BFTG Wigan

[kwik-silva]

Shambles of a first-half, and slightly better in the second with some ridiculously extreme Adkins' changes.

Blog post

[soggy biscuit]

Worst performer of the day - 95% of the fans who are massivs divs that can't see their motivational booing and groaning doesn't help things.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Embarrassment of a first half, then a change to 2-6-2

Just

[ZacNaloen]

The change worked, don't knock it.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Best formation ever. Would've been skillz if he'd brought on Alf for Gorkks.

[St. Brynjar]

First game back from uni, really enjoyed it. Very exciting and but for Alex Pearce we probably would have come away with a point or three.

McCarthy - 7 - Distribution was much improved, excellent kung-fu save.
Gunter - 7 - Very confident performance with the obligatory crap pass near the end. Decent attacking threat.
Pearce - 3 - Woeful, I have no idea what he was trying to do for the second goal and yet I could see it coming from a mile off. Very poor performance.
Gorkss - 6.5 - Really liked him today, great in the air, calm with the ball at his feet. Wasn't great for the first goal but other than that looked like the player that got us promoted.
Cummings - 4 - Started brightly until the fans got on his back for no reason and confidence dropped like a stone. He was out of position to be fair.
Drenthe - 6.5 - Pretty exciting at times, but very frustrating at others. Didn't look fit.
Guthrie - 7 - Very frustrating. The first half showed why people don't like him but in the second he was mercurial, his passing was brilliant. We are incredibly reliant on him, the whole second half was clearance, give it to Guthrie, ball in the box, clearance etc.
Williams - 6 - Good energy and looks decent enough. Should have been sent off and his temper could cost us.
McAnuff - 6.5 - One of the only good players in the first half, faded a little in the second but justified his position in the starting line up. Surprised he didn't go left-back when Obita came on.
Pog - 7.5 - Was really excited to see the Pog revolution and he had bags of confidence, held it up extremely well and could have had a couple. Our best striker.
Sharp - 5 - Was okay, took one off for the penalty howler.

Obita - 5 - Didn't notice him much
McCleary - 7.5 - Should definitely start. Our most dangerous winger.
Alf - N/A - as usual did absolutely nothing.

Adkins - 7 - Made some bold changes (we had more strikers than defenders towards the end) but they made the right impact. 4-4-2 wasn't right for this game.
Fans - 0 - Just a bunch of miserable gits. Booing when we keep possession then booing when we hoof it forward in response. Booing the full-backs taking throw-ins when no one is showing, then chanting the overrated Le Fondre's name just after Sharp missed the penalty and was low on confidence.
Ref - 9 - Dealt with the game really well, only wrong call was not sending Williams off.

[ZacNaloen]

Pearce - 3 - Woeful, I have no idea what he was trying to do for the second goal and yet I could see it coming from a mile off. Very poor performance.

He was trying to control it, but the ball wouldn't come down, then caught a gust and bounced awkwardly and the Wigan player jumped on the opportunity.

[P!ssed Off]

I'm not booing to motivate the players.
I'm booing because I'm angry at having to watch that shit, week in week out.
The players can either strive to play better, or they can go and cry in the corner. It's up to them.
If they continue to play like shit, I will continue to boo.

Football changed to an entertainment industry a long time ago.
If the players want to be treated like the common man rather than 'superstars' then they should ask for a 90% wage cut.

They are paid to entertain, they should remember that.

[LoyalRoyal22]

We need to move the ball quicker in possession. Badly in need of a centre half that can play out from the back comfortably.

[P!ssed Off]

Pearce - 3 - Woeful, I have no idea what he was trying to do for the second goal and yet I could see it coming from a mile off. Very poor performance.

He was trying to control it, but the ball wouldn't come down, then caught a gust and bounced awkwardly and the Wigan player jumped on the opportunity.

A cb with 0 technique attempting to bring down a ball out of the sky with the tip of his toe.
Completely unacceptable.

