| Mansfield today 14:36 - Jan 19 with 2667 views | gerry_us |
Pretty much team selection as expected. Please do not go 1-0 up early as we are totally unable to get through a match defending it.
Good to see Junior on the bench. Circumstances permitting, I hope he gets a "reasonable" run out but I am taking bets on him coming on around 88 minutes, aka Macca Bonne. Nobody, even a genius, is unlikely to perform under those circumstances. Grumble over....now come on U's, today is ultra important. No pressure then. |  | | |  |
| Mansfield today on 14:46 - Jan 19 with 2255 views | wessex_exile |
Definitely ultra-important. Pity Mansfield snatched a late winner on Tuesday, but today can greatly diminish the significance of their game in hand, and hopefully put a decent dent in their goal difference advantage as well? We can but dream!
Up the U's! |  |
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| Mansfield today on 15:16 - Jan 19 with 2247 views | wessex_exile |
Eastman didn't read the script Gerry - 1-0 to the U's!!! | |
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| Mansfield today on 15:16 - Jan 19 with 2247 views | gerry_us |
Ah...NO. Too early.
1-0 Tom Eastman....what a player.
Getting better..Senior makes it 2-0 [Post edited 19 Jan 2019 15:32]
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| Mansfield today on 15:39 - Jan 19 with 2231 views | wessex_exile |
| Mansfield today on 15:16 - Jan 19 by gerry_us |
Ah...NO. Too early.
1-0 Tom Eastman....what a player.
Getting better..Senior makes it 2-0 [Post edited 19 Jan 2019 15:32]
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...and Crewe 1-0 up at the Mongs too :-) | |
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| Mansfield today on 15:49 - Jan 19 with 2230 views | gerry_us |
....and Bury losing as well. Can we stop now? | | | |
| Mansfield today on 16:39 - Jan 19 with 2198 views | durham_exile |
| Mansfield today on 16:33 - Jan 19 by durham_exile |
Home profligacy is costing us once again.
Come on the U's |
A bad day suddenly has got worse now 2-3 |  |
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| Mansfield today on 16:42 - Jan 19 with 2190 views | durham_exile |
| Mansfield today on 16:39 - Jan 19 by durham_exile |
A bad day suddenly has got worse now 2-3 |
Junior gets 9 mins | |
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| Mansfield today on 16:44 - Jan 19 with 2189 views | gerry_us |
| Mansfield today on 16:42 - Jan 19 by durham_exile |
Junior gets 9 mins |
Hi Durham.
Junior 9 minutes to make a name for himself.
2-0 to 2-3...absolute disaster. | | | |
| Mansfield today on 17:01 - Jan 19 with 2174 views | gerry_us |
How could it have looked so good at half time and then??? Hopefully someone at the game will give us an explanation.  | | | |
| Mansfield today on 17:01 - Jan 19 with 2174 views | durham_exile |
| Mansfield today on 16:44 - Jan 19 by gerry_us |
Hi Durham.
Junior 9 minutes to make a name for himself.
2-0 to 2-3...absolute disaster. |
Gerry the only consistent thing about the U's is their inconsistency.
A very poor defeat today.
Back to the drawing board | |
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| Mansfield today on 17:26 - Jan 19 with 2134 views | Moor_Pinot |
But I don't know what drawing board.
I've watched it all again on I-follow out here in the deep French winter.
Fundamentally the best actual game this season. Two decent sides but one with a lot more shall we say err professionalism than the other.
We - Dickenson apart - were good in the first half deserving of a lead but Mansfield were fractionally slicker. We've still too little pace and too few ideas going into the final quarter at home where we've not looked like winning for two months.... Until today!
But the second half saw one pacy purposeful grown up side and us back to frantic diligence. You could certainly argue we deserved at least a point but when the opposition have several Championship loanees (Grant, Ajose) on £5000 /week perhaps a perspective can be drawn. By the end of the 75th minute there was only one outcome and only one genuinely grown up side. For the first time this season I felt a bit sorry for us. We made fewer mistakes, were a bit more fluent than recently but the keeper - as against Notts was only asked to make one save.
So in the final analysis we were not good enough to get anything and I suspect we will struggle to next week either. Once again we must be honest and accept a total inability to string even two results together and...... far better though we are than last season I think top seven on our budget is a bit unlikely.
We played pretty well and neutrals will have loved it. I didn't because it felt ever so slightly an uneven field.
Very poor ref today by the way and I rarely criticise them, but Mansfield worked him over well.
