[stevie_b]

 Mr Mercury, on 11 May 2025 - 06:55 PM, said:

It’s been a decent season not a great season. Yes it’s great to be back in the EFL but ultimately, if we don’t go up they’ll be a bit of “what could have been” . Of course injuries around Jan have done for us, but to put together such a run to get into the playoffs then see that today is a downer. Nobodies calling for anyone to be sacked or heads to roll, and a minor miracle can still happen, but today was shite.

We're just gonna have to agree to differ 😚

[paulwardle]

Watched all games this season and basically most teams as today sit off us and make us play through them. One exception has been Doncaster (Champions) who believed they were better than us and in both games we picked them off!

Not over yet but we need to get the first goal on Friday. Walsall like most teams we’ve played committed fouls in non danger areas, sit behind the ball and rely on set pieces for their goals.

We need more from Grigg and need to play off him more. Hardly did that at all today.

Keep the faith

[gordon_brittas]

 Mr Mercury, on 11 May 2025 - 06:55 PM, said:

It’s been a decent season not a great season. Yes it’s great to be back in the EFL but ultimately, if we don’t go up they’ll be a bit of “what could have been” . Of course injuries around Jan have done for us, but to put together such a run to get into the playoffs then see that today is a downer. Nobodies calling for anyone to be sacked or heads to roll, and a minor miracle can still happen, but today was shite.

I know we have had some disagreements this season, but I can agree with you on this. We have given Walsall an undeserved pass straight through to the final. Lack of effort, tactical ineptness, and frankly just not playing for the badge. I expect Cook to sort our deficiencies over the summer and deliver a top 3 spot next campaign in League 2. Too many poor performances this season against sides that have put a bit more effort in too make up for the lack of skill.

[Bankrobber]

 paulwardle, on 11 May 2025 - 07:01 PM, said:

Watched all games this season and basically most teams as today sit off us and make us play through them. One exception has been Doncaster (Champions) who believed they were better than us and in both games we picked them off!

Not over yet but we need to get the first goal on Friday. Walsall like most teams we’ve played committed fouls in non danger areas, sit behind the ball and rely on set pieces for their goals.

We need more from Grigg and need to play off him more. Hardly did that at all today.

Keep the faith

I'd go with this too. Unfortunately our game relies on the opponent being willing to gamble and when they aren't, we very quickly seem to run out of ideas.

I'm not too disappointed with the result, just upset that we didn't play as well as we can in such a big game. Very frustrating.

[Mr Mercury]

gordon_brittas, on 11 May 2025 - 07:03 PM, said:

I know we have had some disagreements this season, but I can agree with you on this. We have given Walsall an undeserved pass straight through to the final. Lack of effort, tactical ineptness, and frankly just not playing for the badge. I expect Cook to sort our deficiencies over the summer and deliver a top 3 spot next campaign in League 2. Too many poor performances this season against sides that have put a bit more effort in too make up for the lack of skill.

I’ve never mentioned lack of effort or not playing for the badge, neither statement I agree with.

This post has been edited by Mr Mercury: 11 May 2025 - 07:06 PM

[JonB]

 gordon_brittas, on 11 May 2025 - 07:03 PM, said:

I know we have had some disagreements this season, but I can agree with you on this. We have given Walsall an undeserved pass straight through to the final. Lack of effort, tactical ineptness, and frankly just not playing for the badge. I expect Cook to sort our deficiencies over the summer and deliver a top 3 spot next campaign in League 2. Too many poor performances this season against sides that have put a bit more effort in too make up for the lack of skill.

There was no lack of effort just we didn’t play very well. Saying anything more is going over the top.

[paulwardle]

 gordon_brittas, on 11 May 2025 - 07:03 PM, said:

I know we have had some disagreements this season, but I can agree with you on this. We have given Walsall an undeserved pass straight through to the final. Lack of effort, tactical ineptness, and frankly just not playing for the badge. I expect Cook to sort our deficiencies over the summer and deliver a top 3 spot next campaign in League 2. Too many poor performances this season against sides that have put a bit more effort in too make up for the lack of skill.

It’s not effort that’s missing and as for not playing for the badge that’s just rubbish! Look at Metcalfe at the end walking round applauding fans all round the ground.

Bottom line is we have been turned over by a relatively negative but well organised outfit who have spent most of this season leading the division.

[rodney]

 Bankrobber, on 11 May 2025 - 07:05 PM, said:

I'd go with this too. Unfortunately our game relies on the opponent being willing to gamble and when they aren't, we very quickly seem to run out of ideas.

I'm not too disappointed with the result, just upset that we didn't play as well as we can in such a big game. Very frustrating.

