Play-Offs Thread

[thewwfc]

I'm pretty much binning off our chances.

Charlton have done the double over us already this season, one game of which was an absolute smacking (4-0), and whilst I don't expect things to be that bad again, Mike Dodds has seemingly sapped all the attacking flair out of us.

Whereas Charlton have been on a tearing run of form and their confidence will be right up there.

I'm going to say 3-1 Charlton on aggregate.

I think the more entertaining match-up will be Orient/Stockport - in this case, both sides are on absolutely cracking form, and I suspect those games will be far more entertaining to watch than ours v Charlton.

Such a shame that we have gone so shite of late, it would be great to have 4 teams in form to make it a better competition, but we are where we are.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Hoping that Stockport go up as the league is already looking very Northern

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Hope Charlton do it as would just be extremely weird to face Nathan Jones/Luke Berry etc.

NJ has a pretty poor record in big games though especially playoffs, always felt his character played a part in that as he’s just a very tightly wound individual which sometimes you don’t want in games where a calmer head is required.

Despite being a better manager imo than Edwards, I can’t imagine us putting in the performance we did in the playoff final under NJ for that reason, especially how careful and calmly the penalty shoot out was managed.

 

[folletto]

Hope Charlton do it as would just be extremely weird to face Nathan Jones/Luke Berry etc.

NJ has a pretty poor record in big games though especially playoffs, always felt his character played a part in that as he’s just a very tightly wound individual which sometimes you don’t want in games where a calmer head is required.

Despite being a better manager imo than Edwards, I can’t imagine us putting in the performance we did in the playoff final under NJ for that reason, especially how careful and calmly the penalty shoot out was managed.

That is my biggest concern. He's ended up doing an excellent job this season but there's been a few big games we have completely frozen in. Peterborough and Wrexham away spring to mind, where a win would have brought us right into the automatics hunt and we lost both 3-0 and looked lost. That being said, the Wycombe away game was a big game and we won 4-0 so you never know

 

[thewwfc]

We've fucked all our big games since Dodds came in so I wouldn't worry about it.

Our home game v Wrexham was a classic six pointer and we froze,
obviously we got done 4-0 at home v Charlton, and we blew it away to Orient.

Hope Charlton do it as would just be extremely weird to face Nathan Jones/Luke Berry etc.

Well I didn't want to be facing Lu'un next season either (although there's a 95% chance that that will be the case).

Reason being, a small but significant percentage of our fanbase are dicks and think that Bloomfield jumped into another role, rather than being pushed - so he's likely to get a bunch of completely undeserved stick when we play Lu'un next season, and I will cringe more than I ever have at a football game.

 

[The Terminator]

Stocks should have a bit more nous than us over the two games, a minor miracle we’ve made it this far.

Need to still be in the game for the return on Wednesday.

We usually get to the final and find some spectacular way of bottling it or not turning up.

I still watch our 1-0 final loss in 1999 to Scunthorpe when I need to fall asleep quickly.

 

[Ellis]

Stocks should have a bit more nous than us over the two games, a minor miracle we’ve made it this far.

Need to still be in the game for the return on Wednesday.

We usually get to the final and find some spectacular way of bottling it or not turning up.

I still watch our 1-0 final loss in 1999 to Scunthorpe when I need to fall asleep quickly.

Dunno, I am really not confident about this at all. You are the side I wanted to avoid like the plague. Think whoever wins this tie will win the playoffs.

 

[Ellis]

This place seems a bit dead - has league one finally migrated to the other board?

 

[thewwfc]

This place seems a bit dead - has league one finally migrated to the other board?

Yes, most people did when this place was down for a few days.

 

[kieran_vale]

How the hell has that goal for Orient not been flagged offside? Thats an absolute shocker.

 

[Bobbin']

One of the worst I’ve ever seen.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Seems like things have been evened up with that non award of a penalty

 

[SF_]

Watching this because we've supposedly enquired about loaning Donley from Spurs next season. I like the look of him, tidy second striker, good physicality, too.

Should have been 4 pens in this game, there's been 1.

 

[kieran_vale]

Pretty watchable game and with a few talking points even if not really for the right reasons in a few cases. Have to think Stockport the happier of the two sides even with the late equaliser.

 

[The Terminator]

Thought it was a good game, Stockport edging the game overall. Wellens will likely revert back to a back 4 on Wednesday and bring Currie back in - we looked alot more settled when he did that today, was a tough call for him to make as we've looked good in a back 3 for a few weeks now.

Fevir caused us far too many issues in the 1v1 ones he got. Taking him off was a mistake IMO from Challinor.

A bit frustrated we didn't capitalise on the bit of luck for the first goal, IMO its offside.

Stocks really pushed hard in the second half to get their lead, we've been weak at set plays all season so no suprise we conceded from one again.

One thing this team does have is alot of character, we fell behind yet again and still managed to salvage a draw with what looked like another soft pen, officals certainly iffy for both sides I thought.

All to play for on Wednesday, pressure on the Stocks IMO as they will be favourites on their own patch having rarely lost there since we won 4-1 there way back in September.

 

[Davidimp]

Cracking game, with two teams going for the win, best game of the playoffs so far

 

[Trapdoor]

the first goal, IMO its offside.

You think so?

 

[AdamStag]

You think so?

Was a close one for me, he was in the next fucking postcode

 

[AdamStag]

In league 2
notts 0-1 wimbledon
chesterfield 0-2 walsall

2 results which haven’t done unnoticed in north nottinghamshire

 

[thewwfc]

Hoping AFCW do it, this league is already going to be way too Northern next season, not that I’m a hardcore away traveller by any means.

