Just Back

Well that was poor and another weekend where another team beat us without even breaking into a sweat. MJ set the side up for a point and on the odd occasion we threatened their goal we never got anything on target additionally I have never seen a Town side who don't get the ball at their feet in the opposition penalty box.  

We look like a relegation side with absolutely no real attaching intent or care in offensive positions and absolutely no tempo this is no better than when Slade was in charge. I can't believe that all we have is the Mitch Rose long throw to a man at the near post, which incidentally Stevenaage dealt with really comfortably. We where short of ideas all game and it always felt inevitable that the home side would get a late winner.

Something is not right the players don't look particularly fit and a few of them don't look that bothered we are carrying the likes of Collins at the back and with one up front today we just lacked the ability to move into space for a lay off from Thomas.

I don't know what had gone on but we only had 5 outfield subs today and at half time the warm up lad was having an animated conversation with Robles who was sat in the Town end, feels to me like the manager and his team just need to keep it simple. Other thing that stands out is that he left the changes too late and should have been a bit braver when we did actually have a half decent 5 mins in the second half.

Things need to improve fast otherwise we'll need to make a change, I like Jolley he get what the clubs about but must also get the relegation back to the National League is not acceptable and at this rate possible.

Some may say we deserved a point today in my view looking at the the overall picture the standard of play, selection and application we deserved very little and got exactly that. A few came out with a little credit so mentions to Macca with a couple of really good saves that deserved a clean sheet, Hessentaler, Clifton, Rose and Thomas who all worked had if not smart.

Relegation 6 pointer next week...............In September???

    

Agree with this,  two poor teams but we look so limited. Never looked likely to score

Agree with this,  two poor teams but we look so limited. Never looked likely to score

We had 4 CBs playing, now 5 CMs.  We lost both games.  What is plan C, 6 strikers or 7 keepers?

We have tried everything else!

As I said on another thread, Jolley was too scared to go for the win, we were crying out for a second striker in the second half when we were starting to pile on the pressure, instead he brought on a left footed winger to whip crosses in from the right wing  

We were in control for a portion of the second half, without having the men in the box or that killed ball played and should’ve made a change then. Hate that we only brought more strikers on once we’d gone down.

The game was lost when Jolley chose his side, tactics and formation.

After last week, how does Collins stay in the side and Famewo gets dropped? Looks like MJ's going to shuffle his defence around as long as good old Danny plays. Big mistake. Looks like he's going to play Woolford no matter how badly he plays or ineffective he is. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to start Vernam our one player in the squad that can beat a man. Big mistake. Looks like he's going to continue playing defenders out of position, Davis this time at left back. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to select a consistent athletic defensive pairing or trio that can get a partnership working. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to play the front foot football he promised with slow ageing players consistently picked. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to play the front foot football with one isolated striker up top. Big mistake. Looks like he's going to continue to play central midfielders out wide rather than advanced full backs and three at the back because we have no wide attacking players in the squad. Two big mistakes in one. Looks like our team is as disjointed and unstructured as ever. Training ground big mistakes.

Let's face it Stevenage were shite. Both teams looked like Sunday League sides today and the difference was that Stevenage's poor to average players were able to cut through our defence like a knife through butter even though we set up with an extremely negative 4-5-1. We created practically nothing and looked as disjointed as any side I've seen around our own box, around our opponent's box and worst of all in wide areas.

What message does it send out to the rest of the squad when he picks Collins after last week which was one of the worst individual defensive performances I've ever seen, yet a previously solid Whitmore gets dropped after one shaky game and a previously solid Famewo has a shaky twenty minutes of distribution (but not defending) and gets dropped?

Sad day when I can't trust our manager to pick and retain a solid side when actually we've got some good players. Sad day when I'm starting to think the Jolley Revolution will never happen but I don't trust our chairman with a single decision when it comes to managers (or anything else). And it's a sad day when our chairman can't shut up for at least a day before dampening down expectations on a new stadium because he may not be the centre of attention in the proposed project.

Fooking exhausting and demoralising being a Town fan these past few years and just sick of the downright ineptitude seeping from every pore of the club on and off the pitch..

Agree with all of this.

Quoted from Bigdog

The game was lost when Jolley chose his side and formation.

After last week, how does Collins stay in the side and Famewo gets dropped? Looks like MJ's going to shuffle his defence around as long as good old Danny plays. Big mistake. Looks like he's going to play Woolford no matter how badly he plays or ineffective he is. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to start Vernam our one player in the squad that can beat a man. Big mistake. Looks like he's going to continue playing defenders out of position, Davis this time at left back. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to select a  centraconsistent athleticl defensive pairing or trio that can get a partnership working. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to play the front foot football he promised with slow ageing players consistently picked. Big mistake. Looks like he's never going to play the front foot football with one isolated striker up top. Big mistake. Looks like he's going to continue to play central midfielders out wide rather than advanced full backs and three at the back because we have no wide attacking players in the squad. Two big mistakes in one. Looks like our team is as disjointed and unstructured as ever. Training ground big mistakes.

