v Burton

[Alan W (GNFC)]

James Smith, like the whole team, had a much better 2nd half than 1st - he was actually composed on the ball and played a few decent passes through the midfield. He does need to learn to play that way all the time, though.

 

Sasha was certainly very committed (the Burton fans suggest he was over committed & should have seen red for the arm that caught the guy in the face (they do say their guy was lucky not to get red for his reaction as well to be fair to them)

 

I also thought Liam Coleman has a good game considering he wouldnt have been expecting to play all but 5 minutes of the game.

 

And it goes without saying that Charlie worked hard - my real worry there though is that we seldom look like scoring from anyone other than Charlie. We really do need a solid back up for him to turn a few defeats into draws and draws into wins (lets face it that is basically the difference between a side who makes the play offs and a side which doesnt)

[Bloodnock]

I have to be honest and say that I thought both teams were awful,especially the first half.

For a team capable of playing the ball on the deck and to feet we seem to fight shy of doing so, a defender or midfield player received the ball in the air, with time to trap it and make a pass, only to lob it in more hope than expectation.

As a forward I would be pretty p----d off with that kind of service ,the pitch was dry and the conditions were perfect for a passing game.

and as for set piece play, what can I say, I thought we were a full time outfit!

 

 

[Santa]

Well it was a v poor first half, several players didnt look interested especially Ledgister. Second half much better had a couple of good chances but I thought their defence played well and you have to give them some credit for that. First time I have seen Varney and he wasnt very impressive and I thought the substitutions were needed. I am now also slowly creeping towards the 'what does Quinn bring to the team' camp. He doesnt seem to want to get stuck in and pulls out of headers and tackles. Sasha was great if a little uncontrolled and Charlie again showed his class and commitment. Wouldn't argue with Ross as MOM.

 

I think the reason we didnt/couldnt play on the ground was that we were far too narrow again with no wide outlet and all the while we are that narrow and the play(ers)so congested then their will rarley be the time for players at this level to get it under control and pass before they are tackled. Admittedly Lance's kicking upfield didnt help the situation.

 

Having said that I quite enjoyed the second half and look forward to Friday.

 

[Alan W (GNFC)]

Ledgister has great pace & does have the ability - there were 2 or 3 really good balls into the box, even in the 1st half - Stacy could (should?) have finished off 1 cross in particular late in the half. He was too inconsistent, however.

 

Its easy to say the pitch was good - strangely, both Daish & Clough made reference to the bumpy, hard pitch, however, as well as the swirling wind (well, if the ball is in the air so much, the wind is bound to play its part!)

[gaspode]

Originally Posted By: Santa

I think the reason we didnt/couldnt play on the ground was that we were far too narrow again with no wide outlet and all the while we are that narrow and the play(ers)so congested then their will rarley be the time for players at this level to get it under control and pass before they are tackled.

I agree with pretty much everything said above. The first half was abysmal, neither side looking like play-off chasing teams.
The second half improved and I thought we could have nicked it. We created 4 clear chances and could/should have taken one of them.

I particularly agree with the Santa concerning the width. Most of us have been clamouring for 4-4-2 so that we have the width we require and that is how we started, I was a little surprised that when Danny had to go off, Liam didn't bring on Keeling. That would have been a like for like replacement and kept the balance of the side. Liam Coleman did a lot of work and had a decent game, but he was pulled into central areas far too often, Stacey moved out to the left, but that is not natural for him as evidenced by the fact that he had to move the ball onto his right foot when he had that chance in the first half, JK would have been able to hit it first time with his left.
Other than that, if we play like we did in the second half for the whole 90mins on Friday we will win and that should put us right back into the mix