Amazing at the end with ten seconds left on the clock and the keeper could have set their forward away one v one against Andrews, but chose to kill the time instead. They were hell bent on not losing above all else.
Yes. Keeper ball in hands, forward running into space and asking for the ball to be launched…keeper says no and holds onto it. Bizarre decision and I’m not surprised their fans were going mad.
Not having seen them yet under Cleverly, I was quite looking forward to this. Unfortunately, it was one of the most tedious matches I have seen in a long long time.
Clearly the new manager bounce is over back to negative sideways passing with the odd forward pass thrown in exactly the same as Ismael no different still playing walking football no urgency at all ,the game plan to get the ball out wide to the wing backs and deliver is great on paper but don't get me started they were both horrendous no end product what so ever and they weren't even substituted absolute garbage
Had to work and missed the game. I was fed up to miss the game, but then it turned out that in fact I got paid for escaping a pile of old shyte by the sounds of it...
TBF it is hard to play forward passes against a team that had dropped so deep . Cleverley, myself, yourself and uncle Tom Cobley all must have thought PNE would have a go and leave some space behind to exploit.
As I've pointed out above though - when the opponent sticks 10 men behind the ball as with today (and also has 3 big CBs likely to win every long ball in the air) it's much more difficult to pass the ball forwards, and therefore the only pass on is often sideways to the other CBs. Not sure it's down to "the new manager bounce" being over but rather the difference in approach from the opponent today relative to Clevs' first 3 games.
Lewis has definitely been a disappointment this season, Martins had a good start but tailed off badly, Porteous is definitely our second best CB and he's looked a lot less hot-headed under Cleverley, but I think Andrews would have performed much the same regardless of the manager, he's been fantastic at times, but he's looked 19 at others, think he will be quality in time, but he's not there yet. I think there's not much between the first XI of most teams in this division, but considering in reserve we've had players like Ngakia, Morris, Sema, and Pollock, who are not good enough and/or injury prone (Sema has absolutely been good enough for a number of years, I hope his injury issues this season aren't a sign of things to come), I think even McKenna or Corberán would struggle to get us seriously challenging for the playoffs. Speaking of McKenna, I don't think he's regretting signing Moore when they were (reportedly) after Rajovic
All in all, it was a flat game, but a point for us is better than nothing, it beats me why Preston seemingly came for a point when their play-off hopes are flagging
I agree . And their manager out thought our manager with his negative tactics . Not sure who the winner is tho because I'm sure TC will learn from today .
Clearly replied to a couple of things I said but one point not picked up on was walking football and urgency if you run and move the ball quicker you move the two banks of 4 so you find spaces, or if you don't you never get in advanced areas and make chances hence we drew 0:0 had one shot on goal , has been the issue all season not just today
Don't wish to derail topic but this season's play offs is going to be a minefield . One of Leicester Leeds or Ipswich plus Southampton and probably WBA and Naaarch. Cannot see a weak link amongst that lot !!
This is fair but we were slow in transition at times too I felt. It wasn’t like we faced an Immovable object. There were definitely opportunities to break today and take advantage of their players being out of position but we seemed resigned to making continual backwards or sideways passes.
Easy. You take advantage of one the several times they hadn’t dropped deep or had players out of position.
Hadn’t watched the last few games, so decided to give it a go. We have a few players who are almsot good enough, but we only seem to be able to get about 15-20 mins of coordinated effort per game sad really. Highlights , at times TDB, and Asprilla , I guess Chak , all three attackers are trying (which is something), didn’t do anything especially stupid (which is an improvement). Wonder who will be here next year.
This is exactly why Preston never make the top six and probably won’t for a long time. They had a genuine opportunity to get in the top six but weren’t even ambitious enough to go for it against a side that had nothing to play for. A bit pathetic playing for a draw, regardless of a few injuries. I can sympathise with their fans as I would be livid with that.
What a poor standard of football this division has provided this season. Almost all our opponents have been underwhelming, including the ones going for promotion, but we haven’t been good enough to beat many of them.
Nothing short of a boring, horrendous match. No it doesn't help when the opposition doesn't want to play for a win, especially when they had to. Not many pluses, TDB did impress again from his natural position though. TC had me enjoying Watching Watford again but that was one horrific performance.
It would have been forgettable except that Rajovic nearly put one in the top corner from a free kick. A moment that should never and will never be forgotten.
Someone earlier alluded to this, but in truth one of our most Watfordy habits over recent years is not being able to outplay a rough-tough bunch that just work hard and get really stuck in. In slower paced games against a decent team (Leeds recently) we look pretty good at times, but if it gets scrappy we never look capable of playing our game. So in simple terms this current bunch just can't stand toe to toe with the Millwalls of this league as they don't have it in them. (is this down to the managers, the player types that we tend to go for, or is it that the more feisty players don't gey a look?)
