- Print Topic - Archive

Only one team wanted the win today. Credit to Torquay, they looked a very good side, their winger (ajala?) and their centre forwards were superb and caused our back 4 no end of problems. Their midfield dominated ours and knew when to press on and when to drop off. Their back 4 stifled any attacks we produced and their keeper pulled off a worldy to deny toto, would have been interesting had that gone in.

As for us, well...

Thought either McKeown or toto could have done more for the first goal, seemed to leave to each other. Pearson didn't look his usual self, missed the odd header and tackle. I've never had much faith in Bignot, never does much wrong but we'll look better with Magnay back at rb, who I though was the correct shout for mom. Good defensively and offers a threat going forward. Central midfield was awful today. Worst game I've seen brown have, showed no composure on ball and looked to be trying to hard at times if that makes sense. Neilson and Paddy at least tried to create things to little avail mainly due to a poor final ball. Lennie worked hard as usual but carried little threat.

Last point, I actually feel like I contributed more to the game today than Craig Disley and Ross Hannah did combined

UTM

I said it before the Lincoln game but why change a winning side. Disley does not fit into this side. We were playing good passing football with Neilson running riot in front of a good pairing of Brown and Clay.
This is not good enough and now we definitely need some reinforcements.

Quoted from 1739

We all knew that we needed a striker and we could not rely on Lenny Ross and Pitman as they were all not going to score enough goals to mount a challenge. Neil Aspin please

true.

we desperately need a striker who can come in with confidence and a proven record but for some reason we cant seem to get one in , begs the question will he get chance to bring one in now.

Hurst on Humberside blaming the officials for not giving us a penalty (fair enough) and a handball for their first (clutching at straws). He's claiming "we have to be better".

Said a loan signing looks likely if LJL isn't fit for Tuesday. Doesn't understand why all our players forgot how to take a corner properly.

Stupidly bad. Disley was just embarrassingly crap. Magnay, Brown, Neilson and Mackreth when he came on were the only decent ones.

Quoted from Chrisblor

I didn't think Torquay were THAT good. Both goals came through awful defending on our part and they didn't test McKeown too much otherwise. LJL & (the anonymous) Hannah both missed very good chances in the second half.

It was Nsiala whose header was saved from close range, not LJL. Shouldn't have given the keeper a chance with a header that easy though.

Otherwise, don't disagree with you. Three chances like those in the second half, it's criminal not to take at least two of them.

First half, we were dire at the back and in midfield. Unfortunately, I'm coming to the conclusion that 90% of Toto's defensive abilities come from the fact that he's big, strong and awkward. Playing against a striker who was similarly big, strong and awkward, he found himself in all sorts of problems at times today with terrible positioning and lack of awareness. No attempt at a challenge for their first goal though, it has to be said, I think McKeown could easily have reached the ball before the shot was squeezed past him.

In midfield, Disley was utterly anonymous in the first half and Brown wasn't much better. Their second came when Brown lost possession in midfield and Toto got back to defend initially, but then lost possession in the box as he tried to overplay instead of just whacking it clear. A little unfortunate that the ball deflected in, but only ourselves to blame for two defensive errors.

We improved markedly in the second half once Clay and Mackreth came on (I thought McLaughlin was unfortunate to be taken off as he'd been more effective than both Disley and Brown), but if you don't take your chances, you don't get any points. Neilson poor today.

Earlier in the season the defence looked very solid but it seems pretty obvious that this was due in great part to Boyce. Any chance of us getting him back in on loan? Pearson has been a bit out of sorts this season as well, but I reckon in part this might be because he's no bloody clue what Nsiala is going to do next!

Big worry now is what the heck we are going to do up front in the next game. Pittman looks like he will be out for a while, LJL took a fair whack so could be out a couple of weeks so that just leaves us with Hannah who looks utterly ineffectual at the moment.

Hurst had better get involved in the loan market very soon indeed and, whoever is playing up front better start taking some of the many chances that we are still creating!

