L 2-0 vs Stockport County (H) - League Two - Thur 29th Dec, 7:45pm

Just an observation, White has missed a number of headers over the past 12 months I wonder if he needs an optician.

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Unless I’m missing something not sure that is what is needed at present. Get him a loan move in Jan to get game time as he is no doubt a potential talent, but he hasn’t featured since Oct against MK in the EFL Trophy. Last time he featured in the league was in September. I think we saw more of him earlier in the season due to injuries.

He’s only following orders, from what I can see the back 3 are the only ones allowed to make forward passes,most of which go astray. And what’s the rugby lineout at kick offs all about, and the long throws that our giant defenders can never get anywhere near heading it,but we keep doing it anyway.

Nah, he is just shite at heading which makes it even more baffling that we launched it to him as a tactic yesterday.

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I dont think maher is ready. We need seasoned league 2 pros at the moment

I know he was injured a couple of weeks ago, i think thats why he hasn’t featured on the bench lately

Amazing how many players were perfectly good for 3 months are suddenly useless in some peoples eyes after a poor performance, against a good side :joy::joy::joy:

Football fans eh. Suddenly everyone who wasn’t playing is a solution :joy:

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It’s very interesting resding the comments on here…i think i must have been at a different game to some.

First off, Stockport were excellent. It would very much surprise me if they didnt make a run of it now and end up in the automatic promotion spots. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat and recognise greater quality.

Secondly, the goals! Here’s where the blame lies;

First goal - a jump in by Earing in midfield and then their player who crossed the ball was allowed to advance 20-30 yards into our half and have a free cross, completely unchallenged.

Second goal - all came from a decent ball out to knowles which, for some inexplicable reason, he decided to wait for instead of move towards, allowing their player to nip, take the ball and, again, advance unchallenged through the midfield area.

And that is where the game was won and lost - midfield. How anyone can say kinsella came out with credit is beyond me. Effort maybe? Otherwise, he, hutchison and earing were completely dominated physically by the Stockport midfield. It was real men against boys. Kinsella v Hippolyte would have been stopped if it was a boxing match, such was the mismatch. Every time hutchison tried to carry the ball, he was manoeuvred off it by faster and stronger opposition players. In fact, the only one who looked like he could compete on anything like the same level was maddox, who was at least more effective.

Of course, people like to have a go at white, and completely ignore the huge shift he put in. Not only was he expected to be part of the back 3, every time we attacked, he was expected to be pretty much up front battling for headers (not with much success, i might add, such was the physical domination of Stockport).

As for Johnson, on a night like last night, you can see clearly why other managers might not fancy him. Completely anonymous, failed to make himself available for the pass, failed to comlete physically. But, of course, he does score goals. I think there’s a weighing up process for Flynn there - we need those goals but, if the right player could be sourced, could someone else add more to the overall team? Difficult to know.

A word for Evans - superb.

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Nigel Pepper

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Good post.I agree with all of it…indeed my much shorter posts on last night were along the same lines.

Don’t really disagree with any of that, however as defenders you have to expect to defend some crosses during a game. White completely missed the header for the first and Monthe let his man get in front of him, which was from a cross the other side of the pitch that Knowles lost the ball (not that I am absolving him of culpability) for the second. Midfield was definitely the issue and as you allude, Evans kept the score down which would indicate we didn’t defend as team well.

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I am not in the Monthe love in club. He’s not terrible, but he’s not incredible. Their number 6 yesterday was light years better than him.

Yesterday was a good example of why he isn’t playing in league one. He’s caught out of position quite a lot - and always has a mistake in him.

Yeah - had to be for persistent foul play. He had a bit of a 'mare in my opinion did Kinsella, and I say that as a big fan.

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For balance and the ā€˜opposing’ view - yesterday’s performance by Kinsella and the midfield in general - was what I have feared and predicted for a long time.

As soon as we play anyone with a really top quality midfield - we get pulled all over the place. The make up of the midfield yesterday wasn’t right - and in hindsight I think Flynn might have approached it differently.

Before the Kinsella-club jump in, I am not blaming him for yesterday - but it’s just an example of why I think we need better quality in that holding position.

Saying that… we seemed to revert to the Kinsella in the advanced right-of-centre Kinsella mode yesterday - which I really don’t think suits him. I wonder why? Guess a Flynn decision but it didn’t work. It didn’t work with Earing as well, nor whatever position Hutch was supposed to be in. It looked to me like Earing was almost man-marking their number 14 - which I think would have been better suited to Kinsella.

We were totally overrun in midfield in first half - their defenders were bringing ball out of defence and neither midfield or forwards were attempting to break the play up.

Kinsella should not be played in that more advanced role - let him do what he is best at, break the play up and distribute the ball.

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I had a similar thing. Instead of my usual red coat, I put a long blue coat on. My husband was texting me through the match saying it’s my fault for wearing the blue coat!

Yeah it was a revert back to the first 10 games - I don’t understand why :joy:

It was also highly noticeable they pushed 5/6 players against our back 5 - what had to turn into a back 6/7 whenever they had the ball at the back.

We just couldn’t cope with it - there were massive holes everywhere / like the space their defender had to run about 40 yards into for the first goal.

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Such misplaced hostility in one so young.

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Unfortunately we came up against an excellent League 2 side. All that happened yesterday was their top quality league 1/2 players exposed our lesser quality players.

We aren’t a bad side, just not as good as Stockport. We will probably be fine against most other teams in the league.

However, to get to Stockports level we need to invest in real quality across the board. That’s probably a season away unfortunately.

We will probably be in and around Top 10 (assuming we replace DJ and Bennett). Let’s keep the faith. UTS

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:joy: I don’t mind him in the 3 in the deep lying role - as per my post yesterday - but absolutely not in that more advanced role.

I don’t think it’s controversial to say that, and there was a stark contrast in both quality and tactics yesterday. The question for me is how much was it the quality of the players, and the the quality of the tactics by the opposing manager.

Hopefully it was a one-off and we see a better performance by that midfield against Mansfield. I don’t really know too much about whether they have a good midfield or not - but it will be interesting to see what Flynn does to shake it up a bit. I would imagine it will be Maddox or Comley in for Earing.