Where to start?

Appalling ref allowed niggly Mansfield to get away with countless shirt pulls, handballs after we had dominated for 20 minutes. For the second time this season, Matt Green tried too hard against a former team and robbed us of all the cohesion we had shown. Across the board we failed to step up and we got even worse against 10 men and our decision making both on and off the pitch was questionable.

Really poor day.

What happened with Macca and Bishop at the end?

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Where to start?

Matt Green tried too hard against a former team and robbed us of all the cohesion we had shown.

The more i watch Green the more I can see why he hasn't been in scoring form for a while, he either gets the ball with his back to goal and ends up wasting it/losing it or when he does finally get a ball he can run onto he gets no luck and its been over hit or like today he had a great ball played for him and it bounced backwards and past him as he was running onto it. Thats not to say he didn't have a very bad game this week.

Quoted from bedders78

What happened with Macca and Bishop at the end?

BIshop was giving it the big one tot the lower, shouting crap celebrating in front of them with Cook and Macca didn't like it and told him to intercourse off basically and shoved him away from our fans

Absolutely dire, we lost against one of the poorest sides I’ve seen here, the referee and linesman were an absolute disgrace and let Mansfield get away with blatant cheating.
Ogbu was clearly having an off day, as was Hanson missing a one on one chance, but even worse, our entire midfield couldn’t string anything together, Robson and Hess were terrible today. Roll on the next game at Stevenage because one thing is certain, we cannot play as bad as that again.

We have to learn lumping it up to Hanson just does not work.
The ref was poor but don’t let that mask over shocking performance.
Stevenage next a big game.!

Quoted from mariner tommy

Absolutely dire, we lost against one of the poorest sides I’ve seen here, the referee and linesman were an absolute disgrace and let Mansfield get away with blatant cheating.
Ogbu was clearly having an off day, but even worse, our entire midfield couldn’t string anything together, Robson and Hess were terrible today. Roll on the next game because one thing is certain, we cannot play as bad as that again.

Like I said in the match thread though, if ogbu played really well last week in a central role, and that was your game plan for this week too, why would you not try and stick with that, don't see why green couldn't be the one out wide or just bring someone else on instead

Twaat Bishop was appealing for everything in the refs. face from the first minute. The ref, the players,the tactics,the manager were all fukindiabolical today. Dooesn't anybody at GTFC know how to play against 10 men ? We keep saying it's just a one off but how many times do we say this. They can't even read "Striker" for tactics because that's finished in the Sun.

I suspect much of the post-mortem will involve the referee's performance, but we deserved to lose today against pretty dreadful opposition.  Their low confidence was evident from minute one but we squandered good situations to capitalise on our early possession.  Robson and Hessenthaler were particularly off colour with set piece delivery.  

As soon as they went down to 10 it just seemed inevitable we were going to concede.  I swear Robson was the only one playing in midfield for the last 20 minutes.  Every second ball fell to a yellow shirt and they could counter with ease.

I actually felt sorry for the ref who clearly didn't know what he was doing.  Totally guessed on the majority of decisions and was incapable of managing a pretty dangerous confrontation between their GK and the Pontoon.  I suppose he made a turgid game slightly exciting at least.

I still think we've got a decent side and there's reason to be optimistic, but that result has voided the excellent performance last week.  Looking forward to Stevenage.

UTM

Next Q is why did he change the lineup after we mullered Exeter last  week

We are not consistent enough to be in the play-offs.   Neither are we bad enough, often enough, to be in trouble at the bottom.  We will continue to move around mid table.

It appears to me that teams are targeting Wright for a bit of heavy tackling, he's getting kicked every week, obviously opposition are warned about his pace so there stopping him, trouble is down in division 4 the refs don't give him any protection.

