An improvement

[danumdon]

Very none discript performance from us again, we play like an engine stuck in first gear, every now and then it frees itself just enough for us to have a little go before locking itself back in the low gear.

I went today with very little expectation and came away none the wiser. I liked that fact that DS tried to change the emphasis up front with Moly alongside Miller, i personally would have tried it with Moly and Lavery, it sort of worked in small spells, we huffed and puffed in midfield but could not get a great deal of traction, our first thought is still to turn and pass back even when some clear opening are apparent up front, this percentage crap really bothers me.

Unfortunate handling from Mitchell for their goal, just to add their no9 who scored with the mishit shot celebrated it like he'd won the cup, what a plonker he looked. Mitchell's stinger will be givng him some jip tonight i reckon.

Nelson had a better game paired with Olowu and they held firm just about all match until the last seconds where im not sure WTF happened but they should of scored, penalty area looked like the first few seconds on Utah beach circa 1944.

Seaman had a steady game and looked positive when he tried to run at them rather than pass as that side of the game needs real work, which he wont be taking any tips from Rowe who tried the floated ball down the line and behind the defender all game and never got a result once. Brown is very up and down in his performance,

Midfield looked a little bit more up for it today, Close asserted himself better in this match than i have seen all season, the trouble was that his passing didn't reach the same levels, Biggins covered the ground and should of had a couple more shots on target, Hurst came on and looked lightweight again, he needs to take his man on at least once a game, just to put some doubt in the defenders mind, it only needs to come off once,

Up top Miller put in his usual run around lots, look busy and committed but actually achieve absolutely nothing all game, glad he managed to get his shot off and score but he's become very anonymous, Lavery should of had the nod, especially with DS deciding to play Moly up top, he worked hard for little reward but kept at it.

So basically still a curate's egg, we win but with no real conviction, still a sort of a work in progress.

[ncRover]

5-3-2 was an improvement. We strung passes together nicely at times. Close showed for the ball more which really helped.

The defence and midfield did the basics much better and got stuck in more. Seaman really surprised me and brought good drive and intensity, as well as a superb assist (my MOTM). Rowe doesn’t have the legs for that position anymore but played decent at the back again.

That being said their number 9 was a poor player and was easy to deal with.

In terms of attack, I’m afraid that’s as good as you get with Miller and Molyneux up top.

Absolute clanger from Mitchell, how people continue to defend him is beyond me.

[BillyStubbsTears]

No agenda Dickos.

It's simply a fact that for the past 29 games we've been in 17th-place-in-the-table form.

I know you don't like that, but it is a fact.

It explains why we win some and lose some against the Wimbledons, the Crawleys and the Harrogates.

When you say we win some and lose some, out of the sides you’ve mentioned we’ve played 4 games and won 2, drawn 1 and lost 1.
7 points from 4 games, pretty good

Grand. All's good with the world then.

[ncRover]

Still have big concerns about Brown, again today he seemed to amble back without a rush in him. Also with a few injuries we will struggle for quality as our replacements aren’t all up to it

No outfield subs used today says it all.

[Campsall rover]

No agenda Dickos.

It's simply a fact that for the past 29 games we've been in 17th-place-in-the-table form.

I know you don't like that, but it is a fact.

It explains why we win some and lose some against the Wimbledons, the Crawleys and the Harrogates.

But it’s been a 35 game season so far.  Not 29 games.
So after the season has finished and if by some miracle we finish 7th ( no I don’t think it will happen )
Then we are going to discount the 1st 6 games.

There are always going to be games that we are 2nd best and win and ones we were dominant and lose.
That’s football.
It applies to all 24 teams in this league and all teams in every league.

[normal rules]

a win is a win. scrappy. not a confident display by any stretch.
DS has to be eyeing a draw at salford and a win at crawley.
perhaps then, the outlook may improve.
credit for changing things up front, maybe his head has been turned.

[Filo]

Still have big concerns about Brown, again today he seemed to amble back without a rush in him. Also with a few injuries we will struggle for quality as our replacements aren’t all up to it

No outfield subs used today says it all.

Hurst came on for Lakin

[dickos1]

No agenda Dickos.

It's simply a fact that for the past 29 games we've been in 17th-place-in-the-table form.

I know you don't like that, but it is a fact.

It explains why we win some and lose some against the Wimbledons, the Crawleys and the Harrogates.

We’re 14th actually

[Chris Black come back]

I think anyone sentient wrote this season off a long time ago, but that aside, we haven’t really improved since the day he took over, even though he has had a window to make some progress with this patently dysfunctional squad. I haven’t done the ppg versus McSheffrey for a while but I suspect it is either worse or very close to him. We’re poor and don’t seem to have really progressed.

