Cheltenham Town v Fleetwood Town

[Shade]

For a start, Peupion comes out with credit. He kept going and looked like the only player with a modicum of confidence. I hope his time with us doesn't destroy that.
Malcolm wasn't too bad. He hit the post and had another effort well saved.
Bonds and Thompson were ok individually but often seemed to be missing as a unit as Fleetwood ran 50 yards up the pitch with no resistance every time. Freestone was fine until Davies was sent off, then went to pieces. Bevan didn't do anything wrong, really. Ferry wasnt that bad.

Long and Street just looked League 2 mid table at best, and the game just mostly passed Sercombe by.

We aren't scoring against Derby unless we get a fluke, and no luck has run our way all season so I don't see why it will on Saturday. We will be the worst goalscoring team in 135 years of the English Football League. 135 years. We are living in an historic moment. People will be looking us up as a quiz answer in 100 years. Assuming the fish people of Atlantis haven't risen up and claimed our lands as their own. Which seems more likely than us scoring anytime soon.

[andgarod]

Southwood Bevan and Freestone
At least Long will be back in position on Saturday
Davies said he had another season in him - wrong retire now
Sercombe Thompson better but still not above average
and Bond OK but Ferry poor
Forwards all 4 get nil points the same number of corners we had
Subs probably didnt even get 1 The 2 loan subs were like 16 year olds playing mens football

Clarke must be regretting signing a 2 yr contract this will not be good on his CV

Hopefully the teacups were broken
Russell needs to go and is A Vincent really a 1st team coach

[Broadway Brian]

Long shouldn’t be anywhere near the team on Saturday. New captain is the first task for DC. We need leadership.

[Garby74]

I thought Ferry was good tonight.
Sercs second half

We're just not fit enough

[Robin]

Southwood Bevan and Freestone
At least Long will be back in position on Saturday
Davies said he had another season in him - wrong retire now
Sercombe Thompson better but still not above average
and Bond OK but Ferry poor
Forwards all 4 get nil points the same number of corners we had
Subs probably didnt even get 1 The 2 loan subs were like 16 year olds playing mens football

Clarke must be regretting signing a 2 yr contract this will not be good on his CV

Hopefully the teacups were broken
Russell needs to go and is A Vincent really a 1st team coach

That's very harsh on the kid from Brighton he came on and did very well I thought, battled hard, won several tackles and tried to drive the ball forward. I thought Davies had a decent game up until the sending off, Freestone too, Bevan was a bit iffy, Ferry also did well. Southwood didn't have much to do. Long was awful, poor decision making and missed what looked like a sitter when Malcolm hit the post. Anyway the problem was everything in front of the defence.

I could probably write an essay but let's say this. Bonds is great at tackling someone next to him, he got back and made a few really vital blocks too but the rest of his game was very poor. He needs to be showing for the ball and retain possession without constantly passing backwards. Thompson was a bit more in the game he has some nice close control but doesn't seem like he can pass the ball forward. Sercombe was really putting in effort, especially after the red but seems to drift into no mans land and then isn't influencing the game. That's three players whom should all be capable of playing at this level but they don't compliment each other or work as as a unit. Often one will press and the other two will stand off (Bonds especially guilty of this) or two will go for the same ball. This is the first area which Darrell Clarke needs to fix to improve the whole team. I don't think I've seen a game all season where we've won the midfield battle and tonight against one of the relegation favourites we didn't compete here as a unit all game.

[Malabus]

That was truly awful. Giant nail in the coffin. Expect L2 football after that. Hoof and hope tiresome tactics in-which not a single Cheltenham player (except Goodwin) can win a header. Rob Street FFS, what is the point.

[Malabus]

......not looking forward for CTFC to play at FGR next season; but perhaps a weekend in York the season after!

Nailsworth will be relegated.

[Malabus]

Bonds the only player to emerge from tonight with dignity

He was awful...Will Ferry miles better than the rest.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

From reading this and other reviews it sounds like Long is starting to look like when
Downes & Parslow reimagined themselves as Laurel & Hardy when we got back up to L2, or Boyle’s lack of pace and ball playing in his last season at L1 level.

Get Freestone captain. And give him carte blanche to lay into the players. Long, Bonds, Sercs, any of them; let Freestone pin them up against the wall by the neck and shout some sense into them.

[Shade]

Well, our achievements have made it to the front page of BBC Sport. Any publicity is good publicity, right?

[Nham68]

Midfield void.

How many times did freestone or Davies have the ball, and no outlet .
Just so static . So then Southwood kicks long and every time , their defenders won the header .

Felt we lost that game in the middle . Not going to cite individuals , just to say , there is no real midfield unit that can create anything.

[Broadway Brian]

From reading this and other reviews it sounds like Long is starting to look like when
Downes & Parslow reimagined themselves as Laurel & Hardy when we got back up to L2, or Boyle’s lack of pace and ball playing in his last season at L1 level.

Get Freestone captain. And give him carte blanche to lay into the players. Long, Bonds, Sercs, any of them; let Freestone pin them up against the wall by the neck and shout some sense into them.

Exactly.

