28th November fixtures

[denzel ecfc]

I’ll take a 0-0 draw at Exeter all day in our current predicament. ANOTHER injury, this time to Elliot Bennett forcing us into another early substitution.

Draw was a fair result, think the best chance of the game fell to Udoh but a good save from the Exeter keeper prevented us taking the 3 points. Just like ourselves, Exeter won’t be scoring many goals for the remainder of the season, never once felt like we would concede even on the odd goalmouth scramble. Think they’ll be one of the favourites for the drop tbh.

Yep. Draw the worst result for me as it keeps Caldwell in a job for another 10 days.
No offence but we would probably have lost that game to 90% of teams in the league, you looked abject up front but still managed to have the best chance of the game.
Vale at home next, can't see how we will win that one either.

 

[thewwfc]

If anyone gets the chance, watch Barnsley’s winner against Wycombe - awful officiating IMO to allow it.

It’s embarrassing stuff from our keeper to be fair - what was he thinking?

https://x.com/wwfcgibraltar/status/1729616422165258346?s=46&t=nP2_BYMX7gw5cEw8INkXzA

 

[hellogregory]

It’s embarrassing stuff from our keeper to be fair - what was he thinking?

https://x.com/wwfcgibraltar/status/1729616422165258346?s=46&t=nP2_BYMX7gw5cEw8INkXzA

I didn’t think our goalkeeping calamity at your place would be topped this season, but that definitely does. Absolute brain fart from him.

 

[Carver]

I think we should be having a look at snapping up James Chester whos short term contract runs out at Barrow end of next month as he's been mint for them so far and one I'm now suprised we didn't go for in the summer.
Our defence is looking frail after tonight and our team is lacking leaders so he could be just what we need to help us stay up.

 

[Throbber_for_Dunk]

Best bit of business we've done since we swapped Devon White for John Taylor. Now what about John Marquis ? You can have him for free.

Alright lad, no need to kick us when we're down...

 

[Gassy]

Draw with Rovers a fair result overall, they got what they deserved a bit at the end for letting us dominate most of the second half and offering next to nothing on the break - Having said that if Luke Thomas scored that chance we’d have lost.

Our performance very typical of us, dominate the games possession but offer very little if anything with it - Cox only had one save to make despite most of the game being played in Rovers half.

Our equaliser summed the game up for both sides. Rovers for its worth took the lead and for the most part saw the game out, backed themselves to sit deep and see the game out and it nearly worked.

I’m surprised at is tbh, that isn’t our usual selves. Was mostly listening on iFollow tonight as was driving but it sounded awful.

Why can we never get proper owners who understand how to run a football club? 5 weeks on and no manager still, tonight it really showed. Even the interim manager started complaining that he has no idea what’s going on

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

If anyone gets the chance, watch Barnsley’s winner against Wycombe - awful officiating IMO to allow it.

Refs get the blame for absolutely everything which is why we now get this VAR crap ruining any flow in the game……even then they still complain.

Take that Barnsley goal for what it is……blatant time wasting by the goalkeeper followed by him hardly being touched by the striker but going down like a sack of sh*t blatantly diving to try and get a foul to further timewaste.

On this one rare occasion the ref didn’t follow that idiotic rule book (goalie goes down for any reason it’s a foul) and the player lost control of ball as he hadn’t quite mastered the art of diving as well as wingers and forwards (who let’s be fair here don’t usually have ball in their hands while cheating) and ball gets tapped into goal.

Nice change for a ref doing what we all want them to during that claptrap, most would blow because of the controversial goal……..no doubt ref will get punished and player nothing.

 

[Si Robin]

I'm with Big Dave on this - keepers are over protected and there would have been harsher challenges going unpunished in every game.

Keeper got caught out for being a dick.

 

[Si Robin]

Yeah you are far, far better than Carlisle. Still cannot believe we only came away from there with a point.

Not sure you’re going to have enough to finish above 3 others though.

A lot will depend on what the other teams currently in free-fall do.

Salop, Vale, Exeter, Carlisle - all really struggling. Reading may be turning a corner, but they're a young team and one big defeat could halt that.

I'm under no illusions, we're red-hot favourites for the drop for a reason, but that was our first defeat in 4 league games and the 7th league game in a row that we've scored in.

