w / e 23rd November 2024

[hellogregory]

Weren’t far from relaxed - just encouraged by the recent shift in performances. We’ve tightened up at the back, and are putting together some decent moves (witness the build up to Adu-Adjei blazing over the bar yesterday for an example of just how good we can be) - just need to start putting chances away.

Had the Donny defender got back a millisecond earlier, Georgie Kelly would have been onside at the death - and we’d have won that game, lifting us out of the relegation zone and within 3 points of 3 other clubs.

Granted, we’re still in trouble, and have some tough games ahead. But we’ve not lost a game over 90 minutes in our last 5, and the only goal we’ve conceded in our last 3 league games was a penalty. It could be a flash in the pan, or it could be the first few steps on the long road to recovery.

That is promising I have to say. Thomas being out for 10 weeks is a blow however as for me he’s (by far) our best defender.

 

[Son of Cod]

I watched Grimsby vs Colchester at lunch time.

It wasn't the worst game in the world, there were some chances in there but deary me, the technical quality from both sets of players was incredibly low and most of it wasn't even down to the conditions. Some of the hospital passes at the back from both sides were ridiculous in the first half along with an inability to control the ball. I reckon Grimsby managed to pass simple balls straight out of play a handful of occasions in injury time.

Not sure what game Artell was watching, he reckoned Grimsby created more and better chances but I don't think that was the case and they weren't hit by a sucker punch either, Colchester had their own chances.

To be honest, I couldn't really see what Grimsby were. They didn't defend deep and look to counter attack, they didn't control possession, they're not a strong and tall side and didn't have any pace in the side either - they were neither here nor there.

Yep the amount of times we lost the ball towards the end of the match was utterly infuriating.

Artell's grand plan is to become a possession based side but you're absolutely right in that yesterday we didn't control the ball anyway near enough so you'd never have known that in the context of one match. And tbf that's been the case for most of the season. You can kind of see it at times when we attack but because we aren't on the ball enough and we're so poor in the box and in final delivery then you're often left counting the passages of play per match on one hand that we look a threat, whereas you look at Notts who do this well and they're having like 15+ shots in the area on the regs and that's before you even get into their attacks that get thwarted.

There's a lot of trust and hope being put into Artell from a reasonable amount of the fans that he can do what he says he can. I personally remain unconvinced that he's tactically astute enough but it's apparent that he is an excellent coach and will improve individuals. Whether or not that will eventually translate to team performances remains to be seen.

Plenty of positives and negatives to be considered this season on the whole leaves us quite unsure about what we are and how we'll progress but I guess that's all in the very nature of a team in transition. The next two windows are big for Artell because it's next season that the pressure will really be on as that's when the more reasonable faction of our support will be expecting a promotion push.