Just back

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

Football makes no sense . Smash Plymouth last week, then lose against Doncaster 7 days later . The joys of lower league .

Some sense. Against 3 at the back it worked against 5 at the back it didn’t.

Really poor (and concerning) performance. We looked clueless and lost.

Hurst got his team selection wrong today. Green should have started instead of Hunt, and Richardson (albeit not ideal as I will go onto) should have started through the middle with Clifton and Kiernan either side.

It also exposed the mistakes in recruitment and lack of depth. Firstly, the failure to secure a striker as an alternative to Taylor - a long running saga. Secondly, our reliance on loanee U23s who aren’t good enough, to come on and change a game.

Simmonds looks the part, but sadly he isn’t good enough or ready for this level. Similarly Richardson, who is a bit better, looks flashy at times but mostly ineffective.

I really hope this isn’t the start of a slide. Because if our away form dries up, things are going to get a bit hairy as our record at home is terrible.

Work to be done in January.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

His job isn't on the line, bar an absolutely horrendous run and relegation.

The owners have complete faith in him, which has its advantages as proved last season.

However it does mean Hurst needs to accept that he cannot work miracles if he continues to gamble that players in demand will "lower their expectations " as a transfer window starts to close.

We need to pay above the going rate for strikers in the next window so we are not left with academy youngsters who are not ready for men's football yet. It is disappointing that we have not yet got a signing that really sets the pulses racing when you consider the financial support the club is getting from the fans.

Someone needs to make sense of this striker situation. I can’t believe that our gate receipts and season ticket sales have been spent on such a weak set of strikers.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Someone needs to make sense of this striker situation. I can’t believe that our gate receipts and season ticket sales have been spent on such a weak set of strikers.

We need to draw a line and  start again. Send back Pepple and Simmonds neither is anywhere near this level and we are worse with them on the pitch then no strikers.Explain what is going on with Orsi is he an option or not . Try Kiernam with Mcatee far from ideal but no other options. Get a proper number 9 lined up to come in on 1 Jan when window opens no excuses this time

Some interesting stuff before kick off, Town finished their warm up a good 20+ mins before kick off, earlier than I’ve seen. Donny seemed to go in a lot closer to kick off.

At the toss it looked like they’re turned us around which started the sh1t housery quite early. Then though I agree with the knee the ref allowed them to delay the game when we were in position so they could do a group hug to take the knee, not necessary that.

All that said we made what is becoming our standard start which is generally a nervy one but this was off the scale bad. Surely we should have understood that as Donny got beat by Kings Lynn last week they’d be massively up for it. Throughout the half every time we had the ball they had 2 players around us, in response we didn’t look interested in competing physically.

Clearly Donny watched us last week so getting men behind the ball like they did stopped us finding any space beyond the line and in wide areas. As much as it frustrated me their 2 banks of 5 stopped us playing in reality.

So all of the above was evident after around 25 mins so why did Hurst not change it? Maybe take Hunt off who today looked like the young player he is, get Maher on, go 3 at the back pull Clifton into mid field with Khan or Gav tucked in behind Kiernan up front.

I’m not going to dig any player or the manager out as they quite rightly have a lot of credit in the bank but today the starting 11 and PH short changed us, or that’s the way I felt anyway.

Pure and simple we should not be outthought, outfought and in reality outplayed in a (relatively) local derby in front of a sell out.

BTW, one final thing, though he can’t be blamed for our poor performance and the result the ref was soft as sh1t.

Quoted from HerveJosse

We need to draw a line and  start again. Send back Pepple and Simmonds neither is anywhere near this level and we are worse with them on the pitch then no strikers.Explain what is going on with Ordi is he an option or not . Try Kiernam with Mcatee far from ideal but no other options. Get a proper number 9 lined up to come in on 1 Jan when window opens no excuses this time

Orsi is injured isn’t he?

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Orsi is injured isn’t he?

Maybe but he didn’t get a look in before he was and do you really believe anything Hurst says?

We had an option to sign a big target man in desi, what happens instead, sign 3 u23 team unproven midgets.

Doncaster had a game plan. Quick out of the blocks, early goal and then consolidate their position. It worked very well. We didn't have the nous to break them down. Our full backs didn't have the room Plymouth gave them to get down the line.
The other goals came at really bad times. The second early in the second half before we'd had time to build momentum. The least said about the third the better. We get our talisman back on the pitch. The crowd become re-engaged with the game and before Mcatee has had half a dozen touches Crocombe and Smith doing pretty good impressions of Marcel Marceau contrive to concede the third. Cue fire drill sized exits. Game well and truly done.
Max Crocombe has developed beyond recognition from the keeper who replaced Macca (still less than a year ago) but his distribution was utterly dreadful today.
It's never been an easy ride watching Town but today was absolutely frustrating and depressing.

One thing I won’t accept is players shirking out of tackles, examples of that absolutely all over the pitch. How on earth Holohan won MOTM is beyond me.

Cliftons chance missed changed the game completely IMO. Donny had 3 decent chances and won the game, their #9 was the best striker I’ve seen this season (although we all know they don’t exist). Absolutely criminal we let them score straight after the triple sub when the volume went up.

A lot to work on to make sure we don’t repeat the losing run at this point last year.