Back from the forest game

[poohs pure]

Utterly flat and gutted, yet another opportunity to make ground on those around us wasted.

I said this before and got the rose tinted glasses brigade out in force, please can the rtg brigade oxf*rd off and create your own thread, this one is only for realists!

[The 17 Bus]

ANy chance of some insight into how the game went, rather than just how gutted you feel,
ta

[poohs pure]

ANy chance of some insight into how the game went, rather than just how gutted you feel,
ta

check out the score and make your own assumptions for oxf*rd sake

[Thou Voice]

Sure...

...we absolutely domianted the first half, but failed to make the many many chances count.

After 1/2 time Not F continued to deploy their amazing time wasting tactics and really slowed the play down. We started to play more and more disjointed and they put a run together and scored.

They slowed the game down further and we just could not cope. Their time wasting was a sight to behold, I have NEVER EVER seen anything like this so consistantly in a game of football. It was borderline cheating.

We have serious problems as we cannot break down a team that either slows the team down or plays a five man midfield (last week).

We need to change our shape otherwise we are going to have real problems.

[The 17 Bus]

Seen the score, and the rest and we are not much worse off than at the start of play, would be interested to know if the changes made things look better, and what was it like when we had 3 forwards on the pitch. Was any player totally bad, or was it a collective failure??

[chilipepper91]

ANy chance of some insight into how the game went, rather than just how gutted you feel,
ta

First half was quite good. We made chances, Kebe missed a bloody sitter after 3 minutes and Gunnarsson had a good header just over from a corner.

Second half... god knows. We lost confidence, they gained it, and fair play it was a great goal, though we should have got to him before he shot.

Then we lost any guidance, any shape.

Kebe had a SHOCKER. He did NOTHING all game. Whereas Tabb was direct and swung in an incredible cross from the left. Hell, he's even better in the air than Kebe, despite being fully a foot shorter.

Stephen Hunt's set-pieces are shockingly bad. Every time he had a freekick you knew it'd hit the first man. Marek's were far better.

On Marek, he went missing in the second half. He'd toned down his "I can see the pass but you can't" passes, but then as the game wore on they came back.

Oh and a final, inevitable word for Billy Davies and his coaching staff. Kicking balls onto the field, telling your goalkeeper to take the ball to the other side of the 6yardbox, telling players to go down injured. Cheats. Not an excuse for us losing, but so so frustrating.

[The 17 Bus]

See now I am confused, is this the same Stephen Hunt that has so many assists, whose corners and free kicks have led to so many goals due to the improvement over last season??

The same player who was given a new improved contract again after failing to reach his transfer value in the window, and has any of this affected him, judging solely by his play since Jan?

[chilipepper91]

See now I am confused, is this the same Stephen Hunt that has so many assists, whose corners and free kicks have led to so many goals due to the improvement over last season??

The same player who was given a new improved contract again after failing to reach his transfer value in the window, and has any of this affected him, judging solely by his play since Jan?

Yup.

[Royal Lady]

Ref didn't have the bottle to book any Forest players after the first 2 or 3 bouts of time wasting. If he had, they'd have either stopped it altogether or they would have ended up having a player or 2 sent off. It wasn't an excuse for us losing, but it did break up the flow of play time and again.

I really don't know what the answer is. I'd definitely start Marek ahead of Harper again, I'd drop SHunt, but how do you make the players feel more confident?? I don't know the answer and I don't think SSC knows either.

[Schards#2]

Somewhere in Snowball's blizzard of stats were some that tried to demonstrate that Kebe was a good finisher, something I laughed at.

When you see a player totally unmarked put it wide from 6 yards, you don't need any stats to know if he's a good finisher or not.

[wickedwhispers]

get on the beers, its only football mush!

[poohs pure]

Somewhere in Snowball's blizzard of stats were some that tried to demonstrate that Kebe was a good finisher, something I laughed at.

When you see a player totally unmarked put it wide from 6 yards, you don't need any stats to know if he's a good finisher or not.

snowball, do not reply to this, you are not welcome on my thread.

[Whore Jackie]

First half was quite good. We made chances, Kebe missed a bloody sitter after 3 minutes and Gunnarsson had a good header just over from a corner.

Second half... god knows. We lost confidence, they gained it, and fair play it was a great goal, though we should have got to him before he shot.

Then we lost any guidance, any shape.

Kebe had a SHOCKER. He did NOTHING all game. Whereas Tabb was direct and swung in an incredible cross from the left. Hell, he's even better in the air than Kebe, despite being fully a foot shorter.

Stephen Hunt's set-pieces are shockingly bad. Every time he had a freekick you knew it'd hit the first man. Marek's were far better.

On Marek, he went missing in the second half. He'd toned down his "I can see the pass but you can't" passes, but then as the game wore on they came back.

