Match Thread: vs Blackpool (h)

[Crewton]

5 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

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.

The flip side of that is that, even when we've been dire, we haven't so far been smashed, Stevenage away being our only defeat by more than one goal IIRC. Whilst our approach has sometimes been a bit dour and pedestrian, the benefit can be seen in our goal difference - no defeat has dented that advantage.

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

We won the game .Woke up happy then back to looking over fixtures and the table. This is what it is all about.

Yesterday was probably a dreadful game of football but it didn’t matter; the result was everything and it was a great result made better by other bizarre results elsewhere.

I thought Nelson was magnificent at the back. Wilson was excellent too. Cashin, Smith, Thompson and Eboooooooo also good. We rode our luck though but it doesn’t matter. I thought Collins made a big difference when he came on, holding the ball up and winning free kicks.Washington was ineffective. I don’t particularly rate him when he’s fit, let alone recovering from injury. I also prefer NML out wide.

On to the next one. Still plenty of nervous times ahead I think. Wouldn’t it be nice though.

 

COYR

[Chester40]

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

[On the Ram Page]

The result and effort put in was everything was yesterday. The football wasn’t great at times but the match itself was fascinating to watch. Our team was a bit patchwork (would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall at Moor Farm to see who is really 100% fit). Started with possibly 4 wingers on the pitch (NML,CBT,Wilson,Ward) and at times it appeared they got in each others way and didn’t quite know who was supposed to be doing what. MNL was mainly playing up front, which left CBT to track back, which he didn’t look comfortable with, and Ward didn’t appear to know who he should be marking at times. Sibley too, added to the confusion , as his positioning wasn’t great and didn’t know at times whether to challenge or stand off, which meant he got caught in no man’s land a lot. Meant we got overrun in midfield a bit. A bit similar in 2nd half when Wilson and Ward couldn’t seem to make up their minds who was marking who (till Wildsmith tactical injury? when we got it sorted). It all added up to a fascinating, glorious confusion at times. At times edge of the seat stuff. BUT we got the job done, through sheer guts, effort and determination.

No matter what, nothing was getting passed Nelson & Cashin. A great goal to win the game too. Wish Adams didn’t spend so much time on the ground when he gets fouled, it’s really worrying he is injured - but just taking a breather.

Not sure we will get away with playing this way at Portsmouth but who knows in this incredibly strange season.

Well done Warne and the team for another 3 points. Really enjoyed the game for so many reasons.

P.S. If CBT is playing please give him the ball

 

 

[Ghost of Clough]

44 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Agreed. It wasn’t pretty but that doesn’t matter right now. Just grind out the results.

No doubt some statto will come on saying we didn’t “deserve” to win because they had more possession (which they did) and completed loads more passes (which I assume they did) etc. but, as you say, it was a deliberate tactic to allow them to keep possession and pass it around where they couldn’t hurt us. I expect to see the same at Pompey - it’s not a game we’re likely to dominate.

It’s not a tactic you’d want to see deployed too often (especially at home), but sometimes it’s necessary.

 

xG favours Blackpool (0.49 vs 1.19) so we clearly didn't deserve the win 😉

However, in terms of xGOT (0.77 vs 0.13) we clearly deserved to win.

[Anag Ram]

6 minutes ago, On the Ram Page said:

The result and effort put in was everything was yesterday. The football wasn’t great at times but the match itself was fascinating to watch. Our team was a bit patchwork (would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall at Moor Farm to see who is really 100% fit). Started with possibly 4 wingers on the pitch (NML,CBT,Wilson,Ward) and at times it appeared they got in each others way and didn’t quite know who was supposed to be doing what. MNL was mainly playing up front, which left CBT to track back, which he didn’t look comfortable with, and Ward didn’t appear to know who he should be marking at times. Sibley too, added to the confusion , as his positioning wasn’t great and didn’t know at times whether to challenge or stand off, which meant he got caught in no man’s land a lot. Meant we got overrun in midfield a bit. A bit similar in 2nd half when Wilson and Ward couldn’t seem to make up their minds who was marking who (till Wildsmith tactical injury? when we got it sorted). It all added up to a fascinating, glorious confusion at times. At times edge of the seat stuff. BUT we got the job done, through sheer guts, effort and determination.

No matter what, nothing was getting passed Nelson & Cashin. A great goal to win the game too. Wish Adams didn’t spend so much time on the ground when he gets fouled, it’s really worrying he is injured - but just taking a breather.

Not sure we will get away with playing this way at Portsmouth but who knows in this incredibly strange season.

Well done Warne and the team for another 3 points. Really enjoyed the game for so many reasons.

P.S. If CBT is playing please give him the ball

 

 

Adams gets no help from referees.

His robust approach means he gets free kicks given against him when all he’s done is outmuscle his opponent.

When he gets kicked it’s like ‘well you’re tough, you can take it’.

