Match Thread Newport

Strong lineup. Delighted for Evan, big chance for him to impress tonight.

Would love a win and finally see us reach the 40 point mark. We've been in the 30's for what seems like forever.

Chance for Khouri, really hope he has a good game. Loads of potential this lad.UTM!!

That squad is as good as it gets for us with the exception of Green
If we can’t beat Newport with that, we need a serious rebuild!
Hope Omar gets a good reception and then does nothing for the f egg nature match

A good bench and Khouri get his chance for a full game. He looked good when he came on at the last 2 games so I hope he does well.

Quoted from DB

https://twitter.com/officialgtfc/status/1633176940755709953/photo/1

Three points tonight would be welcome.

I like this alot.

Guessing Morris is injured. Chance for Khouri, really hope he takes it

Crowd is dead silent. Hellooooooo

Wake up Town, Bogle should have scored there.

Max did well against Bogle, and kept us in it

Bogle should have scored there.

I know it’s early but I haven’t got a clue how Town are setting up to play.

No height in that forward line - although impressed with Lloyd leaps in the last game.
So game plan must be to keep the ball on the ground and move it quickly.
UTM

Town 2nd best all over the pitch so far.

Nearly from Waterfall

This is painful.

Very very scruffy so far.

We're huffing and puffing.

I wonder if we could play every game away from home?

McAtee   YYEEEEEEEEEEEEES

Get innnn

We've been shite,  1-0 Town.

Brilliant from McAtee, it's a funny old game.

And he meant that all the way!!!!

Great finish from McAtee!!

We've been very poor but that was a great goal!

Woooo

woo hoo great goal

Great goal 😀

Some more of that in Brighton, please!

Great goal

Get in

Awful goalkeeping - positioning.

Anyway, if we play like this and win I won't complain too much  

Efete quality first 40mins defensively and a great forward run then

Quoted from lukeo

Efete quality first 40mins defensively and a great forward run then

Indeed. Will never ever pick out a team mate in the box though, sadly

HT  Town 1-0 Newport

Crocombe definitely the busiest keeper, wouldn't be surprised if he gets cramp second half.

A half of 2 halves there, but great strike from McAtee.

Quoted from lukeo

Efete quality first 40mins defensively and a great forward run then

There was nobody on the end of his ball…

Yikes. Flag saves the attacker's blushes rather than ours as he somehow puts a free header wide from 5 yards

A tough watch punctuated by a piece of MaCatee brilliance.
No more to be said.

The lack of urgency we play with at home is quite frustrating. It's hard to pick up a head of steam when we're dawdling up to every throw in or set piece. It would be nice to see us play with a bit of intensity for once.

They are quick around the pitch and also strong in the air. Lots of set pieces whipped into our box but Crocombe hasn't had to do anything much other than save from Bogle's early chance (good job it was on his right foot).

We were poor for the early stages especially, but could well have had another if the final pass had been right (Lloyd cocked one up) or the ball had fallen a little more kindly in the box. Looks likely to be a tough second half.

1-0 what a finish. Defence dealing well with lots of corners and long throws when they come in but look totally bewildered when the ball comes back in after the initial clearance, its like a bunch of 9 yr olds who all run to the ball at the front post leaving a mass of space in the rest of the box. Good job non of the Welsh seem capable of heading it in a goalward direction.

Mcatee great goal. Khouri, Lloyd and Efete playing very well.
We've not got going, but are 1 0 up.
That's it really. Poor game but we're winning  

Sutton 2-0 Crawley

Just in case

1-1 they deserve it.

ffs

FFS, asleep since we started the 2nd half that was coming

Sh!t  nobody marking him, came in from nowhere

Identical to the Southampton goal, how on earth do you allow a goal like that to happen twice in a week!?

DREADFUL, DREADFUL defending again

Bu@@ER

I think we’re just a pretty poor team all round

Utterly dreadful defending. Southampton goal repeated. Asked for it

Att 4851

Away 50

Oh another goal given away at the far post where we lose a man. Makes you wonder what the hell they do in  training!

We’ve got to do better than this. Way better.

Zero presence in midfield

Quoted from sonofmadeleymariner

Att 4851

Away 50

Wow didn't expect such a low home crowd.

JT says 'it's a shame because Efete has played quite well but it's his mistake'

This is just it though isn't it, he shows glimpses but is far too often a liability

Everything we do seems rushed. Not quick rushed. Compared t0 Newport who seem the opposite

We are depressingly crap at home. Get Khan and Taylor on please Hurst

Quoted from promotion plaice

Wow didn't expect such a low home crowd.