Let's face it Stevenage are shite. Both sides looked like Sunday League sides today and the difference was that Stevenage's poor to average players were able to cut through our defence like a knife through butter even though we set up with an extremely negative 4-5-1. We created practically nothing and looked as disjointed as any side I've seen around our own box, around our opponent's box and worst of all in wide areas.

What message does it send out to the rest of the squad when he picks Collins after last week which was one of the worst individual defensive performances I've ever seen, yet a previously solid Whitmore gets dropped after one shaky game and a previously solid Famewo has a shaky twenty minutes of distribution (but not defending) and gets dropped?

Sad day when I can't trust our manager to pick and retain a solid side when actually we've got some good players. Sad day when I'm starting to think the Jolley Revolution will never happen but I don't trust our chairman with a single decision when it comes to managers (or anything else). And it's a sad day when our chairman can't shut up for at least a day before dampening down expectations on a new stadium because he may not be the centre of attention in the proposed project.

Fooking exhausting and demoralising being a Town fan these past few years and just sick of the down right ineptitude seeping from every pore of the club on and off the pitch..

All of the above and................ when the better players aren't picked to start the whole squad usually starts to doubt the manager I just wonder if we're at that stage yet, if not we will be soon if better.things don't get better.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

All of the above and................ when the better players aren't picked to start the whole squad usually starts to doubt the manager I just wonder if we're at that stage yet, if not we will be soon if better.things don't get better.

I think we were at that stage when Collins walked straight back into the side Herts. It's written all over the recent unconfident disjointed performances. The players look like they haven't got a shred of belief or confidence in what they're doing (including decision making) and it's maybe draining them so much mentally that it's also affecting their physicality and energy..

It's a right mess..

First time I've seen us this season and I don't think it was quite as bad as many have said.  I think jolley wasn't too far wrong in his interview.
First half was a dreadful spectacle all round with just one Stevenage turn and shot enlivening a dreary 45 minutes. Town pressed on in the second half and had a good 20 minute spell, but even then Stevenage hit the post, the bar and had a couple cleared off the line.
Their late goal came inevitably from another poor pass from Woolford.
I can imagine jolley will be able to take some positives in that we were in the game and looked okay for long periods.there was no lack of effort or committment , plenty of tackles, pressing and blocking
There's definitely a lack of confidence and if the defensive line up had worked it would at least have stopped the rot.
Negatives there are aplenty. Poor old Thomas looks a good player but he was so isolated kept getting the ball but nobody was helping him. Furthermore if you watch his goals he likes to be played in, but there isn't anyone in that team who can play a killer pass.theres absolutely zero inventivenessI have to ask what is the point of Woolford? Apart from 1 shimmy and shot all he did was give the ball away.
There's a total lack of pace as well.when Stevenage broke they did so threateningly with pace and numbers.when we break its just so ponderous and we were constantly turning backwards to bring town players into the game.
Motm for me was rose who worked tirelessly but also with a fair amount of skill
So it certainly wasn't great but it certainly wasn't as bad as some have made out

I sort of know what you are saying Forza, but Stevenage were very poor and let us play where they wanted us to play.. Every time they pressed us we lost the ball or panicked and gave it away. Seeing through this, it was not a performance to be built upon in my opinion. I'd give Rose a 6 or a 7, but could you name anyone that deserved more than a 5? And bearing in mind the standard of opposition, I'd rate the team as a whole with no more than a 4 and Jolley even less for his team selection. Listened to his post match interview. The guy is either deluded, setting low standards for his team and players or vainly clutching at straws. We only stayed in the game for so long because Stevenage were so inept, nothing else..

It was a gutless 1-0 away defeat to a very poor team which could be dressed up falsely as an improvement..

When a manager is setting up a side to stay in a game and try to nick an odd goal off one of the poorer teams in the division after just nine games, rather than getting his team to impose their own style of play to build on for the rest of the season.. alarm bells start ringing for me..