[Crewton]

Ebou Adams is the League 1 Ya Ya Toure.

[IlsonDerby]

1 hour ago, Chester40 said:

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!

I feel the same way about our season and yet despite feeling like we’ve ground it out so far we do sit with the best goal difference, the joint most wins and the 3rd highest goals scored. There have been lots of very professional 3-0 wins in amongst the nail biters I guess. 

[Gerry Daly]

12 hours ago, DB83 said:

Bolton only need two wins to overtake us if we lose the next five.

What if Bolton lose their next 5 though. Eh? Eh?

[RoyMac5]

10 hours ago, jono said:

He was everything the recent Sibley has been. Some good positional play, a couple of clever darting runs, beat a man with some beautiful twinkle toes. A bullet of a left foot shot just over the bar. Then mix in some lousy passes under minimal pressure, got shoved too easily off the ball, slow to react. … Will the real LS please stand up. He confuses me ! 

He was the only one to make 'lousy' passes was he? Adams got caught on the ball at least twice, and had to hold off some of their players as he too reacted slowly on the ball - but he (rightly) gets MoM.

But you forgot the tracking the two Blackpool men into the box last minute, and making a great interception. Thought they were bound to equalise. Clearance finished by Cashin, Nelson and Adams.

 

[Comrade 86]

30 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

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

[jimtastic56]

10 hours ago, jono said:

He was everything the recent Sibley has been. Some good positional play, a couple of clever darting runs, beat a man with some beautiful twinkle toes. A bullet of a left foot shot just over the bar. Then mix in some lousy passes under minimal pressure, got shoved too easily off the ball, slow to react. … Will the real LS please stand up. He confuses me ! 

There is a reason why they are all playing in Lg 1. Adams has played very little football above Lg 1 but he has made a massive difference . He allows other players to have long spells in a game without any input . Collins is similar with his work-rate. Sibbo though could play at a higher standard .

[i-Ram]

Great win and 3 points. All other results going our way too. Not even Derby can f*** it up from this point can we? Up the Rams!!

[Jayram]

Quite enjoyed the game yesterday, although doing hospitality probably helped! We did what we had to do and as others have said all that matters now are results. Got a sneaky feeling we’ll get something at Pompey and then I might really start to believe…COYR

[Mr. P]

It's fair to say Owens commentary was a little bit more enthusiastic...

 

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

7 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

Great win and 3 points. All other results going our way too. Not even Derby can f*** it up from this point can we? Up the Rams!!

[Wolfie20]

1 hour ago, Crewton said:

Ebou Adams is the League 1 Ya Ya Toure.

Well let's make sure we remember to get him a birthday cake  😉

[jono]

1 hour ago, RoyMac5 said:

He was the only one to make 'lousy' passes was he? Adams got caught on the ball at least twice, and had to hold off some of their players as he too reacted slowly on the ball - but he (rightly) gets MoM.

But you forgot the tracking the two Blackpool men into the box last minute, and making a great interception. Thought they were bound to equalise. Clearance finished by Cashin, Nelson and Adams.

 

Someone commented about Sibs. I responded to that with my feelings about Sibs. I wasn’t making comparisons. 

My post was not a general critique of the team as a whole. Predictably you chose to leap to Sibs defence. Really Roy the way you lock on to a player and decide that no balanced observations are allowed because he’s on your “preferred” list is very tiresome. Yes other players misplaced passes and Adams did get caught in possession. It is a feature of this team, lapses of concentration and awareness when you least expect it. Skilled players that leave me baffled with a miscontrol one minute and neat one two the next. Sibs has considerable abilities and is one of the few that has the potential to create a champagne moment but he is also more inconsistent and error prone than one would expect in someone with his level of natural talents

[CBRammette]

He was brilliant. 

 

 

[Ellafella]

3 hours ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

We won the game .Woke up happy then back to looking over fixtures and the table. This is what it is all about.

Yesterday was probably a dreadful game of football but it didn’t matter; the result was everything and it was a great result made better by other bizarre results elsewhere.

I thought Nelson was magnificent at the back. Wilson was excellent too. Cashin, Smith, Thompson and Eboooooooo also good. We rode our luck though but it doesn’t matter. I thought Collins made a big difference when he came on, holding the ball up and winning free kicks.Washington was ineffective. I don’t particularly rate him when he’s fit, let alone recovering from injury. I also prefer NML out wide.

On to the next one. Still plenty of nervous times ahead I think. Wouldn’t it be nice though.

 

COYR

It’s entirely alien to me to effectively watch a team come to Pride Park and allow them to dominate play and possession to the point where to me it’s “anti-football”. Goes against every sinew of my football-loving being. Ok we got the 3 points and we looked reasonably comfortable but for me it’s high risk and not how I would ever set up a team to play. It’s not the spirit of the beautiful game.