| Stags in a rut against resurgent, "reformed," reinvigorated Super U's 21:39 - Aug 16 with 2218 views | durham_exile |
Tomorrow evening HM and his charges entertain Mansfield Town, another club who have started with two victories and who Nigel Clough says will be coming to go on the front foot.
Now frankly if anyone doubts the level of disappointment of yet another home defeat, just watch the Twitter feed of the Northampton players receiving the adulation from their fans on Saturday. I for one am sick and tired of the same old views of yet another Away side taking all three points from the JSCS.
A decent point at Carlisle, unlucky not to go to penalties at St Andrews and then a pathetic first half showing from the U’s during which the damage was done with a scrappy goal and then despite the lion’s share of the possession and shots in the second half we missed three presentable opportunities. As Geoff Boycott might have said “my old Granny would have scored the Freddie Sears one on one with the keeper”.
And that in a nutshell is our problem. Once again, we do not have a centre forward. This is becoming a perennial problem and until we secure someone who can score the half chances and very presentable chances that are going begging we will struggle.
It's not all doom and gloom but the pre-season positivity and confidence has taken a real battering and with the third league game of the season tomorrow, another defeat could see us 8 points off the top.
I stated before the season started just how much I dislike the 5,3,2 or 3,5,2 however you dress it up. It only leaves us with two defensive midfield players and a surfeit of defenders. The strikers are isolated and reliant on simply feeding on scraps.
When that great manager the late Jock Wallace was at our club, he played 5 at the back. I wrote to him complaining about the policy and he was gracious enough to pen a reply to me. His defence was that he still had 5 players to attack the opposition with even with the 5 defenders. A different era but it proves there is nothing new under the sun.
Look I don’t want to get all melancholy, but I am heartily sick of watching another poor result however good the performance is in parts. This is our sixth season in League Two and we should have the measure by now of what is needed to get out of this basement league. Frankly I don’t care about the quality of the play it is all about getting 75 points however they are obtained to get us into the play offs as a minimum although 80 would be better!
We were unlucky with Michael Folivi’ s injury and hopefully he will be able to sign when his achilles injury is sorted.
I think we have some good defenders and outstanding mid field players, but we need four across the middle of the park to give us some steel and to match the opposition who all look to control the middle of the park.
I am not criticising HM who I think is a good coach (despite what everything EFL League Two says).
But lets try 4,4,2 as follows:
George
Coxe Chambers Smith Clampin
Hannant Wiredu Skuse Judge
Jasper Nouble
Subs:
Turner Welch-Hayes Chilvers Tchamadeu Eastman Tovide Sears
Luke Hannant chose Colchester over Cambridge even though it meant dropping down a league. He will be a star this season. My only concern about Judge and Skuse is their fitness levels to play Saturday, Tuesday, and Saturday without injury.
We know the club is looking to make other signings. We know that we need a striker, but not another 19-year-old U23 Championship player but someone who is a traditional centre forward. A target man and someone who knows where the goal is. Problem is I don’t know at this late stage where such a player is coming from, two of the best went to Wrexham and Stockport. Yes the National League.
Jasper looks lively and I am pleased that HM has shown faith in him because he can be very good. Big Frank seems, all at sea at present. He needs a goal; the team needs a goal.
Richard Kone looks to have gone sadly but where, not Brentford and surely, he would want first team football rather than the U23 league. Have we given up on tempting him I do hope not?
I make no apology for this pre match write up. You cannot win the league in August, but you can definitely get yourself into a position where you are constantly playing catch up and therefore the pressure is on tomorrow.
Weather tomorrow evening a mild 17 degrees Celsius with cloud cover. Little chance of rain.
On the front foot from the start tomorrow evening and take the game to the Stags. We can win the game and I predict 2-0 to the U’s with Jasper scoring his first goal and a cracker from Hannant from 25 yards.
At least we can watch the game if we are exiles or abroad and hopefully the attendance will not be much below 1800.
I do hope that the club reviews its Match Permits policy which is out of step with the majority of clubs and is not helping the attendance.
Enjoy the game.
Up the U’s
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| Stags in a rut against resurgent, "reformed," reinvigorated Super U's on 23:14 - Aug 17 with 536 views | gerry_us |
Only three points off the play-offs  |  | | |
| Stags in a rut against resurgent, "reformed," reinvigorated Super U's on 23:17 - Aug 17 with 528 views | durham_exile |
| Stags in a rut against resurgent, "reformed," reinvigorated Super U's on 23:14 - Aug 17 by gerry_us |
Only three points off the play-offs |
That's the spirit Gerry.
I have to say that penalty has lifted my mood considerably.
Kick started the season and although Mansfield are probably the best team we have faced this season we deserved something from the game.
Boundary Park on Saturday bring it on.
We have a decent record there.
Up the U's | |
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| Stags in a rut against resurgent, "reformed," reinvigorated Super U's on 09:04 - Aug 18 with 462 views | thrillseeker |
Another disjointed performance
Strange to drop Wiredu and Jasper who have impressed me in the 2 matches I have attended.
Eastman - dependable as ever and will be a big loss if a bad injury
Daniels - showed class and composure when he came on.
Clearly Judge is undroppable as I have not yet seen anything from him that supports the hype when we signed him
Hannett - disappointing especially after his impressive sub appearance against Northampton
Good result though - Mansfield were the best team we have played so far this season |  | | |
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