Saturday 5th December - 1st full fixtures this season with spectators

[masi51]

At last we have a manager who pulls no punches, today was not acceptable........they are all in Tomorrow training, added to the fact they are in Christmas day training. Staying in the hotel Christmas day night ready to go at Carlisle boxing day.......Think the will be 7/8 who will be looking for clubs in the new year.......not a happy bunny

We let 6 in at home not one booking......no leaders

 

[LS Bantam]

Bradford just recently gave the manager a new contract. I thought we were there for the taking first half as we were slightly off it, but Bradford didn’t manage a shot on goal today.

According to someone on our forum, Patrick had as many shots on target today (four) than our entire team has in the last three games.

 

[shoddycollins]

At last we have a manager who pulls no punches, today was not acceptable........they are all in Tomorrow training, added to the fact they are in Christmas day training. Staying in the hotel Christmas day night ready to go at Carlisle boxing day.......Think the will be 7/8 who will be looking for clubs in the new year.......not a happy bunny

We let 6 in at home not one booking......no leaders

Hopefully training Christmas day only serves to piss them off... For us that is. Would you have been as thankful for Evatt's candour before your current run of good form?

 

[Vanni]

Cambridge struggling even with their guaranteed penalty, you hate to see it

I know I shouldn't bite but give it a fucking rest mate.

Iron 0 U's 5

 

[shoddycollins]

According to someone on our forum, Patrick had as many shots on target today (four) than our entire team has in the last three games.

Shame none of our strikers are especially clinical because the chances they get, we should be scoring loads more goals.

 

[Bottega Don]

I know I shouldn't bite but give it a fucking rest mate.

Iron 0 U's 5

Ah yes, congrats on beating a Scunthorpe team without it's starting GK, RB, LB, CB, CM, LM and ST. Not like you needed two penalties and a red card to aid you too.

The last time Cambridge won a game without a penalty was the 10th October.

 

[Back in the DHSS]

Are there any Walsall fans on here these days? They'd certainly have something to crow about on today's showing.

Yes indeed they do, right from the kick off they were better and in every position too.
Could of been worse, could of conceded 6 like that other lot.

 

[masi51]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1335239743517421568

all the kids having a little light humour..........You been saving that hook

 

[Si Robin]

What a great game to come back home to. Yeah, both defences were shite, but some of the football on show was outstanding.

Exeter are outstanding going forward, but they are dreadful defensively.

It was a hell of a test though, and I'm so chuffed we got through it.

All in all though, I've had a great day. This morning I got my first win as a coach with my u10s winning 3-2, then Cheltenham win an 8 goal thriller. Now for a pizza and beer to finish it off.

 

[pontoonlew]

Cannot believe we lost that game, we were by far the better side

 

[BarraMatt]

Our forum doing what it does best tonight. It's been a while since the mongs were out in full force.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Our forum doing what it does best tonight. It's been a while since the mongs were out in full force.

Not just the forum - don't think you were at the game, but people booing Biggins as he is subbed on, booing at the final whistle, some absolutely disgraceful shouts today.

 

[shoddycollins]

Not just the forum - don't think you were at the game, but people booing Biggins as he is subbed on, booing at the final whistle, some absolutely disgraceful shouts today.

heard the end of the game as it went on for quite a bit after our full time and there did seem to be quite a lot of booing, while at the same time the commentators were describing it as another good performance but zero points. What's going on there? Can't just be the most unlucky team in world?

 

[BarraMatt]

Not just the forum - don't think you were at the game, but people booing Biggins as he is subbed on, booing at the final whistle, some absolutely disgraceful shouts today.

Unfortunately I wasn't there due to the unforseen short notice, but it was disappointing to read that there was booing. I've also been pissed off reading through twitter, people tagging Dunn in tweets slagging him off, whatever you think of his managerial capability he's a human being at the end of the day just like the rest of us. For the players it no doubt will have been a big boost getting to play in front of fans again so to get booed at the final whistle, or when being subbed on doesn't help either. A small minority of our fans can really be the worst when things aren't going our way.

