Thetownend.com

Just got back. What a cnut that place is to get to. Anyway - my thought on tonight's game. Feel free to agree or disagree, it's only my humble opinions - and I'm pretty f*cked off that we went out after dominating for long periods. I might feel better in the morning.

1. Overall thought we played ok. Barnet aren't a bad side, play good football at times and make it compact on a tight pitch. We played well in patches, probably did enough to win it in normal time and dominated spells of posession. Compared to last season's perfomance it was miles better. Zabooub was superb, paynter played well, JP did enough, peacock was good, Pook and sturrock not so good - but not bad. Looked solid enough at the back.

2. Jamie Vincent. Solid, yes, wins headers etc.. but such a predictable player. Comminges is quick, exciting and likes to get forward compared to him. Am I alone in not rating him?

3. Jerel Ifil, as awesome as he is, had a bit of a stinker. His passing wasn;t great and he let so many balls under his feet. A minor blip me thinks - but his head seemed elsewhere?

4. Aljofree left the pitch seemingly pissed off the fans and shaking his head - why was this? Looked like he was annoyed the town fans left as soon as their goal went in? What do you expect?

5. Christian Roberts = not interested. I think he'll be playing elsewhere next season.

6. We didn't score any of our pens. I expected better of Paynter, but why didn't corr and or/ JP step up to take on instead of Comminges?

7. Tackle on the boob was horrendous. Two footer, deserved the Red. Anyone know what the injury is?

8. Their keeper was quite good, kept them in the game.

9. Heath Ledger eh? Why would you do that? With a two-year old kid?

10. The good news is I don't have to do an interview for a potential programme on Saturday. Got enough to do tomorrow and I'm likely to be fairly pissed off at least until lunchtime because of tonight.

11. I was impressed with their centre midfielder, Puncheon was it?

That is all.

barnet is indeed a fucker to get to. agree with everything you say. we should have won . heath ledger had no fucking chance with a name like that.

1. All good points, although I was glad Robbo came on for Zaaboub as I think he offered more (shame it was through an injury though)

2. Both were a bit poo, but Vincent going forward is often worrying

3. Ifil was crap tonight, hopefully he'll be back at his best on Saturday

4. No idea, can't say I noticed to be honest.

5. I thought Roberts did well. He actually ran at players and got some balls into the box.

6. No idea about why they didn't step up obviously. You have to remember there was another penalty to come though

7. Ridiculous challenge. Hope Sofi is ok

8. He made a great save from Paynter's effort late on

9. No idea what this is about

10. If it helps, I've injured myself and will have to spend the end of the week catching up on stuff I'll miss through not being able to walk to uni tomorrow  :?

11. Yeh Puncheon was good, think he is highly rated

Good points on the whole, but thought we were crap overall, too much hoofball, and although Pook and Peacock were poor a lot of the balls were by passing them, I also thought zaboob was terrible, and Corr needs to try to not shoot everytime from 30 yards, only players to play anywhere near decent were Comminges and Aljofree. Also gone 1am before home for a 30 mile trip .cracking evening!

I have always said you should spend a good amount of time practicing penalites

hansey said they never practiced them!!! very professional start there for malpas and bryne in a cup replay  :-))(

That fucks me right off. I hate all this "Oooh, penalties are just a lottery" bollocks. Penalties have become too much of a factor in recent seasons in terms of deciding cup ties and play off games for teams to not be practicing them. Fuck me, they practice free kicks and corners so why not pens? Some one has to miss one eventually I know. But by practicing pens and getting in the right frame of mind for them, you are decreasing your chances of missing and making things difficult for the opposition....as opposed to missing all four.

Pathetic. Just pathetic.







FACT!

What a joke if its true they want a kick up the arse - you should always practice penalties.
At least one team I support can win shoot-outs :roll:

I actually thought we were gash and what a contrast from Saturday.

Thought Zaboub did well and he was the only one causing them problems at one point as he seemed to unpick the defence.

Paynter did ok as did Blaire but looked out of steam a bit early for my likings.