December is a huge month for us, we play Bristol Rovers (a), Leyton Orient (h), Carlisle (a), Shrewsbury (h) and Reading (h). If we can get 10 points out of that, then we're likely to be out of the relegation zone and will have it all in our own hands.

 

[masi51]

Decent game by two teams playing the right way. Oxford shaded the first half and two decent saves from Baxter kept us in the game.
Second half we put Bodvarrson on alongside Charles and with Maghoma running the game it was just a matter of when not if we scored.
Big, big game coming against Portsmouth next and with Maghoma only needing another booking to be banned Evatt took him off and also replaced Charles.......Was always going to end 0-0 after that.
Santos was a rock yet again and i have no doubts teams in the championship will fancy him come January

 

[tommytit]

Our match in Bristol was a hard watch, terrible game. We dominate possession passing it around at the back and have absolutely zero threat going forward. We never looked like we would score, so luckily they scored one for us.

 

[GeneralLee]

A good watch for any neutral.

Given our ‘performance’ at Cheltenham, I would have taken just about anything other than a loss. It was never going to be pretty.

I get the impression the players have been affected by Manning’s departure more than has been let on. We don’t look ‘right’ and looked to lack a bit of confidence and composure. Ruben Rodrigues and Greg Leigh are big misses however which would likely have helped. They are integral to how we play.

When we play more direct, moving the ball quicker and getting it into dangerous positions we are highly effective (Rodrigues massively helps). We haven’t done that. Too often we didn’t shift it quickly enough from the backline and Bolton sensed it. 0-0 was probably the right result, though I suspect if the game were played out a few weeks ago you’d have seen a very different performance.

Bolton were the best side we’ve played this season. It’s a decent point.

 

[Soz]

Yep. Draw the worst result for me as it keeps Caldwell in a job for another 10 days.
No offence but we would probably have lost that game to 90% of teams in the league, you looked abject up front but still managed to have the best chance of the game.
Vale at home next, can't see how we will win that one either.

you may not be able see it but we can...we will pass it round ok, possibly even dominate play in between both boxes. we will get into several good crossing positions but will barely trouble your CBs never mind keeper. then you just need to wait and there will be 1,2 maybe 3 times we will gift you a chance by either dallying on ball, passing you through on goal or simply not attempting to challenge you. you will definitely score. maybe we will get lucky on a set piece or something so 1-1 is about all we can hope for.

 

[Soz]

alternatively, we sack crosby and soneone leads the game who has an idea of how we will try and create a meaningful chance.

 

[valefan16]

I am just frustrated with it all, Derby were there for the taking and again some lovely football at times, Devine and Arblaster a joy to watch but nothing at the end of it, Uche had a chance with us in a 4 on 1 position to play a pass with three running clean through, we delayed a pass second half to put through one on one, the decision making is awful in the final third.

Its literally copy and paste week in week out.

Once Uche went off and Loft came on you knew game was going to be gone. Loft is awful, at least Uche and bully and hold it up.

The worrying stat is that we haven't scored since Charlton away in August with a goal from a striker!

Not only do they not finish they don't seem to ever get in the box, all their work is outside it, one point late one Blaster puts a beautiful ball across the box, 8 yards out and no one there to even attempt to slide it in.

Exeter in 10 days is absolutely massive, probably defining in the scope of Crosby and his future with the club, if it wasn't for the cup triumphs he would probably be out already.

 

[JJ1990]

Do you Vale fans not think the "we haven't got a striker" issue isn't the main issue? For me it feels like a system wide problem. You don't have natural wing backs who can bomb up and down and put in crosses or create thigns from out wide. Sang, Plant, Massey? All feel like square pegs in round holes. Means it has to come entirely from the middle of the pitch.

So who is there in the middle? Arblaster and Devine seem like quality players, but do they suit the 3-4-2-1? And they are still young and in their first loans, so surely not a lot can be expected of them. What about Chislett and Garrity? Neither of them are proven creators.

At what point does the blame fall more on Flitcroft? I hear a lot from Vale fans about what's going wrong, but I haven't heard much about what they would do differently? Does it need a formation change? Better players in certain areas?

 

[shoddycollins]

Hopefully we can turn things around with a few signings now that we have the money.

