Just back

Oh my holy god. Embarrasing and useless. Im speechless, cannot believe how bad we were

Quoted from Hagrid

Oh my holy god. Embarrasing and useless. Im speechless, cannot believe how bad we were

At least Morecambe are just as/if not worse  

It's actually worse than our worst last season. Absolutely everyone in the team looks clueless about what they are doing, huge holes in our formation that make it easy to exploit, no pace or creativity anywhere on the pitch, stupid mistakes.

It's pathetic.

Probably the worst display I have ever seen by us, the honeymoon period is over.
I'm still in shock.

Quoted from promotion plaice

Probably the worst display I have ever seen by us, the honeymoon period is over.
I still in shock.

Hope you didnt get a season ticket

Quoted from promotion plaice

Probably the worst display I have ever seen by us, the honeymoon period is over.
I still in shock.

I felt the same today as I did watching that Tommy Forecast debut game, just completely shocked at how laughably bad it was. I'd be laughing my behind off if it were the other team.

Quoted from realist

Hope you didnt get a season ticket

I did.  

Crewe 6-0 up

I'm speechless at how bad that was.

WTF?

Seriously, WTF?

That was awful. Awful selection, awful tactics and awful substitutions. Wtf was Jolley doing putting Reece Hall-Johnson at LWB!

Lacking in quality in too many positions. We are a hoof ball side with two strikers who struggle in the air. Thought FGR were decent and had clearly spent money.

It’s early days but we are in desperate need of a striker and a couple of wingbacks.

Saw the starting line up and didnt hold out much hope......Dixon, Woolford, Welsh offer no pace ...formation/players offer no width...
Schoolboy errors all round compounded the above......
Woeful passing...zero movement...
FGR were slick, bright and inventive...we were pedestrian.

More hoofball than Slade's era.

Post edit - oh and the cuppa tea at half time was fking luke warm and awful.

That's about as bad as it gets.

Putting to one side the fact we were a total shambles, and putting aside the fact that FGR were miles better than us in every department; what i'm getting sick to the back teeth of is boring, pointless, clueless hoofball. I'm actually shocked at our tactics, so bad were they. We have not progressed at all from our first season back in the league. Meanwhile FGR are going from strength to strength, and it sickens me.

That game just knocked off at least 500, probably a 1000 fans already. Early days yet and you sometimes get strange, high scoring results at the beginning of the season, but i didn't see anything to get me thinking much has changed. Their quality was at least two notches above ours, and they played the ball out from the back, through midfield, then on to the front areas excellently. In fact, they played just how i wish we could, but haven't for a very long time. Disillusioned and running out of enthusiasm.

Quoted from ginnywings

That's about as bad as it gets.

Putting to one side the fact we were a total shambles, and putting aside the fact that FGR were miles better than us in every department; what i'm getting sick to the back teeth of is boring, pointless, clueless hoofball. I'm actually shocked at our tactics, so bad were they. We have not progressed at all from our first season back in the league. Meanwhile FGR are going from strength to strength, and it sickens me.

That game just knocked off at least 500, probably a 1000 fans already. Early days yet and you sometimes get strange, high scoring results at the beginning of the season, but i didn't see anything to get me thinking much has changed. Their quality was at least two notches above ours, and they played the ball out from the back, through midfield, then on to the front areas excellently. In fact, they played just how i wish we could, but haven't for a very long time. Disillusioned and running out of enthusiasm.

I bet you are glad you did not renew your season ticket Ginny.

The worst ever ever EVER..

Hope jolley says it how bad and pathetic that was today.

Quoted from jonnyboy82

The worst ever ever EVER..

Hope jolley says it how bad and pathetic that was today.

He should admit that he got it wrong today. Picked a team that didn't play together all pre season, chose a formation that they have yet to get down with said team. None of them knew what their role was at all and some players were in positions they don't even play.

Quoted from grimsby pete

I bet you are glad you did not renew your season ticket Ginny.

Not glad Pete. I want to want to buy one, but at the moment, i don't. There is an all pervasive sense of mediocrity about the club.

Well I didn't see that coming!

I think MJ made some fundemental selection errors... Cook isn't a striker, Didn't even realise Woolford was playing until he came off and both wing backs struggled to get up and down which is a huge part of the 352 system. Dixon is a decent enough defender but lacks the mobility and technical ability to play wing-backs. Clifton, for all effort was poor in possession.

What on earth was Collins thinking when he played that ball.... It's defending 101 that when playing a backpass you pass it either side of the goal to stop situations just like that... This guy played in the PL for goodness sake!

We need to address the midfield, Hessenthaler was bright when he came on and offers bundle of energy but I worry about the creativity in a three of him Rose and Welsh.

IMO we desoerately need a recognised striker and a mobile LWB this week!!

The shining light for me I suppose is that this time last season we'd just beat Chesterfield 3-1 away and look how the season ended up. The first game ultimately means very little and we WILL improve and learn from today!

good grief that was bad, why didnt he change tactics and match forest green, they totally dominated midfield from start to finish , long season ahead i fear

1. Clifton is not a wing back or a full back.
2. Hall-Johnson is not a left footed footballer (why not Fox?)
3. Cook is not a striker (why not Vernam?)
4. Grey is a excrement colour for a goalie kit
5. We have just been completely outplayed by a club whose lack of fans is embarrassing.
6. How much have we got left in the piggybank?

Think im in the minority but i thought woolford did okay. The only who tried to create something

I said ages ago that we didn't have the players to play 3-5-2 and got a lot of flak for it. I stand by it. None of our full backs, except maybe RHJ are suited to it giving us no width at all. I don't know why Jolley didn't plan on sticking with the 4-2-3-1 which worked so well at the end of last season. The defence will be more comfortable, we'll have enough men in the middle of the pitch to be competitive, we'll get the best out of Hooper coming in from the left and on the right we could put Clifton but could probably do with buying another wide player or two. 3-5-2 is great if everyone knows their roles and the players are suited to it. Clearly we didn't know our roles and we're not suited to it.

