Exeter Match Thread, brought to you by Debenhams

Quoted from heppy88

Except Swin, he gets off on spinning his web of negativity. When Town are doing well you never hear from him. .

Firstly I refer you to my comment after the Crawley win and secondly doing well is such a rare occurrance anyway that it is hardly surprising I don't celebrate our outstanding performances very often

Please explain how the Tranmere Exeter Hull and other games give reason for positivity

We are a bottom five team no doubt , we have a keeper who doesn’t command his box centre backs who have no positional sense and no pace , midfielders who can’t pass a ball causing no ball retention and strikers who dont score much ... like Holloway said in his interview we have no spine and needs to add 3 at least proven pros in all three areas , but he’s already said nobody will come to Grimsby ? Can only hope a couple are worse than us

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

We are a bottom five team no doubt , we have a keeper who doesn’t command his box centre backs who have no positional sense and no pace , midfielders who can’t pass a ball causing no ball retention and strikers who dont score much ... like Holloway said in his interview we have no spine and needs to add 3 at least proven pros in all three areas , but he’s already said nobody will come to Grimsby ? Can only hope a couple are worse than us

So,, We go from My phone is melting from players wanting to come play for him . To no one wants to come here.. Well what he realy ment as we have found out, is the people melting his phone was just other managers trying to off load what was not to there standard . Now Ollie has to do the same so we can get some better players in

Few things that are becoming quite clear I feel.

We're missing Limbrick.  Post-Jolley he was the man who got the confidence and shape back into the team.  It wasn't pretty but what he did was essential to allow Holloway to build on and allow us to have a bit more spark.  Like it or not, we've got rid of a good coach and not replaced him.  Our already limited coaching resource has been halved.  Our actual dedicated coaching staff is now Ben Davies, who I'm sure is very good but he's still cutting his teeth.  Can't get away with that.

You can't have your No 2 goalkeeper as your goalkeeping coach.  McKeown made some smart saves but he's way off the top of his game.  Way off this season.  He needs a genuine challenge for that shirt.  

Our left side was too weak and inexperienced.  Playing Idehen and Preston as the left-hand side of defence is a disaster in waiting.  Even bigger problems when their protection comes from a guy who's natural game is anything but defending (Edwards).

The defence isn't working.  Whatever's going on in there I don't know but it needs sorting.  Absolute basic errors cost us all 4 goals last night.  Doesn't seem to be any leadership or communication going on.  Most frustrating is the lack of anger from any of them when there is a balls up.  

I actually thought we knocked it about well last night, but lacked a real cutting edge.  Both Scannell and Edwards were dangerous and for his critics, I thought Green did ok.  Lack of service but he put himself about a bit.  We still need better though.  

Chronic lack of support from the midfield.  Hewitt and Rose both wanted to sit deep, Clifton didn't stop running and he tried to run beyond the strikers but didn't do it enough.  Double edged sword as the ball doesn't get held up.  Quite a few occasions either Edwards or Scannell got into decent crossing positions but there was no-one bombing into the box. The only time I recall it happening we ended up scoring.

What's happened with Williams and Gibson?  I've seen nothing to say they're injured.  Also Wright and Tilley?    Which begs the other question, why are we picking up so many knocks all the time.  Holloway can't blame the schedule as he's got a massive squad which he's rotated endlessly.  It's not a popular view but something isn't right with how we're set up for injury prevention/management.  For years we've picked up niggles galore.  We either sign broken players or we break them.  This goes back years, remember the club playing Adrian Forbes with a broken leg? Fundamentally something isn't right with the club in this regards.  It doesn't matter who we sign, until we address this issue we'll never move forward.

Quoted from Norseman

Did anyone else think olly actually looked defeated in his interview. To me he actually looked like he was almost at the end of his tether.
First time ive felt he looked really down. Lets get behind the lads. Weve been much worse off than this. Realistically as supporters what can we do but wait for good days. Town fans have always had a roller coaster ride. The uncertainty is part of the fun. UTM 😊😊😊

I thought he was subdued. Less lively and less BS.

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

We are a bottom five team no doubt , we have a keeper who doesn’t command his box centre backs who have no positional sense and no pace , midfielders who can’t pass a ball causing no ball retention and strikers who dont score much ... like Holloway said in his interview we have no spine and needs to add 3 at least proven pros in all three areas , but he’s already said nobody will come to Grimsby ? Can only hope a couple are worse than us

Has he said nobody will come to Grimsby?

