so town are back at home and facing a tougher test against Oxford 7th in the league and and on a four game winning run. with town ending a poor run and winning two out of there last three games.we have continued to witness a lack of composuer and clinical finishing in the last third, what is encouraging is that town are creating more chances. an area of concern for me is the amount of free kicks we give away in dangerous areas. if town are to get somthing from this game, we need to press hard and improve the distribution from midfield. i hope the recent wins will be a boost for the players confidence. Oxford have scored 58 goals town have scored 29 they have also conceeded less goals than town. www.shropshirestar.com/sport/football/shrewsbury-town-fc/2020/03/05/we-have-let-the-manager-down-says-shrewsburys-dave-edwards/ The staff and the manager tend to always get more stick because they’re at the head of things,” said Edwards, 34. “As players we’re the ones who go out on the pitch and have to perform. “There’s been so many times this year that we feel as players we’ve let the management team down by not performing as well as what we can do. “That run of 10 games, a lot was down to how we were performing and not necessarily what we were doing in training and the game plans going into games.” it will be intresting to see how the team respond to this interview.
Interesting comments from Edwards - it almost seems as if he is to trying to deflect the criticism away from the manager. However, it was obvious in January that the five at the back was no longer working and I think if we had switched to the new formation earlier we would be further up the league. Never mind, let's give credit where it's due for the recent improvement. We no longer have the Cup run or two games in a week excuse to fall back on and are under no real pressure of relegation. So let's hope we can put on a good show against a decent side and score a few goals - I suspect this will end up as a draw.
so all credit to ricketts for going with an attacking formation against an Oxford team on a four game winning run. with 42 seconds on the clock i was alarmed how easily Oxford waltzed through our midfield and defence, then before two minutes on the clock there was a communication mix up between one of the defenders and O'Leary and town got lucky that they did not capatalize on it. Town went up the gears played some nice football,for once the long ball payed of but Udoh desrvered credit for his strength and perseverence to score, Cummings , laurent and udoh all forced saves Edwards shoot over the bar and town were looking the better team a nice goal from Lang town 2-0 . im thinking pinch me at last town are getting shoots on target and scoring goals and loking like they might break into unknow territory and score a third. Pierre thigh was heavily straped up and unfortently he could not continue. then we get a red card this had a profound impact on the game, the ref whent on to make some strange decision. a blatent simulation by an oxford forward no card, Udoh had his legs taken from him no card.the ref looked to have lost control of the game . when Oxford score just before half time. who would be a manager i understand cummings coming off for a defender. but with only 56 minutes on the clock ricketts decides to park the bus and love comes on for lang and our attack virtually ground to a halt. all credit to udoh who left battling the whole defence. if shutting up shop would have worked Ricketts would be reciving plaudits unfortently it did not and town not only threw away a two goal lead we managed to connceed a further two goals. the normally reliable O'Leary had a poor game , he looked tenative ,his one punch whent straight to an oxford player there was some miss comunications between him and the defence. the most noticable was one involvinmg beckles were a simple shout and he could have picked up the ball as this was not forh coming and beckles horribly slices the ball which could have gone anywhere. Oxford score the second towns game managment was poor ,town did not hold the ball and it felt more like it was a hot potaoe they could not waite to get rid of but unfortently this combinmed with parking the bus just invited the inevitable pressuer, the ref did not help but with two hughe center backs you really dont wont to be giving so many corners and free kicks. love utterly failed to track the player behind him and we conceed another soft goal. .town show they can hold there own and looked the better team, a scond half that was frustrating to watch in the way they played. it is always going to be hard when you are down to ten men but today by parking the bus and virtually no out ball we just made it harder.
A very good summary Zen. We played some really good football at times but the game hinged on two instances that went against us with the sending off and Pierre going off injured. I wondered why Pierre was playing at all - he was heavily strapped up and looked uncomfortable from the first minute. Vela's first challenge was late and did catch the lad but most refs would not give a booking for that so early. The second one looked like two players going for a 50-50 ball and was never a booking ( probably not even a foul). If we could have made it to halftime without conceding we would have got something from the game but a poor individual error cost us. Their second was a wonder strike but their third was inexcusable. Firstly a poor challenge from our most experienced player to give away a free kick in a dangerous area and then we let someone in unchallenged at the far post. These defensive lapses have cost us the last two home games and I wonder whether some of our defenders are as good as we think they are or maybe their deficiencies have been hidden by us playing five at the back most of the season. Anyway we were playing a very good side and looked comfortable before the sending off and we seem to have found a centre forward for next season in the rapidly improving Udoh. I have a worrying feeling that Ricketts will revert to an ultradefensive formation next week but will travel to Saint Andrews in the hope we will give it a good go like we did first half yesterday. If we do I reckon we can upset Coventry.
I remember us winning two (Coventry and Bristol City) in the last few minutes but it is too traumatic to try and remember those we have lost! Think this is a mental problem rather than a physical fitness issue.
