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Quoted from 139881

Not surprised... it was the same last year. Salford bench always in the ref and 4th official's ear

I’m with Hagrid, this is different to last season. I have to say I think we’re going down.

Of course it’s ridiculous to consider that after 2 games, but what is clear is that this season was a leveller - no fans, so no proper income - so it was always gonna be the ones who stick out their neck will do well or at least survive. Our board have scrimped, and it shows.

I genuinely thought I’d pay £460 for 46 games in iFollow this season, but at £30 and 3 defeats, I’m done.

Bogle = survival.

Current squad = Probable relegation.

We’re already looking for two worse teams than us, but we’ll be looking for quite some time.

I was prepared to be slow out of the blocks through September and feel we would gel as a squad ready to kick on from October.
However results like this will hammer the fragile confidence of such an inexperienced squad, I fear for our potential back four of Preston, Idehen, waterfall and Hewitt going into Cheltenham away next week.
Tilley appears miles off the speed of league 2 , seems to be confidence player and is sorely lacking it. We are such an inexperienced side and lacked any kind of leadership especially in second half. Jackson and Sisay must be no where near first team either.
Positives were we had chances ,their keeper pulled off brilliant save from green and Williams shot just trickled to a goal line clearance. I thought Clifton was man of Match today,

We need to take a few of these young lads out the firing line for a week or two though our squad dictates they will be in it.

Here is hoping in the face of adversity we pull off an Exeter away style shock like last season.

Quoted from Rick12

First the positives. Thought Edwards looked good in patches. For me Grimsby's most naturally best player.

As for the game. Not much in it and a bit unlucky to loose 4-0. Some of the penalty's for Salford were dubious at best.

I like Edwards and I think he's skilled, but the lad is so raw and has displayed absolutely zero end product in the two league games so far. Went clean through at 0-0 today and tamely hit his shot into the onrushing keeper instead of trying to lift it over him. Could have been a completely different result if that went in. His decision making on the ball needs a lot of work too - he's guilty of keeping possession and trying to do too much himself before ending up on his bottom, or deliberating too long and missing the opportunity for an incisive pass far too often. Don't want to get on his back too much because he's only played two league matches in his career so far, but it's worrying when someone as inexperienced and inconsistent as him is viewed as our biggest attacking threat.

Quoted from moosey_club

By "some" i presume you mean 1 of the 3 they got ;D

Yes ;).

Feel for the players though. Hence to have some of them given decisions get given against you ,must be tough on the mental side. I dont think the players heads went down so credit to them.

Quoted from Rick12

First the positives. Thought Edwards looked good in patches. For me Grimsby's most naturally best player.

As for the game. Not much in it and a bit unlucky to loose 4-0. Some of the penalty's for Salford were dubious at best.

I think he's an absolute liability to have in the team. His first instinct is to take somebody on, regardless of where on the pitch he is. He slows the game down too much. He needs to beat a man 3 times before actually going anywhere. He has the worst end product and decision making I think I've ever seen. Salford figured out that if they stand still, he just gives you the ball back.

I'd have Gibson, Scannell and Green as the front 3 next time. At least Gibson was around to win the second ball when he came on and made some nice bits of link up play

As it’s appearing that it could be a long miserable season and a bit tight at the back end, I noticed when Sky showed the current league table they had only 1 team below the dotted line, intimating only one relegation place this season, question is, is that correct ?

Quoted from Chrisblor

I like Edwards and I think he's skilled, but the lad is so raw and has displayed absolutely zero end product in the two league games so far. Went clean through at 0-0 today and tamely hit his shot into the onrushing keeper instead of trying to lift it over him. Could have been a completely different result if that went in. His decision making on the ball needs a lot of work too - he's guilty of keeping possession and trying to do too much himself before ending up on his bottom, or deliberating too long and missing the opportunity for an incisive pass far too often. Don't want to get on his back too much because he's only played two league matches in his career so far, but it's worrying when someone as inexperienced and inconsistent as him is viewed as our biggest attacking threat.

Valid points .What I liked about Edwards though considering its the first time Ive seen him via "I follow" was some of the close ball control he displayed in tight areas .

Quoted from Gaffer58

As it’s appearing that it could be a long miserable season and a bit tight at the back end, I noticed when Sky showed the current league table they had only 1 team below the dotted line, intimating only one relegation place this season, question is, is that correct ?

Nope, 2 down.

Gibson looks to have the most potential of all the front players so far, tbh I'd stick him in and give him run of unbroken games. The offside issue can be worked on, but he does look explosive, with a powerful shot on him.

The rest we are scratching around a bit but Scannel seems decent so maybe go with them as a two for now.

Quoted from pen penfras

I think he's an absolute liability to have in the team. His first instinct is to take somebody on, regardless of where on the pitch he is. He slows the game down too much. He needs to beat a man 3 times before actually going anywhere. He has the worst end product and decision making I think I've ever seen. Salford figured out that if they stand still, he just gives you the ball back.

