Wycombe Wanderers v Torquay United - 12/10/13

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royalgull
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Post by royalgull »

We lost that game due to not having a league standard defence. Exactly the same as Newport and last week. Who'd have thought it eh? still at least we had a new central midfielder sat on the bench.

a long punt down the middle not dealt with and 2 free headers 1 from corner. Pathetic and completely our own fault, Knill is clueless
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Post by tufc si »

I cant comment on the Newport game but we were certainly the better team today, the minimum we deserved was the draw!!

Stung by 2 set-pieces which is god awful but had Downesy have been there, i genuinely think he would have dealt with at least one of them, if not both!! They looked really dodgy on defending our set-pieces too, again had Downesy been playing i think he would have posed a real threat.

Like the look of Azzeez (sp?) and was very impressed with Pearce as well, reckon him and Downes will look a good pairing!!
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Post by TeenageGull »

royalgull wrote:We lost that game due to not having a league standard defence. Exactly the same as Newport and last week. Who'd have thought it eh? still at least we had a new central midfielder sat on the bench.

a long punt down the middle not dealt with and 2 free headers 1 from corner. Pathetic and completely our own fault, Knill is clueless
Occonor international, downesy injured, pearce scores a goal. What is the point in bringing in a new loan for one game then sitting him on the bench?
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Post by tktufc91 »

How did the fans sound on the radio? Must say the only time I heard the Wycombe lot song was when they scored. Decent turn out as well considering the form were in.
Na, na na, NA NA NA NA, NA NA NA NA, TORQUAY!
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Post by ROADRUNNER »

we have to brush our selves off and go again next week.i dont think anyone expected us to get anything although i was a bit peeved that we were in front then threw it away. just got to get behind them next week and win our home games. and i still think knilly and brassy will turn it around. JUST MY OPINION OF COURSE!!
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Post by Dutchgull »

Came over loud & clear on the Radio. Well done guys !
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Post by brucie »

I am grateful for Fl report and am reassured that we will win soon as it seems that every game we are better tham the opposition and the league table is actually upside down.
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Post by berkshire yellow »

Good to see us get a few dale cavesses done today! admittedly weren't the best but still good nonetheless, from right at the back where me and my mates were we made quite a bit of noise, shame about the result but it will come, soon hopefully!
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Post by portugull »

Today shows again what a massive blow it has been to lose Aaron Downes. I do hope Alan Knill is not tempted to bring him back before he is ready.
Over next month and looking forward to seeing Bayo.He sounds as if he has real pace and knows where the net is!
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Post by Neal »

Just got in

I dont really agree with the previous posters who were there unfortunately.

Both teams first touch and passing accuracy was poor, which actually did make it entertaining.

But we are also light weight and have no tough tackler ( Hargreaves ) in mid field or tough centre back ( Robertson, Branston ).

Knill has gone for the attacking, pretty football strategy but unfortunately the players are not up to it. Not their fault, but the players he inherited and subsequently brought in are not good enough for this league to play that way. You need an excellent first touch and you need to pass accurately ( a fair percentage of the time at least ).

I reckon Ling decided to play the way he did because he made the calculation that he would not get the quality required to play that way for the wages he had available. And I think that's where Knill has made a basic poor decision in going for this strategy. He doesn't have the necessary funds to get the players who could execute that strategy.

Wycombe are not good, but we are not good either and with a leaky defence you are gonna struggle. Its no point saying if Downes or if xxxxx was playing, this is is a squad game. Every team could say that, you have to have decent cover for goalkeeper, centre backs and central midfield.

Knill was on talk sport and reckons we have been playing well but losing, I don't agree, with what I have seen.

I said after the Wimbledon game this would be a relegation struggle and the more I see im sure it will be.

I think the game itself was fairly even and yes could have gone either way, but from set pieces we were poor. Agree you could argue a draw would have been a fairer result but when you have 2 poor teams its gonna be the mistakes at the back that decide it and ours were at set pieces.

I still think Kufour handled for their first goal, anybody else agree?
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Post by nickbrod »