Why would you play Dixon after not playing him in pre-season? Why did Hessenthaler not play? Clifton is not a RB and had a shocker.

Not j7mping on the bandwagon but when FGR players have the time to take 3 and 4 touches in midfield without any pressure they will look good. Thought that Welsh,as captain and holding midfielder, should be shouting at the players in front of him.
Rose worked hard but Woolford gave nothing. If we are to play a holding midfielder we need some energy to go forward and press the ball.
I don't see Cook as a number 9 but possibly along with Vernam as sitting behind a main striker.
Wing backs do not work without players that can both tackle and have loads of pace.
I look forward to changes for the next game

I'm going for the one and only positive from that debacle, and is that we were soooo bad none of them are going to get away with another display like that and therefore our shortcomings can't be papered over and will (or at least should be) addressed sooner rather than later.
That's all I've got.

  

I think 352 is too easy to nullify even if you have some of the best players in the league. Granted forest green were standing off by that point, but the players looked more comfortable instantly.

3-5-2 won’t see out September. Clifton is a fine footballer but he was run ragged today. Hoof ball is pointless when you’ve Cook and Hooper up front.

Like everyone else, I’m just gobsmacked.

Thing is we got no wingers in the building so im pretty sure we will see this 352 for a while yet..

He has put all his eggs in one basket with this formation.

We made the veggies look like World beaters, need a complete rethink for next week, why play a team that had no previous pre season game time.

Shocking! still got plenty of time to improve though, first job buy Macca anew kit

NO DEFENCE.
NO MIDFIELD.
NO ATTACK.
Outplayed, out thought and outmuscled.

In short, WTF WAS THAT ???

Gavin Gunning was absolutely immense won every ball in the air and on the floor.

Laural and Hardy defending blame the jersey colour? FFS how lame is that?? DID COLINS EVEN LOOK? WHY WAS MACCA NEAR THE FECKNG CORNER FLAG??? Then Hall Johnson doing another bloody wonder back pass.

FFS I NEED A DRINK.

Disgraceful performance my 21 pounds will be staying in my pocket next match.

Having been to the Donny game pre-season, I could see shape, movement and crisp passing. All that had gone out the window today. Let's accept that Clifton and Dixon are not wing backs. From the present squad we should have Hall-Johnson as RWB with Fox on the left. The midfield 3 should be Walsh, Rose and Hessenthaller and the front 2 should be Hooper and Vernham and strick with it..

The 532 was awful (its not 352 everytime they lined up it was a flat back 5). Clifton isn't a wing back and shouldn't be out there, get Hall-Johnson in his natural position. Dixon had no hope having no to little support having to deal with marking the winger and overlapping fullback time and time again. Static CBs ment they always had a man over somewhere and a static midfield allowed them to pass round us at will and leave the 2 strikers unsupported. Pointless Slade esq hoof balls to two strikes who were never going to win the ball. A lucky pen for our goal and commical defending for all 4 of theirs. Did I miss anything.

Please can we go back to 451/433 that we ended last season on and ended the match on today. Start Hessenthalalalalalalala in midfeild Vernam if he's fit enough and start Hall-Johnson at RB.

Hooper and Vernam will not keep us up.

Thought FGR looked fitter, their passing was slick, fast and accurate. If we played 3.5.2 why was their huge gaps in midfield which they exploited to the full? Thier wingers and wing backs played neat fast passing and got behind our defence almost at will. Dixon and Woolford looked knackered.

Goes down as one o the worst team performances ever, never seen B.P. empty so fast after that third blundder goal.

What disappointed me so much was the hoof ball
I thought we were better than that now - the pre season signings suggested we would have more quality
MJ said in his interview the players did not carry out the game plan - I hope that is right cos there didn't seem to be one on the pitch

The mistakes were awful but not the reason we lost - even at 1-0 up we looked second best by a long way; had that OG not happened we were getting overrun anyway and I am 100% certain FGR would have won

FGR looked a yard faster, more creative and attacked with numbers; we just hoofed the ball to strikers who are not exactly the biggest and barely retained the ball for more than 3 seconds

Hugely disappointing - can accept losing if we have a plan and you can see what we are trying to do...but this afternoon I couldn't see any shape or plan

Honeymoon period over

I can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed. A carbon copy of last seasons ineptness with a couple of monumental individual errors thrown in. All positive Jolley related thoughts have been thrown out the window, for the moment at least.

Very questionable selections, as much as Dixon was actually ok today, his lack of mobility, speed and ability on the ball limit the team with him as the sole left sided player. Unfortunately he was mirrored by Clifton on the other side. The lad is never a wing back/full back, no pace, doesn’t look like he’ll ever beat a man and his crossing was woeful. Hessenthaler offered something different when he came on and has to start at Macc. Very limited service to the front men, but the thing that stood out too me was how little movement there was off the ball. So many times a player would have the ball and have no options so ended up either giving it away, going long or backwards.

I really hope Forest Green are a really good side that will up there come May because at times they destroyed us with the ball on the ground. Worrying start but plenty of time for improvement.

Even allowing for the calamitous errors, the thing that worried me most once again was  the total lack of creativity, no sharp passing and very little movement, i felt sorry for Cook (who i think could be a useful player) because the only 'service' he received was above his head against 6ft+ defenders, that was not what most supporters  hoped for, or expected and it was extremely disappointing.
Contract that with FGR, crisp passing, good movement and comfortable on the ball, we may have made them look world beaters, but no way will they be what i heard on RH as 'potential strugglers' judged on what i saw today they will be a top half team.
MJ  made a bizarre team selection for me, 'One of our own' isn't a wing back, neither is Dixon, what has Fox done wrong? He was excellent for us last season and is more suited to a wing back role than Dixon,
I didnt see any of the pre season friendlies, but reading this forum and reports, Hessenthaler has played well, yet he was left out of the starting line up.Very strange.
I hope that this is an eye opener for MJ and his coaching team, because many more performances like this will soon
lose the 'feel good factor' we have had since last seasons escape.
UTM

Quoted from MuddyWaters

1. Clifton is not a wing back or a full back.
2. Hall-Johnson is not a left footed footballer (why not Fox?)
3. Cook is not a striker (why not Vernam?)
4. Grey is a excrement colour for a goalie kit
5. We have just been completely outplayed by a club whose lack of fans is embarrassing.
6. How much have we got left in the piggybank?

