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Matchday Thread PNE v Norwich City - 13/4/24 - KO:3PM - Championship

Matchday Thread PNE v Norwich City - 13/4/24 - KO:3PM - Championship

Seamustasmania said:
Lowe’s midfield selection today was baffling. You want to create you pick a side with balance with players in their accepted positions. Why didn’t he go for Ledson ( Whiteman role) Browne and Mads? Three midfielders in their best positions, not square pegs in round holes. The shape of the team at the end of the game was comic cuts. So many badges , so little sense. ( re Ledson’s Fitness …he could have shifted Holmes and brought on a full back if he was struggling )
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Starting with Whatmough instead of Ledson was the very least of our problems today
 
For me Whatmough was one of the few successes today. That said his lack of mobility did let Norwich run at us from midfield on occasions which was something we never did.
A number of our players were poor throughout most notably Mads, Brady and Keane ...... the latter didn't look interested so what he was doing as an attacking midfield player at the end I couldn't understand.
I think we were outfought and outthought by a team who would have been happy with a draw.
I don't criticise Lowe for going for the win but I do blame him for a shambolic last quarter!
 
Warton PNE said:
I’m really not Ledson’s biggest fan but it’s baffling to me why we didn’t get him on the pitch.

Whatmough did a decent job, but after about 60, everything became erratic and it was a bit of a mess.

Surely at that point, you bring on your experienced Championship midfielder to calm things down? We were up against top operators in Sara and Nunez. Makes sense to me that you play a midfielder when you need to get hold of a game rather than a CB in that position.

It’s silly decisions like this throughout the season that have cost us. People have said ‘he’s a young coach, he’ll learn’, but he isn’t.

His subs have been largely poor since day 1 and we are stuck in 1 system. Really find it difficult to understand why a coach at this level can’t play any other systems. Sigh.
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This is why I’m still in the Lowe out camp. The tactical inflexibility is mind boggling for an EFL gaffer.
 
Pne_Gaz said:
Just finally brought myself round from the disappointment of the result, decided to watch the goal back and I'm honestly just fed up. Brady and Hughes looked like they were the chuckle brothers trying to play football and fucking Lindsay yet again getting sold by a telegraphed fake shot.
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It’s such as shame that Cunningham isn’t able to play more than he does. I know it goes against perceived wisdom but I honestly think he’s a much better player than Hughes - but the most of our defence look like rabbits in headlights when someone runs at them.
 
shabbagaz said:
Thanks North End, thanks a fucking lot. We're so predictable that it's just so tiresome.

Thought we did alright first half but offered the square root of fuck all second half and the subs were truly baffling.

Lowe can take the blame for the subs and set up, Ridsdale etc can take the blame for us being ill-equipped.

I could go on a rant but what's the bloody point? Fed up with this club and its acceptance of mediocrity.
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HPpy Birthday!
 
Cadleywhite said:
Battled hard today but we didn’t get many breaks. The defeats against QPR and Wednesday were when it cost us.
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I don’t think we did battle hard today.

We needed to press their obvious tactics of closing up to get themselves one point. It was always going to be their game to get another point into the playoffs. What should have happened is we try and break them down. We press. We make them react to our play, force the game upon them.

But typical North End, we let them do what they chose and we just trotted along. They dictated the play. We hoped for a set piece maybe, or a lucky counter attack. AND we deserved nothing. Nothing.

Another season of being dictated to rather than taking the game to others and letting them worry about us.

Sit back and fail. Be negative and fail. Respect the other side and fail.

Just fail.

Fuck the respect, no other side deserves it. Winners win. Losers respect the others.

Just fuck off North End, you’ve done the same for forty fucking years. Weak as fuck.
 
A very even first half with Norwich looking OK but equally nothing particularly special. A shame Whatmough's header didn't go in, but from our angle, it never really looked like it would, if it was that inch or two lower keeper should have saved anyway, but it did give some encouragement.
Second half started similar to the first but then they came on stronger, Mads was having a poor game but still trying to create - although when its not happening for him, he might be better advised to keep it simple and play his way through it. That being said, why take off your creativity who can still do something out of the ordinary in the 90th minute. It was also apparent that we lost shape when he went off, so maybe he was still more influential than some give him credit for, even if he was poor by his own standards.
The left side started to become wide open, and where they scored from.
As for the later subs WTF.
Bringing Evans on instead of Stewart?
Either keep Holmes on or switch Brady over to RWB.
Left side he could have brought Greg on at LCB and moved Hughes to LWB or Best - any 2 from those 3 could play as LCB or LWB to allow Brady to switch without totally losing shape.
As i said we lost shape just taking mads off, the latter subs we almost laughingly lost all shape and purpose.
Whilst Whatmough had a decent game, he wasn't MOM (Holmes probably) but did the defensive job well, however a number of times when in space with the ball, he hadn't a clue what to do with it, so as Ledson is actually a midfield Player and played well at Plymouth (as Captain) why play another player out of position, when there is one already available, maybe not great but certainly better equipped for the position.
As an aside its always bemusing to me see the Managers who where not particularly gifted 'Footballers' themselves target the 'Footballers' to be sacrificed when things are not going to plan.
 