He's certainly not the luckiest manager, 2 pens against and a foul on the keeper to lose the game late on against Lincoln one example, but he still makes the decisions and calls the lineups. I'm not taking the trek to BP until this team show more purpose and aggression and at least try to seize the initiative from the kick off.
We're back to the inevitability of conceding whenever the opposition get forward, still being outrun in midfield, all with the absolute certainty that the team will not pull any goals back to get anything out of the game. Still too similar to 4 years ago under Woods.

Quoted from pontoonlew

Stupidly bad. Disley was just embarrassingly crap. Magnay, Brown, Neilson and Mackreth when he came on were the only decent ones.

Brown was woeful today Lew. Agree about the others though, good to see Mackreth make an impact when he came on.

I'm glad I can't go for the rest of the year, when a manager decides to change a team performing so well he deserves everything he gets.

I don't think 4 4 2 worked today. We missed Scotty behind the front 2 running the show, he was too easy to handle today and we all know we get the best out of Paddy in a mid 3 not out on the left.

I was impressed with Mackreth when he came on, best I've seen him play.

We need a striker who can find the net, 1 on 1 Hannah missed LJL would have been shot down in flames.

Timmo
UTM

Quoted from Maringer

It was Nsiala whose header was saved from close range, not LJL. Shouldn't have given the keeper a chance with a header that easy though.

Otherwise, don't disagree with you. Three chances like those in the second half, it's criminal not to take at least two of them.

First half, we were dire at the back and in midfield. Unfortunately, I'm coming to the conclusion that 90% of Toto's defensive abilities come from the fact that he's big, strong and awkward. Playing against a striker who was similarly big, strong and awkward, he found himself in all sorts of problems at times today with terrible positioning and lack of awareness. No attempt at a challenge for their first goal though, it has to be said, I think McKeown could easily have reached the ball before the shot was squeezed past him.

In midfield, Disley was utterly anonymous in the first half and Brown wasn't much better. Their second came when Brown lost possession in midfield and Toto got back to defend initially, but then lost possession in the box as he tried to overplay instead of just whacking it clear. A little unfortunate that the ball deflected in, but only ourselves to blame for two defensive errors.

We improved markedly in the second half once Clay and Mackreth came on (I thought McLaughlin was unfortunate to be taken off as he'd been more effective than both Disley and Brown), but if you don't take your chances, you don't get any points. Neilson poor today.

Earlier in the season the defence looked very solid but it seems pretty obvious that this was due in great part to Boyce. Any chance of us getting him back in on loan? Pearson has been a bit out of sorts this season as well, but I reckon in part this might be because he's no bloody clue what Nsiala is going to do next!

Big worry now is what the heck we are going to do up front in the next game. Pittman looks like he will be out for a while, LJL took a fair whack so could be out a couple of weeks so that just leaves us with Hannah who looks utterly ineffectual at the moment.

Hurst had better get involved in the loan market very soon indeed and, whoever is playing up front better start taking some of the many chances that we are still creating!

I'm 99% sure it was Disley who gave the ball away for the second (and lost his man for the first). Also sure it was LJL who's effort was saved.

Quoted from jimgtfc

Brown was woeful today Lew. Agree about the others though, good to see Mackreth make an impact when he came on.

Disagree with you about Brown he covered yards of space that the anonymous Disley should have been covering . No game plan , yet again , they were better in all departments . We will be under 3000 by October .

Quoted from pontoonlew

I'm 99% sure it was Disley who gave the ball away for the second (and lost his man for the first). Also sure it was LJL who's effort was saved.

Hmmm. I know Disley gave the ball away once or twice, but I was pretty sure that it was Brown who lost possession shortly before their goal.

I was also sure that the header from the free-kick was Toto's!

No doubt the 'highlights' will show what happened. Pretty poor defending all around for both the goals and whoever headed that chance should have scored.

Just listened to the post-match interview and Hurst notes that Brown was the one that lost possession for their second goal. Thought that was the case.

Like most of us ?I was disappointed by the way we performed in the first half when we gave them so much space and failed to get important tackles in. Better in second half but never looked like getting back into it. Having said all that, I don't think PH had much choice with his starting line up assuming Clay was not 100% and having to play Disley. The rest of the players were those who gave played some good stuff in earlier games albeit probably when given a bit more time on the ball. Now his selection options are limited with tough games coming thick and fast. Testing times for sure and re-enforcements needed quickly to stem the tide.

