National League fixtures Tues Dec 15

[Optipez]

They both defend the box very well though and once you’d got the goal you could drop back 5/10 yards and our threat over the top completely went

That's been a strength and a weakness this season. We've played deep too often, rarely looked like creating many chances but have started looking rock solid at the back.
We could do with a dynamic box to box midfielder to get us further up the pitch.

 

[jacobncfc]

I think it’s pretty obvious that Ardley’s theory is that if we’re rock solid and keeping clean sheets in most games, our attacking players are good enough as individuals that we’ll usually score and win.

There’s a logic to it, but IMO we have the players to be a bit more interesting and entertaining than that. Particularly when Cal is fit again.

 

[sadgull]

Yes a strange game we should have got something from it . However our defence wasn't good. Buse had to be taken off as he would have been sent off up against pace. Sherring has to come back for Boxing day or this rubbish defence out at the moment meant we will get zilch point

 

[iesty wfc]

Throwing Pearson into a back 3 should have made sense as it was his first competitive game in 9 months, however the change in formation seemed to throw us completely.

2 goals from a CB In space of a minute, a red card for them and a freakish winner show that it was a mental one!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1338966924215152644

 

[B2TF]

AND.......he's out for weeks again! Fuck sake.............

 

[EnglishRed]

I can forgive the commentator for getting Vassell and Jarvis mixed up for the second goal (although they look nothing alike) but calling us Halifax on the commentary for the first goal....that aggression will not stand.

 

[jacobncfc]

Christ, I thought we could be negative, but the Stockport board is something else.

 

[chief]

Dean Keates, football genius!

 

[Master D]

Dean Keates, football genius!

That match will look good for the documentary. Hopefully he’s gone by the next match.

 

[Stocky]

Christ, I thought we could be negative, but the Stockport board is something else.

One of your lads on here was joking yesterday about your manager treating us like we're Bayern Munich, we were bigged up to be this mega team and your players looked well up for it to be honest so it worked in your favour. I don't remember anybody from our end mentioning that you were any good. There's an undercurrent of our arrogance from our side at the moment*. We play someone from the bottom half and you get people saying we need to get our goal difference up and ridiculous things like that. We all know how tight this league is.

The same people being negative today will be getting carried away when we win.

I say it how I see it win, lose or draw that we have a long, long way to go. Only hype is suggesting we're anything more than a play off side at the moment. If teams keep treating us like some massive game and we're not on it, we will lose.

*- not from the manager, maybe not from the players, but slightly from the fans.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Fair play, call it a professional job, very much had the handbrake on but restricted Stockport to no chances really.

For all the criticism Ardley gets for our lack of ambition in attack (a lot of it fair IMO), can’t deny that he knows how to set up a defence. We are extremely solid.

Just checked the fixture list because after watching some of Ardley’s press conference I thought we must be playing Bayern Munich rather than Stockport.

He’s going to shit himself again so a Barrow style twatting is on the cards.

And his approach worked wonders, big up the opponents in the media pre game hardly a new tactic.

In hindsight a twatting wouldn't have occurred if we were still playing now.

 

[chief]

That match will look good for the documentary. Hopefully he’s gone by the next match.

Rumour going round that the deal won't be done til mid January now!

Tinpot, Ryan & Rob out.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Good result from a game I fully expected us to lose. I presume a bit of an off night for Stockport but we defended well.

Looking forward to getting Roberts and Thomas back, we’re struggling up front.

And his approach worked wonders, big up the opponents in the media pre game hardly a new tactic.

In hindsight a twatting wouldn't have occurred if we were still playing now.

Yeah, I’ve described us in previous games as lacking intensity, which obviously wasn’t the case last night.

He got the players up for one of the favourites for the league. It’s just a shame he couldn’t manage that against Dover, Maidenhead, Aldershot or Borehamwood. Let‘s hope he does against King’s Lynn.

 

[B2TF]

I can forgive the commentator for getting Vassell and Jarvis mixed up for the second goal (although they look nothing alike) but calling us Halifax on the commentary for the first goal....that aggression will not stand.

That was one Hell of a compliment. For YOU. You must have been good if he mistook you for us.

 

[B2TF]

May I remind our Stockport and Notts Brothers, you are giants only in your own imaginations. You are not special, you are simply 2 of a host of former Football League clubs, all trying to make their way back home.

That is all. As you were.

 

[Optipez]

May I remind our Stockport and Notts Brothers, you are giants only in your own imaginations. You are not special, you are simply 2 of a host of former Football League clubs, all trying to make their way back home.

That is all. As you were.

True, but as we're capable of hosting 20,000 and averaging 7-8000 and are well funded expectations are high.
The biggest difference between this league and the football league is expectation. Talk to Sutton or Dover fans ( and I have) doing well is great but not the end of the world if they don't. That's not how it is for Notts, Wrexham, Stockport and Hartlepool. Maybe we're wrong but there's no game we accept losing in this division as being just one of those things. It's failiure, every single defeat is failure.
Go into L2 and apart from Forest Green and the like it's manic, the need to win is huge, nobody wants to drop into the Vanarama scrapheap. It makes the competition more fierce, away matches go from being an interesting day out to Chorley, to " it's a big one this " at Port Vale.
Daft, but there you go.

 

[jacobncfc]

Don’t really agree with that myself, League Two is a terrible, boring league, and at Notts we were generally one of the biggest couple of teams at that level as well, so there was always loads of expectation on us anyway.

I think back to how much we were dreading coming down to this league and laugh, it’s been fine.

 

[Kenneth Dodd]

Hope we don’t come back to you in 5 years time and ask you if you still feel the same.

