Last regular home league game of the season. 

Will we finish 3rd or 4th?

Hmm wasn’t convincing but did it really matter just like next week pretty pointless

 

Didn't want to go into the play offs on the back of 3 home draws or worse so job done.

Glad to see Charles get 75 mins too. Still looks rusty so same again next week will hopefully sharpen him up a bit.

Collins is sending us up though. Scores from nothing. A tight play off game, that makes a huge difference

2 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

It's beyond me how people couldn't see Collins was a player

He's quality, way above our other options.  Now that Bod's unavailable I'm not fussed who plays up front with Collins (as long as it not Dan obviously) but Collins has to be nailed on starter in the play offs, and not to be subbed after 70 minutes either.  Good signing by IE even at that price, great to see a 2 footed, crafty player up front.

42 minutes ago, Biggish Dave said:

Didn't want to go into the play offs on the back of 3 home draws or worse so job done.

Glad to see Charles get 75 mins too. Still looks rusty so same again next week will hopefully sharpen him up a bit.

Collins is sending us up though. Scores from nothing. A tight play off game, that makes a huge difference

Really good point and I reckon it’s pretty important for confidence. Ended the season with the best home record in the league (nobody with a remaining home game can catch us) and so any team that we’ll play in the play offs will hate the idea of coming to us for the second leg.

Unbelievably frustrating game with the amount of chances we missed, but everything to the point of the finish was pretty good (Port Vale were shite!). I was convinced it was destined to finish 0-0 after Williams hit the bar but as you say Biggish Dave, Collins can make something of nothing and he’s clearly a match winner - I was also coming away from the game thinking that he’ll be the difference that will see us go up.

Charles clearly getting up to speed, I thought Taylor had a really good game and dealt with their 2 units very very well. Toal is back to his best, Baxter made some big saves and Maghoma carried on his form.

Hopefully a good result next weekend, not arsed who we get in the play offs, fingers crossed Santos will be back and no more injuries. Let’s go up in the best way you can, celebrating in the sunshine at Wembley in a month.

Imagine being Oxford, Blackpool, Lincoln, Barnsley a.n. others and drawing Bolton in the playoffs. 

We're the best team in places 3-6 and we'll prove it. Could do without the 500 note layout on a Wembley day out though. 

COYWM bring it home

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 20242 yr by auckland_bwfc

Jerome peaking

1 hour ago, Stig said:

I really like that Collins will have a shot, which seems a bizarre thing to say about a striker

 Good professional performance all round today, but one gripe - defending corners on the first half was shambolic. Exactly the same routine as Tuesday was allowed. All the people around me in the stands were calling out to mark the guy on the edge of the box before the first corner and in disbelief when the same play was used and a free shot was allowed.

Against Port Vale we can get away with it, but come the play offs, those kind of things could be the difference 

Agree on Collins, we have a striker that backs himself to shoot from distance, and can do, its refreshing.

Re defending corners, we are effectively saying "go on, have a shot, we don't think you're good enough or lucky enough to score", its almost insulting to the opposition to say they aren't a threat if shooting from the edge of the box.  Would we leave De Bruyne or Maddison unmarked there?

Hopefully we won’t play like today in the play offs 

4 minutes ago, radcliffe white said:

Hopefully we won’t play like today in the play offs 

Can't see the playoffs being against a side playing all 11 behind the ball.

We absolutely dominated the game bar a short spell after we went infront the issue isn't playing well it's finishing the chances we create. Dion and Randy both should have scored in the 2nd half and a few good saves from their keeper kept us out.

We can't have a repeat of the Derby game where we dominate but don't score.

1 hour ago, Biggish Dave said:

Didn't want to go into the play offs on the back of 3 home draws or worse so job done.

Glad to see Charles get 75 mins too. Still looks rusty so same again next week will hopefully sharpen him up a bit.

Collins is sending us up though. Scores from nothing. A tight play off game, that makes a huge difference

Agreed 3 draws would have looked like poor home form.  Instead of that, its the longest unbeaten home run for at least 10 years (probably a lot longer).  12 unbeaten, beating the 11 game run when we were promoted from L2, not bad for a team that's been a bit crap since getting injuries.  Scored in our last 20 home league games, not sure when that last happened either, definitely not for donkeys years.  Only one team stopped us scoring at home this season 🙄

1 minute ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Agreed 3 draws would have looked like poor home form.  Instead of that, its the longest unbeaten home run for at least 10 years (probably a lot longer).  12 unbeaten, beating the 11 game run when we were promoted from L2, not bad for a team that's been a bit crap since getting injuries.  Scored in our last 20 home league games, not sure when that last happened either, definitely not for donkeys years.  Only one team stopped us scoring at home this season 🙄

Humble pie eating c@nts

8 minutes ago, frank_spencer said:

Can't see the playoffs being against a side playing all 11 behind the ball.

