BFTG - Burton

[Hampshire Royal]

We are still very much a WIP and, in my opinion, we are improving all the time, while not yet being the finished article.. But we will get there!! We haven't got the sort of players that will constantly play well in the style they are. We make mistakes, but these tend to be individual mistakes made by individual players. It's not the system that's making the mistakes!!

Maybe you've forgotten the last two seasons, when it was likely we would have lost or drawn today. I,personally are not going over the top, but if we carry on improving at the rate we are, I'm convinced that a top ten finish is very much on the cards, perhaps even top six.

Everyone is entitled to hold whatever opinions they hold, of course, and I'm sure you must have an opinion as to how we should be playing. You don't mention what it is, just keep saying 'We shouldn't play like we are'. We have played 17 games and are 3rd in the league. It's extremely unlikely that we'll get relegated this season, and there's a real possibility that we could sneak promotion. To my mind, we are playing better than any time since the 106 side.

[royalp-we]

No there wasn't anybody at all in about 6 rows in front of me. I just feel that atm ppl are getting far too carried away with our laboured wins over poor teams. The old mantra that you can't properly judge the division until Christmas holds true imo so let's see where we are come 31st December shall we?

You said a bit more than that my friend.

Judging by your post and your opinion "we were bossed" and "we look impotent" - you seem the type to be moaning wherever we are in the league come 31st December

I'm a firm believer of enjoying the good times whilst you can. But you go ahead and moan about a shaky defence and impotent attack who have P4 W4 F9 A0.

If we can do half as well as we have; we will be in and around the better end of the table come the new year.

[Royal Ginger]

Winning 4 on the trot is nothing to be sneered at against any opposition in this division, and i am indeed elated and enthused by the results, however, all four of those teams are 18th or lower. 5-6 points from our next three and i'll move from 'quietly optomistic' to 'a bit excited'.

[Sutekh]

Ref: started OK, then got worse & worse-clear penalty for the foul on Samuels-what was he thinking of ? Just not up to it.

It was the same ref who did the 6-4 we had at Spurs a while back and, as we know, he never had the hang of penalties then, so probably didn't want to risk giving another.

[ayjaydee]

Winning 4 on the trot is nothing to be sneered at against any opposition in this division, and i am indeed elated and enthused by the results, however, all four of those teams are 18th or lower. 5-6 points from our next three and i'll move from 'quietly optomistic' to 'a bit excited'.

The last time we won 4 on the spin we got promoted.

Not going overboard but am certainly enjoying what I am seeing.

[genome]

Since Liam Moore joined, we've conceded just 10 goals in 12 league games. 4 of those were in the anomaly at Brentford.

[genome]

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthrea ... C5-tonight

NSC rattLOLed that Martin Allen compared us to Barcelona.

"I always regarded Reading as one of those sides that is annoying, don't ask me why"
"F**k I hate them"

[Dr_Hfuhruhurr]

To suggest we would have lost this game last season is pure folly in my opinion. This game had "comfortable home win" written all over it all week, and would have done last year as well.

[Pepe the Horseman]

3rd and still 100/1 to win the league

[lightning strikes]

No there wasn't anybody at all in about 6 rows in front of me. I just feel that atm ppl are getting far too carried away with our laboured wins over poor teams. The old mantra that you can't properly judge the division until Christmas holds true imo so let's see where we are come 31st December shall we?

Christmas is the 25th December.

[Muskrat]

No there wasn't anybody at all in about 6 rows in front of me. I just feel that atm ppl are getting far too carried away with our laboured wins over poor teams. The old mantra that you can't properly judge the division until Christmas holds true imo so let's see where we are come 31st December shall we?

Christmas is the 25th December.

[Nameless]

No there wasn't anybody at all in about 6 rows in front of me. I just feel that atm ppl are getting far too carried away with our laboured wins over poor teams. The old mantra that you can't properly judge the division until Christmas holds true imo so let's see where we are come 31st December shall we?

That's the old cliche about not looking at the table until 10 games have been played is it ?
Let's be honest, you can't properly judge the division until May can you. No one would have given us the title st Christmas last time.
I guess football does give a place for the seriously negative types to hide but for goodness sake being 3rd, winning games, scoring goals- loosen up and enjoy it mate !

[Royalwaster]

To suggest we would have lost this game last season is pure folly in my opinion. This game had "comfortable home win" written all over it all week, and would have done last year as well.

You're joking surely ... we had a lot of games last season that had 'comfortable home win' written all over them and we managed to lose or draw them.

[LoyalRoyal22]

If there is one thing that shouldn't be criticised it's the tactical set up. This group of players are massively overachieving & that's fully down to the coaching & clear identity that the players have got behind.

