Just back (merged)

Well that was shocking, worst performance by a Town team for some time.

Positive...Ollie will now know how little strength in depth we have and will be shipping out a few in the summer.

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.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.....

Totally dominated by a massive team who were just too much for us to handle and the scoreline didn't flatter them at all. Had a bit of joy for 10 mins first half but didn't score and never laid a glove on them second half. Can't even say we were second best because we weren't that good.

It felt like a cup game against a side from a higher division, such was their dominance and they didn't even break sweat. Won every header, second ball and blocked everything we tried. They managed the game very well but i wouldn't want to watch them every week, which is the one saving grace. League 2 Burnley is how i would describe them.

Today showed how difficult it is sometimes to try and play football in League 2. Hope they go up because i don't want to be playing them next season.

Nobody stood out so no MOM for us but the ginger striker for them was excellent, so he can have it.

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.

Couldn't wait could you!

Listening to the pre match on Humberside, when it was mentioned that Ollie’s team like to get it down on the deck, their managers simply reply was “ we don’t”

Holloways changes did not work. We were bullied by a horrible but effective side. We had chances and did not take them, clarkes and Grandin main culprits. Midfield was weak and too many players had off games. Didnt understand his half time changes either. Biggest loss today was Hanson. We are toothless without him

We were sh!t in both boxes.

Report over.

UTM

nah

Starting to look at who will be going and there’s a few.
Green is at best urine poor and has no control and can’t pass.
Clifton and whitehouse are on the verge of not good enough.
Ohman gone backwards.
Hanson to retire.
Rose got to go.
New keeper needed.
Hewit garbage.
Wright needs another year but jury out for me.
Caldwell already at the door.

That’s 9 there I won’t lose sleep over.

Will always fully support them when playing but I’m pretty sure Ollie knows who is not great

Hanson?!😂😂😂 Your bloody clueless

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 Hewitt has more than stood up to the challenge when called upon. Just a shame for him that Hendrie is his competition. Certainly good enough for a squad player.

Whitehouse has been very good since Holloway came in. Has played some incisive passes too.

Clifton absolutely good enough for the squad and time on his side to push on.

Usual pile of crap from the moaners after an off day. We're definitely not good enough to challenge yet but then again how many chances did we create at the end of the first half against a team that is in the play offs? Only Grandin's selfishness and poor finishing prevented us from scoring at least one. Admittedly we didn't turn up for the second half and Ollie's changes just didn't work. I didn't understand the change in system as we had them on the back foot before half time.

oh and one positive from the post match interview...Holloway taking some blame for the number of changes and for maybe sending out a side that may struggle with the physicality of the opposition.  

Northampton were effective. The ref was a cheat. The ball stuck in the mud and we were poor. I call the ref a cheat because he allowed time wasting and their game management tactics which is cheating the fans. Funny how they announced man of the match, was there one. Under Ollie have enjoyed more matches. Bring Scunthorpe on. UTMM.

Quoted from sam gy

I think Hewitt has more than stood up to the challenge when called upon. Just a shame for him that Hendrie is his competition. Certainly good enough for a squad player.

Whitehouse has been very good since Holloway came in. Has played some incisive passes too.

Clifton absolutely good enough for the squad and time on his side to push on.

Agree.

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.

Mr male private..the mentality of wanting someone to fail, and wait for every opportunity to slag them/slate them is really rather pathetic. It’s been done before - still is by another member of this forum - it’s nothing new - you don’t get awards for saying ‘told you so’ etc etc when a manager loses a job/walks away - because they all do at some point, whether successful or unsuccessful.

But humour me..give me another of your pearls of wisdom and tell me who you’d rather have as manager and/or what you’d do differently. I’m sure most will be on the edge of their seat, waiting expectedly for the knowledgeable one to tell all how it’s done..

