Taking away the 13 goals we scored in 2 matches we'd have 30 which is relegation form.

It's clear how Barnet are doing so well, they have 20 goals more than anyone else.

No-one ever wins the league with one goal wins as there main way of getting 3 points.

It seems as if the players are afraid of taking shots, why is this? I'm not expecting pot-shots outside the area but it seems as if no-one will take a shot outside of the 6 yard box, at least when we shoot towards the Pontoon. Seems as if everyone passes it across the box, a ball across the box came in late on and just needed a boot on the end of it; ball must have brushed the boots of two players before the third with the goal at his mercy PASSED to outside the box?

Not sure what Hannah is doing wrong but surely no harm in sticking someone else who's job is to take shots on the pitch? I thought having him and LJL would have been a good combo seeing as LJL is more of a defensive forward who holds the ball up and Hannah is a bit of target man/poacher. LJL will come undone, most likely because of all the hype, seeing how Hursty boy wouldn't drop him earlier in the season I fear that he really is untouchable after bagging a few.

Quoted from Jaws

Taking away the 13 goals we scored in 2 matches we'd have 30 which is relegation form.

It's clear how Barnet are doing so well, they have 20 goals more than anyone else.

No-one ever wins the league with one goal wins as there main way of getting 3 points.

It seems as if the players are afraid of taking shots, why is this? I'm not expecting pot-shots outside the area but it seems as if no-one will take a shot outside of the 6 yard box, at least when we shoot towards the Pontoon. Seems as if everyone passes it across the box, a ball across the box came in late on and just needed a boot on the end of it; ball must have brushed the boots of two players before the third with the goal at his mercy PASSED to outside the box?

Not sure what Hannah is doing wrong but surely no harm in sticking someone else who's job is to take shots on the pitch? I thought having him and LJL would have been a good combo seeing as LJL is more of a defensive forward who holds the ball up and Hannah is a bit of target man/poacher. LJL will come undone, most likely because of all the hype, seeing how Hursty boy wouldn't drop him earlier in the season I fear that he really is untouchable after bagging a few.

Goals scored equates to relegation form? What nonsense. Even if you take away those two results (Gateshead and Alfreton) as well as the goals we'd still have 41 points which would put us 8th but with three games in hand over most teams! Lincoln have scored more than us, considerably more if you don't consider the results you've decided to expunge but would still be lower in the table!

Defensive forward: 12 goals in 24 games.

Poacher: 2 goals in 14 games (yeah ok, 9 were as sub ;)).

Quoted from Abdul19

Defensive forward: 12 goals in 24 games.

Poacher: 2 goals in 14 games (yeah ok, 9 were as sub ;)).

12 in 24 but with 16 open goal missess and 23 miss cued easy shots on goal, things look a bit different. If you want more proof of a good stricker look at Barnet's John Akindie. Im not stating the shop isnt a nice lad and his video is great, but as even Hurst said at the fans forum he isnt a natural goal scorer, so if even an inept manager can see it how come some fans still cant. its time to accept that change is needed because GTFC can not keep going on this path as it leads to nowhere. We were poor again at home to an average side, but again we were very poor when we had a chance to get some fans back with a big crowd once again we blow it. its not easy being a town over the decade, so all we can hope is that the manager and team give a bit of passion and willing and do themselves proud and us fand proud, i dont think thats a lot to ask.

So if LJL was any good he should have 51 goals so far this season?

Yeah, whereas John Akinde is good so he hasn't missed a single chance yet this season.

It takes a particularly impressive sort of twisted logic to criticise your main striker for only being third in the scoring charts when your team is sitting in 4th place in the table...

A lot of football is about confidence or the lack of it. Seems to me the team does not have much confidence that a ball into the box will result in a goal, it's more in hope than expectation when you don't have a clinical finisher in the team. Breeds a sort of mindset that you are not going to get many goals so Rule One is to concentrate on stopping the other lot from scoring. Or maybe that defensive attitude is the starting point for this side. I don't know what Hurst says to them but even in the successful games it looked doubtful if the word "attack" figured much in his tactical talk. So the side seems to be in a vicious circle.

One other thing, does Akinde take penalties or are all his goals from open play?  Makes a difference to the stats and the argument I think.

There's no real argument here. Akinde is clearly the best striker in the division this season as his record indicates. I understand that we did enquire about him at some point but he opted to leave Alfreton for Barnet. He's from the south east so no great surprise he decided to move back down there. Alfreton were by far the most northerly club he's played for.

