menzinho

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.

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.

And what's even more impressive about the current total of 65 goals is that he's done it in 82 games. ???? ????

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.

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.

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.

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!

Yeah, agree with a lot that's been said. Stuart Maynard has come into to a stretch of tough games, and Barrow showed (albeit being over physical at times) why they should finish, at worst, in the play-offs come the end of the season. A point against a good team in this division is a decent result. We didn't start that well, in fact I think we were lucky we didn't go 1-0 down earlier than we did but. Wasn't so much down to the changes though, more individual errors again. I could see the changes in that Bostock and Robertson screened the defence at lot more, in tough games I think this is what we need. We controlled the game second half and Barrow just sat back almost happy with the point. I think the fact we didn't push like mad either showed we were too. I felt like we were relying heavily on Jones to create something for us, we needed to be able to be a threat on both flanks and through the middle a little bit more - not easy though, Barrow were very organised and didn't give us much space to exploit. I agree that we struggle with being able to change the games with subs too, we just seem to run out of steam a bit. We play so many attacking players (and good ones) I can see why coaches are reluctant to take them off. Only 2 of our 7 subs were attack minded yesterday and one of them in Randall has barely featured. Barrow were able to bring on Acquah, Worrall and Whitfield, I take that!

It's interesting since the injury of Palmer it seems like we've suddenly focused quite intensely on improving this area. Given FGR are in serious trouble I don't know why they'd want to let one of their supposedly better players go. Definitely won't please the fans (insert joke about them not having any here). I think a loan with an option to buy is a good idea though, especially with J'OB potentially on his last season we'd need a replacement in the summer. If it turns out McCann is great, I guess the fee will have already been agreed, so the deal would be pretty straight forward for us.

Yeah, very interesting. Not sure I'm sold on the inverted wing-backs, was this more down to the limits he had at Wealdstone though? I think we need to keep the pitch as big possible, I don't really think our only wide players constantly coming inside and narrowing the space helps us. Who knows, maybe it'll play out differently or maybe we'll never see it! I didn't realise how impressive Wealdstone's defence is; 6th best in terms of goals conceded - Just as long as you ignore the fact they're 19th for goals scored! But here he's got a very different set of attacking players, some are probably the best in the league so it would be very hard to effectively stop us being a threat going forward. I think we'll have to sacrifice our goal threat a bit in order to shore up the defence, but if turns out we score fewer goals but start to concede considerably less no-one will be moaning.

I think we'd have been fine had the game been on, our injury list seems to be stuck in a bit of permanent state with personal at the moment so I think bar getting some defenders in we're about as strong as we can be. I've seen a few Stockport fans say they don't mind it being off either as they have a few key players currently injured. I agree it gives the new coaching team a bit of time to find out about their new players before the Barrow game though.

Stockport were very good defensively when we played them a few weeks ago, we largely dominated the ball but struggled to break them down. On the plus side Stockport didn't really threaten us that much either, they scored from a corner and a penalty. I suspect Jim O'Brien and co will guide Stuart Maynard on the starting 11, I think adding more defensive minded players would be a good thing but I'm doubtful it'll happen. Some players will look at this game as a chance to show the new coaching team what they can do and they'll know they'll have to step their game up if they want to come away win a too. We do need to be better off the ball but I don't think I'd put any money on us keeping a clean sheet for this game. As for the prediction, just roll a dice for each team and it won't be far off the final score!

I remember he did an interview, possibly the one with the two players from Boreham Wood, about why he scores so many goals. As well as having the striker’s instinct he talked about how his missed chances don’t faze him and that he just keeps telling himself to get into the position and he’ll score the next one. I don’t think he ever loses confidence because he backs himself and trusts his ability on the pitch so much. He’s a sublime striker, every club in this league and league 1 would snap your hand off to have him. I think at some point down the line we’ll make a lot of money from him, if we get promoted and he stays and continues banging the in goals in League 1 – that’ll probably be game over for us as the Championship clubs will be fighting over each other to get the highest bid in. But right now he’s well protected with his new contract so we can just kick back and enjoy watching him score for us!

Swansea are playing Morecambe this evening in the FA Cup! Will he be eligible to play? That could be interesting...

