Saturday 1st March

[CFC91]

I meant composure in terms of your mentality. Heads went down I thought, on the pitch and in the dugout.

You're right about your defence tho. Those 2 CHs have no pace, either.

Glad you spotted that. They shouldn’t really have been playing in the NL league alone L2. We have 15+ OOC in the summer so hopefully see the back of the majority. Just not good enough to make the step up

 

[Wootball]

Absolute crap today from us. Shocking officials too.

How have we gone from the performance v Donny last home game to what we witnessed today?

What did the officials do wrong today?

 

[JJ1990]

What did the officials do wrong today?

I'm assuming they'll be feeling annoyed at how our back 3 dealt with their attackers. There was a fair bit of holding, but it goes on at both ends. I also think they'll be annoyed at some of the offside calls. For me, the biggest shocker was him pulling 9 minutes out of nowhere at the end when 5 would have been more than fair.

Superb performance from us today. Nobody comes to Chesterfield and dominates possession, so on reflection, switching to the back 5 probably made sense, even if it felt bonkers at 2pm. Created enough chances to have scored 5 or 6, should have been a drubbing with some better finishing. Still, 6 goals scored across the last 2 games without any fit strikers starting is some achievement.

Atmosphere was incredible, one of the best away ends I've been in. Helps when you're leading from early in the game, but the fans never stopped singing. Great day out. Roll on Fleetwood now.

 

[Si Robin]

Strange one today. On balance the draw is a fair result but it's hard not to be frustrated when their goal should not have counted. How the officials fail to see the handball is mind-boggling. Add in Archer scuffing his shot with an open goal, and it's disappointing we haven't come away with 3 points.

And you didn't even mention the saved penalty.

Never been more convinced a penalty was being saved either. Miller just did not look at all confident.

It was an entertaining game today, but the ref was shocking - it's not often you get given your first penalty of the season and still find the ref to be absolutely horrific. Some of his decisions were just baffling. In the second half Matty Taylor was practically wrestled to the ground and the ref gave Grimsby a free-kick.

On the balance of play, a draw was definitely a fair result, but we had the chances to nick a win.

 

[Spireitelass97]

I'm assuming they'll be feeling annoyed at how our back 3 dealt with their attackers. There was a fair bit of holding, but it goes on at both ends. I also think they'll be annoyed at some of the offside calls. For me, the biggest shocker was him pulling 9 minutes out of nowhere at the end when 5 would have been more than fair.

Superb performance from us today. Nobody comes to Chesterfield and dominates possession, so on reflection, switching to the back 5 probably made sense, even if it felt bonkers at 2pm. Created enough chances to have scored 5 or 6, should have been a drubbing with some better finishing. Still, 6 goals scored across the last 2 games without any fit strikers starting is some achievement.

Atmosphere was incredible, one of the best away ends I've been in. Helps when you're leading from early in the game, but the fans never stopped singing. Great day out. Roll on Fleetwood now.

For starters yes but there are countless other things - back passes, pens not given, your player holding Dobra down for 10 minutes, your players inciting crowd after 3rd goal (which was miles offside btw). Thanks for giving a reasoned view rather than presuming I’m being mardy after a loss. You deserved the win. As I’ve already said, we were crap.

 

[spireite]

I'm assuming they'll be feeling annoyed at how our back 3 dealt with their attackers. There was a fair bit of holding, but it goes on at both ends. I also think they'll be annoyed at some of the offside calls. For me, the biggest shocker was him pulling 9 minutes out of nowhere at the end when 5 would have been more than fair.

Superb performance from us today. Nobody comes to Chesterfield and dominates possession, so on reflection, switching to the back 5 probably made sense, even if it felt bonkers at 2pm. Created enough chances to have scored 5 or 6, should have been a drubbing with some better finishing. Still, 6 goals scored across the last 2 games without any fit strikers starting is some achievement.

Atmosphere was incredible, one of the best away ends I've been in. Helps when you're leading from early in the game, but the fans never stopped singing. Great day out. Roll on Fleetwood now.

