Did Wilson win the psychological battle...

[Muttley]

...before kick off?
His dicision for Barnsley to kick to the Kop in the second half, going totally against NC's gameplan.
Nigels pre match team talk would have been summat like " Keep it tight first half, then see how it goes for a bit when you kick towards the Kop in the 2nd, THEN I'll bring McNulty on for a few minutes and expect him to win it for us with the help of the Kop crowd"

The players then lost the toss, hadn't got a scooby doo what to do so went for it in the first half for 25 minutes, but without the player to finish off all the good work. Second half was then a non event.

Shouldn't really matter which way we are kicking but it certainly makes me wonder how much his set of players are motivated by the crowd in the latter stages.

 

[1889]

Utd have always chosen to kick towards Shoreham Street second half for all of the 44 years I've been going, you can hardly blame that on Nigel Clough?

 

[wizadry]

No i don't think he did win the psychological battle,i just think Clough loses his own battles sometimes if i'm brutally honest.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

In defense of NC, he is clearly "his own man" - responsible for getting results, probably medium term where as some of us Blades think our whole world has caved in when we lose, therefore we look short term. Call me daft (literally please) but it spoils my weekend when we don't play well or lose unluckily etc etc. Can stand being beaten fairly and squarely, but just like yesterday, the result didn't match the performance. They say football evens itself out - should we have scored 3 v Colchester in 6 minutes?

I find getting used to NC difficult, but am sure he will sort it out - even if we find certain things like false 9 v Barnsley strange and hard to understand.

UTB

 

[yorkshirecoast]

One of the worst aspects of yesterday for me is that the dingles were so poor and were there for the taking. A combination of Clough's negative tactics and selection - and poor quality from the players at vital moments - means we blew a great chance to give them a hammering. We will rarely come up against such a poor Barnsley team.

Clough needs to recognise that we need to play an out and out striker (it's totally baffling that he didn't recognise this long ago). If he doesn't rate the strikers we have enough to start them (even though he brought them in), he needs to bring someone else in on loan - and fast.

 

[Kenilworth]

Yes he did.
He played at least one striker in his team and strangely enough, one of the fuckers grabbed the winner

Imagine that ?

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

No i don't think he did win the psychological battle,i just think Clough loses his own battles sometimes if i'm brutally honest.

That's right, Barnsley spozzed 3pts, tomorrow morning Wilson has the headache of finding a way of making Barnsley competitive.

We know the solution to our problem is a striker, whether we will come up with him time will tell but if we are waiting for Jan to bring him in why didn't he get recruited in August if funding is there?

Just wish someone at the club would explain why?

Investment? Pipe dream.

 

[wizadry]

Yes he did.
He played at least one striker in his team and strangely enough, one of the fuckers grabbed the winner

Imagine that ?

Agree that their striker got the winner,but i wouldn't say that had anything to do with the psychology side of things.I'd say it was down to poor team selection,that's more judgement than psychological.

If Cloughy thinks that kicking towards the kop makes us better,then we really do have to change the way we approach things,that would be ludicrous.I don't think this is correct btw,and it isn't directed at you or anybody else,i'm just replying to the OP on that part and think he might need to see a shrink if this is the case

 

[Bladesway]

Out of interest did Wilson do a job on us tactically? Not bad for a bloke who we sacked off just on the verge of the play off places. Another one of McCabes moments of blind panic.

I have faith in Clough but for Fuck sake let's not pretend he is getting anything like the backing he would want. He isn't going to say that of course because it isn't what you do but the fact is we are operating low budget bargain basement and garnering the fruits of that situation.

 

[wizadry]

Out of interest did Wilson do a job on us tactically?

I'd say he did mate,his captain won the toss

 

[Isar]

Out of interest did Wilson do a job on us tactically? Not bad for a bloke who we sacked off just on the verge of the play off places. Another one of McCabes moments of blind panic.