Can't argue with any of that!

I'd love to know the thought process behind the grey keeper strip. I'm sure there's some scientific or heavily researched reason behind it but to me it just means McKeown gets lost in the sea of black and white shirts in the pony and difficult to pick out.

That's not excusing Collins though as he clearly lost all concentration in the that moment and not a mistake you'd expect someone of his experience to make! That was a pivitol goal at a pivitol time and screwed Town out of three points!

Quoted from jimgtfc

I can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed. A carbon copy of last seasons ineptness with a couple of monumental individual errors thrown in. All positive Jolley related thoughts have been thrown out the window, for the moment at least.

Very questionable selections, as much as Dixon was actually ok today, his lack of mobility, speed and ability on the ball limit the team with him as the sole left sided player. Unfortunately he was mirrored by Clifton on the other side. The lad is never a wing back/full back, no pace, doesn’t look like he’ll ever beat a man and his crossing was woeful. Hessenthaler offered something different when he came on and has to start at Macc. Very limited service to the front men, but the thing that stood out too me was how little movement there was off the ball. So many times a player would have the ball and have no options so ended up either giving it away, going long or backwards.

I really hope Forest Green are a really good side that will up there come May because at times they destroyed us with the ball on the ground. Worrying start but plenty of time for improvement.

Opening day results can sometimes be odd, and generally mean nothing as to how the season will pan out, but I thought FGR were brilliant. Credit were credit is due - they must have shelled out serious money to assemble a team of that quality. I know we made them look even better, but after the first 15 minutes they took complete control and didn't really let us have a kick.

Quoted from realist

Hope you didnt get a season ticket

I hate you

Quoted from jonnyboy82

Thing is we got no wingers in the building so im pretty sure we will see this 352 for a while yet..

He has put all his eggs in one basket with this formation.

It reminds me a little of when Hurst and Scott signed McLaughlin, Kerr etc to play 4-3-3 and after 2 or 3 games realised it was a disaster and had a very limited plan B. That's not to say I don't think 352 will work, I just think it may take a little longer for the player to get used to the system and their individual roles.

Despite today I have 100% faith in Jolley and his management team to devise a system that gets the best out of the squad... As we know from the first game last year, it means absolutely nothing in terms of how the season will pan out.

A lot of the players looked undercooked to me. Not so much fitness wise, but decision making football brain sharp. Some of them have got less than two games under their belt pre-season. Surprising team selection. I always thought if we had the four of Welsh, Rose, Hessenthaler and Vernam in central areas we'd be ok, so surprised to see the energy, pace and inventiveness of Vernam and Hessenthaler on the bench.

My reflections based upon one game.. I reserve the right to change my mind in games going forward if there's any improvement..

McKeown - Didn't really have much to do other than pick the ball out of the back of the net

Clifton - Poor today. Looked exactly what he is, a young lad learning his trade. Fresh legs off the bench looks a better role for him at the moment.

Dixon - Not one of our worst performers, yet didn't do too much going forward and got caught out defending once or twice. Not the answer to our left side.

Davis - Needs games, can't head the ball but looks like he can pass. More of a central of three defender covering two that attack the ball, so not sure why he played on the right.

Whitmore - A bit frantic at times, too early to make judgement.

Collins - I know he gets a lot of love on here but I watched him closely and thought he was garbage from the get go. Free headers straight to the opposition, time on the ball yet passes to the opposition. And how deep were we yet again? Nothing's changed since last season, and as Clarke has left we seem to be accommodating Collins's lack of pace.. again. Have a look at FGR's last chance of the first half. DC should have been favourite to win the ball or at the very least shepherd the forward out wide, but within ten yards the forward got his shot off. It's scary and we've got 45 more games to manage that fallibility. I'd much rather see Famewo in there with the other two and MJ drill them to death on the training ground. I know I'll get hammered for saying all that, but DC flatters to deceive and his positioning and marshalling of our defence affects our playing structure far too much.

Woolford - Meh. quietly ineffective and went missing when we didn't have the ball.

Rose - About the only starter to come out with any credit.

Welsh - Looked a bit rusty but didn't lose a single challenge. Looked better when Hessenthaler and Vernam came on.

Hooper - Not a back to the goal kind of player and looked weaker than he should be physically.

Cook - Worked hard, but in the way that a manager sends a forward on at 2-0 up to run his balls off closing defenders down to see a game out.

Out of the subs, Vernam and Hessenthaler showed strong evidence of why they should be starters.


We definitely need a forward, a left wing back and possibly strengthening at the back on this performance as well as another ball player in midfield after the evidence of this game. Hopefully it's a one-off and we'll improve after getting a kick up the arsse off an average FGR side and hopefully I'll get the chance to improve my opinions of one or two of our players.. fingers crossed. And hopefully MJ will act accordingly.. if it has to happen, a performance like this is preferable happening before the transfer window slams shut..

Pretty much the whole team showed a lack of composure on the ball. FGR didn't, and that was the difference. I'd rather a player get caught in possession one out of five times than give the ball away four out of five times. Just too scared to put a foot on the ball and shield it until a better pass became available.

One game doesn't make a season, but today was a proper reality check for many..

We looked remarkably one paced considering all these coaches that we have and all the sports science that we’ve supposedly implemented.

Alarming lack of a pattern of play to our game and feel we particularly lack any steel in midfield.