I'd have Gibson, Scannell and Green as the front 3 next time. At least Gibson was around to win the second ball when he came on and made some nice bits of link up play

He's still very young though so has a lot to learn.

Edwards will come good and scares defenders, Green putting a good shift in, Ohman won everything he had a chance to, Idehen often out of position, Hewitt just one of those days, CLIFTON MOM, Preston good.
Tilley played rubbish, Taylor why? Williams who knows, is it lack of fitness? The subs, MEH !!!

Good summary tbh^. 2 of our midfield 3 completely anonymous, a winger who was terrified of the left back marking him. No leaders on that pitch either

In times like this I’ll always try to see the best but my god we are excrement.

Thankfully I feel Holloway knows that, but then again how on earth do you go from Benson to Taylor? One will be playing at Mollenux every season and the other will be lucky to be working in the club shop.

We just look absolutely awful, no end product and woeful at the back.

I’ve bought the last 2 on iFollow and I fear one more will conclude in the neighbours questioning my girlfriends welfare.

So much time to sort it, but so so far to go.

I thought we played well first half and were unlucky to go in 1-0 down.

Second half I thought we were crap and in the end deserved to lose.

On that second half showing we are heading back to the National League.

We're playing a 4-2-3-1 and of that midfield 5 Harry Clifton is the senior player. Says it all. A guy who hasn't really kicked on since he broke into the team 2 and a half years ago.

Clifton - 60th league start
Taylor - 2nd league start
Edwards - 2nd league start
Williams - 56th league start
Tilley - 10th league start

An average of 25 league starts each prior to todays game. It's no wonder our decisions making was so poor today.

And then we have 2 defenders making just their 2nd league start.

And if you ignore the 3 penalties, the goal from open play was again a player totally unmarked on the edge of our 6-yard box.

Going to be a very long season.

We desperately need another experience central midfielder and a striker who knows where the goal is.

Oh dear, that wasn’t good, but I don’t think 4 was deserved. Town were in it until the 2nd pen which was an appalling decision.

Still at the minute we look way off, too many kids and clearly lacking a preseason. Whoever decided to keep the players on furlough when other teams were training might live to regret that.

I thought Clifton showed exactly why he should be in the team, at the heart of everything good that we did. Sadly his midfield partner was way off, hopefully Taylor will get fitter and better, but he looked lacking in effort, fitness and quality today, if you look at the build up to their third goal he’s plodding around making no effort to get the ball back.

I thought Preston was pretty good.

Quoted from pontoonlew

In times like this I’ll always try to see the best but my god we are excrement.

Thankfully I feel Holloway knows that, but then again how on earth do you go from Benson to Taylor? One will be playing at Mollenux every season and the other will be lucky to be working in the club shop.

We just look absolutely awful, no end product and woeful at the back.

I’ve bought the last 2 on iFollow and I fear one more will conclude in the neighbours questioning my girlfriends welfare.

So much time to sort it, but so so far to go.

I’m not having that to be honest you can’t blame any of the young kids and singling out someone who prepared to move away from his home and club to try and be the best he can makes no sense.

These lads where never meant to be thrown in on mass and can’t be blamed for getting stuff wrong.

Aim criticism at the manager (whoever he may be) as he is the one who’s ultimately accountable.

Also I seem to remember that it took Benson a good few games to make strides.

Did not see that second half coming at half time. While we were far from amazing in the first half we did hit the bar, miss a one on one, see their keeper make a brilliant save to deny a Green header and see an effort cleared off the line.

If any of those go in I think we would have seen a different second half. While clutching at straws somewhat at least we created the chances in the first half to suggest there is some hope.

Not that this makes up in any way for the second half shambles. Still I would be very surprised if it got any worse than that second half under Holloway.

If you listen carefully you can hear Limbrick pissing himself laughing

Understandable - Salford were the one team he managed to win a game against.

I blame it on the pitch .

I know we lost 4-0 but for me they were not 4 goals better than us. Many will disagree but the second penalty changes the game. Whilist not exactly free flowing attacking football we were the better team at that point. Salford are a horrible team with a horrible manager and horrible owners. But because of that they will go up. It's not a coincidence that they get lots of penalties and decisions. Yes the 1st and 3rd ones today were clear, but the 2nd was never a penalty.

I actually thought there were positives and with Hendrie back and Hanson/ another experianced goalscorer we will look a lot better. Idehen a great prospect but maybe not the right time now for him. Preston was good but Clifton my man of match. As someone else said everything good came through him today. That was the sort of performance we want from him and he showed he is easily capable. Has to play for me and in my opinion we have to go with strongest 11 for all league games now. Give the best 11 time to get to know each other.