We were under no illusions this would be a difficult season; last season we were most pundits' tips to get relegated from League Two having only just survived the season before and having one of the lowest budgets in the division, only able to sign players that would be written off by many as 'nobodies' however thanks to some brilliant management, the surprising form of a few of those 'nobodies' and a little bit of luck we managed to get into the playoffs and then won them... must be the most unfancied side ever to get promotion to League One. Only in a fairytale would we have gone on and competed well this season despite there being no extra investment in the summer. Had we lost in the playoff final last season I doubt anyone would be tipping us to challenge for promotion from League Two again, and many may still be expecting us to go back to battling relegation.

We still have a number of talented individuals, Jordan Gibson only just won the PFA player of the month for example but right now are sorely lacking in experience at this level. The majority of our players are either playing at the highest level they've ever been, or have a bit of a experience in League One but never as a first team regular. Those experienced players we do have have proven a bit injury prone, which is probably why we were able to get them in the first place.

With the extra money we have now, add a few players who know this level, can lift the performances of the raw talents around them and aren't injury prone or coming to the end of their careers then I still think we can survive.

This was the first game in which we've been well out of it so far this season, so we've done well not to be getting tonked week-in-week-out but should serve as a wake-up call. Stings to have come against a team who were bottom of the table (even without their points deduction Reading would still have gone into this game below us).

 

[valefan16]

Do you Vale fans not think the "we haven't got a striker" issue isn't the main issue? For me it feels like a system wide problem. You don't have natural wing backs who can bomb up and down and put in crosses or create thigns from out wide. Sang, Plant, Massey? All feel like square pegs in round holes. Means it has to come entirely from the middle of the pitch.

So who is there in the middle? Arblaster and Devine seem like quality players, but do they suit the 3-4-2-1? And they are still young and in their first loans, so surely not a lot can be expected of them. What about Chislett and Garrity? Neither of them are proven creators.

At what point does the blame fall more on Flitcroft? I hear a lot from Vale fans about what's going wrong, but I haven't heard much about what they would do differently? Does it need a formation change? Better players in certain areas?

Wing back is an issue, largely because both are injured and we didn't have enough back up, that said Sang has probably been our best performer in recent weeks now he's settled into the role.

Flitcroft has to take some blame, he is in charge of recruitment and its not been good enough in January or the summer in respect of strikers and wing backs.

Midfield isn't overly a problem, Arblaster has been consistent and outstanding, Devine has been more hit and miss at times. Ojo has been class and Garrity has 7 or 8 for the season, he is the ratter which is critical to us and allows the footballers to play.

I personally would prefer to change formation, ideally two up front to compensate for lack of goals but we tried it v Cheltenham and were awful. The issue with changing the wing back system is we have Jason Lowe who can play right back but no standard Left Back.

 

[Luke Imp]

Unusual for us over the last 18 months to make a game very straightforward and whilst part of that was probably down to Cambridge, I suspect part of it was also tweaks Skubala is trying to make - to play higher up the pitch and try to sustain pressure rather sit deeper and play in counter attacking moments.

That's three set piece goals and three late goals in three games now - and two pretty much identical penalties as well.

EDIT - The break has come at a decent time as well because we've lost Sorenson, Roughan and Bishop (again) this week and Walker has had a set-back in his recovery.

 

[Carver]

Hopefully we can turn things around with a few signings now that we have the money.

We were under no illusions this would be a difficult season; last season we were most pundits' tips to get relegated from League Two having only just survived the season before and having one of the lowest budgets in the division, only able to sign players that would be written off by many as 'nobodies' however thanks to some brilliant management, the surprising form of a few of those 'nobodies' and a little bit of luck we managed to get into the playoffs and then won them... must be the most unfancied side ever to get promotion to League One. Only in a fairytale would we have gone on and competed well this season despite there being no extra investment in the summer. Had we lost in the playoff final last season I doubt anyone would be tipping us to challenge for promotion from League Two again, and many may still be expecting us to go back to battling relegation.

We still have a number of talented individuals, Jordan Gibson only just won the PFA player of the month for example but right now are sorely lacking in experience at this level. The majority of our players are either playing at the highest level they've ever been, or have a bit of a experience in League One but never as a first team regular. Those experienced players we do have have proven a bit injury prone, which is probably why we were able to get them in the first place.