Well for once this was a home fixture for me. My initial reaction was a massive disappointment that we didn't achieve at least a point because this was certainly a much better performance than last Saturday's loss to York.
Azeez went on an amazing run into the Wycombe box past about five defenders then instead of shooting put it into the penalty spot area only for it to be hacked away but not long after hit a glorious opener. Although he really should have scored with a second half header he did tire but on this evidence we should be trying to keep him for the season.
All credit to Pearce for his 'comeback' but he got the wrong side of Kiffour for Wycombe's equaliser. I felt Pearce might have given away a penalty in the build up but the ref let play continue but then Kiffour, in full view of the lino, controlled the ball with his hand before rolling it past Rice. Of course this came about as we switched off after Azeez's goal a pattern that was to be repeated for Wycombe's next two goals.
Throughout the game it really was end-to-end almost non-stop and Pearce nearly scored with a header from a corner before minutes later he did!
A 2-1 half-time lead was never going to be enough but I felt if we continued as we were playing an unexpected win was on the cards. Sadly after the re-start we hardly troubled the home keeper apart from a couple of daisy cutters from Chapell. The only time he was beaten was from another Pearce header from a corner which was headed off the line by a defender.
After that our defence fell apart and to be fair Wycombe might well have scored more than the two they did.
Individual errors cost us today but I guess that's why they play in League 2.
My thoughts: Rice made two excellent saves; Tonge was at fault for Wycombe's second; Hawley despite holding up the ball but not as well as usual was totally ineffective as a striker. Why doesn't he shoot?
Benyon had his first start, chased down lost causes but got no service so he had zero shots. Only Chapell seems prepared to try his luck. And as for Cameron his short lived appearance was a waste of time. Why can't professional footballers who profess to be wingers cross a ball into dangerous areas? Oh yes and Craig was allowed a brief opportunity so he must be edging his way into the Manager's thoughts.
I still believe in Knill and Brass and depressing as another loss is I don't feel we'll be in relegation danger come the end of the season. Currently Downes is a big miss but O'Connor's return next week should allow Cruise to return to left back although in fairness Nico did ok today.
Mansfield need to be beaten next week and I expect us to do this.
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Post by miltonkeynesgull »

Just back in from the game, and needs reiterating that we did not deserve to lose that game. We weren't great by any means, but I thought a draw would've been about right. For me, we had the better chances and looked the more threatening of the two sides...a win would've flattered us - as it does Wycombe - but when you defend set pieces as badly as we did today, there's only going to be one outcome.

The game started scrappily but as the half wore on we improved, Azeez being at the focal point of almost everything good that we put together. He terrorised their full-back non-stop, and he should've gone in the book when Azeez knocked the ball past him and chased after it before being cynically shoulder charged without even making an attempt to go for the ball. The ref did nothing, setting the tone for a pretty poor afternoon.

Azeez continued to threaten, tearing down the right wing before beating three men and cutting in along the byline, but his wicked low cross-cum-shot was blocked for a corner. Moments later, Nicho's low shot from the left was almost turned in by Hawley from a few yards, but his snapshot fizzed agonisingly over the bar. Then we got the goal, as that man Azeez made it 1-0 - rifling in Nicho's drilled cross at the far post.

Almost immediately, though, it was 1-1. I wasn't properly concentrating after our goal, so would need to watch it again, but suddenly Kuffour was bearing down on our goal with Pearce alongside almost wrestling him to the ground, there was a hint of a handball from Jo but somehow he got off a very tame shot which seemed to just dribble past Rice. Pearce atoned for his error 10 minutes later, though, as he made a late run and thumped home a header having being left unmarked from a corner for 2-1.

The second half began in the worst possible fashion with Wycombe almost immediately getting level. The cross came in from the left and it was Cowan-Hall's turn to profit from a free header for 2-2. Think he was Cruise's man but I might be wrong.

It was end-to-end stuff from thereon in, with Pearce having a goalbound header cleared off the line before Wycombe went up the other end and drew a great save out of Ricey at his near-post. United countered with Benyon winning a corner, from which Azeez headed narrowly over, before it was straight back up the other end again as Rice aerobatically tipped over a shot from the edge of the area.

McCourt came on for Benners and we seemed to almost go 4-3-2-1 with Chapell and Azeez pushing a touch higher up the pitch, but almost as soon as the change was made Wycombe were in front. You guessed it, another cross into our box and Cowan-Hall headed home comfortably for 3-2.

The game petered out and we offered very little else, the only positive being Nathan Craig coming on for Lathrope and showing a few very nice touches and composed passes.

Full time came and, as per after a defeat, Knill sodded straight off down the tunnel without acknowledging the fans. Perhaps I'm being petty, I don't know, but it really gets my goat when this happens. Wouldn't hurt after many have made the effort to travel hundreds of miles to get there.

It wasn't a poor performance by any means, but it wasn't great. From open play we were fine defensively, but we struggled again with set pieces and crosses. Going forward we were better, but Benyon and Hawley had absolutely nothing to work with, such was the complete dearth of creativity in the middle. With Downes and the rest in the side today we probably would've got something. With them, we're a pretty average L2 side. Without them, we're a pretty poor one, and whilst they continue to be absent, we'll continue to really struggle. Let's hope we don't lose too much ground before then.


