National League Fixtures - 14th September

[Magpie Mike]

To be fair, we don’t know who is good and bad yet really. I would be surprised if at least one of those middle three teams didn’t finish above Southend, for instance.

I can confirm that we are bad.

 

[Magpie Mike]

90 minutes of dross from Maidenhead. I couldn't see the first sending off from where I was standing, I think an elbow or stamp was alleged.

Second our keeper was sent off for taking out our last man.

We'd probably have lost anyway as our only method of attack is overhit long balls and we have no midfield. This will be a long tough season, our summer signings look dire, Emile Acquah apart. Kane Ferdinand on a two year deal looks an absolutely awful bit of business.

Totally agree about Ferdinand.
Does a lot of pointing to indicate where other players should go, but has the uncanny ability to be able to be nowhere near the ball himself.
I watched him closely and he touched the ball about 5 times all game and one of those was the kick off.
Total passenger.

 

[pontoonlew]

Stockport moaning about hard fixtures and Wrexham moaning about a transfer window when they’ve both spent arguably record amounts of money for this league, incredible stuff.

 

[Magpie Mike]

Proper job by the man in black tonight, must be an honorary BELT.

He can't have been worse than the absolute knob we had.

 

[We Are Sailing]

I don't think a good referee is possible In this league. They're usually biased, and even if they're not they seem to want to be the star of the show.

 

[B2TF]

Congratulations. You have been initiated. You will slump to several lower lows before slowly crawling your way back at some point in the next 6 to 120 months.

Wrexham's "slump" has been going for 12 years now.

 

[B2TF]

It's a long season this.

Got Notts and Grimsby fans giving Wrexham their turn for the slating, it was only the other week I watched Wrexham give Notts County a bit of a chasing, Notts parked the bus and got lucky with a draw. Only one team looked watchable.

I can only speak for us, I've not liked what I've seen and I'd change manager personally but we've really not had a Dover, Wealdstone, Weymouth, Aldershot, Barnet (no disrespect to them sides) yet at all.

And no sign of that changing soon.

 

[Gladders]

He can't have been worse than the absolute knob we had.

Apart from the foul (allegedly) in the lead up to the goal, I don't remember anything else major or hearing his name mentioned that much. So perhaps he wasn't that bad in the end. Obviously Wrexham had a goal ruled out but that was the linesman flagging for offside.

 

[B2TF]

I don't think a good referee is possible In this league. They're usually biased, and even if they're not they seem to want to be the star of the show.

Just watched Billy Waters bigging up last night's ref, setting himself up for a pen or two next time we get him.

 

[chief]

Back in your box Wrexham fans.

When's the open top bus parade?

 

[Master D]

When's the open top bus parade?

I don't know what 'box' we were even out of. Most knew and predicted we'd lose this game.

 

[Son of Cod]

TRIGGERED x 2.

When's the open top bus parade?

That would insinuate that all the Town fans in here are going overboard. Feet firmly on the ground here. We've had a good start, but it's a long slog of a season.

I don't know what 'box' we were even out of. Most knew and predicted we'd lose this game.

The box that used to prevent you from following us around the forum like a bad smell.

 

[Coalite]

Headlines go to Tshimanga tonight, but Stefan Payne was the real star of the show. Absolute non stop from minute 1-90 and really deserved a goal to cap off his performance. Jeff King also very good today.

Barnet were so open, literally 0 defensive structure, but attacking wise they seem to have a few handy players. When you defend the way they do tho you’ll lose more than you win no matter how decent your attackers are!

6 games unbeaten, but got a tough one at Yeovil this weekend who have started very well

Yep agree with all that. On that evidence, if Barnet could defend, they'd be a decent side. Could have easily shipped 6 or 7 last night.

 

[CFC91]

Weird game, glad to get the 3 points but it didn't feel like a very good performance against an awful Barnet side. We should have been 5 up in the first 20 minutes but weirdly took our foot of the gas and started messing about - complacency maybe or bizarre game management tactics? We should have been going to the jugular against them.

