-
Current Mood
-
Posts
806 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
52
Content Type
Profiles
Articles
Wallpapers
Blogs
Gallery
Events
PONcast
Forums
Store
Quizzes
Videos Directory
Stratagem
Applications
Everything posted by menzinho
-
Accrington had 23 attempts overall and in the second half and there was a 30-minute period where we didn’t have a shot. So, I think I can just about count that as fluking something! First half sounded a lot better than the second, when it seemed the ball just kept coming back. It sounded like we played more more long balls and struggled to keep possession for long periods. Seeing lots of positives about Jatta, he’ll still be settling in but if he can keep his place in the team and keep performing well that’ll be something to be positive about for next season. I also read that Jodi went straight down the tunnel when he was subbed, no idea if it’s injury related or just frustration. By all accounts him and Nemane were managed quite well by Accrington for most of the game. I’ll take a point after the run of losses. Hopefully it’ll provide a little boost for the players. Just playing for pride (and some of them contracts) for the few remaining games now. Let’s hope that can start a little bit of good form (but not to the extent where we miss out on the play-offs by a point or goal difference cos that would be bloody annoying!)
-
The thing that really sticks in my memory from when we played Accy at home was how big they were. I guess on that day skill prevailed over size but we’re not going into this game with much, if any, momentum. Robertson is suspended and will be big miss (granted Crawley wasn’t his best game) since his arrival once he’s settled into the team he’s pretty much been carrying the midfield. Hopefully Bostock will be fit (and fresher) for this one. I’m not sure I believe the rumours about a falling out that involves him and Didzy. Doesn’t fit either of their characters imo, and Didzy got taken off with an injury recently so that surely is the issue. If Bostock isn't fit shove Colkett in, what have we got to lose (expect actually losing of course). Maybe he’ll have a masterclass… Or get injured. A back 4 or 3? It doesn’t seem to make much of a difference at the moment, I still think we look slightly more solid in 4 as we aren't as vulnerable to balls in the channels. But three CBs, Baldwin (hopefully), Cameron and Rawlo/Warner will help deal with their aerial threat, could possibly put Tobi in at RWB for more height too... Am I confident of a win, no. I’m now into the territory of “surely we’ll fluke something at some point”. Hopefully that is this weekend.
-
A bit late to this now, but I agree with a lot of what's been said. The performance was ok up until the red card, so that is on Robertson because it changed the game. Crawley were better in the second half but once we went down to 10 their belief jumped it was just attack after attack until they scored their 2 goals. With 11 maybe we grind out a 1-0 (possibly even score another if Crawley had overcommitted trying to equalise) I’d argue the chance of that happening was pretty much 50-50 though. But losing 2-1 with 11 men I’d have said 20% chance given the time left. So here we are again, another loss, another fine margin but when things happen over and over again like this it can’t just be that we are unlucky though? Under LW (at times) we looked miles better when we played some teams in this league. We’ve not been outplayed by anyone since SM took over but other than Newport away have we actually performed better than the opposition? It’s still very early under SM but right now, considering he said he backs himself tactically, that feels like my biggest concern.
-
I understand why the club offered the players it did new contracts in the summer. And given we’d not played in League 2 for 4 years we had no idea how they’d perform. Yes we probably should’ve been more ruthless but I’m not sure how well that looks. It’s almost disrespecting to those players who really did have a great seasons for us, a kind of thanks but don’t let the door hit you on the way-out attitude. Potentially it could’ve caused a few players to become upset, if that’s a way a club treats its players who got them promoted. I do think we’ve been very unlucky with injuries this season too, that has not helped, I think that between Nov-Dec-Jan we fielding almost the same team every week, which probably did lead to players being overplayed. I think Didzy has kind of now fallen victim to this, you’d think he’d have been able to rotate more with Austin, Scott and Morias but due to the injuries this seasons he’s pretty much had to play when he can. But yeah, it’s incredibly unlucky to have 3 season ending injuries in one season. I don’t remember that ever happening in my time supporting us. And with them all occurring into the season pretty much all the good players would’ve been signed by other clubs so replacing them last minute is not easy. January then became a bit of a fire-fighting effort in terms of the recruitment, securing Macari and Robertson has been good but I agree signing Colkett and Ashby-Hammond not so. I don’t know why we didn't bring in a "proven" defender either, did the recruitment team struggle to identify a good player or was it simply no-one good was available and affordable? Recruitment’s probably the most important part of what makes a club successful. On the whole it has been very good and you’re never going to be perfect and unfortunately for us it's dipped this season. But you can only learn from your mistakes and we can only hope and assume the owners and recruitment team will be fully aware of our issues this season and why it's gone so wrong – they’d have to be pretty much blind and stupid to not notice this! You can’t get it right all of the time and as bad as it sounds considering we were in the play-offs if we don’t go down (still mathematically possible but surely not…) then the season hasn’t been a disaster, just very, very disappointing. And I think depending on how the season ends we will have to revaluate whether SM and his team are right for us going forward. That said I’m still confident with our owners and how things are going. I'm sure in 2/3 years’ time we’ll be a lot closer to league 1 than the NL.
