Tue 29th Dec: Last fixtures in 2020

[FGR Stroud]

 

[FGR Stroud]

The New Year table will have one of three team names at pinnacle from teams who were not involved in last season’s playoffs: [Newport – 14th] [FGR – 10th] [Carlisle – 18th].

Newport face a tough task against Exeter, FGR at home a lesser tough task [on paper] while Carlisle have [on paper] a winnable away game against Harrogate.

Of course football teams don’t play on paper. J

Alas Stevenage was in same relegation position last season and will remain there irrespective of any result. Southend, after an awful start of season could move out of relegation spot.

Of the five teams mentioned many previous years’ stats show that at least one will be promoted and one relegated.



# When playing at home, Barrow AFC have not lost to Tranmere in their last 3 encounters.

Barrow are enjoying a golden period while Tranmere are in middle of a blip: home win

# Bolton’s confidence must be sky high after securing draw from 0-3 down while Morecambe top the current form table: away win

# Bradford v Vale is match against two teams next to each other in table: home win

# Colchester have lost last three matches while Cheltenham have only gained one point in their last three: draw

# When playing at home, Forest Green have not lost to Crawley in their last 3 encounters.

FGR v Crawley is a match where neither team has had a loss in current form: home win

# Grimsby v Oldham is a match between two underperforming teams where a draw would seem likely however Oldham have a winning streak of 7 matches away from home: away win

# Leyton O v Southend is a game where both teams are desperate for a good result: draw

# Mansfield have yet to record a home victory this season. Their first will not be against Salford: away win

# Newport v Exeter has draw written all over it: draw

# Until Saturday Walsall were the form team and against Scunthorpe they expect to continue their winning ways: home win

# Harrogate's home record this season is 1-3-5, having played 6 home matches in a row without winning. Although Carlisle’s away form is not spectacular: away win

 

[kieran_vale]

With what have seen lately and Bradford's recent turnaround its hard to see us getting anything there. Something is seriously amiss with this Vale team right now and just look so fragile. Nathan Smith will come again in the future but for now he absolutely cannot start for us again in the short term, his head is clearly not with it for whatever reason. Move Rodney to the middle and start Amoo and if we can take one of the cardboard cutouts from the Railway and start that in place of Mills will probably get more production there.

Will say 2-1 to Bradford.

 

[chipmunx]

was talking to a Bradford season ticket holder at work last night and in his opinion Tranmere were about as good against Bradford yesterday as Port Vale were against us.... and Vale wouldn't have scored if they'd stayed on the pitch after the final whistle and played on by themselves....
His predictions for Tuesday - Barrow and Bradford both to win - I think (and hope) he will be right.

 

[valefan16]

Bradford will probably hit us for 4 with how bad we were yesterday, with so many injuries/Covid absentees and form we’ve absolutely no chance.

We might score a goal or two as we do against sides that are less defensive that give us the space to attack into but with our defence as it is I can’t see us keeping the goals out the other end.

I would go Legge and Brisley in, maybe even Smith as a right back for Mills. Pray Manny is back for Whitehead but if not just play with 10 men.

Amoo must start, Rodney down the middle and Hurst. Shit loads of pace to break with but scoring isn’t the problem so unless our back line remembers the first ten games il go Bradford 5 Vale 2

 

[Carver]

Some of our key players are out injured and our strikers finishing is terrible.

So we're now back to being some bog standard L2 club who crumble at the first sign of adversity.

Like throwing away a 3 goal lead and missing 4 great chances to win it.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

# When playing at home, Barrow AFC have not lost to Tranmere in their last 3 encounters.

Barrow are enjoying a golden period while Tranmere are in middle of a blip: home win

And what happened in the game before that against Tranmere? It still haunts us.

I'm not sure one good win and then a scrappy win against a terrible Vale constitutes a 'golden period' but I suppose most Barrow fans will be expecting a win. A draw is more likely - though Tranmere rarely seem to draw games at the moment.

It'll be our new manager's first game in charge, and can see him making one or two changes just to keep it fresh.

Another factor is whether fans are allowed - some suggestion that Carlisle's covid rates might mean a move to Tier 3 next week for the whole of Cumbria. So that's nice.

 

[AR27]

Interesting game against Vale. They're on a poor run and we're reinvigorated and confident of beating anyone. The revival has been centred around defensive solidity, where we've got a settled back four and two protective midfielders in front.