Your 3rd was also a mile offside, which seems to be sticking in most people's minds probably because it was at the end of the game. Forgetting the fact that we were clearly 2nd best over the pitch the rest of the 99 mins. Crewe giving us a lesson in defensive shape and ability in a back 5 using 20 year olds is like Cook kryptonite.

 

[GTFCfish]

Some of his decisions were just baffling. In the second half Matty Taylor was practically wrestled to the ground and the ref gave Grimsby a free-kick.

On the balance of play, a draw was definitely a fair result, but we had the chances to nick a win.

Yeah but just being Matty Taylor is a bookable offence hence why the decision went out way.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Some really good news to end the day after our honking performance.

So glad to hear positive words from him and that he’s on the mend. The silence in the week was really making me fear the worst !

https://twitter.com/x/status/1895931814197522706

 

[womble76]

Awful game which exposed all of our issues. We can't break down a side that sits in. We were poor today. However without a major fuck up for the goal we should have drawn nil nil.

 

[lordofthepies]

For starters yes but there are countless other things - back passes, pens not given, your player holding Dobra down for 10 minutes, your players inciting crowd after 3rd goal (which was miles offside btw). Thanks for giving a reasoned view rather than presuming I’m being mardy after a loss. You deserved the win. As I’ve already said, we were crap.

The backpass appeal was absolutely never a backpass. Our defender brought the ball down and it was never a deliberate pass. I don't even remember any penalty appeals? I think there were a few marginal decisions that went our way but don't remember anything too contentious. Paul Cook might have had a point about the striker not getting any decisions though. Couldn't tell if the third was offside from where I was so will have to rewatch it.

 

[Wootball]

For starters yes but there are countless other things - back passes, pens not given, your player holding Dobra down for 10 minutes, your players inciting crowd after 3rd goal (which was miles offside btw). Thanks for giving a reasoned view rather than presuming I’m being mardy after a loss. You deserved the win. As I’ve already said, we were crap.

I forgot the back passes. That was weird. The first one wasn't, the second definitely was!

Yeah O'Riordon was holding their 27 a lot. I don't think it was anything you wouldn't see in every other L2 game, but can understand it being frustrating. That being said, why didn't Chesterfield change up their game plan? When the ball in to 27 with his back to goal wasn't working, why did it take until the second half to change to 'cross everything to the back post'?

I didn't see the crowd inciting (not that it didn't happen) but did see our players getting bottled. That was a bit grim. I don't think their were any penalty appeals from either side though?

The offside decision for our third. Honestly I thought he was offside too, but then looked over at the linesman and he was a good 15-20 yards behind play, he was nowhere near in line with it to make a decision. He wasn't even close to being in line. So yeah I can understand that one being a killer.

Let's also remember that it was the same ref from when you beat us 5-0 at our place...

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Glad you spotted that. They shouldn’t really have been playing in the NL league alone L2. We have 15+ OOC in the summer so hopefully see the back of the majority. Just not good enough to make the step up

The similarities to us last season is frightening.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Absolute crap today from us. Shocking officials too.

How have we gone from the performance v Donny last home game to what we witnessed today?

Because we were shit

 

[Optipez]

Good first half performance but we should be more than 1-0 up, I’m sure that won’t come back to bite us again at all…

I said at half time we'd regret not to finishing them off . Just knew Pete fist pumps Wild would have them dig in and score a goal somehow.

 

[spireite]

Thought Crewe were a really good bunch today by the way. More or less sold out it looked like. Spoke to a few fans before the game and got on well, they were vocal throughout no doubt aided by early goals and a bit of sun on them for the first time this year. Bet it was a mint away end. For our side I think we just can't wait for this season to be over now, it's boring.

 

[lordofthepies]

I forgot the back passes. That was weird. The first one wasn't, the second definitely was!

Ah, I obviously wasn't paying attention for one as I only remember one backpass appeal

 

[Spireitelass97]

The backpass appeal was absolutely never a backpass. Our defender brought the ball down and it was never a deliberate pass. I don't even remember any penalty appeals? I think there were a few marginal decisions that went our way but don't remember anything too contentious. Paul Cook might have had a point about the striker not getting any decisions though. Couldn't tell if the third was offside from where I was so will have to rewatch it.

