Monday 2nd & Saturday 7th September

[Conker]

I thought Mansfield looked the best of the lot tbh- dominated us . losing KD must be a big hole to fill though , in reality now they are small hitters even with decent resource . I would be interested to know what their fans think expectations are because to me anything above about 15th would be a decent season with what they are up against .

Now we’ve lost DKD and not replaced him I’ll take ‘avoiding a relegation battle’ in football manager terms, with him and Swan going that’s over 40 goal contributions from last season gone. It’s still a very similar squad to last season in some ways, we’ve spent 150/200k and brought in around a million, but also managed to be very shrewd with the likes of Baccus who we got for nowt and could end up being sold for a load of money in a year or two quite easily.

The underlying data suggested we were the best side in the division last season, in my mind we should have won the title but we dipped in form when Stockport did the opposite.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Definite changes from midweek, one enforced with Nixon out for 3 weeks. I expect we will lineup like this:
TSL
Sterry Olowu Anderson Fleming
Bailey Westbrooke
Clifton
Molyneaux Sharp Gibson
Bench: Lawlor, Senior, McGrath, Close Ironside, Yeboah, Emmanuel

 

[Scum.]

We spanked Walsall 5-0 last time…I think not this time, though I do think we’ll win as we are at home. 2-1.

 

[loz]

Was going to go to Bradford but like many others I’ve sacked it off after the performances and results of the first few games.

Simpson going may lift some of the pressure off the lads so hopefully they go out and play a bit more freely under the caretaker managers. That said, these are still the same losers who have the habit of losing ingrained into them now, as shown on Tuesday night where we battered Forest’s kids yet still lost in a pathetic manner. It’s what we do. Play shit and lose, play well and lose. Its going to be a long process to rid this losing culture and I hope whoever we appoint knows the scale of the task.

Bradford have made a half decent start and I fully expect them to go for our throat here, test our vulnerability which includes Harry Lewis. With all this in mind I’m fully expecting a comfortable Bradford City win.

Bradford City 3-1 Carlisle United

Don't know what you are worried about. Last week Grimsby wiped the floor with us for 70 minutes and on Tuesday, we couldn't beat Newcastle Juniors.

 

[leedsvaliant]

I think a large percentage of our fans are hopeful that Byers pairs with Croasdale in midfield, allowing Garrity to push further forward. He's such a threat from that area but for some reason he's been playing in a deeper midfield role alongside Croasdale. They're both good midfielders but neither of them are technically brilliant or creative from deep, so it's asking for trouble. Byers should have the quality to control the midfield, with Croasdale picking up the pieces and Garrity in the box.

We're finally getting some of our 'stellar ' signings up to match fitness, so I expect significant improvement over the next few games. Moore has 10 games for me.
At the moment he has done literally zero to impress in 6 months at the club. I genuinely believe we have a squad of quality but our diligence over the opposition, in game management and any sort of plan appear to be lacking at the moment.

 

[hellogregory]

A guess as to how we’ll line up tomorrow. Under Simpson we’ve played 3-5-2 despite not really having the players to fit the system, so would not be surprised to see us switch to a back 4.

Lewis
Davies Hayden Thomas Mellish
Biggins Neal
Jones Sadi Adu-Adjei
Wyke​

Subs:
Breeze
Harper
Barclay
Vela
McGeouch
Armstrong
O’Donaghue

I wouldn’t start Mellish or Neal, but they both seem undroppable.

 

[saddler78]

We spanked Walsall 5-0 last time…I think not this time, though I do think we’ll win as we are at home. 2-1.

Yeah cant see a hiding this time i expect a closer game a goal either way to win it or a draw i would take a draw tbh.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Looking forward to tomorrow against Grimsby. Probably only the 2nd side we’ve played so far this season (after Crewe) who look like they’re going to come and be proactive in their play and concentrate more on what their doing rather than trying to nullify us, and that will hopefully make for a very good game as we will be doing exactly the same.

Positive news on the injury front for us as we have the Fulham loanee duo Devan Tanton & Harvey Araujo back available, and even better news is that Liam Mandeville is back available too so expecting our bench to look a lot stronger than last week at Gillingham. The big miss for us will be Dunkley at the back after his joke of a red card at Gillingham last week.

Predicted XI & bench:

Boot
Daley-Campbell Naylor Grimes Gordon
Banks Oldaker
Markanday Dobra Berry
Grigg

Thompson (GK)
Tanton
Araujo
Metcalfe
Jacobs
Mandeville
Drummond

Never know, maybe we’ll get the rub of the green this week at last… it’s well over due

 

[RavenBish]

can luck be well overdue 4 games into a season?

 

[OneDecentLester]

can luck be well overdue 4 games into a season?

Yes

 

[Scum.]

can luck be well overdue 4 games into a season?

Yep, that’s what our season now hinges on.

 

[Carver]

If Bradford fail tomorrow to beat us who are managerless and shite then it will be a proper embarrassment.

 

[GTFCfish]

More of this will do tomorrow cheers lads:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1510264583650488329

 

[1862]

can luck be well overdue 4 games into a season?

After our last two games, I hope not!

 

[Limerick Mariner]

Not true.
Oldham won the National League last September after their late equaliser away at Chesterfield.

And didn’t Scunny win the NLN title on the opening day of the season last year?

 

[Son of Cod]

More of this will do tomorrow cheers lads:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1510264583650488329

Great video that with El General going loco and Holohan running the length of the pitch to a packed away end. McAtee's goal wasn't half bad either.

