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Second half on Tuesday night was one of the highlights of my current life and then yesterday!!!

I admit that I am often negative on here with my views but my excuse is because I love this club as much as any other die hard supporter and want us to succeed. I want to be watching Altrincham at Conference level or above. I want to see large away fans, big games, atmosphere, entertainment and importantly good football so I sometimes have strong opinions because 1) this is a forum and everyone has a right to an opinion  2) I am obsessed with football, it has been a massive part of my life for 30 years and I think I know what I am talking about :-)!!!

I am not going to say a lot about yesterday’s performance as I raised potential issues in my previous post about ‘stick or change’ after Tuesday. I wouldn’t even say I hurt yesterday; I was massively disappointed by the performance. A couple of things which I have already said, Lawrie is a talented player but he should not have started either leg against Brackley, out wide he was a passenger and we needed 12 players against them not 10. Just not a James Lawrie sort of game and all the best teams adapt to tackle the opposition’s strengths. The tempo of the game I piped on about previously, personally I feel they are a much better footballing team so I wanted to see our players getting stuck in. Letting Brackley know they we were there, stopping them from playing or even the simple case of putting that doubt in the opposition head that someone is going to have my ankles here, forcing errors. You do not give a team like Brackley 2 yards when they have the ball, first half we were giving them 4 yards. Harsh but we looked like boys v men in the 1st half, except for Richman and Havern.

For the future of the club we cannot be sentimental with players so we do need a clear out to make room. We need a decent young keeper as I feel time is catching up with Stuart ( legend and always will be ) - maybe one or two more seasons in him, we need a centre back, left back, centre mid ( we have a lot of ball winners but we need a calm and intelligent player i.e. Boshell ), winger and a strong striker. We have a small squad so if we got rid of 3 or 4 then we could get the 6 above players. The players I would clear out are :-

Brooke – yes he is a good finisher and has done alright recently but we need to be fighting for the championship next season and he isn’t good enough against the better and stronger teams.
Mitchley – No point still being on the books even though his loan spell has been OK.
Hall – We need a nother strong, quick centre back so we need room. Hall makes mistakes, poor distribution and has spells in the game where he is like a dog chasing the ball rather than thinking of defensive position. The amount of times where he has ran 10 yards to lose a header and leave Havern on his own is scary. In the first 3 games I watched him I could see he wasn’t a great defender.
Doughty – Still unsure on this one? May keep him as cover but this is if we desperately had to make room, then I would consider letting him go. I think his legs will go in the next two seasons and we need to look towards the next level and future. Buzz and Clee at times have been fantastic and I really do like Doughty, he plays with heart, overlaps well and has a very good delivery but I think we need to look forward now.

Also a few players who need a good preseason and a rocket up their bum’s are :- Clee, Densmore, Rodgers, Reevesy, all four are good enough but sometimes they frustrate the hell out of me. Clee is our most skilful player but he seems to only do it when he wants to or just in the second half of games.

Positives for me have been the improvement of Richman, wish we had another 5 Richmans. Scott Leather – he got bullied yesterday but he is a good young defender, Havern – next best thing since Paul Ellender and Watmore – been off the boil since his groan injury away at Guiseley but at times he has sent my adrenaline through the roof, bit like that flare did! And even though Reeves can frustrate me I cannot argue with 40 + goals again. Finally on Sinnott, I like him for his attacking football and at times we’ve passed very well but I still wouldn’t say I am settled with him. I need to see more aggression and determination with our players, I’ve mentioned the Eddie and Val era numerous times before but that team came out as warriors, we need a few more warriors.

Sorry it is long winded but need to get it off my chest!!


 

can we have the extra turnstyle open on Tuesday because there will be a few coming down!!!! keep going, buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing !!!!!

Absoultely gutted that i was away for that game against halifax but one thing is clear, i have said it from the first game i watched him, Hall needs dropping. Sorry but he is awful and we leak goals with him. Baffles me that buzz was dropped when he was playing well, i said little changes can make the difference and playing a back 4 of dens, havern, leather and buzz will make a difference! Sinnott quoted that buzz would run through a brick wall to play, thats the attitude we want!Richman and clee out wide for me, that win put a smile on my face all day! Belief and passion boys!

Crystal palace want to loan out Aaron wilbraham, i know Aaron from school and playing football! Very physical, tall, pacey striker who has played all divisions! Probably out of the question to loan but worth enquiring about! He would bang a few in!his family still reside up here!

