Highlights

Some good play as shown, but the final pass or shot wasn't up to it on Saturday. As Hurst mentioned in his post-match interview, that one which Sousa played behind Clifton (and Taylor then skied the follow-up) was one where the cross should have been better. Good football in general is all well and good, but you've got to get the final touch right.

It's a real shame that Sousa seems to panic when given a sight of the goal himself. On Saturday, I was pretty much expecting him to make a hash of his shot when he ran through and I hope he is spending a lot of time practising his shooting!

Can anyone identify the commentator? John Ward? I always think he does a good job.

Regarding the goal, at the time I thought it was a shot, but it probably was intended as a cross. What caught McKeown out is the fact that it was hit much harder than he was expecting, hence the parry. Should have done better, but then so should the defence both in stopping the crossing opportunity and then getting into the right position to clear it after the parry.

Quoted from Chrisblor

Goalkeepers are constantly coached NOT to parry the ball into dangerous positions. Somehow our esteemed keeper has managed to parry a not particularly threatening cross, which he's well positioned to cut out, directly to the Notts attacker stood on the edge of our six yard box for a tap in:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/3XbvlyF.png[/img]

Sometimes keepers can get away with it when the ball fortunately falls to a defender who can clear, but make no mistake, this goal absolutely resulted from a goalkeeping error and I can assure you it'll be viewed as much by his coaches.

You must have been an excellent goalkeeper.

First of all I would say that this is not a parry. This is a block of a powerful cross by Macca, with the hands, where he has recognised the danger of the wide attacker which Crookes wasn't able to get back to stop. Coke was also fairly pedestrian in trying to get to the wide attacker in covering for Crookes and doesn't get himself between the attacker and his target. So Macca has done well to get a block on this, but he is blameless and has little or no control on where that block is going to go to from such a powerful close range strike.

Thereafter your goalkeeper is reliant upon his teammates for emergency defending and recovery of the rebound. If you watch Hunt, he is very slow to get back and doesn't recover quickly to stop the Notts County goal scorer advancing on the goal to pick up the rebound.

This is the bit that bothers me about the criticism of goalkeepers. If Hunt gets back and snuffs that advancing attacker out, then you are all praising Macca for a great block save and Hunt for a great recovery run.

Nothing to be criticising the goalkeeper there for

Quoted from joe56

Can anyone identify the commentator? John Ward? I always think he does a good job.

I think it's Graham Shearsmith. He stands in for John Moore sometimes.

On watching the highlights again it makes me realise we were probably 60/40 on top throughout, but at the time it always felt like County had a goal in them.

County looked fit and organised, like us. I thought we edged it skill-wise, but weren't able to execute in the final third whereas they took one of only two chances.

A team like County would've walked away 3-0 winners at BP last season playing like that.

I thought we looked fit, organised and professional, and those were three things you couldn't say about us often last season. They'll be enough to win a few games this season but to stay in the title race we'll continue to need that quality that McAtee, Taylor, Sousa, Bapaga and Hunt  all bring.

Quoted from RichMariner

I think it's Graham Shearsmith. He stands in for John Moore sometimes.

Thanks. He does actually commentate. John is quite rightly held in high affection by Town fans. By my reckoning he’s been doing it for around 30 years. I do feel, however, that he’s been a bit repetitive at times this season.

Not sure if it's an optical illusion in the sunshine but there appear to be a lot of empty seats in the main stand?

I think the commentary team are great. They've been doing it for years and are very professional, passionate and accurate. I love to hear their voices and worry it just won't be the same when one, or both decide they've had enough as well.

I know a few don't particularly like Tondeur but they've all familiar voices to me that take me right back to when I first started following Town.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

For as much as I agree with you ( I was a goal keeper and it was a cardinal sin to parry back into the danger zone) you also have to question the defence, to leave their main goal threat unattended on the middle of the box should never have happened. However we look at it, it's happened with multiple failings.
On the day we did play better football than Notts but they actually defended their box better than us, narrow margins is what cost us.

Defensive set up looks fine, unless you want Towler the wrong side of Waterfall & 5 yards ahead of everyone else, or Waterfall stepping out to mark the scorer and leaving his man on the 6-yard line?

It’s the same argument every time for McKeown. I can remember having this argument when he let a ball float over his head against Barnet with Widdowson nudging it in practically on the goal line. People were blaming Efete and (I think) Waterfall for that one too!

I said in the week to someone that you could put McKeown’s failings down for almost every goal we’ve conceded this season. He’s too slow across his line, constantly beaten from outside the box, won’t catch a cross and punches the ball back into dangerous areas. People slate his distribution but I don’t think it’s that bad at all, at this level anyway.

We will not finish first with him in goal, there’s a reason Hurst put a relatively untested youngster in goal as soon as he had the chance last season. He’s only getting bench time at Portsmouth, I wouldn’t mind seeing us go back in for Eastwood if Crocombe can’t dislodge McKeown.