Just Back Wimbledon

Agree with all the assessments above. Here's some different observations:

The midfield is much better, we are making challenges much more often and more successfully. Early in the season we had big gaps that opponents could move into with ease, they have now closed and opponents get little time on the ball before a challenge arrives. Much of this is down to Thompson...

Thompson...god what a difference he makes. He is absolutely everywhere and reads the game and danger so much better than others. It's no surprise he's knackered, he never stops. But he played nearly 80 mins last night, his match fitness is getting better. Say this quietly...there's something Poutonesque about him.

The referee was bloody awful. So bad in fact that he had both sets of fans chanting 'you don't know what you're doing'. He never made a tough call preferring to take the path of least resistance every time. We could have had 2 penalties; Wilson was wrestled over in a melee but the free kick was given to them and Rose was clattered by their centre half but he stopped the game because the clattering produced both players nursing a head injury...the centre half clattered into Rose and was nowhere near the ball. That's a penalty.

Wilson was excellent, worked hard and made a right nuisance of himself. I bet the lad marking him is knackered this morning. We look a lot better with him partnering Rose and Rose looks a lot less frustrated having someone to work off.

If Rose stays he could become a Grimsby great, at times he looked like our best defender let alone our best striker. And that is not because the defence was poor. He works so hard, he leads and does an all round great job.

Tharme makes a big difference, his positioning is good and he clears up the bits and pieces that were leading to scoring opportunities previously. He also passes sensibly and looks very comfortable on the ball.

I've been critical of Artell and would not have been bothered if he'd been sacked after Doncaster but he appears to have sorted out the huge problems we've had and found a togetherness, some grit and battle. We've gone from getting hammered by 5s and 6s to looking difficult to beat and he should be recognised for that.

I have seldom left a ground happier that Town got a point and it was telling that none of the Wimbledon fans said they were robbed or we were sh*t, they just seemed to accept it.

UTM

Quoted from Mappers

The rockets they gave each other in that 'clear the air ' meeting has clearly done something .

Proud of the lads last night - win , lose or draw with that application , desire and togetherness I will happy .

Weirdly even if we lost to Sutton I wouldn't be too worried as I see us gaining enough points relatively easily to survive providing we stick to the same style and level of performance .

The team now looks a standard league 2 one , a relatively decent one at that . Wimbledon are a top 10 team but you couldn't honestly say they were much better than us if at all really imo. The lad on the right looked handy but apart from that they didn't offer much of a threat at all to my eye .

I think getting in Wilson's ear about staying on must be a priority ? he looks such a good foil for Rose and would leave the need for striker being a priority position relatively low imo - it's a shame he hasn't got onto the pitch more often as he has a real predators instinct , can run in behind and is also a decent physical threat ; in the market we will be operating in will we be able to attract better ? if it's borderline we MUST do everything to make him happy and retain ; we have been through this before .

Hume is one who looks above the level at times , especially going forward a very good player .

The back 5 were excellent Tharme probably the standout for me but the whole unit operated well .

Cartwright MOTM imo but it could have been a good few .

Not sure how Holahan missed that chance first half?

The ref seemed a bit sketchy for both teams, some of them give very strange decisions at this level .

It was Rose, Gav played the ball to him, Tondeur confuses everyone by screaming about it being Holohan

Ball just got stuck under his feet slightly

I think DA deserves a lot of credit for the last two performances. He took a lot of stick when things were wrong and justifiably so. The " clear the air" meeting has been the catalyst to focus the players and coaching staff minds on how best to proceed with what we have available. It's easy to say it was all down to DA's approach but it's like he said " he wished the players and staff had voiced their views weeks earlier". We will never fully know all that was said but IMO our lack of cohesion was " 6 of one and half a dozen of another". The important thing is that it has resulted in an improved playing format , a willingness for the players to perform  better and an improved team spirit. I know we are not out of the woods yet but, especially after last nights performance, I feel a lot more hopeful about our football league future.

Really enjoyed that game and performance.  Spirted doesn't do it justice as we played some really good stuff at times.

Two strikers makes the world of difference too.  Can't believe it's taken us this long to use Wilson as the No 9 type striker.  His hold up play is absolutely outstanding.  I think as we get a bit more confident and see Rose more alongside him as opposed to dropping into midfield we could see an exciting partnership there.

Thompson adds a calmness and extra tenacity in the middle and after getting a lot of criticism of late, I thought Andrews had a very good game.

