Easter Monday & Tuesday 6th April

[chipmunx]

Correct! thankfully we are ok for centre backs so bennett will drop back in there along with long-king and dolan in a back 5.

not sure what Ledley brings to your team by the way - but 10 and particularly 14 looked your best players on Friday.

 

[hellogregory]

Can’t see us beating Scunthorpe if we play like we did yesterday.

Performance levels have been slightly better at home so hopefully we’ll have enough to get the points.

 

[Bone Idle]

not sure what Ledley brings to your team by the way - but 10 and particularly 14 looked your best players on Friday.

Ledley is an unfit expensive luxury on a big wage and on his showing so far brings us nothing, 10 was josh sheehan and 14 aaron lewis who are 2 very good players its a pity they have to carry the other 9 donkeys.

 

[Shrimper92]

3-0 loss

 

[Bottega Don]

Judging by our performance on Friday, our feet are well and truly up. Not a single shot on target and our players were just sauntering about.

All Carlisle have to do is not literally hand us a goal as I can't imagine us creating much. We're weirdly quite good defensively now even with all of our injuries, we may be quite difficult to breakdown.

 

[Roger Stone]

Labadie picked up his 10th yellow on friday so will be suspended for this one, personally i hope he never plays for us again he's a bloody liability.

Labadie picked up his 10th yellow on friday so will be suspended for this one, personally i hope he never plays for us again he's a bloody liability.

Labs should be ok - was his 8th booking in the league. Think you need 15 bookings by game 40 or something to pick up a suspension. First name on team sheet for me. Hopefully Benno drops back to CB tomorrow - we are far too conservative with Labs and Benno in midfield plus 3 CBs. Ledley in midfield with Labs, Sheehan and Gambin would be a bit more adventurous. Either with 5 at back and 1 up top or a 4 4 2. Need to do something different for sure.

 

[masi51]

Labadie picked up his 10th yellow on friday so will be suspended for this one, personally i hope he never plays for us again he's a bloody liability.

Labs should be ok - was his 8th booking in the league. Think you need 15 bookings by game 40 or something to pick up a suspension. First name on team sheet for me. Hopefully Benno drops back to CB tomorrow - we are far too conservative with Labs and Benno in midfield plus 3 CBs. Ledley in midfield with Labs, Sheehan and Gambin would be a bit more adventurous. Either with 5 at back and 1 up top or a 4 4 2. Need to do something different for sure.

If its broken....why try to fix it

 

[denzel ecfc]

I cant believe there are 9 sides with worse form than us. Still.
We need to be a lot better to win tomorrow, players just dont look bothered at the moment. Coupled with the fact that Mansfield always seem to do well at SJP and I fully expect a defeat.
Just hope the players realise what a golden opportunity they seem to be letting from their grasp and actually turn up for once.

 

[E10rifle]

Well, we’ve gone to Newport, Carlisle and Mansfield and won all three without conceding a goal. We overcame Oldham - one of the best away sides in the league - in a real ding-dong battle. Only one point off of the playoffs, albeit having played an extra game. Walsall at home? 0-2.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

I cant believe there are 9 sides with worse form than us. Still.
We need to be a lot better to win tomorrow, players just dont look bothered at the moment. Coupled with the fact that Mansfield always seem to do well at SJP and I fully expect a defeat.
Just hope the players realise what a golden opportunity they seem to be letting from their grasp and actually turn up for once.

Maybe they heard that the fans would rather finish 8th than in the play-offs?

 

[RLC]

Rovers v Cambridge is a difficult one to call, not least because I think Keith Hill will set us up cautiously and not to go all out for a win, in an attempt to re-set after the poor showing at Cheltenham. Of our recent wins, Southend was down to the hosts giving us the freedom of Roots Hall in the first half, while Exeter, apart from the switch-off for their goal were largely marked out of the game. Joe Murphy is a decent keeper, but he's not as vocal or as good as organising a defence as the absent Scott Davies. You'd have hoped the experienced Peter Clarke, now skippering the side in Scottie's absence would have stepped up, but he was (exceptionally) below par at the weekend when we needed it most. If we are to get a win, we will only do it by stout defending, as on current form and without Vaughan, it's hard to see us scoring many. There are goals in the team, but the manager needs to revert to playing lads in their proven best positions.

