The first half saw a poor Carlisle attack split the defence a couple of times before the goalkeeping gift that gave them the lead. But to be fair, we were shocking and lacked any sort of cohesion. Collins made changes at half time and we adopted a much more attacking formation which thankfully paid off but a highly forgettable match and on a freezing cold night it was a poor game
We have to give Carlisle a lot of credit for that first half too though. Yes, we gifted them chances, but they were pressing us more than any other team has this season. If their strikers could finish they’d have been out of sight midway through that first half.
Sometimes you have to give the opposition some credit and due to our ineptitude we gave them some belief. They took no prisoners in the tackle and dropped balls behind our back 3 enabling them to close us down quickly. Fair play to Collins, he changed things at half time and we played on the front foot. Our defence still made mistakes but we matched their efforts and our bits of class won us the game. Onwards and upwards, COYR
Flip that though, statistically if the game started in the second half we’re the best in the division. I’m not sure why we are slow starters, maybe something Collins needs to seriously look into. But we do finish games strong, so he deserves credit for that.
Should have been 3 up after five minutes. Then they scored, hit the post and missed a sitter. If we had been losing 6-0 at half time we couldn't have felt hard done by.
How come we went 3-0 up against Vale, 2-0 up against Posh, and 1-0 up against Wigan before leaking 5 goals in these 3 recent games, if we're slow starters? We lost 4 points from winning positions.
That first half was inept. Never seen a single player make as many mistakes in one game as Shepherd did. We are so lucky to have come out of that game with a win. We certainly can't play like that again with the run of games coming up Stevenage Oxford Bolton Derby, playing like that we eont pick up a point in the next 12. Desperate for Pines to come in and McCsrt back. Connell obviously wasn't ready to play today.
Gio'er, we were very decent in the second half. Much more decisive and direct. Kept plugging away against a limited but dogged side, got our reward.
We were OK, but I've seen us play better than that 2nd half. We didn't have many shots on target all game!
Fair point. But overall our first half results aren’t anywhere near our second half results. If we did match the first half performances with the second half, we’d win the league at a canter. I’m asking for perfection and obviously that doesn’t exist in football does it.
A grand total of 3, 2 of which went in and one was a tame overhead kick straight to the keeper I dont remember many near misses either - just the one where from a corner it looked like Cole had a tap in but the defender did brilliantly to hook it away. Yes we were better 2nd half but still way below some halves we played in recent games - Id feel a bit sick if I was a Carlisle fan to come away with nothing yesterday. Having said that almost all Carlisles chances were results of defensive gifts rather than them creating things, one exception being when they hit the post
Saturday against Gas we started as well as we have done in home games this season. Last night was comedy central. Almost as though the team tried to take all the worst bits from previous home starts and condensed them into a 15 minute montage last night for the benefit of fans who hadn't yet seen us this season. I pinch myself, and chuckle, that given these home performances, we sit 5th in the table.
Tell you what.. I'd be ringing the Charlton's DoF phone off the hook this morning for that centre-back, if I were Bobby
We didn't, I agree. But we were far from awful and won the half 2-0. Also, I didn't see the first half, so even taking the second 45 minutes as a standalone rather than comparing it with the first half, I thought it was a solid performance
