Thetownend.com

I know hardly anyone cares about this game but I will be watching as I have nothing else to do and a season pass.

Be good to see what Benda has now hes being given the 90 mins tonight, Broadbent will almost certainly play too as will May, Rose and Doughty according to Wellens.

Lyden out for tonight and possibly Saturday, Sidy Sanokho is unlikely to start but should be on the bench.

Baudry is back in training but unlikely to play a full 90 mins.

The result is pretty much immaterial, unless of course we lose then the more negative fans will be out in force, if we win the negative fans will say its not important anyway. Its a lose lose situation for Wellens and the Town.

I just want to see us getting back to passing football again, the new players coming in playing a decent game and getting no new injuries.

I’ll be watching, too. Interesting game in the context of the league season.

Don’t give a shit if we win or not, but would love Doughty to put in a big performance. He really should be a certainty for the 1st XI every week.

They sorted your broadband out in the land of many Restsina?

I'll be watching with interest. Doughty needs to get back in the XI but him, Grant, Lyden, Keshi in the same team... 4 into 3.

Sorted as in 5mbps - about the best you could expect. The iPTV service I use is a bit hit and miss too. Yesterday I had 5 channels on a continuous loop for 5 hours. Never want to see Carol Kirkland do the weather forecast ever again!

IMO, Grant and Lyden together is a no no - unless Grant is playing CB.

Benda, Reid, Curran, Zakuani, Iandolo; Rose, May, Doughty, Isgrove; Doyle, Woolery.

McCormick, Hunt, Broadbent, Twine, Sanokho, McGilp, Yates.

TBF thats a pretty strong starting line up.

I’m surprised 4D didn’t start a thread 4 days before the game like he normally does.

Disappointed to see Isgrove start.

Where’s the cotton wool!

Yeah hope he stays away from any tackles!

TBF hes been pretty poor since Macclesfield (as many have) and a good game could do him the world f good.

Muff make 5 changes apparently and are set up 352

            Cooper
     J Grant Canavan Wooton
Sawyer                     Riley
     C Grant Edwards Sarcevic
       JV Grant     Rudden

Not sure how many will start on Saturday but they have 5 changes from Saturday. Interesting to see 3 Grants playing for them! I don't think any are related either.

Would have been even more interesting if Anthony Grant was playing for us too!

With the amount of enthusiam shown by Town fans for this competitionI will be posting no updates today just goal updates and HT and FT.

Is there a game on ?.

I see what you did there.

surely Broadbent should start.

no injuries please..

Thats what surprised me more than anything with that selection.

Well I'm gagging for this.  :eek:

Great ball out from Benda, lovely reverse pass from Doughty, good run and shot into side netting from Iandolo.

They hit the bar with Benda fucking up a cross badly.

That pass from Benda gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling

Sent from my CLT-L09

Benda fluffs a punch out and only just knocks the returning shot over his bar.

Oh good. Over to you captain.

Couple of beautiful touches from Doyle.

Not all all Mr Sulu please continue.

Benda miles away from any cross so far.

Good saving header by Reid from a corner.

0-1.

0-1 to them Benda miles from it.

Not close enough to their striker. Good header across the keeper, but the defence nowhere near their men.

FK to them just outside the box. Our defence leaving huge holes.

Not sure why Reid was so narrow in the first place for the goal, no pressure on the wide man at all.

Sounds like he's having an exceptional debut.

Shot deflected just over the bar.

So far, I know its only 15 mins, but Curran and Benda are not 1st team ready. Reid and Iandolo both struggling too, Zakuanis fitness is evidently poor.

First claim by Benda. Raises a modest cheer.

Fortunately this is a great opportunity to find these things out.

May is a donkey.

Last 5 mins all in our half. No passing for us. May screws up an easy pass to set up a scoring chance.

Indeed, the best thing about these games.

The pace is like a friendly.

What makes this whole situation worse is that it is completely geared up for whinging fucker Hockaday to get his soap box out and criticise anything and everything.

Bit of a harsh way to describe the goal imo

Sent from my CLT-L09

Decent stop by Benda but he should have caught it.

People not showing when we go forward, bringing all our moves to a halt until we lose it and they rush in on our goal.

Good save by Benda then.

Very poor command of his area by Benda.

Zakuani booked for knocking one of their players up in the air by our corner flag.

Our defence is just kicking it rather than passing it out. Just inviting constant pressure.

We are playing shit.

We are all over the place in defence.