Don’t really see what Jordan Cook offers, and it’s pretty clear why Luton didn’t see him as a striker, as he hasn’t got that striker’s instinct.

I have no idea what Jolley was trying to achieve by putting RHJ on at left wing back. It was just madness.

Jolley insists he wants to play 3-5-2, but he’s brought in two players in Vernam and Cook who aren’t out-and-out strikers and probably are more suited to being either side of a striker in a 4-3-3.

A very familiar disappointing feeling this evening.

One of the worst displays by a Town team for yonks [even counting Slades shite ] The formation was wrong,the tactics were wrong, absolutely diabolical midfield, only Hooper showing any class but he can't be everywhere. Gunning best defender on the pitch. How can 13 players have an off day on the same day.  Bring back Disley,Pearson and Summerfield

To add to that, Clifton had one of the worst individual performances that I think I’ve ever seen at BP. Felt for the lad as he was getting a bit of stick from the Ponny. I like him as a player but shouldn’t have been played at RWB to start with.

Quoted from davmariner

To add to that, Clifton had one of the worst individual performances that I think I’ve ever seen at BP. Felt for the lad as he was getting a bit of stick from the Ponny. I like him as a player but shouldn’t have been played at RWB to start with.

Trust me he’s a bright prospect but not as a wingback he’s a centre mid a box to box midfielder who will create , but you are right fgr targettted him big time and he struggled but Jolley partly to blame imo leaving him isolated with Reid and mills

Went with a mate hoping to be excited by the Mariners, shall we get a season ticket ? Had been the conversation we shared recently.
Certainly not yet was the after match response.
Apart from the own goal we felt the back three did okay, although they will definitely be troubled by pace. Wing backs? Neither seemed suited to the role, not enough pace and both made poor use of any attacking possession they had. Midfield of Rose and Welsh? Both triers and worked hard enough but need someone with creativity to help them and both need to be more willing to receive the ball into feet as Town look to build up play. Their unwillingness to do so produces hoofball.
Woolford? Total lack of Pacheco the ball negates anything he does.
Strikers , Cook worked hard but lack of service made it extremely hard for him and unfortunately Hooper just looked rubbish!
So definitely not going to the box office for a season ticket yet!
Manager? His reaction to this will be key, formation has to fit the players at your disposal , not the way you want them to play.
See you soon but looking for massive improvement.
Noticeable difference in warm up routines regarding sharpness drills prior to kick off.

Jolley has to take the blame for today. We were poor for 90 minutes. The lineup and the system were all wrong. Clifton was stitched up playing wing-back. What’s wrong with RHJ all of a sudden? Likewise Dixon on the other side. Fox had his contract extended and did a great job after he arrived but he seems third choice now behind a right footer and it also seems MJ wants Koikki so hell be behind him too. Seems pointless.

Vernam on the bench behind Cook was a strange one. Maybe he’s lacking fitness but Cook has been out ill as well.

I can see why MJ wants to play with wing-backs - so we can get more players in their box, but I don’t think we have the team for it. With a big bid accepted for Angol I can’t see us changing back to 433 either otherwise that will be Vernam permanently benched because he won’t fit the system unless he plays wide like egghead tried last season. I also can’t see the staff scrapping the system they’ve decided is the best fit and one they’ve been working on all summer.

Anyway, it’s game one. I think if we’d won the game with a second half performance the same as the first it would papered over the cracks.

I’m happy with 352 next week but the personnel need a big shake up. If they struggle with it again we need to go back to 451 sharpish.

A rubbish day but luckily there are 45 left. Let’s hope everyone learns from this.

3-5-2 for about the first 30 seconds then swiftly into a 5-3-2 which was just ridiculous. They were playing with just one striker so we had 3 players in the middle not doing much as they swamped us in midfield and won every second ball going.

The squad we've got doesn't seem capable of 3-5-2 as, other than Hall-Johnson (who looked like a rabbit in the headlights), we've got no pace in the wide areas. Whitmore looked a bit cumbersome but will probably do better against the meaty strikers we sometimes face. Davis did OK, but no more. Welsh won a few tackles but sits so deep that there is really no point if you've got 3 at the back.

Cook worked hard and looked lively at times but with little end result as he was generally bullied by the central defenders. I think we've got the makings of a front 3 somewhere in the squad but it's not really clear yet what the combination might be.

I suppose Hessenthaler and Vernam looked a bit livelier when they came on so that is one small positive.

FGR looked a very capable and able team and it wouldn't surprise me if they were contenders for promotion but I doubt many teams will make it so ridiculously easy for them as we did.

I knew it was gonna be a excrement day when i see paul dixon as our wing back.

I know it’s first game but I’ve seen enough of Dixon to know I don’t want him in the team , not blaming him today for everything but I’ve seen enough of him to know he’s not good enough

Quoted from Bigdog

A lot of the players looked undercooked to me. Not so much fitness wise, but football brain sharp. Some of them have got less than two games under their belt pre-season. Surprising team selection. I always thought if we had the four of Welsh, Rose, Hessenthaler and Vernam in central areas we'd be ok, so surprised to see the energy, pace and inventiveness of Vernam and Hessenthaler on the bench.

My reflections based upon one game.. I reserve the right to change my mind in games going forward if there's any improvement..

McKeown - Didn't really have much to do other than pick the ball out of the back of the net

Clifton - Poor today. Looked exactly what he is, a young lad learning his trade. Fresh legs off the bench looks a better role for him at the moment.

Dixon - Not one of our worst performers, yet didn't do too much going forward and got caught out defending once or twice. Not the answer to our left side.

Davis - Needs games, can't head the ball but looks like he can pass. More of a central of three defender covering two that attack the ball, so not sure why he played on the right.

Whitmore - A bit frantic at times, too early to make judgement.