Roberts looked up for it when he came on and had a go at least.

Pook was shite and needs to go.  Peacock did ok but definitely needs Easton back as the partnership they have struck up of late we missed.

Ifil and Hasney I was disappointed with.  Not as solid as recent weeks, ifil was given the run around more than Ive seen before.  

All in all, I dont there were many positives apart from the fact that we can concentrate on the league and not worry about a hectic schedule of Tuesday nights etc.

It sounded like Zaaboub was having an absolute blinder from the commentary. He seemed to be the only Town player getting mentioned at times. It was like it was him v Puncheon.

I like Zaaboub and hes worked hard to prove himself.

Really gutted for him getting stretchered off.  On the flip side, McNamee could well start v Crewe.

I know what you mean about practicing penalties but don't footballers ever think, we might go to penalties tomorrow, I might stay on a bit and practice taking some in training, wonder if any of the other lads fancy it.

It's like some of these tossers hate football as soon as training's finished they fuck off home.

Take some responsibility for your actions, I'd be well embarrassed if I missed a penalty in a shoot out or a match, so I'd be practicing them pretty much all the time, not just before a cup match.

Roberts needs to go, always been a backer of CR but his time is up.  I'm sure Exeter would put an offer in for him maybe.

Ive stuck up for Roberts in the past but his half arsed performances are really beginning to fuck me off, get rid a.s.a.p.

I left before the penalties started as there was just an air of inevitability about it and just as we were getting in the car at train station car park the first big cheer went up. I can not believe we did not win that game the chances we had in the last 10 minutes of normal time.
Agree Roberts should go and also Pook the guy puts a lot of effort in but he is just not good enough.

Why was Pook playing, is Easton injured?

Sorry if this has been covered already.

Yes. Injured. Don't feel bad about it though.

Think they rested him Jan but not 100% sure as Adams was on the bench.

yes he was.

Cheers all.

Adams to go.

Roberts to go.

Pook to go.

that'll save a bit on the wage bill (even Pook's on not a bad deal).

Id agree with that.

I'd agree also.

Two other points.

1. Byrne seems to do nothing else but rollock people. He shouted a lot at Sturrock, Ifil and Aljofree - none of them seemed to take too kindly to it.

2. I forget what else I was going to say. It come to me.

The more I think about last night the more p*ssed off I am. We could do Rovers, which would mean round 5.

I've noticed that a lot with Byrne when things aren't going well.  He bollocked Miguel Commingues the other week, effin and blindin at him.  Not very professional.

Can't imagine he's the most popular bloke at the club, but then again maybe it's a case of good cop bad cop.

Just seems a bit old school, hardly constructive and a bit childish. Wonder how that works with Mo Mo's style?

Thats Billy Mitchell for you

i think penalties should be practiced as a matter of general training. they practice corners of which the percentages of scoring from corners is significantly less than a penalty and the same goes for free kicks. they should be part of training it shouldnt be a laugh or a penalty specialist stepping up to possibly win you a game. how many finals could england have been in if pens were part of training from youth level up.

Like Nev said, have a weekly penalty comp where the winner wins something, bonus, something for the family.  Whatever, just to generate that nervy feeling in the closing stages.

also keepers can be rewarded somehow through save ratio.

I don't think practicing pens would make a blind bit of difference. A pro footballer at any level should at least be able to hit the target from 12 yards. The atmosphere and the adreneline of a penalty shoot out cannot be recreated in a field at Wanborough. It's all about holding their nerve.

Hmm, he seemed to get the performances out of them when he was caretaker. And I understand Sir Alex isn't averse to the odd bit of effing and blinding. He's done quite well.

It has worked so far for Deutschland - who I know for a fact take penalties very seriously as should every team

Exactly my thoughts Dogger Davis

Brez- looked shakey, second half in particular. From where I was he looked to be at fault for their goal. They should have had another but for Comminges clearing it off the line, after Brez had flapped and got nowhere near the ball.

