Just Back (Merged) Hyde

Yeah I'd agree with that Chris. As I said in earlier post I was pleased Hurst showed a bit of 'thinking outside the box' and came up with kind of a plan B.

Your earlier comment about being pleased Doig got the nod interested me too Chris. I was surprised he went from being not in the 16 lately to starting, ahead of McDonald who's been waiting for a chance for a while now. There were a lot of rumours around McDonald over xmas/new year, but something doesn't seem right there, he's barely kicked a ball in 2014 after being in great form pre-Xmas.

Paddy never got in the game today on the wing..

But saying that hurst does have previous with playing centre mids on the wing.

File under frankie artus.

And cue the dislikes, I love em ya big babies  

Quoted from Tommy

Yeah I'd agree with that Chris. As I said in earlier post I was pleased Hurst showed a bit of 'thinking outside the box' and came up with kind of a plan B.

Your earlier comment about being pleased Doig got the nod interested me too Chris. I was surprised he went from being not in the 16 lately to starting, ahead of McDonald who's been waiting for a chance for a while now. There were a lot of rumours around McDonald over xmas/new year, but something doesn't seem right there, he's barely kicked a ball in 2014 after being in great form pre-Xmas.

My thoughts are not about 'extra curricular' activities but feel, perhaps because of his size, McDonald needs a run of games to get into his stride. At the start of the season he looked a liability but eventually got match fit and looked a top player for this level.

His only start for months was at Dartford where he looked like Herman Munster! I just don't feel we have time to get Clayts up to speed hence i preferred Doig today

Fair enough

Made it much more difficult than it could and should have been, but another clean sheet without 3 or 4 first team players today (including two key players in Disley and Pearson). Agree with Chris that we had no midfield runners, Thanoj and Kerr are both too similar in that they both like to sit deep when in possession so Disley needs to start in the play offs for me (despite looking poor this season).

If Hannah knew the offside rule it could've been more comfortable, lost count of the amount of offsides he had - he just sets off way too early every time. Unlucky with hitting the post when the keeper got a slight nick on it, but poor forward play when he failed to square it to LJL despite having 2 or 3 opportunities to do so. LJL poor (he's more the perfect away game striker so we can play more direct away from home), Tounkara looked like he might create something unlike anyone else on the pitch - this is where I felt we missed Rodman today. Colbeck offered little again, which suggests that we may be due another big performance from him at Wembley should we get there?!

Neilson was poor by his standards, gave the ball away numerous times, had a poor first touch too often today and didn't give Hatton an option when he had the ball, didn't turn and run at them but only gave it back to Hatton too often. Hatton MOM for me, closely followed by Boyce.

Hard to pick a MOM for me. Possibly Kerr although I feel he visibly tired as the game went on. He does do a great job in talking to the team though, keeping them focused and he always wants the ball. Hannah did some things well, including his goal, but at times, his first touch and timing were gash. LJL slightly disappointing, including his characteristic miss of a golden chance, but very often we give him cr@ppy balls to scrap for and when he wins them there was usually nobody near him to receive a pass or pick up a knockdown or flick, so felt sorry for him. I don't understand the thinking behind this tactic if I'm honest. If we must persist in trying to 'hit' him with a longer ball, we must get players closer to him to lend support, and we must do it quickly, or we're just squandering possession and setting him up to fail. Generally speaking I think we don't anticipate well, and we're not compact enough. We should be looking to support our front players much more quickly than we do.

Generally struck me how often our touch and ball/control and basic skills are sadly lacking, although pleased to see our set piece delivery improved from recent standards, albeit looking much less of a threat without Pearson in the team. Thought we missed Rodman and Disley, didn't make good use of Neilson or Paddy, and that Thomas was very disappointing. Some of our decision making looks very suspect to me - when to pass and when to hit a channel or long ball from deep, and there is a visible lack of clever movement from our strikes and centre midfielders. Genuine pace would have caused them all sorts of problems today, but, of course, we don't have any.

Result was everything and we had the chances to make it more comfortable but we were very predictably always going to make hard work of it. Worrying that this is not a 'one-off' performance, and that we'll have to improve significantly in all aspects to bring play off success, but it's a whole new ball game now and all of the contenders have proved they are beatable. Relieved to get the result and the play off place. We must keep tight and together from now on.

Thought shop did well today. Ross on fire, nielson tried hard but it didn't really click.

Quoted from moosey_club

If Ross Hannah would have squared for LJL instead of going for glory himself it would have been alot more comfortable, unbelievably selfish.
Having said that the hat trick has clearly boosted his confidence as he looked like a new player today so that could just be the boost we need going into the final stage of the season.

I cannot believe you have said that about Ross Hannah,he has now scored four goals in two games natural goalscoresers are very much to their own thinking.

I played at Town for a number of years with brilleant goal scorers like like Matt Tees,Stuart Brace,Kevin Drinkell, etc and not that I was a goalscorer I was a creative midfielder.

  The times I can tell you when I got into far better positions than the names I have just mentioned and they never passed to me and missed. but that is a goal scorer.

Natural goalscorers will always go for a shot on goal rather than pass to a collegue who is in a better position, and that is a fact
NEW FOOTBALLER

My Dad was bang on in his assessment of Nielson today, he looks lots better on the left, he also makes Aswad look better as they link up very well when they get going. Today though we looked like we had a few players being used as square pegs in round holes, Nielson and Paddy being the moss obvious. Great to get in the play offs with a game to go, nose the time to make ten changes Paul.
Mom today was Hatton who didn't put a foot wrong.

Quoted from newfootballer

I cannot believe you have said that about Ross Hannah,he has now scored four goals in two games natural goalscoresers are very much to their own thinking.

I played at Town for a number of years with brilleant goal scorers like like Matt Tees,Stuart Brace,Kevin Drinkell, etc and not that I was a goalscorer I was a creative midfielder.

  The times I can tell you when I got into far better positions than the names I have just mentioned and they never passed to me and missed. but that is a goal scorer.

Natural goalscorers will always go for a shot on goal rather than pass to a collegue who is in a better position, and that is a fact
NEW FOOTBALLER

It was 0-0....a game we needed to win and preferably score a hatful to help with goal difference just in case results went other ways....LJL was in a far better position just like Hannah was at Alfreton.....a goal then would have settled the crowd, the team and given us a bit more confidence whcih i am sure would have led to plenty more.
Its a team game and the team needed the goal.
However pleased to see Ross looking sharp and confident today, the two chances he had and the goal today he would have been nowhere near a couple of games ago.