Cheltenham Town v Portsmouth

[little mo]

Picking up on Ben's point about looking sluggish in the latter stages, it should be cooler tomorrow evening, which hopefully will mean the lads will have more energy late on, assuming they have recovered fully from Saturday's efforts. I've said it before, but when it's 30-35C, the clubs we have been playing can afford 16+ first team players and 5 subs are allowed, we are at another disadvantage to the big clubs.

Obviously, I'm not including the Exeter aberration in that, but it does prove we probably don't have 16+ first team players like the clubs we have faced in the league so far.

We will start picking up points once we start
playing teams in "our division", but we urgently need back up strikers. We've got nobody to come off the bench that anyone has confidence can get us a goal.
Ebanks, Lloyd, Brown all show fleeting moments, but nothing more.
Start praying that Norton or the loan striker we're waiting for come good.
I'm thinking that the permanent midfielder that's been talked about for weeks must be Ryan Broom.

I would take Broomy right now. Good player and experienced.

[SOFT MACHINE]

Yes Broom does have experience he also, sadly, suffers from the very malaise other posters have already alluded to. Running out of steam and ideas come the 2nd half.

[Garby74]

I've been to a few pre season and a couple of home games so far. Contemplating fleetwood but more realistic Exeter!

My thoughts:
Duff was the x factor the turned L2 players into competent L1 players most of the time.
We all knew that...we all knew he would move 'up'.
That has now become reality. We move on.
When he left I though we were nailed on to be relegated. But the squad and some of the loan players has changed that some what.
I think we do have just enough to stay up.
Mt biggest worry is the confidence.
2 up on opening day...the body language second half was awful. How does softly spoken Wade address that?
We fold too easy

[little mo]

Yes Broom does have experience he also, sadly, suffers from the very malaise other posters have already alluded to. Running out of steam and ideas come the 2nd half.

Still better than what we have got now.

[Robin]

I've been to a few pre season and a couple of home games so far. Contemplating fleetwood but more realistic Exeter!

My thoughts:
Duff was the x factor the turned L2 players into competent L1 players most of the time.
We all knew that...we all knew he would move 'up'.
That has now become reality. We move on.
When he left I though we were nailed on to be relegated. But the squad and some of the loan players has changed that some what.
I think we do have just enough to stay up.
Mt biggest worry is the confidence.
2 up on opening day...the body language second half was awful. How does softly spoken Wade address that?
We fold too easy

We used to fold easily under Duff too see Sunderland away, Cambridge Home, Lincoln away last season. It's a mentality thing, with not enough leaders in the team in my opinion. We lost Boyle and Tozer who were leaders and probably now only have Alfie and Caleb Taylor.

[Sprout Picker]

I've been to a few pre season and a couple of home games so far. Contemplating fleetwood but more realistic Exeter!

My thoughts:
Duff was the x factor the turned L2 players into competent L1 players most of the time.
We all knew that...we all knew he would move 'up'.
That has now become reality. We move on.
When he left I though we were nailed on to be relegated. But the squad and some of the loan players has changed that some what.
I think we do have just enough to stay up.
Mt biggest worry is the confidence.
2 up on opening day...the body language second half was awful. How does softly spoken Wade address that?
We fold too easy

We used to fold easily under Duff too see Sunderland away, Cambridge Home, Lincoln away last season. It's a mentality thing, with not enough leaders in the team in my opinion. We lost Boyle and Tozer who were leaders and probably now only have Alfie and Caleb Taylor.

I do wonder if we’ve shed a little too much of our ‘core’ squad too soon. With Blair injured, Hussey, Tozer, Boyle, Wright and Williams gone would it have been sensible to have perhaps retained Flinders and Thomas for a bit longer?

[Shade]

I've been to a few pre season and a couple of home games so far. Contemplating fleetwood but more realistic Exeter!

My thoughts:
Duff was the x factor the turned L2 players into competent L1 players most of the time.
We all knew that...we all knew he would move 'up'.
That has now become reality. We move on.
When he left I though we were nailed on to be relegated. But the squad and some of the loan players has changed that some what.
I think we do have just enough to stay up.
Mt biggest worry is the confidence.
2 up on opening day...the body language second half was awful. How does softly spoken Wade address that?
We fold too easy

We used to fold easily under Duff too see Sunderland away, Cambridge Home, Lincoln away last season. It's a mentality thing, with not enough leaders in the team in my opinion. We lost Boyle and Tozer who were leaders and probably now only have Alfie and Caleb Taylor.

