MATCHWATCH : Cheltenham Town (a)

[yuomi]

Still at a loss to explain how bad our defending can be and, given how long it's been and how obvious the issues are, how nothing successive coaching teams have tried has had the slightest positive effect.

[Royal_jimmy]

Still at a loss to explain how bad our defending can be and, given how long it's been and how obvious the issues are, how nothing successive coaching teams have tried has had the slightest positive effect.

Despite our overall better results I don't think our defence has improved really. Abbey and Bindon are raw. Dorsett looks ok but not confident in a LB role, Holmes is still iffy. I'd like an experienced CB who's better than Harlee Dean!

[stealthpapes]

I'll take the point. After some strong away performances, we got swamped there. Cheltenham pressed hard and kept the press up until they brought on the small striker.

1-0 was probably fair.
2-0 was a farce.

Then we discovered how to cross.

We had another spell in second half where we could have nicked it, but I will take a point.

We appear to have a bit of a breather coming up, so get something against Exeter, regroup and push to get out of the bottom four.

[stealthpapes]

Bindon looked assured when he came on. Everyone else just a bit off pace/swamped by a harder working side.

[Snowflake Royal]

Still at a loss to explain how bad our defending can be and, given how long it's been and how obvious the issues are, how nothing successive coaching teams have tried has had the slightest positive effect.

Despite our overall better results I don't think our defence has improved really. Abbey and Bindon are raw. Dorsett looks ok but not confident in a LB role, Holmes is still iffy. I'd like an experienced CB who's better than Harlee Dean!

The problem today was largely in our inability to compete in midfield. And Holmes was immense in defence.

Our midfield issues means the defence often get little to no screening, and everything is a scrabble. It's been much better with Craig in there, though not today. And even with our better results recently our passing and ball retention has been dreadful.

[Hound]

Love that Wing cross for the second last night. He’s been proper good recently

[Bristol Paul]

Still at a loss to explain how bad our defending can be and, given how long it's been and how obvious the issues are, how nothing successive coaching teams have tried has had the slightest positive effect.

Despite our overall better results I don't think our defence has improved really. Abbey and Bindon are raw. Dorsett looks ok but not confident in a LB role, Holmes is still iffy. I'd like an experienced CB who's better than Harlee Dean!

The problem today was largely in our inability to compete in midfield. And Holmes was immense in defence.

Our midfield issues means the defence often get little to no screening, and everything is a scrabble. It's been much better with Craig in there, though not today. And even with our better results recently our passing and ball retention has been dreadful.

Agree the midfield went completely awol first half, forgot Craig was playing. Also thought Holmes was excellent. Full backs both hopeless, neither give me any confidence and just allow endless crosses. Tactics were also weird, just giving the ball away all the time by hoofing. All very strange and take a point all day long after that shit show.

[skipper]

I thought Cheltenham were a great example.of a team able to switch up their play.

One minute hoof ball, the next quick decisive passing.

They forced us into hoof ball, and stopped us from passing.

Despite being the same 11, this was a very different team applicstion to the Peterborough game.

We were 2nd to every ball. Didnt seem to ever have a player in space. No harrassing, speed or pressure at all.

Did we adopt different tactics? Were we tired?

Credit to Cheltenham. Simply a more cohesive team.

Look at the feedback from Peterborough's fans. We can do it, we just lack either fitness or consistent tactics.

[skipper]

Still at a loss to explain how bad our defending can be and, given how long it's been and how obvious the issues are, how nothing successive coaching teams have tried has had the slightest positive effect.

Despite our overall better results I don't think our defence has improved really. Abbey and Bindon are raw. Dorsett looks ok but not confident in a LB role, Holmes is still iffy. I'd like an experienced CB who's better than Harlee Dean!

I thought Holmes was magnificent last night. He's getting back to his best, and reaching similar form to Aziz!

Our results have improved, moral overall has improved, if we can keep that trend up, 2nd half of season going into next is very positive!

[Jerry St Clair]

Despite our overall better results I don't think our defence has improved really. Abbey and Bindon are raw. Dorsett looks ok but not confident in a LB role, Holmes is still iffy. I'd like an experienced CB who's better than Harlee Dean!

The problem today was largely in our inability to compete in midfield. And Holmes was immense in defence.

Our midfield issues means the defence often get little to no screening, and everything is a scrabble. It's been much better with Craig in there, though not today. And even with our better results recently our passing and ball retention has been dreadful.

Agree the midfield went completely awol first half, forgot Craig was playing. Also thought Holmes was excellent. Full backs both hopeless, neither give me any confidence and just allow endless crosses. Tactics were also weird, just giving the ball away all the time by hoofing. All very strange and take a point all day long after that shit show.

