Match Review: Huddersfield Town vs Bristol Rovers

[TomTheTerrier]

I can think of three words to sum up today's game: frustrating, infuriating and dour. And I think you can apply those words to both the performance, and the crowd.

The game started brightly with Town on top and dominating possession, resulting in another edge of the box strike for Flynn; a lovely finish and a great start to the match. For the opening 20 minutes Town seemed much the brighter team, and I thought we would go on to win the game comfortably, which we should have done, considering how poor Bristol looked.

In typical Town fashion, we let the momentum slip, and were quite lucky to go in ahead at half time, after Bristol had squandered a few good chances, foiled by Goodwin and Glennon at the near post on two occasions.

After watching a small boy cracked in the face by a ball at half time, the teams came out, but Town continued to look uninspired in possession. We controlled large parts of the game with the ball in the right areas, but the end product just wasn't there, as Dickinson looked frustrated and clumsy for the full 90, with most balls in just ricocheting off him and to a green shirt. In fairness, Bristol deserved their goal, which came from poor closing down on the left side of the box, allowing Lambert to slot home at the near post with Glennon left helpless. The rest of the game was frankly terrible I thought, from both sides not just from Town, and I think a draw was a fair result, but we should definitely look at this as 2 points dropped.

I wanted to post my opinions before we get all of the irritating 'Ternent out!' 'Goodwin out!' 'Save us Gerry Murphy ' threads, which to me seem like knee-jerk reactions with little logic or thought. Yes, we were poor today, and yes, Goodwin had a nightmare, but for gods sake was I the only one who felt sorry for the guy? The Man Of The Match shout was a joke, but to have the whole crowd on his back booing him because of it was an absolute disgrace, just who does that booing help?! The crowd reaction i felt was borne out of frustration and expectation; frustration we hadn't secured the win we looked to get, after the expectation following the Swindon result. As Stan said, it seems to be a trend in the whole of football, with people expecting Champagne taste for beer money.

Rather than doing individual player ratings, i'm just going to split it into positives and negatives:

Positives:

Bright start - We started the game well, moving the ball around and maintaining possession with patient build up play which was nice to see, and we go the goal to go with it early on. Another quality strike from Flynn, proving our midfield is more of a goal threat than our strikers.

Possession - For large swathes of the game we dominated possession in the key areas, but Bristol clearly turned up for the point, and stuck 9 behind the ball on the edge of the area making it very difficult for us to break them down, frustrating the players and the fans.

Butler and Clarke - I thought both looked solid again today, and they seem to have struck a very good central defensive partnership. Saying that, being strong in the middle doesn't compensate for how exposed we look down the flanks.

Jones - not for his performance today, as I thought he went missing once or twice, but he looks like the proper wide player we need to counter Roberts.

Craney - Was subbed as Stan chased the win and altered the shape but I thought he'd been having a good game, he seems to anchor the midfield at times and keeps calm under pressure.

Negatives -

Dickinson - What a frustrating player he is, we've seen how good he can be and today we saw how poor he can be as well. Was frustrated by the Bristol defence for 90 mins. Flicked at everything that came his way but gave away the ball almost every time he had it into feet.

Lack of penetration - partly down to the fact Bristol came here looking for the draw and stuck everyone behind the ball, but we seemed to be playing short passes on the flanks between winger and fullback, as all the players waited for the cross that never came. Patient play is good, but we're not Arsenal, sometimes we need to look to get the ball in the box.

Goodwin - To be fair to him, he had a nightmare today, particularly in the second half. He made a few initial errors which seemed to stick with him, and the pressure was there for us all to see. Whoever picks Man of the Match is a mess, it isn't funny to pick the guy having a bad day. Goodwin looked embarassed, but the crowd reaction, although I can empathise with the frustration, was a disgrace. I hope he starts on tuesday and has a blinder.

