Thoughts on today

JJpool

JJpool

Well-known member
So what do we all make of that?

Firstly it's good to be back, we got the win, never really looked in any real danger.

I thought the performance was alright, did the job.

Good to see Lavery continuing his pre season form.

It's still early days and we don't have as many attacking options as we'd probably all like yet.

We kept thr ball well at times and played some decent stuff, particularly 1st half.

2nd half I wasn't that impressed, we sort of went off the boil and turned to a lot of long balls, some silly play at the back too nearly putting us in trouble a few times. Need to cut that out.

We could have kept the ball better and shown a bit more in attack, but we still looked dangerous at times.

You can see the difference between leagues, Burton were OK on the ball at times but didn't really threaten and when we did step it up they were well on the back foot. In the championship almost every game is a real battle to get over the line.

So I really good to get the win, a few things to improve.

Nice to see Critchley at the end there, the north were calling for it and he obliged with the fist pumps. Could hear a few miserable bastards near me chunnering in the background that they hadn't forgotten what he did... what did he do? He went for way more money in the prem, get a grip lol.

Decent turnout as well considering it wasn't a glamour tie and the weather. Given the figure it looked a fair bit over 10k home fans.

A good start and hopefully just one of many wins.
 
Let’s not base the league on todays game is my main take away

Norburn and Morgan look quality, not sure on Pennington.

Need a couple of wingers if todays formation is anything to go by assuming he’s not going to play wingbacks. Beesley got himself about and did alright but need more. A few quality loans and we will do well this season.
 
I don’t understand why we had to shoehorn Connolly into the side…Lyon’s and Trybull should both be starting..still a question mark over Beesley and CJ … Norburn lavery and Marvin were the best players with honourable mention for Morgan…we are still short in some areas and need to get some more quality in
 
JJpool said:
So what do we all make of that?

Firstly it's good to be back, we got the win, never really looked in any real danger.

I thought the performance was alright, did the job.

Good to see Lavery continuing his pre season form.

It's still early days and we don't have as many attacking options as we'd probably all like yet.

We kept thr ball well at times and played some decent stuff, particularly 1st half.

2nd half I wasn't that impressed, we sort of went off the boil and turned to a lot of long balls, some silly play at the back too nearly putting us in trouble a few times. Need to cut that out.

We could have kept the ball better and shown a bit more in attack, but we still looked dangerous at times.

You can see the difference between leagues, Burton were OK on the ball at times but didn't really threaten and when we did step it up they were well on the back foot. In the championship almost every game is a real battle to get over the line.

So I really good to get the win, a few things to improve.

Nice to see Critchley at the end there, the north were calling for it and he obliged with the fist pumps. Could hear a few miserable bastards near me chunnering in the background that they hadn't forgotten what he did... what did he do? He went for way more money in the prem, get a grip lol.

Decent turnout as well considering it wasn't a glamour tie and the weather. Given the figure it looked a fair bit over 10k home fans.

A good start and hopefully just one of many wins.
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Fair assessment Imo
 
DJ Dudley said:
Let’s not base the league on todays game is my main take away

Norburn and Morgan look quality, not sure on Pennington.

Need a couple of wingers if todays formation is anything to go by assuming he’s not going to play wingbacks. Beesley got himself about and did alright but need more. A few quality loans and we will do well this season.
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No of course not, however Burton are maybe an average side in the division, there's quite a lot like that, with relatively small followings too.

The had brought some decent ish players in too apparently.

So it is what it is, but clearly less quality on show than the championship.

Forgot about Pennington, that was annoying him going off, I thought he did alright when on. Let's hope he isn't too bad and it was maybe more precautionary.

We do need a bit more up top and still we have Joseph to come.
 
JJpool said:
So what do we all make of that?

Firstly it's good to be back, we got the win, never really looked in any real danger.

I thought the performance was alright, did the job.

Good to see Lavery continuing his pre season form.

It's still early days and we don't have as many attacking options as we'd probably all like yet.

We kept thr ball well at times and played some decent stuff, particularly 1st half.

2nd half I wasn't that impressed, we sort of went off the boil and turned to a lot of long balls, some silly play at the back too nearly putting us in trouble a few times. Need to cut that out.

We could have kept the ball better and shown a bit more in attack, but we still looked dangerous at times.