Don’t understand why we changed formation at times. Fleck has never played so deep and Gordon tucking in like Mandy . It just didn’t work - if we wanted the left back forward more should have brought Sparkes on. Anyway on to Friday…. A goal back would make it interesting

[Bluekent]

 Bankrobber, on 11 May 2025 - 07:05 PM, said:

I'd go with this too. Unfortunately our game relies on the opponent being willing to gamble and when they aren't, we very quickly seem to run out of ideas.

I'm not too disappointed with the result, just upset that we didn't play as well as we can in such a big game. Very frustrating.

Your second paragraph is exactly where I am , I don’t understand why some folk don’t seem to see it. Hardly anyone is going in to hard on anyone , it’s just frustrating because the majority of us know full well we are capable of much more than what we showed today. We seemed a bit overwhelmed with the occasion.

Get an early goal friday and it’s game on. Coyb.

[JonB]

 rodney, on 11 May 2025 - 07:13 PM, said:

Don’t understand why we changed formation at times. Fleck has never played so deep and Gordon tucking in like Mandy . It just didn’t work - if we wanted the left back forward more should have brought Sparkes on. Anyway on to Friday…. A goal back would make it interesting

I think we tried a few ways of trying to get round/theough them as once they had a goal then even more so once they had a second their wing backs stayed at home leaving a flat back 5 so there was no space out there. We initially tried bringing the wingers inside so the wingbacks followed them leaving room for the full backs wide then later on we tried tucking full backs in to try and overload centrally to make something happen.

We did find space quite a lot but then the quality of at times a bit of luck was lacking to get the goal.

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

 paulwardle, on 11 May 2025 - 07:10 PM, said:

It’s not effort that’s missing and as for not playing for the badge that’s just rubbish! Look at Metcalfe at the end walking round applauding fans all round the ground.

Bottom line is we have been turned over by a relatively negative but well organised outfit who have spent most of this season leading the division.

It's like this.

Sides sit in, deny us space and hit on the break and we struggle.

Happened in non league, until we signed enough quality to attritionally break them down.

Still did on occasion, though.

It's happened more often this season after the step up.

No surprise there.

So we go again in the summer.

Better players able to break down organised outfits.

As Cook so often shouts from the dugout - patience...

[Bonnyman]

 hilly81, on 11 May 2025 - 06:13 PM, said:

Felt for Grigg today. Had absolutely nothing to work with.

Hardly surprising as Naylor was the furthest forward central midfielder, we have had all season zero connection between our striker and the most attacking midfielder, they play miles apart

[HaslandBlue58]

 Waller is my hero, on 11 May 2025 - 06:07 PM, said:

Yes, today was disappointing — that much is clear. But some of the reactions on here feel a bit dramatic. I find it hard to understand why some only seem to become more vocal after a loss, almost as if they thrive on the negativity. And there are others who seem to swing from one extreme to the other week by week.

Let’s keep some perspective. It’s only half-time, and there’s still everything to play for in the second leg. It’s far from over.

Refreshing break to read a level headed post going through the thread.Agree.

[azul]

Mr_Pleasant, on 11 May 2025 - 06:15 PM, said:

Ref was a bit weak. I've seen worse. And, whilst we all look at it with blue tinted specs, how he didn't book Fleck after 10 mins for his foul was beyond belief.

5 minutes injury time in the second half was a disgrace though. He'd allowed the same amount of time in the first half, and there had been numerous subs in the second half on top of at least the same amount of stoppages.

The referee was awful, not for any particular incident but the way he allowed Walsall to play him. It was hard to work out who was refereeing the game at times.

This post has been edited by azul: 11 May 2025 - 07:30 PM

[rodney]

 Bonnyman, on 11 May 2025 - 07:26 PM, said:

Hardly surprising as Naylor was the furthest forward central midfielder, we have had all season zero connection between our striker and the most attacking midfielder, they play miles apart

100% correct. I honestly can’t remember anytime this season our attacking midfield ran past Grigg. At times Grigg has no CFC player within 25 yards of him.

[dim view]

well here's my take.

I thought Michael's early booking completely unsettled him and we were effectively playing with 10 men. He went to pieces both in attack and defence. This knocked on to Grigg, who never got a sniff of any service.

I would have liked to see Cook swap Michael and Colclough over for a bit, just to try summat different. It's funny. He does it sometimes but it's difficult to work out the circumstances when he tries it, and when he doesn't.

Just to be controversial, my MOM was Gordon who defended well against his man, and never gave the ball away.

But my main gripe is that the the defensive square passing takes place far too deep. It's too easy to defend against. What we need is defenders who can play 10 yards higher up the pitch AND still effectively mark quick forrads if a turnover happens.