Wearily.... Up the U's |  |
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| Mansfield today on 18:09 - Jan 19 with 2078 views | Moor_Pinot |
Durham - Junior touched it four times. Gondoh may have been a better candidate than Comley but Mansfield were pretty tight in truth. | |
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| Mansfield today on 18:10 - Jan 19 with 2078 views | noah4x4 |
Superb U's performance first half. Deserved 2-0 at HT.
Wheels came off second half not helped by a referee that completely lost control. Courtney Senior was repeatedly chopped down yet no sanctions against their thugs until late in ther game - yet he penalised and carded our players for nix. He repeatedly penalised Nouble when their Number 2 was dragging him down and then cleverly feining that Nouble was the miscreant. The same player was eventually carried off in normal time when Nouble got his revenge. Should have been 6 minutes added time, but less than 3 played (timed on a stopwatch), which summed up refereeing perfomance.
Mansfield were cunning; full of skulduggery and sorry to admit skill. But no different to our come back versus Notts County except Mansfield had only conceded two. It was a serious mistake to play Dickenson at full back against such a direct and robust side.
Did the best team win? Probably not, but their loanee Championship players made the difference taking all of their few chances when the U's took only two from plenty. How Szmodics missed a absolute sitter (header) escaped me. That would have made it 3 -0. But against most other sides this U's perfomance would have been good enough to come away with three points. |  | | |
| Mansfield toda on 20:33 - Jan 19 with 1948 views | bwildered |
Lets not beat about it, a naive performance on and off the pitch since half time. Agree superb first half performance which should have be and dusted, Pell was outstanding.
But what was said at half test ?
A total park the bus performance, which can be only come from the management, not for the first time.
A straight swop at left back was required, but Comley on for Senior, who constantly caused problems, sent the signal that we surrendered all such emphasis on getting something out of this game. Yet against subsitutions made little effect.
Yes PWK, this time a half empty performance has predicted .
So the question to ask, who leads the negativity at half time McG or Ball , or both ? |  |
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| Mansfield toda on 21:20 - Jan 19 with 1906 views | gerry_us |
| Mansfield toda on 20:33 - Jan 19 by bwildered |
Lets not beat about it, a naive performance on and off the pitch since half time. Agree superb first half performance which should have be and dusted, Pell was outstanding.
But what was said at half test ?
A total park the bus performance, which can be only come from the management, not for the first time.
A straight swop at left back was required, but Comley on for Senior, who constantly caused problems, sent the signal that we surrendered all such emphasis on getting something out of this game. Yet against subsitutions made little effect.
Yes PWK, this time a half empty performance has predicted .
So the question to ask, who leads the negativity at half time McG or Ball , or both ? |
When will we learn that we are incapable of defending a lead, and this philosophy can only come from the manager?
Surely at 2-0 up we should be going for the third to kill off the opposition, not looking to defend and give the opposition the opportunity to get back in the game, as today.
At half time we were within a point of second place with the results as they stood. OK, we can't determine other final results but we sure as hell should be able to determine ours from such a strong position. | | | |
| Mansfield today on 08:21 - Jan 20 with 1757 views | Moor_Pinot |
Watched the game live again from freezing France Gerry & will try to respond.
I'm no fan of the manager who is neither creative enough nor inspirational but I will not criticise him yesterday.
We were beaten by a much more professional side. By which I mean that they were superb at old fashioned division four gamesmanship. Like Guthrie who successfully worked over the young U's twice this season Mansfield's high profile highly paid experienced players knew every trick in the book breaking up play continually and narking our youngsters successfully. As BW has used the word so must I, we looked naiive dealing with it. Yes, as cited by Noah, Nouble was repeatedly fouled by White but instead of manning up and playing football he instead got himself booked as did Sammie for getting involved. All very Guthrie and far too adeptly dished out for our young side to cope with.
When up against such tactics we have an expectation that the referee will interject. As I wrote yesterday the ref was very poor and we had no protection.
So, when we factor in the fact that Mansfield are also a very strong direct and clear promotion team we had a lot to handle yesterday and for the most part we were their equal. Very good indeed in the first half of the game we were gradually ground down once it got to 2-1.
Personally I would not have played Dickenson but Vincent Young has a broken toe so maybe 90 mins was too much.