RATINGS:
Rice - 7 - Think he could've done better with their first, but pulled off some good saves. Couldn't have done anything with the other goals.
Nicho - 7 - Pleased to say I thought he had a good game. Wycombe didn't offer much down the wings, but he did well.
Cruise - 6 - Didn't do too badly, but think he might've done better defending set pieces.
Pearce - 6 - Didn't have a huge amount to do. Showed some good stuff with the ball at his feet, but poor for Kuffour's goal.
Tonge - 7 - Assured and improves with every game. Like the look of him.
Chapell - 7 - Dangerous, direct, and scared Wycombe every time. Final ball just didn't quite happen for him.
Manse - 5 - Was he playing?
Lathrope - 5 - Ditto the above.
Azeez - 8 - Quality. Great finish and so much raw ability. His whole family were there today and looked chuffed for him.
Benyon - 7 - Worked so hard and won so many headers, flicks and chest-downs. Brought others into the game but never got the service he deserved.
Hawley - 5 - Poor. Offered precisely bugger all.

One final thought - big well done to the 255 fans there today. Massively improved atmosphere, better range of songs which all lasted for much longer, and backed the team to the hilt. Almost back to where it used to be, let's keep it up
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Post by Pea »

To the idiot who spent the whole game moaning today:

Krystian Pearce played exceptionally well today, irrelevant of the fact he's spent the last couple of weeks fighting a mystery illness - give the bloke some bloody credit - he even scored for us!!!

Now back to my post: o:) Overall the boys played much better today - it really was a travesty that we lost. Some brilliant play - a superb pass from Nathan, even though he was only brought on moments before full time, some really promising play from the lad.

Considering the difficulties the team have had to endure (Downer out, Harding out and a newbie in his place) I think we could have played much much worse. Hopefully next week we get those three points that we definitely deserved today.
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Post by berkshire yellow »

I didn't hear someone moaning? where was he sat/stood?
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Post by Rjc70 »

I thought we looked half decent today. We did look suspect on every corner in the second half and, indeed it was from two of them that we conceded the second half goals. (Edit: their second was from a cross after Tonge skinned, but still a free header for Cowan-Hall) A dominant centre half in that situation is missed, as Pearce can't mark all of them. I'd probably have Azeez in our box rather than Hawley when defending corners, but really it was the lack of an other centre half that did for us. Cruise is a left back.

Our first goal was after some good link up play between Chapell and the overlapping Nicho, who got to the bye-line nicely, put a decent cross along the floor over, and via a touch from a Wycombe boot found it's way to Azeez who drilled home with aplomb from the right hand side of the box into the left hand bottom corner of the net. Good move.

Their equalizer was almost immediate. A punt for Kuffour, some debatable shoving with Pearce, but Kuffour's hand ultimately guiding the ball in front of Pearce to leave him with a simple finish. Handball not seen. 1-1. FFS

Nice header from Pearce for us to go into half time 2-1 up. He had a nice header in front of us from a corner in the second half which would have put us 3-1 up, but Wycombe's man on the post defended stoutly. Something we couldn't seem to do from corners throughout that second half.

My scores out of 10 and I tend to be generous.

Rice 6.5 Couldn't see if he was at fault for any of the corner goals, but if you never come out, you probably ain't helping at least 5 times out of 10. But a world class tip over early in the second half. Not much he could do for the Kuffour handball goal.

Tonge 6 Solid, but skinned a few times in the second half.

Pearce 8 Love the way he always looks for an option other than punting it forward or out. Quite simply our best defender.

Cruise 5.5 looks to show the ball down the line to attack it side-on rather than attack it from in front of him leaving his centre half partner at times exposed.Why? Cause he's a left back. And he'll be all the better for this experience before slotting back in at left back soon.

Nico 6.5 Good forward running. Poor distribution. Not a bad game, but slow as we know.

Chapell 6 Not one of his better games.

Mansell 5 Headless chicken, with one good defensive block at 2-2. McCourt showed more central midfield nouse in two minutes than Manse did all game.

Lathrope 7 won possession a few times rather well by terrorising his opponent's heels. Had a good game, I thought.

Azeez 8 my man of the match. Constant threat, big lad, bags of pace and well taken goal.
Benyon 5 Poor. Only looked passable in his role toward the end before subbed
Hawley 6 Better than Benyon, but not good enough today.

Subs: McCourt - Looks decent. I'd put him next to Lathrope if a two man centre midfield
Craig - came on to make it four central midfielders (He was sort of in the hole for that period) before Manse taken off. Didn't see too much of him. Greeted like the Messiah from voice that sounded like Steve Breed? just in front of me . 'At last, At last,' they cried.
Cameron - not on long but not very good with what he did do, including not get out of the way for McCourt to shoot from a rebounding corner, and skying his effort over.

Crowd - In good voice. The bloke who shouts 'second ball' all the time is a tad annoying, mind.
Ref - Shit
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