We absolutely dominated the game bar a short spell after we went infront the issue isn't playing well it's finishing the chances we create. Dion and Randy both should have scored in the 2nd half and a few good saves from their keeper kept us out.

We can't have a repeat of the Derby game where we dominate but don't score.

If we don't win the away leg, that's exactly what it will be like.  Think Pompey and Barnsley (A) in 2nd half.  And as you say Derby, not to mention Wigan.  Its our job to break them down, they know how to play against us, in that respect the last 2 homes have been decent practise and at least we've managed to score in 2nd half in both.   

41 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

If we don't win the away leg, that's exactly what it will be like.  Think Pompey and Barnsley (A) in 2nd half.  And as you say Derby, not to mention Wigan.  Its our job to break them down, they know how to play against us, in that respect the last 2 homes have been decent practise and at least we've managed to score in 2nd half in both.   

Surely if we got a draw in the away leg then the onus would be on the opposition to have a go just as much as it would with us?

3 hours ago, Zico said:

We're 66/1 for a top 2 finish 

It’s 29/1 for Carlisle and Bolton to win. If only we’d put a couple more of today’s chances away…

I think Todays game was always going to be how it played out. Timing of the first goal would  Dictate how many. They were trying to stay in the game for as long as possible before trying to be a bit braver which we saw flashes off in the 2nd half. Us, wouldn’t say we were on the beach but the tempo had the feel of a typical end of season / pre season game and when your coming up against a back 6 or 7 at times it’s going to take a while. 
we upped it In periods and that’s when we had our success. 

the play offs are about momentum and confidence and to be honest the only team I want to play at the minute are Barnsley cos they are absolutely honking. Any of the other 3 will be full of it. I back us against any of them but I’d much rather face a team who have clung on over one who’ve snatched a spot after a good run 

Edited April 20, 20242 yr by barrycowdrill

Took my lads Manchester United-supporting mate with us today. His dad takes him to Old Trafford a couple of times a season, but he's going to ask if he can have a season ticket at the ToughSheet when he gets home. 😁

23 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Surely if we got a draw in the away leg then the onus would be on the opposition to have a go just as much as it would with us?

I'm guessing Lincoln or Oxford would settle for pens all day long, if the 1st leg is a draw, given they are underdogs and happy to be in the play offs.  They aren't likely to come here and trade attacks with us and expect to win, they'll want to frustrate us and hit us on the break like most teams.

Winning the away leg wouldn't go amiss.

 

1 hour ago, radcliffe white said:

Hopefully we won’t play like today in the play offs 

Make your mind up last post you said it was pretty pointless today . Which it wasn’t we still need to finish 3rd if we can 

6 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I'm guessing Lincoln or Oxford would settle for pens all day long, if the 1st leg is a draw, given they are underdogs and happy to be in the play offs.  They aren't likely to come here and trade attacks with us and expect to win, they'll want to frustrate us and hit us on the break like most teams.

Winning the away leg wouldn't go amiss.

 

Sitting back and trying to catch us on the break is a bit different to Vale (and any number of other teams) who just stick 11 behind the ball and wait for the clock to tick. 

26 minutes ago, Cheese said:

Took my lads Manchester United-supporting mate with us today. His dad takes him to Old Trafford a couple of times a season, but he's going to ask if he can have a season ticket at the ToughSheet when he gets home. 😁

Great work 👏

Working on a city "supporting" nephew in the same way

If we don’t go up, Collins will be sold for £5m.

Best player we’ve had since Afolayan.

39 minutes ago, Steejay said:

If we don’t go up, Collins will be sold for £5m.

Best player we’ve had since Afolayan.

Can see a good partnership developing between him and Charles, and I'm not a DC fan. DC is happy to run into the box, whereas Collins seems to want those long shots, quite a few times Charles was ready for the rebound or keeper fumble and if that works for us, MINT. 

https://www.skysports.com/football/bolton-wanderers-vs-port-vale/484127
 

Easy to forget how many good chances we had today.

Not sure what was going on when we hit post twice in 5 seconds. 

4 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

Jerome peaking

He's going to score the winner at Wembley. Got Wilbraham-level status all over him. 

10 minutes ago, Ani said:

https://www.skysports.com/football/bolton-wanderers-vs-port-vale/484127
 

Easy to forget how many good chances we had today.

Not sure what was going on when we hit post twice in 5 seconds. 

Some howlers for Dion there today - hopefully he's got it out of his system now. If Nlundulu had missed those chances there'd be effigies burned in the street!