To conclude we deserved points from the game but the tougher more skilful, professional not to mention better paid side were too strong for the younger lightweights we purvey. As has been stated we'd have beaten many sides yesterday but I suspect there are 4 or 5 Mansfields who we cannot yet handle. A decent ref would help us and I cannot be the only one who can see that Mandron's skills are not read by those around him yet. I'd blame him for their third goal mind!
So Gerry, we're not far from being a div three team it's just that getting out of division four requires stuff we don't currently have enough experience for.
Plenty of games yet to prove me wrong. | |
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| Mansfield today on 05:56 - Jan 21 with 1520 views | GOSBTS |
| Mansfield today on 08:21 - Jan 20 by Moor_Pinot |
Watched the game live again from freezing France Gerry & will try to respond.
I'm no fan of the manager who is neither creative enough nor inspirational but I will not criticise him yesterday.
We were beaten by a much more professional side. By which I mean that they were superb at old fashioned division four gamesmanship. Like Guthrie who successfully worked over the young U's twice this season Mansfield's high profile highly paid experienced players knew every trick in the book breaking up play continually and narking our youngsters successfully. As BW has used the word so must I, we looked naiive dealing with it. Yes, as cited by Noah, Nouble was repeatedly fouled by White but instead of manning up and playing football he instead got himself booked as did Sammie for getting involved. All very Guthrie and far too adeptly dished out for our young side to cope with.
When up against such tactics we have an expectation that the referee will interject. As I wrote yesterday the ref was very poor and we had no protection.
So, when we factor in the fact that Mansfield are also a very strong direct and clear promotion team we had a lot to handle yesterday and for the most part we were their equal. Very good indeed in the first half of the game we were gradually ground down once it got to 2-1.
Personally I would not have played Dickenson but Vincent Young has a broken toe so maybe 90 mins was too much.
To conclude we deserved points from the game but the tougher more skilful, professional not to mention better paid side were too strong for the younger lightweights we purvey. As has been stated we'd have beaten many sides yesterday but I suspect there are 4 or 5 Mansfields who we cannot yet handle. A decent ref would help us and I cannot be the only one who can see that Mandron's skills are not read by those around him yet. I'd blame him for their third goal mind!
So Gerry, we're not far from being a div three team it's just that getting out of division four requires stuff we don't currently have enough experience for.
Plenty of games yet to prove me wrong. |
I didn't see the game on Saturday but would you say it was a bit like the England v Croatia World Cup semi-final? The younger team started quick out of the blocks and had the older team on the ropes, but the opposition knew all they had to do was weather the storm and that they'd outlast them in the end? |  | | |
| Mansfield today on 11:46 - Jan 21 with 1472 views | Moor_Pinot |
Afternoon GOSBTS
Yes an interesting analagy.
In truth Mandron had a couple of close shaves and I felt there was a hand-ball penalty too so we would not have been flattered at 3-0 at H-T. We played much more as we did in August and September before the 1-0 0-1 policy kicked in and in my view was the best performance I have seen since then by miles.
In the second half the experience of the opposition - including its more shrewd management - came to the fore aided by whacking great contributions from 2 or 3 players like Ajose on £5000 a week. Mansfield were far slicker and more skilful and we could not get forward or attack them as before because their own attacking ploy had pace which we could not quell. If you also factor in the sheer gamesmanship of some of their professionalism and the way they worked over the referee who was out of his depth and you have the recipe for your England-Croatia lookalike. Had Sammie scored in the 46th minute when indeed he should have Mansfield would still have scored 4.
They will go up because they have what it takes to get out of this league. Ironically on two accounts I think that a] t=if they do so they will struggle next season & b] we would actually cope far better now ourselves at that level with some of the quality we have. Div 4 has always been a pain to get out of and the U's remain the same smallish team they have been throughout my 60 odd years, a loyal 3000 and a well-thought of club but a conservative one. This recipe is why we have only enjoyed 2 promotions in the last 27 years and why poor [well, he isn't of course] Robbie Cowling's tenure has seen 11 so - so seasons and two relegations in his 13 years of investment. We have a new stadium and we have Tiptree but on the pitch Cowling's return has been meagre and I do sometimes wonder if that conservatism is contributory. NOT that I want him to go throwing 5 grand at players like Mansfield - and not that he will.
