Could be 4/5 changes for this - Wouldn’t be surprised to see Tutu, Simons, Dempsey, Cissoko and  Burstow start 

12 minutes ago, marple whites said:

Clean sheets - that’s how you win this league 

Not missing sitters also helps. 

8 hours ago, Alf Hartigan said:

I’d love to have Dion Charles and Aaron Collins instead of Burstow and Dalby. I think SS might be thinking similar going off his very honest post match interview. If not those two, pick some others as I  appreciate Charles has gone to shit.

I’d also prefer Baxter back instead of Sharman.….

Charles is done, but Collins would have been perfect for that 10 position IMO. Proper ability to conjure something out of nothing.

Oh well, needs addressing in Jan

8 minutes ago, Stig said:

Not sure where that certainty has come from. We're not comparing Maldini to Forino. They're both league 1 standard defenders of similar overall ability but Forino is far better in the air, but a bit clumsy at times, while Johnston is left footed so helps the balance of the team.

For me, I'd give Forino a chance as we're conceding every game at the moment.

Behave,   last night tsl at fault,  rovrum, pen conceded by christie, exeter tsl at fault.    The last few games Johnston and toal have been building a strong looking partnership in the middle of defence,  Johnston in my opinion looking stronger each game.     If you are looking for scapegoats defensively then look at right back and keeper, even though I think tsl is going to be a cracking keeper but hes just a kid learning his trade.   

We've put in some dire performances this season, but that was the best we've played for a while. We produced slick build up play, particularly in the 1st half. I estimate that we crossed the ball about 40 times and won those crosses about 5? The same from corners, we don't win headers in the box, just not physical enough.

SS post match i/v, we were not good enough in both boxes, this is so true, but its a consistent problem all season and we have failed to correct it.

I actually felt for SS last night, he didn't miss the chances and made positive early substitutions.

Regarding transfers, somehow we need to thin out the forward line and we need a better quality striker. A left back to compete with Conway too.

4 minutes ago, W.cramp said:

Behave,   last night tsl at fault,  rovrum, pen conceded by christie, exeter tsl at fault.    The last few games Johnston and toal have been building a strong looking partnership in the middle of defence,  Johnston in my opinion looking stronger each game.     If you are looking for scapegoats defensively then look at right back and keeper, even though I think tsl is going to be a cracking keeper but hes just a kid learning his trade.   

Not sure where you've thought I'm scapegoating Johnston? The claim in the post I was responding to seemed to say Johnston is far superior to Forino, which I don't see.

Forino is the best header of the ball we have and could easily be an option if we want more aerial cover. 

9 hours ago, CambridgeBWFC said:

Hes was fine, and ones of the best players on the pitch in the last game. It was an atracking sub to give us more bodies up front.

How you can say Forrester and Forino are superior is beyond me when neither have played much  or impressed when they have, this season. 

Forrester has impressed whenever he’s played so that’s unfair. Clearly SS doesn’t think so or as I think is more likely, Will has expressed a wish to leave in the window because he wants to be playing regularly. I don’t blame him and for me he is a better defender than both Toal and Forino and I’d be sorry to see him leave.

Last night has to be put away as 'one of them games' and hope confidence isn't knocked.    Ss has come out and said we are not good enough in front of goal,  i,d expect changes in this coming window,  wouldn't surprise if forss or Burstows loans were cut short as we are already fully stacked with loan players.    Cissoko has to be the first to be booking his nyd flight home ,  was telling last night when sheehan went on the run near the end, he looked up and saw cissoko free on his left and it just reminded of a kids game where 'i,m not passing to him hes shit'   

We all need to show patience and trust in ss , he and his team have had one windows far.   

8 minutes ago, worthy10 said:

We've put in some dire performances this season, but that was the best we've played for a while. We produced slick build up play, particularly in the 1st half. I estimate that we crossed the ball about 40 times and won those crosses about 5? The same from corners, we don't win headers in the box, just not physical enough.

SS post match i/v, we were not good enough in both boxes, this is so true, but its a consistent problem all season and we have failed to correct it.

I actually felt for SS last night, he didn't miss the chances and made positive early substitutions.

Regarding transfers, somehow we need to thin out the forward line and we need a better quality striker. A left back to compete with Conway too.