Oh and a final, inevitable word for Billy Davies and his coaching staff. Kicking balls onto the field, telling your goalkeeper to take the ball to the other side of the 6yardbox, telling players to go down injured. Cheats. Not an excuse for us losing, but so so frustrating.

Spot on. Difficult to see where we go from here. We're so reliant on our wide-players, that when they lose form, we're screwed. And our get-out-of-jail set pieces are a shadow of earlier this season. Our forwards have been fed on scraps for weeks now, can't remember the last gilt-edge chance any of them had.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

We need a change in tactics. Other teams do there homework on us and they use it against us. They know we just boot it up the field and hope for the best. Its patheic. First time you get the ball,bam!,its up the field. Take you time lads,look for the creativtiy,look for that pass that could change the game. Lets try and get some passes together and create chances,like we did in the first 5 minutes. Not just hoof it up the field and aim for Doyle (who as the game go's on gets more wrecked and wrecked because he can't deal with the amount of long balls coming at him.)

On the Matejovsky matter,he didn't have the best of games. But at least he was looking to pass it on the ground and lets be honest who have we got to replace him.

On the Kebe saga. He didn't play well but what can you do. Coppell is relucant to bring him to off. Its the same with Stephen Hunt.

My man of the match today will go to Alex Pearce. He put in a good shift and won nearly all his headers. He was strong and confident.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Hunt and Kebe both need dropping. Utterly abysmal (though I thought Kebe wasnt as bad as the scape-goat mechants have been making out)

Tabb on the left and Nhunt on the right for me (or Henry back from loan). We just need people that can actually cross the ball and, Heaven forbid Shunty, actually beat a man!

Even though he disappeared when Forest took control for chunks of the 2nd half, I thought Marek was very good today.

We could have done with Subbing Bryn at half time. I thought he was great in the frist half, but the guy just doesnt have the legs for more than about 60mins

[royalrumble]

Kebe did indeed had the mother of all shockers but for me S.Hunts delivery was the real shocker for me How many corners free kicks did he completely fail to deliver! law of averages say one must have been good but no

[Schards#2]

Are the RTG's trying to pretend the team weren't booed off again?

Hunt and Kebe are the clear weakness yet their main competition is sent out on loan.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Kebe did indeed had the mother of all shockers but for me S.Hunts delivery was the real shocker for me How many corners free kicks did he completely fail to deliver! law of averages say one must have been good but no

I agree. Stephen Hunt's deliveres were terrible.

[Dirk Gently]

Certainly it is a lot to do with tactics. other teams put 5 in the middle, and as soon as the ball goes out to either SHunt or Kebe the spare man in midfield joins the full-back in shutting them out of the game.

That's why we're so ineffective and that's why SHunt and Kebe are getting so much abuse.

But how do we counter it? All we could do is put 5 in midfield ourselves and play through the middle, but I'm not sure we have the players for that.

[RoyalBlue]

ANy chance of some insight into how the game went, rather than just how gutted you feel,
ta

First half was quite good. We made chances, Kebe missed a bloody sitter after 3 minutes and Gunnarsson had a good header just over from a corner.

Second half... god knows. We lost confidence, they gained it, and fair play it was a great goal, though we should have got to him before he shot.

Then we lost any guidance, any shape.

Kebe had a SHOCKER. He did NOTHING all game. Whereas Tabb was direct and swung in an incredible cross from the left. Hell, he's even better in the air than Kebe, despite being fully a foot shorter.

Stephen Hunt's set-pieces are shockingly bad. Every time he had a freekick you knew it'd hit the first man. Marek's were far better.

On Marek, he went missing in the second half. He'd toned down his "I can see the pass but you can't" passes, but then as the game wore on they came back.

Oh and a final, inevitable word for Billy Davies and his coaching staff. Kicking balls onto the field, telling your goalkeeper to take the ball to the other side of the 6yardbox, telling players to go down injured. Cheats. Not an excuse for us losing, but so so frustrating.

I really hope the referee's assessor has a bit more about him than the idiot in charge of today's game! Why the hell did he let Davies and co get away with it? Even after his touchline row with them, when he insisted they returned to the technical area when he should have sent at least one to the stands, he still allowed them to come yards out of that area to pick up what they regarded as the match ball and switch it with the ball that had already been given to their player! Time after time Forest players ran the clock down in a completely unacceptable manner but all the ref did was his little Hokey Cokey demonstration. Anyone else spot their number 8 who realising (or having been tipped off that he was about to be subbed) ran right over to the East Stand touchline so that he had another 20 yards or so to walk back at snails pace?! And Earnshaw should already have received a yellow for repeatedly running across to block AUS' attempted quick clearances (on one occasion putting his arm across in an attempt to prevent him throwing the ball out), long before he finally got the only yellow card issued for timewasting.