john
Spectator
Posts: 16
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Post by john on Oct 7, 2023 18:36:58 GMT
Brilliant performance today, I though Sam Hart had he's best game for us so far, there seemed a fantastic togetherness among the fans, fantastic getting behind the team, we are all in these together..Up the U's
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Post by is4 on Oct 7, 2023 18:39:24 GMT
Congratulations, well done on your prediction. Again due to my recovery I missed the game. Reading previous posts it seems/ sounds the whole squad, including the management,got it together and produced a great game and result.i hope that it continues.
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Post by jamesc on Oct 7, 2023 18:55:11 GMT
I know everyone is going to focus on the great performance by the players (rightly, what a mad contrast to Tuesday), but can I just say I think that's the first time in the three seasons ive been attendin, where most of the crowd were so vocal.
We are naturally a fairly quiet ground, but even the seats were belting out "United, united" on repeat from the word go.
Felt very "together".
Just as Excellent crowd responce, given Tuesday, if you ask me! Well done all.
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Post by garethl on Oct 7, 2023 19:16:38 GMT
Great performance, very sharp up top. The front 2 are quality and look like they could link up nicely. Defence had shaky moments first half but were much better 2nd half. Better pressing, got stuck into them. Excellent response and a clear sign they are still with Matt. As some have said already Clay had a great game, easily his best in a Sutton shirt that I have seen, first to so much. Hart also much improved from Tuesday, as were most. Better intent, better everything. Could have had a couple more (as could they) - would like to see the disallowed one again, O’Brien should probably have got the goal his game deserved, Smith could have got the hattrick on another day.
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Post by os on Oct 7, 2023 19:25:05 GMT
Couldn't you just kiss them wheelie bins lads
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Post by garethl on Oct 7, 2023 19:33:20 GMT
Looked liked we picked a side to get a clean sheet on Tuesday. Trouble is we’re not defending well and sides can score goals even if you do. Yes always look for clean sheets and to defend well but if we just think about that it ends up in the negative mindset we saw on Tuesday. I think we need to go the other way and look to score goals. I’d like to see us go hell for leather for 3 goals. Start thinking that way and it’s more positive than waiting for defeat or hoping to scrape a result. Only wins will get us out of this. We may as well have a proper go. I totally get that, and don't disagree. But getting a clean sheet will also do wonders for our confidence, especially our very fragile defence which I think we're all in agreement is our biggest problem this season. Looks like we both got a lot of what we called for!
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Post by Andy K on Oct 7, 2023 20:12:51 GMT
I totally get that, and don't disagree. But getting a clean sheet will also do wonders for our confidence, especially our very fragile defence which I think we're all in agreement is our biggest problem this season. Looks like we both got a lot of what we called for! And I'm loving it!
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Post by Amber Aleman on Oct 7, 2023 20:24:18 GMT
Quite a contrast with Tuesday's performance! Reverting to 4-4-2 certainly helped, as certain players looked more comfortable in their accustomed positions. And there's nothing quite like a couple of early goals to restore confidence.
Walsall, to be fair, got several shots away, but they were either off-target or straight at Bouzanis. Today was our day.
The whole Sutton team played well, something we've not been able to say for a while, but I pick out Christian N'Guessan who I think had his best game for us so far.
That result takes us off the bottom, above Forest Green on goal difference. This does make our home defeat to them five weeks ago look like a particularly poor result. We're certainly not out of the woods yet.
Extraordinarily, we've failed to win five of our seven home league matches, but won the other two by four-goal margins. Football is weird sometimes.
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Post by FaultyyearsaU on Oct 7, 2023 21:02:00 GMT
“Taxi for Matt Gray……he deserves a bloody good night on the Town!!”
Perhaps if we insisted replica shirts were purchased with BIT coins, bought over paid players we have no budget for we could also have afforded Mark Hughes ??!!
Matt understands SUFC history and culture, he knows we have less than no money and gets the very best out of what we can possibly afford to stay even close to solvent.
Superb today.. simple as…
#foreveramber
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Post by timbo on Oct 8, 2023 0:29:51 GMT
Great to hear the result and learn of the positive performance today!!
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Post by guildrover on Oct 8, 2023 0:29:59 GMT
We came out swinging and positive attacking football at home, compared to Tuesday where we were playing not to concede and lose.
It is clear we have great attacking players so let's utilise them and put teams under the cosh. The best form of defence is attack and if we score 3/4 goals then it is going to take some team to out score us.
Matt needed that win today, but more importantly, the team needed to show what they are made of as it is clear this squad is better than the squad we finished with last season, they just need to show it.
This is just one win though and we know what happened after our last one. Enjoy it, but we need to be straight back at it against Crawley and Doncaster in the next two otherwise it means nothing in the wider context. This squad has the ability, do they have the desire? When they are on it, yes. But they need to be consistently on it.
