The revivement begins

It's almost like we've played well in every game minus Charlton away...

Apart from the goal, we didn't have a single shot on target, which is worrying

Thought we played well, though how much was that because Millwall were awful?

Some good performances, but also a few not so good performances.

Perkins will not make a decent league 1 striker anytime soon, & DJ looks poor to me.

If Agyei, & or Kelman get injured, we're in big trouble, I reckon

Let’s see how we get on against Shrews..The real revivement might begin IF we win..

Millwall were shockingly poor. We were decent enough. A couple of outstanding performances, Agyie and Beckles but the rest just competent. The euphoria of the win causing objectivity to be ignored. Defensively very good, 0 shots on target from Millwall by any measure is excellent. Only one shot on target from us, not so.

As a squad we have always recognised our back line is the strength of our team and so it is turning out. No real surprise. But for our performances to be considered good, that quality needs to run through not only the back line, but through midfield and up front. We are good at nullifying the opposition. Restricting chances. But that’s it. Very little else other than work rate. In the league we concede, we lose. The bottom line.

Our midfield just ain’t good enough yet , in the first 10 minutes I counted 5 long upfield punts that came to nothing, thankfully that stopped to a degree. Where is the ball carrying midfielder? where is the dominant midfielder able to put his foot on the ball, look around, make the quality pass? Bar the odd occasion they don’t exist. Just huff and puff instead of quality.

Restricting opposition chances is a great place to start. But it is just that, a start. Until the midfield and forwards improve we just rely on work rate, high press. Because the creativity just ain’t there, yet.

That’s an opportunity 

I do get a little worried when Beckles does a back pass to Hemming. Both are prone to howlers of immense proportions.

I guess over the years my objectivity kicks in.  I’m far from pessimistic, in fact I’ve little doubt we will climb the table and be safely mid table come the end of the season. The wins will come. Starting Saturday I hope.

But as fans we can all be guilty of looking through rose tinted glasses at times, though I do it less these day.  Millwall were shocking, ‘rubbish’ is like heaping praise on them, they weren’t even that good. Look at their fans forum. We can only play the team in front of us, but let’s not get carried away. They had 0 shots on target, to our 1. Exciting stuff. In reality we worked hard in what was a drab game. Only passion added interest, not the football.

We make excuses like we need time to gel. Shock horror, so do Bolton, Charlton and Birmingham.  None of those three were, in my opinion, very good against us. But they too will gel in time. We were as good as Birmingham!  Really, I’d swap squads right now. We don’t allow teams many chances! True, but we don’t create many either.

We have players who, in time, could be great.  Of course by then they won’t be playing for us. I want players who are really good right now.  Answers on a postcard (or postage stamp). 

What we lack in quality we make up for in energy, work rate. We’ve already seen against Charlton that has its limits.  Let’s reconsider after 30/35 games if we can still maintain that.  We didn’t last season. The young players, tough season excuses at the ready for recall.

Our squad is decent enough, good work ethic. God help any in the squad who want to play stylish football rather than run around full on all game, they don’t last long. But we will be ok.  Some good moments and bad ones.  But overall good enough.

holy s*** batman, what negativity! Why are the top forwards costing over 100m? Cos they get one chance and score. We had one effort on goal and scored, that's proper finishing yet your ripping the crap out the team.

Stand up for the Orient. The Orient Express is off and running now. Get behind the lads, it's gonna be interesting.

I'm off to continue drinking. I can't hack this negativity Dohnut. Up the O's!

I agree. If we observe the results from all five starting games then 1-2, 0-1, 1-2, 4-1 and 1-0 shows that we have a 7-6 aggregate. Ok, one of the opposition teams was a League Two team, but the Championship team balances that. The two 2s were from top sides. I think we should expect to get a point this Saturday. A point the following Saturday would also have been decent. So I think we're getting the piston pumps up to some sort of speed. I'm all optimism.