Mansfield Town (A)

[Wanderlust]

32 minutes ago, W.cramp said:

Very noble of ss to even it up 10 v 10 by bringing randall on.    Never a footballer int memory of man

I was watching ACD make a bad touch, but before the defender could get the ball, he leapt across it to get his body between man and ball and retook control. Dempsey fights for it too.

Anything that is more than a foot from Randall he leaves and makes no effort to get there whether there is a tackle coming in or not.

Both players go down too easily hoping for a sympathetic ref, but at least ACD uses what little physicality he has to compete for control of the ball. Plus the neat touches Randall showed in his early days at Posh seem to have abandoned him.
 

The bigger concern for me though is our collective attack, which seems to be neither direct or clinical enough against packed defences. Too many opportunities to create goal threats get overlooked for the security of retaining possession and it’s generally over elaborate. I’m less disappointed in a risky through ball that doesn’t work out than a through ball that doesn’t happen.

[Farnywhite]

Looks like to many changes every game are impacting the performance settled side needed now 

[RUREADY2ROLL]

Since Sky prevented me watching second half how did that Dalby do when he came on? I expect with him and Randell we would be down to 9 men

[Johnnyrotten]

6 minutes ago, Stig said:

I don't see it that way. Yes the extra man helped but our most solid 3 in midfield, and only 1 winger has all contributed imo to a first clean sheet away from home and 3 points. I'll take more of that - most robust team possible on the next away as well please.

I'll agree to disagree.  From what I saw we missed Sheehan's passing ability in the first half, Simons was very wasteful and EE just hardly got involved, so much for him adding steel etc.

That doesn't mean they won't play well at Wycombe, I've no idea or Sheehan could have a bad 'un, but that didn't look like a steely performance tonight, I thought we looked more robust at Luton (although a very different type of game), but the sending off went the other way there.    

Anyway, I'll take steely, I'll take creative at Wycombe, whichever way SS wants to play it, I'll leave it to him. 

[Farnywhite]

6 minutes ago, RUREADY2ROLL said:

Since Sky prevented me watching second half how did that Dalby do when he came on? I expect with him and Randell we would be down to 9 men

Randall gave ball away a couple of times Dalby about the same as previously couldn’t get into it but no service 

[Wanderlust]

1 minute ago, Farnywhite said:

Looks like to many changes every game are impacting the performance settled side needed now 

Could be that, but they train together and those not playing have to slot in plus SS tends to use 5 subs most games anyway so theoretically it shouldn’t matter that much.

For me there’s an imbalance in attack when the game isn’t open. Some folk want two strikers but neither the wingbacks or wingers consistently put in great deliveries and there aren’t enough through balls from midfield to feed them anyway. Ball mainly goes from side to side, wing to wing and none of our midfield players have a cannon of a shot to trouble them from outside the box to mix it up, so it ends up as a lot of faffing about with not enough on target efforts. Occasionally we manage it, but not enough.

 

[Ros Coe]

1 hour ago, Farnywhite said:

I’m Ita all about the win play poor and still win but need to turn the performances back k round sooner than later . 
don’t think we win that without the sending off ref did us a favour for once 

Disagree, the sending off ruined the game as a spectacle. Mansfield conceded possession, defended for their lives and rarely attacked which meant we had all the possession but came up against 2 walls of defence for the majority of the match.

We could and should have won by a more comfortable margin but a win is a win and I don’t care how they come as long as they keep coming until we get out of this shit league!

[burnden]

 

[Whitesince63]

59 minutes ago, Cheese said:

When was the last time you enjoyed a Bolton win?

I always enjoy a Bolton win but if you’re talking about performance then Bradford in the Vertu. That was a total team performance and one we should be seeing more of. 

[Farnywhite]

12 minutes ago, Ros Coe said:

Disagree, the sending off ruined the game as a spectacle. Mansfield conceded possession, defended for their lives and rarely attacked which meant we had all the possession but came up against 2 walls of defence for the majority of the match.

We could and should have won by a more comfortable margin but a win is a win and I don’t care how they come as long as they keep coming until we get out of this shit league!

No because were miles off it at the minute performance wise .
if that was a couple of months ago we win by 3 or 4 against 11 today it would not of been easier 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Farnywhite

[Whitesince63]

56 minutes ago, desperado said:

If we perform like we did Saturday, 10 men or not, we don’t win.

It was far from perfect, (see my previous post), but while SS won’t be brimming with positivity, he’s not going to be as unhappy with the performance as he was Saturday! 

Take the result away,

- We battled better

- We had more desire

- We competed better

- We won more first/second balls 

- We were more composed.

