We looked one dimensional going forward and unbelievably wasteful with possession in the middle. Marsh and Cosgrove as a pairing upfront is woeful. Wycombe, Huddersfield, Reading, Blackpool and Charlton the next five league fixtures. Interesting to see how we fare.
I was a left sided, right footed winger/ forward. My first instinct and coaching was to hug the line and drift into the middle. If I got the ball out wide, go towards goal. Marsh when he came in was played through down the left, beat the Stockport defender for pace and went wide losing the ball in the process. Not good enough. If you're an attacker you should always look toward goal.
Delighted with the result. Because that was a really bad watch. I thought Stockport were okay, nothing special. Better than we were, but we were bad, so…? On paper, points wise, etc, it’s hard to complain all things considered. But other than spells in the odd game, I think we’ve been horrendous to watch. And I don’t mean just in terms of style of football. I was a huge fan of Val Ball when many weren’t. And that wasn’t pretty to the purists out there. But to me it was. And it was hugely effective. This football under Clarke too often so far looks dire and ineffective. Sunday league stuff. Kick and hope. And I know we’ve players way better than that. So I’m stumped. Take the point and move on I guess. But my Lord, that was really bleak to sit through.
His save from Humphry's was top drawer and won them a point because Clarke subbed him straight after .
I get where you're coming from with "delighted with a point" but the question is with the players we have, why are they trying to defend for 87 minutes against Stockport? Do they think that's going to wash in League 1 against teams on an upward trajectory like Stockport, let alone the Championship? Why are the flaws in our side/gameplan so obvious to everyone except those that can do something about it?
I thought Roberts looked back to his best, and for all the grief I've given Slonina, he put in a quality performance (there was nothing wrong with that punch, it went to a Barnsley player who should have done better). But other than that, we did nothing. Cotter tried, as did O'Keeffe, but there was no quality at all. And the formation looks silly to me. Genuinely daft.
I was there but must have seen a different game to you cos I don't remember any brilliant saves their keeper had to make. The only keeper to have made any truly decent saves was Slonina at the end of the first half.
Not sure what top saves he had to make. Decent enough stop from the stinging shot Humphrys hit but that's one most L1 keepers expect to make, that aside I don't think he had anything of note to do
Answers on a postcard. We started very brightly. Got in front. Humphrys then had that one on one. It felt like we’d have a really good night. Really kick start the season on TV with a decent crowd in situ. What we ended up with will actually shed followers. It was so bad.
The difference is Big Val had forwards who could actually run and stretch teams but we’ve somehow created a forward line slower than last season ,very boring to watch I’m afraid.
Pretty spot on bar being delighted with the result. They were nothing particularly special and we sat off them and let them push and push until they got a deserved goal. A decent side would have been out of sight against them in first half after going a goal up so early. Can't be delighted with that result or performance. Val ball was pretty rough to watch sometimes, but at least we always saw high energy and high press and they ran and ran none stop, don't even have that at the moment.
We're joint 3rd now after that (all four teams in the Play off places have the same points), and we would have taken this after 8 games etc. Yeah I go along with that, but it's only small consolation to be honest, after such a negative performance. And when we say we've not played any of the bigger/better teams yet, just look at who is in the top six with us, Blackpool, Mansfield, and Lincoln.
I don’t rate the defence or keeper. I can agree and say they weren’t as bad today, but I could also point out numerous instances where we got lucky. I’m not picking out individuals tonight really. I just thought as one, they were proper krap.
I don't either, but you've got to call it as you see it, and tonight, the team as a whole were rubbish, but the defence limited the much better team to very few chances and when they got one, the keeper kept them out. The goal came from a deflection. And that's despite the fact that MDG was awful. Anyway, dunt matter does it, I just thought for once in the last year or so, the defence weren't the weakest link.