V Plymouth (a) 7th March 20.00

[CBRammette]

Just now, StrawHillRam said:

if by chance we do get into the play offs, our record against the top teams is dismal, so my expectations are very low

 If by chance we win the play offs, then next season could by a disaster. As we not be able to improve the squad and we’d be playing better teams every week

i think the season after next is when we can look forward to some success

I feel opposite re play offs - record is dismal so about time we beat them. Need to have them watching second leg v Leeds from now on!

agree re next season but if it means we can somehow keep couple of our youngsters.....

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

18 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

But few games ago forum full of people saying "we'd have lost that under Liam or last season". Unfortunately small squad who look very tired now in second half of games. One of their players when interviewed mentioned their manager had said we concede a lot of goals after 60 minutes and they went for it. Our coaching team need to look at and address this as becoming game plan for other teams

Quite often a s*** penalty given by a rotund ref with the vision of mole.

[Van der MoodHoover]

Just now, StrawHillRam said:

if by chance we do get into the play offs, our record against the top teams is dismal, so my expectations are very low

 If by chance we win the play offs, then next season could by a disaster. As we not be able to improve the squad and we’d be playing better teams every week

i think the season after next is when we can look forward to some success

Reckon David clowes will need some investment by then as he hasn't got mega millions to spare on the club, marvellous as he has been so far.

[BucksRam]

4 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

But Sky calling out players for cheating may go some way to eradicating it from the game. Having them basically praising it is disgusting.

Problem is most are ex players who did exactly what we're watching. I've lost count of the amount of times Smith, Neville...any of them for that matter, despite watching replays where a player has clearly dived, or made no contact still say crap like there's enough there for the ref to blow. It's a game for cheats. It's what it's become sadly. 

[Sparkle]

Considered thoughts 

Roberts - where were you for the first ? White should also have stopped the player

Cashin - lots of games lately where he is just bashing the ball to no one - must do better

our subs - basically apart from at port vale they have little impact in terms of affecting it 

Plymouth we’re decidedly average and very fortunate 

first goal hideous deflection 

second goal penalty plain and simple cheating and there is a lot of it in division three - I hate cheating because that is what you are forever 

that’s nine penalties given against us this season and probably only were there two fouls it seems in all of them 

if we make the play offs I would like to play Plymouth 

nothing worse than being cheated at anything.

[jimtastic56]

Warne was spot on post match. We struggle against the top six. It’s ok beating the pub teams 5-0 from the bottom six but we just don’t have the right players . Warne will need 2 transfer windows.

[SKRam]

3 minutes ago, StrawHillRam said:

if by chance we do get into the play offs, our record against the top teams is dismal, so my expectations are very low

 If by chance we win the play offs, then next season could by a disaster. As we not be able to improve the squad and we’d be playing better teams every week

i think the season after next is when we can look forward to some success

Season after next I’ll be hitting 60. Not sure I’ll survive us winning the league by then. Can we not do it when I’m still as fit as a flea.

[Edtheram]

Yes the penalty was a poor decision but we can’t control what the ref sees and what decisions he makes. What we can control is the game when leading 1-0. 
 

first half we looked good, chances created, goal scored and solid. 2nd half we looked the complete opposite. We didn’t look competent on the ball and simple passes were not completed. We goofed the ball up top hopefully and lost 90% of our battles. We didn’t get to the 2nd balls and break up attacks well enough. We also showed nothing going forward, not at 0-1, not at 1-1 and not at 2-1. We didn’t even seem able to put an attach together. Zero quality. 
 

a few stats in the 2nd half….

- We only had 40% possession. 
- We had 1 shot on target and 1 shot off target in 50 mins.                                                    
- We had 2 corners                                                   
- We Attempted 143 passes but only completed 83

Those stats above aren’t good enough when trying to control a game when leading and then trying to get something from the game when losing & drawing.

As Warne said we need to do much more and not just play for 45mins. Otherwise we won’t even be in the Playoffs….

 

 

 

[uttoxram75]

46 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Pathetic second half again. Warne has to sort this out and fast. We won’t make playoffs playing like this. Wheels rapidly falling off.

Warne is probably doing as well as anyone else could've done to give us a chance of the play offs this season. 

[Sparkle]

10 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

But Sky calling out players for cheating may go some way to eradicating it from the game. Having them basically praising it is disgusting.

Absolutely - they were actually disgraceful in trying to justify it.

[Sparkle]

7 minutes ago, StrawHillRam said:

if by chance we do get into the play offs, our record against the top teams is dismal, so my expectations are very low

 If by chance we win the play offs, then next season could by a disaster. As we not be able to improve the squad and we’d be playing better teams every week

i think the season after next is when we can look forward to some success

Hold on we have beaten 2 of the top 6 drew in 2 and lost 4 - if you can tell me other than Barnsley away where we still could have scored 4 where we deserved to lose or the opponent wasn’t fortunate to win 

[Caerphilly Ram]

9 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

We were catastrophically awful when we played 3 at the back.  It doesn’t suit any of our players.  You can’t play Curtis on the right of a back 3, he’ll get destroyed whenever he has to come out and engage a quick winger or fullback.  If you start playing wingers at wingback, you’re restricting their ability to get forward and create. If you play the likes of Roberts there, he isn’t good enough going forwards to be a primary creative player in the team.  And anyway, none of that solves the problem that the players are basically dead on their feet after 45 minutes of hard running.

