theAnticlough

Good referee today I thought, hardly noticed him.

So many strong performers today - Robbo, Bennetts, Jatta + others. But I reckon it comes down to McDonald v Bedeau. Both were dominant, but I thought RodMac was immaculate on top of that, so he gets my vote, yet again.

Nice game, so open. There really should've been more goals in the 2nd half. Some excellent individual performances today - RodMac, Bedeau, Robbo, Jatta and off the bench Bennetts and Kouhyah. A long time to wait til the next one now.

We know from our own first season back, this is EFL players against NL players. Still you can only beat what's in front of you and all of players have been on it. McDonald and Bedeau have been masterful.

A cautious team selection... This confirms that Dennis, our top scorer, is dropped from the starting XI. Maybe the penalty he gave away last Saturday didn't do him any favours. I thought Jarvis had earned himself a seat on the bench at least. Iorpenda has played 10 games without a goal. I hope he proves me wrong but I'm wondering how many more games before MP reluctantly has to say goodbye to his size and physicality because the production and the match results are not there. Hoping for egg on face at 5pm :)

Yes @McPie those points stood out. Actually I don't think MP got his phrasing quite right on that - I'm sure Aljofree, Norburn, Cotter and maybe others have been trying and it should be perfectly natural for players to come in and out according to form when the squad size is 25+. We can vent on places like this, but the coach should be a wee bit more diplomatic. He said it right later - anyone not performing well is under pressure. That's just a small detail, the forum and whole panel were great last night, MP especially, who spoke very well on the team. One point that got my interest is the Bros still mulling over what management structure they want. That tells us there will be no appointment any time soon, if what the actual post is hasn't been decided yet :) Hopefully, there won't be any fans banging on about giving recruitment to MP - it's not going to happen. The choice is a) Head of Recruitment b) Director of Football or c) some other structure we haven't seen before. Personally I hope it's a) MP doesn't need a boss between him and the bros but could do with an equal in that other dept, either a Montague figure or Montague himself (I still haven't given up hope of him coming back).

Derby County 1-1 Southampton Swansea City 1-2 Leicester City Huddersfield Town 1-0 Stockport Port Vale 1-1 Northampton Town Bromley 2-0 Tranmere Rovers Joker Salford City 1-2 Grimsby Town Braintree Town 2-1 Sutton United Wealdstone 2-0 Altrincham I keep predicting against Salford, hope it's not my heart overruling my head

@Piethagoram Andrew Whitaker is spot on

What strikes you is how different MP is to the rest of the panel, temperamentally. We need what he brings. Maynard probably fitted in more in terms of temperament but being too uniform like that won't help to keep players and fans interested and motivated. As long as it's controllable (by the provider :) ) , the club needed that injection of nervous energy a la Mad Dog which MP brings.

Chris and Alex also repeated what MP said recently that we have kept the club's playing philosophy - attacking and possession-based, but obviously making adjustments, 'tweaks' as necessary. Dunno why podcast numpties have to keep telling us otherwise.

Just watched that from start to finish. I don't think fans could ask for much more from a forum. I thought it was great. Two full hours almost, such a wide range of topics and questions, without dodging the difficult ones. One thought was how useful watching that would be for our rivals. We seem to have such good governance though, so hard to copy some of what we do and how we do it.

MP's headaches will be 1 or 2 up front and who to pick for the problem No.10 position, which nobody can claim a shirt like Didzy and Crowley did. IMO we're desperate to see if Dennis can play that role while still providing his goal threat and output. Seems like Luker might be injured, in which case go Dennis and Hall behind Jatta and see how that works. I wrote at the beginning of the season that Iorpenda is dangerous player for us - one that looks good, offers height, strength, athleticism but just won't make the key contributions for goals and assists you have to insist on from your No.10 if you want to challenge for promotion. I don't think he's ready and we don't owe Huddersfield anything to develop their player at the expense of our promotion challenge.

