2022/23 Matchday Thread

[BelizeHatter]

Thankfully our only weak link but an attack minded wing back is vital to our style without a creative midfield

 

[Kenneth E End]

Well Luton were playing as well as I’ve seen them in a while for the first 30 minutes. Yet found themselves behind from an absolute cock up defensively. Then they lost all their momentum

 

[BelizeHatter]

Very weird set of subs by Jones. Fred goes right wing back? Why not put him on as left wb and have Bree on right instead of wasting him as one of three CB.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Can we just not play Birmingham? 5-0 in the home game and on course for something similar today with a couple of real bad bad goals from poor mistakes for good measure.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Backfires. Three Zip. Defensive mess. Making Birmingham look like worldbeaters and its only us they can beat. Thats 8-0 to them

 

[BelizeHatter]

At least it shows we should stay very quiet about being a playoff hope.

Do t get me wrong weve done very well and progressed, but short a defender or two, a DM and creative mid and another striker option. Possible some of those could come from within if signings kick on.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Just one of those days/teams for us I think. Weren’t playing too badly but gift wrapped them 2 goals. Was decided 10 seconds into the second half. Been coming a little bit maybe you could say, some real sloppy defending went unpunished by Barnsley midweek and it’s been similarly sloppy here.

Maybe should have been predicated as any side with Jutkiewicz/Taylor, both total bogey players for us, is going to cause us issues. They must want to play us every week.

 

[djs]

Unlikeable as he justifiably is, Taylor showed Adebayo how to play the central striker role today, and how far Elijah is from being the player that a lot of people are saying that he is. Strong , good control and able to realise when to pass and with the ability to execute it accurately. As opposed to un co-ordinated, trying to run through opponents and not spotting a pass.

Before someone accuses me of having a go at Adebayo, I'm not, I'm just pointing out the difference between an established championship forward and a relative novice.

Now, don't get me started on Mpanzu ..................

 

[Kenneth E End]

Lyle Taylor the player with 5 goals this season? Adebayo has 13 and around 1 in 2!

Shit day at the office. Never too high, never too low. We have an identical record to WBA.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Yeah hard disagree. Adebayo has 12 goals and 2 assists this season. He already is that player everyone says he is.

 

[BelizeHatter]

.....and Taylor is a massive cock

 

[BelizeHatter]

One of those days football brings you back to Earth.

I think one if the problems is.....

Never too high, never too low. We have an identical record to WBA.

Jones does set it too high, by talking PlayOffs when we clearly arent yet over a season. Yes weve improved leaps and bounds and yes on our day can beat anyone and in patches yes play off contenders - but i dont think we yet have the depth or experience or enough real top end Championship quality in every position.

 

[djs]

A few one-eyed comments here I think. I don't know how many of you, if any, were at the game today - if not, watch it back and see what I meant, which was based on today's match.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Yeah and my comments on the basis of the season where Adebayo has been the key bulwark of our entire attack. Am sure after the Coventry game for instance you’d say Adebayo could have taught Taylor a thing or two!

Think your comment is one eyed the other way to be honest, judging a player on the basis of one game than over the entire course of his season. If you’re swapping Adebayo and Taylor you’re having a laugh, am sure Birmingham/Forrest would snap your hand off

And anyway If you went to the game you’d know defensively was the problem today rather than Adebayo.

 

[djs]

I did NOT say that I was judging Adebayo on the basis of one game.

I did NOT suggest swapping Taylor and Adebayo.

I did NOT say that Adebayo was the problem today. In my opinion a pretty non existent midfield was the main issue today.

And I am not sure how you could interpret my comments in the way that you have.

I DID say that TODAY Taylor showed how to operate as a central striker, and gave examples to illustrate what I meant. I was also at the away game v Forest where Taylor was pretty anonymous, which is one reason why I referred to TODAY'S game.

Anyway, opinions differ and all good friends in the end (hopefully).

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I did NOT say that I was judging Adebayo on the basis of one game.

I did NOT suggest swapping Taylor and Adebayo.

I did NOT say that Adebayo was the problem today. In my opinion a pretty non existent midfield was the main issue today.

And I am not sure how you could interpret my comments in the way that you have.

I DID say that TODAY Taylor showed how to operate as a central striker, and gave examples to illustrate what I meant. I was also at the away game v Forest where Taylor was pretty anonymous, which is one reason why I referred to TODAY'S game.

Anyway, opinions differ and all good friends in the end (hopefully).

I mean fair enough but you did seriously infer a lot of those things and suggest Adebayo isn’t the player he is cracked up to be? Very very far removed from the core problem today as I think we now both agree on.

 

[SF_]

We were turd for the most part yesterday but when you have a player as good as Cameron Archer, 3pts will never be too far away, this lad will definitely play for England.

Everyone at PNE is fully on board with Ryan Lowe, loving following this club again, top away day that.

 

[David Curries Mullet]

Yeah and my comments on the basis of the season where Adebayo has been the key bulwark of our entire attack. Am sure after the Coventry game for instance you’d say Adebayo could have taught Taylor a thing or two!