Quoted from Hagrid

Can we End it now? That was painful, Taylor & Tilly were awful, Green so isolated. Lightweight all over the park, bullied by Salford who bullied the ref. 2nd pen a terrible decision but we were not getting back into it. Where is Scannell. Where is Jackson. where is Sisay? Why are we so un prepared. Its not good enough. And its not an excuse we should be using “ oh we arent fit yet”. We’re paying money for this and its not on. I hate salford and how they are but they desevred 3 points. 4-0 at home 2nd game of the season.

Do we assume the issue with Sisay is his international clearance? How long before we find out he has left the club?

After all the hype when Holloway took over, nothing changes, the joys of being a Town fan eh.

Quoted from promotion plaice

After all the hype when Holloway took over, nothing changes, the joys of being a Town fan eh.

My memory isn't all it could be nowadays...but when have Town ever started a season well?

Under Lennie Lawrence in the Championship, and...??

44 games to go, and still plenty of undrunk beer in the world...so too early to start panicking imo.

Woken up feeling still pretty depressive about yesterday, which is never a good thing as football is ruling your life too much. Just typical town isnt it, always behind. To lose 4-0 at home it just isnt on. The board need to back him because we are woefully under prepared with little or no squad depth.

Quoted from Hagrid

Woken up feeling still pretty depressive about yesterday, which is never a good thing as football is ruling your life too much. Just typical town isnt it, always behind. To lose 4-0 at home it just isnt on. The board need to back him because we are woefully under prepared with little or no squad depth.

Keep watching Town and that will pass with time. ;)

We appear to have a lot of players but their quality is still in question. Losing in this way at home is the worst possible start and I have to say that IH’s negativity towards the seasons’ start date and other FFL decisions may have been a factor in this.

However, if the side includes a fully fit, Hendrie, Waterfall, Pollock, Mohsni, Rose, Scannell and Hanson one would hope that our performances and results will be much improved and with an additional signing in midfield and up front and we should be fine. What is puzzling is the fact that neither Jackson or Sisay have warmed our bench in the league fixtures and as others have said surely they are capable of putting in a 15 minute stint.

Where like pretty much most teams in this league and have no strength in depth, at the moment that is anyway. What we will benefit from is that when (If) the “1st 11” are fit they’ll be a pool of players underneath them who’ve had game time.

What is a concern though is that when you look at many of the teams above us they have 2 things we lack ..... momentum and/or money.

On the basis of the first 2 games we could flirt with relegation again, but that’s 2 out of 46 and as much as yesterday was shocking from top to bottom it’s too early to tell what will happen.

The only consolation about the fans not being in yesterday was that the boo boys didn’t get on the backs of the youngsters who played badly as that would have really hurt their confidence.

I don't think it's all doom and gloom at all. For 60 minutes, we were the better team. We missed a one on one, an overhead and deflected cross that narrowly missed, two very good saves from headers, a shot cleared off the line and a defender blocked a powerful effort that looked like it was going in the roof of the net.

We clearly need a bit of killer instinct, but if we create that many chances, we will start picking up points soon.

The most worrying part was that when we went 2-0 down, to a really harsh penalty, the heads dropped and we were awful. I don't think fitness looked as much of an issue this week and should be better by next week too.

McKeown - Couple of iffy moments, saved everything you'd expect him to.
Hewitt - Not his best game, but he's looked ok in the previous 3.
Ohman - Was solid until we went 2-0 down then cost 2 goals. Been our best player so far imo.
Idehen - Looks a real prospect. Got pace and deals well against big experienced strikers. With some experience he should improve his concentration
Preston - Looks solid and assured on the ball, very happy with him
Clifton - was very good. Good energy and his passing was better. End product still lacking, but probably MOM for us.
Williams - More involved, looked quick and fitter. Set pieces need working on though...
Taylor - Playing a holding role looks ok. Nice pass one minute followed by shocking one the next. Rose should probably replace him.
Edwards - Great skill and pace, little else. Needs to learn quickly or else he's more in the way than an asset.
Tilley - Poor game all round, Touray had him in his pocket. Has similar issues as Edwards with decision making.
Green - Had 3 good games so far. Unlucky not to have scored a few goals.

With Hendrie, Hanson, Scannell, Rose, Waterfall, Pollock all missing, we have good players to come in. Just need to pick up some points before confidence is shot for the season.

Quoted from pen penfras

With Hendrie, Hanson, Scannell, Rose, Waterfall, Pollock all missing, we have good players to come in. Just need to pick up some points before confidence is shot for the season.

That's a good point pen (you forgot to add in Max Wright). We are missing half a team ,and those 6 are about the best/ most experienced players we have.
McKeown, Edward's, Clifton ,Hewitt and Green would then make up a decent first choice team

Ps wonder if Holloway might be speaking to Bogles agent today or tomorrow with an improved offer??

