2017/18 National League North

[Harrier94]

Stockport 0-2 Harrogate

 

[Harrier94]

BPA 0-4 York

 

[Harrier94]

North Ferriby 0-1 Brackley

 

[Harrier94]

Darlo 2-1 Alfreton

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Going off our twitter Curzon missed 3-4 other good chances......may cost us that in the end

 

[Harrier94]

Stockport 1-2 Harrogate

 

[Harrier94]

Darlo 3-1 Alfreton

Blyth 3-2 Tamworth

 

[Harrier94]

Missed most of the goals but who cares FCUM 1-2 Harriers Manny Sonupe with his second

 

[CFC4LIFE]

Poor performance today in the second half. O'Keefe once again the weak link, not for a good feeling about Harrogate away on Tuesday

 

[Darlofan97]

Alfreton 2-0 Blyth Spartans (Shiels 35, Johnson 65)

If i was putting a tenner on anybody to win this league it would be us.

Good omen for you too - Last time we won on the opening day was 2010/11 when we were crowned Conference North champions!

We were sensational today. We look like a very good oufit.

With all due respect, I wouldn't be putting that tenner on anytime soon.

We probably should have gone 3-1 up at HT, after Beck hit the bar, Syers had a shot tipped wide & Elliot almost dropping the ball in his net!

Second half we added another two, and Elliot had to save well from Gillies (x2) & Ferguson.

Pick of the bunch for Alfreton had to be Wood & Westcarr. Disley did OK, but expected a bit more. To me you are similar to what you were last season, shaky at the back but better going forward - but to a lesser extent now there is no Hearn, Monkhouse or Bradley.

Thought Elliot in goal looked really poor. Good distribution but struggled a bit.

 

[WAY22]

Very easy for us today, felt like a friendly to be honest. Strange stuff.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

National League North Results Saturday Aug 12

Att. 1,335 AFC Telford United 0 Salford City 2
Att. 654 Blyth Spartans 4 Tamworth 2
Att. 1,133 Bradford Park Avenue 0 York City 5
Att. 804 Chorley 1 Curzon Ashton 1
Att. 1,547 Darlington 4 Alfreton Town 1
Att. 1,946 FC United of Manchester 1 Kidderminster Harriers 2
Att. 711 Leamington 0 Southport 1
Att. 167 North Ferriby United 0 Brackley Town 5
Att. 559 Nuneaton Town 0 Gainsborough Trinity 1
Att. 3,107 Stockport County 2 Harrogate Town 2

 

[Prodigal]

Really poor game at Chorley, two poor sides, Howson bossed the back line for Curzon and won every ball, Leather did the same at the other end. Bad error by Teague allowed Curzon 11 to run on and score well from an acute angle. Chorley equalised through Leather from a set piece. That's about it, the rest was boring, Chorley desperately need to get some pace in the side, it's all one dimensional and safe, let's not lose type football, very poor crowd too, this might be significant!

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

i just noticed.......we are not the smallest club in league anymore!!! its all collapsing quickly at NFU.

Seen the highlights, looked mostly a game of 'half chances' than much else Prodigal, although i think we should have won it with that Header in the second half, that should hit target.oh well for us its a solid point and for yourselves its a point vs a side you claim is the bogey side you never get out from....so small positives for both sides.

We really need to be scoring more, the highlights tuesday and sat showed some good positions wasted by poor finishing.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Highlights are starting to come up here if any of you are like me and watch them all......only 3 up so far but its same link and others will follow. Seem to do as many as can but think the smaller clubs Nuneaton, Curzon, NFU may be a case of sometimes up, sometimes not.

http://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/match-info/results/2017-08?division_id=35404

 

[Harrier94]

Looks like NFU are doing an "Alty"

 

[David Curries Mullet]

Comfortable win against Alfreton. Recovered from conceding after about 20 seconds to boss the game and three or four more wouldn't have flattered us. Disappointed in Alfreton. Was expecting them to have more about them, but folded quite easily, and was never worried we wouldn't win. Pleased James Caton got off the mark. Worked hard all game.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Looks like NFU are doing an "Alty"

I am not sure they are as such 'doing an alty' as alty were a team we expected to do well then just collapsed......NFU are just doing what we all expected in the summer.....the money has gone, the investment has stopped, the additional fans who went have stopped going and club is now smallest in league, smallest budget and on its way back down leagues.