For me though the frustration is about not being able to just stay a bit more compact away from home. It's not great to concede early but it was a real blow to concede just before half-time especially having done so well to take the lead. Given we look to dominate we know we have to be switched on to deal with counter-attacks but it sounded like we really struggled with that in the second half. I think given the same team started the last 4 games in the space of about 10 days the levels were always going to drop slightly but the squad is thread bare at the moment. Particularly worrying that we had no attacking options on the bench! But James Sanderson seems light a bit of bright spark, seems to have been fast-tracked into first team so maybe we’ll see a bit more of him before the season is over. I think Tranmere have got a very good manager in Nigel Adkins too. Clearly improved them a lot since he’s come in, I’d expect them to push for the play-offs second half of the season now. A bit of break now is actually very handy for us. It’ll give us a chance to get some injured players back, Robertson a bit of time to bed in and possibly another addition too!

That was as about impressive as I’ve seen us and I wouldn’t say Morecambe are particularly bad side either, probably finish mid-table, but we just absolutely tore them apart. We’ve got that swagger and confidence back now, it’s back to possession with a purpose and we’ve adapted to losing Matty Palmer by basically rotating Crowley, Austin, Langstaff and McGoldrick to drop deep and take the ball. The Langstaff contract was a masterstroke, I wonder if it hadn’t had happened how many clubs come January would have been putting in bids? 18 goals in half a season is insane and I think he’ll be looking to get to 30 this season. Everyone played well, Crowley just doesn’t know how to give the ball away, Austin kept popping up between the lines, McGoldrick looked like a Premiership player, JJ too hot to handle as usual and we dominated so much the defence didn't really need to defend! The rotations, the movements of our players were just superb. Forget the rumours about LW and Swansea, keep playing like that and Barcelona will be after him!

We generally kept Stockport pretty quiet, yes disappointed with the corner but if we scored that we’d praise our team for the creativity and execution. And it did make we laugh how they bought Jayden on and chucked him upfront because he’s quick, proper school ground tactics (not really laughing cos he won them a pen!) That was much more like the Notts we know, bolder and braver taking the game to the best team in the league. We didn’t keep passing it backwards, we used Stone like the last option rather than the easy option which is a bit of a trap we’ve fallen into lately. Cameron and Brinds pushed forward, passing and movement was much better too, just needed a bit of luck with some of those crosses. They we’re very organised and defended pretty solidly through-out and it was an enjoyable game to watch. I think we deserved at least a point, but hey that’s the nature of football, just got to take that performance into Boxing day now and end this little run of losses. Oh and anyone got any footage of the Notts fans at the end? Great support as always but clearly made LW and the team a tad emotional.

Yeah, that was not good. Shrewsbury was all about individual errors, the Walsall game (although I didn’t go) was a dreadful second half. Well this was the complete performance, pretty dire for the whole 90. Harrogate looked up for it at the start, almost waiting for us to make a mistake, but they didn’t need to. They did in 5 minutes what we struggled to do all game, attack and get us running backwards, a neat-cut back and an annoyingly great finish and that’s us 1-0 down. Then Harrogate just sat back, and let us pass it around for a bit until they decided to string together another 5 passes and score. For all our possession it was too easy for Harrogate we played far too safe and just had the ball for the sake of having it. Far too many backward passes when a bit of bravery was needed. We must have played about 1 or 2 balls in behind their defence that first half, I could’ve played in at CB they were that untroubled. Our ability to get the byline and put dangerous crosses in has just gone. 2nd half wasn’t any better, our goal came out of nowhere but it gave me hope we could nick a draw... That hope lasted for about 90 seconds, just an inability to read the game, it’s like we got too over excited and went all out to immediately equalise. Just like in the first half, Harrogate made about 4 passes, got up the pitch and nice bit of play in the box and it’s 3. No defensive howlers, Stone's contribution for the second aside, but that was so passive we just let them run past us constantly and failed to make tackles time and time again. It reminded me of the Sutton game. We had our best spell in the last 15 minutes of the game, not a positive though, Harrogate had pretty much given up by then, they knew they could take it easy and we hadn’t really laid a glove on them all game. I don’t know why we’ve gone so off the boil at the moment, we’ve gone from all-out attack to no attack. We look off the pace, we look vulnerable as soon as we lose the ball. So yeah, all in all an awful day out! Only made better by the fact I was there with an old friend who lives nearby, so I was able to have a few drinks after and forget (try to) the whole 90 minutes. I saw the Stockport score and they are next up. Play like that and we are in serious trouble, don’t even bother turning up in fact. What’s the punishment for not fulfilling a fixture? A fine and a 2-0/3-0 loss? I’d take that.