I thought they looked handy. Strong, athletic, played a bit, committed players forward when they broke which they did at pace. We played some decent stuff first half but we never settled into the second half with the changes made. Felt we lacked a bit of physicality in midfield and losing Hanson always makes a big difference. Write it off as a bad day and hopefully a decent performance to come on Tuesday so we're back on track before next Saturday.

Quoted from marinerjase

Mr male private..the mentality of wanting someone to fail, and wait for every opportunity to slag them/slate them is really rather pathetic. It’s been done before - still is by another member of this forum - it’s nothing new - you don’t get awards for saying ‘told you so’ etc etc when a manager loses a job/walks away - because they all do at some point, whether successful or unsuccessful.

But humour me..give me another of your pearls of wisdom and tell me who you’d rather have as manager and/or what you’d do differently. I’m sure most will be on the edge of their seat, waiting expectedly for the knowledgeable one to tell all how it’s done..

Aye, makes me laugh. On my way out of the ground today, there was a guy vociferously telling a steward how Ollie got it completely wrong and what he should have done/who he should have played. Someone passing asked him how many football league games he had played or managed.  

In other news, Watford are dicking Liverpool 3-0. Even the World Club Champions, Champions League Winners and de facto Premier League Champions have off days.

Quoted from monkeyboy

Starting to look at who will be going and there’s a few.
Green is at best urine poor and has no control and can’t pass.
Clifton and whitehouse are on the verge of not good enough.
Ohman gone backwards.
Hanson to retire.
Rose got to go.
New keeper needed.
Hewit garbage.
Wright needs another year but jury out for me.
Caldwell already at the door.

That’s 9 there I won’t lose sleep over.

Will always fully support them when playing but I’m pretty sure Ollie knows who is not great

Agree about Green and Clifton, not been a big fan of Whitehouse but I thought we missed him today. Also agree about Ohman, can't see him lasting the season.

Hewitt another one who I thought wasn't good enough but I thought he had played well the last 2 games.

I would have much preferred Rose up front than Green.

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.

And also thought grandin to get into the positions to shoot says good things to me. Yes he wanted them but when was the last time we had a mid that could get in those positions regularly? He may be rusty as not played a lot.

Yesterday was just confusing. Holloway said himself that he’d be reluctant to change a winning side and has now done it several times.

People can cryarse about the referee as much as they want, he wasn’t the reason we conceded cheap goals (again) and ultimately lost the game.

I’m not sure we were beaten by a better side because we were so poor, but yesterday they were effective and took their clear cut chances.

I’ve had reservations about Green and Waterfall all season and little is doing much to change my mind. Hanson, again, he’s either useful or the game passes him by. Holloway keeps persevering with Clifton who for me wouldn’t have ever gotten a game way back when had he not been ‘local’.

As stated in a previous post, Garmston just didn’t seem to know where he was playing, and I felt sorry for him. That comes from the top and it was either poorly communicated or what he was asked to do wasn’t possible.

It was a poor display and from 2pm when the randomiser generates the team, it continued to be an odd day. There will be another set of changes on Tuesday now...could be a long week, after yesterday I can see ya getting nothing from the three games.

Were there any positives? I’m not sure, Tilley did alright again, Clarke tried and should’ve had at least one goal.

Just got to move on to Tuesday now...

I didn't go due to illness but from the highlights I've seen it's the old adage about goals change games.

We may have started slowly but seemed to have several good chances - any one of those go in and it's a different game.

The game will probably tell Ollie more than the recent wins as with a tight budget there will be no room for passengers next season.

Just watched the extended highlights to get my head round what happened yesterday and my suspicions were confirmed.
Both first half goal caused by Ohman not clearing the ball, thus he was subbed at half time.
Waterfall, one mistake but generally he competently cleared just about everything that came his way.
3-0 actually flattered Northampton, yes they were organised bullies who played the ref like a fiddle with constant time wasting and had we converted 4 reality simple chances ( 2 for Clarke, 2 for Grandin) on another day it could've been a completely different outcome.
Mentioning the ref, 2 clear cut penalties missed, handballs and fell for Northampton's cheating.
So all in all, as bad as 3-0 looks it wasn't as bad as that scoreline makes out.
Must say though, Sam Russel isn't as good as Macca, just seemed to be really slow in releasing the ball...ring rust maybe?
On to Tuesday, but more importantly on to next Saturday, here's hoping we can give sCunthorpe a lesson in football...

