Carlisle v Grimsby

[shoddycollins]

Can't be using the combined match thread for a home game against the Grimmers, they just love an individual thread too much.

I had a little look on the Fishy, most of them are predicting defeat. They are indeed on very poor form but we aren't much better. All the hallmarks of a dour game, goalless a distinct possibility or 1-0 either way, most likely courtesy of a defensive cock-up.

Beech has given Webster his backing so I think we know where our defensive cock-up is likely to come from. He got lucky on a couple of occasions against FGR that we managed to win the ball back after he gave it away. He did have a decent game if you ignore those mistakes but where's the good in being solid for 89 minutes if you're almost guaranteed to gift the opponents a goal in the other minute? NKP came on at the end after Webster had a knock and though he wasn't on long enough to pass judgement on his defensive performance there was a noticable increase in shouting and pointing and just generally trying to marshall the back line, something neither Webster nor Collin do.

Other than that, Thomas seems to be enjoying his new role under Beech so hopefully he can create a bit of magic. I'd stick with Hayden, Gethin Jones and Braithwaite in defence. Perhaps bring Olomola back in for Loft.

 

[Gladders]

Two glimmers of hope for us.

One - we are playing Carlisle
Two - Max Wright is back available

 

[Gladders]

Well Wright is starting so that should help, still 3 players in Green, Clifton and Waterfall I'd rather were swapped for Ogbu, Cook and Ohman but can't have everything.

If we don't win today we might have to put the first 10 games down to a fluke and admit our squad is relegation standard.

 

[shoddycollins]

Webster is out of the squad, most probably carrying a knock.

 

[shoddycollins]

Carroll at right back. Never seen something as obviously not working so early in the game as that before.

And we've got elliot and NKP on the bench too.

 

[shoddycollins]

Gonna be a boring game if its just grimsby getting caught offside for the next seventy minutes but I'll take the draw

 

[shoddycollins]

Well that was dull. At least we look harder to break down under Beech.

 

[Gladders]

Well that was dull.

But like this thread

 

[hellogregory]

2 absolutely dreadful teams contesting a dreadful low quality match.
fortunately for Grimsby they are slightly less dreadful than Carlisle and would have won had Hanson not missed an absolute sitter in the first half.

Barring a historic January, we will finish bottom. Historic in the sense that we’ve always weakened the squad in January, but this time we need to do the opposite.

 

[GTFCfish]

If ever a game had 0-0 written all over it before it then it was this one, 30 shots between both teams and only 4 of them on target tells the fucking story.

 

[GTFCfish]

I can see now why we have individual match threads as all the non stop chatter in this one would’ve seriously clogged up the combined one.

 

[shoddycollins]

Think a draw was a fair result in the end, neither team had much of a cutting edge, both hit the woodwork the best chances though were out of nothing, and shots from distance. Both teams also messed up golden opportunities. Both teams defended competently for the most part and neither goalkeeper had to break a sweat as from what I remember those few shots on target were either tame or right at the keeper.

Grimsby started better and Carroll's first appearance as a right back for us went exactly as the Swindon fans warned it would but some decent work from the other defenders and wastefulness from Grimsby kept the score at 0-0. Beech to his credit recognised it wasn't working and took Carroll off at half time, and in the second half we looked much less like conceding, especially as the match wore on and Grimsby seemed to settle for a point. Had a decent spell in the second half, with Thomas looking to do most of the work himself but Hallam Hope also putting in a decent showing, just lacking a real threat at the end of the good work.

Undefeated under Beech, and two clean sheets from four games which I have to deem acceptable for a manager taking over the worst defensive side in the division. A lot of work still to do to improve the side but how much of our potential windfall from our FA Cup run and presumed sale of Branthwaite is it sensible to spend in January and how much should be kept back for summer?

 

[BlackHaddock]

Watched in on ifollow, 07:00 kick-off here in California. We were slightly less shit than Carlisle and we missed Hanson in the second half. Agree about your right back, he had a mare in the first 45 minutes and wasn't surprised he didn't come out for the second half. Thought we had the better chances and more opportunities, with a bit of luck and composure could have won.

 

[hellogregory]

A lot of work still to do to improve the side but how much of our potential windfall from our FA Cup run and presumed sale of Branthwaite is it sensible to spend in January and how much should be kept back for summer?

Well I wouldn’t sell Branthwaite till summer. He’s our most competent defender and with him we have a better chance of survival, plus surely his value will go up after another 5 months of football. Remember he’s only been in our team for a couple of months. Ridiculous that a 17yr old kid is our best and most reliable defender, but that’s where we are.

Any windfall we do get however, from cup or sales, should be spent in January. We are at a serious risk of losing our football league status so should put every resource available into giving us the best possible chance of survival. We already took the plunge by sacking Pressley and replacing him. Pointless doing that if we don’t give the new coach a chance in January. We cannot go down under these owners, we will never get back and would be more likely to get out of the national league by the bottom end rather than the top. It’s so important we stay in the football league, so yeah everything should go on that before we can even think about looking as far ahead as the summer.

