A neutral's view

Hi, an Aldershot fan here in peace.  I last posted on this board last summer when you signed Liam Hearn. There was a lot of your fans saying, 'why are we signing players like this?' etc. I tried to reassure them that you had a gem in Hearn and I think you can now all see (despite his slow start) how good a player Liam is.

I live in Derby so I tend to pick and choose my Aldershot home games, what with the cost of petrol and it being a 320 mile round trip - not very enjoyable when you're travelling solo and your team is getting turned over. I much prefer away games where I can meet up with mates at a ground in the Midlands or North. When I don't go to watch the Shots I usually end up watching a local game (not the so-called bigger sides like Derby or Forest) but either Burton, Notts County or Alfreton. Consequently I have seen quite a bit of Alfreton in the last few seasons although I don't get upset when they lose like I would with the Shots  

Therefore I think I can be objective about today's game at Alfreton and not be misled by the scoreline unlike some of your fans. To be honest, Liam Hearn was the difference between the 2 sides today. Alfreton, for some unknown reason, played a high defensive line which played into Hearn's strengths. The first 3 goals originated from no more than long hopeful balls but Liam simply left the Alfreton defenders for dead. Since he has been at Grimsby, he has added an extra yard of pace (no doubt due to full time training) and has improved as a player. But Alfreton actually played the better football through the midfield throughout the game. Up front, Nathan Arnold and Anthony Wilson frequently got the better of your defence but couldn't capitalise.

For Grimsby, Elding provided a few nice touches first half but was anonymous in the second period and Coulson made 2 or 3 good runs early on but I was disappointed with Craig Disley, who I was expecting to run the show in midfield. Most of the danger were from long balls which Hearn was always quickest to latch onto.  If Alfreton had defended better in the first half  (Greg Young had a mare), I honestly think we may have seen an entirely different outcome. At the other end I thought your defence looked almost as suspect as Alfreton's but fortunately your keeper was in good form and the Alfreton forwards were not so clinical.

In the second half it was really one way traffic and the two goals Grimsby got were down to Alfreton having an outfield player in goal. Hearn still looked dangerous on the break but they were few and far between. I think Matt Wilson, who came on as sub at half time, played a lot better in central defence than Young.

Incidentally full credit to your supporters who travelled in such numbers.

Would wholeheartedly agree and i think most posts from those whose travelled would say the same. We are by no means fooling ourselves over todays result. Worst performance in weeks but still rattled 5 scruffy goals in from 4 different scorers.
Thats football though, i have witnessed us play better and lose 5-0 this season, have seen us play much better teams and marginally win and have seen some cracking performances were we only managed a single goal victory.
Thats the BSP for you.

We had quite a few changes today that clearly unsettled the side and i fully expect the balance to be addressed on Tuesday if it makes you feel any better. x

Cheers for that, always interested to hear a neutral's perspective. Disley is usually a solid player for us so maybe his persistant ankle injury is still giving him trouble? Defensively I can see why we would be  suspect, Bradley Wood our usual RB is serving a two-game ban; Ian Miller has only just signed from Darlo and our first choice CB Charlie I'Anson is currently injured (although I must say Garner has come in and played very well) and obviously your fella Manny Panther has unfortunately gone back to Aldershot.

Obviously Hearn is a big player for us and hopefully we will manage to fight off the big clubs for him. However, I know that our recent successes aren't just down the him, the whole team have performed effectively and have been solid as a unit and long may it continue. Hopefully we can get Manny back as he was a big player for us; I just don't think Church is good enough.

Quoted from davmariner

Hopefully we can get Manny back as he was a big player for us; I just don't think Church is good enough.

I think that would be the best outcome for all parties. I liked Manny when he first came to Aldershot but then he had a couple of bad games and Kevin Dillon (our previous manager who signed him on a 2 year deal) dropped him. Dean Holdsworth came in last January and for whatever reason has never selected him so I can't see a future at Aldershot!

Incidentally Will Antwi was a favourite of mine at Aldershot during our Conference days - I wouldn't mind him back!

I'll stick up for our defence today and argue that they weren't as bad as Alfreton's defence. We tested Alfreton's defence = we scored goals. Alfreton tested our defence just as much over the game = we only conceded two. Happy to acknowledge that we could've conceded more but our keeper had a solid game and both Miller and Garner did well, especially second half when Alfreton threw everything at them. They stood up to the challenge better than Alfreton's defence did first half.

But on the whole that's a pretty fair reflection of what happened today.

I think it would be fair to say alfreton looked a good side today but really Artis missed two chances first half that should have made the scoreline at half time even bigger. Alfreton second half were the better side passing and defending much better, getting crosses in the box creating some good chances. the damage today was a very poor first half defence and an on fire Liam Hearn.

When it comes to the use of tactics Grimsby used today ie Long balls, i would just say that was playing to hearns strengh and alfretons weekness. grimsby only actually scored 2 of 5 today directly from a long ball to.

Seeing Alfreton today does make me think they can survive, stockport Lincoln and Darlo are droping like stones.

Good original post and agree with the replies. I think that a couple of things should be acknowledged: Our current team play with varied styles, and this is the way it should be. The team will play football when they can and should, and will be more direct when conditions dictate. With Alfreton's puzzling defensive strategy yesterday, the situation called for us to get the ball forward and behind them quickly and, at times, directly. I'm glad we noticed this and acted upon it. Our defence is obviously not that great, and probably not good enough to enable a promotion challenge, but, as has already been noted, it will be better when Miller settles and I'anson returns. Against the better teams, including next week's visit to Cambridge, we'll be able to make a better judgement on how good we actually are.

