Brentford (A) - 12:30pm KO (Sat 22nd Feb 2020)

[USABlue]

29 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Don't be stupid.

Did you see a 'Mercer' out there in a blue shirt!?!?

Don't be so fuckin sensitive either it was a joke see the heh heh.  EVERYONE knows your predictions as the kiss if death,.I always thought it was a funny thing but obviously you take it all very seriously.and I will never comment again.  BTW, I am not STUPID either, no genius but.did not get to be my age with.my accomplishments by being.stupid.

[Inglorious basturk]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

It would have been a peno in either box,obviously 

Would you have felt harshly treated had Walton given it away ? I would 

[Stuart]

15 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

But that’s my point Stuart. We didn’t ‘allow’ them back into it today. 

Goals are the end of a move. We allowed them to get into those dangerous positions.

We do this often (as do all teams) but we do it the second most from leading positions in the division (second only to Wigan).

That smacks of mental weakness. Today it has cost Mowbray his first ever top six standing - even if only for a couple of hours.

[Dreams of 1995]

I don’t think there was anything mentally weak about our performance today.

[Stuart]

7 minutes ago, USABlue said:

Clearly we are, the pen I saw he was going past Johnson and went over.  That WAS the penalty call right?

We are definitely at cross purposes. I wasn’t on about the pen at all.

[Hasta]

7 minutes ago, Inglorious basturk said:

Would you have been happy with accepting it in our box ? 

I wouldnt be happy ascId be blaming Walton for being a bit thick. 

Do you think Rayas action stops Buckley running after the ball?

Edited February 22, 2020 by Hasta

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

16 minutes ago, Inglorious basturk said:

Soft pens will often come in pairs 

Two soft ones today. You could see those two incidents in another game and nothing would be given.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Well you couldn’t take your eyes off that game for a second - never a dull moment! The back five with Johnson and Travis in front of them were terrific I thought. If they can all stay injury free we definitely have a chance.

The subs made us better, at then end it was us more likely to nick it. Armstrong getting two 1-on-1s was as much as we could’ve hoped for. I was screaming at him to take the second one around Raya who had shown with the first one spreads himself for the shot.

Refs are killing the game though. 22 players gave everything toe-to-toe and the ref awards two goals for touching, not even pushing or pulling. 

[K-Hod]

Hi Everyone, I know we are all frustrated we didn’t leave Griffin Park with three points today, but it seems like everyone is getting more annoyed than they need to be, by pixels on a screen today.

Pro tip- if someone really annoys you on here, you can scroll past the post and not respond in kind to it, as though it was never posted.

It’a almost as though ignorance is bliss....

[chaddyrovers]

2 minutes ago, Hasta said:

I wouldnt be happy ascId be blaming Walton for being a bit thick. 

Do you think Rayas action stops Buckley running after the ball?

Of course Raya did  

[Inglorious basturk]

Just now, Hasta said:

I wouldnt be happy ascId be blaming Walton for being a bit thick. 

Do you think Raya stops Buckley running after the ball?

Yes but I would say they kind of just clash imo, I didn’t think there was intent  , I can certainly see how it was given too  but I’d be annoyed had we gave it away . Not as annoyed as their ridiculous dive 

[WacoRover]

Very happy with a point today, yes, it could have been three, but all in all, playing a good side on the road, I will take it.

Benrahma & Watkins are quality. I will take Walton every day of the week over Raya, who is their Achilles heel, imo, good decision there. 

Tony is doing a good job, with the guys he has, I will give him that. We need to win our next, no excuses.

[Inglorious basturk]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Two soft ones today. You could see those two incidents in another game and nothing would be given.

I’d go with that 

[bluebruce]

IMO, both penalties were penalties. Johnson bundled into him and also gave a little shove in the back of his neck/head. He went down a little easily, but there was enough for a penalty.

I will take today as a sign of small progress. I still felt nervous at 2 up, in fact moreso than at 1 up, due to how things went in this fixture last season. Turned out it was with good reason I felt nervous. However, we didn't collapse quite as badly as last time. That said, our goal lived a bit of a charmed life all day. If Brentford had brought their finishing boots we'd have had a similar scoreline to last time. We did some excellent last ditch defending though.

Our passing was a real disappointment today. We gave the ball away with great frequency and in poor fashion, which was especially frustrating as we weren't having that much of it to begin with. I thought we showed them too much respect at times, allowing too much space, but I'm more bothered that we made it too easy for them to win the ball.

It's extremely disappointing to throw away a 2 goal lead here again, but it's a point I'd have taken before the game and one that should keep us in contention especially if we can just put away the next two opponents.

Anyone who thinks we deserved any more than we got today on the balance of play needs to remove their blue and white tinted spectacles. Brentford look far more ready to step up than we do. The finishing aside, it was one of the most comprehensive displays against us we've seen all season. Despite having hoped we would hang onto the win, I feel lucky we came out of this with a point.

[Tom]

The Raya one for me is similar to an outfield player winning a header then flattening a player on the landing, sometimes a foul will he given harshly other times not. 
 

