What I don't understand about yesterday

Is that we were attempting to play out a 2-1 win against 10 relegated meb playing with no keeper. Fair enough, that was clearly our intention for the last 15 minutes. Let's accept that.

The bit I don't understand is why? Why would anybody be happy to settle for a situation that meant if we lose to the league champions next week which is and always was a very real possibility then a couple of goals for S****horpe against a poor Sheffield united with nothing to play for could quite easily see us miss out. Why would that be the situatuon that our players and manager were deliberately choosing to put us in when we were playing against a relegated side with no goalkeeper, 3 defenders and 10 men? Why the hell would that be the actual plan?

I honestly don't get it at all and that is what annoyed me so much. We weren't playing out a win that would see us in the play offs, we were attempting to see out a result that kept a lot of pressure on us when there would never be a better or easier opportunity to finish things off there and then.

 

Had we conceded an equalizer late on when trying to go for a third goal how many threads would there have been written about keeping possession?


Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

Double post.

 

Echo. Echo.

 

Tbh we didn't keep possession though ,we gave them the ball then ran back but didn't do owt when we got back.
That's only last fifteen minutes though rest of game we wrtr understandably nervous .

 

I can't prove it but I'm pretty sure that had we continued to play like we had been playing before their keeper went off we'd have scored again. The fact is that we've surrendered more points to a team with ten men on the pitch and this time it was because of our tactics. I'm still bitterly disappointed but I'm still hopeful that we can get over the line next week and see the hard work our players have put in rewarded with at least two extra games.

 

I don't think its hindsight though is it at the time (ie before we conceded) thousands of people were shouting out frustrations at the team passing around at the back. It can't be hindsight if it was pretty much everyones opinion at the time can it?

 

I agree it was not hindsight. It was foresight. We could all see it coming during that last 15 minutes. If it had not been failing to mark in the box, it would have been a misplaced short pass by a defender and a forward running through us unchallenged. I could see it. My mate could see it. Even a blind person in a coma could see it. Why wasn't our coach jumping up and down and throwing his arms about? It was that obvious.

 

We had possession, we were seeing the game/win out. One of our players then gave that possession up in favour of showboating, badly. I'm not going to hammer him for it, but it's a fact that it happened. And from that, the opposition went up the other end and equalized. So retaining possession was working. It's when someone tried being clever, tried for more that we came unstuck. Although to be fair to him, the ball travelled the length of the field with every man back and still ended up in our net. It was proper Barnsley of us.

 

Even with a win yesterday, a defeat at Wigan and a Scunny win would see us miss out.

Still in our hands...cheer the fook up.

 

I spent virtually all that last 12 or 13 minutes muttering "All it teks is one mistake..." I've been watching this club for over 50 years and of all the cockups I've seen in that time this one is right up there at the top - because it was TOTALLY self-inflicted and defies all logic.

From being angry yesterday I've now settled back into my usual mode of resigned acceptance. But to my dying day I will never, ever understand the thought process behind what they were doing.

 

That's you and others now who I've seen post something like that. As though you know everyone agreed with you. But as I've pointed out, and a few others on here, not all of us could see that. Not all of us were unhappy with the strategy of keeping possession and securing the three points.

That doesn't make us (or you with your opinion) right. Just opinions aren't they?

But I honestly feel that had one player kept that ball in the corner, we'd be talking about a victory.

 

But thats the thing Whitey - it DIDN'T work did it, because somebody made a mistake. They forgot to factor that possibility into their tactical planning and so chose the wrong option - in my opinion of course.

 

Neigh, had Mawson headed the ball properly instead of out of play and then marked his man we could just as easily have been celebrating the win

 

The mistake could have occurred no matter what. They are human beings. I'm not suggesting either tactic was correct. All I'm pointing out is that not all of us were against retaining possession, eating up the clock. As I say, I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, but it suited me at that point. Hammill had the ball near the corner, he merely had to stand with his arse out, run down the clock. What he decided to do instead was be clever. He was serenaded for it n all. "Adam Hammill is a red...". A minute later, Colchester score. Now I'm not blaming Hammill directly for that equalizer, what I'm saying is that had he not been clever, and instead retained possession, it's very unlikely that Colchester would have scored.

 

This is definitely hindsight. "I thought it would happen, and it did happen, therefore it was definitely always going to happen." I for one think it was the right decision to try and keep the ball against a crap team with 10 men. I think 99 times out of a 100 we would have seen that out, and we were far more likely to concede by attacking and being hit on the break than we were by knocking it about.

It's probably not a popular opinion but I didn't have a problem with it at the time.

 

So going gung ho for a third, killer goal would have rendered any mistakes irrelevant? Are we saying that had we not tried to keep the ball, and instead kept on pushing for a third, we'd have not seen any mistake that may have led to a goal for Colchester?

None of us know owt. We got done in cruel fashion. No matter what is correct or what isn't, we ****** up one way or t'other. But regardless, we'd still have needed summat at Wigan.

Game on. Still.

 

Thing is if we can't beat a team that's already been relegated at home, I'm not really confident that we can go to league champs and win. Let's hope our good away form gets us out of a mess we inflicted on ourselves.