If he has, I think what he is really saying is that nobody will come for the money we pay (we need to pay a premium to get players in demand) and when they see us in our present dire situation season after season.

Ollie knows this is a long term project. It has to be; you cannot turn round this level of mismanagement within a season or two. We have to build steadily to get a team to be proud of, even if it means adding just a couple of decent players at each window.

I hope he stays and starts to turn things around; the club is a shambles from top to bottom - somebody said in another post about players always injured, players signed never fit, never enough backroom staff to help out and all this is dictated by one stubborn owner who has the vision of a short-sighted gnat, who is completely unable to generate any further income or investment in the club that he is in sole charge of.

I wish Ollie well; if he can prise the club away, even partly from Fenty's vice like grip it would be a start.

Quoted from cardiffmariner

I went to watch us at Cheltenham under Jolley when we lost 3-1 (if memory serves). We played well and, unusually for me, I emailed him directly after thanking him for bringing a bit of joy back to watching Town in what I thought had been a really promising display. By the time he left I could barely be arsed to sit and watch us play we’d become so negative and terrified of the football.

I don’t see that mindset with this current group, and whilst it’s not much to cling on to, it’s all I’ve got right now! I did say to my old man earlier in the season (really old, so can’t work the tech to watch!) that I thought we had better footballers than under Jolley (Rose, Scannell, Edwards) and I think I’d still stick to that. Not sure there’s anyone we released who you can say we’re desperately missing. IMHO of course  

I accept that Jolley's last month (October 2019) was a bit tedious but before then I wasn't really dissatisfied with the way we played - remember Walsall (A), Port Vale (H) and Exeter ( A) all came not that long before Jolley left

It's all about opinions of course but to my mind it wasn't all doom and gloom

As for the individuals you mention

Rose                           v              Hessenthaler
Scannell                      v             Robson
Edwards                      v             Hanson  ( because he was fit and playing well before Jolley walked )

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree

I've seen the odd game under Holloway where we've done well but there have been some bad ones too... the same as it was under Jolley for me

Time will tell if Town go forward from here but I have reservations.... doesn't mean I don't support what Ollie is hoping to achieve but I do question whether what he wants from our squad will be realised

UTM

Quoted from monkeyboy

We have the basis of a good team that maybe 2 new players may get us firing.
Exeter were are very good team, as good as anything we seen in league 2 for a while and will go up for me.

IH is clearly trying to build something with bringing in youth and also promoting from within, some fans on here really need to go supporting a prem team if its instant success they are after. we aint got the cash for that.

He will get it right eventualy and that im confident with, he said we have the best fans but we also have a load of muppets that moan like intercourse that probably do support a prem team as well as claiming to support town.

We need this manager to have a few years at the club, yes there will be bad times but there will be good times too. we wont get relegated so if we finish bottom half so be it, he keeps the cream of what he has then goes again.

Same old blah blah blah bull excrement, I would like a team that doesn't seem to struggle in the lower reaches of the 4th Division.

I believe that the longer term ambition of the club is to bring through a number of players from our youth system and Ollie speaks highly about a number of these lads including some who are 15 & 16 years old.

This is a strategy many of us have been crying out for, many a day spent  living in hope that the success of the mid seventies to mid eighties can be recreated. The issue is that these youngsters need experience around them and the mistakes Ollie has made, IMO, is recruiting too many youngsters in the close season when we are actually selecting a number of our own in preference to them. Edwards, Taylor and Preston would have been sufficient young unproven talent in the summer and some of the other additions like Gomis and Morton are not required. Similarly it’s looking like some of those signed from non-league have not been able to meet the standards required and given we can’t score goals regularly I am expecting Sisay and Jackson Jnr to move on. Stokes will see the season out but signs are he won’t make the step up.

The big disappointment is that two of his more experienced signings Moshni and Bennett have not worked out and for us to progress as a club, whilst blooding our own youngsters, we need to sign better quality experienced players starting in January.

In the meantime I would consider playing Hewitt and Hendrie as full backs to add that experience at the back and hopefully leave our left flank a little less exposed. Hanson and Tilley back might help in the short term but in reality we need better players to support Rose in the middle and to add regular goals.

Only saw the 2nd half as forgot we were even playing on Tuesday, shows how my interest is diminishing with more turgid form and lack of being able to go to games. What I saw looked decent for 20 mins but still no cutting edge and woeful defending. Need an experienced version of Idehen and big strong/quick player up front and get rid of all but Edwards, Preston, and Windsor out of the loanees. The rest should sort itself out.