Player ratings/match thoughts

Actually thought Barnet were better than us all over the pitch, they forced some good chances, we only had 2 proper chances in the match. Macdonald missed a sitter in the first, then had one cleared of the line in the second.

I can't exactly say anybody was bad today, apart from Baz, his distribution is shocking and lumped it out of play for 90 minutes, though hemmings could have done better to find some space. Their defence gave our forwards little, we couldn't create anything in the game. It was not a flowing match, each team taking in turns to pile pressure on eachother and Barnet were better at that, Cole looked dodgy when he didn't have to be far to many times in the game.

Wotton's free kicks have looked very off since he came back, I think we need to put them in the box instead now. I think we looked better when we were playing Tsoumou and Chadwick upfront together, should have done that MUCH earlier in the game, maybe at half time. I think we had a little more strength in the box today, Purse looked strong, but I have to say their two centre backs were just huge and gave our attackers very little, good solid defending from Barnet.

Thought Macdonald's movement off and on the ball was superb, sometimes nudged off a bit to easily however. Chadwick won plenty in the air, however he seemed to go the ground way to much in the second half and dived in the dying seconds looking for a penalty. Tsoumou gave the ball away cheaply a couple times but I thought he looked confident and was happy to take on defenders.

I think it's improving, but we need to start creating and converting, we always have our backs to goal.



Barnet hit the woodwork two or three times, lucky to get a draw, not really good enough, today was a must win.


Player ratings

Cole: 4 - Not one of his best games, flapped at plenty, nearly turned the ball in twice, couldn't really catch but made 1 good save

Bignot: 6 - Always looked solid and supported Young when we were going forward, lost possesion a couple times.

Purse: 7 - Average first half but good in the second, very solid and reliable in defence, pushed forward plenty also,

Blanchard: 7 - Really like this lad, does the simple things, sometimes a little scared to go into a challenge but generally good.

Bhasera: 5 - not good enough for me today, didn't do much but lump the ball forward and often our of play, some clever tackles but thats about it.

Young: 6 - Thought he was ok today, gave the ball away cheaply a few times but a good work rate and a couple good crosses.

Wotton: 9 - my MOTM today, solid, lead the team very well indeed. Thought he defended and attacked today.

Hourihane: 6 - a little to defensive today, preffered to look to the wings instead of pressing forward, but a few nice balls in.

Hemmings: 7 - Decent today, not amazing in the first half but much better in the second, I would say he took his man on and beat him 70 percent of the time.

Macdonald: 7 - Yeah good, movement off the ball was good, never seems to give up which is good.

Chadwick: 6 - Went to ground to often, was better in the first half.

MOTM - PAUL WOTTON


If we had used subs earlier...
If the ref had played advantage...
If Macdonald put away his golden chance...
If Chadwick was given a VERY soft penalty late on...
If Macdonalds effort was not cleared off the line...
If Wotton's free kick was just a few inches lower...

On another day we would have got at least one of these 'ifs' in our favour.

You really dont have a clue about football do you!

Wotton - 9! hahahaha

Also stop posting different opinions on here and pasoti, cant keep up with what you really think.

We were shit, luckily they were also shit... But we need to win those games.

Dont think we'll go down, but it will go to the last couple of games

I don't post different opinions, all that has been posted on pasoti aswel, nothing else.

Wotton had a solid game and lead the lads very well, a lot of heart and determination shown

You post so much, theres so much evidence... just cant be bothered to go fishing for it right now. (Bed's calling)

And i dont care about heart, i wanted 3 vital points. Which if Fletch had set us up properly then we could have got... quite easily cos they were nothing special

I've seen some pish at Home Park over the last 50 years but this season tops the lot. Either the players just aren't good enough, possible for sure or more probably Fletcher hasn't a clue how to set teams up and dictate any pattern of play. I vainly search for any kind of tactics or change of tactics and can't discern anything. If we stay up this season then luck will play a huge part in it. The truly depressing thing is that the atandard of this league is absolutely crap, we just seem to be more crap than the rest of them. Thank good I'm off out of the country until the end of March. Mind the ref didn't help with the two advantages he didn't play, one is excusable, two is poor refereeing.

Charlie Wood wrote:

I've seen some pish at Home Park over the last 50 years but this season tops the lot. Either the players just aren't good enough, possible for sure or more probably Fletcher hasn't a clue how to set teams up and dictate any pattern of play. I vainly search for any kind of tactics or change of tactics and can't discern anything. If we stay up this season then luck will play a huge part in it. The truly depressing thing is that the atandard of this league is absolutely crap, we just seem to be more crap than the rest of them. Thank good I'm off out of the country until the end of March. Mind the ref didn't help with the two advantages he didn't play, one is excusable, two is poor refereeing.

This.

Cobi you post utter tosh.

Baz was awful. McStriker is too short and slow. Chadders looked tired. Purse had the best game and Wotton is past it. We were utterly dire. Luckily for us a cold night midweek in the South West suited Barnet even less.

Young and Hemmings were the only players that looked any good tonight , all the rest were dire.Wotton and Purse look over the hill and unable to keep up and the rest just havent got a clue and dont seem that bothered anyway.To make a rubbish performance even worse the great football brain that ia Carl Fletcher took off one of our best players when he could have taken off Chadwick or Hourihane who were both appalling throughout the game Fletcher does not have a clue , he should never have been given the job and should be sacked today.

