The return of Ian Evatt in a match we must win.

In the last week we dropped 6 points. In two of those games we scored in added time. We drew against our biggest rivals for 2nd place ... a real '6 pointer'.

So instead of being 3 points behind Lincoln it's now 10.

Are we shite ? ... no.

Are we good ? ... we could be, but we aren't, sadly.

Same questions & same answers apply to our manager.

29 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Well, either the keepers at fault for doing it, or the receiving players for not being a ke to control it.

Either way it seems to be a Bonham 'thing' and he needs to stop it.

Toal shouldn’t have given it to him in the first place. Very poor decision making when Blackpool were on the front foot. Really poor choice. We seem to take too much risk in our own box and not enough risk (runners anticipating a cross etc) in opponents’ box.

31 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Well, either the keepers at fault for doing it, or the receiving players for not being a ke to control it.

Either way it seems to be a Bonham 'thing' and he needs to stop it.

Someone passed him the ball whilst on the 6 yard box, Bonham had a player close on him and had to get rid quick..

shocking decision making but the initial pass to him should never have happened, playing from the back is fine, when players are pressing in your box it's suicide. 

17 hours ago, victor meldrew said:

That result was down to Schumacher, clearly should have made the attacking subs after we scored.

not good enough, it took Sheffield Utd 7 years to get out of this league can we do it next year. Doubt it.

This is the sort of toxicity we need.

Thanks to folk like you, successive managers have been hounded out to prevent us being dragged into non-league football.

You, and thousands of football manager experts in the stands, go loyally down to the stadium for every home game with a bellyful of boos and vitriol at the ready. We might even sneak a win, but you and The Lads will be on hand to remind us all how shit the manager is because the left back was wearing flamboyant boots.

Parky was hounded out, criticised, insulted from the stands and that has proven to be another win for The Lads.

Giving managers a fair chance is for wimps.

1 hour ago, Stig said:

We're currently 5th on the PPG with 1.71 (the 3 draws in a row won't have been good for that in the last week) and on course for 78.7 points

7th placed Stevenage are on 1.5 PPG and on course for for 69 PPG. Reading are a touch behind. 

So you're right, we're on course for the play offs, but really can't afford a load more draws or that picture will quickly change.

Watch out for Plymouth pipping the others for 6th spot now they’ve got all their injured back and are really thriving.

I like SS and realise he's only a short while in to the project. But he's not immune from criticism.

Dalby upfront with Dempsey in that role just doesn't work. All that possession and all that pressure in the first lead to fuck all as it was all crosses into the box to Dalby who had 3 6ft blokes all over him.

He was slow to react in the 2nd half too. 

That being said he can't stop our keeper committing suicide and our shambolic defending for the other.

The way our heads went is a major concern. Toal completely went to pieces.

I had us in good nick before yesterday, thought we were pretty strong in the face of adversity but yesterday has sucked the life out of me.

Weak as piss and the manager made one too many bad calls.

Worrying.

2 hours ago, paulhanley said:

Aye but if we go up you are substituting Blackpool and Wigan for PNE and Burnley - maybe Blackburn if they stave off relegation. 

I think Blackpool can be described as a derby but perhaps not a local derby. It is a Lancashire derby of the old school. 

Looking at this it is now 33 games since either club won an away fixture. A remarkable statistic: 

Bolton Wanderers football club: record v Blackpool

Undoubtedly if we go up the derby matches are a better class.  I was thinking more (as seems likely now), we don't go up so the bit about not wanting to play Blackpool next season implied we might want them to get relegated.  That would be funny obviously, but in terms of a fixture list I'd want them on it to break up the purgatory of a L1 list that's going to include Bromley and the like.  Hopefully one way or another we're playing Blackburn too.

McAtee away somewhere last night?

Rumours he was binned from the sqaud for turning up late/pissed.

 

11 minutes ago, gonzo said:

McAtee away somewhere last night?