You can see the difference between leagues, Burton were OK on the ball at times but didn't really threaten and when we did step it up they were well on the back foot. In the championship almost every game is a real battle to get over the line.

So I really good to get the win, a few things to improve.

Nice to see Critchley at the end there, the north were calling for it and he obliged with the fist pumps. Could hear a few miserable bastards near me chunnering in the background that they hadn't forgotten what he did... what did he do? He went for way more money in the prem, get a grip lol.

Decent turnout as well considering it wasn't a glamour tie and the weather. Given the figure it looked a fair bit over 10k home fans.

A good start and hopefully just one of many wins.
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Yes a very big gap between the Championship and League One. Every game in the Championship feels like a war.
I think we will see there is a big gulf between the top and the bottom of this league as well.
At least it feels like under Simon Sadler we are focusing on the top of this league. For way too many years even that seemed well beyond our reach.
 
TANGERINETOWERPOWER said:
I don’t understand why we had to shoehorn Connolly into the side…Lyon’s and Trybull should both be starting..still a question mark over Beesley and CJ … Norburn lavery and Marvin were the best players with honourable mention for Morgan…we are still short in some areas and need to get some more quality in
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Agree with nearly all that you're being a bit hard on CJ. I thought he was a real dangerman today.
 
DJ Dudley said:
Norburn and Morgan look quality, not sure on Pennington.
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They were the two massive positives for me (other than Shayne who must be thinking 'this is easy)
I quite liked Pennington - quite solid
Don't understand how Lyons doesn't get in ahead of Connolly or CJ
Beesley was the real surprise for me today - thought he did great
Eki needs to get those sloppy passes out of his game
Why was Grimmy not taking goal kicks
Our corners are still shit!
 
Steady at the back, barring the occasional bit where they pressed us well, still lacking that bit of ingenuity in the final third and around the box that sort of lingered in Critchley’s last spell. Hoping a couple of signings can help with that because our midfielders all seem the sort who like to play behind the ball. Wing backs system seems forced if you are relying on Connolly and CJ. No width on the left at all.

Solid start, plenty to work on but I have faith NC will figure it out.
 
crunchtime said:
Agree with nearly all that you're being a bit hard on CJ. I thought he was a real dangerman today.
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He did OK, put a few good balls in, a few times that you'd want more, but ultimately a dangerous player at the level, as many of us said.

I think he has improved during his time with us, more experienced, can add to a defensive role.

Although obviously he can still be frustrating.

Thoughts on Albie Morgan?

I thought he looked decent at times too.
 
It was relatively comfortable in fact it was us who were our own worst enemy, being over elaborate and nearly letting them in but despite Burton tightening things up second half they really had nothing much to offer. After the tense battles of the Championship I forgot how much more you can relax in league one!.
 
Good performance, done the job. 2nd half we would have lost in the championship. That’s the difference. We offered burton a couple of opportunities.

Overall. Happy. Norburn is defo a good signing, a proper leader, and clearly captain material. Morgan good, and Pennington not too bad. CJs pace will defo be very important. Marv looked OK but rusty.

Lavery definitely looking sharp and form. Very good 2nd goal.

Deserved 3 points completely. Nice to finish the starting day 4th and with positivity for the rest of the season.
 
It was all very flat as though we were expected to beat Burton. Job done and it was very easy at times. Shocking second half but even then you never thought we’d lose.
 
Norburn was ok he is what we had been missing all last season but was blowing out of his 'arris at 60 minutes and I really thought he would have been hooked off when we did the double substitution.

In my opinion today, the 2nd half was terrible as bad as I've seen in a long time 😔.

I don't wear Tangerine specs I say it as I see it, but if anyone was happy with that 2nd half they are very very easily pleased.

Today was the very first time I have ever left Bloomfield Rd before the final whistle, when we got the corner in the 92nd minute and 6 passes (passes with no Burton player anywhere near) later it was in Grimshaws hands was enough for me and I had to leave 😔 we've seen this all before with the Critchley way and it is more than boring a lot of the time.
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
It was all very flat as though we were expected to beat Burton. Job done and it was very easy at times. Shocking second half but even then you never thought we’d lose.
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Ahh that was another thing, the drummer can't have been Hoggy.

