Solihull Moors (THTS) The Minging to Winning Match Thread

[Mikel Bee]

For fear of contradicting myself Ollie working on the mental preparation of the players for big games with the use of a psychologist may help.

Players face issues off the pitch which may affect their ability to perform on it.

Is there a fan of our team in this field who could elaborate or help?

Maybe binge watching the highly enjoyable Ted Lasso has coloured my thinking here.

On Talksport this week I listened to the story about Steve Collins getting in Chris Eubanks's head about his use of a hypnotist actually making Eubank believe that Collins couldn't get cut.

Now a lot of that may be baloney but if it gives the opposition food for thought , distracting them from the task at hand it gives you an edge.

Likewise if it clears the mind from debris, allowing you to focus on the task at hand, why not give it a shot?

It cannot just be applied to the big games in the week of a big match. It needs to be a measured approach over a period to time to be able to succeed.

This could be expensive and out of our league.

Did you see Dear England, John? Similar themes with Gareth Southgate's side and mentality.

[EastFinchBee]

Incredibly disappointing. Barnet just didn’t turn up. Solihull were on their game, wanted it more and had the right tactics.

Too often Barnet, who can be really positive and creative, are incapable of playing the better teams.

DB’s post match interview was really disappointing. It is not good enough to just blame the players. The manager’s job is to address mental fragility and iron out inconsistency. His team selection and subs were also poor. The half time team talk could not have been on a par with Maidenhead; they came out even worse in the second half.

An amazing opportunity squandered.

We go again


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[John Hunt]

[/quote]Did you see Dear England, John? Similar themes with Gareth Southgate's side and mentality.
[/quote]

Yep but Ted Lasso more realistic than England winning anything!

Kidding Dear England was good.

A few criticisms though.

Thought it too soon putting on a play about a current side. Didn't like the unnecessary focus on Kane's accent though and making Henderson and Dier seem like squabbling baffoons.

Did you like it Michael?

[amberforever]

We need someone back of Mel’s calibre to help DB.

[CrawleyBee]

Incredibly disappointing. Barnet just didn’t turn up. Solihull were on their game, wanted it more and had the right tactics.

Too often Barnet, who can be really positive and creative, are incapable of playing the better teams.

DB’s post match interview was really disappointing. It is not good enough to just blame the players. The manager’s job is to address mental fragility and iron out inconsistency. His team selection and subs were also poor. The half time team talk could not have been on a par with Maidenhead; they came out even worse in the second half.

An amazing opportunity squandered.

We go again


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No changes as well was baffling, he mentioned stead was still injured but what about o’donker? Surely worthy of a place on the bench. Guess hindsight is a wonderful thing, just so gutted how it went yesterday.

[DerekBFC]

Yesterday I went to the match hoping for a win but expecting a loss which was soon confirmed. Like some others during my time supporting Barnet we have had ten opportunities to win ties to take us to Wembley but only managed it once. We were then comprehensively beaten. It has been many factors, bad luck, injuries to key players, better opposition, poor refereeing decisions, (plauged us on other big occasions Manchester United for example) and the team not turning up.
For the record :-

Crook Town Amateur Cup 1964 loss
Macclesfield Town FA Trophy 1970 loss
Telford United FA Tropy 1972 win
Blackpool Play Offs 1992 Loss
Colchester United Play Offs 1998 Loss
Peterborough United Play Offs 2000 Loss
Shrewsbury Town Play Offs 2004 Loss
Swindon Town FL Trophy 2012 Loss
Notts County Play Offs 2020 Loss
Solihull Moors Play Offs 2024 Loss

Just to think lately teams have made Wembly twice in a season

We need to win the National League to get out

[BeeBoi1980]

Yesterday I went to the match hoping for a win but expecting a loss which was soon confirmed. Like some others during my time supporting Barnet we have had ten opportunities to win ties to take us to Wembley but only managed it once. We were then comprehensively beaten. It has been many factors, bad luck, injuries to key players, better opposition, poor refereeing decisions, (plauged us on other big occasions Manchester United for example) and the team not turning up.
For the record :-

Crook Town Amateur Cup 1964 loss
Macclesfield Town FA Trophy 1970 loss
Telford United FA Tropy 1972 win
Blackpool Play Offs 1992 Loss
Colchester United Play Offs 1998 Loss
Peterborough United Play Offs 2000 Loss
Shrewsbury Town Play Offs 2004 Loss
Swindon Town FL Trophy 2012 Loss
Notts County Play Offs 2020 Loss
Solihull Moors Play Offs 2024 Loss

Just to think lately teams have made Wembly twice in a season

We need to win the National League to get out

Gateshead last season

[DerekBFC]

Yes sorry I missed that one. When I originally counted I got to eleven, thought I must of included Borehamwood in error, totally erased the memory of Gateshead.

Thanks for correcting me

[WhetstoneBee]

Incredibly disappointing. Barnet just didn’t turn up. Solihull were on their game, wanted it more and had the right tactics.

Too often Barnet, who can be really positive and creative, are incapable of playing the better teams.

DB’s post match interview was really disappointing. It is not good enough to just blame the players. The manager’s job is to address mental fragility and iron out inconsistency. His team selection and subs were also poor. The half time team talk could not have been on a par with Maidenhead; they came out even worse in the second half.

An amazing opportunity squandered.

