Just Back...on the bus.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

And it's Hurst who's fiddled about with the team over the last 4 games and got it wrong...no ifs or buts, he's got it wrong..

In hindsight, yes he got it wrong yesterday but he picks a team that he thinks will get a result. This has been his approach all season. I know it is hypothetical but if we had had the same results this season but in a different sequence would there would still be this reaction? If we had lost to Aldershot in the first game of the season and these losses had been spread throughout the season thus far but still sat so high in the league would the fans be pleased with our progress or disappointed?

Quoted from Mayaman

It depends on the person surely.  Some people like B as it galvanizes them.  Some get demotivated by B and therefore A would be a better option.  I remember recently JT was saying that we scored a good goal.  He laughed and replied, "it wasn't good, it was decent."  No matter how roughty toughty and northern we are, we all need praise from time to time.  It's a human trait.   It doesn't have to be gushing, schmaltzy American style stuff but acknowledgment of a job well done goes a long way.  When we've won convincingly in the past, he has focused on the X amount of minutes we lost focus.  

Absolutely.  A good leader will know his troops, and what makes them tick, and how to get the best out of them. Only Revan and those in the dressing room will know whether Macca's rant had the desired effect.

Unfortunately, Revan isn’t ready for men’s football yet. He was poor when he replaced Sears at right back v County and obviously the same yesterday. Which underlines how good Crookes has been and that it’s another position where we’re light on cover. As well as up front and in midfield.

Agree totally with this extract from Bigdog’s post

“Not playing three or four clever triangles when the end result is ponderous balls into our wide men or centre forward with their backs to the goal in front of a bank of defenders.. especially balls ending up being lumped forward by Waterfall after a twenty pass move that goes nowhere. Plenty of time for the oppo to get their shape and have a breather.”

I think this is where McAtee makes all the difference. When he’s playing we are much more incisive in our attack, and we attack more frequently, and he battles for the ball as soon as we lose it in their half. As a result we see less of the ball in our half. Our defensive frailties are less exposed.

I’d disagree with Barra on one thing. I thought the Town fans were poor yesterday. We lost heart too easily. No sustained singing in the second half. A few scattered efforts.

Not gonna lie I looked at the team yesterday and was pleased to see Khouri in there. I thought it might be the freshener in midfield that I’ve been asking for but it sounds like it didn’t work out.

Revan was a head-scratcher but you can only assume Crookes wasn’t fit enough. For me if your left-back isn’t fit enough to play then he’s a waste of a spot on a 5 man bench so that has to go down as an error on Hurst’s part.

I think it is fair to say McAtee being unavailable is having the impact we all thought it might. He really is head and shoulders above this division both technically and industriously. McAtee being injured isn’t Hurst’s fault, but the fact there is absolutely no plan in place to cover for it, is.

We are now asking anyone to fill in the hole behind Taylor when they can’t do it, which is no slight on them because it isn’t what they do. There isn’t a single other central midfielder in the squad who you would say often makes runs in to the box and that is down to the manager. Fair enough, you could argue that there is nobody available but at what point do you have to take the hit ability-wise and get someone in who at least plays that role in order to bolster the squad.

Same applies to the centre forward position. Taylor is great and Lenny is Lenny. Surely there must be someone available that offers pace, even if they take 1 in 10 chances. We need either more options from the beginning or coming on off the bench. Grant and Scannell might help here yet but neither can be relied on.

On the whole still more than happy with how we’ve started and right behind the manager and team. We can still be top of the league on Friday night let us remember. There are definitely a few red marks against Hurst’s name however but hopefully he’ll learn from his mistakes and we will improve as a result.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Agree totally with this extract from Bigdog’s post

“Not playing three or four clever triangles when the end result is ponderous balls into our wide men or centre forward with their backs to the goal in front of a bank of defenders.. especially balls ending up being lumped forward by Waterfall after a twenty pass move that goes nowhere. Plenty of time for the oppo to get their shape and have a breather.”

I think this is where McAtee makes all the difference. When he’s playing we are much more incisive in our attack, and we attack more frequently, and he battles for the ball as soon as we lose it in their half. As a result we see less of the ball in our half. Our defensive frailties are less exposed.

I’d disagree with Barra on one thing. I thought the Town fans were poor yesterday. We lost heart too easily. No sustained singing in the second half. A few scattered efforts.