The co commentator is a right negative nelly. Literally never a good thing to say about town and just praising the opposition at every opportunity. No enthusiasm, I'd rather toss myself off with a barbed wire glove than be as negative as this nobber!

Another backs against the wall block for a corner. Good take by Benda though.

All evidence so far this season, suggests that May isn't good enough, certainly not a a substitution ahead of Doughty.

 What a dreadful, disjointed, half-arsed performance so far. God knows what’s happened to the stuff we played a few weeks ago.

We’re fucking shite

How this is still just 0-1 is beyond me.

Dave Hockaday.

They’re passing all round us. Our b team hasn’t got the memo.

0-2

0-2 totally deserved.

Also, a little bit of beef about Doughty, I think he's too good for us, he just seems to be two steps ahead of most of the team, really hope there is a way to make it work.

FFS

Iandolo miles out of position and Zakuani marking 2 players one with the ball and one on the wing where Iandolo should have been.

Doughty looks like he cant be bothered.

2-0. Too easy. Isgrove gives May a hospital pass in the final third, they break, pass tidily and knock it in no problem. We’re not at the races.

Good grief? What the fuck am I watching here. This is worse than the Brown/Flitcroft/Williams eras.

Its on a par at least.

This is like watching a Luke Williams team. We pass it left and right in front of their massed defence, lose it and they charge out catching us short.

3 against 2 perfectly executed.

still, at least this shitfest cup will soon be exited.

3 subs please ready for Saturday Wellens

We're obviously lulling them for the league game  :)

Early doors he played some very good balls that weren't read by the others.  That's my read anyway.  Probably a little frustrated since.

Curran down injured now.

Broadbent on for Curran. Anothe CB injury.

Coming off looking concussed. Oh good, here’s Broadbent.

It's like watching a bunch of headless chicken in red shirts.  I get that it's a pointless game, but you'd think they have enough in their marbles to try and concentrate and at least make it look like they've all been training with each other.

The midfield is like Swiss Cheese and the defence are in need of a Sat Nav to help them out.

There have been a couple of throw ins where players have stood still 10 yards from the Plymouth player who is also stood still in space ready for his pal to thrown it to him unchallenged. bizarre.

The difference is that Plymouth ACTUALLY want to win this.

I think I just heard a shout from "football Phil".

Mind you, I can understandWellens not wanting to put Curran on ina league game.

There’s some truly woeful performances on show tonight.

My biggest concern is there appears to be absolutely no defensive plan at all.

So far only Zakuani has come out with any credit in defence, and thats slim, hes won a coupld of headers.

May, Rose, Doughty all look like they can't be bothered or just not good enough, Isgrove wants to do stuff but can't get the ball and Woolery and Doyle are running around and getting no service at all.

HT 0-2 fucking shite.

It's men against boys - we're lucky not to be 4 down !
They're full of slick one touch football whereas when we actually get the ball it's hoof !

HT. It’s not that we’re losing or that we’re playing an unfamiliar side, it’s that there’s no evidence of the team having been coached with any apparent plan. Wellens clearly has a preferred style. Why have our players stopped playing it? It’s soon going to need the manager to throw some crockery around.

Well, that was the opposite of fun.  We look like a bunch of players who have been thrown together at the last minute, combined with having been deprived of sleep for a few days.

Reid looks awful
Iandolo is fully exposed for all his defensive positional issues that he has
Curran and Zak were at sea but exposed
May - the game has passed him by both attacking and defending, he is a ghost of a player
Rose and Doughty have clearly both decided to avoid injury today
Isgrove has continued his recent run where he looks like he is playing while being frustrated, I can;t see what has put that in him as he was doing really well.  He just seems like he's annoyed by everything, and it's coming out in his game.
The other front men have been non existent for large parts because of what's going on behind them

Exactly as RobT says, Benda has shown he can distribute the ball well at times, and poorly at other times, he does not command his area for such a huge figure, barely comes out for crosses and even rarer actually catches them.

He made 1 decent save and 1 excellent save but was miles from everything else.

Currently LMc is a much better choice as 1st team keeper IMO but then if he was THAT good he would have started before tonight I think.

Please please please BBC never allow Hockaday to do comms again ever, it will be much appreciated, lots of love, me.

May is not good enough.

So far this half, more of the same. Benda kicked it straight out. May put in trouble losing the ball. As you were.

May just misplaced another pass. I think that makes it, um, every one.

Iandolo down injured.

Iandolo crocked. Will have to come off. Looking like a knee.

Jeez we’re down to bare bones. Hunt on.

Hunt on for Iandolo.