Stam and his backroom team are doing an unbelievable job.

[Mr Optimist]

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?345175-Championship-on-C5-tonight

NSC rattLOLed that Martin Allen compared us to Barcelona.

"I always regarded Reading as one of those sides that is annoying, don't ask me why"
"F**k I hate them"

If they knew a little more about Mr Allen, such as where he was born and brought up, where his Dad played for the majority of his career, it might explain his almost gushing praise for his hometown club.

I had a quick look on NSC and it is the usual clueless drivel about crowd sizes, public transport, and patting themselves on the back for how fantastic they are. The half and half scarves for their Villa game did make me lol though, bless, the excitement of playing a big former Premier league club must have gone to their heads. Imagine the meltdown if they actually got promoted to the Premier League, half and half scarves against Bournemouth?!

[LoyalRoyal22]

Notice that now we are a team that play on the front foot & dictate we're finding it easier to put away the smaller sides. Our previous counter attacking philosophy in previous seasons made it more difficult.

[Jagermesiter1871]

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?345175-Championship-on-C5-tonight

NSC rattLOLed that Martin Allen compared us to Barcelona.

"I always regarded Reading as one of those sides that is annoying, don't ask me why"
"F**k I hate them"

"o oxf*rd I hate them" don't think I've known such a collective group of sad acts.

If I ever became as obsessed with another football team, for absolutely no apparent reason I'd probably end up supporting them.

[WAZZOCK]

I dread to think how dull life is for people who can't even bring themselves to be happy about our current situation.

We've got a novice manager, not much money, and it's off the back of 3 dire seasons - YET we find ourselves third in the sodding division. We are above some a whole host of teams whose resources eclipse ours, yet our plucky team have won four on the bounce and haven't conceded in the process.

My advice for people looking to pick holes in the situation is relax a bit and enjoy this whilst it's happening. It may not last long, so enjoy it while lasts!

Game wise, I thought we were pretty comfortable yesterday. People can comment that Burton were in the game second half, but in my opinion that was a classic case of '2-0 football'. Whereby the team that are 2-0 down enjoy more of the ball and chances simply because they are chasing the game.

I thought that was one of Evans' best games for the club, he mopped everything up in the midfield. Obita looked brilliant after a ropey opening 15 minutes. Meite's raw pace looks very exciting to me, he just needs a bit of refining.

The minute's silence before the game was one of the best I've ever been apart of too.

[muirinho]

I dread to think how dull life is for people who can't even bring themselves to be happy about our current situation.

We've got a novice manager, not much money, and it's off the back of 3 dire seasons - YET we find ourselves third in the sodding division. We are above some a whole host of teams whose resources eclipse ours, yet our plucky team have won four on the bounce and haven't conceded in the process.

My advice for people looking to pick holes in the situation is relax a bit and enjoy this whilst it's happening. It may not last long, so enjoy it while lasts!

Game wise, I thought we were pretty comfortable yesterday. People can comment that Burton were in the game second half, but in my opinion that was a classic case of '2-0 football'. Whereby the team that are 2-0 down enjoy more of the ball and chances simply because they are chasing the game.

I thought that was one of Evans' best games for the club, he mopped everything up in the midfield. Obita looked brilliant after a ropey opening 15 minutes. Meite's raw pace looks very exciting to me, he just needs a bit of refining.

The minute's silence before the game was one of the best I've ever been apart of too.

+1 with all of that. Also thought rendition of The Last Post before the silence was brilliant, and really set the scene.

[Jack Celliers]

Eh? Midfield!? Really? Swift, Van Den Berg, Evans, Williams, Quinn and Kelly? I'm really not sure what more we could ask for.

How many of the players you named (currently) have the ability to impose themselves and dictate a game?

As yet we don't any sign of a partnership of the Harper/Sidwell ilk.

I'm not sure we ever will. I'm not even sure any Championship team ever will. Williams and Swift works quite well for now, though.

Today was good. We kill games off quite well at the moment with our control of possession when everybody might otherwise be getting nervous. It took a while to work out the formation - I presume had Stam worked out where all the goals would come from beforehand.

Al Habsi 7 + 1 for the ED Stand fanclub
Obita 8 really good as a wing back
Moore 7 solid
McShane 7 OK
Blackett 8 crunching tackles at key times
Gunter 6 a bit lost at times - not as well suited to the wing back role as Obita

Evans 7 improving all the time
Williams 8 crucial to everything good

McCleary 8 he's back to his best
Beerens 8 best game for a while
Samuels 10 easily the best thing that has happened to this football club in a decade