Just back

Have to say the atmosphere tonight was absolutely urine poor, so quiet throughout. As everyone has been saying though the quality and entertainment wasn't there, we absolutely must get better at opening up teams that park the bus, it really is a painfully obvious weakness. Lots of effort but not quite enough quality.

I assume clifton was subbed cos Hurst thought O'Neil would offer more in a tightly packed, well defended box but it didn't work out, I think cliftons linking with mcatee was more likely to result in something personally.

Our home record continues to be dreadfully poor and resolving that has to be right at the top of next seasons solution list if we are to be a promotion force.

Ah well we didn't lose and nudged another point into midtable comfort.

Not sure why we bothered making the trip over tonight as me and the lad said exactly how the game would go albeit we expected Harrogate to have at least one shot on target and score a late winner.

Said after the Colchester game that we just aren’t good enough in midfield to create anything against these sides with seven foot central defenders and we have no pace to get the opposition turning. Morris for me just helps the ball on and regularly gave it away and has no pace. Holohan flatters to deceive and too many occasions let’s the ball run away from him and loses possession and thought Clifton grafted but seemed to be playing in the old inside forward position and looked a little lost but in fairness with only a diminutive Lloyd to play off it certainly wasn’t easy.

Hard to keep motivating yourself to keep attending this season but I suppose it’s the fear of missing that classic match which makes it all worthwhile, hopefully it will be Saturday and we turn Orient over.

Thought all the lads gave there all against a side that came for the draw.
Very frustrating that there was no quality in all our endeavors.
I think we will see a better game on Saturday when the the lads come up against a side that keep it down and play football.
End of the day it's another point so onwards and upwards.

Run out of things to say how poor we are at home .Thankfully we win some away games .Good job they sold 5800 season tickets though or crowds would be below 4000 with the rubbish displayed at home this season

If we'd have scored 1 or 2 of the chances we had noone would be complaining.
We dominated the game from around the 25th minute mark to full time. My only criticism is at times I feel like we need to penetrate quicker and faster, but not to the extreme of how the main stand felt. Could quite clearly hear on the radio the frustration when we passed sideways or backwards, when there's no other option on sometimes that has to happen and that was the case most of the time.
4 points from 2 games. 2 games in which our performances was above average and deserved atleast the 4 points we got. Motm for me is Emmanuel.

Frustrating evening, but we aren’t too far off being a decent team. We do need to have a good summer in terms of recruitment I believe as for all the industrial quality we have in the middle I don’t believe we have someone who takes a game by the scruff of its neck and can totally dominate games and made the killer passes.

Highly likely we won’t have McAtee back on loan next year and Emmanuel might have his suitors from L1.. I’m frustrated but first year back in the league having an assessment of your squad who can make the step up and who is a passenger shows Hursty a few who he can’t afford to carry next year.

All fart and no poo.

Harrogate had a game plan and stuck to it effectively enough to keep us out. They were well-organised with some hard-running and mobile forwards. They put a lot of effort into chasing us down and trying to get the ball forward quickly, in the first half especially. Oddly enough, this was when we played our best stuff and got into some good positions, winning a load of corners which came to nothing. Unfortunately, a really good reaction save from Maher's flick header from one of these and one or two poor crosses into the box meant we couldn't capitalise. They defended the second ball really well, it must be said.

Half-time let them reset and we never really got going properly after that. They ran out of steam for the final quarter of the game but we were lacking in ideas and wasted the chances when we got the ball into the box. On several occasions, Glennon and Maher got the ball in advanced positions, but the final cross either wasn't good enough or the forwards took the wrong option and we didn't test their keeper enough. Taylor made a big difference, I thought, as the ball stopped coming straight back, but unfortunately their keeper made a very good save from his one chance.

Like others, I'm less than convinced by our midfield. Morris wasn't great last night (especially disappointing as he started the season so well), but Hunt didn't do much more when he came on and the defensive part of his game is noticeably weaker than our other midfielders. Holohan did OK, I thought, but no idea why he tried a pass to O'Neill when he broke into the box. There was a defender ahead of him but plenty of room for a shot. As for O'Neill, he buzzed around ineffectively, showed one or two good touches but ultimately had little effect on the game. He's not ready for first team football yet in my opinion, though I realise he is still very young. If Khan had been fit, I think we'd have won last night. The squad is just a couple of players short of being one which could reach the play-offs, but that's where we've been all season.

Will be interesting to see how we do against Orient at the weekend as you'd expect them to come here to try and win, and we tend to better in that sort of a game - providing we defend well enough, that is.

Quoted from lukeo

If we'd have scored 1 or 2 of the chances we had noone would be complaining.
We dominated the game from around the 25th minute mark to full time. My only criticism is at times I feel like we need to penetrate quicker and faster, but not to the extreme of how the main stand felt. Could quite clearly hear on the radio the frustration when we passed sideways or backwards, when there's no other option on sometimes that has to happen and that was the case most of the time.
4 points from 2 games. 2 games in which our performances was above average and deserved atleast the 4 points we got. Motm for me is Emmanuel.

Yeah I'm not sure why everyone is talking about how slow we were last night, that was one of the highest tempos we've played at all season. We were on the front foot for most of the match. Bossed Harrogate from start to finish and didn't give them a sniff. If we stick the ball in the back of the net then we're sat here saying that was one of our best performances this season, in my opinion.

The frustrating parts are that that is ultimately what counts and that we couldn't create a little more to break them down. I think what we can be criticised for last night was a reluctance to pull the trigger along with several instances in which we played the ball back when we could have crossed.

I don't get the criticism of the midfield at all, they were first to everything and did a decent job at bringing the ball forward. Morris getting lots of stick but without Green charging around winning the ball back and sweeping up in front of the defence then we need to keep hold of it more and that's what Morris brings.

For all the McAtee bashers who have seemingly missed his impressive performances this season, that was another one on the list. Comfortably MOTM for me. Great to see him going right until the end too. Shame he couldn't find the bottom corner in the first half after a lovely interchange between Gav and Clifton. Seems to have really got a taste for shooting from range lately after that Crewe goal and I reckon we'll see him bag another banger before long. Be nice if that's the winner at St Mary's next week!

Can't remember Morris making a pass to one of our players. The only chance Harrogate had was when Morris had the ball