Tuesday fixtures 6th Feb

[valefan16]

Loft injured 16 year old to try and save the day. What a mess.

 

[E10rifle]

Shambolic defending

Incredible through ball. Still less than we deserve - Sotiriou could/should have had a hat-trick this half.

 

[valefan16]

Incredible through ball. Still less than we deserve - Sotiriou could/should have had a hat-trick this half.

It wasn’t a difficult ball when there is a 20 yard gap to play it in!

We’re fucked. No fit senior strikers relying on kids. Flitcroft this is on you.

 

[valefan16]

Weak as piss. We are done.

 

[Don Tonberry]

A big thank you to Exeter and Reading tonight. Every little helps.

 

[Soz]

laughable, could have lost about 0-6. 16 year old plays 10 minutes and is 10 times the player loft is.

I'd pay loft up now and we have 1 fit striker, 16 years old. That's how bad he is

 

[CTFCfan99]

We were already fucked but we're even more fucked after that

 

[kieran_vale]

That was rank incompetence on every level from Vale outside of Ripley. Whether it was the so called defence, crab-like midfield or non-existent attack take your pick.

Meant to be a scrap for survival but this bunch of fucking pussies don’t have it in them. Orient better than us in every way. They were quicker, stronger, more technical and have a proper manager in Wellens. Less than 4k home fans tonight should worry the club more than the anti-Flitcroft chants at the end, it might be the norm.

 

[valefan16]

Flitcroft get out of our clubs rings around Vale Park.

Loft injured so now left with an injury prone Wilson and a youth teamer as our only strikers.

Dire second half against a modest Orient side, they are the games at home we need to be getting points from. We were nowhere near.

Can’t see where the next goal comes from let alone point. We won’t get 40 points let alone 50.

What is going on Carol?! How could we not address the obvious issue. Worried about next season now as no faith we will sort this spiral even in L2.

 

[AmberAndy]

Well that was entertaining while it lasted. Game probably should have been called off before the start, very dangerous conditions. But fair play to the ref he gave it every chance, and our pitch usually handles weather pretty well, but that was a biblical rain fall for the hour before kick off. Fixture headache coming for Bolton they only have one free midweek and that’s in international week. Could be a thurs evening game at this rate.
Best wishes to the Bolton fans hope you all get home safely the local roads are atrocious.

 

[valefan16]

laughable, could have lost about 0-6. 16 year old plays 10 minutes and is 10 times the player loft is.

I'd pay loft up now and we have 1 fit striker, 16 years old. That's how bad he is

He’s miles off being ready for the first team despite his good effort at the end. Jinxed Loft though, he just had to control that ball and he’s in and he messed it up. Useless.

They are cowards half of that squad.
As Yates said they’ve got to up that performance by 50% or we are down.

May as well of saved us all time and just handed Orient the points… all be it the defending we pretty much did.

 

[E10rifle]

Second game in a row we should have won by four or five against relegation fodder. If we find our long-absent shooting boots we’ll give someone a hiding soon. Only 7 points off the top six after Satanage capitulated to Reading so we can dream a little longer. Not bad for a modest side like ourselves.

 

[BogDaddyO]

We should have won that by 3 at least, all over a very poor Vale side.
Play offs?
We're outsiders but we're also the form team in the division over the last 10 even without 2 of our best players.

 

[BogDaddyO]

Second game in a row we should have won by four or five against relegation fodder. If we find our long-absent shooting boots we’ll give someone a hiding soon. Only 7 points off the top six after Satanage capitulated to Reading so we can dream a little longer. Not bad for a modest side like ourselves.

Modest leyton orient.
Tbf against giants like Vale that's a fair comment...

 

[Pompeyblueboy]

Why do Vale fans complain about refs so much?
He's missed some blatant fouls on Ruel and just awarded them a goal kick after their keeper saved a goal bound effort.
Strange stuff.

They blame everyone apart from themselves. They're in bottom 4 so hopefully they stay there

 

[leedsvaliant]

Absolutely outplayed, outfought and outdone by a team that we should be trying to emulate. Instead we're going in completely opposite directions.

I've seen my fair share of awful over the years but that's in the top 5. We look lost, no plan, no tactics, no fight.