Going forward we're still not very good. Aside from the Cambridge game where we should've scored 4 or 5, we're not creating very much. Noticeably, we've scored a few wonder goals recently and nearly had another yesterday so it seems they're under the instruction to shoot on sight. But we have been taking the few chances we have created in games and Novak is in good form.

I don't expect many goals so I'll go for a 1-0 or 2-1 win for us.

 

[masi51]

Some of our key players are out injured and our strikers finishing is terrible.

So we're now back to being some bog standard L2 club who crumble at the first sign of adversity.

Like throwing away a 3 goal lead and missing 4 great chances to win it.

at no point in that game did you deserve a three goal lead..You conned cheated both free kicks for the first two goals. Coupled that we should have had two maybe 3 penalties got nothing from the referee.
Your gameplan was launch it long and hope for a free kick around the edge of the box.....zero football played
Second half we tried to play football when we should have just done what you lot did and shank it 70 yards.
The game was petering out to another defeat when Baptiste got injured and for the first time had to go 442
We got a second then a third in short time....86 and 88 min.....Hit the post in the 90th min only one winner the Referee then sends Kioso off for a fucking shoulder charge.....you then hit the post with the last kick of the game.
4 great chances to win it......at least tell it how it was.
Two bad teams but only one wanted to play football

 

[Bottega Don]

Loss obviously

 

[Casey]

FGR to pass Crawley to death.

Our midfielders keep forgetting to go with the runners. Its getting really annoying watching it.

One chance. We have a goalscorer on fire at the moment. Brilliant with his head. Two near post headers and a 30 yard header that totally bamboozled the Newport keeper. His name? OG !

Other than that we have only scored one goal in the last three games.

Casey

 

[LS Bantam]

Feeling like we could beat anyone at the moment which was unheard of just a few weeks ago under McCall. As AR27 says, we’re far from perfect and the upturn in results has coincided with certain players coming back from injury, most notably Novak. Based on form I’ll go for a 2–1 home win.

 

[valefan16]

The issue for us is we haven’t really got any options to change anything, not in the next week or so anyway so we are stuck with little options, the bench yesterday had one 16 year old youth teamer, a goalkeeper, McKirdy who is never getting game time for whatever reason, Legge who was at fault for Walsall. You’ve got Brisley who could come in on the defensive Merry go round to try and find a solution and Amoo who will probably start following his injury lay off (the only player who came out with any credit)

Any team losing the players we have (Gibbons, Worrall, Cullen, Montano, Conlon, Oyeleke all big players for us) would struggle but we had been playing fairly well since Bolton.

Yesterday the biggest worry was confidence was shot, attitudes appalling and lack of effort or any fight whatsoever. We made a donkey look like Lewandowski as a fan put it on OVF. The team seen to have stopped playing for Askey and that was as bad an effort as seen from a Vale side in years; as bad as anything under Aspin, Brown or Bruno.

If we get no reaction on Tuesday assuming nothing changes at the top; we are stuck with the same cowardly bastards that turned up yesterday and can’t see any “interesting” tie at all.

If we play as we had despite injuries against Colchester, FGR and first half at Walsall maybe they will surprise us all, but even the players who had been excelling in recent weeks such as Rodney and Hurst were guff yesterday.

Some fans are at the stage of wanting a hiding to push Askey further to the brink but that’s a crazy wish!

 

[Carver]

at no point in that game did you deserve a three goal lead..You conned cheated both free kicks for the first two goals. Coupled that we should have had two maybe 3 penalties got nothing from the referee.
Your gameplan was launch it long and hope for a free kick around the edge of the box.....zero football played
Second half we tried to play football when we should have just done what you lot did and shank it 70 yards.
The game was petering out to another defeat when Baptiste got injured and for the first time had to go 442
We got a second then a third in short time....86 and 88 min.....Hit the post in the 90th min only one winner the Referee then sends Kioso off for a fucking shoulder charge.....you then hit the post with the last kick of the game.
4 great chances to win it......at least tell it how it was.
Two bad teams but only one wanted to play football

Even the best teams in the world would look bad playing against that wind. It's a shame because had it not been so windy I have no doubt we would have absolutely crushed your terrible defence and won 5-0 minimum.

Still it was great for our little club to hold the mighty Bolton at home to a draw and it's definitely one which will live in the memory and will be talked about by our fans for years to come.