It must have been other guy, where just after we've scored he's already off on the celebration chant, he needs to learn to hold for 10 seconds and let people celebrate then go.

Also the atmosphere is way better when Hoggy is there.
 
Tango1953 said:
Steady at the back, barring the occasional bit where they pressed us well, still lacking that bit of ingenuity in the final third and around the box that sort of lingered in Critchley’s last spell. Hoping a couple of signings can help with that because our midfielders all seem the sort who like to play behind the ball. Wing backs system seems forced if you are relying on Connolly and CJ. No width on the left at all.

Solid start, plenty to work on but I have faith NC will figure it out.
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Beating Burton 2-0 doesn't justify commiting to a wing back system and not playing any wing backs IMO. Its a long hard season with better teams than Burton.
 
Plus points... Lavery looks like a 30 goal striker on today's performance, Norburn looks like the player we've been missing in the middle of the park for a decade, Pennington looks solid and comfotable on the ball. Ekpiteta looked better when Pennington was on the pitch than when he went off & CJ looks capable of strolling past L1 defenders with ease and caused them no end of trouble but unfortunately, because of our slow build up, they often had a packed box making it difficult to create chances and we mostly wasted the chances we had. Our movement and use of the ball in the first half was superb.

Minus points... Beesley is yet to impress me, he was winning headers when we lumped the ball up in the second half and he works hard but I'm just not seeing what Critchley is. The ponderous build up & Grimshaw's lack of urgency and poor distribution when players were making runs and screaming for him to play the ball quickly. Connolly being used as a LWB when we have CJ on the right and Lyons on the bench makes no sense to me!

Other than that, it was a tidy yet unimpressive performance. Morgan (?) disappointed by going for goal, early on, rather than laying off an easy pass for a tap in for Lavery but other than that he had a decent enough game.
 
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Bennys_was_a_mob said:
Norburn was ok he is what we had been missing all last season but was blowing out of his 'arris at 60 minutes and I really thought he would have been hooked off when we did the double substitution.

In my opinion today, the 2nd half was terrible as bad as I've seen in a long time 😔.

I don't wear Tangerine specs I say it as I see it, but if anyone was happy with that 2nd half they are very very easily pleased.

Today was the very first time I have ever left Bloomfield Rd before the final whistle, when we got the corner in the 92nd minute and 6 passes (passes with no Burton player anywhere near) later it was in Grimshaws hands was enough for me and I had to leave 😔 we've seen this all before with the Critchley way and it is more than boring a lot of the time.
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First game of the season and things aren’t going to go exactly to plan. We played some good stuff first half but there’s no way we’re going to keep up that pace for the full ninety minutes. Or even 104 mins as it was today!
 
First 25 was amazing then soon as we went 2-0 it went quite flat and we just played it round the back which nearly lead to them scoring once or twice.

Think we can play much better than that tbh and will have to. Squad looks a bit thin still but 3 points is all that matters.

Eki was a bit careless tbh, not recovered his best form yet. Thought Norburn looked class. CJ crap first half better in second, good job he’s fast as fuck cos his concentration is awful. Lavery looked on fire. Still think we need better than Beesley.

Was funny at the end with Critch laughing while pumping the badge. Good to be back and seeing mates again in the Armfield beforehand.
 
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That's another thing, NC mentions it too, we had almost forgotten how to win and also had to recover from last season.

OK we've had some meaningless friendlies and won some, but we probably do need to get something out of the system in a competitive game.

The 2nd half though, it wasn't the sign of a championship side in waiting, need to be far better on the ball and at controlling games.

But, early days and as said above, we had to get over last season in real games, we did that today. Confidence should build.
 
Good first half, not so good second half, but 3 points in the bag. Great to see Lavery on the score sheet, he was so hungry for that second goal which is good to see. Norburn is brilliant. Odd team selection but I expect nothing less of Critch. Liked the look of Morgan as well. Second half was disappointing and Ekpiteta needs to sharpen up quickly, but overall I'm happy with today. Things to work on and we need a few more bodies in, but I'll take 3 points however they come. Let's get that winning mentality back in the club. Also Joseph should be fit for next weekend so that will boost our attack.
 
Brett&Murphs. said:
First 25 was amazing then soon as we went 2-0 it went quilts calf and we just played it round the back which nearly lead to them scoring once or twice.

