Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: City vs Stevenage | League 2 | 26/09/20

Need more composure all over the field - hopefully will come with successful results as players gain confidence.

 

Anyway, back to City. 3 points..Great. The rest just utter poor.

 

Guthrie is gash and Stuart MUST see this but well done to the boys and particularly French, Sutton and Clarke. Have to say need a bit more from Cooke in what i have seen so far.
As someone else mentioned, please post something Park as you have been missed - with all the crap going on we should not forget to check these things. Hope you are ok mate

 

• Temporary Bans
• Park Bantam

I've emailed him, texted and face booked him no answer as yet, but he is posting on face book so still about.

EDIT, just had an email from him he said he's back tomorrow.

 

I think Clarke shaded MOTM today, thought both Sutton and Watts did a good job, Cooke had another quite game, it could leave the gate open for Evans to slip into that role.
Novak got into some good scoring positions and even though he missed a couple as most strikers do at times he took two of them and got us the 3 points.

 

I can only think that Stuart kept Guthrie on so as not to totally destroy what little confidence he has left in his own ability. The last 10 minutes was crying out for someone (DMH or Ismail) with a bit of pace to take advantage of the space Stevenage were leaving. Thought that at times we played some lovely football and hopefully this win will give them more confidence. Just one other thing, they need to get Staunton and Wood out on the training ground wearing slippers on their left feet so that they have to use their right foot every time. If it was good enough for Shankly then it's good enough for us.

 

Frustrating in parts, bit nervy at the end (6 mins?!), but overall enjoyed that. Played some really good football at times and 2 good goals.

Novak - gets in great positions, misses a few but scores enough. His all-round play is decent too. 6 in 10 all from open play - that's 28 goals a season. Not bad at all for someone who is not good enough. 8.5/10
Guthrie - speaking of not good enough... I want him to do well, looked like he had a decent pre-season but I just don't know what he brings. Doesn't look like scoring, doesn't put himself about enough, not quick enough. Would be happy if we can bring a young loanee in to add something different. Someone else mentioned it, but Remi Oteh would've done really well in this team I think. 5/10

Clarke - played really well and good assist for the second, great yellow card late on, something we've been missing - 7.5/10
Watt - quickly becoming my favourite player, gets on the ball and good range of passing 8/10
Sutton - got stuck in today and looks to have a bit of an engine on him. Decent first game 7/10
Cooke - OK in patches, should've done better with the 2 chances he had 6/10

French - played well, great assist. Defensively not yet convinced but he seems to be improving 7/10
Wood - played really well, but was at fault for the goal, he simply has to cut that out 7/10
BRE - thought he had a really good game 7/10
Staunton - couple of times he lost his footing and could've stopped the goal. He will need to improve if he is going to be a long term option but he has plenty of time on his side and overall a really impressive start - 6/10

ODonnell- solid - 6.5/10

Donaldson - I know he's past it but would like to see him get a few more minutes, especially when seeing out games. He's good at getting us up the pitch and winning silly free kicks off the opposition.

 

You been on the Bolton fans forum tonight? Don't think they share your view about them going up, Quite the opposite. They have hit their lowest league position in their history today.

 

Bolton will probably finish midtable this season. A poor start doesn't really mean much but I'm not seeing much to be positive about for them. Very little chance of challenging the playoffs for me but there should be plenty of clubs worse than them still - it's going to be a really long dull season for them.

Back to us - worth mentioning that none of the team we have played so far have lost a game all season (apart from Stevenage today obviously). I'm fairly happy with how things are with there being more to come

 

The clock is ticking for Guthrie and the alarm
is about to go off.He's on borrowed time and
has to start scoring and or assiting with goals
because we are in no position to carry passengers
who don't contribute.I hope he comes good but
he needs to start doing it now!

 

better from City yesterday but still not overly convinced by the way the team is set up or by the quality within the squad to have a good promotion challenge. we're still significantly short in certain areas.

for everything that Reece Staunton is good at at this stage of his career and age, his use of the ball really needs to improve if he is wanting to go further in the game - this will come with experience and age but it's also up to other around him to show for the ball.

I thought, considering there wasn't a vocal player across the four, the defence did OK but they weren't placed under too much pressure. Cooke looks lost on the left of a midfield diamond. can see him struggling to get in the XI if we continue to play that way - he may benefit from a change of Sutton and Watt behind a three of Clarke, Cooke and Evans supporting Novak.

started brightly but lost control a bit. a classic example of why you need to take your chances when on top - against better teams and we struggle to get back in to that game.

a welcome three points but we get punished against better sides. 6 and 7s across the board, maybe a 7.5 for a couple of players.

 

And so he shouldn't

 

I think Kai Bruenker had more influence on the games he played in than Guthrie has in his.

 

I’m not sure Guthrie is lacking in effort. I think he’s just sh*t.

 

Stevenage were comfortably the worst team in the division last season and survived on a technicality, Guthrie was their top scorer in the league. This could be an interesting measure of how the City squad is shaping up.

 

How ? We’re playing this years Stevenage

 

They've started pretty well this season.

Revell seems to have galvanised them. They've won 2 (OK, EFL Cup against Southampton's youth but still it's a win and a solid win at home to Oldham) and drawn one and the draw was first up away at Barrow, coming from behind.

If we think that they'll be anything like last seasons team then we'll be shocked.

They will be confident and we have only have half a defence.

I expect a draw but we could easily lose as we're goal shy and have a defensive line that will never have played together.

 

13 new signings and a clear out of last seasons dross has radically improved them for the better, Will be a tough one.