highlights

I’d rather spend the week with my mother-in-law than watch that.  

It’s not my week.

Sorry to say it but looking at their goals Max should have had the ball in his hands for goals 1 & 3 and could have spread himself better for the 2nd. I also saw Waterfall lose his man while ball watching. Their scorer tracked behind him twice to score those 2 goals.

I think both Max and Waterfall have been consistently good for us this season but as I said in another thread they and too many others had an off day.

Harrogate Goals

Goal 1:

Brilliant play from Folarin and smart movement from Armstrong.

Amos - oh dear. Rolled far too easily. Outpaced and in hindsight should have pulled him back or something…anything

Khan - Having seen Amos was struggling, Khan did little to help.

Maher - had to cover the near post - fine

Waterfall - Armstrong runs off the back of him but not a huge amount he can do. Assumes Maher, Green and Crocombe have the near post covered so steps out to stop a cut-back

Efete - would have liked to see him shuffle across to cover Armstrong because that’s where the danger is. Probably didn’t anticipate our left flank dissolving like a post Christmas lunch Rennie

Crocombe - not sure how close he was to cutting out the cross or whether he should have

Goal 2:

Efete - misjudged the bounce. Probably should have dragged Muldoon down.

Waterfall - again, not much he could have done. Could have backed off Muldoon in the hope Efete would either have fouled him or got back goal side? Probably not

Maher - tries to play for an offside. Stands still with his hand in the air, even though it’s nowhere near offside. Why on earth didn’t he cover behind Waterfall - again, that’s where the danger was. I’ve seen Smith make similar mistakes several times this season too.

Crocombe - when Muldoon skips inside, Crocombe panics, retreats, tries to step forward, slips, panics again, doesn’t have time to set himself and ends up in a Hakka pose with his legs as wide as the Cook Strait.

Goal 3:

Amos - again!! Has to spot the danger quicker, especially as he was well aware that Khan was in could’nt-be-arśed-defending mode.

Khan - ball watching, not tracking runner

Crocombe - not his day being an understatement.

Conclusion:

- We concede so many goals where the opposition aren’t challenged, whether it be shirt pulls or tactical fouls. It was the same last season (e.g. Solihull away).

- Assuming Glennon is fit he’ll be starting on Thursday. Although I don’t know if that will help that left hand side as it’s been our weak point all season.

- Khan - I’m still baffled how he survived at wing-back for parts of his career as his defensive naivety (if I’m being kind) is scary - see also the penalty conceded vs Hartlepool.  

- Crocombe - has been Town’s 2nd or 3rd best player this season. Command of his box (from crosses) has been superb. However, off the top of my head, I can think of three examples (Hoskins - Northampton, Miller - Doncaster, Armstrong - Harrogate) where the opposition have scored following through balls where the goalscorer’s first touch is only 10 yards out.
For Armstrong’s 2nd goal, Crocombe’s on the penalty spot when Muldoon cuts inside, which is fine - but then he steps back a few yards…and then slips!  Crocombe’s good enough and tall enough to risk a L2 player chipping him from 35/40 yards. It might happen once a season but it’s better than the alternative of being caught too deep and allowing Armstrong to latch on to an average through ball that Max could have mopped up.

- How on earth have we lost that match!

Grimsby goals:

Goal 1:

- Enjoyed Green fizzing the ball into Efete
- Fantastic first touch from Michee. Positive ball to Kiernan
- Lovely return pass from Kiernan, great run and cross from Efete and Khan is there with a tap in like any good left winger.
- Similar to Harrogate’s first goal, why did they let Kiernan have the time to turn, pick a pass to Efete and then not track Michee’s run.

Goal 2:

- Good work from Holohan
- Brilliant touch from Kiernan - he does this so well (Rees like - see Salford away too).
- McAtee’s first touch isn’t great and with his second touch only he’ll know why he didn’t shoot (probably as his first touch meant the ball wasn’t sat right for either a right or left foot shot - caught between his feet).
- Clifton saves the day with follow up.


Should have been enough for a point at the very least.

On another day their winner hits the side netting. The frustrating thing is we had chances to bury the game, we didn’t take them.

Annoyingly, I thought they were a poor side allowed in to the game by us rather than them being better…

Ah well, see ya Thursday…

They were absolutely shite. To concede three goals to them shows we are also shite. Awful game management from the players, and from the manager.

First goal. Far to easy to skip round Amos, Khan didn't cover himself in glory either. Second, another Efete mistake, add in a slip from Crocombe. Third goal, they got lucky but he was allowed time and space to get a shot off.

We should have been miles ahead by that point, usual problem of lacking a physical striker. Just like their big lad who bagged a brace and led the line well. Also dominating our full backs from goal kicks. We've gone backwards due to the lack of a proper number 9 and Paul Hurst should be held to account for it.

Harrogate are not sh1te. That’s very dismissive. They have some good players and they do play some incisive football. For me they absolutely over pass, they play sideways too often and their shape leaves them wide open on both sides. Both Efete and Amos had many a chance to overload on both flanks and did so very well. This is what makes them very beatable for me, rather than sh1te. It’s doubtless why they’ve lost so many. They’re lucky they have a good goalscorer.

Quoted from chaos33

Harrogate are not sh1te. That’s very dismissive. They have some good players and they do play some incisive football. For me they absolutely over pass, they play sideways too often and their shape leaves them wide open on both sides. Both Efete and Amos had many a chance to overload on both flanks and did so very well. This is what makes them very beatable for me, rather than sh1te. It’s doubtless why they’ve lost so many. They’re lucky they have a good goalscorer.

They're shite. And perhaps we should be looking to sign that bustling centre forward of theirs. We needs someone like that.

All ifs and buts, we lost, in the first 20 mins they could easily have had at least 2 maybe 3 goals as we were all over the place, then we could have had more whilst we dominated, then we stopped  they made positive changes to effect the game  we didn't.
The third goal we had three clear opportunities to clear the ball and didn't....that's were it stemmed from. Last couple of minutes and we were pissing about with it around our own penalty area.