Cobblers Vs Grecians

[Moomin]

Northampton away for us next....

Think this will be tough for us, although we are flying at present and we're decent away from home. Our front three of Wheeler, Nichols and Nicholls will cause them problems but I worry about our midfield options. Fingers crossed that Noble will return to add some steel alongside Harley and Oakley.

We will concede as we always do but fancy to nick a couple of goals so tentatively plumping for a 2-1 away win. Nichols with both for us...Adams for them. 430 travelling Grecians.

 

[Trapdoor]

Is Holmes back yet?

Wouldn't mind seeing a front three of Holmes - Nichols - Wheeler. Having said that Nicholls got on the score sheet yesterday and could well be keen to get on the scoresheet against his old club, often the way it goes.

Hard to know how good Northampton are going to be this year, they seemed pretty average last season but the year before looked really good. It will be a good test for us for sure. Ever the pessimist I'm going 2-0 Northampton.

 

[LordJord]

Think we have a good chance of getting top 7 this season. Squad looks to be pretty settled and we have improved our defence/goalkeeper which was our achillies heel last season.

Alex Nicholls will get a superb reception from us after all he went through with us, I thought his career was over after that horrific leg injury but fair play to him for getting himself back fit and playing again, out of curiosity how has he done for you?

We will press your team high up the pitch, we certainly look a threat but pace on the break against our CB's is a worry. Im going for an entertaining 3-2 victory for us. Fancy Exeter to do well this season though so looking forward to a good game.

Not certain at all how we will line up with players returning to fitness but I will guess something like this:

Smith
Lelan Diamond Cresswell Buchanan
Byrom Taylor
Holmes Adams D'ath
Richards

 

[Moomin]

Is Holmes back yet?

Wouldn't mind seeing a front three of Holmes - Nichols - Wheeler. Having said that Nicholls got on the score sheet yesterday and could well be keen to get on the scoresheet against his old club, often the way it goes.

Hard to know how good Northampton are going to be this year, they seemed pretty average last season but the year before looked really good. It will be a good test for us for sure. Ever the pessimist I'm going 2-0 Northampton.

Tisdale said after last night that Holmes is about a week away from coming back so he may make the bench. I agree Holmes in the front three would be excellent as he would give proper balance, whereas Nicholls is a right footed player playing on the left.

However last night Nicholls was superb cutting inside, so fully expect him to keep his spot for the time being.

 

[Moomin]

Think we have a good chance of getting top 7 this season. Squad looks to be pretty settled and we have improved our defence/goalkeeper which was our achillies heel last season.

Alex Nicholls will get a superb reception from us after all he went through with us, I thought his career was over after that horrific leg injury but fair play to him for getting himself back fit and playing again, out of curiosity how has he done for you?

We will press your team high up the pitch, we certainly look a threat but pace on the break against our CB's is a worry. Im going for an entertaining 3-2 victory for us. Fancy Exeter to do well this season though so looking forward to a good game.

Not certain at all how we will line up with players returning to fitness but I will guess something like this:

Smith
Lelan Diamond Cresswell Buchanan
Byrom Taylor
Holmes Adams D'ath
Richards

Well if you do press high against us you may well be playing into our hands. Our biggest strengths are three very quick forwards who play well on the break plus we have the midfielders to play some lovely passes to utilise this strength.

Our main weaknesses are at full back. Your ex player Arron Davies now plays RB where he does ok but isn't a defender and on the left Craig McAllister isn't the quickest but is solid enough.

I expect we will lineup like this:

GK Olejnik
RB Davies
LB McAllister
CB Ribeiro
CB Brown

CM Noble
CM Harley
CM Oakley

RF Wheeler
LF Nicholls
CF Nichols

 

[LordJord]

Well if you do press high against us you may well be playing into our hands. Our biggest strengths are three very quick forwards who play well on the break plus we have the midfielders to play some lovely passes to utilise this strength.

Our main weaknesses are at full back. Your ex player Arron Davies now plays RB where he does ok but isn't a defender and on the left Craig McAllister isn't the quickest but is solid enough.

I expect we will lineup like this:

GK Olejnik
RB Davies
LB McAllister
CB Ribeiro
CB Brown

CM Noble
CM Harley
CM Oakley

RF Wheeler
LF Nicholls
CF Nichols

Definitely see a high scoring game in that case. Pace on the break is definitely our biggest weakness IMO, Cresswell in particular really lacks mobility. We now play a 4-2-3-1, the 3 behind Richards are very interchangable and open a lot of space for our fullbacks to bomb on. David Buchanan our new LB from Preston has been very good in the opening two games and see him getting a lot of joy against Davies. He couldnt tackle to save his life when he was with us and always thought he has lost the pace that made him such a threat at Yeovil.

