Re: Today v Rochdale
 

:) More Kiwi,Rochdale must have brought a 1000 plus i was in the main stand and it seemed to be fullish :)

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

It was brimming full in away end - even some dale fans being escorted out of the cowshed 5-10 mins before FT:D

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

Not quite gutted Mab, but most disappointed by the performances of our 'young' loanees. Terry Gornell and Jamie Clarke were well and truly in the pockets of the seasoned and experienced Rochdale defenders and I really can't see them providing the goals, or the crosses for the waiting head of Paul Mullin !.
I also felt some sympathy for Colin and Phil when the other defenders were persistently giving the ball away to the waiting Rochdale midfield and it kept coming back down the middle...thus the third goal seemed to be an obvious inevitability !.
I don't suppose that I was the only one to note the poor performance of the 'high-flying' Referee !...
His posing and constant stoppage of play did nothing for the game as a whole, and for at least two of his yellow cards, which he produced from his pocket like a budding
Tommy Cooper,begged for the player involved to be
'taken to one side' and warned!.
John Coleman will as he always promises 'take something from the game'...I hope that he can, and would console him with the fact that 'the Reds' have only dropped one place to seventeenth, that there is still time to achieve the balance and penetration in the team which I believe he and Jimmy Bell search for week in-week-out,
and assure him that the majority of our supporters are not suffering from the knee-jerkin' 'Sanction JC' complex noted elsewhere in this thread !.:cool:

'ON STANLEY!...ON !!!':alright:

Alfred.E. is no longer a fan of Gracie Fields and Cyril Smith !! :)

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

:)Your right Gutted was the wrong word to use Yonmon may be slightly dissapointed would have been better,and there was some posatives to take away with us ,like john miles great goal pms great lob shot not long after,and your right prem ref's spoiled what in facked was a good game.as for the pen dont think a league 2 ref would have given it ,any way not to worry theres always next weeks game at Barnet to look forward to :)

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

may be against popular opinion but agree with T.M. was a penalty to me, pity cos otherwise king did ok. was the kinda pen, ya see week in,week out, 50% are given 50% are not. cannot blame the ref fer giving it. though he was a clown wi some of the freekicks n bookings.

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

Jamie Clarke isn't a right-sided midfielder. Not sure what he is, yet, apart from slow and too easy to hussle off the ball; he hasn't got any understanding with anyone else, and today he didn't win a tackle, or retain the ball when he was tackled; he fell over it a few times though .........

There were a few today who didn't have their best games - how many clearances went 20 yards, straight up the middle, and straight to one of their players? We must be the best team in the league - no, make that 'in the world' - at heading the ball to no-one, and to nowhere. You can't score without the ball; can we put the 'foot' back into 'football' and try keeping it on the deck for a while?

I absolutely agree that we started off well; cracking goal from Miles (who's a revelation this year, and as sharp as when he stuck two past us for Macc a couple of seasons back. That said, we did what we always do - went off the boil. I wouldn't even mind some Route One if it was Route One, but it isn't; we play 'belt the ball in the general direction of Paul Mullin knowing that sometimes he'll get his head on it, and he'll flick it on to ........ somewhere'. There's no purpose behind it, and we haven't got a plan B (except kicking it over Mullin's head to their central defenders (thought their 23 - McArdle - had a good game)

Man of the Match; John Mullin? Was he playing ..........? John Miles yes. John Mullin ? - oh please!

Ryan did OK when he came on; Griffiths wasn't on song, nor were most of the defence; but WHY, oh WHY, would nobody have a shot? We played patsy round their box - no-one took responsibility, no-one was prepared to have a dip. Apart from the goal, I counted two other shots, both at 4mph along the floor ...........

Can we please stop whacking it hopefully in Mullin's general direction and start playing it on the floor, using the wings, the channels, and the talents of the players we've got? Just now and again can somebody put his foot on the ball and look for the options? I realise we've no money, so we ain't gonna get Thierry Henry, but Gornell's OK (played better than Clarke), and - based on today - King, Miles and Ryan give us the nucleus of a creative team and usually the defence is more solid than today made us look.

Is a re-think of tactics out of the question?

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

i honestly thought the tactics were fine fer the first 30 mins, its gettin em to continue fer the 90 thats the problem, beats the crap out of me why they can't.:confused:

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

This Gornell fella..when did he get here and from where??? My Autzhiemers(jeezzz spell that if you can.I used to be able but I've forgotten:D), is kicking in and i think I missed an anouncement.:(

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

On loan striker from Tranmere

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

This is the nub of the problem. How many times have you seen us start brightly enough like we did yesterday and then, as Div3North said, go "off the boil"? It happens time after time, season after season. Sometimes we vary it and begin the game playing rubbish, only to start playing out of our skins in the final stretch when we're a couple of goals down and it's far too late. Coley said on Sky Sports News that we were as good as Rochdale and he's right, we are...sometimes. The problem for him and Jimmy is to somehow motivate the players to do what they're paid to do - play to their full ability from the starting to the final whistle.

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

Ian Craney, Jonothan Smith, Steven Flitcroft... Nice to see them at the game

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

Might've been handy if one or two of them had brought their boots :rolleyes:

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

first game of the season for me but many problems still persist

Clearances - to nowhere mostly
Pass backs - straight to the keeper then usually out of play straight after. Has any keeper ever tried to hoof it up the field rather than row z ( or row F for us)?
Passing - some good pass and go when they remembered to go.
Mullin - I love Mully I really do, but we have to drop him now and then to give the opposition something different to think about. They now how we will play right from the off. If Mully is controlled, and he was yesterday, then very little happens for us.
Shooting - not enough of it - you have to enter the lottery to win it. Many games last season we didn't work the keeper at all - and that produces only 1 point at most.
Tactics - At 0-0 we are usually quite good on the ball, at 1-0 up we can look fantastic. But as soon as we concede we are incapable of changing our game - subs 2 and 3 with only moments left?

Plus points for me were

John Miles - a different player from the lazy sulker who we had last year. He chased and harried and showed some good touches. Cracking goal Milesy!
Griffiths - would become an important player for us if he was to stop longer than a month. As it stands though he will be gone before he has much chance to get to know the team. Very calm on the ball and willing to go round a player even though he seemed to lack pace. Probably not his best game yesterday but he showed promise.
Stewards - a couple of new faces for me yesterday but tried to meet and greet people at the Clayton End and tell people which entrance for cash and which for tickets. Most people already know of course but good effort anyway.

struggling for more to be honest


All in all I'm glad I wasn't a newcomer yesterday because there was nothing to inspire me to revisit. The atmosphere was flat and the game got worse (from our perspective)

as for the attendance - the away end holds 1400 when full to bursting. Although it was full it wasn't bursting so probably 1200. The main stand holds 900 when full, it wasn't full - there was probably around 750 in at tops. That leaves 500 for the Clayton End and cowshed and that is probably about right. The Clayton End can feel full if you are near the middle but there huge gaps if you move 20 foot either side. The Clayton End has been empty since the roof went up!!!! Take down the roof!!!!

Re: Today v Rochdale
 

It looked damn full at the away end to me :eek:

please dont take the roof off - tho nice days it should be retractable lol!!

Well the cowshed presence by us 2 didnt work either:(

Thing is it all boils down to the performance on the pitch at the end of the day, do well increase your gate, as plenty of glory seekers in need of new glory & thats where the extra fanbase will come from :D