Crawley Town

[LEWIS JAMES HARKER]

Any thoughts on the game plz post below.. personally i think we did not deserve to lose and we played better than crawley overall.. also i thought the referee was a bit [censored] and unlucky wardy for getting sent off i think that was not a penalty.. nice 2 c boylan on the score sheet again with his header in the first half there it goes sumtimes u play good and get beaten and then sometimes you can play [censored] and win.. Thats how football goes one lucky break and its a goal <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/flame.gif" alt="" /> im a bit p*ssed off now we deserved to win or ateleast a draw

[Merv]

Agree with you partly; we did play well, especially in the first half when we dominated the game and took a deserved lead into the break. We came close on many occasions in the second half but, for me, we lsot it because the management did not employ the right tactics for the second half. You cannot defend a one goal lead for 45 minutes which is exactly what we did. Instead of maintaining the flowing, passing game that was working so well, we sat back and allowed Crawley to come at us. Just like we let 9-man Stevenage do last week. Almost all our attacking play came through long balls and, much though I like Gregory, he simply doesn't have the pace to make things happen. Once Boylan went off, we were lost up front for so much of the time.

 

None of this was the fault of the referee. I don't think it was the fault of the players, who battled so well. So who do I blame? I'm looking at the tacticians on the bench.

[Guest]

From a Crawley point of view I would agree that you were unlucky.....but were the officials crap or what??

[Guest]

I am not sure unlucky is the right word naive is more like it, I think we need to learn how to win 1 - 0 as other sides do.

 

We scored early and played the best football for 80 minutes Crawley kept it short the whole game playing it really short from their keeper goal kicks were no more than five yards, even when the keeper got it in his hands he rolled it out. People were thinking he was injured or they were drawing us on all through the game in an atempt to suddenly play the long ball and get behind the defence.

 

I was talking to two little kids at half time who said they were still confident of a win and said they would draw us on and we would either lose our discipline at the back or they would change the plan for the last 15, (this kid was about 10 years old).

 

Ten minutes to go 1 - 0 we drew 3 very good saves from their keeper and it could have been 4 - 0.

 

Lee goes off injured and suddenly we run out of steam up front and lose all self belief.

 

I am convinced Greggors no longer has 90 minutes in him, we look to our forwards to get the ball up top and hold it, by law of averages no matter how good you are in defence if the forwards dont keep the ball and you keep banging away in the end they will get something.

 

Junior came on and was full of life but could have put in an easy cross from the by line and decides to take on the world loses the ball and puts us under pressure, a player of his experience should know better. All through the 1st hour high balls to Greggors were either flicked on or held up. Last 10 minutes he could not get off the ground leaving the back three to soak it up.

 

I was entertained for the 75 minutes and would have settled for a boring stiffled last 10 minutes and 3 points, why cant we look at the great big clock and say to ourselves right 10 minutes forget everything, keep the ball and grind out the result until we do we will remain what we are side middle to bottom team, hey! thats not bad really for a 1st season.

 

If Lee had not gone off injured would we have seen Lee & Junior up front, with Greggors having a rest because most times this season he has faded at the end.

 

10 minutes to go canvey 1 - 0 up i could have wrote the script those ten year olds did, if they could see why couldnt our players.

[Guest]

I forgot to mention the referee, what a knob, books Keeling early for sod all and immediatly lets two tackles much worse go.

 

Apparently after the game he said something like he booked Keeling to lay down a marker that he was having no nonsense, I thought the had to do something bad enough to deserve the booking. i hope there is a video and apeal with the plonker getting the sack.

 

As for the tactics as Kingy said many times "we are learning about this league" perhaps he is guilty of being a bit to loyal to those players that got us into this league.

 

Would it be fair not to let those players who done all the hard work to get us here at least have a go in the 1st season.

 

I think next season will see a lot of changes, I bet we have only 3 players on the 1st game of next season that played in the Ryman anyone fancy a bet?

[Guest]

Quote:

unlucky wardy for getting sent off i think that was not a penalty..

He was the last defender and so it was in fact a penalty but you were unlucky.

Your keeper has a good sense of humor too, found that quite entertaining. Good luck in the future

[Guest]

That was a blatant penalty!!

