Just back

I'm not entirely certain (and my memory may be playing tricks on me), but I thought that the pass was a sideways one which Disley then deflected. It was just very unlucky that the ball went straight to their striker who was unmarked (because he was offside) and they had another player nearby. The defence were way too slow to react after the referee waved play on, however.

That said, I don't think the managers really deserve much in the way of criticism. Despite the fact that most of the players were well below-par, we still created enough chances to win a couple of games and better finishing by a number of players would have given us the points.

We'll need to play much, much, much better against Fleetwood to get anything from the game. Hopefully, we'll have a decent referee as well.

I didn't think Duffy was too bad - better than usual, in fact.

Soares not great, but then again not match fit. Although you could say the same about Hughes-Mason, and he was a lot better.

I think we completely outplayed them, and 1 - 1 flatters them. You just get games like that sometimes.

I think I'd like to see a bit more of Hughes-Mason.  He looks interesting.

I thought Duffy was decent but isn't as mobile as Elding, so we tended to aim for his head and feed off the flicks. They were well organized but didn't threaten too much. The ref was poor for both teams in fairness, blowing for full time when they were clean through! We must improve in order to have a chance on tuesday, UTM.

Rob Scott post-match interview now on BBC for those that missed it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17163225

Quoted from alvinghammariner

]I thought Duffy was decent but isn't as mobile as Elding, so we tended to aim for his head and feed off the flicks. They were well organized but didn't threaten too much. The ref was poor for both teams in fairness, blowing for full time when they were clean through! We must improve in order to have a chance on tuesday, UTM.

You have to be kidding! Can't argue with the rest though. These tactics got us nowhere early season and seem bizarre considering the way Scott and Hurst have gone about setting out our squad. Every time Duffy (or for that matter Hearn) got the ball today from a hoof they were marked by at least two players with one more in close attendance. I'm not sure very many players playing at this level have the skill to make much out of that.

Braintree (perhaps because they were on their first visit) defended like their lives depended on it (like a lot of teams last season...). The clearance over the bar by their number 5(?) should go a long way to helping him be awarded the freedom of Braintree.  

Quoted from lowerfindus

There were some under par performers on the pitch today but I blame the managers, tactically they got it wrong today. They have an obsession with hoof ball that is detrimental to the players we have in the squad. How many times did McKeown boot it straight through to the keeper ? Even Duffy was screaming to put some air on his kicks to give him a chance. In some games this will work and in the second half today we bludgeoned ourselves into a few goalscoring positions but against a part-time lower conference side like Braintree we should have been able to show composure and technique in the middle of the park. IMO that would have seen us causing the opposition real problems for 90mins.

After seeing that hoofing the ball up to Duffy wasnt working where was Plan B? Substitutions were all far too late. If we are going to have players like of Disley, Thanoj, Coulson etc in the team why spend 90 minutes bypassing them? Its not the first time this season we have overlooked the chance to play some possession football.

The good teams in the play off spots will show this up in the coming weeks unless Smashy and Nicey accept that passing and possession  in football is a good thing.

Excellent summary....

Quoted from lowerfindus

There were some under par performers on the pitch today but I blame the managers, tactically they got it wrong today. They have an obsession with hoof ball that is detrimental to the players we have in the squad. How many times did McKeown boot it straight through to the keeper ? Even Duffy was screaming to put some air on his kicks to give him a chance. In some games this will work and in the second half today we bludgeoned ourselves into a few goalscoring positions but against a part-time lower conference side like Braintree we should have been able to show composure and technique in the middle of the park. IMO that would have seen us causing the opposition real problems for 90mins.

After seeing that hoofing the ball up to Duffy wasnt working where was Plan B? Substitutions were all far too late. If we are going to have players like of Disley, Thanoj, Coulson etc in the team why spend 90 minutes bypassing them? Its not the first time this season we have overlooked the chance to play some possession football.

The good teams in the play off spots will show this up in the coming weeks unless Smashy and Nicey accept that passing and possession  in football is a good thing.

I do see your point but Braintree totally squeezed us out in the middle, they stopped us passing and made us play into their hands at times. It was n't totally down to Hurst and Scott, we didn't have a great deal of options on the bench to change how they were playing. We needed Manny Panther in that game today, he would've totally stopped them squeezing us out wide.

  

        O
        /\
        /\ o

          o
      O
      /\o
      ||
         o

              O
              /\
             o/\

Yep offside regardless if it comes of one of ours take away disley and it's no different
            

Enough chances (especially at the end) to say we should've won in, but also I agreed with Rob Scott comments on the way back that we didn't really play well enough to.

Started slow and ended up chasing the game, but also felt the team (and the crowd) pressed the panic button a bit too early in the 2nd half (or was that just us getting it forward quick ?)

The complete and utter f*cking disgrace of the Braintree goal seemed to galvanise the team (cheered on by the crowd) into purposeful action - it worked and then we had more than enough chances at the death to win.

Players... Hearn a fair choice for MOM and was impressed with both full backs but no-one really played great - pretty much like the team.
Miller didn't play badly at all, but didn't look completely safe to me either tbh - got absolutely skinned for pace 1st half in one incident and a similar kind of thing happened in the 2nd - personally I would draft in somebody else for Fleetwood (then again I would rotate things anyway).

Played some nice football in parts but what's most concerning me is an inability to impose ourselves on the game early on - the balls bouncing around all over the shop at times.
What's the gameplan ? There were glimpses of joy down the flanks that suggests we might be better off using them more than playing it into a closely marked Hearn or lumping it up to Duffy every time.

I accept things might be better with Elding back but whilst the balls in the air more than I'd like(and I accept that's their style) it wasn't like we didn't win our fair share in the air. (that said just read lowerfindus's comments and he may well be right too)

Not a criticism whatsoever but I wonder if S&H realise it's not just a give all mentality the fans respect, it's also attractive passing football ?

So a bit disappointing yeah but the fact we didn't play great, missed chances and still very nearly won despite a blatant goal (that wasn't) gives enough reasons for optimism that whilst there's work to be done, all is not lost.

I'd be a lot more concerned if Scott had said we played well and hadn't said he was constantly trying to improve.
Fleetwood apart(for me if we get anything it's a whopping bonus), maybe this might be the wakeup call we need to.

Scott talked about the need for "belief" on RH.
If that stretches to controlling and dominating proceedings by imposing ourselves sooner or using a bit more guile and know-how to unlock teams then I would wholeheatedly agree.