Beano

[recordmeister]

Thought I'd note down some stats on his short time on the pitch today:

Headers won: 1

Headers lost: 6

Fouls conceded: 1

Off sides: 1

Ya, know... I was complaining that the only stats we get on here are goal scoring stats.

Don't think I'd have managed to keep it up if he'd played a full 90!

[Baboo]

Headers lost.
Wonder what the stats of our other strikers were in this regard? Possibly no better than Beano.
Clearly an area for improvement methinks.

[Brahma Bull]

He may have lost the headers in the short time he was on the pitch but the long ball tactics are more of a concern for me

[The Boys from Up the Hill]

To be fair, it wasn't just Beano losing headers on Saturday, the whole team were at it! Every time the ball went in the air it landed on a Bradford head, we just seem to be weak in the air.

[Isaac]

To be fair, Bradford were quite a big physical side and when we kept it on the floor we looked the better side by some distance (although ironically our goal came from a bad clearance header from a long ball). 2nd half we lost our way for 20 minutes, whether through tiredness or inexperience in midfield I don't know but for that 20 minutes there was no-one willing to get on the ball and a lack of pressure on Bradford (which was a feature of our good play). Perhaps getting Mclaren and Leven fit would help with this.

Defensively I thought we looked marginally better than last year. My concern would be that despite all the good play we lacked an end product up front. Our most likely method of scoring was Heslop shooting from outside the area. Potter is the same as ever - a more skillful version of Odubade who often panics or makes the wrong decision when in good positions. Lewis Guy looked ok, neat, fairly quick but never looked like making a major impact. I thought Smalley was the best of the lot, strong and quick but fluffed the one chance he got. Dare I say it but he looked a like a better version of Constable, but that is only going to be true if he scores his goals too. Would be interested to know what Wilder thinks his first choice front 3 is, if he knows it.

[Joey's Toe]

I wasn't at the game on Saturday, (Jerome) but I did see us on Wednesday night, and I've read all the reports of the two league games.

My worry - and those who've seen more of us can correct me if this is misplaced - is that we're still stuck in this rut of only playing really well for 20 minutes in a game. It was a constant problem last season - we'd have a good spell, get a goal and then sit back and wait to concede. From what I heard about Saturday, we're still doing the same thing.

Any game has spells of pressure from each team, but we've got to elongate the periods when we're playing well, and then get out of the midset of sitting back every time we go a goal up.

[Isaac]

I wouldn't agree with the sitting back theory personally. Start of the second half we arguably had our best 5/10 minutes and were at our most attacking, then we lost our way somewhat (although still looked fairly comfortable I thought). I don't know the reason why - perhaps Bradford lifted themselves, but we started going more direct which sometimes indicates a side not getting the time on the ball they'd like, or that they're getting tired as they're not working quite as hard. I don't think tiredness can be used as an excuse but the relative inexperience/quality of the midfield might have been a factor. Hall (experienced but not an enforcer and liable to go missing) plus Payne (inexperienced) and Heslop (inexperienced and on a yellow). These are all good players when we're on top, but I'm less sure about their effectiveness when we're struggling.

[John Byrne's Underpants]

Beano didn't make a huge impact when he came on, granted, but it may have been at least in part because of our midfield. By the point he came on we were already under the cosh a bit, our midfield was being overrun and we were sitting (forced?) back. Having said that, it's concerning that he was unable to make a significant difference, especially as he's supposed to be our 'star' striker.

[Ancient Colin]

Seemed to me that we completely lost control of the midfield after the pretty good start to the second half and it was from there that everything started going aerial, to no effect or even negative effect. I'm not at all convinced that the substitutions really helped address that, either by &quotdefending from the front&quot or by shoring up and reinforcing the middle. I'd have wanted Constable to have more effect effort wise - but his most memorable moment was probably attempting to trap the ball and watching it richochet back behind our midfield. Seemed like a lot of people were sold on Liam Davis - I thought, particularly in the second half, that he got caught out of position and upfield a hell of a lot ... and that's a problem in a 4-3-3 because there isn't a natural wide midfielder to cover / drop back. A lot of pressure came as a result of that. No need to panic though, plenty of positives, particularly in the first half, even if we didn't create that many chances.