Match Day National League fixtures 20/02/2018

[Chief Rocka]

Fucking Harrison man, why change a winning team, Luke George was finally the bit of bite this team needed and was steady away Saturday, instead he drops him for the perennial loser of a captain Magnay.

I knew we'd lose this, didn't even bother to check the team or the result mid match, what's the point, just liquidate us and get it over with.

 

[B2TF]

Well Hartlepool are pretty shit, our keepers not had a save to make all night. Seen more football from our side last two games than I've seen in last two seasons.

 

[Back in the DHSS]

Well played Macclesfield, got no complaints about the scoreline. The final 40 minutes performance from them was as good as any i've seen at this level, if not better. Macclesfield kept their shape and did all the simple stuff very well, whilst Tranmere were too cavalier. If this game was a boxing match it would of been over after an hour, Tranmere looked punch drunk there after. Thought Norburn should of been dragged off and subbed as he'd completely lost his head 2nd half and was suprised no substitutions were made by us.

I'm shellshocked

 

[John Still]

We got overheadkicked out of that game. Two shit teams on a pudding pitch. The game summed up by the crowd 599 home with 78 away. Midtable fodder but Proper conference. See you all next season where the fun starts again.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Just waiting for a chance to play Craig Harrison bingo with me mates and a six pack of Skol. Any takers on here when Harrison's post match comments are uploaded?

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I can't believe you left out 'go again next week' and 'dust ourselves down'

 

[Silver Stone]

The best part about today's game was the live blog from our fanzine, which speaks volumes:

http://www.themaidstone.co.uk/

 

[Mark kavanagh]

Well played Macclesfield, got no complaints about the scoreline. The final 40 minutes performance from them was as good as any i've seen at this level, if not better. Macclesfield kept their shape and did all the simple stuff very well, whilst Tranmere were too cavalier. If this game was a boxing match it would of been over after an hour, Tranmere looked punch drunk there after. Thought Norburn should of been dragged off and subbed as he'd completely lost his head 2nd half and was suprised no substitutions were made by us.

I'm shellshocked

Spot on mate norburn volleyed the ball at the macc bench at one point... it was calling out for jeff hughess passing ability last night

 

[The Terminator]

Damn shame for us that we’ve come up against a side on such an upward curve. Credit to Leyton Orient, they’re much improved nowadays.

We couldn’t really work any chances and got tired later on, performance levels have improved massively though with the new additions. Plus we have a hell of a talent in young Tom Crawford.

Confident that we can win games with this team now, just hope we haven’t left ourselves with too much to do though.

The game was a tight one, think Saturday took a lot out of both sides who did tire towards the end.

Our little bit of extra quality up front won us the game in the second half, we should really have made it two as well. There weren’t many chances in the game.

Chester looked a better side than earlier in the season, but I thought you were lacklustre up front, not sure how much was down to a bit of tiredness but Hannah and Archer were offside too often.

 

[Railway Blue]

I'm sure they'll remind us all later.

Tranmere had won 9 at home on the trot . The last team not to lose there was our park-the-bus 0-0 about 4 months ago.

 

[Railway Blue]

Aside from two brilliant strikes from Durrell and our appalling defending, I thought the midfield was where we lost it tonight. Whittaker and Whitehead were excellent and Macc were much better in possession than us. We created chances but we were far too wasteful with the ball.

Such a shame for us. A great crowd and atmosphere and we balls it up again. The story of the last fifteen years.

I still can't believe McCarthy showed Durrell the door. What an absolute fuck-up. We took James, who's not fit to clean Durrell's boots.

 

[Huntsman94]

Fair play to Macc. Held in there in the first half and easily could have been a few down. Cook has simply got to score that one on one. Scoring just before HT was perfect for them. However when we equalised bang after HT I really thought we'd kick on and Macc would crumble. But to their credit they came on really strong.

The second goal was a gift from Davies and he has to be parrying that away. The pen looked a pen so no complaints there and the 4th was a great strike. That's us out of the hunt for the league now I reckon. Potentially 10 points to make up after a damaging defeat like that will halt us but getting back to winning ways on Saturday would be helpful! Now it's all about coming 2nd or 3rd and being two wins from promotion!

 

[Railway Blue]

I went to Brisbane Road earlier this season and I still can't believe we didn't win there. This Orient team is a different proposition. Hannah as on Saturday was continually caught offside, although a lot of them were dubious. I think Orient are certs to go up next season. The only problem I had with Orient was that diving little shit Brophy who eventually got booked. Also read on Deva Chat this morning that Orient fans had a whip-round and raised £265. Thank you, that's a real heart-warmer. What pisses me off though that a lot of the money raised is going to pay Maguire's severance money.

 

[Seventyseven]

Well, last night all but saw our inevitable relegation confirmed..... from hitting the bar with the second to last kick of the game to earn us a very valuable 3 points to conceding a penalty straight after and getting fuck all... again.

