Post by whitesince63 on Mar 29, 2024 19:05:38 GMT
So disappointing.
We just did not do enough to earn a win.
In fact we create no real chances. We hit the bar with a header from a corner and had some half-hearted shots from outside the box but no real danger to the Stevenage goal.
The manager will again say that we had control and dominated the game but we created nothing at all.
For the first 10 minutes, we joined in with Stevenage’s kick and rush football. Big boots from the back which immediately lost possession and Stevenage endlessly aimed balls into our box. They also aimed numerous kicks and pushes at our players but somehow got away with it.
We eventually settled a bit and played some passing football but it was a big boot that nearly created a goal when Jerome chased a big hoof and somehow got a toe to lob the ball over the keeper but it was just wide.
Coleman made an excellent save from the Stevenage full back who shot from 20+ yards.
Toal made an excellent block when the ball fell to a Stevenage man unmarked 10 yards out. We had a few shots but all from outside the box and then were unlucky when Forester headed against the bar from a corner.
And that was the 1st half – kick and rush from Stevenage which Santos and co dealt with well and some passing but no chances from us.
The 2nd half was considerably worse.
Stevenage continued the big boot and the wild tackling and we just faffed about with no purpose.
As I feared, we eventually made a defensive mistake when Toal miscontrolled a long punt to let their man slightly clear but somehow (was it a foul?) Toal somehow blocked him.
Then Santos made the mistake of the match which should have lost us the game. We decided to pass it about at the back and he blindly tried to pass to the left but instead put it on a plate for the Stevenage man who did the right thing and squared it only for his team mate to shoot wide of an empty net. We were so lucky there.
In the end, it was a horrible match. I never want to see Stevenage again. I said this after the home game against them but they are more suited to rugby than football. Similar to John Beck’s Cambridge if anyone can remember
Good results from Peterborough and Barnsley but we now need Derby to drop points in 2 matches which is asking a lot. I think this result has cemented 3rd place for us.
Not good enough!
Marks:-
Coleman - 7 Made one tremendous save in the 1st half and a number of good catches
Dacres-Cogley - 6 Got forward well but as with Ogbeta his centres into the box were poor
Forrester - 7 Hit the bar and defended well
Santos - 5 Would have been a much higher marks but for getting caught in possession a couple of times and then making an absolute howler to give Stevenage an open goal. Won a good number of defensive headers.
Toal - 7 Defended well. Yet another though who got caught in possession and almost gifted a goal
Ogbeta - 6 Busy up the wing but, and it’s a big but, his centres nearly always hit the first defender.
Sheehan - 6 Could not get into the game
Maghoma - 5 Not his sort of game – too physical. Stevenage players just knocked him over
Thomason - 5 I’ve said this so many times today but another who kept getting caught in possession. Added to some very poor passing
Jerome - 7 Credit to him. He led the line well.
Collins - 6 He was busy and looked to have something in him but too many poor passes
Dempsey - 5 Have to say that I saw no impact at all from him when he came on
Bodvarsson - 5 Another with no impact
Morley
Iredale
I think for the first time David I find myself largely disagreeing with many of your scores there. Do you seriously believe Santos deserved a 5 and you’d have given him much more but for his mistake that nearly cost us a goal? That was actually his second of the game because he did exactly the same earlier and got away with that too. Personally I’d have hooked him well before that because right from the start he was an absolute liability. A 3 would have been more accurate and even thatscat a stretch. Toal wasn’t quite as bad but no way was he worthy of a 7 and whilst Collins was busy, he was busy running nowhere in a headless chicken sort of way. How he won L1 player of the season beats me, he’s just awful. You don’t mark the manager but if I had to it would have been a big fat zero. He claimed the week on the grass would allow him time to get more into the players and boy did it show today. I’m really losing all confidence in him and beginning to believe that Rioch and OM are right about him. That was just abysmal today yet he still refuses to call it out. Any real manager would have today because that performance was just totally unacceptable given what was riding on it.