Carlisle 0 v 0 Crawley

[shoddycollins]

Since we're apparently getting on with the match threads I might as well start ours. It'll no doubt be an interesting encounter between two teams who are lacking strikers (well Crawley signed Nadesan but he's injured).

We're not really known for goalless draws. Only one in the last two seasons, though that was our last game of last season, and only one goalless draw at Brunton Park in the whole five seasons we've been down here, but I feel that might be about to change.

That said, both teams have players capable of scoring, just not centre forwards so I could be wrong. We could just be looking at the first goals of a low scoring season for either side.

 

[devilofajob]

My 4th visit. Last season's was entertaining so hoping for a 2-2 draw.

 

[hellogregory]

I’m not going to predict this result until I see if we bring in any extra quality between now and Saturday.

I know how I think it will go with the squad we have now, but hopefully we’ll strengthen. We need to.

 

[shoddycollins]

Now we have a striker in the building, we can start to guess at how we'll line up, though we may have a midfielder in too, which would be good because Scougall and Bridge are a bit too similar.



______________________Collin
_______________________
Elliot_______Webster________NKP__________Iredale

_________Scougall______Jones_______Bridge________

McKirdy_____________________________________Hope
______________________Olomola____________________



Bench: Gray, Mellish, Hayden, Branthwaite, Thomas, Galloway, Kerr

That's one way at least. It depends on how big an issue Thomas' fitness is deemed to be and whether Olomola is seen as ready to go straight into the starting line-up. An alternative could see Hope as centre-forward and Thomas on the wing.

 

[hellogregory]

That midfield Same mistakes as second half of last season when we kept playing Regan Slater and O'Hare together, kept getting over run. Once Slater was dropped it was ok.
The same will happen to that midfield, teams will get on top of us. Hopefully this new midfielder will come in before saturday.

The striker force. We still need more, hopefully we get more Other than Hope I don't see goals there. Nathan Thomas should 100% most definitely start even if not fully fit. Crawley will still have nightmares about what he did to them few months back.

 

[Casey]

I don't know where you get we have no strikers from. We have them coming out of the woodwork. 8 on a quick count although we have let one go on loan and another plays midfield.

Guess at a starting line up.....

Morris
Young, McNerney, Dalison,Sesay
Bulman, Francombe,Camara
Morais, Nathaniel-Grant
Palmer

If we go with three at the back it would probably be

Tunnicliffe, McNerney and Dalison with Francombe dropping out of midfield.

Casey

 

[shoddycollins]

I don't know where you get we have no strikers from. We have them coming out of the woodwork. 8 on a quick count although we have let one go on loan and another plays midfield.

Guess at a starting line up.....

Morris
Young, McNerney, Dalison,Sesay
Bulman, Francombe,Camara
Morais, Nathaniel-Grant
Palmer

If we go with three at the back it would probably be

Tunnicliffe, McNerney and Dalison with Francombe dropping out of midfield.

Casey

A few weeks ago a Crawley fan said you were short up front.

 

[Casey]

Now I didn't say they were any good....

Run through.

Palmer, Poleon, Nadesan, Bloomfield, Meite, German ( out on loan), Galach and Camara ( plays midfield but is actually a forward). I'm sure I'm missing someone.

I wouldn't mind seeing Bloomfield start. Big centre forward on loan from Norwich. The very little I've seen (of him) he could be a good 'un.

Galach us a little guy who scored she'd loads at youth level and is gradually filling out but it's still too early for him.

Meite was signed in January in a three year deal. Played v Crewe last season, got sent of and is now a lurker.

We paid money for Poleon! Bradford fans laughed. Probably one of their high spots last season.

Camara was used as a midfielder due to an injury crises and his stats were off the chart. Can't get back to being a forward as he does the work of two men.

Casey

Reece Grego-Cox is the one I'm missing. Just signed a contract extension. Eire u21.

 

[shoddycollins]

Let's have one more crack at our starting line-up:


______________________Collin
_______________________
Elliot_______Webster___________NKP________Iredale

____________Carroll____________Jones________

McKirdy______________Bridge_______________Thomas

_______________________Hope____________________



Bench: Gray, Mellish, Hayden, Scougall, Galloway, Kerr, Olomola

As things stand we're not going to present anything near a constant goal threat. Even though Olomola is our only proper senior striker, it's hard to make a case to play Hope or Thomas out of position to accommodate him, or to leave either of them out altogether.

Hope's goal return is about what you'd expect of a centre-forward, but if we put him up front he'll drift out into his natural position a lot, there's unlikely to be anyone sniffing around the goal area if we set up like this. I expect that front four to give Crawley fans the impression that a goal could come at any moment but just when you think we're gonna strike we launch it over the bar instead. If we do score it's more likely to be an individual effort.

 

[hellogregory]

Nathan Thomas will play on the right, if he starts.

 

[shoddycollins]

Nathan Thomas will play on the right, if he starts.

Did he pay on the right last season? I thought I remembered him on the right but transfermarkt has him as a left-sided player so wondering if I misremembered.

 

[hellogregory]

Did he pay on the right last season? I thought I remembered him on the right but transfermarkt has him as a left-sided player so wondering if I misremembered.

Definitely played on the right, as Crawley found out few months bakc.
Also played on the right at Ross County on saturday.

Hallam Hope was possibly back in training today. Hopefully he trained well, but feel it might be pushing it to start on Saturday.

 

[shoddycollins]

Definitely played on the right, as Crawley found out few months bakc.
Also played on the right at Ross County on saturday.

Hallam Hope was possibly back in training today. Hopefully he trained well, but feel it might be pushing it to start on Saturday.