Instead, like Noah, I think it may time to pair Gondoh and Junior, rest Nouble and give Sammie something different to work with. We are shipping goals now where we were not during the 1-0 0-1 period and need to find a recipe to create some momentum instead of the same old inconsistency. Prosser and Eastman played well but against pacy attacks they are stretched as they are also our principle long ball passers and our wing backs are often up field. One of the notable problems has been how few headers Norris, Mandron or Pell have had from our wing play. We take on the full back, track back, then track back again, then wait for opposition defences to regroup then track back then get a throw in or put in a low useless cross which fails to beat the first defender. When Mansfield began their 2nd half offensive there was only one winner, every attack took on our [often] retreating full-back and got the cross in all in one motion, no halt, just swift positivity, hence two of the goals. So, there you have it GOSBTS, yes Mansfield put in a very Croat performance.
I felt for our lot at the end and it will be interesting to see if our inexperienced management can lift these youngsters, many of whom looked completely perplexed by the final [early] whistle. All 6 minutes of added time was taken up by White play acting on the touchline with the referee doing nowt about it.
Indeed the game at Crewe will define how well we have recovered from Saturday's lesson. I would be unsurprised if we got decked at Gresty Road but I can hope because they deserved better on Saturday. Yep, very England-Croatia! | |
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| Mansfield toda on 13:10 - Jan 21 with 1456 views | burnsieespana |
| Mansfield toda on 21:20 - Jan 19 by gerry_us |
When will we learn that we are incapable of defending a lead, and this philosophy can only come from the manager?
Surely at 2-0 up we should be going for the third to kill off the opposition, not looking to defend and give the opposition the opportunity to get back in the game, as today.
At half time we were within a point of second place with the results as they stood. OK, we can't determine other final results but we sure as hell should be able to determine ours from such a strong position. |
What amazes me is how we defended 1-0 leads a good number of times in October/November. Surely easier to defend a 2-0 lead! |  | | |
| Mansfield today on 20:14 - Jan 21 with 1376 views | watchdogs |
He went off on a stretcher and apperantly broke his ankle. |  | | |
| Mansfield today on 10:39 - Jan 22 with 1323 views | Moor_Pinot |
That's a drag for him Watchdogs - hope he gets to play again this season although I am sure Mansfield will have many options to deal with the loss; can't imagine your automatic promotion being compromised by that.
It was unfortunate that the referee only allowed two minutes of football time within the six added minutes, a good game was allowed to die out, which was a pity. Good luck for next season. | |
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| Mansfield today on 10:52 - Jan 23 with 1260 views | drivingiron |
| Mansfield today on 11:46 - Jan 21 by Moor_Pinot |
Afternoon GOSBTS
Yes an interesting analagy.
In truth Mandron had a couple of close shaves and I felt there was a hand-ball penalty too so we would not have been flattered at 3-0 at H-T. We played much more as we did in August and September before the 1-0 0-1 policy kicked in and in my view was the best performance I have seen since then by miles.
In the second half the experience of the opposition - including its more shrewd management - came to the fore aided by whacking great contributions from 2 or 3 players like Ajose on £5000 a week. Mansfield were far slicker and more skilful and we could not get forward or attack them as before because their own attacking ploy had pace which we could not quell. If you also factor in the sheer gamesmanship of some of their professionalism and the way they worked over the referee who was out of his depth and you have the recipe for your England-Croatia lookalike. Had Sammie scored in the 46th minute when indeed he should have Mansfield would still have scored 4.
They will go up because they have what it takes to get out of this league. Ironically on two accounts I think that a] t=if they do so they will struggle next season & b] we would actually cope far better now ourselves at that level with some of the quality we have. Div 4 has always been a pain to get out of and the U's remain the same smallish team they have been throughout my 60 odd years, a loyal 3000 and a well-thought of club but a conservative one. This recipe is why we have only enjoyed 2 promotions in the last 27 years and why poor [well, he isn't of course] Robbie Cowling's tenure has seen 11 so - so seasons and two relegations in his 13 years of investment. We have a new stadium and we have Tiptree but on the pitch Cowling's return has been meagre and I do sometimes wonder if that conservatism is contributory. NOT that I want him to go throwing 5 grand at players like Mansfield - and not that he will.
Instead, like Noah, I think it may time to pair Gondoh and Junior, rest Nouble and give Sammie something different to work with. We are shipping goals now where we were not during the 1-0 0-1 period and need to find a recipe to create some momentum instead of the same old inconsistency. Prosser and Eastman played well but against pacy attacks they are stretched as they are also our principle long ball passers and our wing backs are often up field. One of the notable problems has been how few headers Norris, Mandron or Pell have had from our wing play. We take on the full back, track back, then track back again, then wait for opposition defences to regroup then track back then get a throw in or put in a low useless cross which fails to beat the first defender. When Mansfield began their 2nd half offensive there was only one winner, every attack took on our [often] retreating full-back and got the cross in all in one motion, no halt, just swift positivity, hence two of the goals. So, there you have it GOSBTS, yes Mansfield put in a very Croat performance.