51 crosses according to ss !    Like he said that is mad numbers where we cant be winning the headers or be in the right positions when the ball drops.  

I was on here banging on how we need Erhahon in this team for two years, nothing has changed in that time.

Today was the 5th defeat in the league and he has not started in any of the five.

The keeper is hit and miss,but we was never going to get another Trafford. Full backs are a issue but is that because we play with attacking full backs and at times they get caught high up the pitch. Midfield we play with two which again leaves us light but in my opinion we have the best two in the division in Sheehan and Erhahon and i think we make it hard for ourselves not adding the third when we have Dempsey and Morley twiddling their thumbs.

Wingers are our shit or bust on form they are unplayable but when they are not we struggle to Score.

The 9 and Ten are the biggest worry we simply do not have quality there to get us promoted.

The 10 is the main issue and the best two are Mcatee and Burstow which does not  say much for the rest.

Up to the board where we go in January. If SS keeps with this formation we need to bring in Keillor-Dunne and a proven forward. And a arquement for a new keeper and right back, Certainly the front two needs addressing.

Edited December 30, 2025Dec 30 by masi 51

25 minutes ago, W.cramp said:

Behave,   last night tsl at fault,  rovrum, pen conceded by christie, exeter tsl at fault.    The last few games Johnston and toal have been building a strong looking partnership in the middle of defence,  Johnston in my opinion looking stronger each game.     If you are looking for scapegoats defensively then look at right back and keeper, even though I think tsl is going to be a cracking keeper but hes just a kid learning his trade.   

Spot on.

Wasn't the common consensus on here last week that GJ had been superb for large parts of the season?

9 hours ago, Alf Hartigan said:

I’d love to have Dion Charles and Aaron Collins instead of Burstow and Dalby. I think SS might be thinking similar going off his very honest post match interview. If not those two, pick some others as I  appreciate Charles has gone to shit.

I’d also prefer Baxter back instead of Sharman.….

Why don’t we get back Walker and McGinlay as well. Fuck me every defeat and it’s get old players back.

Charles was fucking awful for us the last 6 months or so. His head being up arse. Don’t ever want that cunt near our club again 

I know I’ll get pelters for this again as I did months ago when I suggested that the team might be better if ACD was called back or moved elsewhere but I still believe that. I just don’t think the two winger system helps us and how many teams these days, certainly at our level play two wingers? It means sacrificing elsewhere and for me I’d prefer an extra body in midfield or better still two strikers. Either way I’d then play Gale on the right and get him beating his man on the outside and crossing with his proper foot. I believe it would also suit the likes of Randall and Sheehan to have two strikers in front of them to thread balls to. I just don’t believe we have the players to play Schuey’s system at the moment and after last bight and other recent performances I think Schuey feels the same. Either change the players or the system but we can’t keep on like this if we’re to challenge seriously.

13 minutes ago, masi 51 said:

I was on here banging on how we need Erhahon in this team for two years, nothing has changed in that time.

Today was the 5th defeat in the league and he has not started in any of the five.

The keeper is hit and miss,but we was never going to get another Trafford. Full backs are a issue but is that because we play with attacking full backs and at times they get caught high up the pitch. Midfield we play with two which again leaves us light but in my opinion we have the best two in the division in Sheehan and Erhahon and i think we make it hard for ourselves not adding the third when we have Dempsey and Morley twiddling their thumbs.

Wingers are our shit or bust on form they are unplayable but when they are not we struggle to Score.

The 9 and Ten are the biggest worry we simply do not have quality there to get us promoted.

The 10 is the main issue and the best two are Mcatee and Burstow which does not  say much for the rest.

Up to the board where we go in January. If SS keeps with this formation we need to bring in Keillor-Dunne and a proven forward. And a arquement for a new keeper and right back, Certainly the front two needs addressing.

Spot on Masi exactly my way of thinking.

9 hours ago, Kane57 said:

Was delighted when Johnston went off. His terrible distribution and awful decision making cost us today with the giving away of a needless corner. Forrester and Forino are superior defenders and it feels odd they've not had a look in when fit again.

I agree he put a couple of wayward passes in tonight 2nd half and shouldn't have given a corner away so easily, but how anyone can question Johnston overall is beyond me and MOTM in last game.  He gave a corner away, in Forino's last game he leaped up to give a penalty away!