If we're not relegated I'd be amazed.

 

[GEORGE]

Well we were second best tonight. And however I dress it up we deserved to lose.

 

[Brox]

Dreadful conditions and a dreadful game to match. Much like the weekend, draw probably the correct result on the balance of play, we won that one out of nothing and lost this one in a similar fashion.

We were the better side first half, plenty of efforts on goal but nothing particularly meaningful. Reading took the lead just before half time, a long throw flicked on by Oliver ended up evading everyone including the keeper to make it 1-0.

Had hoped we'd up it in the second half but no such luck, we huffed and puffed but lacked the quality to do anything, despite us chasing the game, Reading had the best opportunity of the half, Smith rounded the keeper but Sweeney got back to keep the score at 1-0.

We looked clueless at times in the second half, we're really not a good side when chasing the lead late on, so much aimless play. We've not played well for a while now, can't see us remaining in the play-offs unless we improve.

 

[The Terminator]

Deserved win for ourselves after a better second half, first half whilst we dominated possession, we don’t do enough with it.

We’re the lowest scorers in the top half for a reason - we’re not the most clinical with chances. Sotiriou overall has a good game, but doesn’t get as many goals as he should.

Port Vale huffed and puffed, but IMO their main issue is goal threat, apart from the final ten minute rally with a few corners and free kicks, we was mainly comfortable.

Whoever the new manager is there, is going to need to find an attacking formula quickly to make them a goal threat.

To have such an inexperienced attacking bench with few options is poor management from the club for sure. Can’t be relying on 16 year olds. If they can get Mighten fit that will be a huge bonus, looked a very talented player at Forest and Eng U21s.

 

[codaplenty]

Well we were second best tonight. And however I dress it up we deserved to lose.

Well mate, I'll take that as it's meant - cheers. A terrific win for Fleetwood, isn't sport incredible, one minute your down and out, next minute you get a couple of decent results and the worlds a different place. We are going down fighting, and with pride in our bellies, you can't ask for more. Is the great escape on, ask me in early March....

 

[denzel ecfc]

Absolutely cliche game of two halves.
But we will have to concede that their sending off changed the game. Before that they were confident and looked likely to score at will. They then went negative, wasted time, and we grew into the game. Two weird goals, possibly both own goals, but fantastic performances.from Harper and Cole in particular tonight.
Massive three points in the context of other results.

 

[Moomin]

Agree with Denzel. Their player will get the Fergie hairdryer for needlessly scything down Harper for a second yellow. As soon as they went down to 10, we got a lift and played some good stuff.

Peterborough still could and probably should have scored a couple on the break. They move the ball so quickly and have pace galore. But they didn’t and we got some luck for once.

Massive shout out to Reece Cole. His career was in the gutter, playing for Hayes and Yeading, but he really has grasped his second chance with both hands. His passing and vision is superb and was the key reason we scored both goals. Massively underrated player.

Huge win. 17 points since Boxing Day is impressive and hopefully we can continue to improve in the coming weeks.

UTC

 

[Razzmachaz]

Another good win for us. Galbraith and El Mizouni were standouts in a good team performance. Should have won more comfortably. Really mean no offense with this but Vale looked terrible. Other than one good cross in the box in first half and a half decent free kick that went wide it wasn't until injury time they came to life a bit. Spent the rest of the game hacking ball out of play. We played some neat stuff with George Moncur looking useful again but need to be more clinical.

 

[valefan16]

Another good win for us. Galbraith and El Mizouni were standouts in a good team performance. Should have won more comfortably. Really mean no offense with this but Vale looked terrible. Other than one good cross in the box in first half and a half decent free kick that went wide it wasn't until injury time they came to life a bit. Spent the rest of the game hacking ball out of play. We played some neat stuff with George Moncur looking useful again but need to be more clinical.

We don’t look terrible at all… we are terrible!

Key players injured, threadbare squad and having to play again kids tonight who are not ready for men’s football.

All led (and none of this is on him) by a youth team coach appointed at lunchtime today as even our interim has gone!

We need a miracle, key players to recover and Flitcroft to make the right manager decision asap.