 

[Shrimper92]

Port Vale scored as many goals today as we have all season

 

[Monkey Tennis]

heard the end of the game as it went on for quite a bit after our full time and there did seem to be quite a lot of booing, while at the same time the commentators were describing it as another good performance but zero points. What's going on there? Can't just be the most unlucky team in world?

We're not the most unlucky team in the world (though the last two games we've had a red card and a wrongful penalty dismissed), but we're playing okay. I've seen us play badly for years - this is infinitely better! Just missing easy chances and the odd lapse at the back. Worthy of criticism for sure, but most of it's not justified.

The bad blood is mainly because our most vocal fans are all 18-23 entitled little gobshites. In my opinion, of course.

 

[Valeite]

Big Sam on quest, could be interesting!

 

[BarraMatt]

heard the end of the game as it went on for quite a bit after our full time and there did seem to be quite a lot of booing, while at the same time the commentators were describing it as another good performance but zero points. What's going on there? Can't just be the most unlucky team in world?

I don't know, I'm not sure what the way forward is, we've shown enough in games to suggest we are competitive and capable of survival but it's getting beyond the point where you can rue constant bad luck. The difference seems to be it takes us a hatful of chances to score once yet the extra quality of opposition in this league don't need anywhere near as many and our mistakes are getting punished regularly.

It's more frustrating than being tonked week in, week out, as in that case you can at least admit straight away you're not cut out for this level.

 

[Trapdoor]

What a great game to come back home to. Yeah, both defences were shite, but some of the football on show was outstanding.

Exeter are outstanding going forward, but they are dreadful defensively.

It was a hell of a test though, and I'm so chuffed we got through it.

All in all though, I've had a great day. This morning I got my first win as a coach with my u10s winning 3-2, then Cheltenham win an 8 goal thriller. Now for a pizza and beer to finish it off.

Our defence is not good. We werent at our best going forward today but we lost because we simply cant defend against good teams and Cheltenham are a very good team.
Liam Sercombe looked pretty good sadly for us. At least he didn't celebrate when he scored....

 

[shoddycollins]

Port Vale scored as many goals today as we have all season

Our third choice centre back from last season has scored twice as many goals this season as you have.

 

[Carver]

Ah yes, congrats on beating a Scunthorpe team without it's starting GK, RB, LB, CB, CM, LM and ST. Not like you needed two penalties and a red card to aid you too.

The last time Cambridge won a game without a penalty was the 10th October.

Cambridge are shit now and it's only right because they have been punching above their weight, with their fans thinking they were something special after being top from only 6 games.

They peeked far too early and now that their main striker who was in the form of his life has gone back to being average, they're no threat whatsoever.

I had them down as lower mid table this season and it looks like I'll be right again.

 

[Casey]

Carver; although Crawley beat Cambridge I did think they were a good side....for our level obviously. They passed the ball well and competed all over the pitch.

Opinions and all that but I think they've got a chance on promotion this season.

Casey

 

[Soz]

what the fuck was that.

I don't even think we played particularly amazingly, it's just bolton could not defend at all.

There were a few sloppy defensive errors still, and really had Botlon scored, or even equalised at 1-2 then it could have easily been a different result. We have to credit the players, and Askey though, they were fired up at the start and deservedly led and then punished the majority of Bolton's mistakes.

You could see how confidently we were at 1-4 - hopefully we take a lot of confidence from it, but it's one win and 6 defeats in 7 so we can't get too carried away.

 

[valefan16]

what the fuck was that.

I don't even think we played particularly amazingly, it's just bolton could not defend at all.

There were a few sloppy defensive errors still, and really had Botlon scored, or even equalised at 1-2 then it could have easily been a different result. We have to credit the players, and Askey though, they were fired up at the start and deservedly led and then punished the majority of Bolton's mistakes.

