Just back

Quoted from WHYWONTYOULETMESIGNUP

Oh and our fans are excrement aswell how can we lose 1000 fans because we lost a cup game that none of those fans attended, when before the game we had the chance of being second and otherwise have been in good form.

.

We only have about 3,000 loyal supporters mate,

The rest will come when we are winning and stay away as soon as we lose 1 or 2.

Quoted from gymadman

Neilson should be fined and sent back to Crawley, their keeper was excellent,Hannah was invisible,Colebeck what did he offer so we are not a good enough team to win this league, make the play off's maybe if we get lucky but I fear several more years at this level, not a knee jerk reaction just an honest opinion

Not a knee jerk reaction? Where's FFS when you need him?

These kind of home defeats happen too often to be considered one-offs. If you expect to challenge for automatic promotion you don't lose these games, or if you do, they are truly 'one-offs' or freak results. Our strikers aren't good enough, simple as. A really disappointing result, and one which will puncture any groundswell of optimisim or potential for a bigger paying crowd at BP. Simply not good enough.

Quoted from BIGChris

Should have won. Their keeper made 5 decent daves although some of them you would expect your keeper to make.

They looked decent going forward but very shaky defensivly.

They should have had a penalty in the first minute and the one they did get was nailed on. Silly challenge. Stay on your feet and hold him up!

Neilson over did the dribbling today, got very frustrated, lashed out and collected a deserved red card.

We werent terrible, werent outplayed from start to finish but got nothing out of the game.

Spot on at least for this bit IMO.

Quite unlucky !
Positives for me were some good build up passing play albeit not much end product 1st half.

Where was the "strong start" ?
Cos thought we had more room to take the game to them 1st half and looked a bit more determined straight after H/T

Negatives: wonder if we're still we're letting teams have the ball too much at times (especially near our own box) when we might be "hunting in packs" to close them down instead of looking slightly flatfooted and static.

Yes Neilson could have scored but more often than not had a total nightmare   and is in danger of being labelled Mr Greedy.

Slightly too much over elaboration and pissing around at the back for me too.
But Shaun Pearson keeps looking better and better !   Wonder if we'll be able to hold on to him long term...

Quoted from BIGChris

We really need a different option up front as many have suggested. Elding does nothing for me

Chances aside (not convinced they were sitters) thought Elding had another good game in open play !    
But yes, he's got his limitations (including in the goalscoring dept), didn't we realise ?  

What type of "option" do we need Chris ?

A goalscorer ? Well Hannah didn't get a sniff and was almost invisible as an attacking force today.
A target man ? Cooks on the bench....
Someone who can work hard and hold the ball up ? Well that's Elding...
Pace and invention ? Well that's Southwell or Pearson (maybe)

If we need better all round players then fair enough, perhaps that's true.
But think it's a bit harsh on Elding cos had we scored from our numerous chances (wasn't just him), I doubt we would be even be discussing all this.

Quoted from BIGChris

Cook needs to develop and Soutwell isnt ready to start games on a regular basis.

Are you judging them on 6 and 15 mins of football !?  

Quoted from BIGChris

I still think GPearson could do well but if he cant get in the matchday 16 then that says it all.

Agree he could do well but don't understand your point here.
Surely any non inclusion would suggest we had a strong squad not a weak one ?

Please don't say you're assuming Pearson "isn't up to it" just cos he's not in the squad ?
Could be any reason like a last minute knock but ATEOTD Just cos someone's down the pecking order it doesn't really mean anything.
Maybe they're ALL "not up to it" maybe not but sorry, if they're not playing they're not playing....

If we're gonna blame people seems to me Neilson and the Macc goalkeeper are the prime targets !

Put it this way - if Cook and Southwell need time to develop then we've got to:
a) give them a chance to play just in case they ARE already good enough (or better than Elding) and we don't know it yet.
b) cut them SOME slack as younger players if they don't instantly fire on all cylinders.
c) sign someone else ? (not convinced Neilson up front is the answer either !)

So yeah, perhaps we've got some tough selections decisions to make up front.

But if people are unhappy with team selection then perhaps they should say who should be playing BEFORE the game and not after. (not talking about you here Chris only in general but if the cap fits...)

