MK Dons v Blackpool Official Matchnight Thread 09.03.21

ThorntonPool said:
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
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Sorry, I'm not totally convinced, even though I'll overlook the language.
We were hounding them on the goal line, to the right of the penalty area. Their man passed it across to their keeper, who cleared. Obvious question: why didn't we have a man on the keeper? Not great was it? Also, they marauded forwards into our final third well. It's a good job their finishing was poor.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
i wont, its not often i say it but that was dire. playing a long ball game to a player isnt comfortable playing that. as bad as we were MK were utter shisser. I think they are about as bad a team as ive seen this year, players fall down at every opportunity so to some extent it may have been how we needed to play, but their defence was full of errors, their keeper was a nightmare waiting to happen. i have to say that if we had have gone at them they would have capitulated - - - - - badly.

i cannot believe the last kick of the game was a free kick to us 25 yards out and we didnt have a go at goal.

we looked unbalanced, we were very narrow in defence and too wide in attack and but for the cross bar it would have been another 1-1.

hopefully the team is going to be a bit more up for it on saturday.
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I think traditionally the tactic in the closing seconds of the game is to keep possession, not give it to their keeper.
MK Dons played more long balls (75) than Blackpool (69).
 
Fatboy said:
We’ve beaten most of the top sides !
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Yeah but in a playoff I wouldn't be confident given the way our passing breaks down so easily.

Defensively we have been very sound, just have to improve on using the ball and creating more chances. There's no reason we shouldn't be doing so. Then we can add more chances and goals to not conceeding many. 👍
 
ThorntonPool said:
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
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Exactly.
Keep a clean sheet, score a goal is a good tactic even with a "homer" ref.
 
I think we need to acknowledge and anyone who has played at any level at all will know this. Sometimes playing poorer teams is harder and you can find yourself going down to their level. What's important is getting out of there with the points on those occasions. I think it happened today and and we got the 3 points and against Wimbledon where we didn't. Crewe not so much.... We got battered and lucked out 😂😂
 
ThorntonPool said:
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
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You are totally right about 4 4 2 being wrong tonight, and most of the time without the ball we defended well but they could and should have scored on a number of occasions.
Our use of the ball and our attacking play was poor. The short passing in midfield was bad, constantly giving the ball away, it needs to improve.
 
BFC_53 said:
That was a big big win for us to keep the season alive. I thought we worked extremely hard especially in the second half, but we had almost zero quality on the ball. The pace of Hamilton and Mitchell is criminally wasted in this team i'm afraid because we have no-one in the entire squad who can play that pass that can set them off. It's a real shame, because we'd rip teams apart if only we could find them once or twice.
A word on MK Dons, a lot will be made of the possession stats but they over play it, take massive unnecessary risks, and much of their possession is in their own half. It was very similar to the home game against them, and exactly the same outcome.
We rode our luck a couple of times, but when you have a defence that's generally as solid as ours, and a forward who has that extra bit of quality to take his chance, then you're going to pick up points. Yes the goal came from a mistake by their defender, but that came about because of our pressing, and Yates had a fair bit to do but remained calm. 20 goals striker? Looks probable to me and they're not that easy to find.
Not pretty, certainly loads of room for improvement, but we did the job.
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A decent post. I thought Mitchell and Dougall helped when they came on. It's true though, we didn't have any slick passing all night. And, before anyone blames the pitch, Dons passed it well at times.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
i wont, its not often i say it but that was dire. playing a long ball game to a player isnt comfortable playing that. as bad as we were MK were utter shisser. I think they are about as bad a team as ive seen this year, players fall down at every opportunity so to some extent it may have been how we needed to play, but their defence was full of errors, their keeper was a nightmare waiting to happen. i have to say that if we had have gone at them they would have capitulated - - - - - badly.

i cannot believe the last kick of the game was a free kick to us 25 yards out and we didnt have a go at goal.

we looked unbalanced, we were very narrow in defence and too wide in attack and but for the cross bar it would have been another 1-1.

hopefully the team is going to be a bit more up for it on saturday.
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Yeah I couldn't believe that.

