May Contain Nuts

I'm just amazed we've managed to amass a whole squad with the first name Rate! Thanks for the stats and the effort behind them Ella.

Yes, and at the point in the game where they were sitting in more than any other. It was helped by them being mentally tired after our game-length barrage but perhaps if we'd spent more time trying to create that space and move those blockers in the first place, we'd have created better chances to score? It depends how you think people are defining hoofball or using the term hoof. "Hoof it down the wing" doesn't necessarily mean high and long balls, it can just mean trying to move the ball there quickly and with minimal touches but nothing to do with 'launching it'. Either way, please stop trying to make out that everyone who is "in the Warne Out camp" believes we're playing the traditional onomatopoeic interpretation of the word. I certainly don't.

Looking at the game in isolation you can put forward a case for it being an OK to decent performance. Heck if you ignore their goals it could even be described as good. High possession, lots of shots, good drive to play to the end and turn it around. It's inarguable that we did mix our play up at times during the match and it wasn't purely knock it wide, cross it in. It was a tiny fraction of our play, but still, the point cannot be defeated. They were happy to sit in for the most part and playing expansive football against such opposition is difficult (not impossible, but...) You can also point to the the fact that it was in a competition where we often (not that often, really) see 'cupsets' and say it was just one of those days. Plenty of teams find games like this difficult and we haven't suffered the same fate as some. All valid points. Viewed out of isolation though... The lack of inventiveness when any team presents even the smallest amount of defensive solidarity against us. The inability to create enough clear-cut chances or finish some of those we do. The lack of care afforded to countering the danger opposition teams pose on the threat. The slow midfield. Players on the pitch not really suited to the role they're being asked to play - nullifying their impact - while others sit on the bench when they could make a difference in their place. Bizarre tactical ideas like chucking high crosses into short strikers. The almost random substitutions and positional shifts (it worked yesterday but was it judgement of luck?). All common themes and all very nearly contributed to us being victim to one of the aforementioned cupsets against a heavily weakened team from the league below us. We've had a couple of good results in the league, particularly the most recent game where we blitzed Northampton inside half an hour, and I'm encouraged that we have actually tried to take the blueprint from the Exeter & Northampton games (playing so many players in forward positions, forcing them back) and use that - after all, I did call for it - but it still needs quite a lot of tweaking if it's going to work against anyone half decent. Essentially we've come out unscathed and it's another game to learn important lessons from - as long as we do - with some good stuff and some bad, but we won't improve by glossing over the poorer aspects and/or simply saying there's nothing we can do about them until we sign more/better players. It's a wider point, but finding solutions from within the squad and extracting the maximum possible out of every player is something all managers have to do, it can't be that our only path to success (promotion) is purely having better players than everyone else.

Thus revealing the fatal flaw in making out our position was ever really healthy under MM. Even before he came in we still recorded a £7m loss with a £16.4m wage bill, a couple of years later it had become a £14.7m loss and a £32m wage bill - unsustainable whether 'debt free' or not, and the level of s*** he eventually left us in was unprecedented. If he'd been an even bigger p**** he could have demanded we repay him lots more of that money. We've just been through a period where our financial mistakes have been intensively scrutinised, laid bare for the world to see and we're 'restarting' the club whilst operating under an agreed business plan. You don't need to see audits to be able to understand / figure out that our position will likely be favourable to previous points in our history where we've been making massive losses, carried unsustainable wages etc.

I didn't say it was. But you can point that out without making nonsense claims about the actual quality of the opposition. Other teams having poor results doesn't excuse out own poor results.

Sorry, what? Praise/Defend (delete as appropriate) the performance by all means, but come on now. This is League Two Crewe's reserve team we're talking about.

Knackered them out, basically. They stopped even trying to 'get out' after their second goal.

Not sure we get detailed stats for this match? Would estimate we've put in at least 150 crosses though!

Warne has never given a s*** about his tactics leaving us open to chances on the break, and on the rare occasions when when a team actually takes advantage of the situation, well, this happens. As pointed out by the commentary, why have we left it 2 against 2 at the back with everyone else miles up the pitch?

Crewecelona 2-0 Derby

At least wait until full time.

You can't just rely on the opposition giving you space though? You have to move them around a bit to create it. We've managed to do that a couple of times but that's nowhere near often enough.

Why? The only save their keeper has made has been from one of their players trying to score an own goal.

very nicely worked chance for Bird on the edge of the box with nobody around him, over.

Playing it down the wings yes, no hoofs in sight though.

Nyambe miscontrols a pass across the box from Bradley and is caught in possession, good shot from their player and good save. A couple.of moments where we've worked something more centrally leads to a couple of blocked shots and one from Hourihane just outside of the box, but just wide.

Pressing high up the pitch and camped in their half with them trying to soak up the pressure, which we've applied well, and hope to get something break. They should have scored early on and had another good opportunity later but their player didn't spot a runner and settled for a free kick. As usual all our play is focussed on working the ball to the wide areas and crossing them into oblivion, which tbf has created some moments of panic. They've been on the ball a little more in the past 5 mins but look like they'll struggle to to do a lot with it.

Sheff Utd winning 😢

I think I've found a picture of said speedboat online, if that helps. It's seems @AutoWindscreens fell rather lucky that this groovy girl's parents were darting enthusiasts!

Nooooooooo. You know how the song goes! We all hate weeds, and weeds and weeds.Weeds and weeds and weeds and weeds. Weeds and weeds and weeds and weeds. We all f****** hate weeds!

I wouldn't put is past WW3 to break out and the season being annulled tbf! Or perhaps a civil war just involving our own fans. That said I'm not sure they'd do a final table on a ppg basis with less than half the season gone, so we're probably just going to have to do it the hard way.

Literally impossible.

https://visitbristol.co.uk/things-to-do/the-downs-p39401 Bristol Downs Street Motors (BDSM Trophy)

https://www.efl.com/news/2023/november/02/bristol-street-motors-drives-efl-trophy-into-new-era/ Any suggestions for a new nickname for it?

That would be brilliant, and proof of us being in rude financial health. The point of the initial post was to say that even if it turns out we're still making a small loss, we're still in a better financial position than we have been for a very long time. Possibly since the 'League of Gentlemen' came in and cleared a load of debt - but even that lead to large losses under GSE which needed sorting out after blowing our promotion winnings on crap!