[danumdon]

a win is a win. scrappy. not a confident display by any stretch.
DS has to be eyeing a draw at salford and a win at crawley.
perhaps then, the outlook may improve.
credit for changing things up front, maybe his head has been turned.

Im hoping someone with authority has read him the riot act, to keep doing the same things with an unresponsive squad is madness personified. If he's been dragged kicking and screaming to this point then he needs to look at it again but with some more urgency, going 2-1 up and shutting shop is usually suicide for us, we got away with it today because they were so dire, next time we might not be so lucky.

[ncRover]

Still have big concerns about Brown, again today he seemed to amble back without a rush in him. Also with a few injuries we will struggle for quality as our replacements aren’t all up to it

No outfield subs used today says it all.

Hurst came on for Lakin

Oh yes I forgot that sorry due to injury, but no tactical ones. Todd and Barlow obviously not trusted.

[BillyStubbsTears]

No agenda Dickos.

It's simply a fact that for the past 29 games we've been in 17th-place-in-the-table form.

I know you don't like that, but it is a fact.

It explains why we win some and lose some against the Wimbledons, the Crawleys and the Harrogates.

But it’s been a 35 game season so far.  Not 29 games.
So after the season has finished and if by some miracle we finish 7th ( no I don’t think it will happen )
Then we are going to discount the 1st 6 games.

There are always going to be games that we are 2nd best and win and ones we were dominant and lose.
That’s football.
It applies to all 24 teams in this league and all teams in every league.

Christ this is hard

I'm NOT saying we are or should be 15th-20th in the table over the whole season.

That would be stupid and I try not to be stupid.

I'm saying that for the past 2/3rds of a season, we've nmbern playing at 15th-20th place form. Which explains why our results against sides you'd expect a strong team to regularly beat are not so good.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Twist the numbers what ever way you like to say whatever you want then to say. When you watch us play we aren’t great and are certainly no challengers for the playoffs.

Find some stats to to show otherwise. They’ll be worthless

[Reg of the Rovers]

5-3-2 was an improvement. We strung passes together nicely at times. Close showed for the ball more which really helped.

The defence and midfield did the basics much better and got stuck in more. Seaman really surprised me and brought good drive and intensity, as well as a superb assist (my MOTM). Rowe doesn’t have the legs for that position anymore but played decent at the back again.

That being said their number 9 was a poor player and was easy to deal with.

In terms of attack, I’m afraid that’s as good as you get with Miller and Molyneux up top.

Absolute clanger from Mitchell, how people continue to defend him is beyond me.

Completely agree re Seaman, MoM for me today. Otherwise I thought we were awful, we're so slow - Close should wear his slippers to play in, his slow trot around the pitch and standing still for a couple of seconds every time he receives the ball sucks all attacking momentum out of us. The quality of this league is dreadful - with forward passing, proper wide men and strikers with support we'd have beaten these today 4+. Instead we would almost drew to a last minute equaliser. The score was an improvement, overall I thought that was as poor a performance as Tuesday though and shaved another few hundred people off our attendance.

[Campsall rover]

No agenda Dickos.

It's simply a fact that for the past 29 games we've been in 17th-place-in-the-table form.

I know you don't like that, but it is a fact.

It explains why we win some and lose some against the Wimbledons, the Crawleys and the Harrogates.

But it’s been a 35 game season so far.  Not 29 games.
So after the season has finished and if by some miracle we finish 7th ( no I don’t think it will happen )
Then we are going to discount the 1st 6 games.

There are always going to be games that we are 2nd best and win and ones we were dominant and lose.
That’s football.
It applies to all 24 teams in this league and all teams in every league.

Christ this is hard

I'm NOT saying we are or should be 15th-20th in the table over the whole season.

That would be stupid and I try not to be stupid.

I'm saying that for the past 2/3rds of a season, we've nmbern playing at 15th-20th place form. Which explains why our results against sides you'd expect a strong team to regularly beat are not so good.

Billy my last word on this. No doubt you will want the very last word though.

Your words not mine. “Discounting the 1st 6 games we are in a group of teams around 15th to 20th in the league”
What I am saying why discount the 1st 6 games. Are they not part of the season for some reason.
You can take any no of games away to fit whatever agenda you like but the reality is those 6 games do count. Whether we should have got 14 points from them or not is irrelevant. That fact is we did.
So all I am saying is you can’t dissect the season into segments to try and make us out to be worse than we actually are.

We did play very well v Stockport at home and Northampton away.
Defended brilliantly at Bradford to get a point with 10 men and came from 2-0 down to draw at Wimbledon.
So that leaves Sutton at home which we won with late goals after being poor for 75 mins and dug out a scrappy win v Salford. 