Were do I begin, but I will keep it short. The team selection was perfect. Today, MJ reverted to what we had before. I agree its a work in progress, but I feel that we has a very strong fast action attacking team last week that had the blood in the veins, so why change? Weve began with the hoof ball to Hanson to lay off, but I have to admit that the speed attack really was an exciting thing to see, along with the midfield backing up. But, im not the manager, and don't get his wage, so I will still draw my state pension and spend it on watching my 60 year old to me, beloved club. And I still have my Boys Stand from Barrets flask with me, must be worth a fortune. But I would swap it any day for a fortress at my beloved park. Come on MJ, lets go for it, bring on the fast guys on the wings to cross to Hanson. I would love a Cummings and Cockerill in this game, were too readable at the moment, except for Exeter last week, we surprised them

Quoted from Gaffer58

It appears to me that teams are targeting Wright for a bit of heavy tackling, he's getting kicked every week, obviously opposition are warned about his pace so there stopping him, trouble is down in division 4 the refs don't give him any protection.

Agree Gaffer - my mate who sits next to me said he must be one of the most fouled players in our division

Mansfield knew very well if they kept on clattering in to him ( like Macclesfield did the other week too ) they’d either put him off his game or as in today, get him out of the action altogether

Their cheating tactics paid off well for them today..... twisting the knife by scoring in the “injury” time they’d brought about by their dubious antics

Don’t get me wrong we didn’t do enough to win but when they say cheats never prosper, Mansfield  proved that to be completely untrue today, aided and abetted by one of the most incompetent referees I have ever seen

I don't think I've ever seen such an incompetent referee at any match I've watched, including my 15 year olds Sunday league games...his incompetence not only ruined any chance we had but served to incite the crowd into a near frenzied state, the man should never be allowed to referee another game as long as I've got a hole in my posterior...
As for us, today we just couldn't get going, not helped by the 12 men of cheating Mansfield, but Macca needs to stop reverting to type and just lumping into Hanson, he needs to learn how to release the ball quicker rather than waiting for team to reset then firing straight up field....
Anyways, off to drink my Bacardi, watch crud on TV and look forward to a better result next weekend...UTM from the wrong side of the river..oh and I must apologise to Pete who got the wrath of my frustrations today...

I could never support a team that resorts to the tatics that Mansfield employed today, even if it resulted in a win.
When are we going to a get a ref, how has the balls and not give a free kick every time a player goes to ground, its a contact sport, or is it.
Their diving coach Tom Daley, must have been busy during this week training sessions.
I normal say fair play to a opposition that beats us, but not today.
I forgot that Mansfield once employed Evans, says it all about the club.

Another learning curve for MJ and the boys, lets put it right next week against Stevenage.

One last point, how Green was given a yellow card, for being pulled back by their player, was a joke.

UTM

Referee -  from the off it was obvious he was going to be extremely fussy and whistle happy....the more the game went on his utter incompetence came to the fore. He was sh1t and apparently acknowledged his mistakes and apologised to Jolley after the game...little consolation.

Mansfield -  well have to say they had a plan, stuck to it and it won them the points. Defend, disrupt the game, waste time, gamesmanship and hope for something. After the first 20 mins they never looked troubled.  

Us - bright start, disallowed goal..looked offside to me at the time, Hanson wasted his one on one when i thought the keeper had gone out too early and given him plenty of opportunity to lob him but fell wide.  After that we just fell victim to the ref's and Mansfield's approach, giving them the opportunity to fall over by leaving our legs in shoving and giving the ref the opportunity to blow.
After they went down to ten men we never took advantage and looked clueless....i hold Jolley responsible for that, we still had a back four despite them sitting all the men behind the ball, we still brought all players back for corners and free kicks, hardly stretched them at all when in possession and they seemed to have so much more time and space when down to ten, picked up every second ball near enough.  

The more we laboured the more the eventual result looked likely, when Cook came on i thought it was set for him to score it...but what a delivery on that free kick.......how many free kicks and corners did we have in comparsion without anything like a dangerous ball in ?