They are all in the queue 😬

Quoted from pontoonlew

Identical to the Southampton goal, how on earth do you allow a goal like that to happen twice in a week!?

Efete at fault with both the last two goals.

I'm sorry but he just isn't a good enough defender he just hasn't got the concentration.

WTF is this hoofball excrement? Our home league performances have in the main been dreadful.

Not sure I understand what our midfield is supposed to be at this point in the game?

Has anyone genuinely seen us string more than 2 or 3 passes together?

Quoted from GyMariner

Has anyone genuinely seen us string more than 2 or 3 passes together?

We can’t pass the ball, it’s been the same all season.

Hurst's master plan, make out we are shite in front of the Brighton scouts  

While he’s got a hole in his @rse Clifton ain’t scoring from there.

When we put pressure on their defence we look good, but we don't do it often enough

Suprised no one has blamed bryn morris 😂

JT said Town fans are making their way out, presumably to join the queue for the Brighton tickets!

Getting pretty hacked off with the incessant cr@p performances at home. Would swap 6pts for the Brighton game all day long.

Fed up with this excrement

Quoted from chipsandgravy

Getting pretty hacked off with the incessant cr@p performances at home. Would swap 6pts for the Brighton game all day long.

Bit weird when 6 points would be the difference of a few places lower to mid table, compared to a game that has overall netted us hundreds of thousands of pounds that hopefully, if managed well, will get us much more than 6 extra points next year when it might matter.

Though yes in terms of the league having a season ticket probably feels quite depressing this year, but the Brighton game does mean it's worth something, as few others will even be able to go...

Been absolutely dog excrement in the league which has kind of been masked by our awesome FA Cup run. We don't look like we are linking anything in midfield and have the real beating of a team.. Would like to see the team restructured heavily in the summer we don't look to have any craft at all and very very boring to watch at times.

Strange ref yet again and where did he get 3 minutes of added time from?

Played decent for 5-10 mins after first set subs but lost our way after second. Overall another crap home display. Just not good enough at home by a long chalk.

Well, we take a point and move on to Saturday. Home wins are becoming elusive.

It's crazy how often today our players hoofed it when not even under pressure with no thought for getting it down.

We deserved no more than a point some of the passing was sloppy and I'm being kind. Paul talked to them about standards a few must of been dreaming of the Wembley arch when he was talking. I had no idea on what our pattern of play was.

1 more point than 0, should be doing better.

Atmosphere was dull as anything - did the Away supporters even cheer their goal, most still seemed to be in their seats?

Efete and Maher have played the last 3 games in a tough week.
Their turn for a rest next game.
Max good to continue.
UTM
Another point towards safety.
Looking forward to some exciting summer signings.

flipping turgid performance that. Holohan and Clifton were absolutely dire. Do we have any midfielders capable of passing the ball to a teammate?

For me this season was about survival. We are going to do that, I’m sure. The FA cup makes it a good season and if we spend the money from our run in that successfully next season could be a lot better. Glass half full.

Quoted from Teestogreen

Efete and Maher have played the last 3 games in a tough week.
Their turn for a rest next game.
Max good to continue.
UTM
Another point towards safety.
Looking forward to some exciting summer signings.

The very mention of "transfer window" fills me with horror after the last one!

We don't have any front foot players other than McAtee and Emmanuel and that's why we're so poor at breaking teams down at home. The one time we showed real urgency, with Smith linking up down the right handside, we looked dangerous. Taylor really should be smashing that one in for the winner but put it too close to the keeper. Copy and paste of umpteenth home performances.

Can we stop mentioning safety? It's a bit boring. We possibly already have enough points to stay up and there's almost a third of our games left to play

Don't worry I am up for the Rochdale game and think I've only seen us win live this season. Watching that on TV was hard, feel for people who have travelled a distance. Just seemed slower to the ball all over the field. Hardly any skill on show. As for Crocombe taking so long over goal kicks even once they equalized. At 80 mins he stood and waited for a steward to run nearly all the way down the Osmond corner steps to reach over the gate on the pitch to throw it back rather than trot 20 yrds to get it himself, We were at home forFs sake and not winning.

Positives tonight.
1.Macatee's goal.
2. Bogle didn't score.
Errrr?

Lost the midfield from the start. Nobody using the channels. Big boot in the air suited their big defence. Played better when Smith and Taylor came on and improved again with Orsi. Everyone put the effort in but they seemed a yard faster throughout the team - but at the moment every point is welcome.