Atmosphere - even when we were winning the atmosphere today seemed flat. The singing section could be heard as usual, but the rest of the ground was like a morgue, which wasn't helped by the Bristol fans, who were stuck on mute. Jeering the players when they lose is even more annoying, because we don't even sing when we're winning.

Overall, it's a dissapointing result, but still 4 points from a possible 6. We haven't been relegated to the conference or gone bust, like I expect some of the reaction to this result on here will indicate. Tactically, I didn't think Stan did badly today. Bristol Rovers pitched tent on the edge of their area, and for any team at any level that is difficult to break down. Stan changed things around and tried to make positive substitutions to push for the win, but it wasn't to be. Maybe we changed it round too much? Parker wasn't in the game at any stage when he came on, and looked lost.

I think today is a poor result, but let's not over react, in the same way we over-reacted to the win at Swindon. Expectation seems to balloon between games, at times we're hoping to scrape a draw, or not get embarassed, then if we get a win we're expecting to smack 10 past the next team. A frustrating performance, but a win away at Hartlepool, 7 points from 9, and it's all looking rosy again.

Thoughts anyone?

[birkbybloke]

Good asessment (sp?) again Tom. The Girlfarm felt like a morgue today, even when we were playing well (ie the first 20 minutes). The team then went into snooze mode along with the crowd and it all started to unravel. Couldn't understand changing to 4-4-2 second half just to accomodate Jones (not bad, faded along with everyone else) because suddenly Flynn and Craney became ineffectual. I did't think the Brizzle goal was particularly anyone's fault, the player driving round Skarz wanted it more and nice finish from Lambert (best player on the pitch imho).

Not sure who my Town MoM would be today - poss Flynn if he'd stayed in the middle. Dicko had a poor game (altho' the Town fan who demaded he was sent off can go suck my salty nads. Feckin' thick eejit). Goodwin needs no more embarassment after that mystifying award. Roberts yet again flatters to deceive. Ho hum beige beige beige.

Consistency is a rare commodity in these inconsistent times. Let's hope Stan can find a supply from somewhere.

[Floyds]

Yeah i felt sorry for Goodwin, throughout the entire game. Not sure why Holdsworth didnt come on for him at half time, or at any point at all in fact.

Didnt think we dominated possession at all - they looked the better side - passed well and created 3 or 4 decent chances. We just launched up to Dickinson every single time, who did nothing with it. Cant even remember one decent piece of football from us?

They could and should have taken all three points. Not sure they came to sit back for a draw - they had all the chances? Maybe that is what we should aim to do if that is the case!


No knee jerk reactions - but we are 16th - with one win from six at home. Not good enough. And if things dont improve, im not sure how long DH will keep Stan in the job.

Not sure he can have too many complaints either, if we produce any more performances like that...

[Deleted]

Dicko had a frustrating day mostly because he was chasing long balls and no one really got close to him with both Roberts and Jones playing poorly. After a bright start our midfield evaporated and I'd forgotten Craney was on the pitch by the time he went off.

We have massive problems at fullback IMO as we have 3 poor left backs and no right back. We get done time and time again out wide and perhaps one of the most criminal aspects is that with our 2 attacking wide players we offer no defensive support to our exposed fullbacks which in turn leads to at least one goal we give away per week.

Clarkey is playing well but I'm still yet to be convinced by Butler who's distribution is woeful and seems to be unable to clear a football further than 5 yards unless it's at a standstill. He also gets caught watching the ball over his head like Mirf used to yet he doesn't have the pace to recover.

I don't like to be negative but aside from a lovely strike by Flynn there wasn't too much to get excited about today.

Rickie Lambert would be a good signing as well

[TomTheTerrier]

Oct 18, 2008 18:11:28 GMT 1 @matt said:

Dicko had a frustrating day mostly because he was chasing long balls and no one really got close to him with both Roberts and Jones playing poorly. After a bright start our midfield evaporated and I'd forgotten Craney was on the pitch by the time he went off.

