afc fylde v rovers

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree with Sparky's assessment above and can't add much more. The defending for each of their goals was appalling and I doubt we will perform that badly at the back again this season. However, the lack of balance in the team was the cause of a lot of our problems today. Their second goal was a case in point. Banks was in comfortable possession in midfield and there was oceans of space on the right wing. However, Cole ran narrow and did not give him an option, Banks turned back on to his left foot and dribbled, lost the ball and we conceded from the counter attack. The lack of width on that side would not have been so bad if Cole had battled and contributed defensively, but he didn't. He seems like another Dawson unfortunately.

I would still give MM the benefit of the doubt regarding Clarke / Ridehalgh as he will know the individual fitness of players, mental and physical, better than we do, and the right hand side was the major problem today.

I think we can forget about the title now and I would be delighted if we could make second or third place given how we started the season. We could have lost 1-0 today and Macc would still be out of sight. I personally think Aldershot will win it now.

A bad day at the office but the right hand side needs to be addressed if we are to avoid a slump. Personally, I would play Kirby there in a 442 as at least we know he will hold the width and follow the manager's instructions.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Cole offered nothing and was a passenger and Buxton clearly won't pass to him.

Buxton literally had to the job of two players today due to Cole abdicating his responsibilities. I thought he was one of the few to come out with any credit.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Wirral Radio reckon Mangan going to Oldham,

Hopefully we can do a swap deal with Banks......

 

[drwhoman]

A bad day at the office Tough weather conditions I imagine did not help. No doubt MM has plenty of food for thought. Sounds like we need a new wide man on the right at least. Is Green any good?

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Is Green any good?

No.

 

[Sparky]

Mangan going to a L1 club is a strange one altho when he left us last time he went to L1 Shrewsbury.

Banks didn't have his greatest game today although none of the midfield did. Led by their captain Montrose Fylde got stuck in and let our better footballing players have no time on the ball. We needed some steel in the middle today and were found wanting.

Kirby is an option wide but I remember thinking Previously we won't go up playing him wide in a 4-4-2 as he's not good enough. Not enough pace and rarely beats a man. For me he's a back up striker or back up to CJ. I hope we're not relying on Tollit coming back again to solve the width issue

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I still think Kirby is the best option we have available to us. In the second half today we switched to 532 with Buxton as a wing back, but I don't think that is viable in the long term. The only other alternative is to go with a 433, but then you will be back to the problems of the first few weeks of the season, with square pegs in round holes. I suppose it depends who is on our radar, but our recruitment in the last year does not fill me with confidence that we would make the right choice.

I agree we could have done with Harris in midfield today.

 

[Sparky]

Davies could be out for up for 3 months apparently. Is Piling ready to step up or do we look at bringing a keeper in?

Fylde obviously did their homework on CJ today. He's been excellent of late coming in from wide areas but had no time on the ball today and other teams will do well to copy fyldes tactics today

 

[Ian]

Whilst it wasn’t great, we have to be careful of knee jerk reactions. We don’t want to start making too many changes. Whilst the balance may not have been there the performances on a whole were below par and the Davies injury certainly didn’t help. I think we need more experienced cover in goal as Pilling need more games and experience in this league.

There are plenty of games to go so I certainly wouldn’t rule anything out yet.

 

[Sparky]

I agree Ian. All i'd say though and not wishing to be negative, is that I felt both score lines v Fylde and guisely at home flattered us a little.

We were very clinical and finished a high proportion of our chances. Unusually so. Against Guiseley before Nors missed his one on one after 60 mins or so, we created very little.

As u say no need to press the panic button and I'm sure we will make the play offs unless things go badly wrong, but automatic promotion looks a long way off....

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

All i'd say though and not wishing to be negative, is that I felt both score lines v Fylde and guisely at home flattered us a little.

We were very clinical and finished a high proportion of our chances. Unusually so..

You could say the same for Fylde today though. I think that is just the sign of a team playing with confidence.

 

[Boz]

I agree that Kirby is probably the best option wide right, as he will stick to the script, provide an out-ball and some defensive cover, although he's not likely to create as much from that position as DMH. However, Jake wasn't even on the bench today, so wonder if he's fit enough yet to start. Tollitt is a couple of months away from returning apparently, Rokka and Green are not good enough, so the other alternative is bringing someone fresh in to fill the position or hope that Barnsley's takeover goes through and they let us have Dylan back.

If there are funds available, my preference would be to use them on a wide right player and give Luke Pilling a run out in goal. He will never get more experience and games in this league, if we don't give him the opportunity now.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

After all the hype over Christmas, we have been brought down to earth. This league is wide open. Anyone can beat anyone. Already we have beaten and lost to high flying Sutton, midtable Fylde and basement Solihull. The result depends on the day. Today the pitch was heavy, a few players were poor, our goalie got injured and the opposition had learned from the game at PP. That combination won't happen again. We are still a good side, if not the best in the division. Don't panic, let's learn and move on.

 

[bigmart]

BBTC, although the league is fairly open are away form is shocking with only 3 wins so far in 13 games and we are a long way behind Macclesfield who are going to need to collapse for us to have a chance to catch them

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

BBTC, although the league is fairly open are away form is shocking with only 3 wins so far in 13 games and we are a long way behind Macclesfield who are going to need to collapse for us to have a chance to catch them

I won't argue with that assessment, bigmart. Our recent run of five wins contained only one away game, although we played exceptionally well at Sutton. I'm very confident we will make the playoffs and if we can get back on track, we should make second or third, which guarantees us a one-off home match for a place in the Wembley play-off final.

 

[Sparky]

Interesting post match comments from Micky. As expected regarding Rides MM said he picked a team that he thought would win and that one change didn't cause us to concede 5 goals.
In my view it did upset a settled defence though and away at Fylde was a risk for a rusty Liam who hadn't played for some time.

As for Cole, Micky was defensive saying he played no different to the Guiseley game where people were happy with him. I wouldn't totally disagree as he was fairly absent in both games - its just away at Fylde was a lot harder than Guiseley at home.

Disappointingly I heard some abuse shouted at Cook in the 2nd half and apparently at full time he got more. It's madness. Do people expect him to score every week? His record for us is immense. Wouldn't surprise me if he left. People need to get a grip - as bad as it was, it was only one game and we'd won the previous 5!!

 

[Boz]

The radio suggested Cook was giving his team-mates quite an ear-bashing from early on, so when you’re not having a great game yourself such behaviour may provoke a reaction from the fans. I don’t approve of that myself.

 

[Sparky]

All I saw was cook having a go at banks for giving the ball away in the lead up to their 2nd goal.

It's a fine balance I guess between berating your team mates when they make a mistake to being a negative influence

 

[Boz]

get clark on get cole off tell cook to shut up

AM also seems to suggest Cook being gobby in this comment. The radio indicated he was having a go at Banks before the second goal incident.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I did not notice anything particularly untoward from Cook. It was inevitable Banks would get a bo*****ing after that error, albeit he was one of our better players overall.

When there is a big away turnout you will always get a few numpties mouthing off when we lose.