That first 45 was the worst I’ve seen in a long time

Watters has been **** all season but he was way down the list of people to blame for that half. He didn't get any service & neither did Cole.

O’Keeffe, Russell & Shepherd were all diabolically bad.

The frustration there is that O’Keeffe & Russell especially had really solid performances on Tuesday at Oxford.

I think today just shows how good & important to us Connell & Kane are. We manager to take over the game with just one of them on the pitch for 25 mins. If we’d had two for 90 mins each I’m confident we would’ve took all 3 points. The back ups are nowhere near the same standard.

Phillips has some good attributes but he’s not a player you want coming deep & getting too involved in build up play. He comes alive in the final third.

 

It constantly keeps happening though especially at home we just cannot impose ourselves on teams for longer than 45 minutes it seems.

 

Collins.must shoulder the blame for his team selection at the start. OKeefe Watters Russell and Shepherd should not be starting. A midfield of McAtee, Phillips, Russell and Okeefe is as weak as piss. As soon as I saw the teamsheet I knew we would struggle so why does he not see that. Not one single shot in that first half for a top 5 side at home to one of the strugglers. Centre halves passing to each other before a punt downfield to a non existent attack. If those are the tactics why not start with Cosgrove up front A much better performance 2nd half with the team that probably should have started. Cotter is not the best but he offers so much more than OKeefe plus he has the long throw in his armoury. Connell did more in his first 5 minutes than Russell did in his entire stint. Cosgrove looked lively and won his fair share of headers. Unlucky not to get at least a point in the end.but Collins doesn't half make it difficult for himself

 

Tough night for the "Russell is actually a good player, he's just very good at pretending that he isn't brigade" tonight.

For someone who is 17 foot 9, and solidly built, he is a right fairy. Scared to put a foot in where it hurts. Won't track back as it's too much like hard work. Heart the size of a pea. Not a BFC player.

 

Don't you think Collins was rather hamstrung with his options today.No McCart,no Kane Connell most likely not 100% fit.O,Keefe and Russell were in the team on merit but neither performed anything like.
If I was a player on the fringes of the first team I'd be busting a gut to cement my place in the side.
The players must shoulder the responsibility when they cross the white line.

 

100%

 

The thing that scares me is what if we scrape promotion with a team that regularly puts in performances like that first half. It would be horrific.

 

Dead heat.

 

Problem is it's not the first time this season I've walked away from oakwell thinking that's the worst I've seen for quite a while, been too many times this season tbh.

 

Surely your having a laugh about Watters ? Up there in top 2 as worst strikers ever to play for us. Needs shipping out quickly.

 

Connell had not trained all week. The sports scientist would have advised Collins on fitness level. Amazing the wisdom of people after the event. 20/20 hindsight.

 

The club captain needs to publicly apologise for the team’s performance in that first half. Roberts made 3 very good saves or it could have been a lot worse. I don’t mind it so much if we’re just not good enough. Give me a team of 11 Paul Gibbs’, giving 100% but not good enough, rather than players who are good enough, but play like they don’t give a ****. Obviously, I’d rather have neither, but you get the point.

Collins is not scared of making first half substitutions. He hauled MDG off after half an hour on his debut. Both Russell and O’Keefe should have been dragged off early on, when it became apparent that we might as well have been playing with 9 men.

We improved loads when Cosgrove came on for the anonymous Watters. Seriously, I cannot think of any circumstance where I would put Watters on the pitch. Cosgrove did everything today, except score. And he should have had at least one, but really two. What has happened to the bloke who got 16 last season?!? Did 16 different goalies drop the ball at his feet?

The team then improved no end when Connell came on for the hapless Russell. He played the ball with purpose, like he knew what the point was of him kicking the ball where he did. You’d think that would be a given for a footballer, but our first half performance proves it isn’t. Russell has played well in the past, so he has it in him. Today he looked like he was out there as a punishment.

And yet we deserved a point. I thought Exeter were excellent in the first half, pressing us, attacking in numbers with short, quick passing, and capitalising on our weak spots, which were all over the pitch. But with Connell pulling the strings and Cosgrove having his best game for us, goals looked inevitable, and there would have been more than one, but for poor finishing. Connell edges MOTM for me, purely because Cosgrove can’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo.

 

Injured, heard he's put for the season.

 

That's the worst 45 minutes I've seen at Oakwell since our last home game.

 

Sadly I have to agree. Carlisle could have been out of sight that first half. But neither first 45 mins were pretty. It's as though the players never met each other before.

 

agreed, he’s abysmal

 

To be fair it doesn’t take a genius to work out that Connell at 50% fitness is a far better option than Russell at full fitness.

 

I’ve defended Collins, but I think he does deserve criticism for that first half set up.

However, he gave those players a chance to prove themselves and they repaid him with an abject performance.

I think as a team they looked at the team sheet and thought “oh frick, we’re getting dicked”.

But give him his due, he saw what we saw and made the right changes.

Russell can’t operate as the lone defensive midfielder, he’s a playmaker and he needs the energy and composure of Connell/Kane alongside him.

 

To say we got rid of Aitchison but signed him is bad business.

 

I agree with quite a lot of what you say, but, though the strikers didn't get any service in the first half, nor did they make any runs or close down. When McAtee plays as a striker he does both. O'Keeffe is simply not good enough. He never takes a man on. As soon as he gets the ball, he passes it back again. This happens every game. There is often a lot of space ahead of him, just waiting to be run into, and he doesn't do the running. I can't really give any credit to Collins for changing things at half-time. If Connell and Cosgrove had started, he wouldn't have had to make the changes.
I agree entirely with you about Connell. I thought he was superb and transformed the game.