Just Back on the Bus

I get why Jolley set up as he did, I don't really have a problem with it either as it needed to be done.  My concern is that he'll see it got a result last night and think it'll work all the time, I did wonder how long it would take for him to go to a back 5.

Real fine margins too.  Had the penalty gone in (or even the rebound!) that was it, game over.  

Biggest take-home for me was that Pollock genuinely is our best defender, regardless of his age/experience.  

Very lackluster IMO. Town continue to disappoint. I realise we were on the back of 3 league defeats but no real threat in our play. Passing was dire throughout and in front of goal were awful when given the opportunity. Season long struggle ahead I'm afraid. This long ball stuff is terrible to watch and not a lot comes from it. I would rest Hanson when Wright gets back and also Hewitt in midfield to be replaced by  the Sunderland lad.
The only positives where stout defending and Macca

Quoted from forza ivano

Very disciplined hard working defensive performance. For all their possession and threatening approach play all of mckeown's saves were pretty routine. Think they played into our hands a bit as they persisted with high balls in and crosses which were meat and drink to our 3 big centre halves. Very interesting to watch from our angle as jolley had obviously been told to surrender the side areas and keep a tight shape inside the tram lines created by the sidelines of the 18 yard box (hope that makes sense)
Wasn't pretty but he'd advertised what he was going to do on Saturday and it's worked.it's stopped the for and got a bit of confidence back.
Obviously very little attacking intent despite Hanson working like a trojan. Him n green just doesn't work , green never gets close enough and doesn't seem to have any anticipation as to what Hanson is going to do.looked much more threatening once rose had come on, even if he is a bit of a headless chicken.
No creativity whatsoever, again to be expected with that line up, but jolley will surely be disappointed with their use of the ball when in possession, although that might be explained by a lack of confidence.4 or 5 times whitehouse and Hewitt played simple 15 yard channel balls, but did them so badly that Usain Bolt would be struggling to reach them ,let alone 2 slow coaches like Hendrie and gibson. Having said that thought Hewitt did pretty well in midfield, although don't think he would offer much if it wasn't a defence v attack game like tonights. Continue to be disappointed in whitehouse who is showing exactly why he was a squad player at lincoln.he looks like a non league Hess and we need much much better.
Think I'd give mot m to the 3 centre halves who were rocks.

I fully agree that it was battling performance and I quite enjoyed it. Also agree that the three centre-halves were outstanding and far better than recent performances.

MJ set up the team to do a job and it did it so well done him on this occasion.

Let's hope when he sets the team up for future games he is as successful. In last night's performance I thought both Hanson and Green even though having to get through the game with not a great deal of support they both contributed to the rearguard action.

Quoted from forza ivano

Very disciplined hard working defensive performance. For all their possession and threatening approach play all of mckeown's saves were pretty routine. Think they played into our hands a bit as they persisted with high balls in and crosses which were meat and drink to our 3 big centre halves. Very interesting to watch from our angle as jolley had obviously been told to surrender the side areas and keep a tight shape inside the tram lines created by the sidelines of the 18 yard box (hope that makes sense)
Wasn't pretty but he'd advertised what he was going to do on Saturday and it's worked.it's stopped the for and got a bit of confidence back.
Obviously very little attacking intent despite Hanson working like a trojan. Him n green just doesn't work , green never gets close enough and doesn't seem to have any anticipation as to what Hanson is going to do.looked much more threatening once rose had come on, even if he is a bit of a headless chicken.
No creativity whatsoever, again to be expected with that line up, but jolley will surely be disappointed with their use of the ball when in possession, although that might be explained by a lack of confidence.4 or 5 times whitehouse and Hewitt played simple 15 yard channel balls, but did them so badly that Usain Bolt would be struggling to reach them ,let alone 2 slow coaches like Hendrie and gibson. Having said that thought Hewitt did pretty well in midfield, although don't think he would offer much if it wasn't a defence v attack game like tonights. Continue to be disappointed in whitehouse who is showing exactly why he was a squad player at lincoln.he looks like a non league Hess and we need much much better.
Think I'd give mot m to the 3 centre halves who were rocks.

I wasn’t there but you have given me all the info there to imagine I was. Thanks.

Easy to understand why he chose this line up after 3 losses and it is a worthwhile point to gain away from home. The only thing I would say is taking up your point about Green and Hanson and the midfield. There is no pace and no quality for strikers to feed off. I did think he had cracked that with Ogbu and Cook but he seems to have gone off them again. And if there is no Wright there is no threat. Surely Rose in place of Green would have been worth a shot from the start. He needs to learn to be part of a disciplined unit and he won’t if he is just a 20 min wonderkid.

Last night was what I would call "a Paul Hurst special."

Hurst would always go out for a clean sheet as the first and only priority in the game following a bad defeat.
(the 0-5 at Braintree was followed by a 0-0 at Newport, the 0-4 at Halifax before Scott was sacked was followed by a 0-0 at Chester and I'm sure there will be others).

From seeing the line-up I thought that was the plan last night and the way we managed the 90 minutes only confirmed it. Taking our time and slowing the game down from very early on. A clean sheet was the priority without a doubt.