However, this doesn't mean that LJL isn't doing pretty well this season and he's third in the scoring charts on merit. Of more of a worry is that the rest of our strikers (including the lad who was on loan from Barnsley) have only scored a little over a handful of goals between them.

We need Pittman in particular to start taking some of the chances which come his way. His general play has been reasonable and he's set up more goals than any of our wingers but for Mackreth (who I thought was OK yesterday, incidentally), but the fact remains that he's not scored for a few months after a good start to the season. Obviously, the injury accounts for some of this, but he's made 9 appearances in November and December without scoring.

Apart from against Nuneaton the other week, where he scored.

Goals in the Trophy don't help us much in the league, though. I was really talking about league goals here which is what is most important.

We all know that Hannah can score when he's onside. It's just he needs to have help in timing his runs, angling them to cope with the delayed passing by the midfielders.. Seriously, how many times do the words Hannah and offside get offered in the same sentence..

LJL is currently doing the job of two forwards - being the big nuisance who holds it up, creates havoc in the box and makes goals for others yet also trying to be the goalscorer. He's doing both pretty well but others need to start sharing the workload.

The main reason we all get so hacked off with lack of goals, losing the odd game is there is only one automatic promotion place.
It is almost double the pressure on everyone - manager, players, fans.
Ron Rafferty made an excellent point - we seem to lack 'mental courage' in and around the box to take responsibility and SHOOT!
Perhaps though that is because we don't have a natural goalscorer on the pitch - Hannah is the best finisher but he gets bullied off the ball too much and what you gain with attacking threat you lose with losing possession.
We had a lot of chances/half chances yesterday but our strikers seem 'happy' just to hit the ball anywhere, rather than compose themselves. That's what you get with non league players I guess??
Whichever league we are in next year the club needs to find an out and out predator; Hurst did it with Liam Hearn so he must know what we need surely.
So much of our final third play is wishy-washy, tippy-tappy, indecisive and simply not clinical... until that changes we will not challenge for the title.
We perhaps need the all-seater stadium to be passed as a carrot to dangle in front of a would be 30 goals a season striker... give them an extra reason to come to play for us???
Straws and clutching probably?

Akinde does take pens like LJL,

Barnet seem to get a lot more of them than us though,

Maybe because they attack more than us.

LJL is doing an admirable job but unless we have someone else chipping in alongside him we will struggle. LJL will never score loads of goals but has other qualities. Pittman had a few opportunities yesterday but never really looked like he had the confidence to bury them. Hannah will always struggle to stay onside because we move the ball too slowly. He made his reputation by playing on the shoulder of defenders and we just don't give him the right ball at the right time often enough.

Had we got the second goal yesterday, as we should have, then it would most probably have been a very different outcome.

I think that's a good point about us moving the ball too slowly through the midfield area. I think the general standard of passing through midfield and from defence isn't nearly good enough either which probably goes some way to explaining why Hannah so rarely looks a threat. He's not the sort of striker to make a goal out of nothing and we don't seem to have anybody much who can really spot a good pass.

Quoted from Maringer

I think that's a good point about us moving the ball too slowly through the midfield area. I think the general standard of passing through midfield and from defence isn't nearly good enough either which probably goes some way to explaining why Hannah so rarely looks a threat. He's not the sort of striker to make a goal out of nothing and we don't seem to have anybody much who can really spot a good pass.

But passing is irrelevant as we play continuous hoofball don't we?

The one player that we have that can spot an early ball went off injured early in the first half.

Until then we were keeping the ball & looking the more likely to score.

The turning point in the game was a wonder strike, until then we were in control.

Not continuous hoofing, but certainly a bit too much of it a lot of the time. Especially in home games and we're not really equipped to overcome most teams in this division aerially.

The trend certainly seems to be packing your team with big and athletic players for most clubs as opposed to looking for smaller, more skilful types so we're not going to overcome too many by keeping the ball in the air.

On another note, how did Lincoln manage to change Marshall into a player who was so hard-working in defence? I don't remember him putting in that sort of a performance for us too often!

I thought the two strikers were okay yesterday. They set off a lot of attacks and had JPP actually taken 1 of his golden chances we may have stood a chance. Only those two and Mackreth came out with a single shred of dignity yesterday.

The problem for me is the central midfield, yes he popped up with a goal but Disley was absolutely atrocious yesterday. I lost count of how many times he lost the ball in good positions. Yes he pops up with vital goals, but is that worth all the negatives to his game? I'm not too sure. Craig Clay is not a 'home' player, far too negative but then again that's the sort of player that gets Paul Hursts male private hard. The fact he brought on Paddy with 5 minutes to go is testimony to the mans shocking tactical nous at home and his inability to change games.

