Gamesmanship

Make an effort to win your home game in ninety minutes and no probs, not Mills fault I would suggest

If the heed had agreed to deciding it on the first date we wouldn't be in this situation ?

Quoted from highcliff mariner

If the heed had agreed to deciding it on the first date we wouldn't be in this situation ?

To be fair, they are under no obligation to agree to a stipulation which would give the home team in the original tie (ie us) an advantage.

Quoted from pizzzza

To be fair, they are under no obligation to agree to a stipulation which would give the home team in the original tie (ie us) an advantage.

I agree. Gateshead want to try and win the trophy and I guess are delighted that they got a chance to proceed by getting us back to their place. This no replay thing should be the rule or not, the half way house arrangement cant be right.

I cannot see the smaller clubs in this competition agreeing to scrap replays. The chance of getting a Bristol Rovers or even us back to their ground could keep a club going for another couple of years.

We simply should have gone for it in the home tie

Agreed. We had home advantage and could take the lead in dictating things. We did not go for it.  We also had the opportunity to lose the game and concentrate on the league as they say. Neither option was pursued by the manager and/or club.  (I hope that we do not pay the penalty by having our league games and promotion push disrupted).

I'm surprised Gateshead thought a home replay would be advantageous. Their home form is poor of late and we'd lost our 2 home games before this tie.

Quoted from Abdul19

I'm surprised Gateshead thought a home replay would be advantageous. Their home form is poor of late and we'd lost our 2 home games before this tie.

Come on Abdul, "thought" and "football clubs" are mutually exclusive concepts !

It's just one of those things that has spiralled out of control. It would have been easily solved if Town had thought about winning the home tie but .............

Add to this the lack of real interest from the fans , the cost of staging the match isn't worth it .  Do we know how much we have made up to now this season from this cup competition .?  

Play it on a Wednesday afternoon , open the gates , no floodlight cost .

Quoted from DocTower

Add to this the lack of real interest from the fans , the cost of staging the match isn't worth it .  Do we know how much we have made up to now this season from this cup competition .?  

Play it on a Wednesday afternoon , open the gates , no floodlight cost .

I seem to remember this happening in 1959 (OK long time ago I know!) in the FA Cup. Town had beaten Man City in a 3rd Round replay and had to play Nottingham Forest in the 4th Round on a Wednesday afternoon at the City Ground. We lost 4-0 and Forest went on to win the Cup. Don't think many made the trip from here and I'd imagine it was a small crowd anyway.

Quoted from BIGChris

We simply should have gone for it in the home tie

You can say that for most home games we've played this season. And although our away record is decent, we have laboured needlessly when all we ever needed to do was at least match their committment and we would have cruised if we'd really pushed on. Our defensive record isn't the be all and end all, I'd be happy for us to push higher up the pitch, be more dynamic, use our pace up top as we'd outscore every team in this league. Sure, we'd get caught occasionally but we'd be much better off points wise IMO.

It ISN'T all the fans fault, away from home our fans are spectaculary supportive, the noise and numbers are immense. At home, the manager and the players have to do their bit, the important bit - they HAVE to attack more, they have to throw caution to the wind and the BP crowd will get behind them. Personally speaking, and I know a few of my mates feel the same way, I am sick of hearing from PH about the opponents strengths, it's okay making the occasional tweak here and there - perhaps asking the full back not to push on in certain situations, asking a midfielder to track the runs of a certain player, keeping certain players on their weaker foot etc, but it appears we often change shape to accomodate these teams which is too much. I think the fans have taken onboard what has been asked of them, but patience is running thin and I wonder if PH would consider his own decisions regarding praising opposiition and how we set up too?

Arrogant or not, and I feel we need a touch of arrogance, we are a big fish in a small pond and our lads should feel like lions running out into the colloseum ready to consume their prey - I wonder if sometimes they feel they are the prey.

Credit to PH for Saturday, we played with a high line, a good tempo and closed down all over the pitch. We started from the first whistle and despite going a goal down, we didn't lose heart and went on to win comfortably. Let's take this on, the most important game is the next game (unless it's the Trophy), then the game after that. We must attack, we are a long way behind the top of the league so we have to go for three points in every game. I feel the conference is very weak this season so now is our chance as long as we open up.

Mansfield Town came from a similar, if not worse position a couple of seasons ago and won the league and I would say we are a better team now that that Mansfield side. They just had a clear pattern of play, they attacked teams, albeit in a very different style to ourselves but they fought their way out - we can do it too and do it with a swagger!