Im sure the 1st goal was down to Billy Clarke

Seems odd that when MJ made changes, he was tinkering too much.  With IH, he's working out what he's got to play with.

Quoted from Hagrid

Im sure the 1st goal was down to Billy Clarke

First phase yes, he lost the ball but Ohman had a chance to put his foot through the ball and instead just half heartedly flicked it straight into Goode's path.
At the end the day we can look to blame this, that and the other person but ultimately we failed to finish off Infront of goal.

Quoted from Mayaman

Seems odd that when MJ made changes, he was tinkering too much.  With IH, he's working out what he's got to play with.

I said exactly that leaving the ground...

At the minute it all feels a bit similar to when Bignot was here...some decent players, a couple of cracking results, then a random team selection and some poor results...

Quoted from Mayaman

Seems odd that when MJ made changes, he was tinkering too much.  With IH, he's working out what he's got to play with.

When MJ made changes he put square pegs in round holes... Holloway swaps like for like... Holloway has the remaining games to try and play every member of his squad to see who is fit and capable enough to be here next season...I think we can expect him to chop and change in all the remaining games now...

Quoted from Mayaman

Seems odd that when MJ made changes, he was tinkering too much.  With IH, he's working out what he's got to play with.

Doesn't seem odd to me. Ollie has publicly said many times he will give everyone a chance whilst deciding on his squad for next season. Jolley wasn't working towards any plan I don't think, especially towards the end.

Quoted from Mayaman

Seems odd that when MJ made changes, he was tinkering too much.  With IH, he's working out what he's got to play with.

Think any manager has to experiment to a certain degree when he first comes into the club and IH has to know who he is keeping and who won't make the cut. MJ was still tinkering after he'd had time to get in his own players. If Ollie is still chopping and changing this time next year, then that will be the time to question him. For now, i'm happy that he is giving everyone a fair chance as he says. We are not going up or down and generally we are a much better side than we were 2 months ago.

Quoted from Mayaman

Seems odd that when MJ made changes, he was tinkering too much.  With IH, he's working out what he's got to play with.

IH inherited most of his squad. MJ had signed most of his by the start of this season.

I’m not sure this is working to a plan...although not from the club but certainly the fans, the excuse of ‘planning for next year’ seems to be trotted our after a urine poor performance.

I thought there were square pegs yesterday but it’s all about opinions.

Yesterday was toilet, simple as that.

Bit of conning going on here. Before it was excuses - now it's reasons

Quoted from golfer

Bit of conning going on here. Before it was excuses - now it's reasons

don't get me wrong I hate it when managers change a winning team (im old fashioned) but its pretty straight forward to me on what he is doing especially as someone experienced as IH why else would he make those changes after Tuesday especially after a win.

its not going to be long until we get those fans looking to target IH and trust me they will.

We weren't good yesterday but we still created enough chances to get something out of the game. Before IH, we were creating nothing and scoring the odd goal here and there. He's trying to instill a style of playing that all the squad can grasp, and should stay the same whoever the personell is on the day. It takes time.

Yesterday we were beaten by a side that are further along that journey than we are.

Thing is, we have a manager who is way beyond anyone i thought we could attract and the football at BP is already head and shoulders above what it was before he came in. That is after a couple of months. He would have learned a lot about the squad in that defeat and all we can do as fans is trust that he knows what he is doing and give him the time to implement his changes. We'll have setbacks along the way.

We tried a few things, some didn’t work. We lost, but it’s not the end of the world, we still made plenty of chances, but just didn’t take them.
We play again Tuesday, move on.

