Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Home V Leyton Orient 23/02, 7pm kick off.

Lazy analysis. Apart from your freebie trip up to the Abbey how often have you seen them play? I've watched the full 90 mins of 28 games so far and if I mention the names of Taylor, Knoyle, Digby and Hannant you wouldn't have a clue who I'm talking about. We are top, and still top for a reason you know and after 30 odd games it's because of the team, not two players. And Hoolahan doesn't play midweek. Good to see that all football forums have their idiots too...

 

Morning Sean and firstly good luck for the rest of the season. With respect I think Jon's post #402 below yours was very fair, especially about our defence. Lets be fair, most teams in L2 can beat others, Southend last night for example but in the case of the U's I was saying that Mullin with almost 50% of your goals is a target to be stopped and if that happens, as in our two games your team are not as good. We have done that consistently since our new Management team came in.
Crawley Away, stopped Watters, drew. Tranmere away, stopped Vaughan, won. Orient home, stopped Johnson, won. Cambridge home and away, stopped Mullin, 4 points from 6. The only blip was Exeter but the issues there have been addressed.
Make no mistake Mullin has been great for you but when you stop him he drifts out of the game. Talking briefly on leaving after our win at Cheltenham last Saturday a disappointed home Director said "We've Cambridge Tuesday but if we stop Mullins (sic) we'll win most likely".
As Jon says some will point to games in hand, I will. Most have 2 on you, Carlisle many more, as he says you have to win them but I stick with my original comment I think play off is your best hope. For us?, this League is tight because it is average, Colchester were 15 ahead of us in December now they are 7 behind which is as good a reason as any that from Owner and CEO down the aim from December for us was and still is avoid relegation whether we need 50 points or more. After that see where we go. I think for both our clubs the lights are on and someone is home, tongue in cheek I hope we play you in the play offs!! Good luck.

 

There's no stand out team in this league. Those who are successful are nearly always those who are most solid, make the least mistakes and have 2-3 difference makers. Some play slightly better football than others (Exeter, Cheltenham), but the base recipe is still the same.

That was McCalls biggest mistake this season. Trying to be expansive in a league that's anything but, and with players who weren't good enough to play in that way.

 

Like the Allan Connell one against Arsenal.

 

It had been a long day....I'm good and well done on today's win

What a strange reply. What do you mean 'your part of the world'. Have you ever read the threads on here (which btw I enjoy). Stop being a pretend northerner who can't deal with the fact that someone 'down here' as opposed to 'up here' disagrees with someone....it's called life and living. And don't fecking lecture me about when and when I can't have an opinion.

 

Without being harsh on that stat Colchester have sunk like the Titanic.
They aren't a fair marker of how we have performed.
The best marker is the gap from 3rd we were 11 games ago to what we are now.
We were 19 off 3rd with a game in hand.
We are now 10 off 3rd with a game in hand.
Keep going at the rate we are now then there's only Bolton who could stop us going straight up if they continued at the same rate they are going too.

 

I'd start Cook again, and bring Rowe on for 30 minutes.

 

Erm...no-one in the league has that form?
What about us?
Don't we have that kind of form at the moment?

 

And have two games in hand on Notlob

 

On their form they are likely to set up to defend a draw but our lads will just rip through them-looking at a 4 or 5 nil win I expect.

In reality we will lose to a 91st minute fluke

 

Here's the form table from today's football league paper. 8 teams with double figure points totals in the last 6 games.

 

Leyton Orient could come looking for a draw, to be honest.

That would be an interesting challenge.

 

Be interesting to see Crankshaw now he's had time to train with the others. Stevens had a chance at Exeter and didn't do well so if there's one space to fill then Crankshaw is ahead of Stevens for me this time.

 

This is a 'cunning plan' an Orient fan suggested to undermine our march up the table - 'We need to drop freeman for widowson and swoop brohpy for widowson play kemp in centre of midfield and brohpy up front widdowson at left back.' Makes a lot of sense to me lol ... 4-0 to City (haven't said that in a while). Must be dreaming.

 

I have been wondering if part of the loan deal with Stevens is that he has to play if fit

 

I think when he came on he did a very professional job holding the ball up and not giving away play, a couple of times he could have run at the opposition but chose not to. Credit to him and the rest of the team.

 

If that's the case he needs to show more.

Cook's impact has been fairly immediate and I appreciate Stevens is a younger lad who's learning and will need more time but he is going to get chances throughout the season and needs to show more creativity or creation of chances. Think he'll have learned more about the defensive side of things at Exeter. Let's see how he goes in the next 5 or so games.

 

That has been a feature of Trueman & Sellars tenure - playing left footers on the right and vice versa. Clarke and Vernam on the right, Evans and Crankshaw on the left. And Stevens was on the left when he came on on Saturday. They seem to prefer their wide players cutting inside rather than hugging the touchline and crossing from the byeline. It seems odd to me but I'm sure there's a well thought out rationale. Maybe it's because they are playing as part of an attacking midfield three rather than as out & out wingers.

 

It'll be interesting to see how we set up for this one. I suspect The O's will sit back for a draw and see that as a good point given there fairly wretched form looking at the stats from @Bigrod
I'd prefer to see Rowe start simply because he likes to come deep and also seem to be comfortable playing on either wing. That may help stretch a resolute defence enough to allow other players in