Rumours he was binned from the sqaud for turning up late/pissed.

 

Wouldn’t be the first time according to rumours but how silly if true.

13 minutes ago, gonzo said:

McAtee away somewhere last night?

Rumours he was binned from the sqaud for turning up late/pissed.

 

Hamstring strain according to SS.

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

The manager got it wrong yesterday.

There's got it right... bar steward 😐

2 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Stats prove it, we have the highest xG over the course of the season in L1 (marginally higher even than Cardiff) but are just under 7 goals off where we should be.

Even bagging half of those chances could have had us in a far stronger position.

 

Shooting is as much of a skill as passing, heading etc. At some point it stops being about luck and is down to quality. 

None of these guys have been prolific at this level or above (Forss was the only one close to that) so it's not massively surprising. If you averaged out their goals in L1/above across their careers people like Burstow and Dalby are probably overachieving.

2 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Stats prove it, we have the highest xG over the course of the season in L1 (marginally higher even than Cardiff) but are just under 7 goals off where we should be.

Even bagging half of those chances could have had us in a far stronger position.

The XG is massively misleading on this though as most teams are completely happy to sit back for the nil nil against us. Yes we've missed chances but if we score the chance earlier the opposition will attack, and the evidence is that we'll panic and concede quickly. That would balance the XG more to where it feels like it should be based on watching the games i.e. we're usually slightly better than the opposition, create a lot of half chances, and then give away big chances on little spells of pressure.

We need to defend better as well as taking our chances

27 minutes ago, Stig said:

The XG is massively misleading on this though as most teams are completely happy to sit back for the nil nil against us. Yes we've missed chances but if we score the chance earlier the opposition will attack, and the evidence is that we'll panic and concede quickly. That would balance the XG more to where it feels like it should be based on watching the games i.e. we're usually slightly better than the opposition, create a lot of half chances, and then give away big chances on little spells of pressure.

We need to defend better as well as taking our chances

Oh I agree xStats are never the full story, they only help towards telling it. I just like throwing some x's in now and again.

The only stat that matters is our points total, which is where it is because we've drawn so many games either because we've not put teams away and/or we've had to scramble to salvage something.

Overall as it stands for me though, amongst a few very satisfying wins, it has been a hugely frustrating season. At least we've proven we have some form of never say die about us, which may see us right in the long run.

Edited February 22Feb 22 by Marc505

2 hours ago, gonzo said:

I like SS and realise he's only a short while in to the project. But he's not immune from criticism.

Dalby upfront with Dempsey in that role just doesn't work. All that possession and all that pressure in the first lead to fuck all as it was all crosses into the box to Dalby who had 3 6ft blokes all over him.

He was slow to react in the 2nd half too. 

That being said he can't stop our keeper committing suicide and our shambolic defending for the other.

The way our heads went is a major concern. Toal completely went to pieces.

I had us in good nick before yesterday, thought we were pretty strong in the face of adversity but yesterday has sucked the life out of me.

Weak as piss and the manager made one too many bad calls.

Worrying.

Whilst not particularly disagreeing with you i think you are more pissed off because of the oppostion.......it was hardly a remarkable performance or result in the scheme of things, we have become masters of groundhog football.

Xg 

VAR

 

get in the fucking bin

If we learn from errors week on week then we improve. The clue is in the name of the one in charge [coaching]

SS has got that stubborn side that eventually cost Evatt his job.

In his post match interview he states that the first goal was because we got hit on the break. We had gone 1-0 up why are we pushing up like we do.....It was Blackpool only get out they had launched it over Johnston head into the channels on numerous occasions.......The second was keystone cop, but again something we have seen numerous times before since Bonham has come in and previously with Baxter in giving Sheehan suicide balls. His playing two wingers has cost us this season.....Why are we not playing with two forwards and defenders who can actually defend.