 

[masi51]

Even the best teams in the world would look bad playing against that wind. It's a shame because had it not been so windy I have no doubt we would have absolutely crushed your terrible defence and won 5-0 minimum.

Still it was great for our little club to hold the mighty Bolton at home to a draw and it's definitely one which will live in the memory and will be talked about by our fans for years to come.

we will begger to differ, you adapted to the conditions way better than we did. We are set up all wrong we have no wingbacks yet he still plays this system........We have George Taft who has not played since the opening day of the season and would steady the defence.
Also Darcy does not get a game in midfield despite being better than anything weve got
Evatt needs to change things January or he will be back at Barrow next August

 

[Soz]

Interesting game against Vale. They're on a poor run and we're reinvigorated and confident of beating anyone. The revival has been centred around defensive solidity, where we've got a settled back four and two protective midfielders in front.

Going forward we're still not very good. Aside from the Cambridge game where we should've scored 4 or 5, we're not creating very much. Noticeably, we've scored a few wonder goals recently and nearly had another yesterday so it seems they're under the instruction to shoot on sight. But we have been taking the few chances we have created in games and Novak is in good form.

I don't expect many goals so I'll go for a 1-0 or 2-1 win for us.

Don't worry about it.

You'll get 2 goals just for turning up on time.

 

[Bottega Don]

If we manage to win this game we will have won 10 games in all competitions in 2020.

Is there anyone who has won less? I would guess Southend and Stevenage but that's surely it.

 

[ShrimpsMeltdown]

Us winning at Bolton? This is all just mental.

 

[masi51]

If we manage to win this game we will have won 10 games in all competitions in 2020.

Is there anyone who has won less? I would guess Southend and Stevenage but that's surely it.

Us winning at Bolton? This is all just mental.

We released two players Jake Turner and Sam Lavelle who both would walk into our first team now who are currently with you
Carlos mendes Gomez looks to be playing well......could be 5-4 this game

 

[Boz]

# When playing at home, Barrow AFC have not lost to Tranmere in their last 3 encounters.

Barrow are enjoying a golden period while Tranmere are in middle of a blip: home win

Can't argue with the form guide, new manager's first home game too. Just have to hope for the unexpected, would happily settle for the draw we managed on our last trip to Barrow atm.

was talking to a Bradford season ticket holder at work last night and in his opinion Tranmere were about as good against Bradford yesterday as Port Vale were against us.... and Vale wouldn't have scored if they'd stayed on the pitch after the final whistle and played on by themselves....
His predictions for Tuesday - Barrow and Bradford both to win - I think (and hope) he will be right.

Really??
I haven't seen any of the Vale v Barrow game footage yet, but going by the comments from Vale fans on here, their side were poor. While Bradford deserved their win against us, I don't think there was a vast gulf between the teams and but for an excellent save from Vaughan late on, we might have come away with a slightly fortuitous point.

 

[Si Robin]

Col U away - God knows what to expect to be honest.

 

[Shrimpurh]

A win could mean that we end the year outside of the relegation zone that would be quite something

 

[The Terminator]

A win could mean that we end the year outside of the relegation zone that would be quite something

You won't have a better chance to beat us on Tuesday, we've been lazy and out of sorts for about a month.

I thought after we beat Newport 2-1 earlier this month that this group of players was capable of staying in the top ten. But we've lost 4 in 5 - all 2-1 losses and we've developed a nasty pattern/habit of leading at half time after putting in a decent shift in the first half of games and looking reasonably competent, threatening and steady and then turning up in the second half and looking the complete opposite and at times playing completely shite. Apart from the last ten minutes against Cambridge on Saturday, we offered fuck all in the second half.

Too many of our players already in the comfort zone and getting lazy in games, Embleton refusing to use at least 4 players on our books for some reason - He's already stated that there will be comings and goings in January for us, we only have 4 contracted players on our books for next season right now and it appears to be playing a part in the mentality of our squad at the minute.

We're trying to tie down all our better players to longer term contracts, but in truth they're all likely to move on - Danny Johnson being one of them and the majority of the rest, most of whom helped us go up from the National League know they're on the their way out. Only Craig Clay and Josh Coulson have shown any signaificant improvement and that they're worth keeping on IMO.

