Week: - Tuesday 11th October & Saturday 15th October

[masi51]

Time Evatt got his best 11 and stuck to it instead of rotating 4/5 players every match. Two holding midfielders in Williams and Thomason is obviously not working as is playing Katchunga and Charles up front.
I have stated we have not the best 11 in this division but i believe we have the best squad, and at the moment this is hampering us. We need to find a place in the team for at least 2/3 of Dapo, Bodvarrson, Morley,Sheehan , and Dempsey
Barnsley Saturday and this will be tough......Time for a settled team and back to winning ways or any hopes of getting top 6 will start to fade.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Time Evatt got his best 11 and stuck to it instead of rotating 4/5 players every match. Two holding midfielders in Williams and Thomason is obviously not working as is playing Katchunga and Charles up front.
I have stated we have not the best 11 in this division but i believe we have the best squad, and at the moment this is hampering us. We need to find a place in the team for at least 2/3 of Dapo, Bodvarrson, Morley,Sheehan , and Dempsey
Barnsley Saturday and this will be tough......Time for a settled team and back to winning ways or any hopes of getting top 6 will start to fade.

I saw enough to believe that you've got enough for the play offs. I'm not sure you've quite got enough for the top 2 but there was definitely a resilience there and a willingness to work hard.
Plus a bit of quality.

I know you think Evatt is a god but I'm just not convinced. He's a bit of an excuses man. I think if you were to go beyond this level you'd need a step up in calibre.

 

[Floreat Salopia]

Fleetwood away for us.

We're down to the very bare minimum of players available for this game and will have a couple playing out of position such is the situation we find ourselves in currently. Waiting on Pennington and potentially Marosi too on late fitness tests, personally can't see either starting or even being on the bench. Just classic Cotterill mind games unfortunately (hope I'm wrong).

This should be nothing but a comfortable Fleetwood win but as seen last week against MK, football isn't played on paper.

Fleetwood 2-0 Salop

 

[Si Robin]

A difficult one against Bristol Rovers tomorrow, but we're on form at home. Won the last 3, and only conceded the one goal in those.

I've plumped for a 2-2 draw on our pod, but I think it really could go either way.

 

[Luke Imp]

Time Evatt got his best 11 and stuck to it instead of rotating 4/5 players every match. Two holding midfielders in Williams and Thomason is obviously not working as is playing Katchunga and Charles up front.
I have stated we have not the best 11 in this division but i believe we have the best squad, and at the moment this is hampering us. We need to find a place in the team for at least 2/3 of Dapo, Bodvarrson, Morley,Sheehan , and Dempsey
Barnsley Saturday and this will be tough......Time for a settled team and back to winning ways or any hopes of getting top 6 will start to fade.

Looks like you lot have made a big change to be more defensively sound this season. Is the lack of goals a concern (probably not whilst you're as defensively sound)?

 

[BRFC_Gas]

A difficult one against Bristol Rovers tomorrow, but we're on form at home. Won the last 3, and only conceded the one goal in those.

I've plumped for a 2-2 draw on our pod, but I think it really could go either way.

Yeah I think you might edge it personally just based on your recent home form.
We are improving now defenders are coming back from injury (still have a few out though!), without looking particularly great. Collins usually causes problems in an almost free role, so theres a slight chance of a point or 3.

 

[masi51]

I saw enough to believe that you've got enough for the play offs. I'm not sure you've quite got enough for the top 2 but there was definitely a resilience there and a willingness to work hard.
Plus a bit of quality.

I know you think Evatt is a god but I'm just not convinced. He's a bit of an excuses man. I think if you were to go beyond this level you'd need a step up in calibre.

fair assessment...... i dont think we have a 11 that 3 or 4 have in this division , but we have 20 plus players who are good lge1 players.
Nope Evatt has many flaws but overall, he is a good manager who is getting better year on year
If we get beyond this level i am sure there would be significant investment to back the manager.
This club is at last being run by competent businesspeople who are maximising both the club and ground potential. The ground and hotel i would imagine is now making more money for the club than from football attendances

 

[masi51]

Looks like you lot have made a big change to be more defensively sound this season. Is the lack of goals a concern (probably not whilst you're as defensively sound)?

yes on paper we have a decent front line yet for what ever reason our forwards are just not producing.
Maybe a rethink away from home is needed. We are just too predictable

 

[leedsvaliant]

fair assessment...... i dont think we have a 11 that 3 or 4 have in this division , but we have 20 plus players who are good lge1 players.
Nope Evatt has many flaws but overall, he is a good manager who is getting better year on year
If we get beyond this level i am sure there would be significant investment to back the manager.
This club is at last being run by competent businesspeople who are maximising both the club and ground potential. The ground and hotel i would imagine is now making more money for the club than from football attendances

My theory (which might well be bollocks) is that in league 2 you need 1 or 2 standout players and the rest just to be average/solid league 2 players. In league 1 I reckon you need probably 3 or 4 standout players and then the rest just need to be solid/average league one players. It gets harder in the championship, where I reckon you need probably 7 or 8 exceptional players to challenge for the top. In the premier league you need all 11 to be exceptional to challenge for the title!