Defensively, and generally out of possession, we were very effective. Very well organised, disciplined, and everyone did their jobs well. Heard a lot of moans and groans at the game of "get into em" and "push up" etc etc. We were doing absolutely fine letting Cambridge pass the ball in front of us and just work it across the pitch side-to-side repeatedly. We didn't allow them to play through us, didn't really concede any chances i didn't think barring the penalty, and when crosses came in (they were only able to do this from deep) we had 3 centre-backs putting their heads on everything.

In possession, there's no getting away from the fact that we were awful. Not the player with the ball at their feet, but the players off the ball. No movement, either to show for the ball themselves or to pull the opposition about and create a bit of space for others. It was like players didn't want to come out of the team shape when we had the ball, meaning we had the same 5-3-2 shape whether we had the ball or not. It meant we had limited or no passing options, and was almost an acceptance that we would surrender possession and just be happy to defend. I suppose the hope with that is that you can nick a goal from a set piece or something like that, and to be fair we weren't far off doing that at times.

For as little possession as we had, and how poor we were with it, I think you could actually argue that we had some of the better chances and might have won the game but for these fine margins.
Green had a turn and shot early in the 2nd half and I'm sure the ball then fell to someone else who might've done better. Whitehouse got away and cut back onto his right foot to shoot but slipped as he cut inside, and Ahkeem Rose had a few good runs, one in particular where a better touch when running with the ball would've got him 1v1 with the keeper and getting a shot away. So as dull as the game was, we might have actually come away with a sneaky 1-0 win. A case of "shoulda, woulda, coulda" I know, but had we done that I can imagine people claiming it to be a Mourinho-like tactical masterclass.

Now, I'm far from suggesting it was a tactical masterclass obviously. Just pointing out the fine margins that make such overreactions as I've read in some parts a bit exaggerated. I hope last night just stays as a go-to plan for when we've had a few losses in a row (to prevent a streak of losses again) or after a heavy defeat. And doesn't become the norm for every away game or anything like that regularity, because I genuinely think we're better and capable of more than that. But whilst I didn't celebrate the result at the full-time whistle, I didn't particularly mind him doing that last night under the circumstances. The key moving forward, as with other set-ups/tactical approaches used so far, is knowing when and where to use them. W haven't got enough of these calls right this season.

I'd now give Mattie Pollock a run in the starting eleven as I think he's good enough and would be playing on merit. Better all round than Ohman, Waterfall and Davis for me, but with those being more senior players the easy option is to bench the young lad and play the others. Maybe playing him alongside Waterfall who is a bit of a leader and organiser would help MP settle into a consistent back four and develop his game.

Hoping for a more adventurous approach when we've got the ball on Saturday. I'm sure we can still be as solid defensively without compromising what we do in-possession so much. UTM.

The thing that worries me and I’m sure other fans too is that this was a fine defensive performance but - what if the penalty had gone in? The way the team is set up there is no chance of getting back into a game like this if we do slip up. Plan A is lump it, Plan B is lump it higher. I don’t mind a deep tactical defence, especially away, as long as there is a proper counter threat down the other end if we get the chance.

Defended well. Pollock the pick of the bunch, plays with a maturity beyond his years.

All that said, what an utterly negative lineup. It completely stifled us when we had the ball. Get the change in formation, get the being difficult to beat, but there was no need for that midfield. Show a little footballing ambition, Cook for Hewitt or whitehouse would’ve given us that little bit of quality when we had the ball. It was a completely unbalanced side.

Hewitt and Whitehouse played poorly. Hewitt didn’t really get involved and gave the ball away virtually every time he got it. Whitehouse is painfully one paced and doesn’t have the ability to make up for it. Can’t understand lineup that sees these two in front of Clifton and Cook.

Hope we see some changes on Saturday. At the minute we are awful to watch, hoofball with no ambition to play any other way.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

The thing that worries me and I’m sure other fans too is that this was a fine defensive performance but - what if the penalty had gone in? The way the team is set up there is no chance of getting back into a game like this if we do slip up. Plan A is lump it, Plan B is lump it higher. I don’t mind a deep tactical defence, especially away, as long as there is a proper counter threat down the other end if we get the chance.

Yep, totally get that. It'd have taken several substitutions and a drastic change in mentality to get back into the game had we fallen behind at any stage last night.

Which is why i don't particularly mind last night's approach (although it's still not what I'd have done personally), I'd hope it was used in isolation and won't become a regular option because it was successful (in terms of what it set out to do) on this occasion.

Quoted from Tommy

Last night was what I would call "a Paul Hurst special."

Hurst would always go out for a clean sheet as the first and only priority in the game following a bad defeat.
(the 0-5 at Braintree was followed by a 0-0 at Newport, the 0-4 at Halifax before Scott was sacked was followed by a 0-0 at Chester and I'm sure there will be others).

.

a 2-0 lead at Chester which he turned into a valuable away point ...

Quoted from moosey_club

a 2-0 lead at Chester which he turned into a valuable away point ...

That was a classic “get Parslow on” game