Embarrasing

[Northants Pie]

Its not getting beat thats embarrasing its the way we have just been statues with no pace and made them look like fooking Barcelona.

We have been a joke tonight, I don't care for the whole their Premier league etc etc, we have been an absolute joke.

My little lad has just gone to bed heart broken by our farcical performance

[Piethagoram]

Having travelled to the Liberty..and waited ages for a taxi in the freezing conditions.... can't feel my feet.....

Anyway, Swansea had targeted Dicko for his lack of pace and inability to put in real challenges.

However, the real problem lay with Virtue.... Defensively so inept, was wandering around midfield without ever picking up a man, hence Swansea could pass through our midfield at will. Hewitt would have put in a shift, which would have given us a chance

Even experienced pros like Hunt, one pass cost a goal but his kick it anywhere...when we needed to control possession.

At least The General showed how to tackle and put in challenges.

I hope this has opened Nolan's eyes... we missed Yates as Virtue is no substitute. We could not win the second ball to save our lives

Signing off....

 

 

 

[Northants Pie]

One thing it did show is our severe lack of pace all over the pitch, this will need to be rectified in the summer (I'm sure it is already being planned for).

We desperately needed Liam Noble on the pitch, his tenacity and willingness to get stuck in was so badly needed last night, the only time any of our players gave them something to think about was when Alan Smith came on and let a couple if them know they were actually in a game and not an exhibition against a bunch of infant school children.

And as if the game wasn't bad enough Leigh Curtis' ratings are as much a joke as the game was.

[Lozzle1]

1.  We EARNED the rights to that replay: with a side that loooked like they WANTED TO WIN, at ML.                                                                                                                                                      2.  AH said before the match, the next round "could be worth SEVEN-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY-THOUSAND-POUNDS to the club!"                                                                                                              2a. A TV pundit (shamefully) described it as "looking like a Testamonial Match"!                                                                                                                                                                                    2b.  It WAS (see 2/2a above) but...did anyone tell the team that it was THEIR Testamonial Match...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

2c. and/or... that they should (perhaps) ACTUALLY TURN UP, FOR IT?

3.   It's difficult to single-out one bad player...because they were ALL abysmally woeful!

4.   The fans (as usual) continued to sing

[Lozzle1]

P.S.  I TRULY DON'T CARE HOW MUCH FURTHER UP 'THE CHAIN' SWANSEA CITY ARE...OR HOW MUCH THEIR 'TEAM' IS WORTH MORE THAN OURS...OR WHETHER THEY BEAT LIVERPOOL, ARSENAL, REAL MADRID OR BARCELONA... I JUST WANTED O-U-R  T-E-A-M TO LOOK LIKE THEY WERE 'UP FOR IT'...AND (sadly!) THEY DIDN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE THEY WERE THERE!

[Chris]

Thank god I was ill yesterday, I slept through the result but woke up just now sort of shell shocked.

[Fozzy]

Did Nolan tell them to go out there and enjoy themselves, but don't put a tackle in because I can't risk anybody being injured?

It was like a training game, nobody was man marked and they didn't seem that bothered about denying them space.

They were woeful.

 

[Kevin Guy]

I am not a Jon Stead fan anyway. But if he has any ability it is not as a lone striker with his back to goal. He cannot hold the ball up and invariably it flies of some part of his anatomy back to the opposition. Why oh why can Nolan not see that, even Sheridan realised that. If Nolan wants to play 4-5-1, at least make Shola who can do that job the one. As soon as I saw the team yesterday my heart sank. 

[Northants Pie]

47 minutes ago, Kevin Guy said:

I am not a Jon Stead fan anyway. But if he has any ability it is not as a lone striker with his back to goal. He cannot hold the ball up and invariably it flies of some part of his anatomy back to the opposition. Why oh why can Nolan not see that, even Sheridan realised that. If Nolan wants to play 4-5-1, at least make Shola who can do that job the one. As soon as I saw the team yesterday my heart sank. 

