Chester40

7 hours ago, LittleEatonRam said:

I'm sorry, but I just don't think declaring people to have sad lives is in keeping with the modern spirit of 'being kind'.

I'm not sure I want the modern phenomenon of everyone being upset about every little thing and using it as an excuse to be offended is a spirit I subscribe to!

@Bris Vegasknew what he was doing, is a serial offender who is well able to take any reaction - and possibly welcomes it.

It's a oft repeated opinion of his that was delivered at that moment that was always going to p*** on a few people's chips. 

Anyway....!

Interesting debate if we had stood off them less 2nd half, would we have won.  We will never know but it does shred the nerves watching us put no pressure on the ball and just sitting in with no one really giving us any outlet.

The defence looked solid apart from Wildsmith who looked a bit unsure all game. Wilson in particular looked good.

Adams and Smith both worked their socks off. NML the only disappointment- seems to have lost the afterburner that make him such a threat. CBT looked really good going forward but lazy defensively.

Collins never stopped working and his touch was improved.

Great point and keeps Portsmouth honest at least for the Bolton game.

8 days to get everyone fit and then go again.

Pompey on top. Derby defence resolute. 

Not holding onto the ball long enough.

1 minute ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

 

              Wildsmith

Wilson Cashin Nelson Sibley

          Smith     Adams

Ward       NML         CBT

                Collins

As good as we could hope for....

42 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Well it resembled two drunks at kicking out time for periods... but damn they went for it.

They also looked like a Rocky film, swinging, swaying and looking out for the count before rallying again.

Wardley especially had pretty poor technique. But sooo much heart.

Think you're right,  neither looked they could mix at the very top level. But hats off to them for standing and fighting, emptying the tank and then going again.

5 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Had the misfortune of running into him before the gobby Forest supporting w*****.  Hope he takes a pounding. 

Seriously... In the build up Clarke seems respectful and quiet. Wardley is the cocky one.?

32 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Not at all what you'd expect from a player of Sibs experience. The way you comment on my comments is very amusing. I only do it because your view of Sibs is typically 'one-eyed'. 😆

I thought yesterday was one of his better performances. But I do agree he can appear more clumsy and liable to make a really sloppy pass than other players.

When he not playing well, he's really one-footed, not great in the air, not lightening quick...and for me, he doesn't 'look' like a footballer at times. Out wide, he doesn't suddenly shift like NML or able to really 'trick' his way past a man like Wilson.

Yesterday he utilised what he has got...a decent football brain,  desire, aggression, a sweet left foot and a strong engine. I'm not sure he's quite 'good' enough to be a number 10 at a higher level. But if he set his mind to it, I think he could be a dynamic Le Saux /Cole/Hinchcliffe type attacking full back who gets a few goals too.

He could definitely do Hourihane's job in centre mid now though,  take the ball off the center backs, pass it 5 yards and take all the freekicks!

47 minutes ago, sage said:

It can't happen in the long term. I could understand it yesterday re the team we had out.

 

And that's the nub really isn't it... especially next season with no restrictions,  no excuses about them not being his players etc... if we continue to play that way every week without the results he won't last long. 

Can he genuinely change? Tbh I doubt it.... so its whether we keep on winning games or not.

11 hours ago, Mucker1884 said:

Nope.  It's not meant to be taken seriously and/or be based on factual evidence.

It is catchy, easy on the ear, and fun.
What's not to like?

I find it a bit cringe tbh.  

West Ham fans were singing constantly in Europe... that was a bit naff... singing it against Blackpool in League 1 is worse.

Very little chanting about promotion etc... think no one wants to dare say it as we seem to have a self destruct button we daren't tempt into action.

@Comrade 86you need to be quicker with the new match threads if you're leading us all the way to the promised land 😜

4 minutes ago, Archied said:

A win was everything yesterday and it was warne and the players job to get that win ,,, bugger all else mattered, it was a tight first half where we edged it and got the lead ,

second half started and boy was I frustrated for a while , said to my wife that we seemed to want to play like we are 3-0 up and game over , we gave them space to play and like everyone else I was shouting at them to wake up and press on to them but soon got the nagging feeling we were happy to let them play and have space in areas they wernt hurting us , get in our shape and not chase everything, dive in and get played round then hit them on the break , we may not like it at times , we may wrongly feel we are being massively outplayed at times but by god it was a mature performance, free from the naivety that has plagued us at times ,

paul warne ? ,,,,like him or not ( i really like him and want him to be given the chance to see how much more he’s got) those who come on here and call him a clown , a kick and rush merchant without a clue or even a thought on tactics are very very wide of the mark ,