Last time we were in a similar mess in 14/15 we signed Charlie Wyke and Jason Kennedy in the January and the latter in particular pretty much made the difference and saved us. Similar quality are needed in January, without losing our best defender in the process.

 

[shoddycollins]

Well I wouldn’t sell Branthwaite till summer. He’s our most competent defender and with him we have a better chance of survival, plus surely his value will go up after another 5 months of football. Remember he’s only been in our team for a couple of months. Ridiculous that a 17yr old kid is our best and most reliable defender, but that’s where we are.

Any windfall we do get however, from cup or sales, should be spent in January. We are at a serious risk of losing our football league status so should put every resource available into giving us the best possible chance of survival. We already took the plunge by sacking Pressley and replacing him. Pointless doing that if we don’t give the new coach a chance in January. We cannot go down under these owners, we will never get back and would be more likely to get out of the national league by the bottom end rather than the top. It’s so important we stay in the football league, so yeah everything should go on that before we can even think about looking as far ahead as the summer.

Last time we were in a similar mess in 14/15 we signed Charlie Wyke and Jason Kennedy in the January and the latter in particular pretty much made the difference and saved us. Similar quality are needed in January, without losing our best defender in the process.

I agree with you on Branthwaite, I just don't think we'll have any choice in the matter... there's probably a release clause in his contract.

I think how much we spend in January has to be balanced against the risk we face of going down. There's still a couple of weeks till the window opens and six weeks till it closes and a lot could change in that time. If we were to get a couple of wins in a row we could look at lot safer, just look at Scunthorpe. No way we'll be safe enough to relax any time soon but safe enough perhaps to be a bit more cautious with our January business and not simply spend everything we have on battling journeymen.

Wyke and Kennedy are good examples of the sort of business we could still do though as both of them helped propel us in following seasons towards promotion challenges. I'd like to think if we could sign a player like Wyke, we still would, it's an investment and in particular we could do with a solid striker. That season by the way, Wyke didn't hit the ground running. He scored 6 goals in 17 appearances and a number of United fans argued that he'd been a waste of money.

Kennedy we only brought in on loan in that season so signing him permanently was still part of our summer business. Besides those two though, and Derek Asamoah, we brought in a bunch of short term fixes, players like Anthony Griffith and a bunch of loans such as Rafael Spiegel, Georg Iliev, Connor Brown, Tom Anderson and Jeffrey Monakana. Those are the sort of players I'd prefer we avoided if the risk of relegation could subside a bit.

 

[hellogregory]

I agree with you on Branthwaite, I just don't think we'll have any choice in the matter... there's probably a release clause in his contract.

I think how much we spend in January has to be balanced against the risk we face of going down. There's still a couple of weeks till the window opens and six weeks till it closes and a lot could change in that time. If we were to get a couple of wins in a row we could look at lot safer, just look at Scunthorpe. No way we'll be safe enough to relax any time soon but safe enough perhaps to be a bit more cautious with our January business and not simply spend everything we have on battling journeymen.

Wyke and Kennedy are good examples of the sort of business we could still do though as both of them helped propel us in following seasons towards promotion challenges. I'd like to think if we could sign a player like Wyke, we still would, it's an investment and in particular we could do with a solid striker. That season by the way, Wyke didn't hit the ground running. He scored 6 goals in 17 appearances and a number of United fans argued that he'd been a waste of money.

Kennedy we only brought in on loan in that season so signing him permanently was still part of our summer business. Besides those two though, and Derek Asamoah, we brought in a bunch of short term fixes, players like Anthony Griffith and a bunch of loans such as Rafael Spiegel, Georg Iliev, Connor Brown, Tom Anderson and Jeffrey Monakana. Those are the sort of players I'd prefer we avoided if the risk of relegation could subside a bit.

A release clause in a 17yr olds first professional contract? I highly doubt, but if that is the case then whoever negotiated it wants bloody fired.

 

[shoddycollins]

A release clause in a 17yr olds first professional contract? I highly doubt, but if that is the case then whoever negotiated it wants bloody fired.

Did McCarron not leave due to a release clause? Either way Holsworth will have negotiated it so there's probably a clause in it saying he's allowed to score one free goal against us for his new team should we sell him and then meet at a later date.

 

[hellogregory]

Did McCarron not leave due to a release clause? Either way Holsworth will have negotiated it so there's probably a clause in it saying he's allowed to score one free goal against us for his new team should we sell him and then meet at a later date.

Not that I know of. As far as I’m aware he left because we agreed to sell him. Not forced to sell due to a clause. Again that would be idiotic putting something like that in a 16yr olds first pro contract.

The only player I can recall having a release clause in his contract in recent years was Charlie Wyke.