Saturday 26th October

[hellogregory]

We need to win to salvage our season.
Our manager needs to win to stop the fans turning against him.

So yeah, huge game, we need to win, but we won't. We are the worst team in the football league.

Carlisle United 0-2 Cheltenham Town

The pieces are getting prepped for assembling our relegation coffin.

 

[Agombar stool]

No six fingered peg selling at Hayes Lane on Saturday, just a damn long trip down from Barrow and hopefully an unhappy long return journey. We really could do with a run of four or five decent results, and on the back of Tuesday’s improvement a follow up home win would be nice

Bold statement.

 

[Optipez]

Very good value available on an away win here.

Head to heads have no draws so far 2 - 3 in the win column

Notts have slipped in the form table, obviously coinciding with an injury to Jodi.

As you say, Notts should absolutely be looking to win this, but Harrogate seem to play well particularly against bigger teams when they are the under dogs. Expecting 11 men behind the ball type stuff with Notts vulnerable on the counter.

With all the injuries, it's very hard to predict who will or can line up. Has Didz got a 3rd game in a week in him?

Yeah, Didz can do an hour. Be tempted to start Brown who made a difference on Tuesday.
If we can avoid giving the too usual first goal away and actually take the lead I'd be hopeful for the win.

 

[lordofthepies]

I'm surprised at how well you're doing to be honest. Signings looked fairly average on paper mixed with a pretty young squad but after an iffy start you seem to be playing with confidence. As is often the case with young Crewe sides, it's whether you can maintain it for the season. But looking promising at the moment, particularly with players coming back from injury. Next month should be a good game.

I don't think you should be too surprised, we were excellent last season and only really lost 3 players. I thought all of our signings looked pretty good, except for Marschall, who got terrible reviews from MK fans and wasn't going to be our number one. But due to Booth's injury, he's ended up establishing himself and proving the MK fans wrong.

 

[Scum.]

I don't think you should be too surprised, we were excellent last season and only really lost 3 players. I thought all of our signings looked pretty good, except for Marschall, who got terrible reviews from MK fans and wasn't going to be our number one. But due to Booth's injury, he's ended up establishing himself and proving the MK fans wrong.

I mean, he’s not proved us wrong. He truly was the worst keeper we’ve seen in our 20 years as a football club.

Glad he’s doing well for you.

Both things must be true, he’s shite and great.

 

[jacobncfc]

Yeah, Didz can do an hour. Be tempted to start Brown who made a difference on Tuesday.
If we can avoid giving the too usual first goal away and actually take the lead I'd be hopeful for the win.

Only goal we’ve conceded when ahead this season was the one against Grimsby when we were 3-0 up anyway. Just ridiculous how many times we’ve gone 1-0 down in games.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

It's is indeed and ******* annoying. I started betting on us to concede the first goal starting with the Morecambe game. I've won far too many times for my liking.

We have some ridiculous stats and trends both positive and negative at the moment

 

[Conker]

No six fingered peg selling at Hayes Lane on Saturday, just a damn long trip down from Barrow and hopefully an unhappy long return journey. We really could do with a run of four or five decent results, and on the back of Tuesday’s improvement a follow up home win would be nice

How are you finding the step up?

 

[Kauto Star]

Another fiesty Yorkshire derby on the cards tomorrow at Valley Parade.

Quite a few nasty injuries suffered by both clubs in the last 2 years.

We have a decent record against Donny in recent years, usually winning at their ground and drawing at Valley Parade.

Billy Sharp bound to score, he always does against us. Jordan Gibson will no doubt raise his game, again always does, as the baying Bantams fans hurl a torrent of abuse at him.

I'm predicting a 1-1 draw in front of almost 18000 fans. I would probably take that to keep our unbeaten home record in tact.

 

[LS Bantam]

If this was horse racing, Billy Sharp to score/assist would be the NAP of the day.

 

[kieran_vale]

Expecting another raft of changes for this one. Think it’ll be the exception to the norm that we keep the same team for multiple games in a row. Moore just likes to adjust it according to the opposition. Suppose it’s one of them while it’s working it looks genius, when it’s not the accusations of not knowing his best team come in. Guess it makes it harder for an opponent gameplanning at least.

My guess at tomorrows lineup would be

Ripley
Sang - Debrah - Hall
Cover - Croasdale - Garrity - Shorrock
Benicio - Stockley - Chislett

 

[DearneValleyRover]

If this was horse racing, Billy Sharp to score/assist would be the NAP of the day.

