menzinho

When McDonald signed, I always thought it would be him and Platt competing for the middle CB spot. He did well last season playing at RCB more often than not even though he’s left-footed and it was awkward at times, but this season he’s had his chance to play in the middle and he’s been really solid. Platt has definitely got to work hard to get back into the side, but having two really good players challenging each other is a really good problem to have.

Just coming off the Crewe match having watched the first goal back I’m really struggling to see why he ends up on the floor. The ball bounces in the middle of the goal area about three yard outs, if he just stands his ground it’s an easy catch. He was really uncomfortable with all the long-throw ins too, if he was a young keeper you’d think with time he’d get better but I can’t see Kelle Roos suddenly coming through a crowd to claim the ball. Last season I remember Bass putting in a number of man of the match worthy performances, he was so much more comfortable dealing with crosses and undoubtedly saved us a lot of points… So far under Roos we’ve not had that, if anything it’s been the opposite, I’d say we’ve probably lost points because of him. Maybe we should’ve gone for James Belshaw if the options were slim, he would’ve jumped at the chance to join us and so far according to the stats (from fotmob) he has prevented 4.07 goals for Harrogate, Roos is on -0.78 for us…

Not that I would, but I’ll think we’d have to boo the thought of David McGoldrick, cos I don’t think he’ll be in their squad. It would just completely unnecessary minutes for him, he played 90 minutes against Port Vale at the weekend, surely they’ll just be saving him for their next league match. I’d make as many changes as possible, it’s good for giving those who haven’t featured a chance to get minutes and hopefully give Martin Paterson some more selection headaches. I’ve no real interest in the competition, I’m more interested in the match against Oldham this weekend. Avoiding injuries is all I ask from this match.

I don’t think going from League 2 to League 1 will be a massive issue, even from a financial point of view. We are already in a very good position in terms of attendances. A number of League 1 clubs like Stevenage, Exeter, Wycombe and Northampton to name a few all have considerably lower attendances than we do, yet they manage ok. Last season our average attendance of just over 10,000 was slightly higher than Wigan’s (9,900) and they had the 8th highest attendance in League 1! I think our average attendance would possibly be around 12,000 in League 1, and that is partly helped by better away followings, this is a great base to build from. You also get an increase in prize money, tv money and payments from the premier league. So I don’t think we’d need a massive increase in finances to stabilise ourselves in League 1, the brothers themselves said in a statement recently that the budget from this year is comparable to some teams in League 1. I said it earlier in the season, it’s not always about the amount of money you have that’s important, it’s about how wisely you spent it.

I thought we had a number of good performances despite the loss. The back three were solid, Palmer and Robbo dominated the midfielder, Tsaroulla and Jones threatened out wide and Hall showed some really good moments of quality. It's tough and close but I think for being so threatening down the left I'll vote for Jodi.

Why does it always seem to happen at Crewe!? We had the double whammy, a penalty and howler of a goal. I thought we totally deserved at least a point from that, but sadly two individual errors cost us. It was a physical and fast-paced match and I thought overall we stood up to Crewe's aggression and snideness. I agree with the comments about our potential penalties, I'd need to see the one on Luker back but Jones was clearly having his shirt pulled.

Got to be good news hasn't it, Chris and Alex Reedtz have effectively sacrificed a huge sum they could have reclaimed. Right now if the club was up for sale I think they'd do well to get near that figure, so it does just confirm that they are committed to the club. I think in theory it will give us more flexibility in the future, especially as the league has just bought in new rules with regards to reducing losses. Clubs that are losing money now have more barriers when it comes to spending money. Our balance sheet will look a lot better now and Joe Palmer has already said the club are making good progress when it comes to being sustainable, so this just puts us in an even stronger financial position for future seasons. Can't ask for more than that really can you!

Ipswich Town 2-0 Portsmouth 🃏 Watford 0-1 Hull City Burton Albion 1-2 Plymouth Argyle Mansfield Town 2-0 Rotherham United Bristol Rovers 2-2 Salford City Crawley Town 2-1 Barrow Halifax Town 3-1 Aldershot Truro City 1-2 Morecambe

Don’t things change quickly in football, only a few weeks ago Crewe were top of the table, now they are 12th and haven’t won any of their last 5 league matches… In terms of the team for Saturday I think I keep the team the same, I liked the shape with the two centre mids and two number 10s. This is the area where it’s trickier to say who should start, Hall and Luker seems the obvious change but you can make a case for Grant and Iorpenda because they did all the hard running that helped to tire the Crawley defence. It sounds like Dennis isn't 100% but will hopefully make the bench. I noticed in the pre-match press conference there was something about us having a poor record at Crewe. I can still remember that penalty decision in our first season back and them scoring from our corner last season when we lost 2-0. Surely we can't keep getting these horror moments there!

Lots to choose from as everyone was really good overall. I went for Matt Palmer, he plays like a complete midfielder he’s everywhere now. I’m so impressed with this added aggression and the fact he has a bit more license to move! The third goal, which basically wins us the match, his press wins us that ball and then seconds later Jatta has scored.

