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Alfreton....Match Thread

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mariner91
August 4, 2021, 2:46pm
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I still question the strength of our defence. Pearson wasn’t first choice when he was younger and we finished fourth, Longe-King is a bit inexperienced and Waterfall has generally been pretty rubbish for us.

The four central midfielders include three who were in our terrible squad last season. Clifton has great energy but there’s still questions over his ball playing ability. Spokes is young and a bit of a rookie. And Coke is very old, hasn’t played much at all in the last five seasons. There is a reason he was in the division below this one when we signed him. Fox I think looks excellent but we’ve gambled on his fitness in order to bring in someone of his ability and he has a bad history with injuries.

McAtee looks really good as a number 10 and Sousa sounds promising. But Scannell and Wright both have poor records of actually getting out on the pitch and Grant is aging a lot. Wouldn’t surprise me at all so see Grant start well and fade as the rigours of the season catch up like it did with Monkhouse. Lennie and Taylor aren’t out and out scorers and I agree with whoever said it the other day but I fear Lennie will be a big disappointment when you compare to the quality some of our competition now boast.

We need injections of quality right the way through the squad in my honest opinion. And the strength in depth is very poor particularly when you consider how many of our players have bad injury records. Two forward players (goalscorer and a wide player like Vernam) with very good quality are an absolute must to have any chance of automatic promotion. I would also like to see a centre back and a central midfielder of the quality of McAtee and Fox brought in if we are actually serious.

Play offs minimum expectation.


Looking forward to a brighter future now Fenty has gone.
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diehardmariner
August 4, 2021, 2:47pm
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If the season started this weekend I would probably be a bit concerned.

But we've over two weeks until it starts and time to get in, by my reckoning, those other two pieces of the jigsaw.  Looking at both the squad and squad numbers, we're a striker and a winger/attacking midfielder short (No's 7 & 9).

I get the distinct impression that we're almost in a chain here.  I think we've got money to spend and we're going to spend it on a couple of marquee type signings, purely for examples I'm going to say Vernam and Tshimanga.   Neither Bradford or Borehamwood are going to let those players go without replacements, be it as first-teamers or back-up, firmly in place.  This could be repeated further down the chain with other clubs waiting too.

Or it could be that negotiations are taking longer, clubs holding out for more money, players wanting better contracts, Hurst & Doig hedging their bets on other players becoming available....

Something else to consider is that the loan market is open and at present we've only utilised it for one player.  We can have another four in any matchday squad.  That I'm aware the loan market doesn't shut until nearly the end of the season in the Conference either.

Am I a bit concerned with our lack of striking options?  Slightly.  But I don't think we're quite at the desperate stage of re-signing an unfit and out of sorts Alan Connell the day before the season starts, not yet anyway.

It's the easiest thing in football to say, but from what I've seen we really do look a good and fit striker away from a very, very strong outfit.  
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diehardmariner
August 4, 2021, 2:50pm
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Quoted from mariner91
. And Coke is very old


flipping hell, he's 35 not 103.
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KingstonMariner
August 4, 2021, 2:59pm
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Quoted from mariner91
I still question the strength of our defence. Pearson wasn’t first choice when he was younger and we finished fourth, Longe-King is a bit inexperienced and Waterfall has generally been pretty rubbish for us.

The four central midfielders include three who were in our terrible squad last season. Clifton has great energy but there’s still questions over his ball playing ability. Spokes is young and a bit of a rookie. And Coke is very old, hasn’t played much at all in the last five seasons. There is a reason he was in the division below this one when we signed him. Fox I think looks excellent but we’ve gambled on his fitness in order to bring in someone of his ability and he has a bad history with injuries.

McAtee looks really good as a number 10 and Sousa sounds promising. But Scannell and Wright both have poor records of actually getting out on the pitch and Grant is aging a lot. Wouldn’t surprise me at all so see Grant start well and fade as the rigours of the season catch up like it did with Monkhouse. Lennie and Taylor aren’t out and out scorers and I agree with whoever said it the other day but I fear Lennie will be a big disappointment when you compare to the quality some of our competition now boast.

We need injections of quality right the way through the squad in my honest opinion. And the strength in depth is very poor particularly when you consider how many of our players have bad injury records. Two forward players (goalscorer and a wide player like Vernam) with very good quality are an absolute must to have any chance of automatic promotion. I would also like to see a centre back and a central midfielder of the quality of McAtee and Fox brought in if we are actually serious.

Play offs minimum expectation.


If the squad is as bad as you say, why are you expecting at least the playoffs?