McAtee links everything. He drifts wide to give an extra option to full backs in possession and makes space for other players by dragging opposition players out of position to deal with him. But he’s injured and we’re playing the same system without an adequate replacement. But what can we do when we’ve got 2 similar strikers at the club and that’s it? If we go 2 upfront we don’t have an attacking option on the bench apart from a YT (Essel).

Quoted from GollyGTFC

McAtee links everything. He drifts wide to give an extra option to full backs in possession and makes space for other players by dragging opposition players out of position to deal with him. But he’s injured and we’re playing the same system without an adequate replacement. But what can we do when we’ve got 2 similar strikers at the club and that’s it? If we go 2 upfront we don’t have an attacking option on the bench apart from a YT (Essel).

Lenny isn’t at all similar to Taylor either in terms of playing style or ability.

Everyone criticising Hurst's decision to play Khouri and Revan, but if Crookes wasn't fir then what choice did he have? Yes there was Bapaga, but imho he's gone off the boil and been very disappoitning the last 3 times ive seen him. Bapaga and revan would've left us even more exposed on that side. he presumably played Khouri because he's more solid and can tackle

On reflection i'd be interested to see the game again because w eactually looked ok in the first half i thought. Sousa was causing them real problems, clifton was outstanding and hunt was pinging the ball around and was moving it far more quickly than Coke does. There were several passages of play where we looked like the GTFC of Septemeber.
But 2nd half everyone seemed to go into their shell - clifton disappeared, hunt's passing went completely awry and we just seemed to rely on Waterfall's diagonals

I think Golly said McAtee is the difference - he's the fulcrum of the side. Taylor has looked  a shadow of himself since McAtee got injured - he doesn't get the service and is completely isolated. McAtee's chasing down is ahuge miss and his movement gives the midfield something to pass to. Without him the only options are a square ball, try and get it to Taylor or give it to Sousa who always has 2 or 3 men of him.
Add to that teams having sussed out Sousa and the Hunt/Waterfall combo and we are stunted in our attacking options

ps have to laugh about posters moaning about Hurst's tinkering and then picking a completely revised team to play v Sarfend

Quoted from forza ivano

Everyone criticising Hurst's decision to play Khouri and Revan, but if Crookes wasn't fir then what choice did he have? Yes there was Bapaga, but imho he's gone off the boil and been very disappoitning the last 3 times ive seen him. Bapaga and revan would've left us even more exposed on that side. he presumably played Khouri because he's more solid and can tackle

On reflection i'd be interested to see the game again because w eactually looked ok in the first half i thought. Sousa was causing them real problems, clifton was outstanding and hunt was pinging the ball around and was moving it far more quickly than Coke does. There were several passages of play where we looked like the GTFC of Septemeber.
But 2nd half everyone seemed to go into their shell - clifton disappeared, hunt's passing went completely awry and we just seemed to rely on Waterfall's diagonals

I think Golly said McAtee is the difference - he's the fulcrum of the side. Taylor has looked  a shadow of himself since McAtee got injured - he doesn't get the service and is completely isolated. McAtee's chasing down is ahuge miss and his movement gives the midfield something to pass to. Without him the only options are a square ball, try and get it to Taylor or give it to Sousa who always has 2 or 3 men of him.
Add to that teams having sussed out Sousa and the Hunt/Waterfall combo and we are stunted in our attacking options

ps have to laugh about posters moaning about Hurst's tinkering and then picking a completely revised team to play v Sarfend

Crookes was on the bench, wasn’t he?

My view is quite simplistic if McAtee and Taylor had been together we’d have beaten Notts County.

The away losses exposes a few things,

- Lack of quality away from the first 11

- The mix of inexperienced players and experience, there are too few players in these selections who know how to get themselves out of a spot of bother away from home.

-  Not enough “never say die” Dis like players to pop up with a late run headed goal to rescue a point.

- Some odd selections to be fair mainly driven by injuries/knocks and the in my view right reluctance to risk players. When we played a settled side we did well.

I didn’t expect to lose to Aldershot, Kiddy and Wealdstone and I think the players need to take some accountability for that as well as the manager.

The main thing this exposes is where still a big work in progress and to be truly serious contenders we need to bring in at least 2 or 3 maybe 4 experienced credible performance similar to the level Chesterfield, Wrexham, Stockport and Notts have.

For a number of reasons many not down to the manager I don’t expect an influx of the type described above to arrive in January.

In reality we all knew it would be a bumpy ride, this feels like a big bump that if not ridden over starting Friday
could define our season.