If your 2 or 3 stand out players can stay fit and perform to their abilities then you've got a chance. Otherwise you should have enough for the play offs. We've still got one or two average league 2 players in our squad but hopefully over time we'll get to the point where we have 2 or 3 exceptional players and the rest of the squad solid league one players.

 

[Bartonyellow]

Morecambe today for the first of about 30 “must win games”
It’s not - but it would be good to try and get out the bottom 4 even just for motivation.
Think there will be goals today.
3-2 to us I reckon. Or 3-3.

 

[Floreat Salopia]

Marosi back in goal is very good news for us!

Might shithouse a point now that we don’t have Burgoyne between the sticks.

 

[masi51]

Time Evatt got his best 11 and stuck to it instead of rotating 4/5 players every match. Two holding midfielders in Williams and Thomason is obviously not working as is playing Katchunga and Charles up front.
I have stated we have not the best 11 in this division but i believe we have the best squad, and at the moment this is hampering us. We need to find a place in the team for at least 2/3 of Dapo, Bodvarrson, Morley,Sheehan , and Dempsey
Barnsley Saturday and this will be tough......Time for a settled team and back to winning ways or any hopes of getting top 6 will start to fade.

Another 3 changes today but at least our best 3 attacking players are on the pitch today for the first time
Charles and Bodvarsson up top with Dapo in the number 10
Look light in midfield yet we have Morley, Sheehan, Lee , Dempsey and Sadlier on the bench
No defenders or keeper on the bench......certainly going for it we could win this 4-0 or lose 4-0

 

[kieran_vale]

Politic starting for us today. Big chance for him, we know his impact off the bench but I guess the question is can he do it when starting? Otherwise unchanged from the Derby game.

 

[Greenacres]

We have pretty much our strongest possible starting line-up today, really need to get something from this game.

 

[valefan16]

Politic starting for us today. Big chance for him, we know his impact off the bench but I guess the question is can he do it when starting? Otherwise unchanged from the Derby game.

Yeah it’s a big chance for Dennis and a very attacking line up. Missing this as in Kos but hoping we can get a positive result.

Pitch looks great mind!

 

[Chris FGR]

We have pretty much our strongest possible starting line-up today, really need to get something from this game.

Strongest possible without having Stevens, Matt, Dokes or Brown available to start.

But yeah at least we’ve got two up front and finally an actual lwb who can play lwb.

 

[Super_horns]

Feel Liam Manning might be the next manage sacked..

 

[valefan16]

Awful performance so far, just switched off for two free kicks and game over. Possibly unlucky not to be facing ten men early doors as it looked naughty from Wickham but as we all know it’s the most Vale thing to go and win and Derby then get beat by a side near the bottom at home.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Never say game over with us and a lead but this is a pleasant surprise.

 

[PlymouthCasual]

I know we were warned but what a shadow of the side of last season MK are. Men vs boys here today

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Well what a half that was. I wasnt expecting that. This team is really improving quickly

 

[valefan16]

A very worrying performance and from the high of last week to the cusp of the bottom four this week. Dire.

 

[kieran_vale]

If you can’t do the basics right this is what you end up with. Inability to control the ball or win first contacts on set pieces. We are not good enough to overcome being short on that.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

I know we were warned but what a shadow of the side of last season MK are. Men vs boys here today

You are doing what we should have done to them. Looks like we saved it for today!

 

[Floreat Salopia]

We’re playing very well and deserve to be more than one goal ahead at the break. Bayliss goal was a good strike with his weaker left foot which flew into the top bins. Leahy and Shipley have gone close and Pyke’s missed a one on one with the keeper making a solid save. Fleetwood have been very poor so far and I expect they’ll only get better second half.

Solid first half but disappointed not to be atleast two ahead.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Probably our worst half performance in 3 seasons. No urgency, no pattern, no fight. Forest Green haven't been great but they've not had to be. They've scored off 2 identical free kicks and are now playing prime Stevenage because that's what teams do now. One guy was slapping the ground in pain and is now running about. Ref has been dreadful but he's no excuse for why we are losing. We came out with the attitude that this would be a stroll.

 

[valefan16]

If you can’t do the basics right this is what you end up with. Inability to control the ball or win first contacts on set pieces. We are not good enough to overcome being short on that.

Seem to have been caught out assuming they were a small side of footballers. Hall should be back in that defence.

Think they’ve only had the two chances off set pieces and games gone.

Big changes and a bollocking needed.

 

[stevowanderer]

Defensively this season is probably the best I’ve seen us in years. It helps that Trafford is turning into an incredible gk. His improvement in the last 6-9 months has been amazing. No way we’ll be able to keep him next season even if we did go up.

Also getting the ball from our own box to the final third is the best is also possibly the best I’ve seen us in years (in most games). But when we get to the final third we just aren’t carving teams open - we seem to run out of ideas. Especially ones that defend deep with a back 5. And when we do get in we just aren’t clinical. Plus we are woeful at attacking set pieces which is such a huge part of the game.

I expected more from Barnsley today being a side that came down but it’s all just time wasting, long throws and a few late tackles. They haven’t even had a shot in the first half… they are bound to improve second half surely.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Forest Green have been brilliant at doing an impersonation of Stevenage. Wow. Incredible acting.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

Will Manning still be in charge tomorrow?