menzinho

It does feel like we are lacking when it comes to right footed wingbacks, as of now Jones, Tsaroulla and Bennetts are probably our top 3 players in these positions and they are all left-footed. He came on as a sub with about 5 minutes to go in the Crewe match and decided to try and dribble past a Crewe player (as the last defender) on the edge of our box, he lost the ball but we just about won it back and cleared it. It wasn't a great cameo that's for sure and this was his last time he played (over 2 months ago now we've seen him). I've not heard anything but it's strange he hasn't been part of the squad for a while now, he didn't even make the squad for the Man United Academy Trophy match.

Hard one to call, the defence wasn’t really that tested, they were so high up the pitch second half you would’ve mistaken them for midfielders. And then attack wise we struggled to break them down even though we were camped in their final third for the last 30 minutes of the match. The subs did make a difference, Palmer did what he does, he even had a shot that went just over (he's going to score this season, I can feel it). Jarvis won us the penalty he looked a tad lacking in confidence in times and he's not played regularly either but it was the right match and time for him for come on.

Such a weird match, first half we just looked off the pace everything was a tad too slow and we struggled to really get into Harrogate and put them under too much pressure. That said we still created the best chance and their goal was a bit out of nowhere as Grant slides in and ends up playing their forward in on goal. Second half was just all us, we must have had about 90% possession. Harrogate were done by about the 60th minute or so and we just lacked that bit of bravery or magic. We were regularly at the edge of their box but the final ball wasn’t great and Harrogate were just so deep by the end there wasn’t much space for anyone in and around the box to even get a shot off. I was unsure about the penalty when it was awarded, and having watched it back I'm still not sure. The Harrogate defender puts his hand in the back of Jarvis but it didn't look like it was with much force, if anything him then falling over causes the Harrogate player to go over and that makes it look worse. l I think the pressure got to the ref, there were a couple of shouts for pens (all which I think he got correct) and he didn’t give them. Fair play to Harrogate, they’ll be gutted after that. I think their defensive resilience merits a point but my word how did the ball just not fall to us at all, not one deflection or anything went our way. It feels like had that been us playing so deep for 30 minutes we’d have conceded a couple.

Burton Albion 1-2 Blackpool 🃏 Luton Town 2-0 Rotherham United Accrington Stanley 1-1 Bristol Rovers Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet Grimsby Town 3-1 Chesterfield Braintree Town 1-1 Truro City Hartlepool United 1-0 Wealdstone Woking 2-1 Boston United

Great news to start the weekend, he's been really good since returning to the side. It's great to actually be in a position now where we are renewing contracts before the end of the season too, means we definitely won't lose him on a free as I'm pretty sure League 1 sides would've been interested in him. I wonder if we in talks with any other players whose contract is up at the end of the season? 🤔 Tsaroulla and Platt will be out of contract next year...

Yeah, the he calls for his return have quietened down now he hasn’t scored a goal or provided an assist in the League since August… If we had an unlimited budget I’d say yes, but I just can’t see how we can justify paying his wages (he’s probably on even more than he was at Notts now) knowing he can’t play every 90 minutes anymore. There’s also an argument that due to how we press more and play more direct he might also be less effective now.

I’m going to go for the obvious one; Rod McDonald. Probably the best small fee signing for years. This is tricky, genuinely can’t think of many players here. The only other I can think of (here’s a little clue for someone who is maybe scratching their head) currently plays in League One…

Top of the form table v bottom of the form table and the possibility of Martin Paterson and Jatta being announced as manager and player of the month. Talk about tempting all the fate here! That said, by the sounds of it Harrogate will do well to put 11 players out for Saturday. From reading an article about them and the build up for this match they have a number of injured players I think about 8 as 3 players limped off in their trophy match this week. 2 players are on international duty one being their top scorer Duke-Mckenna (you need 3 to postpone) and Jack Evans who played all 15 matches previously has 5 yellow cards so is suspended for them. We could well be in a situation where we can make 5 subs and don't really lose any quality and Harrogate are bringing on academy players. That's the way it goes sometimes but it looks like there's not really a better time to play Harrogate right now.