-
We need something to kick us on again, as much as I'm hoping for a win even something like a clean sheet (which would guarantee us a draw) would be a massive boost. I know it's probably hard for the players because it's not like they aren't trying but they've just got to stick with it and keep positive. You can't go into a game with doubts, believe this is game that starts a run of good form. They know they can do it because we've had some really great results and performances this season. Please, please, please, let this be the game where something clicks again and we come back to Notts with something to cheer about!
-
Now he can run again tape that knee up so tightly he can't feel it and get him in the team for Crawley! We really have missed him though, so it'll be great when he is back for next season. Bajarmi also running alongside him in the video, all in all it seems we're over the worst with concerns to injuries now.
-
I didn’t think under Stuart Maynard the results would have been as bad as they have been, he’s in a bit of tough situation now but if he can turn it around it will show he possess the qualities that probably got him the job in the first place. I agree I don’t think demanding Stuart Maynard to be sacked really achieves anything. Why when you want the club to succeeded why would you make his job harder by not supporting him. Fair enough if you have doubts or don't think he's the right man for job, but actively trying to get him removed is counter-productive. That said, I don’t think our owners will be influenced by those just shouting the loudest. We know they aren’t ones to make quick and rash decisions, I don’t think they’ll be panicking yet, if anything I think they’ll be thinking more about how they can potentially help SM and his coaching team through this tough period. I remember in a rare interview it was revealed one of Chris or Alex had written a study as part of their degree about the effects of sacking managers. I think a large takeaway point was something about how lots of clubs sack a manager when he’s not actually the real problem but they do it because it’s the easiest thing to do...
-
Yes, get well soon @Piethagoram, you didn't miss much against Wimbledon so here's to hoping for a win or a clean sheet (the latter will be more impressive) against Crawley to help boost your spirits!
-
It’s like we can only do one or the other at the moment, either set-up to try and stop the opposition (which we did overall, set-pieces were our downfall but in open play Wimbledon didn’t create anything) but at the expense of our own attacking game. Or we go out to score goals and concede at the same rate… I will say we created the only really good chance in the game and Macca should’ve scored it. Feels like Stuart Maynard hasn’t had anything really go his way since his appointment. But I can't get over how Wimbledon just sat back and played like a team that were more than happy to leave with a 0-0. They were there to attack but we didn’t really have them that worried, everything was to feet and a touch too slow. We needed to really quicken the pace in the last third try some more balls in behind, 1 touch passes to get us through their defence or even just getting more people in the box at times. Langstaff looked a bit of a lone figure amongst their CB’s. A draw would’ve probably been a fair result but sadly that feels like the story of Stuart Maynard’s time so far. We’ve not really been out performed by any team, in some of the tougher games we’ve done ok and been unfortunate to lose by a goal but equally we’ve lost to some pretty poor teams who didn’t put us under much pressure and didn’t create many good chances either. I get we’re probably not good enough to go up but we’re not the 15th best (or worst for the pessimists) team in the league and it’s disappointing to see us there right now. Morecambe, Crawley, Bradford and Newport are all now above us in the table and we’ve beaten all of them (some at a canter, some even twice!) Right now I’m just clinging to the fact I’ll get to see Robertson paired with Palmer next season but that amazing thought is going to wear off soon! We’ve now not won at home in 5 games (1 draw 4 losses) and today was our 4th loss in a row. I don’t want to compare it to previous regimes but I’d be really surprised had that happened under LW…
-
I had doubts about this going head today given the current state of Bradford's pitch, so it's a real shame to all those who travelled for nothing. Do they play rugby league there or do they train on it in the week or something? I can't understand how a pitch that is used weekly can get into such a state.