You could look at it as he's gone on loan because he's closer to the first XI than you think - only 1 injury to either Palmer or Norburn and he's in the matchday squad. He needs game time, but I'm sure the loan includes a recall. At only 22, he's not the finished article as a CM. I'd say he's L2 level not NL, but not promotion level L2 without taking a leap forward.

Good comments. Yes, I thought the defenders defending the 6-yard box were more culpable for the 1st goal. Even Jatta at the near post. Also that Roos has been improving. I don't have a problem with him but I know it's important for a goalie's presence to spread confidence in front of him. I don't think we have that and that will be a problem even if Roos maintains an OK level. We have a bigger problem than GK IMO and that's indifferent play from the inside-forward No. 10 positions. Nobody has made one of those shirts their own and we can't build a promotion challenge if that doesn't happen.

Agree with those points @Robbie, but even with practical changes it may still happen because I think we are actually mentally fragile at the moment. Maybe part of averting it can be the massive hurt that the players feel when condeding at Barrow and Crewe deep deep into stoppage time. Hopefully, it can make them stronger rather than weaker. It has to really, or it'd soon lead to wholesale changes.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but there is something really gut punching and disturbing about losing so ,so late in the game, just like we did against Barrow at 90+7mins. If your team keeps losing when the chips are down in stoppage time, you can't help but think they're mentally weak, fragile and that it bodes ill for all the crucial times yet to come in the season. It's a cliche that winning teams often score in stoppage time, so what is the opposite of that? And not only the timing, crucial moments in the penalty area, we spurn sitters, the opposition regularly exploit panic to score.... I told you it was going to be a downer :) I believe MP is trying his best to instill a toughness and to overcome the weakness left over from the Maynard days and a tendency for young, inexperienced players not to know how to win games. It'll take time to transform us into one of the teams meting out late defeats on teams rather than being on the wrong end of them.

Yeah, I'm with you on that @Robbie Luker looks to have more goals and assists production in him and if you don't get goals and assists from those attacking positions your promotion challenge has a ball and chain around it.

That's the 10 game mark. Iorpenda has played every game and he's 0 goals from 10 with not much sign of registering, despite having a prime shirt for most of those. I think he has to stand aside now.

I think we've had a few games recently @Robbie, where the MoM has been pretty clear - this time, Jodi Jones - maybe for the first time this season? He ran them ragged on the left, such a pity we didn't have better finishers in the box. Apart from JJ, I though Palmer had yet another 7/10 and I thought all of the back 3 played quite well. We're getting good WB performances now, but maybe it's because we were spoilt by Didzy and Crowley, I think we keep getting indifferent No.10 play (apart from Hall and Luker coming on v Crawley). It's any 2 from 5 at the moment Dennis, Iorpenda, Grant, Hall and Luker. Next week I'd like to see Dennis and Luker...we need someone to grab one of those shirts and make it theirs.

Sure @liampie, but I focus on Jodi going down in the box in the first half because it was like for like with their penalty - a shirt pull in the area.

Too right @liampie, another bitter defeat to jammy Crewe. I think Dennis did something incredibly stupid in grabbing that shirt - better not come on if you give it away like that. But referee, shame on you, the defender who was booked had a handful of Jodi's shirt in the first half. If one's a penalty, the other has to be. And we had other good penalty claims too. Cheated, again. Jatta going 0 for 2 from 3 yards didn't help though.

Going behind gave the team chance to prove they could get on top of Crewe. We deserved to equalise. Please don't do anything crap at the back again, we can win this.

I'm not sure that's possible BT, can you really lose 77pounds or 35kgs in 2 months?

Yes, I just about remember them! Actually I'm grateful I had a couple of decades at a healthy weight I made my weekly target but face a tough week ahead....I'll try not to have a mini-night out this week. Best wishes and good luck to all who are fighting the same fight.

Another point is that Big Sam gets misrepresented. I watched a lot of his Bolton side, they were skilful and entertaining. A midfield of Campo, Okocha and Nolan, Diouf ahead, Matty Taylor? They had more of a no nonsense approach at the back though, including the RB Hunt who played for us for a few games. But that midfield was absolute class, they were a joy to watch