Collins - I know he gets a lot of love on here but I watched him closely and thought he was garbage from the get go. Free headers straight to the opposition, time on the ball yet passes to the opposition. And how deep were we yet again? Nothing's changed since last season, and as Clarke has left we seem to be accommodating Collins's lack of pace.. again. Have a look at FGR's last chance of the first half. DC should have been favourite to win the ball or at the very least shepherd the forward out wide, but within ten yards the forward got his shot off. It's scary and we've got 45 more games to manage that fallibility. I'd much rather see Famewo in there with the other two and MJ drill them to death on the training ground. I know I'll get hammered for saying all that, but DC flatters to deceive and his positioning and marshalling of our defence affects our playing structure far too much.

Woolford - Meh. quietly ineffective and went missing when we didn't have the ball.

Rose - About the only starter to come out with any credit.

Welsh - Looked a bit rusty but didn't lose a single challenge. Looked better when Hessenthaler and Vernam came on.

Hooper - Not a back to the goal kind of player and looked weaker than he should be physically.

Cook - Worked hard, but in the way that a manager sends a forward on at 2-0 up to run his balls off closing defenders down to see a game out.

Out of the subs, Vernam and Hessenthaler showed strong evidence of why they should be starters.


We definitely need a forward, a left wing back and possibly strengthening at the back on this performance as well as another ball player in midfield after the evidence of this game. Hopefully it's a one-off and we'll improve after getting a kick up the arsse off an average FGR side and hopefully I'll get the chance to improve my opinions of one or two of our players.. fingers crossed. And hopefully MJ will act accordingly.. if it has to happen, a performance like this is preferable happening before the transfer window slams shut..

Pretty much the whole team showed a lack of composure on the ball. FGR did, and that was the difference. I'd rather a player get caught in possession one out of five times than give the ball away four out of five times. Just too scared to put a foot on the ball and shield it until a better pass became available.

One game doesn't make a season, but today was a proper reality check for many..

I don't disagree but the biggest thing today was that FGR, at least on this performance, have better players. I think they would have beaten any of our personnel and formation today. They were superbly drilled as well and looked fitter - just a better team all round.

Kin ell calm down ladies.
Yes it was shot and a total embarrassment but it's the first game of a long season.
When God first came to Town it took him a while to get his new side to gel and then look what happened 👍
Let's look at things around Xmas and see where we are then.
UTM

Kin ell calm down ladies.
Yes it was excrement and a total embarrassment but it's the first game of a long season.
When God first came to Town it took him a while to get his new side to gel and then look what happened 👍
Let's look at things around Xmas and see where we are then.
UTM

Dixon is getting a hammering and I can’t see why. He actually tried to get us playing and was decent on the ball. Collins passed one in his own net, RHJ gave another one up on a plate, Harry Clifton had a learning experience and the 3rd goal was a free header.  
People need to accept that he’s playing for us, giving him excrement in the ground and making out he’s the worst player we’ve ever had won’t make him better. He’s not the worst player we’ve had and with better players around him will be useful.

Headingly as much as your entitled to your opinion paul dixon is absolute dog male masturbation.

Well, if I had world class players around me I could play a bit, but like Dixon still not good enough for Grimsby Town.

Quoted from jonnyboy82

Headingly as much as your entitled to your opinion paul dixon is absolute dog male masturbation.

There was plenty of dog excrement out there today so why people are picking on Dixon is beyond me.

The whole team were that bad that Gunning looked a world beater 😵😵😵😵

Goes without saying that we were dreadful. FGR were sharper and first to every loose ball. They looked physically fitter than us. And our individual and collective errors suggest we were mentally unprepared also.

4 proper pre-season matches. 2 of which were against NPL opposition. We looked like a team half way through a pre-season. Jolley is entitled to his opinion that what happens on the training ground is more importany than friendlies, but without checking I bet there isn’t another club in the EFL 72 who played so few proper matches.

Jolley probably sees himself as some sort of visionary new coach with new ideas. However you can’t reinvent the wheel. Preseason is about being prepared for day 1. We were miles off the pace today- physically and mentally.

If Jolley is still manager in 12 months I would expect we’d have the more conventional 7-8 friendly matches.

Actually I checked FGR. They had 9 pre-season matches. They had 2 fixtures on consecutive days twice, so probably means their players all got 7 games under them before today.

Their keeper today showed why you shouldn't hand out three-year deals based mainly on sentimentality. He won absolutely everything within 20 yards of his goal - throw-ins, corners, long balls, everything. Absolutely immense and a huge presence, we never even got close to causing their defence a problemm which is a worry when most of your attacking threat comes from set plays. McKeown's been here 7 years now and his command of the box has always been a problem, but for me he's shown no improvement at all in this part of his game - are we going to be stuck with this for the next three years while potentially missing out on opportunities available?

That aside, I think FGR had us sussed from minute 1 and we never showed any sign of shaking them off. Welsh marked out of the game and if we're planning to play out from the back, that position in front of the back 3/5 is crucial to the tempo and moving the ball/oppo around. He didn't get a sniff, so you're hoping for Rose or Woolford to make themselves available for the wing-backs or centre halfs but neither really seemed to want it, or at least very rarely got themselves into a position to receive it with a view to developing the play. Players didn't look comfortable with the ball at their feet, and that coupled with the lack of options meant the easy option was to clip it into the channels or onto the heads of their centre halves.

All that said, I'm not overly arsed and I think people need to calm down a bit. Obviously it's disappointing given the build up and the fact that the back of end of last season has been romanticised beyond all recognition, but all the wailing and gnashing of teeth is a bit embarassing. Are we going to make those kinds of mistakes - 25 yard own goals, free headers 7 yards out, mis-hit backpasses - every week? Of course not.

There's plenty to work on, but if you can't look at that today and laugh then fuckinell, you're taking it all too seriously.

Quoted from TAGG

There was plenty of dog excrement out there today so why people are picking on Dixon is beyond me.

The whole team were that bad that Gunning looked a world beater 😵😵😵😵

Probably because he has been cack in just about every game he has played.