He's basically a shitter version of Ryan Harley. I don't see the point in him, he's been shit in every game he's played and we've got enough cover in centre mid now. We'd have been better playing Sanokho rather than flogging a dead horse.

where is Sidy?

One of their Grants also injured. Expensive game this.

Broadbent with a couple of dodgy touches.

They all look like they have never played football before, ever..

Not ready to start according to Wellens.

I think it would be best for everyone if we just walked off the pitch.

Isgrove suddenly got excited and robbed their defender. Nothing came of it, but it was rare enough to merit comment.

We’ve got nothing, zip, nada. No organisation, no skill, no fight. It’s shockingly bad.

Haha, did May just essentially play a 40 yard high ball to himself when attempting to clear?

May miskicks it straight up in the air. This is becoming comical. He literally has Lego feet.

It will likely only get worse.  A complete lack of concentration, cohesion and communication has brought us here, that will get layered on top by individual frustration to try and improve (they are professionals).  However, as they won't fix the underlying issues, it will just be individuals running around even mor erratically.

As I type a wide open PLymouth play slots it in

0-3

As if to prove my point, they've had four chances to kick off tonight, still punting it into touch.

We kept letting them in. Players not doing their jobs. Woolery lost it then watched on. I know this is a nothing game, but it’s a problem if these players have no desire.

This is up there with the worst performances by a Town team I have ever seen.

+1

May made a five-yard pass. Under pressure.

Lose on Saturday and those 'I love this club' hashtag wearegoingup social media clowns will be hashtag PowerOut again

It’s all ok folks. Twine for Doyle.

I think that may be a substitution that tells us all we need to know about the prep for this game.  It's been nothing more than a "getting minutes into the legs" exercise.

Can we just take off three players without bringing subs on and carry on?  I reckon Wellens would consider it.

That’s enough for me - I’m off. Night all.

We've been piss poor in all our friendlies since the season started, and I count this as a friendly. It's a worry that the squad players don't seem to want or be able to make a case for their inclusion.

Plymouth hit the post. We watch.

I would take their keeper over Benda.

Twine looked tricky dinking left and right before crossing onto Isgroves head, who puts it into the keeper’s arms.

Thanks God only about 4 of these players on the pitch now will start on Saturday.

Zakuani, Hunt, Isgrove and possibly Woolery. If this is Doughtys attitude he won't be pressing for a starting slot on Saturday, similar for Rose.

To be fair, Twine has looked as if he cares a bit. Making an effort, showing for passes, one two nice touches.

I think similar was said in the last tinpot game.

I reckon he may have just been told to take it easy. Which is good, I hope the 1st teamers were told to take it easy as well. We might already have lost Iandolo for a while because of a competition we don't even want to be playing in. We should be able to play whomever the fuck we want.

He has run around a lot but not found a killer pass or shot yet, put in a decent cross though.

I don't think Benda, Reid, Broadbent, Twine, May, Doughty or Rose deserve a starting slot for their quality/effort tonight. Nobody has said to Wellens "you have to pick me to start on Saturday" out of all the fringe players.

Uttely disappointing lack of effort and commitment from any of the players when they had a perfect chance to impress...which none of them has.

There was no doubt that Wellens wanted us to win, he was about to bring on Yates when we conceded the 3rd, too little going forward and too little quality all round.

Glad thats over with.

If he really wanted us to win mate you'd think he'd START with Yates, and the others who were left out.

Of course he would have liked us to win. Any manager would. But the starting team clearly showed he was not that fussed.

Well that was awful. Sure, we can put it in perspective as a free hit, but you'd hope a few people felt they had something to prove, and that Wellensball actually meant something to the squad. Neither were in evidence this evening - worse, Iandolo suffered a knock that looked like it might put him out of the reckoning for Saturday, and a few - May, Reid, Benda, Broadbent - only showed that they absolutely can't be trusted with a first team place.

Really couldn't name a MoM for us. Woolery was awful, Isgrove was a pale imitation, Doyle was willing with zero service, Doughty, Twine and Isgrove showed the odd touch. Maybe Zakuani because he stuck to it among the chaos, but I'm clutching at straws.

Hockaday said zakuani for mom for exactly the same reason.

Has anyone seen RF and Hock in the same room...

I'm struggling to find an apt comparison for Adam May, who is a complete waste of ink on the teamsheet. And he doesn't even take much of that. I've never yet seen even a hint of competence, let alone skill. Who's the right comparison? Someone said Harley, but at least he had some pedigree behind him, as did Nalis. Even Hewlett, Duke and Dunne worked hard. I'm really struggling to remember a player who has offered so little in midfield.