Quoted from forza ivano

That's a good point pen (you forgot to add in Max Wright). We are missing half a team ,and those 6 are about the best/ most experienced players we have.
McKeown, Edward's, Clifton ,Hewitt and Green would then make up a decent first choice team

Ps wonder if Holloway might be speaking to Bogles agent today or tomorrow with an improved offer??

How do you know the offer was the sticking point?

Quoted from rancido

How do you know the offer was the sticking point?

That was my reading of his comments when he admitted they had been talking to Bogke

Quoted from forza ivano

That's a good point pen (you forgot to add in Max Wright). We are missing half a team ,and those 6 are about the best/ most experienced players we have.
McKeown, Edward's, Clifton ,Hewitt and Green would then make up a decent first choice team

Ps wonder if Holloway might be speaking to Bogles agent today or tomorrow with an improved offer??

Yeah gotta agree with the more positive/optimistic posts towards the end of this thread.

Don't get me wrong, it was bloody dire in the last 30 minutes but again that looked a case more that our legs had gone than anything else.  Can play it up however we like, but we got pre-season wrong. Very wrong.  Yeah it wasn't an easy situation but other clubs seemed to have come out the blocks racing whereas we're still blowing out of our arses after 60 minutes.

If the issue goes beyond simply a lack of games, then further and more pointed questions need asking as to what's going on behind the scenes because I'd be expecting the players to be there or thereabouts on match fitness about now.

The game itself, we were on top when the first penalty went in.  Sloppy challenge, with no communication.  Even at 2-0 we looked ok but just ran out of steam.

Third completely killed us off and by the time the fourth goal went in I was pleased it was injury time.

Holloway needs to acknowledge that he can't get away with constant tinkering but also going with an experienced spine in the side. I'm sorry but James McKeown at one end of the pitch and Matt Green at the other does not represent an experienced spine.  The third goal looked to have come from a mix-up and/or no talking between Idehen and Preston, exactly the type of thing you get when your left sided centre back and your left back have so few starts between them.  I think technically he's average but Waterfall is a leader and an organiser.  He needs to be in.  Equally so as much as I'm encouraged by Idehen, Pollock remains our best defender.

In the middle it was evident there was no leadership and at no point was I sure who was playing what role.  I thought Taylor looked quality against Harrogate but he simply had a nightmare on Saturday.  Clifton ran his socks off whereas Williams just seemed to float about a lot.

Up top I actually felt the much slated Matt Green did ok.  He gave his all, actually held it up a few times and did his best to bring others into play.  But he's not a centre-forward.  Montel Gibson showed how to do that role when he came on.  The other two strikers we signed, Sisay and Jackson, are they injured or just not match fit?  Because it's a month tomorrow since our first pre-season game at Clee Town, you can't tell me these lads don't have 15 minutes in them now!

Get the spine sorted and we'll be fine.  Don't deviate from that, have all the raw talent around it.

Just listened to the post-match interview and obviously can't play Pollock and Waterfall if they're injured...

Quoted from diehardmariner

The third goal looked to have come from a mix-up and/or no talking between Idehen and Preston, exactly the type of thing you get when your left sided centre back and your left back have so few starts between them. I think technically he's average but Waterfall is a leader and an organiser. He needs to be in. Equally so as much as I'm encouraged by Idehen, Pollock remains our best defender.

I don't really understand this mentality the Waterfall and Pollock are so much better. Watch the games that they play together and the amount of sloppy goals we let in and how easily they're exploited for lack of pace. We let in easy goals from crosses too, which is their main strength. The main thing they are better at is being vocal, leaders and exuding confidence.

I don't know how Idehen gets the blame for that goal either. Their man runs from Clifton, who shouts and points to Ohman who looks around and doesn't get close to him. Idehen is marking the guy behind. Preston and Idehen might have been able to move forward and take the two, but they're not even in the picture until the goal is going in, so we really don't know if Preston had only just arrived in that position. What is certainly clear is that Ohman wasn't marking anybody at any time and heard the call because he looked round.

Quoted from pontoonlew

In times like this I’ll always try to see the best but my god we are excrement.

Thankfully I feel Holloway knows that, but then again how on earth do you go from Benson to Taylor? One will be playing at Mollenux every season and the other will be lucky to be working in the club shop.

We just look absolutely awful, no end product and woeful at the back.

I’ve bought the last 2 on iFollow and I fear one more will conclude in the neighbours questioning my girlfriends welfare.

So much time to sort it, but so so far to go.

Benson slotted into a 3-man midfield along side 2 experienced players in Hessenthaler & Whitehouse.

Taylor has been dumped in a 2-man central midfield along side a hopelessly unfit Rose & Harry Clifton.

Hardly surprising he hasn’t pulled up any trees yet.