Re: Newport Thread
 

Attended the game as a neutral today and just thought I'd say what a great day I had. Obviously the game was a thriller for the impartial spectator, the weather was pleasant enough, and your stadium's bloody lovely with some friendly staff. I wrote a report for my blog, which anyone who fancies a read can check out here. Ta!

Re: Newport Thread
 

Just watched the match highlights and all three Newport goals were poor.
The first,our wall simply parted( looked like Joycy and murph ).
The second,we never picked up the runner from midfielder , looked like Joycy,although the lad timed it perfect.
The last was a joke,simple diagonal ball and looked like Laurence must have called for it as Tom hesitated and Laurence just missed it !!,despite no challenge.
The positive thing to come out of it was all the mistakes are fixable,and in general we dealt with there long ball game.
Just a little concerned that we only have two men in central areas,and murph,who was excellent,was our main attacking threat ( 2 goals,1assist,1defo penalty),which isolates Joycy.

Re: Newport Thread
 

Again Newport were another side who weren't anything special who we should have beat. I'm yet to see us play against against a 'good' team in this league, no one has looked anything special.

Naylor can't play 60 minutes, let alone 90, has looked like this for a while and his set pieces/corners rarely find a red shirt. Wilson to start next game.

I had typed up a load of other complaints, but it's all already been said....

Re: Newport Thread
 

Spot on. I haven't seen the most recent games but have been thinking for a long time that he is very over rated, poor in defence and distribution. Give me Lids or Wilson any day.

Re: Newport Thread
 

The referee was an ALIEN FROM ANOTHER PLANET. :nky:
He was very lucky that the game did not descend into a violent affair due to his abject failure to spot or punish fouls. :eek:
Kayode literally had the cheating Yakubu on his back virtually throughout the match.:hitting8: The stupid ref only gave a couple of decisions against Yakubu and then at one point after Kayode did a nifty "wrestling" move to throw him off his back he almost booked Kayode! Kayode did really well to keep his composure!
Could not believe the parting of our defensive wall for their first goal!
For most of the match we played some good stuff. :alright:
Webber was very lively and creative. Pierro was as busy as usual and Kal took his header superbly. Murph took his goals well but initially I thought his cross for the second goal was going straight to the hands of Pidgley. That was until Kal came in with his storming run to head it literally off Pidgleys hands!:theband:
I still think that we concede too much space in central midfield as Joyce and Murph defend far too deep just outside our box. So often opponents run through our central midfield and expose our central defenders unecessarily.
Like everyone in the ground, I thought that we had won it on 88 minutes at 3 - 2. I seem to remember that we gave away possession too easily in front of the main stand that led to their equaliser on 92 minutes!
Once again though we have proved the equal of, (or better than), a team pushing up there near the top of the division!
KEEP THE FAITH:wave8:

Re: Newport Thread
 

Given that Messrs Murphy and Joyce are doing well but could do with more support in midfield, I wonder if Craig Rodden would fit the bill? But, if so, who would you drop, F19, to make room for the extra midfielder?

Re: Newport Thread
 

Good question !!,As stated before i am a fan of 4-3-3,so for me it would be kay up top with others joining in (murphs already doing that anyway !!) and a solid defensive midfielder who screens the back four and sees danger early.
JB likes 4-4-2,which is ok as look as a forward drops in to help out when danger arises (Hatfield type player)

Re: Newport Thread
 

Just watched the 'highlights' (Howe's contribution not being considered such, correctly) on Sky's web site, and all three Stanley's goals were great efforts. Also great save to thwart Webber. But their first and last were painful to watch.

Re: Newport Thread
 

I too like the flexibility of 4-3-3 as you have two formations in one, interchangeable depending on whether you have the ball or not.

Michael Liddle did really well when played in front of the back four for a run of games at the end of his initial loan spell. He would be my candidate from our current squad for playing the holding role as he's defensive minded and comfortable enough on the ball. (Also for some unknown reason we have three left wing backs on our books. How did that happen?)

Up top we're spoilt for choice in this scenario as either one of Odejayi or Webber are able to play as centre-forward with Naismith, Mingoia, Bowerman, Gray, Hatfield and McCartan all making credible cases for the two other positions.

It's all a bit academic now of course as JB seems to have found his system for the season and likes to work his players into it. In my opinion our undoing against Newport was our failure to react tactically after they matched our 4-4-2 shape. The system didn't budge, the subs came too late and sloppy mistakes were made.

Re: Newport Thread
 

This is a recurring theme, unfortunately, which has probably cost us very dear this season. Not quite as bad as Coley's old reluctance to change things until too late, but it has often been deeply dispiriting this season having to watch the opposition manager ringing the changes in a proactive manner, while our management seem to just wait for "something to turn up". Agony.

Re: Newport Thread
 

S'funny, Shaker, I had Mr Liddle in mind when I asked the question. One attribute he appears to have when I've seen him play is his willingness and ability to tackle in order to win the ball back.
Given that the squad has options for so many positions, and that, generally, none seem exceptionally better than the others, I'm surprised that JB hasn't rung the changes more frequently. It's going to be a long hard fight to the very last game and I'd hope as many players as possible are match fit. Who'd be a manager?