LazloW

This run of being so poor from open play really coincided with going to a back 3. Admittedly, last night, we didn't play a back 3 but it left us with Cashin (arguably the best CB in the league) playing left back to accommodate Sonny Bradley who's shown absolutely zero to be worthy of doing that. In turn, you're breaking up a great partnership in Nelson and Cashin. We're left with having space in the full back positions, with only 1 fullback capable of using that space (Wilson) who we're playing further forward.
Just so many square pegs in round holes unnecessarily.

It’s not like we’ve gone out and got Gayle as our first choice striker! We’re in a beggars can’t be choosers situation and he didn’t have a club, so I think it’s fair to say he isn’t going to come in and be a world beater.  What are people actually expecting!? 
I think the same can be said of a lot of our signings. We’re still in a position where we’re signing frees, loans or quite cheap players. Doesn’t excuse last night’s debacle - even the players we have should be able to deliver more than the quality we’ve had this season- but still think people are expecting our players to be better than they are. 
For what it’s worth, I thought Gayle did OK. Few decent flicks, got the ball in tricky places a few times and linked play but overall he had nothing to work off. We didn’t create a single clear cut chance for him. Can’t expect a striker to live off scraps and look fantastic. 
 

It’s not like we’ve gone out and got Gayle as our first choice striker! We’re in a beggars can’t be choosers situation and he didn’t have a club, so I think it’s fair to say he isn’t going to come in and be a world beater.  What are people actually expecting!? 
I think the same can be said of a lot of our signings. We’re still in a position where we’re signing frees, loans or quite cheap players. Doesn’t excuse last night’s debacle - even the players we have should be able to deliver more than the quality we’ve had this season- but still think people are expecting our players to be better than they are. 
For what it’s worth, I thought Gayle did OK. Few decent flicks, got the ball in tricky places a few times and linked play but overall he had nothing to work off. We didn’t create a single clear cut chance for him. Can’t expect a striker to live off scraps and look fantastic. 
 

It’s not like we’ve gone out and got Gayle as our first choice striker! We’re in a beggars can’t be choosers situation and he didn’t have a club, so I think it’s fair to say he isn’t going to come in and be a world beater.  What are people actually expecting!? 
I think the same can be said of a lot of our signings. We’re still in a position where we’re signing frees, loans or quite cheap players. Doesn’t excuse last night’s debacle - even the players we have should be able to deliver more than the quality we’ve had this season- but still think people are expecting our players to be better than they are. 
For what it’s worth, I thought Gayle did OK. Few decent flicks, got the ball in tricky places a few times and linked play but overall he had nothing to work off. We didn’t create a single clear cut chance for him. Can’t expect a striker to live off scraps and look fantastic. 
 

Had no control of the game at any point. The players were basically just doing as they pleased. 
When he was telling players where to take free kicks from they were just walking off.
Their player went down injured off the pitch, rolled back on and then walked 40 yards to the touchline, all while the referee just stood their watching. 
My favourite though was the free kick he gave us for a late challenge on Nelson which he 100% did not see and only gave because of the crowds reaction. 

I actually thought Gayle looked really promising for a player that’s been here a week with limited training.
He’s still got pace and played some really nice balls to bring others in to play. It was just a shame that we don’t seem capable of stringing more than 2 passes together beyond that.

I'd like to highlight the performance of the referee and his "barely there" assistants as a contributing factor in the team's collapse. In his last 4 games, he'd handed out 25 yellow cards and 3 red cards. Last night, he booked Bradley for his first foul (which wasn't either a professional foul or a reckless tackle) after Charlton had committed 6 fouls already iirc. After that, it felt like nothing short of GBH would get a Charlton in the book. Well, they certainly tried hard to live down to that standard, but the ref wasn't interested. His indifference to their thuggery certainly contributed to that second half performance because, unlike against Stevenage, the players were completely knocked out of their stride by these tactics. It all made me wonder if the ref had been told that he'd been too free and easy with the cards of late and accordingly took a more hands off approach.

Was involved in our best move with a little back heel. Has got a good first touch. Bad signing for the style of football we played last night. Nothing along the floor. No midfielder to slip him in. 

The ball control and passing are woeful at times. Do they just do set pieces in training?
And throw ins? Lost count of the times we threw to an unopposed Charlton player. Ludicrous.
I’m telling you, Sonny Bradley messes that team up. Take him out, let Cashin and Nelson do what they did so well. Play two proper full backs and have six players ahead of them who can create goals. It’s not rocket science.