And he's left footed, Forino or Forrester on the left just isn't an option.

Its difficult to rotate GJ, it was meant to be the left footed Taylor but that's not happening.

8 hours ago, Farnywhite said:

Tonight’s performance is why we’re not getting top two said it for a long while Xmas was 12 points anything less we blow it 

and the keeper needs fucking off is save rate must be 50 percent 

Yeah, after this season the next time we see Teddy Sharman lowe  he'll be saving a penalty for someone like Eastleigh or Farnborough Town in the 1st round cup shock over someone like Sheff Wed.

Well, that result has been coming for a while. 
 

The last 3 home games have followed the same pattern. All the territory, all the possession, getting in to decent areas but not really translating that in to a good number of decent chances and when those decent chances do come along not taking them. Then, either a mistake or poor decision making at the back results in the opposition nicking a goal

you simply cannot continue making life hard for yourselves and continue to get yourself out of the hole. We were earlier on when our front players were affecting the game and scoring goals. Currently they’re not so there’s an inevitability which arrived last night. 
 

I said a couple of weeks back that the 4 back somehow seem immune to the rotation the rest of the team are subjected too and I still have no idea why. Toal is ©️ and GJ gives balance on the left so in theory it’s the preferred pairing. However, we very rarely look defensively sound and when you’re not you should be looking at how to correct it. The problem isn’t always in front of them. At some point the light needs to be shined on them too. Forino & Forrester must be pulling their hair out. 
 

Forrester has one eye out the door already by all accounts and I can understand why. Yep there’s an argument that he can’t stay fit but when he is fit and the CB’s continue to make mistakes and concede goals then he’s rightly asking what’s going on. 
 

going forward ACD has looked a shadow of his former self. Appreciate opposing teams are setting plans for him now and doubling up etc but there’s a predictability about him cutting inside and trying to bend one in the far corner. His game needs mixing up and he’s equally a threat going down the outside as he proved on Boxing Day for Sheehans winner 

these kind of results have blighted our season so far and could seriously derail us from being in the automatic race in a very poor league if this trend continues 

4 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

I know I’ll get pelters for this again as I did months ago when I suggested that the team might be better if ACD was called back or moved elsewhere but I still believe that. I just don’t think the two winger system helps us and how many teams these days, certainly at our level play two wingers? It means sacrificing elsewhere and for me I’d prefer an extra body in midfield or better still two strikers. Either way I’d then play Gale on the right and get him beating his man on the outside and crossing with his proper foot. I believe it would also suit the likes of Randall and Sheehan to have two strikers in front of them to thread balls to. I just don’t believe we have the players to play Schuey’s system at the moment and after last bight and other recent performances I think Schuey feels the same. Either change the players or the system but we can’t keep on like this if we’re to challenge seriously.

Something has to change for sure. I fail to understand why folk are mistaking our possession in the wrong areas as being anything other than flattering to deceive. 
We are not great. 
Other teams above and around us are not shit by comparison.

Other teams let us play around doing fancy stuff in areas that can’t hurt them - they’re fucking toying with us.

I’m not a big fan of modern statistics but one stands out for me - we have the highest XG in the league by a mile but we also have the highest failure rate against XG in the league. In layman’s terms, we should be scoring a load but we couldn’t score in a brothel.

This is us….

 

It was the perfect away day for Mansfield, park the bus, two or 3 good saves from the Goalie, persistent time wasting, including the injury/tactical break. Maximum subs.... 5 mins injury time!

Said many times, but this league is a poor standard this year. Next season there will likely be Sheffield Wed, Norwich and Oxford, that tough for us, we then become play off fodder at best....

 

Edited December 30, 2025Dec 30 by worthy10
.

Terrible result and very frustrating as it's another game we should easily have won. I've not seen the goal again yet or read this thread but should TSL have done better? Also the corner we conceded from was needless. Johnston has been decent recently but he has a habit of putting the ball out of play when there is better options.

Saying that though if Dalby or Conway has scored when they had great chances we'd have probably won. Also thought Burstow should've have hit it first time when Sheehan made a great run and set him up.

Performance wasn't bad but the result was disastrous.

Was watching on TV 

Fell Asleep after about 15 mints woke up Second half 1-0 down 

turned TV off went back sleep

looks like i didnt miss much 

11 minutes ago, Wanderlust said:

Something has to change for sure. I fail to understand why folk are mistaking our possession in the wrong areas as being anything other than flattering to deceive. 
We are not great. 
Other teams above and around us are not shit by comparison.