I would like to retract my comments about the loanees, Hall and Luther were excellent when they came on! Maybe we’ve actually got a stronger squad than we thought… Everyone was excellent, no-one had a bad game and I’ll state the obvious, but that our best performance of the season (so far). I loved that we were able to play just a coupe of passes to create a goal-scoring chances at times, everything just felt so much quicker in and out of possession. Is this now the start of the Palmer-Robertson partnership in midfield that we’ve all waited an eternity for? Please, no more injuries, let us have it. Crawley reminded me of us a bit from last season, over-committed to passing out from the back, generally pretty good on the ball though but almost every pass was to feet so they struggled in the final third.

A real shame Dennis isn't quite fit enough but I'd rather he miss the one match than several from aggravating a small injury. Decent first 11 though, I'm guessing JJ plays RWB with Iorpenda and Grant behind Jatta... I do wonder given the bench is stacked with loanees, is it forcing Martin Paterson's hand slightly? Players join clubs on loan to play, parent clubs don't want their players missing out. Along with Traore and Jarvis, Bennents and Ness miss out but these are our contracted players... Anyway, fingers crossed we can keep our good home form going and can get another positive result!

Blackburn Rovers 1-3 Ipswich Town Sheffield United 2-0 Charlton Athletic Cardiff City 2-1 Bradford City Wycombe Wanderers 1-0 Northampton Town Bromley 1-0 Chesterfield Salford City 2-2 Swindon Town Altrincham 0-2 Carlisle United 🃏 Tamworth 3-2 Yeovil Town

They are never going to give away the secrets to how their prediction model works but I’d be so fascinated to see it. I would guess it's very complex but surprisingly accurate. I’ve heard snippets of the Luke Williams interview (on the Not The Top 20 Podcast) and he mentioned it was predicting with 99% certainty that Wrexham would win the National League and that was in the run in stage – It didn’t feel like it because it was so neck and neck, but their model proved to be correct. And that’s probably why Stuart was let go, because the data probably told them we were lucky to finish in the play-offs. They probably ran a programme to predict the play-offs and I’m pretty sure our chances of winning it would’ve been a very low percentage. If the brothers want to go in a slightly different direction, they’d be mad to abandon it 8 matches in. And 8 matches is a small sample to take data from, I could be completely wrong here but I’m always under the impression to get more accurate data you need a bigger sample. For example, I guess their model’s current prediction for winner of League 2 be is hard to predict right now, but 36 matches it’ll probably have a pretty good idea. In terms of the new coaching staff it's the first time Martin Paterson, Andy Edwards and Sam Slocombe have all worked together and we had a high turn-over of players this season. We are in an ok position in the league with lots of matches left to play, it's about seeing steady progress for me and becoming that team that Martin is trying to make us... Ok it might not work out but you've got to give him a chance.

This should be a match that in theory is perfect for Martin’s pro-active press and more direct football. Crawley will try to pass it out from the back so the opportunity to force some turn-overs high up the pitch will be there. And if we force them to go long, assuming Tshimanga starts up front, he won’t win much in the air against McDonald so we should be able to get the ball back. I know Gordon might be out for a while but we have such a stacked squad we can change things up pretty easily and without really being any weaker, I expect we will just play Cotter but we could potentially tweak the formation if we don’t want to play with wingbacks. We do have an overload of midfielders, I like Robertson, I've been impressed with Iorpenda and I want to see more of Hall because of how highly he is rated... I think that would actually be a very effective three man midfield (if we played that way!) I think in a way this match is quite important, we need to keep picking up points that is obvious but in terms of style, under Scott Lindsey Crawley were always the closest to us. If we get played off the pitch by Crawley will our focus to just be more physical be in vain?

In his first job Michael Duff managed without him, in fact his time at Cheltenham was probably his most successful stint. I don’t think it’ll happen, especially if Martin wants to be the main man now. I think picking up roles as part of a coaching team is a bit easier, getting in as a head-coach/manager is trickier.

I would say to be a good number 10 you need to have a very high technical skill level, Ruben, Crowley and Didzy were all very skilful. I think that’s why we started the season with JJ playing this role because on paper he’s probably the most naturally gifted player in the squad. I don’t think we should completely discard JJ in the No.10 role yet, he’s played about 6 matches here, but for some it feels like he was suddenly expected to turn into Cole Palmer. It’ll take time for him to adjust, I think playing as a No.10 has more challenges than a winger, he still needs more experience and time in the position. I’d keep Jatta and Dennis as a pair, Dennis is in excellent goal scoring form and I think we’d be daft to change his role right now. I'd then have have JJ in behind and let him roam to make a kind of 3-4-1-2. I agree with the @theAnticlough in terms of the midfield pairing though. We need someone like Iorpenda playing with Palmer in midfield because he’s capable of getting forward, Norburn and Palmer are just too similar, they both prefer to be the deeper midfielder in a pair and want to do the same thing.