Well he needs to find the right going because he’s been poor of late

 

[valefan16]

Expecting another raft of changes for this one. Think it’ll be the exception to the norm that we keep the same team for multiple games in a row. Moore just likes to adjust it according to the opposition. Suppose it’s one of them while it’s working it looks genius, when it’s not the accusations of not knowing his best team come in. Guess it makes it harder for an opponent gameplanning at least.

My guess at tomorrows lineup would be

Ripley
Sang - Debrah - Hall
Cover - Croasdale - Garrity - Shorrock
Benicio - Stockley - Chislett

Yeah we must be a nightmare to scout as we do change, man of the match last weekend didn't get a minute midweek!

These seem quite solid defensively so I think we might see BBB start as you say to try and unlock them and got a feeling Grant and Sang might retain places at wing back to aid the quality of the delivery into Stockley.

That said it could be a totally different XI at 2pm!

 

[F!RTHY]

Had a little flick through the Doncaster forum and found this:

“ Well let me tell the supporter who wrote that we are about to play a team that gave us in the new year our biggest kicking we have had for many a year resulting in two players being out injured for the rest on the season, and I for one hope we dish a bit out on Saturday”

Oh, the irony!

In the last couple of seasons, they have:

Manny Osadebe - broken his leg on the opening day 22/23) at VP - out for the season

Jamie Walker - cruciate ligament, out for 5 months (same game)

Jamie Walker (last season) - out for 3 months

Alex Pattison - out for the season

Sam Stubbs - fractured his skull and missed the rest of the season

Kevin McDonald - missed 4 matches after the game in March 2024.

All this in our last 3 meetings.

Meanwhile, you’ve got McCann demanding a team full of ‘killers’ tomorrow. Think we need to wrap Cook in cotton wool.

If they injury another one of our players tomorrow, I think it’ll turn toxic.

 

[クレイグ]

Had a little flick through the Doncaster forum and found this:

“ Well let me tell the supporter who wrote that we are about to play a team that gave us in the new year our biggest kicking we have had for many a year resulting in two players being out injured for the rest on the season, and I for one hope we dish a bit out on Saturday”

Oh, the irony!

In the last couple of seasons, they have:

Manny Osadebe - broken his leg on the opening day 22/23) at VP - out for the season

Jamie Walker - cruciate ligament, out for 5 months (same game)

Jamie Walker (last season) - out for 3 months

Alex Pattison - out for the season

Sam Stubbs - fractured his skull and missed the rest of the season

Kevin McDonald - missed 4 matches after the game in March 2024.

All this in our last 3 meetings.

Meanwhile, you’ve got McCann demanding a team full of ‘killers’ tomorrow. Think we need to wrap Cook in cotton wool.

If they injury another one of our players tomorrow, I think it’ll turn toxic.

Hope they rough Gibson up tomorrow.

 

[F!RTHY]

Hope they rough Gibson up tomorrow.

Assisting Billy Sharp for the first goal - it’s written in the stars!

Over 18k sold already - possibly 19k+ attending

 

[クレイグ]

Assisting Billy Sharp for the first goal - it’s written in the stars!

Over 18k sold already - possibly 19k+ attending

Fantastic crowd.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

I think both teams have lost players due to injury in the last few meetings, I just hope it we don’t get any tomorrow and it over shadows the match

 

[Boz]

As the Crewe posters have already highlighted, Rovers have a dreadful record at Gresty Road, over 2 decades since our last win, while Omar Bogle has proved a tricky opponent in the past.

Think just Khan and Drysdale out, so Adkins has plenty to choose from. That seems to be part of his difficulty though, too many changes giving rise to a confused selection policy as we try to adapt our line-up to the next opponent rather than imposing our own style on the game.

I'd be delighted if we get anything from this one.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Morecambe (A) in yet another early KO for us. 800+ sold pre game so would have thought we’ll end up with about 1,000 there tomorrow, but I won’t be one of them after vowing never to return following our 4-3 defeat there about being 3-0 up at HT back in 2013…

We’re heading into this one 7 games unbeaten which sounds impressive until you hear that it included 5 draws… 3 of which / possibly 4, could and probably should have been wins for us on the balance of play/chances but that’s sort of how our seasons gone so far. The main thing is, we’re playing well and have done in pretty much every game this season bar Vale away, so fingers crossed we continue with the positive performances tomorrow.

A look at Morecambes results shows that they’re in most games and have rarely been battered by anyone, so despite them being bottom of the table they’re clearly more than capable of getting something. Think Adams & Cook have a bit of history too so potential for fireworks on the sideline…

Team news, no change from Tuesday apparently with Dunkley, Tanton, Fleck & Boot all still out + long termers palmer & Sheckleford, but those first 3 are all apparently back in training now so should be available from next weekends FA cup game.