I have faith in Clough but for Fuck sake let's not pretend he is getting anything like the backing he would want. He isn't going to say that of course because it isn't what you do but the fact is we are operating low budget bargain basement and garnering the fruits of that situation.

McCabe's panic or penny pinching or lack of ambition was bringing DW to SUFC in the first place.

 

[JohnDenver]

Wilson had his team well organised defensively, rode his luck and nabbed three points.

It's hard to know whether he did something clever tactical to nullify our wingers, or whether they just had an off day. With Baxter up front on his own, we're very reliant on the flanks, and they did well in those areas.

 

[Punk Blade]

I said after the game Wilson's plan was to force us to kick towards BL in the second half so the Kop couldn't suck in any late goals. 50/50 chance they would get something out of the game.

Let's hope no other visitors spot this opportunity.

 

[Silent Blade]

Utd have always chosen to kick towards Shoreham Street second half for all of the 44 years I've been going, you can hardly blame that on Nigel Clough?

In the 1970s we usually kicked off attacking the Kop End in the 1st half

 

[metalblade]

In the 1970s we usually kicked off attacking the Kop End in the 1st half

Only for about one season and everyone hated it.

 

[Bladesway]

McCabe's panic or penny pinching or lack of ambition was bringing DW to SUFC in the first place.

I always thought Wilson did a good job with the hand he was dealt. Robbed of promotion when his top scorer went to prison and his plan B got injured. The morale of the side was always going to suffer when something like that happens. The filth had an exceptional run and we got pipped because we were on our knees. Season 2 we were devoid of talent because anything left was either in prison or sold so Wilson did what any other decent manager would do, made us hard to beat. Looked like shit but we were top of the league around the turn of the year, a position we would swap given half a chance now. Blackman sold and then panic set in when McCabe got rid just before he was going to get rocks thrown at him at a fans forum. Puts Muckn'nettles in charge for a doomed play off campaign.

What I will say about Wilson and this also reflects on McCabe, when he had the resources he played some fantastic football and tore teams apart. The minute the plug got pulled on financing Quinn etc we suddenly looked boring and were scrapping 1-0 wins. Not unlike now really.

 

[Silent Blade]

Only for about one season and everyone hated it.

This evening I will work out how many times we attacked the Kop End in the 1st half (I probably will remember which half we kicked off towards first for about 90% of the matches) and put the figures in here later on.

 

[Bladesway]

Tell you something if a tactical masterpiece hinges on which way you kick in the first half I'm thinking these managers get too much money

 

[Grecian2000]

I must say when the company I was working for sponsored the match ball and I marched it out to the center I was perplexed at what went on at the toss.
We were playing Palace and Curle was our captain and Kit Symons (I think) was theirs.
Palace won the toss and I expected a finger in the air to test the wind, a look at the sun to see if it had any effect or, at the very least, a knowledge that we usually attack the Kop second half.
What actually happened? Symons says to Curle "Not bothered Curly, what do you fancy?". "Stay as we are mate" was the reply and that was it. What a let down!

 

[Silent Blade]

This evening I will work out how many times we attacked the Kop End in the 1st half (I probably will remember which half we kicked off towards first for about 90% of the matches) and put the figures in here later on.

Been doing some working out this morning
1970-71 (21 league & 1 cup game) we attacked the Kop 16 times in the 1st half and 6 times towards BL end (QPR,Bolton,Charlton, Blackburn, Norwich and Watford). Am not saying that Colquhoun won the toss only 6 times at the most if he was intending to choose attacking the BL End in the 1st half if he won the toss as I do not remember if we took the kick off for most of the matches!