We have massive problems at fullback IMO as we have 3 poor left backs and no right back. We get done time and time again out wide and perhaps one of the most criminal aspects is that with our 2 attacking wide players we offer no defensive support to our exposed fullbacks which in turn leads to at least one goal we give away per week.

Clarkey is playing well but I'm still yet to be convinced by Butler who's distribution is woeful and seems to be unable to clear a football further than 5 yards unless it's at a standstill. He also gets caught watching the ball over his head like Mirf used to yet he doesn't have the pace to recover.

I don't like to be negative but aside from a lovely strike by Flynn there wasn't too much to get excited about today.

Rickie Lambert would be a good signing as well

Dicko was chasing a few loose balls, but I thought he had the ball into feet more than enough times around the box, especially in the second half to create something. Most of the time when it came to him here, he had his back to goal and was under heavy pressure, but I just felt he gave it away far too much.

A lot of the players had a bad day at the office, but I thought Glennon, Craney, Flynn and Clarkey in particular can be pretty pleased with their individual performances.

[specialun]

Thought dickinson was excellent myself in teh first 30 mins - caused them no ends of poblems with little support around him and he made the goal. This was something they had been working on...into his feet early and quickly and laying off for a shot.

In the 2nd half we didn't deliver to his feet as early and he became frustrated. HE isn't a target man in the booth mould and launching balls from 50 yarsds isn't the answer, giving him balls in teh air with less pace or angled is another thing and we lacked on the latter.

Play it early to his feet and make it simple and its fine but mess around in circles and play it to him with 3 or 4 around him and there's little he can do - in the end he was like a lone frontman anyway as parker was completely invsible- but dickinson tried to do too much.

Wehn you don't have much creativity in the team, roberts and holdsworth if he played (and craney to a lesser extent), its no surprise we struggle to create clear chances over a 90 minute period when teams deal with our shape.

We'd have taken 4 from 6, and haven't lost today but ultimately we're 16th which is not good enough whatsover. The next 4 games we need 8 points which will put us close to the top 8 where we need to be before the leeds game for me. That would be a reasonable start and not far off par. Butits all too unbalanced, inconsistent and lacking creativity to see us put a run together playing 451 at home. Away it suits us fine.

[marshian]

2 tricky away games next week - but Town being Town will probably get at least 4 points from them!!!

[Deleted]

Divko got the ball to feet but Brizzle swarmed around him and the support from midfield was frankly embarrassing. Dicko, still needs to learn to keep his cool in those situations and keep working hard but I think it's hard to criticise him too much due to the invisibility of our midfield.

I thought Craney had a poor game for the record as well.

[birkbybloke]

Agree with you specialun, but don't you think it's not actually meant to be 4-5-1 at home but a flexible and in vogue 4-3-3? The problem being that when we're under pressure our full backs are exposed because of our narrow midfield three.

I feel our players just aren't technically sophisiticated enough to play fluid systems and can't adapt mid match or to any given situation.

[TomTheTerrier]

Oct 18, 2008 18:29:23 GMT 1 birkbybloke said:

Agree with you specialun, but don't you think it's not actually meant to be 4-5-1 at home but a flexible and in vogue 4-3-3? The problem being that when we're under pressure our full backs are exposed because of our narrow midfield three.

I feel our players just aren't technically sophisiticated enough to play fluid systems and can't adapt mid match or to any given situation.

I'd agree with this, which is why I questionned whether Stan was wise in swapping the formation, regardless of whether it was a more attacking change.

I think the 451/433 can work for us, especially with Jones opposite Roberts on the flanks, but it just didn't click for us today.

[Deleted]

Oct 18, 2008 18:07:57 GMT 1 birkbybloke said:

Good asessment (sp?) again Tom. The Girlfarm felt like a morgue today, even when we were playing well (ie the first 20 minutes). The team then went into snooze mode along with the crowd and it all started to unravel. Couldn't understand changing to 4-4-2 second half just to accomodate Jones (not bad, faded along with everyone else) because suddenly Flynn and Craney became ineffectual. I did't think the Brizzle goal was particularly anyone's fault, the player driving round Skarz wanted it more and nice finish from Lambert (best player on the pitch imho).

