Heckingbottom's Reaction

[mattbianco1]

"If they'd have had eleven, that wouldn't have happened."

What a stupid statement. If they'd have had eleven, we'd have been beaten 4-1. Face it, Hecky.

pommpey

Totally disagree. We were the better side 11v11 and were about to go 2-0 up. They go down to 10-men and their game plan changes fully. It's damage limitation and the hope that they can nick a goal back without conceding. Their game plan 2nd half was perfect. They nicked the goal and put us in panic mode.

If Brewster scores that in the 2nd half though, it's 3-0 and game over. That's the fine margins. They don't recover from 3-0.

A large part of blame goes on Hecky. Brewster and Ndiaye going off was criminal. McGoldrick and Sharp as a partnership is finished. I know he was trying to tighten up bringing on Berge and McGoldrick who are both comfortable on the ball, but why not do what Fulham do and continue to attack. Take no prisoners. We weren't in danger of drawing until those subs.

 

[pommpey]

They don't recover from 3-0.

Um ... Aston Villa did.

pommpey

 

[GrunkyPeep]

Totally disagree. We were the better side 11v11 and were about to go 2-0 up. They go down to 10-men and their game plan changes fully. It's damage limitation and the hope that they can nick a goal back without conceding. Their game plan 2nd half was perfect. They nicked the goal and put us in panic mode.

If Brewster scores that in the 2nd half though, it's 3-0 and game over. That's the fine margins. They don't recover from 3-0.

A large part of blame goes on Hecky. Brewster and Ndiaye going off was criminal. McGoldrick and Sharp as a partnership is finished. I know he was trying to tighten up bringing on Berge and McGoldrick who are both comfortable on the ball, but why not do what Fulham do and continue to attack. Take no prisoners. We weren't in danger of drawing until those subs.

Good point. I think that line is saying more than 1 thing.

It sounds like he's saying:

• They had nothing to lose so they could properly go for it
• The players switched off because they thought the game was won
• Preston had more to battle for so they wanted it more.
• Just a dig at the players for being soft.

 

[mattbianco1]

Um ... Aston Villa did.

pommpey

Aston Villa have also signed Coutinho. Missing your point

 

[pommpey]

Aston Villa have also signed Coutinho. Missing your point

We were 3-0 up v Villa four seasons ago. They were dead and buried. Suddenly we shat ourselves and Villa managed to sneak three goals past us.

(the only game I saw O'Connell actually do anything wrong when he spooned that clearance by our box)

pommpey

 

[ekke287]

Feel for the man in a way because he's going to have to do this job with both hands tied behind his back.

He's inherited a bunch of demoralised, unmotivated players who are either at the end of their careers or have seen their best periods come and go with little or no prospect of moving them on until their contracts expire.

He's then got to replace these with a budget similar to that of Carlisle United whilst dramatically reducing the wage bill to ensure we stay within FFP once that kicks in as we have as much chance of getting back to the Premier league as Oldham at the rate we're going.

Same as Slav.

He came in and said we needed more, he’d obviously been promised more, and then it’s been withdrawn.

Now we have a yes man in charge to ensure we basically don’t go down and our youth will be good enough to paper over the cracks.

 

[CPB]

As it stands now i would settle for mid table. Get to 50 points as soon as possible and then start seeing some if the kids. I would even recall Max Lowe to see if he ca improve. Use the close season to get rid of players like McBurnie,Burke,Berge, Freeman,Moose,Stevens,Robinson,McGoldrick and Horihanne(sp) and start again

Thing is some we can probably let go for free or low fees. Of those above Hourihanne, McGoldrick, Moussett are out of contract this summer I believe.
Possibly L.Freeman too?

