Match Discussion: Game 30 - The Shaymen (H)

[PON_News]

Game 30 - The Shaymen (H)

Team: FC Halifax Town

Date: 09/03/2021

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Neal Ardley opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

[Elite_pie]

Score prediction is Notts 1-1 Halifax. Enzio gives us the lead, but we are made to pay for protecting it rather than going for a second.

[Feral Fox]

Really difficult to predict results at the minute. The odd spell of looking dominating is then replaced by long periods of sitting back and watching the ball go through Reeves and Doyle back to the keeper. And then individual errors lead to soft goals.

A draw is probably the safest bet I’d wager.

Doesn’t really help that the teams I follow in the Prem are doing the same with Man Utd and Spurs both struggling with the same issues.

Pass, pass, pass and...nothing. No creativity etc...

The old saying of that team looks good on paper is painful at the moment!

[Dripsey3]

Halifax are on a 3 game unbeaten run. They beat Torquay away and drew with Hartlepool at home. That shows how dangerous they are. They are strong in midfield and that is a worry given what King's Lynn midfield did to Notts in the first half. Hopefully lessons were learned from that. They are 4 points behind Notts and Notts have 2 games in hand. While it's quite a must win game for them, they won't want that gap to widen. 

I don't see Notts winning this game but I do think this will be the end of a bad spell and we will start winning once the new signings bed in. Brighter days ahead surely......

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

That was a disgusting first half performance. They were all terrible. Especially **** are that new right back, Barnett, Reeves, Rodrigues, Enzio and Knowles. 

My patience is wearing thin.

[DangerousSausage]

I prefer to focus on the positives. Slocombe caught the ball nicely a few times. The stream is smooth. My sofa is comfortable and the beer tastes good. That's it. 

[Dripsey3]

It's deja vu up to now. NA needs a plan B, C and D.

[Feral Fox]

Same old, same old. Play crap first half. Slightly better in the second (so far) but is this really a promotion team?

Doyle distribution is so poor. New right back looks rough. Reeves looks panicked. The list goes on.

Maybe tomorrow the headline will be Goodbye Mr Ardley. I do hope so as we are rubbish under his tutelage.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

1 hour ago, Feral Fox said:

 but is this really a promotion team?

 

No.

[Dripsey3]

13 hours ago, Super_Danny_Allsopp said:

No.

I think it is but not under NA. He's too nice. You need a Martin Allen type, not Martin Allen himself to get the best out of these players. 

 

[liampie]

@Dripsey3 i think notts needs to be more fired up to win, i feel some of the problems are the players when games are called off or suspended. i think those who blame neal ardley out right are being unfair and i question how a different manager could do better?

i suppose if someone who gave the squad confidence and fired them up it might help, but the players dont do this themselves enough.

the results have been hit and miss, but in form we cant help what happens when other teams are hit with covid.

[DangerousSausage]

That really was pants, starting with Barnett shinning the ball out of play with our first touch of the match (and doing the same thing in stoppage time when we had a promising break on), all the way through to Reeves(?) messing about and finally passing it backwards in the LAST SECONDS OF STOPPAGE TIME when he should have been putting the ball into the box. Halifax were a typical NL team that came to press us and put us under pressure, and increasingly sat back as the game went on. They were bang average, yet we barely tested them.

We never look good when trying to play 4-3-3 as the gaps between the players are just too big. But regardless of what we play, our midfield pairing is stifling us - they always play too deep, they slow the play down, they offer nothing in an attacking sense and now they've forgotten how to pass too. They're also two of too many players we've got who know they'll always play 90 minutes of every game, come what may.

We know what this league is about now. We need to be positive, we need to get in the opposition's faces and take the fight to them. That is how we will control games. What we shouldn't be doing is attempting to tiki-taka the ball to the opposition's six-yard box in painful slow motion. It does not work. If we don't learn that lesson, we'll be lucky to finish in the top half, never mind the play-offs.

[Elite_pie]

4 hours ago, DangerousSausage said:

We know what this league is about now. We need to be positive, we need to get in the opposition's faces and take the fight to them. That is how we will control games. What we shouldn't be doing is attempting to tiki-taka the ball to the opposition's six-yard box in painful slow motion. It does not work. If we don't learn that lesson, we'll be lucky to finish in the top half, never mind the play-offs.

I agree with all of that, but I can see two barriers in the way of solving the problem.

The first is Neal, the second is Ardley.