Thetownend.com

...I'd say the last time we had such a limited set of front men was season 01/02.

 Then we had Graz who could score a few and would walk into this team and Sabinho, supplemented by Joe Kuffour on loan, later the execrable Dominic Foley...Danny Invincibile chipped in with a few and Gurney supplied 6 bonus goals from the back.

 At the same stage as that season we had the same amount of points as this season, and a very similar GD, but were much further down the league. This season would seem a weaker division, on the evidence so far, most teams seem much of a muchness, not many goalscorers about, stacked with young Prem or CCC loan players who lack consistency, but reasonably organised at the back, hence a lot of draws.

The difference for us, was 01/02 was played out in an atmosphere of chronic instability, Evans walking, Kingy coming back in...Carson....Diamond Mike/Holt consortium etc.

That season we went on to finish comfortably mid table, Graz finished leading scorer with 8, but missed half the season injured...Gurney was probably next with 6.

So, given the weaker league this season given the more stable environment, and despite the lack of strikers, we should be able to get at least a single figure finish. Anything less will be a failure.

Very True. Lets hope your right about the single figure finish and we should definatley get top half as a minimum

Its not just the forwards that don't provide goals, JPM is probably the only goal scoring midfielder we have. Maybe Easton, but he's so far down the pecking order right now.

But we knew this at the start of the season. We are generally a tighter team at the expense of goals. We won't go up because of it, but hopefully we won't be in a relegation scrap either. That's progress.

I quipped yesterday that our biggest problem is that we have 4 3rd choice strikers.

Its funny because its true.

Would you even have Hutchinson as a 3rd choice?

Good point Ronnie.

He does appear to be some kind of imposter doesn't he.

Our very own Ali Dia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dia

Thing is Hutch must have something about him. He's shown a fee glimpses. But its the what looks like a lack of effort that pisses most people off.

I guess you could put it down to inexperience in not reading the game, or whatever. But it looks like lazyness to me. I hope he reads opinions  this and realises to make it he needs to put in a shift every time he plays.

Hutchinson Ferry and Kennedy all looked off the pace yesterday, and who were the 3 on a piss up in glasgow midweek?

Amankwaah, Grear and Cuthbert?

the most annoying thing is we needed a striker in May for this season. Cox was always going. We needed a striker in June, July, August and September.

Its now October and we still have bought in a decent goal scorer.

JPC is a snitch

common knowledge apparently, a mate told me pictures plastered all over facebook

Oh lord, here come the puns.

  Of our 6 goals at home...4 have been scored by defenders, 2 by Tope.

  This is a worry nearly a third of the way through the home season. It may be that this side is better suited to playing away, where there is less crowd pressure on the shot shy frontmen.

Goal difference isnt going to make happy reading this season.

hutchison seems a very confident lad.pity he's fucking shit so it's misplaced.
ferry seems to tire quickly(poor last saturday second half)and ditto yesterday.also struggles with the rough and tumble stuff.
revells alright but is he better than paynter?both very similar in style of play.
dunno about tope,but doubt he's good enough to get the goals we badly crave.

Ferry doesn't ever seem to do anything bar pass the ball backwards and sideways, I didn't see him at Brentford, but ever other game I have seen him he doesn't seem to do a thing. He also seems to be scared of shooting.


I'd put Easton or Timlin in the side over him, at least they can go forward and get stuck in more.

Think its more a case of them getting more openings due to the fact home teams usually press more....we dont for some reason..Revell,Paynter, Hutchinson all have there plus points IMO but scoring goals isnt one of them......they wont score enough between them....we need two or three strikers braught in,not just the one.

so now we're resorting to what happens in players personal lives to justify a bad TEAM, yes team performance.  Typical.

Not only is it none of your business, it's also not your place to be posting such things on an Internet forum. Whatever the reason for Saturday I hope Wilson sorts it out but attempting to add fuel to the fire isn't what anyone needs.
   