-
The momentum and confidence from last season seems to have worn off now, that was probably always going to fade at some point though wasn’t it? I think it’s slightly over-exaggerated about how easy the step-up is and maybe we were a tad blindsided by our record-breaking season achievements. The bottom half of the NL would really struggle in this league and I’m not sure some of the better teams would do that well either. Mansfield might finally get promoted this season and they’ve spent 7 seasons trying, by no means will I consider this season a massive failure if we don’t finish in the play-offs, it's about progressing, by basically not getting relegated we’ve done that. Then it becomes about making sure that progression continues each season and we’ll get promoted when we're ready. Now to actually answer the question, no! But like you say never say never in football…
-
From just like Juve to Udinese: Notts County L2 Return
menzinho replied to JustLikeJuve's topic in Jimmy Sirrel Stand
I think not adding to our defence over the summer was a mistake, it's easy to say in hindsight now but at the same time I totally understand why you'd give the players who got you promoted the chance to prove themselves. The recruitment team (overall) have done a pretty good job. The January window is far from ideal to be doing a lot of business. The simplest reason we didn’t sign any defenders in their peak could just be because we didn’t have/find any good available options. (Insert joke about a statue being better than our defenders here) But imagine we signed two CB’s permanently because “we thought we had too” but there were doubts about if they were good enough and that turned out to be true, that’s another 2 players on the books for x years. I’m sure it’ll be addressed in the summer when we can get the right players in. I don’t think we need to deviate too far from what’s made us successful since the Reedtz brothers came in and I don’t think we will. It’s just cutting out stupid mistakes and playing safer at times, just knocking it out for a throw or clearing a ball into the stands every now and again won’t change our style. In terms of defending, yes, we need induvial quality but I also think we need proper wing-backs if we’re going to stick with the 3-4-2-1. (Basically we need to play some more defenders and not just 3!) We were able to play JJ and Nemane in the league below because our quality was a level above and the oppositions quality was not great. Neither really play like wingbacks let’s be honest they are wingers who just drop back occasionally to make up the numbers when we aren’t on the ball. When was the last time an actual wing-back had 20 assists? It just doesn’t happen. -
I’m pretty optimistic in general but I’m struggling to find the positives after viewing that. It had all the hallmarks of what seems to been ingrained into us this season; give away an early goal, a defender with an assist for the opposition’s striker and conceding a penalty (must be like the 20th we’ve given away this season). It’s so frustrating given we have to work really hard to score goals with all our passing and movement, the opposition just needs to cross it into our box and they’ve got 50/50 chance of scoring. Conceding goals has been a problem all season, even before Stuart was appointed, it’s just becoming too deflating now. It’s almost like it’s added motivation/confirmation for opposition too, they’ll know before a ball is kicked that they can score against us! I really hope this season doesn’t nose-dive, play-offs looks a world away at the moment but we can’t fall into a slump, we desperately need to show a bit more nous and desire.
