Stevenage v Barrow - Match thread

[Gaffer]

2 commentators worst I've ever heard in history of commentators

I assume you were watching on iFollow. There is a facility to switch to the Barrow commentary which would have given you Adam and Mick? Payne.

Yes 2 Steveage supporters who were biased throughout. Shows how lucky we are to have Adam and Co, although support Barrow they are rational and fair.

[barrowaberdeen]

Positives: The Christmas buffet and the company of friends.
Negatives:Anything actually to do with football. A real stinker.

[saltcellar]

There were a lot of individual errors last night, but I found the biggest disappointment/factor to the heavy defeat was the inability of the players to do anything with the ball.
Once a player won the ball, it seemed to be either a case of a misplaced pass or aimless punt forward.
This inevitably resulted in Stevenage getting possession and pressure returning on our defence.
Hopefully the management/players can learn from this spanking and come out ready to rectify themselves at Carlisle next Saturday.

[Moonie]

Think this makes you all the more dangerous next week - your lads will have a point to prove after last night.

[blue nige]

Perhaps Wild has to think differently on how we set up at away games for me Waters isn't a midfield player and it shows he never seems to know to attack or defend this isn't a criticism because he shouldn't be there ,play 3 in the midfield say white, foley and neal, I liked the look of Zuk at fullback brown maybe but he's a bit impetuous!,
Ray and Canavan are OK as long as no-one runs at them and with McClelland out we've no cover.
Got to keep our nerve plenty of team's have plummeted from where we presently are so Pete has to keep them believing!
Hopefully bounce back but this is an unforgiving league and if you're not up for it you'll get turned over!

[MisterPleasant]

Manager's post-match interview with AJ:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dll ... are-mobile

[Cromwell58]

All be forgiven if we can get a win next week, need to get our feet back on the ground there are some good teams in this league and we will get beat again, disappointing but not the end of the world, who would believe we would be where we are at the beginning of the season, onwards and upwards.

[andyg]

Think this makes you all the more dangerous next week - your lads will have a point to prove after last night.

I don't think for one minute Carlisle ill underestimate us next week - just hope you have a bad day at the office. Some hope!

As I've said elsewhere I was concerned about Stevenage after watching them at Kings Lynn. They only played at half pace and still looked good. What concerns us all is the way we capitulated. But Evans has put together a very good team there. Agree with others also I think we need to play three out and out midfielders if we continue to go 4-3-3 away. We are also missing McClelland sadly - when Warren has a bad game he can play there as he did at Stockport.

Going to be tough this December just got to knuckle down

[blue nige]

Manager's post-match interview with AJ:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dll ... are-mobile

Thanks for that,great questions from Adam, Pete Wild will be hurting he knows deep down what we need, I reckon ( for whenever) decent right back, mobile central defender ,another creative midfielder and another energetic striker/ wideman and if possible a keeper who commands his six yard box .

[Pedro]

We cannot handle physical teams.

[pjdaly]

It's hard to believe – despite the last two woeful seasons – that in our two-and-a-bit years back in the EFL we hadn't suffered a league defeat by a margin of more than two goals until yesterday. Well that went with a bang last night, meaning it's our worst Football League showing since we lost 7-1 at Exeter back in 1972.

Whatever you say about Stevenage I admire the way they got to 3 and then wanted 4 . . . and then wanted 5, and then would have looked for 6 if time had permitted. That's a good approach and it reflects the hungry professionalism of a team intent on pushing for promotion. We have had some good times already this season yet even in recent healthy home wins (vs Crewe, Colchester, Hartlepool etc) we have switched off after building a lead. Just leaving aside any playing deficiencies, at a psychological level, we need something of what Stevenage have got in their heads. Perhaps it's symptomatic of the same psychological weakness that renders us seemingly unable to fight back when we go behind. Oh, has this group got a lot to prove on the attitude front. Where better to start than away at Carlisle? Over to you boys - have you got the spunk for the fight?

[Suffolk Blue]

We cannot handle physical teams.

Any team that sets out to play an attacking style of football will inevitably find problems dealing with well put together physical units like Stevenage.

The higher up the leagues you go the more the balance shifts simply because the fitness and skill factors of really good paced footballing sides eventually outweighs the physicality factor.

The way PW wants to play is great but requires a lot of persistence and effort. It also requires officials that will discriminate against tactics designed to stop the flow of the game. That didn’t happen last night either. No wonder then that the better L2 sides tend to be physically very strong.

When your own brand of football let’s you down when playing against a side like Stevenage doing their thing as well as it can be done at this level, what you see is an apparently huge gulf between the sides. That was what we got last night.

It’s actually not as awful as it looks in the scheme of things but it looks terrible when it happens.

[Arvo]

Points-wise, it makes no difference if you lose 1 - 0 or 5 - 0. It's highly unlikely that Goal difference will matter at the end of the season. Really no need to get your knickers in a twist.

If, on the off-chance there are any Bristol Rovers supporters passing through, you may wish to address this. Any Northampton, you probably won't.

[mall]

Think this makes you all the more dangerous next week - your lads will have a point to prove after last night.

Take your head out of your @rs and stop trying to kid people.
You, I, and everyone on this forum know that Carlisle is a far better-equipped squad than Barrow to deal with league2.
Barrow will be extremely lucky to come away with a point.

[Jonty]

1-0 down at HT and didn’t think that there was much in it? The Whitfield for Foley substitution baffled me. We lost any attacking threat down that side when he came off and we didn’t look any better playing it through the middle.

Defending corners is something we need to work on We seem rooted to the spot every time one comes in.