Frustrated because i believe SS has the players to get us promoted.....Piss Poor team selection and system Yesterday and only SS can change it

4 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Stats prove it, we have the highest xG over the course of the season in L1 (marginally higher even than Cardiff) but are just under 7 goals off where we should be.

Even bagging half of those chances could have had us in a far stronger position.

 

4 hours ago, marple whites said:

The problem we had on day one at Stockport, we still have to date.

we don’t score enough when we are on top.

countless games we should have been out of sight and then concede.

we will make the playoffs but then who knows…..

 

15 hours ago, Traf said:

We didn't win today, because we failed to take our chances in the first half once again.
We eventually scored and seemed to immediately retreat 20 yds, we didn't push on for a second and the pressure told and we conceded two soft goals.

It's not all doom & gloom though, the positives are the way we created numerous openings (if not clear cut chances) in the first half and also the way we picked our selves back up to get the equaliser.

I said earlier in the week we're becoming difficult to beat. The attack will click eventually.

 

5 hours ago, tomski said:

I’ll be honest it’s as disappointing as I’ve felt all season. Criminal we didn’t win. That said this we won’t make the playoffs offs talk is some serious overreaction. 
 

We’ve lost once against anyone in the top 6 this season. That was unfortunate as well. How people can’t see progress in that stat alone surprises me.

In Munich for the first leg of the play offs. Lake District for the 2nd leg. Need to rethink that 2nd leg😂

The best 4 posts which sum up my feelings.

Disappointment in the obvious lack of chances converted which is ultimately costing us in the top two chase. 

But a sense of reality that in losing ACD and trying to bed in the new signings to click immediately was always going to be difficult.

Agree with the above points also about translating what’s happening now into some kind of prediction of negativity about the play-offs being a complete overreaction. 

We could continue (or more accurately, fall into!) iffy form the next couple of months, still be in the play-offs then finish with some great results and be the form team for the play-offs! That and a multitude of outcomes that we can analyse nearer the time.

For now, let’s get these new players gelled and firing, let’s take more chances and turn some of these draws into wins.

I’ll worry about the play offs in May.

Right let’s get onto booking.com for hotels near Wembley on 24th May 😂

For me there are is one main reason we won't go up through the automatics this season.

It's down to our wingers especially ACD (not alone), and his wondergoals. These goals looked phenomenal but they masked deep fundamental problems in how we attacked. 

So many potential real goal scoring opportunities were being wasted before they even began with poor decision making, mainly so ACD could have a pop from 25+ yards.

These were why we were drawing so many games in August/September time. 

Our down turn in December/ Jan coincided with teams working out how to contain these wondergoals, and it took SS too long to change our tactics to be more versatile and the only reason he seemed to do it is because ACD got injured. 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Hamstring strain according to SS.

I remember John McGinley getting a similar injury after falling down the stairs at ritzy

4 hours ago, only1swanny said:

Someone passed him the ball whilst on the 6 yard box, Bonham had a player close on him and had to get rid quick..

shocking decision making but the initial pass to him should never have happened, playing from the back is fine, when players are pressing in your box it's suicide. 

The pass to Bonham wasn't as bad as people are making out.

Toal (top left) passes to Bonham

who then just needs to stride forward and punt it, but he dithers  and we end up here...

He then still doesn't punt it, opting for the short ball to Sheehan compounding the error by playing down the red line rather than the blue...

1 hour ago, Spider said:

Xg 

VAR

 

get in the fucking bin

SS seems to like Xg.

1 minute ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

SS seems to like Xg.

I’d say the large majority of managers/data staff in the modern game use/reference it.  

5 hours ago, gonzo said:

The manager got it wrong yesterday.

I’m not sure he did. I think it’s all on the players personally. 
 

Missing chances and soft goals being let in

23 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

SS seems to like Xg.

The Lowe / Schumacher team we brought in from Bury introduced a lot of data driven analytics for tactics and player recruitment . Some overlooked common sense.