Well, next season's gonna be a bundle of laughs.

 

[PoolieTom]

I can't believe you left out 'go again next week' and 'dust ourselves down'

Just seen his comments. This made me laugh.. 'it doesn't have to be pretty all the time'.

It's never pretty Craig.

That was probably the worst game of football I've ever watched. I've said that about 10 times this season, each game just gets worse. But for one chance we had cleared off the line, neither team created anything at all. Another game, another opposition team knowing they don't need to do anything but turn up to win.

 

[Luke Imp]

Was that the lesser spotted Ben Tomlinson scoring last night?!

 

[SomeMightShay]

17 games without a win for Maidstone now in all comps. Well and truly dragged into this relegation scrap now and we're palying them last game of the season

Was that the lesser spotted Ben Tomlinson scoring last night?!

No it was an OG under pressure from Tomlinson following in. To be fair he had a good game last nigh even though his end product was often found wanting. But the pressure and workrate was commendable. Anybody would think we had a new manager in the stands watching.

.

 

[Seventyseven]

17 games without a win for Maidstone now in all comps. Well and truly dragged into this relegation scrap now and we're palying them last game of the season.

Oh, please feel free to beat them on the last day and send them down. Not only will it give me a much-needed laugh, but will also mean another 'local' game next season!

ps: Sorry we didn't beat Guiseley

 

[Monkey Tennis]

I still can't believe McCarthy showed Durrell the door. What an absolute fuck-up. We took James, who's not fit to clean Durrell's boots.

James put in a man of the match performance last night! We all know that happens, where a player does fuck all at one place and then he's a different player elsewhere, but have to say I was really impressed last night. Battled for everything, showed some clever touches. We'll see if that's still my opinion three months down the line...

 

[Soup Ladle]

I can't believe you left out 'go again next week' and 'dust ourselves down'

I got 4 matches on the bingo card though!

 

[CestrianHawk]

The game was a tight one, think Saturday took a lot out of both sides who did tire towards the end.
Our little bit of extra quality up front won us the game in the second half, we should really have made it two as well. There weren’t many chances in the game.
Chester looked a better side than earlier in the season, but I thought you were lacklustre up front, not sure how much was down to a bit of tiredness but Hannah and Archer were offside too often.

Thought the game had the look of a 0-0 draw and, as you said, there were few chances. Funnily enough I thought it was a lack of real quality in your front men that was your weakest link. We certainly looked tired after Saturday's effort, but it generally was an interesting, fast paced game. By the way, you were streets ahead of Eastleigh in terms of quality.
Our front pair looked the most affected by Saturday's effort and got nothing out of your back four. Hannah always plays off the shoulder of the last man and is therefore prone to offside decisions (linesmen often seem to have their arm half raised before they've even looked across to see where he is ).
General reaction of the crowd was disappointment at losing but not begrudging that you'd earned at least a point from the game. And thankyou for your contributions to the bucket collection, it is appreciated.

 

[CestrianHawk]

James put in a man of the match performance last night! We all know that happens, where a player does fuck all at one place and then he's a different player elsewhere, but have to say I was really impressed last night. Battled for everything, showed some clever touches. We'll see if that's still my opinion three months down the line...

He started the season ok but was then moved out wide by Bignot, which doesn't suit him nor makes best use of his strengths. Seemed to lose confidence and interest after that and became an anonymous passenger. Glad he's shown up for you, he's a much better player than he's shown of late.

 

[The_Boss]

Well before last night I would have been absolutely over the moon if I witnessed the most awful boring 0-0 draw of all time and left the Wirral with a point. That didn't exactly happen.

First half we weren't necessarily 2nd to everything but whenever we did have the ball we looked so nervous and just kept on giving it away, inviting pressure on us. Cook should have scored at least one when 1 on 1 with Jala but delayed and Jalal got down well. To be fair a lot of the other efforts were from distance or awkward headers etc so whilst we barely had any of the ball Tranmere weren't exactly being denied by last ditch defending or miracle saves, more just not quite getting it right in the final third. Then low and behold the first time we strung 5 passes together, which we did rapidly from one side of the pitch to the other, Danny Whitaker on his 18 millionth appearance bagged an absolutely huge goal before half time. For 45 mins we looked nervous, panicky, with very little talking between the players. Keith Lowe didn't win a single header against Cook and McNulty was his usual top drawer self bossing things at the back. The hope was that the goal on stroke of half time might calm us down a bit and that Tranmere would have to come at us leaving us gaps to open them up on the.

They came at us, but the problem was they scored straight away which I just thought would see us shit our pants and collapse, which for the next few mins looked possible. Then Jalal pulled off one of the greatest saves I've seen from a Macc 'keeper. Already diving to his right the shot took a massive deflection and was heading for the bottom corner before he somehow sat up and stretched a solid hand out to tip it around the post. I thought at that moment that this save could actually be one of the most defining points of our season. Low and behold we go up the other end and Davies decided to Jalal one in from a speculative Durrell effort from 25 yards, not that anyone was complaining.