Cartwright showed what he can do and it's amazing what a boost of confidence will do for a goalkeeper.  Long time since I've seen a Town goalkeeper command their area in such a way.  

3 games undefeated.  Back-to-back clean sheets (last time we did that was early March 23 with wins over Rochdale and Sutton, if we discount the last and first games of seasons against AFC Wimbledon that is).  Very positive and encouraging.  Barring another defensive meltdown, our goal difference give us a 8 point buffer now.  

Happy  to see Town with my own eyes last night. Highlights and commentary's are not the same as being part of the 453 fans.
So yes we could be turning a corner play wise/ team structure/ motivation etc.
For me abit more faith in DA and where he is taking us.
Harvey Cartright came out of his shell and proved worthy of the shirt ,He can kick a ball up the field and chucked himself around to keep the goal attempts away from the back of the net.
And  the word of the match = INCONSISTENTLY..a town fan shouts at the exploits of the man in the middle , requiring revision & retraining!!
Sutton on Saturday then some hard games to follow,which i hope dont lead to a downhill spiral.
One happy "Caterham Mariner" to walk away with a point / same league table position BUT could  have a goal i feel.
Harvey Cartright's night
UTM

I think the turnaround, though only three games in so far, has been quite remarkable. Over the course of our first 6 games of this calendar year, we conceded an average of 3.5 goals per game - over the last 3 that figure has dropped to 0.33 - that’s a 95% reduction.

I had felt our problems were mostly systematic - a lack of meaningful shape and a brainless press at the heart of it, but to find something that works so well by comparison deserves some credit. We looked solid defensively and in midfield, again evidenced by the fact that their best efforts all came from 20 yards+.

Thompson in midfield is a clever player. A little on the slow side, but makes up for it through great intelligence and reading of the game. On more than one occasion did I find myself muttering “ah, class!”, following his tidy management and distribution of the ball.

Cartwright in goal was excellent. He just looked to have taken so much confidence from his clean sheet at the weekend, even if he didn’t have to work as hard for that one. He was perhaps a tad overconfident towards the end when he came about five miles from his goal line for a ball he was never going to get near, but I think that’s good to see in a goalkeeper who had been a little to timid in his own box to this point.

The only frustration is not putting the ball in the back of the net. Three excellent chances in the first-half, plus a couple of decent penalty shouts, but ultimately 2 straight clean sheets and 4 points from 2 very important games is very, very welcome. As others have pointed out, some tricky games ahead on the fixture list so another 3 points at Sutton would be advantageous, but realistically at this juncture a point wouldn’t be a disaster.

The next improvement I'd like to see Artell make is passing accuracy when we attack. We broke well and got ourselves into some positions with real potential but the final pass was often poor, either not finding the player's feet, going behind him or not hitting the right space for him to run on to. A couple of times players in good positions made their feelings clear when the ball to them was poor (as they should).

It's easy to fix: Rose, Donovan and Clifton should be telling the rest of the team where/how they want the ball and they should be practicing 'hitting them' at pace and under pressure.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Thompson...god what a difference he makes. He is absolutely everywhere and reads the game and danger so much better than others. It's no surprise he's knackered, he never stops. But he played nearly 80 mins last night, his match fitness is getting better. Say this quietly...there's something Poutonesque about him.

For me, nobody can be described as Poutonesque until they have inadvertently scored an own goal from a block tackle made in the centre circle...

Quoted from diehardmariner

Two strikers makes the world of difference too.  Can't believe it's taken us this long to use Wilson as the No 9 type striker.  His hold up play is absolutely outstanding.  I think as we get a bit more confident and see Rose more alongside him as opposed to dropping into midfield we could see an exciting partnership there.

When we signed Wilson, the Sutton fan we know told us that he was really strong on the ball when under challenge but we hadn't really seen that until the past couple of games. A very useful trait in a striker, especially away from home, as you'd hope he'll win a few free-kicks when the bigger defenders are all over him trying to get to the ball. This relies on competent refereeing, of course, which could be the issue.

Football does not work like this but these are the results over 4 days:

Sat:
Wimbledon beat MK Dons (the latter are in the playoffs).

We best FGR in a 6 pointer.


Last night:
We get a very creditable draw at Wimbledon.  (Wimbledon aiming for the playoffs).

MK Dons win away at the leaders Mansfield.