Biggins

[roversdude]

How we missed him last night.

[DonnyOsmond]

We missed a player like him, Rowe used to be that but unfortunately his legs are gone.

[GazLaz]

That result wasn’t down to one player being missing.

[Chris Black come back]

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

[Jonathan]

That result wasn’t down to one player being missing.

But it was a factor. I know you don’t rate Biggins. But in this team he’s been very important and his energy and the timing of his breaks forward were missing last night.

[GazLaz]

That result wasn’t down to one player being missing.

But it was a factor. I know you don’t rate Biggins. But in this team he’s been very important and his energy and the timing of his breaks forward were missing last night.

He’s been important of late, that’s obvious, and you always want your important players available, but… there was far more to it that one player not being available.

[pib]

I can see why he went with Rowe but sadly I don’t think he has enough of an impact these days. Perhaps given we didn’t need to go all guns blazing, he could’ve picked Westbrooke just to sure it up a bit. Hindsight is great though.

[Jonathan]

That result wasn’t down to one player being missing.

But it was a factor. I know you don’t rate Biggins. But in this team he’s been very important and his energy and the timing of his breaks forward were missing last night.

He’s been important of late, that’s obvious, and you always want your important players available, but… there was far more to it that one player not being available.

Of course. Same goes for any game. Not blaming any single issue or circumstance, but Biggins was a big miss for us.

[Campsall rover]

It was a factor no question. We missed his energy and goal scoring threat.
Tommy was fairly anonymous.

[In the box]

How we missed him last night.

WHY was Rowe use when Westbrook would have had more impact ??

[dickos1]

Westbrook was Crewe’s best player when he came on

[Surrey Rover]

The player most missed last night was Max Biamou. He adds such a different dimension up front and I’m convinced if he’d been available to come off the bench he would have of unlocked the door either for himself or one of the team.

His injury at Morecambe was a huge loss because he was sharing the workload with Ironside who’s virtually played every minute since.

[ravenrover]

Saw him in the car park looked to be walking with no limp, listenening to Grant he implied he will be staying - in an earlier interview he said that Max will be fit for pre season

[BillyStubbsTears]

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

They did to us exactly what Walsall did in the away match.

When we had the ball at the back, they man marked Craig and cut off our outlet through the middle. Then they pressed hard when we tried to play out through Sterry and Maxwell. So they forced us into going long, and Ironside struggled for much of the game to hold the ball up.

I'm amazed that more teams haven't used those tactics in the past few weeks.

[GazLaz]

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

They did to us exactly what Walsall did in the away match.

When we had the ball at the back, they man marked Craig and cut off our outlet through the middle. Then they pressed hard when we tried to play out through Sterry and Maxwell. So they forced us into going long, and Ironside struggled for much of the game to hold the ball up.

I'm amazed that more teams haven't used those tactics in the past few weeks.

They tried to do the same thing at their place but didn’t quite get it right. Rowe was great for them sitting on Craig. I said early on that we should have tried switching Bailey and Craig to try and get him on the ball a bit more. Their tactical adaptations from the first leg won them the tie. We failed to adapt and thought that much of the same would be good enough.

They left the space in our no10 position knowing we either go wide or go long. It was desperate to be filled which GM did when he went 4231 putting Haks in there BUT his instinct is to get on the last line and not to try and sit in that pocket and create. Fair play to them, they turned up, had some great individual performances, got the rub of the green and had a ref whose style suited them more than us.

They were gone after an hour as previously mentioned but we didn’t have the composure under a real pressure situation to get the goal we needed. Thats football.

One thing I would say is that we will never see a run like the one we have had to get to this point in outlet life time but we will see us promoted again. Let that be the thought of the day.

[Jonathan]

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

They did to us exactly what Walsall did in the away match.

When we had the ball at the back, they man marked Craig and cut off our outlet through the middle. Then they pressed hard when we tried to play out through Sterry and Maxwell. So they forced us into going long, and Ironside struggled for much of the game to hold the ball up.

I'm amazed that more teams haven't used those tactics in the past few weeks.

They tried to do the same thing at their place but didn’t quite get it right. Rowe was great for them sitting on Craig. I said early on that we should have tried switching Bailey and Craig to try and get him on the ball a bit more. Their tactical adaptations from the first leg won them the tie. We failed to adapt and thought that much of the same would be good enough.

They left the space in our no10 position knowing we either go wide or go long. It was desperate to be filled which GM did when he went 4231 putting Haks in there BUT his instinct is to get on the last line and not to try and sit in that pocket and create. Fair play to them, they turned up, had some great individual performances, got the rub of the green and had a ref whose style suited them more than us.

They were gone after an hour as previously mentioned but we didn’t have the composure under a real pressure situation to get the goal we needed. Thats football.

One thing I would say is that we will never see a run like the one we have had to get to this point in outlet life time but we will see us promoted again. Let that be the thought of the day.

A fair summary here. I thought their Rowe (21) was excellent. We could use a bit of that energy and engine. Only really Bailey that offers that for us.

