Match Thread Home V Leyton Orient 23/02, 7pm kick off.

To be fair to @wetherbywhaler, a lot of clubs who are performing well can name half their team as key reasons they're doing well; but that doesn't negate the fact that usually, if you stop the best player or two, it does have a huge impact.

Our fans will tell you our defence has been excellent lately (it has), but the second we didn't have a proper centre forward available out of Novak, Rowe and Cook (all three were out), Exeter put three past us without really looking anything special.

Anyway, good luck to you, like you say, top for a reason - some are inevitably going to look at that statement and point out the games in hand situation, but FGR just got panned at home by Southend, so I'd rather have the points in the bag than talk about ifs and buts!!

 

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...

Thanks Jon, and good luck to you too. Now that's what I call intelligent analysis....

 

Yet we still scored 2 at Exeter. It was the other end that let us down that day, a rare bad defensive day at the office

 

U ok hun?

 

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.

 

Might be classed as idiots in your part of the world.
They're classed as having opinions up here.
I class idiots, as people that can't deal with opinion that doesn't match their own.

 

Excellent response there

 

Certainly wouldn't class the guy as an idiot I think that's harsh he just has an opinion on your team. You are up there for a reason because you're one of the better teams in the league but are you standout if your honest probably not really.

It's obvious we're taking a bit more of a modern moneyball approach to analysing the opposition and generally speaking if you can stop the best two or three players at this level you'll keep a team quiet.

Leyton Orient did their homework on us in that way but they didn't come to win they just came to stop us by putting pressure on key players in our midfield to stop us going forward. Whilst I wouldn't really want us to be that scared of any team in this league I was impressed by their discipline and organisation in defence if they can find a bit more balance in looking at how to hurt teams going forward their results will improve.

 

We should take it as a complement that teams like Orient are doing their homework on us so that we don't have all our own way. The good thing is that Trueman and Sellers are quite smart in this respect and react to each challenge. All the signings we made in January bring something different to the table and give us different options to change things from the bench. For me Danny Rowe needs to be playing but where do you play him in this system we are using, he says himself that he isn't a target man. We probably need to play Cook up top (or Novak when fit) with Rowe and either Vernan or Crankshaw just behind but in front of Cooke. Nice problem to have and I'm sure Trueman and Sellers will come up with a solution.
I also think Craig Doyle is right, Trueman and Sellers does sound like a firm of solicitors.

 

I've heard from a reliable source that when it comes to sprints Donaldson still has the pace, the problem is that you get a stage age wise when making those sprints it takes more out of you which is probably why he can't do himself justice over a full 90 minutes anymore.
One of the reasons fans think Donaldson's legs have gone is that quite often he seems lethargic and drifts in and out of the game but to be honest he has always played like that and is how he has got a lot of his goals over the years, defenders don't always track that type of player because they don't seem to pose much threat.

 

Not quite as much as Vernam, Crankshaw, Trueman & Sellars though. That would be a quality name for a solicitors

 

Like the Allan Connell one against Arsenal.

 

Indeed couldn't agree more the recruitment in the Jan window is looking better and better to me the options we have now are genuine threats not just a roll of the dice to see if it works. We'll see Orient style performances more and more now I think but as you say I suspect T&S Will be putting the graft in to give us a way to counter it.

 

The saddest thing is that our previous failings in the period between the Stuart leaving the second time and the third time, are probably down to either lazy management or dinosaur management. Grayson has proved in his job at Sunderland, here, Blackpool and now at Fleetwood to be the latter, Stuart (3rd spell) was the latter, Bowyer the latter.

I've totally discounted the former leader of the IRA (Michael Collins) and Hopkin I think was lazy management because he didn't research teams enough. When he did (and we played a 4/2/3/1 or 4/3/2/1 in that purple patch around Christmas we were more than good enough to stay up.

 

I'd use them to crack open a stubborn defence team.

 

This is why T&S are such a breath of fresh air for us. They come with new coaching and tactical ideas, but also a thirst to learn, game on game, to look anew at what our players' capabilities can achieve and how best we can use their talents. This thorough attention to detail is not what you get from dinosaur managers who, despite being mediocre at best in their managing careers, continue to throw the same old shit at the wall. Y'know, if T&S do ultimately 'fail' - and I'm not sure what the measure of that would be - they've brought new thinking into the building. And Ryan Sparks is smart enough to see that.

 

O's sacked their Manager tonight!.

 

Harsh. Mid table L2 is their level

 

That's a balanced reply to my post which wasn't very fair. Apologies. I just think Cambridge have finally built a really good, really ugly, really effective team out of nowhere. So today we ground out the most awful win at PV....due to a 84th min strike who scored a worldy ...he doesnt do that much ...actually never ....but the confidence is so high a player like that will do that. And btw Hoolahan did little today and Mullin less. Good luck too....we won't see you in the play offs because we'll be automatically promoted but I hope with all my heart you get promoted too....see you next year for the drink