I give in then, I'll just wait and see what happens. You'd think that since I stand in the WRE and you in the Paddock, I'd have a better memory of whether players play on the left or right. I was having difficult telling my left from my right while typing up our lineups in the friendlies where I was in the Paddock and blamed the angle of view on my troubles.

 

[Big Bird]

Never going down. Couple more loan signings and you'll be very safe I reckon. Glad I didn't place my bet to have you relegated .

 

[Casey]

I've heard Naseden may be fit enough to start from the bench for Crawley.

To be honest if there is any doubt about his fitness I'd prefer it if he was left out entirely.

Casey

 

[hellogregory]

Steven Pressley has said tonight that Hallam Hope is doubtful for this match.

 

[shoddycollins]

I've heard Naseden may be fit enough to start from the bench for Crawley.

To be honest if there is any doubt about his fitness I'd prefer it if he was left out entirely.

Casey

That's quite some recovery. I thought he was down to miss the first eight weeks of the season

 

[hellogregory]

Prediction time.

I'm a bit more confident now that we've added a couple more players. With a couple more strikers through the door I now think we'll give ourselves a decent chance of staying up.

As for this match, we've got so many new players, some won't have even trained with the team or at best 1 or 2 training sessions, probably don't even know their team mates names. Crawley probably have more continuity and will know each other better. It will take time for our team to settle. With that in mind I think we'll start off with a defeat.

Carlisle 1-2 Crawley

Plus we hardly ever win our opening game of the season. Think I can remember 2 occasions in my life where we've won our first game of the season and they were years and years ago.

 

[Casey]

...and today's ref is James Oldham. His first ever EFL game.

Be prepared for a man (sic) enforcing every regulation to the letter and showing no common sense as he needs to impress the assessor.

Casey

 

[shoddycollins]

...and today's ref is James Oldham. His first ever EFL game.

Be prepared for a man (sic) enforcing every regulation to the letter and showing no common sense as he needs to impress the assessor.

Casey

Doesn't bother us, we play liquid football and won't break or even bend any regulation

Wonder if he's any relation to scott Oldham who reffed our last home league game, also against Crawley

 

[Casey]

Crawley's team today...


Morris
Young, Tunnicliffe, Dalison, Sesay
Bulman (400th game for Crawley today)
Fergusson, Camara
Morais, Lubala
Palmer


On da bench

Lubalya (keeper)
Payne
Galach
Bloomfield
Doherty
Grego-Cox
Nathaniel-Grant

Probably a one up front with two wide men supporting. I'm a little surprised Ferguson is starting (debut) and very surprised McNerney is not even on the bench but I don't know the state of play due to injuries and what not.

Come on you reds!

Casey

 

[hellogregory]

Great result to start off and some positives, but plenty of things we have to improve on if we want to avoid getting some hidings this season.

I’ll post more on it later as I just want to enjoy the win for now.

 

[shoddycollins]

I'll jump in ahead of HG then with the negatives and positives, or positives and negatives.

Positive - we won
Negative - we made hard work of it

Negative - Mellish had a poor game at LB
Positive - It's not his natural position, he was preferred over Iredale perhaps because of Iredale's fitness, or because Mellish had been in that position through most of the friendlies. Easy decision to put Iredale in there next week.

Positive - Both our new strikers had good games
Negative - Neither of them threatened the goal particularly, our attacks were mainly from attacking midfielders and the strikers dropped back to join in
Positive - but they both held the ball up well when it was played up to them, neither was anywhere near a waste of a shirt, and this after only a few days with the squad, there's time yet to improve

Negative - We were a bit shaky at the back, overplaying it or making a hash of the simple things and giving it away
Positive - But NKP was very good today, can see a good partnership forming between him and Webster
Negative - still we need to do the simple things better or else better teams than Crawley will punish us

Negative - We left big gaps in midfield, we have mainly lightweight players who wanted to get involved in the attacks
Postive - But two of those lightweight players got our goals, and Carroll came on in the second half and looked up to speed and ready to maybe start now and add some solidity to the middle of the park, also every game is a game closer to Etuhu returning.

 

[hellogregory]

shoddycollins you've pretty much covered it. I think the new striker that we hope to get next week (Hardy) is the one who should get the goals, but I’m not overly concerned by the 9’s not scoring if the 2 wide men are goal threats as they were today.

The midfield as you say left huge gaps, Jones was often left 2 v 1 against their midfielders as Bridge and Scougall let players run off them. Got away with it today but I think against better attack’s we’ll get hammered. Hopefully pressley sees this and will adjust it accordingly next week for example. Carroll should start against his former club, in front of the back 4 alongside Jones.

I was also convinced we should have had a third. It looked over the line. Still no excuse for Mellish’s air shot that followed.

 

[shoddycollins]

Having looked through the other match threads I feel kinda deprived that there are no Vale fans weighing in on our game, there seem to be on all the other games.

 

[GTFCfish]

How the fuck did that one in the second half not go over the line, unreal from the keeper that.

 

[shoddycollins]

How the fuck did that one in the second half not go over the line, unreal from the keeper that.

We're not entirely convinced it didn't.

 

[GTFCfish]

We're not entirely convinced it didn't.
View attachment 11551

Zoomed in it looks well over to me, at least it didn’t cost you any points though.

 

[hellogregory]

I thought it was over the line at the time, but having seen it back and seen that picture I don’t think it was. The whole ball has to cross the whole of the line and I don’t think it did.

 

[GTFCfish]

I thought it was over the line at the time, but having seen it back and seen that picture I don’t think it was. The whole ball has to cross the whole of the line and I don’t think it did.

Maybe from this angle?