[Silkscarf]

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

They did to us exactly what Walsall did in the away match.

When we had the ball at the back, they man marked Craig and cut off our outlet through the middle. Then they pressed hard when we tried to play out through Sterry and Maxwell. So they forced us into going long, and Ironside struggled for much of the game to hold the ball up.

I'm amazed that more teams haven't used those tactics in the past few weeks.

They tried to do the same thing at their place but didn’t quite get it right. Rowe was great for them sitting on Craig. I said early on that we should have tried switching Bailey and Craig to try and get him on the ball a bit more. Their tactical adaptations from the first leg won them the tie. We failed to adapt and thought that much of the same would be good enough.

They left the space in our no10 position knowing we either go wide or go long. It was desperate to be filled which GM did when he went 4231 putting Haks in there BUT his instinct is to get on the last line and not to try and sit in that pocket and create. Fair play to them, they turned up, had some great individual performances, got the rub of the green and had a ref whose style suited them more than us.

They were gone after an hour as previously mentioned but we didn’t have the composure under a real pressure situation to get the goal we needed. Thats football.

One thing I would say is that we will never see a run like the one we have had to get to this point in outlet life time but we will see us promoted again. Let that be the thought of the day.

That’s a good thought Gaz and sums up the season. We can sit back and think wow, look at what we did there. We know we will never repeat that feat but don’t need to. We now know how to win a lot of games in a season.

[ncRover]

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

They did to us exactly what Walsall did in the away match.

When we had the ball at the back, they man marked Craig and cut off our outlet through the middle. Then they pressed hard when we tried to play out through Sterry and Maxwell. So they forced us into going long, and Ironside struggled for much of the game to hold the ball up.

I'm amazed that more teams haven't used those tactics in the past few weeks.

We have played the long option well over the last few months.

There just wasn’t enough co-ordinated movement at the top end of the pitch last night and the passes were poor.

[andyst79]

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

They did to us exactly what Walsall did in the away match.

When we had the ball at the back, they man marked Craig and cut off our outlet through the middle. Then they pressed hard when we tried to play out through Sterry and Maxwell. So they forced us into going long, and Ironside struggled for much of the game to hold the ball up.

I'm amazed that more teams haven't used those tactics in the past few weeks.

They tried to do the same thing at their place but didn’t quite get it right. Rowe was great for them sitting on Craig. I said early on that we should have tried switching Bailey and Craig to try and get him on the ball a bit more. Their tactical adaptations from the first leg won them the tie. We failed to adapt and thought that much of the same would be good enough.

They left the space in our no10 position knowing we either go wide or go long. It was desperate to be filled which GM did when he went 4231 putting Haks in there BUT his instinct is to get on the last line and not to try and sit in that pocket and create. Fair play to them, they turned up, had some great individual performances, got the rub of the green and had a ref whose style suited them more than us.

They were gone after an hour as previously mentioned but we didn’t have the composure under a real pressure situation to get the goal we needed. Thats football.

One thing I would say is that we will never see a run like the one we have had to get to this point in outlet life time but we will see us promoted again. Let that be the thought of the day.

That’s a good thought Gaz and sums up the season. We can sit back and think wow, look at what we did there. We know we will never repeat that feat but don’t need to. We now know how to win a lot of games in a season.

Whether by their defending or our design, it felt like too often we were going through our middle, rather than going behind them using our width. Passing through midfield is a road to nowhere for us as we saw earlier in season. Getting ball out quickly and long to the wide areas, is where we have threatened. Did their high press stop us getting the ball out quickly? Felt like they did one on us and we had no answer.

They did to us exactly what Walsall did in the away match.

When we had the ball at the back, they man marked Craig and cut off our outlet through the middle. Then they pressed hard when we tried to play out through Sterry and Maxwell. So they forced us into going long, and Ironside struggled for much of the game to hold the ball up.

I'm amazed that more teams haven't used those tactics in the past few weeks.

They tried to do the same thing at their place but didn’t quite get it right. Rowe was great for them sitting on Craig. I said early on that we should have tried switching Bailey and Craig to try and get him on the ball a bit more. Their tactical adaptations from the first leg won them the tie. We failed to adapt and thought that much of the same would be good enough.

They left the space in our no10 position knowing we either go wide or go long. It was desperate to be filled which GM did when he went 4231 putting Haks in there BUT his instinct is to get on the last line and not to try and sit in that pocket and create. Fair play to them, they turned up, had some great individual performances, got the rub of the green and had a ref whose style suited them more than us.

They were gone after an hour as previously mentioned but we didn’t have the composure under a real pressure situation to get the goal we needed. Thats football.

One thing I would say is that we will never see a run like the one we have had to get to this point in outlet life time but we will see us promoted again. Let that be the thought of the day.

Lee Bell did a right number on us tactically take nothing away from that, conceding early didn't help but they're a well drilled outfit, the long throw is another threat what they posses which I thought Anderson & Wood dealt with but unfortunately weren't as commanding in the opposing area from set pieces.