Cheltenham Town (h) Play-off Semi-final 1st Leg

[BMON]

We haven’t been anywhere near good enough all season and we aren’t good enough now either .
The football is an embarrassment to the town and the football club .
The worst footballing team in the football league .
Shown up for what we are under Curle - one dimensional Neanderthal dinosaurs .
We deserve better

Without the crowd it looked like a very hungover Sunday pub team(us) against a more sober Saturday team.
They have a manger who understands if you pass to one of you team you more likely to score.
We had Curle who plays percentage football at best.
I'd like to be wrong but Monday will be exactly the same,MORE hoof and hope,
If you have just watched that feast of football and live near the ground what would make you want to watch that every Sat etc.
Would i want a ST refund yep, cos it was sh!te


My case has been rested as there always is a case to rest

[Winslow Lee]

Admittedly I appear to be on my own, but I thought we were a bit unlucky. Not enough quality, but it could have been very different if we converted the penalty or a few refereeing decisions were correct.

You’re not wrong, I think it’s got more to do with the style of football. Even though we created more opportunities when you lose playing such horrible football to watch it’s hard to defend.

[WadeyCobbler]

Like one or two others I thought we were unlucky. Their keeper made 3 or 4 decent saves including the penalty. They didn't create much but took the few chances that came their way. We've had similar matches this season that have gone our way and others like tonight that haven't. Their keeper was probably the difference. The subs did nothing to improve us tonight though it has to be said.
Morton has scored all his goals away from home so that might bode well. Need a slice of luck and who knows. But to be honest being in the play-offs feels a bit of a bonus anyway. Let's give it a bloody good go on
Monday.

[GrangeParkCobbler]

You’re not wrong, I think it’s got more to do with the style of football. Even though we created more opportunities when you lose playing such horrible football to watch it’s hard to defend.

Unlucky as in we missed a penalty, had another couple of decent chances and didn't take them, and on one or two occasions didn't get the run of the ball.

But its true, all that is overriden by the style of football, the suffocating smothering style, players are not allowed to be creative, players are not allowed to deviate from the training ground routines. Classic example, the ball goes out, Morton I think it was gets the ball in his hands and could take a quick throw to Oliver, who although has his back to goal but doesn't have a defender within five yards of him.
Do we a) take the quick throw, or do we b) wait for Goode to trot from his defensive position in order to hurl a long throw straight into their keepers hands?

When we get a corner do we a) play it short, play it to the edge of the area, play it quickly, or b) have Adams standing ready to take it with his arm in the air, and McCormack standing two yards away doing nothing, before putting a hopeful ball into the mixer?

Its always the bloody same, its like the players have been programmed only to do certain things.

The only players who had anything about them today were Wharton (on loan from Blackburn), Olayinka (on loan from Arsenal) and Morton (on loan from West Brom).... Curle has not knocked the good habits learned at other clubs out of them yet.

Every substitution was like for like, no variation whatsoever.....no sign of Marshall coming on to give us something different, Pollock coming on to show a bit more creativity....

It was all too predictable, the summarisers in the studio got it spot on before the game, they knew how we'd play.......no opposing team would ever have to watch us beforehand because we are just too predictable.

And yet Cheltenham, a smaller team with no names and a vastly less experienced Manager can play football in a better way, keep tight at the back, be well organised, and be more creative than we could ever be under our leader.

[everbrite]

Well, what can we say?

Awful awful boring one dimensional football. No plan B either with subs or tactics.

No challenging, tackling or aggression.

Too much play acting and gamesmanship.

Every throw taken by Goode, every corner taken by Adams with McCormack standing next to him as some sort of decoy??

So much for all that aggression on the training ground that was "full on and made Curle wince"...didn't see much of it tonight.

An ugly team with ugly tactics, which got found out by a better team tonight.

The only hope is super Sam returns for the second leg......knowing Curle though he'll be in for Olayinka, who was our only half decent looking player tonight.

Well you would say all that! Poor first 35mins. Second half ok for about 20/25mins. After the subs we never really looked like scoring. Bad penalty miss by Watson who I thought flattered to deceive. Mac ineffective most of the time. Poor marking by Goode for their first.  We missed a few chances though, notably Oliver. It is easy to say that Cheltenham were the better side but we had more chances and was hoping that the 'experts'on here would have noticed that Cheltenham played most of their there best football in their half! Still one casual remark by the woman commentator at the end of the summary that only one team has ever come back from a two goal deficit and that was in 1998 .......and was Northampton! So there is hope still; I like that commentator who mentioned that.

ps we also came back against Mansfield 0-2 down; eventually losing on penalties.