Performances have been inconsistent throughout the season.

Northampton A, Stockport H under GM. Grimsby A, Carlisle H, Leyton Orient A, Swindon A and 1st half today v Wimbledon spring to mind as very good performances.
The fact is in some games we have showed we are a very decent team at this level. That to me says we do have the players which are capable of much better than where we are in the table.
Yes we are short of 2/3 which would make us a top 3 team, but this manager has failed to get the team to perform to their capabilities which is top 7 imo. That’s down mostly imo due to flawed tactics.

End of.

[ncRover]

5-3-2 was an improvement. We strung passes together nicely at times. Close showed for the ball more which really helped.

The defence and midfield did the basics much better and got stuck in more. Seaman really surprised me and brought good drive and intensity, as well as a superb assist (my MOTM). Rowe doesn’t have the legs for that position anymore but played decent at the back again.

That being said their number 9 was a poor player and was easy to deal with.

In terms of attack, I’m afraid that’s as good as you get with Miller and Molyneux up top.

Absolute clanger from Mitchell, how people continue to defend him is beyond me.

Completely agree re Seaman, MoM for me today. Otherwise I thought we were awful, we're so slow - Close should wear his slippers to play in, his slow trot around the pitch and standing still for a couple of seconds every time he receives the ball sucks all attacking momentum out of us. The quality of this league is dreadful - with forward passing, proper wide men and strikers with support we'd have beaten these today 4+. Instead we would almost drew to a last minute equaliser. The score was an improvement, overall I thought that was as poor a performance as Tuesday though and shaved another few hundred people off our attendance.

Biggins also decent today.

With these players there is just a ceiling that we have to accept for the rest of the season.

Doesn’t help with forward passes that Miller either fumbles his touch or doesn’t jump and challenge.

Molyneux also gives the ball away far too much.

[Silkscarf]

I listened on Follow. I don’t remember hearing Molly’s name at all. Great we had someone up with George but how did he do?

[Bessie Red]

5-3-2 was an improvement. We strung passes together nicely at times. Close showed for the ball more which really helped.

The defence and midfield did the basics much better and got stuck in more. Seaman really surprised me and brought good drive and intensity, as well as a superb assist (my MOTM). Rowe doesn’t have the legs for that position anymore but played decent at the back again.

That being said their number 9 was a poor player and was easy to deal with.

In terms of attack, I’m afraid that’s as good as you get with Miller and Molyneux up top.

Absolute clanger from Mitchell, how people continue to defend him is beyond me.

Completely agree re Seaman, MoM for me today. Otherwise I thought we were awful, we're so slow - Close should wear his slippers to play in, his slow trot around the pitch and standing still for a couple of seconds every time he receives the ball sucks all attacking momentum out of us. The quality of this league is dreadful - with forward passing, proper wide men and strikers with support we'd have beaten these today 4+. Instead we would almost drew to a last minute equaliser. The score was an improvement, overall I thought that was as poor a performance as Tuesday though and shaved another few hundred people off our attendance.

Today's performance cannot be compared with Tuesday nights performance in any way shape or form.
We were utterly bereft of any positives on Tuesday, the passing was atrocious, there was no aggressiveness, no sign of any technical ability, no signs of any tactical plan. I am not saying today was anywhere near wher we need to be but it was such an improvement from Tuesday.

[Reg of the Rovers]

I listened on Follow. I don’t remember hearing Molly’s name at all. Great we had someone up with George but how did he do?

I like Molyneux but not his best game today, ball seemed to get caught under his feet whenever he got it. It needed Lavery on for me.

[EasyforDennis]

I listened on Follow. I don’t remember hearing Molly’s name at all. Great we had someone up with George but how did he do?

Hopeless!!

[Reg of the Rovers]

5-3-2 was an improvement. We strung passes together nicely at times. Close showed for the ball more which really helped.

The defence and midfield did the basics much better and got stuck in more. Seaman really surprised me and brought good drive and intensity, as well as a superb assist (my MOTM). Rowe doesn’t have the legs for that position anymore but played decent at the back again.

That being said their number 9 was a poor player and was easy to deal with.

In terms of attack, I’m afraid that’s as good as you get with Miller and Molyneux up top.

Absolute clanger from Mitchell, how people continue to defend him is beyond me.

Completely agree re Seaman, MoM for me today. Otherwise I thought we were awful, we're so slow - Close should wear his slippers to play in, his slow trot around the pitch and standing still for a couple of seconds every time he receives the ball sucks all attacking momentum out of us. The quality of this league is dreadful - with forward passing, proper wide men and strikers with support we'd have beaten these today 4+. Instead we would almost drew to a last minute equaliser. The score was an improvement, overall I thought that was as poor a performance as Tuesday though and shaved another few hundred people off our attendance.

