Saturday 5th October

[valefan16]

If we lose and play poorly today Moore will get a lot of pressure heeped on himself.

Play your best side man.

 

[valefan16]

Don’t give up hope, you wouldn’t be the first side to pick a team that got this reaction specifically to counter how we try and play and it work brilliantly in the last couple of years.

He’s been given the biggest budget in the division, biggest for any manager by far certainly since the Championship days, he has to trust what he’s got and signed rather than throwing a youth prodigy in out the blue, drop out two top goal scorers and our most physical centre half.

Any half decent manager gets this side promoted but at the minute jury is out on DM.

We look very weak and best hope is we bring some of the big players on whilst still in the game.

 

[kieran_vale]

Big ask for Shorrock to come in from not much football since the season started. Rest of the lineup it should be enough to compete though Notts were always favourites at home anyway.

 

[valefan16]

Big ask for Shorrock to come in from not much football since the season started. Rest of the lineup it should be enough to compete though Notts were always favourites at home anyway.

Why would you pick him over Chis? I can’t see the logic. If he tears them a new backside then Moore is a genius but don’t see it.

 

[Son of Cod]

Absolutely wank from start to finish that. Donny were very good so credit to them but that second half was as close to a pre-season friendly as you're ever gonna get at the start of October. I'm sort of glad we were 2/3-0 for pretty much the entire match as it meant all those ridiculous ref/lino decisions weren't of any significance. Even at 2-0 and with 80mins on the clock, it didn't feel like we were ever in it. Going 3-0 down and down to 10 men completely and utterly killed any semblance of this being a contest off though.

Chalk that off as a result of two long trips in the last 7 days and a fair amount of injuries and take it for the reality check that it is.

 

[kieran_vale]

Why would you pick him over Chis? I can’t see the logic. If he tears them a new backside then Moore is a genius but don’t see it.

There were always going to be changes when you have three games in a week. That’s the price you pay for not managing minutes of one or two midweek as I said we should.

 

[Gladders]

Shows what the mid table side we are, Donny were first to every second ball, and like most other games we've lost we gift two simple goals from poor defending.

3 games in 7 days including two long away days and an early kick off, with only 17 fit players. Can't complain with 6 points from that.

 

[CTFCfan99]

Scot Bennett is 'injured' for us, and Tom Pett is finally playing in his best position which means we might have a slight chance. Maybe.

 

[Fuzzyvalefan]

Scot Bennett is 'injured' for us, and Tom Pett is finally playing in his best position which means we might have a slight chance. Maybe.

Tom Pett, what a bloke. Loved him at the Vale

 

[hellogregory]

Just when you think our injury nightmares couldn’t get any worse.

Things are not looking good at all.

 

[Wootball]

We're playing 0 strikers. Zero. Against top of the league Gillingham. Six defenders and no fit strikers to start the game. Can't wait for this one...

 

[codaplenty]

Full marks to Bromley, a strong well organised side and quite simply a draw was a fair result for both sides
MOM was Fleetwood s goalie David Harrington who produced 2 magnificent saves in the 1st half. Bromley are acquiting themselves well in league 2 and can be well pleased with their performance today
7 points out of 9 for the Cods in the last week, nothing to be downbeat about today. Onwards and hopefully upwards eh !

 

[Grimsby Road]

Shows what the mid table side we are, Donny were first to every second ball, and like most other games we've lost we gift two simple goals from poor defending.

3 games in 7 days including two long away days and an early kick off, with only 17 fit players. Can't complain with 6 points from that.

Donny will be up there imo , very good performance .

Might be a year too early for us but I imagine we will hover around the play-offs or top 12 . It willl be a vast improvement on lasr year

 

[kieran_vale]

Interesting game, Notts you’d say have won the midfield battle but we’ve had a couple of nice breakaways one leading to the goal and the other should have been converted too. Overall Notts will feel hard done by to be behind but a long way to go.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Notts have had most of the play and look a decent team but we've got 1 and could have had 2.

We're playing very much as the away side, although I anticipated that Notts would come out fast and press.

 

[Wootball]

1-0 up at half time against Gillingham. I'd say we've just about looked value for it, we're looking hard to break down and also riding our luck a tad. Could be a long second half, Gills have got to come out strong and I can see us getting tired with the pressing we're doing.

 

[Jimmy Anderson]

The outcome of this game will depend on how many shots on target notts county have. At the moment they haven't had any, as soon as they do they will score

 

[valefan16]

We’ve got it tactical spot on but don’t think we’ve been that great, give the ball away too easily and inviting pressure. Both times we’ve gone forward we’ve scored one and should score the other so again why so negative!

