menzinho

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.

Yes, thanks for the reminder! Bradford City 1-2 Wycombe Wanderers Doncaster Rovers 2-0 Exeter City Lincoln City 3-2 Reading Plymouth Argyle 1-0 Barnsley Barnet 2-2 Fleetwood Town Cambridge United 2-0 Cheltenham Town 🃏 Grimsby Town 1-1 Crawley Town Walsall 0-1 Swindon Town

I thought MK would win the league last season but they were horrific, I think they'll do better but I'm not convinced they stroll to the title by May like some seem to think. Also seen a lot of people tip Chesterfield too, I'm going to stick my neck out here and say they don't finish top 3 this season. Play-offs for them again. I think it's really hard to say with any confidence who'll do well because the form from the better teams last season in the run in was shocking. I wouldn't be surprised to see Walsall suffer a play-off/shocking form hangover with them bottom half this season. I'd have Swindon and Fleetwood as dark horses to crash the play-offs this season too. We are really hard to call, I think it's going two ways, we'll either do better than last season and finish higher than 6th or we'll linger around the mid-table/bottom half.

I really like Jatta, he’s shown again this late pre-season if you get him in on goal he’ll score. I’d hope he stays but as he’s now in his last year there is that dilemma of losing a very good player and getting nothing in return. In a dream world he signs a new contract with a release clause fee so everyone is happy. If he was to move I think we’d have to pretty much have agreed a deal for a new striker and I’d even communicate that to the fans in Jatta’s leaving announcement. The last thing we need is total silence and then to be chasing players around on the last day of the window.

Just on a slight side but still relevant and possibly tedious note... As per league rules: "Clubs also need to name at least one club developed player in their matchday squad; if they don't, they must name one fewer player on their bench". So after our promotion we had the luxury of Didzy counting as this player everytime he was in the matchday squad. This season we don't have that luxury, we'll technically get 6 subs, because the 1 to make up the 7th will have to be Reynolds, Perott, Robinson, Sanderson etc. Against Newport one of them makes the bench, or we just name the 6 subs...

The up close and personal facial shot is never really flattering, just reminds me of passport photos, maybe this season we've taken a step back and got more of a top-half shot. Also I don't know why we just don't list everyone in numerical order, the current lay-out makes us look like we've just got a whole team of midfielders! And are wingbacks defenders or midfielders? There's a question.

For me the time period in which we were waiting for the new head coach to be announced really seemed to drag, but the pre-season has flown by and I can't believe the new season is already kicking off in a few days! I’m quietly confident, I think we’ve ended our pre-season really well and from what I can gauge everyone is more encouraged by Paterson too. I watched a bit of the EFL Cup match that Newport were involved earlier this week. They conceded two goals in the 97th and then 99th minute which was pretty shocking after being 2-0 up. Even so, given the flow of the match they were a tad lucky to be 2-0 up, it was only thanks to two wonder goals they scored, it wasn’t through good attacking team play. Barnet we the better team and the 22-8 shots and 76% possession tells a bit of a story. Newport has been a good place for us the past few seasons too, we strolled to a 2-0 win there last season truth be told. If we are switched on and play with the kind of tempo Paterson will want I see no reason why we can’t start the season with a win.

You are right about the competition for places @Robbie I can't see Reynolds or Sanderson getting into the first 11 unless we have a big injury crisis! If it's possible a loan at a National League club for Reynolds would be great experience and challenge for him. And I think as Sanderson is still only 18 a move to a National League North/South club would suit him as he's yet to really experience proper first-team football.

I'm a bit shocked to see Hinchy and Jarvis in our B team. But as Kouhyar featured as well I'm hoping this means it was just a way of giving them some extra match-time and that they aren't suddenly going to be banished from the first team!

I think Jodi has the ability to play in a central attacking role, it might just take a bit of time for him to adjust. When you play out wide you get more space, a winger only really needs to beat a full-back/wingback and then they are in a position to cross. The middle of the pitch is different, usually it's a lot more congested so you have to be quicker on the ball, more aware of the players around you and more precise with your passing. But Jodi’s got a good first touch, good passing ability and a great shot from distance too. It’s probably a harder position to play than wing-back, but I think Jodi has the skill especially at this level to be a really good attacking midfielder for us.

I always took Joe Palmer's comments to mean that the club will be able to operate and sustain itself up to Championship level, as opposed to we have the money to compete in the Championship now, which we clearly don’t. I always thought it meant that if we do get to League 1 and even the Championship our structure, strategy, plan whatever you want to call it will still work. And when you do get promoted more financial opportunities become available like better sponsorship deals, more tv money and higher attendances, which with our stadium size means we won’t miss out on like some clubs do. I think teams spending massive sums but with owners who are just happy to finance the losses does skew the way we look at modern football, but the reality is it isn’t the norm in the lower leagues. Most teams at this level are losing money and that means for some clubs selling a player is a necessity at times. I don't think we always want to sell our players either, I'm sure the Bros wanted to keep Crowley and Bass, but what can you really do if a club comes in and offers much better wages that we can't compete with? Just because we've not spent a fee doesn't mean we've not invested the money either, the new signings aren't playing for free, all these wages soon add up. And the window isn't shut yet, whose to say we aren't working on a deal right now?

I'm a tad unsure as to how this signing will play out, I feel the priority for this position is a Didzy/Crowley replacement and it's asking a lot of a 20 year old to be this... One positive is that because he's he's under 21 he won't count towards the player registration limit of 22. So we could still bring in a proven No.10 but given the number of players who can play as attacking midfielders now (Luker, Jones, Grant, Edwards, Jarivs, Kouhyar, Reynolds) surely one would have to go out before we sign another otherwise we're totally overloaded and wasting wages.

He also went through the German and then England youth national teams up to the U19s, so he clearly possesses a lot of talent and skill. I'm hoping his cameo appearance is just a glimpse of what he can do, I think if he can settle with us given how we’ll suit his style and how he’s probably better than this level of football, he should be a really good player for us.

The National League Board are seemingly more worried about following procedure to a tee than the potential death of a club… I didn’t know until I saw it on the news today but it mentioned how Morecambe has been up for sale since 2022!? 3 years to do a deal (or not do one as the case is) now they’ve got weeks… Their owner released a new statement yesterday which basically blamed the negative media as to why the club wasn’t sold to the imaginary new group that was suddenly interested in them. Then he blamed Punjab Warriors for going quiet on them, even though they've spent the last year or so trying to buy them! This was on Morecambe's website nearly 2 months ago on June 6th: Panjab Warriors is delighted to announce that it has received clearance from the English Football League (EFL) to proceed with the acquisition of Morecambe Football Club — marking the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the club’s proud history. Kuljeet Singh Momi and his Panjab Warriors team will now finalise the deal in the coming days. Since mid-2024, Panjab Warriors have been providing financial support and outlining a vision built on sustainability, inclusivity, and long-term success. Someone really needs to step in now because it’s so blatantly obvious for whatever reason selling the club is the last thing this current ownership group wants to do.