Other teams let us play around doing fancy stuff in areas that can’t hurt them - they’re fucking toying with us.

I’m not a big fan of modern statistics but one stands out for me - we have the highest XG in the league by a mile but we also have the highest failure rate against XG in the league. In layman’s terms, we should be scoring a load but we couldn’t score in a brothel.

This is us….

 

Your post seems contradictory to me.

Having possession but doing fuck all with it was Evatt-ball. The fact that we have the highest XG (and probably well up there on shots / shots on target / crosses etc) says we're doing plenty with it.

Your last point is valid and the crux of the issue.

To put it another way, we're doing everything right except the last (and most important) bit. Think I'd be more worried if it was the other way round.

10 hours ago, Lostock Whites said:

Conceding soft goals and missing guilt edge chances, story of our season.

I know every team will say goals are avoidable but ours have been genuinely more so. Teddy's mistake against Exeter and tonight not being strong enough, the penalty against Rotherham. Even the 2 goals against Wycombe where our players slipped and theirs don't.

You see the genuine frustration and anger in Schuey's eyes and rightly so. We shouldnt have lost any of the games we have lost so far. 

But we're 22 games in and there's a clear pattern. Think January has come at a good time because I think we need some experience to assist this young group. 

They are playing well, controlling games and trying, but like Schuey has said, we're just not clinical, in both boxes. You can't expect promotion like that no matter how many shots and possession you have per game.

It's frustrating because there's clear a good team there capable. I don't believe for one second that Lincoln & Bradford are better sides than us, but they're more solid and get the job done.

I'm not sure it comes down to needing "experience" as much as needing quality.  As you say, the keeper has made too many errors this season, I'm not writing him off or getting on his back, just stating the obvious that we can't keep on at that rate.  Experience all over the pitch won't help him catch that ball and its not realistic to think SS is going to replace TSL in January. 

Experience won't help us put in a good corner (or win the headers) - we had 10 fairly poor one's they had 2 right on the money putting our keeper under pressure.  But do we just sign someone that can take a good corner?  Its not happening, we're bursting with midfielders and wingers and we aren't signing any more.  On "missing chances" - basically we're talking about Dalby's, because we can't go counting our left back going through as something we can improve, he did great to be there in the first place.  Other than that did we really create any chances and/or miss many?  I'd love to say a decent striker would have scored a couple last night, but I'm not sure when, those crosses were food and drink to the CBs.

Edited December 30, 2025Dec 30 by Johnnyrotten

4 minutes ago, little whitt said:

Was watching on TV 

Fell Asleep after about 15 mints woke up Second half 1-0 down 

turned TV off went back sleep

looks like i didnt miss much 

superfan points 

I think the phrase, "don't get too high, don't get too low" is definitely a good phrase to stick by.

There's a long time to go and Schumacher will certainly need more than 1 window to get us where we need to get. But Wanderers fans patience is being tested and rightly so, 5 years in League one now.

It seems like we're forever being tarnished as that giant football club with huge gates, good players and a good football team, but just never getting it over the line.

What's frustrating is we're seeing Lincoln & Bradford now doing what Wrexham did last season and Derby the year before, hardly conceding and just getting it done. 

I would say unlike those 2 teams and also Stockport, Schumacher has hardly had much time to build his team properly, their managers have all been there for years. Cardiff are an exception but essentially have a Championship squad that can get goals from nothing.

But we gotta look at ourselves and in January we have got to invest as some are just not upto it. The keeper is on loan, not ours and has cost us at least 10 points this season from mistakes. Tried to get behind him but that's that's pretty much a fact.

Centre backs have been good and the midfield also. It's right at the top and right at the back that's costing us, both penalty boxes.

Burstow has completely gone off the boil. He came on and had a great chance right at the end inside the box, but he took an extra touch and lost the ball. I don't think a striker with a good goalscoring instinct does that. They take the shot on quickly.

It's those fine margins that's costing us, all the play in the middle is good.

Our home form was never going to last forever, we all know that we have to address the away form and be more ruthless. We really need to be beating Doncaster. 

Edited December 30, 2025Dec 30 by Lostock Whites