 

[Luke Imp]

Hardly any L1 footy today so it'll be a L2 game on Sky Sports+ - where are the good games likely to be? Chesterfield vs Grimsby?

 

[Son of Cod]

Hardly any L1 footy today so it'll be a L2 game on Sky Sports+ - where are the good games likely to be? Chesterfield vs Grimsby?

Yeah that should be two wide open teams going for it. Gillingham v Donny should be tighter but two sides you'd expect to be in with a shout and have started well. Carlisle's Cup final at Valley Parade maybe worth keeping an eye on.

Cowley v Woodman probably the most 4th/5th tier thing you'll see all year too if you wanna relive the glory days.

 

[CFC91]

Hardly any L1 footy today so it'll be a L2 game on Sky Sports+ - where are the good games likely to be? Chesterfield vs Grimsby?

Donny V Gills probably stands out

 

[valefan16]

Big game for Moore today, probably finally got his best attacking and midfield options available to start with Stockley and Byers ready so hopefully he makes the obvious change in that if we playing direct we use Stockley up front rather than smashing long balls to 5 foot something Paton’s head and to finally get some control of midfield by pushing Garrity into the number 10 and have Byers finally start and pair with Croasdale so we don’t get over run.

Really struggling at full backs though regardless of formation due to injuries but the ridiculous decision to have a right side of defence with two players with a combined 2 career senior starts was madness last week.

What is mental though is the bookies odds having us a fairly big favourites to win this! Newport at 9/5 is worth a punt and not sure what the bookies are thinking there. Form surely suggests the Exiles are favourites here.

 

[Tinpot and proud]

Big game for Moore today, probably finally got his best attacking and midfield options available to start with Stockley and Byers ready so hopefully he makes the obvious change in that if we playing direct we use Stockley up front rather than smashing long balls to 5 foot something Paton’s head and to finally get some control of midfield by pushing Garrity into the number 10 and have Byers finally start and pair with Croasdale so we don’t get over run.

Really struggling at full backs though regardless of formation due to injuries but the ridiculous decision to have a right side of defence with two players with a combined 2 career senior starts was madness last week.

What is mental though is the bookies odds having us a fairly big favourites to win this! Newport at 9/5 is worth a punt and not sure what the bookies are thinking there. Form surely suggests the Exiles are favourites here.

I think it’s poor odds for a Newport win, they struggled like hell and somehow won the game against morecambe......there’s no way your squad should be only making Newport just 9/5 to win....easily a 4/1 bet if it’s based on reality.

 

[valefan16]

Few bodies missing… no Croasdale, Smith, Curtis and that back line looks weak as.

Only plus is clearly 4 at the back but the two full backs have played 1 senior app and 4 respectively!

 

[OneDecentLester]

Looking forward to tomorrow against Grimsby. Probably only the 2nd side we’ve played so far this season (after Crewe) who look like they’re going to come and be proactive in their play and concentrate more on what their doing rather than trying to nullify us, and that will hopefully make for a very good game as we will be doing exactly the same.

Positive news on the injury front for us as we have the Fulham loanee duo Devan Tanton & Harvey Araujo back available, and even better news is that Liam Mandeville is back available too so expecting our bench to look a lot stronger than last week at Gillingham. The big miss for us will be Dunkley at the back after his joke of a red card at Gillingham last week.

Predicted XI & bench:

Boot
Daley-Campbell Naylor Grimes Gordon
Banks Oldaker
Markanday Dobra Berry
Grigg

Thompson (GK)
Tanton
Araujo
Metcalfe
Jacobs
Mandeville
Drummond

Never know, maybe we’ll get the rub of the green this week at last… it’s well over due

https://twitter.com/x/status/1832403447649595506

One off!

 

[RavenBish]

Jones, Crowley and Jatta all out injured for us

You honestly couldn’t make it up. How the fuck do so many of our players manage to constantly get injured?

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Jones, Crowley and Jatta all out injured for us

You honestly couldn’t make it up. How the fuck do so many of our players manage to constantly get injured?

Plus no Robertson and no Palmer. With that combined loss of talent and creativity we could actually be dull this afternoon.

Lucky lucky Stanley.

 

[valefan16]

Jones, Crowley and Jatta all out injured for us

You honestly couldn’t make it up. How the fuck do so many of our players manage to constantly get injured?

We’ve been asking that for four years now! Even in the promotion season we had a spell against Newport and Bristol Rovers where we had no fit striker so played a midfielder up top alone (did score 3 in those 2 mind!) if it wasn’t for Covid causing a load of P-P games that Xmas we’d never have gone up,

 

[RavenBish]

I mean Jones has been kicked to fuck for the first month of the season and every opposition set of fans have called him a diver and a moaner… so that’s no surprise really

 

[1862]

Feels very makeshift, probably not a surprise with all of those missing. Suspect we will look a lot more dangerous in the last half an hour when we've made some subs

 

[Son of Cod]

I mean Jones has been kicked to fuck for the first month of the season and every opposition set of fans have called him a diver and a moaner… so that’s no surprise really

We actually went out of our way to not tackle him.

 

[Conker]

Jones, Crowley and Jatta all out injured for us

You honestly couldn’t make it up. How the fuck do so many of our players manage to constantly get injured?

This is happening across the EFL, Stockport and Mansfield continue to have ridiculous injury lists.