A question, I don't know the answer as I'm posting on my phone, how many games have we gone behind and ended up winning this season?

To support the "not shooting argument",  there was a good example yesterday.  In the second half, a Town player, just outside the 6 yard area, dribbled from right across the goal towards the Main Stand further without shooting.

Quoted from pontoonlew

A question, I don't know the answer as I'm posting on my phone, how many games have we gone behind and ended up winning this season?

Absolutely none (I think it was quite a few at this stage last year. Edit, it was 4). We've come from behind to draw 3 times (Halifax, Dartford, Telford).

We've been pretty good if we've taken the lead - yesterday was the first time we've lost from a winning position and we've drawn twice (Dover and Alty).

But that's 3 points gained against 7 points lost - I assume Barnet's totals are weighted the other way.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

To support the "not shooting argument",  there was a good example yesterday.  In the second half, a Town player, just outside the 6 yard area, dribbled from right across the goal towards the Main Stand further without shooting.

Pitman that was

No it was Arnold who ran half the width of the pitch about 8 yards out then shot on the turn against Furmans legs from a fairly tight angle.
Risky for Hurst to bring Mclaughlin on much earlier as other subs already used for injuries and was only brought on when Clay was injured with a very late bad challenge which the ref totally missed (we continued our attack and got a corner which as it was being taken Clay was still limping slowly towards the half way line, had he come on earlier we would have been down to 10 men for the last 10 mins.

Quoted from Madeleymariner

No it was Arnold who ran half the width of the pitch about 8 yards out then shot on the turn against Furmans legs from a fairly tight angle.
Risky for Hurst to bring Mclaughlin on much earlier as other subs already used for injuries and was only brought on when Clay was injured with a very late bad challenge which the ref totally missed (we continued our attack and got a corner which as it was being taken Clay was still limping slowly towards the half way line, had he come on earlier we would have been down to 10 men for the last 10 mins.

Tbf the ref booked Power for the challenge on Clay once there was a stoppage in play

Thanks for everyones views, certainly interesting and very good points made.

Seems as if every year a team has to dominate the league to go up as champions, not all season but in the latter half. Does anyone know the last time it went to the final day?

Quoted from Jaws

Thanks for everyones views, certainly interesting and very good points made.

Seems as if every year a team has to dominate the league to go up as champions, not all season but in the latter half. Does anyone know the last time it went to the final day?

The season before last when Mansfield and Kidderminster could each have gone up on the final day.

One of the biggest disappointments for me was the lost opportunity to tempt some of the bumper crowd back to Blundell Park !

Quoted from promotion plaice

One of the biggest disappointments for me was the lost opportunity to tempt some of the bumper crowd back to Blundell Park !

It's a happens every season and all season with our shocking home form.

Our home form isn't shocking. It's just a bit too mid-table for a team which wants to be a promotion contender. Only Woking and Gateshead have a worse home record in the top 10 teams.

Quoted from Maringer

Our home form isn't shocking. It's just a bit too mid-table for a team which wants to be a promotion contender. Only Woking and Gateshead have a worse home record in the top 10 teams.

Average is shocking when coupled with performances, performances which have seen gates drop after such a display.

We get twice the gates of other teams except Brizzie Rovers, opposition teams have had too much joy at BP, it's about time GTFC got out of first gear.

I wasn't at the Alfreton home game this season so can't speak for that one. But usually, even when we win comfortably by a few goals, we don't seem to have sustained periods of pressure where we don't let teams get out of their half. I've mentioned my disappointment in the just back thread that we didn't do this on Sunday, but thinking about it, it is very rare that we do that in any game.

Teams that end up as champions in this league are known for being ruthless and giving some heavy beatings out at home. I'm not one that believes we have a divine right to be beating teams because of our history, but it would be a sign of our intent and our mettle if we ruthlessly dispatched of some of the part time outfits at home. Wear them down, pull them all over the pitch with passing and movement, get in behind them and get our players in their box to increase chances of winning penalties.

How often do we win 2 or 3 nil at home but come away thinking we weren't at our best or it wasn't a particularly entertaining game? Even in those games we tend to get a few goals but without putting them under pressure too much. I know it's seen as a good sign to be able to say you've won when not playing well, but performances will dictate longer term form I believe.

It's been said before and I still don't understand it personally - why we had an aggressive and attacking set-up, in and out of possession, against Gateshead and Alfreton yet have not tried to replicate this formation or approach since, despite it's clear success.