My views are I thought Roos played ok, he stopped the shots on target, kept a clean shhet, only mistakes was the one where he was beaten in the air, can happen to any goalie and when maddock decided to walk to a ball he had asked for and the keeper rolled it to him, which by the way the crowd shouted for all game. the preston player ran 20 yds to maddocks 5. The big problem is Evans tactics he doesnt have any it is a joke. He says bowery can't head a ball and we all know that so what does he do tell the team to play the long ball to Bowery, he even shouted at newell on exactly 26 mins when he made a pass on the floor pointing and telling him to boot it long. This league 2 tactic is patheticfor a man that says he has more quality than last season, we bring in a new coach and play the same crap tactics, hasn't got a clue tactically it is embaressing. Positives were the point, clean sheet, jch getting a chance and the defence that looks solid, everything else is awful. Frecks and Green have the brains but the legs have gone, look at Frecks with the 3 half chances late in the game he could hardly stand up, sorry TS you need to spend some money to get another goalscorer and box to box midfielder, kids from other teams reserves won't do. Even if you have to let 3 or 4 of the others go we have to have those two players or we will be in bottom 6 all season and won't get more points than last season.
Frecks: played himself out of the team tonight. Slow, poor movement, bad control and knackerd on 60 minutes.
Bowery: not helped by where he was asked to play meaning he was made a laughing stock due to his heading (lack of) ability and given no space to run into. What he did do was poor.
Mattock: MOM.
Derbyshire: poor by recent standards but again not supported.
Roos: utter garbage. Was at fault for the roll out as he waited way too long and caused hesitancy all night in the back 4. Rolled the ball in front of Mattock and from a standing start he had no chance. He was poor at the one shot he had to save and nearly flapped at it. I am very close to that end and his hands were very weak in dead. The main issue is the defence just don't trust him.
Halford: liability. Distribution poor. Totally unreactive at the back post and let his player simply walk in front of him and they nearly scored.
Smallwood: he needs a tighter midfield and was poor again.
Newall : Excellent again.
Maguire : ran his socks off. Always trying to put the opposition under pressure but clearly not fit yet.
White: looked very good when he came on. Quick, penetrating and good control.
JCH: looked really up for it. First time I've believed in him. Surely close to a start.
Green: closed the gaps and was positive going forward. Made a difference.
Buxton: ok. A little quiet and cautious. Made some good runs and link up. Is he any better than Richardson though?
Team: lacked confidence first half. Believed second and for 20 minutes a goal seemed highly likely.
Overall: PNE had the best chances. They bossed much of the game. Got a couple exceptional players. Very cynical and constantly moaning to ref was irritating.
We are improvitng there is no doubt about it. Still need another striker and halford and roos have got to go.
Ref was garbage.
-- Edited by ian on Wednesday 19th of August 2015 12:28:15 AM
I think he must have thought that 3 defeats on the spin would be catastrophic for confidence, so he set us up and drilled us to above all not lose. Which suited Preston fine, as they were happy not to lose, too.
That's ok, and pragmatism has a place, but it took 10 players behind the ball at all times to keep a fairly toothless Preston at bay. When we did press men forward they got shooting chances with alarming ease. At the same time, there was no pace or guile or snappy passing to suggest we could create much.
Maybe Preston will turn out to be a decent Championship side, but my suspicion is they're bottom 6 material. Against teams who can stretch the play across the pitch with effective wide men and/or with real speed up front (ie pretty much the rest of the league), I don't see that team blocking out too regularly, even with the complete focus on defence we saw last night. And I don't see how we create anything or who converts, reliably at least, what we do create.
We looked like a team that was, as we said we'd never be, just there to make up the numbers in the division. Playing like that, I don't see how we'd be making the numbers up in this league next season, I'm afraid.
Roos, Sorry Derbymiller but here we disagree, he was awful, can't kick, is indecisive in the air is unable to read the game, hesitant in his distribution and positionally inept! He's quite a decent shot stopper but overall such a liability he simply cannot continue. Okay he kept a clean sheet, but the opposition attack was almost as bad as ours and our back four protected him for the most part.
Agree with much of what you do say though. Evans is struggling tactically. Constant hoof ball in the hope that Bowery, virtually nailed to the pitch out on the wing, would somehow guide the header towards goal just didn't work. Did he actually head the ball at all? If he did perhaps I missed it.
Frecklington was brilliant last two or three seasons but he's missing Pringle alongside him and looks a shadow of the player he was even just a few months back.
Smallwood, so often our top performer last season is suffering a mini loss of form, at least that's what I hope it is. He's slow at the moment, very slow and doesn't read the game as he once did. His positional sense is also lacking and he just looks way off the pace!
Green is way past his sell by date, slow, ***bersome and offers very little.
Positives tonight though were that our back four actually looked quite good. Indeed, the two full backs looked just that full backs! Mattock was great until running out of steam in the second half.
Halford had his best ninety minutes for me although he's still apt to lose concentration at times and switch off.
Collins did better than he did in previous home games but he's slow and will certainly struggle against faster better strikers. Fortunately, Preston didn't possess anyone to seriously trouble him.
Maguire started well but faded badly and I suspect doesn't like playing on the wing.
Newell had a good game and could prove to be our best signing of this season. We looked b at our best when he had the ball.
Derbyshire worked his socks off, but isn't good enough to operate as a lone striker. Last night without any real service from midfield he did well. He won't score more than ten goals a season though in my opinion.
JCH, started like a man possessed when coming on, his pace and presence initially troubled their defence but a lack of service meant his opportunities on goal were limited.
Whyte, ditto JCH really, livened up a drab home performance with some mazy runs but after a good first few minutes faded out of the game.
In conclusion, a better performance overall but we are way short of that significant improvement needed from last season to survive this time. Preston were average at best and lacked ambition to try and win the game, similar to ourselves really.
I suspect we've already played at home two of the teams likely to be around that bottom three. Worryingly we've managed just a single point.
We lack any cutting edge and desperately need that seasoned striker capable of scoring goals. How many times have we said that?
Before anyone starts shouting about the cost, yes I realise we can't shell out millions, but there must be players out there just waiting to play in this league that don't cost that much?
What we don't need is anymore raw youngsters from that fat cat Premiership. We've been there and tried that and generally it doesn't work.
