Accrington (H)

[ErnestTurnip 164]

Bench left us without many ways to change things, he could have maybe put Bunney in front of Fleming for more protection and to cancel out their right hand side but not sure what he could have done to mix it up when Crawford became more and more anonymous in the second half.

Should have held my nerve but cashed out just before one of our corners at around 70 mins in case we had a moment of magic, should know better by now.

[Johnnyrotten 243]

5 hours ago, DomRepWanderer said:

Their number 7 is decent mind.

He was quality that Jordan Clark, never heard of him but one of the best individual displays against us at Macron in this terrible league.

In 'normal' circumstances just the type of player we should be taking off our smaller rivals, maybe one for 2021 being optimistic.

[Johnnyrotten 243]

3 hours ago, Casino said:

Our left side was an absolute liabilty second half

The left back v their right winger was reminiscent of alonso v duff

Destroyed him, but to be fair fleming got no help from dodoo

I quite like Fleming's attitude and ability to win headers against taller players, and some short passing is impressive, but no way is he better than Chicksen.  Slower, and distribution in attacking positions abysmal, not one decent cross today from many attempts, as usual.  Nothing against him but total mystery why Chicksen isnt here for this season and next minimum.  Bunney hasn't played much but nothing to say he's better than Chicksen so far, and anyway we need 2 left backs as with every other position.

[Johnnyrotten 243]

4 hours ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Fully agree, dropped our standard second half but it’s a step in the right direction. 

That's an understatement.  First half in top 5 performances of season, 2nd half as bad as attacking wise as we've seen, down there with Wycombe, Burton and Rochdale 2nd halves.  Accrington the worst team we've failed to score against at home this season under Hill.  But we did deserve to score in the 1st half, some excellent football and without Politic joining in.  A breath of fresh air to see Crawford back in action and Dodoo showed he's got something to offer when he's in the mood.

[Johnnyrotten 243]

2 hours ago, Take Hunt Off said:

Dodoo had a great first half second not so good as they changed tactics 

Not much on rhs but twice Lowe made good runs & was ignored 

Could have lost in the end we don’t seem to deal with big boot up the middle losing too many second balls.Matthews saved us at the end don’t understand why he gets criticised so much.

Politic tried to pass the ball around their penalty box he should stick to what comes natural & shoot every time.

Its one of the mysteries of the season how a keeper that looks too good for us gets stick.  We should be bigging him up and begging him to stay.  Try looking at the keepers we play against every week in this terrible league, he'd walk into most teams and was (again) our best player today, consistent for 90 minutes.  I'm not saying he doesnt make mistakes, like all keepers, but just not as many as the majority of keepers I see in every division every week.

[Spider 2,051]

Exclusive video from training this week..:

 

 

[Traf 2,553]

Matthews gets stick because he's prone to at least one major fuck-up per game and he doesn't command his 6 yd box on crosses.

Today, neither of those really happened, so he had a good game.

[Blondi 116]

Matthews & Lowe  were our best players today, thought Dodoo was great in the first half, but Hill switched him to the other side second half and he went missing, unless I'm missing something?

[Duck Egg 207]

1 hour ago, ErnestTurnip said:

Bench left us without many ways to change things, he could have maybe put Bunney in front of Fleming for more protection and to cancel out their right hand side but not sure what he could have done to mix it up when Crawford became more and more anonymous in the second half.

Should have held my nerve but cashed out just before one of our corners at around 70 mins in case we had a moment of magic, should know better by now.

It was a surprise to me that as the game drifted away from us none of the subs were warming up.

I was hoping he'd shift Lowe into the middle for L Murphy and get Emmanuel attacking down the right.  Lowes crossing in the first half was awful but he did make a couple of 30 yard runs which were ignored so perhaps that wouldn't have worked.  It would have been an attacking change though when we had so few forward options on the bench.

[Mounts Kipper 2,455]

We should be looking to go 3 at back and use Emmanuel and Fleming as wing backs, Flemming would be a real threat cut loose, anyhow I’ll take the point today and hope we can continue to improve. 

[ianofcleveleys 65]

40 minutes ago, Blondi said:

Matthews & Lowe  were our best players today, thought Dodoo was great in the first half, but Hill switched him to the other side second half and he went missing, unless I'm missing something?

I like Dodoo and, when he's played where he can run at people from out wide he can be a threat but, for me, he's a bit soft and took a while to get over that knock he got early second half. Avoided physical combat for 20 mins after. Finished game better after being switched

[RoadRunnerFan 251]

5 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

I like Dodoo and, when he's played where he can run at people from out wide he can be a threat but, for me, he's a bit soft and took a while to get over that knock he got early second half. Avoided physical combat for 20 mins after. Finished game better after being switched

Ducked one 50:50 in a particularly  powder puff way over by the west stand. He was on the left most of the game bar the last 20.