I assume Tisdale is again favoured on the south coast?

 

[Moomin]

Definitely see a high scoring game in that case. Pace on the break is definitely our biggest weakness IMO, Cresswell in particular really lacks mobility. We now play a 4-2-3-1, the 3 behind Richards are very interchangable and open a lot of space for our fullbacks to bomb on. David Buchanan our new LB from Preston has been very good in the opening two games and see him getting a lot of joy against Davies. He couldnt tackle to save his life when he was with us and always thought he has lost the pace that made him such a threat at Yeovil.

I assume Tisdale is again favoured on the south coast?

Sounds like it could be 3-3!

Well, Tisdale still divides opinion....Personally I wanted him out a while back when things went very stale, but fair play to him, he's brought in some good players which have coincided with some very good young players coming through so, for now, he has my support.

 

[LordJord]

What happened to your keeper Pym? He was outstanding at Sixfields last year, made several good saves to keep us out until Rico's bicycle kick. Thought he was really going to kick on, not getting a game now?

 

[Moomin]

What happened to your keeper Pym? He was outstanding at Sixfields last year, made several good saves to keep us out until Rico's bicycle kick. Thought he was really going to kick on, not getting a game now?

He can't even get on the bench these days....There were rumours of a bust up with Tisdale last season after he let in a soft goal at Newport. Also rumours that he got a Billy big bollocks attitude after he got called up to the England under 20s and now we have Olejnik he's out of favour. Personally I'd have him on the bench instead of our other young keeper, James Hamon.

His shot stopping is superb but I guess he's let down by a lack of height.

 

[EricSabin]

The team that played yesterday contained a few changes so it'll be interesting to see if any keep their place. Good to see a load of strength in depth and a good strong bench.

Think at home we are a dangerous side, so hopefully we can keep our flowing football going and triumph again.

3-2 Teyn

 

[Naitch]

Comfortable, very comfortable.

I'm gonna stick my neck out and say we're not going to concede a single goal this season.

 

[Grecian O'Grecian]

Ouch. Thank god I didn't go.

 

[Trapdoor]

sounded very comfortable for northampton. sort it out tisdalethorpe.

 

[HertsCobbler]

Comfortable, not really. Our manager Chris Wilder in his typical Yorkshire blunt style was not that impressed and I tend to agree with him.

In the second half it was one way traffic at times - if Exeter had got one back it could well have ended 2-2. They will have plenty of joy of the road and Alex Nicholls showed flashes of his old self.

The key reason we did not concede is Adam Smith was outstanding in goal. I am getting the impression that he had not had the well publicised - Thaigate incident he would not have been within our reach. He has only played two games but I have seen enough to think we have got a very good prospect on our hands.

 

[EricSabin]

If he hadn't gone to Thailand he wouldn't be in League 2. Mightily impressed with him.

 

[HertsCobbler]

If he hadn't gone to Thailand he wouldn't be in League 2. Mightily impressed with him.

At the moment looking like best stroke of luck signing since Gyepes - who we only got because he had been out for few years and knew our then manager Stuart Gray. Thing is Wilder has signed his old mucker Ryan Clarke as well - was this in the thought that say in January Smith will be offski after an undisclosed bid by a higher level club.

It is still early days and the big test for Smith will be how he reacts to making a mistake - a good young keeper will brush themselves down and get on with it. A less good keeper like Archer will let it get to him.

 

[LordJord]

Great result for us but feel 3-0 dosnt really show what sort of a game it was. We were the better side first half but Exeter had their moments. Taylor's goal was fantastic, keeper had no chance!

Potter should of scored early on in the second half to put the game to bed but after that Exeter bossed it I thought. As mentioned above smith was fantastic, his starting position was key and showed great awareness.

Definitely positives to take, last season we wouldn't of held out as we did and we scored 3 goals again! Concerned with the lack of depth in defence though. Now have no fit back up defenders across the back 4. Need a utility defender similar to tozer for the squad.

Exeter will definitely push for top 7 IMO. If tisdale could just add some steel into the middle think you would have a real chance, bit to tippy tappy at the end when you had minutes to score.

Onto barnet next!