Plymouth - away 8th December

Aw....are you sure?
Don't want you putting yourself out or owt....

 

I have to prove I'm not a plastic?

 

Didn't win. Boom season over. Shame really because we edged a point closer to 'safety'.

 

Yes we have but bringing in a midfielder doesn't mean the right defender is out of contract and available.

I'm pretty sure Hopkin will have looked given that we're currently playing a right back at centre half.

 

F*****g Plastic .

 

Nothing wrong with my maths.

 

Yeh I said earlier i hadn't looked at the fixtures, just the table. My bad.

 

We all know the teams frailties. But we are eking out a few points now so we have to have more optimism now

 

To be honest, we played pretty well. If it wasn't for the three set piece goals, I'd say we actually defended alright too. Mellor, out of position, was pretty solid, winning headers and tackles. O'Connor made some cracking blocks. I thought our full backs didn't perform that well. Caddis looked leggy, and Chicksen, I still can't understand how he's picked over Wood. But ofc they all messed it up marking from corners and set pieces. Shocking and frustrating.
OB was his usual busy self in the centre, while Henry was a bit out of the game. No need to say how good Payne was. Took his goals well and looked creative on the ball.
Ball and Doyle work hard, but you can tell Doyle is a poacher type who is just yearning for some decent balls to feet into the box. Miller ran his socks off putting the CBs under constant pressure. Took his goal well and was unlucky not to get a few more. It's nice to see a forward finally have a one on one chance with the keeper.
Can't blame Hopkin for bringing Jim OB on and taking Doyle off when we were winning. Perhaps he was the only one watching who thought we'd keep the lead.

All in all an entertaining game in terrible conditions. If the keepers just passed it out to the full backs instead of trying to kick it into/against the wind, it would have been much more rewarding for them. Saying that, the Plymouth keeper had a shocking kicking display, and a few times we almost benefited.
Did we deserve to win? Not sure. We took the lead three times from open play, only to give it away almost immediately. Same old story. As many have said, a point before the game would have been taken. We'd have lost this one 3-1 a few months ago.

 

Just seen the goals, Miller's goal was fantastic but their 1st goal is so frustrating. We get caught out by short corners every single week and need to get that sorted asap.

 

I thought JOB on for Doyle was spot on. It wasn’t a tactical error that saw us drop two points it was not defending a set piece properly. I don’t have the stat but I’d bet that we’ve conceded more goals from set pieces than any other side in the league.

 

Just watched them myself. The highlights finished after Miller scored - did we actually win the game and I just dreamt Plymouth had equalised again?

 

All of theirs looking pretty poor from our prospective. That said, I’m sure they will say they should have done better for our first two.

It just hammers home the priority for Jan window been the defence. There’s perhaps an arguement for O’Conner been the only one who should remain in there (maybe Caddis). After that, needs an absolute overhaul. Is Andrew Davies available?

 

The defending from set pieces is criminal and that’s something that should very much be sorted on the training ground.

We man mark. Assign each player his man and if that man scores, the guilty party is fined. Or if that’s too harsh - some sort of training ground forfeit. Said player has to bear his arse on the goal line and everyone has a free shot from the penalty spot. Sharpen a few minds.

 

I don't disagree with that at all, I just think we should have had Colville on at the same time.

 

I thought the in game management was poor.

Hopkin has us too open with that poor defence.

 

Fair point. Yesterday was the first time I've seen Colville. I think he has promise. If we do go down, I think he could get a run in the side and be a good player at that level.

 

Cherry and Yorath had a system where if you made an error in the game that cost a goal you wore the yellow jersey of shame in training all week