Odd to hear Jolley and Macca saying the pitch was "slow" today which they felt didnt help..... but i thought we were at home and therefore in control of how wet or dry , short or long the grass is...FFS.

The standard of officiating is just dog sh1t sometimes and it cost us today.

I didn't go but assume Pearce was tasked with the job of marking Hanson? If so, Hanson was never going to be at his best today.

Hanson was effective earlier on but after about 30 minutes, they put 3 men on him when the ball was played long. Two to push, pull and nudge Hanson and the other to fall down clutching his face to insinuate he'd been elbowed. Needless to say, the referee saw nothing wrong with these shenanigans.

Just wrote a lengthy reply and deleted it by accident which is annoying. The main points though.

Ref - terrible. Will revisit at the end.

Performance not good enough and we only have ourselves to blame for not taking the 3 points.

If MJ wants the plaudits for supposedly changing things to counter a weakness he has recognised in Exeter, he best take some criticism on the chin for today’s defeat. The idiot that paid him a visit after their goal though was so out order. Utter disbelief at how fickle people can be. Please don’t return to BP.

Wright injury cost us a point at least. Easy to say after seeing Green’s ineffectiveness but I thought Rose should have been the replacement at the time.

Green offered nothing and Ogbu wasn’t at his best. Feel bad for Ogbu though. Excellent last week at centre forward, left wing this week one minute then right week the next. Then expected to play in a four man midfield in the second half.

Back to that ref. The most frustrating thing about this is that he will be reffing someone else next week with absolutely no repercussion or investigation in to today’s display. He actually doesn’t know a lot of the rules, clearly, and could have caused some serious, serious trouble today. People have to be responsible for their own actions but it was due to his antics that things spiralled like they did today, and almost out of control completely. How the ball can go out for a corner before checking a potential head injury and then giving an uncontested drop ball to the keeper on the edge of the six yard box... that’s a new one on me.

It was always going to be hard to score when the ref gave them a free kick as soon as we got to the edge of the box.

As others have said we didn’t take our chances and didn’t create enough with all our corners.

Typical town put in a good shift and beat the league leaders and then put in a sub par performance at home the next.

I know who will be getting my "Twit of the Week" vote next week, I'll leave it at that.

Quoted from sonofmadeleymariner

BIshop was giving it the big one tot the lower, shouting crap celebrating in front of them with Cook and Macca didn't like it and told him to intercourse off basically and shoved him away from our fans

They did not deserve to win that but Bishop and (Ex town)Andy Cook at the end were a fecking disgrace they nearly caused a riot in the lower findus and it went on for some time.

Macca tried to prevent BISHOP from mouthing and gesturing to the town fans but Andy Cook wtf got into him he was going beserk??? considering he was ex gtfc and he hadn't been on the pitch long.

Andy Cook = fecking male masturbator.

They mugged us got rid of our best threat and their spoiling tacticss caused us to lose control it was very ugly and ill tempered made worse by an incompetent ref who completely lost control of the game.

Hanson usually had three men mugging him at every set piece Ogbu and Green were getting fouled constantly we lost our disipline and second half despite them having only ten men (and the ref) did not have anywhere near as much possesion as the first half.

They did a real thug job on us in one of the most ill tempered games I have ever seen.

I hope Max is ok he gets roughed up regulaly but I guess that is the price for being good in the lower leagues.

Once again we are undone by a set piece, it's always been a common theme under Jolley that we concede by a set piece

first 15 was excellent. pretty drab after.
Max going off did not help but the change in formation didn't do much for us either.

They figured out how to deal with hanson and that stifled us especially when Green came on, his control was appalling but all round clumsy performance from the team.

Odd that we get a superb performance against a good team last week at the end of the knackering 2-a-week stint where they have hardly got time to sh1t, shave and shower between games. Then there is a full week off and we get a drab performance with no cutting edge against a very poor side. Were the selection and tactics over-thought by the management? What did they do in training this week? Certainly didn't look like they practised putting decent balls into the box and finishing.

as disappointing as it was yesterday its quite nice to come on here and read fairly balanced views on the result, easy to blame the ref or their approach but most posters identifying that we really just didnt do enough to win the game anyway , against what was a pretty poor struggling side.