 

[kieran_vale]

Deserved win for ourselves after a better second half, first half whilst we dominated possession, we don’t do enough with it.

We’re the lowest scorers in the top half for a reason - we’re not the most clinical with chances. Sotiriou overall has a good game, but doesn’t get as many goals as he should.

Port Vale huffed and puffed, but IMO their main issue is goal threat, apart from the final ten minute rally with a few corners and free kicks, we was mainly comfortable.

Whoever the new manager is there, is going to need to find an attacking formula quickly to make them a goal threat.

To have such an inexperienced attacking bench with few options is poor management from the club for sure. Can’t be relying on 16 year olds. If they can get Mighten fit that will be a huge bonus, looked a very talented player at Forest and Eng U21s.

Pretty much would co-sign every word on that.

Will leave aside my lamenting / registering utter disgust at the banter club we’ve reverted to in quick order but I thought Orient were very good. Reminded me a bit of the Swindon side that Wellens had, some nice patterns of play and we were left clueless. Probably should have scored a few more but in terms of just completely dominating us I’d put you up there against anyone this season.

 

[kieran_vale]

The highlight of the game for us. Over to Ryan Loft...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1754975575117111650

 

[Trapdoor]

its mind boggling that Ryan Loft still has a career in league football. he is such a fraud.

 

[leedsvaliant]

its mind boggling that Ryan Loft still has a career in league football. he is such a fraud.

It's not an exaggeration to say he is the worst player we've ever had. He doesn't even look like a footballer, never mind a professional!

We really did look a rag tag bunch last night. Devoid of any idea what we were supposed to do. The only critique I have of Orient is that they only contrived to score one.

 

[valefan16]

It's not an exaggeration to say he is the worst player we've ever had. He doesn't even look like a footballer, never mind a professional!

We really did look a rag tag bunch last night. Devoid of any idea what we were supposed to do. The only critique I have of Orient is that they only contrived to score one.

I thought Loft was our best outfield player first half, he dominated their center halves in the air (which is probably the first time I have seen that) but it isn't his fault no one was feeding off his flick on's and knock down's is it?

Second half though he just didn't fancy it, seeing it back he's tried to volley that hasn't he! Take a touch and you've got one defender to get past or bend it round! It is like our last relegation with Martin Patterson again!

It was pretty much a carbon copy of the Portsmouth game, sat off, let them have loads of possession, lucky they were really poor in front of goal and didn't really show any intent until injury time. Suppose the only positive was we did have 2-3 decent chances and forced a couple of solid saves which is more than the last few games but when your 17 year old left wing back and youth team striker and the ones having those chances its not great.

Someone summed it up great on X, three types of player last night, Not Ready, Not good Enough, or Not interested.

2000+ missing home fans last night, atmosphere was dead you could hear a pin drop (that stand swap went well then) and we just went through the motions.

We've sleep walked into this relegation despite fans being fairly vocal for months now, who weds to a 3-5-2 system and sign no wing backs (bar the one we have who's crocked), who doesn't sign a striker when we dont score enough and our main threat is out injured? Is it true Flickers picked the team last night? If so why send out poor Will Ryder to be the fall guy?

The league is terrible this year, its miles off the standard of last season, there is no excuse for us to not be competitive and Carol needs to face up to the fans, Smurf would have been slated for this, yes grateful she saved the club and the investment etc but shouldn't make anyone immune from criticism.

Are we out of money? If so how? We've made over a million in player sales, had the biggest attendances in decades, waiting lists for the executive boxes, record shirt sales... but we seem to have spent it on everything but the first team (and the toilets which is another disgrace in itself).

 

[Laker]

I don’t think it is miles off the standard last season. We were appalling for around two thirds of it (from Oct-Mar), Forest Green had a shocker. Milton Keynes massively underperformed and were awful for large chunks of it. Accrington and Morecambe couldn’t buy wins either. There was one point where we were all so bad that none of us were picking up any points. It was ridiculous. And it shows because we stayed up with 46 points which is way below average to survive.

I don’t think the top is as good as last season, I do agree with that. Ipswich, Wednesday and Plymouth were all excellent sides last season and I think any of them would have walked it this season.