Think your comment is one eyed the other way to be honest, judging a player on the basis of one game than over the entire course of his season. If you’re swapping Adebayo and Taylor you’re having a laugh, am sure Birmingham/Forrest would snap your hand off

And anyway If you went to the game you’d know defensively was the problem today rather than Adebayo.

Birmingham might not. Is that 3 in 3 Taylor has got for them? Didn't work out for him at Forest but seems a better fit at Brum.

 

[BelizeHatter]

The better fit is they are playing him and he has support. Hes a decent striker. If he didnt regularly dissapear up his own arse he could have been a really good one. Full of himself not his team

 

[BelizeHatter]

Thats Taylor not Adebayo.

Eli has improved soooo much this season. To the extent we may struggle to keep him this summer and decide if a very hefty fee is worthwhile. Will be a boardoom decision, not football as clearly wed want him in the side. His first touch is already getting to Prem standard. He makes mistakes and it seems his head drops at times if things arent working but week on week he is improving and only just a year ago was playing low fourth division football.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Birmingham might not. Is that 3 in 3 Taylor has got for them? Didn't work out for him at Forest but seems a better fit at Brum.

Think Bowyer gets the best out of him, played the best football of his career under him at Charlton and now seems to be recapturing that at Brum. Good player who always seems to turn up against us for some reason. He's one of those who you probably love when he is in your side but detest when he isnt.

 

[Super_horns]

Certainly on the basis of this game the top 2 are some way ahead and the play offs are going to be even more of a lottery than usual .

 

[BelizeHatter]

I fear for the points total of the playoff winners next season.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Not been able to post for ages on this forum, not sure why but seems ok now.

I dipped into watching a bit of Peterborough/Reading last night and looked like 2 teams heading for the drop. Ferguson just not a championship manager and not sure there set up with MacAnthony dominating transfer dealings by trying to buy the latest shiny thing works at this level.

Situation at Reading is equally ridiculous with the manager offering his resignation clearly over his head only to have it rejected. You worry for them long term

 

[Super_horns]

A mess off the pitch too - Reading that is.

 

[SF_]

Out of those teams, I'd maybe take a look at Joe Ward, looks to have some quality, but the guys he is providing for are useless.

No idea how Swift is still at Reading but would be out of our price range.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Seems our home shirt sponsor, a local building company, hasn’t been able to pay us so won’t be appearing on the short any longer this season. A shame for both sides, us missing out on sponsor income and the company who are clearly struggling.

We have a policy of not taking gambling sponsors so we have a smaller pool of companies to choose from. Wouldn’t surprise me if we go with a charity or something, already had prostate cancer on their this season.

 

[Borehamwood Royal]

Not been able to post for ages on this forum, not sure why but seems ok now.

I dipped into watching a bit of Peterborough/Reading last night and looked like 2 teams heading for the drop. Ferguson just not a championship manager and not sure there set up with MacAnthony dominating transfer dealings by trying to buy the latest shiny thing works at this level.

Situation at Reading is equally ridiculous with the manager offering his resignation clearly over his head only to have it rejected. You worry for them long term

A mess off the pitch too - Reading that is.

It's been a problem for many of the clubs that have had Chinese owners in the past few years, you see it with Birmingham City right now, with Aston Villa and Wigan a few years ago under Tony Xia and Next Leader Fund respectively, even with Inter Milan recently. Many of these Chinese owners were encouraged to invest in foreign football clubs by the Chinese premier Xi Jinping as part of an operation to expand China's footprint in football, so many of them did. Then around 2019 or 2020 Xi Jinping decided to crack down on money flowing out of China, which means the same owners are no longer able to pump money into the the clubs anymore.

Aston Villa and Inter Milan were lucky in that their owners sold the club before the club went into administration. Wigan were not so lucky, and now find themselves in the 3rd division again having barely escaped relegation to League 2 last season.

Unfortunately for us, because of that our owners don't seem to be interested in the club anymore, and there seems to be virtually no communication between the owner and anybody else involved in the club, apart from Kia Joorabchian who seems to be in charge of most of our transfer dealings. In addition, because we spent so much in the initial years under our Chinese owner, back when they were still invested in promotion to the Premier League, we are now hamstrung by FFP rules and our squad is probably one of the weakest in the league.

We are literally only above the relegation zone because Derby was docked 21 points this season instead of last season as they probably should have been, and even then they've managed to squeeze that gap down to 5 points. And if we do end up getting relegated, I wouldn't be surprised if our owner decides to do what Wigan's previous owner did and put out club in administration.

Edit: I forgot to mention above that our owners have previously owned two clubs and both clubs went bankrupt.

 

[Super_horns]

Sorry to hear that.

Yes you do wonder what is the purpose of the “Fit and proper test”?

So many dodgy owners with no love for football just seem able to get into clubs .

 

[Kenneth E End]

Seems our home shirt sponsor, a local building company, hasn’t been able to pay us so won’t be appearing on the short any longer this season. A shame for both sides, us missing out on sponsor income and the company who are clearly struggling.

We have a policy of not taking gambling sponsors so we have a smaller pool of companies to choose from. Wouldn’t surprise me if we go with a charity or something, already had prostate cancer on their this season.

The club are usually spot on with most financial decisions in the club… this one baffled me at the time. The company had never filed a set of accounts and involved in property. Alarm bells in the KYC?