With the extra money we have now, add a few players who know this level, can lift the performances of the raw talents around them and aren't injury prone or coming to the end of their careers then I still think we can survive.

This was the first game in which we've been well out of it so far this season, so we've done well not to be getting tonked week-in-week-out but should serve as a wake-up call. Stings to have come against a team who were bottom of the table (even without their points deduction Reading would still have gone into this game below us).

A massive overhaul is desperately needed, time to clear out the deadwood from the previous regime all throughout the club.

Simpson is the only member of staff worth keeping, all the rest are no good for pushing forward like Skelton etc. But if Simpson ever starts Mellish in midfield and messes up the whole team selection then he should be sacked on the spot.

 

[Soz]

Do you Vale fans not think the "we haven't got a striker" issue isn't the main issue? For me it feels like a system wide problem. You don't have natural wing backs who can bomb up and down and put in crosses or create thigns from out wide. Sang, Plant, Massey? All feel like square pegs in round holes. Means it has to come entirely from the middle of the pitch.

So who is there in the middle? Arblaster and Devine seem like quality players, but do they suit the 3-4-2-1? And they are still young and in their first loans, so surely not a lot can be expected of them. What about Chislett and Garrity? Neither of them are proven creators.

At what point does the blame fall more on Flitcroft? I hear a lot from Vale fans about what's going wrong, but I haven't heard much about what they would do differently? Does it need a formation change? Better players in certain areas?

a few months ago when we were lucky to have 1 fit striker maybe but we have bodies there now. i cant judge these strikers on alack of goals because the main problem is getting them the ball anywhere near the box.

the midfield is great on paper but the system isnt working. we play some genuinely quality stuff but get to 30 yards out and our main idea of how to score is to pass it horizontally until someone is brave enough to attempt a cross...then as you say we have a makeshift rwb playing lwb who has no left foot. someone who cant kick a football playing rwb. we can bemoan the injuries to clark and grant all we want but we let benning go and decided to play a 19 year old right winger and left wing back.

the recruitment we did was largely excellent. but the gaping holes in depth has been a real failure.

employing footballers who cant cross a football, and then pinning your entire hopes on them crossing a ball to the 1 maybe 2 players who manage to get into the box is laughable. that is down to coaching as well as recruitment. the amount of unforced errors last night was appalling.

flitcroft is on very thin ice. if you are being fair, the recruitment we pulled off in the summer was up there with the best ive seen. the decision to appoint crosby given his run last season is looking like a disaster.

its bleak but i genuinely think we are better than a lot of teams we have recently failed to beat. the immediate fix to that is getting someone in who can set the team up in a way in which we actually attempt to score a goal.


if the rot has well and truly set in, or we dont replace crosby quick, i think we are certs to go down

 

[Marked Ox]

A good watch for any neutral.

Given our ‘performance’ at Cheltenham, I would have taken just about anything other than a loss. It was never going to be pretty.

I get the impression the players have been affected by Manning’s departure more than has been let on. We don’t look ‘right’ and looked to lack a bit of confidence and composure. Ruben Rodrigues and Greg Leigh are big misses however which would likely have helped. They are integral to how we play.

When we play more direct, moving the ball quicker and getting it into dangerous positions we are highly effective (Rodrigues massively helps). We haven’t done that. Too often we didn’t shift it quickly enough from the backline and Bolton sensed it. 0-0 was probably the right result, though I suspect if the game were played out a few weeks ago you’d have seen a very different performance.

Bolton were the best side we’ve played this season. It’s a decent point.

Thought it was a fair result and it was a good watch. We were better in the 1st half and they were better in the 2nd half. Both keepers had to make good saves.

Elliott Moore was excellent again.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Terrible performance. Derby weren't great but we just kept handing chances to them. Their keeper looked terrible and will hold them back...looked about 12. Their goal came from us once again handing possession to them in a dangerous area.

We need to act now, as this is only going one way. We've got zero threat up front and I don't remember a shot we had all night. Only 5,000 Vale fans there...if we were doing well there'd be nearly double that...says all you need to know.

