Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Home V Grimsby Saturday 10th April @ 3.00pm

Very poor today. Its a fair point but I'm not really interested in the Hurst and Grimsby side of things. I'm still unconvinced. How much of our upturn is down to restoring basics that were previously missing? I worry about our use of the ball. We need to improve on several fronts next season

 

Depends on what he wants. Personally I would sign him because I think he's worth a contract.

 

Well that was pretty dire to watch for long periods today. Given GT's recent run of form I wasn't expecting us to put them to the sword.
As the first half drew to a close I was thinking we"d done well to go in at the break 1-0 up and we'd need to be at our game second half as Hurst would give them a right bollocking.
But then they hit the self destruction button when Payne got sent off. I didn't see that coming. And whilst I would have loved to have been a fly-on-the-wall in the GT dressing room at half time, I thought T&S's team talk just got a lot easier; chuck on Vernam and Rowe from the start and go for the kill.
But instead we chose to continue with our conservative approach. You know its bad when you agree with Andy K and his assessment that we should have been more offensive 2nd half.
But 3 points is all that matters. We'll need to better than that against Crawley.
Two things from the game:
We continue to give away far too many free kicks in dangerous areas.
ROD - is he a vampire? I've not seen someone so averse to crosses since Dracula

 

I have to agree. His first touch is terrible, his crosses more often than not hit the first man and his passes either fail to find their man or he passes backwards. The reason he's played so many consecutive games is because there's no one to challenge him and hasn't been anyone for a long time. He improved to an ok level but hasn't pushed on. Maybe if we had another left back it might challenge him to improve. I'd keep him but bring someone in who will be the number 1 left back. A good defender but one who offers an attacking threat in the final third. Maybe this would push him on again.

 

The stats that count 4 matches 3 wins and a draw 8 goals for 3 goals against

 

But what about a decent level of entertainment, nobody seems to have mentioned this as yet, 3 points yes but is that really the be all and end all of what we as paying customers want, would you go through hell every week trailing down to VP knowing that we'll get 3 points but will be bored stiffless at the same time, don't think so, wouldn't last long anyway...

 

We were winning games 1-0/2-0 under Bowyer last year and in the top 7 throughout yet the attendances dropped and the atmosphere was like a morgue.

 

Come on @bantam2708 I always took you for a glass half full fan .
Were in a position if someone had quoted when Stuart was sacked everyone and I mean everyone would have called them an idiot, we now have 7 games left to achieve something we couldnt have dreamt about, that's got to be a magnificent effort by all concerned, yes l'll repeat 21 points from 7 dire games will suit me fine and I'm sure most would agree ?.

 

One thing I don’t want to see too many times is 3 at the back. It didn’t work under McCall and it was unconvincing yesterday.

 

Behave. A change of keeper is no excuse for defenders failing to attack a cross into the box.

 

If the cross is in the 6yd box it is the keeper who should take or punch, If it is left and the ball beats the defender the keeper will never stop a header so close, The defenders in the box have a disadvantage of having to defend the wrong way heading out, The defenders are in a no win situation waiting for a keeper who does not come,

 

Hanson will pick on any uncertainties in defence. He has the extra incentive of it being a former club. I’m not saying Canavan or Paudie can’t handle him further up the pitch but as we know, one chance in the 6 yard box and he’ll put it away.

 

I don't think anything has changed, we've been poor from crosses all season, whether that be stopping crosses coming in or making the first contact in the box. Lets not pretend we were much better from crosses with Hornby in the side. Yes he punched/caught more than O'Donnell but off the top of my head, we conceded 3 crossed goals at Carlisle and 2 at Exeter with him in goal. Now I'm not saying Hornby was to blame for any of them but what it shows is that we have a problem with defending crosses/set pieces regardless of who the keeper is.

 

The Stevenage fans may have said the same thing about The Don last Saturday.

 

Top Post, fully in agreement with you.
Our defence haven't a clue what ROD is going to do,mainly because neither does he.

 

And if the flight of the ball is just over the defender so falls to an attacker?
It is not about height our defenders are 6ft 2 and 6ft 4 and our keeper is 6ft 4, if the ball is head able they win it but if the flight eludes them then it will be a free header in the 6yd area for the attacker with the keeper on his line at a distinct disadvantage, If the keeper comes he can catch, punch or usually if misses get a foul given against him if clever,

 

Call it whatever you want but the sheer amount of headers that attackers win in our box is unacceptable and that's not solely down to one player, regardless of how much you're protesting that it is.

 

That’s right the goalkeeper should command the area any indecision causes panic