Most liked posts in thread: Wimbledon (A)

Hopkin makes me optimistic for the future, in the same way Parky did. It's nothing to do with quality of football, but like the great man has a philosophy that he absolutely and passionately believes and insists all players embracing - namely working as a team and taking individually responsibility serious for every minute

That motivation will be infectious and hence it's unsurprising that this match sounds like it might have been our most mentally toughest win in an age (as opposed to say Blackpool or Walsall last season)

The footie isn't a great watch and probably won't ever be up to the best McCall 'fluid' style. However, it's wrong when people say it can't be equally as entertaining, Parky gave us arguable the best 'entertainment' (try the 3-1 against Leyton Orient in December 2015) - but it's awful when it's poor as we saw in the first half on Saturday

So we'll all still need to be patient, like this time seven years ago - it'll take a long time until it's consistently palatable

But well done to the lads

 

An awful lot of moaning on here tonight - can I remind people we actually won?

My constructive view of the game:

O’Donnell 7 - made some important claims, but don’t remember him making any crucial saves as such.

Wood 7 - becoming impressed with this guy. Turning out to be a good find.

McGowan 8 - much better from him after a dodgy start to the season.

O’Connor 8 - excellent game, and that clearance was Darby-esqe.

Mellor 7 - steady away. Thought he was better in the first half than the 2nd.

L O’Brien 7 - played a high pressure game, never stopped running, made some good tackles but passing needs a little work. However a steady game overall.

J O’Brien 6 - thought he looked tired before he went off, and passing was a bit wayward.

Scannell 8 - thought tonight was his best game and his running at defenders certainly puts us on the offensive and takes pressure off the midfield and defence.

Miller 7 - thought he was completely anonymous in the first half until the penalty incident. A much better second half as he grew into tha game.

Brunker 5 - seems he is our new scapegoat. Thought he had a quiet first half an hour but started getting a bit of joy in the last 15 mins of the first half. Second half I thought he grew into the game and started to do well, but was tiring when he was subbed off. Needs to put himself about a bit more. Some of the vitriol against him is a bit embarrassing. Try supporting him?

Payne 8 - can totally see why he was on the bench as he doesn’t fit into a 4-4-2. Hiwever when JOB went off, we changed to 3-5-2 and he and/or the change of formation turned the game more in our favour and thought we were much better after he came on.

Ball 6 - a willing runner, and put their defence under pressure. Had three clear chances but shooting was poor.

Overall the most pleasing thing for me was a committed effort on and off the ball - the players worked very hard for 90 minutes and it was great to see.

Three unbeaten (inc the window cleaner cup game) and two clean sheets in the league. Hopkin slowly but surely starting to make his mark.

 

A goal would be nice

 

Making the trip and genuinely looking forward to the journey, as by my reckoning it will be the 81st football club I have attended. Plus a few ales to boot...

Am I looking forward to the football on offer? Truthfully no simply because the football is a chore at the moment. But it's my club, not that of 'those' in charge whom own the club and no matter, I will attend to support my club.

Hopefully, at least a point and a performance with effort, commitment and a bit of fecking desire would be nice.

 

Travelling all that way to be greeted by the news that Kai bruenker starts up front. Poor bastards

 

Loved the way we played game management at the end. Normally other teams do that to us.

 

There is some real dross in this league. There may be enough other poor sides we can get away with this.

 

can we all just admit that Brunker is absolutely dreadful, there can't be any Park Bantam like stragglers that still believe hes good can there?

guys a liability. physical workout my eye, he's useless, and hinders us rather than helps.


good to get a result last night, much needed 3 points - it's a good job there's some truly awful teams in this league or we would be absolutely snookered.

 

Dmitry's scout watched the game and said he did this... In his 69 minutes on the pitch:
- Actions 61 (rank 2/13 i.e. City's busiest player whilst he was on the pitch, 1st was Scannell with 66 in 95 minutes)
- Actions success rate 36% (rank 6/13)
- Actions successful 22 (rank 3/13)
- Passes 11 (rank 10/13)
- Pass accuracy 82% (rank 4/13)
- Passes successful 9 (rank 5/13)
- Duels attempted 41 (rank 1/13, 2nd was Scannell with 33 in 95 minutes)
- Duel success rate 29% (rank 11/13)
- Duel successes 12 (rank 3/13, highest was Mellor with 14 in 95 minutes)
- Losses 17 (rank 12/13, worst was O'Connor with 21 in 95 minutes)
- Losses in own half 4 (rank 7/13)
- Recoveries 8 (rank 7/13)
- Recoveries in oposition half (rank 2/13)

In addition, he was the most passed to City player, receiving 20 passes in 69 minutes (L O'Brien was 2nd most passed to player, receiving 18 in 95 minutes) but his goal threat was absolutely zero.

What does that show? Probably that he wasn't very good with the ball, especially in the final 3rd but he worked harder than anyone else in the team, was a valuable outlet for our defence/midfield and despite his obvious limitations he was still one of our most productive players. He's not letting anyone down with his performances, the people who should be getting grief are those involved in recruitment who have left us short of options up front and all of the more talented players that we have who are doing much less for the team than a big lump who works hard.

 

People stopping going...not caring what the result is?....a Football Club is for life, not the odd cup run and a couple of trips to Wembley !

 

Scrappy stuff tonight but a much needed 3 points.

O'Donnell -7- assured as always, delays with every cross and one great save in the 1st half.

Mellor -7- best game for us, defensively solid.

McGowan -9- MOTM, won everything.

NKP -7- shaky at LB but solid at CB

Wood -7- solid, composed on the ball and decent in the air too.

O'Connor -7- did his job in midfield well enough and a fantastic goal line clearance.

LOB -8- he was everywhere putting a foot in and a great ball for Miller to win the pen.

Payne -8- changed our whole approach when he came on, some fantastic passes in that 2nd half.

Scannell -7- outstanding work rate but needs to work on his final ball.

Miller -7- starved of service but worked hard and won the pen.

Brunker -5- only negative really. Just didn't do anything.

Defensively we were great and it's great to have a 2nd clean sheet on the bounce. Going forward until Payne came on we were woeful, but 2nd half we would've had another couple if it were for better finishing.

Delighted for Hopkin and hopefully gives us momentum going into Saturday.

 

Workmanlike performance. O'C and McG were excellent tonight with Connor Wood also outtputa great shift in.

Grew into the game and confidence certainly improved and managed the game well in the second half.

 

Arel these 7s and 8s being given simply because the result was a good one?

Apart from the penalty we barely tested the keeper and only a ridiculous miss with the open goal, some lacklustre finishing and a couple of pieces of desperate (but also good) defending kept us the clean sheet.

8s and 7s would suggest we played well and dominated a poor Wimbledon side. For those that saw it, that simply wasn't the case.

Good result with a few things going our way at last but let's not get carried away and pretend the performance was anything other than average at best and downright poor for the most part.

 

Brunker starts. Jesus Christ

 

thought young o'brien really raised his game after his dad went off

 

Conlon got praise. I don’t really see how giving Kai rubbish actually helps. Hopkin must see something. It’s easy to jump on a bandwagon. Ok we don’t have to praise him but when we are down to the bare bones every player needs our support. When you sow new grass on the lawn and see green shoots of recovery if you constantly trample on it, it won’t grow and will die. Fully grown grass is resilient. Then you trample round on it in full gay abandon!!

 

Not bothered about scoring a goal as long as we win!!

 

My first game this season, going for a very important 3 points. 1-2