"Time for a change between the sticks?".

Quoted from KingstonMariner

I think that’s exactly what everyone is doing. They’re disputing Hurst’s judgment in picking McKeown

I'm disputing Hurst's judgement in picking McKeown. But I'm not disputing it's Hurst's decision! (coz it'd be daft if it wasn't)

Quoted from Vance Warner

It’s lazy analysis because there’s a time to come and claim things and a time to stay at home.

We must be very unfortunate then to have gone years without seeing one of these times where a keeper should claim a cross. The young lad Eastwood last year showed the difference in class between those who will actively claim a cross, and those who wait for the perfect cross to claim.

There was one on Tuesday where he could’ve claimed the ball about chest height, but opted to give it a short right jab instead for some reason & nudged it out to the edge of the box. He claims that & we control the play.

It’s not just crosses where he’s rooted to his line, he doesn’t offer a positive option to feet when we have the ball in our defensive third or it needs sweeping up. Plenty of times Tuesday the ball was bobbling around behind the back 4 near the edge of the box, but rather than being proactive and taking control of the situation, he waits on his line for a defender to prod it back to him so he can inevitably shank/slice/clip one up to the half way line. Nobody’s expecting Neuer, but he needs to be taking control there and pushing people out.

His best quality has always been his shot stopping at close range. The thing is, nobody expects you to save a shot from 6 yards out, so when you do it’s amazing. I don’t think his reflexes are what they were 3/4/5 years ago so he’s trying to anticipate where shots are going more. Like Tuesday, he seems to expect the ball to be bent into his bottom left, so his weight’s all wrong when it trickles past him to the right.

Tuesday, Bromley and Altrincham he’s been beaten at his near post. Only the one at Bromley had any real pace on it. His handling’s been poor as well this year, opting to parry anything with any power on it. He’s parried one straight into his net at Torquay and parried one straight to an attacker against Notts County.

Ultimately we could be doing a lot better and shouldn’t need to be scoring 2 or 3 a match because it’s likely we’re going to leak one unnecessarily.

Quoted from ska face

We must be very unfortunate then to have gone years without seeing one of these times where a keeper should claim a cross. The young lad Eastwood last year showed the difference in class between those who will actively claim a cross, and those who wait for the perfect cross to claim.

There was one on Tuesday where he could’ve claimed the ball about chest height, but opted to give it a short right jab instead for some reason & nudged it out to the edge of the box. He claims that & we control the play.

It’s not just crosses where he’s rooted to his line, he doesn’t offer a positive option to feet when we have the ball in our defensive third or it needs sweeping up. Plenty of times Tuesday the ball was bobbling around behind the back 4 near the edge of the box, but rather than being proactive and taking control of the situation, he waits on his line for a defender to prod it back to him so he can inevitably shank/slice/clip one up to the half way line. Nobody’s expecting Neuer, but he needs to be taking control there and pushing people out.

His best quality has always been his shot stopping at close range. The thing is, nobody expects you to save a shot from 6 yards out, so when you do it’s amazing. I don’t think his reflexes are what they were 3/4/5 years ago so he’s trying to anticipate where shots are going more. Like Tuesday, he seems to expect the ball to be bent into his bottom left, so his weight’s all wrong when it trickles past him to the right.

Tuesday, Bromley and Altrincham he’s been beaten at his near post. Only the one at Bromley had any real pace on it. His handling’s been poor as well this year, opting to parry anything with any power on it. He’s parried one straight into his net at Torquay and parried one straight to an attacker against Notts County.

Ultimately we could be doing a lot better and shouldn’t need to be scoring 2 or 3 a match because it’s likely we’re going to leak one unnecessarily.

that one Towler was completely blocking his view

just trying to offer a balanced argument, but Hursts the manager and he isnt afraid to drop Macca- as shown last season- but at this time he obviously feels Macca deserves the Jersey

If our form replicates the last six games in the next six games not only will macca be under scrutiny his boss will be aswell

After watching the highlights, I'm not sure how much blame I'd put on him for their second goal. Poor defending to allow their player to run all the way through from there, but it was a well-placed shot. I think we'd have said it was a good finish if the boot was on the other foot.

That said, I don't think he's been in great form this season. When you're in a relegation dogfight (as we have been for most recent years), a good shot-stopper is important, but if we're looking to be well on top of most teams (which should be our aim this season) with the keeper hopefully only needing to do the odd thing here and there, distribution and coming off the line to cleaning up at set pieces then becomes more important. Against Southend, it was noticeable how much better at kicking their keeper was. Getting the ball 20 yards further upfield from the same starting position is very helpful but McKeown just doesn't get the distance or the accuracy.

Is Crocombe the answer? Dunno, but I'd be happy enough if he was given a go. If Hurst thinks McKeown is still the better choice, then fair enough.

Is Crocombe the answer? Dunno, but I'd be happy enough if he was given a go. If Hurst thinks McKeown is still the better choice, then fair enough.[/quote]

Boston offered him a decent contract, we offered more surely that must mean hurst rates him as direct competition to macca not just a understudy. If we don’t try him we will never know

I agree with the concerns expressed above,

I very rarely like to criticise individual players.  I like to be positive.  However, Macca does make avoidable errors.  Not the odd one either.  Even as far back as the start of last season he probably cost us 6 points.  Eg, one backpass was missed and trickled into the goal.

In my view a change of keeper would be good for everybody at present. Take it from there.

Quoted from Son of Cod

Lots of chat about whether Crocombe is good enough, but let's not forget we've also got a GK coach who can probably still do a job.

Watching that second goal from Tuesday back, it's even worse than I remembered on the night. It's probably cost us points that. As well as the Notts goal, he dropped an absolute clanger vs Torquay too, but thankfully that was back when we could score goals. People are right to point out that there are big problems up top, but that's precisely why Macca needs dropping as the defence needs sorting out. We need to be able to rely on clean sheets during these kind of lean spells.

How can it cost us points if we were already losing? We can't even get close to a scoring opportunity right now and it's kind of pathetic, but sure lets just say we lost points because Macca didn't reach a shot placed into the corner. We should play our GK coach in the first team? Jesus christ, how desperate can we be?

Quoted from Maringer

Against Southend, it was noticeable how much better at kicking their keeper was. Getting the ball 20 yards further upfield from the same starting position is very helpful but McKeown just doesn't get the distance or the accuracy.

Which is all useless if the rest of your team plays like crap and loses by a single goal like they did, a problem we seem to have ourselves either way.

Surely he will let Crocombe have a go on FA Trophy day on Dec 18th

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

If our form replicates the last six games in the next six games not only will macca be under scrutiny his boss will be aswell

Ah! The First Law of Fenty - 'thou shalt receive thine P45 if thou hast six unsuccessful games in a row.'