Northampton Thread

[ARNU]

Scapegoating Gayle in this instance is a bit unfair.If anything he genuinely has the excuse of lack of experience,being young and all the other cliché's.This problem has prevailed through out Burnetts watch hasn't it ?? Yeah Gayle might have been at fault.Who picked him? Who thought he was ready and what about all the other defensive ****** ups we've had where Gayle didn't play ? That'll be nearly all the others then wont it ?

So Gayle gets dropped right away,what do we do ? Bring back Connors then we can blame him again.

Our defense is shit.Its gone on long enough for perhaps asking the question are the coaching staff upto it ?

Putting this all on Gayle is unfair.Sort your coaching staff out Wayne !! (That includes yourself )Get in a few loans or summink,the entire back 4 if you have to.

[bearaab]

Sounds very reasonable. I think we should get a whole new defense and coaching staff. We should move to Upton Park when West Ham leave as well. Maybe get a billionaire owner while we're at it and drop the ticket prices to £3.50.

[Dagdale]

Three key factors that are destroying are morals, the awful way we perform on the pitch at home, our terrible defending and giving the bloody ball away far too much! Sad insight to say but even if we had Scott Doe on the field Saturday we'd have still got beat, and that's talking about what he's become over the last few years our Main man. The days of the post mortem should have been long gone.

[ARNU]

Sounds very reasonable. I think we should get a whole new defense and coaching staff. We should move to Upton Park when West Ham leave as well. Maybe get a billionaire owner while we're at it and drop the ticket prices to £3.50.

I know you don't bother watching the Daggers so from your armchair the glaring defensive errors are of course more tolerable.If you went to a game (do you know where the ground is ?)you could see for yourself that the mistakes are now habits and that whilst attacking we seem to have greatly improved our defense is woefull. And your real solution is what exactly ??

[Mark]

Having a pop at Gayle is pretty pathetic. He's barely played a game at this level. Gayle was actually trying to convince the keeper and Saah to keep the ball more rather than hoof it. He had a poor game and got lost for the goal but several other more experienced players had shockers.

[Lcbdagger]

I can understand the passing around the defence tactic if it A) brings the opposition out to close us down and creates space or B) starts off an attacking move... what I don't understand is why we chose to play the ball around even when Northampton realised the tactic and stopped closing us down so they could get another two players back on the half way line, why we passed the ball for 30 seconds then gave it back to O'Brien to clera towards Cureton (and left yet another free Cresswell header) or why the end product of the dfeensive passing was to play a wide ball, usually out to Hemmings that went nowhere.

Northampton seemed to struggle in the second half when we actually tried to move the ball around in midfield and play them our of their usual shape...

Sadly for us we started poorly, were too slow when they counter attacked (Partridge in particular despite having a few excellent games for us when the season started) and still can't defend a sodding corner!!!

As mentioned already Gayle is a poor scapegoat for this game as the midfield three played as if they weren't there (defeating the purpose of having three of them there at all!) Porter hasn't convinced me he is a starting option and Partridge was so woefully short of pace he wasn't in the first half at all.

In terms of the corner routine... I can fully understand us keeping players up as eleven men back has done nothing for us in the past and we were still giving away free headers... the confusing thing is why we kept players up even when Northampton (and Mansfield towards the end of the game) weren't dropping defensive players back to compensate. The idea of having someone by the post for the second goal detracts from what was a woeful defensive display on that front yet again... the corner came over in slow motion, it wasn't exactly fired across the box

[dagger4eva]

The game reminded me so much of Morecambe - lots of huff and puff, created a few half chances but ultimately got a professional job done on us. Happen to think Northampton looked a much better side than Morecambe though and will imo finish right up there come the end of the season. Whilst a big old side they seemed to move the ball incredibly well.

Agree with some of the comments about Partridge (defensively) but going forward was one of our biggest threats of the game.

Was harsh to single out Gayle. Other than losing his man he has certainly done no worse than the now, slightly more experienced Connors has done in recent weeks.

My biggest moan was how the team tried getting the ball up to Cureton. The constant balls either humped up or chipped in to him, giving him diddly squat chance against their defenders who were all over him like a rash.

Abu tried hard as always but was fighting a lost cause. Howells had a stinker. Chambers, as un-exicting as he is was missed MASSIVELY!

Anyway, I believe we have played one of the top teams in the league on Saturday so to lose probably wont turn out to be any sort of disgrace.

Onwards and upwards for Saturday where we will back to the usual 1200 die hard home fans and can hopefully turn in an improved performance!

[len]

I agree with previous posts that Northampton were a very good side and looked so comfortable on the ball. I thought they broke so fast out of defense into attack and their player up front Toney held the ball up really well and some of his touches were exceptional and he was a constant thorn in our side. What I find interesting is that he is only 18 years old which makes it all the more amazing.

[Diggerthedog]

I agree with previous posts that Northampton were a very good side and looked so comfortable on the ball. I thought they broke so fast out of defense into attack and their player up front Toney held the ball up really well and some of his touches were exceptional and he was a constant thorn in our side. What I find interesting is that he is only 18 years old which makes it all the more amazing.

Shame about his diving though, should have been booked by the ref earlier for the dive in the box.

[Lcbdagger]

I agree with previous posts that Northampton were a very good side and looked so comfortable on the ball. I thought they broke so fast out of defense into attack and their player up front Toney held the ball up really well and some of his touches were exceptional and he was a constant thorn in our side. What I find interesting is that he is only 18 years old which makes it all the more amazing.

Shame about his diving though, should have been booked by the ref earlier for the dive in the box.

Agreed... although the dive outside the box on the half hour mark did him a massive disservice as he had turned Batt and could have probably got a shot away... shame that this has crept in to the game of young players... hate seeing people go past the keeper and go down to win a penalty and a red card rather than staying on their feet and scoring a goal.

[leewilson]

Had a look back at the first goal on the full game highlights as I pretty much missed it at the time so had no real idea where the vast amount of space came from.

Partridge lost his runner (Mohammed) off the flick on which meant Howell had to come across to cover. Although Howell isn't the quickest, Brian Saah made a big error in coming across for me. Howell was closing the angle as he was central and Mohammed wouldn't have had a clear run at goal. However, Saah came across to the ball and subsequently left Richards completely unmarked. He needed to position himself far better centrally.

I quite like the full game highlights. It's nice to be able to scroll through and watch certain little moments that don't appear on the highlights. There's always 1-2 things I want to have a look back on each week and this allows that.

[SUSSEX DAGGER]

I quite like the full game highlights. It's nice to be able to scroll through and watch certain little moments that don't appear on the highlights. There's always 1-2 things I want to have a look back on each week and this allows that.[/quote]

God job somebody is prepared to whinge then Lee .