Ratings thread

[gshaw]

Maybe I shouldn't write these just yet but what the hell...

The most embarrassing 45 minutes I've watched at BR. The white flag was hoisted once the team sheet came out and the performance reflected it. No guts, no fight, no idea. Just glad Swindon got complacent second half otherwise it could easily have been 0-6 or worse.

Brill - 4 - doesn't look quite right physically, two big errors but two good saves to prevent a cricket score
Widdowson - 4 - maybe a bit generous, poor
Ekpiteta - 5 - best of a bad bunch at the back and looked solid for 10 minutes or so at least
Happe - 3 - slow, lumbering and unnecessary
Coulson - 4 - trying hard but looking like the pace of this league is taking its toll
Ling - 2 - their #30 ripped him a new one

Clay - 2 - needs time out the starting XI, doesn't look fit
Wright - 4 - game went on around him
Brophy - 3 - powder puff

Wilkinson - 3 - unable to hold the ball up, or pass, or shoot. Keeps trying but doesn't look like a first XI striker right now
Angol - 5 - our best option upfront but can't do it on his own

JMD - 6 - top notch goal and made things happen. Either he or Dennis should've started
Dennis - 5 - as per JMD but without a goal to show for it

Ross - 1 - blame lies solely at his door today. Terrible choice of formation, tactics and "little Leyton Orient" approach to playing the might of Swindon Town FC. Gave up before the game even started. Time to let an experienced manager take the reigns.

[banqo]

As soon as you saw the line up, you got the feeling this was going to be a hard day. 5-3-2 does not work, we handed them the initiative from the word go. As you say gshaw the white flag was raised before we even set foot on the pitch.

[LeytonOstone]

Gorman? An improvement on Clay - 5 for me

[gshaw]

Gorman? An improvement on Clay - 5 for me

Yup good point haha. Marginally better than Clay but not much. Discipline wise seems half a second away from a red card. Marsh may as well head back to Spurs now.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Maybe I shouldn't write these just yet but what the hell...

The most embarrassing 45 minutes I've watched at BR. The white flag was hoisted once the team sheet came out and the performance reflected it. No guts, no fight, no idea. Just glad Swindon got complacent second half otherwise it could easily have been 0-6 or worse.

Brill - 4 - doesn't look quite right physically, two big errors but two good saves to prevent a cricket score
Widdowson - 4 - maybe a bit generous, poor
Ekpiteta - 5 - best of a bad bunch at the back and looked solid for 10 minutes or so at least
Happe - 3 - slow, lumbering and unnecessary
Coulson - 4 - trying hard but looking like the pace of this league is taking its toll
Ling - 2 - their #30 ripped him a new one

Clay - 2 - needs time out the starting XI, doesn't look fit
Wright - 4 - game went on around him
Brophy - 3 - powder puff

Wilkinson - 3 - unable to hold the ball up, or pass, or shoot. Keeps trying but doesn't look like a first XI striker right now
Angol - 5 - our best option upfront but can't do it on his own

JMD - 6 - top notch goal and made things happen. Either he or Dennis should've started
Dennis - 5 - as per JMD but without a goal to show for it

Ross - 1 - blame lies solely at his door today. Terrible choice of formation, tactics and "little Leyton Orient" approach to playing the might of Swindon Town FC. Gave up before the game even started. Time to let an experienced manager take the reigns.

Agree with the Ross comment. I gave him the benefit of the doubt but the doubt was right. Cowardly approach to the game, cautious, and we paid the price.

I made the point about Coulson at Salford. Puffing like an old cart horse early on. Either he is not fit or the pace of L2 is just too much. Makes up for a lot with his experience and presence but I worry his legs are just no there.

Same for Clay. Did these guys have a proper preseason? They seem to be off the pace.

[gshaw]

Whoever this new fitness coach is needs to be pulled in for a performance review. Squad don't look up to the pace at all.

Part of that I suspect may be how hard they pushed themselves to get over the line last season due to our lack of investment in CM and ST positions. No surprise the ones struggling are Clay and McAnuff.

Defensively some overrated the quality of two young players learning their game at non-league level and Coulson, who isn't getting any younger. CM has been neglected and continues to be a weak spot, no one saw that coming did they

As for upfront the Alabi situation has been handled very weakly and we're suffering for lack of options there too.

[Disoriented]

Standby for the propaganda clowns at the club (or those on the Orient Hour) to tell us how good Ling was again.