Do we have any games left in this abomination?

Excuse me? I'm pretty sure my wife wouldn't let that miserable unreconstructed bastard over the doorstep. At least, I don't think she would...

Bristol Rovers, sometime next month

Most worrying for me was the complete lack of desire/ urgency and quality shown by the likes of Rose, Doughty and Woolery  - who are first team players. May and Reid are clearly not up to it and Isgrove has gone massively downhill very quickly.  A repeat performance on Saturday will cause real concern of the possibility of another mediocre season after much early promise. Baudry and Conroy are, as expected , proving to be substantial misses. I expect a substantial improvement on Saturday.

Yinka Casal. Should have stuck to running.

But the good news is we are out. So as above, just the 1

Anyone hear what the attendance was tonight ?.

Well you've spent the last 2 hours slagging us off, so I can't see much difference.

A meaningless trip to Bristol Rovers. Punishment fixture for those without a hope of a first team app and a few kids, plus four unlucky first-teamers. And let us read even less into that than this abomination.

Pook or Gareth fucking Whalley

I'll still go to Rovers (away). Relax and wonder what I'm doing with my life.

Ha ha. More witty repartee from the bard of Buckinghamshire. Let it go sweetie, you're just upset. Remember it's only the Mickey Mouse Cup.  :blowkiss:

Yep, good calls.

:)
--

Anywho, Wellens sounded brighter than I expected on the radio. Wasn't exactly complimetary about the performance, obviously. Iandolo dead leg and Curren is concussion.

Never saw him in action, but I'll take your word for it.

I am genuinely glad that they showed no urgency --- because they are first-teamers. I think that they are first-teamers is rather the point. They need to be saved for games that really matter. I wonder if Iandolo made a mistake in putting in too much effort. (I didn't see what happened). I think/hope that Wellens is showing this competition the contempt that it deserves.

I'm more irritated that none of the fringe players stood up. Not that I bothered watching the game but that's the impression I get.

Agree. The players I wanted to look at were Benda, Curran, Reid, May and a bit of Twine. None looked even close to making a claim.

The point is the fringe players clearly aren't good enough. It was therefore up to the likes of Rose, Doughty and Woolery to show leadership by setting the tempo and showing their quality - they did neither.

Gareth Whalley is now a coach at Man City.
Michael Pook is only 33 (feels like he should be in his 40s at least!?)

(https://i.imgur.com/tDzZLXb.gif)

genuinely surprising! 33, I thought he was my age..

He's not that old  :)

Don't give a shit about the competition so result is irrelevant other than it could have helped in establishing momentum in the right direction. Get a result Saturday and this doesn't matter, other than to the fringe players who failed to make a claim to being closer to the starting line up.

Result - immaterial
Performances of first teamers - largely immaterial
Performances of fringe players after a 1st team place - rubbish.

Zakuani MoM for me as he at least looked like he wanted to play, the rest, well pretty much pointless.

Glad we are not going any further in this cup but that was an abhorrent performance.

Exactly, and if by effectively throwing this game it helps, all Wellens good.  On the other hand a similar shit show to what we've seen too often recently at the CG and it won't look so clever.

Massive game for RW.

I was tempted to go on Saturday but this has put me off.

Quite. I think we're all assuming he's deliberately thrown it last night, hence the performance of the 1st team regulars. If that's incorrect, there may be troublesome times ahead.

Every cloud .... :)

Its put me off watching it and mine is pre paid, has to be far better than that was.

I don't think 'deliberately throwing it' would be the right term; 'not being fussed either way' would be more appropriate.

I'm out on the lash on Saturday anyway, so it's a guaranteed win.

Good grief some of our support is flakey to say the least.

Yeah, sorry, sloppy phrasing on my part

FH on the piss, 4D not going, do Plymouth know what's going to hit them?

Luckily there are some of us left to maintain balance eh?  ;)

Just to temper things slightly, my dad, uncle and I are going. When we go we are generally shit.

And many of our fans judge performances that they did not even witness and regularly comment on games they have not seen, your point being?

 :doh:

I personally don't give a shit about this cup apart from injuries.

It's been fucked....so I give it a miss. Wouldn't even go to Wembley...TV only if we did.

All about this Saturday.

Played well enough for a point on Saturday, so back to proper football.

