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He scored Vs Barnet at home, albeit a penalty.

Hurst's favourites have been discussed at length on here but maybe they're his favourites because he knows if he plays them then they'll give everything they've got while they are on the pitch. Other players may be better technically but Hurst (with and without Scott too) has always like hard workers.

I think trust in your workforce plays a big part in any field of work but especially in the football management world in the current era of trigger happy chairmen.

But the best managers identify when players aren't performing, regardless of who they are! LJL isn't performing and we have numerous replacements, so why doesn't Hurst try one?

All you've got to do is treat all players on merit, no exceptions. Everyone knows where they stand then. Evidently easier said than done.

I like OC's team, except I'd like to see Paddy instead of Brown or Clay (pick one). It's Braintree at home. An attack weighted set up would be my preference.
Not going to happen.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Clearly LJL won't get dropped even though he hasn't scored this year but here's a variation for you:

Maca

Magnay
Toto
Shaun
Robertson

Clay
Brown
Dis

Arnold
Palmer
Jolley

You say he wont get dropped,

Then you go and drop him :P

Quoted from chaos33

All you've got to do is treat all players on merit, no exceptions. Everyone knows where they stand then. Evidently easier said than done.

I like OC's team, except I'd like to see Paddy instead of Brown or Clay (pick one). It's Braintree at home. An attack weighted set up would be my preference.

I had Paddy in the team I wrote down but he's clearly way down the pecking order - God knows why and whatever he's done wrong.

Arnold Palmer up front? Think he'd struggle with a round of golf nowadays, never mind leading the line for us. Mind you....................... ;)

I'd like to see Palmer and Jolley and Arnold playing together. I think they'd cause a lot of problems for any team in this leage.

Suggesting dropping Lenny ahead of Jolley is amazing. Jolley has been male masturbation, whereas Lenny has been one of our most consistent performers all season and is our top scorer. Lenny and Pittman or Palmer for me.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

Suggesting dropping Lenny ahead of Jolley is amazing. Jolley has been male masturbation, whereas Lenny has been one of our most consistent performers all season and is our top scorer. Lenny and Pittman or Palmer for me.

Wouldn't say that LJL has been pulling any trees up lately .....plenty of other strikers to choose from, but not jolly, rather go with giving Watson a game

Quoted from headingly_mariner

Suggesting dropping Lenny ahead of Jolley is amazing. Jolley has been male masturbation, whereas Lenny has been one of our most consistent performers all season and is our top scorer. Lenny and Pittman or Palmer for me.

Jolly has been 'w@nk'? Are you serious? His Barnet and Telford performances were that poor in your opinion?

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Clearly LJL won't get dropped even though he hasn't scored this year but here's a variation for you:

Maca

Magnay
Toto
Shaun
Robertson

Clay
Brown
Dis

Arnold
Palmer
Jolley

It's the formation I'd go for, though possibly Pittman instead of Jolley and, as you say, McLaughlin would probably be in my team too.

Quoted from headingly_mariner

Suggesting dropping Lenny ahead of Jolley is amazing. Jolley has been male masturbation, whereas Lenny has been one of our most consistent performers all season and is our top scorer. Lenny and Pittman or Palmer for me.

Lenny is short on confidence and short on ability and last night was short on effort too. Hurst has dropped the likes of Neilson and Paddy after poor displays - why not Lenny?

Quoted from chaos33

Jolly has been 'w@nk'? Are you serious? His Barnet and Telford performances were that poor in your opinion?

Wasn't at Barnet but he was completely anonymous against Bristol, he didnt look arsed, he was our poorest performer last night, gave the ball away, made bad decisions, was extremely lightweight and innefective. He doesn't look a striker at the minute and hopefully will improve but he's behind Lenny, Pittman and Palmer for me.

I can accept LJL had an extremely poor game last night but to accuse the bloke of a lack of effort is just untrue

Quoted from ackomariner

Wouldn't say that LJL has been pulling any trees up lately .....plenty of other strikers to choose from, but not jolly, rather go with giving Watson a game

Watson hasn't scored a goal since August and has only played about 30 minutes of football since then, yet you want to drop LJL because hasn't scored in a month?

Interesting choice. :P

Quoted from Maringer

Watson hasn't scored a goal since August and has only played about 30 minutes of football since then, yet you want to drop LJL because hasn't scored in a month?

