The League of 4

[Hound]

Gomes has however brought on an extra defender to defend a lead on a number of occasions. Not necessarily wrong to do so, but it has invited us to sit back

[Nameless]

Gomes has however brought on an extra defender to defend a lead on a number of occasions. Not necessarily wrong to do so, but it has invited us to sit back

And not always done it to defend a lead specifically. When he brought on O'Shea for Meite against Rotherham (?) and we conceded it was a preplanned substitution because Meite was ill and not going to last a full 90. Taking him off was going to cost us height so O'Shea was his only option given Rotherham's style. It didn't work but wasn't a reaction to the match position.
You're probably right in other games though !

[Stranded]

The Clement concentration factor must be big. And certainly can't be fatigue as we conceded so many goals within 10 minutes of the restart.

Minutes 46-60 have been our worst spell all season comfortably - although we have only seen a positive GD for one 15 minute spell all season:

Goals For and Against

First Half

0-15m 8-10
16-30m 9-5
31-45m 7-9

2nd Half

46-60m 3-12
61-75m 7-10
76-90m 14-18

Interesting* to see that 29% of all goals in our games this season have come in the last 15mins.

Under Gomes, the 46-60min mark has vastly improved - we've only scored once but only let in 3 in his 21 games. Compared to 9 times under Clement (0 under Marshall).

I presume the above is for all league games(three managers)?

Do you have Gomes-only?

Not to hand - the above is pulled from the SoccerStats site and are for all league games.

One further quick comparison I can offer is for late goals is that the values are consistant between Clement/Gomes where we've only conceded 2 more late in 1 more game. Flags how awful we were under Marshall at the end of games - those 4 late goals in 3 games cost us 5 points.

Clement: 7-6 ( cost us a net 2 points)
Marshall: 0-4 ( cost us a net 5 points)
Gomes: 7-8 ( cost us a net 3 points)

* Based on score at 75 mins V full time. If result did not change then cost/won us nothing i.e. Barrow's winner at Ipswich is a net 0 point as we were winning at 75mins, likewise the goals at Norwich cost us 2 points as were winning at 75mins.

[Silver Fox]

The big issue with Clement was surely 46-60 minutes? The damage had normally been done before the last 15 even came around

[Stranded]

The big issue with Clement was surely 46-60 minutes? The damage had normally been done before the last 15 even came around

Absolutely mate. Of the 12 goals conceded this season in that spell - 9 were under Clement (2 in the 60th minute)

3 were equalisers
4 opened the scoring
1 killed off the game (Sheff W making it 2-0)
1 started a comeback (Blackburn)

We took a grand total of 3 points from the games under Clement where we let in a goal in that window. If you take the HT score as a starting point the picture is worse - the HT score in those 9 games would have seen us pick up 14 points.

Now whilst no guarantee that we would have picked up all those points if we'd not conceded in that first 15 minutes you would hope we would have done better than picking up just 3 points.

By comparison, 2 of the goals we have conceded in that time window have been the 4th goals in blow-outs (Swansea, Sheff Utd) and the Hull equaliser.

[Sutekh]

Just seen that Millwall v Stoke kicks off at 1.30pm tomorrow. Seems very unfair on both Millwall and Rotherham given that a win for Millwall will more or less kill off Rotherham and could effect their performance at WBA.

Personally don't think games like this should be moved in the final month of the season.

[Stranded]

Just seen that Millwall v Stoke kicks off at 1.30pm tomorrow. Seems very unfair on both Millwall and Rotherham given that a win for Millwall will more or less kill off Rotherham and could effect their performance at WBA.

Personally don't think games like this should be moved in the final month of the season.

It's been moved on police request to the Safety Advisory Committee, due to a large number of games and other events in London this weekend, so they want games to have staggered kick-offs.

Not much you can do when the police put in such a request.

Rotherham's fate is totally out of their hands due to them being rubbish so I don't think they can have any complaints.

[Hound]

Just seen that Millwall v Stoke kicks off at 1.30pm tomorrow. Seems very unfair on both Millwall and Rotherham given that a win for Millwall will more or less kill off Rotherham and could effect their performance at WBA.

Personally don't think games like this should be moved in the final month of the season.