1971-72 (21 league & 4 cup games) we attacked the Kop 17 times in the 1st half and 8 times towards BL end (Liverpool, Coventry, Wolves, Cardiff, Man C, Everton, Newcastle and Palace)


1972-73 (21 league & 3 cup games) we attacked the Kop 15 times in the 1st half and 5 times towards BL end (Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham, Liverpool and Man C) but cannot remember which half in 4 games (Charlton LC Cup 1st match, WBA, Birmingham (I was in bed with flu) and Palace)


1973-74 to 1978-79 were my boarding school years so this will be harder for me to recollect so I will check the complete records but I think in 1974-75 we attacked the BL End first more times than not

 

[Bladepicker]

3 of my favourite ever home victories were kicking towards the kop first half. Leeds, Lverpool and Wendy all in the triple assault season.

Not convinced it makes that much difference.

 

[Blade for Sale]

Wasn't it in the 1st year in the top flight under Bassett that we went virtually the entire season without scoring at the Bramall Lane end? I think Agana finally broke the duck in the last game of the seeason with 2 when we were already safe (at which point the kop had no roof).

 

[Silent Blade]

Wasn't it in the 1st year in the top flight under Bassett that we went virtually the entire season without scoring at the Bramall Lane end? I think Agana finally broke the duck in the last game of the seeason with 2 when we were already safe (at which point the kop had no roof).

David Barnes did score against Wimbledon at the BL End, also in the League Cup we scored our 4 home goals at that end (v Northampton and v Everton)

 

[Kev Gee]

If we had gotten players in the box in the first 20 minutes then we would have won comfortably.

I knew we were going to get suckered & so it proved.

 

[Cheets]

In the 1970s we usually kicked off attacking the Kop End in the 1st half

In the 85/86 season, Phil Thompson in his programme notes said there had been some disquiet about United winning the toss and kicking towards the Kop in the first half. He explained that it was because the sun would have been in the players' eyes had they been kicking towards Bramall Lane in the first half.

 

[Darthblade]

One of the worst aspects of yesterday for me is that the dingles were so poor and were there for the taking. A combination of Clough's negative tactics and selection - and poor quality from the players at vital moments - means we blew a great chance to give them a hammering. We will rarely come up against such a poor Barnsley team.

Clough needs to recognise that we need to play an out and out striker (it's totally baffling that he didn't recognise this long ago). If he doesn't rate the strikers we have enough to start them (even though he brought them in), he needs to bring someone else in on loan - and fast.

I don't believe that NC has the backing of the Board to bring in a loan striker, or he surely would have done so by now !!

He must realise that we only have one "effective" striker at the Club ( McNulty ) and he's still young and very inexperienced at this level. It couldn't be any clearer if somebody put up a neon sign 50ft high saying "striker desperately needed here" !

If we'd swapped Baxter for Winnall just before kick off we would have won by 2 / 3 goals on Saturday, I have no doubt about that and Winnall isn't particularly good, but he does striker stuff that Baxter doesn't do.

All of the optimistic Blades who are talking about promotion ( and some even still talk of automatic places ) are going to be desperately disappointed at the end of the season because we will not be promoted with this squad as it is, IMHO.

We are, in my opinion, trying to do what our Board usually does in this situation ...... looking to be promoted on the cheap. It hasn't worked for the last 3 years and it won't work this year either.
UTB & FTP

 

[ScoobBlade]

No physiological battle was won or lost, we conceded one goal which led to a defeat. Yes a frustrating result but ultimately just one, I think some people need a reality check, yes there is still plenty of room for improvement but to think the club would be in a better position if we changed manager Is quite frankly laughable

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

No physiological battle was won or lost, we conceded one goal which led to a defeat. Yes a frustrating result but ultimately just one, I think some people need a reality check, yes there is still plenty of room for improvement but to think the club would be in a better position if we changed manager Is quite frankly laughable

We won psychological battle. We sent home the Dingleys happy and crowing so that our promotion and their eventual relegation will be even sweeter.

 

[sitwell]

Our best goals are scored at the Lane end though
Brown v Pigs
Jags v Dirties
Reece v Brum
Currie v bindippers
Nade v cheating cockney bastards.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

No he didn't we couldn't score in a brothel satdi , while his wank side a piss poor copy of his second season with us ,
Snaked a win .