I think that if you consider that we had 22 attempts at goal against a decent side against the 7 attempts we had against a pretty average Orient side in November, then we are certainly making progress. Add in to the fact, we lost our in-form striker fairly early to be replaced by a very out-of-form striker, then you don't need to look too deeply into yesterday.

Ollie knows exactly what he needs to do in the summer, let's forget about the play-offs now and enjoy the rest of the season.

I thought we were very competitive against a good team in the first hslf. He gambled at half time and it didn't work. Can't remember complaints about lots of changes when he did it for the Colchester game.....

Quoted from aldi_01

I’m not sure this is working to a plan...although not from the club but certainly the fans, the excuse of ‘planning for next year’ seems to be trotted our after a urine poor performance.

I thought there were square pegs yesterday but it’s all about opinions.

Yesterday was toilet, simple as that.

For those of us who didn’t see it, was this Blundell Park standard toilet or FreemoStad toilet?

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

When MJ made changes he put square pegs in round holes... Holloway swaps like for like... Holloway has the remaining games to try and play every member of his squad to see who is fit and capable enough to be here next season...I think we can expect him to chop and change in all the remaining games now...

What's the player's fitness now got to do with next season?

As others have said, looking at the positives, we created a lot of chances against a team that have been there or there abouts this season.

Looking at the last handful of games played, it seems pretty clear to me that we’re winning against the lesser teams, and losing against the better teams in the division (Swindon, Northampton), whilst still picking up the odd 3 points against teams that are up there (Colchester). Ie, there’s work to be done, but it’s a good base to work from.

Under MJ we would’ve expected to lose yesterday, under IH we’re all annoyed we lost yesterday. In a way that in itself shows how far we’ve come.

Quoted from sam gy

Under MJ we would’ve expected to lose yesterday, under IH were all annoyed we won yesterday. In a way that in itself shows how far we’ve come.

Hang on, have I missed something here?

Haha, amended

Nothing like as poor a performance as some are suggesting, yes they were better than us but we still created enough clear cut chances to win the game, despite them scoring 3! Under jolley we had got to the stage of being lucky to create 1 clear cut chance in a match.

Quoted from Abdul19

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.

Hi Abdul

Yes, I agree we were superior to Northampton in 1998 but that is why I said they suffered from hubris. Despite the fact we had a better team, those fans still thought they would have no problem beating Town. They looked down their noses at us!

The last match of 2005-2006 saw us at home v Northampton and we were vying for an automatic promotion place with Leyton Orient. We were leading 1-0 and in pole position to go up automatically. Then at the death it all dramatically changed. Northampton scored an equaliser and seconds later Orient scored which saw them clinch automatic promotion. We were condemned to the play-offs. Beat Lincoln in the po semi-final and lost to Cheltenham in the final. It was a very controversial end to the season for us with stories about Slade negotiating a deal (allegedly) with Yeovil (I think) in the lead in to the final. Had we gone up that season we might have been saved a lot of suffering as we continued to slide downwards towards the Conference.

I would assume if we were involved in a relegation fight then the team would be relatively settled, eg, what Ollie thinks is his first 11, to achieve results and be safe, but as we are safe he is in the luxury position of being able to try various formations and personnel.

Quoted from hampshiremariner

Had we gone up that season we might have been saved a lot of suffering as we continued to slide downwards towards the Conference.

It would have taken us a season longer to get down there you mean?

We had numerous shots at goal from distance (Clifton was prominent here) without any shots being on target. That is from memory anyway.  Shouldn’t we have made better use of possession?

Strange old game yesterday. Lost 3 nil and not at our best but we missed some golden chances. Poor decisions from Grandin in the first half on the break and then a couple of sitters missed by Clarke in the second.
We could easily have scored 3+ ourselves.

Thought their striker was the difference.