It was just a better performance, despite us being far from our best and a long way from convincing, he’ll see it not only as a great result, but an improved performance from Saturday (which wasnt hard to be honest)

And if you can’t see that more fool you 😊😉 

 

I know Sky limited what I did see so the battling, desire, competing and composure must have been in the bits I missed. Either that or your glasses need the rose taking out of them. 🤷‍♂️

[boltonboris]

It’s an away win and the positives are, you don’t often see an away team have so much dominance or the ball and play without the home team even having a sniff of a chance, so that’s good. Never looked like not winning. 
 

however 11v11 with that intensity and we would likely lose that game. Would have liked to see us kick on and make it comfortable on the scoreboard but I think there was probably a bit of anxiety around to ensure we won at all costs. And we did. So we move onto Saturday 

[boltonboris]

I may be going against the grain here too, as I’ve not read any comments back yet, but I think the red was a little harsh. I’d have been disappointed if one of ours was sent off for that 

[boltonboris]

4 hours ago, Eavesy said:

Assuming he is on wing, be interesting to see how forss does out wide. 
 

Turns out it was a bit shite. Not sure where he fits. He’s not a 9, he’s not a winger, he’s not a 10

 

i think he’d look good in a 3-5-2 but I wouldn’t change shape to accommodate him. He lacks a playing identity 

[Cheese]

13 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

I always enjoy a Bolton win but if you’re talking about performance then Bradford in the Vertu. That was a total team performance and one we should be seeing more of. 

And you still managed to squeeze a negative out of that victory by implying Cozier-Duberry is over-rated and we should consider leaving him out more often.

Edited December 9, 2025 by Cheese

[desperado]

12 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

I know Sky limited what I did see so the battling, desire, competing and composure must have been in the bits I missed. Either that or your glasses need the rose taking out of them. 🤷‍♂️

What are you going on about! 

In my first after match post I said “Nervy, unconvincing, ponderous”

In another I said “far from our best and a long way from convincing”

What on earth is rose tinted about that?!

All I’m doing is countering your ridiculous claim that Schumacher will be not be too much happier with tonight’s performance than Saturdays.

Just watch/listen to his interview, he talks about areas/aspects of our performance that were much improved from Saturday. 

[Steejay]

17 minutes ago, desperado said:

What are you going on about! 

In my first after match post I said “Nervy, unconvincing, ponderous”

In another I said “far from our best and a long way from convincing”

What on earth is rose tinted about that?!

All I’m doing is countering your ridiculous claim that Schumacher will be not be too much happier with tonight’s performance than Saturdays.

Just watch/listen to his interview, he talks about areas/aspects of our performance that were much improved from Saturday. 

FFS, how many times?

Ignore the thick fucker.

[BOWTUN BAKED]

Like the vast majority of our away performances this season ... it were shite!

[L/H White]

Just back 

Happy with the 3 points 

Shocking performance though all things considered, good job we had a man advantage 

Probably the worst away end I've been in for years, could hear a pin drop first half 

Edited December 9, 2025 by L/H White

[jmjhb]

Good win, the sort that gets you up in the long run. Couldn't give a toss about the performance.

[Ani]

Great result . Terrible performance.

Not long back, just watched the ‘highlights’. The red was a red, lad was stretching and ended up with two feet off the ground and caught EE twice.

The none yellow card for right backs challenge on Tutu first half and the comical free kick against ACD in their penalty area did not make the Final Cut. 
 

Whilst happy with a clean sheet and a win the rest was awful. Simons gave the ball away continually in first half. The whole midfield was ponderous at best, till Sheehan came on tempo increased. 
 

Someone needs to explain to Toal that you do not let a player run from behind on the keepers long hoofs. Although his kicking was that bad arguably unlucky when one went straight. 
 

However we won away at Mansfield on a wet windy Tuesday December night and we got the same number of points we did from smashing Port Vale. Last 6 games we are top of the form table. We need to capitalise on the upcoming run of games.

[bwfc6ix]

Whens Vic back?

[Leyther_Matt]

Just got back. Unnecessarily nervy at the end and, although it was enough tonight, we found out at Luton when the boot was on the other foot that we need to manage games much better late on.

Thought Simons had a really good second half and would be interesting to see him and Dempsey playing box-to-box and Sheehan shielding the back four rather than persisting with the ongoing auditions for a number 10.

Christie covered acres of ground but he looked completely knackered by the end.

TSL steady when he needed to be. Johnston and Toal saw far too much of the ball for my liking but were solid enough.

Could really do with a statement 4-0 on Saturday. 

[Eavesy]

When this keeper was signed much was made about his really good long passing game. 

Early on in the season he would often pick out the wingers or burstow. And we stretched teams and got in behind much quicker.

He seems to have completely stopped doing any attempts at these over the past few months. Strange as it seemed reasonably effective and also got the best out of burstow who was winning flick ons and generally being a reasonable target

[desperado]

39 minutes ago, Eavesy said:

When this keeper was signed much was made about his really good long passing game. 

Early on in the season he would often pick out the wingers or burstow. And we stretched teams and got in behind much quicker.

He seems to have completely stopped doing any attempts at these over the past few months. Strange as it seemed reasonably effective and also got the best out of burstow who was winning flick ons and generally being a reasonable target

For this tactic to be effective you need the opposition to being pressing and coming onto you - that way there’s space beyond your defensive third to pick out your players, which TSL is very good at.

When the opposition are sitting in like Mansfield were yesterday it becomes much harder for TSL to pick out our wingers and forward players.

It just wasnt the game for it.

We know he can do this really well.

And in a different game, under different circumstances we’ll see this happening again.