[Traf 2,553]

2 minutes ago, RoadRunnerFan said:

Ducked one 50:50 in a particularly  powder puff way over by the west stand

Ducked a few, as sadly did some others.

And I still struggle to see what Luke Murphy brings to the table

[Johnnyrotten 243]

I've been Murphy's biggest critic because he's so one paced and doesnt have a 20 yard+ pass in him, but I thought he knitted the play well today.  Probably 90% success rate in passing, although they were all 15 or 20 yard passes.  Where he irritates me is his complete inability to win a tackle, he literally just runs alongside an opponent, no attempt to win a ball at all.  Lowe was completely wasted today, he's one of our best, most consistent players but to play him at right back instead of Emmanuel, you may as well just drop him because his influence on the game goes from 8 out of 10 to 5 out of 10.  And to compound the error, Hill plays Kean Bryan in midfield, and he's nowhere near being a midfielder, an out and out defender either central or left back, far too limited to be a midfielder especially when we have a better one (Lowe) making way for him.  We missed Emmanuel today and that's Hill's fault.

[Johnnyrotten 243]

1 hour ago, Traf said:

Matthews gets stick because he's prone to at least one major fuck-up per game and he doesn't command his 6 yd box on crosses.

Today, neither of those really happened, so he had a good game.

Just the one?  So better than most keepers (just watch MOTD).  I don't recall his last cock up in home games, and not responsible for any recent goals conceded away that I've seen on highlights.  And another bonus is he doesn't think he's a ball playing Franco Baresi, he gets rid.  Top keeper for me.

[Domcarey1 3]

If Verlinden plays today, we win. Great first half performance without a cutting edge.

Right back was shite for them & was there for the taking.

No attacking players on the bench dictated the lack of subs.

Hillcroft need next season to start the rising of the Phoenix.....

 

 

[Casino 2,321]

2 hours ago, Blondi said:

Matthews & Lowe  were our best players today, thought Dodoo was great in the first half, but Hill switched him to the other side second half and he went missing, unless I'm missing something?

The switch was on 75/80 minutes

Luke Murphy was as good as anybody today

[Ratwhite 132]

4 hours ago, Spider said:

Exclusive video from training this week..:

 

 

Is this us training 

[Mounts Kipper 2,455]

8 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Just the one?  So better than most keepers (just watch MOTD).  I don't recall his last cock up in home games, and not responsible for any recent goals conceded away that I've seen on highlights.  And another bonus is he doesn't think he's a ball playing Franco Baresi, he gets rid.  Top keeper for me.

Top keeper stretches it ..... by about a million miles. 

[Lt. Aldo Raine 99]

Matthews is alright. Nothing more than that but it's no crime. Lowe would be better for us in midfield but the fact is he's a better defender than Emmanuel and we're more solid with him there than we are without. 

I quite like the idea of Bryan in midfield. His technique and passing ability is better than our three other central midfielders. He needs to be used more though if we're to get any benefit out of having him there.

[ianofcleveleys 65]

I liked Bryan there, by and large, very good left foot and passed it forward accurately a lot during the game. Got caught wanting a bit too long to do it once or twice as you might expect from a centre back in midfield (theirs sneaking up behind him and nicking it off him) but generally added a bit of composure in front of back four.

Matthews never been much of a concern stopping shots for me, particularly ones he gets a decent look at, more his command of six yard box that's the issue. Wasn't put under huge pressure in that regard yesterday. 

[Mr Grey 676]

9 hours ago, Casino said:

The switch was on 75/80 minutes

Luke Murphy was as good as anybody today

Agree on Luke Murphy baldy, thought he was up there for motm.

[boltondiver 1,330]

13 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

I liked Bryan there, by and large, very good left foot and passed it forward accurately a lot during the game. Got caught wanting a bit too long to do it once or twice as you might expect from a centre back in midfield (theirs sneaking up behind him and nicking it off him) but generally added a bit of composure in front of back four.

Matthews never been much of a concern stopping shots for me, particularly ones he gets a decent look at, more his command of six yard box that's the issue. Wasn't put under huge pressure in that regard yesterday. 

He hoofed the ball aimlessly on numerous occasions.

[Nottm_Wanderer 11]

0 - 0 against Accrington Stanley and people are getting excited. 

 

Shows how far we have fallen...Accrington Stanley ... and our keeper is our MOM 

Lincoln city ran us ragged a few weeks ago. 

Just saying .

I cannot see any positives from yesterday .

 

[Take Hunt Off 221]

Yes one of Murphy's (L)better games 

Could have backfired bringing Zouma on at ht particularly as Accy seemed to target our left side second half , bit of a risk given Bryan was already on the park & could have been dropped back.

Still the lad has to learn & needs to learn quickly for next season so probably the right decision.