2 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

That's true but also plays down how they got their goal.  Won free kick because their striker is too strong for our defender.  Quality ball in at a good height, not floated like our's.  Centre forward beats our defenders to the ball and powers it home.  Do we have the players that do those 3 things?  

Delivery was superb, hard to defend, as I said and yes, Wooton out muscled Forino, a bit disappointing. 

The response after half time was really weak, as has been said, we were sleepwalking to defeat after an hour, but the changes didn't really affect things much and, if anything, reverted us back to being lightweights, especially in the front four. It was relatively easy for them to see the game out and kill us off. 

Btw watching the highlights of the ref gives the penalty for the foul on Burstow it is also a red. 

Didn’t understand any of his subs today made us weaker .

1 hour ago, Hoppy said:

I have to apologise it's my fault we lost 2-0 I sent the misses to the bar just before half time they scored sent her towards end of game they scored I now have a dilemma do I send her to the bar or go myself when we are playing?

Get four pints in before.

1 hour ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

 

A boring nil-nil would have been perfectly acceptable. 

I'm not disagreeing with any of your formation/tactical suggestions, but I find the boring 0-0 thing a bit of a cliche, they very rarely happen.  We could play 10 at the back and never commit anyone forward, but the opposition are going to get a free kick on the left wing at some point.  If they are good at delivery and heading, they might well score.  Its not always about formations. And we didn't do a lot wrong for the first goal that might have been improved by a more defensive mindset, those situations are still going to come along where you're just relying on winning challenges and getting the run of the ball.

Just get a striker that knows what they're doing in this league. Pretty please.

 

 

Kenny on the bench at Celtic are we wasting time trying to sign him as we need another striker.

Jamie Reid scored 2 yesterday for Stevenage cheeky bid might work. 

20 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I'm not disagreeing with any of your formation/tactical suggestions, but I find the boring 0-0 thing a bit of a cliche, they very rarely happen.  We could play 10 at the back and never commit anyone forward, but the opposition are going to get a free kick on the left wing at some point.  If they are good at delivery and heading, they might well score.  Its not always about formations. And we didn't do a lot wrong for the first goal that might have been improved by a more defensive mindset, those situations are still going to come along where you're just relying on winning challenges and getting the run of the ball.

You're taking an extreme position there.

No one would suggest such a negative formation, but as we saw with Stockport, they managed to stifle us second half.

It was always a concern for me that one or two of the forward guys wouldn't offer that much in their roles, and even less when defending. 

It's only one game, and we will get better, but we will have to do so quickly with some tough looking games coming up.

I'm really not sure about waiting for Celtic to decide if Kenny can come or not. Time's going on, we need a goalscorer. What if they decide to keep him. Unless wev'e got a concrete promise, move on.

1 hour ago, waffer cup 07 said:

Everything i saw today just confirms why we need to get out of this shit league. Referring is shocking. Playing at little grounds with poor facilites. Uncovered terracing. There's better grounds in non league football. Poorly supported teams that can't even sell out their home end for their 1st game of the season. Were a big fish in a small pond. Just hope SS can find a way this season.

We don't sell out our home end 

If you think we'll get huge allocations in the championship you are mistaken 

West Brom and Hull who are two that spring to mind 

Very good first half, albeit we need to be 2 up as good teams with those chances have the game sewn up.  Typical and sloppy to concede at the end of the half.

first 15 of the second, they had changed shape and we didn’t come out.  Subs did change things, and more big chances missed.

 

good teams win when they don’t deserve to, or they knock seven bells out of teams when they have loads of chances - this is what we need to learn and fast.

 

another striker in, dalby back and the hull lad up to speed - think we will be ok.

but another defeat to them and to a promotion contender ain’t great.

Edited August 3, 20251 yr by marple whites

2 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

We don't sell out our home end 

If you think we'll get huge allocations in the championship you are mistaken 

West Brom and Hull who are two that spring to mind 

So capacity of  Stockport just over 10,000, capacity of Toughsheet 28,000. I think your totally missing my point.

3 minutes ago, waffer cup 07 said:

So capacity of  Stockport just over 10,000, capacity of Toughsheet 28,000. I think your totally missing my point.

So we go to the championship and play in bigger stadiums with just as many missing home fans 

So yeah I'm missing your point 

Some decent stuff, some disappointing stuff 

Not out played, or out fought 

They took their chances, we didn't

Definite room for improvement, definitely need a decent striker 

4 hours ago, deeane Koontz said:

Just sign a competent striker who knows this league and how to score in it. Not rocket science. Doesn't need resale value, just buy one. We won't be getting out of this league without one.

What’s your budget likely to be? We’ve made two million pound offers and not landed one.

1 minute ago, green genie said:

What’s your budget likely to be? We’ve made two million pound offers and not landed one.

Which players ?

1 hour ago, waffer cup 07 said:

Everything i saw today just confirms why we need to get out of this shit league. Referring is shocking. Playing at little grounds with poor facilites. Uncovered terracing. There's better grounds in non league football. Poorly supported teams that can't even sell out their home end for their 1st game of the season. Were a big fish in a small pond. Just hope SS can find a way this season.

