Subs

[Padge_DRFC]

Billy didn't play right wing though. Grant changed the shape to. 3/5 at the back. We were very unlucky today

Billy is a legend but he shouldn't be playing at this level any more.

Agreed blurred vision from scoring v league 2 reserve team

[Chris Black come back]

I think Pearson was omitted because we didn't have a full back on the bench and Grehan can in theory play full back. Or Bailey can go out right back and Grehan can go in centre.

[GazLaz]

On subs, was the balance of the bench right? Two strikers, two wingers, a centre mid and a centre back…

How Senior starts over Maxwell is another strange decision. There’s quite a lot of daylight in between their level of ability.

[anton123]

On subs, was the balance of the bench right? Two strikers, two wingers, a centre mid and a centre back…

How Senior starts over Maxwell is another strange decision. There’s quite a lot of daylight in between their level of ability.

Senior for me is in the side on merit and is infront of maxwell as it stands but that’s just my opinion and we all have them I guess

[NickDRFC]

On subs, was the balance of the bench right? Two strikers, two wingers, a centre mid and a centre back…

How Senior starts over Maxwell is another strange decision. There’s quite a lot of daylight in between their level of ability.

You’ve said this a lot about Maxwell and I think you’re probably right in terms of natural ability but Senior has brought far more to the side from what I’ve seen this season.

[GazLaz]

On subs, was the balance of the bench right? Two strikers, two wingers, a centre mid and a centre back…

How Senior starts over Maxwell is another strange decision. There’s quite a lot of daylight in between their level of ability.

You’ve said this a lot about Maxwell and I think you’re probably right in terms of natural ability but Senior has brought far more to the side from what I’ve seen this season.

Maxwell is better attacking, defensively and with ball progression. Senior alway looks to be busting a gut for the team which I think makes people buy into him. Each to their own tho.

[DRFCSouth]

If its not broke don't fix it. Should have left it later before making subs.Took off Adelakun who was very influential.  Then Molyneux. Very bizarre. 

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

On subs, was the balance of the bench right? Two strikers, two wingers, a centre mid and a centre back…

How Senior starts over Maxwell is another strange decision. There’s quite a lot of daylight in between their level of ability.

You’ve said this a lot about Maxwell and I think you’re probably right in terms of natural ability but Senior has brought far more to the side from what I’ve seen this season.

If argue all our goals were that side....

[Thorney]

Im all for if it aint broke then dont't fix it.

But i also believe that when that far in front and comfortable, then any manager in any league should have the comfort of making changes with 1 eye on a game in 3 days without the worry of the players f**king it up.

[Chris Black come back]

It is not entirely clear let's be honest that we have the players in midfield to just keep possession when we are trying to hold on to a lead. We've got the players to attack but not keep the ball.

[jmt23]

I also agree on merit Senior deserves his place, Maxwell has been poor this season, his second touch is normally a tackle, and we can’t afford that this season.
Senior is more of a threat going forward too.

I don’t like hearing all the Grant out voices, I think we are on the cusp of something decent, but we need a better defensive unit, that can only come from a “real leader/organiser” that is what this team needs, they are all too quiet.
We also need a decent attacking midfielder, Clifton is ok, but nothing more. The squad is full of midfielders who play in the same deep area, this needs thinning out.

With that said I can absolutely agree Grants subs in taking Mols and Haks off killed us.

The midfield was off today too, hidden by an excellent display from Gotts, but both Broadbent and Clifton were anonymous.

Not sure what’s happening with Gibbo, he’s been so poor for a long time now, but today was an all time low.

[Nudga]

GM subs have been b*llocks most games this season. His subs are killing us.

It's like he's managing sn under 10s team and trying to keep kids and parents happy with game time. I'm starting to lose patience with him now.

[Fal]

For me today is the first time where i believe McCann got it wrong with his subs, they were just plain bizarre. The only reason i can slightly understand is due to having a game on tuesday and thinking ahead however we looked a completely different team when Adelakun and Frankie went off, we couldn't hold the ball up anymore and didn't look threatening anymore, Hanlan just seems to not be able to control a football and complains that he gets manhandled all the time and then the cherry on top of the cake was taking Molyneux off who was having a fantastic game.

