Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Away v Port Vale Sat 13th November @ 12.00pm

I like Sutton's energy. But he's terrible on the ball.

 

Angol showed us what’s been missing, thank feck he is back

 

Yes but lets not pretend there isn't oceans of room for improvement

 

Only criticism I have of Adams is, apart from two three matches, we've not seen our best midfielder, Songo'o, in his best position.

I'd be playing him, Sutton and Cooke

I actually don't think the back line is a problem. Who's demonstrably better than our pairing? I can't think of anyone, without spending decent money. Threlkeld's a weak link, admittedly.

No. Our problem is incompetence in front of goal - meaning we let teams off the hook and inevitably they then get more confidence = more chances = more mistakes at the back.

Even Man City and Liverpool concede chances and often make errors. Usually though, they've taken 3 of their 5 chances!!

 

Have to disagree Bronco, we’re so used to mediocrity and that performance today was poor for the majority against teams who we have no idea where they will finish, a moment of brilliance gets us a point it doesn’t paper over what was a disjointed poor performance, that for me gives no confidence this team can kick on.

Regardless of what we want, we’ve wanted it for a while and it hasn’t happened, we’re currently around mid table.

 

He'll be reluctant to while we give away silly goals like today. He seems to have come to the conclusion that strength in numbers is the best way of defending.

New Centre half will be coming in in January.

 

I bet my house you were saying that after our 4-1 stuffing by Exeter in March 2013

 

Who's he dropping? I don't see it. Neither CB's have been that bad for that long to deserve the chop.

Did you see the one Vale conceded, basically lost the ball carelessly etc? "Silly goals" are what L2 is about. It even occurs in The Premiership and I'm talking about Liverpool and Man City on occasions.

If we convert our chances better, i.e. like we did against Oldham then pressure is taken off the defenders.

 

Adams doesn't like silly goals and poor defending. He doesn't really like 3 at the back. Even at Morecambe last year he would say "can play 3 at the back" but mainly played a 4. He's doing it more often than he likes which shows he's not happy with the defending unit.

 

I respect teams who have good data to support their results, which they do.

if you finish above them, you’ll go up.

 

Usually my issue with our midfield is players making wrong choices, an although that was once again an issue today (i.e. Gilliead not playing Robinson through) The main concern was their inability to control the ball. So many times the ball gets stuck in a players legs or the ball somehow goes through the player itself. Cant blame the pitch that much either as a the vale players didn’t struggle anywhere near as badly as us

 

If that’s in my direction I’ve already said Adam’s needs backing, but if you think that showing is a Bradford city performance to be proud of you clearly know nack all about football. We should have been down to ten men and subsequently dead and buried by half time if the ref had half a clue. We picked up after the subs but regardless it was pretty much our best midfield and defence and took a great goal to paper over the obvious cracks. I couldn’t care less about other clubs.

 

Songo'o scored around six goals for Morecambe last season and I can't recall him giving the ball away in open play when asked to pass to another team-mate.

He's a destroyer who can also set forward play going and certainly gets the ball to his man better than Sutton or Watt.

So basically we're dropping Paudie and Songo'o? The latter one of the chief architects of Morecambe's promotion.

Once again we have players that have shown themselves to be capable of playing at a higher level than we are in the table, underestimated (Eoin Doyle, was arguably the last one)

 

This was once again a good point against another team in top form which will be repeated next week against Northampton single points in normal circumstances are not enough unless when the on paper easier matches come along we start getting the wins once again on paper December looks like a month with good chances of points on the table

 

On reflection today I think we can safely say promotion is beyond us but I'm not as annoyed by that as some might be

We have a good core of six or seven that we can take forward to next season but we must improve out wide and up front

Not being negative but next season is a must for us

 

I don’t necessarily believe promotion is out of the equation for this season. Teams have come back from worse an managed to turn things around post January, (from memory of recent seasons :Bolton, Sheffield United, Plymouth) Its all about getting the right players in the transfer window.

We have a good core, Canavan, Rideleigh, Sutton, Songo, Vernham, Cooke, Cook an Angol.

We need to add to this, Our main weakness in defence is right back at this moment in time along with our issues in front of goal. A fully fit Angol alongside Cook can help us bridge the gap between our current position an the autos. Eisa returning will imo be a massive boost once he’s match fit. But Sparks does need to back Adams, Give him the money he needs to strengthen our weak-spots. We need to fix up that defence, There’s always a mistake in them every game we play an usually we get punished for it an we absolutely need to push the boat out an get a Quality striker who can put away all these chances we make

 

Of course the play offs and promotion is not beyond us two or three wins on the trot and we are right back in it. Our finishing is very poor but our chance cremation and general play is good and with players returning and wise recruitment in January we can do it. The last few teams we have played are the benchmark this season and none have beaten us

 

Chance cremation lol couldn't have put it better myself hahaha

I don't think we're in the mix this year just my opinion based on the fact we aren't up there not have we been it's not impossible of course but I just don't think it will happen at this stage

We've been making improvements but there are fundamental issues that won't get solved on the training ground and January is unlikely to bring a goalscorer

 

What fundamentals are these that won't get solved on the training ground.

I'd be delighted to have us bring in a goal scorer but we have 9 games before the January window opens if we can keep Angol fit and add Robinson, Lavery and Cook when fit to compete for the striking positions it could look a far different situation come January.

 

Eisa as well will be like a new signing