Whilst I thought Torquay looked quite good, I don't think they were unbeatable. Their number 10 and 24 were excellent players though and Toto and Pearson struggled to get to grips with them all game. In fact, I would go as far as to say they were both very poor today. The first goal came from Pearson being completely bullied and dominated by their big striker and one of the midfielders (Disley I think who I will get on to) lost their runner who scored. The second was from Brown stupidly giving it away on the half way line and Toto trying to be clever when he had the chance to boot it away. But apart from the goals and when they walked through early on and should have scored, they didn't really do too much going forward. Toto seems to be a good last ditch defender but the problem is he makes most these tackles because of his own mistakes. And Pearson really didn't cover himself in glory today, didn't appear strong enough.

As I said after the Lincoln game, Disley does not fit into the way we play best. I thought we would struggle when I heard the line up as none of the starting midfielders do the dirty work of tracking runners and breaking the play up. Had Clay been on the pitch to follow the run for the first goal, it might have been prevented. But we'll never know. Back to Disley and I feel his time has passed. He slows the play down too much, doesn't particularly break up play and just seems to not be the player he was a couple of years ago.

This wasn't helped by Brown being very poor today, the first time I've been disappointed in him. Hopefully this was just an off game though and he'll find form again. Neilson was also quieter than he has been but again, hopefully just an off game. We'll see in the coming weeks though.

LJL did alright with his usual bustling style. Actually thought his touch was a bit better than normal today, he took one particularly nice touch in front of the Findus in the first half. I feared the worst when Pittman went off as he is by far our best striker and I think Hannah is useless. I've said it for a while but he offers nothing other than some finishing ability and if you miss those chances he was given today you have to question whether he even has that. The first chance nearly went over the Pontoon from 8 yards and the second chance was 8 yards out with no defenders near, possibly the easiest it gets. Apart from that he was completely anonymous and offers nothing to general play. In my opinion a striker should be at least one of the following: quick/strong/tricky/smart (ideally more than one) and Hannah is none of these things. Doesn't even contest half the passes that go his way. If we're relying on him in the next few games, then we're screwed. Even if Pittman and LJL are fit for Tuesday, I'd still dip into the loan market as I have no faith in Hannah coming off the bench.

Thought that Hurst made the correct changes for once and had their keeper not made that wonder save and LJL not gone off injured, we might have got something out of the game. But it needs to improve and quickly starting by reverting to the personnel and system that worked so well! And it served to prove just how little depth there is in the squad. I'd be making calls tomorrow if I was PH regarding two or three players coming in on loan, starting with getting Boyce back and a striker.

Quoted from pontoonlew

I'm 99% sure it was Disley who gave the ball away for the second (and lost his man for the first). Also sure it was LJL who's effort was saved.

It was definitely Brown who should have not been so stupid in a precarious position.

That was awful. I

Anyone who thought that the 1-1 HT score at Lincoln was justified, saw us get our just desserts for another poor half-time display.  Why did we not learn from the Lincoln game to start better?

Was Clay not fully fit to start, as Disley offered nothing.

Injuries were both very unfortunate.  However, Torquay had chances to score before the first one.  They looked more fluid, passed better and worked better as a team than we did.  Even in the second half when they attacked, they had 4 or 5 in the box.  Good support from midfield.

We were better when the subs came on but too late.

Minor points:

Hannah said in the programme that he is good at goalscoring.  He had little service today but did miss any chances that came his away.

The Ref should have booked 2 of their players in the first half for kicking and and throwing the ball away when we had a freekick.

The Torquay fans (103) deserved a clap for coming all this way. They only really sung after the final whistle. At least they did not win 3-0 as they did last time.

Quoted from pontoonlew

Stupidly bad. Disley was just embarrassingly crap. Magnay, Brown, Neilson and Mackreth when he came on were the only decent ones.

Apart from his corner taking, they were terrible.
Reminded me of Colbeck.