[HaslandBlue58]

 JonB, on 11 May 2025 - 06:09 PM, said:

He picked the side that has got us to today and you can’t start two lads who are just back from injury having missed a fair while in the case of Sparkes. They’ll start Friday but don’t think he did anything wrong not starting them today.

I don’t think we’re out of it by a long shot. We weren’t great but neither were they. Penalty and got a bit of luck we didn’t get on numerous occasions with a ball dropping nicely to one of theirs to shoot. Second half they offered nothing really as we huffed and puffed and didn’t pass it that well. We have to score the first goal on Friday but if we do they will not be comfortable.

Side note for the ref who I thought handled the time management of the game appallingly. Vague wafts of his hand towards their keeper to hurry up, did nothing about the constant falling to the ground, turned his back on play as they messed about restarting play including more than once changing the ball they were using to take a throw in and just general letting them just kill the game which partly went towards us never getting a head of steam up.

I had made up my mind,again,after two and a half minutes when Grigg had been grabbed around the neck on two occasions and dragged to the floor without acknowledgement from the ref.Pretty obvious by then how he was going to continue the afternoon.The spineless way they turn their backs on incidents so they do not need to make a decision I find infuriating.

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

 HaslandBlue58, on 11 May 2025 - 07:37 PM, said:

I had made up my mind,again,after two and a half minutes when Grigg had been grabbed around the neck on two occasions and dragged to the floor without acknowledgement from the ref.Pretty obvious by then how he was going to continue the afternoon.The spineless way they turn their backs on incidents so they do not need to make a decision I find infuriating.

There's an old saying about officials - they know the rules but not the game.

Today's fell fully into that category.

Everyone in the ground could see what their 'keeper was up to. In fact the whole team.

So the third time it happens book him.

Sorted.

Then anyone else.

But instead it's a token wave to start playing then a back turned whilst running away so no decision has to be made.

Over and over again.

Cowardice.

Not blaming the Ref' for the result - we just weren't urgent enough.

Another in a season full of 'em who did us no favours, though...

This post has been edited by The Earl of Chesterfield: 11 May 2025 - 07:45 PM

[dtp]

Chesterfield247, on 11 May 2025 - 04:46 PM, said:

Is it next season the rule comes in that it's a corner for taking too long over a goal kick?

They should also introduce a rule that for keeper injuries, teams need to gather in the center circle, which will never actually need to be enforced because keepers wouldn't go down anymore.

Mate, I believe the rule now is 6 seconds that a keeper can hold the ball. If refs can’t count to 6 how on earth can we expect them to count to 8?

However, the powers that be have really got to sort out these false injuries to keepers. The first time he went down he had been nowhere near the ball for 10 minutes. The ref and officials knew that. The 4th official should see the keeper has been instructed from the bench. It’s quite simple really - either instruct refs to ignore the play acting or make the keeper go off for a few minutes to get over his problems.

That said, I thought we were poor today with our experienced players being most disappointing. There was no bite, urgency, creativity, from central midfield. Their tactics of getting the ball forward long for players to run on to were the only times when they had players out of position. What did we do after winning the ball back in defence? Play it about as if we had all day to cross the half-way line thus giving every one of their players time to get back into their well organised defensive roles. The time to turn them was immediately after they had attacked by moving the ball forward with urgency before they re-organised.

Cook won’t do it but I do wonder if we should go 3 at the back for the return game by bringing Grimes in for his height, play Mandeville and Sparkes as wing-backs, Naylor, Metcalfe & Dobra central plus 2 up top. We produced the square root of nothing from the wings today and they seemed to outnumber us centrally, whilst Grigg got no change out of their big CBs.

One thing for certain - we cannot play a game of possession for possession’s sake like we did today and expect a different result. We’ve tried that 3 times against this lot and 3 times failed. It is not a time to repeat the same mistakes.

This post has been edited by dtp: 11 May 2025 - 07:59 PM

[Mr_Pleasant]

 dim view, on 11 May 2025 - 07:35 PM, said:

well here's my take.

I thought Michael's early booking completely unsettled him and we were effectively playing with 10 men. He went to pieces both in attack and defence. This knocked on to Grigg, who never got a sniff of any service.

I would have liked to see Cook swap Michael and Colclough over for a bit, just to try summat different. It's funny. He does it sometimes but it's difficult to work out the circumstances when he tries it, and when he doesn't.

Just to be controversial, my MOM was Gordon who defended well against his man, and never gave the ball away.

But my main gripe is that the the defensive square passing takes place far too deep. It's too easy to defend against. What we need is defenders who can play 10 yards higher up the pitch AND still effectively mark quick forrads if a turnover happens.

I'm with you. I thought Gordon was probably MoM. And for the comments about him not having any attacking presence, it was his lovely ball to Colclough that gave us our best chance in the first half, and he was taking up some good infield positions second half that were ignored.