Just back

Quoted from mariner tommy

One positive thing to come out of the game today, with the point we gained, we’re now mathematically safe.

And we can still get promoted…

So Khan plays like a dog for 50 mins obviously low in confidence then takes an abysmal penalty only to turn into Messi for the bext 20 minutes. I will never understand football at this level

Ref watch:

Early on wasted a minute of our time to check if a ball for a corner was in the right place.  Yes, it was.  

I thought we were in for a very fussy ref.  How could I be more wrong?

Blatant arm wrestling and pulling of our player could have been a yellow. Not even a foul.  And this right under his nose.

Refs stop play sometimes for non- head injuries.  This joker waves play on for a clear head injury.  Mansfield were attacking.

The ref knew the law because when the Mansfield got up and went down again a minute later, he stopped the game.

First half we were poor and did not know how to attack. No urgency.

Smith gave the ball away 3 times in the first 11 minutes.  All unforced errors.

Second half was a lot better.  For a tired team there was more energy, purpose and intensity. Efete continues to frustrate.  He was in a good attacking position with players in the middle.  His wasted cross/shot went straight to their keeper

Can't understand the constant passing to Smith from Crocombe. The delay from Smith in finally making the pass is ridiculous and is still somehow hurried and panicky despite taking his time.
I'd have said Maher was the better, calmer option for this but we continued with it.
The ref was awful but also waved away a clear push from Lloyd on their defender which almost and should have led to a goal. He was mere yards away, as he was for all the fouls he let go.
Another weirdo ref and another strange tale of 2 halves, a team that would struggle to stay up in the 1st, a team that could trouble the playoffs in the 2nd.

urine poor first half, picked up a bit second half. Hugh Grant the floppy haired ref was comfortably one of the top (bottom?) 3 worst this season.

Mansfield were bang average - improve the home form while maintaining the away and anything is possible in this league.

I don’t criticise referees. This is a game played by humans and mistakes are made. Usually the mistakes level themselves up by the end of the season. Every team is hard done by. No one complains about the referee when their team put their chances away. My lad also plays U13s, the referees are often 16/17 year olds and I was stood with the refs dad at one game who told me about all the abuse his son gets throughout the season. So I don’t criticise referees, and I tell my son to do the same. No referees, no game. Utmost respect for them turning out every weekend. Having said all that, today’s was a useless fücking twàt.

Quoted from LH

urine poor first half, picked up a bit second half. Hugh Grant the floppy haired ref was comfortably one of the top (bottom?) 3 worst this season.

Mansfield were bang average - improve the home form while maintaining the away and anything is possible in this league.

Hurst said post-match that he only told the players yesterday about the new "system" yet seemed baffled why the players could not carry it out. Tired players, another set of changes in personnel and a new system to grapple with? I think he is asking too much of lower-league players to be honest. I do hope we are going to have an identifiable way of playing next season otherwise so many games will be bitty with no real flow from our point of view. I think he changes things so often to counteract the opposition but it just stops us from getting on the front foot and getting a rhythm going.

Keep saying the same thing but it’s hard to win games without a midfield and whilst Green improved second half the fact that he and Morris lack pace and mobility is a major contribution to how slow we are in moving the ball forward.

20 home matches and still no clear and obvious pattern of play and obviously from Hurst’s instructions were to play out from the back despite the fact that we are completely out of our depth in doing so and just delay the inevitable long ball that is normally hit into touch or straight to an opponent.

Despite all that second half was pretty enjoyable with both sides trying to win the game and ultimately a draw was probably about the right result.

I can sort of understand why Hurst wants to try a different system/style since the season is over, so I won't criticise that. But I'd have been expecting them to be working on it all week, not just yesterday.

That first half was truly abysmal.

I've never seen us give the ball away so often and so cheaply in our own third (let alone own half). Mansfield pressed really high and we just had no answer.

There has been some focus on Efete this season but in that first half our entire defence was awful. Smith gave the ball away more than anyone, Maher couldn't handle their striker and Gallagher was at fault for the goal. Crocombe could have also done better. Yet another sloppy goal to concede all round.

I don't think we had a shot in the first half, of any note?

According to the BBC, we had 15 shots in the game, so I think these must have all come in the second half! Not sure what was said, but we played so much better. Think Mansfield were as shocked as we were by the transformation!

Hardly world-beaters but we were far more urgent, we were finding space, we seemed to have two up top to chase things down so whenever we were forced into a clearance we had strikers hassling their defenders, and they were backed up by a midfield that was pushing higher.

Stonewall pen. Another shite one taken, luckily Lloyd was alive to the rebound.

Just seen the two min highlights on Sky Sports. They didn't show the jinking Khan run that nearly ended in glory. Lloyd skewed one effort so wide it stayed in, then when it was crossed back in he somehow missed at the far post when it looked easier to score.

Mansfield looked like they came for a win but ended up playing for a draw after that burst of energy from us. Thought the subs we made were useful.

Ref had a shocker. Didn't stop the game when a Mansfield player had a head injury, waited to see if they'd score, Crocombe parried out, we started breaking then suddenly he needed to stop the game.

Got in the way of the ball twice. First time was comical. Mansfield guy spun and trod on the ball, Lloyd battled to win it off him and the ref was literally stood over them both!

Then he insisted the ball was Mansfield and recommended Town didn't compete for it.

There was also the most blatant foul on Khan in the first half when he got grabbed right around the chest and spun while trying to break free with the ball. Ref was stood literally yards away and shook his head.

I've seen enough bad refs down the years to know he wasn't the worst, but there's a huge cluster of them down there in the bottom 10%.

Pretty meaningless in reality but here goes….

FFS can we stop playing out? We can’t pass the ball effectively so why are we trying to be something we’re not equipped to be?

The ref, I can live with them getting stuff wrong within reason but what is unforgivable is that for the 2nd game in a row the fitness level of the referee was unacceptable for a game between 2 full time professional sides, who looked like he’d been promoted from NLN to be honest.

PH says he wants to look at stuff, what do I think he got out of today?

Hurst has a decision to make on Max, who did better today but could he have done better on their goal?

Taylor, Gallagher and Morris won’t be here next season.

Hurst rates Khouri for sure, to bring him on to replace Green in a tight game was good to see.

Glennon is improving as he gets more experience, his concentration is much better and I’d expect him to be our first pick next season.

Re the point above, when Glennon came on Khan looked better, if we can keep him fit and get him running at people he’ll cause chaos and that little trick and run in the 2nd half was great.

We still can’t keep the ball and in the final 3rd we quite often don’t have a clue.

We need to put in a serious bid for George Lloyd

There’s probably more but like pretty much all of the above none of it will be new.

Anyway, sh1te first half, better 2nd half, fair result.

Final thing, if  Cloughie was still on this mortal coil he’d be kicking Nigel’s @rse for the behaviour of the Mansfield players - classless!