Today's performance cannot be compared with Tuesday nights performance in any way shape or form.
We were utterly bereft of any positives on Tuesday, the passing was atrocious, there was no aggressiveness, no sign of any technical ability, no signs of any tactical plan. I am not saying today was anywhere near wher we need to be but it was such an improvement from Tuesday.

Marginally better in my opinion. I think the fact we won one and lost the other makes it feel a better performance than it was, but Seaman aside, to a man I thought we were very very poor today. The referee was also utterly dreadful which I think masks our poor performance a bit, as we have someone else to blame.

[ravenrover]

5-3-2 was an improvement. We strung passes together nicely at times. Close showed for the ball more which really helped.

The defence and midfield did the basics much better and got stuck in more. Seaman really surprised me and brought good drive and intensity, as well as a superb assist (my MOTM). Rowe doesn’t have the legs for that position anymore but played decent at the back again.

That being said their number 9 was a poor player and was easy to deal with.

In terms of attack, I’m afraid that’s as good as you get with Miller and Molyneux up top.

Absolute clanger from Mitchell, how people continue to defend him is beyond me.

Completely agree re Seaman, MoM for me today. Otherwise I thought we were awful, we're so slow - Close should wear his slippers to play in, his slow trot around the pitch and standing still for a couple of seconds every time he receives the ball sucks all attacking momentum out of us. The quality of this league is dreadful - with forward passing, proper wide men and strikers with support we'd have beaten these today 4+. Instead we would almost drew to a last minute equaliser. The score was an improvement, overall I thought that was as poor a performance as Tuesday though and shaved another few hundred people off our attendance.

Biggins also decent today.

With these players there is just a ceiling that we have to accept for the rest of the season.

Doesn’t help with forward passes that Miller either fumbles his touch or doesn’t jump and challenge.

Molyneux also gives the ball away far too much.

Thete was amouth near me screaming fir Miller to get off his feet for every long ball pumped up to him.
I ask one question if he did make a challenge and actually win the ball in the air, what effect does it have ? He has no one to feed off it.
Pumping long high balls to him is simply giving the ball back to the opposition the centre backs in every team I have seen are just too strong for him and  many of our other players

[Campsall rover]

I listened on Follow. I don’t remember hearing Molly’s name at all. Great we had someone up with George but how did he do?

Hopeless!!

Disagree. Hopeless is an insult. He worked very hard today. Yes we do need more end product from him.

Hard to believe though he was in the League 2 team of the year last season. Scored was it 9 or 11 goals and had one of the highest assist numbers in the league. Hartlepool finished below half way last season also.

Something seriously wrong that we haven’t seen that level of performance from him for us.

[EasyforDennis]

I listened on Follow. I don’t remember hearing Molly’s name at all. Great we had someone up with George but how did he do?

Hopeless!!

Disagree. Hopeless is an insult. He worked very hard today. Yes we do need more end product from him.

Hard to believe though he was in the League 2 team of the year last season. Scored was it 9 or 11 goals and had one of the highest assist numbers in the league. Hartlepool finished below half way last season also.

Something seriously wrong that we haven’t seen that level of performance from him for us.

Its all about opinions. He has had one good game all season for me.

[Campsall rover]

5-3-2 was an improvement. We strung passes together nicely at times. Close showed for the ball more which really helped.

The defence and midfield did the basics much better and got stuck in more. Seaman really surprised me and brought good drive and intensity, as well as a superb assist (my MOTM). Rowe doesn’t have the legs for that position anymore but played decent at the back again.

That being said their number 9 was a poor player and was easy to deal with.

In terms of attack, I’m afraid that’s as good as you get with Miller and Molyneux up top.

Absolute clanger from Mitchell, how people continue to defend him is beyond me.

Completely agree re Seaman, MoM for me today. Otherwise I thought we were awful, we're so slow - Close should wear his slippers to play in, his slow trot around the pitch and standing still for a couple of seconds every time he receives the ball sucks all attacking momentum out of us. The quality of this league is dreadful - with forward passing, proper wide men and strikers with support we'd have beaten these today 4+. Instead we would almost drew to a last minute equaliser. The score was an improvement, overall I thought that was as poor a performance as Tuesday though and shaved another few hundred people off our attendance.

Today's performance cannot be compared with Tuesday nights performance in any way shape or form.
We were utterly bereft of any positives on Tuesday, the passing was atrocious, there was no aggressiveness, no sign of any technical ability, no signs of any tactical plan. I am not saying today was anywhere near wher we need to be but it was such an improvement from Tuesday.