Either way both were given, both scored, evened up, both teams had 90 minutes to alter the score line before and after 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

18 minutes ago, Inglorious basturk said:

Would you have been happy with accepting it in our box ? 

I think a lot depends how old you are. Back in the day you had to be caught taking the lace out the the ball with both hands before the ref would give a pen. Now I see some amazingly poor decisions were a player is barely touched and goes down like a log. Huddersfield at home this season stands out but there are loads of others. If you are young and that is all you know both of those incidents today were pens. For me both were harsh.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Dreams of 1995]

Just now, Exiled in Toronto said:

Well you couldn’t take your eyes off that game for a second - never a dull moment! The back five with Johnson and Travis in front of them were terrific I thought. If they can all stay injury free we definitely have a chance.

The subs made us better, at then end it was us more likely to nick it. Armstrong getting two 1-on-1s was as much as we could’ve hoped for. I was screaming at him to take the second one around Raya who had shown with the first one spreads himself for the shot.

Refs are killing the game though. 22 players gave everything toe-to-toe and the ref awards two goals for touching, not even pushing or pulling. 

Some great challenges made and no whiff of an argument from either side. Out of your seat stuff. I like Brentford, the way they played was difficult to set up against. Quick football all round. 

Travis and Johnson absolute shit houses in the middle. Couple of errors from brilliant but completely up for it. Marked improvement second half. 

[RevidgeBlue]

The game of two pens that never were.Cant really complain about theirs when ours wasn't either.

For me Walton has let the opposition get back into the game today just as at Boro. Great strike by Watkins but if Walton was covering his near post he makes a routine save. He was way too far over towards the centre of the goal gambling Watkins didn't go near post.

As Tyrone said above successful sides see out wins from winning positions. Sky highlighted that even before today we were joint top of the table for dropping points from winning positions. 21 before today, 23 now.

On the plus side, thought all the back 4 were very good. Battled really hard. Best I've seen them play as a unit.

 

 

 

[Fraserkirky]

Toughest game left on the schedule and we dig out a draw, and people are on here still not happy. Huge two home games coming up, still all to play for.

Didnt see the last minute offside call for Armstrong, maybe a good thing for the officials.

Never ever a penalty for them.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

IMO, both penalties were penalties. Johnson bundled into him and also gave a little shove in the back of his neck/head. He went down a little easily, but there was enough for a penalty.

I will take today as a sign of small progress. I still felt nervous at 2 up, in fact moreso than at 1 up, due to how things went in this fixture last season. Turned out it was with good reason I felt nervous. However, we didn't collapse quite as badly as last time. That said, our goal lived a bit of a charmed life all day. If Brentford had brought their finishing boots we'd have had a similar scoreline to last time. We did some excellent last ditch defending though.

Our passing was a real disappointment today. We gave the ball away with great frequency and in poor fashion, which was especially frustrating as we weren't having that much of it to begin with. I thought we showed them too much respect at times, allowing too much space, but I'm more bothered that we made it too easy for them to win the ball.

It's extremely disappointing to throw away a 2 goal lead here again, but it's a point I'd have taken before the game and one that should keep us in contention especially if we can just put away the next two opponents.

Anyone who thinks we deserved any more than we got today on the balance of play needs to remove their blue and white tinted spectacles. Brentford look far more ready to step up than we do. The finishing aside, it was one of the most comprehensive displays against us we've seen all season. Despite having hoped we would hang onto the win, I feel lucky we came out of this with a point.

One of my criticism of Mowbray is that in spite of him being in charge for over three years our ball retention, passing, and movement off the ball is still laboured, pedestrian and obvious. If we want to do better that has to improve a lot.

[USABlue]

11 minutes ago, Stuart said:

We are definitely at cross purposes. I wasn’t on about the pen at all.

Apologize, I thought you.were.

[savage90]

Bell actually nudged their player ever so slightly and it took him into the path of Johnson's challenge. Is that a foul?

I'd say there wasn't enough contact to make him go down, he was playing for it and should have been told to get up but instead the ref saw an opportunity to level things up.

[bluebruce]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I think a lot depends how old you are. Back in the day you had to be caught taking the lace out the the ball with both hands before the ref would give a pen. Now I see some amazingly poor decisions were a player is barely touched and goes down like a log. Huddersfield at home this season stands out but there are loads of others. If your are young and it's all you know both of those incidents today were pens.

I'm not that young and definitely prefer when football was more blood and thunder than it is now. But ultimately it doesn't matter what football you grew up on, football is as it is now. And in modern football those are two penalties.

[Guest]

Dive for their penalty but we literally let him walk into the box. Really poor defending from Bell and Johnson to let him to get to the stage where he could even dive over. 

Take the point, nice to be scoring goals and giving teams a tough game.

[bluebruce]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

One of my criticism of Mowbray is that in spite of him being in charge for over three years our ball retention, passing, and movement off the ball is still laboured, pedestrian and obvious. If we want to do better that has to improve a lot.

Personally, I think recently our passing game has improved a lot. But today we were wank in that regard.