Dixon would be in my top performers today. No, I don't think he's a particularly good player, but quite frankly it's pathetic that he's getting so much focus when there were 7 or 8 worse players than him today.

On that evidence and after Jolly's scathing comments about the team not sticking to the plan I will be very disappointed if he starts with that eleven again.

We really did look bereft of any ideas. Collins was dithering with the ball unable to find a player up front and was left with passing it back to a defender or Macca or even worse sticking it in his own fecking net.

Where was the five-man midfield? where was the playmaker? where was the movement OFF the ball?

FFS Where was somebody who actually WANTED the ball? Clifton looked out of his depth, in the end, he just did not want the ball he wasn't alone in that though.

We looked a complete shambles talk about plans on that evidence it was clear the players did not.could not play to the plan the starting eleven were not up to it.

We just looked laboured and lacking in ideas resorting in long aimless hoofs feeding Gav Gunning and co.

What happened to all that good short passing and movement in preseason?

To me, Jolley has to pick a different starting eleven Hessenthaler and Venaram should be part of it. In the preseason certainly, Hessenthaler looked good better than some of the others anyway..

He made one fantastic run from the flank and cut in from the by line causing havoc and was unlucky not to score or lay it back for a tap in.

Quoted from davmariner

To add to that, Clifton had one of the worst individual performances that I think I’ve ever seen at BP. Felt for the lad as he was getting a bit of stick from the Ponny. I like him as a player but shouldn’t have been played at RWB to start with.

Not surprised he struggled, he had two men an awful lot of the time today - they’d obviously targeted our right hand side

Well that was miserable.

I actually blame the players more than anyone else. If you are playing 3-5-2 then the idea is to pack the midfield therefore you have to play through the midfield on the deck. But we didn't do that so obviously something has gone awry and they weren't playing the game plan.

For their first goal whoever was on the backpost got his body into an awful position and allowed that header accross the goal and I've got to ask why nobody was pushing onto the man to stop the cross.

Their second goal was clearly just a balls up. Entirely Collins fault.

The third goal none of our defenders attacked the ball and it was a free header and RHJ backpass was appaling for the fourth.

Davis was the best defender and although he looked technically good still had a poor game. Collins and Clifton were quite simply dreadful.

Midfield, were constantly bypassed. Welsh got MOM not sure for what, but at least he didn't make any major errors. Woolford went missing. Rose was probably our best player.

Upfront the service to Cook was truly appalling, it's clear he isn't going to win much in the air, but having said that he didn't really make much. If Hooper is our main striker this season we will be relegated.

On the plus side Hessenthaller looked decent when he came on.

it's one game, I think Jolley has made mistakes preseason, especially with the number of games FGR just looked much sharper. But young managers make mistakes, Hurst made mistakes (Parslow @Chester for example) but he's clearly a good coach suspect we will be going back to last season formation fairly quickly.

Hopefully this is a bit like Braintree 5-0 for Hurst a bit of an aberration. Roll on Macclesfield.

Awful performance, we don't have the right personal for 5-3-2, we would need Koiki left and RHJ right, at the moment Jolley has to go back to last season formation.

We just booted the ball Slade style, no guile, no creativity, the forwards don't run the channels like Amond did.

We was awful 1st half, I thought at ht if we Win it will mask poor performance, I don't believe the Mckeown kit colour being the problem Collins just didn't look.

All the optimisation has gone, after Jolley did a job marketing the club.

Also what about the loud music the club had gone back to the guy and system where you can't hear a word he says.

I keep reading about it going back to slade hoofball ... what I saw was the opposite. They’ve obviously been drilled that we will play out from the back , fullbacks get out wide every opportunity. Just looked so predictable every time that FGR came out second half with the instructions not to give any town player time on the ball . You could instantly see the panic set it and the lads heads went and FGR just stepped up the passing when they won the ball in our half and did us easy .
The equaliser came from DC trying to do a clever pass up to Hooper ( who DC then tried to blame ) and then a panicked back pass under pressure led to OG of the season . Heads totally gone led to 2 more poor goals .
Go back to the 4231 that worked so well last season and a couple more signings , 1 a proper striker please !
Fair play to FGR they look a good side tho .

I don't mean to sound harsh, but I find it dispiriting to be starting another season with some players who proved, over the course of last season, that they weren't good enough. I was hoping that Hooper, Dixon and Woolford wouldn't be underlining that point yet again in this new era and we'd have better players representing us. You have to show faith in Jolley but I felt the team selection was bemusing and most of them look nowhere near fit enough, and, sad to say, short on desire/urgency/alertness.

What ska face said.

Well my neck is hurting from constantly looking up for the ball - I'm £21 quid worse off - my liver is now employee of the weekend - D-Ream song springs too mind for those who can remember it - but we won a test match against India - am I the only one wanting to go to work Monday morning and just erase from 3 till 5pm Saturday from my brain or shall my liver just keep doing the job for me!! UTM!!

Just been chatting to 4-1 (Muzzy)....trouble is he always bets on Town to win 4-1  

I didn’t go to the game so maybe my opinion isn’t as valid as those troopers who paid to watch that shambolic performance.

However...

Loved the way we ended last season - players playing in their best positions, keeping things simple, a simple formation, a bit of motivation, belief and old fashioned roll-your-sleeves-up hard work got us out of trouble.

All those principles, for some reason, seem to have disappeared over the summer based on that defeat.

I appreciate MJ will have philosophies and ideas that he’d like to implement with us but I’m clueless as to why we’ve abandoned what worked last season - and I don’t think we played as many pre-season games as we usually would to get the players completely comfortable with 3-5-2.

This will be a real test for MJ because when things like this happen, you’ll have players looking at the management team thinking: what do you know? You never even played the game at pro level.

I believe that this was just a blip but it heaps pressure on us to get a result at Macclesfield now. Plus, the opening day of the season is the worst time to put in your worst performance because it leaves fans wondering if they’ve just wasted hundreds of pounds on a season ticket sold to them with the promise that things will be different (although no one holds a gun to our head, granted).

