Thetownend.com

Just reading through the comments on today's game and it looks like lots think LJF was man of the match.

I don't know if I'm completely losing the plot here but;

A) For their first goal he got pulled completely out of position and tried to tackle a guy on the left touchline. Douglas had to go in to cover at centre half and the guy passed the ball past LJF (who by this point had clearly forgotten he is a centre half and thought he was a left back again!) and scored.

B) For their second goal he's tried to press the midfielder who has just gone past McGovern, which alllowed Sparrow to run off his right shoulder and give him a clear run on goal. What was he thinking trying to press the player on the ball when he's a centre half?

C) He wanted 3/4 touches every time he got the ball, and 4 times nearly lost the ball with it stuck under his feet being closed down by a Brighton striker.

Sorry....I don't want to put myself on suicide watch after just one game but if he can be that positionally unaware, yet still get MOM in many people's eyes then there really is something wrong!!

Yeah you're completely wrong

If you're going to start allocating blame for the 2nd start with ferry, who fannyed around and got tackled instead of putting the ball into the box when in a decent position

And for the first, it was Prutton who got done easily on the half way line, allowing Brighton extra space to pick the gaps which led to the goal.

I must have entered a parallel universe or something, everyone's defending LJF.

The main mistake made by Mr Disco is viewing LJF's covering of other players and potential dangers with being out of position. The CB's need to cover the full backs and midfield when necessary, which is what LJF was doing on the two goals - his job.

He did nearly lose the ball a few times, but he didn't. I thought it was interesting that he was the one taking the ball out of defence rather than Cuthbert, he looked pretty confident on the ball over all.

I'm sure most people forget that today was probably only his fifth or so game at CB. Give him a chance and he'll get better.

Easy man of the match for me though, and probably 99% of those at the game.

DazR your a fucking mong i must say >:(

He was excellent today, I see signs of him growing into an accomplished centre half at this level, and possibly higher.

By far the best red-shirted player on the pitch.

I'm glad somebody else noticed that, it doesn't seem to have been mentioned by anyone else.  The second goal came as direct result of Ferry losing the ball in their penalty area!

And Lecs was my MOM as well.

Dazr fuck off you cock

I thought both he and Cuthbert were solid today. Lecs won more or less everything and the majority of the time he laid off a simple pass to someone. Aside from the slight moment of panic where he nearly got dispossessed by Barnes, he was composed throughout.

I like Jean-Francois, you can't knocked his effort.

Yeah, he scares people and he's often the scapegoat but the guy deserves credit when it's due.

I'm in the DiscoDaz corner on this one I'm afraid so I'm clearly a cock as well.

both goals came from midfield not tracking sparrow, clearly LJFs fault.

Yes you are. But well done for admitting it. It's the first step in resolving the problem

MOM should have been Sparrow.

Yes, because you often see that don't you? The home side's sponsors voting for an opposing player as MOTM. I'll let you off as you're clearly new to this football malarkey, one of the 485,000 glory-hunters jumping on the FAECeS stadium bandwagon which will propel you all the way to the Champions League. For the record, your MOTM was the ref, with the half-wit lino on the DRS side a close second

You Swindon lot seem to be alright apart from you, chill out mate it was only a joke. And no im not "jumping on the bandwagon" :/

Feel free to come back when you've grown some hairs

Surely you can do better than that?

Feel free to come back when you've grown some hairs you cunt.

Any better?

Why swear?

Don't think its been mentioned yet, what was up with the away following for such a 'massive' team not many of you went, didn't really need to open the stand behind the goal, pretty pathetic for first game of the season, bit tinpot really. That quite big South Coast team I think they are called Southampton filled the entire away end last season.

Because it makes me look cool and then people like me :)

I was fucking well impressed and I don't even like people

What we had 1497 fans?

really? where did that number come from?

Arkells must be 900 max, and there wasnt 600 on the bank.

Well even if that figure is correct pretty pathetic for the first game of the season isn't it. I mean you're meant to be averaging 22,000 at home next season according to alot of your 'fans' yet can't even take 1,500 to the first game of the season. The maths just don't stack up.

Away fans are entitled to 10% of the ground capacity, we had slightly more than that, I honestly don't understand why you think we didn't bring many?

Well we sold out mate

Hahaha sold out what exactly?

I didnt say you didnt bring many - I just dont think it was that many. Unless i've got my figures wrong.

900 in the Arkells which I thought was the maximum and at most 200 on the bank as a guesstimate, 300 if we are being stupidly generous.

Away end so your bank had to be opened

Selling out the away section involves selling out the bank pal.

the bank is part of the away end. Away teams get 3,300 tickets if they can sell them. You couldn't and didn't.

where is the source for the brighton figures?

No, that's not true. You don't give us the Stratton Bank allocation. And as I asked earlier, how many times was it open last season? It was opened for us today, because of the demand. Our website says we had 1,497 there today, and it felt like we had something like that number. I know we didn't have many in the Stratton Bank, but that's mainly because we got the Arkells tickets first, so sold them. The Stratton Bank is just the overflow.

Which I think is a shame, it looks a lovely stand, but it remains mainly unused. It's a shame. I understand why, but I still think it's a shame.

The Stratton Bank is part of the away end but it is only ever opened if the away club can sell enough tickets to justify it. It's not an overflow or an extra allocation - it is part of the away allocation. The point others were making is that there were fuck all Brighton fans on the Stratton Bank and that any big team would fill it. I say others as personally I don't really give a flying fuck about any of it.

arkells away section holds 1200

Put is this way, walsall have managed to sell out the bank in the past :-D

You've gotta love a Brighton fan telling us all about OUR stadium.