 

[doveranddover]

or however many years Wrexham have been here

 

[Kenneth Dodd]

or however many years Wrexham have been here

I didn’t want to do the obvious and use our Wrexham friends as an example but I’m sure after all this time they won’t say being down here is fine.

 

[EnglishRed]

No you're right, its rubbish.

There are good things about the National league, but I'd rather have it as a distant memory.

 

[Optipez]

Don’t really agree with that myself, League Two is a terrible, boring league, and at Notts we were generally one of the biggest couple of teams at that level as well, so there was always loads of expectation on us anyway.

I think back to how much we were dreading coming down to this league and laugh, it’s been fine.

I've enjoyed it too but I don't want to get marooned here. Seen us in five divisions now, relegation seasons are miserable in each, play off seasons fun.
Can't agree that League 2 is terrible and boring though, I'd like to be in it anyway.

 

[B2TF]

Maybe we're wrong but there's no game we accept losing in this division as being just one of those things. It's failiure, every single defeat is failure.True, but as we're capable of hosting 20,000 and averaging 7-8000 and are well funded expectations are high.
The biggest difference between this league and the football league is expectation. Talk to Sutton or Dover fans ( and I have) doing well is great but not the end of the world if they don't. That's not how it is for Notts, Wrexham, Stockport and Hartlepool.
Go into L2 and apart from Forest Green and the like it's manic, the need to win is huge, nobody wants to drop into the Vanarama scrapheap. It makes the competition more fierce, away matches go from being an interesting day out to Chorley, to " it's a big one this " at Port Vale.
Daft, but there you go.

I can confidently make the same claims for all of the Brotherhood clubs, as far as expectation and attitude goes. Some of us have endured exile much longer than your, so far fleeting, experience. We may no longer shout so loud about it, but the sting of defeat to some Mickey Mouse affair, albeit riding high on some rich arsehole's wallet, is as intense as ever it was. Hence many our fans were clamouring for Pete Wild to be sacked last Christmas after we lost to Stockport, even though we hadn't been out of the play-offs all season.

 

[Wooderson]

In terms of matchday experience (when we could go), I haven’t really found it much different. There are some right tinpot grounds/teams in L2, and even a couple in L1. The most annoying differences are the lack of highlights (until midday on Monday or something stupid), difficultly in finding out stats/lineups etc, and how bloody hard it will be to get out of - at any level of football finishing top of your league is a difficult challenge. If there were 2 or even 3 auto slots plus playoffs I’d be confident we’d be back in the league within a couple of years. With just the one, I’m not so sure.

 

[jacobncfc]

In terms of matchday experience (when we could go), I haven’t really found it much different. There are some right tinpot grounds/teams in L2, and even a couple in L1. The most annoying differences are the lack of highlights (until midday on Monday or something stupid), difficultly in finding out stats/lineups etc, and how bloody hard it will be to get out of - at any level of football finishing top of your league is a difficult challenge. If there were 2 or even 3 auto slots plus playoffs I’d be confident we’d be back in the league within a couple of years. With just the one, I’m not so sure.

There’s a refreshing lack of those identikit, dismal away days you get all the time in League Two and even the bottom half of League One. The three quarters empty, dismal lego stadiums on the edge of town, without a decent pub in the area. Chesterfield is probably the only one.

Agree that the matchday stuff is basically the same too. The matches are probably more entertaining to be honest, fewer of those teams who just try and grind and timewaste their way to a 1-0 away from home. The away support is basically the same, minus the massive ones you get occasionally from Mansfield or Lincoln.

Basically, my point is that it’s a very small step down from League Two on all of these things, rather than some completely different wilderness.

 

[chief]

or however many years Wrexham have been here

2 million.

 

[Soup Ladle]

There’s a refreshing lack of those identikit, dismal away days you get all the time in League Two and even the bottom half of League One. The three quarters empty, dismal lego stadiums on the edge of town, without a decent pub in the area. Chesterfield is probably the only one.

Agree that the matchday stuff is basically the same too. The matches are probably more entertaining to be honest, fewer of those teams who just try and grind and timewaste their way to a 1-0 away from home. The away support is basically the same, minus the massive ones you get occasionally from Mansfield or Lincoln.

Basically, my point is that it’s a very small step down from League Two on all of these things, rather than some completely different wilderness.

I more agree with what Optipez said.

You're midlands and the biggest club in the league so away support at your ground might even average out larger.

L2 was relatively Northern so we had larger away support. Lucky to scrape 70 or 80 in most cases at the Vic. I also see far more spoiling tactics and shithousing down here. Teams can get away with it more.

Yeah, there are lots of identikit grounds in L2 but every game felt like there was something riding on it. Here you only get that buzz when you play ex league sides with decent support.

Defeats to supposed smaller clubs hurt but you won't get out of the league in the right direction unless you accept that you are a non league club and look accordingly. Defeats don't hurt as much now but that's because we just never get anything right and we need a fundamental mentality change in the club.

I don't enjoy anything in this league but you just have to get on with it. Until you adapt you will not go anywhere upwards.

 

[jacobncfc]

To be fair, it’s true that we’re easily the most well run, most content and least chaotic as a club that we’ve been in my entire time supporting us, which probably gives a rosier impression of things more widely.

 

[GEORGE]

The biggest difference i remember was the size of the away support. Even the nearest club to us at the time ( FGR ) did'nt sell out.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Teams cracking 150 would be a start, we're the most Northern outpost granted, but I'm sick to the back teeth of losing to dog shite teams and their 40 fans, again, granted some of that is due to us being dog shit, the drop from League football to this hell hole is horrible, going to the footy is (was in the current climate) a fucking chore these days, zero enjoyment in it.