Reading (A)

[Matt Lofthouse]

Gutted we’ve lost more ground on 2nd but pleased we didn’t lose and also pleased for burstow getting another. 

Certainly had chances early on last night to win it, but that’s been a problem for a while now. 

[little whitt]

i fell asleep just  in the second half 

enjoyed the first half

 

Just had a Read of Craig Nonces page 

some Wallopers on there  

i hope none are on here 

 

End of the day WE are 3rd  

with a new manager new players still building a team 

Autos was a big ask this Season 

nipping up later to get my ST for next season

[bwfc4ife]

8 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Conway was absolutely outstanding in possession.  Folk will rightly point to him being AWOL for the goal, but for the other 98 minutes, he was on a different level to everyone else on the pitch.

Back to his best tonight, with pace, strength, dribbling, passing and energy.

Oh, and we played well overall, some excellent stuff at times.

Reading were piss poor.  It would have been an absolute joke if their defensive mindset had paid off.

If we're in the play offs, please can we play them?

It's weird how people can see things so differently. I think we've looked way more solid without Conway. I like the lad but i don't think he offers anywhere near enough going forward given how shit he is at defending and weak in the tackle. Every time he got in a crossing position last night it was either a nothing ball or cut out easily. I think he holds onto it way too much.

We've conceded numerous times this season because of his poor positioning and teams actively target him. A simple ball over the top and he's fucked, very much like Johnston in that regard. Looking at his stats also, 30 apps in league 1 and only 2 assists. Not exactly, great numbers for leaving us wide open time after time. 

[Kane57]

Whereas I think Johnston is the weak link. He's slow, can't pass or head and offers nothing going forward. Give me Conway every time. 

Watch Johnston on Saturday. Almost every pass of his either forces the recipient to a) stop running forward or b) move backwards to collect it 

Edited February 18 by Kane57

[L/H White]

18 minutes ago, Kane57 said:

Whereas I think Johnston is the weak link. He's slow, can't pass or head and offers nothing going forward. Give me Conway every time. 

Defence is the only area SS hasn't overhauled. It's next 

[bwfc4ife]

22 minutes ago, Kane57 said:

Whereas I think Johnston is the weak link. He's slow, can't pass or head and offers nothing going forward. Give me Conway every time. 

Watch Johnston on Saturday. Almost every pass of his either forces the recipient to a) stop running forward or b) move backwards to collect it 

I completely agree with you. He shouldn't start for me. Once we saw how shit Taylor was, it was clear we needed two new full backs in Jan, we didn't get either. 

[masi 51]

8 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

 

Not to make it about Evatt, this week of all weeks. But in 23/24 we averaged 1.61 ppg away from home and 1.4 goals per game. GD of +10.

This season we're at 1.18 ppg scoring 0.8 goals per game. GD of -6. We are a soft touch away, teams take points off us in just about every game.

We're not as good as the last team we had which finished 3rd. Maybe we won't need to be.

That squad had a very soft underbelly mentality which got found out at home against Carlisle and Wigan and away when it mattered against  Derby and Portsmouth. I would agree perhaps that squad maybe was better than this pre Christmas but is not a patch on this squad now. SS is still paying for that squads weak mentality in the players he inherited. Most have now moved on and it will only be this summer onwards that we will be free from the mindset those former players had.

This time last season most players give up on playing and did not want to play as they knew they were going in the summer, Gethin Jones aside

This season we have four/five who may be going this summer but you can see the difference in mentality Tutu, Christie, Johnson, and Dempsey are all out of contract come the summer and three of those are Evatt signings but i may question some of their ability but i would never ever say any of those four never put 100% in week in week out. We have a major re-build this summer but i think SS is moving us on in the right direction

[SirNat80]

10 minutes ago, bwfc4ife said:

I completely agree with you. He shouldn't start for me. Once we saw how shit Taylor was, it was clear we needed two new full backs in Jan, we didn't get either. 

 Will somebody please grab him by the neck and stop him going up for corners and free kicks. I'm sick of seeing him get in the way of our attackers, giving a cheap foul or using his threepenny bit head to clear the ball for the opposition. Absolute liability 3 goals in 151 games tells you everything 

[Mounts Kipper]

10 hours ago, Not in Crawley said:

I'd rather have Schumacher than Evatt any day of the week.

Let’s hope your saying the same Saturday night.

[royal white]

1 hour ago, little whitt said:

i fell asleep just  in the second half 

enjoyed the first half

 

Just had a Read of Craig Nonces page 

some Wallopers on there  

i hope none are on here 

 

End of the day WE are 3rd  

with a new manager new players still building a team 

Autos was a big ask this Season 

nipping up later to get my ST for next season

I believe @Smiley and @Spider Are admins 

[Mounts Kipper]

1 hour ago, SirNat80 said:

 Will somebody please grab him by the neck and stop him going up for corners and free kicks. I'm sick of seeing him get in the way of our attackers, giving a cheap foul or using his threepenny bit head to clear the ball for the opposition. Absolute liability 3 goals in 151 games tells you everything 

Johnston gives everything but he’s as thick as mince and has no dexterity or technical ability everything  a footballer needs first and foremost he lacks, except effort. 