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mariner91
August 4, 2021, 3:00pm
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Quoted from diehardmariner


flipping hell, he's 35 not 103.


Yes but he’s a 35 year old central midfielder who has managed less than 50 league games since 2011/12. You reckon he will be able to sustain fitness and form across a 46 game season plus all the cups? And when our other options are Fox with his injury record, Clifton and Spokes (who I like but is still fairly unproven in the professional game) then I think it’s a concern.


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mariner91
August 4, 2021, 3:02pm
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Quoted from KingstonMariner


If the squad is as bad as you say, why are you expecting at least the playoffs?


I’m not expecting play offs right now. I think the squad in its current form would struggle to finish above 10th.

We’ve been told there’s money to spend and we’ve sold a decent amount of season tickets to bolster the budget. We’ve also sold Grist and Pollock and may well get some more money from Dembele too. With that in mind and the fact you only have to finish 7th to make the play offs then the minimum expectation should be exactly that.


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jamesgtfc
August 4, 2021, 3:27pm
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Quoted from mariner91


Yes but he’s a 35 year old central midfielder who has managed less than 50 league games since 2011/12. You reckon he will be able to sustain fitness and form across a 46 game season plus all the cups? And when our other options are Fox with his injury record, Clifton and Spokes (who I like but is still fairly unproven in the professional game) then I think it’s a concern.


It's always put out there that Giles Coke is some sort of crock but he played 9 of Herefords' 13 league games last season and went on to play for us 17 times after signing mid-February. 26 games last season alone.

In 2012/13 he played 16 Championship games and followed this up with a respectable 28 in 2013/14. In 2014/15, he played 17 Championship games and then joined Ipswich where he played 10 Championship games in 2015/16. That is 71 Championship games in a period where he's alleged to have hardly kicked a ball.

At Ipswich he did suffer a bad knee injury that required surgery. He was released at the end of 2016/17 and didn't sign for Chesterfield until February 2018 so that knee injury could have been a tough one to overcome. He was released by Chesterfield following their relegation and signed for Oldham. Giles has since gone on record to state that he was fit for selection throughout his time at Oldham and attributed his lack of appearances at Oldham as problems with the club's owner, although not elaborating on the details he says his absence was not down to injury.
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arryarryarry
August 4, 2021, 3:42pm
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Quoted from jamesgtfc


It's always put out there that Giles Coke is some sort of crock but he played 9 of Herefords' 13 league games last season and went on to play for us 17 times after signing mid-February. 26 games last season alone.

In 2012/13 he played 16 Championship games and followed this up with a respectable 28 in 2013/14. In 2014/15, he played 17 Championship games and then joined Ipswich where he played 10 Championship games in 2015/16. That is 71 Championship games in a period where he's alleged to have hardly kicked a ball.

At Ipswich he did suffer a bad knee injury that required surgery. He was released at the end of 2016/17 and didn't sign for Chesterfield until February 2018 so that knee injury could have been a tough one to overcome. He was released by Chesterfield following their relegation and signed for Oldham. Giles has since gone on record to state that he was fit for selection throughout his time at Oldham and attributed his lack of appearances at Oldham as problems with the club's owner, although not elaborating on the details he says his absence was not down to injury.


Somebody needs to update his Wiki account because non of that is mentioned.
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arryarryarry
August 4, 2021, 3:43pm
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Quoted from jamesgtfc


It's always put out there that Giles Coke is some sort of crock but he played 9 of Herefords' 13 league games last season and went on to play for us 17 times after signing mid-February. 26 games last season alone.

In 2012/13 he played 16 Championship games and followed this up with a respectable 28 in 2013/14. In 2014/15, he played 17 Championship games and then joined Ipswich where he played 10 Championship games in 2015/16. That is 71 Championship games in a period where he's alleged to have hardly kicked a ball.

At Ipswich he did suffer a bad knee injury that required surgery. He was released at the end of 2016/17 and didn't sign for Chesterfield until February 2018 so that knee injury could have been a tough one to overcome. He was released by Chesterfield following their relegation and signed for Oldham. Giles has since gone on record to state that he was fit for selection throughout his time at Oldham and attributed his lack of appearances at Oldham as problems with the club's owner, although not elaborating on the details he says his absence was not down to injury.


PS. 26 games in a season is just over half, plus how many of those 17 games did he actually complete the 90 minutes?
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Maringer
August 4, 2021, 4:02pm
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I always tend to check Soccerbase for players appearance info. Due to the way in which their data is collected and displayed, they shouldn't miss anything out. Wikipedia is up to somebody to bother to enter the correct information.
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