Scunthorpe @Home 22 Dec

McArdle was shocking yesterday. His best days look well behind him now. A bit sad really to see a player held in high esteem by City fans, looking so poor and passed it, judging of course on yesterday. Maybe our Iron friend can elaborate and tell us how he has performed over the season?

 

Not sticking up for Rory but he is only part of what looks a bad back four, once you start on a run like Scunthorpe and Bradford City up until recently one mistake and it can cost you a goal, NKP looks a different player now he's back from injury, back to the player who looks composed on the ball.
Scunthorpe have loads of quality out injured they just need to keep working hard at the simple things and hope they can get a few back and I'm sure their owner Peter Swann will loosen the purse strings in January, he won't want relegation to the khazi league.

 

Just watched the whole game on iplayer and there were lots of excellent performances yesterday.

Two who have been getting stick recently in McGowan and Doyle I thought had decent games.

McGowan looked steady and composed and Doyle looked much livelier and interested.

Miller was non stop and would have been my MOTM.

 

He was shocking!

What I did notice was that he was playing on the left whereas Parkinson always made a big thing of him playing on the right. I wonder if that was a factor in him looking so uncomfortable?

There's no real reason for him to look so bad otherwise. It's not like he's ever relied on blistering pace or suffered bad injuries.

 

His time is up, reckon he just about had 12 months at best left in him after leaving us, we were right to only offer a 1 year contract...

 

We are staying up! Edin out Edin out ...

 

Maybe, but he's only 31. It's not like he's really old to suffer such a dramatic downturn. It is possible though.

 

When they kicked off and I saw McArdle was playing on the left side that our tactic should be to get Miller running at him on his left side between him and the full back as he would get a result there. McArdle is too right footed and has difficulty turning to his left, he always likes to work attackers onto his right hand side.

 

That'll be Stuart's downfall. Possession football will only get you so far. I thought Hopkin outsmarted him yesterday. The match up between Caddis and their 7ft basketball player was worrying at first, I thought Hopkin did well instructing us to concentrate on the second ball and it worked well. Stuart persisted with this tactic and it wasn't working.

 

Love Stuart to bits but he’s never had a plan B.
This ultimately will be his downfall.

 

Maybe - but until he gets his own players in and he established his own style of football, like Hopkin is already starting here, then Scunthorpe haven't even seen his Plan A.

Let the world judge him when he's put that in place first.

 

About 2 mins in, that flick by O'Brien(?) to set up Payne was the sign of a confident player in a confident team. Also, as someone commented elsewhere, Caddis ran some distance to tell O'B to stay down, actually pushed him back on to his back, seasoned pro.

 

Not certain the guys on this podcast agree with you about McArdle. Take a listen around the 13 minute mark

https://www.iron-bru.co.uk/episode-7-the-nightmare-before-christmas/


I always maintained that Rory would be worth keeping for a season, but there would be then a great danger of been left with a high earner, rapidly declining - hence why I supported the club not been held to ransom

Of couse he gets us up or Scunny it's money well spent, but a big gamble as it's proven

The old weakness of been exposed to mobile front men continues. Now in fairness this only used to happen with the very best i.e. Wilson, Sharp, Gregory etc, but clearly it's now happening with just half decent ones

 

The McArdle I saw yesterday didn't look anything like the McArdle I saw under Parkinson.

He did look like the McArdle under McCall, however, and yes, I know how that statement reads.

Piddly passes back to other defenders, a couple of big aerial wins, but nothing like the combative, blood-and-thunder, long ball launching defender Parkinson utilised. From the one corner I remember in the first half, McArdle didn't even do the McArdle-esque near-post burst.

In other words, a poorly used McArdle, not treating him as an aerial threat going forward, not looking for a target man up front, struggling to adapt to playing as a footballing centre back.

I was pissed off when we let McArdle go the first time, but largely because we categorically failed to replace him - while like-for-like wouldn't have worked, we needed a defender with leadership and presence. Instead we had Killa and NKP, and embarked upon the worst period of defensive statistics in a long, long, long time.

(Then it got even worse when we let Killa go....)

 

I believe it's the podcast I've commented on, and given my comments on it @banbrotam, there is no doubt Rory was poor yesterday but as @Adam Baker said Phil Parkinson played him on the right, where as Stuart played him on the left,
The penalty was a joke Sunday football stuff back to the oncoming player the ball should have been in row Z rather than trying to usher the player out so your keeper could claim the ball.
I commented on last night after the game Hopkin got it bang on playing channel balls for Miller to use his pace, in the air there are few better in this league than Rory but McArdle was chasing shadows yesterday.

 

I noticed Stuart made his subs far too late as per usual,he hasn't changed has he?

 

I think you’re doing a disservice to our players here to be honest. McArdle is only 31 and probably has a few more years in him yet..

However I think he and the rest of their team just couldn’t handle our high intensity attacking play

 

He dragged McArdle off at half time.

It wasn't a case of mistimed subs - their defender getting sent off killed the game.

 

I thought they looked far more dangerous going for it in the last 10 minutes coming forward, I said to the grandson I hope this lot don't score or we'll be hanging on, with the amount of chances we had that should never have been the case.

 

I honestly don't remember feeling worried at any point in that game

How times change, eh?