UTM

Torquay IMO are probably the best organised and hardest workin team we have played so far this season, and we struggled as we have done for the past couple of seasons against such teams.
Dont recall them troubling Mckeown at any point in the game other than the two goals which were poorly defended, possible penalty for us early doors when LJL appeared to get caught but other than that i think it was 62 mins before we put a serious effort on target from open play, just not good enough.
Pittman going off early obviously upset the apple cart a little so unlucky for Hurst but thats where this "better squad than last year" argument falls flat, Hannah came on and we didnt threaten again until the second half did we??
Torquay's 24 was a handful who gave Pearson and Nsiala a torrid afternoon and the No.10 was tricky who we couldnt get to grips with but outside of that they didnt hurt us that often.
We had 3 or 4 better than their chances to score but failed, their keeper made a couple of good stops to be fair but still overall we created little, relied soleley on Neilson to attack with any purpose.
There were brief glimpses of neat passing in the first half but went long too early as the game progressed.

My first visit view since the early opening draws and didnt feel inspired by what i saw, a half decent opposition relatively easily taking away three points, bad luck with injuries disrupting the team set up but as with last season there seemed to be no pattern to our play, no understanding between key partnerships, Disley/Brown..Pearson Toto and Hannah/LJL and when you dont have understanding down the spine of your team then it doesnt bode well.

Magnay looked excellent, a real turnaround from my first impression of him in pre season. Long hard and depressing season ahead i feel.

Quoted from mariner91

Whilst I thought Torquay looked quite good, I don't think they were unbeatable. Their number 10 and 24 were excellent players though and Toto and Pearson struggled to get to grips with them all game. In fact, I would go as far as to say they were both very poor today. The first goal came from Pearson being completely bullied and dominated by their big striker and one of the midfielders (Disley I think who I will get on to) lost their runner who scored. The second was from Brown stupidly giving it away on the half way line and Toto trying to be clever when he had the chance to boot it away. But apart from the goals and when they walked through early on and should have scored, they didn't really do too much going forward. Toto seems to be a good last ditch defender but the problem is he makes most these tackles because of his own mistakes. And Pearson really didn't cover himself in glory today, didn't appear strong enough.

As I said after the Lincoln game, Disley does not fit into the way we play best. I thought we would struggle when I heard the line up as none of the starting midfielders do the dirty work of tracking runners and breaking the play up. Had Clay been on the pitch to follow the run for the first goal, it might have been prevented. But we'll never know. Back to Disley and I feel his time has passed. He slows the play down too much, doesn't particularly break up play and just seems to not be the player he was a couple of years ago.

This wasn't helped by Brown being very poor today, the first time I've been disappointed in him. Hopefully this was just an off game though and he'll find form again. Neilson was also quieter than he has been but again, hopefully just an off game. We'll see in the coming weeks though.

LJL did alright with his usual bustling style. Actually thought his touch was a bit better than normal today, he took one particularly nice touch in front of the Findus in the first half. I feared the worst when Pittman went off as he is by far our best striker and I think Hannah is useless. I've said it for a while but he offers nothing other than some finishing ability and if you miss those chances he was given today you have to question whether he even has that. The first chance nearly went over the Pontoon from 8 yards and the second chance was 8 yards out with no defenders near, possibly the easiest it gets. Apart from that he was completely anonymous and offers nothing to general play. In my opinion a striker should be at least one of the following: quick/strong/tricky/smart (ideally more than one) and Hannah is none of these things. Doesn't even contest half the passes that go his way. If we're relying on him in the next few games, then we're screwed. Even if Pittman and LJL are fit for Tuesday, I'd still dip into the loan market as I have no faith in Hannah coming off the bench.

Thought that Hurst made the correct changes for once and had their keeper not made that wonder save and LJL not gone off injured, we might have got something out of the game. But it needs to improve and quickly starting by reverting to the personnel and system that worked so well! And it served to prove just how little depth there is in the squad. I'd be making calls tomorrow if I was PH regarding two or three players coming in on loan, starting with getting Boyce back and a striker.

Couldn't agree more, particularly about Hannah.

