Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: City v Walsall| League 2 | 20 October

The real frustration is: we knew what we needed up front, we knew we were lacking in having any sort of quality out wide - and we didn’t address it. With just 2 quality additions we’d have a shot at promotion.

 

A draw was a fair result. We did have chances but on balance didn't really have enough of a grip of the game to say we deserve to win. Neither keeper had much to do.

 

Zero pace and trickery on the wings, I’ve genuinely never seen DMH have an average game never mind a decent one, let’s dispel this myth he’s quick, he’s garbage. Also a bit of pace upfront, crying out for a Hiwula type up front. Can’t see how McCall can’t see that. That could literally be the difference between 15th and 3rd in this god awful league.

 

Bog standard league 2 game as others have alluded too. I remember plenty worse than that when we last got promoted tbh, one that always sticks out is the game Egan broke his leg against Plymouth. Cold Tuesday night, terrible game but up stepped Jones to bang home the winner. Sadly we don’t have a Wells, Hanson or Jones anymore. It doesn’t mean we’re crap, just means we’re another standard league 2 side, we’re just missing one or two who can grab them type of games by the scruff of the neck. Can’t complain to much as I thought we responded well second half and had good chances which we made look harder than they were to win the game, but we’ve known all along we lack quality up front. We’ll see more games like that than Mansfield, just need to take more of them chances when they come especially them back post corners we should have scored one or two of them they were hopeless at defending them. Onto Newport no reason we can’t win, so far Harrogate look a class above anything else we’ve come across.

 

"Save by O'Donnell"

These commentators are woeful

 

Be interesting to see what the reason is, I thought he had a good half.

 

How isn't that a red card?

 

Thought tonight was one of those average games that make up the majority of a league 2 season. Both teams effectively cancelled each other out which meant for a game where both teams end up going long a lot. Not the worst game i've ever seen. Had we taken our chances we could have won.

 

Nah Watt was.

 

We don't help ourselves at times.

Playing out from the back at this level is dumb as hell.

Every now and then we might release a full back and get a run on their midfielders down the wings, but more often than not we end up with one of our defenders lumping it under pressure RATHER than O'Donnell launching it directly under NO pressure.

We are nowhere near good enough to play out from the back, IMHO, but then our strikers are nowhere near strong enough to win long balls either.

 

A good summary. Most frustrating for myself was not converting one of back post corners. Walsall just couldn't defend them and we should really have taken advantage.

 

Totally agree with McCall. We had by far the better chances. How many saves did O’Donnell have to make?

 

Very touchy these days is our leader to any criticism

 

I bet Kiwomya would have saved it. Can't they just admit sometimes a lad hits a screamer that you cant do anything about? To liken it to Donaldsons effort was unfair and actually wrong.

 

Also AK blaming O'Donnell for the goal clearly didn't see their player run 25 yards unchallenged beforehand then. Then the same AK a few moments later says OD makes a great save even though he was nowhere near the shot and it was Ant who blocked it. Awful commentator and his Co host ain't any better.

 

Fair enough, I thought it was a draw, thought both teams were decent, but did cancel each other out.

Our fan base definitely trending slightly negative at the moment, though, nothing but a win is good enough right now - which is, frankly, a ridiculous way to view the season.

 

And that adds in to what I said earlier in that I'm not yet to see a good team at this level with the exception of Harrogate.
Whilst, we have obvious shortcomings, take out the Walsall goal (whilst the run was not closed down but was a cracking strike) and tell me as a total performance across 90 minutes, what they did any better than ourselves?

IMO, if I was a Walsall fan, I'd have been chuffed at a point tonight

 

When you look at the squads from the Parky era, there has always been a winger or defender able to get down the line and get decent balls into the box. Even going back to the Premiership, McCall played with Beagrie and further back with Hendrie.

Looking at this seasons squad the best crosser of the ball is Connor Wood and he’s not a patch on Meredith (yet). We have 3 strikers who I’d imagine would thrive on quality balls into the box, even McCall talks about this, yet he’s done nothing to address it.

If you don’t have wingers, then you need creativity and again, the best we have is Billy Clarke who I’d say is tidy, but too lightweight. All in all this squad has mid table all over it unless he addresses the obvious.

Oh, by the way, if he’s getting stressed when questioned by a very good Radio Leeds reporter, just wait until the crowd is back in the ground.

 

With regards to Watt, I think the lad looks a class above. There were 3 around him last night, did one little step to take 2 of them out and passed it around the third for good measure. Just a shame the rest of the team can’t keep hold of the ball like him. Realistically him, Wood and Staunton are probably the only ones in the squad who will be able to progress to where we as a club want to get to. Even if we went up a major rebuild would be needed to be competitive at the right end of the table.

 

Every time he speaks about Guthrie the more I am convinced he was behind that signing.