Southport was the one we were thinking could 'do an alty' but it is looking unlikely after their start.

I think first 3 games is also ruling out for me Stockport from a title shot (being one of the faves before season) they simply dropping too many points already......but midweek will say much more.

is a big midweek at the top, couple of big games coming up which may dictate whether Salford, Stockport or York could be counted 'not good enough' for the title.........fixtures up later.

 

[ForzaCounty]

Absolute game of two halves in Edgeley yesterday

First half, Harrogate were a class above us, County may as well have not had a midfield since they were bypassed so easily. Losing Montrose was always going to be a huge blow, but you'd think Ball, Walker and Winter would have enough in them to make our central midfield competitive in this division - but not on that first half showing. The jury should still be out on Walker since he's new and has twice had to make way for tactical changes, but I've seen enough of the others to have some concern. McKenna came on and looked dangerous, but as an out-and-out winger he still needs to receive the ball and that requires us being able to compete for it.

Second half, the shape barely changed but it seemed like the mentality did and we reaped the rewards. Jimmy Ball seems to be the current go-to source of frustration for County fans, and it's easy to see why when he doesn't press or challenge for the ball, well at least he did that much more in the second half yesterday and if he keeps it up he should win people over. If there was a Man of the Half award, he'd have been a contender.

Oswell took two poacher's goals very well, I really think that a front four of Oswell, Warburton, Stephenson and Thomas will tear some teams apart at some point this season, when they're all fit... which is more like an 'if' at the moment, because we could have to make do with just one of them on Tuesday, after Warburton was hobbled by an awful challenge from behind, which the ref absolutely bottled. (Not saying County were saints either, some poor discipline from the new signings on display; Gannon teams tend to finish top of the fair play league so that'll have to be fixed) coming from a Football League background I actually enjoy the laissez-faire refereeing in this division, where you seemingly have to draw blood in order to get a yellow - but that doesn't mean they should ignore challenges likely to cause injury too.

 

[ForzaCounty]

I think first 3 games is also ruling out for me Stockport from a title shot (being one of the faves before season) they simply dropping too many points already......but midweek will say much more.

I don't think County fans would've seriously considered us title contenders anyway, not when you're up against so many hobby clubs.

We've played three surprisingly good footballing sides so far, I wouldn't read too much into our results so far because I don't think they'll be typical of this division. I think County fans would've expected a playoff place at before the start of the season, and there's no reason to expect anything else yet.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

The only County fans who are claiming we should be challenging for the title are those who for whatever reason don't like Gannon and want a reason to get rid. Fortunately the vast majority of us aren't that dumb and would happily settle for play offs.

As already mentioned, yesterday was a game of two halves. First half we played three at the back and looked on course for a proper pasting. Second half we switched to four at the back and should have won the game.

Still reckon our first 11 is good enough for the play offs, but we have very little depth. We're already collecting injuries, which is worrying.

 

[Fyldefan]

Would the Stockport fans still want gannon in charge if you failed to make the playoffs?
Haven't read your forum a few times last season and seen many comments like "we have the best manager in non league football" I'm just wondering why he's held in such high regard as a manager? I'm not criticising in any way as you know the man far better than I do. Just wondering where such high praise comes from

 

[WAY22]

Looking forward to Tuesday against Darlo more than anything just to get an answer to what sort of side we've actually got. I'm confident we'll at least be in the play-offs, but after that I don't know what to think so far. Yesterday was a complete non-event but the BPA fans we talked to after the game thought we were the best side they'd seen there in a while.

 

[ForzaCounty]

Would the Stockport fans still want gannon in charge if you failed to make the playoffs?
Haven't read your forum a few times last season and seen many comments like "we have the best manager in non league football" I'm just wondering why he's held in such high regard as a manager? I'm not criticising in any way as you know the man far better than I do. Just wondering where such high praise comes from

If you'd had the new millennium we've had, where the very minimum you'd expect from any manager is to not get the team relegated & they can't even achieve that, except for one who's managed to turn things around three times now, you'd be happy to leave him in charge too.

