The CUFC Northern Floods Tour 2015/16......Gig 2 Vs Plymouth Argyle. Venue: Ewood Park

[hellogregory]

When I saw this live I thought at the time it should have been a certain red card. It looked like he deliberately elbowed him in the face leaving him poleaxed on the floor.

Not sure now, maybe it was accidental.

 

[daviejones]

I thought it was accidental, he wasn't looking at him so benefit of the doubt I'd say.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I think your all being harsh on our team yesterday, i thought we did ok, but i think alot of credit has to go to Plymouth for their defending.

The majority of the game and pretty much the entire second half was played in the Plymouth half, we had top of the league back peddling for huge periods of the game............that is not the sign of a 'terrible performance'

but they were defending key areas superbly, they gave up space outside their box, kept it tight in the centre of defence and doubled up on the wings, they killed off Gilliead completely and made it hard for us to create much effectively. My only disappointment was the first goal, the second i ignore as it was scored with us trying to equilize and i'd always 100% rather we gamble to get into game than piddle about, but the first was a result of us constantly falling for them going down easily and giving away free kick after free kick after free kick until finally they scored from one, plus maybe that we didn't mix it up more (but in fairness we clearly worked our tactic on jabo being involved and not Asamoah....Jabo being called out of game late due to family problems wasnt Curles fault)

but we threw everything at top of the league yesterday and had them stuck in their own half for huge periods of the game which says to me it was not a poor performance, but on the switch side of things for all the mass of time in their half Plymouth kept us to a handful of chances and that is a sign of a very strong defence which could get them promoted.

on another day our pressure would have seen a goal.

 

[hellogregory]

I think your all being harsh on our team yesterday, i thought we did ok, but i think alot of credit has to go to Plymouth for their defending.

The majority of the game and pretty much the entire second half was played in the Plymouth half, we had top of the league back peddling for huge periods of the game............that is not the sign of a 'terrible performance'

but they were defending key areas superbly, they gave up space outside their box, kept it tight in the centre of defence and doubled up on the wings, they killed off Gilliead completely and made it hard for us to create much effectively. My only disappointment was the first goal, the second i ignore as it was scored with us trying to equilize and i'd always 100% rather we gamble to get into game than piddle about, but the first was a result of us constantly falling for them going down easily and giving away free kick after free kick after free kick until finally they scored from one, plus maybe that we didn't mix it up more (but in fairness we clearly worked our tactic on jabo being involved and not Asamoah....Jabo being called out of game late due to family problems wasnt Curles fault)

but we threw everything at top of the league yesterday and had them stuck in their own half for huge periods of the game which says to me it was not a poor performance, but on the switch side of things for all the mass of time in their half Plymouth kept us to a handful of chances and that is a sign of a very strong defence which could get them promoted.

on another day our pressure would have seen a goal.

Maybe so, it wasn't so much the effort and performance level that I was disappointed with, it was the tactics and us flogging a dead horse by trying the same thing that wasn't working. We didn't try anything different when the direct approach was easy for them to deal with. I felt we needed width on the other side which may have meant Gilliead getting less attention if say McQueen was on or Grainger was pushed forward. They were compact defensively, we needed to use the flanks more, widen the gaps between their centre backs and full backs, but we didn't. If anything Gilliead switching to the left made us even more narrow which suited their game plan.

I also felt that we weren't sharp at all, Kennedy in particular has some glorious opportunities to get shots away but every time the ball fell in the box they were quicker to react. But that's maybe down to us being a little rusty with no game in 2 weeks.

 

[Alan Partridge]

I wish we'd have a fucking dig...

There was numerous times yesterday when the ball fell to Joyce/Dicker/Kennedy in acres of space, but they were always looking for the switch rather than have a pop at goal.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

i agree with both of you on the fact we sometimes yesterday were far far too happy to play an extra pass or go wide or cross when it was screaming out for a shot, Plymouth risked leaving massive gaps outside their box to cover other areas and we never once exploited that aspect.

 

[Carver]

I can't believe after the season we've had we're only ninth, it does feel unusual when we lose now because it's hardly been the case this season and of course we've got 2 games in hand on other teams above us, but I think it just shows how tougher this league is this season compared to last season.

 

[cufc17]

I'm still optimistic for this season, that was our 2nd defeat in the last 9 league games. It wasn't our greatest performance this season, but we didn't look out of place against top of the league without our most important forward.

Our FA Cup game next weekend is a great chance to bounce back, but with some League 2 fixtures I wouldn't be surprised if we dropped further. There's some winnable league fixtures this month, so if we can get maximum points from those we'll be in a healthy position.

 

[daviejones]

Got to remember Plymouth also didn't have Reid who I assume is still comfortably their main forward so we're sort of level in that respect, albeit maybe we did train all week with the assumption we would have Jabo. We played well but I think yesterday showed a slight gap in quality which will probably confine us to the play-offs.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

True, we are short on options. A better left option, another forward. Our plan b is 3-4-3 so we were buggered yesterday when just one is out. But in recent years we'd been happier playing for a 1-0 defeat than gamble until 75 mins, give me that yesterday over it anyday. Many sides would have cracked. In end yesterday, Plymouth to their credit didnt