He is right though, we should've been even futher out of sight with 28 shots that we have.

However, despite how sickening today feels i still think we will stay up. I would've taken 4 points from Wimbledon/Wigan, its just the manner that it makes it feel like a loss today. Although its not season defining we need to pick up 3 points on Tuesday against the worst defensive side in the league.

[Ryaldinhio]

Given we have a game Tuesday and an early kick off saturday using substitutes to mange players minutes when in a comfortable lead is totally the right thing to do.

The fact the bench isnt as strong as those on the pitch is a different matter.

[Chris Black come back]

In that scenario the least worst option would have been take off the front three and put Gibson on left, Hanlan on right and Billy in the middle. That at least has benefit of playing them all in their favoured positions. Totally wild to play both Hanlan and Sharp through the middle together. No idea what was expected to happen there.

[Nudga]

Given we have a game Tuesday and an early kick off saturday using substitutes to mange players minutes when in a comfortable lead is totally the right thing to do.

The fact the bench isnt as strong as those on the pitch is a different matter.

Why not just give some players an extra day off from training?
No need to put them through it on Monday. 

[sedwardsdrfc]

If Pearson is fit why wasn’t he on the bench so much better than Grehan and should start ahead of McGarth anyway

[Ryaldinhio]

Given we have a game Tuesday and an early kick off saturday using substitutes to mange players minutes when in a comfortable lead is totally the right thing to do.

The fact the bench isnt as strong as those on the pitch is a different matter.

Why not just give some players an extra day off from training?
No need to put them through it on Monday.

How do you know that isnt already the plan? Or light training Monday?

Haks needed minutes managing in his previous time with us. Clearly Frankie does as well given the injury scare in last game so they will be conscious of easing him in and building minutes up.

At 3.0 up making them changes was the right thing to do with an eye on Tue IMO.

[drfchound]

I don't really know how that happened, we weren't even under the cosh at any point, such a weird way to lose the points.

I thought overall we played really well but have to be critical at both ends of the pitch. Should have scored more than 3 and certainly shouldn't have conceded 3. Albeit the first is a good strike and their other 2 good crosses.  Frustrating.

Perhaps the subs weren't the right ones that's for sure.

He mage changes to solve nonexistent problems.

We were largely very good, head and shoulders above them. Can’t do that after the heroics last week.

Clearly had an eye on Tuesday and I can understand that a little bit. Adelakun for one does need to manage his minutes.

We clearly have some players who can't make an impact. Grehan for me is not a league 1 player right now, Gibson is probably also in that bracket.  I don't understand why Pearson wasn't used today, exactly the player you'd want coming on.

Once it went to 3-0 we were talking about when would Grant make the inevitable substitutions.
At the time we were all over Wigan and we knew that he would want to rest some players  with Tuesday in mind.
We were thinking at the time that a fourth goal was likely and that we should wait until around 70 minutes and have the match won before the changes.
In other words, win this game and then think about the one on Tuesday.
As soon as Wigan got their first goal we looked really nervous and at 3-3 we did think we might lose the game.

[Nudga]

Given we have a game Tuesday and an early kick off saturday using substitutes to mange players minutes when in a comfortable lead is totally the right thing to do.

The fact the bench isnt as strong as those on the pitch is a different matter.

Why not just give some players an extra day off from training?
No need to put them through it on Monday.

How do you know that isnt already the plan? Or light training Monday?

Haks needed minutes managing in his previous time with us. Clearly Frankie does as well given the injury scare in last game so they will be conscious of easing him in and building minutes up.

At 3.0 up making them changes was the right thing to do with an eye on Tue IMO.

Obviously not, we let a 3 goal lead slip.

[Bills view]

We should have won.

Enjoyed the game.

Hate the result.

Sharp and Hanlon should not be on the pitch at the same time for me.

Grehan was odd, we weren’t under pressure. I have not been convinced by him.

[Ian Nimmo]

Grants decision regarding the subs was absolutely diabolical and changed the game completely.
He then has the nerve to blame everything on the players and takes no responsibility whatsoever.
The players were playing so well, and while I agree with Grant that they should have scored more, there confidence must have been sky high. And then he takes off players who making it happen, and replaces them with players who have not got a clue.
I have criticised Grant before for his selection, tactics etc. but never stated he should go, however after his decisions today and his post match comments, I believe he should seriously consider his position.