Predicted XI:

Thompson
Mandeville Naylor Araujo Gordon
Oldaker Banks
Markanday Dobra Colclough
Grigg

Rinaldo (GK)
Daley-Campbell
Grimes
Metcalfe
Jacobs
Berry
Madden

 

[leedsvaliant]

Interesting to look through Wimbledon's team. Seems packed full of decent league 2 players. Hippolyte always seems to be half decent, The lad who played up front for Sutton (Bugiel ?) can be a handful. There's no real superstars but you can imagine they'll be really solid.

Never rated Matty Stevens as a footballer but he's got a goalscoring touch at this level. When I've seen him, football wise he's not amazing but he seems to pop up in the right place more often than not. It seems that the wing backs are an important part of the way they play, so we might match up against them.

Surprised that Ryan Johnson is still getting a gig at this level. He looked nowhere near it with us. Clumsy and didn't seem to have much going for him, so I hope we target him.

Strange stats from Wimbledon too. They've scored 15 times at home, averaging 3 a game, yet have only scored once away. I wonder if it's tactical that they just set up to be solid away from home. They haven't conceded many in fairness.

Really looking forward to the return trip to be honest. My mate lives in Earlsfield about 15 minute walk to the ground..some decent pubs round and about and it's a nice part of London.

 

[valefan16]

Need to avoid defeat just to avoid Ryan Burge assuming it is him? being all over the socials more than he currently is!

They seem a solid enough side but like Fleetwood it’s hard to really judge them, they’ve battered sides at home but aside from maybe MK that’s been the bottom sides like Morecambe and Carlisle and have struggled away bar lowly Cheltenham and haven’t played many of the top sides yet (Notts County and Bradford the only sides in the top 10 they’ve faced thus far). So a bit of an unknown as to what to expect.

Stevens is a goal scorer and we will have to be careful but seem a solid league two outfit and as every game we will have to keep the performance levels up to get a result. We are due an off day after 8 wins and 2 draws in 10 but hopefully we can keep the levels we’ve been at recently and get another W.

 

[F!RTHY]

Thought Wimbledon were OK - very organised! Still believe we’d have won had we hadn’t had half the team out injured.

We’ve got injuries, if you didn’t already know.

 

[Spireitelass97]

Morecambe (A) in yet another early KO for us. 800+ sold pre game so would have thought we’ll end up with about 1,000 there tomorrow, but I won’t be one of them after vowing never to return following our 4-3 defeat there about being 3-0 up at HT back in 2013…

We’re heading into this one 7 games unbeaten which sounds impressive until you hear that it included 5 draws… 3 of which / possibly 4, could and probably should have been wins for us on the balance of play/chances but that’s sort of how our seasons gone so far. The main thing is, we’re playing well and have done in pretty much every game this season bar Vale away, so fingers crossed we continue with the positive performances tomorrow.

A look at Morecambes results shows that they’re in most games and have rarely been battered by anyone, so despite them being bottom of the table they’re clearly more than capable of getting something. Think Adams & Cook have a bit of history too so potential for fireworks on the sideline…

Team news, no change from Tuesday apparently with Dunkley, Tanton, Fleck & Boot all still out + long termers palmer & Sheckleford, but those first 3 are all apparently back in training now so should be available from next weekends FA cup game.

Predicted XI:

Thompson
Mandeville Naylor Araujo Gordon
Oldaker Banks
Markanday Dobra Colclough
Grigg

Rinaldo (GK)
Daley-Campbell
Grimes
Metcalfe
Jacobs
Berry
Madden

Have you heard anything about what’s actually wrong with Boot? I haven’t.

 

[AlanPep]

How are you finding the step up?

On pure footballing terms, it’s not such a big step up. Mistakes in both finishing and defending are punished more, so that’s a step up but an expected one. I honestly thought there’d be teams head and shoulders better than us (a few have definitely been better), but thus far no one has given us a good hiding (I hope that’s not the kiss of death). You have to remember we’ve previously played in the fairly recent past about 50% of the teams we’re now up against, so it won’t feel like a huge step up for supporters or players. We’re proving ourselves to be competitive, and there’s certainly (currently) worse teams than us in the league, so I remain cautiously optimistic that we’ll comfortably survive season 1 and then who knows . . . .