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Well you would say all that! Poor first 35mins. Second half ok for about 20/25mins. After the subs we never really looked like scoring. Bad penalty miss by Watson who I thought flattered to deceive. Mac ineffective most of the time. Poor marking by Goode for their first.  We missed a few chances though, notably Oliver. It is easy to say that Cheltenham were the better side but we had more chances and was hoping that the 'experts'on here would have noticed that Cheltenham played most of their best football in their half! Still one casual remark by the woman commentator at the end of the summary that only one team has ever come back from a two goal deficit that was 1998 .......and was Northampton. So their is hope still; I like that commentator who mentioned that.

Love the way you have to get your "experts" quip in......

Yeah we did play "ok" for a quarter of the game....... you're right, the subs changed nothing...I think Williams had one touch and I don't remember Smith or Anderson getting mentioned at all. And yes, Cheltenham did look tidy in their own half, a bit of composure, whereas we hoofed the ball upfield when we had it in our own half.
Poor marking by everyone for the first....Turnbull stood motionless as their player left his side and made a run, and our static zonal marking gives no player any momentum to meet the ball and head it away, Morton missed his header and Goode was beaten to his.

True, its not over yet, and yes we have done it before.....but Cheltenham look well organised and able to move up a gear or two if they need to.....we only have one gear.

I was going to say that we might mix things up a bit for the second leg, then I read Curles post match comment.....“We won’t change the way we play and we will keep asking questions of Cheltenham..

[Clint]

A very mediocre performance tonight, total hoofball against a side who dominated in the air, and no creativity. Perhaps they thought it was a practice match.

[everbrite]

Love the way you have to get your "experts" quip in......

Yeah we did play "ok" for a quarter of the game....... you're right, the subs changed nothing...I think Williams had one touch and I don't remember Smith or Anderson getting mentioned at all. And yes, Cheltenham did look tidy in their own half, a bit of composure, whereas we hoofed the ball upfield when we had it in our own half.
Poor marking by everyone for the first....Turnbull stood motionless as their player left his side and made a run, and our static zonal marking gives no player any momentum to meet the ball and head it away, Morton missed his header and Goode was beaten to his.

True, its not over yet, and yes we have done it before.....but Cheltenham look well organised and able to move up a gear or two if they need to.....we only have one gear.

I was going to say that we might mix things up a bit for the second leg, then I read Curles post match comment.....“We won’t change the way we play and we will keep asking questions of Cheltenham..

Some of that is easy to disagree with! Pretty sure that Cheltenham would have moved a gear up or two if we let them. Even their Manager mentioned in his summary that Northampton prevented 'us' from raising our game. If the opposition wished to play pretty composed football in their half unopposed let them; they hardly tore us apart going forward. I can remember the Bristol game 3-0 down and being outplayed and it still looked grim even after pulling one back.  Home advantage was useful though!
The simple truth it is never wise to write off any Northampton side even when the chips are down.

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Some of that is easy to disagree with! Pretty sure that Cheltenham would have moved a gear up or two if we let them. Even their Manager mentioned in his summary that Northampton prevented 'us' from raising our game. If the opposition wished to play pretty composed football in their half unopposed let them; they hardly tore us apart going forward. I can remember the Bristol game 3-0 down and being outplayed and it still looked grim even after pulling one back.  Home advantage was useful though!
The simple truth it is never wise to write off any Northampton side even when the chips are down.

You didn't disagree, you have admitted that Cheltenham could have gone up another gear or two if we had let them......and I said they are able to move up a gear or two........total agreement!

The question is, can we move up a gear or two...or three or four as is needed?

[Coolcat]

Some of that is easy to disagree with! Pretty sure that Cheltenham would have moved a gear up or two if we let them. Even their Manager mentioned in his summary that Northampton prevented 'us' from raising our game. If the opposition wished to play pretty composed football in their half unopposed let them; they hardly tore us apart going forward. I can remember the Bristol game 3-0 down and being outplayed and it still looked grim even after pulling one back.  Home advantage was useful though!
The simple truth it is never wise to write off any Northampton side even when the chips are down.

I only bought the SKY weekly pass!  

[everbrite]

You didn't disagree, you have admitted that Cheltenham could have gone up another gear or two if we had let them......and I said they are able to move up a gear or two........total agreement!

The question is, can we move up a gear or two...or three or four as is needed?

There has been several away games this season when we actually moved up a gear for example Salford and Macca. You are full of negative comment; we did create a few chances of which we should have better with. On the other hand their goalie made some pretty decent saves; not for nothing did one of the commentators select their Goalie as MOM. We played the way which has brought us into the playoffs; its ok when we win but not today! When will you realise that we simply have not got the right mix of players at the moment; that is creative players who are hens teeth in League 2. I can remember some home games against the so called better sides who we outplayed - Plymouth and Exeter for a start; the point being we can play. It would help if you were a tad more constructive in your criticism or lighten up a little.