Not sure who my Town MoM would be today - poss Flynn if he'd stayed in the middle. Dicko had a poor game (altho' the Town fan who demaded he was sent off can go suck my salty nads. Feckin' thick eejit). Goodwin needs no more embarassment after that mystifying award. Roberts yet again flatters to deceive. Ho hum beige beige beige.

Consistency is a rare commodity in these inconsistent times. Let's hope Stan can find a supply from somewhere.

Got to agree there BB. I thought Lambert and Butler were on fire yesterday. One match and they were smoking.

[gasheadz]

Oct 18, 2008 17:56:28 GMT 1 TomTheTerrier said:

I can think of three words to sum up today's game: frustrating, infuriating and dour. And I think you can apply those words to both the performance, and the crowd.

The game started brightly with Town on top and dominating possession, resulting in another edge of the box strike for Flynn; a lovely finish and a great start to the match. For the opening 20 minutes Town seemed much the brighter team, and I thought we would go on to win the game comfortably, which we should have done, considering how poor Bristol looked.

In typical Town fashion, we let the momentum slip, and were quite lucky to go in ahead at half time, after Bristol had squandered a few good chances, foiled by Goodwin and Glennon at the near post on two occasions.

After watching a small boy cracked in the face by a ball at half time, the teams came out, but Town continued to look uninspired in possession. We controlled large parts of the game with the ball in the right areas, but the end product just wasn't there, as Dickinson looked frustrated and clumsy for the full 90, with most balls in just ricocheting off him and to a green shirt. In fairness, Bristol deserved their goal, which came from poor closing down on the left side of the box, allowing Lambert to slot home at the near post with Glennon left helpless. The rest of the game was frankly terrible I thought, from both sides not just from Town, and I think a draw was a fair result, but we should definitely look at this as 2 points dropped.

I wanted to post my opinions before we get all of the irritating 'Ternent out!' 'Goodwin out!' 'Save us Gerry Murphy ' threads, which to me seem like knee-jerk reactions with little logic or thought. Yes, we were poor today, and yes, Goodwin had a nightmare, but for gods sake was I the only one who felt sorry for the guy? The Man Of The Match shout was a joke, but to have the whole crowd on his back booing him because of it was an absolute disgrace, just who does that booing help?! The crowd reaction i felt was borne out of frustration and expectation; frustration we hadn't secured the win we looked to get, after the expectation following the Swindon result. As Stan said, it seems to be a trend in the whole of football, with people expecting Champagne taste for beer money.

Rather than doing individual player ratings, i'm just going to split it into positives and negatives:

Positives:

Bright start - We started the game well, moving the ball around and maintaining possession with patient build up play which was nice to see, and we go the goal to go with it early on. Another quality strike from Flynn, proving our midfield is more of a goal threat than our strikers.

Possession - For large swathes of the game we dominated possession in the key areas, but Bristol clearly turned up for the point, and stuck 9 behind the ball on the edge of the area making it very difficult for us to break them down, frustrating the players and the fans.

Butler and Clarke - I thought both looked solid again today, and they seem to have struck a very good central defensive partnership. Saying that, being strong in the middle doesn't compensate for how exposed we look down the flanks.

Jones - not for his performance today, as I thought he went missing once or twice, but he looks like the proper wide player we need to counter Roberts.

Craney - Was subbed as Stan chased the win and altered the shape but I thought he'd been having a good game, he seems to anchor the midfield at times and keeps calm under pressure.

Negatives -

Dickinson - What a frustrating player he is, we've seen how good he can be and today we saw how poor he can be as well. Was frustrated by the Bristol defence for 90 mins. Flicked at everything that came his way but gave away the ball almost every time he had it into feet.