So far out of his depth it is not funny.

[redintheface]

Standby for the propaganda clowns at the club (or those on the Orient Hour) to tell us how good Ling was again.

So far out of his depth it is not funny.

Mate, that applies to all of them today unfortunately!

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Standby for the propaganda clowns at the club (or those on the Orient Hour) to tell us how good Ling was again.

So far out of his depth it is not funny.

Mate, that applies to all of them today unfortunately!

Yeh but Ling will be singled out for praise.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Ratings pretty spot on.

Saw the team and thought it was a strange choice to go back to 5-3-2. Then the game kicked off and literally from the off, we stepped off them to the point where they got a corner within a minute and an orient player hadn’t got within a yard of one of their players. I accept losing to better teams but to go down without any fight is embarrassing.
The ‘wing backs’ got caught between going forward and going back to defend, and because of Swindon’s attacking approach and our central midfield being non existent, they were left 2 on 1 throughout the first half. As described, clay and Wright were all over the place and Brophy spent 45 mins trying to tuck in but not knowing where he was meant to be. To be fair to Swindon, their movement up top was outstanding and their front 4 ran us ragged. When we did get the ball up it almost always came back Harrold would have been a better choice up front if we were lumping it.

Brill - 3 - shocking for both goals. Second was deflected but I fail to believe sarge isn’t better.

Ling - 5 - looked confused as to where he was meant to be in the first half. Wasn’t our worst player though.
Ekpiteta - 6 - only defender who did their job.
Coulson - 3 - no idea if he’s injured but absolutely all overt the place, no leadership, needs to be dropped.
Happe - 4 - looked out of sorts and wasn’t coming over to cover Widdowson at all which is what you need to do in a back 3.
Widdowson- 4 - clearly not fit and not like himself. Poor showing and baffling why Ogie didn’t start after midweek.

Clay - 1 - didn’t win a tackle, couldn’t pass. Felt sorry for him. Another one who looks injured.
Wright - 3 - barely better than clay. Struggled all afternoon.
Brophy - 2 - nothing came off for him against his former team. First half he looked like a lost puppy in the middle.

Angol - 6 - the only player who looked like he’d seen a football first half. Nothing came off for him but he put himself about and battled. Weird he was taken off.
Wilkinson - 3 - not a fan so far. Couldn’t hold up anything and doesn’t look a threat in front of goal. Harrolds a better option than him currently.

Subs:
JMD - 7 - came on and was our best player, great goal. HAS TO START.
Gorman - 6 - don’t rate him but to be fair to him, showed aggression and is the closest we have to a box to box midfielder.
Dennis - 6 - another who should be starting. Almost scored goal of the season.

Ross out (sorry guys but he ain’t the one)

[Still's Carenae]

How can you blame the defence, when not only did our keeper make 2 mistakes, but the team were set up wrongly. This was apparent after 10 minutes.

The management should have been aware of this.

However, they are learning and the 2nd half showed

Management 0 1st half, 6 2nd.

Having said that. Swindon are the best side to visit us in years.

[P&O]

Ratings pretty spot on.

Saw the team and thought it was a strange choice to go back to 5-3-2. Then the game kicked off and literally from the off, we stepped off them to the point where they got a corner within a minute and an orient player hadn’t got within a yard of one of their players. I accept losing to better teams but to go down without any fight is embarrassing.
The ‘wing backs’ got caught between going forward and going back to defend, and because of Swindon’s attacking approach and our central midfield being non existent, they were left 2 on 1 throughout the first half. As described, clay and Wright were all over the place and Brophy spent 45 mins trying to tuck in but not knowing where he was meant to be. To be fair to Swindon, their movement up top was outstanding and their front 4 ran us ragged. When we did get the ball up it almost always came back Harrold would have been a better choice up front if we were lumping it.

Brill - 3 - shocking for both goals. Second was deflected but I fail to believe sarge isn’t better.

Ling - 5 - looked confused as to where he was meant to be in the first half. Wasn’t our worst player though.
Ekpiteta - 6 - only defender who did their job.
Coulson - 3 - no idea if he’s injured but absolutely all overt the place, no leadership, needs to be dropped.
Happe - 4 - looked out of sorts and wasn’t coming over to cover Widdowson at all which is what you need to do in a back 3.
Widdowson- 4 - clearly not fit and not like himself. Poor showing and baffling why Ogie didn’t start after midweek.

