Let's talk about the Harrogate Town game

[Prez]

Their fitness is unreal. Deserved it.

[Ryaldinhio]

Sterry should have stopped cross for first one.

Keeper couldn't have made himself any smaller for the second.

Hey ho, we are going to lose games this season but still guna win the league.

[Upton Rover]

There centre backs were far better than ours, no excuses it’s that simple. Poor overall performance

[Nudga]

Sterry should have stopped cross for first one.

Keeper couldn't have made himself any smaller for the second.

Hey ho, we are going to lose games this season but still guna win the league.

Sterry stopping crosses? Never in a month of Sundays. 
Piss poor defensively, makes the same mistakes every single match. He never learns.

[Ryaldinhio]

Sterry should have stopped cross for first one.

Keeper couldn't have made himself any smaller for the second.

Hey ho, we are going to lose games this season but still guna win the league.

Sterry stopping crosses? Never in a month of Sundays. 
Piss poor defensively, makes the same mistakes every single match. He never learns.

Agree

[Chris Black come back]

Never going to win that. Could tell from first 10 minutes. They got 11 behind ball from whistle being blow. We couldn’t get through that and could never break quick enough to get behind them. We need to do better because that’s not the only side who will do that against us this season. Really poor not to expect that and have a way through.

[Fortune-WestForever]

Got to say that Harrogate simply looked better than us. Doubled up on the wide players really well. Very well organised. Pressed hard when they needed to and took the chances they got.
Really poor defending for both goals from us though.

We can’t put blame on that decision to play on being a deciding factor tonight because it absolutely wasn’t, we gave possession away too easily.

I’d like to think it’s just early season gelling issues but that needs to be a wake up call for a couple of our lads who have had some  poor games recently. I don’t think I need to name names.

I’d love to know what Sbarra is doing wrong, he can’t seem to buy minutes.


Put that one behind us quickly and bounce back at MK. RTID

[StocksArmy]

Need to start showing some character when we are losing because it’s just chaos when we do. The moment we lose a goal panic sets in and it turns into a group of individuals making really poor decisions. At the end does anybody know what we were trying to do with the personnel on the pitch? Because it was all more hope than quality that was going to get us a goal back. It’s a worry as it happens a lot under GM. When the other team takes a lead it almost seems nailed on that they will get another. Well done to Harrogate because they headed, kicked, chased, fought and won every loose ball. We will do well to be that poor again all season. Ref also the worst we’ve had for a very long time.

[Ryaldinhio]

Never going to win that. Could tell from first 10 minutes. They got 11 behind ball from whistle being blow. We couldn’t get through that and could never break quick enough to get behind them. We need to do better because that’s not the only side who will do that against us this season. Really poor not to expect that and have a way through.

I know it's easily said in hindsight but honestly thought Ironside would've been starting tonight.

Then second half putting him on with Billy felt desperate and not practiced previously. Then became a big boot all time. Easy to defend.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Another big lesson for us all. There are no easy games plus, teams are likely to raise their games against us, although Weaver doesn't need much motivation to get another one over us.

We're not near enough the finished article to rise above whatever is thrown at us.

The good news is McCann will now hopefully avoid manager of the month.  Plenty of time now to reassess and tweak a few things.

[Alan Southstand]

GM needs to do some soul searching. When has 3 v 5 ever worked in midfield? And one of our 3 was Close!

That was not a top 3 performance or anywhere near it. We made it easy for Harrogate!

[Chris Black come back]

We’ve 12 points from 6 games so we are safely in automatic form but we’ve been soundly and easily beaten by two weak sides. That is a real concern. If they can learn, others can learn.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Never going to win that. Could tell from first 10 minutes. They got 11 behind ball from whistle being blow. We couldn’t get through that and could never break quick enough to get behind them. We need to do better because that’s not the only side who will do that against us this season. Really poor not to expect that and have a way through.