Smith was our best player (I'd like to know why he was subbed). Gayle made a few good flick-ons and had good movement with little service. Bird was doing the job of 3 midfielders by the end because everyone else was playing upfront.
Warne got the substitutions wrong. Wildsmith did another brainless thing. Charlton were dirty feckers who had the weak referee in their pockets - Adams had the s*** kicked out of him, their player on a booking kicked the ball away but didn't get a second yellow card, their injured player ignored the refs instructions to take the shortest route off the pitch and didn't get booked......jeez, the list is endless 😞

Utterly moronic by Wildsmith. Once he realised he wasn't going to get there first he simply has to have the self-restraint to not dangle a leg towards the attacker. 

What was created that Collins could have taken advantage of? Yes we might have missed him but we'd have done no better.

Not heard the interview with Warne, but did he really say we hadn’t played well all season? I’m not sure I’d disagree with him (although there must have been a few decent, albeit probably ‘functionally good’ performances) but seems an odd thing for a manager to say.  Did he take responsibility for that? Did he give any reasons for why it might be the case? All very odd. 

I’ve just sent a strongly worded email.

Argh! Just when I think it couldn’t get any worse get back into car and have to listen to Dawes! God hates me. 

I actually like Eric Steele.
I don't want happy happy joy joy, if want that I'll read the threads on here.

Some of them are talking about "vendettas" against them and how the PL will make sure Luton stay up.

Have you watched RamsTV, Jay? Because that isn’t what you get on RamsTV.
 
Not quite sure why you feel the need to bring that in. 

Not at all. I’d like them to stop all the ‘this is what they should have done’ and actually tell me what is happening. Preferably with less doom in the voice. 
‘it’s only a matter of time’ is one of his doom laden comments for example. 

That's absolutely not what I want - just asking for a basic level of competence when describing what's happening on the pitch - preferably unhindered by mindless drivel and showing off.....as I've said before, a radio commentator should be able to explain what's happening by painting pictures for the listener - Dawes couldn't paint a shed door....

After being highly critical of his commentating, I thought I should give him a chance and see if he’d used his absence from the airwaves to possibly listen to other commentators in order to improve - and to be fair, there were some improvements.
More often than not, I had a rough idea of where the ball was on the pitch (something lacking during his previous tenure), and I don’t think he mentioned anything about pigeons or trains (though I only started listening at kick off, didn’t listen at halftime and switched off at the final whistle so maybe he filled other parts of the program with his usual obsessions.
What I struggled with (other than the depressing tone of the whole affair with him and Eric trying to outdo each other in fault finding) is his utter obsession with proving how clever he is because he’s managed to qualify as a ref - several times he banged on about one of the Barnsley players having illegal shin pads - he kept putting himself in the place of the ref (“Don’t you talk to my assistant like that”) and tried to show off about his knowledge of the rules (“Most people don’t know that rule”) - geez it was tedious. He’s like the boring bloke in the pub that you try to avoid…
i wish him well in his recovery from whatever struggles he’s been going through but I can’t help thinking he’d be better served by joining his lad in the away end (has another RD football commentator ever felt the need to mention their family during a game?), possibly dressed in his full referee’s kit and waving cards towards the pitch. Dom (and dare I say the listeners) have been harshly treated by his return…
 

a) Attending football matches is not compulsory. If you don’t enjoy it, perhaps try doing something else on a Saturday afternoon. I promise you, you won’t be missed.
b) This is utter nonsense. We are second in the League. Any fan who works as part of a team that is second best out of 24 is not losing their job. They are probably getting a large bonus. The job of the players is to get us promotion. They may or may not achieve it, but they are on track so far.
c) May I ask what you were expecting for this season?? Win most games 5-0 and cruise to promotion?? We have only been promoted automatically once in the last 37 years, and now we have a great chance to make it twice. Two more away wins would make this our best away season ever. 20 more points from the last 12 games would make this our best season in modern times (in terms of total points and points per game since 3 points for a win; I’m not equating it to winning the entire League). We may not achieve that but goodness me, if this is the most negative you’ve ever been then I don’t know what to tell you. But it’s definitely a you problem, not the problem of the current players, manager and owner.

I used to play football for the blue Peter in the late 80’s early 90’s when Craig was playing for the rams, he was always at the bar reciting poetry and quoting Shakespeare 

Tonight, the Warne haters are like a teenage boy who has just found a jazz mag in a bush 😂

Can we not post vague stuff like this please.
Best regards, 
Someone having to follow on their phone.