Clay - 1 - didn’t win a tackle, couldn’t pass. Felt sorry for him. Another one who looks injured.
Wright - 3 - barely better than clay. Struggled all afternoon.
Brophy - 2 - nothing came off for him against his former team. First half he looked like a lost puppy in the middle.

Angol - 6 - the only player who looked like he’d seen a football first half. Nothing came off for him but he put himself about and battled. Weird he was taken off.
Wilkinson - 3 - not a fan so far. Couldn’t hold up anything and doesn’t look a threat in front of goal. Harrolds a better option than him currently.

Subs:
JMD - 7 - came on and was our best player, great goal. HAS TO START.
Gorman - 6 - don’t rate him but to be fair to him, showed aggression and is the closest we have to a box to box midfielder.
Dennis - 6 - another who should be starting. Almost scored goal of the season.

Ross out (sorry guys but he ain’t the one)

Great assessment.

Think Angol was hauled off before he was sent off. Already on a yellow and getting frustrated.

[Reflecto]

Re: Ross
Poor starting line up
Set up for being 2nd best
Not sure he's is getting best out of the players
No real passion on the touchline - he stood around hands in pockets

Time to bring in a good, experienced manager (the recruitment process could be done in a non-panicky way) - and then allow Ross and Danny to go back to being number 2/3 (with their pride in tact). Leave it till a time we are struggling and it will become a problem

[Forty-Niner]

I thought Dale Gorman had his best game to date.
A combative midfield player will always have a tendency to pick up cards. Difficult to avoid.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

Can’t be bothered to do individual ratings. No one came out of that with any credit, JMD excepted.

Brill is not up to it. Yes we know he’s a good shot stopper if it’s at him but he hasn’t got the agility or mobility to function properly. Shots in the corners, crosses, distribution with his feet you can forget it.

We STILL need someone, maybe 2 that can compete in central midfield. We were second to every single ball today.

Ling cannot play wing back (some may say he can’t play full back either but I won’t be so cruel), Widdowson isn’t much better in that role, and Brophy is wasted in the hole behind the front 2. If we’re going to revert back to the 5-3-2 that didn’t work previously, we need to bring in wing backs.

We need another striker for days like today when Wilkinson isn’t at it.

Ross set us up wrong and then made error after error. Why on earth go back to that formation? Why wait until half Atime to change things around when it was clear we were getting torn apart? Why take off Clay when hes the only one capable of challenging for the ball? Why leave Wilkinson on when he can’t put a foot right?

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

I thought Dale Gorman had his best game to date.
A combative midfield player will always have a tendency to pick up cards. Difficult to avoid.

He’s averaging 1 yellow every 15 minutes so far this season.

[Give it to Jabo]

Some thoughts: After a bright few minutes Brophy was dreadful - how did he stay on? Both our wingbacks/full-backs had very poor games. They were slightly better when we reverted to 442.

What is happening to our coaching staff? Jobi went missing after the first twenty minutes when the writing was on the wall. We need more drive and purpose in midfield: Clay was poor today. He and Wright can not cut it. We looked much better when Gorman came on; he looks to go forward to affect the game. JMD took his goal very well. He's a player.

We allowed Swindon to walk over us - I bet we had ten head bandages for Boudry in reserve just in case he had a slight headache.

[gshaw]

I thought Dale Gorman had his best game to date.
A combative midfield player will always have a tendency to pick up cards. Difficult to avoid.

He’s averaging 1 yellow every 15 minutes so far this season.

Should've been booked today for kicking the ball away. Seems to have a petulant streak about him, not combative in a positive way but more ill disciplined leaving the boot in late etc.

[Tom Chance]

Ratings pretty spot on.

Saw the team and thought it was a strange choice to go back to 5-3-2. Then the game kicked off and literally from the off, we stepped off them to the point where they got a corner within a minute and an orient player hadn’t got within a yard of one of their players. I accept losing to better teams but to go down without any fight is embarrassing.
The ‘wing backs’ got caught between going forward and going back to defend, and because of Swindon’s attacking approach and our central midfield being non existent, they were left 2 on 1 throughout the first half. As described, clay and Wright were all over the place and Brophy spent 45 mins trying to tuck in but not knowing where he was meant to be. To be fair to Swindon, their movement up top was outstanding and their front 4 ran us ragged. When we did get the ball up it almost always came back Harrold would have been a better choice up front if we were lumping it.

Brill - 3 - shocking for both goals. Second was deflected but I fail to believe sarge isn’t better.