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Post by baboonfish on Oct 8, 2023 11:21:02 GMT
As myself and others said before the game, today seemed like the last chance for Matt Gray to turn things around. Fair play, it was vastly improved from Tue but let's not get carried away. We're hitting a massive run of games against teams in the bottom half. 4 points from the next 2 would be a strong indicator we've turned things around and could take us out the bottom 2, but lose both and we're right back where we were. After that, our Nov fixture list includes games against Tranmere, Colchester and Harrogate. Massive massive fixtures.
The next 2 months is our season, IMO. We could be laughing at how stupid some of us were to doubt MG, or we could be entrenched at the bottom. One swallow blah blah summer.
Bizarrely our second half performance impressed me far more than the first. We were extremely lucky to go in 4-0 and on another day it could have been 3-3. We finally came up against a team who couldn't make their chances count, but we certainly took ours.
After that early 2nd half scare (not sure how Walsall didn't score), we made some tactical adjustments and played the best football we have all season, passing it around fluidly, retaining possession and creating several more good chances, while controlling the game. Because we weren't CHASING the game, Gray and his team were able to make some smart tweaks, and they will have learned alot about the team's strengths and weaknesses yesterday.
Yes Clay had his best game, because he was used to his strengths. Like all our opponents, Walsall got into the vast gaps between full back and winger, exploiting our main weakness - wingers who can't defend. However, second half, Clay was tasked with filling in those gaps and stopping the two on ones and breaking up play. He did that excellently, although his passing ability is a big worry. Coley's tendency to come into the middle leaves a huge gap on our left side, but that stopped being a problem once Clay started to cover.
My main worry is I dont see us scoring goals without Smith and Patrick, so keeping them fit is vital. The main positive is we've found a tactical set up which could work, with two centre mids sitting very deep, and abandoning the press in favor of a mouch more compact set up. The forwards only press in the middle third, as if they press higher up it leave a huge gap between midfield and attack. Sensible tactics so fair play to the management on that one. However, whether this will work against teams who control possession and have quality midfielders remains to be seen.
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Post by paz on Oct 8, 2023 13:29:21 GMT
whether this will work against teams who control possession and have quality midfielders remains to be seen. Just to add, Walsall did have 56% of the ball yesterday. They were just closed down and from about the 35th minute could not find the space we usually give. We are not going to go a whole game without the opposition putting us under pressure and creating chances. We just need to be more compact and decisive when dealing with it. Besides a few shaky moments in the first 30m where they got shots in, I thought they were contained quite well from then on, even in that second half scramble where they still did not get a shot in, as our positioning was more composed and tighter, making them have to work harder to score. I think the issue seems to be the midfield and defence communicating defensively. and you saw this in the Salford game where for their second we had about 7 or 8 men in the box to there 3 or 4, and they get an unmarked shot in. The midfield need to know when to drop back and the defence need to know when to push up, working together. This is why a good few of goals we concede are unmarked shots just around the box. While obviously Walsall's heads dropped I think for about 60m of the game yesterday we saw an improvement in that regard. And I am sure Walsall were advised to have a real go in the second half given our abysmal defensive record.
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Post by ggl on Oct 8, 2023 13:36:17 GMT
“Taxi for Matt Gray……he deserves a bloody good night on the Town!!” Perhaps if we insisted replica shirts were purchased with BIT coins, bought over paid players we have no budget for we could also have afforded Mark Hughes ??!! Matt understands SUFC history and culture, he knows we have less than no money and gets the very best out of what we can possibly afford to stay even close to solvent. Superb today.. simple as… #foreveramber Yesterdays performance and result was just what was needed to stop , for now , the calling of the club to make a difficult decision about Matt . I hope this turn of form continues , I really do , and is just not a one off . Time will tell . in the meantime the Taxi is parked away back in the garage where I hope it remains . Again , time will tell . In the meantime I hope Matt woke up this morning with a sore head after a few shandies last night !
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Post by baboonfish on Oct 8, 2023 13:56:23 GMT
whether this will work against teams who control possession and have quality midfielders remains to be seen. Just to add, Walsall did have 56% of the ball yesterday. They were just closed down and from about the 35th minute could not find the space we usually give. We are not going to go a whole game without the opposition putting us under pressure and creating chances. We just need to be more compact and decisive when dealing with it. Besides a few shaky moments in the first 30m where they got shots in, I thought they were contained quite well from then on, even in that second half scramble where they still did not get a shot in, as our positioning was more composed and tighter, making them have to work harder to score. I think the issue seems to be the midfield and defence communicating defensively. and you saw this in the Salford game where for their second we had about 7 or 8 men in the box to there 3 or 4, and they get an unmarked shot in. The midfield need to know when to drop back and the defence need to know when to push up, working together. This is why a good few of goals we concede are unmarked shots just around the box. While obviously Walsall's heads dropped I think for about 60m of the game yesterday we saw an improvement in that regard. And I am sure Walsall were advised to have a real go in the second half given our abysmal defensive record. At half time bbc had Walsall at 66 or so, which shows we had about 60% of the ball in the second half. Our shape was very compact but it wasn't until the second half that our centre midfield began closing those wide gaps which meant we could dominate possession and break up attacks. Its key we keep doing that as our full backs have been overrun in recent games.
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