LJF was my MOM.

this post shows that some fans have no idea about the game of football.

i want to hurt you DiscoDazR

In my opinion the only thing you could criticise LJF for in the game was his distribution, especially in the first half.

However, if there's no movement in front of you who exactly are you supposed to pass to?

It was noticeable in the second half that because of that he was bringing the ball out of defense more.

This from the Brighton ticket office in response to a question about ticket allocation.

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?t=179744

If you insult LJF, your a cunt :(

Thats always our policy though? It's not an overfill area, it's a designated away stand

yeah so, they had 1200, plus 100 or so in the bank, still a shit turnout

I saw the thread title and thought it was going to be a thread about LJF's mum.

Maybe but you took just 788 to Gillingham for your first game away last year

http://www.thefootballforum.net/index.php?/topic/172070-the-official-coca-cola-league-1-away-support-section/page__st__980 (http://www.thefootballforum.net/index.php?/topic/172070-the-official-coca-cola-league-1-away-support-section/page__st__980)

Bennett - I was wondering whether you would comment on this mate as I know you know your onions (as I like to think I do after playing n watching for 30 years :D)....maybe my take on him is different as the town end perhaps aint the best view but I really don't rate him and we need a replacement for GG (leader,positional sense but with more pace and not giving silly free kicks) sooner rather than later....maybe to blame him for the goals was a little harsh but far too often he took too many chances yesterday with the ball at his feet (as a centre half) and I recall quite a few times yesterday when he wasn't even goalside of their CF.

I didn't rate Brighton....top half, yes, play offs, no

As a centre half with them only playing one up top most of the time, he was out of position far too often and against a team with two up top, he will struggle.....he has pace no denying that and on his day, his distribution is better, but I honestly can't see how folk used to slag off Ifil when we have a left footed equivalent(bar distribution) imho....

So what?  The difference here is that we've seen a succession of BHA fans on here over the summer giving it the big one about the hugeness of your support. 

I thought you'd fill the away end....shame you couldn't as we could do with the money.

Don't really compare, it was a mid-day kick off mate on Police advice so keep trying.

Umm...Am I missing something here? Why would a midday match make such a difference? It was Gillingham, not Carlisle.

Every thread has descended into an argument about the away support.

What the fuck?

who gives a shit who took more,who sang louder,etc,etc.
fuck me. this site after a bit of a resurgence is on the fucking slide again big time.
too many thick clueless cunts, and away fan pricks.fuck off!

Yawn. Same old, same old for the first day of the season.

Gillingham did this last year, Tranmere before that....

It's all relative innit. Compared to our shite home attendance our away attendance is huge. Trust me, sitting in a 1/2 full stand made of temporary seating with no roof is nigh on impossible to get an atmosphere going. Compare that to having 1200 or so fans in full voice away from home in a stand where you can make a bit of noise and stand up.

Maybe that's where we get our delusions from as it seems bigger. Dunno - for what it's worth I thought it was a pretty decent attendance by us for the first away game. Anyway pub beckons and I've started to sound like some point-scoring nob. I'm outta here.

Cheers you sarky bugger. I did make the Ifil comparison after his third shank into the Arkells

I think he's composed on the ball (to a point, then bounding into the comical) and didn't cost us either goal yesterday, on that basis I think anything aimed at him is unfair. Barnes was pulling onto him rather than Cuthbert most of the time and Barnes was kept quiet as a result.
Of the two CB's yesterday he impressed me more than Cuthbert, which is either an indication Cuthbert wasn't tremendous or LJF has made a step up

wasn't being sarcastic mate and maybe if I weren't sat in the cheap seats I'd have seen the same as you! if we have the same centre half pairing in 6 games time I will be very surprised.....what I will say though is that I have faith in DW as he defo knows his onions...

Having watched the highlights....

A) LJF wasn't pulled out of position. Rose was further up the pitch so LJF moved over to cover him and then Douglas dropped back to cover LJF - this isn't a fuck up, this is exactly what is supposed to happen. Don't think anyone was to blame for this goal, it was well worked and taken though maybe Smith could have done better.

B) LJF didn't press Sparrow. Rose pressed Sparrow leaving LJF to close down the man the one-two was played with. Again, not sure I'd blame anyone for this goal, but if you have to it would be Rose as pressing Sparrow before the one-two was probably the wrong move (should have left him for LJF) and Cuthbert for not seeing the danger and moving up to catch Sparrow offside when the ball was played back to him.

No coalition needed here;
LJF wins the vote for best CB against Brighton.

He actually looked like he wanted to play the ball and not hoof it up to the Brighton defenders and keeper. Given a run in the side and more confidence I'll be shouting -

"you'll never beat Jean-Francois"

"try to take the ball past lesci, he say no no no"

The Adver voted him MoM.

I'm very glad someone made this point, It is bang on. It was three on three at the time and Rose came steaming off his man to leave Jean-francois with loads to do to catch the assister.

My vote went to Cuthbert,though Lescinal played very well as well.

I'd imagine that Wilson will have them working on defending counter attacks such as that in training this week, a promotion chasing team should have defended that a lot better - even if a goal was still conceded. The more I think about it though the more I'm blaming Cuthbert as he was the only one of the three running towards goal and if he'd been a bit more aware of what was happening he'd have checked his run and caught them offside.