Edited February 18 by Mounts Kipper

[Tombwfc]

18 minutes ago, masi 51 said:

That squad had a very soft underbelly mentality which got found out at home against Carlisle and Wigan and away when it mattered against  Derby and Portsmouth. I would agree perhaps that squad maybe was better than this pre Christmas but is not a patch on this squad now. SS is still paying for that squads weak mentality in the players he inherited. Most have now moved on and it will only be this summer onwards that we will be free from the mindset those former players had.

This time last season most players give up on playing and did not want to play as they knew they were going in the summer, Gethin Jones aside

This season we have four/five who may be going this summer but you can see the difference in mentality Tutu, Christie, Johnson, and Dempsey are all out of contract come the summer and three of those are Evatt signings but i may question some of their ability but i would never ever say any of those four never put 100% in week in week out. We have a major re-build this summer but i think SS is moving us on in the right direction

 

What you're saying now (this team is miles better than the one two years ago) is exactly what people (quite possibly you) were saying about the team we had at the start of the season with ACD, Burstow firing etc. We haven't seen anything like enough of Apter, Kenny, CBT to make a judgement and opinions will evolve as time goes on as they have done with Forss/Gale/Burstow/Duberry/Dalby.

The jury has to be out on the season and where we're heading when there is still a lot of games to play, we've been patchy throughout and had two fairly distinct 'era's' of loan players pre and post-January.

But regardless, all I said was that the idea this team has improved away from home in any sense vs the 23/24 team isn't true. That's not a comment on Evatt vs SS, it's just a fact. 

[ianofcleveleys]

9 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

We're not as good as the last team we had which finished 3rd. Maybe we won't need to be.

Think that last bit will be true, there are only two really good sides in a league of 24, those just behind us are stumbling along, Stevenage keep reappearing like a turd that wont flush, expected threats like Barnsley, Blackpool, Wigan, Rotherham have badly regressed.  

 

[Farnywhite]

1 hour ago, little whitt said:

with a new manager new players still building a team 

Autos was a big ask this Season 

Don’t agree with that autos were the aim start of season we will always be building a team next season will be no different because we will have another 5 loan players next season will be harder because more quality will be dropping down from the champ . Though we are a big fish down here this is the only season we have been the biggest team and we’re going to loose out to Lincoln whose improvement as been better than ours from last season 

[Whitesince63]

The difference last night was Jack Marriott and it was probably a blessing that he had to go off. We don’t sign players like Marriott who are proven experienced goalscorers, instead we sign unproven hopefuls like Kenny, Dalby, Forss and Burstow so what do we really expect? The last proven scorer we signed was Dion and he proved that point as did Doyle. Every signings a gamble but you’d have to say some are less a risk than others. Wherever we finish we need to be remembering that in the summer.

[barrycowdrill]

Didn’t watch last night so really can’t comment but from what I have read on here, elsewhere and heard via snippets here and there it feels like the same broken record has been played once again… 

I see a few comments around GJ which align to what I called out a couple of months back. There has to come a point where the question is asked - does the balance he brings being left footed get outweighed by the mistakes he makes? Personally think that balance tipped towards the latter a long time ago. 
 

i think a Toal / Forino partnership would prove to be more solid and less prone to making stupid decisions which inevitably lead us being under pressure and conceding 

[Rizlar]

If Forino was in the position Johno was in against Marriot I doubt he would have scored , I cannot call his commitment to the cause but he does make alot of mistakes and because we fail to convert chances at the other end it costs us. 
My issue is our away form is poor and as been since SS started if we end up in the play offs our away form could cost us . 

[Farnywhite]

Wonder if Kenny could get done retrospectively and be looking at a lengthy ban 

[Zico]

1 minute ago, Farnywhite said:

Wonder if Kenny could get done retrospectively and be looking at a lengthy ban 

no chance

total accident

[marple whites]

Frustratingly the story of a season not scoring when we are dominating and creating chances.

good not to lose, just got to keep winning and hope for some slip ups.

[barrycowdrill]

Play offs look inevitable. Where we finish, god knows. I think we have too big a cushion to 6th so either 3rd, 4th or 5th. 
 

don’t fear anyone in there but then also don’t fancy us against anyone either. Weird one 

[Farnywhite]

15 minutes ago, Zico said:

no chance

total accident

Iles saying it didnt  look good 

[Farnywhite]

8 minutes ago, barrycowdrill said:

Play offs look inevitable. Where we finish, god knows. I think we have too big a cushion to 6th so either 3rd, 4th or 5th. 
 

don’t fear anyone in there but then also don’t fancy us against anyone either. Weird one 

This team does seem to have more grit than previous play off teams which is what you need when you get into it hopefully whoever we play bottle it 

[Ani]

1 minute ago, Farnywhite said:

Iles saying it didnt  look good 

Their guy went down, he tried to play the ball but caught the defender. It was an unfortunate accident. The ref can not really say he did not see it. 

[Leyther_Matt]

At some point we’re going to have to decide which path we’re going to go down.

At the moment, it feels like we’re trying to play our way out of the division, but being honest I don’t think we’re that much better than the rest to be able to do that.

The other route is to just scrap our way out of it, but we’ve seen time and again (even just in the last three days!) that we aren’t anywhere near physical or nasty enough to be able to do that.

We’ve probably been quite fortunate to get a point from these last two games based on much of the balance of play, so in isolation they are both probably good results. However, that eight point gap - having played a game more - looks to be a serious challenge right now.