Zaaboub- was superb first half, ran at the full-back and put some decent balls in... didn't notice him quite so much in the second half.

Comminges- didn't get forward as much as he has done recently.

Ifil- well below what we've come to expect from him.

Pook- considering he's not had much football recently he must have been absolutely knackered after 120 minutes.

Paynter- good to see him on the score sheet again, seemed to get a bit over-confident and started shooting from anywhere.

As for the pens,
Paynter- as he went up to take his, me and my mate agreed he seems the sort to blast it over the bar.
Roberts- let the crowd get to him with their "wanker" chants, smashed it wide.
Aljofree- what were you thinking?
Comminges- irrelevant really by this stage.

In hindsight, the highlight of the evening probably came before we even got in the ground. Walking upto the turnstiles about 7.30ish a steward called us over...

Steward: "Hang on a minute lads, what's this blokes name?" (points to man stood in front of him, grinning madly as he realises his genius plan to root out this imposter) "He reckons he plays for your lot."
Us: Err, Craig Easton
Steward: Ah, right...well... ok then
Easton: Cheers lads

Cue one red-faced steward and one happy scotsman. 8)

"It matters more when there's money on it".......

what pissed me off was that at work last night - after linking a series of extension leads together across the sports centre to enable me to rig up a horrid 80's radio I found in the cleaning cupboard on poolside so I could listen to the second half whilst I scrubbed down the poolside - They went and lost  :x

Practising penalties does pay off. Were not at the level where goalies will know which way players will go. We average a penalty shoot out about every 4 years. If youve got a spot you like striking then go for that, takes away all the doubt in your mind.

Agree with all of the first post.

Have to say if Barnets 15 year olds can sing in time and support their team like that, why cant our 15 year olds?

So what if we get to the play-off final or semi final and it goes to penalties and they all miss again, will you still be sugesting there is no need to practise.

Agreed there is no need to do it every session, but once every few weeks at the end of training does not hurt, and of course it gives the keepers a chance ot save a few and get's their confidence up for shootout's

Yep. It just means they bottled it again. Same as England always do. We could have practised penalties and still missed four last night. It's all in the mind. It's why England always bottle big games. No mental strength.

Bet Bristol Rovers practiced there penalties

they didnt miss one.

i remember brighton's penalties in the play-off semi final... bottom left, bottom right, top left, top right, middle.

not in that order, but definitely to a plan, and they went through.

The scum who chucked a brick through my car window after the game ast night were a darn sight more accurate with their bricks than we were with the pens.

A freezing cold drive home with broken glass all over the car just about finished off a perfect evening! Anyone else see any car windows smashed?

and in my mind i'd be a lot more confident when taking a penalty if I knew I could convert 9 out 10 in training than I would be if i'd never taken one and had no idea what side I was most accurate on.

england v portugal. you could see that portugal were happy for it to go to penalties and were very confident to the point it was obvious they had practiced taking them to a point of utter confidence. there is no tried and tested method for pens but as in all sports practice makes perfect.

Id say they are worth practising.

What with one of my mates being a handy goal keeper in my youth i've wasted hours taking penalties against him....

I've taken so many with the same run up, the same look, hitting them with the same part of my body in the same side....that its almost perfect.

He knows which way I'm going and he still cant save it because its into the side netting.

Plus, if our players did the same and Brez knew where they were going, they'd mix it around a bit and be comfortable placing a penalty anyway.

No I didnt.

But there was a bloke thrown out for chucking coins in their end in the first half. And putting 2+2 together it was probably him, or at least another Barnet fan who was thrown out.

This is how to practice penalties (for the takers, rather than the goalie).

1.  Take them from the 18 yard line - this will make you feel really close to the goal when you take a real one.

2.  Get everyone you can ti turn up and shout abuse at you as you prepare, run up and take the penalty - this will help you deal with the pressure.

That is all.

The missed penalties are not a major issue for me. The bigger issue is that a team that beat Forest so convincingly on Saturday failed to beat the shit that is Barnet within 90 minutes. But hey, fuck it. It's done now and time to move on.