Quoted from forza ivano

First time I've seen us this season and I don't think it was quite as bad as many have said.  I think jolley wasn't too far wrong in his interview.
First half was a dreadful spectacle all round with just one Stevenage turn and shot enlivening a dreary 45 minutes. Town pressed on in the second half and had a good 20 minute spell, but even then Stevenage hit the post, the bar and had a couple cleared off the line.
Their late goal came inevitably from another poor pass from Woolford.
I can imagine jolley will be able to take some positives in that we were in the game and looked okay for long periods.there was no lack of effort or committment , plenty of tackles, pressing ad blocking
There's definitely a lack of confidence and if the defensive line up had worked it would at least have stopped the rot.
Negatives there are aplenty. Poor old Thomas looks a good player but he was so isolated kept getting the ball but nobody was helping him. Furthermore if you watch his goals he likes to be played in, but there isn't anyone in that team who can play a killer pass.theres absolutely zero inventivenessI have to ask what is the point of Woolford? Apart from 1 shimmy and shot all he did was give the ball away.
There's a total lack of pace as well.when Stevenage broke they did so threateningly with pace and numbers.when we break its just so ponderous and we were constantly turning backwards to bring town players into the game.
Motm for me was rose who worked tirelessly but also with a fair amount of skill
So it certainly wasn't great but it certainly wasn't as bad as some have made out

Town's shots on target number would suggest otherwise

First game for me since MK Dons and I don’t think it was a horror show. We had some good spells but we just look desperately lacking in confidence. No one seemingly wants to commit to taking the ball and trying for a goal... we just seem to spend an eternity passing it around outside the box uncertain what to do, no communication and by the time we do finally do something, we squander it.

Not a huge amount of highlights but I thought Pringle looked good when he came on.. seemed to getting into the play, making some good passes and looked eager to get involved. Would like to see him play more.

Is there anybody on here when seeing the team sheet before the game said,

Yes we are going to win this one  ?

Quoted from Bigdog

I sort of know what you are saying Forza, but Stevenage were very poor and let us play where they wanted us to play.. Every time they pressed us we lost the ball or panicked and gave it away. Seeing through this, it was not a performance to be built upon in my opinion. I'd give Rose a 6 or a 7, but could you name anyone that deserved more than a 5? And bearing in mind the standard of opposition, I'd rate the team as a whole with no more than a 4 and Jolley even less for his team selection. Listened to his post match interview. The guy is either deluded, setting low standards for his team and players or vainly clutching at straws. We only stayed in the game for so long because Stevenage were so inept, nothing else..

It was a gutless 1-0 away defeat to a very poor team which could be dressed up falsely as an improvement..

When a manager is setting up a side to stay in a game and try to nick an odd goal off one of the poorer teams in the division after just nine games, rather than getting his team to impose their own style of play to build on for the rest of the season.. alarm bells start ringing for me..

Absolutely this.

We only commit players forward when we have a corner or a Mitch Rose long throw. The only other way we can score is from a piece of individual brilliance or from a mistake. It's really frustrating not to see players gamble on making more runs into positions the ball might arrive at. There were a couple of spells today when he had them on the ropes but we just didn't go for it, chances aren't going to be handed to us on a plate we have to work for them!

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11505993/stevenage-1-0-grimsby

Not one Town effort worthy of being shown.

Inclined to agree with Forza Ivano.

There’s signs of something emerging and we just need a bit more urgency. We’ve been here before but with less scrutiny. I’m confident it’ll come good if given time and patience.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Inclined to agree with Forza Ivano.

There’s signs of something emerging and we just need a bit more urgency. We’ve been here before but with less scrutiny. I’m confident it’ll come good if given time and patience.

I'm desperately hoping that yesterday was a parallel with wycombe last year, where we lost but were much better than the previous couple of games. I just haven't got much evidence to back the hope up!

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Inclined to agree with Forza Ivano.

There’s signs of something emerging and we just need a bit more urgency. We’ve been here before but with less scrutiny. I’m confident it’ll come good if given time and patience.

For 15 mins in the first half versus Oldham I would agree, we where excellent versus Lincoln, mixed but overall good versus MKD and functional versus Macc, Apart from that we've been pretty poor.

Jolley has fallen into the trap Slade did when we went South last season, if it does not work in one game change it for the next, this in my view ithis does not help as players need to get used to each other and a way of playing.

The back room staff need to throw away the ring binders for a bit and pick the best, fittest 11 in one shape and stick to it for a bit.  

Quoted from forza ivano

I'm desperately hoping that yesterday was a parallel with wycombe last year, where we lost but were much better than the previous couple of games. I just haven't got much evidence to back the hope up!

I'm desperately hoping for some tempo & dynamism. As Herts says, chuck the classroom ring binders in the bin & pick a team that will get at the opposition, get the crowd going and stop turning Blundell Park into a morgue. We were promised a more athletic approach, time to get it on even if it means leaving Welsh, Collins & Woolford out.