That's told you. Now go to your room and think about what you've done - you're not too big to go over Auntie Luci's knee, you know :)

must be rag week

That's my thoughts on it. Like it or not

You must have burnt the roast Luci!!...though you have a valid point...Ferrys been superb for us...Kennedys played his part....Hutchinson obviously hasnt pulled any trees up though his goal at Brentford was quality...i keep saying it we have a good team,just aint scoring enough...untill yesterday the defence and midfield have been top notch,its never bothered me what players do in there own time..IMO there good enough or not good enough whatever they get up to.

Haha Ive had a great day! Just bugs me when there's always "I know what the players have been up to posts". 

And to note, I never burn a roast :-) miraculously I can actually cook!

I think you're spot on. TCP's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy

Pah, back in the day Gladstone Small used to deliver Botham some gin between overs, never did his performance any harm (ok, so not the same sport).  I reckon the 3 of them could have done with a piss up just before kick off, may have pepped them up a bit.

If any of the TEF 'regulars' had posted that I'm not sure this response would have been given. I seem to remember a thread on here about one of our former players/coaches.

You're right it doesn't explain the poor performance really, but it's not very professional to be doing that during the working week. If my employer knew I'd been out on the piss in a far away City during the working week I'd doubt they'd be happy (I haven't btw).

My opinion is that the whole team was poor and out of those 3, only Hutchinson looked like he wasn't trying. Kennedy looked an immature footballer and Ferry looked like he tried but got out-muscled on most occassions. Not sure that has anything to do with allegations of mid-week piss ups in Scotland.

They may have even gone up there and not got pissed. Just one of those rumours I guess. No real harm done.

Botham did play professional football for a bit, and I doubt he suddenly went teetotal during that period.

Can I suggest you try watching Ferry? To say that Easton or Timlin go forward and get stuck in more is quite clearly bollocks.

Ferry's been very good since he arrived. Saturday was an off day for him (And most of the team).

It always amazes me how players we rave about only need one bad game to be considered shit.

Tope: Was looking very good before his injury, comes back, one bad game= he's shite.

Revell: Was immense against Millwall, didn't do much Saturday= he's shit.

Kennedy: Exciting young player that needs experience and nurturing, showed his lack of nous on Saturday= he's shit.

Etc, etc, etc.

Agreed, but you haven't mentioned Hutchinson, who hasn't impressed me at all!

I only put players in who have impressed Ronnie. Hutchinson, due to his total lack of giving a fuck clearly doesn't fall into that category.

Agreed again!

I think we can put saturday down to a bad day in the office. Kennedy, ferry, JP have all done ok this season, the whole team was shit saturday. I do think Hutchison is poor though. Can;t believe Paynter's was on the bench. He's our best striker.

annoys me we play crappy loan signings over our "own" players - My dad says he has heard rumors that Easton may be on his way???

Apart from Hutchinson, which crappy loan players are you talking about and which of our own would you replace them with?

Good post. And with regards to what some have said about Ferry passing sideways and backwards, he can kick it in any direction he wants. Possession is an important thing in my eyes and having a player who will play with patience and competence is good. If we wanted a player to always play mindless balls forward - when there isn't one on - we should have kept Pook.

Revell over Paynter errrmmm well I guess that was a bit of a rash "in hindsight" statement   :-[ - cause I guess Ferry hasnt been that bad before and Ive not really seen that much of Hutchinson - Im really not a fan of Topi or whatever his name is though - particually the first half on Sat - he just seemed off the pace - disinterested - he just seems to not know what hes doing half the time?

Im just pissed off cause I passed over a lunch with the girls to come to the match  :P

I guess we all see our own game when watching as I'm quite surprised that a fair few think Ferry had a bad game Saturday. I actually thought he was one of only a couple of positives to come out of a poor performance. His work rate was great and he tried pushing forward when he could. I think DW made Ferry's and JPM's jobs harder in picking that formation, and I was disappointed that the Douglas role was not covered (by preferably Easton) as that gives so much more freedom to the likes of Ferry and JPM. I for one hope we end up with Ferry on loan for the whole season.  