There was a moment towards the end of the game when Stockley threw the ball in Peupion’s face. The captain should have been straight in there protecting his player and badgering the ref, but instead he just trotted off into the middle, leaving a young lad by himself getting stick from a 6’ 2” experienced pro.

Made me livid. These young lads need help and togetherness in this dog fight.

[Ihearye]

Southwood - blameless and decent game yet again
Back 3 - on the whole they did OK, especially given the fact they were coming at them in droves from time to time. From the CF I couldn't comment on the red card
Ferry - has yet to reach last years levels
Sercombe - parsons egg, go to pass seems to be a short punt into the air
Thompson - works hard, not 100% convinced on the end result
Malcolm - needs to learn he is not George Best, but again the willing was there
Bonds - another Parsons egg
Street - I reckon he could play 90 minutes of every match and still not look like scoring. Again the willing is there.
Long - hmmmmmmmm
----
CP - looked like he was interested and did well on the scraps he got
Hammond - didn't see much off the ball
Keena - his place on the bench was I guess due to lack of other options to put there. I can only assume, he has been one of the ones certain comments have been directed at for the season so far
Goodwin - didn't see much of the ball
Williams - totally no comment on how any defender can stand on the line and just watch a ball bounce in front of him

I was of the opinion a few weeks ago to give the young loans without any baggage a go and DC seems to indicate that they are the ones who re being 'professional' about their approach to football. However, I am now wondering is it fair on them to be the ones with that burden put on them. Fair play to them if they want to try.
Haven't read the DC interview yet, but if he pulls this off it is a miracle of epic proportions.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

From reading this and other reviews it sounds like Long is starting to look like when
Downes & Parslow reimagined themselves as Laurel & Hardy when we got back up to L2, or Boyle’s lack of pace and ball playing in his last season at L1 level.

Get Freestone captain. And give him carte blanche to lay into the players. Long, Bonds, Sercs, any of them; let Freestone pin them up against the wall by the neck and shout some sense into them.

Exactly.

There was a moment towards the end of the game when Stockley threw the ball in Peupion’s face. The captain should have been straight in there protecting his player and badgering the ref, but instead he just trotted off into the middle, leaving a young lad by himself getting stick from a 6’ 2” experienced pro.

Made me livid. These young lads need help and togetherness in this dog fight.

Wow. Imagine what Gill, Finners, Penn, Tozer would have done.

Freestone can be a leader. Give him the responsibility.

[Ihearye]

From reading this and other reviews it sounds like Long is starting to look like when
Downes & Parslow reimagined themselves as Laurel & Hardy when we got back up to L2, or Boyle’s lack of pace and ball playing in his last season at L1 level.

Get Freestone captain. And give him carte blanche to lay into the players. Long, Bonds, Sercs, any of them; let Freestone pin them up against the wall by the neck and shout some sense into them.

Exactly.

There was a moment towards the end of the game when Stockley threw the ball in Peupion’s face. The captain should have been straight in there protecting his player and badgering the ref, but instead he just trotted off into the middle, leaving a young lad by himself getting stick from a 6’ 2” experienced pro.

Made me livid. These young lads need help and togetherness in this dog fight.

Wow. Imagine what Gill, Finners, Penn, Tozer would have done.

Freestone can be a leader. Give him the responsibility.

At moments like that, you don't need a bit of cotton on your arm to be a leader

[Broadway Brian]

Agreed. But if you have the armband, you damn well have to show it.

[Benctfc]

It's got to the point now where no matter what formation we try or team we select we are always 2nd best. As the commentators said last night every match this season the opposition look sharper and fitter than us which is unacceptable.

This start to this season is a parallel to the end of the L2 relegation season where we turned up beat before a ball is kicked. Clarke will likely need a complete rebuild next season in L2 like Johnson did in the national league. At least he has January to plan ahead as well as the Summer.

Going forward we need to simplify the tactics either go long ball and pick your best headers of the ball and get players in and around the box to pick up loose balls or try and play out from the back or down the channels with wingers. I would rather Southwood went long each time and we looked to win the 2nd ball up the ptich then pissing around at the back to get pressured and then rushing a clarance to nobody. I feel at the moment we try and do mix of both tactics never seem to have the formation set up to execute either effectively.

[Jerry St Clair]

There was a moment towards the end of the game when Stockley threw the ball in Peupion’s face. The captain should have been straight in there protecting his player and badgering the ref, but instead he just trotted off into the middle, leaving a young lad by himself getting stick from a 6’ 2” experienced pro.

Made me livid. These young lads need help and togetherness in this dog fight.

100% this. I thought exactly the same. Peupion was completely abandoned by his team mates.

When the dodgy looking free kick was give which led to the goal, there was little complaint. Maybe it was a free kick, maybe they knew, and I definitely don't want to see players constantly in the referees face.

But there seems to be a malaise, an apathy that just leads to collective shrugs of the shoulders when things go wrong.