Massively disappointing and frustrated but we’ve yet to see this result in context. Let’s hope it was an anomaly although my fear was that something like this was gonna happen. Just not felt comfortable with 3-5-2 in pre-season and we have players who are now on the back foot again. All good feeling has gone out the window.

Against Doncaster we saw the advantage of playing a right footed player left wing back with RHJ's goal but today we showed exactly why you need someone with a left foot there!

If we are sticking with this system then next week I would go:

McKeown
Davis Whitmore Famewo
RHJ Rose Welsh Hessenthaler Fox
Vernam Hooper

Angol to replace Hooper if he signs.

It's not the first time i have seen a newly built side look " a bit rusty" at the onset of the season. Clearly things need to be worked on and everyone is disappointed, but the management have to find the solutions. When we have gone a dozen games and settled into the season, i'm willing to bet the starting line up will be much different to what it was yesterday. Maybe not formation wise, time will tell on that, but certainly personnel wise.

In our first season back, Exeter got off to a stinker of a start, but hit their straps after about a dozen games and went on a mad run of form. They took us apart at BP in the same manner FGR did.

To be fair to MJ he did say in his interview that all that work over playing style in the previous six weeks was completely forgotten in 1 game !

Village Green looked a well drilled side and on that display will be promotion contenders come the end of the season.

Just one aspect that I noticed time and time again was how the two VGR central defenders consistently found their mid fielders when they headed clear. We , on the other hand, seemed to find either space or opposing mid-fielders. For all the stick he took on this site " Mad" Gav Gunning showed that in his natural position he is an effective defender. No frills, just clears the ball and consistently relieves the pressure and more often than not finds one of his own players.

Quoted from ska face

Their keeper today showed why you shouldn't hand out three-year deals based mainly on sentimentality. He won absolutely everything within 20 yards of his goal - throw-ins, corners, long balls, everything. Absolutely immense and a huge presence, we never even got close to causing their defence a problemm which is a worry when most of your attacking threat comes from set plays. McKeown's been here 7 years now and his command of the box has always been a problem, but for me he's shown no improvement at all in this part of his game - are we going to be stuck with this for the next three years while potentially missing out on opportunities available?

That aside, I think FGR had us sussed from minute 1 and we never showed any sign of shaking them off. Welsh marked out of the game and if we're planning to play out from the back, that position in front of the back 3/5 is crucial to the tempo and moving the ball/oppo around. He didn't get a sniff, so you're hoping for Rose or Woolford to make themselves available for the wing-backs or centre halfs but neither really seemed to want it, or at least very rarely got themselves into a position to receive it with a view to developing the play. Players didn't look comfortable with the ball at their feet, and that coupled with the lack of options meant the easy option was to clip it into the channels or onto the heads of their centre halves.

All that said, I'm not overly arsed and I think people need to calm down a bit. Obviously it's disappointing given the build up and the fact that the back of end of last season has been romanticised beyond all recognition, but all the wailing and gnashing of teeth is a bit embarassing. Are we going to make those kinds of mistakes - 25 yard own goals, free headers 7 yards out, mis-hit backpasses - every week? Of course not.

There's plenty to work on, but if you can't look at that today and laugh then fuckinell, you're taking it all too seriously.

I thought their goalkeeper was an absolute clown. Coming for everything is all well and good against our abject (statue like) set pieces yesterday, but against an organised team who actually place a blocker in to stop the goalkeeper you’ll probably see him make some howlers throughout the season.

Not quite a clown but he nearly fumbled a cross into his net.
The modern fashion for 'recycling' the ball as far back as the keeper is high risk. Macca favours his right foot and possibly stood to the side of the goal to makehimself available. Convinced that if he had worn Raspberry Ripple  kit Collins would have seen him.
Don't bin Collins. He is our best defensive header and was exemplary in preseason fitness wise.
Bin the grey kit!

After yesterday I can't really see what formation would suit this team. The team just carried on playing in pre-season fashion except they were playing against a decent team. It's all very well playing meaningless games against Clee and Brigg but what good does that do. To me everybody seemed to be playing out of position. How can we play 442 or any other formation-the new players are no better than those we got rid of-we need wingers and an out and out striker-not 10 players playing out of position trying to play to whatever yesterdays plan was. Talk about a plan B.

MJ picks his team depending on who the opposition are.  Today he totally underestimated FGRs quality and selected the wrong side. Whether it was himself  or someone else that did the homework on FGR  team this season got it badly wrong( that's if homework was done or watched last year's video) . With an expected decent crowd his best side should have been on the field today, no question.  Sadly MJ has lost a thousand plus fans today for a little bit of arrogance. I am a MJ fan and I'm sure he will get it right ,but  after today's calamity it's worrying. Yes it's the first game but so much was wrong, fingers crossed.

Quoted from golfer

After yesterday I can't really see what formation would suit this team. The team just carried on playing in pre-season fashion except they were playing against a decent team. It's all very well playing meaningless games against Clee and Brigg but what good does that do. To me everybody seemed to be playing out of position. How can we play 442 or any other formation-the new players are no better than those we got rid of-we need wingers and an out and out striker-not 10 players playing out of position trying to play to whatever yesterdays plan was. Talk about a plan B.

4-3-3 for me. Hooper and cook out wide. Vernam in the middle.

for my tuppence worth regards the Collins O.G ....

Macca went out of his area as soon as we won the throw in, presumably dropping into that channel to receive the ball direct from the throw in from RHJ.....
RHJ threw it to Collins instead.....
at that point IMO Macca should have returned "home"
Collins hesitated with the absolute lack of movement in front of him and then committed a double sin of playing the ball without looking and playing it between the sticks...

Blaming the kit is b*ll*cks ...

Root cause of that goal was Macca being AWOL.

