Just back

Dominated, but we didnt win. And thats what matters, nothing up front, had chances but we didnt take them. A team really we should have beaten easily but we didnt. Its a shame, a big shame, but the clubs not going anywhere. I feel for paul and the players but this just isnt good enough. Didnt like the "hurst out" chants. They help noone, i know how gutted i am by whats going on, but what struck me about it as i walked away tonight, maybe , just maybe. We arent very good. Night all

BBC stats say 51% - 49%..what game where they at.  Town good side up to the penalty area..then go static sadly

Never looked like we were going to score tonight.  Playing 4 5 1 with Lenny as the lone striker was never going to work, and should not have used that formation at home anyway.  Subs made far too late yet again, then went 4 4 2.

I hope Wrecscum have a bad day on Saturday, or they will tear us a new one

Who missed chances?

As above , toothless lenny was poor he has the worst first touch ive seen ,his second touch is almost always a stretching tackle to try and rectify his terrible first one . Makreth played as well as ive seen in a town shirt .
Clay MOM defence looked solid but Devoid of a threat beyond the 18 yd box .

all fizz no bang sorry  not good enough  says it all when full backs have more shots on target than the so called striker and to the hurst is god brigade nearly a 1000 down eh that's what I call voting with thier feet

So disappointing, we looked pretty good in the middle third, keeping the ball well, making pretty patterns, working it out wide and getting it into and around their penalty area but sadly that's where the wheels came off. No killer through balls, barely any quality crosses, not enough midfielders running behind their back four and a striker with zero confidence who hasn't got the goal scoring nouse to create something from nothing. We're just not ruthless enough.

I liked our shape tonight, it helped us keep the ball and press their back four. Ultimately though we don't have the centre forward to play that role, and that is only one mans fault. Thought Aswad looked good tonight and provided us with more balance, and ditto that for Magnay. Mackreth and neilson worked the ball well and gave their full backs a tough night, but poor crosses cost us. Clay and brown worked hard and dominated the game, disappointed with paddy though, finally gets a chance in the middle in a game he should have bossed, but he wasn't in it enough.

Definitely time for a managerial change, can't see it happening though, and who would come in? More questions than answers at the minute.

Cant fault the effort as it was there, worked very hard and with the formation while dominating the midfield it left us short up top.....Makreth very wasteful with crosses all night, had his fullback on toast but struggling to think of a single cross he put in than gave someone an opportunity.
Should he have gone with that formation? myself i dont blame him for trying as the last couple of 4-4-2 games have been flat and for large parts we looked good but it left LJL isolated, tried to change it with a double substitution but we lost a bit of impetus with that......thought he could have thrown another sub on late on as a statement of intent.

Should he go now?  Well not on tonights game in isolation but repeated failures to beat mediocre but organised sides, the squad he has assembled just isnt balanced enough and the complete blind faith in LJL (who personally i thought played ok tonight) to be the difference between winning and losing all starting to tot up..

Quoted from immariner

Who missed chances?

Plural? I think we only made one real guilt edge chance which the keeper saved very well from Paddy.

Was somewhat surprised at the decision to play Lenny up front on his own. I didn't hear what was said on Humberside prior to the game but I understood that Neilson was going to play in the space just behind Lenny? If that is the case then for the first half it failed miserably. LJL was guilty of most of the things other posters have said about him but in his defence he was totally isolated in the first half and as a result was bundled off the ball too easily.
MacReth was awful first half-weak in the challenge and unwilling to take his man on for pace. Second half he played far, far better and was involved in just about everything of an attacking nature but like others was let down by his final ball.Magnay was excellent (again) and Clay showed what we missed on Saturday.
Defensively we were relatively untroubled which gave Aswad chance to get forward to good effect on loads of occasions especially in the second half. He combined well with Neilson and bearing in mind it was his first game since the middle of August didn't appear to tire. I thought he was Town's MOM.
I wonder if those singing Paddy's praises are still doing so after his mediocre performance tonight?
Though the subs might have come on a bit sooner but to be fair neither of them looked like having an impact in the 20 minutes or so they were involved.

Quoted from moosey_club

Plural? I think we only made one real guilt edge chance which the keeper saved very well from Paddy.

He headed one over too.