Lack of penetration - partly down to the fact Bristol came here looking for the draw and stuck everyone behind the ball, but we seemed to be playing short passes on the flanks between winger and fullback, as all the players waited for the cross that never came. Patient play is good, but we're not Arsenal, sometimes we need to look to get the ball in the box.

Goodwin - To be fair to him, he had a nightmare today, particularly in the second half. He made a few initial errors which seemed to stick with him, and the pressure was there for us all to see. Whoever picks Man of the Match is a mess, it isn't funny to pick the guy having a bad day. Goodwin looked embarassed, but the crowd reaction, although I can empathise with the frustration, was a disgrace. I hope he starts on tuesday and has a blinder.

Atmosphere - even when we were winning the atmosphere today seemed flat. The singing section could be heard as usual, but the rest of the ground was like a morgue, which wasn't helped by the Bristol fans, who were stuck on mute. Jeering the players when they lose is even more annoying, because we don't even sing when we're winning.

Overall, it's a dissapointing result, but still 4 points from a possible 6. We haven't been relegated to the conference or gone bust, like I expect some of the reaction to this result on here will indicate. Tactically, I didn't think Stan did badly today. Bristol Rovers pitched tent on the edge of their area, and for any team at any level that is difficult to break down. Stan changed things around and tried to make positive substitutions to push for the win, but it wasn't to be. Maybe we changed it round too much? Parker wasn't in the game at any stage when he came on, and looked lost.

I think today is a poor result, but let's not over react, in the same way we over-reacted to the win at Swindon. Expectation seems to balloon between games, at times we're hoping to scrape a draw, or not get embarassed, then if we get a win we're expecting to smack 10 past the next team. A frustrating performance, but a win away at Hartlepool, 7 points from 9, and it's all looking rosy again.

Thoughts anyone?

Yeah here's a thought, what a crap biased report that was.

You were lucky to get a point, we dominated apart from the first 15 mins, and our keeper hardly touched the ball after your goal.

Surely if we shut up shop from kick off you would have had more attempts at goal than us?

Booing your own players anytime is a poor show, especially when you didnt even lose.

Id have taken a point before the game, but after watching the game im gutted we didnt get a win at our bogie ground.

See you at the Mem.

[Tez]

I agree. We were lucky to get a point, if it wasn't for Matty G's saves in the first half the game would have been lost.

Can't believe we only had one shot on target all game. It resulted in a goal but still poor imo.

See ya at the mem!

[terrierng]

Oct 19, 2008 13:22:22 GMT 1 gasheadz said:

Oct 18, 2008 17:56:28 GMT 1 TomTheTerrier said:

I can think of three words to sum up today's game: frustrating, infuriating and dour. And I think you can apply those words to both the performance, and the crowd.

The game started brightly with Town on top and dominating possession, resulting in another edge of the box strike for Flynn; a lovely finish and a great start to the match. For the opening 20 minutes Town seemed much the brighter team, and I thought we would go on to win the game comfortably, which we should have done, considering how poor Bristol looked.

In typical Town fashion, we let the momentum slip, and were quite lucky to go in ahead at half time, after Bristol had squandered a few good chances, foiled by Goodwin and Glennon at the near post on two occasions.

After watching a small boy cracked in the face by a ball at half time, the teams came out, but Town continued to look uninspired in possession. We controlled large parts of the game with the ball in the right areas, but the end product just wasn't there, as Dickinson looked frustrated and clumsy for the full 90, with most balls in just ricocheting off him and to a green shirt. In fairness, Bristol deserved their goal, which came from poor closing down on the left side of the box, allowing Lambert to slot home at the near post with Glennon left helpless. The rest of the game was frankly terrible I thought, from both sides not just from Town, and I think a draw was a fair result, but we should definitely look at this as 2 points dropped.