warne and his team may not always get it right ( who does ) but make no mistake, there’s a lot of hard work and thought going into how to beat each team we come up against , they are not clueless kick and rush merchants, you can’t and don’t have to get it right every time , you have to get it right more often than not and enough times over a season to do well and even get promoted,

at the end of games Paul warne is the one I have a main eye on going round the ground to applaud fans and hope he’s really enjoying it , I want to see him start the bounce if and or when we are promoted with the biggest smile on his face as I’m pretty sure he will when he feels he’s achieved something, the target promotion not a fleeting moment of a good win , that’s for us fans and the players ,he’s got a job to finish ,, you can bet he isn’t taking the players out for a wallet busting pxss up when the job is nowhere near done yet ,,, that’s what I see and like in warne and his team,

oh and another day I really enjoyed in a season im really enjoying,,,, live in the now folks is my advise🤷🏻‍♂️

Agreed. It's obvious there are clear tactics being employed all over the pitch, when to press, when to turn back and pass, where the full backs move to at goal kicks, etc etc.

Most of them are quite defensive in nature for me. There isn't a lot of free-flowing football, much individual flair.

It's a resolute, strong, structured team. I won't look back on this as a season where we smash lots of teams on the way to promotion,  by design there haven't been many games where we have coasted to victory...so it feels similar to the Billy promotion. And when we are bad we are dire.

Ultimately I don't care,  I can't face the play offs. It would be nice to at least have 1 game where we are already promoted to actually soak it in...but the way we play I'm sure it will go to the wire!

1 hour ago, DB83 said:

Some folk are just so blinded by their hatred of Warne that they don’t even bother actually watching the games any more. They just pray for us lose so they can spew their toxic negativity yet again.

This was in response to me...and I've been 'pro' Warne all along.

Plus I was at the game,  willing us on!

Sibley was only that side when taking corners which is where my confused comment came from.

So...your 'some folk' rant may still be true, but it's totally misplaced in relation to the origin of that comment.

I was with a couple of 'casual' fans at best and they found the game pretty uneventful. The couple of us who are regular fans found it gut-churning and ultimately enjoyable but it was the context that gave most of the emotion. 

The blocking of shots, desire to get a head on a cross etc was great to see. But we rarely committed ourselves, no one really went beyond the striker,  Wilson stayed solidly in position and generally passed it backwards rather then take on his man or overlap.

The victory was everything.  

My observations are though that we make it hard for ourselves by constantly taking a pretty pragmatic approach. When you're winning that's fine but it makes for quite stressful viewing at times. Blackpool looked pretty toothless and we generally handled them well but they had a decent chance at the end poorly struck/bravely blocked and if that had gone in then this thread would be twice as long.

1 minute ago, Ramarena said:

We scored from open play. 

Ward carried the ball forward and crossed, the clearance went out wide to Sibs who crossed and the Blackpool clearance was lashed home by Adams. 

It felt like a corner somehow!

Real Warne-ball victory.

Score from a corner,  dig-in and sit back and win. 

Not really much 'long ball' today but pretty negative in not committing players forward. 

Not seeing all this 'great football' from Blackpool. They were similar to how Derby can be, lots of passing across the backine but no idea how to create an actual chance.

One great chance near the end when Derby heroically threw themselves in the way of a flurry of shots.

Derby shaded it, tough watch at times. Not aided by a ref who blew for every tiny bit of contact on a Blackpool player.

Nelson and Cashin were immaculate. 

Ward really good today,  tenacious with decent passing. Wilson was quite conservative but solid.

Smith hard working and did the simple stuff. Adams MoTM again, great goal and all-action as always.

Sibley played better than recently and looked more composed. CBT started to look a danger but final ball wasn't great.

NML didn't beat his man once really but always looks a threat still.

16 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

I’ve read a few times that Washington looked lively.

 I thought he looked lazy. He and NML regularly failed to close down defenders and created very little. Even when Wash got the dream chance, he fluffed it.

 I thought he was our weakest player.

Everyone else deserved 7 or higher except perhaps NML who still looks like he’s struggling for fitness

Total agree mate. I thought Washington did nothing.

He just jogged from one defender to another kinda closing them down. Obviously he was under orders to not commit himself and get beaten but he had no intensity or change of pace and didn't work back if they worked it round him. He didn't hold the ball up and had one golden chance that he fluffed.

Collins instantly came on and worked harder, held the ball up better and was smarter with his passes.

On 27/03/2024 at 13:31, Comrade 86 said:

I'm going to give season 2 a look. Bloodline's first season took a while to get going, but I liked it. My next two will be Shogun and This Town, both of which I'm really looking forward to. Will check out Coma as I've not heard of that.