@Piethagoram 's post is just a blank white space for me? Is it the same for anyone else? I saw he's joined Bracknell Town in the Premier Division South as their new head coach. I still find it strange you would walk away from a League 2 club with ambitions to get to League 1, to then end up in a semi-professional league, but there you go.

Billy Kee was a player I always hoped we would sign, your classic lower league dependable forward. Given the East Midlands is where he is based it feels like we missed out on a really easy signing here! I’m not that surprised though it felt like a few seasons ago our scouting and recruitment consisted of putting some names in a hat and drawing them out, let’s not forget we went for Tyrell Waite but not Che Adams 🤦‍♂️ It was real shame that he chose to stop playing professional football, but if it wasn’t making him happy and he was struggling in the end it was the right choice for him. Maybe had he played for us, and therefore would've been much closer to home, his career would've panned out slightly differently.

I feel like the biggest issue right now is what is it that we are trying to be? Martin Paterson wants us to on the front foot, yet I a lot of the time we play very deep. It's like we somehow want to press teams without leaving any space in behind for but that is just never going to be possible. We want to be in control of matches too but the general quality in terms of passing has dropped, we seem to knock the ball out of play/mis-control it a lot more than we used to and I don't know why. I think it’s still too early to judge, but I wonder if Martin is trying to make too many changes that aren't really needed. Last season overall we set up ok, but we slow in possession, predictable, not very creative and over-reliant on individuals for moments of brilliance. I like that he wants us to be a little more direct with more of an edge but he is yet to actually get us playing that way.

No idea if he’s bet on 16 matches or 198 that he was involved in because the article is so badly written… Think it’s 198 though so I’m slightly surprised he’s got off that lightly, I’d have thought there would’ve been serious implications for betting on the team you play for… Is it just because it was in the National League North and the FA probably have to be reminded such a league exists? Imagine if a Premier League player had been betting on matches he’d been involved in it would result in a pretty serious ban. Looks like they make the rules up to me, Macari bet on 350 matches, Jellis 2,250 that is a significant difference. It would seem that the outcome for Macari should be more favourable but you never know…

I can only go off what others have said, having only been able to listen, but it was hardly a match that will live long in the memory. Gillingham have 7 shots, we have 8 it’s one of those that feel likes if you play it 9 times out of 10 it finishes 0-0. The post-match interview makes it sound like we lost 2 or 3 nil. We only needed to score 1 goal and we’d have got a point there but Martin seems to be very hung up on the 30 seconds in a 90-minute match in which we concede. In 90 minutes of football, when you play teams around your level you should be able to create a couple of decent chances but we didn’t. He talks a lot about playing forward too, we had a very similar problem last season, it’s hard when you play 3 at the back, two very deep fullbacks and two deep midfielders… I agree with the previous points about the identity and think there's lack of balance to the first 11 too, are we overloaded with defensive players now? Yes we've got two strikers on the pitch but if they are isolated and playing off scraps there's almost not point. You can play 1 striker and have an attacking team.

Stoke City 2-1 Birmingham City Wrexham 2-1 Queens Park Rangers AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Rotherham United Leyton Orient 1-1 Bolton Wanderers Bristol Rovers 1-0 Barrow Fleetwood Town 0-1 Walsall Hartlepool United 2-0 Brackley Town 🃏 Wealdstone 3-2 Gateshead

Martin Paterson will have some tough choices to make, with Jodi back will Jatta and Dennis continue as a front two? And we have a number of players like Grant, Bennetts and Hall who will all be desperate to start. I think we need to be brave and go there to outplay them in a football sense, try and keep the ball on the floor and make them chase us. If we get into a physical kind of slogging match I can only see one winner. We can take positives from how we dealt with Bromley's physicality, they are all about brute force and their goals were a tad lucky. But I totally expect Gillingham will play in a similar way, committing bodies into the box and hoping it breaks for them. Roos is going to be put under a lot of pressure, I think keeping things like corners and set-pieces to a minimum will be needed!

I think Germany might be off the cards for a bit, especially if Jatta is still with us, he wasn't able to go first time he joined when we had a mini-trip over there too. On the whole I think going away is good, it's great for team bonding as it forces the players to spend more time together and therefore they get to know each other that bit quicker. The massive issue was Jatta’s visa and that almost overshadowed the whole pre-season. It caused a right hoo-ha because his agent wasn’t happy, Jatta then didn’t play for the B team and we all freaked out expecting him to leave before the window shut. The teams we played in Germany were equivalent to Championship sides and a League 2 side. We then played Port Vale and Cardiff League 1 sides and Alfreton a National League North side. I don’t think the level of opposition was too bad overall, as @DangerousSausage says maybe changing one of the better teams in Germany to a League 2 level side would’ve been better. Agree with @magnum.p.i.e about Alfreton though, I think it’s just one of those that gets picked purely due to location.