[Hallsy02]

Overall,

Keith Curle can f*** off as far away as possible, preferably carslisle and we get a manager like duff who can lead a good positive footballing side with complete togetherness, even if we don’t go up under that manager if it’s enjoyable to watch idc because based on this season I might as well have watched the saints as we could probably give them a good run in at drop kicks/ hoofs

[GrangeParkCobbler]

There has been several away games this season when we actually moved up a gear for example Salford and Macca. You are full of negative comment; we did create a few chances of which we should have better with. On the other hand their goalie made some pretty decent saves; not for nothing did one of the commentators select their Goalie as MOM. We played the way which has brought us into the playoffs; its ok when we win but not today! When will you realise that we simply have not got the right mix of players at the moment; that is creative players who are hens teeth in League 2. I can remember some home games against the so called better sides who we outplayed - Plymouth and Exeter for a start; the point being we can play. It would help if you were a tad more constructive in your criticism or lighten up a little.

Granted we have played well in a few games, some of those you have mentioned. But that is history! Stop living in the past old man!

We created a few chances, their keeper made a couple of good saves, he also saved a penalty (which to be fair, if he'd have dived the other way we'd have all been saying "great penalty, right in the bottom corner")

But its not negative to point out that Cheltenham played the better football, had more shape and discipline, and outmatched us in most areas of the park...not to mention the scoreline. You (yes even you) can not dispute that we were too one-dimensional, and that nothing changed tactic wise or substitution wise for the whole 100 minutes.

You can cling onto the hope that we have played 6 or 7 decent games in 40 this season, and yes its only half time.......I think i've been pretty constructive in my criticism, but above all I'm a realist.....and what I saw today was not good enough for us to win the game, and sadly that was reflected in the final scoreline.

[guest2934]

Of the three games I've watched since the restart, Villa v Sheff, Col U v Exeter and ours, it was by far the most entertaining, yes the game plan is simple but on another night the score could easily have been reversed. Maybe the fact they had played friendlies gave them an edge on sharpness?

Sadly the subs killed it and handed the momentum and second goal to Cheltnum, their young loan keeper gets lots of the praise from pundits and rightly so, he earned it. It shows having a quality stopper brings confidence to a defensive unit and the team.

Obviously they're hot favourites now but 2-0 actually gives us the prospect of a game, rather than a cagey 0-0 where nobody want's to make a mistake.

The next goal could be the most important so far. Load up the cannons!

[andycobbler]

Would a lot of the negative comments on here have been made if we'd took our chances, doubt it. On another day we could have won 5-2, their keeper played a blinder and was the difference. Yes we played the same as usual but curles style is what got us into the play offs in the first place, like marmite you either love it or hate it. Cheltenham will be cagey on Monday and if we score early who knows what might happen.

[1HorshamCobbler]

I get frustrated with the one dimensional approach which has already been mentioned. If we stick with Curle it will be the same next season and is unlikely to get us out of the Division. If we turn it around on Monday it will be a fantastic recovery and the first goal will be important, if they score it I fear an embarrassing outcome and it will be time for Curle to move on.

[guest2995]

We will never progress playing that style of predictable football .
There is a reason why teams abandoned it in the 90s - it’s easy to defend against and the supporters don’t accept it .
It’s the worst football I have seen us play in 45 years of watching .
I have had enough of it and will go even less next season if Curle is still here

[BackOfTheNet]

Looking at things in the cold light of day, I think yesterday was probably a decent game for any neutrals watching, just from the amount of incident and talking points, but a very frustrating game from our perspective.

Yes, we played agricultural and unattractive football but we've done that all season and, like it or not (and I don't) it's been effective enough to carry us into the playoffs, so I don't think any of us should be surprised we played that way last night.

Even playing that way, we made more than enough chances to win the game but were in a wasteful mood, and that's something you have to point the finger at the players over rather than Curle. You also have to applaud the Cheltenham keeper who made a couple of decent stops and commanded his area superbly.

What you can (and I think should) point the finger at Curle for is his poor use of subs which, like the style of play, has been consistent all season.  

Personally, I don't object to the like for like swaps he was doing last night; if we weren't making chances then I would but we were so I don't think the system was the problem. It's the personnel changes that I don't get. To me, if we were going to get a goal it was most likely to come from or via one of Morton's runs. He didn't look like he was flagging to me, so why take him off?? McCormack can't last the whole game and wasn't great last night but surely Pollock would have been a better fit for that role than Anderson? Smith for Oliver made no difference but as others have said what about Marshall?  His pace and trickery against tired legs could have been invaluable in those closing minutes but the last 2 subs went unused.

It's not over by a long chalk, but it's definitely a long way back on Monday now.

[St Edmundsbury Cobbler]

The Cheltenham manager nailed it in his post match interview when he said "when you come here, you know what you're going to get"

[1HorshamCobbler]

And I don’t think he was being complimentary with that comment