I felt for our lot at the end and it will be interesting to see if our inexperienced management can lift these youngsters, many of whom looked completely perplexed by the final [early] whistle. All 6 minutes of added time was taken up by White play acting on the touchline with the referee doing nowt about it.
Indeed the game at Crewe will define how well we have recovered from Saturday's lesson. I would be unsurprised if we got decked at Gresty Road but I can hope because they deserved better on Saturday. Yep, very England-Croatia! |
"White play acting on the touchline". He was play acting with a broken leg! | | | |
| Mansfield today on 18:00 - Jan 23 with 1220 views | GOSBTS |
| Mansfield today on 11:46 - Jan 21 by Moor_Pinot |
Afternoon GOSBTS
Yes an interesting analagy.
In truth Mandron had a couple of close shaves and I felt there was a hand-ball penalty too so we would not have been flattered at 3-0 at H-T. We played much more as we did in August and September before the 1-0 0-1 policy kicked in and in my view was the best performance I have seen since then by miles.
In the second half the experience of the opposition - including its more shrewd management - came to the fore aided by whacking great contributions from 2 or 3 players like Ajose on £5000 a week. Mansfield were far slicker and more skilful and we could not get forward or attack them as before because their own attacking ploy had pace which we could not quell. If you also factor in the sheer gamesmanship of some of their professionalism and the way they worked over the referee who was out of his depth and you have the recipe for your England-Croatia lookalike. Had Sammie scored in the 46th minute when indeed he should have Mansfield would still have scored 4.
They will go up because they have what it takes to get out of this league. Ironically on two accounts I think that a] t=if they do so they will struggle next season & b] we would actually cope far better now ourselves at that level with some of the quality we have. Div 4 has always been a pain to get out of and the U's remain the same smallish team they have been throughout my 60 odd years, a loyal 3000 and a well-thought of club but a conservative one. This recipe is why we have only enjoyed 2 promotions in the last 27 years and why poor [well, he isn't of course] Robbie Cowling's tenure has seen 11 so - so seasons and two relegations in his 13 years of investment. We have a new stadium and we have Tiptree but on the pitch Cowling's return has been meagre and I do sometimes wonder if that conservatism is contributory. NOT that I want him to go throwing 5 grand at players like Mansfield - and not that he will.
Instead, like Noah, I think it may time to pair Gondoh and Junior, rest Nouble and give Sammie something different to work with. We are shipping goals now where we were not during the 1-0 0-1 period and need to find a recipe to create some momentum instead of the same old inconsistency. Prosser and Eastman played well but against pacy attacks they are stretched as they are also our principle long ball passers and our wing backs are often up field. One of the notable problems has been how few headers Norris, Mandron or Pell have had from our wing play. We take on the full back, track back, then track back again, then wait for opposition defences to regroup then track back then get a throw in or put in a low useless cross which fails to beat the first defender. When Mansfield began their 2nd half offensive there was only one winner, every attack took on our [often] retreating full-back and got the cross in all in one motion, no halt, just swift positivity, hence two of the goals. So, there you have it GOSBTS, yes Mansfield put in a very Croat performance.
I felt for our lot at the end and it will be interesting to see if our inexperienced management can lift these youngsters, many of whom looked completely perplexed by the final [early] whistle. All 6 minutes of added time was taken up by White play acting on the touchline with the referee doing nowt about it.
Indeed the game at Crewe will define how well we have recovered from Saturday's lesson. I would be unsurprised if we got decked at Gresty Road but I can hope because they deserved better on Saturday. Yep, very England-Croatia! |
Evening Pinault, read your response the other day but only just getting round to replying. Fantastic read. In my short time as a Col U fan I wholeheartedly concur with your assessment of the attacking strategy of checking back multiple times on the wings, before delivering a cross along the ground which is then cut out for a throw-in. Of the three home games I've been to this has been emblematic of all of them, even the 1-0 win against Macclesfield. When someone has had the courage to cut inside and/or move the ball quicker, we've instantly looked more threatening.
Should be there at Cheltenham game as I'm doing the sleep-out afterwards. Up the U's! | | | |
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2-1 
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