upnorthnow
New member
I haven't read all the posts so apologies if i repeat anything that has been said but i wanted to vent.
Forget frustrating or disapointing, that was embarrasing this afternoon. The irony was we came out and took hold of the game, had Stoke on the back foot, in fact like so many matches this season i thought we were going to control the outcome as well.
There will have been comments about bad refereeing (and there was) the bald linesman was totally inept but the decisions would have been less obvious if we had played better and no one would have cared about them if we had won.
So we know the team guys can play, every now and again they prove it. What they cant' do is deal with a game mentally. Watch their body language to see what i mean.
When the first goal went in (which Stoke really didn't deserve) we saw the players shoulders drop, despite having been in control for the previous 30 minutes. Not long after a dire refereeing decision that saw 2 yellows rather than 1 red and the heads dropped. In their own minds it was going against them, rather than deal with it positively they let that negativity control the final outcome.
Think i'm talking boll*cks? Let me put it this way, what is the difference between a good team and a great team? A great team never gives up, players that keep on going, playing the ball like their life depended on it right until the final whistle. How many games (not just Brighton) have been won in or even drawn in the 89th minute, injury or extra time? Too many to count.
Stoke played rough, dodgy tackles, pushing, pulling and faking. But strangely only after they scored their first goal and then they started taking the piss out of us after their second. But the team were not up to dealing with it. Chris coming on was a fresh input of energy but he was never going to change the outcome on his own. They need some beleif, they need some serious motivation to quote Henry Ford they need to be able to "roll with the punches"
Long and short of it they weren't outplayed by Stoke, they were outplayed by themselves.
Forget frustrating or disapointing, that was embarrasing this afternoon. The irony was we came out and took hold of the game, had Stoke on the back foot, in fact like so many matches this season i thought we were going to control the outcome as well.
There will have been comments about bad refereeing (and there was) the bald linesman was totally inept but the decisions would have been less obvious if we had played better and no one would have cared about them if we had won.
So we know the team guys can play, every now and again they prove it. What they cant' do is deal with a game mentally. Watch their body language to see what i mean.
When the first goal went in (which Stoke really didn't deserve) we saw the players shoulders drop, despite having been in control for the previous 30 minutes. Not long after a dire refereeing decision that saw 2 yellows rather than 1 red and the heads dropped. In their own minds it was going against them, rather than deal with it positively they let that negativity control the final outcome.
Think i'm talking boll*cks? Let me put it this way, what is the difference between a good team and a great team? A great team never gives up, players that keep on going, playing the ball like their life depended on it right until the final whistle. How many games (not just Brighton) have been won in or even drawn in the 89th minute, injury or extra time? Too many to count.
Stoke played rough, dodgy tackles, pushing, pulling and faking. But strangely only after they scored their first goal and then they started taking the piss out of us after their second. But the team were not up to dealing with it. Chris coming on was a fresh input of energy but he was never going to change the outcome on his own. They need some beleif, they need some serious motivation to quote Henry Ford they need to be able to "roll with the punches"
Long and short of it they weren't outplayed by Stoke, they were outplayed by themselves.
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