August 9th-10th(Opening Day)

[JJ1990]

Haven't seen Alfie around for a little while, so not sure if/when he was planning on starting this thread.

Let's get it going anyway, need some actual football to talk about. Big opening day weekend coming up.

Friday 9th August
Chesterfield v Swindon Town(8:00pm)

Saturday 10th August
AFC Wimbledon v Colchester United
Barrow v Crewe Alexandra
Cheltenham Town v Newport County
Doncaster Rovers v Accrington Stanley
Fleetwood Town v Grimsby Town
Gillingham v Carlisle United
Harrogate Town v Bromley
Milton Keynes Dons v Bradford City
Salford City v Port Vale
Tranmere Rovers v Notts County
Walsall v Morecambe

So, how will your side do? Expected line-up? Confident? Nervous? And who's ready for the inevitable overreactions after 1 result? Good luck everyone.

 

[JJ1990]

From my point of view on our trip to Barrow, it's tricky but winnable. Barrow have had a downgrade at manager(on paper) and I think they've also gotten weaker in defence, where they could be without Niall Canavan and they lost Ray and Chester over the summer. Still a half decent side mind and they've got a good home record.

For us, we're carrying a few knocks which makes me nervous and we're usually crap on the opening day, something Barrow don't seem to struggle with. Definitely in the "take a point" camp to be honest, but getting a win ahead of 2 very tough games against Rotherham and Chesterfield would be fantastic. I'm going for a 1-1 draw.

I'm expecting the line up to be:

Marschall
Billington, Knight-Lebel, Demetriou, Williams
Tabiner, Sanders
Lankester, Holicek, Tracey
Hemmings

 

[クレイグ]

Comfortable MK Dons win, unfortunately.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Swindon (H) on Friday night for us then. We’ve waited 6 years for this… LEAGUE football back and even better that it’s under the lights in front of a near enough sell out. Whatever happens, happens, it’s just so good to be back.

Team news from our side is that we’ve got Paddy Madden (ST) - Calf, Ash Palmer (CB) - Knee & Ryheem Sheckleford (RB) - Hamstring, all sidelined for at least a couple of months, and our skipper Jamie Grimes (CB) - Thigh, isn’t likely to be available until next week, so they’ll all be missing for us.

I think we’ll line up exactly how we started against both Derby (4-0 W) & Scunthorpe (3-0 W) in our final two pre season games in a 4-2-3-1 shape:

Boot (GK)
Mandeville - Naylor - Dunkley - Gordon
Banks - Oldaker
Jacobs - Dobra - Colclough
Grigg

Subs:
- Blackman / Tyrer (GK) (Depending on which one signs)
- Williams
- Horton (OR Daley-Campbell)
- Akinola (OR Jones)
- Berry
- Drummond
- Quigley

Don’t know too much about Swindon, but from looking at their squad they’ve got some very good players on paper so I’m sure it’ll be a good game. Hoping our momentum from last season & anticipation for the first game back in the league see’s us through and we take 3 points on the opening day.

Prediction: 3-1 win
Goals from Colclough, Grigg & Naylor

 

[kieran_vale]

Salford away expecting a slow start for us overall so can see this game being a bit of a grind. Some of our players like Byers not featured at all in pre-season so be surprised if they suddenly start and a couple other key ones picked up injuries along the way like Mitch Clark.

Think this will be a very scrappy 1-1 and say Tolaj scores for us.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Probably the hardest game of the season first up, we were destroyed there last season and should have lost by a lot more. That said overall we do have a good record against MK and beat them 4-0 at home. Hopefully we can come out flying, but I'm not convinced we will. I'd take a draw.

 

[AR27]

Can't see past a bumming for us

 

[CFC91]

I've no idea what to expect from Swindon, know next to nothing about a fair few sides but looks like they will have 2/3 of our ex players playing in Jeff King, Miguel Freckleton and Saidou Khan

They are all players that probably would start for us on Friday if we still have them, still think the decision to let King go was a strange one. I hope Freckleton plays LB where is was poor, versus CB where I thought he looked decent!

We are without Madden, Grimes, Palmer, Sheckleford as mentioned so a bit thin on the ground so our best player in my opinion Tom Naylor will probably have to play CB not CDM which will be a miss

Think we are still a bit light - not signed a keeper yet, gonna play Mandy our of position at RB too + then CDM is a bit light on quality without Naylor unless we do any last min business.

Will say 2-2 - definitely be goals

 

[Cloudy]

No idea about Fleetwood tbh but unless Grimsby do some great business this week I struggle to see were the goals are coming from?

At best a draw

 

[Son of Cod]

Fleetwood away for us. As with the last two seasons, I think we enter this one as one of the most unknown quantities in the division. While we've not done as much business as we'd have liked so far, the signings we've made seem solid enough. We've had a defensive overhaul though and as expected it looks like Artell is going to resume ushering us towards a more technical style of play than the back end of last season when we had to revert to a back five and grind out survival.