 

Absolutely clattered him!!!

[Exile]

I thought first half we played really well and should have been 2-0 up at the break (keeper made a great save from a Boylan curler, and we had other chances too). Crawley did make life easy by playing most of the first 45 mins in their own half of the field. The second half was much more even, I always felt we needed a second goal but we had few chances. Once Boylan went off injured we seemed to fall apart (tiredness ?) and resorted to hoofing it upfield which got us nowhere (when we played it on the deck we tended to keep possession for longer). Overall I thought a draw would have been fair. Thankfully other results went our way today - but on Monday we play our game in hand away to Daggers who managed to thrash Gravesend 5-0 today. If we repeat the first half performance we might scramble a point, if it's a repeat of the second half then I can't see us getting anything.

[YELLOW]

Gutted, angry. Finding it difficult to post anything at that moment without giving away to emotion. We was robbed. The least we deserved was a draw. We'll learn from what happened today and come out of it a better side.

[Guest]

What the Feck was that in the second half, rule one- you dont try to defend a poxy one nil over 45 minutes and today proved it. Inept tactics and that is for sure. You cant blame the referee for our tactics in the second half. We allowed ourselves to get defensively compressed as we have in so many games in the past. We put ourselves under that sort of pressure, something has to go and it is always by way of a goal.

There was some tired legs out there today in the second half, so why wasn't fresh legs applied.

All of that hard work that the players put themselves through in the first half was lost. The players cannot be blamed for todays result, the blame lays elsewhere, of that I have no doubt!!

[A Non E Mouse]

I'm gutted - I feel like I found a fiver and an hour later lost a tenner <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

 

That was certainly not the Crawley side I witnessed at Park Lane many months ago.

 

Crawley seemed to play everything from the back and built up play so slowly in the first half it gave us time to make some good tackles and put them off their game. Brilliant goal from Lee. Just hope it ain't a bad injury and he makes Monday nights game. Lee is fantastic with first touch and holding and turning with the ball. He also makes up a lot of ground and put their dfenders under pressure whilst they were trying to build up play from the back. Once Lee went off we lost that.

 

It was interesting to see how far their number 5 could take the ball forward from defence. In the first half he was quickly challenged. In the second half we sat back and he managed to repeatedly take the ball towards the centre circle unchallenged.

 

Not sure if it is naieve tactics or not. We seem to have got into this "style" of play. Whether that is a management tactic or just a product of the players we have, I'm not sure. Jeff seemed to have done some homework on Crawley and lets face it the tactics seemed to be working in the first half. However, the second half perhaps needed a change - it was Crawley who did this though. We were playing a lot deeper and trying to create chances on the break. As Merv says it is difficult to contain a lead for 80 odd minutes - so why do we revert to this "shut up shop" style of play. We didn't even appear to do it that well even when we were leading Stevenage by three goals let alone one against Crawley. If we are going to shut up shop how about going four at the back - but wouldn't that stifle our flowing play even further?

 

I'm a bit critical of Greggors some times but I genuinely feel he gave it 100% today. Problem is he worked hard in the first half andjust seemed to tire in the second probably chasing the long ball with little support from midfield at times. I don't think we will have many of the Ryman players next year and feel midfield will possibly need the biggest overhaul.

 

Would be interesting to find out how many first team players at Crawley were with them in the Doc Martens championship team.

 

The ref was predantic. He seemed to book some rather minor things and fell for the odd bit of drama. Crawley seem to think we had the benefit of most decisions, but I disagree - he was poor in giving Canvey just as many decisions as well. The young linesman never waved his flag until the ref had blown for a decision. Interestingly the Crawley supporters in the stand seedmed to be getting a little p****d off with the lino for making offside decisions. Now Stevenage had the same reaction - my point is I don't stand at the sides of the ground, so are we tactically relying quite heavily on the offside trap and the dangers this brings?

 

Can't comment on the penalty - official website says Wardy walked for a second bookable offence. Unlike Wardy to make a pigs ear of a challenge and any "over reaction" from the players with support from the home crowd behind the goal was more than likely to get a reaction from the t:t of a ref.

 

Hope the lads confidence didn't take a knock today - Dagenham wil be on a high and will want to prove a point Monday night.