I was only able to listen but we did sound very lacklustre and then to have LW say he didn’t recognise the team after the game is worrying. Sounded like the ball spent as much time out of play as it did in, our passing game just not there. But to not create a decent chance and have a shot on goal in the second half, especially against a Walsall team who sounded bang average, is shocking. I know people bang on about the defence but yesterday’s bench was limiting in terms of attacking talent, when the game is desperate for someone on to add a bit of creativity, we only had Morias the rest were central midfielders and defenders! I don’t know why we played so badly but I’m starting to wonder is it just a coincidence that our form has dropped since Matty Palmer’s injury or does it tell us how much we rely on him when he is in the team? I can remember last season against Maidstone, our final away game, we were 3-0 up. Then we took Matty Palmer off and almost immediately after they scored 2 and nearly got a 3rd!

Back on track, but nothing less I’d expect from this team right now. Their ability to get back to winning ways after a defeat is fantastic and that’ll keep us up in the promotion spots. Pretty uneventful first half, I thought both teams were quite sloppy on the ball at times, Crawley were slightly better but most their chances were from distance. Just two very good induvial goals being the stand out moments. Second half I thought we improved and deserved the win in the end. We did rotate a few players but I thought our fitness levels looked good, we were able to maintain a press through-out and that ultimately sealed the game for us. Really pleased for Morias, I feel he gets some unwarranted stick considering his playing time is minimal. The guys attitude is to be commended, never complains just works hard, hopefully he might get a start on Friday. He kind of deserves it.

Well that ending was one to forget, I agree it was really disappointing considering we’d done so well to get back to 2-2. I mean it did sound like we pretty much gave Wimbledon all 4 goals. You can’t give away two pens and expect to win a game of football. Equally two defensive mix-ups in that game, we really did give them easy chances to score. I’ll watch it back when it’s available on ifollow but given our largely dominant second half and how we fought back to 2-2 it’s gutting to then throw it away in the final minutes like that.

Wimbledon have had mixed results of late after a very good start so it’s not a bad time to be playing them. They recently conceded 4 against Accrington and Morecambe but up until then I’d say their defence was pretty solid, probably one of the best in the league stats wise! They did beat Doncaster in their last league game, so maybe just a blip then (hopefully not!). James Tilley, Al Hamadi and Armani Little (he caused us problems when he was at Torquay) are their best attacking players. If Bugiel starts he is good at holding the ball up and bringing others into play. Judging by their passing stats they are a bit of mixed bag in terms of style, although they will probably be more direct against us and I’m expecting them to press us. So with that in mind, for my team it’s very similar to those that have already been suggested. I’d get Brinds in the middle of the back 3 (genuinely think he’s better here) with Macari taking his role as the RCB. Not sure I’d start Gosling yet but I’m hopeful Chicksen might be ready for the first team. So for me I’d only make two changes from the Bradford game, Macari in for Baldwin and Chicks in for Randall. Another tough away game, no idea what the score will be but I’d take a point.

Well, it was entertaining, you can’t argue you don’t get your money’s worth at Meadow Lane this season! I’ll get the second half out the way first because I don’t want to be too negative after a win, I’d have taken a 4-2 before kick off 100%! Bradford had nothing to lose at 4-0 and came out with no pressure and a desire to put right their awful first half performance. But we didn’t react to it. We needed to be quicker on the ball and take fewer touches given Bradford were actually being pro-active and pressing us. We did such a terrific job first half it was a shame we struggled to adapt to the opposition’s changes in the second. Lessons to be learnt there. And one other minor gripe is the silly yellow cards we’re picking up, I think Baldwin will miss the next game now after needlessly kicking the ball away with 2 minutes to go and Adebayo got his custom yellow too. He must have the best yellow to minutes ratio in the league… On the positive side that first half was probably the best I’ve seen this season. Bradford did what any team should do if they want a tough time against us and that’s sit back and just let us have the ball under no pressure. Some really great goals and Crowley was just so on it, his goal with the little drag back was fantastic. And given our mini injury crisis it was great to see Bostock, Randall, Morias, Brindley and Cameron all back. Gosling definitely looks like someone who hasn’t played for a while, but given time hopefully he’ll get up to speed. Back into the autos as well, all in all a pretty good day.