It's no surprise.

Only Nuneaton in the entire league have scored less away goals than us and only by 1, so i don't know why everyone is so surprised by our slide down the league once all the away games came into play. We had played more home games than our rivals but never got that buffer by picking up wins away.

I remember arguing months back that away draws at Southport, Barrow and Cambridge, to name a few, were not as good results as some were claiming. Winning 3 or 4 of those games would have given us a nice cushion for the inevitable drop in form that most teams have at some point.

The worrying thing is that we are dropping off at the most crucial time of the season and unless we go on a winning run akin to Kiddy or Mansfield, then we will enter the play offs with not much confidence or goals.

All is not lost though. We can beat anyone on our day, so lets hope the footballing gods start to smile on us soon.

Well it's a fair point about away goals but were you suprised at the performance tonight ?

I was !  
tbh I expected a "backs to the wall" job and Mansfield peppering our goalmouth at will.

Ok the result didn't go way tonight but we're clearly showing signs of progressing in the right direction in that area you specifically mention.
Let's not forget we've just beaten FGR away !

ATEOTD past is past - there's nothing you can do to change it.
People can look at the stats as far back as they want and worry about everything under the sun.
But I doubt it will make sod all difference (or even help tbh).

Quoted from 1600

Well it's a fair point about away goals but were you suprised at the performance tonight ?

I was !  
tbh I expected a "backs to the wall" job and Mansfield peppering our goalmouth at will.

Ok the result didn't go way tonight but we're clearly showing signs of progressing in the right direction in that area you specifically mention.
Let's not forget we've just beaten FGR away !

ATEOTD past is past - there's nothing you can do to change it.
People can look at the stats as far back as they want and worry about everything under the sun.
But I doubt it will make sod all difference (or even help tbh).

The key is to score when you have a good spell and we don't do that with any regularity. Mansfield are not a brilliant side but like Kidderminster, they take their chances when they come along.

I think it is a telling stat that we don't have one player anywhere near the top of the scoring charts and keep chopping and changing up front.

Wonder where we would be with a fit Hearn?

We do look weak upfront at the minute, we just can't score. Cooky looks knackered bless him.
We can't rush him but my god do we have Hearn coming back at the right time.

I have no doubt that a couple of our chances tonight wouldve been scored by Hearn. We've hardly slid down the league but I do think going top raised expectations too high, for some fans at least.

The season is far from over and there will undoubtedly be twists and turns to come...

Well wasn't even there so can't really comment.

All I saw was Hannah's effort being tipped just round the post on the highlights and hearing Mansfield's goalie being declared MOM.

Perhaps when you're losing, goalscorers always come up the spotlight ? (but who knows).
Even if we lack a goalscorer (still think it's Hannah) there's a case we get more goals from all over the pitch now.
At least we're creating chances.

Whether we're lacking confidence in front of goal or just plain unlucky I've no idea.

Tonight was a 100% better than Saturday in my opinion. We just simply didnt take our chances.

Whilst losing dizza was massive I also think a turning point came when Marriott pulled off a worldy save that looked a certain goal. It deffo have them a boost and instead of us pushing on they did and managed to score when we were down to ten men.

On that subject, anyone think the ref dropped a bollock. Miller clearly went down holding his head yet play was allowed to continue, they gained a corner, he had to go off and they scored from that corner? No an excuse I know but may be the ball should never have been allowed to travel that far?

It's far from over, we aren't excrement like some seem to think and when the home keeper gets MOM you k is it just wasn't gonna be.

And for the bloke saying we were beaten by a great footballing side coming out of the ground, that man needs to check what a footballing side is because Mansfield are not, even one of their own fans said they are hard to watch.

Quoted from aldi_01

but I do think going top raised expectations too high, for some fans at least.

Oh absolutely.
But I'm not so sure it was such a bad thing.
Look at the players like Naylor we managed to bring in for starters.
Even if the managers keep things in perspective, everyone gets a massive boost and we sure as hell needed it.

Certainly true the higher you climb, the harder you fall - that's the nature of football !

Sure nothings ever certain and let's not kid ourselves, there's still lots of hard work to do.
But given a choice I'd much prefer it all happen now than final day of the season.