Interesting choice. :P

It would be interesting to start with Watson instead of Jolley alongside Palmer, sit LJL on the bench (just in case) ;)

Quoted from BIGChris

I can accept LJL had an extremely poor game last night but to accuse the bloke of a lack of effort is just untrue

Zero movement off the ball last night. Our leading goal scorer hasn't scored from open play since before Xmas, why is he bomb proof?

Game on Saturday is absolutely vital if we are to have any chance of applying some pressure on top spot. Must win, especially at home.

Why then would we risk that by throwing in an untried youngster when we have plenty of experienced pro's?

Have Watson on the bench by all means and if we can get 3 up with 25 mins to go then no problem in giving him some game time but to start with him? Really? :o

Quoted from headingly_mariner

Wasn't at Barnet but he was completely anonymous against Bristol, he didnt look arsed, he was our poorest performer last night, gave the ball away, made bad decisions, was extremely lightweight and innefective. He doesn't look a striker at the minute and hopefully will improve but he's behind Lenny, Pittman and Palmer for me.

You must have watched a different game to me last night.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Zero movement off the ball last night. Our leading goal scorer hasn't scored from open play since before Xmas, why is he bomb proof?

Zero movement off the ball? How about when he had his first chance from Arnold's cross (created by an excellent run from Arnold). His movement was good enough to get him into the right position in the box then. What about his one-on-one in the second half when he ran through onto the flick forward from Jolley (I think), then ran 40-odd yards with the ball before having his effort saved?

LJL didn't have a good game last night but he still got himself into position for 5 chances, 2 of which were saved and one of which hit the bar. In comparison, Watson has had less than a handful of brief cameos and I'm not sure if he's even had a shot on target as yet, has he?

When Palmer regains full fitness, you could understand if LJL was dropped/rested with Pittman, Jolley and Hannah also available, but saying that Watson should be given a start in his place is just nuts!

Watson seems to be becoming the new Hockless.

Quoted from chaos33

You must have watched a different game to me last night.

Probably, opinions are like arseholes

They always say you should never change a winning team so if the XI that started on Tuesday are all fit, you go with the same team again.

I think PH is in a bit of a Catch22 situation here.

                      McKeown
             Magnay        Pearson
Mackreth              Disley               Arnold
Jolley Palmer John-Lewis Hannah Pittman

Quoted from Abdul19

                      McKeown
             Magnay        Pearson
Mackreth              Disley               Arnold
Jolley Palmer John-Lewis Hannah Pittman

A bit too defensive for me. Let's try a properly Victorian formation:

                                  McKeown
                                   Pearson
                               Magnay  Toto
Mackreth  LJL  Pittman  Palmer  Hannah  Jolley  Arnold

Quoted from Maringer

Watson hasn't scored a goal since August and has only played about 30 minutes of football since then, yet you want to drop LJL because hasn't scored in a month?

Interesting choice. :P

Yeah I would.....lewis would be nowhere near my team and its not because he hasn't scored in a month, it's because he's not good enough, never has been and never will be

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Clearly LJL won't get dropped even though he hasn't scored this year but here's a variation for you:

Maca

Magnay
Toto
Shaun
Robertson

Clay
Brown
Dis

Arnold
Palmer
Jolley

Couldn't agree more with the switch to 4-3-3.

Our back four picks itself. The central midfield three is very strong, we'd see a different Christian Jolley if he was wide of the central striker and we could get balls behind him so he could use that pace, same with Arnold.

Please be brave PH, it isn't working at home with this rigid 4-4-2 formation. We've sone room to manoeuvre as far as play offs are concerned but if we were to switch to a formation that suits our players then do it now.

Quoted from ackomariner

Yeah I would.....lewis would be nowhere near my team and its not because he hasn't scored in a month, it's because he's not good enough, never has been and never will be

Yet he's still scored as many goals as all our other strikers combined this season (one less when you count the young lad who came on loan from Barnsley). As I've said in the past, the lack of goals from elsewhere is our striking problem, not LJL's contribution.

If you'd said at the start of the season that he would score 15 goals I'd have been pleased with that total as he leads the line and does much of the donkey work for the team. After racing up the scoring charts before Christmas, he's been on a lean spell but is still our main contributor and I'm hoping he'll start knocking the odd one in again here and there rather than calling for him to be dropped for someone who has pretty much no experience in English football.