Last second free kick, heres a chance to score, improve goal difference, let's see if we can, only a slim chance but its a complete free hit.

Passes the ball out to corner flag and its over. Doh.
 
Larryknows said:
I think we need to acknowledge and anyone who has played at any level at all will know this. Sometimes playing poorer teams is harder and you can find yourself going down to their level. What's important is getting out of there with the points on those occasions. I think it happened today and and we got the 3 points and against Wimbledon where we didn't. Crewe not so much.... We got battered and lucked out 😂😂
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Let's face it. We weren't down at their level. Technically we were outplayed for large parts of the three games against sides that will never be chasing promotion. We couldn't have complained if it was 1-1 tonight.
 
ThorntonPool said:
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
Click to expand...

People are perfectly entitled to have an opinion on the game without someone like you saying they know nothing about football and talk shite!

If people aren't happy with the team that they pay £10 every week to watch hoofing the ball anywhere and stringing next to no passes together then they are fully entitled to say so.
 
20togo said:
look, i'll say it straight, I'd take a shit performance and a win but a shit performance which only result in draw or defeat and then criticism is justified. At the moment we are ok but we do give away chances thru poor marking.
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I thought we defended ok. They created a chance through a decent pass to Jerome who couldn't finish plus a great block early on denied them. We created two gilt edged chances and put one away. Game over.
 
tommytwojags said:
Let's face it. Technically we were outplayed for large parts of the three games against sides that will never be chasing promotion
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Oh I agree with that and we are another couple of players away from me thinking we have a good shot at the play offs namely a creative central midfielder but I do think we struggle against poorer teams for whatever reason
 
Larryknows said:
I think we need to acknowledge and anyone who has played at any level at all will know this. Sometimes playing poorer teams is harder and you can find yourself going down to their level. What's important is getting out of there with the points on those occasions. I think it happened today and and we got the 3 points and against Wimbledon where we didn't. Crewe not so much.... We got battered and lucked out 😂😂
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I've thought often before the same thing as you. Yes, it is possible to be drawn down to the level of a poor team, even when you're playing well. My concern is, it's happening a lot lately.
 
ThorntonPool said:
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
Click to expand...
but this board wouldnt be any good without the utter shit.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
A decent post. I thought Mitchell and Dougall helped when they came on. It's true though, we didn't have any slick passing all night. And, before anyone blames the pitch, Dons passed it well at times.
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Yes I thought they helped, we just need that composure in the middle and we don't really have it which is really frustrating when you know that one good ball to Hamilton and the game could be put to bed. That said, he did get through once and missed so what do I know!
 
1966_and_all_that said:
Sorry, I'm not totally convinced, even though I'll overlook the language.
We were hounding them on the goal line, to the right of the penalty area. Their man passed it across to their keeper, who cleared. Obvious question: why didn't we have a man on the keeper? Not great was it? Also, they marauded forwards into our final third well. It's a good job their finishing was poor.
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So one press didn’t quite go to plan. So what? Hardly warrants a slating of the performance does it.

We must have just been watching different games then, because I didn’t see them marauding into a final third really at all. I can think of a couple of occasions when they did, but apart from that it was just meaningless possession around the half way line.

We needed to play a certain way tonight to beat them, and we did. We were never going to outplay them in a tippy tappy football match. Good win.
 
ThorntonPool said:
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
Click to expand...
This is true but this doesn't mean when we got the ball we just hoof it up and lose it and let them come again, no matter how poor they are with it.

Surely its better when we did win it with that pressing you mentioned, to actually do something with it that might result in getting us up the pitch and getting us another goal. 1-0 as we have seen in the previous games is too tight and a deflection and its a draw. So when we did get the ball we should have been capable of doing better with it.

Its not about having just more possession with no purpose, its about using it wisely. We didn't tonight but the goal we got was enough luckily and the pressing second half was much better.
 
