MDT - Stevenage

Unpopular opinion:
(Okay, that time he made changes to the back three with five minutes to go when looking comfortable aside)
When the tactics come into play in the second half once the surprises of the first half die down and substitutions come into effect, Collins regularly out-smarts his opposition number.

 

Even more impressive is that we've still scored 5 more even after we discount the 7 that didn't count against Port Vale.

 

Didn't realise it was that many goals.

We aren't perfect, but we're doing OK I reckon.

 

Not sure if Jalo was offside or not, but for simplistic sake, let's say he was. Why did the Linesman take so long to raise his flag? There's footage of him raising it as the camera followed Cosgrove, who was celebrating towards the West side of the Ponte, and you can clearly see the moment the flag is raised. What justification is there for leaving it so late?

 

Oh wait. The linesman has just flagged McAtee's goal offside. We'll have to settle for a 1-1 draw.

 

I thought it was a cracking game in parts, full blooded 90mph stuff....we played some good football against a team of pretty brutal cloggers and a ref and linesman who hadn't a clue.

 

Before today Stevenage were:

W6 D1 L0

When scoring first away from home.

 

The ref just put his arms out as if to say wtf is going off.

 

I'd hazard a guess we have conceded more this season so far. Under Duff we kept it tight and won by the odd goal alot. I think a center half on loan or permanent needs to be priority in January.

 

Did Cosgrove definitely touch the ball as it went through to Jalo? If he didn't, what a terrible decision.

 

Defence is slow, which is why we play Williams in there. Without him we'd really struggle, and the calls to move him to wingback are, well, they're the incorrect call. It's also lightweight. That we're doing so well with the weakness we have in terms of personnel for the back 3 suggests to me that actually, the manager does know what he's doing. And because of injuries, no one in the midfield is yet playing to the standard they were last season. That's nothing to do with the manager, they'er simply not yet playing at the same level. Collins isn't asking them to misplace passes, they're doing that on their own.

I think we'll be top 6 and have done since the start of the season. Get a couple of central defenders with pace and strength, and if Phillips, Cadden and Connell rediscover their form then we'll be pushing for automatic.

 

I think one more win before Christmas has to put the Collins out murmuring to one side. For me 10 points from 5 games was the aim and we have 8. So one more win and we have to rally behind Collins for the rest of the season as we move into a January with some very winnable games.

 

Scored 12 more...but conceded 6 more.

 

I rate Collins at lot higher than most, but I seriously doubt he'll manage another win before Christmas. Job for life if he does.

 

I think the ref had previously been a cricket umpire and was waiting for a Stevenage player to appeal

 

Bringing on Cosgrove changed the second half. They were on top, we couldn't get the ball to stick up front, after we brought him on it did. Would have stuck a lot more too if the ref had got even half the decisions right.

 

cba to write period. Now you’ve made me write fourteen more words. Bah humbug.

 

It's down to the board in January , where we go from here.
Got to agree the head coach as an headache with Williams playing cente back , when he should be right wing back.
Bring in at least one or even two decent centre backs and promotion could be a prospect.
I still think Cole will leave in January , but hoping Styles can move on he clearly wants away.

 

Win and we're brilliant, lose and we're rubbish will probably always be the case with most fans, but 7th at Christmas is the very least that I would have expected from this group of players. Ground out a good win today but still plenty of room for improvement as a unit in my opinion.