I don’t think many midfields would have coped with Sercombe, Thompson and Pett last night. Tom Pett, in particular, was imperious. He absolutely ran the show from beginning to end. He was (unfathomably) available as a free agent and Darrell Clarke brought him in immediately when he was appointed. He’s up there with the best midfielders in L1 at the moment.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

Cheltenham were very well organised as you might expect with a proven manager at this level. High line, sweeper keeper and every pass was a forward pass mainly into full back areas from where they won the second ball and put it into our box. Could easily have been 6-0 before we scored and credit to Button for a number of saves one of which was superb.
Selles reminded me of Stam when we got battered at Fulham a few years ago. Just stood and watched us get taken apart instead of making any tactical tweak. Just going with a higher back line and getting our two wide players more narrow in front of our full backs would have over crowded the middle of the pitch and messed the game up for 20 minutes while we found our feet.
The positive is that we found a way to get a point thanks to two superb crosses from Wing and we’ll also get to see Mbengue on next years hilarious own goals video !!
Lastly, I’m thoroughly enjoying league 1. Lots of action, errors (many of which are hilarious), application and goals.

[blythspartan]

A shocking game of football with lots of ifs and maybes. I felt like it was Cheltenham’s cup final against their larger local rivals. Their midfield was very good and I loved being so close to the pitch in the away end. We got a point having played 44 minutes of shit football ( the worst I can remember), and I’ll take that all day long.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I actually think Cheltenham were one of the better teams we faced this season. How many shit teams have we lost to this season, where we've gifted points? By contrast, they had a clear, effective gameplan which we struggled to cope with.

Much better than the likes of Shrewsbury, Orient and Exeter who have beaten us. Even Charlton were pretty average for most of the game when they beat us 4-0; I'd say Cheltenham were better.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

After a truly abysmal 40 odd minutes we showed really good character to take a point from the game being 2-0 down, credit to the players for that. It was always going to be a struggle against an improving side, so far from the worst result in the world considering where we were near half time.

1 defeat in 8 although we need to beat Exeter and start turning some of these draws into wins just to get amongst the group in mid-table.

[Snowflake Royal]

The problem today was largely in our inability to compete in midfield. And Holmes was immense in defence.

Our midfield issues means the defence often get little to no screening, and everything is a scrabble. It's been much better with Craig in there, though not today. And even with our better results recently our passing and ball retention has been dreadful.

Agree the midfield went completely awol first half, forgot Craig was playing. Also thought Holmes was excellent. Full backs both hopeless, neither give me any confidence and just allow endless crosses. Tactics were also weird, just giving the ball away all the time by hoofing. All very strange and take a point all day long after that shit show.

I don’t think many midfields would have coped with Sercombe, Thompson and Pett last night. Tom Pett, in particular, was imperious. He absolutely ran the show from beginning to end. He was (unfathomably) available as a free agent and Darrell Clarke brought him in immediately when he was appointed. He’s up there with the best midfielders in L1 at the moment.

Yeah, Pett was superb.

[Snowflake Royal]

I actually think Cheltenham were one of the better teams we faced this season. How many shit teams have we lost to this season, where we've gifted points? By contrast, they had a clear, effective gameplan which we struggled to cope with.

Much better than the likes of Shrewsbury, Orient and Exeter who have beaten us. Even Charlton were pretty average for most of the game when they beat us 4-0; I'd say Cheltenham were better.

Yes, they were excellent. But my god they were fragile at the back.

I could see other teams with some passing ability beating their press and getting joy galore against their defence.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I actually think Cheltenham were one of the better teams we faced this season. How many shit teams have we lost to this season, where we've gifted points? By contrast, they had a clear, effective gameplan which we struggled to cope with.

Much better than the likes of Shrewsbury, Orient and Exeter who have beaten us. Even Charlton were pretty average for most of the game when they beat us 4-0; I'd say Cheltenham were better.

Yes, they were excellent. But my god they were fragile at the back.

I could see other teams with some passing ability beating their press and getting joy galore against their defence.

A team like Charlton who can put in a mediocre performance and win will always finish above a team who perform well but throw away a 2 goal lead. This season is teaching me that actually performances are not everything. "Trust the process and results will follow". Bollocks. Take your chances and don't concede silly goals. Once you have that foundation then performances take you to the next level.

[Snowflake Royal]

Preach.

For all our up turn in form, I don’t think we're actually playing that well. We've just reduced the errors and started taking those individual chances.

[Uke]

Lastly, I’m thoroughly enjoying league 1. Lots of action, errors (many of which are hilarious), application and goals.

^^ This

Dai can still fcuk off though!

[Mid Sussex Royal]

We did ok in the end, but their prep on us was much better than us on them, but we worked it out in the second half and generally looked comfortable apart from one good Button save and a miss at the end.

Need to remember also that prior to Wycombe we had taken one point on the road all year and since then we have gone 4 undefeated, not sure when we last did that but I'd imagine it was during that freak run under Pauno during covid.

It is also difficult to play well every game when you have 4 games over 9 days.