Slowly Better and Better

[belton rover]

We really are heading in the right direction. More togetherness tonight. We actually got better in the second half. Defence looked more comfortable than they have been.
A good night, and for the first time this season, I think we will stay up.

Credit to Cambridge for contributing to a good game. Fair result.

[drfchound]

Four points from those two games is a good return.
I agree that we are improving and you can see that the players are more confident as each game goes by.
Vilca had his best game for us tonight and that will do him good.
Fantastic strike by Galbraith for the goal.

[roversdude]

First half we were shocking

[mushRTID]

I’m a bit frustrated with the Bostock sub.
I’d have been tempted to take off a defender and throw Cukur on. Think we lost a bit in midfield when we should have been going at it for the win.

[keyser_soze]

No shots on target for Cambridge according to Sky

[drfchound]

That would be correct.
Their goal was an og and they hit the bar late on.
Pontus didn’t have a shot to save.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Given how poor we were overall, there's positive in the fact we gained a point and we came back from a goal down.

Tons of possession but precious little bravery and intelligence in trying to win the game.

[mushRTID]

Maybe I’m just getting easier to please, but I didn’t think we were that bad. And neither did Wellens after listening to his interview.

[Filo]

I thought we did OK and should have won it, Bostock gets a lot of stick, but he shows for the ball and keeps it moving and we keep possesion

[Campsall rover]

That would be correct.
Their goal was an og and they hit the bar late on.
Pontus didn’t have a shot to save.

Their keeper only had 2 to save.

We need to get far more shots on goal than we did tonight. That 1st half will have been the easiest half Cambridge will have had this season. We were so slow in our build up it was really poor compared to the tempo we played at on Saturday.
2nd half was much better but we still did not work their keeper enough.

Why was Curkur playing wherever he was playing when he came on and Vilca in the middle. Did not make sense to me.
Any way we got a point which is better than losing, but 2 points dropped against a team which will be fighting to stay up this season imo.

[Bailey Vickerage]

That would be correct.
Their goal was an og and they hit the bar late on.
Pontus didn’t have a shot to save.

Their keeper only had 2 to save.

We need to get far more shots on goal than we did tonight. That 1st half will have been the easiest half Cambridge will have had this season. We were so slow in our build up it was really poor compared to the tempo we played at on Saturday.
2nd half was much better but we still did not work their keeper enough.

Why was Curkur playing wherever he was playing when he came on and Vilca in the middle. Did not make sense to me.
Any way we got a point which is better than losing, but 2 points dropped against a team which will be fighting to stay up this season imo.

we were a lot better when Cukur came on and Vilca moved into the middle, it gave us something in attacking midfield to link the play between midfield and attack, something smith didn’t do as he’s not a number 10, he’s a number 8. We missed close in that role first half, hopefully him and Rowe are back on Saturday.

[dickos1]

Not sure how anyone can describe that as shocking compared to earlier performances this season.
Apart from the first 10 mins we absolutely controlled the game

[DonnyOsmond]

We weren't poor. We largely dominated possession and put a few balls in to their box but lacked clear chances and struggled to challenge their keeper. We lacked a link between midfield and attack today which led to Bostock and Galbraith forced to go sideways.

[Filo]

Dodoo had a chance to win it and put it over from 6 yards

[dickos1]

Dodoo had a chance to win it and put it over from 6 yards

If you mean the volley, that was vilca

[drfchound]

That would be correct.
Their goal was an og and they hit the bar late on.
Pontus didn’t have a shot to save.

Their keeper only had 2 to save.

We need to get far more shots on goal than we did tonight. That 1st half will have been the easiest half Cambridge will have had this season. We were so slow in our build up it was really poor compared to the tempo we played at on Saturday.
2nd half was much better but we still did not work their keeper enough.

Why was Curkur playing wherever he was playing when he came on and Vilca in the middle. Did not make sense to me.
Any way we got a point which is better than losing, but 2 points dropped against a team which will be fighting to stay up this season imo.

I was at the game Camps and can recall more than two saves that the Cambridge keeper had to make.
Even the bbc stats record five shots on target.
I also don’t understand why people are slagging Bostock off tonight. He rarely gives the ball away.
He was always available to receive a pass and does move it on quickly more often than not.
Two of his through balls in the first half were tremendous.

[Campsall rover]

Sorry that 1st half was awful.
We had 68% possession and created nothing.

I can’t believe anyone was happy with our performance in that 1st 45+ mins.

2nd half we stepped up the tempo. We still did not work the keeper enough.

Missed Close and Rowe. Galbraith best player again once he went into midfield.

