Just back

Just a thought on the general consensus here that Town are playing 'long ball'.

I don't think that is necessarily the plan but all teams at this level prepare and it has been noticeable for a while that teams are happy for Darren Kempson to be on the ball in our defence rather that the other centre half or our full backs. Kempson has many admirable centre half qualities but is not overly comfortable on the ball and is unlikely to want to play a 10 to 15 yard ball into the middle when it may get popped back to him. Therefore, he is likely to hit the channels and play 'safe' which is understandable.

Onto the season so far.

Interesting times to be a Town fan that is for sure! Barring a miraculous run of results it is hard to see Town mounting a creditable play-off challenge this season. I love the optimism that many fans have on this site but the facts are we concede too many and don't score enough. We are generally beating the teams in the lower half of the league and losing to the teams in the top half. We average 1.5 points per home game and less than 1 point away.

I feel the next 18 months will not be decided so much by the players as by the management. By that I mean that it would appear funding could be a real issue next season - to the point where GTFC going part time must be considered a strong possibility. If so, where do the managers stand? They are young and ambitious. Have they left Boston only to find themselves in the same position 18 months on?

As ever, only an opinion, but to the likes of Newfootballer, Rokerite etc please tell me what you are seeing that I am not which gives you the confidence that the ship is turning. I am not advocating a change in management as we need stability but I am concerned we will finish this season nearer the bottom than the top.  

The match has been well summed up above.  We continue to squander chances.  Wrexham were very clinical with their last 2 (good) goals. Wrexham upped their game and were better - but beatable.  We will play worse and win.

We need to make more of our player resources. We did not start with our best team. Again, the managers were slow to make substitutions.  Elding and Makeko should have been off earlier.

Another Wrexham move we did not counter - some 12 away fans and a drummer were trying to get into the main entrance between the Findus and Pontoon at the end of the match.  They looked friendly enough but not sure what they were trying to do.  Not very wise.  No plods or stewards around.  Anyone else see them?  Most were wearing red shirts.

I agree with what Liam Hearn said on RH today - we can beat anyone in this league (at home IMO) and today could have gone either way.

But I think you're right, we do concede too many.  
Pace in the defence is a definite issue but it's not like we're getting punished for long balls over the top.
We still defend too deep for me and we can look brittle - tbh we defended very poorly at times vs Kettering and got away with it !

Hope is going forward because we're creating more and more (when we've got the ball) and think Hearn is a top player but we need to find a consistent team that can support him and still don't think we've found the right formula yet -

Just think it's got to include Coulson somewhere(either midfield, behind the front 2 or up front) and for me that means doing away with 4-4-2.
The fact he looks cheesed off speaks volumes about what's wrong !
So does Eagle on the right....

Felt we were unfortunate to get nothing from the game and also felt we were the better side.

Having said that, we concede too many goals. We are weak in central defence IMO, didnt replace Atkinson with anyone of comparable quality and Garner still injured. We are always going to concede with Kempson at the back.

Quoted from 1600

I agree with what Liam Hearn said on RH today - we can beat anyone in this league (at home IMO) and today could have gone either way..

But the facts don't back you or Liam up 80s. When he said today 'we proved we can beat any one in this league' he was wrong. We lost.

We have played the top 4 - and not got a single point.

In fact, the league gives you a very strong guide as to how we will fare against any opposition. The highest team we have beaten is Cambridge Utd in 9th. The lowest we have lost to is Stockport in 14th.

Elding showed a total lack of skill and talent today and it showed, particularly in the second half.He should have been subbed for Duffy long before he actually was.

I'm amazed that anyone thought Town were better than Wrexham today, their attacking quality was superior to anything we could come up with, we had the home advantage, but still looked weaker

I think the game was pretty even, up until their second goal, which seemed to knock the stuffing out of us.  Heads visibly dropped when the third went in and there was never any danger of us getting anything out of the game.  

I've tried to be supportive of Elding, but today he was absolutely shite!  How must Duffy be feeling at the moment?  He won more in 8 minutes than Elding did in 80 ffs!  

Quoted from ginnywings

Not a tactic.They were just better than us and better sides push you back.

I disagree with you here. They certainly started the second half more brightly but, for me, it was less of a case of them pushing us back and more the fact that we weren't working hard enough. They may have passed the ball around well enough before their second goal, but we had 3 or 4 players nearby and not a single one of them was trying to close down or block the shot. We dominated their diminutive midfield during much of the first half by dint of plenty of running and hard work and just didn't continue this effort in the second half. In fact, the second goal was a good shot, but the defending for the third was, frankly, pathetic. The defenders themselves weren't too much at fault, but the midfield didn't bother to follow their runners, something that has been all too common this season.

