Player of the Year?

Quoted from GtfcGarner

Throwing it out there that it shows we have had alot of mediocre players that have just been take it or leave it this year which would thus need adding to in the summer if we are to improve. I imagine if you go on Orient/Northampton forum that they would have 3 or 4 players with the potential and be quick to point out other players who have had good seasons. We really do need to be ruthless this year and recruit well. I think the league will be alot stronger next year, Hartlepool & Rochdale replaced by Wrexham and possibly Notts County which would be a vast improvement on both of those. The teams coming down from L1 wont be no mugs either, Forest Green won it at a canter last year.

They won the title on Goal Difference.

Got to be Clifton

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Yeah but the difference is Clifton is a midfielder and not a striker who is expected to put it away at a decent rate. Our defenders are thought expected to defend. None of them have been all that this season.

Don't agree with that. Waterfall has been very good and Maher and Smith have been decent for most of the season. The fact that we're a midtable side is as much down us not putting teams to the sword as it is defensive errors. Of those errors too, I can't think of many that have been Waterfall's fault. Sounds a bit like you're saying Waterfall isn't in with a shout because Efete's got a clanger in him.

Quoted from Son of Cod

Don't agree with that. Waterfall has been very good and Maher and Smith have been decent for most of the season. The fact that we're a midtable side is as much down us not putting teams to the sword as it is defensive errors. Of those errors too, I can't think of many that have been Waterfall's fault. Sounds a bit like you're saying Waterfall isn't in with a shout because Efete's got a clanger in him.

Nothing wrong with a difference of opinion at all, I've not seen every game and I do agree that we haven't scored enough goals but like I say I don't think that's down to Harry Clifton, what I do know is that only 6 teams in the league including the bottom 2 have conceded more goals than us which tells a story about our defence as a unit.

I haven't mentioned Waterfall who has been decent gain this season, I get why people think he's a runner for this award and I think he is too but like I say I think Clifton has done better.

Let the majority decide I guess.  

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Nothing wrong with a difference of opinion at all, I've not seen every game and I do agree that we haven't scored enough goals but like I say I don't think that's down to Harry Clifton, what I do know is that only 6 teams in the league including the bottom 2 have conceded more goals than us which tells a story about our defence as a unit.

I haven't mentioned Waterfall who has been decent gain this season, I get why people think he's a runner for this award and I think he is too but like I say I think Clifton has done better.

Let the majority decide I guess.  

Yeah fair enough mate, I hadn't really checked our GA column until recently and I was surprised we'd conceded as many as we had. Just had a quick whip through our results, we've won ten matches by a one goal margin and lost nine by the same (unless I've miscounted). It's probably quite likely that we'll sit here having discussions like whether it's more of a defence/attack problem when the margins are so tight. Six 1-0 wins and three 1-0 defeats in that too.

Not always the fault of the defence though is it?

If the ball isn't sticking up front and we aren't putting teams on the back foot by scoring when on top, the defence comes under more pressure.

Teams higher up the league spend less time defending the ball in their own defensive third.

Lots of grafters to choose from. Not a lot of quality. Harry Clifton stands out I suppose, but I don't particulary rate him. Gives his all, and has scored a few goals from midfield so Clifton for me.

Quoted from ginnywings

Not always the fault of the defence though is it?

Yep.

From the reports of recent away games such as Tranmere and Crawley, I'm led to believe we should have been out of sight by half-time if our strikers could hit a barn door from 6 yards. They didn't on those two occasions and we ended up conceding goals when we might perhaps have been cantering to victory. Midfield has also been chopped and changed on a game by game basis, because whichever combinations were tried didn't work out.

Considering that we've had very little strength up front for much of the season and such a disjointed midfield, the defence has probably done reasonably well, in spite of some of the soft goals conceded!

100% Waterfall for me.

Quoted from ginnywings

Not always the fault of the defence though is it?

If the ball isn't sticking up front and we aren't putting teams on the back foot by scoring when on top, the defence comes under more pressure.

Teams higher up the league spend less time defending the ball in their own defensive third.

An excellent and often overlooked point.

The other thing which is often self-defeating and what I sometimes bang on about is this obsession with tracking back all the time from wide players or in Hurst's case every player.

We win it back, then what? Nobody is forward to hit, no width anywhere, so League 2 players are expected to win the ball back in their own defensive third and then launch an attack by keeping it long enough for somebody to get remotely near the opposition's goal. Usually what happens is we lose the ball in short order to start the process all over again.

If Hurst continues with this plan we will sign another load of hard-working players in the summer, who will encounter the same problems.

We surely have to start giving the opposition much more to think about. It is not even a successful strategy based on the number of goals we ship; people in each other's way making daft tackles like on Saturday.

It feels like at school when the teacher used to shout at you spread out lads!