On way back/Just Back on the bus (merged)

At least we don’t have to worry about Hurst being headhunted now

Just home, and echo Barralad thoughts. Baffling how we can go from being top and flying to that shite. Solihull didn’t have to do that much but their passing and movement was far ahead of ours. Too many statues and no one showing for the ball.

Agree efete was the only one who had a good game, at times single handedly driving us forward and in the end just ignoring Sousa which was for the best. The less said about sousa the better, but it takes some going to be the standout worst player after such a poor team performance.

Let’s pray boreham wood are feeling merciful - that’s a depressing flipping thing to have to say.

Happy clappers are out in force tonight i see

Safe journey home to all those travelled and respect

Quoted from denni266

Well i aint going on saturday  dont care what happens  i have had enough for now

Ahhh c'mon 👍

Paul Hurst said he feels we did enough to win tonight

Quoted from Davec

Paul Hurst said he feels we did enough to win tonight

Just listened

Talking absolute nonsense. You dont deserve to win a game when your “ carrying” players. His words. And do not test the GK until 70 minutes

Quoted from barralad

Well spotted..in my defence the performance had me thinking of the second half Bromley debacle.
Now corrected.

No defence required Barra, a rare unintended error, sorry for being flippant.

Putting the performance, and result, to one side for a moment, we somewhat got away with that tonight. Alty's 96th minute equaliser at Chesterfield having been 2-down on 83 minutes, Bromley losing unexpectedly at home to Yeovil, Boreham Wood drawing with Notts County and Halifax losing in the 90th minute all means that we've lost relatively little ground on the top positions and aren't the only ones to have had a morale sapping evening.

There is a 'but' though. Those on the periphery of the play-off positions, notably Stockport, Wrexham and of course Solihull all won. We remain just 4 points off the top, yet only 5 points from 9th (and if you want to get really stark, only 8 points above Eastleigh in 14th). Then there's the small matter of the fixture list. Here's the next 8:

Boreham Wood (2) - H
Dagenham (10) - A
Chesterfield (1) - H
Halifax (5) - A
King's Lynn (22) - H
Halifax (5) - H
Bromley (4) - A
Wrexham (8') - A

Our record against the current top 10 reads: P: 5 W: 1 D: 1 L:3.

4 points from 15, all of which came early in the season against Stockport and Wrexham sides which hadn't yet got into gear. Wrexham, I'm certain, will be a very different beast when we play them in January.

So, 7 games out of 8 against the current top 10; a run which includes both of the top 2 as well 5th placed Halifax twice. Make no mistake, this is an absolutely crucial portion of the season. Do ok and we keep ourselves in with a sniff of the title. Don't do so well and it's genuinely not inconceivable that we find ourselves in the bottom half.

There's a saying that you learn more about a team when you lose than you do when you're winning. I can see some truth in that; I think these last 6 games have given us a much more balanced view of this squad. So what have we learned? For me:

• We're simply not good enough without McAtee in the side
  
• Sousa and Bapaga are talented but raw, and therefore painfully inconsistent
  
• Macca, as much as I love the bloke, simply isn't good enough anymore for a title chase at this level
  
• We're predictable and powderpuff when lacking confidence
  

I'm sure there are other things, but those are the four that stand out. I feel for Macca, I really do. I've probably seen him play more games for Town than any other player (I was too young for the early years of the original Macca's career), so it's hard not to feel some kind of emotion towards a bloke who's been there through some top times and some absolutely fúcking awful ones.

But now isn't a time for sentiment. This club is 143 years old, and I hope it keeps going for another 143 at the very least. Right now, we are at a massive crossroads. This season is crucial, and this particular chunk of the season is absolutely huge. We've seen, as recently as January with the signing of the lad Eastwood from Sheffield United, that it's possible to find a more robust and reliable option. I don't know whether Crocombe represents that, his CV is inconclusive, but either way I can't help feel that now is the time for a terminal change in the goalkeeping department, as much as it pains me to write that.

Beyond that, I really feel we need to act now in terms of bringing in some experienced attacking reinforcements - perhaps most of all wide players. Bell sounded positive at times tonight, but the next few weeks are a lot to ask for someone so inexperienced. I've previously extolled the virtues of trading within a fixed wage structure, but honestly, if we need to break the ceiling ever so slightly to source the necessary quality, can we afford not to? I recognise we don't have Stockport or Wrexham-esque resources, and I'm not suggesting anything close to that. But now is the time for boldness; dither and this season could end very abruptly, and that will prove a big test of our recently buoyed attendances.

Let me just reiterate this. The players have so far this season given a fúcking magnificent account of themselves on the whole, and they along with the management team, recruitment team and board deserve huge credit for having us sat in 3rd position after 17 games. That's a lot better than I thought we'd be doing.

But the hard work we've done in getting here is too precious to squander, and I can't help but feel we need to reinforce with quality and experience to avoid doing just that.

Really seems like we were not good enough tonight and this patch of poor games continues. Quite how this team went from winners playing with drive and style to an apathetic team lacking confidence is a mystery but Hurst needs to find a way to motivate his players before we start dropping down into mid table by Christmas.