The impression I get is the board are willing to hold out for fees almost too much which put clubs off.
Sometimes you need to write off signings, even if the fee originally was high. For instance Moussett is going to leave on a free and he cost £10m.
This last summer I reckon if our fee for Berge was £15m with add-ons he might have been sold and this might have enabled us to sign some other players alongside selling Ramsdale. The board seemed/sounded like they wanted significantly more.
Now we approach the summer 2022 his value has surely now lowered as well.

Similar with McBurnie, he's not currently playing much at all, he isn't going to command a high fee.

 

[pommpey]

Good point. I think that line is saying more than 1 thing.

It sounds like he's saying:

• They had nothing to lose so they could properly go for it
• The players switched off because they thought the game was won
• Preston had more to battle for so they wanted it more.
• Just a dig at the players for being soft.

But, had PNE got 11 players, we would have been easily over-run. We would have reverted to Derby levels of shitness and not had the amount of missed chances to finish the game off.

Playing against ten men means that somewhere on the pitch, there is a hole. You have every opportunity to move that hole around as needed

pommpey

 

[Mojo]

Only decent player we have is Ndiaye and let's face it he is far too good for us and will be gone soon

That's second game running mr yes man's subs have cost us the game. What happened to only letting Olsen go if we have a replacement? Big boss has spoken has he and would much rather see that 40k a week being saved? Doesn't even know if it's in the budget? Hecky just happy to have a job, club is going fucking nowhere. As soon as teams have a go at us our set of bottle jobs absolutely crumble

 

[robbiez666]

I actually read the budget comment differently.

I think the process before, which I assume still is the process, is that when the manager wants to sign a player they go through Bettis to the Board to get it ok'd. So, he might have £500k but it doesn't mean he can just ask them to spend £500k on x player. They'd have to ok the purchase of said player at said price.

I suspect, as I think we already knew, that when people leave we can perhaps use money freed up to bring people in.

So, in the case of Olsen, we'll bring a replacement in but they'll obviously cost a lot less than a Swedish international has.

If we sold Berge then I'd guess we could use some of the funds to bring in other players, but only a very small proportion.

I'd be shocked is we spend over a million anytime soon.

 

[GrunkyPeep]

But, had PNE got 11 players, we would have been easily over-run. We would have reverted to Derby levels of shitness and not had the amount of missed chances to finish the game off.

Playing against ten men means that somewhere on the pitch, there is a hole. You have every opportunity to move that hole around as needed

pommpey

I get what you are saying but let's talk about the actual game and not the one you have imagined. Berate them for being shit but let's not do that for a game that didn't actually happen.

 

[Stanthemanfan]

He looks just like a manager who has been told by his boss that he isn't gonna be judged on his results

Exactly this!
That press conference on his appointment said everything to me
Your safe for 4 years but don't criticise us (ie slav, wilder) don't worry about the results, just get the football development right so we can sell the youngsters, that's what it sounded like to me anyway!

 

[mattbianco1]

We were 3-0 up v Villa four seasons ago. They were dead and buried. Suddenly we shat ourselves and Villa managed to sneak three goals past us.

(the only game I saw O'Connell actually do anything wrong when he spooned that clearance by our box)

pommpey

And that was whilst the messiah was in charge and we didn't do silly things like this.

Everything we see on a football pitch has happened before, still doesn't mean it should happen again.

 

[ElephantBlade]

He knows the squad is done but also knows he can't do much about it. His job is to keep us competitive as we drastically trim the wage bill.

Nailed it here.

I get that squad's have a lifespan, its natural - but this lot are just letting themselves down.

 

[pommpey]

I get what you are saying but let's talk about the actual game and not the one you have imagined. Berate them for being shit but let's not do that for a game that didn't actually happen.

I have talked about the actual game elsewhere. It is Heckingbotham who is transposing this onto an imaginary outcome. If we failed to contain ten men coming back at us and manage the game to a satisfactory result, do you imagine we'd have dealt with them having a man extra?

pommpey

 

[Snowflake]

"If they'd have had eleven, that wouldn't have happened."

