Just Back

Quoted from Plankton

He went into a tackle and lent awkwardly on his elbow from my view and my initial reaction was that he dislocated his shoulder, this was my thought before he appeared to show difficulty.

Ouch !!!

I reckon Sears will be out for a few weeks so hopefully Efete will be ready to return for the next game.

Frustrating way to lose a game. County were well organised, but absolutely dreadful on the ball in the first half - the amount of mistakes they made was unreal. You knew there they were going to improve in the second half.

That said, Town dominated the game without ever really going close to scoring, despite decent looking opportunities for the likes of Sousa and Taylor. I thought we got it tactically right given the personnel fit and available, but needed the all important goal which never came.

Because of that, I can’t subscribe to the idea that we were ‘robbed’. The better team perhaps, but despite looking utterly impotent first half I thought they looked a real threat during their occasional forays forward.

If you’re still punching in the 12th round of the fight, you always have the chance to land that knockout blow. If today was a boxing match, we’d have won comfortably on points had we not been sparked out at the death. But that’s football.

Frustrating as fúck, but not the end of the world. It was a decent performance, undermined by missing a couple of key players at the sharp end of the pitch. I think now is the time to reinforce there.

We will recover. Giles Coke my MoM - thought he was magnificent today.

I wasn't feeling too optimistic walking in today; felt like we were heading into a dip in form.  And so it's transpired, although it was a real sickener to lose it at the death like that.  

We performed well for most the game.  No one had a bad day, midfield was strong and kept the ball well between them, defence really solid again aside from being caught at the end.  We started on the front foot, pressing high and forcing a usually high-possession County into plenty of over-hit passes.  Sousa and Sears looked like they'd developed a bit more of an understanding, and Sears seemed more confident in sliding balls into LJL/Fox/Sousa just in front of their back four.  We created a couple of good chances; no idea how the Shop dug out that shot that hit the bar but it would have been a great goal had it dipped in time.  

Sears going off meant Revan had to fill in at RB, his non-preferred side, which he did quite well but Notts targeted him after the break with the addition of a very quick midfielder making runs into the channel.  This resulted in Revan and Waterfall regularly being turned towards their own goal, forcing Sousa deeper to show for the ball.  This stopped Sousa from being very effective; he regularly beat players with ease on the break but it was always in the wrong area of the pitch - deep in his own half.  Real shame about the goal as a 0-0 wouldn't have been a bad result.  It felt like we got caught pressing too high chasing a winner, with Crookes pushing high late on, leaving a spare man for Wootton to flick on to.  I have to be critical of Macca for pushing the shot into the centre of the box, you'd expect most keepers to tip that away for a corner.  Several factors involved though, including Towler surprisingly losing a challenge, so no scapegoating here.

The McAtee and Efete absences are creating a tactical problem for us as we struggle to find space in the pocket behind the opposition's midfield, so we can't stretch their defence with quick balls out wide.  We also don't create overloads against full-backs often enough.  

Not too much to be down about though.  Still 2nd, still averaging 2 PPG.  We have an outstanding player in Towler, who has an absurd amount of composure for this level, we're very lucky to have him.  Atmosphere was pretty good in the Upper.  Big opportunity at Aldershot in two weeks to arrest this mini slump in form.  

Onto the Cup.  UTM.

Jeez that was sickening
Like town of old
That was NC first shot at goal
So Frustrating
We where the better side but we need to hurt teams more as well as keeping possession and playing it round the park well
If that’s the best the league had to offer we should be ok
Boreham Wood top
Come on we are Town!!

Quoted from Poojah

Frustrating way to lose a game. County were well organised, but absolutely dreadful on the ball in the first half - the amount of mistakes they made was unreal. You knew there they were going to improve in the second half.

That said, Town dominated the game without ever really going close to scoring, despite decent looking opportunities for the likes of Sousa and Taylor. I thought we got it tactically right given the personnel fit and available, but needed the all important goal which never came.

Because of that, I can’t subscribe to the idea that we were ‘robbed’. The better team perhaps, but despite looking utterly impotent first half I thought they looked a real threat during their occasional forays forward.

If you’re still punching in the 12th round of the fight, you always have the chance to land that knockout blow. If today was a boxing match, we’d have done comfortably on points had we not been sparked out at the death. But that’s football.

Frustrating as fúck, but not the end of the world. It was a decent performance, undermined by missing a couple of key players at the sharp end of the pitch. I think now is the time to reinforce there.

We will recover. Giles Coke my MoM - thought he was magnificent today.

Sound analysis Poojah. There was no robbery in this game, it was up for both teams to take all 3 points at any point in the game, it just took a goal. Unfortunately for us it landed straight to one of their lads to slot it home and allowed them to take the points.

We did well and managed their play, but they also did very well in stopping us getting forward, especially in the first half. As the game went on it became more open and we did have half chances which if we had a striker on their game we may have scored.

For me there's far too may haves, might'ves, should'ves. LJL holds the ball so well and draws players to him, with 2 players marking him at times, which should be rife for a forward to run on from that, but we don't have those options.

Sousa is dynamite and at times I wish he didn't pass and kept going as the ball he put in wasn't equally met from his efforts with the touch.

Quoted from sydney

Jeez that was sickening
Like town of old
That was NC first shot at goal
So Frustrating
We where the better side but we need to hurt teams more as well as keeping possession and playing it round the park well
If that’s the best the league had to offer we should be ok
Boreham Wood top
Come on we are Town!!

No it wasn't.

Very confused about the Coke praise. Thought he was awful on the ball today. Missed an incredible amount of opportunities to play progressive attacking passes to town players making dangerous runs and instead chose to put his foot on the ball and knock it back to the defence instead every time. Made it easy for Notts County to get back into their positions and meant we failed to stretch them as often as we could have. Yeah he's solid defensively but we're so much better with Fox & Hunt as the two deep midfielders instead because they're both far more inclined to play quick forward passes. Suppose the only way we could do that with McAtee out is by playing Bapaga in his role and playing Fox deeper instead.

Really good game of football today (national league!). Frustrating for town but we played well for a team in the 5th tier. Towler and Hunt are a class apart. Just missing a cutting edge…. But a full BP with the main stand in voice at times!!

County support(great to see the numbers)  was very tepid: sing when we are winning..

Quoted from Running like emson

Really good game of football today (national league![/b]). Frustrating for town but we played well for a team in the 5th tier. [b]Towler and Hunt are a class apart. Just missing a cutting edge…. But a full BP with the main stand in voice at times!!

County support(great to see the numbers)  was very tepid: sing when we are winning..

Wouldn't say really good game, but the way we moved the ball about is streets ahead of the dross of last season, and that wasn't just from Town the whole league was poor. nice to 1000+ in the Osmond but actually 1087 is poor considering their home attendances - but they've never travelled well to Cleethorpes for some reason. Stockport had 1600 fans at Notts last week and they've been a heap of shite so far.

Both Towler and Hunt were excellent and I thought Coke had a good game. We are not going to win the title without exceptional luck with the fitness of Taylor and McAtee from this point on. We don't look like a team that will score many key goals feeding off the scraps of half chances. We've played all the big spenders now save Chesterfield and they look like strong favourite with the Tshimanga strike rate. Of course he might get injured...