Totally agree. As you say we will come up against that frequently. I generally favour a different approach away from home to suck the home team out by being very conservative to start with. Be almost boring playing it across the pitch. Fans might not like it but it's a means to an end.

[i_ateallthepies]

Fair play to them. They've deserved this tonight. Faster, hungrier and stronger than us in every position.

This 100%.  Not one of our team won their individual battles in that game and the number of times the ball broke out of their defence 50/50 and the Harrogate player not only won the ball but easily outran his man whilst carrying the ball was seriously worrying.  Some of our players are not nearly as good as some people think.

[Butchers Red]

Talk about knee jerk reactions ??

The referee cost us the first and the 2nd was a fluke - other than that they didn't lay a glove on us, play that game 100 times over and we win it 90 times plus.

[pib]

Don't agree that the ref cost us the first. He played a good advantage, then we played a couple of passes and gave the ball away. He couldn't let the advantage run forever. There was no infringement after that from Harrogate so what's the problem?

[selby]

  Guess we had another Newport moment, but nice to know we have not lost our habit of getting teams back on track after not doing so well.
  We would do better playing top sides every week.

[jmt23]

Their first goal was very well taken, right in the corner from an acute angle - not much the keeper could doing about that (although some are trying to find a blame) at some point you have to realise it was great play, and a superb finish.

The second is a bit of Sunday league stuff really, and a bit embarrassing.

For all our possession not one “real" chance I can remember, it was all half chances, and we should be so much better with the talent we have.

A slight positive is I thought Hurst looked better, stronger more direct with his play.

[Metalmicky]

Had to laugh at this last night.....

Sky changing Doncaster from the usual DON to DR to prevent it from reading as HAR...DON...

[Jersey Rover]

We do tend to struggle as most teams would with the low block.Sure Grant will be on it but it really is our Achilles heel trying to break teams down that play like this. Sadly the better we are, the more we will come up against it.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Just seem the extended highlights and obviously the goals aside, there was some decent stuff. Things didn't come off in the final third, lacking quality on the final pass, cross, shot, header etc.

Even McGraths ventures into attacking areas are to be encouraged. We know he's a good striker of a ball, so if he can carry it deep into their territory, that's one of the ways we can counter the low block. Of course, we need to cover in behind and, give him an option if the shot isn't on.

Most of our efforts on goal weren't cleanly hit and gave their defence and keeper the chance to block  and clear.

Not a new phenomenon but working on crosses to pick someone out (as did Gibson to Molyneux) instead of too many percentage balls hoping someone gets near the ball. For example, their first was a great executed ball for their lad to attack. There was only one part of the goal he could have scored and he glanced it perfectly.  These are areas where Sharp, Ironside, Cilfton, Bailey are all capable of getting in if we commit to the runs.

On another day, it's a different result.

[Chris Black come back]

Moment it kicked off I was worried. That pitch looked tiny and they were crowding players from the first kick. No space for us to move or break.

[Pancho Regan]

One thing I thought was noteworthy at Harrogate Town was the quality of the tannoy system. It was as clear as a bell and I heard every single word.

A stark contrast to the Eco Power Stadium where I can hardly make out anything that is said.

[mushRTID]

One thing I thought was noteworthy at Harrogate Town was the quality of the tannoy system. It was as clear as a bell and I heard every single word.

A stark contrast to the Eco Power Stadium where I can hardly make out anything that is said.

It was quality, played some great turns too.

Only problem was you could hear the cheesy posh bloke on the mic perfectly. Really irritating man.

[andyst79]

Food was top drawer as well , also they had a lad coming down the que taking orders so they were ready by the time you got to the front

[welloffside]

Metal Micky,

 On that theme, what will they do when Cambridge United play Northampton Town !!

[BillyStubbsTears]

  Guess we had another Newport moment,

Was it "worryingly  bad" ?

Well done.

I'd like to reciprocate by remembering something you added to any discussion last month that stuck in my memory.

Give me a minute....



Nope.

[BillyStubbsTears]

My apologies. Been a tough week.