Anyway proud of the players efforts today at least.
Think it's true to say there were more good performances than bad against a fairly decent team (albeit that we still should be beating)

For what it's worth they rarely looked like scoring and it was going to take a penalty or something wind assisted for them to find the net. Most are crediting their keeper (and rightly so IMO-the two saves down at his near post were excellent) but on the rare occasion when the Macc Lads pierced our defence McKeown made a couple of excellent saves. He also made a brilliant tackle after persisting in his ridiculous habit of coming up at the end for corners.
Thought Bradley Wood had a very good game although it frightens me when he stands so far off the guy he's meant to be marking. Pond and particularly Pearson were solid with Pearson making those surging runs out of defence.
Thomas a bit hit and miss.
Colbeck likewise although he looked better on the left for part of the first half.
I thought Niven was excellent today (My MOM). He won a lot and played umpteen short passes to those with (allegedly) more flair.
Disley looked hesitant at times seemingly prepared to escort their midfield rather than get a tackle in. Their 19 (Kissock) was allowed to run all over when really what he needed was a tough but fair tackle early doors to keep him quiet.
Those knocking Neilsen (yes, it was a stupid thing to do and we cannot really afford him missing for three matches) have obviously forgotten that he produced at least two of our best efforts which was two more than his mate Hannah managed. Neilsen has very quick feet and a quick mind to go with it. Sometimes the others don't seem to think as quickly as evidenced by Hannah when he set off too late for what should have been an excellent through ball.
Hannah disappointed me. He didn't get great service but he was largely anonymous.
Elding did what Elding does-very little. In his defence the chance in the last seconds when he hit the post came very quickly and the angle wasn't great. There was also an occasion where he looked up to cross but all he saw were the five Macc defenders. Why we don't have a forward prepared to gamble on that sort of situation is beyond me-I thought Hannah might have fancied his chances but obviously not.
For me Town's best spell of the game came just after the first substitution. Thanoj in midfield allowed Neilsen to push forward and Macc didn't know how to handle him initially. Their eventual answer was to put two men on him-hence his ultimate frustration.
Cook didn't have long enough but probably isn't the sort of goal machine we needed. Southwell flattered to deceive and showed himself to be well short of the finished article. Still at least we weren't treated to a cameo appearance by Artus so perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies.
Slightly worrying from the managers point of view must be how predictable we are going forward. Today there was a lot of nice passing but we hardly ever hurt them with it or even upped the tempo.

Quoted from barralad

For what it's worth they rarely looked like scoring and it was going to take a penalty or something wind assisted for them to find the net. Most are crediting their keeper (and rightly so IMO-the two saves down at his near post were excellent) but on the rare occasion when the Macc Lads pierced our defence McKeown made a couple of excellent saves. He also made a brilliant tackle after persisting in his ridiculous habit of coming up at the end for corners.
Thought Bradley Wood had a very good game although it frightens me when he stands so far off the guy he's meant to be marking. Pond and particularly Pearson were solid with Pearson making those surging runs out of defence.
Thomas a bit hit and miss.
Colbeck likewise although he looked better on the left for part of the first half.
I thought Niven was excellent today (My MOM). He won a lot and played umpteen short passes to those with (allegedly) more flair.
Disley looked hesitant at times seemingly prepared to escort their midfield rather than get a tackle in. Their 19 (Kissock) was allowed to run all over when really what he needed was a tough but fair tackle early doors to keep him quiet.
Those knocking Neilsen (yes, it was a stupid thing to do and we cannot really afford him missing for three matches) have obviously forgotten that he produced at least two of our best efforts which was two more than his mate Hannah managed. Neilsen has very quick feet and a quick mind to go with it. Sometimes the others don't seem to think as quickly as evidenced by Hannah when he set off too late for what should have been an excellent through ball.
Hannah disappointed me. He didn't get great service but he was largely anonymous.
Elding did what Elding does-very little. In his defence the chance in the last seconds when he hit the post came very quickly and the angle wasn't great. There was also an occasion where he looked up to cross but all he saw were the five Macc defenders. Why we don't have a forward prepared to gamble on that sort of situation is beyond me-I thought Hannah might have fancied his chances but obviously not.
For me Town's best spell of the game came just after the first substitution. Thanoj in midfield allowed Neilsen to push forward and Macc didn't know how to handle him initially. Their eventual answer was to put two men on him-hence his ultimate frustration.
Cook didn't have long enough but probably isn't the sort of goal machine we needed. Southwell flattered to deceive and showed himself to be well short of the finished article. Still at least we weren't treated to a cameo appearance by Artus so perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies.
Slightly worrying from the managers point of view must be how predictable we are going forward. Today there was a lot of nice passing but we hardly ever hurt them with it or even upped the tempo.

Very good report Ian,

Its a good job the clocks go back tonight,

It will give 80's chance to analyse all that and report back.

Actually I thought Elding had one of his better games today, especially in the first half.

Quoted from grimsby pete

We only have about 3,000 loyal supporters mate,

respect

Quoted from grimsby pete

Very good report Ian,

Its a good job the clocks go back tonight,

It will give 80's chance to analyse all that and report back.

Good analysis barralad.

Quoted from barralad

For me Town's best spell of the game came just after the first substitution.

Agree and thought the managers got it right.
But like you say about Kissock, did we really harry or close them down enough in a 4-4-2 ?

And is it just me or does anyone think Pond isn't looking quite as reassured (albeit did nothing wrong per se) at the back ?
Wondering if Miller & Pearson at the back and "athletic" Pond could do a job in midfield (who knows I don't !)