[ncRover]

We could do with another option to Clifton.

Gotts is not an attacking midfielder. Was great today.

We are wasting a loan spot on TLT.

[TonySoprano]

We should have won.

Enjoyed the game.

Hate the result.

Sharp and Hanlon should not be on the pitch at the same time for me.

Grehan was odd, we weren’t under pressure. I have not been convinced by him.

Hanlon shouldn't be on the pitch full stop

[Ian Nimmo]

We should have won.

Enjoyed the game.

Hate the result.

Sharp and Hanlon should not be on the pitch at the same time for me.

Grehan was odd, we weren’t under pressure. I have not been convinced by him.

Hanlon shouldn't be on the pitch full stop

I consider the majority of supporters agree with you, but why does McCann think differently about Hanlan, who I consider is totally out of his depth and should not be in any match day squads.

[Pliskin]

From 5 minutes to around 55 minutes we were all over them, an excellent performance from us in that period.

Up until 60 minutes the game couldn't have played out much better than it did. 3-0 up at home, and cruising with 30 minutes left to play. Honestly, what more could you want?

And we're still not capable of winning the game.

Sorry, but I find that so completely disheartening, that I can't take much encouragement from the performance.

Wigan had no business getting back into that game, they were terrible. Yet, when it mattered, our lack of resilience, organisation, composure, quality off the bench, and piss poor game management allowed them to do so without them even piling that much pressure on.

Worst result of our season by far, because to me it shows that we haven't got what it takes to get out of this.

[dickos1]

Wigan improved when their subs came our subs were not good enough. I question Grants decision making. First he takes off Adelakun and Eronokwo and brings two
Most ineffective forwards we have in Gibson and Hanlanthis effectively weaken our midfield aswell. Then he takes Broadbent off and brings on Robinson on at that stage it was 3 2 then to cap it all he takes off Molyneux and Clifton off and brings on Billy and Grehan weakened the midfield and defence really . The forward line had gone with the first subs. So went from 3.  0 up and should had 4 and 5 to drawing the game. Decision making very poor by Grant

They cancelled their subs, they didn’t come on until it was 3-2

[DonnyRover]

The fans saying we should be able to make these changes when 3-0 up must be watching a different team to me, in 4 of our last 8 games we’ve conceded 3 goals in one half of football, I wasn’t sat there comfortable at 3-0 today, there’s something fundamentally wrong how we can’t seem to reset and concentrate after we concede, one goal always seems to turn into 2,3 or worse and I don’t think it’s down to the players not being vocal enough as Grant seems to think that’s our biggest problem.

[Metalmicky]

I though we played well for large parts of the game today.... and could have been out of sight but for some average finishing and a keeper playing a blinder...  I had an awful feeling when they got one back (Mcgrath all over the place) and this didn't improve when I saw Gibson sauntering on like he was on a Sunday stroll.  We needed 30 minutes of energy and this guy is stealing a wage...  I think we put a lot of effort into the first 50 minutes and perhaps relaxed off and left the door open.  Let's hope we can move on and put things right on Tuesday.  Gotts rightfully MOTM today, followed by captain fantastic in Bails.. 

[Ryaldinhio]

Given we have a game Tuesday and an early kick off saturday using substitutes to mange players minutes when in a comfortable lead is totally the right thing to do.

The fact the bench isnt as strong as those on the pitch is a different matter.

Why not just give some players an extra day off from training?
No need to put them through it on Monday.

How do you know that isnt already the plan? Or light training Monday?

Haks needed minutes managing in his previous time with us. Clearly Frankie does as well given the injury scare in last game so they will be conscious of easing him in and building minutes up.

At 3.0 up making them changes was the right thing to do with an eye on Tue IMO.

Obviously not, we let a 3 goal lead slip.

Its an opinion pal, it cant be wrong.

The sub of Haks and Frankie at 3.0 up with a game on Tue was right. The performance of the team from 60mins onwards was the reason for losing a 3.0 lead.