He won't be. The severence pay is too great.

Sat there last night, I thought that one of the really worrying things is that we've gone through Fletch's honeymoon period where we undoubtedly picked up, but still find ourselves effectively joint bottom having played the most games.

For the first time last night, deep inside I felt that on the continuum of survival, we're less than likely to stay up.

During Reid's catastrophic reign, I was often unable to detect the tactics of the gameplan (let alone a strategy!) & last night I was sat there again thinking the same. In times of pressure, we still end up hoofing the ball towards our forward line who will always struggle against 4th division centre backs lumber jacks.

Surely width & speed is the key to lower division success??

Jon

Hard to know where to start.

Macdonald seemed to spend most of the match being caught offside. How difficult was it to look along the line and stay level with the Barnet defence? Chadwick did break the offside trap in the first half, then made the schoolby error of not playing to the whistle; he hesitated, and the chance was lost.

The midfield missed Walton. Hourihane is too lightweight, and seems to want to play as if he's Glen Hoddle. He isn't. Wotton did his best to impose himself, but he's not the player he once was.

Fletchers tactics were too inflexible. Young and Hemmings should have swapped wings from time to time, just to shake things up a bit and give the Barnet full-backs something to think about. Fletch seems to be far too predictable in his tactical approach. With the situation we're in he shouldn't be afraid to try something a bit left-field, and he leaves his substitutions far too late.

Chadwick and Macdonald didn't gel. I lost count of the number of aerial balls that Chadders missed completely. Mickey Evans he ain't. The forward line looked much better when we went to a three, with Macdonald wide right. That's how we should start at home from now on. We should attack from the off - draws at home will see us relegated.

All-in-all a fairly depressing, if somewhat predictable night. We lack guile, organisation and shape. Barnet may well have been on a decent run prior to playing us, but they're no great shakes, and it was the sort of game we needed to win if we were to have any belief in our ability to beat the drop. Fletcher is a novice and it shows - his tactics are easily read, and he seems to do everything as if he's reading from the coaching manuals. A bit of time observing the way Ian Holloway does things would be a benefit.

I'm bracing myself for the arrival of non-league football. I suggest everyone else does the same.

Completely agree with that Andy.

McNugget is too small. He's always going to be second in the air to anything, especially as you say when he's up against hulking great defenders.

We did look much better with three up front, but by then it was too little too late, and how did McNugget miss that sitter??? If we have any chance at all this season we must be converting those sort of chances.

I also thought Chadders wanted too much of the ball, chest it down, set his feet, shoo........oh, where's the ball gone? Can't have the luxury of that long on the ball.

I agree with the points about MacDonald. That's why I said elsewhere I would use him as an impact sub. His bustling, upsetting style of play is well suited to that. He would be good to bring on against tiring legs. I also thought that there were too many occasions when he and Chadwick didn't gel - but they have previously not played together.

I agree with Hourihane trying to do the special thing too often - one particular shot at goal from about 40 yards springs to mind.

I also agree we lacked guile. People like Hemmings and Young were good on the ball last night - I was pleased with them (and after Young's display against Southend when he was awful it was good to see what he can do and, in my opinion, the potential is clear). But there wasn't enough runs off the ball to stretch Barnet.

And we stopped the divisions leading goal scorer - 20 goals so far this season. We must have been doing something right. Oh, he had an off game? OK

But we are a basement team. It's unfair to judge them by the standards we should expect of a team pressing for promotion. We offered lots of what was needed in our position - fight and endeavour. I was less depressed with our performance than others (this is getting to be pathological on my part).

(And, Andy, did you run one of the booths last night?)

After a night of comtemplative reflection, nope, still rubbish. I took two Swedish friends last night who hadn't been since the early Championship days. They tried to be polite but on pressing they were just amazed at the whole feeling of decline around the place, and the standard of football well suffice to say I don't thinking they'll be forking out another £20 any time soon.

As a footnote, I've just booked some tickets for the Stormers v Sharks Super 15 rugby at Newlands, Cape Town on March 3rd. £8 a seat, all the most expensive £9 seats had gone.

Knecht - Yep, I was on booth duty in the Lyndhurst, down by blocks 14/15

Andy_Symons wrote:

Knecht - Yep, I was on booth duty in the Lyndhurst, down by blocks 14/15

Big, tall bloke?

I was the old, dishevelled, hearing aided, grey-bearded wreck of a man.

I'll know next time.

knecht wrote:

Andy_Symons wrote:

Knecht - Yep, I was on booth duty in the Lyndhurst, down by blocks 14/15

Big, tall bloke?

I was the old, dishevelled, hearing aided, grey-bearded wreck of a man.

I'll know next time.

Er, yep. Although I always say that I'm at my ideal weight - if I were 7'9" tall

Likewise, I'll make sure and introduce myself properly next time we're both on duty.

*edited to add* - ATD posters meeting in 'real life'? One of the signs of the upcoming Apocalypse, innit?

The annoying thing is, if we do stay up... Fletcher will be labelled a hero and will be our manager next season

Fletcher is no hero , in fact he has been an absolute disaster for Argyle and i for one cannot wait to see the back of this useless and very lazy man.