I agree, although to be fair you've just about described Bournemouth.

But the atmosphere that came across on the TV was non existent, it was like a pre-season friendly.  If we'd been winning a local derby at home against "bigger" local rivals, I'd hope there'd be a bit more excitement around than that.  Not a good advert for L1 footy on or off the pitch, just felt flat with no sense of occasion.

If there was ever some novelty playing at these non entity places, its long gone.

6 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

But the atmosphere that came across on the TV was non existent, it was like a pre-season friendly.

Didn’t help from our point of view being in an uncovered area, and it’s not as much there was much to shout about. The real winners were GMP as the lack of atmosphere was very much thanks to the 12pm Sunday kick off and I wonder if it will give them ideas for future Wigan/Blackpool/Stockport games when half 12 Saturday has still brought bother. 

Just back & disappointed but still got optimism for the season. We were the better team 1st half & should have been ahead but as we all know we're missing a striker. Burscow did alright but looks to be more of a SKD / Madine type target man rather than a goalscorer, but after he went off, we were toothless.

Some plusses, Conway was good on the ball & going forward & did nothing wrong defensively, ACD was very effective for half an hour but faded as wingers often do & Randall played well when he came on.

Minus....an open end, in the rain with a 12 noon KO all made for a completely flat atmosphere. 12 noon away KO again, I don't think i'd bother. ( I might feel different if we'd won !! )

3 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Clearly the first goal was a huge one in the context of the game.  

But if we go in 1 up at H-T, that's not a game we can say we've won at that stage.  They would have bombarded us with crosses and set pieces, its doing them a disservice to assume they'd have a very rare home game where they don't score, against a team that very rarely keeps a clean sheet (but a draw would have still been a great improvement).

Them scoring first meant they had us exactly where they wanted us with their ability to see games out, we don't have that mean streak yet, still too many IEs squad knocking around till we evolve enough.

This is exactly the difference between our respective squads at the moment. Stockport have big units and players who know how to win free kicks, deliver free kicks, win headers from free kicks.

We've tried to address this over the summer but we still have 3 major issues to resolve:

-striker: Dalby was signed to do exactly this kind of strong forward play but is unfortunately injured. Burstow coming in as backup was late and I'm not sure if this is his game

-RB: I've been banging on about this all summer but Cogley isn't big or strong enough and can get exposed. We need a decent big RB option for physical games

-and the biggest one, if we're playing 4231 we need the number 10 to be decent: McAtee is not good enough and incredibly weak. In this formation this role is key and he is a passenger. I'd rather switch to 433 and have another midfielder because we don't have that kind of off the striker player who will beat league 1 defences

Still 4 weeks to rectify this in the transfer window 

16 minutes ago, Rizlar said:

Which players ?

Burrell from Burton and Dale Taylor from Forest who looks to have chosen Blackpool though not confirmed 

Seems I’m in the minority but thought today was encouraging. Playing a team that (like us) will be up there, we were the ones creating chances and forcing the game. 

First goal is just rub of the green stuff. We missed some really good chances, struck the woodwork twice, should have had a penalty. Ran out of steam and ideas a little second half but once Stockport got their second (the one thing that was really poor today) the game was done. Let’s be honest, Stockport rode their luck in that fired half today  

Encouraging performances from some of the newer players too  

I understand the hangover from last season means people will make comparisons, but they’re vastly different squads. 

We never want to lose, but it’s one game out of 46. Let’s see where we are after 12 games. Had us down as a top 4 team and sticking with it after today. 

2 minutes ago, green genie said:

Burrell from Burton and Dale Taylor from Forest who looks to have chosen Blackpool though not confirmed 

👍

Challinor said in his post match that he had some words with his two full backs as they weren't dealing with ACD and CMG particularly well. They both got a better grip second half and closed us down better, albeit Gale had a few promising moments.

I'd have preferred Erhahon to Sheehan at that first change, him and Simons might have wrestled us a bit of grip back that we lost in that first 15 mins of the half. Once Burstow had also departed and we hadn't a like for like replacement we were back to looking tidy but lightweight and not overly threatening. The aggressive pressing of the first half dropped off too. 

On JDC, he had his hands full with the lad Diamond and could have done a bit better on their first goal. Him and ACD could no doubt be effective going forward and showed it a few times today, but he doesn't convince me as a RB in a 4 in this league.

 

Edited August 3, 20251 yr by ianofcleveleys

4 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Challinor said in his post match that he had some words with his two full backs as they weren't dealing with ACD and CMG particularly well. They both got a better grip second half and closed us down better, albeit Gale had a few promising moments.

I'd have preferred Erhahon to Sheehan at that first change, him and Simons might have wrestled us a bit of grip back that we lost in that first 15 mins of the half. Once Burstow had also departed and we hadn't a like for like replacement we were back to looking tidy but lightweight and not overly threatening. The aggressive pressing of the first half dropped off too. 

Agree with all that.

I can’t recall the stat, but when you concede first in league one, your chances of winning the game are crazily low. This was our major issue last season, and why today’s missed chances were so costly. Performances will largely be ok I think; it’s being clinical that will determine where we finish. Burstow looked ok to me. Dalby and another will also help.