Just back

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

As soon as I saw the wombles team come out for the line up I knew we were in for a difficult game . All looked about 6’2 and 14 stone . We started well but they took over and bossed things . A few good efforts from the edge of the box and good saves from their keeper.
Defence looked solid until they made the sub  second half  when he rattled us . Would love someone like El Hamadi up front.
We got ourselves together after the penalty miss and the draw was probably the fair result.
A point in the first game is ok and we should look back at this game against a decent team as a decent start .
Mom conteh who looks a class above. Always found a pass in tight situations and never bullied by a hard midfield opposition.
WTF was Rose doing all game throwing himself to the ground? Really poor and no surprise the ref wasn’t giving him anything. He needs to sort that out quickly. We actually looked better when he moved wide and a more physical player came on in the middle.

I think that's a little unfair as Rose was manhandled to the ground several times by big CB's who appeared to be taking advantage of the new ruling by the EFL re physical contact.

Think Ginny and one or two others have summed things up quite well and amazing how some of us see the game totally differently. As many have said our problems remain in the attacking final third and physicality which I hoped Hursty would have addressed (physicality).

Not a fan of lone strikers although Eisa did play more centrally then I expected but simply our crossing still isn’t good enough and we just don’t get enough players in the box when crosses are coming in. I didn’t see any great desire from players to break into the box and get on the end of stuff.

Clearly have better technical players than last season but it’s frustrating watching us continually getting out muscled in contact. Really impressed with Conteh and the 2 new lads at the back. I said after the Lincoln game didn’t think playing on the right didn’t suit Harry and thought the same today and was very disappointed with Vernam but others seemed impressed so all about opinions.

I think Rose was trying to win too many free-kicks when being nudged by the big defenders. The referee wasn't having any of it and it backfired as he also waved away some obvious fouls on him. Boy that cried wolf and all that sort of thing. Other than that, he's got a great leap and won lots of headers he didn't have any right to get, but there was no support around him so it didn't come to anything much.

Our crossing was poor, as was passing into their box, so can't really say if he'll manage to nip in between defenders to score goals.

On balance of giving away a penalty and their player taking the worst penalty ever I'll take a draw. We were industrious without being threatening, pressed well but maybe as people said that's a bit like last season. Hurst wants them to play that way and bought in players that work in that system but the end product needs to be there. Saw Vernam do most of the hard work and then fluff the final pass or scuff his shot and that was the case with other players too. Rose didn't do much of anything and was isolated much of the game with the only thing of note his constant appeals for a free kick. He was the boy who cried wolf today so the ref didn't buy it even when he was fouled.

There were positives in the defence looking assured playing out from the back and the midfield felt more involved than last season in making things happen but once again we looked poor in the final third. I hope that after a couple of games the coaches will be able to drum into the players what they want and get them scoring but on today's showing it remains to be seen where goals will be coming from. Had that penalty gone in then I think we would have struggled to get back into it as Wimbledon were hard to break down and able to counter effectively.

Looking at the weather forecast pre-match it was going to be a washout, fortunately, the weather people were wrong in that respect. It was dark and cloudy and, to me, that summed up the game. The new guys started to gel and gave a solid defence, the midfield looked ok but it was more of the same upfront.

Rose against some 6ft+ guy was never going to win any high balls. 1/2 men in their box was reminiscent of last year and limited us to long shots. Eastwood made a good penalty save but why o why did he keep hoofing the ball to the far left?

We certainly need more in attack as we saw with the wombles who attacked in numbers. A repeat of many of last year's games when our attacking was woeful.

All in all a goalless draw was a fair result but we need to up our game. Looking at the results some unfancied teams won and the fancied teams lost. It's all to play for so I'm still optimistic about promotion. Onwards and upwards with a win at County next Saturday.

UTM

Quoted from wuffing

Mullarkey mom today. Very busy and lots of skill on the right. Very unlucky with his piledriver as the keeper.pulled off a great save

Shhhhh...I'll correct you quietly...you meant Rogers pal...

We've been so dangerous at set pieces the last couple of years. Today we didn't look as threatening. I hope this improves as the players get more match time together. Given we don't score that meant goals in open play though it is a concern. Can't complain at the effort shown though and we're still a work in progress.

How anyone could say Hunt was MOM is beyond me. The midfield didn't create a single chance for the forwards, and he's supposed to be the one with the passing skills to play them in with incisive passes. He's going to need to step up in that regard as I can't see that we are going to score many headers this season with the size of our midfield and front line.

On the plus side Eastwood, Rogers, Mullarkey & Conteh were all quite impressive.

They were actually more of a threat from corners than us. Almost scored from one in the first half and a few hairy moments at the near post with headers almost made or just half-blocked.

Rodgers looks good in the air for long balls but he's not the meatiest centre back I've ever seen and I wonder if he'll struggle to have as much impact when there is argy bargy going on inside the box at corners.

I thought Maher looked classy today but he's another who's not the biggest.

Good attempt at a clever one for our first corner, however. It's just a pity that Glennon didn't make a better contact.

Enjoyed the game and I personally think we were the better side throughout but still not addressed a long standing issue despite a good transfer window. We severely lack a goal scorer. Looking back it’s been since Bogle/Amond season when we’ve been confident as fans watching a goal scoring chance taken…that’s 7 years ago. I appreciate every team in the land wants a 20 goal a season striker but we’ve not been near that for years now. I hope Rose and Pike can prove me wrong but starting 1 up top on opening home game of the season against a non-spectacular side (no offence intended to Wimbledon fans) isn’t going to set the fan base alight with excitement, despite all the hard work.

First game of season frustrations maybe, sod it, I’ll get a beer and be happy to have football back!