I wanted to post my opinions before we get all of the irritating 'Ternent out!' 'Goodwin out!' 'Save us Gerry Murphy ' threads, which to me seem like knee-jerk reactions with little logic or thought. Yes, we were poor today, and yes, Goodwin had a nightmare, but for gods sake was I the only one who felt sorry for the guy? The Man Of The Match shout was a joke, but to have the whole crowd on his back booing him because of it was an absolute disgrace, just who does that booing help?! The crowd reaction i felt was borne out of frustration and expectation; frustration we hadn't secured the win we looked to get, after the expectation following the Swindon result. As Stan said, it seems to be a trend in the whole of football, with people expecting Champagne taste for beer money.

Rather than doing individual player ratings, i'm just going to split it into positives and negatives:

Positives:

Bright start - We started the game well, moving the ball around and maintaining possession with patient build up play which was nice to see, and we go the goal to go with it early on. Another quality strike from Flynn, proving our midfield is more of a goal threat than our strikers.

Possession - For large swathes of the game we dominated possession in the key areas, but Bristol clearly turned up for the point, and stuck 9 behind the ball on the edge of the area making it very difficult for us to break them down, frustrating the players and the fans.

Butler and Clarke - I thought both looked solid again today, and they seem to have struck a very good central defensive partnership. Saying that, being strong in the middle doesn't compensate for how exposed we look down the flanks.

Jones - not for his performance today, as I thought he went missing once or twice, but he looks like the proper wide player we need to counter Roberts.

Craney - Was subbed as Stan chased the win and altered the shape but I thought he'd been having a good game, he seems to anchor the midfield at times and keeps calm under pressure.

Negatives -

Dickinson - What a frustrating player he is, we've seen how good he can be and today we saw how poor he can be as well. Was frustrated by the Bristol defence for 90 mins. Flicked at everything that came his way but gave away the ball almost every time he had it into feet.

Lack of penetration - partly down to the fact Bristol came here looking for the draw and stuck everyone behind the ball, but we seemed to be playing short passes on the flanks between winger and fullback, as all the players waited for the cross that never came. Patient play is good, but we're not Arsenal, sometimes we need to look to get the ball in the box.

Goodwin - To be fair to him, he had a nightmare today, particularly in the second half. He made a few initial errors which seemed to stick with him, and the pressure was there for us all to see. Whoever picks Man of the Match is a mess, it isn't funny to pick the guy having a bad day. Goodwin looked embarassed, but the crowd reaction, although I can empathise with the frustration, was a disgrace. I hope he starts on tuesday and has a blinder.

Atmosphere - even when we were winning the atmosphere today seemed flat. The singing section could be heard as usual, but the rest of the ground was like a morgue, which wasn't helped by the Bristol fans, who were stuck on mute. Jeering the players when they lose is even more annoying, because we don't even sing when we're winning.

Overall, it's a dissapointing result, but still 4 points from a possible 6. We haven't been relegated to the conference or gone bust, like I expect some of the reaction to this result on here will indicate. Tactically, I didn't think Stan did badly today. Bristol Rovers pitched tent on the edge of their area, and for any team at any level that is difficult to break down. Stan changed things around and tried to make positive substitutions to push for the win, but it wasn't to be. Maybe we changed it round too much? Parker wasn't in the game at any stage when he came on, and looked lost.

I think today is a poor result, but let's not over react, in the same way we over-reacted to the win at Swindon. Expectation seems to balloon between games, at times we're hoping to scrape a draw, or not get embarassed, then if we get a win we're expecting to smack 10 past the next team. A frustrating performance, but a win away at Hartlepool, 7 points from 9, and it's all looking rosy again.

Thoughts anyone?

Yeah here's a thought, what a crap biased report that was.

You were lucky to get a point, we dominated apart from the first 15 mins, and our keeper hardly touched the ball after your goal.

Surely if we shut up shop from kick off you would have had more attempts at goal than us?

Booing your own players anytime is a poor show, especially when you didnt even lose.

Id have taken a point before the game, but after watching the game im gutted we didnt get a win at our bogie ground.

See you at the Mem.

thats more like the game i saw