I agree with most that the turning-point of the match was Disley's miss. Well, I say 'miss', but to miss you actually have to shoot in the first place. He was clean through, yet dithered ridiculously and failed to get close to having a shot with just the keeper to beat. An unforgivable 'miss' for an experienced player who is club captain.

Poor old Serge had one of those games where he could have played all day without doing much right. He fared a little better in the second half (after he had changed into sensible boots), but I'd like to know why he (and most of his teammates) never seem to put a proper bloody cross in even when they are past the last defender! Must have had a dozen occasions today where we failed to cross the ball when in a good position.

Elding did OK in the first half (looked offside for his 'goal' to me), but disappeared in the second. Disley did OK up until his 'miss', but fell to pieces after that. Hearn looks a threat but needs more support and is is frustrating that he has to keep moving out wide to pick up the ball.

Not wanting to be controversial, but McKeown seems to be considered a good keeper by most. However, though his kicking is good and he generally deals with crosses reasonably well, how many saves do you actually see him make? Their first goal may have been a free header, but the ball still looped (quite slowly) over McKeown's head and he was only stood about a yard off the line! Similarly, their second goal went in quite easily. Not sure if he had a chance with that one, however. He just seemed slow getting down towards the shot.

The big problem as I see it is that the team is completely lacking in 'leaders' - players who can lift their teammates when things are going badly. Other than a few shouters in defence, the midfield are as quiet as dormice. Disley is just not captain material for me. Unfortunately, neither are any of our other players, as far as I can tell. A distinct lack of balls on show today.

For me, Wrexham were OK, nothing much more. Their forwards weren't up to much, yet we still conceded three goals. Their defence looked very shaky, yet we only scored once. Reasonable players in midfield but they showed they could be bullied (as we did in the first half).

Just goes to show you don't need to be that good to do well in this division. You just need to be competent and consistent.

Quoted from Maringer

I disagree with you here. They certainly started the second half more brightly but, for me, it was less of a case of them pushing us back and more the fact that we weren't working hard enough. They may have passed the ball around well enough before their second goal, but we had 3 or 4 players nearby and not a single one of them was trying to close down or block the shot. We dominated their diminutive midfield during much of the first half by dint of plenty of running and hard work and just didn't continue this effort in the second half. In fact, the second goal was a good shot, but the defending for the third was, frankly, pathetic. The defenders themselves weren't too much at fault, but the midfield didn't bother to follow their runners, something that has been all too common this season.

I agree with most that the turning-point of the match was Disley's miss. Well, I say 'miss', but to miss you actually have to shoot in the first place. He was clean through, yet dithered ridiculously and failed to get close to having a shot with just the keeper to beat. An unforgivable 'miss' for an experienced player who is club captain.

Poor old Serge had one of those games where he could have played all day without doing much right. He fared a little better in the second half (after he had changed into sensible boots), but I'd like to know why he (and most of his teammates) never seem to put a proper bloody cross in even when they are past the last defender! Must have had a dozen occasions today where we failed to cross the ball when in a good position.

Elding did OK in the first half (looked offside for his 'goal' to me), but disappeared in the second. Disley did OK up until his 'miss', but fell to pieces after that. Hearn looks a threat but needs more support and is is frustrating that he has to keep moving out wide to pick up the ball.

Not wanting to be controversial, but McKeown seems to be considered a good keeper by most. However, though his kicking is good and he generally deals with crosses reasonably well, how many saves do you actually see him make? Their first goal may have been a free header, but the ball still looped (quite slowly) over McKeown's head and he was only stood about a yard off the line! Similarly, their second goal went in quite easily. Not sure if he had a chance with that one, however. He just seemed slow getting down towards the shot.

The big problem as I see it is that the team is completely lacking in 'leaders' - players who can lift their teammates when things are going badly. Other than a few shouters in defence, the midfield are as quiet as dormice. Disley is just not captain material for me. Unfortunately, neither are any of our other players, as far as I can tell. A distinct lack of balls on show today.

For me, Wrexham were OK, nothing much more. Their forwards weren't up to much, yet we still conceded three goals. Their defence looked very shaky, yet we only scored once. Reasonable players in midfield but they showed they could be bullied (as we did in the first half).

Just goes to show you don't need to be that good to do well in this division. You just need to be competent and consistent.

Your entitled to your opinion but i thought Wrexham were better than us in all departments.The league table shows that if my argument fails to.

Don't think they started the second half brightly at all myself and Town had a really good spell from 45 to 60 mins,but failed to trouble their keeper in that spell.They then started to pull us all over the place with some excellent midfield play and worked 2 very good goals.They just made us look like we weren't working hard enough because we were mostly chasing shadows from minute 60 to 90.

All about opinions i suppose.