Just back...

Great response to the Salford debacle.

It wasn't pretty at times but we were fired up and the players obviously had a point to prove.

Amos had a good game, as did Hoolahan and Max kept us in it with a great save (with a little help from Stockport failing to take advantage of the resulting loose ball) but Khan for me was once again our stand out player.

Special mention also for Efete who showed his nasty side, which was great to see. Put in some meaty challenges and looked generally more confident. Yeah there were some stray passes but he got stuck in and surged forward well in the second half before releasing Khan with a perfectly weighted pass.

Chuffed for the players who were in desperate need of a confidence boost.

Bring on the Burton!

UTM!

Excellent, battling performance.
Still not papering over the fact that we need some replacements  as the ball would not stick up front.
Khan, as everybody said was magnificent. I also thought Clifton did very well.
15 points away from the bottom two is brilliant and buys some time to get in some new players. A great start to the New Year for the Mariners.

Thought Efete was excellent today given the pressure he must be under. Showed the qualities carrying the ball that show so much potential and it’s very difficult to get past his wingspan . If he could find a way to cut out the misplaced passes and remain switched on for 90 minutes he has the most potential to play higher after Mcatee.

Funny, as somebody said he wasn’t up to L2 standard on here yesterday. So much overstatement these days.

Quoted from Zmariner

Excellent, battling performance.
Still not papering over the fact that we need some replacements  as the ball would not stick up front.
Khan, as everybody said was magnificent. I also thought Clifton did very well.
15 points away from the bottom two is brilliant and buys some time to get in some new players. A great start to the New Year for the Mariners.

Don't forget we are only 8 points off the play off places which are much nearer.

Good battling display, bit nailbiting last 10 mins as unable to keep the ball. Khan excellent again but not many of our crosses finding a man still. Crocombe only 1 real save to make and a few tough to reach crosses. Defence back to doing what they were doing well.

Great response to Thursday. Congratulations to all. Early doors, the defence looked edgy but Luke Waterfall dragged the rest with him, a real captain’s display and, in spite of Khan’s excellence was my MoM.

The clean sheet must feel massive to the squad and management - really satisfying and hard earned. Their away record is superb so a battling performance like that must restore some confidence. Game in hand….play offs not far away and a streak of theoretically more ‘winnable’ games after Swindon away mean we are still competitive, certainly not ‘sh1t’ as some dummies on here would have you believe, and the prospect of reinforcements coming in.
UTM

The switch to 5 at the back worked well and all looked solid. Stockport are somewhat basic in their style of play - either their keeper uses his massive kick to whack it into the box, they whack it into the box directly or get it out wide to whack it into the box. Very rudimentary but we defended against it well. It was surprising to see them playing that way as I seem to remember they were more of a tidy passing team when we beat them at. BP last season.

Everyone battled well to the extent that several players were dead on their feet at the end - I'd have taken Green off earlier as he couldn't run and wasted a couple of opportunities to break because he couldn't run or pass by that point! I can see that Hurst wanted to leave him on for his aerial strength against a big team, but Morris is no slouch in that regard and having somebody who could run would have been helpful.

Not a huge fan of Efete OK general but he had a good game today - battled hard and won plenty in the air. Khan a little in and out of the game but great ability on the ball and in the right place for another goal. Clifton and McAtee weren't at their best but did enough work to make decent performances.

One really good save required from Crocombe but his handling was really good and I can forgive him one mildly poor clearance. Ultimately, the same sort of performance which saw us win lots of away games earlier in the season.

I really hope we can manage to sign a good player or two soon into the transfer window do we can begin to look up and not down.

We really miss Ryan Taylor, we need someone like him to hold the ball up and give the midfield players who are not the tallest an outlet as apposed to the head tennis we saw today. That’s not a criticism but they were knackered today and all gave 100%. Thought Hurst got his team selection and tactics spot on today.