Think we can play much better than that tbh and will have to. Squad looks a bit thin still but 3 points is all that matters.

Eki was a bit careless tbh, not recovered his best form yet. Thought Norburn looked class. CJ crap first half better in second, good job he’s fast as fuck cos his concentration is awful. Lavery looked on fire. Still think we need better than Beesley.

Was funny at the end with Critch laughing while pumping the badge. Good to be back and seeing mates again in the Armfield beforehand.
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It was funny seeing Critchley come over at the end and the... 'will he won't he'... he sure did and a one or two weren't convinced, but most loved it.

Who cares, he's our manager getting us wins, just like a player going and coming back, some people need to understand football. People come and people go, enjoy it whilst it lasts. Just because he left it doesn't mean he didn't love it here, he's also learnt the value of relationships.

Well done Neil, a win and a positive start, imagine if we started like that last time under him.
 
Not enough goals in the side, which is made worse by leaving Andy Lyons out. We also lost momentum down the left as Callum Connolly does not have it in his DNA. As a defender he is prone to err on caution.
 
I thought we pushed up well and the first half we were so good (against a poor team) that it was hard to expect us to match that in the second and we were a little too comfortable with the 2 goals in the bag and perhaps we took our foot off the pedal a bit. Overall, with the fans in good voice, I'll give it an 8/10 and I went home very satisfied.... plus, the gate at the North-East corner was OPEN!!! Yipee! At last!

I agree with much of the posts above... however, as usual there has to be someone who gets unneccessary stick and that is CJ. I thought he had a decent game myself and his end product was mostly good, finding passes and beating his man etc. Yes, there were a couple of times he fluffed it, but overall IMO, he was decent. As soon as he fluffed a pass in the second half, in front of the North... the writing was on the wall and his 'haters' have a pop at him. Hey-ho, it's all about opinions.

The biggest miss today was Andy Lyons... one of our few Championship quality players.
 
TANGERINETOWERPOWER said:
I don’t understand why we had to shoehorn Connolly into the side…Lyon’s and Trybull should both be starting..still a question mark over Beesley and CJ … Norburn lavery and Marvin were the best players with honourable mention for Morgan…we are still short in some areas and need to get some more quality in
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Although Marv did cock up on more than one ocassion with his short, misplaced passes out of defence into midfield. Against a better side he would have cost us!
 
DJ Dudley said:
Let’s not base the league on todays game is my main take away

Norburn and Morgan look quality, not sure on Pennington.

Need a couple of wingers if todays formation is anything to go by assuming he’s not going to play wingbacks. Beesley got himself about and did alright but need more. A few quality loans and we will do well this season.
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Agree Pennington does not look an
improvement on Casey on that showing, but Marv seems to panic if he is our main defender, so maybe Pennington is more vocal
 
A wins a win but personally I thought we were dreadful in the second half. The negativity was shocking continually playing backwards we’re in the entertainment industry they were there for the taking second half, playing in front of our home fans, and if we’d played with passion and pace would have beaten them 5 6 nil. Second half was boring beyond belief and any fans who aren’t hardcore wouldn’t be rushing back to watch the back 3 just standing on the ball for 30 seconds at a time passing it back and forth with the keeper with no intention of trying to play it forward. Likewise Carey every time he gets the ball he just plays it back, ever thought of turning with the ball and running with it or threading a forward pass. I don’t know we won but only because the opposition were crap but who’d rush back to watch that. Didn’t even force their keeper into a save second half. I was bored!
 
Today highlighted the big difference between the championship and league one. The mistakes that we made at the back would have been
punished last season, especially when their player was through on goal. Also, pace is going to be important they couldn't live with
Lavery and CJ. What is apparent already is that we are lacking upfront, we had no options to change things. We need to get at least one forward in
hopefully two.
 
Apart from 20-25 mins of the first half that was a 6/10 game. Im happy to have Critch back but that games smacks of safety first and once 2-0 up sat back and defended the lead when it should have been 4 or 5-0 which come end of season helped our goal difference if we are to be promotion contenders. Lyons should have been a deffo start and please Critch drop the love in with CJ.
 