[kwik-silva]

Can our first look be to see if we can pass the ball forward, rather than somebody in defence to offload to? Please.

[ZacNaloen]

Except it was on his in-step and he pulled it off with no issues at least 3 times after that incident.

[RoyallyFcuked]

What a bunch of absolute oxf*rd donkeys. No consistency whatsoever, we seem unable to build on positive results for any more than 2 or 3 games in a row. Half the games we have won so far we haven't even deserved to. We have hardly played well all season and I think most are surprised we are still in a play off place. Just shows that the standard in the Championship is actually pretty poor, despite being a very close and competitive league.

[ZacNaloen]

'greed, and can our first look be to see if we can pass the ball forward, rather than somebody in defence to offload to? Please.

Guthrie is the serial offender of this, if he released the ball earlier he wouldn't have stop, slow the game down, turn around, put himself under pressure and lose the ball or worse pass back to a defence that can't cope with intense pressure either.

[P!ssed Off]

Ratings:

oxf*rd awful: Pearce, Sharp

Decent: Pog, Drenthe

Bad: everyone else

[Pepe the Horseman]

Our throw ins deeply upset me.

[muddyfeet]

Got absolutely soaked

[kwik-silva]

'greed, and can our first look be to see if we can pass the ball forward, rather than somebody in defence to offload to? Please.

Guthrie is the serial offender of this, if he released the ball earlier he wouldn't have stop, slow the game down, turn around, put himself under pressure and lose the ball or worse pass back to a defence that can't cope with intense pressure either.

100%. Sure if the obvious easy ball is back then play it, but so many times we seem to just have 11 James Harpers.

[bobby1413]

Ok, i don't normally post on threads like this because I struggle to really identify what went wrong - and I never really am able to judge all player's performance like other people.

But...

I've got some strong opinions today:

Throw Ins

What the bejesus is going on with them. I suspect it's linked to confidence, as no one seems to move around, meaning the person taking the thrown in, just stands there for about 10 seconds not knowing what to do. This seemed to happen again and again. In fact, I think it was 1-2 games back that someone posted on here about the same thing.

Adkins In

Anyone who thinks Adkins should leave, in my opinion, is an idiot. I'm not one of those people who think "We're 6th, that's pretty good, be happy...", however, how many times over the years have Reading come from nowhere and performed a miracle? I don't think he's doing much wrong (not sackable) and who could actually make the team play better? I don't want to be one of those clubs that sack people just because we're not THEEEEE best we could be. He's a good manager and we should stick by him.

Boo'ing

If the fans want to be quiet then fine. I wasn't really in the mood today, but booing? I don't think this helps anyone. I understand the frustration, and in fact, I do understand fans that want to show their feelings. I don't think going 2-nil down at home in the first 20 minutes or whatever it was is boo'able - even though we were playing badly.

Players

There was definitely an atmosphere amongst the players. A lack of enthusiasm, energy and they seemed nervous, particularly the back 4. McCarthy - how many times did he mis-kick, how many times did players pass back to him? Time and time again. They just seemed scared of the ball - for most of the match anyway.

BBCRB - fan phone in

Stone me, there are truely some idiots out there.

One person saying it was the best atmosphere he'd encountered all season despite the result - Tim Dellor agreed with this. Maybe it's different from the upper west or wherever he is, but from Y25 it was a morgue for the vast majority of the first half. The second half was better.

There were other idiots but I've forgotten what they said now - I blame the beer.

Other thoughts

I think we're overly negative. We have a good squad and have had some really good results this season, but we've not won many of the games we should have. We have injuries, and losing games we should win isn't anything new, and it's something we can easily change.

Leicester away
Forest home

Two really really hard games - with Boro away too. The season is not even half way through yet.

.....
....
...
..
.

I will be at Forest home
Brighton away
Watford away

and I have faith that we can still perform.

[ZacNaloen]

Our throw ins deeply upset me.

No movement, no urgency. Pisses me right off.

Every throw in is a bloody foul throw these days as well, also pisses me off. Everyone does it.