Just back

Quoted from headingly_mariner

You can count on one hand the times he's given the ball away. He's been excellent this season and it makes a change for our problems not to be in centre mid. I can't think of a team that have overrun us in midfield this season.

Football teams at all levels need a player that does what Berrett is doing for us. Fernandinho at City being a very good example. If I could criticise him yesterday, it's that he sometimes could be a bit braver at getting a shot away.

Just to add to the anti Woolford comments, I noticed he was "blowing" during the pre-match warm up. He is a clever footballer but not fit. DJ should be given more time in the team on the left.

Sorry, I cannot agree with supposed supporters chanting “You don’t know what you’re doing” against your own team/ manager whilst the game is going on. If Hooper or DJ had won the game, what would we have said then? Complain afterward.

Yes, I didn’t agree with the subs, but I’m not the manager. I felt the atmosphere in the Upper late in the second half was white toxic and unpleasant. Too many “fans” that are quiet as mice when we’re playing okay, but really vociferous when things aren’t going so well. In fact seem to relish that we’re not playing well so the can shout abuse at anyone and anything.

Made me think, that although I’ve got my season ticket, much more of that atmosphere, rather than the football on show will drain any enjoyment for me and make me think twice about going.

Probably get slagged for this, but that’s my take.

I think Cloudy's assessment is spot on. There just isn't any flair in League 2 at all; not yet anyway. I'm yet to see a side that look fluid and dangerous but they may be yet to come to BP. It's all about being fit and organised and hard to break down, with a safety first attitude and it is completely, mind numbingly dull. I have never been more bored with football than i am right now.

Those that say others should be given a chance are living more in hope than expectation. Is Tombola really going to make a difference, or Cardwell, who has virtually zero experience? Most fans think the answer is to change everything, but in reality, unless the players brought in are a marked improvement on what you already have, then it's usually more of the same. Tombola is not a marked improvement on what we have i don't think. If he was, he would be playing, because despite all the protestations that the management don't know what they are doing, they do actually know more than we do.

While we are not losing, the team is going to stay virtually unchanged. The only hope for me for this season is that we can inject a bit more creativity as we go along. Hopefully, some players yet to play will spice the team up a bit. I'm thinking Osborne and Asante etc, and possibly some new faces in January. My hope is that Slade and Wilko are building something worth having in the long run, because when all is said and done, they have not been here that long.

Hope is all we have as footy fans.

I just think we lack pace going forward. I really line Jones and if we had Dembele out wide and someone upfront with Jones with some pace we'd see a big improvement going forward. Every game I've seen (only 4 this season) each time I've felt we've needed just 1 more player going forward with some pace. We seem a  good team to counter but just haven't got that extra bit of pace upfront. I really enjoyed the 1st half yesterday, second half was tough with the wind but the centre backs must stop hoofing it into the wind because it clearly isn't going to work.

Quoted from NorthseaMariner

Sorry, I cannot agree with supposed supporters chanting “You don’t know what you’re doing” against your own team/ manager whilst the game is going on. If Hooper or DJ had won the game, what would we have said then? Complain afterward.

Yes, I didn’t agree with the subs, but I’m not the manager. I felt the atmosphere in the Upper late in the second half was white toxic and unpleasant. Too many “fans” that are quiet as mice when we’re playing okay, but really vociferous when things aren’t going so well. In fact seem to relish that we’re not playing well so the can shout abuse at anyone and anything.

Made me think, that although I’ve got my season ticket, much more of that atmosphere, rather than the football on show will drain any enjoyment for me and make me think twice about going.

Probably get slagged for this, but that’s my take.

I doubt you'll be slagged off, it's an honest opinion put in a fair way and we all witness the so-called 'fans' you mention.

. The main issue is this.." If Hooper or DJ had won the game,"

I'm not sure just how many more weeks/months/years my sanity can take of mulling over multiple 'ifs' from almost every game. Slade deserves credit for making a team that is hard to beat. But with the halfway stage of the season rolling in he has to figure out why we're firing blanks, no matter what permutation of the various attacking options he goes for.

Also tend to agree that to date we have not seen a "good" away team when it comes to quality and most games are following a very similar pattern and speaking to Lincoln fans in the pub last night this is reiterated by their experiences. Interestingly their last two home games ended 0-0 and their Opponents Crawley & Cambridge & like us Lincoln lack a goalscorer.

This being the case I just feel it strengthens the argument to try and play a different style particularly as we do not have a centre forward who is particularly physical or good in the air. There guy yesterday although not a great finisher was certainly a handful & created space a plenty for team mates.

Back to town and IMO when the game is like yesterday, and the previous 3 home matches, why not change the style & play the game on the floor with perhaps Cardwell or Hooper, who seems better with that type of approach, mining Jones.

I accept Tombola is not a world beater but just feel he has something to offer as an impact sub with 20-30 minutes remaining, him on the right with Dembele or DJ on left with Cardwell/Hooper & jones may give us some real pace and a chance to get at the opposition. Get them turning & drag centre halves away from centre of field where they dominate the aerial battles. On those odd occasions we did that yesterday Cambridge were all over the place and appeared to lack any confidence or composure. Trouble is we only play in this way on a rare number of occasions each match.

Hopefully, Osbourne may return wide left instead of Woodford and give us that bit extra going forward as he can certainly beat his man.

Defence are Ok but the fact that they do need to sit deep is probably the major factor in us having to play so many long balls and that Dembele does most of his dribbling around the half way line.

Certainly, not that easy on the eye at present. As for comment re atmosphere in Upper Findus I sit around 44 and other than boos for subs and odd one at the end heard nothing to suggest a toxic atmosphere more a resignation that nothing has changed for the better entertainment wise since the season started.

Give Woolford a FB with a bit of pace and you’ll se a difference, he’s a clever player who needs an energetic partner who can get into space quickly.

Going forward though when Osborne is fit Do we consider a shift to 4-3-3?

                            Macca
             Davis Clarke Collins Dixon
             Summerfield Osborn Berret
                  Dembele Jones DJ

Though the above might not be the 11 we would go with I am not convinced with the current squad 4-4-2 is working that well in terms of creating shots on goal. I personally would like to see Bolarinwa involved somewhere as he is the only on with real pace

I think the booing etc is way too premature.

We're a damn sight better than we were earlier on in the season and I'd rather wait to see how January pans out. I'm sure Slade knows he needs a forward. I'm also sure that the 'improvements' we've made don't feel like that right now but we've gone from relegation material to within a sniff of playoffs over the past 10 games. We've turned losses into draws, its still not pretty but it's better.

If we can now start to turn some of those draws into wins then who knows, but booing the team can only have a negative impact on an improving side.

Although both Berrett and Summerfield have been much improved this season, I'm still not sure we have the physicality to play a central three in midfield without more defensive support out wide. Especially when you consider we've got no pace at all in defence.

It's a bit of a conundrum for us at the moment - where are we going to put Osbourne in the current line-up once he returns from injury? I don't think Slade will drop Woolford as he seems to prefer to trust the experienced players. Perhaps we'll see Osbourne coming on as a sub for one of the wide players with 20-odd minutes to go, though this would mean effectively playing him out of position whilst leaving wingers on the bench.

We've made ourselves difficult to beat with the current 4-4-2, but do we have players in the squad to become more of a threat up front with this formation? Not so sure.