Last weekends thoughts

First half a non event, they passed it around a lot without any real purpose or threat. Second half they stepped up a gear but I think so did we.

Becchio looked a mile off the pace, understandable considering his lack of match time. New man from Oldham needs time to adjust to this higher lever, but will be a great addition.

Revell coming on, gave us much more impetus going forward and for the first time put their defence under pressure.

Bowery looked good, at last, when he came on too.

Pringle playing down the right in the first half was a mistake, he looked out of touch.

After they scored, they seemed to do what we are often accused of doing, sat back. That gave us the opportunity to push forward and that last fif**** we looked positive.

Their defence, so rarely tested for much of the game didn't look too clever and better teams will punish them.

Despite comments that we gained a lucky point I disagree. Our persistence, so often key last season paid off and we got our reward.

It's odd that a metropolis the size of Bmth & Poole can only attract such little attendances - although I suppose the resurgence of Southampton and that 70% of the population are old dears or people who have moved there from elsewhere might have something to do with that.

They are a lot like us, perhaps hit their ceiling with mid table Championship status year on year. Until parachute payments are made illegal then I don't see it changing.

To say we had 4 players on the pitch that have not had any game time with us it was more than a satisfactory point, but I do disagree with how it was obtained. On another day we'd have been murdered.

What it taught us is that to be sustainable in this league, that's the kind of comfort in possession we need to achieve. I'm just wondering whether we have the coaching expertise & playing personnel to make that a consistent reality (I'm swaying towards we haven't). But then, as we've all said and SE has stated, to get that level needs mega buck

Taylor needs to be closer to our strikers when he receives the ball, too big a gap Saturday for him to bring the forwards into play. Green looked rusty as you say and Pringle is constantly played out of position. Derbyshire offers nothing at all.

Pringle played on the left side in the second half against Bournemouth, but he's less effective than last year because he's being asked to do more defending and tuck in, i.e. not play out on the touchline.

Consequently, it's more difficult for him to do that AND get forward and get crosses in.

I would expect him to be further forward against Bolton tonight.

And yes, the traffic is bad - you want to try living down here and keeping your sanity in the summer months!

[quote="ExeterMiller"]It's odd that a metropolis the size of Bmth & Poole can only attract such little attendances - although I suppose the resurgence of Southampton and that 70% of the population are old dears or people who have moved there from elsewhere might have something to do with that.

They are a lot like us, perhaps hit their ceiling with mid table Championship status year on year. Until parachute payments are made illegal then I don't see it changing.

To say we had 4 players on the pitch that have not had any game time with us it was more than a satisfactory point, but I do disagree with how it was obtained. On another day we'd have been murdered.

What it taught us is that to be sustainable in this league, that's the kind of comfort in possession we need to achieve. I'm just wondering whether we have the coaching expertise & playing personnel to make that a consistent reality (I'm swaying towards we haven't). But then, as we've all said an