-
Fine margins there. If we score one of our early chances that could’ve been a different game. On the whole we did well 1st half, we struggled a bit in the second half early on, Wrexham just kept us penned in and we were all over the place defensively at times. They were able to get the ball into the channels and go down the wings too easily which is exactly what they wanted. But then we took control back and we had a lot of the ball in the last 20 but struggled to really create much (our legit goal aside). Which brings me onto the ref, I don’t like to moan too much as it’s not an easy job but he got two big decisions wrong. Lee should’ve been sent off for a second yellow, in the second half he was dispossessed, we broke and then when he was running back to try and stop our counter he just grabbed Robertson round the neck and dragged him to the floor. And I think our goal should’ve stood, looks like the top of the arm at worst and that’s on the shirt line so it’s not handball. Like Stuart Maynard says the reactions tell the story for you, no Wrexham player appealed yet Didzy goes absolutely mental at the ref, why would he if he had handballed? Someone like Jatta in the 2nd half would’ve been perfect, our crossing was poor but the cross had to be perfect when all our attackers are smaller than the 3 Wrexham CBs. Wrexham defended well, we actually defended better too. I just thought going forward at times it was too slow, like we almost wanted to create the perfect chance. Like we’ve shown recently with our defending we need a bit more grit and determination about our attack. Our attack gets a lot of credit but against the better teams in this league we’ve struggled to score. And I’m really starting to like Roberston. He was excellent again, covers the ground well, really good on the ball and wins a lot of challenges too. Early days but he looks to be a really good signing.
-
Wrexham are blessed with the ability to play with no real patterns of play, it’s just about getting it close to the goal to someone with quality like Lee, McClean, Mullin etc. Or failing that a set-piece so one of their massive defenders can cause some chaos. They haven’t been playing well, but I think it’s their away form which is more likely to hamper them for the rest of the season. They have got that ability to just churn out results and they only need a good 10-minute spell and before you know it they’ve scored 2. I’d expect Wrexham will try and bombard our backline from the off, they’ll make us defend 50/50 balls as much as possible so we really need to be up for it defensively. We've got threats too though although I suspect Jodi will need to wear a 360° shin pad tomorrow! We’ve always had close games with Wrexham and I expect tomorrow will be no different, a draw would be a good result for us given our terrible form against the top 10 in this league.
-
Rumour Rumour that Charlie Colkett is injured already?
menzinho replied to Chris's topic in Jimmy Sirrel Stand
Haha, I think I’d struggle if I had to rely on CCTV though, I’d need professional quality footage! Maybe I’ll try and track Will Randall down next, some good info from @Fozzy about him spending his time at shopping centres, I already know the best time to look for him would be at 3pm on a Saturday… -
And what's even more impressive about the current total of 65 goals is that he's done it in 82 games.
-
Rumour Rumour that Charlie Colkett is injured already?
menzinho replied to Chris's topic in Jimmy Sirrel Stand
So I had another look at the stream this evening cos I wanted to see some little bits of action again and I noticed at the start of the stream ifollow had footage of all the Notts players getting off the bus and one of them was Charlie, he wasn’t hobbling nor was he on crutches! They certainly wouldn’t bother taking an injured player down to Newport would they? I'm pretty sure clubs take spare players just in case you get a freak injury during the warm-up... -
I’m pretty sure that’s the first time this season since MK Dons away that we’ve started with 4 natural defenders on the pitch (we played Chicksen at LWB cos Jodi was with Malta, and the back 3 was Cameron, Brinds and Rawlo) I think it's been long over due! I was all for the changes when I saw the team sheet before the game I'm so glad they worked. Given the good form Newport were in that is probably our best away performance of the season. I'm hoping that Gillingham game was a bit of an anomaly in terms of our defending because overall since Maynard has come in we've looked a lot better. The only real negative from tonight was that we didn't get the clean sheet, but you can't have everything I guess. We were comfortably the better team over the 90 minutes, and it's great to be able to celebrate a win again! Not sure I want to really congratulate Mansfield but they've done us a bit of a favour seriously damaging Harrogate's GD, and Bradford putting 4 past MK is a bonus too. And @Fozzy I think Macari played across the whole back line in his time at Stoke but when he was on loan with Dundalk he did play primarily as a RB.
-
Rumour Rumour that Charlie Colkett is injured already?
menzinho replied to Chris's topic in Jimmy Sirrel Stand
I think if he was injured the club would probably keep it quiet. Given his previous injury history the reaction it would receive wouldn't do anyone any favours. That said I've not heard/seen anything, he has only played like one game this season so I'd be more inclined to think he's just not "match-fit". If he's not on the bench in the next couple of games I'd be worried. -
I’m hoping we’ll get the official, official statement that transfer has gone through this week and get to see Jatta at the club. According to a report from Denmark the deal is worth £125,000! I know we received quite a bit of money when Luke Williams left but I feel given the price tag there’s actually a bit of pressure on him. He hasn’t actually really played for Viborg this season, he’s only ever featured as a sub. Surely we’ve not paid all the money for him to do the same here, I’d expect him to feature a lot more. So I’m kind of excited and scared about this signing!