First half Torquay were first to the ball, put in the better tackles, better organised and wanted it more than us.
Yes we should have had a pen but we didn't get it, that didn't lose us the game.
Second half was slightly better but I think it was more them free-wheeling because it looked easy for them.

I fully understand the hypothesis that you make your own luck in football but bloody Nora Hurst must have run over a dozen black cats on his way to Grimsby.

No bad luck regarding the two Torquay goals-just appalling defending (or lackadaisical play in dangerous areas) but to lose Pittman to a seemingly innocuous challenge and then to play the last 20 odd minutes with ten men when you are trying to get back into a game is pushing the boundaries of fortune a step too far. I wonder how many games this season Hurst has been able to put out what he feels is his strongest first XI?

I keep banging on about it but today showed yet again how much we are missing Boyce. Every time they got the ball in our half today panic set in. Is he even getting a game for Scunny? (See they lost 4-1 today).

McLaughlin showed his lack of defensive capabilities today but I felt a bit for him seemingly being expected to play as an out and out winger.
Hannah did little to force himself into Hurst's thinking. It may have been lack of match time but had LJL missed either of those two chances (both of which were created by him) the knives would have been well and truly out for him both on here and at the time. I cannot remember a Town forward with such a seemingly poor awareness of what is going on around him.

Quoted from barralad

I fully understand the hypothesis that you make your own luck in football but bloody Nora Hurst must have run over a dozen black cats on his way to Grimsby.

No bad luck regarding the two Torquay goals-just appalling defending (or lackadaisical play in dangerous areas) but to lose Pittman to a seemingly innocuous challenge and then to play the last 20 odd minutes with ten men when you are trying to get back into a game is pushing the boundaries of fortune a step too far. I wonder how many games this season Hurst has been able to put out what he feels is his strongest first XI?

I keep banging on about it but today showed yet again how much we are missing Boyce. Every time they got the ball in our half today panic set in. Is he even getting a game for Scunny? (See they lost 4-1 today).

McLaughlin showed his lack of defensive capabilities today but I felt a bit for him seemingly being expected to play as an out and out winger.
Hannah did little to force himself into Hurst's thinking. It may have been lack of match time but had LJL missed either of those two chances (both of which were created by him) the knives would have been well and truly out for him both on here and at the time. I cannot remember a Town forward with such a seemingly poor awareness of what is going on around him.

Hannah offers nothing. People say he's a good finisher but it's about time he started showing it. LJL has his limitations but I know which player is easier to play against out of him and Hannah. We need at least one forward player in on loan. Particularly if Pittman and Arnold are going to be so injury prone. People say we'll not go up relying on LJL and they may have a point.but I always think LJL is more likely to score than Hannah because he does at least do something. Like you said, if it had been LJL missing those chances the knives would be out and yet people gloss over the fact that they were glaring misses and cost us points today.

Quoted from mariner91

Hannah offers nothing. People say he's a good finisher but it's about time he started showing it. LJL has his limitations but I know which player is easier to play against out of him and Hannah. We need at least one forward player in on loan. Particularly if Pittman and Arnold are going to be so injury prone. People say we'll not go up relying on LJL and they may have a point .but I always think LJL is more likely to score than Hannah because he does at least do something. Like you said, if it had been LJL missing those chances the knives would be out and yet people gloss over the fact that they were glaring misses and cost us points today.

I know Hannah should have scored today but please tell me you are taking the p|ss there or did you not go to Lincoln?

Quoted from mariner91

Hannah offers nothing. People say he's a good finisher but it's about time he started showing it. LJL has his limitations but I know which player is easier to play against out of him and Hannah. We need at least one forward player in on loan. Particularly if Pittman and Arnold are going to be so injury prone. People say we'll not go up relying on LJL and they may have a point.but I always think LJL is more likely to score than Hannah because he does at least do something. Like you said, if it had been LJL missing those chances the knives would be out and yet people gloss over the fact that they were glaring misses and cost us points today.

Also take into account that we actually paid good money for Hannah on a relatively long-term deal - most disappointing permanent signing of the last few years IMO. In fact, did we not pay less for Hearn than we actually did for Hannah?