All fair points, further highlights the limitations of the squad. Perhaps Bird and Chester being available again will help in that regard. 

[Grumpy Git]

4 minutes ago, Sparkle said:

Absolutely - they were actually disgraceful in trying to justify it.

Since when did any pro footballers have scruples (or brains)?

[Sparkle]

6 minutes ago, Edtheram said:

Yes the penalty was a poor decision but we can’t control what the ref sees and what decisions he makes. What we can control is the game when leading 1-0. 
 

first half we looked good, chances created, goal scored and solid. 2nd half we looked the complete opposite. We didn’t look competent on the ball and simple passes were not completed. We goofed the ball up top hopefully and lost 90% of our battles. We didn’t get to the 2nd balls and break up attacks well enough. We also showed nothing going forward, not at 0-1, not at 1-1 and not at 2-1. We didn’t even seem able to put an attach together. Zero quality. 
 

a few stats in the 2nd half….

- We only had 40% possession. 
- We had 1 shot on target and 1 shot off target in 50 mins.                                                    
- We had 2 corners                                                   
- We Attempted 143 passes but only completed 83

Those stats above aren’t good enough when trying to control a game when leading and then trying to get something from the game when losing & drawing.

As Warne said we need to do much more and not just play for 45mins. Otherwise we won’t even be in the Playoffs….

 

 

 

The only chance our goalkeeper had to make a save was the penalty which balances things a little 

[strawhillram]

5 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

I feel opposite re play offs - record is dismal so about time we beat them. Need to have them watching second leg v Leeds from now on!

agree re next season but if it means we can somehow keep couple of our youngsters.....

I just think we need to be careful what we wish for. I’d love to win the play offs but the thought of being beaten every week in the championship not so much. Warne’s record with Rotherham in that league wasn’t great, and we’d be worse off than their tighly knit squad was.

 i guess I’m just feeling frustrated that we seemed to have had a good thing going but it has turned sour (the team that is not us)

[CBRammette]

8 minutes ago, SKRam said:

Season after next I’ll be hitting 60. Not sure I’ll survive us winning the league by then. Can we not do it when I’m still as fit as a flea.

Are you actually hitting sixty or really hitting forty and being a Derby fan has made you feel you are hitting sixty?

[CBRammette]

2 minutes ago, StrawHillRam said:

I just think we need to be careful what we wish for. I’d love to win the play offs but the thought of being beaten every week in the championship not so much. Warne’s record with Rotherham in that league wasn’t great, and we’d be worse off than their tighly knit squad was.

 i guess I’m just feeling frustrated that we seemed to have had a good thing going but it has turned sour (the team that is not us)

I think your last para sums up how we're all feeling

[Tyler Durden]

2 minutes ago, StrawHillRam said:

I just think we need to be careful what we wish for. I’d love to win the play offs but the thought of being beaten every week in the championship not so much. Warne’s record with Rotherham in that league wasn’t great, and we’d be worse off than their tighly knit squad was.

 i guess I’m just feeling frustrated that we seemed to have had a good thing going but it has turned sour (the team that is not us)

Can't be any worse than being beaten every week in the Premiership 

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

10 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

Reckon David clowes will need some investment by then as he hasn't got mega millions to spare on the club, marvellous as he has been so far.

Correct.  Having shelled out 22 million for the stadium  - I assume that includes another 2 million in Gibson perm relaxant the previous gobshite reckoned he was paying, 3 million in admin fees,  probably 3-4 million in additional loans,  3 million for some geezer who wants to stay on permanent holiday in Digbeth and 2.5 million for some geezer who now plays for a team in America that didn't exist 5 years ago  plus probably 8 million to creditors, there won' be any miraculous spending in another 15 months.  More trade and spend what you bring in  with a few loan fees for the season maybe.  Promotion may change that a bit as the increase in income would be substantial. 

[Jourdan]

On the way back from the game.

I think we executed our game plan well for 50-55 minutes. We battled hard and contained Plymouth really well. The only chance of note they had was the one that flashed past Wildsmith’s right hand post.

Mendez Laing took his goal well and in the first half, we looked really comfortable. We looked like a really well organised and hardworking team and up to that point, it was a really professional away performance.

The game hinged on that Barkhuizen chance early in the second half. In a game where you might only get four or five good chances, we had to take it. 2-0 and it’s a different game.

Plymouth made some changes to give themselves a second wind and then got the luck they needed with the deflection and after they scored, there was only ever going to be one winner.

It sounds like we were desperately unlucky with the penalty but Plymouth would have eventually scored if I am honest. Their tails were up and the home crowd had finally woken up.

We lost our heads after the first goal. It seemed like we didn’t believe. The substitutions didn’t really help - it really underlined why Warne relies on the same players. We lost all composure and all sense of a plan.

Plymouth relaxed into it and we looked nervous and were making sloppy mistakes all over the pitch. Credit to them - they edged a good tactical battle and very much a game of two halves.

For us and for the boys, we just have to lick our wounds and get back up and come firing back v Oxford. We weren’t outclassed. We just have to learn to be more clinical and ruthless when on top in situations like tonight.

Don’t be too disheartened - tonight shows we can mix it with anyone but we still have things to iron out.