Flat performance, looked leggy- never got the ball down throughout apart from once in second half - and that produced a chance. Great goal from McAtee, not much else to shout about. Crocombe distribution needs looking at..we just gift opposition the ball back..been like that for a while..that was one of his strengths initially. I’m probably nitpicking with that but it doesn’t help.

What a bizarre season. While there's been much to be excited about, we've looked so poor at home in the league and I think it's generally due to a lack of physical strength. We always struggle against the bigger sides.

The equaliser tonight was so annoying. Hurst talked yesterday about maintaining focus, but there was none of that on display during that corner. Ball goes out, all of our players slowly trudge into position with their backs to the corner taker; if he'd taken it quickly we wouldn't have had the foggiest. We then predictably lose our man and it's in the back of the net. Basic standards are usually a given with Hurst sides but there have been times this season when they've been unacceptably missed.

Classy goal from McAtee though.

What a strange manager Hurst is. Month after month of often turgid football, never challenging the automatic promotion places no matter what division we are in, no big signings as he seems to prefer it like that,  and yet manages to give us some of the greatest days we have ever had in the play-offs and more recently the FA cup. He gets through players by the dozen every few months yet we never seem to get better.

Its quite bizarre really.

Quoted from Chrisblor

flipping turgid performance that. Holohan and Clifton were absolutely dire. Do we have any midfielders capable of passing the ball to a teammate?

To illustrate my point (passes completed / pass completion %):

Holohan - 21/38 / 55%
Clifton - 15/30 / 50%
Efete - 12/29 / 41%

Andy Smith was only on the pitch for 30 minutes and he completed more passes (13/21) than all but three of our players, and has a higher pass completion percentage (62%) than ALL of our midfielders. We're so careless with the ball and it's exactly why we can't break down teams who just want to play direct and let us lump it up to their centre halves while weak referees let them wrestle our forwards around with impunity.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

What a strange manager Hurst is. Month after month of often turgid football, never challenging the automatic promotion places no matter what division we are in, no big signings as he seems to prefer it like that,  and yet manages to give us some of the greatest days we have ever had in the play-offs and more recently the FA cup. He gets through players by the dozen every few months yet we never seem to get better.

Its quite bizarre really.

Yes - great comment - you would expect us to beat Brighton -as the tactics and team selection will prevail - and then struggle in the league games before the semi - final.

Hope so🤞

Quoted from Chrisblor

To illustrate my point (passes completed / pass completion %):

Holohan - 21/38 / 55%
Clifton - 15/30 / 50%
Efete - 12/29 / 41%

Andy Smith was only on the pitch for 30 minutes and he completed more passes (13/21) than all but three of our players, and has a higher pass completion percentage (62%) than ALL of our midfielders. We're so careless with the ball and it's exactly why we can't break down teams who just want to play direct and let us lump it up to their centre halves while weak referees let them wrestle our forwards around with impunity.

Not digging out 2 of our best lads but I was surprised at H and Gav where over 50% completion, the incomplete ones always seemed to be when we needed to get forward momentum going. All that said a point is a point, for nothing else than a bit of home positivity we need to win on Saturday.

Quoted from Chrisblor

To illustrate my point (passes completed / pass completion %):

Holohan - 21/38 / 55%
Clifton - 15/30 / 50%
Efete - 12/29 / 41%

Andy Smith was only on the pitch for 30 minutes and he completed more passes (13/21) than all but three of our players, and has a higher pass completion percentage (62%) than ALL of our midfielders. We're so careless with the ball and it's exactly why we can't break down teams who just want to play direct and let us lump it up to their centre halves while weak referees let them wrestle our forwards around with impunity.

Funny, but I thought Holohan and Clifton looked much better in the final 30 minutes when we finally got the ball down more and attempted to play through midfield rather than over it. As mentioned, there were so many times when we just hoofed the ball forward aimlessly (often when there was time, space and options to play out) it became painful to watch.

Tonight’s problems were about how we chose to play the game rather than poor individual performances. Brighton will absolutely kill us if we play like that against them and just the turn the ball over time and time again.

We were braver on the ball against Premiership Southampton last week than we were against struggling Newport tonight. Go figure.

After Saturday we're we lost a goal trying to play football, tonight the players must of thought I ain't gonna get robbed of the ball..remember that old table top football game we're you pressed the heads and the players kicked it...pretty sure our players heads were being pushed tonight.