 

[thewwfc]

Marginally the better side in the first half though neither side is creating clear cut opportunities.

Both sides are kicking the shit out of one another and the ref is letting things go for both sides, Kone has already (deservedly) been booked, but Gillesphey has also kicked Kone on the floor and got away with it, probably trying to wind him up to get sent off.

Wouldn't be surprised if someone gets sent off in this, but both sides are giving as good as they get.

 

[thewwfc]

Well, I'll take that. We won't win playing like that over two legs though.

Under Bloomfield we were actually playing a lot more football, we just reverted to pure hoofball today which was not working at all from the attacking perspective. Kone is not a target man.

Lots of head tennis, fouling and hoofs from both sides, but Charlton finished much the stronger and we can't just do the same thing at the Valley and hope to get away with it.

Charlton had the two best chances of the game, and our keeper Norris kept us in it twice with point blank saves.

CAFC the favourites, then.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Playoff game so it’s a bit of a different environment, but that Wycombe/Charlton game was pretty awful quality wise. Think NJ set up to spoil the game to be fair but it did degenerate into 2 teams hooking the ball into the channel for the most part.

Kone was pretty lucky to not to be sent off I thought, first challenge was poor and then lost his head a little bit. Didn’t have much going on did Wycombe but he looked very far from a 6/7m striker that was being reported in January.

Think Charlton will be the happier as seemed to me the gameplan was to manage the game rather than open up to me. Quite surprised at the empty seats in the stand facing the camera, silly Sunday kick off time I assume accounts for that

 

[Davidimp]

Wycombe are 21st on the average attendance table

 

[thewwfc]

I think it was more us that was doing the spoiling than Charlton, though both teams were guilty of it.

In the recent 4-0 pasting they gave us, Lloyd Jones smashed into Kone early doors and they were very physical, so I think we set up to make sure we didn't get out-battled again and were giving as good as we got.

Yes, the Kone challenge was poor, but there was another flashpoint (the one that triggered a near-brawl from both sides and a couple of bookings) where Gillesphey literally kicked Kone on the floor - which is surely a red, and no-one seems to be mentioning that?

And Kone has definitely gone off the boil, but I would attribute that more to Dodds' style of playing him very isolated up front - we'd be better off with a proper target man if that's the way we want to play, Kone needs ball to feet service and we're not providing that. He's not the type that's going to win in the air vs monster CBs.

When he was scoring for fun, that's because we were set up in a very attacking way and he had decent service.

I'd imagine we'll be losing him in the summer anyway as he probably won't want to stay at a club that no longer sets up in a way that suits his playing style.

Definitely Charlton will be the happier though as we can't expect to get anything at the Valley if we play the same way - what are we going to do, smash into them for the entire game then hope we're better than them at pens?

 

[thewwfc]

Wycombe are 21st on the average attendance table

Yup, we have an average attendance of 4000 home fans and really very little seems to change that. Add to that the fact that there has been a real downer of a mood over performances recently - we're really only in the playoffs because we had a very strong first half of the season, the second half has been average at best.

 

[Davidimp]

Yup, we have an average attendance of 4000 home fans and really very little seems to change that. Add to that the fact that there has been a real downer of a mood over performances recently - we're really only in the playoffs because we had a very strong first half of the season, the second half has been average at best.

Always think your location plays a part, you've definitely lost momentum since Xmas, was really impressed by you when we played you in November.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I think it was more us that was doing the spoiling than Charlton, though both teams were guilty of it.

In the recent 4-0 pasting they gave us, Lloyd Jones smashed into Kone early doors and they were very physical, so I think we set up to make sure we didn't get out-battled again and were giving as good as we got.

Yes, the Kone challenge was poor, but there was another flashpoint (the one that triggered a near-brawl from both sides and a couple of bookings) where Gillesphey literally kicked Kone on the floor - which is surely a red, and no-one seems to be mentioning that?

And Kone has definitely gone off the boil, but I would attribute that more to Dodds' style of playing him very isolated up front - we'd be better off with a proper target man if that's the way we want to play, Kone needs ball to feet service and we're not providing that. He's not the type that's going to win in the air vs monster CBs.

When he was scoring for fun, that's because we were set up in a very attacking way and he had decent service.

I'd imagine we'll be losing him in the summer anyway as he probably won't want to stay at a club that no longer sets up in a way that suits his playing style.

Definitely Charlton will be the happier though as we can't expect to get anything at the Valley if we play the same way - what are we going to do, smash into them for the entire game then hope we're better than them at pens?

I watched the highlight and the Charlton player doesn’t kick him at all to me, he actually stops his knee from falling ontop of him and stands up.

Kone gets up and reacts to what was indeed a physical aerial duel between them that was certainly a foul but the Charlton player doesn’t kick him in any recognisable sense of a what you would describe as a “kick”

 

[masi51]

Wycome baulked on buying Morley in the Transfer Window.....Then went and paid 1m euro for Westergaard who is not fit to lace his boots.
Got a feeling Schumacher will build his team around Morley this pre -season

 

[thewwfc]

Wycome baulked on buying Morley in the Transfer Window.....Then went and paid 1m euro for Westergaard who is not fit to lace his boots.
Got a feeling Schumacher will build his team around Morley this pre -season

None of us understands this either, trust me.

One of two major mistakes we’ve made this season - #1 pissing off Bloomfield and forcing him out and #2, not so much even just Morley, but we broke our record transfer fee not once but twice on a couple of Danes who between them have featured for a total of maybe 60-90 minutes.

Absolute insanity.