Quoted from moosey_club

Cant fault the effort as it was there, worked very hard and with the formation while dominating the midfield it left us short up top.....Makreth very wasteful with crosses all night, had his fullback on toast but struggling to think of a single cross he put in than gave someone an opportunity.
Should he have gone with that formation? myself i dont blame him for trying as the last couple of 4-4-2 games have been flat and for large parts we looked good but it left LJL isolated, tried to change it with a double substitution but we lost a bit of impetus with that......thought he could have thrown another sub on late on as a statement of intent.

Should he go now?  Well not on tonights game in isolation but repeated failures to beat mediocre but organised sides, the squad he has assembled just isnt balanced enough and the complete blind faith in LJL (who personally i thought played ok tonight) to be the difference between winning and losing all starting to tot up..

Agree that we lost impetus with the changes, we weren't dominating the middle of the park anymore. Having said that he had to gamble.

Too many draws. A problem that has dogged us for the last 2 seasons. Without a potent striker, all the good work up to the final third is a complete waste. May as well just lump it up and hope for the best.

Not at all happy with what ive witnessed tonight saw the game similar to Moosey though Aswad my MOTM by a country mile.Town played some neat passing football between the boxes for most of the game the players put a proper shift in from 1-11 but if you cant get 3 points against that sort of limited opposition you wont be going up anytime soon.Painful though that maybe that`s a fact and I personally feel like we have a squad more than capable of being Champions in a very poor League 4-5-1 at home to a team struggling near the bottom and that 1 not being a goalscorer tells me someone doesn`t know what he is doing?None of what`s been said about the game or tactics will affect Hursts position but the 800 missing fans will SACKED IN THE MORNING

all down to tactics and playing styles.  We are naive

Quoted from Lambretta Mariner

He headed one over too.

oh aye...yes that was a decent chance from the one decent cross that we put in all night.

We hammered them 0-0. Great effort by all the players but we over played it in the final third against a packed defence. Lenny did well on his own but if we set up like that then people need to get in and around him in the box to support the attacks. Most of our efforts were long range and when crosses came in we had no-one sharp enough to attack the loose balls. I am beginning to think that against these sort of teams at home we need another physically strong player who is good in the air can also finish things off. Pittman is ideal but as we know we do not have his services at present and there are doubts about his fitness. I wish Hurst the best of luck in his search. Just a word about Aswad, at first I was worried he might have come back in a bit early, but credit to the lad he did very well and lasted the pace, top effort.

Enjoyed tonight bar the score, good to see us playing it mostly on the floor and we as supporters should encourage this.  Regarding a new striker I wonder if its a fruitless task, whos gonna release a decent forward on loan.  If we kept the same formation as tonight but added a physical presence in the mould of Cockerill/Groves we might get on the end of some of these decent situations.  Crossing to the diddy men of Nielson, Brown, Paddy & Mckreth most defences in this league would take that every day of the week.  Just wondering if a big strong attacking central midfielder might be easier to attract here?

Quoted from Sigone

Enjoyed tonight bar the score, good to see us playing it mostly on the floor and we as supporters should encourage this.  Regarding a new striker I wonder if its a fruitless task, whos gonna release a decent forward on loan.  If we kept the same formation as tonight but added a physical presence in the mould of Cockerill/Groves we might get on the end of some of these decent situations.  Crossing to the diddy men of Nielson, Brown, Paddy & Mckreth most defences in this league would take that every day of the week.  Just wondering if a big strong attacking central midfielder might be easier to attract here?

Perhaps if JF splashed the cash on a massive birthday cake we could tempt toure?

Got to give all the players 10 out of 10 for effort but cant be doing with the formation.
How can a team play 80% in the opposition half and not score?????
This has to go down to the managers tactics and football philosophy.
You have to go Hurst  

Two points almost given away tonight.

Alty were dead on their feet for the last 30 minutes and let us come onto them but, despite the odd bit of decent football here and there, the final pass, cross or shot just wasn't good enough.

Still should have won really, but it just never looked like it was going to happen tonight as none of the midfielders or strikers looked like they were going to do that extra little bit to grasp the points.

Not LJL's best game, though he was horribly isolated for the first half. I think we probably would have won if he had stayed on and played alongside Oates who showed a good touch on a couple of occasions but didn't have the physical presence to cause their defence too many problems. Unfortunately, Hannah showed absolutely nothing when he came on which was a disappointment.

As others have mentioned, our crossing was just rubbish tonight. Got in behind their defence on so many occasions it was untrue but barely a cross or cutback got near to one of our men. Must do better than that - Arnold's goal the other week showed how easy it should be when you get into a good position but we just weren't accurate tonight.