Agree with BITDHSS about both Mullin and Lewis. Paul Mullin was always a whole-hearted player for us, but when we were in L2 he didn't gel with Norwood in a front pair and Nors was in good form and always going to get the nod. He got more of a chance in L1, but in a weak squad and when we strengthened last January, 2 strikers were brought in and he moved on. Micky Mellon didn't seem to rate him and it's good he's now at a club where the manager's belief in him has boosted his confidence. Near inevitable that he'll score against us. Lewis is a strange one, first saw him score a New Year's Day hattrick against us at Macclesfield, when he was quite a handful. Lost sight of him after that, knew he'd had a spell at Cambridge and tbh was rather underwhelmed when he joined us. He's done well, best deployed as a box-to-box attacking midfielder, he's found it harder in the false no 9 role with Vaughan's injury, though still managed to give opposing keepers more of a test than Nugent. Hopefully KH will revert to using Woolery or trying Danny Lloyd in the forward role and let Lewis return to the midfield role he does best.

Clarke has been playing with an injury recently and is apparently in a lot of pain during matches. That explains a couple of below par performances recently. Frankly, for a forty year old to put in the performances that he has on a twice-weekly basis this season is incredible and he deserves huge praise rather than criticism. He has been one of our two or three best players this season and none of the other central defenders we have are anywhere near his level.

Lewis is quite limited technically, but that does not matter when he has Spearing and Feeney alongside him, who are much more talented players with the ball at their feet. Lewis's strength is ghosting into the box and scoring goals. He is a decent finisher and has been pretty effective in that role this season. I can see how he would struggle in a side where he is expected to get on the ball and create, but he fits into our system well because of the players around him. However, he has struggled as Vaughan's replacement, understandably.

 

[RLC]

When James Norwood left, Mullin actually had an extended run in our team in League One, and was pretty crap to be honest. I think he scored about two goals in fifteen games in the first half of last season and he and his strike partner Stefan Payne were sidelined in January, and replaced by James Vaughan and Andy Cook.

It just did not click for him here, at Swindon, or at Morecambe in terms of goalscoring. Whether that is due to personalities, style of play, or simply being a late developer I don't know, but that is just the nature of football.

 

[Casey]

As Bottega Don mentioned Scunthorpe did Crawley the favour of not really bothering on Friday. If Oldham do the same we have a chance.

Our twitter feed was trumpeting a stat that shows that Glenn Morriss has made more saves than anyone in leagues 1 & 2. The feeling was we have a good keeper, something I agree with. However, they didn't seem to get the connection that he is making lots of saves because he is facing lots of shots and he is facing lots of shots because our defending is bad.

Going for a squeaky bum 1-0 to Crawley.

Casey

 

[SVH]

Mullin has a big decision in the summer because we certainly set up to benefit him and I’m not sure he’d get that at another club. His wife is northern and clearly doesn’t want to move south however from what I’ve heard Mullin is open to another season down south. I truly believe this is down to us being in league one and not league two.

 

[Luke Imp]

What's the crack with Mansfield these last few weeks? Been in terrible form since the initial new manager bounce. Gone back to Coughlan performances or took a calculated gamble and got rid of players in January and just went with what you had?

 

[northstandexile]

What's the crack with Mansfield these last few weeks? Been in terrible form since the initial new manager bounce. Gone back to Coughlan performances or took a calculated gamble and got rid of players in January and just went with what you had?

Got rid of all strikers to save money.

 

[Boz]

Clarke has been playing with an injury recently and is apparently in a lot of pain during matches. That explains a couple of below par performances recently. Frankly, for a forty year old to put in the performances that he has on a twice-weekly basis this season is incredible and he deserves huge praise rather than criticism. He has been one of our two or three best players this season and none of the other central defenders we have are anywhere near his level.

Second para is mine not RLC's!

