Just back

Quoted from Helgy

You can play the ball about but lack a cutting edge in the final third.
Mike Card Dean instead of letting the game flow it was all about him card crazy.

This we know. Need recruitments in forward areas to progress the team, but i'm sure the manager knows that. I didn't expect us to score today against a very well drilled Lincoln, who are further along in their progression than we are, and have a lot more dosh than we do right now.

Not a surprising result for me and i think Lincoln will almost certainly be a League 1 side next season. Just hope we can join you the season after.

Thought Ohman (sorry no umlaut) was immense today, battered and bruised but gave everything, great signing imo. Ring seems a good signing too. Kardwell just not good enough and Rose, well words dont describe how poor he can be sometimes. Probably me but I thought the game lacked the atmosphere of previous derbys.

Couldn't get a ticket so had to settle for listening to it.

Seen the red card, a typical Macca challenge. He can't tackle so he decides to go in with his body and cleans the player out. No complaints.

However, how can a player break a taller players nose with his arm and only get a yellow?

When it comes to contentious decisions, Lincoln seem to get them all the time. Dubious penalty last game, the Gowling sending off, they certainly get the rub of the green. It can't just be down to luck. They say it evens itself up in time, so next time we play them we should get five penalties and they have three players sent off!!

Quoted from jonnyboy82

Why do we abandon the formation that served us well last few months to go to a 352 ? Baffling.

Oh and am glad no one took me up on my offer of 70 quid for 2 tickets  

Totally agree.  He insisted on that formation at his previous club, they got relegated.  When he came here, he started with that formation and we kept on losing.  It was not until he went 4 4 2 that we started getting results.

We have now played 4 games in January, not scored a single goal, not got a single point, all under the 3 5 2 formation.  Coincidence?  I think not

Quoted from Tangerine Chris

Totally agree.  He insisted on that formation at his previous club, they got relegated.  When he came here, he started with that formation and we kept on losing.  It was not until he went 4 4 2 that we started getting results.

We have now played 4 games in January, not scored a single goal, not got a single point, all under the 3 5 2 formation.  Coincidence?  I think not

Is it just me or do we have this discussion with every manager, like we've been cursed to only perform when we play 4-4-2 forever

Quoted from Tangerine Chris

Totally agree.  He insisted on that formation at his previous club, they got relegated.  When he came here, he started with that formation and we kept on losing.  It was not until he went 4 4 2 that we started getting results.

We have now played 4 games in January, not scored a single goal, not got a single point, all under the 3 5 2 formation.  Coincidence?  I think not

Well, his future is at stake but more importantly so is the club's. You score goals if you create chances but you have to take those chances. We need someone to do that and we need someone who can make a chance from nothing like Podge.

We have 2 difficult matches this week and unless we score we will lose them both and be sinking fast again. Optimism is great, long term team building is great, confidence in the manager is great too. But none of them will pay the bills unless we score some goals and win some games quick.

Quoted from Tangerine Chris

Totally agree.  He insisted on that formation at his previous club, they got relegated.  When he came here, he started with that formation and we kept on losing.  It was not until he went 4 4 2 that we started getting results.

We have now played 4 games in January, not scored a single goal, not got a single point, all under the 3 5 2 formation.  Coincidence?  I think not

When did we play 3-5-2 before today in the past month? We've barely had a fit centre back!

Quoted from Tangerine Chris

Totally agree.  He insisted on that formation at his previous club, they got relegated.  When he came here, he started with that formation and we kept on losing.  It was not until he went 4 4 2 that we started getting results.

We have now played 4 games in January, not scored a single goal, not got a single point, all under the 3 5 2 formation.  Coincidence?  I think not

Except today was the first time we've played a 352 formation since the start of the season.

Just back home and if I'm honest a little underwhelmed. They say you build a good team from the back and, if that is the case then we are well on the way. Jolley obviously thinks he has the personnel to make a better fist of 3-5-2 and defensively at least you'd be hard pushed to argue with him. I thought Ring, Ohman and Hendrie were superb-particularly the big Swede whose full debut was "eventful". I did note the irony in the MOTM selection giving it to a player whose interest in the game should have ended after five minutes.
Thought Hess had just about his best game for Town, Embleton hustled and bustled but other than that nothing much. Although Cardwell had a game to forget the service to him was shocking and Thomas let his frustration show (after a game of wasted movement) when after pointing to where he wanted Rose(?) to play the ball it sailed harmlessly over his head to their keeper. I have no idea how good their keeper is because I can only remember an Embleton shot on target. It is easy to say after the event but surely Vernam would have made a better fist at the striker role. In any event most people in my vicinity thought the substitution was at least fifteen minutes too late. I actually thought Lincoln were poor. Time wasting to the point where yellow cards are issued in the first half of a game? We kind of knew they would fall down - a lot. The goal was a decent strike although I'd like to see it again because I thought it took a slight deflection. Cannot comment on the sending off as it was far too far away (although Dean was only slightly nearer). I wonder how many of the proper Lincoln fans are a bit uneasy about how they go about the game. If O'connor and whoever else it was who assaulted Ohman had done that on a Saturday night outside a pub in Cleethorpes they might have found themselves in the back of a police wagon. If Dean looks back at either of those challenges I suspect he might regret his leniency.