Quite surprised at the restraint and it's good to read

Box to box, passing, movement, desire,,,,9/10
In and around the box, cutting edge, bravery, trickery, guile, intelligence...1/10

Says it all; results business, goals are everything

If, and it might be a big if, Hurst can get a 'jack in the box' striker to the club it might (just might) turn things around... but even I don't quite believe that as I write it

A bloke next to me summed it up brilliantly IMO - "it's not sh*te, it's not crap, but it's not good enough"

Two positives: team are playing for Hurst - you don't put that amount of energy in if you don't give a crap and we have the second best defensive record in the league.

PLEASE Paul find a goal scorer

Had the Paddy header fallen to Disley, I think we'd have been talking about a victory tonight. Paddy been poor for last couple of games, did the chance 1st half fall to him too? Whilst the keeper made a decent save, he should've never stood a chance.

I don't think there was any problem with the first half effort. If it had fallen on his left foot, it probably would have beaten the keeper, but he hit it pretty well with his right and it was a very good reaction save. As per usual, the ball didn't fall to any of our players in the box (on any occasion tonight).

We really miss pittman. We are a different side when he's up front. As for tonight when I heard that neilsen was in for hannah I thought excellent he'll be in the free role behind lenny. Was surprised to see him stuck on the left side of a midfield 5. Formation didnt work for me though as LJL needs a strike partner to flick onto. Think we were too conservative and scared to lose tonight. Now two tough away trips

I cannot understand how some seem to be happy with that tonight, I thought we were very poor, yes we had plenty of the ball and played it around but they were probably the worst team in many a long while we have seen, they passed it more to our players than they did their own.

As for Hurst, going out with one loan striker against a bottom 5 team at home, what message does that send out?

Not sure how anyone could suggest Mackreth had a good game his passing/crossing were crap, MOTM for me was Azwad.

Quoted from Tangerine Chris

I hope Wrecscum have a bad day on Saturday, or they will tear us a new one

When did that last happen? We've had plenty of poor performances this calendar year, but I can't remember us being battered.

As for tonight, much better than last week (obviously) but created next to nothing apart from McLaughlin's 2 chances. Thought they were going to nick it with that Reeves chances 5 minutes from the end.

Quoted from Lambretta Mariner

He headed one over too.

Clearest chances of the night fell to Paddy with the unchallenged header from 7yards the most glaring. Hit the target from there and he scores.

I thought the formation, which was fluid, at times 4-3-3, other times 4-1-4-1 worked well in that we found space, played at a tempo BUT it just died in the last 20/25 yards. Failure to bring in the elusive 'number 9' lets everyone down

Bottom line is that you stand and fall by your home results, get those right and by n large you keep your job. Failure to beat any of Dover, Nuneaton, Southport and Altrincham says it all.

Wrexham have a huge 150 birthday celebration day planned for Saturday. Can we be party poopers or will we be cannon fodder

Quoted from Maringer

As others have mentioned, our crossing was just rubbish tonight. Got in behind their defence on so many occasions it was untrue but barely a cross or cutback got near to one of our men. Must do better than that - Arnold's goal the other week showed how easy it should be when you get into a good position but we just weren't accurate tonight.

Difficult to do so when we mostly had one in the box against 5+ defenders

Despite our possession, I'll just point out they've had some chances that had me worried.

We didn't have enough men in the box in the first half especially, but things improved in the second. There were plenty of chances for us to get the ball to an attacker through a cross or a pass but most didn't get near our men. The cross for Paddy's header was one of the few decent ones we managed all night. Another was a cross which Brown (I think?) took off LJL's head in the first half.

With the possession which we had last night, we should have been peppering their goal but failed to do so and their keeper only had a few saves to make.

Quoted from Stevie Saunders

Quite surprised at the restraint and it's good to read

Box to box, passing, movement, desire,,,,9/10
In and around the box, cutting edge, bravery, trickery, guile, intelligence...1/10

Says it all; results business, goals are everything

If, and it might be a big if, Hurst can get a 'jack in the box' striker to the club it might (just might) turn things around... but even I don't quite believe that as I write it

A bloke next to me summed it up brilliantly IMO - "it's not sh*te, it's not crap, but it's not good enough"

Two positives: team are playing for Hurst - you don't put that amount of energy in if you don't give a crap and we have the second best defensive record in the league.