I have just listened to the post match interview with Sinnott and it was the same old ‘we never got going,did we ?’ ‘No’ we didn’t Lee because you got the tactics wrong again. I apologise if I repeat anything someone else already posted but it has taken until today for me to have calmed down from what was a shocking performance on Saturday. Mills had a good game but I just knew straight away that having a forward of that mould would slow our attacking football down ( which has been the highlight of the season )and I also said to my bro that Duncan will not get into this game stuck out on the left unless he came inside. Selections like this will cost us, on Saturday we should have started with Reeves and Watmore up top and brought Mills on in the second half. The balance was not right and this is where Sinnott fails, as well as getting players up for it. I have previously posted my concerns about certain players but I can not believe we have not brought in a decent centre back when defending is clearly our problem. We also needed Craney, we should have pushed the boat out a wee bit for him.

People who stand by Hall do not know their  football or at least the main principles of defending, he won only two headers on Saturday from what I saw, often he would come running out to commit himself and lose the header leaving the ball to come over the top for poor Luca to defend all alone, this happened again and again. Thank god Havern is up there with the likes of Smith and Ellender in reading the game defensively. Also a long time ago I mentioned Hall’s distribution, it is awful and this has often leaded to the other team attacking and scoring. He needs to be dropped for Scott Leather and we need to find cover.

I still like Moult but his confidence is low so if we were to start with Mills then Richman and Rodgers should be centre mid with Duncan RIGHT not LEFT and Clee on the left. Yes I did say that Clee needed a rocket up his ass and I still stand by that comment but he is also that sort of player that needs to play week in and week out. Densmore stepped up a bit better on Saturday but each player needs to step up  from now until the end of the season, going back to our last promotion, that team stepped up often or at least they showed PASSION which I keep mentioning. Saturday was a bunch of pansies playing, not the men we need.

This is mad to say but Reeves hasn’t been great in a lot of games I have seen, yes you can’t drop him because of his goals but I would want to see more chasing down, attempts to beat the defender with a header, just small things that could create another chance. For me we must adapt to play Duncan in his stronger positions, it is he and Clee that will create the opportunities and make a difference.

I could literary go on and on and discuss even more tactical thins about side passing, direct balls, positioning etc but a lot on here unfortunately only see black and white. Someone had a good game and someone had a bad game. I heard someone say on Saturday that Duncan had a bad game, maybe so but that was because he was out of position and look uncomfortable unless he cut inside. As for the long ball, we played that too much on Saturday because we had Mills upfront, Sinclair maybe be scum but he still had Reeves and Mills in his pockets. Small changes get results.

Please can someone tell me the team watmore scored a messi chip against and when it was?

Currently my hands are up and i am loving the fact Sinnott is proving me wrong. He gives excellent reports and views after games, some excellent football being played this season! Running the team within its means, often very attacking in his selections which is a big plus for me.My only concern is the lack of depth in the squad, but respect when deserved.Keep going boys, pleasure to watch and exciting at times!

Firstly I thought Brooke had an OK game, not a fan but do not want to come on here and just slag him off each time but at the same time it is goals we need and he will not score many, a Joe O’Neil type of player. Secondly Sinnott needs to realise we must start Duncan, he creates chances, scores and generally is a big concern for the opposition, so even without the ball he can open things up because you will find one or two defenders always drifting towards him. Look at the record this season with Duncan starting and when he hasn’t, says it all. The problem now is that Sinnott is a very good player with an excellent delivery so let’s give Watmore a chance up top which is his natural position. Not many defenders would catch him and I think if he played every game he would not be far behind Reeves on goals tally. Whilst on Reeves, he is a must starter but recently is all round game has dropped and I think it is a confidence issue. I thought young Lacey had a good game, breaking down a lot of their attacks and he is easily criticised, I think he will be a good player as he matures. We need to start picking up 3 points so Sinnott if you read this then start attacking and let’s play our best player in Duncan, he is being wasted. I like Lawrie a lot but seems to have lost a bit of pace but let’s give Duncan a chance up top with balls being thread through. The below team should start the next game, attack attack attack
                                          
                                             Coburn

Densmore             Leather   Havern      Doughty

Sinnott             Moult      Rodgers                       Clee

                            Whatmore   Reeves