Just Back

Weird game last night, we weren’t particularly great but weren’t too bad either. Certainly still lacking a certain spark which I think McAtee will give us and will push Fox back into his best position.

I’d like to see more of Bapaga, he looked excellent at Alty and certainly has more end product in his locker.

Quoted from pontoonlew

What’s ludicrous is the shutting down of people on a forum for an opinion. It may seem harsh but Coke has looked off the pace all season and I can’t understand how people can’t see that, we look a much better side without him and Hunt/Fox don’t look the same playing alongside him.

He may be a respected pro etc but we can’t afford passengers or sentiment.

Try reading what I actually wrote.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

Try reading what I actually wrote.

It wasn’t aimed at your particular comment, it was aimed at the ‘needing a scapegoat’ comment which is total rubbish imo.

I thought Coke improved as the game went on. But with a below par Hunt alongside we didnt control the game in the middle.

Couldn’t make last night
Followed on humberside and Twitter as don’t have BTSport
A win is a win so well done to the team, and as someone has said let’s see how others fare today
But we will need to up our game next 4 games as we might find ourselves back in the pack
Results in Next 4 games could shape the Rest of the season
Come on Town!!

Before last night's game, I desperately wanted to see Shaun Pearson back in the side, but not necessarily at the expense of Riley Towler.  I felt we were in dire need of a bit of proper leadership on the pitch, a real team player with a bit of added grit and someone who's never been afraid to face up to whatever the opposition dishes out.  Pearson does it for me, he did it for Wrexham, and I wanted to see him do it for this team when we needed it most.  Great to see him back and very happy that we managed to keep a clean sheet (which wasn't all down to Pearson, but you know what I mean).  

I still thought it was a struggle last night, but the three points came to us in the end, which was a massive relief.

Been bottling up my thoughts over the last few defeats and still have lots of questions.  I think I remember Paul Hurst mentioning early on that we would have a longer pre-season than most other clubs in this league (as we finished last season earlier than them) and it might give us an advantage with our fitness.  Is that what we were seeing early on, and have the rest caught up with us now?  Or did our style of play take everyone by surprise in the early games, and now everybody's had a chance to assess us, are they becoming more effective at stifling us and shutting us down?  (I do like Paul Hurst's pre-match evasiveness regarding the team - he's being very careful about what he says in interviews.)  Finally, I don't really like thinking about this, but does the whole success / failure thing depend on one player - the wonderful John McAtee?

Anyway, back to last night:  As expected, McAtee's return lifted the whole place, team and fans.  He's just so dynamic, and it seems to rub off on everyone else.  Love it.  Taylor was brilliant and thank goodness for that all-important goal.  Efete gave me a proper scare when he lay flat on his back, motionless, towards the end, as if he'd been hit by a sniper in the crowd - I was dreading it being yet another injury - thank goodness it just turned out to be cramp.  I think he's a good player, but maybe needs a solid run of games before we see him steaming forward and scoring goals like he did early on.  The Hunt-Waterfall corner combination still isn't really clicking like it used to.  Still finding it difficult to choose an MoM - the obvious choice would be Taylor, I'd have loved to have given it to Shaun Pearson, but in the end (and I've even surprised myself here) I'm going to save it for his partner in crime, Luke Waterfall.

Quoted from pontoonlew

What’s ludicrous is the shutting down of people on a forum for an opinion. It may seem harsh but Coke has looked off the pace all season and I can’t understand how people can’t see that, we look a much better side without him and Hunt/Fox don’t look the same playing alongside him.

He may be a respected pro etc but we can’t afford passengers or sentiment.

I don’t disagree that now the side is better than last season Coke doesn’t look as influential my point was more about the habit of always trying to find a scapegoat for some negativity which seems to run through the DNA of this board and probably the board at every other club.

What worries me is that other than Taylor's hold up play and Sousa's pace I doubt any of our next few opponents will have seen anything to worry about from last night.

Too much is invested in McAtee plus he's only just back from injury.

I just hope we re-discover our passion, energy and early season form.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

Ludicrous isn't it? And if people want to make points about his lack of mobility or him slowing down play then fair enough but he's a highly respected pro with an excellent reputation so stuff about conning his way through 90 minutes is balderdash.

I'm not sure it is ludicrous to question why we laboured to a win at home against one of the worst teams in the league. I wouldn't say he conned his way through the game, the effort is there but his lack of mobility, his poor link up with the other midfielders and his slowing down of the game, often needlessly, makes us a far less impressive outfit.

Quoted from mariner91

I'm not sure it is ludicrous to question why we laboured to a win at home against one of the worst teams in the league. I wouldn't say he conned his way through the game, the effort is there but his lack of mobility, his poor link up with the other midfielders and his slowing down of the game, often needlessly, makes us a far less impressive outfit.

The overall performance level would suggest that he wasn’t the only one who had a mixed evening.