Time To Panic?

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Yes, very much so

"Nottingham 19-0 to the good after 20 minutes, but there was promise in the way we fought back..."
Classic head in the sand statement trying to justify why Bedford didn't turn up for the first quarter.
How often has it been the case that we 'fight back bravely' still to be beaten?
We know that the Championship gets stronger and more competitive each season so why start the 2019/20 with a smaller and less experienced squad? That squad is getting smaller with each game and so the number of loanees is getting bigger - hardly a good basis on which to start getting back to winning ways.

The club are trying to keep a tight budget but unfortunately you get what you pay for.

Is there potential in our side though? or is the squad just too small?

Small is fine if you also have quality but unfortunately the club doesn't have that. Also of course, injuries will take their toll as we have already seen this season.
I really can things getting even worse.

[quote Miss Rugby]Small is fine if you also have quality

Tell my wife that all the time, doesn't have any effect though

we don't have quality?

I always used to be worried that we were signing players from lower league teams. I know you can grow potential but I'd rather have players dropping or from the same league.

Panic not a word used by The Blues......’concerned’ might be a better word........however the word that we must start using is plan........

The question is do we have a plan?

IMHO we forget the next three games they are Cup games, we are now playing survival rugby the next important game is on Boxing Day at home to Ampthill its a must win game.....

I will repeat my warning

“This year we will struggle, and if last year repeats itself then there is nothing to stop clubs below us from ‘importing’ players to boost their chances of survival.......do you feel safe?”

Will that 'plan' involve increasing the squad or simply rely on short-term loans? Loanees will never buy into the club's desire in the same way that an employee will.
If Leeds start to win a game or two and scent the chance of survival we will need to be very concerned - we all know what they will do to increase their chances!
We also know that the RFU will want to maintain another northern club in the top two tiers - Richmond know that only too well.

"Plan" A, B, C and D haven't worked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:11:27:12:55:03 by Magoo.

its like he club has lost it's Mojo at a time when Ampthill have come up to our level

Luton Blue

“its like he club has lost it's Mojo at a time when Ampthill have come up to our level”

I have been attending GR for nearly twenty years.......I still am ‘confused’ at what ‘level’ we are supposed to be......

Surely someone is accountable for the position we find ourselves in.....

Jeez, if there's anyone out there who might be feeling a bit venerable at the moment and thinking of toping themselves I'd stay of this page.

We're going through a bad patch, it happens, we've just come of the back of three good seasons on the spin, finishing third, we're 6 games in.

I agree things could be better but for god's sake let's not start talking about must win games in November, please.

Quote:

iron blue
Jeez, if there's anyone out there who might be feeling a bit venerable at the moment and thinking of toping themselves I'd stay of this page.
We're going through a bad patch, it happens, we've just come of the back of three good seasons on the spin, finishing third, we're 6 games in.

I agree things could be better but for god's sake let's not start talking about must win games in November, please.

Have to disagree with this. If we want to stay in the cup, given Yorkshire Carnegie not being in our pool, we more or less need to win all 3 cup games/pick up something from Ealing and get 2BP wins after. I'm struggling to see that happen though, so for me the cup games should be used as a way of remedying our quite poor attack/points scored record, though a first competitive win at home this season would be nice.

As for league, yes, Ampthill on Boxing Day is must-win. Lose and we're definitely in relegation danger, no shade of tinted glasses to hide from it. It would also be imo quite damaging for attendances for the rest of the season if we manage to lose yet again at home to Ampthill.

While I don't think Yorkshire Carnegie can do the same turnaround with a batch of signings as they did last season (for a start, their original squad is a lot weaker than the one last season), building up a 3 win/12 point+ cushion would be good.

In terms of plans, I largely have faith in the squad's quality, but certainly not its quantity. We definitely need an extra back and signed/on loan until the end of the season, not lent by Sarries for 2 games. I don't know where we have the more serious long-term injuries, but we're particularly short on the wing and at fly-half. I also think it'd be worth signing/getting on loan until the end of the season, a prop with at least 2 years prior Championship and above experience. I'd also like to see a little more of James Lennon starting.

For more longer term, if Sarries don't prove useful with those additions, I think we need to properly consider whether our link-up with them is worthwhile. Ampthill seem to me to be getting more regular DR and loan players available from them and other Premiership clubs. Perhaps we should look elsewhere - Northampton, Wasps, Harlequins, Leicester (if they stay up), maybe London Irish. It'd also be nice to not be linked to a club which so blatantly bent the rules in recent years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:11:28:10:45:38 by Ginger Blueboy.

Ginger Blueboy......I totally agree with your posting ......you must be sitting in the stands near me because your posting is what I hear being discussed during the games .....unfortunately we are not alone with our concerns....

I wonder how long it will be before we get a posting suggesting we find another club to support......

well it looks like we've got a new talisman hopefully.

I have always thought a tie up with Northampton would be more advantageous if i'm honest, a more natural fit maybe?

I'm not bothered by the cup, but it's very much as if our season starts here!

If we lose against Ampthill on Boxing Day that'd be a real downer.

Get rid of the solid blue kits!!!!

When is the person accountable for this mess we find ourselves in, going to be given the Alan Sugar finger?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:11:28:22:38:23 by Jonathan Wilcox.

[youtu.be]

Everyone should stop looking at the league table and look at the fixture list before panicking just yet.

2 home, 4 away
The 2 home were against the 2 big money spenders, one of which we were robbed.

You aim to win your home games puts you mid table and try to win up to 50% away puts you Top 4.

