Most liked posts in thread: Home vs Crawley Town 19th October

Nobody stood out today, certainly no one over a seven out of ten. I thought Cooke was quiet today by his standards, some of his passing was laboured as well.

 

City to win and both teams to score comes up again. Paying for my nights out recently. Still worried how we inevitably concede though. Still, long may it continue.

 

I wouldnt think as a no-contracted player who plays in a friendly as a trialist that should not be classed as a first team game.
Earlier this season didn't we field nearly a full team of trialists ?.

 

Impressed with Crawley to be honest . One of , if not the best side down at VP so far and even in the first half you could see why they had scored in every league this season. ROD seemed the busier keeper and certainly earned us two points with that save at the end.

 

To an extent I agree but at the back, not so convinced

 

Got down their left at relative ease first half. I feel they were very poor in shape and uncomfortable, with some questionable clearances, as attack after attack came from ourselves.

Improved second but was that a symptom of our lack of control central and that we kept dropping back in yards, losing control of possession far too easily?

 

First 40 mins we battered them and could have been 2/3 up at HT. After a bright start in the 2nd half and going 2-0 up we then sat back which made them look better than they were plus not forgetting oteh miss. We made hard work of a game won after 55 mins.

 

Quite agree but imo they were still better than
Cambridge/Oldham/Northampton/Carlise and even Forest Green won came away with 3 pts.

Game should have been put away when Oteh missed that chance to make it 3-0.
Onwards & upwards - Up by Xmas

 

First half, we should have had more goals but poor crosses into the box let us down. We did eventually find the sweet spot.
Second half we missed the presence of Pritchard and resorted to sitting deep and soaking up the pressure, without Donaldson we have no target man and need to learn how to play out from the back under pressure. So many balls today played upto Vaughn who can't hold the ball up on his own. We need a plan B for when there is no Donaldson.
Otherwise we held firm and took the 3 points which is the most important part of today.

 

Just seen this, its exactly what it was. Not much more Oteh can do when the keeper has left him with very little space.

 

Not sure why you’re blaming Bowyer for it, listen to his after match interview. He said he was screaming at the players to maintain a higher line, but it isn’t FIFA he can only instruct not control them. I doubt any manager when they’re winning says let’s stop doing what got us into a winning position and just invite pressure on.

 

Donaldson style seems to be putting the ball wide - Oteh at least forced a very good save.

I didn't think Oteh did a lot wrong with that effort, to be honest, that would probably go in 7 or 8 times out of 10.

 

I don't know what bandwagon you're talking about, but I apologise for upsetting you with the tone of my post.

 

A few clamouring for the change of Vaughan for Donaldson. To be honest of the pair, I think Donaldson has played better. That said, I would pair them both together again

 

I'd also bring in BRE and Vaughan but for Paudie and Donaldson. It's still not easy for me to say this but AOC does not deserve to be dropped and has been far more consistent this season than Paudie. AOC and BRE have looked the best central defence partnership so far and I'd go with that and then give Donaldson a rest up front. Don't think we can afford to be thinking about dropping Zeli or Connolly, especially at home.

 

I'd add that the level of end product some are expecting would mean that those players wouldn't be playing in the fourth division with us! I'd exclude Donaldson from that who really should have scored his two tap ins.

 

I’d start with the same team again. Thought Henley was solid and more comfortable on the ball than Mellor, which is useful at home when you expect us to have a decent amount of possession.

BRE on the bench, he lost his place due to a stupid foul and the other two have done a solid job and he shouldn’t walk back into the team just because he started the season well. AOC is our best ball playing CB so for me he definitely starts at home and Paudie as done nothing wrong to warrant dropping.

Vaughan is the only one I’d be tempted to bring in but I think CD has done a decent job (horror miss aside) and I think he brings the 3 forward midfielders into the game really well and that isn’t something that I’ve seen that Vaughan has in his game.

 

I agree @SteveC AOC hasn't done anything wrong to make way for BRE, but I would bring BRE back at the expense of Pudie.

 

If Mellor hadnt been injured I'm not sure Bowyer would have brought Henley back, so Mellor has got to be considered again IMO.