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Interesting to look through Wimbledon's team. Seems packed full of decent league 2 players. Hippolyte always seems to be half decent, The lad who played up front for Sutton (Bugiel ?) can be a handful. There's no real superstars but you can imagine they'll be really solid.

Never rated Matty Stevens as a footballer but he's got a goalscoring touch at this level. When I've seen him, football wise he's not amazing but he seems to pop up in the right place more often than not. It seems that the wing backs are an important part of the way they play, so we might match up against them.

Surprised that Ryan Johnson is still getting a gig at this level. He looked nowhere near it with us. Clumsy and didn't seem to have much going for him, so I hope we target him.

Strange stats from Wimbledon too. They've scored 15 times at home, averaging 3 a game, yet have only scored once away. I wonder if it's tactical that they just set up to be solid away from home. They haven't conceded many in fairness.

Really looking forward to the return trip to be honest. My mate lives in Earlsfield about 15 minute walk to the ground..some decent pubs round and about and it's a nice part of London.

It's great for pubs pre game and yes a really nice part of the capital.

 

[loz]

Thought Wimbledon were OK - very organised! Still believe we’d have won had we hadn’t had half the team out injured.

We’ve got injuries, if you didn’t already know.

All teams have injuries Firthy. Look at Grimsby. Think SOC has cleaned up his boots and awaiting a phone call. Its the squad that counts and we are playing some good stuff at the moment. Tomorrow will be tough but should tell us more about our team. Agree with Dearne Valley and hope for no injuries to overshadow the game. Don't need to see roughing up, just some fast attacking football.

 

[ROVERS⚽️]

Had a little flick through the Doncaster forum and found this:

“ Well let me tell the supporter who wrote that we are about to play a team that gave us in the new year our biggest kicking we have had for many a year resulting in two players being out injured for the rest on the season, and I for one hope we dish a bit out on Saturday”

Oh, the irony!

In the last couple of seasons, they have:

Manny Osadebe - broken his leg on the opening day 22/23) at VP - out for the season

Jamie Walker - cruciate ligament, out for 5 months (same game)

Jamie Walker (last season) - out for 3 months

Alex Pattison - out for the season

Sam Stubbs - fractured his skull and missed the rest of the season

Kevin McDonald - missed 4 matches after the game in March 2024.

All this in our last 3 meetings.

Meanwhile, you’ve got McCann demanding a team full of ‘killers’ tomorrow. Think we need to wrap Cook in cotton wool.

If they injury another one of our players tomorrow, I think it’ll turn toxic.

Let’s be fair Firthy, we’ve both had some serious injuries in our games over the past 2 years, particularly the lad with the broken leg which was very upsetting, but I don’t think there’s generally any malice involved for this fixture.
Were the rest of those injuries all from Doncaster challenges. Such as for Walker ( last season ) and Pattison’s injuries?. I didn’t see in the league games last season many bad challenges, just a ref giving out too many yellow cards in your home fixture, if I remember correctly I could be mistaken.

McCann has been speaking about having that killer instinct in the final third more than ruthlessness in challenges, something we’ve probably lacked recently in all fairness, based on chances created. As DVR has alluded to Sharp hasn’t looked quite so sharp recently, I hope he finds form tomorrow, we know he has the ability. I don’t expect a win at valley parade tomorrow, with Bradfords home form you’re probably favourites which is fair enough, let’s hope for a good game and no bore 0-0 draw with a 19k crowd, which would be typical. I’ll go with a 2-2 draw.

 

[loz]

Let’s be fair Firthy, we’ve both had some serious injuries in our games over the past 2 years, particularly the lad with the broken leg which was very upsetting, but I don’t think there’s generally any malice involved for this fixture.
Were the rest of those injuries all from Doncaster challenges. Such as for Walker ( last season ) and Pattison’s injuries?. I didn’t see in the league games last season many bad challenges, just a ref giving out too many yellow cards in your home fixture, if I remember correctly I could be mistaken.

McCann has been speaking about having that killer instinct in the final third more than ruthlessness in challenges, something we’ve probably lacked recently in all fairness, based on chances created. As DVR has alluded to Sharp hasn’t looked quite so sharp recently, I hope he finds form tomorrow, we know he has the ability. I don’t expect a win at valley parade tomorrow, with Bradfords home form you’re probably favourites which is fair enough, let’s hope for a good game and no bore 0-0 draw with a 19k crowd, which would be typical. I’ll go with a 2-2 draw.

Walker's injury was caused by a very bad challenge. the player involved was very fortunate to only receive a yellow. Think 2-2 is more likely than 0-0.

 

[F!RTHY]