Comfortable win, good first 20-25 mins and then eased off, big difference this lg1 not championship football which meant Burton were only going to score from a mistake by us not from anything they created.
 
Danny Ocean said:
Today highlighted the big difference between the championship and league one. The mistakes that we made at the back would have been
punished last season, especially when their player was through on goal. Also, pace is going to be important they couldn't live with
Lavery and CJ. What is apparent already is that we are lacking upfront, we had no options to change things. We need to get at least one forward in
hopefully two.
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True, however with Joseph not far away and Holmes back from concussion protocol, it gives some options.

But could do with another.
 
TheTangerinewizard said:
Apart from 20-25 mins of the first half that was a 6/10 game. Im happy to have Critch back but that games smacks of safety first and once 2-0 up sat back and defended the lead when it should have been 4 or 5-0 which come end of season helped our goal difference if we are to be promotion contenders. Lyons should have been a deffo start and please Critch drop the love in with CJ.
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Although he wasn't at all happy with the 2nd half, so it wasn't what he wanted or intended.
 
The encouraging thing for me was that we won quite easily, and yet there were loads of things we need to work on/improve. We were nowhere near our best, and we have better players to come in - some of which we already have like Gabriel, Lyons, Joseph - and some we've yet to sign (probably).
 
JJpool said:
So what do we all make of that?

Firstly it's good to be back, we got the win, never really looked in any real danger.

I thought the performance was alright, did the job.

Good to see Lavery continuing his pre season form.

It's still early days and we don't have as many attacking options as we'd probably all like yet.

We kept thr ball well at times and played some decent stuff, particularly 1st half.

2nd half I wasn't that impressed, we sort of went off the boil and turned to a lot of long balls, some silly play at the back too nearly putting us in trouble a few times. Need to cut that out.

We could have kept the ball better and shown a bit more in attack, but we still looked dangerous at times.

You can see the difference between leagues, Burton were OK on the ball at times but didn't really threaten and when we did step it up they were well on the back foot. In the championship almost every game is a real battle to get over the line.

So I really good to get the win, a few things to improve.

Nice to see Critchley at the end there, the north were calling for it and he obliged with the fist pumps. Could hear a few miserable bastards near me chunnering in the background that they hadn't forgotten what he did... what did he do? He went for way more money in the prem, get a grip lol.

Decent turnout as well considering it wasn't a glamour tie and the weather. Given the figure it looked a fair bit over 10k home fans.

A good start and hopefully just one of many wins.
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To be fair, in the post match stuff both manager and players said we weren't at it at all, as the game was so comfortable.

We have plenty more gears to go and still won. Isn't that the sign of a good team to play averagely and still win easily?
 
Wizaard said:
To be fair, in the post match stuff both manager and players said we weren't at it at all, as the game was so comfortable.

We have plenty more gears to go and still won. Isn't that the sign of a good team to play averagely and still win easily?
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This.

It was an incredibly comfortable win against a team who will probably be around mid table this year, BUT not without plenty of things to work on which NC and the players all recognized, Lavery and Morgan both mentioned in the player interviews they were disappointed with the 2nd half.

That’s the mentality we need if we want to challenge for automatics, consistent improvement and an unwillingness to accept things for how they are.
 
How did we pick up 4 yellow cards to their one, while they committed 12 fouls to our 10?
 
Wizaard said:
To be fair, in the post match stuff both manager and players said we weren't at it at all, as the game was so comfortable.

We have plenty more gears to go and still won. Isn't that the sign of a good team to play averagely and still win easily?
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It is but first day results never tell us much I think. We got 3 points and we'll find out in the coming weeks how we compare in this division. A few sides had good results today. Maamria did say....

"We knew Blackpool would have a lot of experience, would start on the front foot and from seeing them today we know they will be up there come the end of the season."
 
voyeur said:
It is but first day results never tell us much I think. We got 3 points and we'll find out in the coming weeks how we compare in this division. A few sides had good results today. Maamria did say....

"We knew Blackpool would have a lot of experience, would start on the front foot and from seeing them today we know they will be up there come the end of the season."
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He would say that. Deflects from his own side's failings. The fact is, we had a few making their debut, a new coach, and a new structure. We were more than good enough to win comfortably.

Last time we got promoted from this Division, we lost the first game, so already 3 points up on that target 😉
 
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