Long second half. Would like to see Stockley on for Paton to hold it up a bit more and give us more of an outlet.

 

[Cloudy]

Lots saying about the travelling Grimsby have done in the last week, isn’t ideal, but can’t help but think Artell talking about it yesterday in the media will have put more mental tiredness into the players. Gave the players a ready made excuse for tiredness.

I thought Donny were excellent from the 1st minute, closed down very well, used the flanks and were physically much the stronger. Gibson was superb.

Having seen Grimsby play Gills, Barrow, Notts, Chesterfield etc I have to say that on the one off performances, Doncaster are a superior team to them all

 

[RavenBish]

That and the Gillingham game is why we have no chance of going up.

Controlled the game whistle to whistle, missed 5 or 6 good chances and Vale score the first time they get in our box

I think we’ve got to stop falling in love with ourselves being the ‘better team’ because that doesn’t mean you deserve to win.

Lacking in attacking areas as well - Jatta had a bad day but Austin, Scott and Abbott were all absolutely useless. Without Jones we don’t have anyone dynamic or direct, it’s just 50 lateral passes and then a frustrated cross

 

[valefan16]

Perfect away performance. Limited them to little and frustrated them. Jatta was dire today.

Should have added gloss on it late on. Stockley doesn’t usually miss those.

 

[womble76]

Pretty average from us today. Didn't really deserve to lose but there you go. Hope the joe lewis injury after a horrendous late challenge is not too bad. Pretty much expected this after tues.

 

[spireite]

Walsall are a problem. I liked them. Another big strong organised side, but came to play. Came to win. That big number 7 up front is useful. We were hanging on at the end, glad of the point. I think they are a side that will be there abouts definitely. Best set of fans I've seen here for years too. Still don't feel like our attacking patterns are quite there yet, it's annoying

 

[Wootball]

Superb win vs Gillingham with no strikers available - pure graft and tactically just the better team. Pressed them all over so they couldn't pass like they wanted to, reduced them to long balls and just dealt with them. Bell had obviously done his homework and we executed it perfectly. Lovely stuff.

 

[RavenBish]

Perfect away performance. Limited them to little and frustrated them. Jatta was dire

We missed 5 chances from 6 yards out

 

[OneDecentLester]

Having seen Grimsby play Gills, Barrow, Notts, Chesterfield etc I have to say that on the one off performances, Doncaster are a superior team to them all

Donny that we’ve just pumped 3-0 away from home yeah?

 

[1862]

Seems like we are still doomed to be this side. I don't think the approach is wrong necessarily, hard (for me anyway) to put a finger on exactly what we should be doing differently except "just put one in"

 

[OneDecentLester]

Yep, fair result the draw at our place this afternoon. As spireite rightly says, Walsall a big powerful well organised outfit who will definitely be in an around the promotion picture this year. We dominated much of the ball for the majority without managing to do too much with it, and then part way through the second half the change of shape worked well and they couldn’t live with us for about 10/15 minutes or so when we got the equaliser.

Personally think Cook got the XI wrong today. For me, you have to have at least one player that wants to make runs off the ball to get in behind, but all 4 of our front 4 were coming to feet all first half. That allowed Walsall to suffocate us a bit and stop our best players from getting the ball in the right areas. The game changed as soon as we had Berry & Colclough running in behind and at least one of them should be starting every game IMO. Also, there is no way that Thompson is better than Boot… straight back into the XI for him next week IMO. He did some decent things, but looked far too shaky for my liking, and looked pretty uncomfortable with the ball at his feet… not good for the way we play.

All in all, 5 points out of a week that included away trips to Doncaster, Bromley (serious bogey side at their place) & then a home game against high flying Walsall is a good return in my opinion.

Onto the next…. Notts (H), the game we’ve been waiting for ever since that day at Wembley, cannot wait.

 

[hellogregory]

My god what an awful game of football between two really poor teams. Had 0-0 written all over it early on.

Delighted with the point. But kind of expected more from Colchester hence my prediction for defeat.

Wimbledon next week will be a different kettle of fish. Could have done with it postponed given our lengthy injury list and depleted squad.

 

[Grimsby Road]

Doncaster were very good today , fair play to them really - not sure how our guy got sent off as was in the bar .

Notts,Donny 2 best teams I have seen so far followed by Chesterfield

Not sure on Vale as have not seen them

Us & Fleetwood look the next tier down based on seeing us both a few times ,I thought that level would mean lower mid-table but potentially upper with how this league is set .


Carlisle/Swindon/Accy /Morecambe 4 way relegation battle