Jack Daniels said:
Was out with a Norwich workmate pre-match and upon meeting him post match for my lift home, he agreed that there was nothing in it and they got the lucky rub of the green for the goal.

0-0 or 0-1, neither does us any good.

There wasn't much in it from either side.

Naturally, I shook his hand and congratulated him.

As an aside, had a pint of "The Quiet American" in The Moorbrook and all I can say is, What a Pint!!! Converted.
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You would have been better off congratulating the beer and converting to Norwich City.
 
Nobber said:
I don’t think we did battle hard today.

We needed to press their obvious tactics of closing up to get themselves one point. It was always going to be their game to get another point into the playoffs. What should have happened is we try and break them down. We press. We make them react to our play, force the game upon them.

But typical North End, we let them do what they chose and we just trotted along. They dictated the play. We hoped for a set piece maybe, or a lucky counter attack. AND we deserved nothing. Nothing.

Another season of being dictated to rather than taking the game to others and letting them worry about us.

Sit back and fail. Be negative and fail. Respect the other side and fail.

Just fail.

Fuck the respect, no other side deserves it. Winners win. Losers respect the others.

Just fuck off North End, you’ve done the same for forty fucking years. Weak as fuck.
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It’s frustrating but I can’t fault the effort of the lads today. Their substitutions made them stronger, ours didn’t really affect the game.
 
Just arrived home so not read any posts post match so here is my summary, first half played well probably deserved to be in front even though we didn’t force their keeper to make a save .
Second half their manager sussed our threat and nullified it . Holmes’s was pushed back to defending as was Brady .
So our midfield was stopped from creating anything. Lowe then decided to take off our only two creative players off the pitch ( Mads and Holmes ) yes Mads was very careless in possession and wasn’t playing particularly well but to take then off and play three up front meant we had no supply to that front three so completely nullified our forward line . ( none of which played well ) Lowe definitely showed his lack of tactical sense once again in taking the wrong players off at the wrong time and the game was lost by surrendering the midfield and allowing Norwich to control almost all the second half .
Saying that the loss of Millar , Whiteman and McCann and Potts definitely had a massive impact on our push to get into the top six , but once again we’ve got close but ultimately fallen short unfortunately it’s what we have done for almost sixty years, it’s the hope that kills you, I went on today expecting nothing more than a draw at best and even that we couldn’t achieve. Well maybe next year .🙏🤞😰
 
Naughton's moustache said:
Ref gave us very little an never got to grips with their eternity when taking set pieces.
Having said that, why didn't Browne get in the refs ear about it? He's the skipper, he's allowed to, to an extent
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Browne was in the refs ear in the first half when the CB with the bandage blatantly and deliberately handled the ball outside the areas near the corner flag in the Invincibles/Kop area, but to no avail.
I think he was querying why he hadn't been booked as he should have been as it was blatant and deliberate.
Can't say the Ref was particularly bad but they do have an inbuilt maybe even unconscious bias to the 'bigger' teams.
 
Seriously gutted still. I listened to the iFollow commentary and won’t watch the highlights anytime soon.

There has to be a perspective that we’ve been running on fumes for weeks. The squad so thin and we don’t know how much fitness, fatigue and injury have been hindering the players who have remained available. And when the opposition has so much serious quality, it’s a disadvantage.

But it really still feels hard to understand went wrong. How the formation became so chaotic. How this followed on from the abject performance at Birmingham and apparently strange one against Watford. I just don’t know what to make of it.
 
Butter Pies and Alibis said:
For me Whatmough was one of the few successes today. That said his lack of mobility did let Norwich run at us from midfield on occasions which was something we never did.
A number of our players were poor throughout most notably Mads, Brady and Keane ...... the latter didn't look interested so what he was doing as an attacking midfield player at the end I couldn't understand.
I think we were outfought and outthought by a team who would have been happy with a draw.
I don't criticise Lowe for going for the win but I do blame him for a shambolic last quarter!
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I disagree that Keane didn’t look interested but I certainly thought Riis looked lazy and disinterested. Perhaps he thought that he shouldn’t have been dropped! His performance showed that it was the correct decision.
 
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