Luton Town Home Tuesday 12/3

Good on the ball, questionable off it - but also, not helped.

There are enough mitigating factors for our defence down the left side for me to give Chicksen a 6.5/10.

Any other player performing like that wouldn't even get a mention.

What's the opposite of a gomp-r? Because there are a few of them, it would seem...

The problems today weren't defensive, so let's not take the easy peasy route to mindless criticism - if anyone was baba, it was sadly David Ball.

 

Sorry Jon, I have to disagree. Defensively chicksen was all over the shop, granted he didn't have tonnes of support but caddis coped fairly well on the other side and his support was none existent from Anderson.

On the ball, he treats the thing like a bomb, can't wait to get rid of it in whichever direction is easiest. He played a couple of hospital balls today for sure. His attacking was non existent, never got over halfway and was bullied by their frontline.

He's not on his own though, the exact same could be said for NKP.

 

Ball had a thankless task tonight, chasing lost causes most of the night. The reason we didn't get something from this game was the main reason we are rock bottom of the table and no manager in this country can change that.

 

Well I did say, we can mix it, our full backs get forward and score, we play as team more than individuals, McCormack is very important and we are less without and we lost him first half and fell back a bit, we work hard and now we only need three wins from nine in reality. Good luck for your remaining games, a club your size should not be in this position. You battled hard to not but other than Akpan not a lot of class on show. Best Wishes

 

I thought today defensively Caddis was no better than Chicksen, but agree he offered more in attack. I think half of the problem with Chicksen is that for whatever reason he often finds himself outnumbered in defence and gets caught in 2 minds rather than committing to take one player

 

My thoughts on the game are Luton come flying out the blocks from the start, got their deserved goal and then strangely decided to sit on their lead and let us have the ball and attack them. We huffed and puffed but never really looked like scoring and Luton were pretty comfortable. Could still be playing now and we wouldn't have scored.

 

If I keep going, people will make silly associations with my love of Chicksen or something, so I won't.

But Caddis was worse on the ball than Chicksen today, and Anderson helped him out way more than O'Brien or Butterfield helped Chicksen.

O'B at times looks clueless when it comes to defensive positioning, and Butterfield was clearly under instruction to start wide left, but drift into a central attacking midfield position - that's a result of Bowyer's tactics, which nearly earned us a point to be fair, not Chicksen's performance.

 

Wow. You say you can mix it? You obviously can play football, but don't you get fed up of watching grown men moaning, whining, whinging and rolling around on the floor

 

Agree, a few voices in the Midland Road shouting for Chicksen to sprint over to their right winger, but it clearly wasn't a viable option. Had Luton employed a 4-4-2, and stuck rigidly to it, maybe it might have made sense - but with Hylton, Collins AND Lee all pushing forward, it was just a lack of basic understanding to expect Chicksen to rush out to challenge Jack Stacey every time he roamed forward.

 

I think the most solid we have looked down the left this season is when we have played Chicksen with Wood in midfield in front of him

 

Also I was amazed to see Patrick back in a City shirt and puzzled for the second game as to why Payne is again a no show especially tonight with us chasing the game and Anderson being not very good let's say.

 

I thought you came up in good numbers but were as quiet as a mouse except for the 20th minute.

 

Not embarrassed one bit. The left side of our defence is awful. It gets proven time and time again. Tonight was no different.

 

'we're getting nowhere by being nice'.

WTF? Nothing to do with nice or otherwise. The team has not got enough ability. End of. Relegation nailed on (and has been for months). We will struggle like hell next season too and will playing the likes of Guiseley soon enough (that is if we still exist).

Sorry to be so negative; just been a realist.

 

I thought Chicksen was ok tonight, yes a few wayward passes, but not that bad. I think Anderson needs game time if we can afford it. Akpan and Doyke great game, Ball wasn’t bad, but probably feelingnthe after effects of Saturday. NKP didn’t play well.

 

'we're getting nowhere by being nice'.

WTF? Nothing to do with nice or otherwise. The team has not got enough ability. End of. Relegation nailed on (and has been for months). We will struggle like hell next season too and will playing the likes of Guiseley soon enough (that is if we still exist).

Sorry to be so negative; just been a realist.

 

Bowyer gave the reason post match he wanted to try some pace which we sadly lack that’s why he brought Patrick on and was right to try if. I like Payne but the team look better balanced with Butterfield in a more attacking role

 

Payne missing is an odd one. He's just about our top scorer (in open play?) and has the ability to produce that bit of magic. I'm baffled why he can't get the last 10 or 15 minutes when the side is losing.

 

Yeah, but do you notice it gets proven whether Chicksen plays or not?

Or that it depends who actually plays on the left hand side, and that it isn't all down to one man?

For those reasons, singling out a left back after a half-decent performance genuinely is embarrassing.

It shows you don't understand what you're seeing, or don't CARE to understand what you're seeing, or you simply weren't there.

None of those options really look particularly good when you're insisting on passing judgement.

 

Well I did say, we can mix it, our full backs get forward and score, we play as team more than individuals, McCormack is very important and we are less without and we lost him first half and fell back a bit, we work hard and now we only need three wins from nine in reality. Good luck for your remaining games, a club your size should not be in this position. You battled hard to not but other than Akpan not a lot of class on show. Best Wishes