For most parts it was a good performance today..but our defending at times

Is just embarrassing. Their first goal need I say more. Whilst acknowledging their Second was a good strike and was the result of a lucky deflection, we had opportunities to clear the ball but our dithering and panicking at the back allowed the chance.

 

LB went missing

 

The mid field players were dithering, not the defenders.

 

You went to a different game to me mate. In the one I saw the top of the league, who remain undefeated, came to Oakwell and had two efforts on target in 90 minutes. Bristol only actually created one good chance as for the second goal the ball deflected to a free man who cracked it in from 20 yards+. I don't know what you're supposed to do about that. For their first a Bristol player got free from his marker and scored a good header. That happened once in 90 minutes. Our players got free from their markers on at least a dozen occasions. Cole had a very similar header in an almost identical position from where the Bristol lad scored his. Cole beat the keeper just the same but it was headed off the line. We hit the post, flashed shots inches wide, their keeper made saves, there were blocks on the line. If our defence is embarrassing then I don't know what that says about the defence of the best side in the division that allowed us so many chances.

Maybe their defence isn't so bad, maybe they came up against a very good football team who put them under extreme pressure for long periods in the game. Maybe ours wasn't so bad today either, it's just that Bristol are a very good team and scored a couple of goals.

There's been legitimate criticism of the way we've defended this season. Not just the defenders, the whole team have been poor without the ball. We've seen a number of games where we've defended extremely poorly. Today wasn't one of them. Today the team defended very well and limited the opposition to very few chances. They just happened to be clinical in the two opportunities they got. That's why they're top of the league I guess. But I bet they're bloody relieved on that long trip home and glad they don't have to come to Oakwell again this season. For 25 minutes in the second half we frightened the **** out of them and they couldn't get a kick.

 

Or looked at another way, we lost the full back who headed in the first goal and we had two players collide to gift them the chance of the second. Defending 'most of the game' doesn't quite do it. We need to be meaner than that. But that would be to detract from the overall performance, which was spirited and encouraging. Hope I don't 'misunderstand'!

 

If you want to continue this, be my guest. But I really don't think you're going to come out on top. In fact, I pretty much know you're not. I'm not being big headed, I'm just much more of a lovely person and much more of a bitch than you are, when I can be arsed with this sort of nonsense. At the moment I'm not arsed, there's no rift between us as far as I'm concerned, but if you want to make one that's up to you, I'm not playing a part in it. I made a point in a thread, you didn't address it, you attempted to turn it in to something it wasn't. That's a misunderstanding and I pointed it out. That's all I said. You're still going on about it a day later, which suggests that if I really did start having a dig you really wouldn't like, which in turn makes me question why you're doing this.

If you want I'll apologise for saying you misunderstood my point. I'm sorry. Are we OK now? Shall we act like adults and leave it there?

 

Jay, their first goal was almost identical to Bradford's goal..

Apart from the actual finish of course, M y opening post refers to us playing well in the main but the lapses in defending (not always defenders) are repetitive and we don't seem to learn from this. We do seem to go into panic mode at the back when under pressure.However, I mentioned the deflection that enabled the strike for the equaliser, but it came about from prior dithering when the ball could & should have been cleared. As much as I enjoyed the game, I won't papery over the cracks in my overall assessment mainly because the mistakes we're make are repetitive and we don't seem to be learning from them.

 

Re: Jay, their first goal was almost identical to Bradford's goal..

Bradford's goal was a counter attack and a shot from the edge of the 18 yard area. Bristol City's first yesterday was a second cross in to the box following a corner and a header from the six yard box. Is that the goal you're thinking of?

There's no doubt some of our defensive play this season has been poor. Yesterday we made one defensive error in the whole game. Winnall lost his man when the ball came back in after a corner. As has been the case in the last few home matches, we were punished for that error. There have been six shots on target against us in the last three home matches and all six have gone in. That does seem a bit unfortunate to me.

I think the defensive play yesterday is being judged on how we've played in other games this season. We've seen it all go wrong before so we are assuming we're doing it again. The fact is we limited the top of the league to just two efforts on target in the entire 90 minutes. If you can do that, the defence must be doing something right. I reckon if we'd been playing well defensively this season we'd have been applauding the team for another good defensive performance, ruing our one mistake and considering ourselves very unlucky that the only other opportunity Bristol had was finished so clinically. As it is we think the defence is **** so we only see ****.

If you want to take look at two chances that were almost identical watch the highlights from yesterday on iplayer. Their player headed the ball in to the back of the net while Cole picked out the only Bristol City defender capable of clearing it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04nct5c/the-football-league-show-20142015-25102014

We're on 48 minutes in.

 

Re: Jay, their first goal was almost identical to Bradford's goal..

The Bradford goal and Bristol's first goal yesterday were alike in that an opposing player was left unmarked on our left side when a ball was put in from the opposite side. I,m not blaming the defenders per se. I reffered to our defending as a team. It does however pose a question re communication and concentration and our most experienced players are our defenders.
Thanks for posting the link. I didn't need to follow it as I,ve seen them both numerous times and anyway, my memory of both goals are quite clear. We can keep exchanging views/opinions for ever, but on both occasions players were left unmarked on our left following a ball in from our right. Doesn't matter if you're playing top of league or not. Both were defensive lapses and the finishing was a formality rather than quality.