Reflecting on Saturday's win over Plymouth, it's always slightly churlish to be less than delighted with three points but am I alone in thinking that the overall performance was actually less impressive than of late?
From where I was stood, Maghoma, Webster and Austin all had 'off days' and the visitors created more than enough chances to have got more out of the game. You could certainly not accuse them of being affected by the trauma of the wages issue and given the distance, the travelling support was brilliant.
Once the second goal had gone in we again seemed content to push the ball sideways and backwards rather than push on to put the game beyond reach.
All around me, the comments were that if they were to get one back we could be in trouble of throwing yet another lead away. Thankfully when the inevitable happened it was already stoppage time so we only had to tough it out for four minutes. (Where did that come from by the way? Is 4 just the standard number that they stick up these days?
On the positive side, another strrong showing from the front two, each rewarded with a goal. Richards is taking on the speculative shots that Harrad used to try to great effect - something that we missed in the second half of last year.
Zola was unluck to see his curler come back off the bar, And what about Jimmy Phillips? Surely his best game since the early days whan he first arrived.
Macca and Bolder were tenacious as ever and Ross Atkins did what he needed to , particularly when he was the only one awake when that late free kick was slid into the box - looked a certain goal until he smothered it.
At the end of the day, three points against a side that until very recently we could only have dreamed of playing cannot be bad. And as we saw on Tuesday, you don't always get the result that the performance merits so a win on a quiet day balances it up a bit..
Next three are all against teams that have started with less points than us - less see if we can keep it that way.
Good luck to the Pilgrims - no one wants to see a club going through the torment that you are - hope it resolves itself quickly and you can start catching up
Albion add to Argyle's misery
posted on 4/9/11
I thought they were a poor side steve and dragged us down to there level.Having said that this must not be allowed to happen we should be more ruthless with these sort of teams and blast them early on in games.We are better than that and the only thing that hit home for me on the plus side was the Richards and Zola partnership they were a handful again.The three you picked out as having poor games in my opinion are overated,Mags plenty of promise no end product Rhino,prone to lots of mistakes that cost us,Webbo,gets us the odd goal,caught out of position all the time,slow and lethargic.Steve i keep saying it we need a good centre back and full back and we are not far off middle to top half of this league.
posted on 4/9/11
After the Hereford side that visited the Pirelli last season I'd say that Plymouth yesterday were the second-worst team I've seen against the Brewers, they really were very poor indeed. But that we struggled to beat them does raise questions in my mind and I thought that Webster and, on occasion, Austin really were struggling at the back.
But three points are three points and you have to be happy with that.
I think Plymouth made it difficult by packing out the pitch between wherever Burton were in possession and their area. Their whole midfield four operated as a defensive unit and immediately dropped back in front of Burton when we attacked. It wasn't pretty, but proved to be effective for them up until the first goal went in. Contrast that to our midfield and Maghoma wandering back as Argyle broke forward and, a couple of times, Jimmy coming into the middle hunting the ball, only for Plymouth to break through the gap he'd left open on our left side.
Next weekend will be a much sterner test for the side, followed by the visits of a good footballing Crewe side and Swindon. I think we'll have a much better idea how our season is going to pan out after those games.
posted on 4/9/11
I was in Greece and you may have heard the loud cheer when the final score was texted to me.
Obviously I have nothing to say about the game or the contribution of individual players.
Thank you to everyone for their synopsis and analysis.
posted on 5/9/11
I've never been his biggest fan but i think James was unlucky not to get MOM on Saturday. I remember three massive headers alone that he won with the game at 2-1 and the high balls pouring into the box.
Still think the weak link of the team/squad is both full backs and in particular their distribution. Webster seems to play the same ball every time, his little chip down the line to no-one in particular. Where as Corbs just seemed to fire the ball at Maghoma giving him little chance to cause a problem. Maghoma was pretty anonymous but did anyone else notice how tight their left back and even left winger were to him. Obviously Reid picked him out as a threat allowing Jimmy some more freedom.
Good 3 points, and hopefully more to come as i'm sure we'll need it against the stronger teams. Maybe now is a perfect time to have a little dip into the loan market for a couple of full backs Pesch.
posted on 5/9/11
Is Kozluk still training with the squad? I know he's 34(ish), but he'd be a decent player to have for a season if Peschisolido could convince him that L2 isn't a bad place to be.
The loan window opens this week if not and there are going to be many players looking for somewhere to play, who aren't getting regular football at their respective parent clubs. Fingers crossed there's a gem out there somewhere who just wants a loan period with BAFC on their CV....