Then a mad 2 minutes where they've scored 2 deflected goals out of nowhere, the second was a horrendous one but undeserved based on the chances we had. Second half much more professional I thought, again could have had 2 or 3 more than we did.

Barnet will get some tonkings this season playing like that, but in spells when we sat off and decided to relax a bit they looked ok on the ball with plenty of pace going forward.

 

[CFC91]

We’ve had a toughish start, four of our six opponents are in the current top 7 and we’ve played no one in the current bottom seven.

Chesterfield in particular and Notts to a certain extent have had more favourable fixtures that is just facts.

However, we’re massively underachieving and are nowhere near good enough and we’ll be playoffs at very best unless we upgrade our manager. I think the point Stocky was trying to make is that apart from Dagenham no team has been convincing so far and a couple of contenders wouldn’t be as high had they not had easy starts as they’ve been scraping past /dropping points against relegation fodder.

I don't think we could have handpicked an easier start really.

I said we needed 16 from 18 in our first 6 and we've got 14 so i'm disappointed with that - the draw at Dover is pathetic

 

[Wooderson]

Not going to lie, this Wrexham/Grimsby BEEF could become one of the all time classics. It’s starting to make Barnet/Wealdstone look like a picnic in the park.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Weird game, glad to get the 3 points but it didn't feel like a very good performance against an awful Barnet side. We should have been 5 up in the first 20 minutes but weirdly took our foot of the gas and started messing about - complacency maybe or bizarre game management tactics? We should have been going to the jugular against them.

Then a mad 2 minutes where they've scored 2 deflected goals out of nowhere, the second was a horrendous one but undeserved based on the chances we had. Second half much more professional I thought, again could have had 2 or 3 more than we did.

Barnet will get some tonkings this season playing like that, but in spells when we sat off and decided to relax a bit they looked ok on the ball with plenty of pace going forward.

That is not going to get us very far. I really don’t know what Kewell is seeing because our issues are obvious fro, the very first match - our central midfield is too slow, puts no pressure on the ball, does not protect the protect and is too ponderous to transition quickly to attack. Every team in this league will exploit that. We’ve been playing a 17 year old in midfield who looks miles away from being ready for first-team action and it shows (although he’s not even majorly to blame).

 

[EnglishRed]

Not going to lie, this Wrexham/Grimsby BEEF could become one of the all time classics. It’s starting to make Barnet/Wealdstone look like a picnic in the park.

Its nice for them that they've won their cup final. I'm happy for them.

 

[chief]

I don't know what 'box' we were even out of. Most knew and predicted we'd lose this game.

Son of Cod's on a mad one recently, baffled.

 

[Stocky]

Chesterfield and Notts are only two teams though. Weymouth as I said have had a tough start, so have us and Wrexham. I don't think Stocky's point was anything to do with Dagenham being the only team to look convincing but while we're on that, Dagenham didn't look particularly convincing against Kings Lynn from what I saw. What I took from Stocky's post was "ooh we've had the worst start." Which is well and truly up for debate, in my opinion. You're one of a handful of sides that have had tough starts.

My overall point has always been that I don't think our team has been good enough, I'm on record. I am one of many that think we should change manager. I never said when we play easier games we'll be flying or anything. I was pointing out that this forum is very reactionary. I was defending Wrexham more than us to be honest, they looked a good side when I watched them and you had people saying they've built their squad wrong etc after 6 games. I'm not sure about that at all.

You pointed out in one of your posts that we had in fact played a couple of easier ones in Southend and Maidenhead. Correct and we beat them both with neither barely having a shot and that is us in a really negative moment, lots of injuries, new star striker has played 10 minutes in 6 games.

 

[John Still]

Agree with Stocky, it’s 6 games in some have played fewer and there is plenty of time for teams to start playing at their best. Our run at the back end of last season which could have seen us get a play off spot from nowhere, very very long way to go.

I still think the teams that were fancied pre season will be up there come May when bigger squads will come into play.

 

[Master D]

It's hardly been a disastrous start for anyone who was fancied pre-season really.

This September title battle between Chesterfield and Grimsby is a good watch though. I thought Grimsby would get promoted anyway this season, they aren't surprising me at all. Top manager at this level, simple as that.