TBH Yesterdays game showed one of the biggest differences from the top level to the bottom level in terms of defending, in league 2 the defenders primarily look for the opposing striker as opposed to the ball, premier league players look for the ball first & foremost, hence why lots of times last night when Stead ws expecting to be clattered by the defenders he was simply left on his arse as they were much quicker and always looked for the ball first.

[Truefootballfan]

I can’t understand Kevin Nolan’s flippant after match interview. “Proud of his players” yes, we have come a long way in a year but for Christ’s sake, he could have at least demonstrated some anger at the performance ( or lack of) does he realise that a sickening result like that affects people. 400 fans travelled and paid for the privilege of watching abject capitulation. 

Yes we dust off and go again but for heavens sake Kevin show some feelings for the fans’ at a time of embarrassment and shame.

[Magic magpie]

At first i agreed but having time to think about it I don’t think it was embarrassing we are league two not one or championship Kevin has joe at built a team to get us out of league 2 not the premier ship. I agree the goalkeeping was iffy but it is what it is back to league action. 

[Truefootballfan]

I hope you are right UnitedPie. No one would be more pleased than me if we manage to get promotion. Yes we are league 2 and so is Newport and Spurs only beat them 2  tonight. None league clubs don’t get thrashed 8 -1. 

Kevin could have recorded the after match interview 5 or 6 games ago because it’s the same format. We were clear of the chasing pack and now we are getting swallowed up because we haven’t started playing until half time. is that something to be proud of his players for? 

Yes it is what it is as you say but I can’t help feeling frustrated. 

Onwards and Lets hope upwards my friend.

[DangerousSausage]

I said after the Crewe match that we normally disappoint when a lot of people are watching and that I was pleasantly surprised we came up with the goods.

Well we paid that back with interest on Tuesday night on BBC One. It was embarrassing. We've played Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City in recent years and we gave them all a game. We even took Swansea to a replay. When was the last time anyone tanked us by eight goals?

[Chris]

We just ran off them when they attacked, our CB's seemed to be somewhere else and I can't blame Colin for any of the goals personally. His confidence would have been shot by the amount of goals and woeful marking.

Keepers are only as good as their defence.

[Northants Pie]

3 hours ago, Chris said:

We just ran off them when they attacked, our CB's seemed to be somewhere else and I can't blame Colin for any of the goals personally. His confidence would have been shot by the amount of goals and woeful marking.

Keepers are only as good as their defence.

Come on mate, especially the one where he flapped at the ball like a pair of knickers in the wind?

Not blaming him for the others but that goal was absolutely his fault 100%.

Virtue just isn't good enough and his lack of quality showed massively.

We should of (not literally) smashed into them within the first 5 mins and let them know they were in a game, our fullbacks never went with the runner, our centre halves must have felt like the soldiers did at the infamous charge of the light brigade.

Just a pity we couldn't get Jorge Grant or Terry Hawkridge on the ball more.

Jorge ran his nuts off all game and whenever Hawkridge got the ball all he could pass to was Dickinson who EVERY time tried to beat a winger for pace who was skinning him for fun, he's not the quickest at the best of times but he looked like he was running through treacle, don't forget its only a mistake if you make it once.

[Chris]

12 minutes ago, Northants Pie said:

Come on mate, especially the one where he flapped at the ball like a pair of knickers in the wind?

Not blaming him for the others but that goal was absolutely his fault 100%.

Perhaps, yet I still think the fact he wasn't protected and those in front of him never bothered to defend - that the majority can be labelled down to confidence issue.

I don't defend people for the sake of it, though I can see it being awkward for a keeper considering.

[liampie]

notts just did not defend and we got punished for that. kn looked incredibly pissed during the camera pans to him but why did he not try to bring some structure after they scored their first few? or even after we scored.

he and the team failed.

[upthepies]

We got everything wrong against Swansea but we have the league to focus on from here.

There's 3 points to be got on Saturday.