menzinho

No idea how seriously Wigan are going to take it, but I suspect like us they'll make a few changes for it too. We won't be expected to win so as long we avoid a heavy defeat but at least put in a better performance than Salford that would be something. And if we somehow do go and win everyone will be a lot more positive before our next league fixture. Players I think we could see start against Wigan are: Griffiths, McDonald, Hall, Grant and Luther. I'm also hoping some the players that have potentially been forgotten get included, Macari, Jarvis and Traore would all benefit from being involved. I think Jatta’s suspension counts in this match too so that’s handy (if I’ve got that right), means he could potentially be back for Bromley on the 23rd.

I think sometimes you can get hung-up on style of football, if you want to be possession-based or defensive and direct you can, you just have to have the coach and players that are capable of doing it. It’s more about how effective you put into practice your chosen style. If say under Paterson we have less possession and play more direct, but get results will anyone really care? That said I still think the possession-based style is there, it was very evident against Newport, particularly first half. Salford just did really well to stifle us and our movement and general sloppiness on the ball didn’t help us. On @theAnticlough point about Norburn I agree he’s not had a great start but he’s possibly been thrown in too early. He missed a lot of the pre-season and so perhaps he's not quite up to speed. Very early days but right now it’s got to be Palmer and Iorpenda in the middle and that will help us to play the progressive possession-based style. Norburn played under Steve Bruce at Blackpool and that definitely wasn’t possession based, by when he went to Wigan on loan he would've played a more possession-based style under Ryan Lowe. I think adding a more physical and quick players benefits a possession-based side too, Dennis, Cotter, Iorpenda & Bennetts all look pacey. Possession based doesn’t always mean 5 yard tippy-tappy balls, you can still play direct balls and be possession based, you just need players actually making the runs so they can get onto the ball before the opposition! I do think we’ve gone a bit wild with the recruitment though, that to me suggests we are not 100% sure about who or what we want. I wouldn’t have said at the end of last season we needed lots of changes, just some good replacements for the players we lost.

Yeah Man of the Match in it's loosest form for this one, I went for Bennetts too, I thought we didn't involve him enough at times but on the ball he looked the most dangerous. I agree with @theAnticlough that taking Norburn off improved us, Iorpenda looked a bit lost as an attacking midfielder but was better next to Palmer. Luker and Grant both looked quite sharp when they came on too.

If we compare it to the last time we played Salford at home, that was a 3-1 loss and just as bad and disjointed performance so I feel like it’s hard to guage if we are going backwards/forwards or just lingering around the same place. I don’t like Karl Robinson but he absolutely has us sorted, if Salford go on a bad run later on this season he’ll be counting down the days until we rock up in Manchester. I will say that Roos isn’t a keeper that gives you a feeling of confidence. He didn’t have that much to do but still looked shaky and because he doesn’t like to come for crosses teams are going to exploit that. Matty Young in goal for Salford is 18 y/o and looks a lot more commanding. Is a Norburn Palmer midfield partnership going to work? I feel like the want to do the same thing and that’s take the ball and just dictate play. Neither want to drive forward with the ball or break the lines like an Iorpenda (and Abbott last season) does. On a positive note I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Cotter, Bennetts, Iorpenda, Luker and Dennis they all look like good footballers and over the course of a long season I think they’ll be prove to be good additions.

The most disappointing thing was that we hadn't learnt from the last 2 matches against Salford, they pressed us man for man and we got pinned in. If you can't pass your way out of a press you have to bypass it, but not just knock it long for them to win it back with ease every time. The space was out-wide, we needed two wide attackers to give us an out-ball and actually challenge their back 3 rather than it just be Dennis on his own. At least that is Salford out the way, but my word we are so bad against them it's so frustrating.

Sneaking in 10 minutes before 3pm! Oxford United 1-2 Portsmouth Stoke City 1-1 Derby County Exeter City 2-1 Blackpool Mansfield Town 1-0 Doncaster Rovers Gillingham 0-1 Walsall Oldham Athletic 0-0 Colchester United Tamworth 2-0 Scunthorpe United 🃏 Wealdstone 1-2 Truro City

Imagine if his true identity hadn’t been revealed, it was only thanks to the newspaper article that his fraud and prison sentence was discovered. This is from when he was in talks about purchasing us, "Alex May, when we were first introduced, disclosed everyone about his conviction. He has changed his name. He came clean and told us and everyone involved in this transaction is aware of that". Just baffling Alan Hardy even accepted the talks with him. I think the reaction from us fans pretty much put a stop to it, but if that hadn’t all come to light I wonder if he would’ve been able to blag his way through all the EFL checks…