 

[Shrimper92]

Just looked at our October fixtures. Playing 1st, 2nd and 3rd over 3 weeks.

 

[PaulHaddock]

As long as there’s no disaster, I think we’ll be comfortably making the playoffs, though I worry about our strength in depth, especially upfront. January will also be a very interesting time as Wrexham (who should make the playoffs regardless of manager) will obviously strengthen and you can’t see Stockport and Chesterfield hanging around (obviously no window for them). Our increased attendances might give us a little more cash to spend but that’s usually the time of year when Paul Hurst teams come unstuck. It happened to us multiple times and he did it at Shrewsbury too.

Getting early points on the board can’t be complained about though and we’re ahead of the curve in playing the top teams, need to be putting the shitter teams to the sword this time.

 

[Wooderson]

It's hardly been a disastrous start for anyone who was fancied pre-season really.

This September title battle between Chesterfield and Grimsby is a good watch though. I thought Grimsby would get promoted anyway this season, they aren't surprising me at all. Top manager at this level, simple as that.

I think one ‘issue’ Wrexham may have is players/fans of other clubs will see you as a massive scalp and raise their games accordingly. Would 6k+ mad codheads have turned up last night for most other clubs in this league and created a Galatasaray-style atmos in Cleethorpes? Debateable.

It happened to us when we had a (bogus) big money takeover and Sven etc, all kind of tinpotters turned up and played like it was their cup final. A couple (Morecambe on Sol Campbell’s debut, with half the town there, and Accy) even beat us, celebrating like they had won the Champions League, as was their right. At one point around Christmas we were down in 7th or 8th, about 14 points behind Rochdale. But then Steve Cotterill arrived and managed to get our side of L2 galaticos playing as a team and we ultimately won the league.

 

[Son of Cod]

As long as there’s no disaster, I think we’ll be comfortably making the playoffs, though I worry about our strength in depth, especially upfront. January will also be a very interesting time as Wrexham (who should make the playoffs regardless of manager) will obviously strengthen and you can’t see Stockport and Chesterfield hanging around (obviously no window for them). Our increased attendances might give us a little more cash to spend but that’s usually the time of year when Paul Hurst teams come unstuck. It happened to us multiple times and he did it at Shrewsbury too.

Getting early points on the board can’t be complained about though and we’re ahead of the curve in playing the top teams, need to be putting the shitter teams to the sword this time.

Possibly too early to say, but getting Hunt and Towler locked into season long deals would be good. Would be great if we can get that sorted before the Jan window opens up too. We are indeed light up top. We all know we need that elusive #9 coming in, but additionally we should be seriously looking at cutting our losses on Scannell for me. Can't have both him and Grant taking up wages if neither of them are gonna kick a ball.

 

[Shrimper92]

How long do highlights usually take to get uploaded?

 

[Wooderson]

How long do highlights usually take to get uploaded?

Forever in this godforsaken league. One of the worst things about it for me

 

[Posh Harry]

How long do highlights usually take to get uploaded?

Are you sure you want to watch?

 

[Master D]

I think one ‘issue’ Wrexham may have is players/fans of other clubs will see you as a massive scalp and raise their games accordingly. Would 6k+ mad codheads have turned up last night for most other clubs in this league and created a Galatasaray-style atmos in Cleethorpes? Debateable.

It happened to us when we had a (bogus) big money takeover and Sven etc, all kind of tinpotters turned up and played like it was their cup final. A couple (Morecambe on Sol Campbell’s debut, with half the town there, and Accy) even beat us, celebrating like they had won the Champions League, as was their right. At one point around Christmas we were down in 7th or 8th, about 14 points behind Rochdale. But then Steve Cotterill arrived and managed to get our side of L2 galaticos playing as a team and we ultimately won the league.

We've had that for 12 seasons down here, it's nothing new really. Same as every other Brother deals with, i.e. tinpotters playing out of their minds against Brothers but then not caring about playing each other so much.

But perhaps the difference now is the Proper Teams are upping their game that much more against us as well.