You could see how confidently we were at 1-4 - hopefully we take a lot of confidence from it, but it's one win and 6 defeats in 7 so we can't get too carried away.

Lot of work to be done but hopefully the nervousness we’ve shown in recent weeks after the Tranmere debacle and the last gasp loss at Newport especially and then last week after panning Orient the second half will ease.

Listening to Monty it sounds like they used the free week to work on the issues and discuss them as a team and could see what that meant to them today.

Big result hopefully the start of the revival but we will see. I’d like to think we just got lax for the last two Bolton goals, certainly the third which was a huge error due to the situation but if not will need to sort the defensive frailties.

Brown so reliable for us has been a bit dicey lately which is a concern.

 

[hellogregory]

I don't know, I'm not sure what the way forward is, we've shown enough in games to suggest we are competitive and capable of survival but it's getting beyond the point where you can rue constant bad luck. The difference seems to be it takes us a hatful of chances to score once yet the extra quality of opposition in this league don't need anywhere near as many and our mistakes are getting punished regularly.

It's more frustrating than being tonked week in, week out, as in that case you can at least admit straight away you're not cut out for this level.

When you lost Evatt I thought you should have gone for a manager with experience managing at football league level, particularly for a team with such a lack of EFL experience. I suggested Keith Hill at the time. I think I said on this forum that appointing Dunn looked risky. Whether Dunn is the problem I don’t know, but from what I’ve seen you’ve got enough to comfortably stay up, but perhaps you need a manager who’s been there, done it and knows what it takes to get results at this level rather than just promising performances.

 

[BarraMatt]

When you lost Evatt I thought you should have gone for a manager with experience managing at football league level, particularly for a team with such a lack of EFL experience. I suggested Keith Hill at the time. I think I said on this forum that appointing Dunn looked risky. Whether Dunn is the problem I don’t know, but from what I’ve seen you’ve got enough to comfortably stay up, but perhaps you need a manager who’s been there, done it and knows what it takes to get results at this level rather than just promising performances.

I think there was a fair bit of naivety during the summer, and that included the board. I assume they thought going for someone young and relatively inexperienced would work again and that Dunn would carry on the momentum we had with Evatt. The thing is, that momentum had evaporated with 5 months without a game, change of manager and a number of new players. It was reasonable to expect a struggle but as long as we stayed up and consolidated it was always going to be good enough. Some however are disappointed we aren't in the top half.

I get sick of hearing 'Evatt would have done this' or 'if we still had Rooney we would be miles better.' Yeah Rooney had a great season last year but there is a reason he's played at National League level for the majority of his career. Quigley and Platt were two standout performers from last year and they haven't met the same level yet, the former missing chances he was sticking away for fun last season and the latter making uncharacteristic mistakes.

I've just watched the two minute quick highlights and you could see from that we absolutely should not have lost that game with the opportunities we had. The problem is we're saying it every week.

 

[shoddycollins]

what the fuck was that.

I don't even think we played particularly amazingly, it's just bolton could not defend at all.

There were a few sloppy defensive errors still, and really had Botlon scored, or even equalised at 1-2 then it could have easily been a different result. We have to credit the players, and Askey though, they were fired up at the start and deservedly led and then punished the majority of Bolton's mistakes.

You could see how confidently we were at 1-4 - hopefully we take a lot of confidence from it, but it's one win and 6 defeats in 7 so we can't get too carried away.

Askey in

 

[valefan16]

Askey in

He got it spot on so credit him for that, I was furious when I saw the XI! Hope it does work for him because as I’ve said he’s a genuine bloke who cares for the club.

Must wear the black kit more often though! 4 wins in 6 now, looks the part.

 

[Devon_Lad]

I am here win,draw lose................Anyone seen Devon lad in the last hour !!

I was posting yesterday evening, and throughout the game.. keep up

 

[Bone Idle]

So 9 goals at bolton with 9 different goal scorers, and 8 goals at cheltenham with 8 different goal scorers, 17 different scorers in 2 games, must be some sort of record.