Here's something to think about. Remember all the wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst some when we let Cook depart at the end of last season? In two seasons at the club, he scored just 14 goals in the Conference from 44 starts and 29 sub appearances. In comparison, LJL has scored almost that many in just 31 appearances this season yet some still deem that this is not good enough! Nuts.

I think we will be lucky to see much more of Palmer this season. Hamstring injuries are long lasting especially if the player comes back too soon so I reckon Hurst will not risk him as a starter for at least another couple of game and possibly more if the side is winning without him. At this stage 1-0 is as good as 5-0 to him.

Seeing as Hurst will never voluntarily leave out penalty king LJL and he clearly doesn't rate Hannah either, there won't be many changes up front, if any, unless there are more injuries. Not that I'd agree, it's just the way the manager's mind works isn't it?

The one positive thing about Palmer's injury is that I don't think it failed catastrophically in the way that Pittman's injury came about earlier in the season?

If it was just a bit of a tweak, hopefully he'll be back in contention soon, even if he isn't available on Saturday.

I agree PH has his favourites but he has dropped Disley a couple of times, granted after he tried to play him out wide last season!

Depends on fitness levels I guess and it looks unlikely Palmer will be ready to start. I don't foresee many changes at all and just a case of who partners Lenny, Jolley or Pittman. If fit I would go with Pittman as of the two I think he works better with Lenny. The only other decision for me would be whether to start with Brown and have Clay on the bench. Clay has done quite well but has had some hard games lately and has been clattered a few times and he faded a bit in the second half on Tues.

I thought Brown looked very poor when he came on on Tuesday night - the game just passed him by and he didn't look properly fit to me. I'd definitely prefer us to start with Clay (or perhaps McLaughlin) with Brown as an option on the bench.

Quoted from Maringer

Yet he's still scored as many goals as all our other strikers combined this season (one less when you count the young lad who came on loan from Barnsley). As I've said in the past, the lack of goals from elsewhere is our striking problem, not LJL's contribution.

If you'd said at the start of the season that he would score 15 goals I'd have been pleased with that total as he leads the line and does much of the donkey work for the team. After racing up the scoring charts before Christmas, he's been on a lean spell but is still our main contributor and I'm hoping he'll start knocking the odd one in again here and there rather than calling for him to be dropped for someone who has pretty much no experience in English football.

Here's something to think about. Remember all the wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst some when we let Cook depart at the end of last season? In two seasons at the club, he scored just 14 goals in the Conference from 44 starts and 29 sub appearances. In comparison, LJL has scored almost that many in just 31 appearances this season yet some still deem that this is not good enough! Nuts.

I should think he would've scored as many as all our other strikers combined, he's played nearly every minute.
He should've added at least four to his tally the other night, but didn't , so right or wrong people will have a pop just as they did with Hannah missing a chance when he made an appearance the other week.

I still feel that hurst has put all his eggs in one basket with LJL , but if we had a striker that could finish off all these chances that have been created for him this season we would be sitting top looking down on everybody.

He was dire the other night but kept his place and its reasons like that , that the fans of this club are split over hurst and the player himself,but excrement happends....

Wouldn't surprise me at all if Palmer was fit and started on Saturday.

Quoted from ackomariner

I should think he would've scored as many as all our other strikers combined, he's played nearly every minute.
He should've added at least four to his tally the other night, but didn't , so right or wrong people will have a pop just as they did with Hannah missing a chance when he made an appearance the other week.

At least four goals the other night? Christ on a Bike, not asking for too much, are you! ;)

I'd say LJL had three good chances and two half-chances the other night. Should have scored at least one from these and preferably two, but two of the 'good' chances were actually well-saved and one of his half-chances hit the bar. On another day he'd easily have had a couple. That's just what you tend to get with footballers in Non-League, unfortunately, the odd notable exception aside. As lots of others have pointed out in the past, if he was a good finisher, he wouldn't be playing for us. I understand that he forced the keeper into a couple of good saves at Barnet and one of his efforts which was saved led to a goal for Pittman on that day so it's not as if he hasn't been contributing at all.

For me, the problem with Hannah is that he offers nothing to the team other than the hope he might score and I personally think he's playing above his level by a division or so at the moment. His one-on-one effort to win the game at FGR (where he even got two bites at the cherry) was just pitiful though I think his toe poked effort for a late equaliser against Bristol Rovers was tricky so don't blame him too much for that miss. Pity he couldn't keep that one down.