Quoted from hampshiremariner

Hi Abdul

Yes, I agree we were superior to Northampton in 1998 but that is why I said they suffered from hubris. Despite the fact we had a better team, those fans still thought they would have no problem beating Town. They looked down their noses at us!

The last match of 2005-2006 saw us at home v Northampton and we were vying for an automatic promotion place with Leyton Orient. We were leading 1-0 and in pole position to go up automatically. Then at the death it all dramatically changed. Northampton scored an equaliser and seconds later Orient scored which saw them clinch automatic promotion. We were condemned to the play-offs. Beat Lincoln in the po semi-final and lost to Cheltenham in the final. It was a very controversial end to the season for us with stories about Slade negotiating a deal (allegedly) with Yeovil (I think) in the lead in to the final. Had we gone up that season we might have been saved a lot of suffering as we continued to slide downwards towards the Conference.

That was the key. That made our result irrelevant.

Thinking back to 98 though, yes, their fans were nobs

But if Goodfellow had scored that open goal goal when we played Orient away when we drew 0-0 they would not have been in that position.

For that game back in 2006, I never expected us to win automatic promotion that day. That chance had gone in the previous few results. Orient were always going to win that game as their opponents (forget who it was) had absolutely nothing to play for.

After we fought our way through the play-offs, I thought we'd do it, but we just bottled it in Cardiff on the day. As soon as Reddy went off it was obvious we'd struggle and I seem to recall we had a nailed on penalty waved away as well?

Blatant pen - Andy Parkinson brought down in box

Quoted from Maringer

For that game back in 2006, I never expected us to win automatic promotion that day. That chance had gone in the previous few results. Orient were always going to win that game as their opponents (forget who it was) had absolutely nothing to play for.

After we fought our way through the play-offs, I thought we'd do it, but we just bottled it in Cardiff on the day. As soon as Reddy went off it was obvious we'd struggle and I seem to recall we had a nailed on penalty waved away as well?

Orient were playing Oxford who had everything to play for. Needed a win to stay in the football league which is why they were throwing people forward at 2-2 in the last minute - a draw was no good to either of them.

Quoted from friskneymariner

But if Goodfellow had scored that open goal goal when we played Orient away when we drew 0-0 they would not have been in that position.

Exactly. Marc Goodfellow stopped us going up, not Northampton!

(He did score one of the most emphatic GTFC pens I can remember though, 2 days beforehand (in another game where we dropped points))

What happened to Reddy?

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

Orient were playing Oxford who had everything to play for. Needed a win to stay in the football league which is why they were throwing people forward at 2-2 in the last minute - a draw was no good to either of them.

Ah, that was it. Oxford were going to have to go for it and weren't likely to be up to the task. I just remember not expecting to go up automatically in any case so I wasn't particularly upset on the day when we failed to win.

Reddy's dodgy hip went on that day and it all but marked the end of his career. A real shame because he was one hell of a threat when in full flow.

Says it all that the winner was a scuffed cross which bounced its way in. I seem to remember that Rob Jones was pretty poor on the day as well - weren't there rumours that he'd already arranged a move elsewhere as well as Slade? A good while ago now so I could just be imagining it.

Flipping heck, just looked at the League table from that season. Clubs in League Two (not including the relegated Rushden) include Darlo, Boston, Wrexham, Stockport, Barnet, Chester, Notts County, Torquay and Bury! Just goes to show how many 'new' clubs have found their way into the League since then.

Went to both 98 Wembley finals with my missus, found a place to park for the first one ( Bournemouth), parked at the wrong end of Wembley for us, and walked both wearing Town tops, not a problem. Bit of banter off the Bournemouth fans as we walked to our end, but all fine and what you would consider acceptable for a " Husband and Wife ", we were hardly The " Cleethorpes Beach Patrol ". Few weeks later, parked in the same place V Northampton and what a difference. We got a load of quite intimidating abuse as we walked to Towns end, appalling behaviour for the threat level ( just the 2 of us ), wish I had the CBP with me that day, what a bunch of noobs the Northampton lot were. But still we won, so happy days. UTM.