We go again


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Having slept on it and watched the interview again, I am also really annoyed by it. My partner actually overheard it and commented “Does he ever take any responsbility or does he always just blame the players?”. To which my answer was no and yes. It’s not on. Yes too many players didn’t turn up but we also lost yesterday because Solihull were better drilled, their manager had a better game plan than ours, our starting 11 was wrong, we were far too slow to change it and when we did we took the wrong players off. That’s all on DB. I’m fed up with him blaming players whenever things go wrong. To suggest we lost because a young centre back coming back from a long-term injury missed a header from a corner and our striker didn’t score from a cross that was behind him, on his weaker foot and which he did well to connect with at all is ridiculous. If I was Oluwo or Kabamba I’d be fuming. Yesterday wasn’t a one off - for two seasons DB has failed to work out how to beat good teams in big games. Until he looks at himself and works out why, next season will just be more of the same.

[Mikel Bee]

Yep but Ted Lasso more realistic than England winning anything!

Kidding Dear England was good.

A few criticisms though.

Thought it too soon putting on a play about a current side. Didn't like the unnecessary focus on Kane's accent though and making Henderson and Dier seem like squabbling baffoons.

Did you like it Michael?

Yeah, some of the caricatures could have been toned down a little. Was bordering on the 'tabloidyness' the play itself was criticising. Overall though it was excellent and a very good depiction of the transformation of an underachieving football team. One day they'll make one about DB and Barnet.

[Masuka]

The Conference is a clown world. We finished a good second and stay in the league next season. It’s total bollocks.

[pletch99]

Incredibly disappointing. Barnet just didn’t turn up. Solihull were on their game, wanted it more and had the right tactics.

Too often Barnet, who can be really positive and creative, are incapable of playing the better teams.

DB’s post match interview was really disappointing. It is not good enough to just blame the players. The manager’s job is to address mental fragility and iron out inconsistency. His team selection and subs were also poor. The half time team talk could not have been on a par with Maidenhead; they came out even worse in the second half.

An amazing opportunity squandered.

We go again


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Having slept on it and watched the interview again, I am also really annoyed by it. My partner actually overheard it and commented “Does he ever take any responsbility or does he always just blame the players?”. To which my answer was no and yes. It’s not on. Yes too many players didn’t turn up but we also lost yesterday because Solihull were better drilled, their manager had a better game plan than ours, our starting 11 was wrong, we were far too slow to change it and when we did we took the wrong players off. That’s all on DB. I’m fed up with him blaming players whenever things go wrong. To suggest we lost because a young centre back coming back from a long-term injury missed a header from a corner and our striker didn’t score from a cross that was behind him, on his weaker foot and which he did well to connect with at all is ridiculous. If I was Oluwo or Kabamba I’d be fuming. Yesterday wasn’t a one off - for two seasons DB has failed to work out how to beat good teams in big games. Until he looks at himself and works out why, next season will just be more of the same.

While I agree with most of what you say here, I think Dean Brennan is often in a difficult position in these post match interviews. He gets pilloried if he doesn't give one, but at time same time he gives them at a time while the emotions are still raw and before he has had time to properly reflect.

I think DB has on the whole done a really good job bringing the club back from a really difficult place and there is a chance that he will be able to produce a title winning team if he can continue to incrementally improve the team this summer. To go from 74 points to 86 points in this league isn't easy. You also have to remember he doesn't have a massive budget advantage over the teams around us.

I thought it was wrong to call out either Oluwsu or Kebamba for those chances - neither were simple - they were however, the best chances we did have. It's easy to say Brennan picked the wrong team, but plenty of people I spoke to before the game were happy enough with the team selection and it does appear his hand was forced to some extent by injuries. Clearly had Thompson been fit, he would have played. Likewise, I suspect had Brunt or Stead been fully fit they would have started.

The main mystery is the absence of O'Doncker from the match day squad - that seems a curious omission given that Stead wasn't thought ready for 90 minutes, unless of course he wasn't available.

You can argue that Brennan picked the wrong team or the wrong tactics, but ultimately it's down to the players to execute the plan and they didn't. I imagine the plan was that the wingbacks would get behind Solihull and the Pritchard and Freeman would get closer to Kabamba to provide support. It just didn't happen. Despite not being fully fit, Pritchard made a lot of good runs in the first half taking up good positions, but we didn't find him with the pass and eventually he stopped making the runs and dropped deeper.

People have been laying into the substitutions but I thought 2 out of the 3 were fine. Taking a centre back who probably didn't have 90 minutes in the tank off and going to a back four made sense (indeed some people including me would have preferred to start that way) as a way of freeing Kanu from defensive responsibilities and replacing Freeman with Stead also made a ton of sense. The only ridiculous change was Brunt for Gorman rather than an obviously unfit Pritchard. I thought Gorman was probably the best performer of our starting XI (although it's a pretty low bar.)

I would prefer that he remember his togetherness mantra in these interviews rather than criticising individual players or at least add a little nuance to those criticisms, but to expect somebody to do so half an hour or an hour after what must have been one of the most disappointed and gutting failures of his clear is probably unrealistic.

[LeftSideRun]

I really hope the post-match interviewer asks Dean what was done to prepare the players mentally for such a high-pressure match?

The interviewer bottled all the big questions. In keeping with the team.

[LeftSideRun]

One positive from today, that very unpleasant chap from Malta will be staying there !!

Harsh on Gambin, this.

[John Hunt]

Yep but Ted Lasso more realistic than England winning anything!

Kidding Dear England was good.

A few criticisms though.

Thought it too soon putting on a play about a current side. Didn't like the unnecessary focus on Kane's accent though and making Henderson and Dier seem like squabbling baffoons.

Did you like it Michael?

Yeah, some of the caricatures could have been toned down a little. Was bordering on the 'tabloidyness' the play itself was criticising. Overall though it was excellent and a very good depiction of the transformation of an underachieving football team. One day they'll make one about DB and Barnet.

One day!