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I think not conceding straight after half time for once was key. A better side would’ve put us away but that’s not our problem and we showed better mentality and urgency second half than we did v Wealdstone and Barnet.

A big win given that Maidstone and Yeovil won today.

Phew.

I’m not sure how you’ve picked out Baines for this one. The reason he’s turned round is that the ball has gone to the far post. It would be far worse if he was facing the other way?

There’s quite literally Baines (and I’m not his biggest fan btw) in that photo goal side of his man and successfully defending his part of the area and behind him is Barrows facing the wrong way, the wrong side of his man and scrambling back like a cartoon character towards the man scoring the goal.

It was appalling from Barrows but in fairness to him, it was the poor organisation and execution that compounded it. He was distracted trying to point out an unmarked man. Osbourne eventually went out to him, whether he was being slow or he wasn’t supposed to but the extra body in the box meant he had to come from somewhere else to sort it I don’t know.

At the exact moment he is turning back round, Collinge makes his run behind him, the corners taken and he ball watches and is out of the game.


I spent the previous ten minutes watching us take ridiculous, ineffective short corners with (J) Jones and Baines twiddling their thumbs on the penalty spot and then them score from delivering a corner straight in.

Last third… we seemed clueless! The amount of times we needlessly gave the ball away. Sad to say Marriot looked miles off his best, but with time he will come good. CCC limping off was a concern and Olly in net has not had the season I thought he’d have with us. Apart from one stop tonight I think he was pretty poor. Baines looked pretty good and dealt with the threat. JJ still seems to be finding he’s way back in the team and still not the player of old. Jennings looked tired and not match fit. Newby just lacked a final ball but showed good energy. PP needs to get this like gelled together and quickly. Coco carried us agiain, gliding past players like they aren’t there. It sometimes makes me wonder what he would be like as a CF.

I don’t think you’re a million miles of the mark with these comments but you’re wrong about Marriott. I thought for his first game back that was very encouraging, nipping in, intercepting, ratting, driving, really good.

As Flynny says, a lot to be said about tonight but I’d have to think about it, one of the things though is that the balance between defence and midfield doesn’t seem right? Both are ponderous, just doesn’t quite right.

I dunno.

I disagree. I think him leaving was the one thing that massively took the management by surprise.

Who would take a chance on a lad who has played 8 or conference games? Not Rochdale etc. But these moneyed clubs like Harrogate, FGR, Salford etc are able to just give it a go without really being bothered.

I think Parky expected him to stay and go full time with us.

You'd like to think that Isaac Marriott returning to the team will go some way towards improving in this department.

Sign a proper centre forward - and get our other centre halves back - and I actually think we look strong on paper.

Would still like to see Harry Perritt back in some capacity too.

For me, as you mention Perritt (and therefore in my mind Niall Ferguson also), my expectations or rather priorities for signings have changed somewhat. I’ve gone from wanting to spend any available money on someone new to instead using it to offset losses.

What I mean is, if you gave me the option of signing those two in an area we are well stocked (numbers wise that is) but it lead to us paying the wages of say Barrows, Baines and Cooper/Jones while they are not playing very much then I think that’s a price worth paying.

I’d far rather have a Back four for the second half of the season of

Perritt Mullarkey Ferguson EJones

And the others twiddling their thumbs than carry on as we have. We have to have a solid base to stay in this league.

Is Baines a national League defender? Maybe, but we’ll have to find that out next season rather than guess at it this season imo.

I’d also venture that with our gap on the right wing I’m happy to see Barrows maybe tried as an athletic option there. I’m not totally sold on him as a defensive right back. Although I loved his crunching tackle on Tuesday night.

To the point of one of the other posts...

I don't think we're all under the illusion that all of Roxburgh, Brockbank, Goodson etc are going to be successes with us. That's just the nature of football, if they end up finding their level further down and someone makes a decent offer for them, I'm sure we'd weigh it up - we get plenty of people ourselves that way.

Not sure why people thought Goodson would be in immediate contention; I actually thought it was quite naive of the management to think Brockbank would have been ready.

I’m glad you mentioned Brockbank there, you’re not the only one a bit perplexed that he was pictured as first choice left back…

I’m note sure that a change from the system that has worked well for us will help. But that might just be because on the rare occasions I’ve seen us shift to 3 at the back it’s been terrifying!

But flexibility would be a good thing.

The part/full time thing is a bit of a misnomer in some respects. It comes down to the same thing it always has, how good your actual players are. We may have gambled on a couple too many coming good.

As for the actual best XI I simply have no idea anymore and that’s a really bad sign.

I think there’s going to quite a few things across the board where it will need more than a volunteer to do it yet also not enough to justify paying someone a wage to do it. Quite a gap between the two stools.