I am sure the majority of the possesion mkd had was playing around between their full backs,centre halfs and keeper,take all that out and not a lot in our half
 
mull said:
Hamilton bit of a passenger for me today. Still getting back to match fitness obviously but Gabriel might have been a bit of a better option both for winning the ball and retaining it
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We won and more minutes under his belt on his way to that match fitness
 
td53 said:
mclfoot.blogspot.com

A sniper only needs one glimpse: MK Dons vs the Mighty

Bang! It's been a funny week, but I'm not really arsed about Meghan or Kate or James Hewitt's lad and all that. I'm more concerned about Et...
mclfoot.blogspot.com mclfoot.blogspot.com

WHAT A GAME! THRILL A MINUTE! RELIVE EVERY BIT OF THAT CAVALCADE OF EXCITEMENT HERE!

lol.

Who cares, we won!
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Haterz indeed. A win at yet another ground I've never seen us win at. Think that's the fourth this season. I'm getting paranoid.
 
td53 said:
mclfoot.blogspot.com

A sniper only needs one glimpse: MK Dons vs the Mighty

Bang! It's been a funny week, but I'm not really arsed about Meghan or Kate or James Hewitt's lad and all that. I'm more concerned about Et...
mclfoot.blogspot.com mclfoot.blogspot.com

WHAT A GAME! THRILL A MINUTE! RELIVE EVERY BIT OF THAT CAVALCADE OF EXCITEMENT HERE!

lol.

Who cares, we won!
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td53,

There's quite a lot of "we won, who cares" going on here tonight. I'm not picking on you specifically but it does seem odd coming from a poster usually known for being somewhat garrulous.
For me it smacks of cod dismissiveness in circumstances that show we were actually quite poor. However, I'm sure that will come across more fully in your blog.
 
I know it wasn't pretty but as soome have said above the ptich looked very heavy ad it certainly didn't favour a passing game. Overall, I thought Critch got more things right tonight than wrong. The midfield overload and strong press basically nullified franchise FC, who are very predictable in their style of play. That's why they looked shi*te. We had a game plan, stuck to it and did a professional job on them. Onwards and upwards UTMP.
 
ThorntonPool said:
Some people on here really do know absolutely nothing about football!

MK have more possession than pretty much everybody they play. But they do nothing with it, that’s why they’re an unbelievably average lower/mid-table team.

People asking for 4-4-2 - playing 4-4-2 against a team who are good on the ball and overwhelm the centre of the pitch is basically suicide. If we did that, the usual suspects would accuse Critch of being naive.

Also, we might have won 1-0 but we didn’t drop off and invite them on to us. All game we pressed them very high up the pitch, we were doing so in the final minute. Completely nullified them and they were unable to put any real pressure on us.
Their big opportunity (Jerome hitting the bar) was a result of a poor defensive header. Nothing to do with shape/tactics.

Open your eyes and think about what you’re posting before writing utter shit please.
Click to expand...

That's a crowd pleasing post if ever I saw one.

I assume your credentials mean you are a professional football coach at the highest level? Or is it just your opinion.

BTW Wigan smashed them with a 4-4-2 last week.
 
JJpool said:
This is true but this doesn't mean when we got the ball we just hoof it up and lose it and let them come again, no matter how poor they are with it.

Surely its better when we did win it with that pressing you mentioned, to actually do something with it that might result in getting us up the pitch and getting us another goal. 1-0 as we have seen in the previous games is too tight and a deflection and its a draw. So when we did get the ball we should have been capable of doing better with it.

Its not about having just more possession with no purpose, its about using it wisely. We didn't tonight but the goal we got was enough luckily and the pressing second half was much better.
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I don’t think it was a case of hoofing it. The plan was to press them high and attack quickly when we did get the ball, before they had chance to organise.

I think building up slowly would have played into their hands, as they press quite well (whenever we actually managed to get the ball off them). We did try to on a few occasions and ended up having to clear it due to being pressed. So keeping hold of the ball wasn’t the right approach tonight.