I don’t think you can knock the commitment to the cause but I feel like we’ve over-recruited in a way, possibly bringing in unnecessary players (although that is too early to say at the moment). Even though a good number of players departed over the summer some of them formed zero part of the squad. Players like Cameron, Chicksen, Cundy & Morias, they didn’t need replacing they just to needed to be let go. We have a number of players who can cover more than the one position so I never thought we needed a massive squad either, but right now we’ve got a large squad, 25 outfield players and that’s excluding any academy players... In the midfield positions, which covers the wingbacks, central midfielders and attacking midfielders that’s 6 spots that get filled each match we’ve got 16 players that can play in these positions! Sometimes you are better off investing the wages of 2 decent players to get 1 very good player, you take the hit of a smaller squad but get quality over quantity. My slight worry is that we have tipped the balance towards quantity.

There is too much money involved in football now, but there's no going back, not in the short to mid term anyway... I wish I had the answers but running a club and being profitable is basically an anomaly these days, clubs are totally at the mercy of their owners and if you get a bad one (or ones) you are stuffed. It's not right that you need to be a multi-millionaire to run a club either and the lower down the leagues you go the harder it is to be financed solely by attending fans. I'm amazed clubs like Accrington, Harrogate and Fleetwood with average attendances of less than 3,000 can even afford to put a competitive team out. I saw this on social media today, a pretty good way to sum-up how the media view English football too.

I would've thought so given that their season is about halfway through, Ruben will probably now just be at the fitness level required. Hopefully he gets some more game time soon.

Well the last loanee from Tottenham was quite good wasn’t he! Maybe I’ll completely change my mind in a month but I wouldn’t say we were in need of player who can play as a 6 or 8 in midfielder. If he plays in the No.10 role and is great I’ll be happy. Either way we are completely overloaded with midfielders, we'll have to move 2 or 3 on now. We’ve also gone in quite heavy with the young loanees this season, we pretty much used only go for one or two, wonder why we’ve changed so drastically this season? Clubs loan you their young players to play them, I hope this doesn’t cause us problems.

When you look at the scoring chart from last season in the SPFL most of the players are from Rangers and Celtic. Scored 1 less goal than Adam Idah in a team that got relegated so that is a good sign. Never quite sure about Scottish football though, the standard is hard to judge. Dalby went from not really scoring at Wrexham to scoring for Dundee, he got 15 for them. Equally Kristian Dennis who has scored a lot in League 2 went to St Mirren and only scored 3 goals. Also didn’t realise that Noah Chilvers plays for them too, he’d solve our attacking midfield dilemma. I’d be in for both of them!

First half we were building nicely, Grant probably should scored even so I thought after basically chasing us the whole time they’d tire and we’d take advantage second half. But that early goal second half rocked us and unfortunately gave them a bit of a boost. I think if we go 1 nil up we win that comfortably. Outside of a long-throw and Norburn heading it to Kamwa, they didn’t do much, I thought on the ball Newport were poor. In terms of the new boys, Cotter, Iorpenda and Dennis were the pick of the bunch for me. Roos didn’t have a lot to do but I feel he could’ve prevented the goal, other members might disagree but the ball bounces in the 6-yard box for their goal, he’s got come and collect that. I think he needs to be braver with his starting positions. Sonny defended ok, considering he’s a Man Utd academy player surprised he wasn’t always that good on the ball. Only their first match though, so I’m not getting to carried away. Hard to read too much into it all but you can see the idea to play balls forward quicker is there. I’m glad we didn’t lose in the end but I can’t help but feel timing wise playing Newport after 10 matches or so would’ve been better when everyone is a bit sharper. I think lots of teams (half-decent ones) will go there and win this season. Obviously very sad to hear about the Notts fan who needed medical care, I hope he we get a good outcome after hearing he’s stable but serious.

I would say on the whole most of the team played well, but no-one really had a "wow" performance. I agree about Palmer, he was very tidy on the ball and dominated the midfield, especially with Iorpenda beside him first half. So Iorpenda is my MotM, I thought he did really well, a little less effective when he was pushed into the No10 role but prior he was making good runs, getting on the ball, dribbling forward and was probably a touch unlucky not to score.

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