What a stupid statement. If they'd have had eleven, we'd have been beaten 4-1. Face it, Hecky.

pommpey

I understand what he was saying. With 10 they had to go for it with the old “ muck or nettles” concept. The risk is that they leave themselves open and concede more, which they would have done if we had taken our chances.
With 11 for the second half they may well have played as they did in the first half and we win 4-0 (?)

 

[Snowflake]

Utterly pathetic uninspiring interview from a patsy.

Not as I heard it.
That was a manager totally pissed off at a group of players who showed what they could do and then effectively gave up. He cannot go on air and say what many on here would say.
He also knows what money, if any, he has to spend on wages, so may well know that he cannot significantly add to this group until the summer.

 

[Snowflake]

But, had PNE got 11 players, we would have been easily over-run. We would have reverted to Derby levels of shitness and not had the amount of missed chances to finish the game off.

Playing against ten men means that somewhere on the pitch, there is a hole. You have every opportunity to move that hole around as needed

pommpey

Playing against 10 men requires lots of accurate passing, a concept foreign to most of our squad.

 

[blackydog]

Said it before, would have preferred Paul Warne over Hecky. Continually gets results despite having the rug pulled from under his feet every season.

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

About 15 years ago, under Warnock, we were 2-0 up at Ipswich who were down to 10 men and lost 3-2 .

Yeah, a 4ft 9ins Johnson terrorised us. Another shambles.....

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

So, if 10 men are spurred on to win, why don't we play the 1st 10 mins with 11, then withdraw a player so as to make sure we win every game?
Fuck me '10 men play better than 11'. What a fuckin argument......

 

[CPB]

Good point. I think that line is saying more than 1 thing.

It sounds like he's saying:

• They had nothing to lose so they could properly go for it
• The players switched off because they thought the game was won
• Preston had more to battle for so they wanted it more.
• Just a dig at the players for being soft.

I got the impression that too many of our side thought it was won at 2-0.
We should have taken one of our chances at 2-0 to make it 3-0. It would have killed them off.
2-0 is always a dangerous scoreline if the opposition make it 2-1.
They did and all of a sudden our extra man advantage seemed to just disappear, if anything we started to look like the team with one less player.

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

Fucking Jesus. A bit of perspective. Preston is as tough a place to go when the fans are behind them with the backs to the wall. They had to go for it and did. No excuses we should see it out but let’s be rational. Hecky came in and steadied a sinking ship. We were in absolute control first half. We’re a game closer to MGW and Davies returning. Fulham are hitting everyone for 6/7 and we kept a clean sheet and picked up 3 points. We’re a different animal with MGW in midfield. We’ve played 5 away games on the spin and had 4 games called off.

Reading the shite on here is worse than the actual game ffs. Get a grip.

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

Fucking Jesus. A bit of perspective. Preston is as tough a place to go when the fans are behind them with the backs to the wall. They had to go for it and did. No excuses we should see it out but let’s be rational. Hecky came in and steadied a sinking ship. We were in absolute control first half. We’re a game closer to MGW and Davies returning. Fulham are hitting everyone for 6/7 and we kept a clean sheet and picked up 3 points. We’re a different animal with MGW in midfield. We’ve played 5 away games on the spin and had 4 games called off.

Reading the shite on here is worse than the actual game ffs. Get a grip.

Sure, we'll finish mid-table. I think everyone knows that. But 2 goals in our last 3 games, while conceding 7 shows the steadied ship has started to list a little. And yeah I know one of those was against Wolves, but they only had to go through the motions to win. And the last 2 games have featured a couple of the worst 2nd half showings I've seen in a while (Hmmm maybe also at West Brom) . Against a team who are in such deep shite they can't even resign old man Jags for another 6 months and have old man Stearman at CB, and another who were down to 10 men for 60 mins. Thank God for beer after the match.....

 

[Revolution]

We were 3-0 up v Villa four seasons ago. They were dead and buried. Suddenly we shat ourselves and Villa managed to sneak three goals past us.

