Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Home v Salford City January 15 @ 3:00pm

Bit early to be on the piss.

 

Walker seems to have covered nearly every part of the pitch today. Kind of performance we've been crying out for.

 

Once we took the lead for some reason the lad King in the Salford goal started rushing his dead ball kicks etc, love it when the situation comes back and bites you in the arse when times running out.

 

We were rightly talking about our lack of passion last week well there is one player who does show it and that is Paudie. Yes like most defenders or players at this level he has got a mistake in him but once again he showed what a wholehearted player he is

 

That's rubbish, we didn't start well at all. It was a carry on from last week, the set up didn't suit us at all. Both Watt and Sutton struggled badly in a two man midfield meaning Vernam and Gilliead struggled to get the ball in good positions. Walker showed some nice touches but because of us struggling didn't see much of the ball. There was only one side going to score first half and Salford duly did after yet another error from Canavan. At one point he was going to pull him down but thought better of it. There's a reason we were booed off at half time, and to be fair it was justified. Second half we took advantage of Assantes sending off, Watt had no man marker and we started to move the ball around the space that was afforded. There's a reason the crowd got behind them second half, because they upped their game.
Football is a game of fine margins. Had we not lost Cook early at Carlisle and Songo'os goal rightly have stood we would have won. Today, if Assante doesn't have a brain fart we more than likely don't win.
The positive from today is Jamie Walker. The lad looks to have the quality this squad badly lacks. If we can find one or two more like him things might be looking up.

 

I've never doubted Paudie's commitment to the cause, even in the very worst days. He's a trier. I think the simple truth is, like alot of our players, he is a League Two player - sometimes plays a scorcher and puts in the odd big performance, sometimes not, stutters, makes mistakes and bad decisions. That's what it is. L2 players are in this division for a reason - lack of consistency. Sometimes it may look a lack of effort to fans, but often I don't think that's true, particularly with Paudie. Wins in this division clearly breed more confidence. More confidence means more focus. More focus means more wins. Let's hope this win puts us on a run.

 

I've realised why I'm in a great mood today.

It's 4th division football, it's not the cutest but you just can't beat a victory at the weekend.

 

A rhetorical question if ever there was one. Jones would have buckled down, got the squad onside and taken the game, any game, by the scruff of it's ugly neck and wrung out a result. Exactly what we are missing in this squad.

Songo'o was "sold to us" as the leader on the field, but to date I have yet to see him have any significant influence on players that are clearly not giving their all.

As for transfer activity, we knew we had to be ready, we knew we had a poor squad yet one third in only one of the twenty five deals done in League two have involved us and other clubs around us, namely the ones as desperate as us make up the most activity, specifically Colchester, Carlisle & Stevenage who make up nearly half of those deals.

Instead, we are left with reasonable technical players like Gilliead, Cooke, Vernham, Watt who together have a heart the size of a garden pea. To get out of this league, we don't need reasonably technical players we need players who have hearts the size of Nathan Doyle, Gary Jones, Rory McArdle, Andrew Davies, James Hanson, Kyle Reid, Stephen Darby et al.

 

Walker is quality - and a proper hard worker. He was all over the pitch throughout, backing up, covering, putting in tackles. One swallow doesn't make a summer, but he looked good today.

 

Full marks to Gilleasd today played very well

 

Let's not get carried away. We've just beaten a very average Gary Bowyer side down to 10 men with a late goal. If it wasn't for the sending off I doubt we'd have won. Can tell Jamie Walker has played at a better level, his all round game is far better than league 2.

 

Do you think he’d be fitter if we didn’t train at a school?

 

Ridehalgh has been our most consistent performer this season. Hardly lacking confidence on the ball-far from it.

 

Hard to judge the performance today.

Salford down to 10 and managed my Boring Bowyer.

However, character has to be praised for sure.

 

Glad for the win yesterday but I’m becoming less and less convinced by Canavan as a defender and a captain. If you go one on one with him you’ll do him for pace every time. As a leader he isn’t vocal enough. They only players I could see trying to rally the guys during that poor first half, were Ridealgh and Watt. The other concern was Hornby. I called for him to be given a chance but he looks very shaky at best. This is another position that needs to be rectified this window, but will probably have to wait until the summer.

Finally a word on Walker, what a joy to watch someone who knows how to make intelligent runs and look so comfortable on the ball. If the quality of this lad is the standard of the recruitment going forward, then I’m very optimistic for the second half of the season.

 

Good news is Threlkheld is injured

 

Salford monkey off our back too today.