I'm going to try and be pragmatic about this game. New formation, two new players working towards being fully match fit, best engine in the team missing and the wrong end of two important refereeing positions and we lost 1-0 to a team that's clear at the top and had a few quid chucked at it. Some games aren't free flowing bundles of joy to watch and some are, just depends how the teams match up. For most of the game both teams cancelled each other out. I understand the calls for a striker, every team needs better strikers than they've got no matter what position they are in the league. I'd accept one tomorrow but our lack of goalscoring could be atrributed to lack of quality chance making just as much. I don't get the outrage on here about wanting one after this game and a terrible run of injuries over the past few games after scoring plenty in the weeks beforehand. If we were toothless up front, so were they. I think we shaded it in chances created tbh. They started brightly for the first twenty minutes using the ball well with some accurate balls to the feet of Akinde and their wide men. They got their foothold because our central midfield three stood off them and looked a little disorganised. They knocked some decent crosses in, all were dealt with well by our defence but we paid by being slow to the second ball and got punished by their winner which was a decent strike to be fair. Then somehow after twenty minutes we relaxed and started knocking it around a bit and with the three or four chances created mostly from set pieces before half time, it was a bit of an injustice that we went in behind at the break. Some reports were saying that one of our efforts was over the line and it looked that way on TV.

Second half was a non event. Lincoln showed their ability to manage games out and we showed a lack of composure on the ball when trying to get into the final third although some credit has to be given to the standard of their defending.With some of the talent they had in their side, I think we need to give our players some credit in making them look quite ordinary for long spells in the game. Apart from a shaky first twenty minutes for Ring, I thought the wing backs and back three all had decent games. Hessenthaler had a decent ninety minutes, Embleton had a decent twenty minutes before half time and Rose's physicality grew into the game after a poor thirty minutes, but the overall effect of our midfield three was pretty ineffective. Clifton would have made a difference, but I think we'll still need an added ingredient of steel and athleticism in there if we're going to challenge next season. The front two were largely ineffective but they had poor service and were shackled by probably the best defence I've seen this season in open play although they looked a bit shaky at set pieces as did their keeper who seemed get attable.

Onto Mike Dean. I actually thought he got a large percentage of decisions right but got two huge ones wrong. O'Connor should have walked for his cynical elbow, I thought Akinde's was a yellow and no way should Macca have got sent off, although Macca created the situation himself by being extremely indecisive, their forward made up 50 yards whereas JM only had to make half that distance. And onto Lincoln. They looked excellent for twenty minutes and ordinary for the rest of the game. They've got some decent players and you can see with their strength how they can steamroller some teams yet we didn't lay down and die for them. I think they've got one or two weaknesses but they'll have enough to go up this season. Couldn't watch them every week though, I much prefer watching how Jolley is developing our work in progress side. Wish we could be a little more like them, we need to add a cynical edge to our play if we want to be successful, at times I think we're a little bit too nice and naive. Not throwing elbows in faces or play acting like them but getting away with a nudge here and there and being more adept in reading game situations. Nearly every team that plays Lincoln will say they're a horrible team to play against and we need our opponents to say the same about us because in our present guise we're never going to have a budget to buy the quickest and most skilful players for this level.

I like the look of Ohman and Ring, Ohman looks very strong in the air and not bad with his feet and Ring looks good with the ball but first impressions are that I'd like him to be a yard quicker if he's going to fill that wing back role. I can understand the calls for a forward but I couldn't see how a different one to the two today could have made much of a difference in today's game, I think our relatively small shortcomings compared to Lincoln can't be laid solely at Cardwell and Thomas's feet, even though their movement wasn't great the service they received was poor, although I was disappointed not to see Vernam start as I think we'd have got more joy with him running at their defence alongside Embleton rather than playing two with their backs to goal.

Disappointed with the result today and disappointed with the game as a spectacle but quite prepared to be patient and see how our side progresses over the rest of the season and depending on budget analyse where we'll need to improve over the summer to become a promotion chasing side. Definitely wouldn't be hitting any panic buttons at the minute anyway..