I do wonder if we’ve shed a little too much of our ‘core’ squad too soon. With Blair injured, Hussey, Tozer, Boyle, Wright and Williams gone would it have been sensible to have perhaps retained Flinders and Thomas for a bit longer?

Releasing Thomas & Flinders, given Evans went as well, was surprising at the time and definitely looks like a bit of a mistake. Done under MD, of course. I get the 'out with the old and in with the young' philosophy and regenerating the squad with younger players, but too much at once and Thomas, if he could stay fit, would definitely do a job in this team given we are still short of midfielders. But fingers crossed we get what we need over the next 2 weeks.

[Shade]

Somehow, Caleb Taylor got in the League 1 AND EFL team of the week...despite losing 2-0 and giving the ball away several times in the second half. I mean, he wasn't TERRIBLE, but, TOTW??? Really? WhoScored.com, where the EFL take their ratings from, rated him 7.9, having made 4 tackles and had 2 shots.

Meanwhile, Ipswich centre back Janoi Donacien got 2 assists and a clean sheet and didn't get in despite also getting a 7.9 rating. He only made 2 tackles, so I guess that's the difference...

This makes for interesting reading, anyway: https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/16486 ... Portsmouth

Note, 20% of our fouls ended in a yellow card, whereas only 6% of Portsmouth's did. I would wager if I went back through all games, Cheltenham would get more cards per foul against 'big clubs' than the opposition more often than not...

[Robin]

Somehow, Caleb Taylor got in the League 1 AND EFL team of the week...despite losing 2-0 and giving the ball away several times in the second half. I mean, he wasn't TERRIBLE, but, TOTW??? Really? WhoScored.com, where the EFL take their ratings from, rated him 7.9, having made 4 tackles and had 2 shots.

Meanwhile, Ipswich centre back Janoi Donacien got 2 assists and a clean sheet and didn't get in despite also getting a 7.9 rating. He only made 2 tackles, so I guess that's the difference...

This makes for interesting reading, anyway: https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/16486 ... Portsmouth

Note, 20% of our fouls ended in a yellow card, whereas only 6% of Portsmouth's did. I would wager if I went back through all games, Cheltenham would get more cards per foul against 'big clubs' than the opposition more often than not...

Caleb Taylor was our best player on Saturday, won a ton of headers and tackles, I dread to think what the score could have been without him.

[Si Robin]

I agree with Robin

[Andrew GCAFC Fan]

Colby Bishop, the scorer of both goals, started off at Notts County. He had a loan spell at Gloucester City in 2016. He made around ten appearances, scoring two goals. He was released by Notts County, then returned to playing National League North football, playing for Worcester City, Boston United and Leamington.
He caught the eye of Accrington Stanley, where he went onto do well there.
This Summer, he signed for Portsmouth. Having been released by Notts County, he is an example of sometimes you have to take a step backwards, to go forwards.

[Robin]

Spot on Accrington have a similar wage budget to us yet consistently pick up players from non-league and sell a fair few on for profit. Great business model.

[Si Robin]

Accrington take risks and, to be fair to them, get a lot more success than not.

However, can you imagine the uproar if we signed the likes of Colby Bishop following his career trajectory before he signed for Accy? Look at the meltdown when Christian Norton signed last week.

[Robin]

Accrington take risks and, to be fair to them, get a lot more success than not.

However, can you imagine the uproar if we signed the likes of Colby Bishop following his career trajectory before he signed for Accy? Look at the meltdown when Christian Norton signed last week.

Yes agree, I feel our strategy is to pick up young players released by Championship/Premier league sides, develop them and sell them on. It's a good vision to have but if we've lacked anywhere this summer it's not adding a sprinkling of experienced league one players to that mix other than Ryan Jackson.

[Warwickshire Robin]

Accrington take risks and, to be fair to them, get a lot more success than not.

However, can you imagine the uproar if we signed the likes of Colby Bishop following his career trajectory before he signed for Accy? Look at the meltdown when Christian Norton signed last week.

Although you could say that is exactly what we have done with Alfie apart from the selling on at a big profit bit (which is hopefully still some way off yet!).

I think the reaction to the Christian Norton signing was mainly due to us already having him on loan and him not really shining to say the least. Hopefully he will prove that was all down to the fact he was carrying/recovering from an injury and never really got going. From the brief cameo last Saturday he looks keener and fitter so he may well prove to be a shrewd signing and the 'next Colby Bishop'.

[paperboy]

This is impressive and shows how well we do to compete in this league.


https://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/news/202 ... 0-barrier/