Tranmeres heads visibly went then, they crumbled in front of everyone. Jennings, Cook, Norburn, Sutton, McNulty all having angry words with each other, whilst in the meantime we'd won a couple of corners and when the 2nd one came in Ridehalgh for some strange reason decided to just run at it with his hands instead of heading it. Danny Whitaker dispatched the peno on his 32,332,898th appearance and that was pretty much game over. Well it was 5 mins later when Durrell did properly connect with one and it whistled past Davies. Mitch Hancox should have put the cherry on top with a fifth but his standing right leg ain't the strongest so whilst most reports I've read said it was cleared off the line, it wouldn't have actually reached anyway and he was inside the 6 yard box when he made "contact".

We dicked about for 20 mins then, made a few subs, Jalal pulled off another worldie in injury time and trotted off with 3 points in the bag. Not a bad night all in all.

We'll lose at home to Maidenhead now. And it's still Tranmeres league to lose.

 

[Railway Blue]

Well Hartlepool are pretty shit, our keepers not had a save to make all night. Seen more football from our side last two games than I've seen in last two seasons.

I think you will finish top of the mini league of 7, which includes yourselves, the current bottom 4 plus Hartlepool and Maidstone.

 

[Moss Rose Silkmen]

James put in a man of the match performance last night! We all know that happens, where a player does fuck all at one place and then he's a different player elsewhere, but have to say I was really impressed last night. Battled for everything, showed some clever touches. We'll see if that's still my opinion three months down the line...

He started really well when he was with Macc last season but after the first 5 games turned terrible. Did make me laugh when Chester were so happy to have signed him from us.

 

[Railway Blue]

He started the season ok but was then moved out wide by Bignot, which doesn't suit him nor makes best use of his strengths. Seemed to lose confidence and interest after that and became an anonymous passenger. Glad he's shown up for you, he's a much better player than he's shown of late.

That's not Kingsley it's Luke (I think).

 

[Monkey Tennis]

That's not Kingsley it's Luke (I think).

Nah, I'm on about Kingsley - had his first start last night and looked a good fit.
Luke James has been a revelation though. He's far, far too good for this league. Whoever it was that said he was hard-working, well that's an understatement!

 

[The_Boss]

Scott davies... makes 3 mistakes at fylde gets injured returns at orient messes up and twice again tonight.... 6 out the last 8 hes conceded have been his fault.

Macc clinical 4 chances 4 goals, not a great team but top on merit... they take their chances

Funny you should look at it that way as over the season we've been far from clinical, it's just worked out that in the most important games (last night, Wrexham home, Sutton home, Aldershot away) we've produced when it matters. You only have to look at performances at home Vs Torquay, Solihull, eastleigh to see how wasteful we have been more often than not. Our goal difference is driven by one goal win margins so if we did have a really clinical no.9 we could have been out of sight by now.

 

[Mark kavanagh]

The funniest thing with durrell was when he was substituted, my friends and I gave him a standing ovation which spread to about 50 other people in the town paddock, he didn't know how to react he kind of sheepishly applauded back for about 3 claps then legged it off unsure of whether we were serious or not .

Yes mate we appreciate a good player at tranmere it was genuine applause and thoroughly deserved top performance!!

 

[Semi-skimmed Silk]

Then Jalal pulled off one of the greatest saves I've seen from a Macc 'keeper. Already diving to his right the shot took a massive deflection and was heading for the bottom corner before he somehow sat up and stretched a solid hand out to tip it around the post. I thought at that moment that this save could actually be one of the most defining points of our season. Low and behold we go up the other end and Davies decided to Jalal one in from a speculative Durrell effort from 25 yards, not that anyone was complaining....Jalal pulled off another worldie in injury time and trotted off with 3 points in the bag...we'll lose at home to Maidenhead now. And it's still Tranmeres league to lose.

Jalal was outstanding last night and that save for the deflected shot was sublime (think it was at 2-1 just before we had the corners before the 3rd; but at no less of a vital time!). He's been pretty good away from home this season, I'm pretty sure all his catastrophic errors have been at home and you just know he's going to follow up Tuesday's performance with one on Saturday!

 

[B2TF]

I think you will finish top of the mini league of 7, which includes yourselves, the current bottom 4 plus Hartlepool and Maidstone.

I really wish I could share the confidence of several Chester fans I've interacted with, on this. Neil Young has been fantastic for us, has prepared the team really well and put some confidence back into the players, and to be honest I'd have been more than happy to see him appointed but it's all on the new guy now, who is an unknown quantity. Chester could do worse than to get Neil Young back on board for next season. If you need references, let me know.