Think the performances of Wright in recent games has confirmed the need for a quality wide player that many of us wanted signing in the summer. Wright has shown we already have one on our books but the need for another was clearly evident once he went off injured and the front three of Hanson, Green & Ogbu, despite early season results, looks unbalanced and ineffective. This is not helped by what was just utterly rubbish delivery on our crosses on a day without the normal gusty winds. Robson put three free kicks into the stand, Hess was similarly guilty and Cook wasted several good positions in the second half and finally on this point was the difference between Hendrie and Hewitt at right back with the former being a better footballer but Hewitt’s early and quality crosses were sorely missed.

Real plus for me was performance of Gibson who is looking like a very good player at this level (think Ring will be on the move and would benefit from a loan somewhere) but didn’t seem to get so far forward second half after Robson and Cook had changed sides.

We are not far off having a real good L2 side and adding a wide player and an improvement in midfield would IMO give us that extra bit of quality. Oh for Nouble on the left and Wright on the right, real pace and quality.

Finally the referee was the worst I have ever seen and this is best demonstrated by his booking of Green in the second half and by giving Mansfield the ball when it was headed out for a corner. He was so bad I hurtled down the steps of the Upper to shout abuse at the end something I have not done since the stand was built. I then got to witness the behaviour of Cook and Bishop( a player I rate) towards our crowd and am amazed nobody actually entered the field of play and both players should be charged with inciting the crowd. You get booked for celebrating a goal with your own fans but goading the opponents fans is OK, bad day all round and only just calmed down.

The Max Wright injury was the biggest issue in a multifactoral non performance. We failed to ;-

1. Replace pace with pace to stretch their defence, win corners, throws and set pieces.

2. Take early chances against a ponderous back line.

3. Avoid unnecessary 'fouls' giving cheap set pieces away especially at the end of games.

4. Put in testing free kicks of our own. Some real shockers.

5. Cross when we have a good opportunity. How many times does Hanson have to reset his run?

6. Gamble at the far post a la Kevin Ellison. We get in each others way on the penalty spot.

7. Shoot early sometimes. Too many touches taken all over the park.

8. Stop Green doing media interviews. They seem to jinx his game terribly.

Quoted from Croxton

The Max Wright injury was the biggest issue in a multifactoral non performance. We failed to ;-

1. Replace pace with pace to stretch their defence, win corners, throws and set pieces.

2. Take early chances against a ponderous back line.

3. Avoid unnecessary 'fouls' giving cheap set pieces away especially at the end of games.

4. Put in testing free kicks of our own. Some real shockers.

5. Cross when we have a good opportunity. How many times does Hanson have to reset his run?

6. Gamble at the far post a la Kevin Ellison. We get in each others way on the penalty spot.

7. Shoot early sometimes. Too many touches taken all over the park.

8. Stop Green doing media interviews. They seem to jinx his game terribly.

Just picked up the 2 highlighted points as these are quite poignant imho...we never seem to take the odd pot shots from outside the box, couple of times Cook had the chance to shoot and just turned and passed out to the wing, it's almost like they are being told not to do anything other than get the ball out wide, even if you have a shooting opportunity, and get crossed into Hanson.....
Mansfield were their for the taking yesterday, certainly in the first 25 minutes but we failed to put on pressure on their defence and for that reason I have to put the fault down to ponderous decision making and a lack of a game plan that would actually work against a terrible, dirty and ugly football team/referee...

Lots of really good stuff posted above and it feels like a balance between a ref that was easily influenced and had no control, cheating opposition and Town’s poor reaction to Max going off and them going down to 10.