PLEASE Paul find a goal scorer

That sums up the entire reign of Hurst (and Scott) with his/their failure to sign a regular goalscorer. Only Hearn in the last 4 years has looked capable enough and he spent most of his time on the treatment table.

We are solid, sometimes play some decent football but just cannot score the goals to turn our umpteen draws into victories. This problem goes right back to when Hearn first got injured. We have never replaced his goal threat.

It goes back even further actually, we've not fallen this amount of divisions solely because of poor defending, names such as T Wright, Proudlock, Butler and far too many more for me to recall this early in the morning litter the last 10 years. Too many poor signings, too many decent ones that turn ordinary as soon as the ink's dried.

Quoted from ginnywings

That sums up the entire reign of Hurst (and Scott) with his/their failure to sign a regular goalscorer. Only Hearn in the last 4 years has looked capable enough and he spent most of his time on the treatment table.

We are solid, sometimes play some decent football but just cannot score the goals to turn our umpteen draws into victories. This problem goes right back to when Hearn first got injured. We have never replaced his goal threat.

For the last 3 seasons, Hearn was our marquee signing. He showed us what he could do in the first season but then, of course, his injuries meant that we spent most of the time the last two seasons without a 'main man' up front. This was pretty unfortunate for Scott and Hurst's plans and you can perhaps understand why they didn't have the funds available to replace him during those two seasons.

This year, Hurst has simply failed to sign a marquee striker to replace the departing Hearn, which is a real surprise. If we had signed a striker who hadn't quite managed to do the job expected of him (an Ashcroft-lite), you might understand, but the fact that nobody, but for Pittman (and bit-part player Oates) has joined our striking 'ranks' is just ridiculous at this stage of the season.

Hearn, Cook, Southwell, Tounkara - that's four strikers from last season who have gone, but we've replaced them with just one permanent signing, Pittman! If you were being (very) generous, I suppose you could say that Arnold can be played as a striker and Hurst has been unlucky that he's not been available.

Unless one or two of the few attackers we do have in the squad hit an unexpected purple patch, I'm sure that Hurst must realise that he needs to sign a striker this week. I reckon he's got perhaps a couple of games left before the axe falls.

About the only positive at the moment is that the defence is doing OK after a wobble and the return of Thomas ought to strengthen us further in this regard, but draws don't get you anywhere.

Quoted from Maringer

For the last 3 seasons, Hearn was our marquee signing. He showed us what he could do in the first season but then, of course, his injuries meant that we spent most of the time the last two seasons without a 'main man' up front. This was pretty unfortunate for Scott and Hurst's plans and you can perhaps understand why they didn't have the funds available to replace him during those two seasons.

This year, Hurst has simply failed to sign a marquee striker to replace the departing Hearn, which is a real surprise. If we had signed a striker who hadn't quite managed to do the job expected of him (an Ashcroft-lite), you might understand, but the fact that nobody, but for Pittman (and bit-part player Oates) has joined our striking 'ranks' is just ridiculous at this stage of the season.

Hearn, Cook, Southwell, Tounkara - that's four strikers from last season who have gone, but we've replaced them with just one permanent signing, Pittman! If you were being (very) generous, I suppose you could say that Arnold can be played as a striker and Hurst has been unlucky that he's not been available.

Unless one or two of the few attackers we do have in the squad hit an unexpected purple patch, I'm sure that Hurst must realise that he needs to sign a striker this week. I reckon he's got perhaps a couple of games left before the axe falls.

About the only positive at the moment is that the defence is doing OK after a wobble and the return of Thomas ought to strengthen us further in this regard, but draws don't get you anywhere.

Really?, the Southport and Dartford's goals and the free headers we let them have last night (thankfully they weren't good enough) would suggest otherwise.

They were poor and made us look like world beaters up to their box and from thereon our weakness showed, going over old ground I know, but we should have got a couple of strikers in weeks ago.

In fairness to Hurst after scoring 13 goals in two consecutive matches he would have thought that goal scorers would be the least of his problems especially after starting the season with the obvious choices injured, however saying that we all must have had that feeling that every time a striker was signed by another club other than us we could have done better, now we are chasing around panic buying through mis management IMO.

I still think all is not lost yet but the club needs a new input of ideas and players, and I`m not confident that Hurst can provide this, too negative in style and outlook

Quoted from arryarryarry

Really?, the Southport and Dartford's goals and the free headers we let them have last night (thankfully they weren't good enough) would suggest otherwise.

We've got the second best defensive record in the division, only bettered by Barnet.