Think subs on 55 mins was more than ample. I've seen calls for first half subs.

You'd think it was us who went a man down. What was the panic?! 

1 hour ago, masi 51 said:

He has played well last night and i thought he played well i think it was Luton, he is not a bad player and puts a shift in each time he wears the shirt but Gale there makes us much more balanced if SS sticks with two wingers.

He simply does not find space because he is more a wingback. Many times last night Conway was frustrated because Tutu was not running down the channels. With the ball at his feet he is excellent and can beat a player it is just hard for our players to find him. For what its worth i have him in front of Cissoko as he can work back.

TuTu would be a great sub as he is more versatile......Sorry but Gale is levels above him as a winger.

Gale at home, Tutu away works for me

2 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Think subs on 55 mins was more than ample. I've seen calls for first half subs.

You'd think it was us who went a man down. What was the panic?! 

Imagine that people were close to falling asleep.

You’re right though, no need in that position. As boring as it was, and clearly we’d have liked to have seen us get more goals, we just managed the game out with very little issue or concern. 

21 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Given we were 1-0 up, I imagine he gave some instructions at half time to see if they could make something happen (rather than change at ht) - within 7 mins it was clear that Forss was no better a winger and so he acted on it.

Forgot to mention Gale. Genuine positive from last night, he looked really good when he came on.

Also agree on Conway, it was well into the 2nd half before he made a forward pass, just turned back or played square until then.

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Horrible drive over the Pennines, boring game, couldn’t see the goal, little atmosphere (other than first 15 mins of second half) and typically ended up with some fucking fruitcake in front of me who was really annoying for a sober occasion.

But we won, 3 points and a clean sheet away on a windy December night in a crap stadium against a team of cloggers - that’s all that matters and I’d have snapped your hands off for it at the start of the game.

A lot of it has been covered and I think @Johnnyrotten is bang on with his view that there is no perfect formation or starting 11 - they’re L1 footballers and will have good and bad days. Some reflections though:

- Forss is no winger. He was absolutely clueless with how to play that position

- Christie doesn’t quite look as good as I thought he would. Defensively you can get at him and he just hasn’t got the legs to overlap time after time (not helped in the slightest by Forss ahead of him)

- Dempsey needs open games with space to burst into a get past the striker. He was anonymous and tended to lose the ball whenever he had it. Tight away games do not suit him

- Conway needs to take the safety catch on. He must play >80% of his passes back to GJ at the moment. Hard because they were sat back and basically built a wall down the wings, but he started the season with far more confidence and creativity and at the moment he has very little desire to do anything like. He did it once later on in the second half and ended up slipping Gale in behind the full back and the Dalby somehow missed. Could do with him getting some of his early confidence back.

- Randall is a non entity

- Dalby? God knows what you do in Jan. Burstow is struggling (although he makes all the right runs - he’s not being helped), and we’ve gone big on Dalby with a 4 year contract, but there’s no way he’s the striker to get us promoted. Bad times when I’m genuinely wondering when Vic returns.

- Good to see SS making changes so early. Took a few mins for them to get on but Sheehan and ACD were ready at 52 mins. Exactly what the game needed and nice to see him acting on it early.

- Ref was completely fucking clueless. I actually think the red was a red, but he got everything else wrong (for us and them). I actually think he’s got an agenda against ACD, there’s no other explanation to how he didn’t get free kicks or a stonewall penalty

7 points from our last 3 away games. Top of the form table and a very winnable run of fixtures to come. If we’re not clicking and there’s so much to improve (according to some) then we’re not in a bad spot!

he looked really slow and labored to me, running in treacle 

PS - good post, well summed up 

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Horrible drive over the Pennines, boring game, couldn’t see the goal, little atmosphere (other than first 15 mins of second half) and typically ended up with some fucking fruitcake in front of me who was really annoying for a sober occasion.

But we won, 3 points and a clean sheet away on a windy December night in a crap stadium against a team of cloggers - that’s all that matters and I’d have snapped your hands off for it at the start of the game.

