Sutton v Braintree

[halftimet]

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
4 on the coaching staff now but still the same long ball tactic. Team low on confidence.
I predict a clear out in the Summer. Cannot see where the next points will come from.

[baboonfish]

Utter embarrassment tonight. OK the first goal was out of nowhere and against the run as we had started to build some pressure, but the defending for the next two was park level, farcical and naive, it resembled a training game.

No leadership, no creativity, questionable gameplan and most importantly no focal point in attack. Its too quiet out there and feels like too many players are hiding, while our handful of leaders are not leading. In our defence Thomas and Davis do not look anywhere near sharp following their respective injuries, while Bennet has become an absolutely key player and was missing along with easty, but we should have enough about us to beat bottom of the league.

We are creating so few chances, and not taking the few we do, whilst conceding sloppy goals at the other end. Most worryingly we are picking up the habit of losing. We do not look like we expect to win and this could easily carry over to next season if we are not careful. Our core players should be showing the determination not to allow us to be embarrassed by the worst side in this division but I saw no fight. We huffed and puffed but it was limp, toothless and impotent.

I'm a fan of toure and he has had some magical moments recently, definitely being unlucky not to score a few more, but a central striker in a 3 he is not. I get the philosophy of a fluid front 3 but it doesn't work without a focal point or a clever number 10 in behind to pick the passes. Williams at least does the dirty work but him and toure have not gelled, and he has no outstanding attribute. Lafayette was a much better target man and we must find someone in that mould over the close season. This league is all about dirty work.

[os]

I think I will have nightmares tonight, I would say the worst league performance I have witnessed under Dos.

This is what being a great manager is all about, they all have these phases, but it's about turning that around. I wouldn't want to back against him.

My only thought really is that, we don't seem to have any presence in the air, and I would like to see Roarie play more central, that is where he is most dangerous.

[guildrover]

Perhaps Exiledinandover had a point all along and could just see this before the rest of us?

Let's be honest, it has never clicked this season and the sooner it is over the better IMO. We have grounded out results to get us where we are based on a strong defence and the attack has been ineffective all season. How different might it have been had we not lost Tommy? Unfortunately we'll never know.

We started the season with a great squad capable of challenging but some didn't work out, some have moved on even though Dos would have liked to have kept them and some have been injured for long periods. All in all this has led to a rather frustrating season that has never really got going and I'm sure it isn't how Dos imagined it panning out when he built that squad in the summer.

Hey ho, a mid table finish isn't the end of the world and hopefully some exciting news will be announced next Monday that will put that spring back into the club that seems to be missing at present.

Onwards and upwards, it is only football.

[Big Al]

Very poor result and dreadful performance.  I may be wrong but did we not actually have a shot on target all night?  Refreshing honesty from Dos in the post match interview and recognition that some of our team are simply not doing the job.  As he points out if we had played like this at the start of the year we would definitely be scrapping with last night's victors at the very foot in of the table.  Without changes to this squad - especially up top- that is where we are destined for next season.

Having said all that we know the merry go round of players will inevitably see a clear out before next August and in Dos we have a manager who sees the problem and we know will be quick to act

[ganderpoke]

On the one hand, it is good that the play-offs are now beyond us because these players need a rest. However, that is no excuse for the sloppy passing or miss control when receiving a pass. Both were far to frequent last night. Also, why we do go backwards so often with our passing? I can't think of any other team in this division which relies so much on a their keeper booting the ball up field so often.
Having a clear out at season end is all very well but we have to get players in who can change a game. We currently have no-one who can do this, it appears.
As for going forward in numbers and then getting caught on the break, this is really getting repetitive.

Feel sorry for Kearney who is feeding off scraps at the moment, so no idea how good he is.

[jr]

It certainly didn't make good viewing at all. Too many extra touches when a first time ball into the box was needed. As Dos said we have many players playing who are not fit and players playing put of position. I'm not all that surprised to be honest given the injuries we've had of late. Kearney looks decent. I like his movement and he looks hungry for the ball. He possibly could have equalised although his shot just went wide. I think we had 2 headers on target in injury time but otherwise there was nothing for their keeper to do. It's crystal clear where our problems are and that will be addressed during the summer.

Thank God this isn't the start of the season and is a wake up call. Next year will be even harder with probably 3 full time teams coming from the North and South so we'll have to be a lot better.

Let's keep supporting our team though and try to be positive, difficult as that may be, as we as fans have an important role to play.

IN DOS WE TRUST

[amberchoc]

The only way out of a slump like this is for every single player to roll up their sleeves and work for the whole 90 minutes. Fight tooth and nail to grind out some results. “It’s the everlasting teamwork, of every bloomin’ soul”. Barrie would not have witnessed that last night and will be looking down with sadness today.

[markf]

That was a difficult watch last night for sure. I try not to be critical of the players but last night we seemed to lack a bit of desire probably because the recent run has sapped the collective confidence and with Dale and Craig E missing - well that doesn't help.

I did say Braintree could relax and just play and they sure did that. The wind was strong again and we chose to play with it for the second half. Thus the first half was difficult and thanks to Ross W (I thought he was outstanding)it ended goal less. Second half and the performance got worse and once they scored that was it. Their first two came from fine strikes their third a well-worked break away.

Probably U's worst performance since returning to the top flight and it is a shame that those gritty wins against the likes of Orient, Hartelpool and Salford earlier in the season look to be counting to a mid table finish rather than the play-offs.

Of concern too was the attendance. Our lowest in the NL since Forest Green visited in March 2017 and I'm not sure every ST holder attended either. It didn't look 1500 but then I maybe wrong as I have trouble guessing attendances these days.

Ref, who was awful at D&R recently did ok handing out 5 yellows to Braintree, the last for delaying a free-kick deep into injury time while 3-0 up!!

Bearing in mind the oppo and their position in both table and form table, we can't go any lower in terms of result so the only way is up now, surely?

Onto beleaguered off the pitch but still very competitive on it, Gateshead.

[davethegrave]

I missed this game so I can't comment on the team or individuals on the night.

However I don't understand why there have been so many ins and outs in the last couple of months when we were doing OK before that. Toure looks good and powerful to me and I know we are missing Tommy Wright. Also I'm not sure that Dean and Jamie are a good, mobile enough partnership.