 

[Sydney Posse]

Not sure what to expect when we play Newport. We can be dazzling going forward at times and score shed loads, but fall asleep at the back or get beaten for pace at the back, it seems like in almost every game. We can be dreadful when the opposition have free kicks or corners as well. I’m fully expecting Newport to go for the jugular from the off, which should suit us, as we definitely pick up more points in the open games. Gonna go for a high scoring game, with us sneaking it 3-2

 

[Shrimpurh]

You won't have a better chance to beat us on Tuesday, we've been lazy and out of sorts for about a month.

I thought after we beat Newport 2-1 earlier this month that this group of players was capable of staying in the top ten. But we've lost 4 in 5 - all 2-1 losses and we've developed a nasty pattern/habit of leading at half time after putting in a decent shift in the first half of games and looking reasonably competent, threatening and steady and then turning up in the second half and looking the complete opposite and at times playing completely shite. Apart from the last ten minutes against Cambridge on Saturday, we offered fuck all in the second half.

Too many of our players already in the comfort zone and getting lazy in games, Embleton refusing to use at least 4 players on our books for some reason - He's already stated that there will be comings and goings in January for us, we only have 4 contracted players on our books for next season right now and it appears to be playing a part in the mentality of our squad at the minute.

We're trying to tie down all our better players to longer term contracts, but in truth they're all likely to move on - Danny Johnson being one of them and the majority of the rest, most of whom helped us go up from the National League know they're on the their way out. Only Craig Clay and Josh Coulson have shown any signaificant improvement and that they're worth keeping on IMO.

We’ve obviously improved but no doubt about it we’ve played ‘poorer’ teams in December in Stevenage, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Mansfield and Colchester it was going to be a month where we either came back a bit for a relegation dogfight or we signed up our National League registration but I don’t think anyone quite expected us to go unbeaten and the way we beat Colchester without our best two players in Alan McCormack and Arsenal loanee James Olayinka was inspiring the game against Mansfield turned with our backs to the wall once those same two players went off injured.
If he’s fit I’d imagine this will be Olayinka’s last game for us as his loan will expire and expect arsenal will be wanting him in a higher league, he makes mistakes but it’s clear to see he’s got bags of technical ability all his goals have been well taken which some of our other players could only dream of scoring

 

[Conker]

Can’t see Tuesday being our first win at home to be honest against Salford, think we could get a point though.

I know I’ve said it before but how dreadfully poor the division is this season, it’s a bit embarrassing being such a passionate lower league fan

 

[BlackHaddock]

Banker away win for Oldham, my club is still in turmoil (actually it's worse than that). "FENTY OUT" banners appearing all over town and new revelations coming out all the time.

 

[Bone Idle]

Not sure what to expect when we play Newport. We can be dazzling going forward at times and score shed loads, but fall asleep at the back or get beaten for pace at the back, it seems like in almost every game. We can be dreadful when the opposition have free kicks or corners as well. I’m fully expecting Newport to go for the jugular from the off, which should suit us, as we definitely pick up more points in the open games. Gonna go for a high scoring game, with us sneaking it 3-2

Your lot should be right at home for this one, after the 80min shit fest of egg chasing on boxing day the pitch makes a good advert for dawlish sands.

 

[hellogregory]

at no point in that game did you deserve a three goal lead..You conned cheated both free kicks for the first two goals. Coupled that we should have had two maybe 3 penalties got nothing from the referee.
Your gameplan was launch it long and hope for a free kick around the edge of the box.....zero football played
Second half we tried to play football when we should have just done what you lot did and shank it 70 yards.
The game was petering out to another defeat when Baptiste got injured and for the first time had to go 442
We got a second then a third in short time....86 and 88 min.....Hit the post in the 90th min only one winner the Referee then sends Kioso off for a fucking shoulder charge.....you then hit the post with the last kick of the game.
4 great chances to win it......at least tell it how it was.
Two bad teams but only one wanted to play football

We probably deserved to be at least 5 goals ahead really.

Your attempt of an analysis says to me you either didn’t watch the game or more likely watched the game but didn't have a clue what was going on.

You were trying to play football in the first half, got you in all sorts of trouble. You went more direct in the second half with the wind in your favour and got back into it. That’s it. There’s absolutely no way on hells earth Bolton deserved to win that game, they were very lucky to get a 3-3 draw. Very lucky. You need to stop taking so much notice of deluded Evatt. What he says on camera is not what he truly believes, he is not speaking the truth because he’s trying to make himself look less incompetent.

 

[hellogregory]

Back to losing ways for us tomorrow I think. Too much of a patched up square pegs in round holes defence for us to get anything.

Harrogate 2-1 Carlisle Utd