I wasn't aware of Clarke carrying an injury and don't disagree with your assertion that he's been one of our best players, along with the other relative veterans in Vaughan and Spearing. I said it was exceptional that he was below par, but unfortunately it happened at a time when we needed him to be at his best and that was compounded by his defensive partner Ray reverting back to his poor form of last season. Seeing how the rest of the game panned out, with little sign of Rovers scoring, I don't think his error leading to the Cheltenham 3rd goal was fatal to our chances, though doubt it's a mistake he'd have made earlier in the season. Perhaps he does need resting some games in the run in as both Nelson and Monthe are capable central defenders at this level?

 

[masi51]

Got rid of all strikers to save money.

you could of played your groundsman up front

 

[Huntsman94]

Expecting a tough game against Cambridge as other TRFC posters have mentioned. Weirdly in that horrid start of the season under Jacko, our best performance was away at Cambridge in that 0-0 draw.

If we set up how we did against Cheltenham then we’ll lose. If we set up how we did in the second half with Feeney playing higher up the field, Lewis a bit deeper and with Nugent and Lloyd up top with Woolery, then I’d be confident.

Have a feeling that if we lose today, that’s us out of the top 3 reckoning and all focus on holding onto a playoff place. Win and we’re right back in it.

 

[Chris FGR]

Salford at home, 19th v 24th in the form table. Should be an absolute cracker.

 

[stevowanderer]

Mullin has a big decision in the summer because we certainly set up to benefit him and I’m not sure he’d get that at another club. His wife is northern and clearly doesn’t want to move south however from what I’ve heard Mullin is open to another season down south. I truly believe this is down to us being in league one and not league two.

Will be interesting for you guys next season whichever league you are in. If you lose Mullin and Hoolahan retires does that remove nearly all your goals and nearly all your creativity?

 

[Conker]

What's the crack with Mansfield these last few weeks? Been in terrible form since the initial new manager bounce. Gone back to Coughlan performances or took a calculated gamble and got rid of players in January and just went with what you had?

Clough did miracles to get that 5 win streak with this squad, as I’ve mentioned several times on here now (sorry everyone) we have two strikers left at the club, Bowery and Reid, one is inconsistent and the latter is simply nowhere near good enough from what he’s shown us for league football.

We’ve got a huge problem with mentality and individual mistakes, Kellan Gordon being particularly good at them, but Sweeney, Stech among others too. Clough was asked how we cut out these late goals and mistakes and he said we can’t with these players. Getting rid of Cook and Maynard especially considering the wages was a good idea, but failing to sign Akins and to a lesser extent Brayford from Burton really did do us in.

Positives we have a good midfield ready for next season, Ollie Clarke along with Lapslie should probably be playing L1 football and Maris is decent too, plus the breakthrough of YT player Jason Law is nice to see, but I hope for a small retained list this summer. We generally play good football and have matched pretty much every team at the top of the table, but a lack of quality in both boxes results in us being quite frankly rubbish.

 

[SVH]

Will be interesting for you guys next season whichever league you are in. If you lose Mullin and Hoolahan retires does that remove nearly all your goals and nearly all your creativity?

It would certainly lose a lot of goals and creativity but we have other player that can score and create goals.

Hoolahan has 7 assists but our right back has 6 and others have chipped in too. Ironside has 11 goals and he does all Mullin’s donkey work so if we had to replace Mullin I’d be confident whoever come in would get plenty of chances to score playing alongside him. There are rumours Hoolahan isn’t ready to retire too.

 

[SVH]

Hoolahan has travelled and named on the bench.

 

[valefan16]

Unchanged again as expected, expecting a bump in the road as it’s un Vale to win 5 in a row but hoping for a good game!

 

[masi51]

Two changes...........Dapo and Arthur out and Isgrove and Thomason in
Some one needs to get on the scoresheet apart from Doyle

 

[Conker]

Four changes, which is unusual from Clough but suggests he’s had enough.

 

[kieran_vale]

Bit of a surprise we haven’t swapped a couple round but on a winning run so may as well see how long we can keep it going. Am sure although our season is pretty much over a lot of these will be playing to have a job next year so in their interests to play hard.

 

[masi51]

Four changes, which is unusual from Clough but suggests he’s had enough

Is your groundsman playing?

 

[Bone Idle]

Just seen the team for today

3-0

To Bolton.