Only thing I’ll add is that if there was ever the case for an outfield skipper it was yesterday no disrespect to Macca as he’s one of my hero’s on and off the pitch but if ever we needed a Dis or Grovesy like player to lead the side to pas the opposing 10 men out of the game it was yesterday.

All that said we’ll done to Macca at the end he absolutely aligns with us as he too is “so proud to be GTFC”.

Learning for everyone move on to next week.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Lots of really good stuff posted above and it feels like a balance between a ref that was easily influenced and had no control, cheating opposition and Town’s poor reaction to Max going off and them going down to 10.

Only thing I’ll add is that if there was ever the case for an outfield skipper it was yesterday no disrespect to Macca as he’s one of my hero’s on and off the pitch but if ever we needed a Dis or Grovesy like player to lead the side to pas the opposing 10 men out of the game it was yesterday.

All that said we’ll done to Macca at the end he absolutely aligns with us as he too is “so proud to be GTFC”.

Learning for everyone move on to next week.

Agree about the captain. Perhaps Macca got the nod because he is most likely to be out there for every game? But I would rather have a driving force further upfield really. These tight games are when that can be a crucial plus.

Still angry this morning. Not necessarily at the ref but more at our inability to put a poor Mansfield side away. Max's injury disrupted us massively and we could have done with replacing pace with pace (Akheem or the seemingly out of favour/not even on the bench Vernam).

We are clearly capable of much better than the last hour yesterday but our decision-making both on and off the pitch were pretty poor yesterday.

League 2 summed up in nut shell . Win away one week against the league leaders and lose at home the next against a team of knob. .ends

Was Andy Cook getting some grief? Surprised at his reaction - not like he left under a cloud and many wanted him back when the rumours flew over summer. Disappointing.

More importantly how bad was Max’s injury?

Never liked Mansfield. Shitty team full of flipping cloggers.

Just one point from reading the sensible posts on this thread. If they put three players on Hanson, then that leaves them players short elsewhere. They nullified Hanson yet we still pumped balls up to him instead of using the gaps he made, even after they went down to ten men.

Baffling

Old Codger:
Still angry this morning. Not necessarily at the ref but more at our inability to put a poor Mansfield side away. Max's injury disrupted us massively and we could have done with replacing pace with pace (Akheem or the seemingly out of favour/not even on the bench Vernam).

We are clearly capable of much better than the last hour yesterday but our decision-making both on and off the pitch were pretty poor yesterday.

A spot on summing up...plus I would add that the same starting XI v Exeter should have started this game
Not broke - don't fix it
Too much tinkering
Get some rhythm going up top
Keep back four the same
Is MJ trying to keep senior players happy?

Trend is to tinker - why? Is it over thinking?
Hanson did OK yesterday but by playing him you go long ball too often
50/50 flick ons and challenges - keep the ball and pace would be far better
But ultimately our decision-making in final third was poor
We never worked the keeper
Shoot when should pass and vice versa
Very very frustrating against a very very average team

That point about the captain is something I hadn’t thought about before and it didn’t cross my mind yesterday either. I think it could have made all the difference though yesterday having someone out in the middle of the pitch making sure everyone kept a calm head and as well with the referee.

And like those that said previously, nothing against Macca who I’m sure is doing a great job amongst the players. We could do with an outfield player stepping up though as well IMO.

Quoted from quebec38

That point about the captain is something I hadn’t thought about before and it didn’t cross my mind yesterday either. I think it could have made all the difference though yesterday having someone out in the middle of the pitch making sure everyone kept a calm head and as well with the referee.

And like those that said previously, nothing against Macca who I’m sure is doing a great job amongst the players. We could do with an outfield player stepping up though as well IMO.

I've never liked the practice of having the goalie as a captain. It has to be an outfield player and preferably a central midfielder who can control the play and see what's going on all around. No slur on Macca but I don't think goalies should be captains.

Sure we've had a club captain and a team captain for a match before.

