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« on: May 05, 2013, 09:25:23 AM »
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!!