Yeah I’m not overly fussed about it, I like the navy trim matching the sponsor and pattern but the outline of the old magpie badge just looks too basic considering it’s a special fan shirt. It just looks like an away kit to me, the sponsors and current badge don’t really give it a special one-off feel. I’d have just used the old magpie crest in place of the current crest so it wouldn’t be so prominent and then designed a retro patterned shirt with a one-off unique sponsor. But it's selling and clearly quite popular so what do I know?!

I think after last night Iorpenda has moved himself back into a strong position in the pecking order but it's still Palmer and Robertson in the central midfield positions for me. I think we’ve got a good number of possibilities for the attacking midfield spots. Hall is the standout at the moment for me and whilst Grant may lack in finishing he makes up for it with great pressing so you get a nice balance with him and Hall. I agree about Luker and how unfortunate him getting injured was. I thought he was someone who would’ve grown into that attacking midfielder spot and by the end of the season could have been someone we were desperate to sign. I still think Jarvis could work in one the attacking midfielder roles because he’s very good technically, it’s just Martin really likes to see that desire to run non-stop and press and that probably doesn’t come naturally to him.

That really was an excellent away performance overall, Cheltenham were always going to change after half-time because we totally dominated them in the first half and had Tsaroulla’s header been centimetres to the left it clips the post and we go in 3-0 up. Iorpenda showed just how important mobility is for a midfielder, it was the right choice to start him alongside Roberston. He was like a gazelle just breezing past Cheltenham’s players at times. No idea how likely it is but I’d be desperate to get him in permanently at the end of the season. The oldest outfield players in the starting 11 last night were Tsaroulla and Bennetts, and they are only 26, everyone else was younger! We've got a core of really promising young players here now. The only blemish was the goal, I'd imagine with VAR it gets given as a foul but the ref gave us pretty much every 50-50 after so it was probably playing on his mind and that helped us. No idea why Ness heads it back into the danger area though, that was really poor from him and was probably his only real mistake of the night. Good to see us get back on track in such encouraging fashion though, we are looking really solid in the league right now.

I saw after the match Jatta and Hall being interviewed for Sky and I think Hall carried a trophy away. I’d have Jatta, Hall and Robertson as my top 3. Could make a case for all of them really, but I think Robbo just shaded it for me.

Stoke City 1-2 Coventry City Wrexham 2-1 Charlton Athletic Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Barnsley Exeter City 0-1 Wigan Athletic Bristol Rovers 0-0 Gillingham Harrogate Town 1-2 Oldham Athletic 🃏 Morecambe 3-1 Sutton United Truro City 1-1 Altrincham

We’ve played with a variation of a 3-5-2 (3-4-2-1) for years now and it’s worked for us so far. Also when you look at the teams that were promoted last season Bradford, Port Vale and Wimbledon all played some variation of a 3-5-2 as well. Every formation has its strengths and weaknesses, I think the 4-4-2 covers the pitch well but you can be overrun in midfield if you face a team that plays with 3 centre mids or a box midfield. With the 3-4-2-1 we are very solid in central areas but it demands a lot of the wing-backs because they almost have to do the job of two players and they sometimes get pinned in if facing a full back and a winger. I’m not overly concerned with the formation, I think it works well for how we want to play, the two attacking midfielders and two central midfielders mean we should be able to get a lot of control in the middle of the pitch and dominate. Sometimes I just wish the wing-backs play a tad higher, they were really deep under Stuart and that seems to have followed on with Martin. Maybe Luke Williams has warped my mind as to how wing-backs should play (because under him they were basically wingers!) I think the approach to how you play is probably more important to us and that is to be brave (not sit too deep) play forward and be relentless with the press to pin-teams in. We’ve done it in phases and stages this season, just in the last two matches the intent and bravery hasn’t quite been there for me but there's no reason to suggest we can't get back into a positive approach.

I’d do well to give anyone a 7 after that, maybe Ness or Bedeau but again at times even they struggled. The fact our defenders were our better players against a team struggling in the League below is pretty tragic. Even after sleeping on it I can’t get over how poor we were going forward. We didn’t manage to put them under any real sustained pressure, or cause their keeper and defence to panic like ours did. If we’d have created a host of decent chances and missed them or forced their keeper to make a number of saves I’d have felt a lot better getting knocked out. But our super-fit side which made all the subs still couldn’t get the better of a tiring team that bought on Connor Hall who looked completely unfit and effectively made the match 10 v 11. We can add this to the collection of "FA Cup Horror Matches", which already is pretty full...