Next Game Attendance?

Thankyou both for your brilliant match reports on yesterdays game.It would seem we are having some lucky breaks going for us lately and that is a refreshing change.You know its funny how different pairs of eyes see things ,firstly i think our defence is a shambles alot of the time at other times brilliant.I read one of your statements last week Otep my friend which stated Rhino and TJ are brilliant centre backs and as you know thats the main area i want putting right,so thats why i find this site fasinating.Again i do care about performances by the team because good luck does run out.I see the Sunday Mirror put Mags in the team of the day,dont get me wrong i believe you guys, im just stating how different folk look at things.As for the attendance on Saturday my friend i think around 3,200 3,500.

How funny ! Maghoma makes League 2 Team of the Day ! Even Pesch did not think anyone really shone beyond Macca and the centre halves - though he also said the defending was woeful in the first half.

For the record, Maghoma was one of our poorest players on the day. Macca was brilliant and Calvin played very well... but other than that.

What is odd about our defence is that they are all very good players in my eyes. The problem seems to be something else. Not paying attention for 90 minutes? Lacking focus for 90 minutes? Not good operating as a unit? I really can't understand it.

Returning to the Pesch interview and keeping with our defensive frailties - he commented how it would be nice to go 2 or 3 up for a change. We did - at Barnet, and we squandered that too.

I just want to back up the point made by Otep about the
defence being individually quite good but it does not work collectively.
TJ is much more positive & aggressive this season (as seen in his yellow card count), Stanno has played well on his return, Rhino is one of the best headers of a
ball, and Kevin Amankwaah looks a more complete full back. Corbs is steady as a defender but not so good going forward, whilst Aaron is often a match-winner going forward, but at times shows a rather naive limitation as a defender. Probably a bit of an over-simplification but thats how I see it.

Why doesn't it work as well as it should do?
1) The lack of a clear leader and strategy to defend.
Theres loads of finger pointing about who needs marking, but no-one seems to move (Well seen in throw-ins where we just dont mark "tight" , like other clubs) How often do we come up against a team marshalled and controlled by a tall rugged tactically aware centre back, who organises and motivates those around him? Quite regularly I'd say!
2) We attack as a team, and defend as a team. In my view. too often space is created as our midfield (Including the wingmen) are over-run by sheer weight of numbers. I put it down largely to the wide men not tackling back enough, too much depending on the central midfield 2.
3) Too much space in front of the full backs, especially
on our left, where our opponents are often able to put two men in this space and make life very hard for Aaron.
4) We do not seem to have had a regular back 4, due to injuries and suspensions.
5) We lost our 'best defender' in only our 3rd league game, namely Tom Parkes, who seemed to be on top of his game , and threatening to have a great season.
6) We always seem to have been suspect defensively, even in the blue Square

So there's a few reasons I reckon why collectively we are not as defensively strong, as the individual ability of the players suggests we should be.

To hell with it! We're defensivley playing better than last season. Its a bumper season for goals, and we
have 3 excellent strikers. We are 5th in League Two, have won 4 of the last 5 League games. What have we got to be miserable about?

The original question was the crowd for Saturday?
This is where we all have to play our part in making the effort to come to every home game, and sell the good football and Burton's succesful streak of having won 4 of the last 5 league games.

AFC Wimbledon will be tough (they all are!) and its important that we get the 3 points on Saturday, as we dont play again till December 10th, when we are away to Crawley, which could be a very good indicator of how far we've come.

But it all depends on us getting 3 points on Saturday. We've all got to go (no excuses) to the Pirelli and shout/encourage the Brewers, and really get behind
them!
C'mon you Brewers!
Brewer Dave

Good point about the back 4 constantly being exposed Dave - a very good point. It was like that last season too. This season we are capable of scoring down the other end though.

Picking up on what you say about how good things are Dave is this thought to ponder. Nervous about relegation last season I set up a points predictor from the remaining fixtures for about 8 clubs at the foot of the table.

From memory I am sure that we had 32 points at the time that I started it - which I think was at the end of February - if not the start of March.

We have 32 points as of 19th November.

I'd like to think the novelty factor of this match will bring in a few more people than usual. I'd love to see upwards of 4,000, but think it'll be more like the 3,500 forecast above.

Really looking forward to it as it will be the first time I've seen the real Dons play.

Its hard to forecast the crowd as there is usually more there than announced !!!! 3,500 would be good anything more a bonus. Its that time of year when "her indoors" wants to go Crimble shopping !! On the subject of AFC Wimbledon i have total respect for their supporters who refused to let the business men win and started their own club. What an achievement and testimony to real football supporters.I remember them from our old Southern League days and made a couple of visits to the old Plough Lane ground. We never seemed to do well against them ! Hopefully we can start a new chapter on Saturday. Enjoy the game. I shall be well enough to make it this week.