Why not let Macca be club captain and have an outfield player as team captain in the day?

Quoted from rancido

I've never liked the practice of having the goalie as a captain. It has to be an outfield player and preferably a central midfielder who can control the play and see what's going on all around. No slur on Macca but I don't think goalies should be captains.

The only goalkeeper captains who have been any good are those who never needed to do anything except pick up a trophy. Most of them were international team captains. The best captains are in midfield or defence. Strikers are lousy captains because their job is to be selfish and shouting at players about getting the ball to them makes it personal. Or, they stop being selfish which is what is happening gradually to Kane.

Macca is getting better with age why upset him by reliquuishing or watering down his captaincy.

If those players need any more guidence than the back up they have now on and off the field something is wrong.

Expieriienced players liike Hanson can still give advice to the young kids  

Some thoughts reinforced by Saturday's game.

Hendrie is looking less of a player this season than last. Too many defensive errors and not doing much going forward. He's not been particularly bad, but not nearly as good as we know he can be. Hope he regains his form soon.

I've not been impressed by Green very often. I haven't seen his goal at Chelsea and was on holiday for his goal against Colchester. Other than that, just a few decent bits of play from the other home games and he goes missing too often. Is he playing in the wrong position or is it just that his partnership with Hanson isn't working out?

We just don't use Hanson effectively. The accuracy of the balls into him either from the back or set pieces just isn't good enough and we don't get anyone in close enough to him most of the time to give the option for lay-offs or to pick up the pieces if the ball runs free. The midfield three tend to be too deep and end up doing more defensive work than offensive. For team set up to look for set pieces (aerial strength of Hanson, Ohman, Waterfall), why don't we have anybody who can whip in a decent corner or free-kick? Too many lofted to the back post. Mansfield were awful in every way but put in an excellent cross for their goal (still think they had players offside, however).

In general I don't think our formation with a front 3 is working out well enough. Might be worth trying more of a 4-3-1-2 with somebody attacking from behind a front two instead?

Quoted from Maringer

Some thoughts reinforced by Saturday's game.

Hendrie is looking less of a player this season than last. Too many defensive errors and not doing much going forward. He's not been particularly bad, but not nearly as good as we know he can be. Hope he regains his form soon.

I've not been impressed by Green very often. I haven't seen his goal at Chelsea and was on holiday for his goal against Colchester. Other than that, just a few decent bits of play from the other home games and he goes missing too often. Is he playing in the wrong position or is it just that his partnership with Hanson isn't working out?

We just don't use Hanson effectively. The accuracy of the balls into him either from the back or set pieces just isn't good enough and we don't get anyone in close enough to him most of the time to give the option for lay-offs or to pick up the pieces if the ball runs free. The midfield three tend to be too deep and end up doing more defensive work than offensive. For team set up to look for set pieces (aerial strength of Hanson, Ohman, Waterfall), why don't we have anybody who can whip in a decent corner or free-kick? Too many lofted to the back post. Mansfield were awful in every way but put in an excellent cross for their goal (still think they had players offside, however).

In general I don't think our formation with a front 3 is working out well enough. Might be worth trying more of a 4-3-1-2 with somebody attacking from behind a front two instead?

Agree about both Hendrie and Green, Hendrie seems to have lost some pace for me and Green Just gives far too many fouls away.

As for the Mansfield goal, if you are referring to the actual shot there was McKeown on the line as well as a Town defender who ended up on his bottom.

Whilst agreeing with some of what u say I am not sure 4-3-1-2 is the answer. We are short on width anyway, apart from Wright, going to that formation eliminates what little width we have.

Quoted from arryarryarry

As for the Mansfield goal, if you are referring to the actual shot there was McKeown on the line as well as a Town defender who ended up on his bottom.

It was the first cross for me. It looked as though they had a couple offside when it was taken. I was expecting Cook to score so kept an eye on him and he looked a couple of yards ahead of the defender which should surely have been interering with play as he was in the middle of the box. I haven't seen the highlights so could be wrong but that was my impression at the time.