I remember on the coach as we were leaving Wembley we happened to stop at a red light opposite a pub where Northampton fans were drinking away there sorrows.  They were terrible we started chanting as you do and then the next minute, bottles quid coins were being lobbed at the coach.  Scary bit funny as well.

Quoted from monkeyboy

Starting to look at who will be going and there’s a few.
Green is at best urine poor and has no control and can’t pass.
Clifton and whitehouse are on the verge of not good enough.
Ohman gone backwards.
Hanson to retire.
Rose got to go.
New keeper needed.
Hewit garbage.
Wright needs another year but jury out for me.
Caldwell already at the door.

That’s 9 there I won’t lose sleep over.

Will always fully support them when playing but I’m pretty sure Ollie knows who is not great

Only just read this thread, and i'm going to have to nibble already...

Green isn't great, I agree
Clifton is a young pro, still learning, and will get better under IH
Whitehouse didn't even play Saturday.... before that, he's been a total new player since IH.
Ohman hasn't gone backwards, he had a poor game, but Pollock and Waterfall have been playing well, so make him look worse
Without Hanson, this current team struggles, It's not all about scoring
Rose, fair enough
New keeper, to challenge Mckeown, not to replace
Hewitt is far from garbage as a RB, in fact, he's a good squad player to have
Wright is good, on a good pitch, just loses his head a bit too quick and does silly tackles, that will soon change under IH
Cardwell I agree

Two ways of looking at this one.

1) Holloway got it badly wrong with his team selection and then his subs/tactical changes didn't really seem to help us.
2) We're going to concede goals under Holloway and the way he plays, we're Keegan's Newcastle of the bottom tier...we need to outscore teams and had we taken 50% of our clear cut chances, would have come away with 3 points.

We were warned when we appointed him that Holloway likes a tinker and he likes to play players out of position.  We're seeing that now.  

I'm not really concerned that he got it wrong, it'll happen again and we have to accept it.  It's part of having a manager like him really.  I would be a bit more comfortable if he didn't feel the need to change 4 of his back 5 from a winning side, I understand players need rest but maybe just stagger that a little bit.

The concern, if we can call it that, is how Northampton highlighted our weaknesses across the pitch.  

• We're not good enough to play it out from the back on a consistent basis.   Waterfall made an error at the end but he has been rock solid under Holloway, I say that having previously questioned his value.  But he's not a footballer.  Ohman isn't a footballer either, he's another blocker.  I think Pollock is our best footballing defender but he has looked in need of a rest so can understand why he was left out.  The other issues at the back is that we're not quick enough.   We need some pace and someone who's capable of playing the ball out.  It feels a bit like when Slade first took over and we had a lot of warrior type defenders (Whittle and Rob Jones) and we needed someone like Simon Ramsden who could play a bit.  I imagine this will be high on Holloway's summer list.
  
• We lost the midfield battle.  The biggest improvement in Whitehouse under Holloway has been his ability to pick up the second balls.  Without him in there we just didn't have that.  The whole midfield felt a bit disjointed.  Clifton, Grandin and Benson all seemed to want to be the one sits and dictate things from deep.   But none really did.  What that left us with was a very deep second line and then nothing working off the strikers.  I thought it was also Clarke's quietest game since joining us.  He too is very good at picking up the second balls, but didn't seem to get any on Saturday.
  
• We're too nice.  Northampton had a team of shithouses.  We had a team of nice blokes.  Goode and McCormack refereed the game.  They were in the ear of the ref, they were telling him what to do, when to blow, when to tell a Town player off, when to give them a free-kick....we just muttered our protests under our breath.  We need a shithouse in there.  The last one we had was Mitch Rose.  For his limitations as a footballer, his shithousery levels were superb.  
  