[Alf]

All successful teams, whether Premier League or lower have decent strikers. You have to have players who can finish off chances created (although we’re not particularly good at creating chances either).
We had a decent striker last season but, for whatever reason, let him go. Our prime objective for this season should have been to replace him but unfortunately, we haven’t even come close to doing that.
To state the bleeding’ obvious winning games is about scoring goals and at the moment we don’t seem to have anyone capable of doing that!

[Warwickshire Robin]

Last nights man of the match goes to the lad with the 'Aim Here' with an arrow sign he held up behind the goal in the second half! Maybe a bigger sign needed though as it didn't work!

[Robin]

It's got to the point now where no matter what formation we try or team we select we are always 2nd best. As the commentators said last night every match this season the opposition look sharper and fitter than us which is unacceptable.

This start to this season is a parallel to the end of the L2 relegation season where we turned up beat before a ball is kicked. Clarke will likely need a complete rebuild next season in L2 like Johnson did in the national league. At least he has January to plan ahead as well as the Summer.

Going forward we need to simplify the tactics either go long ball and pick your best headers of the ball and get players in and around the box to pick up loose balls or try and play out from the back or down the channels with wingers. I would rather Southwood went long each time and we looked to win the 2nd ball up the ptich then pissing around at the back to get pressured and then rushing a clarance to nobody. I feel at the moment we try and do mix of both tactics never seem to have the formation set up to execute either effectively.

Going long would be a disaster when we have nobody up top who can win a header or hold the ball. Go back to Shrewsbry opening day they had Udoh doing this and Bowman we had nobody because Keena is not that player and neither is Street.

[everyman]

I hope this referee's wife leaves him for another man and takes the kids with her. Pathetic.

His wife could be another man ?

[everyman]

Midfield void.

How many times did freestone or Davies have the ball, and no outlet .
Just so static . So then Southwood kicks long and every time , their defenders won the header .

Felt we lost that game in the middle . Not going to cite individuals , just to say , there is no real midfield unit that can create anything.

A team totally lacking confidence not wanting the ball and hiding next to the opponent rather than showing for possesion,pass and move is a simple mantra to implement.

[QED]

Considering he must be one of our highest ever earners and was signed to give us some leadership, Curtis Davies is in the conversation for most disastrous signing in our history

Harsh, there was a ton wrong tonight but he was much better than our club captain who was awful yet somehow didn't get taken off.

It’s more about how much Curtis costs - he was on £7k a week last year at Derby, and even if he’s taken a 70% pay cut, he’s still likely to be our biggest wage. For that money he should be an absolute monster in the centre of defence, a leader and organiser. I’ve not seen anything like that from him so far, but plenty of being caught out of position, slipping on the ball and clumsy challenges. We don’t have a big enough budget for luxuries like him.

(Of course if he’s on a few hundred quid a week doing it for the love for one more year in the league, then I’d cut him a bit more slack, but I don’t think so)

[Malabus]

It's got to the point now where no matter what formation we try or team we select we are always 2nd best. As the commentators said last night every match this season the opposition look sharper and fitter than us which is unacceptable.

This start to this season is a parallel to the end of the L2 relegation season where we turned up beat before a ball is kicked. Clarke will likely need a complete rebuild next season in L2 like Johnson did in the national league. At least he has January to plan ahead as well as the Summer.

Going forward we need to simplify the tactics either go long ball and pick your best headers of the ball and get players in and around the box to pick up loose balls or try and play out from the back or down the channels with wingers. I would rather Southwood went long each time and we looked to win the 2nd ball up the ptich then pissing around at the back to get pressured and then rushing a clarance to nobody. I feel at the moment we try and do mix of both tactics never seem to have the formation set up to execute either effectively.

Going long would be a disaster when we have nobody up top who can win a header or hold the ball. Go back to Shrewsbry opening day they had Udoh doing this and Bowman we had nobody because Keena is not that player and neither is Street.

Correct, there is no-one capable to win a header. Long ball is a complete waste of time.

[Shade]

Peupion won more headers than anyone outside of our centre backs last night. He's about 5'7 and was a second half sub.

That doesn't include when that shithouse Stockley threw it in his face merely because he got badgered into losing the ball and then fouled him.

[Shade]

Last nights man of the match goes to the lad with the 'Aim Here' with an arrow sign he held up behind the goal in the second half! Maybe a bigger sign needed though as it didn't work!

Poor effort, didn't work, must try harder. When it works, then he gets MOTM...

[Broadway Brian]

Last nights man of the match goes to the lad with the 'Aim Here' with an arrow sign he held up behind the goal in the second half! Maybe a bigger sign needed though as it didn't work!

Poor effort, didn't work, must try harder. When it works, then he gets MOTM...

Couldn’t agree more. Needs to buck his ideas up for Saturday. He’s playing for his future.

[Warwickshire Robin]

Last nights man of the match goes to the lad with the 'Aim Here' with an arrow sign he held up behind the goal in the second half! Maybe a bigger sign needed though as it didn't work!

Poor effort, didn't work, must try harder. When it works, then he gets MOTM...

Couldn’t agree more. Needs to buck his ideas up for Saturday. He’s playing for his future.

I think all of us need to up our game. This is what Magdeburg fans did after a paltry 5 games without a goal:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zJBnN9sAuw