Crawley Match Thread

Quoted from HerveJosse

Sorry but the purpose of substitions is to improve your position in the game tactically or similarly not to give academy players from other clubs a few minutes experience etc . As soon as we brought on Scannell and ONeil I feared the worst .

It's also to see what they are made of, and PH to his credit has said in his post match that they didn't do enough. He will have learnt a lot tonight, and will be looking to next season and retain lists.

I don’t see what more El General can do tbh, for now. Has us playing like Barcelona recently but the players are allergic to goals- is it confidence? Composure? Quality? All three? I’m not convinced it’s quality as our starting team looked several leagues higher than Crawley in all round play, the subs were a massive drop off in both work rate and ability but who else do we have? I do think Maher was stupid to go in there rather than just stand up, but the forwards and midfield should have had us 7-0 up by then and it really shouldn’t have mattered.

Thinking positive though, at least the easy goal for them pegged us back to a draw and not a defeat. If we play this kind of footy next season with a better squad it’ll be amazing to watch AND hopefully successful too.

Quoted from Madeleymariner

O Neill still playing under 21 football, jogging around when out of possesion, thinks no one will try and tackle him when he has the ball and slow in all his decisions. You can see he has a good touch and skill but should not be near starting, should have kept Essel at the club and be giving him a few sub appearances instead.

He didn't start though, came on as a sub.  Also he has only started 2 games and come on as a sub 5 times, and yes, he is still only 18.

Nothing to add.. just baffled how we didn't get 3 points.. oh and the subs gave us nothing

I’m not going to be too hard on the lads for that, yes absolutely we should have been way out of sight but we’ve had much tougher watches and either lost or drawn and the lads worked their backsides off and deserve a lot of credit for that.

The subs where probably required as McAtee & Khan looked knackered but you can only bring on what you have sat there, also bit hard on O’Neil considering he’s mainly played cameo’s in games and very few senior ones at that, not his fault.

Definitely 2 points lost again but when you look at it overall it was much better.

Quoted from gtfc_chris

What a killer. Fantastic performance for the vast majority and should have had far more than the one goal.

Subs didn't impact the game at all really, was hoping for more from Scans after being excited to see him get his chance. O'Neill just not really at it, Orsi not long enough in the game but didn't really offer the running that Lloyd does.

Huge shame on the result because the performance was deserving of far more but once again we're our own worst enemy and will be leaving feeling very dejected for our poor finishing.

Paul was our own worst enemy. But that’s all right - as we are looking to next season- almost got the magic 50 points.

There must be a game going on where higher league clubs unload in contract youngsters who they decide are not up to it out to lower league clubs on loan to recover part of their wages. We seem to be the mugs taking more then our fair share

Quoted from Maringer

I've only seen a few minutes of him in here and there at BP but he has looked way out of his depth during that time. Obviously has potential but some 18 year olds are nowhere near ready for first team football.

Jack Lester, for example, was 21 before he established himself as a player.

Same with Harry Kane too. Wasn’t on anyone’s radar at 18.

Quoted from denni266

Come on scanzzzz

You might as well have brought me on, he was hopeless, the second break by Clifton where he tried a cross come shot, all it needed was someone to get into the area and there was Scannell hardly breaking into a walk, if he isn't fit enough he shouldn't have been brought on, in fact none of the substitutes improved us.

Safe journey home to the 329 fans who went. We didn't hear you much, but JT's mic was at the far end of the main stand.