I also think Critch has learned from the last couple of matches where Crewe/Wimbledon pressed us high and we struggled. So didn’t want to take any risks tonight and get the ball forward quickly.

We needed to play a certain way tonight to get the points and we did just that. Don’t get me wrong, it was very scruffy, but we did what we needed to.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
td53,

There's quite a lot of "we won, who cares" going on here tonight. I'm not picking on you specifically but it does seem odd coming from a poster usually known for being somewhat garrulous.
For me it smacks of cod dismissiveness in circumstances that show we were actually quite poor. However, I'm sure that will come across more fully in your blog.
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Oh give over. We won!!! It was an awful match, so was the last one against them. I don't care about owt else at full time. We won. Not going to start being some morbid ** moaning about 'not putting on a show' or asking for my money back cos 'I wasn't entertained' - football is shit sometimes. Always has been, always will be!

Cheers up luv!
 
Macseasider said:
That's a crowd pleasing post if ever I saw one.

I assume your credentials mean you are a professional football coach at the highest level? Or is it just your opinion.

BTW Wigan smashed them with a 4-4-2 last week.
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Nothing to do with crowd pleasing - I don’t post on here often but tonight I felt obliged to because a lot of what I was seeing was very inaccurate.

I also watch a lot of football, and have a basic knowledge of League One - something that a lot on here clearly lack. The fact some people are surprised MK had a lot of possession proves that 👍🏻
 
Atletico_Seasider said:
I know it wasn't pretty but as soome have said above the ptich looked very heavy ad it certainly didn't favour a passing game. Overall, I thought Critch got more things right tonight than wrong. The midfield overload and strong press basically nullified franchise FC, who are very predictable in their style of play. That's why they looked shi*te. We had a game plan, stuck to it and did a professional job on them. Onwards and upwards UTMP.
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The pitch was bad but they still managed to have nearly 75% of the ball and at times moved it round us very nicely.

No reason we shouldn't have been able to put some more moves together much better than we did, far too long aimlessly far too often.
 
Wizaard said:
I thought we defended ok. They created a chance through a decent pass to Jerome who couldn't finish plus a great block early on denied them. We created two gilt edged chances and put one away. Game over.
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ThorntonPool said:
I don’t think it was a case of hoofing it. The plan was to press them high and attack quickly when we did get the ball, before they had chance to organise.

I think building up slowly would have played into their hands, as they press quite well (whenever we actually managed to get the ball off them). We did try to on a few occasions and ended up having to clear it due to being pressed. So keeping hold of the ball wasn’t the right approach tonight.

I also think Critch has learned from the last couple of matches where Crewe/Wimbledon pressed us high and we struggled. So didn’t want to take any risks tonight and get the ball forward quickly.

We needed to play a certain way tonight to get the points and we did just that. Don’t get me wrong, it was very scruffy, but we did what we needed to.
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We defended very well. Husband [motm] and the whole back four were very solid. Yates worked hard but then that's about it. Nothing created, no concerted pressure, continually giving the ball away but as I said I'll take that every game if we win. But we can't keep playing poorly and hope to keep winning. The previous two games tell you that. So a poor performance and it's inevitable there will be some justified criticism.
 
For me the key point tonight was playing 3 in the middle, but having just 29% possession. I think we got lucky and happy we did.

Until the last 10 minutes we had absolutely no control on the ball. Once Dougall came on, we were able to press much higher, as Stewart was released a bit further forward. I‘m pretty certain that our possession and control would have been much better with Kenny, Stewart and Embleton. It took Matty a full 13 minutes to touch the ball, in the middle of the pitch. No lack of effort from the lad, and given time and space he can create and score, but often he’s chasing shadows and just finds it too quick for him, in and out of possession.
 
td53 said:
Oh give over. We won!!! It was an awful match, so was the last one against them. I don't care about owt else at full time. We won. Not going to start being some morbid ** moaning about 'not putting on a show' or asking for my money back cos 'I wasn't entertained' - football is shit sometimes. Always has been, always will be!

