Just Back

I’m not convinced by Vernam to be honest, he’s got good energy and looks threatening sometimes but he doesn’t score or setup many goals at all and often seems hesitant to shoot without wanting too many touches. I’m not a Hooper hater by any means, and he showed his defensive value yesterday, but he also doesn’t look like he will create or score many goals.

If we could find better players than these two (Pringle may be the answer as a Hooper replacement) then I think we would comfortably finish in the top half.

I think we are seriously lacking goal threat all over the pitch, and the stats bear that out. I worry, because you watch the highlights of the L2 games week after week and you see almost every team scoring goals almost at will through all sorts of methods. I do think that L2 teams are generally pretty suspect defensively across the board but we simply don't have enough attacking quality to be anything but bottom 6 strugglers without better players. The points we have acquired recently have been heavily reliant on plenty of luck in terms of not conceding but yesterday showed the essential truth yet again - not enough goal threat, nobody who can convert chances and nothing there once we are a goal or two behind.

Played well and unlucky not to get something.  Move on and let our management get on with the clear improvement from earlier in the season.

Quoted from chaos33

I think we are seriously lacking goal threat all over the pitch, and the stats bear that out. I worry, because you watch the highlights of the L2 games week after week and you see almost every team scoring goals almost at will through all sorts of methods. I do think that L2 teams are generally pretty suspect defensively across the board but we simply don't have enough attacking quality to be anything but bottom 6 strugglers without better players. The points we have acquired recently have been heavily reliant on plenty of luck in terms of not conceding but yesterday showed the essential truth yet again - not enough goal threat, nobody who can convert chances and nothing there once we are a goal or two behind.

Errr, they just show the goals or goalmouth incidents so it's bound to look like they score at will. The other 89 minutes don't get shown.

But we do need a goalscorer or two.

No, I know that. Give me some credit. You look at the stats and the league table. You notice other teams have midfielders scoring goals, centre backs, goals from corners, free kicks, last minute winners, headers from crosses...
I don't really see much of that in our team really. Easily the fewest goals scored.
How many goals have our centre backs and centre midfielders got between them, excluding penalties..?

I suppose it's natural that we're critical after the game and look to discuss areas where we need to improve. But I actually thought we played OK yesterday.

I know there's always a frustration about the end result when we've ultimately lost the game, but sometimes the result can cloud people's perception of the game/performance itself. It also works the other way around if we win, and I'm not trying to claim we dominated and were brilliant either.

But at half time I was delighted with how it was going. We'd been the better team for the last half hour of the half, played some really nice football and were as calm and comfortable in possession as I remember us being for a long time. It may not be progressing into ruthlessness in the final third yet, but the football to get us there was very good at times and MJ/AL aren't stupid, they'll be working on what needs working on.

We also had good chances. Thomas bit of play to roll his marker and sprint to goal was very good and just lacked a smoother finish. Key to that was the service to him - Hendrie played the ball up to him through gaps in midfield, on the floor, to find the strikers feet. A clear difference in what we're trying to do I think.

Yes it may have gone a bit more direct at times in the 2nd half - or the balls up to the front two weren't of the same quality, but I don't agree with the one/two posters thinking we still go long.

2nd half was very open to start with. Chances at both ends including one frantic 15 seconds when  Macca saved a one-one-one and then we went up the other end and nearly scored when Vernam had an effort pushed wide by their GK.

Didn't feel like we were under real pressure at any point second half though and when they scored it seemed to almost come out of nowhere. Seen Vernam get a lot of flak for being too slow to get back but I'd question where Hendrie has gone too. Why has he followed his man into central midfield?

As always when we concede, it was hard to see a way back to win the game from then. And then they killed it off after some soft defending down our left allowed a cross (great cross by the way) in and boom game over.

Pringle looked decent on the ball and put one really nice cross in that Cook headed wide. Would like to see him given a bit more time on the pitch now on the left.

We lost but the performance is still something to build on in my opinion, and with better finishing could've brought us a win anyway.

Wasn't their keeper given their MOM award? That tells us something about the game.

Onto the next one....Not too many changes needed.

Chaos 33 is spot on - it is almost the only regular problem with this team I feel... lack of goals
Developing nicely, some good players, defensively sound (we will always have the odd blip...but that's when you need a major goal threat), hard working, playing for the shirt and boss etc etc
Take Tuesday - we won 1-0 against a very decent team IMO - everyone happy.
Had we drawn 0-0 we'd have said 'decent point' but would have come on here moaning about lack of a striker
Had we lost... cue Ipswin et al

So, it's fine lines most of the times and footy shows again and again it's only ever about results.

Quailty strikers are the most sought after players and sadly we are at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to attracting the top ones for this level... unless we find another Bogle and/or take a punt on a Morecambe reserve (Podge) which Hurst did, we will struggle.

It's not all about a free scoring centre forward either - Tony Rees was never prolific but we had people chipping in goals all over the pitch so not a problem

Unless and until we find someone who can score a dozen at least for us then we will be bottom six I think...but I honestly feel we won't go down; far worse teams than us in L2

It's the same at nearly all the struggling clubs at any level - park football or PL - few chances, little goal threat, few goals, always susceptible to defeat

Onwards.....

Taken from GT website
This is the sort of hysteria that drives me up the wall... irrational bollox after one defeat in which had we taken our chances we'd have got a point minimum


"Having seen the goals Town conceded against Crewe and having listened to the Manager's after match summary, he states that "we have only conceded two goals in the last five matches so I won't criticise the defense" - Why not?  The goalscorers were left totally unmarked each time, it's like watching schoolboy football.
There seems to be no discipline with Town's defenders, they have three men running towards the ball and then leave opposition players unmarked!
This is a recipe for disaster unless they address these simple things - for goodness sake get it sorted MJ !"

Goals win games - MJ's post-match interview was spot on - we take one of our first half chances and we can then narrow up and see the game out. We make one mistake, get punished and only concede the second because we've had to open up.

Bournemouth's win at Fulham yesterday was the perfect example of what we could have done yesterday had we scored first. You don't always play badly when you lose.

I agree with Tommy, Devs and Chaos - a lot of what we are doing is as good as I've seen from us for quite a long time. I just think better replacements for Vernam and Hooper could see us finish somewhere near the play off places. I still can't see us going down though even if we don't replace them. TBH I spent most of the game yesterday thinking what a good bet GrimRob had placed for us to finish in the top half.