We have effectively had 6 away games this season all in the rain which doesn’t suit this squad.

"We have effectively had 6 away games this season all in the rain which doesn’t suit this squad."

we play rugby, in england and it rains alot? That's a good excuse?

No disrespect but other team equip themselves to play in this countries weather?

"Bedford Blues will be making full use of their squad this weekend"

We're in trouble! 9 changes = lots of injuries and down to the bare bones.

To be honest I have never bought into this "we're not good when it rains" mentality but Try Blues makes a good point it's a nonsense the way the fixtures are structured.

Quote:

Luton_Blue
"We have effectively had 6 away games this season all in the rain which doesn’t suit this squad."
we play rugby, in england and it rains alot? That's a good excuse?

No disrespect but other team equip themselves to play in this countries weather?

It’s not a good excuse it is a fact! Look how our squad is different this year, Cooper, Clare and Ocampo immobile blocks. Williams as well was large.

They have been replaced with more mobile players to play a higher tempo game again. We were let down by our Welsh prop who decide the eve before pre season not to come which meant we had to find players who need time to develop into the division.

Remember the days when our pack wasn’t great in the set price but we just killed teams in the loose, we’ve gone back to that type of squad again. The weather hasn’t allowed us to play that way. It has been exceptionally wet.

We have been unlucky with the fixture list, losing our only fly half as the other other was on World Cup duty.

Luton_Blue you always look to criticise and you give the feeling you enjoy it when we aren’t doing well.

Oh and for not signing players from lower divisions I thought you said you were a coach at the time we signed lots from way further down the divisions?

Look at Judge signed from ND1, season with us and then Pirates before going to Saracens! There are good players who come up and those who also come down.

we’ll get humped! Pointless competition, bit like the B&I cup.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:11:30:07:17:28 by Jonathan Wilcox.

Really pleased to see Lennon getting a start and our new fly half and Adamson fit enough again to take the bench/start. Looks like perhaps just Hooley was the serious injury from the Nottingham game.

Fixture list was tough, no question, and one win from four at home by this stage wouldn't have surprised me at the beginning of the season. But, we lost the Ampthill game and Donny, Nottingham and Cov (twice) away and the manner in which lost most games so far has been very concerning (penalty count and poor attack being biggest issues from what I've seen/gathered).

As for the fly half injury availability issues/other injuries, normally I'd have a lot of sympathy for this. However, we had the exact same thing happen last season at fly half, except worse with Sheppard sadly out for most of the season, and after a few games got someone in as cover (L Irish guy/Sharp). And overall, we simply did not recruit enough players this season for even a couple of injuries virtually no matter the position to not cause significant disruption. Helps explain some of the results/performances, but not how we thought we could get through season with such a small squad. Very much hope lessons are learned for next season, provided we're in the Championship - which I'm fairly positive we will be by some comfort as I think we'll start to string together better performances if we get our attack clicking in the cup games/struggling to see Yorkshire Carnegie winning more than 4 games maximum.

Here's hoping the team can defy expectations tomorrow and get a BP win - now that'd be a way to quell supporters' concern!

Humped 80-17. Embarrassing.....

Makes some of the comments above sound a bit stupid.

Was it rainiing?

Or shall we take some positives from this?

Yorkshire start winning and we’rein thr @#$%&

Too many games played in the rain.....lol. Poor excuse.
Shocking result.
Do we have a date for the extraordinary meeting?

Very embarrassing defeat at Ealing no doubt.
I wasn’t expecting to come away with anything but it’s always embarrassing to ship 50 points.
To ship nearer 100 is beyond comprehension.

We lost 3 big players from last seasons squad, Williams, Flanagan and Dickson.
Dan Temm has performed admirably so far this season (is he our top try scorer?), although he’s not a direct replacement for Flanagan. I’ve not been overly impressed with Grayson Hart so far and I’d always go with Lennon who was probably my Most Improved Player last season. Williams’ bulldozing abilities - and good hands, have been severely missed. I had hoped Worthington could have upped his game but I think it’s actually gone the other way. Temm has done reasonably well when played at 8 but it’s not his best position. Maybe this new guy, Alafoti, in tandem with Temm and Atkinson can sort out our back row. And give our backs some ball to work with.
However, whilst we have Hutler and Adamson out on the wings we’re lacking punch in the Midfield.
With the World Cup, and injuries we’ve not really seen Hooley or Leeming yet. Hopefully if we can get them both fit we can advance in that direction. Not convinced by any of our Centres though. Worley did well last season but is yet to fire this. Undecided on Rimsky-Korsakov, and last season neither Coulson nor Robling were convincing, Centre was probably our weakest position last year and I don’t think it’s got any better.

But, as others have said, let’s get the pointless Cup games out of the way. The season proper starts on Boxing Day.

Would agree on the comment regarding our midfield, don’t watch the Vimeo from the Nottingham game......Shocking defence....

It’s oh so quiet......I think that says it all.
Message ends.

we lost three big players - replace them?

Injuries? - bigger squad, loans etc

Rain? Laughable! It's rugby.

Do we expect too much? On a limited budget etc. Other clubs manage on far smaller crowds so...
What gives?

Was it raining ?

I think it was the wrong kind of rain, which doesn’t suit the style of rugby Bedford want to play.

Weather forecast for Saturday is dry with only a 8% chance of rain...........game on COYB's

Game on lol, we’ll get humped again you see. Attendance will be interesting for this dead rubber.....

Any vimeo from last weekends game?.....lol, probably best...