A lot of it has been covered and I think @Johnnyrotten is bang on with his view that there is no perfect formation or starting 11 - they’re L1 footballers and will have good and bad days. Some reflections though:

- Forss is no winger. He was absolutely clueless with how to play that position

- Christie doesn’t quite look as good as I thought he would. Defensively you can get at him and he just hasn’t got the legs to overlap time after time (not helped in the slightest by Forss ahead of him)

- Dempsey needs open games with space to burst into a get past the striker. He was anonymous and tended to lose the ball whenever he had it. Tight away games do not suit him

- Conway needs to take the safety catch on. He must play >80% of his passes back to GJ at the moment. Hard because they were sat back and basically built a wall down the wings, but he started the season with far more confidence and creativity and at the moment he has very little desire to do anything like. He did it once later on in the second half and ended up slipping Gale in behind the full back and the Dalby somehow missed. Could do with him getting some of his early confidence back.

- Randall is a non entity

- Dalby? God knows what you do in Jan. Burstow is struggling (although he makes all the right runs - he’s not being helped), and we’ve gone big on Dalby with a 4 year contract, but there’s no way he’s the striker to get us promoted. Bad times when I’m genuinely wondering when Vic returns.

- Good to see SS making changes so early. Took a few mins for them to get on but Sheehan and ACD were ready at 52 mins. Exactly what the game needed and nice to see him acting on it early.

- Ref was completely fucking clueless. I actually think the red was a red, but he got everything else wrong (for us and them). I actually think he’s got an agenda against ACD, there’s no other explanation to how he didn’t get free kicks or a stonewall penalty

7 points from our last 3 away games. Top of the form table and a very winnable run of fixtures to come. If we’re not clicking and there’s so much to improve (according to some) then we’re not in a bad spot!

Made a point of watching Randall, he does remind me of Katchunga... finds space, sensible running but no end product, I think he side footed a shot, like a back-pass.

Shit reffing works both ways, it looked like a handball in the end stages.

Hope I wasn't the fucking fruitcake 🙂

The thing is, we tried to play entertaining tippy tappy football in the past and got twatted. Now we're playing naff and winning and people are still complaining. I'd rather shithouse the league and win scrappy each week than try to pep the ball into the net and get spanked. Let's focus on getting into the championship however we can and then drafting in better quality and progressing next season.

39 minutes ago, waffer cup 07 said:

Also agree on Conway, it was well into the 2nd half before he made a forward pass, just turned back or played square until then.

Hard to play it forward to two wingers who were not hugging the line  and a attacking midfielder who was stuck between two banks of four

 

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by masi 51

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Imagine that people were close to falling asleep.

You’re right though, no need in that position. As boring as it was, and clearly we’d have liked to have seen us get more goals, we just managed the game out with very little issue or concern. 

We're not looking like a team who's going to go away and rattle 2-3 in (7 in 9 games), so if the emphasis away from home is a bit more on being robust, solid and the opponents getting nil, so be it. We'll keep picking at least 1 point up and moving along steadily. 

Games like last nights, with an early sending off, are nailed on to be drudgery afterwards. Seen plenty of games of that ilk on the box recently. 

Don't recall Plymouth playing particularly well at the Reebok when they beat us 2-0 and went on to win the league.

2nd best defence in the league now.

8 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Don't recall Plymouth playing particularly well at the Reebok when they beat us 2-0 and went on to win the league.

We drew at home. Lost 2-0 Away. 

5 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

We drew at home. Lost 2-0 Away. 

Sure we lost ha might have even been 1-0 not 2?

 

7 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Sure we lost ha might have even been 1-0 not 2?

 

That was season before - got beat 1-0 at home March time.

The year they went up they drew 0-0 - held on and dug on for a point I think. 

2 hours ago, Dimron said:

Made a point of watching Randall, he does remind me of Katchunga... finds space, sensible running but no end product, I think he side footed a shot, like a back-pass.

Shit reffing works both ways, it looked like a handball in the end stages.