-
Newport probably feel it’s a good time to play us and will be confident of getting a good result given they are on a bit of a winning run (in the league) at the moment. But it’s usually the games you bank on a win (like Walsall who were on a winless run of about 7/8 before beating us and Gillingham who had only scored 11 away goals) that never come true. I’m hoping this is a similar scenario, there could well be a touch of complacency from Newport and we’ve got something to prove after the poor Friday night performance. I’d be looking to make a few changes though, just to freshen the side up really. Not the easiest thing to do, as I’ve no idea who’s actually fit. Ashby-Hammond in goal, why not see what he can do. Macari for Warner, O’Brien for Bostock, Adebayo (he’s dropped the Rowling now hasn’t he?) for Nemane and Didzy for either Austin or Morias. I’d prioritise Bostock and Didzy as I think both could really do with the rest. Hopefully Colkett and Chicksen are fit enough to make the bench along with Randall, if he’s actually a real person and not just a figment of my imagination… I can see this game going two ways, after the dip in form we pull out a great performance and get a good solid win or we lose 2/3-0.
-
I didn’t realise so far how badly we’ve fared against the current top 10 this season. We’ve played 12 games against the current top 10 and we’ve won 1, Gillingham away. We’ve drawn with MK once and Barrow twice. The rest we’ve lost. So that’s a current record of PL 12 W 1 D 3 L 8. Do you think it will improve in the coming weeks? We’ve only got Wrexham to play away from the current 10 and the other 5 remaining games are all at Meadow Lane. Or are you bit worried that the losses will slowly pile up, are the good teams in league 2 this season just too good for us?
-
Very frustrating and disappointing, you don’t mind losing to a good team but Gillingham didn’t really put us any much pressure for the majority of the game. We didn’t play particularly well either but to give them 2 goals from their only 2 attempts in the first half is so bad. @Chris pretty much covers the whole game and my thoughts too so thanks for saving me the time to type them all out! Just in terms of the wider picture I think given the record-breaking season we previously had it’s easy to get carried away and think we can replicate that in the league above the truth is no-one has ever had back-to-back promotions in years, maybe even never (I’ve not checked that far back). But we know the main problems are goals against, particularly conceding on the counter and balls into our box and there’s a real lack of depth to the squad too. Injuries haven’t helped either and Matty Palmer’s injury has pretty much confirmed to me he’s probably the most important player in our squad. Lots of teams have been trying to get promoted from this league for years, Mansfield have spent a good 7 seasons at it (and spent a lot of money) they might finally get promoted this season… There’s absolutely no reason for us to panic though and the Bros certainly won’t be. I think it would’ve been very harsh to gut the majority of the team last season without at least giving them a chance to prove themselves. This season will be a valuable learning curve for us.
- 62 replies
-
- 13
-
I really hate this fixture… In the last 12 meetings, which covers our more recent meetings (since 2014) we’ve won 3, lost 7 and drawn 2 I think Mansfield will be missing Flint through injury and both Bowery and Quinn through suspensions. So that’s a little boost for us. They have also have been struggling at Field Mill recently (maybe cos the pitch resembles one) Doncaster and Sutton got a point there and Crewe beat them. Nonetheless I’m still not confident we’ll win, maybe the team will be desperate to get them back after we kind of fell apart second half against them. I’d like to see Warner in the team and I’d even start with Adebayo-Rowling at RWB for a bit more defensive nous. It is harsh on Nemane given he’s scored 5 in 5 at the minute but we could always bring him on if we needed more attacking flair. I hope we at least put in a good performance, I’m not going so it’ll just be the radio for me, at least I can just switch it off if it all goes horribly wrong again!
Meet the Team
Chris
Administrators
super_ram
Global Moderators
DangerousSausage
Global Moderators
CliftonMagpie
Global Moderators
TheSkipper
Media