theAnticlough

Lincolnshire coast - so many memories ... Ingoldmills, Chapel, Skeg, T'thorpe, M'thorpe even Saltfleet, North Somercotes, let the fishheads have Cleethorpes :) Got a special place in my heart for Old Chequers Inn at Croft. Anybody know that?

I’d be happy with an unchanged team following the Oldham win. Losing Luker is a blow so I think we have to start easing a potent, capable player like Jarvis back into the match day squad

Any ban would have been a setback as he's come in and given the team what it needs from his position Hopefully this outcome will give Lewis a boost to push on and reach an even higher standard

Oh and no mention of the words 'board' and 'technical' in any particular order. I think that's for the best, as it was a mistake which put unnecessary pressure on people and scrutiny of the process. Let that kind of thing happen informally

A bumper interview 21mins + Upbeat and positive. No obvious takeaways or surprises perhaps, but very clear on the data-driven recruitment model. Let's hope RM is the jigsaw piece that completes the puzzle which puts us on the road to another promotion.

It's a real blow. He'd shown how well he could link up with Jatta and especially Hall. It looked like he had goals and assists in him. Knee surgery is more often a big deal than a minor clean up. We might not see him back at all. I hope this opens a window for Jarvis to feature

I'm still hoping we get this interview. It's a new Director of Football appointment after all. Maybe he's been on a trip or hasn't actually started yet. Nobody wants Frost-Nixon, just a few friendly, softball questions would do. No need for anything about Swansea....but he should interview. MP will be doing them twice a week all year, win, lose or draw. The DoF won't, but I think there should at least be an intro/welcome back one sometime before the next game IMO.

Well he's taken us down once, so he can do it again 😉

Well Nottingham was twinned with Minsk until recently so old habits die hard

The way he's played this season @McPie, it shouldn't be a concern for anyone. It'd be a boost for him to score his first for us in L2, but we don't need it to succeed. His massive improvement over last season must be a combination of feeling stronger physically and psychologically after the injury and Pato getting buy-in all round on playing forward faster and more positively. End result? He's playing like the Matty Palmer of old.

I'm excited about Hall. Luker has been very promising and productive in the limited pitch time he's had. Pity he got injured just as he was getting going. This is specifically about Iorpenda for me. How can we possibly pin our hopes on a young prospect who has never scored a senior goal? And only made a handful of appearances, half at Hyde United in the NPL. He's done OK, put in some good performances. I even voted him my MoM as recently as 4 or 5 games ago. So there's definitely something there. But there's been a drop off since then and it's the fact he's occupying a key attacking position but looks miles away from ever being to score. I know it will cost us. I'd like to see Dennis, Jarvis and Luker tried there over the next few games, partnering Hall. I think Montague and the club needs to see all the options there, before knowing what needs to be done in January.

Iorpenda hasn't got any league goals, any other goals this season....or any senior goal...ever....for anybody Yes, he's a prospect - but what makes people think he can be a major contributor to a L2 promotion aspiring club? [The answer is how certain fans are very taken with 'big' players...oooh he's tall, he's physical, 'ooh, isn't he big' (having a bit of fun here) and not what he's capable of doing with the ball]. I think Gagliardi had 2 shots at landing 1 player with Iorpenda and Luker, maybe Montague would've taken neither knowing the demands and the target better - concentrating more on calibre of players like Abbott (a Montague recruit) and Hall. We need to remember that a quarter of the season is gone and we're mid-table for a reason having lost 4 games already. We are on track to finish outside the play-offs and way short of autos. Work still needs to be done to find a winning formula and that means forcing equalisers at places like Gillingham, getting winners against Walsall, Salford, Crewe, MK etc. IMO, the projected output of our current No10s won't get us there if, one of those shirts is Iorpenda's. I guess with loanees, loaning clubs have to understand that professional teams taking the players are not forced to play them if it's impacting on results.

Hall has 4 goals. In the 11 games Iorpenda's played, which one did he score in @Robbie ?

I don't think it's a massive deal @McPie but it sure is a bonus for a promotion aspiring teams, if we remember the Munto & Warnock teams for example. Bedeau and Macari just seem to lose their heads when they get near goal. Platt can score, not sure about RodMac. Aljofree got off to a good start but issues at the other head caught up. I think we can predict some low level chipping in from the back, Macari and Bedeau will probably get over their panic and notch a couple each. But if they do, we can't have that being a half or a third of the No10 totals.