Marginally better in my opinion. I think the fact we won one and lost the other makes it feel a better performance than it was, but Seaman aside, to a man I thought we were very very poor today. The referee was also utterly dreadful which I think masks our poor performance a bit, as we have someone else to blame.

It was a million miles better than Tuesday. How you can say marginally better I don’t understand.

Yes long way from being great, especially 2nd half, but Tuesday we hardly put 2 passes together. Never put anything remotely resembling a tackle in and created precisely nothing except having one goal mouth scrap where we couldn’t get the ball in the net.

Today we passed the ball, won the ball back and played with more passion and purpose.
No comparison to Tuesday.
Still much more improvement needed if we are going to get make a late charge for the play offs.

To be honest I am not too concerned we don’t make the top 7 . Think a summer of recruitment and clearing out some dead wood will stand us in better stead. We need 3 quality additions in the summer to make us a team capable of auto promotion next season.
We need to go up as a strong team one that can comfortably finish top 12 in league 1.
It’s no good going up to come straight down again.

[Sammy Chung was King]

In my opinion the manager tries to be too clever at times. He wants to stick to one way of playing and won’t alter it. This league needs a solid and consistent team to get promoted. We signed Molyneux then we don’t play him in the position that made us sign him. Rather than promote a youth left back he puts Rowe in there, as he has this season.

Miller was scoring goals at the start of the season then for some unknown reason the players start lumping long balls towards him and the goals dry up. Doesn’t the manager say to them “This isn’t working lads?!

Which manager has won league titles playing exactly the same formation game after game, because I can’t think of one that has achieved it. He needs to have alternatives when things go wrong.
Good result today a bit more support to Miller, let’s see more of it.

[ncRover]

In my opinion the manager tries to be too clever at times. He wants to stick to one way of playing and won’t alter it. This league needs a solid and consistent team to get promoted. We signed Molyneux then we don’t play him in the position that made us sign him. Rather than promote a youth left back he puts Rowe in there, as he has this season.

Miller was scoring goals at the start of the season then for some unknown reason the players start lumping long balls towards him and the goals dry up. Doesn’t the manager say to them “This isn’t working lads?!

Which manager has won league titles playing exactly the same formation game after game, because I can’t think of one that has achieved it. He needs to have alternatives when things go wrong.
Good result today a bit more support to Miller, let’s see more of it.

Sammy I don’t understand what you want here.

Some fans like yourself here simultaneously think we are not good enough to play crisp passing football (played some decent stuff yesterday at times) but are up in arms when we play more direct? We are limited with the personnel we have due to thoughtless recruitment.

George Miller is actually not a bad size. He should win more than he does aerially and should at least try to jump and win the header.

Yes he has previously been isolated, but today in the new formation he had more support. Had he won a header and had a better first touch that would have brought others in to play.

As we are in league 2, either George plays off a bigger more technically sound forward next year or he takes on the role of plucky sub striker. Because he does get in to goal scoring positions. He’s good at that and putting in the yard hards.

On Molyneux, we have tried him on the right wing all season and it hasn’t worked. As Gaz said, he is a one trick pony who’s trick isn’t very good.

[Lesonthewest]

I listened on Follow. I don’t remember hearing Molly’s name at all. Great we had someone up with George but how did he do?

I like Molyneux but not his best game today, ball seemed to get caught under his feet whenever he got it. It needed Lavery on for me.

He was awful, caught in possession constantly.

[Lesonthewest]

In my opinion the manager tries to be too clever at times. He wants to stick to one way of playing and won’t alter it. This league needs a solid and consistent team to get promoted. We signed Molyneux then we don’t play him in the position that made us sign him. Rather than promote a youth left back he puts Rowe in there, as he has this season.

Miller was scoring goals at the start of the season then for some unknown reason the players start lumping long balls towards him and the goals dry up. Doesn’t the manager say to them “This isn’t working lads?!

Which manager has won league titles playing exactly the same formation game after game, because I can’t think of one that has achieved it. He needs to have alternatives when things go wrong.
Good result today a bit more support to Miller, let’s see more of it.

This. It's a good result, & the positives were we had players nearer to Miller & got players in the box. We even played a few balls into the feet of Miller which was better. The passing was better too. It was an improvement, but let's not get carried away we are still miles away from being promotion contenders, & the opposition were truly awful.

[ForsolongaRover]

From the sound commentary and the extended highlights Wimbledon seemed to have the better of the second half and some scoring chances too - more shots and twice as many on target.

What did those there see as the reason for this?