Cheltenham Town video: Poor Robins crash to first defeat

“After the start the Robins had before the Accrington game, no doubt everyone was happy with the results and the league position. What has happened since is entirely predictable. It takes ONE defeat for all the criticism to start. I have been accused several times on here (although not for some time) of being negative but some of you guys turn on the players and the manager in a heartbeat. Incidentally, I have never said that the supporters are ignorant (although I am not too sure about the slackjaws behind the home goal), all I have said is that all the responsibility and the pressure is on the people in the club who are qualified to make the decisions and that those decisions are tested in public every game. None of the tactical brilliance or insight into successful substitutions of the barrack room lawyers in the crowd will ever be tested and how grateful they must be that they are able to express their opinions behind this safety net.”

“Part of the beauty of footy is that everyone has their own opinions on tatics, players and formations + and as paying "customers" of the game, we are all entitiled to express those opinions. I think that the commets on here generally reflect on the performnce against Stanley -hopefully only a blip IMO. Also, I think that from the comments made by MY after he match, in hindsight (a lovely concept I know), he may well have picked a formation and changed cetain players that some of us on here have suggested he should've done at HT.

Maybe against Wycome, MY will indeed use a formation with the players best suited to the team that most supporters would agree with - if we then play much better (and get a result too), then I feel that many supporters views would have been vindicated - for the time being anyway!!

As Greves' said- Footballs' a funny old game - I wouldn't have it any other way!!”

“if bob houghton had been there last saturday and he'd asked most of the crowd coming out where it went wrong,i'm sure the majority would have told him the same thing.as alchelt along with many others have said,once again team selection & tactics must be questioned.yates is fine when everything goes his way from the kick off,but if the opposition has got us sussed or somebodys off form his decision making is sometimes very poor.i think a good percentage of people on the terraces are fairly clued up on basic formations and tactics,and i dont think they could have made much worse ajob as a football manager then MY did on saturday.if bob houghton was watching this on a regular basis,he might just come round to us ignorrant supporters poin of view.”

“Al - well thank you for your (almost) kind words ! You really mustn't get a reputation for agreeing with a word I say - it will do nothing for your already shaky credibility. You are right - I haven't seen more than one game a season for the past few years but it is much harder from where I live. That is why I now try not to express opinions about current players, or Mark Yates (whose attitude as a player I admired) tactical ability but try to restrict myself to offering opinions about football in general. Am I still welcome to do that or am I blackballed (if you'll excuse the expression) ?”

“Oh I wondered where Mr Never watched a game in years Houghton would appear.
However I agree in what he's says but that does not mean I cannot voice my opinion.
and my opinion is of the game I am viewing and the obvious tatics being employed at that time,football really is not that difficult to work out tatically especially at lower levels,I have never said I could manage a football side the nearest I ever got to that was running a Sunday Morning team (we did win the league and reach the final of a cup) but I stand by my opinions and if you have ever listened to some of M Y's interviews he almost admits he as got it wrong on more than one occasion,my gripe with him he rarely seems to be able to change or adapt quick enough when things are not right i also stand by my comments that you can see more from the stand tatically than you can from ground level.”

“The reason that fans feel that their knowledge is better than the qualified people is that none of their èxpertise`ever has to be tested and that makes their opinions more valuable in their own eyes because they can never be proved to be wrong. Listen to the phone ins - some of the views expressed by fans are ill informed to the point of being laughable. Just pay your money and watch - that is all any club demands of it`s supporters. People get qualified and generously paid to make footballing decisions but at least they have stand or fall by them. It is extremely aggorant to suggest that your opinions are anything other than just that and to think that the professionals should change their tactics or thinking based on them is absurd.”

“The last few weeks of August usually see poor attendances, I was on hols myself. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure they'll pick up. Plus I notice how few away fans made it, which doesn't help the numbers either.
COYR!!”

“hi RegularRobin,noted your comments now here we have the conundrum, you don't like Zeb,I personally am not a massive Mo fan, now here's my conundrum Mo spent a large part of the game on the pitch,did'nt do a lot but hey he's on there,Zeb didn't win a lot in the air but then again why did we pump long balls up against a 6'5" centre back, now Zeb gets moved onto the left midfield area and with a lot less pace than Mo immediately took on the fall back and easily beat him for pace,Mo frequently makes the wrong decisions and hardly ever take's on his full back using the only weapon he as...pace.

Here's my other conundrum, why is it that us dopey fans who know nothing about football can quite often see what is wrong, very early on in games yet the people with their coaching badges and reasonable wage packets fail to see the obvious, there are only a couple of comments this week but we could all see the same thing from probably different places in the ground, or maybe we just get a better view sitting a little above the pitch rather than at ground level.

Ever been to Old Trafford? Fergie does not sit at ground level and he's not too bad at winning games, where do Rugby coaches sit...up above where they can get a better overall view...see where I'm coming from, it's not rocket science, but even that is better from above!”

“Just logged on to air my views but see that two other supporters have beaten me to it.
Would just like to make it clear that it was obvious to everyone in the ground on
Saturday after 20 minutes that we were outnumbered and overun in midfield and yet
the reinforcements in that area came after 76 minutes when we were 3-0 down and well
beaten. Why change a system that worked brilliantly for us last season ?? Carter (or Deering)
replacing the departed Summerfield, Jones in for Garbutt and a natural goalscorer, Harrad
up front. What's so difficult about that ?? No place in my team for Zebrowski I'm afraid.”

“Ouch!! Well I didn't see that result coming - did any of us?? Al agree with your post, we were outplayed from the 1st whistle, gave Stanley all 3 of their goals and generally looked a mile off the pace all match.

We couldn't string more than 2 passes together, constantly lost possession (especially in centre midfield) and apart frm McGlasahan (again our MoM), we never really troubled the Stanley defence. What is it with Chelt and playing 4-4-2 - we just can't seem to manage playing that system!! Why does MY persist with it - it didn't work last season when he tried it and it didn't work yesterday. As Al said, I know it's not the standard formation for most teams these days, but the team should be able to manage it when asked to play that way - but they can't for sme reason. MY - lets not try 4-4-2 again this season - please!

Pack in particular had a mare of a match, Mo did nowt and Zeb couldn't win hardly any headers. Only when Jombati and McGlashan linked up did we look anything like an attacking force. It simply was just 1 of those matches to forget - quickly!!

Also, MY should've made at least 2 changes at HALF TIME - why did he wait so long?? By the time he did change it we were 3-0 down and any hope we might've had of getting (a very unlikely + undeserved) draw had vanished. Feel sorry for young Hooman as he made a howler of an error for the 1st goal and looked pretty shell-shocked for the rest of the match. If Benno is 100% fit (and only IF), then I would start him against Wycombe. I know it was Hooman 1st mistake this season, but he's only a young lad who's confidence seemed pretty knocked after his mistake - The curse of the Player of the Month award - No??

Overal then, a very bad day at the office for Chelt, but I think (and hope) it was just a blip result. After all, we have virtually the same side (plus some decent additions) that took us to Wembley last season.It's still very early days and there's no reason to suggest that we can't go even further this season and get automatically promoted. So, no panic yet, but a swift kick up the rear for all the players tomorrow morning me thiks!!

BTW: Are Gloucestershire folk still on their summer hols - where have all the fans gone?? 2 Home league matches and 2 gates well under3,000. I know the away support haven't been big from Daggers or Stanley - but where have all the Chelt regulars gone from last season??

Answers on a postcard..........................................................................................”