling today. Vaughan or Donaldson would have been able to take us up the pitch and win fouls.

Overall weak mentality in that side from back to front and it will need new players and a full pre season before that will change imo.

And the less said about that ref the better. Absolute joker and clearly had a home win on his coupon.

 

And Rhino skin, as yourself @Tom Hallett 60+ years nothing surprises me any more with regards Bradford City, defeats still hurt be not as bad as they did in my younger days.

 

OK. Let's not get too defensive. I am not a McCall supporter. I do not believe he is a good manager. I do not think that he is the right appointment...all that is out there in the public domain for anyone to see

It doesn't take away from the question, the debate or that we should, as much as possible, objectively review his performance.

Instead of trying to deflect from the performance by focusing on me I would appreciate an answer to my question.

So.... What was right about the changes McCall made today? if he takes credit for the changes on Tuesday does he carry the can for the changes today?

 

He barely puts one foot in front of the other

 

Not sure people are hammering McCall, most of us are glad he’s back but if he makes an error he should be open to criticism as anyone else. I agree with you though on the squad, it was vastly overrated by some who thought it was as simple as sacking Bowyer. Just because it’s a poor league doesn’t mean you walk it, we’re 4th division Same as the other 23 teams. And it’s an awfully unbalanced squad, with little quality even at this level.

 

We are still suffering from the very poor recruitment by Rahic coupled with some further bizarre ones from Bowyer especially in the midfield area. No thought appears to have been given to experience and leadership qualities so one in the club need a to explain the post Rahic recruitment strategy.This appears to need reviewing and an overhaul to give Stuart McCall and Kenny Black a good chance of turning the fortunes of this club around.

 

He was right when he said they should have done better with the wind advantage first half. Then they would have had something to hold onto. They should have done exactly what Cambridge did second half had Novak and Donaldson on and put balls into the box

 

I would have brought on Paudie, but I would have pushed up O’Connor into midfield. We needed to firm up the midfield. So that we were not defending on the edge of our box. I do think the weather paid an enormous role yesterday, if you listen to their manager they deliberately used it, and they won the toss so they could use it as part of their tactics. I think the criticism towards Stuart needs to be dialled down and it is inappropriate.

 

Yes I do see that quite clearly but Stuart brought Paudie on as an attempt to shore things up in response to them throwing on an extra man up top. At that point Cambridge were already coming on strong and we were riding our luck. It isn’t as though we ourselves were making chances. He had to do something. He made a judgement call based on forty years in the game and being the man on the spot. I believe most managers would have done the same. By the end our defenders were out on their feet and predictably made errors. In my opinion it’s ridiculous to assert categorically it’s all down to McCall. We will never know how different the game would have been had he not brought on Paudie but I suspect the result would have been the same - and the McCall detractors would have blamed him for another kind of tactical mistake. No one can definitively conclude that if this player had been in this position this would have ensued. It’s not Chess. I will say this if we’d had a proper defensive midfielder Stuart probably wouldn’t have felt he needed extra cover at the back. I think yesterday Stuart slipped on the muck left behind by the last guy, to put it politely.

 

It's an opinion Onside, nothing inappropriate about it at all. I think bringing Paudie on so early in the game and going to a back 5 was 100% the wrong thing to do and probably ended up costing us the game. I am glad Stuart is back, I think given the circumstances (having to quickly get to grips with a poor bloated squad and lack of time to train properly due to the weather), he is doing a good job overall, but yesterday he made a poor decision and he should be held account for it in the same way that he is given credit where it is due.

 

You see it so many times though, ref fails to see the blinding obvious then blows up for the slightest touch, works both ways but infuriating...