Ling - 5 - looked confused as to where he was meant to be in the first half. Wasn’t our worst player though.
Ekpiteta - 6 - only defender who did their job.
Coulson - 3 - no idea if he’s injured but absolutely all overt the place, no leadership, needs to be dropped.
Happe - 4 - looked out of sorts and wasn’t coming over to cover Widdowson at all which is what you need to do in a back 3.
Widdowson- 4 - clearly not fit and not like himself. Poor showing and baffling why Ogie didn’t start after midweek.

Clay - 1 - didn’t win a tackle, couldn’t pass. Felt sorry for him. Another one who looks injured.
Wright - 3 - barely better than clay. Struggled all afternoon.
Brophy - 2 - nothing came off for him against his former team. First half he looked like a lost puppy in the middle.

Angol - 6 - the only player who looked like he’d seen a football first half. Nothing came off for him but he put himself about and battled. Weird he was taken off.
Wilkinson - 3 - not a fan so far. Couldn’t hold up anything and doesn’t look a threat in front of goal. Harrolds a better option than him currently.

Subs:
JMD - 7 - came on and was our best player, great goal. HAS TO START.
Gorman - 6 - don’t rate him but to be fair to him, showed aggression and is the closest we have to a box to box midfielder.
Dennis - 6 - another who should be starting. Almost scored goal of the season.

Ross out (sorry guys but he ain’t the one)

Spot on assessment.
Why is Brill playing? Got to look to the future and give Sarge a chance.
Also not convinced with Wilkinson. Would rather see Dennis start up front with Angol at the moment.
I like Clay but agree that he needs a rest and reluctantly Gorman should come in, (or Marsh who i've not seen play yet)

[gshaw]

Thing is we know Gorman isn't a ball winning CM. He's trying to make himself look imposing by going in late on players but still bottles 50:50 challenges.

Either play Marsh who is meant to be that style of player or send him back.

[LittleMate]

How can you blame the defence, when not only did our keeper make 2 mistakes, but the team were set up wrongly. This was apparent after 10 minutes.

The management should have been aware of this.

However, they are learning and the 2nd half showed

Management 0 1st half, 6 2nd.

Having said that. Swindon are the best side to visit us in years.

Swindon were good today; full of purpose and movement. Reminded me of the Luton team a few years back.

We did hand the initiative to them with our formation, but our centre back 3 played ok. Marv was MOM IMO.

I'm loathed to criticise individuals but I am at a loss to see how Marsh did not get a run out today. What's the point of him being here otherwise?

[OKPete]

Big crowd, bad result - them’s the rules.

Obviously Swindon were far the better side and deserved to win - some of their passing and movement was excellent. They will beat better sides than us this season.

And yet, I’m not going to lay into the players and coaching staff. Two of their goals were a bit freakish, our heads never dropped and we gave it a good go second half.

L2 is a big step up from NL, we will struggle against the good sides. Improvement will come slowly. Salford are barely doing better than us which gives you some perspective. There will be good days too though when things click.

[LOFC1948]

It’s questionable when we player Brophy at wingback and when we play him as as a10 its a waste of time. He is a winger - play him wide front and he can do some damage.
By the way on Marsh - if we don’t give him pitch time he’ll get the bus back to white Hart Lane - this signing is becoming another of our waste of time loans.

[gshaw]

L2 is a big step up from NL, we will struggle against the good sides. Improvement will come slowly. Salford are barely doing better than us which gives you some perspective. There will be good days too though when things click.

Tell that to our management team as they didn't seem to think so at start of the season.

[Cheshunto]

How can you blame the defence, when not only did our keeper make 2 mistakes, but the team were set up wrongly. This was apparent after 10 minutes.

The management should have been aware of this.

However, they are learning and the 2nd half showed

Management 0 1st half, 6 2nd.

Having said that. Swindon are the best side to visit us in years.

Swindon were good today; full of purpose and movement. Reminded me of the Luton team a few years back.

We did hand the initiative to them with our formation, but our centre back 3 played ok. Marv was MOM IMO.

I'm loathed to criticise individuals but I am at a loss to see how Marsh did not get a run out today. What's the point of him being here otherwise?

I agree that I don’t see why we’ve signed Marsh, but I honestly don’t think he would have made any difference.
He needs to be given a chance, but from what I saw on Tuesday against Southend I don’t think he’s ready to play in the hurly burly of League 2 Football like today’s game.