Solihull Moors (THTS) The Minging to Winning Match Thread

[Jdk103]

For me, the fact that it was a poor performance makes it easier to park in my head. No what if, we weren’t at the races. Already looking forward to next year

[LeftSideRun]

We know you’d rather now read all about it again, but our man has opted to let the dust settle before summarising that one up.

Hope it doesn’t disturb your Monday morning cornflakes.

http://www.downhillsecondhalf.co.uk/Art ... icleID=327

Another good write up, even though it hurt to read it.

[Roy57]

I just dozed off and coming back round genuinely wondered if I dreamt that game.

My reflections include that When they scored their first even said maybe they have scored too soon, that was a crap suggestion!

We just didn’t turn up, not sure anyone comes out with credit. Don’t get the Kanu love for today, when he was out injured felt we were more unpredictable going forward, today he did very little with a final ball but every outlet ball was to him. Stead should have started, Freeman not good enough, Pritchard not fit, why oh why was Gorman taken off.

Just gutted with our lack of performance

I totally agree.

We're a better balanced side without Kanu, and today it looked to me that our whole game plan was built around him. As much as he was bullied (without protection from the ref), he didn't really look like he was going anywhere.

Freeman was another Brennan put his trust in, a player who hasn't proved his fitness but a player with pedigree, a huge gamble, and it backfired badly.Pritchard wasn't fit. Brunt should of started, Stead should of started, Kabamba was totally isolated,

Could we get better than Kanu, yes if money was no object, but Kanu was our only played who when in possession they were worried about they put at least two and at times three players on him, us not using this to our advantage is on us, why we never once used the space the players marking Kanu left is again on us, still believe he is our most effective attack minded player, not roughing out the rough spots is down on our coaching abilty. But when he runs at there back line they knew he was the danger, everybody except our players.

[Roy57]

Very bad time for us to have Pritchard being not fit enough to play and Dear God did it show, still don't know what happened to O'Donker to not even be on the bench, Stead another who picked up a dead leg, so only fit for bench. Playing Oluwo who hasn't played in months, so was always going to lack match sharpness, but DB post match interview he blamed Nicki for not putting away his chance even thou he is the league's 2nd highest goal scorer, Oluwo for not putting away his header in first 20 mins, but as said he has not played in so long so was so far of match sharpness.
I have pointed out before the one factor that concerned me even before the game was Dean does seem more concerned and set up because of what dangers the opposition can cause us, rather than setting up with the players who can cause them concerns and problems, remember last managers who when asked about the opposition would reply I want to concentrate on how we can hurt then, wish Dean would be but more like this, he assembled this squad, so he should have the confidence and belief in them,

[jamiefrbees]

Just watched the 'highlights' for the first time.

The players really do look thoroughly sick with nerves. At one point Gorman's taking a corner fairly early on and looks as if he's about to vomit. How can psychological preparations have been so clearly overlooked? When we are in a promising position, we're in such a panicked hurry to get rid of it (poor final balls from Freeman/ Gorman etc).

That said, that Kabamba volley finds the bottom corner and who knows if we would have grown into the game. A big big moment. We'll never know...

Also, worthy shout out to Pritchard who can be seen furiously punching the turf as the 3rd goes in.

[becbee]

I can't face re-watching but my recollection is that we started well enough and their first goal was against the run of play. I remember being annoyed but thinking we'd come back. It was their second which finished us off, it was all downhill from there.

I suspect the interview with DB came far too soon after the match, he must have felt as sick as the rest of us and it's easy in that situation to blame others. I am sure in the cold light of day he knows that our missing the only 2 chances of a match where there were no other chances in 90 minutes but the opposition scored 4 is hardly reasonable criticism. And where would we be in the league table without Kabamba's goals? No striker however prolific scores from every chance anyway.

Apart from the absence of O'Donkor from the squad, I don't recall hearing any objections about the team pre match. We'd have all commented had Pritchard been missing. It's easy to say after the event that DB got it wrong.

I wonder sometimes why we support a football club. Only a handful of clubs can be promoted, for the rest it's varying degrees of worry / failure / disappointment. And even the clubs who celebrate promotion usually are only doing so because they suffered the misery of relegation first ( e.g. Leicester City last night).

[markobee]

The curse of the Manager of the Month Award struck again!

[letchbee94]

The curse of the Manager of the Month Award struck again!

Makes Saturday performance and result seem even worse, we must have been the form team going into the play offs and we produced that.

[Lostinipswich]

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned it, but a week on I'm still wondering what Cropper was doing on the pitch...not the fact that he was on it, but the position he took for much of the match...hugging the byeline, rarely getting the ball to feet...and if so, just passing it back inside as there were no other options.

I'm sure he was doing as he was told, but at times it just felt we were playing with 10 men for periods of the match.

The fact that we play a v narrow three at the back has also caused us problems over the last few weeks and it wouldn't take a tactical genius to work out that team could get around us fairly easily...as it came to pass!

I'm looking forward to next season, but like so many was really disappointed by last week's performance...that said as a Bees fan I now expect nothing more than disappointment.