Hope I wasn't the fucking fruitcake 🙂

We said Randall is like watching a talented kid playing in a men’s game. You’re right, he’s tidy, he finds decent spaces etc. but exactly like you say, that shot hardly made it to the keeper and he may as well not bother going in for a tackle.

Defo looked like handball, we benefited from him being shit there - Tutu kicked up in the air, ACD nearly getting his shirt pulled off and the worst being the penalty when he managed to give handball against him! Where do they find them?

You're unlikely to be the fruitcake unless you’re female. Let’s just say she needs to lay off the booze/drugs

2 hours ago, masi 51 said:

Hard to play it forward to two wingers who were not hugging the line  and a attacking midfielder who was stuck between two banks of four

 

Agreed to an extent. But a hell of a lot easier if you play with some urgency and don’t trot about at half pace whenever you get on the ball.

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

Don't recall Plymouth playing particularly well at the Reebok when they beat us 2-0 and went on to win the league.

Remember thinking Derby were awful when we played them but they still went up

4 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

Remember thinking Derby were awful when we played them but they still went up

We drew 0-0 with both of them at home and played really well.

Well beaten in both the away games though.

3 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

We drew 0-0 with both of them at home and played really well.

Well beaten in both the away games though.

When we lost 1-0 at their place we weren't well beaten 

We weren't great but neither were they 

Didn't think we were going to be on the end of a 4-0 bumming as we usually get there

Playing shit (we've played better and lost/drawn) on a Tuesday night in December, and coming away with 3 points..

They reckon that's sign of a  good side?

Come the end of the season, its not the 4-0 wins at home when everything clicks, is that grind out a win type of result that matters. Long may it continue. (forget the sending off, that could have changed match either way, but who gives a toss)

Records will show, Bolton won 1-0, and got 3 points. 

12 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

When we lost 1-0 at their place we weren't well beaten 

We weren't great but neither were they 

Didn't think we were going to be on the end of a 4-0 bumming as we usually get there

Aye Bod missed an absolute sitter.

We played some great stuff but just couldn't bag. Undone by a free header at the edge of the box again

I'm not expecting us to rip teams apart with a clinical efficiency. But given the cards we had in our hand last night we should have done better. Yes I'm glad we won but the way we went about the game after they went down to 10 was very disappointing. And that says more about SS style. It was like watching Evattball. What we got was a rebrand, S'macherball. It seems we are a difficult team to beat, but not a team anyone has any big reservations about. Sounds familiar doesn't it. 

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by Underpants

2 minutes ago, Underpants said:

I'm not expecting us to rip teams apart with a clinical efficiency. But given the cards we had in our hand last night we should have done better. Yes I'm glad we won but the way we went about the game after they went down to 10 was very disappointing. And that says more about SS style. It was like watching Evattball. What we got was a rebrand, S'macherball. It seems we are a difficult team to beat, but not a team anyone has any big reservations about. Sounds familiar doesn't it. 

Playing shit (we've played better and lost/drawn) on a Tuesday night in December, and coming away with 3 points..

They reckon that's sign of a  good side?

Come the end of the season, its not the 4-0 wins at home when everything clicks, is that grind out a win type of result that matters. Long may it continue. (forget the sending off, that could have changed match either way, but who gives a toss)

Records will show, Bolton won 1-0, and got 3 points. 

6 minutes ago, Underpants said:

I'm not expecting us to rip teams apart with a clinical efficiency. But given the cards we had in our hand last night we should have done better. Yes I'm glad we won but the way we went about the game after they went down to 10 was very disappointing. And that says more about SS style. It was like watching Evattball. What we got was a rebrand, S'macherball. It seems we are a difficult team to beat, but not a team anyone has any big reservations about. Sounds familiar doesn't it. 

We should have done better than win? I'll take ugly 1-0 wins in which we "could have done better" for the rest of the season please.

41 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

When we lost 1-0 at their place we weren't well beaten 

We weren't great but neither were they 

Didn't think we were going to be on the end of a 4-0 bumming as we usually get there

We got beat 2-1 at Derby the season Plymouth got promoted and we were nowhere near them. We only scored in stoppage time after they'd tapped out for the day. Men v boys.