(the only game I saw O'Connell actually do anything wrong when he spooned that clearance by our box)

pommpey

We have lost a 3 goal lead and not won the game only twice in the last 40 years.

I think it is pretty safe to say we'd have won from 3-0.

 

[GrunkyPeep]

I have talked about the actual game elsewhere. It is Heckingbotham who is transposing this onto an imaginary outcome. If we failed to contain ten men coming back at us and manage the game to a satisfactory result, do you imagine we'd have dealt with them having a man extra?

pommpey

Tbh, the first half was good, it looks like the second half was mindset-related and being soft as shit.

Plus, we managed to close out against Fulham and they are a much stronger side.

 

[GrunkyPeep]

I got the impression that too many of our side thought it was won at 2-0.
We should have taken one of our chances at 2-0 to make it 3-0. It would have killed them off.
2-0 is always a dangerous scoreline if the opposition make it 2-1.
They did and all of a sudden our extra man advantage seemed to just disappear, if anything we started to look like the team with one less player.

The team looked like they didn't know whether to shut the game down or push for a 3rd. Stuck between two ideas and managed neither.

 

[madeinsheffield]

So, if 10 men are spurred on to win, why don't we play the 1st 10 mins with 11, then withdraw a player so as to make sure we win every game?
Fuck me '10 men play better than 11'. What a fuckin argument......

To be fair with the amount of underperformers we currently have, it's like having 10 players most of the time anyway!

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

Sure, we'll finish mid-table. I think everyone knows that. But 2 goals in our last 3 games, while conceding 7 shows the steadied ship has started to list a little. And yeah I know one of those was against Wolves, but they only had to go through the motions to win. And the last 2 games have featured a couple of the worst 2nd half showings I've seen in a while (Hmmm maybe also at West Brom) . Against a team who are in such deep shite they can't even resign old man Jags for another 6 months and have old man Stearman at CB, and another who were down to 10 men for 60 mins. Thank God for beer after the match.....

That’s a very glass half full view. Wolves are a great side and will challenge for Europe again. We had a makeshift back line with Robinson and Gordon. Derby are also a decent, well-drilled Championship side irrespective of their off field troubles. As for Preston I gave my opinion in the previous post. We should see it out but they threw everything at it.

I just think there is still things to be positive about. MGW returning being the main one. Ndiaye is looking excellent. That first half we looked like a team challenging for top two. A bit of consistency and professionalism and we aren’t far off where Hecky wants us to be.

One thing that is alarming me is that it suddenly seems like we are relying on Foderingham to be our actual number 1. Not to take away from his recent form but the bigger picture tells me he’s not up to it.

 

[Balham]

In our last three games we have been punished seven times for defensive mistakes, lapses in concentration and/or counter attacks

Wolves 1-0: mistake. Robinson loses the flight of the ball, Fabío Silva recycles it to an unmarked Podence
Wolves 2-0: counter. Wolves break at speed with Bogle and Basham miles up the pitch and Gordon's inexperience getting him caught too high (he should be deeper, covering Basham). A long ball into the gaping space at right back, low cross to Semedo who finishes easily.
Wolves 3-0: mistake. Foderingham drops the ball miles out of his goal. Raúl Jiminez recycles to an unmarked Podence

Derby 1-0: mistake: Basham dives in, Egan gets his feet the wrong way round.
Derby 2-0: mistake and counter: Hourihane neshes a tackle on the edge of the Derby area, Robinson takes out Norrington-Davies, Lawrence then has time to pick his spot

Preston 1-2: complete lapse in concentration sees Browne free in the penalty area despite there being 7 United players near
Preston 2-2: nobody tracks Riis's move to the back post and he has a tap in

Until we get at least one proper leader in the team, either in central midfield or central defence but preferably both, who can organise us we will continue to concede ridiculously soft goals and we will go nowhere as a result.