W 2-1 vs Stockport County (H) - League Two, Sat 12th August, 3:00pm

Was a decent view on ifollow. Was worried the ref would give it but never thought it was a pen. He’s got to the ball first.

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The two yellow cards one from each side was players frustration not getting the ball, the Stockport one especially, but you’re not going to knock that out of a player it’s natural instinct which is different than someone kicking the ball away at a free kick.

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Ref was just applying the new rules, but thought a couple of their cards were ridiculous. If they are going to continue with them they need some tweaking or clarification for the refs on how to apply them.

All this extra time will be a nightmare for me Tuesday. Have to come back home first as going with my nephews, then drive straight up to Darlington to be there for early meetings Wednesday morning. Can see it being midnight before I get home, so about 4 by the time I get to Darlington.

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Only way footballers will learn is this way though. As kicking the ball away, berating the ref etc is all ingrained into them early on. They’ve had enough warning they’ve got no excuse. Some silly yellow cards given out in the crossfire.

Go hard early. I think it flows more now especially with forced multi ball system. I’m all for it myself. Absolutely sick to death of goalkeepers taking a minute to take a goal kick and the petulant knock of the ball away and the players taking forever to go and get the ball. I haven’t paid loads of money to watch a goalkeeper stroll about.

Think the added time is a bit daft but it will settle down soon on that front.

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A useful run through of the changes and rationale for people like me still trying to figure out why we’re playing 107 minute matches.

11 minutes added first half of the Brentford game

Can’t wait for Klopp to go full Hitler about it later when their game lasts 110 mins, especially if Chelsea score during any added on time :rofl:

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On the flip side, we all pay for 90 minutes of football so any minutes added on afterwards we’re seeing for free. Give it a couple of years and we’ll be seeing 45 minutes added on because players don’t learn.

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What I’ve liked this season thus far as regards Liam is how he’s added much more attacking intent into his game and is looking more and more like a wing back.Against Morecambe he jinked inside and outside of their defender down that side and again yesterday looked so much more threatening.

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But it’s about custom and practice. We don’t actually pay for 90 minutes football, we pay for whatever time the ball was in play, which has always been, and still is, considerably less than 90 minutes. Now, players are being asked to be on the pitch for another 10-15 minutes a game, i.e. pro-rata, an extra game in every 6-9, or another 5-8 games a season. That is silly. If you want to stop time-wasting, as some has said, have a timekeeper and stop the clock whenever the ball is not in play, and have, say, 30 or 35 minutes for each half. At the moment, the ref calls 10 minutes and then plays 12 minutes. If the clock stopped for throw ins and goal kicks etc. players would stop taking so much time.

On the bookings, I am all for stopping arguing with the ref but booking someone for kicking the ball away at throw ins is hardly justifiable if more than ball is being used as players rarely use the same ball as is being kicked out.

Agreed but if you see any clips of his international appearances that seems his natural game. Don’t know if last season was how MF want him to play or a reaction to his injury.

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Could be mate I’ve not seen him on the international stage so if he usual does do this it could be we haven’t seen it until now for those reasons.

His injury based on what Flynn used to say about him. He did a couple of brilliant runs in the second half and managed to get one of their players booked by getting his body in the right position.

This could be see as a justifiable reason to increase ticket prices for some unscrupulous chairman .thank god Jeff’s gone .

Is it the ref adding the time on, as I’ve seen on tv matches they’ve shown a ref in the stand with a watch and note pad.

I thought Matt was disappointing. There was one occasion when he was manhandled off the ball by a guy almost half his size! His fitness is not good either - we need to see a big improvement from him.

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I thought Matt did well when he came on, he disrupted their defenders well. Although he was knackered after 5 minutes. Funny how we see games differently isn’t it?

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I felt he was the player who allowed the link-up play with Hutchinson resulting in our best period of play. I’d agree though that he’s a massive disappointment

This may in the wrong thread but I he only played 1 game so far and I know he his loan but can u put a offer in if thay wont to sell the draper and he wonts it in my imo on just 1 games I would try this but don’t if u can do this when he is on loan

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A fairly buoyant bordering on jubilant debrief today. First let’s get out of the way a couple of minor niggles.

Starting the game slowly, that’s two league games and two really slow starts, it costs us at Morecambe and could and possibly should have cost us yesterday. This front foot football Sadler had talked about needs to be implements from the first not the thirtieth minute. Also ball retention, thought it hampered us somewhat in the 2nd half and the ball keeps coming back. We were a bit slopdash at times on the ball.

However the above said I thought overall we were magnificent and Saddlers already having a real impact on this team. Firstly so refreshing to have real presence and danger up top, with the likes of DJ and Draper even when we’re not at our best we are capable of scoring from very little which should stand us in really good stead. Genuine strength from the bench too, Matt was a real handful and the pace of Ote really caused them problems when they were chasing the game and you’ve got Doug Taylor to add to that mix too. I thought 2nd half Hutchinson was fantastic, a series of runs driving us up the field and showing real intelligence. Stirk looks a proper player too, a really genuine all-round midfielder with a good engine.

I thought Gordon was excellent too, a real threat going forwards, more so than last season and rock solid defensively. Foulkes struggled somewhat but stuck at it and will be all the better for that experience. Central defence showed signs of straining at times under plenty of Stockport pressure but we restricted them to very little overall, superbly marshalled by captain fantastic DD.

I don’t think anyone played badly which gave us a huge dilemma for MOTM, at least half a dozen candidates but my Leamore Windows Player of the Match would have been Daniels.

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