Just found the time to expand on what I made of last night

The first thing I want to point out is about ball retention. I was always taught when I was younger that if you can't do anything constructive with the ball, it is always best to retain possession. Yet I seemed to be the only one in the stadium yesterday who didn't seem to be annoyed when we went back to the goalkeeper. There was once particular instance where Reese Brown picked up the ball on half way, looked up, saw no viable option, turned back, only to find both Cranie and Nyatanga under pressure from York attackers, so he played the ball all he way back to Davies. At which point there was more noise from the reds fans than there was for either goal. Why? He could have hoofed it forward and lost possession. Just moments later, Brad Abbot found himself in a similar situation and decided to hit one up to Cole, he was beaten in the air and York broke down our right.

As I say I'm probably in a bit of a minority when I say, I don't mind us going back to the keeper on odd occasions to retain possession, whilst we have the ball, they can't score.

Overall I thought York were the better side for the first 55 or so minutes, but seemed to fade and we took full control. In the end the scoreline could have been greater but that wouldn't have been fair on a plucky side who should be around the top 7 again this season.

Special mention to the 2 centre halfs who looked a cut above again yesterday. Cranie and Nyatanga seem to be forming a decent partnership and we seem to have a settled centre back pairing which is something we never really managed to achieve last season.

Just a quick note, Luke Berry came in and played more centrally. He looked brilliant. Hope he can get the chance to play there more often as he has his critics but I reckon he could flourish in his natural position.

 

Spot on with the retention, some of our fans would rather we aimlessly lumped the ball forward rather than retain

 

Weren't they the only 2 players from the starting 11 on Saturday that had not been signed in the summer? Jennings came on as sub.

 

Yes you are right about keeping possession but look what happens when Brown or whoever sends a Barry Murphy-style ball back to the keeper, which he does more than anything else it seems. The Keeper gets the ball and launches it aimlessly in the vague direction of our forwards. They hardly ever get it, so the defenders gobble it up and we have lost possession.

I don't want to single out Brown because he is not the only one doing it but he is REALLY frustrating half the time. He sees plenty of the ball but it seems that is only option is to check back and look to play it back to another defender. We all know he is not an attacking full back but it drives me mad the number of times he kills an attacking move (in the opposition half) by going backwards. I'm not suggesting he should just hoof it up to no one in particular but he really needs to think about his game more, or get some help.

It's coming though, all of it. There was some lovely football in that second half and two cracking goals. It's lovely seeing us on an unbeaten run and that's three wins in the bank already. Can't understand how we lost to Crawley - big mystery that one

 

Jennings started, Hemmings came on as sub.

 

i can see the point and for the large part i agree, however what annoys me is the defender (whichever one) usually has the ball around the half way line... if he launched the ball forward its in the oppositions box.... 99% of the time when he plays a back pass the goal keeper then launches it forward and the ball is on our half way line... achieving naff all

i'm not a fan of either of them launching it forwards by the way but its something we seem to do rather a lot ! maybe the defender has to resort to a backpass because our midfield and forwards are not giving them enough options and movement??

 

There were a few times it found it's way back to the keeper, only for him to lump it aimlessly forward (under no pressure). May as well lump it 30 yards closer to their goal. Or better still, knock a 50 yard crossfield forward pass.

 

In defence of the lump forward.....

In my opinion the reason they choose to do this is that often (not always) there is no one showing for the easy pass. The midfield need to have confidence to take the ball even if there is an opponent close by, protect the ball and then pass to another red shirt. At 1-0 we started to do this last night. Against Gillingham at 2-0 we started to do this. The big leap forward for this team will be when we're happy to do this at 0-0 or when we're behind.

 

I agree in general about the ball retention, I've no problem with going back to the keeper if it's the only safe option available but if the Brown incidents the same one I'm thinking of then there was a safe cross field ball to Dudgeon available who was in acres of space which is why I was frustrated.

Agree on Berry, I think he's been fantastic since the Crawley game