Ryan Loft is potentially the worst footballer I've ever seen. He doesn't know where the ball is and his first touch is a 10 yard pass..genuinely appalling. Who sanctioned that signing?

we did try to warn you whatever you paid us was way too much

 

[hellogregory]

We are lacking quality in certain areas, and it was always going to be tough… but it still doesn’t excuse the terrible start to the season imo. If every player was playing to their max and we were still falling short, fair enough. But they are not, so many players are playing levels below what they are capable of.

We need reinforcements no doubt, but we also need some of the current players to pull their fingers out of their shit pipes.

Even the most negative version of me didn’t expect us to be this bad. I expected more going into this season, but we are the worst team in this league without a shadow of a doubt, and that’s not acceptable.

 

[denzel ecfc]

you may not be able see it but we can...we will pass it round ok, possibly even dominate play in between both boxes. we will get into several good crossing positions but will barely trouble your CBs never mind keeper. then you just need to wait and there will be 1,2 maybe 3 times we will gift you a chance by either dallying on ball, passing you through on goal or simply not attempting to challenge you. you will definitely score. maybe we will get lucky on a set piece or something so 1-1 is about all we can hope for.

We won't score. We will play tippy tappy in midfield but run out of ideas and there is no one who can actually hit a ball in the box. I think its something like 400 minutes since we scored now.

 

[Randolph Haggerty]

we did try to warn you whatever you paid us was way too much

150k

 

[Carver]

We are lacking quality in certain areas, and it was always going to be tough… but it still doesn’t excuse the terrible start to the season imo. If every player was playing to their max and we were still falling short, fair enough. But they are not, so many players are playing levels below what they are capable of.

We need reinforcements no doubt, but we also need some of the current players to pull their fingers out of their shit pipes.

Even the most negative version of me didn’t expect us to be this bad. I expected more going into this season, but we are the worst team in this league without a shadow of a doubt, and that’s not acceptable.

After what was a really positive weekend, I'm now just so deflated after watching that shite last night I don't care about them anymore now until January comes along and we see who we can sign because we can't do fuck all in this league until then with this shit lot but go down.

 

[91SPP]

Terrible performance. Derby weren't great but we just kept handing chances to them. Their keeper looked terrible and will hold them back...looked about 12. Their goal came from us once again handing possession to them in a dangerous area.

We need to act now, as this is only going one way. We've got zero threat up front and I don't remember a shot we had all night. Only 5,000 Vale fans there...if we were doing well there'd be nearly double that...says all you need to know.

Ryan Loft is potentially the worst footballer I've ever seen. He doesn't know where the ball is and his first touch is a 10 yard pass..genuinely appalling. Who sanctioned that signing?

By all accounts, Wildsmith has been one of our top performers over the past 18 months. We've been blessed with decent keepers for as long as I can remember and he's been excellent. 8 clean sheets this season, conceding less than a goal a game. I think it's the best or joint best record in the league.

I thought Vale did well against us, particularly off the ball, but the lack of a threat allowed us to throw more and more caution to the wind. We got the goal, reverted back to a basics and saw out the win.

Four wins on the bounce, fourth in terms of points per game, but we still looking lacking. The defence is solid, Cashin and Nelson are excellent. Nyambe has made a big impact. We're improving slightly, albeit inconsistently. I think a good January will see us step up, but recruitment has never been a home run for us.

If we can get ourselves into the games against Wigan, Oxford and Peterborough in good form and take some points off them that would set the tone, but I'm not completely convinced. I feel like every game could go either way, despite varying level of dominance, purely because how bad we are situationally.

 

[Gassy]

It’s embarrassing stuff from our keeper to be fair - what was he thinking?

https://x.com/wwfcgibraltar/status/1729616422165258346?s=46&t=nP2_BYMX7gw5cEw8INkXzA

From that angle I thought the same. But then I saw an angle on Facebook (don’t judge me) earlier today that was much closer and behind the GK. He clearly picked the ball up and had 2 hands on the ball. Unless the rule changed, I thought you can’t tackle to GK if he has 2 hands on the ball?

 

[JJ1990]

He didn't tackle, he lightly bumped into him.

I suppose by the letter of the law, it's a foul. But in reality, that is not a contact that should see him fall to the ground and drop the ball. It's pathetic from the keeper and he shouldn't be rewarded with a time wasting foul.