[Filo]

Dodoo had a chance to win it and put it over from 6 yards

If you mean the volley, that was vilca

I stand corrected, could have sworn it was Dodoo

[dickos1]

Hiwulu was clean through one on one in the first half and missed, he was clean through on another occasion in the first half too but the linesman incorrectly flagged him offside.
Their keeper also made a couple of other decent saves in the first half,
We were poor for ten minutes but dominated the rest of the half

[Filo]

I sometimes wonder what people see, we dominated most of the game, I’ve come away from some games seething at our performances, tonight I came away pleased with the performance, apart from Gardner, perhaps we would have been more dominant had we not carried him for most of the first half

[bpoolrover]

I'm not normally over critical but for me that was a struggle to watch, while bostock made a few decent balls he totally slowed the game down to walking pace and gave the ball away to many times, are we getting better or are the teams we have played last 2 games just worse than the other teams? Look a point is a point but play like that against better more physical teams and we will go down, we need the injured players back quickly and hope they stay fit

[Pliskin]

We had plenty of the ball but we are utterly clueless with it. We still seem to barely have any idea of how to get players into threatening positions with the ball often enough to actually expect goals. There is no creativity and no movement.

I honestly could not see us scoring, this time at home against a depleted Cambridge side. Thank f**k for Ethan Galbraith whose quality got us an equaliser out of nothing.

If this is considered to be a positive performance then it just goes to show how far standards have fallen.

[River Don]

A couple of vital fixtures coming up. Both away...

If we can manage to avoid defeat in those two, then I'll feel a corner has been turned.

[dickos1]

We had plenty of the ball but we are utterly clueless with it. We still seem to barely have any idea of how to get players into threatening positions with the ball often enough to actually expect goals. There is no creativity and no movement.

I honestly could not see us scoring, this time at home against a depleted Cambridge side. Thank f**k for Ethan Galbraith whose quality got us an equaliser out of nothing.

If this is considered to be a positive performance then it just goes to show how far standards have fallen.

I think you need to sort out your expectations mate.
We’ve been bottom of the league for most of this season, we’ve just got 4 points from two games, we dominated both games, and you’re going on like we’ve lost them both.

[bpoolrover]

We had plenty of the ball but we are utterly clueless with it. We still seem to barely have any idea of how to get players into threatening positions with the ball often enough to actually expect goals. There is no creativity and no movement.

I honestly could not see us scoring, this time at home against a depleted Cambridge side. Thank f**k for Ethan Galbraith whose quality got us an equaliser out of nothing.

If this is considered to be a positive performance then it just goes to show how far standards have fallen.

I think you need to sort out your expectations mate.
We’ve been bottom of the league for most of this season, we’ve just got 4 points from two games, we dominated both games, and you’re going on like we’ve lost them both.

we have dominated possession  yes but rarely looked liked scoring

[dickos1]

Not sure I agree
We scored 3 on Saturday and could’ve scored 5/6
Tonight we missed two clear cut chances and their keeper made a couple of good saves.

[roversdude]

I thought it was a bit of a backwards step after Saturday, we dominated possession but that was mainly because they let us have the ball and got everyone back. Far too slow. Played it across our back line over and over again, we looked scared stiff.
Still another point. We will stay up

[The Beast]

We are definitely getting better, there are still some massive issues. Giving teams free goals at set pieces, not even competing, the last 3 goals we’ve conceded have been Sunday league standard defending. Bad decision making in the final third, tonight we had so much of the ball but I never really thought we were going to score.
We had players out tonight but Cambridge had as many, came away quite disappointed as I was banking on 3 points as personally I can’t see us getting much on Saturday or much at all in November. Having said that I still think we’ll stay up.

[JonWallsend]

First game this season. Just back from a 250 mile round trip and feel it was well worth it. Enjoyed the way we tried to play. We got the ball to both wide men on numerous occasions  but the final delivery,(too many floated balls rather than driven across the box) or intent to have a go at the full back, in a one on one situation wasn't good enough.
Galbraith, as has been commented on, is a proper player and I thought all the midfield, Gardner excepted, were decent tonight.

Oh, and to the bloke behind me, the reason for going sideways, especially against two deep solid banks of 5 and 4 is to draw them in and hopefully create space for a switch to the wings and get in behind the back of them, as we were able to do through Galbraith to Hiwula plenty of times.

Both teams will be down there come the end of the season but we will hopefully have enough to stop up and tonight we were certainly the better side, both halves.

[Pliskin]

We had plenty of the ball but we are utterly clueless with it. We still seem to barely have any idea of how to get players into threatening positions with the ball often enough to actually expect goals. There is no creativity and no movement.

I honestly could not see us scoring, this time at home against a depleted Cambridge side. Thank f**k for Ethan Galbraith whose quality got us an equaliser out of nothing.

If this is considered to be a positive performance then it just goes to show how far standards have fallen.

I think you need to sort out your expectations mate.
We’ve been bottom of the league for most of this season, we’ve just got 4 points from two games, we dominated both games, and you’re going on like we’ve lost them both.

Believe me, my expectations couldn't get much lower after watching this lot this season.

Clearly not as low as yours, however. I mean expecting a football team to actually look capable of creating a chance to score a goal on a semi-regular basis? What an unreasonable bas**rd I am.