As for Better, I gave it a go but didn't persist. I can't remember why though. I think perhaps it all felt a bit run of the mill.

Bloodline really didn't have enough storyline to extend far beyond 1 season IMO.  I probably only progressed into season 2 as I fancy the pants of Linda Cardellini. 

Seen 4 or 5 episodes of Shogun. Fairly slow pace and the action scenes arent as brilliant as I expected, but conversely there is an awful lot of mileage in the storyline and could go in so many directions, so I'm quietly very impressed. 

8 minutes ago, rammieib said:

I'm not excusing his headbutt but when he was being rugby tackled at every corner and then the red gives the softest foul the other way, I understand why you lose your patience and snap.

Anyway it should force us to go back to a back four where I think we look far better.

Well your pre-match negativity came to fruition mate, so let's see what a back 4 can do... yesterday was very disappointing. 

Fact remains that I think if Waghorn scores we coast home, if Adams doesn't miss that sitter I think we win too. As it was, our 'percentage' football failed and we need to go again.

1 minute ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I think Bradley just can't cope with any sort of pressure. He struggled when making his first few starts at home, and he's now crumbled under the pressure of expectation. 

Not sure it's failure to deal with pressure, but he definitely started the season clumsily and then really improved ...before being really tentative,  sluggish and ultimately losing his head yesterday.

Doesn't use his size in the opposition box as much as I'd hoped, less of a leader than Cashin/Nelson and worse on the ball than I feared.

Ends all talk of a back 3 I guess now. 

6 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Wildsmith

Ward   Nelson   Cashin   Elder

Smith   Adams

Wilson   Sibley   Blackett-Taylor

Waghorn

 

Subs: Evans, DRobinson, Thompson, Hourihane, Weston, Washington, Collins

Thought Waghorn really struggled to get into the game. Gave away free kicks, didn't hold up the ball well, doesn't go beyond the back line, missed a great chance.

Washington was as bad and Collins will be as rusty as anything,  so I'm not saying any are ideal... bit of a worry tbf.

13 minutes ago, Ram a lamb a ding dong said:

I have to admit that the defeat today along with news on NML and Fozz has left me lower than a snakes belly.

We are down to the bare bones and confidence will be low going in to the next match.

We are all hoping that Collins will make a miracle return and NML has nothing more than a dead leg. Even then the rest of the team is a patchwork quilt. 

What a difference 2 matches makes as we had a strong front 3 going into the Bolton match.

In terms of anything positive:

CBT must start and must produce. This is his chance and he must take it.

Has to be a 4-3-3

If Collo isn't ready then go with Washington. Waggy is good to bring off the bench but not start.

Midfield 3 of Ebu, Smith and Thompson

Back 4 with Elder and Ward.

Front 3 to incl Wilson.

 

Oh, and plenty of flags and noise...

Thought Waghorn was pretty poor today. Washington barely touched it. 

Also forgot how many terrible dead balls we took and the ridiculous amount of offsides we give away...

Hang on, I was trying to think about positives and it triggered more nightmares.

Adams was really slack with his passing, Wilson just didn't get on the ball in the right position,  Thompson reverted to energetic terrier chasing a balloon, CBT kept turning back onto his right foot.. even Cashin and Nelson were careless at times.

The only positive is that when we have been this bad, we seem able to Jekyll and Hyde it and be good again next time.

5 minutes ago, angieram said:

Yes, you too. Thanks for spotting me. 😊

Oh just get a room you two 🤣 

Limp, lacking in effort and skill, felt it like lasted all night without going anywhere and ultimately just left everyone feeling disappointed and frustrated. 

Anyway, enough about @Jourdan's nuptials, how bloody awful were Derby today!

Horrible game.

Just nothing went right. Bradley was so poor today,  won't be missed on that showing.

No intensity,  no guile... I've been defensive of Warne's tactics but today there really was too much aimless hoofball.

Passing across the back 3 to wing backs who were as deep as a full back would be.. launching it when we didn't really have out and out wingers who could take advantage.  Sloppy passing. 

And brain-meltingly bad ref-ing. Pathetic s**t-housing, diving, staying down etc that was appallingly handled by the ref.

Another really bad performance, similar to a few others. When we are bad,  we are abject.

Needs a massive change for the next 3 difficult games.

Just now, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

On here every game.  Good to see your still permanently a t***.

🤣 errr....

Waghorn especially, and NML really not in the game. Too many aimless long balls down the line, from wing backs playing too deep. Goal has changed the game and we need to get back at it and commit more men. 

Too slow to release, sitting too deep, too much passing backwards, or turning backwards. 

Need to be better....and these are poor so it can be done.