Cheers up luv!
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Sorry, I wasn't accusing you of cod dismissiveness - I really ought to check my words before posting. No, I meant that, in general the term "who cares" seems a bit defensive.
Cheer up? I'm enjoying a Munchner Gold!
 
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ThorntonPool said:
I don’t think it was a case of hoofing it. The plan was to press them high and attack quickly when we did get the ball, before they had chance to organise.

I think building up slowly would have played into their hands, as they press quite well (whenever we actually managed to get the ball off them). We did try to on a few occasions and ended up having to clear it due to being pressed. So keeping hold of the ball wasn’t the right approach tonight.

I also think Critch has learned from the last couple of matches where Crewe/Wimbledon pressed us high and we struggled. So didn’t want to take any risks tonight and get the ball forward quickly.

We needed to play a certain way tonight to get the points and we did just that. Don’t get me wrong, it was very scruffy, but we did what we needed to.
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Yeah but you dont plan not to keep the ball, if not for a mistake we then wouldn't have scored.

I guarantee the manager will say when we did get it, whether we planned to blitz them quickly or not we should and can pass it better and not give it away so much. I lost count of the amount of times we passes across the back and went long only to lose straight away and not just today but many matches now.

Let's face it a good side pressing them when they win it back will go on and get up the pitch and create a chance. There's no way Critch will be satisfied with the amounts of times we gave it away with unforced errors.
 
20togo said:
We defended very well. Husband [motm] and the whole back four were very solid. Yates worked hard but then that's about it. Nothing created, no concerted pressure, continually giving the ball away but as I said I'll take that every game if we win. But we can't keep playing poorly and hope to keep winning. The previous two games tell you that. So a poor performance and it's inevitable there will be some justified criticism.
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I think that's it - one area of the pitch we were excellent, the other we weren't. I'm happy with a win but to be fair to @1966_and_all_that in the cold light of day, it's difficult to see how we'll win enough if that's the sum total of our creativity.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
Sorry, I wasn't accusing you if cod dismissiveness - I really ought to check my words before posting. No, I meant that, in general the term "who cares" seems a bit defensive.
Cheer up? I'm enjoying a Munchner Gold!
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Good man. There is a bit of it I guess, but at the end of the day, it's a win and it's exhausting picking over everything.

Going to have a nightcap myself.

*cheers*
 
Not much different to the Crewe and Wimbledon displays but with one huge difference. We are a well organised and very hard working team. To get into the play offs we need all the wins we can get, they don't all have to be like Charlton away. Hopefully no injuries or knocks to worry about and another few days to get Gretarrson and Madine fitter.
 
clappers said:
That’s the most Critchley performance of the season really. Unconvincing starting 11, no control of the game, unconvincing performance, clean sheet and three points.

he’s taking us up!
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I can see it now, he's going to to get us to the play-offs and I'm going to be shitting it thinking we don't have enough goals in us - then we'll shithouse our way to the Championship scoring only 2 goals across the 3 play-off games:

1 - 0 at Bloomfield Road
0 - 0 in the away leg
1 - 0 at Wembley

Into the Championship next season with crowds back, bobs your bloody uncle!
 
JJpool said:
The pitch was bad but they still managed to have nearly 75% of the ball and at times moved it round us very nicely.

No reason we shouldn't have been able to put some more moves together much better than we did, far too long aimlessly far too often.
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The thing is JJ, I reckon a large chunk of that 75% possession was in their own half. And unless you have Prince Charlie Adam in the side you cannot score from there 😀. Even in the final stages of the game they were pi*ssing around with it in that area. If that was us doing it I would have going as crazy as a crazy gang. And with all of that possession they created only one clear goal scoring chance. Whereas we scored one, CJ should have scored another, Turotn close with a header from a corner and Yates perhaps should have had a penalty for what looked like a clear push on him. Anyway, when the dust setlles there is only one thing that matters and that is the three points coming back to Bloomfield Road 👍
 
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