[YELLOW]

Still finding it hard to believe we lost. In the first half we were the better team and but for a great save from the keeper would have been 2-0 up.

 

In the second half for the most part we defended very well. Dom and Theo were outstanding, J.K and Sedgy tenacious in midfield and it looked like we would hold out. Once Lee went off we lost our impetus and were forced back.

 

I had a feeling if Crawley were to score in the last 5 minutes we would go on and lose the game. Like the Woking match over Xmas we conceded late on and could have lost and this time we did.

 

We really have to stop conceding late goals, Burton, Woking, today, three wins chucked away because we've lost our concentration in the last ten minutes.

 

I will say that I didn't think it was a penalty and the Crawley player went down too easily. The ref was poor today but no excuses I think we threw it away. We will learn from this and thye positives we can take is that mosrt people expected us to lose and quite heavily. We did OK today and with a bit of luck might have won. Best to forget about this and concentrate on Monday. The performances are improving so let's make sure the results follow suit.

[Guest]

In answer to your previous...about 5 of the players were in our Doc Martens team

[Guest]

Yep, five of the starting XI were here at the end of last season (three at the start of last season) and seven of the 16.

[A Non E Mouse]

Cheers.

 

It's one of those questions that you ask but it doesn't really give you an answer.

 

8 of todays starters were with us in the Ryman. 4 of the 5 subs today were also with us in the Ryman. Players injured - Dobbo, Mints, Ty and Chennery not playing were also involved in our Ryman Championship team.

 

In fact only Sterling, Mcghee, Keeling, Sedgemore and Williamson have been brought in and made any regular appearances.

 

Seems we have not gambled on bringing new faces sticking predominantly with Ryman players (favourites?), and a fair few of those that we have brought in haven't made the grade or have been released.

 

My question - so do you think that Jeff and Glenn still have the right contacts and can still attract the type of players we need at this level taking into account our poor ground and lower than average crowds?

[Guest]

I am convinced Jeff is a manager performing well below himself and in that I mean he is on a level with managers as high up in the scheme of things as division one and maybe even a few championship managers.

 

Can you imagine if that was a young manager who has achieved what he has, without the Canvey link he would have been snapped up by now as with Glenn.

 

His love of Canvey and connections within the game will help our steady and occassionally stuttering progress.

 

The problem is he loves the club and is loyal to a number of the players he is giving people opportunities, eventually he will be able to look people in the eye and say "you had a fair crack at this level".

 

I can never imagine a reason why anyone would consider knocking the pair of them tactically over a period as we always end up where they say we will.

 

On a one off game basis I have the occasional pop as we all [****!!****] up occassionally.

 

How about this for ac challenge:-

 

At their level (and thats the important bit) is there any more succesfull manager in Europe (length of service X distance travelled x financial astutness).

 

The answer is we have one of the best management teams there is.

[YELLOW]

As Jeff says we are still learning at this level. We will get better and I think we are slowly improving. We should have won today and to be honest before today's match I expected us to get a bit of a tonking.

 

We played OK and but for a lack of concentration and a touch of naivity we would have got the three points. We will definitely stay up and we have something to build on. We have the nucleus of a good team and I'm pretty sure with a few new signings and a season's experience under our belts we will do far better next season.

[Guest]

Quote:

I will say that I didn't think it was a penalty and the Crawley player went down too easily.

Well, it's very difficult to stay on your feet when you've had your legs taken away from under you. Tait had got away from the defender and was in on goal. I'll agree that the ref was poor (likewise the linesman with the yellow flag) but this was one decision he got absolutely right.

[LEWIS JAMES HARKER]

i think wardy should of left it u neva no Danny could of saved it....o well its the result that matters and we lost :'(

[Guest]

You lot came to the Broadfield with a plan: get a goal from a set piece, play high up the field and squeeze the midfield. Although very negative, I don't blame you - it nearly worked! I thought a draw would have been fair, but we're not giving back the three points!

 

I was VERY dispointed with the reaction of a number of your players at the end - refusing to shake the hands of Crawley players. I hope they have their toys back in their prams now.

 

Also, I struggle to see how any of you could have a fair view of the penalty - you were around 100yards away! It most certainly was a penalty.