THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Thinking through what I saw last night:

1. Their keeper being allowed to bring the ball to the halfway line made little tactical difference other than time wasting. All he did was hoof it to just outside our box, which he could have done from his own box. Maybe made the hoofing a little more targeted, but hoofing it was.

2. Steals and second balls - they were well-drilled and were able to steal the ball from our toes too often and anticipated the second ball much better than us. I think their slightly smaller pitch had an effect. They were able to compact the midfield and were drilled to spring traps.

3. The smaller pitch also meant their high press was more effective. Add to that our doziness, and we were unable to play from the back until they sat back.

I am not going into the poor individual performances, or the woeful tactics where others have more eloquently made good points. The one thing I would say is that it was an error playing Norman and Tucker together. Norman CH and Lofthouse WB.

Our slightly bigger pitch (+474 sqm) will have a positive effect this Saturday. With more space to overcome their press and traps, we can put them on the defensive. We will score [several] goals. But we cannot afford to concede, what with our glass chin.

MW and this team need to SHOW UP big-time. Non of this bollox nonchalance. So do we fans - we all (players included) need to get over the disappointment and muster some belief.

Agreed...need some positivity

This.
Then we have the rest of the summer to moan to our hearts content

I still see 2-1

Crawley clearly did their analysis of our style and had a good strategy that was understood throughout their team. As much as I hate to say this, it was clever management and the game plan that made us look ordinary.

We need to be prepared for that so we have a Plan B, Plan C and maybe even a Plan D.

I don't think we can afford / should to leave that to the players to work out for themselves and yes the team need to go for it from the start. Despite being out strategised (Monday too IMO) the lads created some great chances, so yes I think they can do it and really hope they do. I'm certainly going to cheer them on. COYD

With every passing hour I'm more confident we can do this

I really don't think it was their strategy that got us it was our own BS. I mean if I didn't know the starting 11 you wouldn't have known Payne or Wearne were on the pitch. The only reason you knew Gilbey was there was due to the fact the commentators made a big deal of him not being in the game. It was also two deflected goals which if hadn't been deflected could have been saved or missed. As for chances that's all hunky dory but 5 were on target. Four straight at Addai and one cleared off the line. I think Gatwick air traffic control are still waiting for Deans shot to come out of orbit so it can land on the tarmac. And don't forget when teams don't come at us and sit back we have pooped our pants. Grimsby springs to mind and Crawley won't care that it is dull they will ask us to unlock the door three times at least. So they will be quite happy to sit back and hit us on the counter.

Just go for it start with three strikers if we have to we lose by one we might as well lose by three. Get one or two before half time there will be a slim chance but if one game we need a clean sheet this is it.

We can’t give up midfield by playing an extra striker. They killed us in midfield on Tuesday. To take numbers out of there would be suicide.