There was a moment...

[BillyStubbsTears]

...just before their goal which summed up our season. Little thing but it hit me in the guts.

The ball had pinged off one of their lads and out of play near the West Stand halfway line. The ball bounced up to Knoyle and we suddenly had a chance to break with a quick throw as they had players out of position.

Knoyle threw it 5 yards to Clayton...at waist height.

Impossible to control. He lost the ball and 60 seconds later they were 1 up.

A tiny microcosm of our season. Technically deficient. No football intelligence. Confusing panicked rushing for quick decision making. Basically not being able to take advantage of moments in the game where fate chucks you an opportunity.

I watched that, even before they scored and I realised we were down.

If, by some miracle, we survive, it'll be a f**king travesty because we have an appallingly bad group of players, shockingly managed.

[aidanstu]

This can of reflects my thoughts; the lack of cohesion amongst the team is blatantly obvious; 3 times at least we lost the ball because players weren’t warned when there was a man on. That’s really basic stuff.

We don’t attack or defend as a unit; they down press, the runs are poor, there is no link up play and how many time Josh Martin has had to approach the bench to ask what the hell they want him to do is laughable. I don’t blame him by the way.

[Cramby10]

...just before their goal which summed up our season. Little thing but it hit me in the guts.

The ball had pinged off one of their lads and out of play near the West Stand halfway line. The ball bounced up to Knoyle and we suddenly had a chance to break with a quick throw as they had players out of position.

Knoyle threw it 5 yards to Clayton...at waist height.

Impossible to control. He lost the ball and 60 seconds later they were 1 up.

A tiny microcosm of our season. Technically deficient. No football intelligence. Confusing panicked rushing for quick decision making. Basically not being able to take advantage of moments in the game where fate chucks you an opportunity.

I watched that, even before they scored and I realised we were down.

If, by some miracle, we survive, it'll be a f**king travesty because we have an appallingly bad group of players, shockingly managed.

ha. This is something me and my lad have commented on all season. The amount of times we have lost possession or put ourselves in trouble from a simple throw is ridiculous.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Usually we are incapable of generating any movement to work out clear possession from a throw in. That's bad enough because it is such a basic thing.

This was far worse because Clayton was unmarked. Knoyle rushed it and got it hopelessly wrong.

In itself it's a minor mistake. But the problem is that every match throughout the whole season has been shot through with dozens of minor mistakes. That's why it felt so emblematic.

[jmt23]

They are just a shocking group of players, they are not a team. How are we going to score, we don’t shoot and we definitely do not like to cross the ball.
I’m really fearful about next season, this group will not cope at the next level down- they just don’t have it.

[drfchound]

...just before their goal which summed up our season. Little thing but it hit me in the guts.

The ball had pinged off one of their lads and out of play near the West Stand halfway line. The ball bounced up to Knoyle and we suddenly had a chance to break with a quick throw as they had players out of position.

Knoyle threw it 5 yards to Clayton...at waist height.

Impossible to control. He lost the ball and 60 seconds later they were 1 up.

A tiny microcosm of our season. Technically deficient. No football intelligence. Confusing panicked rushing for quick decision making. Basically not being able to take advantage of moments in the game where fate chucks you an opportunity.

I watched that, even before they scored and I realised we were down.

If, by some miracle, we survive, it'll be a f**king travesty because we have an appallingly bad group of players, shockingly managed.

ha. This is something me and my lad have commented on all season. The amount of times we have lost possession or put ourselves in trouble from a simple throw is ridiculous.

We (our group at matches) have been talking about this all season.
In the past we had Copps.
Somehow he always was the one who made the run and found space to receive the ball from the throw in.
Now we have no one who is able to do such a basic thing.

[acacia94]

Copps has been on the commentaries recently and his grasp of the game is impressive. All the little things we do every week that you've raised here BST that conspire to make us a truly awful crap team. Copps explains choice ones through the game and what should have happened to say put us on the attack. Some of its instinct but a lot is coaching. As several posters have said over the last season – what the f**kin ell does this lot do Monday to Friday?? – are they sat at Cantley playing FIFA??

[i_ateallthepies]

I've posted before about careless throw-ins losing us posession (not this season, admittedly).  It grinds my gears when the ball is thrown too short to a player and it reaches him above his waist, leaving him having to gain control of the ball and often losing possession as a result.  Such a basic thing but it seems obvious to me that it is not worked on in training.

[Filo]

It would help if some one showed for the ball instead of hiding

[roversdude]

I've posted before about careless throw-ins losing us posession (not this season, admittedly).  It grinds my gears when the ball is thrown too short to a player and it reaches him above his waist, leaving him having to gain control of the ball and often losing possession as a result.  Such a basic thing but it seems obvious to me that it is not worked on in training.

One of my pet gripes and to be fair we’ve been pants at them for years now

[Donnywolf]

Usually we are incapable of generating any movement to work out clear possession from a throw in. That's bad enough because it is such a basic thing.

This was far worse because Clayton was unmarked. Knoyle rushed it and got it hopelessly wrong.

In itself it's a minor mistake. But the problem is that every match throughout the whole season has been shot through with dozens of minor mistakes. That's why it felt so emblematic.

.... and we tend to take throws either 10 yards back from where we should be taking one .... Or exactly where the lino or ref say we should whereas oppos tend to nick as much yardage as they can

They either get away with it or the Ref sends them back to where he thinks that should be taking it and that suits them because they kill the clock BUT STILL take throw from miles in front of where they should

Ditto Free kicks

[roversdude]

Not sure on that DW Knoyle pinches a fair bit lol

[GazLaz]

Our possession retention from throw ins is 41%. League average is 49%. Obviously this is distorted for the teams with a real long throw merchant. Lincoln the highest with 69%, Gills and Burton (who launch everything into the box) are the lowest at low 20’s%