I don't know if he's the best in non-League, because I neither know or care enough about what happens at other clubs. No-one knows what the future holds but I'd much rather just leave him to do his job than go back to chopping, changing and being relegated.

 

[B2TF]

If you'd had the new millennium we've had, where the very minimum you'd expect from any manager is to not get the team relegated & they can't even achieve that, except for one who's managed to turn things around three times now, you'd be happy to leave him in charge too.

I don't know if he's the best in non-League, because I neither know or care enough about what happens at other clubs. No-one knows what the future holds but I'd much rather just leave him to do his job than go back to chopping, changing and being relegated.

Not good enough- when the board have given up, the fans have to fight! When great & historic clubs fail for so long, it's always the result of incompetent directors and chairmen. It can be seen at many clubs. County fans have suffered long enough for the failure of the "suits". Get your placards out, get on the pitch and get shut of the deadbeats in the boardroom. Your brother Football League clubs are with you and are hurting for you.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

Would the Stockport fans still want gannon in charge if you failed to make the playoffs?
Haven't read your forum a few times last season and seen many comments like "we have the best manager in non league football" I'm just wondering why he's held in such high regard as a manager? I'm not criticising in any way as you know the man far better than I do. Just wondering where such high praise comes from

If we make no challenge at all for the play offs then I think naturally he'd be under a lot of pressure. If we just miss out he'd probably stay.

I'm one of the biggest Gannon sycophants around, but talk about him being the 'best manager in non-league' is a bit silly. There are other managers doing more impressive things with smaller budgets. I do believe however that he is a very intelligent manager, with a very clear vision of the sort of football he wants to play which - when it comes together - is very effective. His problem is whether is ideas are a bit too ambitious for this level (although he was very successful with Northwich). For his plan to work he needs a very specific type of player, who are more than anything tactically astute, and they are rare at this level. There are other managers who are more pragmatic, and successful with it, and as such have a better claim to be 'the best manager in non-league'. He's also very stubborn and doesn't bend to club hierarchies when they set about doing things differently from the way he wants them done. This hurt him in his Football League days when as a young manager he probably should have conceded a few battles. However I get the impression he's learnt from that experience.

Anyway, how's Lewis Montrose doing for your lot?

 

[Fyldefan]

In all honestly he's not been great so far, hoping for much more from him. It's clear to see why he's been brought in as we need somebody to sit in front of the back four and protect them because we cannot defend properly. Maybe it's the way we play and the players around him, I really don't know what it is. We were poor at defending last season and that's continued this season. Basically anytime any team puts the ball in the box at head height they score. We just give so many sloppy easy goals away but I'm enjoying it anyway. Although we can't drink in the stands this season which is a bit of a pain.

Good luck to Stockport anyway. I hope they go up. Absolutely excellent support

 

[ForzaCounty]

Not good enough- when the board have given up, the fans have to fight! When great & historic clubs fail for so long, it's always the result of incompetent directors and chairmen. It can be seen at many clubs. County fans have suffered long enough for the failure of the "suits". Get your placards out, get on the pitch and get shut of the deadbeats in the boardroom. Your brother Football League clubs are with you and are hurting for you.

Tried that. Ended up with more boardroom buffoons. Then tried it again, and got different buffoons. Tried it once more, ended up with no-one in the boardroom at all, until another set of buffoons turned up, got bored and let some scouse buffoon run the place until he got bored too. Or something. I've genuinely lost track of who's running us now

 

[CFC4LIFE]

Looks like NFU are doing an "Alty"

And a droylesden, and a hyde

 

[Idsall Buck]

AFC Telfwolves 0-2 Sal£ord City.
Piss poor performance from us (only 1 forward fit - we only have 2 signed!). Salford comfortable through out and deserved their easy win. Although, they are not as good as they were last season.
Curzon Ashton away tonight - I'll give it a miss.