Quoted from arryarryarry

I know Hannah should have scored today but please tell me you are taking the p|ss there or did you not go to Lincoln?

You need to actually get the ball and challenge defenders to score. Hannah doesn't. LJL isn't a great finisher, far from it. But a lot of the time Hannah is no better.

Hannah got plenty of stick for both misses from the people sitting near me. I think people are starting to tire of him missing chances when finishing is practically the only thing he brings to the team.

Quoted from Chrisblor

Hannah got plenty of stick for both misses from the people sitting near me. I think people are starting to tire of him missing chances when finishing is practically the only thing he brings to the team.

Precisely my point. If you're going to be that sort of striker, the sort that doesn't contribute much during play but pops up with goals, you need the goals to justify yourself being on the pitch!

My take on it, Torquay were a class above in that first half and in the second did what they had to do.

I don't believe this manager and squad are good enough to compete for a play-off place let alone top spot. We are still short of 4 or 5 players.

We need a right back, and another centre-half and at least a couple of forwards.

I know many on here were pleasuring themselves when Toto signed but to me he is a disaster waiting to happen each game, on Tuesday his defending for Lincoln's first goal was hopeless and today it was him that played the ball to the guy who scored the second goal.

Brown looks to me like Kerr but with legs, he was poor today and as for his corners, garbage.

I've always been a fan of Disley but today he was poor. Nielsen had one of those games where he was in and out although he did play a great ball through to Hannah for his second chance. McLaughlin was also poor, hardly created a thing and defensively he just can't hack it, God knows why some suggest he can do a job at right back.

Hannah should have scored and even though LJL had a couple of efforts at goal he never looked like troubling Sky Sports tickertape.

For me major changes are needed if we are to get out of this league.

Quoted from arryarryarry

My take on it, Torquay were a class above in that first half and in the second did what they had to do.

I don't believe this manager and squad are good enough to compete for a play-off place let alone top spot. We are still short of 4 or 5 players.

We need a right back, and another centre-half and at least a couple of forwards.

I know many on here were pleasuring themselves when Toto signed but to me he is a disaster waiting to happen each game, on Tuesday his defending for Lincoln's first goal was hopeless and today it was him that played the ball to the guy who scored the second goal.

Brown looks to me like Kerr but with legs, he was poor today and as for his corners, garbage.

I've always been a fan of Disley but today he was poor. Nielsen had one of those games where he was in and out although he did play a great ball through to Hannah for his second chance. McLaughlin was also poor, hardly created a thing and defensively he just can't hack it, God knows why some suggest he can do a job at right back.

Hannah should have scored and even though LJL had a couple of efforts at goal he never looked like troubling Sky Sports tickertape.

For me major changes are needed if we are to get out of this league.

A reasonable assessment. I don't personally think major changes are needed but the squad needs more depth and desperately needs a top quality forward player in pronto.

Quoted from arryarryarry

We need a right back, and another centre-half and at least a couple of forwards.

I know many on here were pleasuring themselves when Toto signed but to me he is a disaster waiting to happen each game, on Tuesday his defending for Lincoln's first goal was hopeless and today it was him that played the ball to the guy who scored the second goal.

Right Back certainly appears to be a problem area but only temporarily until Aswad gets fit and Magnay can slot in there. The same really with the forwards. We have them on the books but keeping them fit seems to be the issue. Therein lies the problem for a team at our level. The money isn't there for a massive squad and besides, what player worth their salt wants to come to a fifth tier club to warm the bench? You could argue Hurst has taken far too big a gamble with The Pope but Hurst has clearly thought it was a gamble worth taking and so far when he has played he's definitely delivered.

Toto is a much more controversial point for me. It is too much a coincidence that he has started to make errors since Boyce returned to Scunny. I haven't looked it up but Toto is I believe 22 years old so is still learning the game. I believe that if Hurst decides that strengthening is needed then his real effort should be put into finding a Centre Half who can get us back to being a solid defensive unit. I'm a firm believer in building from the back and any decent team at the moment will find a way through our lacking in confidence back four....