Quoted from toontown

Whilst agreeing with some of what u say I am not sure 4-3-1-2 is the answer. We are short on width anyway, apart from Wright, going to that formation eliminates what little width we have.

If we are trying to create for Hanson, I'd like to see us get both Hewitt & Robson in the team as our best two crossers of the ball. Maybe those two wide in a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1? I'd certainly be thinking about leaving Green out for a while as he's been pretty ineffective for a while apart from the goal at Chelsea.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

If we are trying to create for Hanson, I'd like to see us get both Hewitt & Robson in the team as our best two crossers of the ball. Maybe those two wide in a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1? I'd certainly be thinking about leaving Green out for a while as he's been pretty ineffective for a while apart from the goal at Chelsea.

And yet it was fantastic cross from Green that gave Hanson the chance to score his first one away at Walsall

Both Green and Hanson were in good positions that afternoon to capitalise but unfortunately we don't seem to get the ball wide and send it across with any pace to our target man. Most of the balls that Hanson has to deal with are long balls up from the back

If we played through the middle a bit more and then out wide for a cross to come in I think Hanson would do a lot more damage than just trying to flick a long ball on ( though Frank Lampard probably won't agree with me on that one!  ;)  )

Difficult to argue with the vast majority of point already well raised here.

The officials were absolutely dreadful, played right into the hands of a horrible side in Mansfield.  Doesn't seem to matter who is in charge of them, just a horrible team.  Fair enough they left with 3 point but I don't think I could bring myself to watch a side like that every week.  Watching Neal Bishop left me slightly envious that we don't have anyone savvy enough to influence the game like he does.  I think the closest we came was Scott Brown when he first arrived, he was always in the refs face but Bishop is next level stuff.  That envy soon disappeared the more his antics continued as it just becomes tedious.  

As bad as the ref was, we were our own worst enemy.  Should have had the game out of sight in the first fifteen minutes.  Hindsight is wonderful but, as others have said, bringing Green on for Wright was the wrong move.  Pace is what terrified them and Rose would have brought that.  Green disappointed, again I'm sad to say.  Early on in the season his enthusiasm and willingness to work the channels was an asset, now he seems either tired or less interested.  As per the Salford game he appeared to be more interested in getting one over on his old club than doing a job for the team.  In the end he struggled to control the ball at times.  

I don't think anyone had a good game if I'm honest.  When a few players have off days you can maybe cope, when the whole team is 6/10 at best you're going to struggle.  Don't quite know what Hewitt has done to be dropped from right-back, at the minute he's head and shoulders above Hendrie, who is in poor form in my opinion.  

Go again next week and try to make up ground again.  In the space of a week we've shown our biggest flaw, inconsistency.  Nothing we didn't know before but it highlights where we can be and what we need to work on.  There's a very good side brimming away in this squad, we just need to get it out on a consistent basis!

I would rather see Hanson on the end of crosses rather than long ball down the middle. All he got on Saturday was long ball except one which he put in the net (offside). But it just shows what he could do if we got the crosses in.

I thought Ogbu looked good in the first half? good touch, and strength, and considering he's played out of position, he impressed me.

Wright injury changed the game, as we did well first half, just didn't test Logan enough.

Quoted from Maringer

It was the first cross for me. It looked as though they had a couple offside when it was taken. I was expecting Cook to score so kept an eye on him and he looked a couple of yards ahead of the defender which should surely have been interering with play as he was in the middle of the box. I haven't seen the highlights so could be wrong but that was my impression at the time.

You can't tell on the highlights as the camera was too zoomed in on the free kick, it was Cook that got the first header and looked beyond the defence but that could have happened whilst the ball was in flight.

Just have to put it down to crap defending.

I was always a fan of Cook but it still looks like the burgers are getting the better of him, no idea why he wasn't first choice for Mansfield.