My concern from last night is that it was an opportunity to part correct the disappointing home form. In that respect the lack of effort, control and fluidity from all the players was alarming. Of the starting 11, the only 2 who have not started games before were Benda and Curran, with the former being exonerated from criticism by Wellens post match. Of the others Landolo, Doughty, Rose, Woolery, Doyle and Isgrove have all featured regularly when available, with only Reid and May clearly not being considered as first team material. It therefore wasn't exactly a reserve team that was played and I dont think players can turn it off and back on as and when they choose. We have now seen substandard performances at home to Colchester, Northampton (although unlucky to lose) and Newport in the league, together with Chelsea and Plymouth in the (admittedly pointless) cup, all leading to defeat - 5 out of 8 games, which was why yesterday was important. The vast majority of our fanbase do not attend away games, so the home form needs to improve, starting on Saturday.

I left at half time - were we any better over the 45 mins?

Some of the replies on here last night were worthy of Facebook levels of meltdown. Yet consensus screams "no one gives a shit about this godforsaken excuse for a cup 'competition' at all". Why so many acting like they have as much control of their emotions as a 12 year old? Fucking hell lads, you're (mostly) grown men in your 30s, 40s & 50s.

Fuck this, I'm off to finish that bottle of absinthe.

PS: On another note, regarding Pook's age. The formulae is:

Pook Age (Pn) = Reg's Age (Rn) divided by 2.25 plus 6
Pn = Rn / 2.25 + 6

???

Especially reply #167  :)

Fuck you, Bamboo. Fuck you!

My sarcasm levels are "3 packs of Jacobs" level of dryness :)

Get over it oldie  :D

For the first time in many years I decided not to bother going to this type of game as normally I want to see how the "fringe" players stack up. Reading through the comments of those that did bother I obviously saved a little bit of money but luckily did not witness the reported lack of ability/skill/commitment (delete as applicable) that was on show.

I am concerned as to the direction we appear to be heading in now from the early season good performances and attitudes of the players. Surely no matter what the competition is, be it this Micky Mouse one upwards, then surely as a professional footballer winning a game is quite important, the Argyle players reportedly seemed to treat it a such.

Yep. The business of the GPS tracker slackers in training is a concern as well.

I made it about 100 yards from the front door then turned back in the rain.
Had a bad feeling, apart from getting soaked, so a no show like the players.
Looking forward to Saturday though.

I see nothing wrong in calling out the performance for what is was, bizarre, bad beyond belief, whatever you want, as well as being able to sit on the hope that it was a little bit due to the complete lack of interest we had in the game.

Rose is a good example.  We've seen him be good in games, he is generally pretty consistent, a sort of 6.5/7 out of 10 player in most games.  He was on a beach last night.

Doughty - when playing in the first team, if he was seeing as little of the ball as he did last night,a dn felt the frustration of defeat, he'd be off finding someone to cynically bring down from behind.  He couldn't be bothered doing that last night.

Wellens bringing on Twine, at that moment you just knew (no offence to Twine) that he rather just get us off the pitch than worry about another minute of that game.

The team played as if they were told it was a training session, they played as if no prep had been done as a unit before the game, and lets be honest, both are probably pretty accurate.  Training will be with the weekend in mind.  I doubt Curran has been spending extra hours with Zak working on building a relationship for Saturday.

The problem with that approach, as we found, it it very quickly gets worse.  They are professional footballers after all, they don;t like getting tonked.  But when you start with no organisation, anyone trying to fix the issue starts to create even more disorganisation.  It just gets worse as the game wears on, as it did, until it reaches a complete comical state.

I have no way of knowing, but I wouldn't mind betting a re-run of the Birmingham friendly behind close doors would look a bit like last night.  If the Ref and Plymouth Manager had walked into the changing rooms and offered Wellens to call it off after 45, he'd have taken it.

I watched that Birmingham game and you may be right in comparison, the 2nd half of that game was a huge improvement on the first.

Last night there was no discernible improvement at all. What’s happened to our high press that was noticeable in the first few games? Why do we revert to lumping it when the game isn’t going our way?

The midfield needs Doughty, irrespective of last night. Having both Grant and Lyden operating as defensive midfielders isn’t going to help getting the forwards going.

I agree with both the previous posts, it was very similar to the Brum friendly, but as stated, that was a friendly and not a "ahem" 1st team fixture.

At least it will lul 'Muff into a false sense of security because I highly doubt we will play as badly as that all season in a league game, if they do then they need to take a long hard look at themselves and take themselves outside for a stern talking to.

Agreed, if they play like that in the League then they will need a damn good spanking!

I Wellens produced a team that played like yesterday in league games, he'd join Malpas.

...and Luke.