I'd look at it this way.... MP seems very settled on the 3-4-2-1 formation... We don't have defenders who score. Palmer and Robbo are not scorers Our wing-backs will get a few, but are not regular scorers The 2 in that 3-4-2-1, absolutely have to score. That's 92 appearances between the 2 positions. If we're to have any chance of promotion at all we have to get at least 25 goals from those positions. Maybe more. Hall is on his way, but we really can't have a non-scoring 4 or 5 goal contributor in that other position IMO

He needs to do an interview though. Especially as his new role is Director of Football. He was hardly ever interviewed when Ardley, Burch, LW etc were always in front of the camera. Time to be more visible and accountable this time around I'd say.

Burton 0-2 Bolton (joker) Exeter 1-2 Reading Leyton Orient 2-1 Doncaster Wigan 1-1 Wycombe Chesterfield 3-1 Salford Crewe 1-1 Bromley Fleetwood 1-0 Harrogate Tranmere 1-1 Barnet

I wrote on here a few weeks back @sentient that Conor Grant was a prime candidate for a short loan to the NL. He's 24, but maybe a young 24, who hasn't reached his peak yet. He needs to know what it feels like to be a potent player that can produce on a consistent basis. So I think the loan Hinchy got would've been more suitable for Conor. Wiki has his career stats at P161 G15. A goal every 11 games is just not going to cut it for us. If that player is a regular in an attacking position, you are not going to be promoted. It's no good saying the goals will come from somewhere else. I don't go on social media so I don't know about 'a witch hunt'. Trump has probably destroyed the meaning of that phrase, but anyway, I can imagine it not being very nice and going too far. He's our player thru til summer 2027, and he'll still only be 25 at that time. I really hope he can realise more of his potential by then

I'm remembering now where this is taken on the podcast - Wimbledon's superiority as promotion candidates, especially in terms of their overall approach. I definitely don't go along with that. As@Robbie said, the personality and methods of the coach, and the culture created (a topic MP picks up on), were enormous factors as to why we went out so lamely. A team that plays positive, attractive football doesn't have to such a passive, toothless mentality and not want to win enough. MP looks like he's really setting about to fix that thankfully.

Top reply @Robbie agree with every word. Yes, MP is a different kettle of fish. Obviously there's a massive psychological element to competitive, professional sport. We need a personality like Pato at the club. The culture at the top, and behind the scenes, is considered and quieter, so it's even more important that the intensity and passion comes from the Head Coach.

Our PO semis against Wimbledon have come up a couple of times on Magpie Circle recently. I hope I get this right, the argument seems to go The team was playing badly going into them The atmosphere was very flat and nobody thought we could win We were duly beaten by Wimbledon - easily For me, that's about 75% right but it does stand out as something unusual, especially point 2. My take is Absolutely, it was awful. SM still fiddling around the edges (i.e bringing in Austin for both games) while still neglecting the spirit of the team, it's motivation and readiness for battle. Turning us into the one of the worst clutch teams we've seen - incapable of coming out on top in a close game, or forcing equalisers when we really needed them. Sure. The form and the spirit meant nobody was optimistic. But it was the play offs ffs! Perform, get the rub of the green and you can sneak through a surprise promotion. I was really up for those games. I knew we had a less than 25% of promotion, but we all should know that going in. Kind of disagree - we were better than them, had better players, and they knew it. They had a great strategy to nullify us and it worked a treat for them. But the way they play they could only win 1-0 so each game was always going to be close. They would've seen their victory over two legs as a real triumph. In the end it was like one of those bad dreams where you just can't do those basic things in order to avoid disaster. No.1 above, really did put us on a path for No.3. But I hope No.2 never reoccurs. If true, that's pathetic. You have to get to the games and be up for play-off matches when promotion is the prize. All of that can help the team succeed.

Welcome @NottaCounty2001, hope you enjoy being on PoN. It's a great place, you've done yourself a favour!

Well done the Bros Send your man out on an internment at a championship club for 6 months. He does some benchmarking there, develops himself, learns that division, steals the contacts and all at the great expense of the championship chumps. Cheers Swansea, you didn't even see us coming. Couldn't have happened to a nicer club :)

Dear Richard, There is a player you once recruited who never plays for his current club, doesn't even make their bench now. This player would fit into this current team like a hand in a glove. Could you at least enquire if there's any chance of a short loan even of Mr. Ruben Rodrigues of FC Vitoria? Welcome back

Well Montague would fit right into that. But with Gagliardi and the doctor gone, and RM needing time to gauge this particular team, there'd be a strong case for announcing that the board is on hold for now and communications will be done more informally. Even if the TB resumes/continues, please announce that it isn't! :) I don't what to hear MP asked "how is the technical board going?'' ever again!