There was plenty to work on and loads of areas for development.  But it was 3 sloppy goals that we conceded and 5 maybe 6 that we should have put away.  It's all ifs and buts, but on another day we would have thrashed a play-off team.

Quoted from Jarmo.Is.God

Only just read this thread, and i'm going to have to nibble already...

Green isn't great, I agree
Clifton is a young pro, still learning, and will get better under IH
Whitehouse didn't even play Saturday.... before that, he's been a total new player since IH.
Ohman hasn't gone backwards, he had a poor game, but Pollock and Waterfall have been playing well, so make him look worse
Without Hanson, this current team struggles, It's not all about scoring
Rose, fair enough
New keeper, to challenge Mckeown, not to replace
Hewitt is far from garbage as a RB, in fact, he's a good squad player to have
Wright is good, on a good pitch, just loses his head a bit too quick and does silly tackles, that will soon change under IH
Cardwell I agree

If our defence have been playing well, then I'd hate to see the goals we'd concede when they're not. The centre backs seem to look good for 85 minutes but make terrible mistakes that cost us goals nearly every week.

I have no real problem with our defenders playing out from the back but their limitations mean they have to keep a higher line. At the moment because they are close to our penalty area then if they are get closed down then any back pass to the goalkeeper immediately puts him under pressure. A higher line of would create a larger "recovery area".

Quoted from rancido

I have no real problem with our defenders playing out from the back but their limitations mean they have to keep a higher line. At the moment because they are close to our penalty area then if they are get closed down then any back pass to the goalkeeper immediately puts him under pressure. A higher line of would create a larger "recovery area".

But a higher line would give the opposition more opportunity to get behind us as none of our centre backs are particularly quick.

“We need a shithouse in there.  The last one we had was Mitch Rose.  For his limitations as a footballer, his shithousery levels were superb. “

I completely agree with this. Beautifully put as well!

Quoted from MuddyWaters

But a higher line would give the opposition more opportunity to get behind us as none of our centre backs are particularly quick.

Yep, agreed, they could do with a higher line for more wiggle room playing back to the keeper, but don't have the pace to defend a high line against quick attackers...

I am enjoying watching Town again for the first time in many years.
The two main areas of concern for me are, inability to retain possession and the ease at which we give the ball away, and the majority of the goals conceded come from mistakes at the back, not clearing our lines properly.  How many have come from a scuffed pass/clearance or bounced of a defender?

other than that we look a good side at time

Quoted from Shipwrecked In Gainsborough

Went to both 98 Wembley finals with my missus, found a place to park for the first one ( Bournemouth), parked at the wrong end of Wembley for us, and walked both wearing Town tops, not a problem. Bit of banter off the Bournemouth fans as we walked to our end, but all fine and what you would consider acceptable for a " Husband and Wife ", we were hardly The " Cleethorpes Beach Patrol ". Few weeks later, parked in the same place V Northampton and what a difference. We got a load of quite intimidating abuse as we walked to Towns end, appalling behaviour for the threat level ( just the 2 of us ), wish I had the CBP with me that day, what a bunch of noobs the Northampton lot were. But still we won, so happy days. UTM.

I went to both '98 finals.  Never had the displeasure of meeting the Northampton lot but as I was on my way home to S.E. London popped into a pub for a pint which had a bunch of Bournemouth fans there.  They bought me a drink. Ain't that what footie should be about?

Quoted from WesternMariner

“We need a shithouse in there.  The last one we had was Mitch Rose.  For his limitations as a footballer, his shithousery levels were superb. “

I completely agree with this. Beautifully put as well!

Cool as cucumber from the penalty spot.

Quoted from WesternMariner

“We need a shithouse in there.  The last one we had was Mitch Rose.  For his limitations as a footballer, his shithousery levels were superb. “

I completely agree with this. Beautifully put as well!

We could do with three more.

One for each of the Pontoon, the Main and one for the
" call it what you like " stands.