I was on kop, def offside! Agree re Pepple not getting anything. Back passes were far end though so could be wrong about those. Same with the possible penalty

 

[Spireitelass97]

Because we were shit

Nothing to do with us? lol

 

[Spireitelass97]

Some really good news to end the day after our honking performance.

So glad to hear positive words from him and that he’s on the mend. The silence in the week was really making me fear the worst !

https://twitter.com/x/status/1895931814197522706

Amazing news

 

[Gladders]

On the balance of play, a draw was definitely a fair result, but we had the chances to nick a win.

As did we, draw was right result.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Nothing to do with us? lol

You were better than us no arguement doesn’t mean we weren’t shit

 

[leedsvaliant]

The game went exactly as I thought it would really. Although Tranmere are down near the bottom, they've actually got one or two decent players, it's just their confidence must be shot to pieces. A new manager was always going to give teams a bit of a boost and they came out like a team possessed. They didn't give us a second on the ball and it seemed like we were surprised at this. If we'd have played them last weekend, we'd have most probably won but in typical Vale fashion, we don't seem to catch teams when at their lowest ebb....I'm fully expecting Carlisle to be flying when we play them on good Friday.

Once we got back into it, we settled down and they stopped pressing so hard. Second half turned into a very scrappy, stop/start affair, which helped them more than us.

Some of our fans have lost their shit but what they seem to forget is that there are 2 teams trying to win a game and both desperate for the points. Always take a point away from home as long as we can follow it up with a win on Tuesday.

 

[Grimsby Road]

As did we, draw was right result.

Thought we did well today , had a look on Cheltenhams forum seems like they think we are a niggly team ; i like that we have become a less easy game for teams and stand up to be counted - it's definitely moved away from Big Daves idea of 'artform' towards a more standard league 2 way of playing , we still play a bit but can mix it more it seems even with a team of relative midgets which I never expected . I don't think we will go up but it's been a good season so far .

I will be interested if we stay down whether Artell goes back to total tika-taka or sticks with this more compromised style of football with 2 up top it certainly seems more effective to me at this level .

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

You can either judge the game in isolation or you can judge a team incapable of showing ruthlessness and urgency and come to the conclusion that comes from the top. If Jatta is missing chances, bring him off. If you’re watching your team 1-0 and failing to stretch their lead and you see the opposition make 3 changes, don’t just assume you’ll keep dominating, there’s no way he attacks games unless we’re losing and that’s a problem.

Game management doesn’t just start and end with the manager but teams tend to take on his personality. Last year every post match interview was about how well we played but individual defensive mistakes cost us, this season it’s always about how well we played and missed chances - kind of just want a team that wins to be honest.

You can fairly criticise the lack of ruthlessness and the in game management but calling today's game, performance or result pathetic is a absolute joke.

Bring off Jatta? The guy who never stopped getting in the positions to score, our top scorer, and did so in the 89th minute? Yeah good call that, the fans would have loved that.

Failing to stretch our lead not due to momentum in the game shifting , not due to lacking creation and chances but instead due to missed chances why would you change it when you are creating.

We had one warning and than a 5 minutes of uncharacteristic poorness from one of the best defences in the league, we weren't under the cosh why would you change it when we were likely to score a second before the penalty out of nowhere? We conceded he went to make changes , that's pretty standard.

It's just a bit lazy and desperate every time we drop points to blame Part Time Stu even after the game clearly shows the fault laid elsewhere like today. Sometimes you can blame the players like Platt , Johnson and Jatta today. It's allowed.

As a Notts fan of many a decade if this is what you class currently as purgatory compared to some of our past I'll take it even if I expect a playoff semi defeat especially when I wasn't expecting the playoffs.

