Just back (merged)

Disappointing result and performance but Northampton where by far the better team and what they did they did very well. Impressed by their number 39 Morton took his goals well.

Cannot see a few of the starters being here next season. Ohman and Waterfall just aren't good enough if we want to aim for promotion next season and I know he didn't start but Green offers nothing and was very poor when he came on.

Just a note a note on the referee, who allowed far too much gamesmanship from Northampton. The keeper wasted time on every kick, number 4 kicked the ball away directly under his eye as we tried to take a free kick, when the ball was thrown from the crowd back to the keeper, number 5 kicked it away again. These were two of many examples during the 90 minutes. Yet when Benson kicked it away in the final few minutes, Northampton protested and Benson gets the telling off from the referee.

Grandin should have had a hat trick today and Clarke missed 2 absolute sitters. We were pisss poor in both final thirds  

Northampton have a false sense of hubris and look down on teams such as GTFC. That was why beating them in 1998 was so special. Talking to their fans before that play-off final they all thought they would smash us- little old Grimsby. Then they sat on the opposite side of Wembley in their horrible maroon, chanting  'COBBLERS". It just sounded pretty stupid.

Then in 2006 they ruined our automatic promotion to L1 with an injury time equaliser at BP (scored by Sean Dyche) and condemned us to the play-offs. That all ended up in tears as we know.

Hearing then described as a L2 Burnley by ginny (above) made me laugh. If that is what their fans watch every week good luck to them.

It's a defeat that has not damaged us so we can make amends, hopefully, in the next game. I am sure IH will have learned some lessons today.

Firstly despite recent form they’re decent and clearly Curle has improved them month by month, spoke to Mr Croxton as half time and he described them as a league 2 Sheffield Utd which I get.

They started well and once again we started well maybe not badly but pedestrian enough to give them a pretty strong foothold in the game which they capitalised on twice in the first half.

We needed to score before the break and if we hadn’t taken the wrong options and got a pen for the challenge on Tilley we could have been back in it for sure.

In the 2nd half going 3 at the back didn’t really offer anything as our midfield looked well off it and they did a good job in compacting us so we couldn’t get in behind them.

A few observations.....

- We shrunk when Hanson went off

- Benson looked knackered

- Max Wright scores on Tuesday off the bench but doesn’t make the bench on Saturday?

- What was Garmston told to do when he went on? Looked like we had 2 LBs at times

- Why did Tilley look like he sat too deep?

- Why don’t we carry the ball into their box?

- Why did we insist in trying to play out 2 - 0 down with 15 mins to go.

To be honest I can live with all of the above as we are a work in progress but what irritates the f**k out of me is the p1ss poor standard of referees we get week in week out it’s shocking and not acceptable in the pro game. If the nutters who abuse refs on a Sunday morning and during kids games realised the true impact of their actions and the impact it has on the pipeline I’m sure they’d act differently........... possibly at least.

Someone said above that we were poor in both boxes.  We were weakest in midfield.

Paradoxically, because we were so poor, I expect Ollie to make changes and shake things up.  We may not get anything at Plymouth, but should at Scunny (in front of a big following).

Shame that Hanson may be injured.  If Green is the answer for a replacement then I do not know what the question is.

Quoted from monkeyboy

I’m not saying Hanson not good enough I just think injuries may force his retirement. I may get crosses for staying some players need to be gone but realistically how am I wrong? Let’s face it each and every one of them will be playing for contracts and some clearly not lighting the world up.

I think that while you're overstating Hanson's injuries a bit, you aren't completely wrong. He definitely won't be retiring, in my opinion. Our problem is that at the moment, we need him for 46 games a season and he hasn't got that in him I don't think. He's been our best player for a substantial amount of this season when he's been fit though. We need another number 9 who is capable of stepping up when Hanson is out. We don't have that this season and we look lost at times without him.

Quoted from hampshiremariner

Northampton have a false sense of hubris and look down on teams such as GTFC. That was why beating them in 1998 was so special. Talking to their fans before that play-off final they all thought they would smash us- little old Grimsby. Then they sat on the opposite side of Wembley in their horrible maroon, chanting  'COBBLERS". It just sounded pretty stupid.

Then in 2006 they ruined our automatic promotion to L1 with an injury time equaliser at BP (scored by Sean Dyche) and condemned us to the play-offs. That all ended up in tears as we know.

Hearing then described as a L2 Burnley by ginny (above) made me laugh. If that is what their fans watch every week good luck to them.

It's a defeat that has not damaged us so we can make amends, hopefully, in the next game. I am sure IH will have learned some lessons today.

I don't remember the 98 playoff final like that at all - the year before we'd been in the 2nd tier and they'd been in the 4th, whilst after the game that sharp object Atkins moaned about us spending "£2.5m".

As for 2006, we could've won 18-0 that day and we'd still have come 4th.

Not looking for a scapegoat because there were quite a few poor performances today but I cannot see what others see in Clifton, he is terrible. All you have to do is look at nearly every goal we have conceded over the last 10 games and he is in the middle of loads of them. Simply not good enough imo.

Quoted from dicko995

HaHa, it makes you wonder. Maybe the new ground and O;;ies talk talk is better than results. A lot on here have got their God taken away and its back to reality.

Maybe IH  has made a point that money needs to be spent and things are not as rosy as people like to think, if so who's laughing now.