One of the major red flags for us going into this season for me is the lack of physicality further up the field once we move past Curtis Thompson in the midfield holding role. Kieran Green brings that but he's not necessarily nailed on to start and beyond him we look very small. Looking at things in the short/immediate term, we look thin as it is in midfield and attack but injuries to Thompson and Danny Rose who are undeniably our best two players in those two areas leave us looking borderline threadbare. Rose might be back for this, but I wouldn't be surprised if he is rested or on the bench which will leave us making a choice about whether we play youngster Cam Gardener up top in the middle and Donovan Wilson out wide or Svanthorsson out wide and Wilson I the middle. That might also depend on whether Svanthorsson is fit because if he isn't then our only remaining wide forward player is Vernam so Wilson will have to play out wide and Gardener will start.

In centre mid it's a big season for Evan Khouri and Thompson being out presents him with an immediate chance to take advantage of our lack of numbers in that department as it might also be a stretch to expect Callum Ainley to start from the off following his battle with cancer last season.

Defensively is the only area we look well stocked in, but even then Doug Tharme is out.

I think we'll lineup something like this:

Wright
Warren-Rodgers-McJannet--Hume
Green
Khouri--McEachran
Svanthorsson--Wilson--Vernam

 

[1862]

Tranmere away, would be a good litmus test for us if I thought we were close to fully fit but seems we might be without Robertson as well as Palmer so not too confident. Would take a draw, definitely.

Assuming they're both out, I'd start:

Bass
Macari Platt Bedeau
Nemane Hinchy Edwards Jones
Crowley McGoldrick
Jatta

Could easily see Scott and/or Austin starting and Crowley further back in place of Edwards.

 

[Tinpot and proud]

Honestly struggling to see past a win...squad improved everywhere, Ray and Chester gone has definitely not weakened the defence...Wilds departure does not a winter make.....Clemence hasn’t arrived with a great recent track record but Wild left with an even worse one.
The footballing on the eyes is way way better that’s for sure.

 

[spireite]

I've no idea what to expect from Swindon, know next to nothing about a fair few sides but looks like they will have 2/3 of our ex players playing in Jeff King, Miguel Freckleton and Saidou Khan

They are all players that probably would start for us on Friday if we still have them, still think the decision to let King go was a strange one. I hope Freckleton plays LB where is was poor, versus CB where I thought he looked decent!

We are without Madden, Grimes, Palmer, Sheckleford as mentioned so a bit thin on the ground so our best player in my opinion Tom Naylor will probably have to play CB not CDM which will be a miss

Think we are still a bit light - not signed a keeper yet, gonna play Mandy our of position at RB too + then CDM is a bit light on quality without Naylor unless we do any last min business.

Will say 2-2 - definitely be goals

Interesting you say that, I don't think any of those 3 would start for us. I'm expecting a tough test from Swindon, from what their fans are saying they've gone for size and look to be an organised side. Feels difficult to call in terms of the result. It's great to back in the league though. This off season feels like it's gone on forever.

 

[OneDecentLester]

I've no idea what to expect from Swindon, know next to nothing about a fair few sides but looks like they will have 2/3 of our ex players playing in Jeff King, Miguel Freckleton and Saidou Khan

They are all players that probably would start for us on Friday if we still have them, still think the decision to let King go was a strange one. I hope Freckleton plays LB where is was poor, versus CB where I thought he looked decent!

We are without Madden, Grimes, Palmer, Sheckleford as mentioned so a bit thin on the ground so our best player in my opinion Tom Naylor will probably have to play CB not CDM which will be a miss

Think we are still a bit light - not signed a keeper yet, gonna play Mandy our of position at RB too + then CDM is a bit light on quality without Naylor unless we do any last min business.

Will say 2-2 - definitely be goals

Freckleton had one decent game for us at CB, one! Just so happened it was against Watford (where actually he made a huge mistake early on that almost resulted in a goal so if that went in people would view that performance very differently. He also missed his header for the equaliser) so it’s created this myth he was decent. He wasn’t, he was poor, he wouldn’t start for us on Friday no chance. Khan also wouldn’t play ahead of any of our midfielders either. Didn’t have the positional discipline to play in the 2 deeper midfield positions, and not a chance would he play ahead of Dobra, Jacobs etc in the number 10.

I’m also not sure King would have even started, even with Sheckleford being out. Cook didn’t fancy him one bit last season, and when we played better opposition he’d often put Mandeville in ahead of him.

 

[Son of Cod]

Mandeville at RB screams Notts vibes to me. Chesterfield are gonna be fun this season.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Mandeville at RB screams Notts vibes to me. Chesterfield are gonna be fun this season.

He’s actually not bad at RB at all. Its obviously not his best position as he’s such a key attacker for us, but he’s played there a number of times last season, including against league 1 champs Portsmouth in the FA cup. He’s our second coming of Drew Talbot really, would do a decent job anywhere you put him.