 

[saddler78]

Absolute crap today for me we haven't played well for two months and the gap is closing every week Matt sadler has turned into last seasons Matt Sadler clueless when things aren't going well and absolutely no idea how to change it up and give the team a lift he just keeps picking the same players and hoping something will happen.
Not good enough.

 

[womble76]

Well in reality we haven't played that well recently. Last really good game was crewe away and we drew that. We have been relying on best defence in the league and then nicking a goal. Yesterday the defence made a massive error and bromleys keeper made a couple of great saves and there you go. For me we don't create enough to go up automatically. With the way we don't leak goals generally we would be a hard playoff opponent.

 

[Gi Dalor]

Alexander proving a lot of people wrong, myself included.

My view is that he's a competent manager who's been given enough time. Given that he's had at least a normal amount of injury bad luck, maybe the competent is damning with faint praise.

 

[Optipez]

Well in reality we haven't played that well recently. Last really good game was crewe away and we drew that. We have been relying on best defence in the league and then nicking a goal. Yesterday the defence made a massive error and bromleys keeper made a couple of great saves and there you go. For me we don't create enough to go up automatically. With the way we don't leak goals generally we would be a hard playoff opponent.

Quite a big game next week. I'd be happy with a point to be honest. A win would be arguably the result of the season if we got it.

 

[Optipez]

You can fairly criticise the lack of ruthlessness and the in game management but calling today's game, performance or result pathetic is a absolute joke.

Bring off Jatta? The guy who never stopped getting in the positions to score, our top scorer, and did so in the 89th minute? Yeah good call that, the fans would have loved that.

Failing to stretch our lead not due to momentum in the game shifting , not due to lacking creation and chances but instead due to missed chances why would you change it when you are creating.

We had one warning and than a 5 minutes of uncharacteristic poorness from one of the best defences in the league, we weren't under the cosh why would you change it when we were likely to score a second before the penalty out of nowhere? We conceded he went to make changes , that's pretty standard.

It's just a bit lazy and desperate every time we drop points to blame Part Time Stu even after the game clearly shows the fault laid elsewhere like today. Sometimes you can blame the players like Platt , Johnson and Jatta today. It's allowed.

As a Notts fan of many a decade if this is what you class currently as purgatory compared to some of our past I'll take it even if I expect a playoff semi defeat especially when I wasn't expecting the playoffs.

Maynard sent out a team that should have been at least two up by half time. Whittaker should have buried his header in the first five minutes and Jatta really should have scored one of his three missed chances. So, I agree not really fair to be blaming the manager for yesterday but he is over cautious and slow to make changes. Grant or Whittaker ( I'd say Grant ) should have been swapped for Traore before the equaliser to just make their defence buckle with an extra man to worry about as Grant wasn't doing a great deal.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Excellent performance yesterday and very nice to get one over a side who brutally and deservedly thrashed us back in August. A few of their fans thought this league would be plain sailing that day but they've since been humbled into accepting a season of consolidation, which I feel is still fine for a club who have been forced to play NL standard players week in week out owing to their bad injury list and losing a couple of key players in the window.

Jamie Grimes playing in League Two in the year of our Lord 2025 was always a recipe for disaster. He looked dodgy when he was at Cheltenham in this league years ago. Terrible defending from him for the first, just ball watching. Excellent finish from Shilow Tracey who has more than substantiated my theory that he only turns up when the Sun is out. Best performance from him since October.

Lovely finish from Conway for the second too but that defending was honking from Chesterfield again. I know Chesterfield are threadbare with their options but I also think Paul Cook just can't organise a defence these days it would seem. His expensively assembled defence at Ipswich flopped so bad he got sacked for it and they were just so open today it suited us down to the ground.

Disappointing not to get the clean sheet but third goal was some fine play from Bogle to set up the absolute cheat code at this level that is Tommy Lowery. Him staying fit could reinvigorate our season. We could and should've had more but it was a deserved, comprehensive win backed by an excellent following too.

Some were apprehensive of our March fixtures. However, I believe teams playing to win suits us down to the ground. It's teams that put everyone behind the ball like Accrington who cause us problems. Onto Fleetwood on Tuesday.