"The first 3 goals originated from no more than long hopeful balls"

I havent seen them again but the first was an excellent ball from Townsend and whilst I accept Thanoj's pass for the 3rd was long it certainly wasn't hopefull! I described it as the pass of the day. Glen Hoddle made a career out of such 'long hopeful balls'!!!!!

Yep, the radio commentary described it as a fantastic long pass'from Thanoj. Without wanting to sound like Charles Hughes, direct football is not about hopeful hoofing.  

We missed 2 one on ones in the first half.

There first looked like a push on our defender.

Alfreton had to battle and one of the most aggressive teams and got us to play long ball which suited them.

At 3-1 up away not many teams are going to risk coceeding to throw the game away.

When we have played poor we still looked like scoring.

Happy to see a win UTM

Except to say that "Alfreton got us to play long ball which suited them", can't actually be a true statement can it. Alfreton let in 5 goals, and it really could easily have been 7 or 8. Their tactics, such as they were, played into Hearn's hands, costs them 5 goals and lost them the game.

I would accept 2-5 wins away every away game n not play pretty football in this division. We got our tactics spot on. Other teams have thrown away leads at Alfreton n come away with nowt. The midfield was packed today very little room to play any football by either side. 2nd half with town dropping deep Alfreton played the ball forward from
Midfield out wide n bombarded a defence that would have crumbled previously. 3 points gained away, thank you very much. The better football should return when we face teams less physical and a longer pitch!

And their first goal should have been our free kick.

I thought their second was going to be disallowed for the blatant push on Townsend which gave the scorer a free header! But thats conference footy!

Just watched the highlights, to say the 1st and 3rd goals came from 'long balls' is harsh. Towsends assist to Hearn was a pin point cross and Thanojs pass was  superb planned through ball which split the deference, it wasn't like it was hit and hope

When is a good pass a long ball? Both passes were excellent balls played into our players paths! No hoofball at all. In poor conditions n a pitch that cut up pretty bad in places!

I'm interested in the mention of Nathan Arnold, because I think we might have had him on trial one pre-season, (was it when Mike Newell was here?) and people generally liked the look of him, but we didn't keep him on.  The name rings a bell because when he was with us I kept wanting to call him Matthew Arnold, after the poet, and strangely enough John Cockerill was making the same mistake during the commentary yesterday.

I'd be interested to know if the Town fans who saw him yesterday thought we were right to let him go when we did, and what Alfreton fans think of him in general.

He was on trial for a good time with us, saw him play in the Devon tournament and friendlies. He looked good then a pacy player and could finish. Very surprised we didn't take him on at the time. At BP he didn't show much at all n was anonymous, yesterday on their shorter pitch he had a very good game n impressed as did their No15 and No 7 in CM.

I thought that it was a below avergae performance overall yesterday (bearing in mind the recent ones) but we won. That is the be all and end all of it. I thought Artus, Disley and Coulo let us down in the second half and lost their midfield battles which saw the back four bombarded. Thanoj was exemplary. We were just clinical with our finishing and Alfreton paid the price.

Coulo highlighted why I  find him so frustrating - he is either quality or nion non-existent. Even though he scored yesterday he contirbuted little else. I was glad Duffy scored because it shows we've got goals coming from other sources should the worst hapen and Hearn get injured etc.

TBH I originally thought Coulson had his usual Tidal game, he drifts in n out! Then on recap he spent a lot of time supporting Silk at RB. This took away his attacking edge, Coulo made several tackles in our area in the second half. Even though Silk hasn't played in a while he's not that convincing and by Golly we miss Brads getting forard. Townsend got forward regularly n nearly scored playing 1-2 with Liam. We play our best football when we get a bit of space and our LB n RB get forward, n that isn't part of Silks game! I hope he plays better Tuesday as we cant afford to nullify our own right side attacking play!

Quoted from Paris Mariner

Coulo highlighted why I  find him so frustrating - he is either quality or nion non-existent. Even though he scored yesterday he contirbuted little else. I was glad Duffy scored because it shows we've got goals coming from other sources should the worst hapen and Hearn get injured etc.

I liked Coulson's description of his goal on Twitter. You have to admire his honesty!

[url]https://twitter.com/coulo_7/status/155703963780517889[/url]

Quoted from Youngy

Just watched the highlights, to say the 1st and 3rd goals came from 'long balls' is harsh. Towsends assist to Hearn was a pin point cross and Thanojs pass was  superb planned through ball which split the deference, it wasn't like it was hit and hope

Exactly. Might I suggest that the OP is not quite as objective as he believes himself to be, though I don't think anyone would say it was a great performance from us.

As Town fans you get used to them playing out of sorts and having huge chunks of the game where they lose their concentration.  This inevitably ended in us drawing 2-2 or even throwing it away. This didn't seem a problem recently when we played a stronger midfield (ie Panther) and the defence thus seemed more settled. So it's no surprise it's come back to haunt us a little without him.

Anyway I'm delighted that the latest game that we chose to do this in we end up winning 5-3. They can only get stronger and better.

Quoted from RoboCod

As Town fans you get used to them playing out of sorts and having huge chunks of the game where they lose their concentration.  This inevitably ended in us drawing 2-2 or even throwing it away. This didn't seem a problem recently when we played a stronger midfield (ie Panther) and the defence thus seemed more settled. So it's no surprise it's come back to haunt us a little without him.

Anyway I'm delighted that the latest game that we chose to do this in we end up winning 5-3. They can only get stronger and better.

5-2.

Otherwise, I fully agree.

2-5!

Yeah yeah....5-2... see I'm confident enough now to start handing out extra goals to our opposition

I don't think we were great but we are miles better than them and in reality won at a canter, they are decent going forward but utterly woeful at the back and thus the game was never really in doubt. The fourth goal was due to the keeper, the 5th however was down to their shite slow defender and the pacy Duffy picking his pocket