 

[Scum.]

We will either comfortably beat Bradford or it will be one of those dodgy opening day results. No disrespect intended to Bantams but don't see you winning at our place with the team/depth we now have...though would be typical of Alexander to turn up and beat us out of nowhere.

 

[Scum.]

From my point of view on our trip to Barrow, it's tricky but winnable. Barrow have had a downgrade at manager(on paper) and I think they've also gotten weaker in defence, where they could be without Niall Canavan and they lost Ray and Chester over the summer. Still a half decent side mind and they've got a good home record.

For us, we're carrying a few knocks which makes me nervous and we're usually crap on the opening day, something Barrow don't seem to struggle with. Definitely in the "take a point" camp to be honest, but getting a win ahead of 2 very tough games against Rotherham and Chesterfield would be fantastic. I'm going for a 1-1 draw.

I'm expecting the line up to be:

Marschall
Billington, Knight-Lebel, Demetriou, Williams
Tabiner, Sanders
Lankester, Holicek, Tracey
Hemmings

Christ, Marschall in goal. I am sorry.

 

[Son of Cod]

He’s actually not bad at RB at all. Its obviously not his best position as he’s such a key attacker for us, but he’s played there a number of times last season, including against league 1 champs Portsmouth in the FA cup. He’s our second coming of Drew Talbot really, would do a decent job anywhere you put him.

Fair enough, he definitely doesn't look as though he'd be decent there!

 

[OneDecentLester]

Fair enough, he definitely doesn't look as though he'd be decent there!

On what evidence are you basing that then?

Because if it’s his looks, he looks anything but a flair player & much more like a rough & ready full back !!

 

[LS Bantam]

Can only repeat a lot of the above. MK away, on paper the hardest game first up so odds are we’ll get nothing. Positives - we historically do quite well against them, Alexander going back, first day results often not reflective of how a season will pan out.

 

[mightyshrimp]

1st game of last season was home to Walsall we won 2-1
This season with a brand new squad barring a couple from last season,away at Walsall I would be happy with a draw

 

[Son of Cod]

On what evidence are you basing that then?

Because if it’s his looks, he looks anything but a flair player & much more like a rough & ready full back !!

Haha I mean that he is sort of all gangly and long...unless I've just misremembered him, which is entirely possible.

 

[valefan16]

Salford Away, sell out away end, tricky place to go and we still seem a bit patched up due to injuries.

Draw would be a solid start 1-1 Paton.

 

[JJ1990]

Christ, Marschall in goal. I am sorry.

Only because our number 1 Tom Booth is injured. Fingers crossed he isn't out for long.

 

[CFC91]

Freckleton had one decent game for us at CB, one! Just so happened it was against Watford (where actually he made a huge mistake early on that almost resulted in a goal so if that went in people would view that performance very differently. He also missed his header for the equaliser) so it’s created this myth he was decent. He wasn’t, he was poor, he wouldn’t start for us on Friday no chance. Khan also wouldn’t play ahead of any of our midfielders either. Didn’t have the positional discipline to play in the 2 deeper midfield positions, and not a chance would he play ahead of Dobra, Jacobs etc in the number 10.

I’m also not sure King would have even started, even with Sheckleford being out. Cook didn’t fancy him one bit last season, and when we played better opposition he’d often put Mandeville in ahead of him.

My thoughts in those comments were we have a few playing out of position so if they were available they'd probably all play - which at this level I don't know if we can get away with.. Frecks at CB alongside Dunkley, put Naylor back in CDM. King at RB + free up Mandy to play RW probably at the expense of Jacobs (who I do think will be good this season for us). Khan I agree on slightly, but he's a better footballer than Oldaker and with the discipline Naylor brings to the side I think we'd see a better side from Khan that perhaps the chaos of a Rowe side brought.

If we've got no Grimes or Palmer and Williams clearly out of favour I think we are really short defensively and the thought of playing 2 midfielders in the back 4 on the opening day does worry me a little. That said, if we get on the front foot and get at Swindon it will protect our backline naturally anyway

 

[CFC91]

On what evidence are you basing that then?

Because if it’s his looks, he looks anything but a flair player & much more like a rough & ready full back !!

Our RB dilemma is no longer hopefully! No need for Mandy to rescue us!

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Accrington at home, you would expect us to win but we haven’t won an opening day fixture for 20 years

 

[OneDecentLester]

Our RB dilemma is no longer I am told

Now then…

 

[gary]

Well after losing our last two friendlies to Maidenhead and Barnet I'm not particularly optimistic about our game at home to Colchester on Saturday or the season ahead. I know that we are trying to sign a couple of player's this week or at least by the end of the window . A couple of decent player's could make all the difference !! There are still doubts about our manager Johnnie Jackson. Anything other than top 7 this season would be deemed a poor season .