It's been moved on police request to the Safety Advisory Committee, due to a large number of games and other events in London this weekend, so they want games to have staggered kick-offs.

Not much you can do when the police put in such a request.

Rotherham's fate is totally out of their hands due to them being rubbish so I don't think they can have any complaints.

They're both such brave fighters, constantly battling against the odds, I'm sure they'll take it in their stride

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

So what happens if Bolton don't complete their final two games?

Will their league record be expunged? And, more importantly, if it is, how would the revised league table look?

[windermereROYAL]

So what happens if Bolton don't complete their final two games?

Will their league record be expunged? And, more importantly, if it is, how would the revised league table look?

Doubt very much that would happen with only 2 games to go, but Rotherham would lose 3 points, we would lose 1.

[Hound]

They’ll get them through to the end of the season and go from there

[URZZZZ]

Just seen that Millwall v Stoke kicks off at 1.30pm tomorrow. Seems very unfair on both Millwall and Rotherham given that a win for Millwall will more or less kill off Rotherham and could effect their performance at WBA.

Personally don't think games like this should be moved in the final month of the season.

It's been moved on police request to the Safety Advisory Committee, due to a large number of games and other events in London this weekend, so they want games to have staggered kick-offs.

Not much you can do when the police put in such a request.

Rotherham's fate is totally out of their hands due to them being rubbish so I don't think they can have any complaints.

They're both such brave fighters, constantly battling against the odds, I'm sure they'll take it in their stride

You may be trying to be sarcastic but we have undoubtedly more talent than both Rotherham and Millwall. The fact we were tying on points with them for almost the entire system is an embarrassment and was because they both had more fight on the pitch

Luckily, Gomes has figured out the problem and has realised trying to implement his policy would hinder our hopes of survival and instead tried to set out a more solid, resilient team. This means you now feel more confident of holding onto a victory, which we struggled to do beforehand

Put it this way, when people put forward the argument (including myself) that Rotherham and Millwall had more fight about them than us (around January/February time) do you think the players cared as much as we visibly saw after Norwich, West Brom, Brentford etc

[Stranded]

I think the more fight pisstaking is a direct response to the Sky pundits tipping Rotherhan to stay up over us due to their fighting spirit. Since which point they've picked up a solitary point.

[Hound]

Was referring back to the SS pundits with the ‘fighters’ comments. Not anyone on here, and basically because was sick about hearing of it.

I think it’s well deserved sarcasm personally - esp in light of Rotherham losing 6-1 to Derby and 1 shot on target vs Brum

[Hound]

Thanks Stranded, beat me to it

[Silver Fox]

So what happens if Bolton don't complete their final two games?

Will their league record be expunged? And, more importantly, if it is, how would the revised league table look?

Doubt very much that would happen with only 2 games to go, but Rotherham would lose 3 points, we would lose 1.

Well, the game’s off, which leaves the league with a decision to make

[JR]

Scored 2 goals at home 4 times and 3 goals once in 22 home games.

There's only been 37 goals scored at The Riverside in the league this season.

We will win the game on Saturday, absolutely nailed on.

5/1 to win - definitely worth a punt!

[JR]

I think the more fight pisstaking is a direct response to the Sky pundits tipping Rotherhan to stay up over us due to their fighting spirit. Since which point they've picked up a solitary point.

Are there any Twitter handles we can target for their views? Keith Andrews in particular was very critical of our ability to fight

[Stranded]

So what happens if Bolton don't complete their final two games?

Will their league record be expunged? And, more importantly, if it is, how would the revised league table look?

Doubt very much that would happen with only 2 games to go, but Rotherham would lose 3 points, we would lose 1.

Well, the game’s off, which leaves the league with a decision to make

Would imagine it will be a 3-0 win to Brentford and Bolton deducted points, probably next season.

[Snowflake Royal]

I think the more fight pisstaking is a direct response to the Sky pundits tipping Rotherhan to stay up over us due to their fighting spirit. Since which point they've picked up a solitary point.

Are there any Twitter handles we can target for their views? Keith Andrews in particular was very critical of our ability to fight

They're just expressing an opinion. Don't get all precious about it and start abusing them on social media. Talk about small time petty mentality.