Whether Macca was following the game plan and was supposed to be there as a set pattern play for those scenarios or whether he was there of his own accord is for MJ to sort out.

Quoted from marinerdazza

4-3-3 for me. Hooper and cook out wide. Vernam in the middle.

That would definitely be an improvement on yesterday as long as they tried to play to feet

Having seen the goals again, Macca was in completely the wrong position he was midway between the goal and the corner flag and right back on the line. He should have been between Collins and the goal, his primary job is to protect the goal and he clearly did not. Hall Johnson's backpass was a nevous panicky looking mishit effort having had planty of time. agree with other comments Macca is almost invisible in that grey outfit.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

I thought their goalkeeper was an absolute clown. Coming for everything is all well and good against our abject (statue like) set pieces yesterday, but against an organised team who actually place a blocker in to stop the goalkeeper you’ll probably see him make some howlers throughout the season.

He came for everything because he could - and did - win everything. Even one where we came in over two of their defenders and Cook well past the penalty spot, he spilled it slightly but still claimed it in the scramble. What he does in some hypothetical situation in the future is irrelevant - he's clearly confident in his ability and can back it up. I thought Dean Henderson was a clown, but he could back it up. A lot of young, decent goalkeepers have that in them. Sanchez is at Brighton and looked to be playing below his level, I'm just worried that w're not going to have that quality, or even the opportunity, for the next three years.

McKeown won't stop a cross unless it's floated right on his head or there's absolutely no other option, and that's because he'll back himself to stop a shot more than than prevent it getting that far. Not what you need.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

I thought their goalkeeper was an absolute clown. Coming for everything is all well and good against our abject (statue like) set pieces yesterday, but against an organised team who actually place a blocker in to stop the goalkeeper you’ll probably see him make some howlers throughout the season.

I think their manager had identified Rose's long throw as a possible threat and as such got the keeper to deal with it. We should have placed two guys in front of him and stopped his progress but unfortunately we weren't clever enough to do that.

Quoted from rancido

I think their manager had identified Rose's long throw as a possible threat and as such got the keeper to deal with it. We should have placed two guys in front of him and stopped his progress but unfortunately we weren't clever enough to do that.

And our corners. FGR left 2 players up against 2 defenders. The solution to that is to put another player by the taker so that FGR have to match them up 2 on 2. They aren't going to take that both of those players our of the penalty area are they? But no, we put a 3rd player back on the half way line. A 2 attackers v 3 defenders counter attack has much more potential than a 1 attacker v 2 defenders counter attack. Basics!

What is extremely worrying about yesterday is that for a team which apparently has 5 or 6 potential captains and leaders we were making very basic mistakes and weren't reacting to the game as it evolved. It was a complete shambles.

I’ve calmed down a bit now but I have to say that the second half yesterday was probably about the worst half of football that I’ve ever seen at Blundell Park in about 50 years. Jolley must take some of the blame for a bizarre team selection but equally the players must hold up their hands too, because to a man they were totally inept. The mistakes were ridiculous and the defending and marking farcical. Therefore I don’t think it would be possible to play that badly again. Therefore funnily enough I’m not too worried about the defence. They’ll bed in and I think they’ll turn out to be ok.

Playing players i.e Clifton totally out of position is also not a concern assuming that Jolley realises that and therefore  changes it. What really does concern me is I have no idea at all where the goals are going to come from. Funnily enough I don’t even blame the strikers, it was the midfield that didn’t create a single chance all afternoon for our forwards. I think Harry Kane could have played yesterday and he wouldn’t have scored if the game was twice as long as it was. Whether this problem can be solved then only time will tell. The addition of Lee Angol (if he comes) will be a good addition I feel but of course he’ll need the service. I also believe that he has a bit of a reputation regarding attitude. I can’t believe that Jolley doesn’t know about that and maybe he can get him to grow up and fulfil his potential. Again time will tell.

The Fishy is in meltdown as is to be expected, but I think we’ve got to try and stay calm and see what the situation is in 10 matches time. One thing is for sure I bet Jolley didn’t get much sleep last night and he’s got a lot of thinking to do.

Yes we were so poor in all departments yesterday, but I want to remind everyone that last season I also saw us at the Ricoh getting thumped 4-0 playing just as badly....and look how things turned out in the end.
Let's learn, and move forward, not give up after one awful game.

CODalmightys view of the game.

My favourite bit......

"Minutes ticked by. Nothing was happening nowhere. Hall-Johnson lobbed to Collins, on the touchline under the Police Box, who swept the ball back to McKeown. McKeown… McKeown… where art thou? I could have sworn McKeown was in town today. We saw his car parked up and his children were mascots, surely he was here…somewhere?"

http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=6806

Quoted from promotion plaice

CODalmightys view of the game.

My favourite bit......

"Minutes ticked by. Nothing was happening nowhere. Hall-Johnson lobbed to Collins, on the touchline under the Police Box, who swept the ball back to McKeown. McKeown… McKeown… where art thou? I could have sworn McKeown was in town today. We saw his car parked up and his children were mascots, surely he was here…somewhere?"

http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=6806

Always thought Tony Butcher’s match reports were written solely for the amusement of Tony Butcher. They used to be amusing but these days I find them pretty much impenetrable. I’m sure my comments are unlikely to keep him awake at night.

We're not on our own, after taking the lead Hullberside saying Hull display worrying and have gifted Villa 3 goals at the KCOM tonight.....latest Hull 1-3 Villa.

Still can't get over that game. Just feel gutted about it. Can't wait for the next game so I can forget about it.

Now we've all calmed down, a few harsh realities hit home.

Clifton was awful, and Reid had a field day against him.
Dixon got instant stick, yet wasn't the worst player out there
The midfield created nothing.Hessenthaler needs to start on saturday for me.
Welsh did ok
Cook run a lot but wont score many this season.
I still feel Hooper will score 10+ goals this season, but he needs to see the ball at his feet more.