I agree with Herthab and Anteater. I think without Douglas (and also as a result of the two in central midfield selection) both JP and Ferry had much less time on the ball. Kennedy was more exposed through not having as much midfield defence, but was off the pace in any case.

Surely Wilson has to try Tope as one of the front two, he seemed to make a difference in that role in the second half v Walsall, and play Easton of Timlin to make 3 in midfield.

Si Pie - what do you consider to be a 'working week' for footballers then ? surely mid week is as far from match time as you getting pissed at the weekend ?

I think the lack of pace up front poses it's own problems. Makes us very one dimensional. I think revell holds the ball up well, but on saturday the midfielders had so many opportunities when they had the bal, but no outlet. No movement. Play a more defensive mdifielder to allow JP and Ferry to go forward, an protect the back four, and stick tope alongside paynter or revell.

selection was wrong saturday. we move on, try and get it right this week. Live and learn.

That's it in a nutshell.

The players dont just 'work' saturdays though do they?

They train during the week, I dont know what days they have off mind you and as for their personal life - as soon as it goes on facebook its public knowledge. If you didnt want people knowing you wouldnt plaster it all over facebook.

Kennedy has said he wants a first team place.
Hutchinson looks like he has turned up here expecting to be the dogs bollocks without putting in the effort. Instead he's been bollocks.

Should be getting their heads down if they want to be first team players. There's a perception that they need to work hard to get there. Which was really what I meant about professionalism. Although as I alluded to, it's a bit of a non-story for me. Like I said they may not have been plastered and taken it easy or the story could be untrue. I think I was just trying to point out why some fans would be concerned.

Really I just wanted to bring up Luci's Ady Williams thread again, but I couldn't find it :D

Ferry is the best loanee we have. Works well with Douglas, & to me Saturday was about how that twat of a ref against Millwall & those jerks in the FA have punished us / Douglas for a perfectly good tackle.
Kennedy was clearly the one to be substituted first on Saturday. He was beaten both times leading too their goals on Saturday, so had to be replaced. Hopefully tho' he'll learn from it. For me I'd have played either Easton, or Timlin in midfield to replace Douglas. Easton has shown in the past he can get forward & Timlin is more than capable or can sit in front of the defence.
As for Topi & Hutchinson, I prefer the latter. He's been Ok to date whereas Topi has just had a few moments where he looked good. FFS if we wanted pace we can get Eric Sabin back.
Put to me the biggest mistake was taking off Revell. I'd have put Paynter AND Revell on with Peacock behind them. Topi would have come off along with Hutchinson & I'd have told the teanm to feed McNamee/ get the ball into the box. So often we have righly complained about the aimless hoofball, but on Saturday even that would have been better than what we had.

har de har very funny, but on a serious note, and looking back, I think its fair to say threads/comments like that don't help anyone (including mine about Ady Williams previously)

And, whoever had posted it would have got the same reaction.  The reason being, I thought we were all past that whole using their social lives as an excuse thing since thats been done to death and doesn't seem to have got us anywhere.

Neither do any of the football posts, this part of the forum gets used to vent frustrations and force opinions onto others. We're all very opinionated and for this reason some people aren't going to like particular stories.

JPC just wanted a reaction though, which he got. Congratulations.

At the end of the day, who cares? Three work colleagues out socialising in a pub = the death of society.

At least they all had the sense not to get behind the wheel of a car after doing so........

That was on facebook too pumbaa

And I suppose your two posts are pretty much a reaction to mine.  Quite bitchy lately Si, aren't we!

I'm just bored with agreeing with everyone. Regarding that point, you're quite right but I should have made it clearer I was addressing JPC, he's done a good job.

Oh my. I missed it. Is it too late to be horrified?

Talking of facebook, I see a couple from here have joined the John and Edward X Factor fan club :D

Fuck yeah, they're the only reason I watch it.