Rovers v Welling

[Cowshed Kid]

Like others, I'm sure, I've desperately tried to warm to GB. For our club I want him to succeed.
But even after the great run we've been on, ignoring today, it is so hard.
As has been suggested why are we bringing Fenwick and Higden on when we had Mangan and still have Margetts on the books?
It's going over old ground I know but when it goes tits up like today you ask the same old questions.
I wonder whether we are underestimating MP.
When he was asked about Mangan's departure and why he didn't intervene he said he couldn't because otherwise the manager wasn't "accountable".
We may yet see a ruthless streak from MP, not because we might fail this season, rather the manner of such failure (if we do!).
There's arguments about stability etc but as has been said before, if GB goes the position will be the same with regard to new players etc given the short term contracts most of the present players are on.
If we'd won today I wouldn't be posting half of this.....save that GB has little affinity with the fans.

 

[Ian]

Apart from the well taken Vaughan goal, we were quite frankly rubbish today. We were perfect fodder for Welling who seemed quite happy to boot the ball out of play at every opportunity. It wasn't pretty but it was effective and like RLC mentions, as the game went on they become more confident and we become more frustrated. I agree entirely regarding the strikers, but in terms of the options available it would have been better bringing Higdon on much earlier. Whether you like him or not, he suited this type of game.

For 90 minutes we were booting the ball upfield for their back line to clear. Not sure who it was, maybe their no.6 but he was heading every high ball either out of back up the field. That all stopped when Higdon came on and I thought he done well for the little time he had on the pitch. He was winning headers, holding up the ball and would have been much more effective today. Quite why they couldn't pass the ball on the floor is beyond me.

Sorry, but for me this result pretty much condemns us to another season in the national league. Home form is shocking. Depressing really..

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I thought Higdon did ok with his back to goal when he came on, but our play was scrappy and disjointed in the second half and we created nothing. There was a huge gap between midfield and attack, with Jennings and Harris sitting right on top of the back four. We badly missed the creativity of GTF and Hughes.

In the first thirty minutes GTF was involved in a lot of passing moves and we created chances. He should have stayed on the pitch in my view.

 

[Ian]

Also Norwood was defending with 10 mins to go?! something seriously not right.

 

[Boz]

I thought Higdon did ok with his back to goal when he came on, but our play was scrappy and disjointed in the second half and we created nothing. There was a huge gap between midfield and attack, with Jennings and Harris sitting right on top of the back four. We badly missed the creativity of GTF and Hughes.

I'd agree with this. Higdon was better than my first sight of him in action at Guiseley. If the supply of crosses into the box had continued from the first half, perhaps he could have got on the end of one, but for all the knock-downs and winning of headers just into the Welling half, none led to anything like a goal.

Central midfield were sitting too deep. Harris was poor, pulled out of a few challenges and frequently didn't offer an out ball for Vaughan/Mackreth in the way Jennings did on the other side, resulting in them running into dead ends and losing possession. Think I'd rather he was subbed than GTF.

While Norwood can be slated for his conversion rate, when he was moved out to the wing, did more tracking back than Kirby/Hughes had done on that side, so no complaint from me. Whether Brabin should have moved him out there is another matter...

 

[Ian]

Norwood takes a fair bit of slack from a lot of supporters about his conversion rate. I even heard some guy behind me say how poor he thought Norwood is. That's very harsh. He's scored 19 goals this season and without his goals we'd be struggling big time.

Because of Brabins ridiculous decisions when it comes to strikers, he's been pretty much holding the front line up on his own chasing lost balls half of the time. If he had a strike partner to help with the goals and take some weight off he wouldn't get as much flack. Very unfair IMO.

 

[Sparky]

I agree totally Ian. Norwood is far from perfect and does miss easy chances, but he has won us plenty of points this season, especially from the penalty spot when he has shown a lot of composure never missing. Credit to him.

As you say he has been on his own, working tirelessly often with little support. Our midfield haven't scored enough and we have been very reliant on him. I guess if he could score the easy ones as well, he'd be playing in the league and wouldn't be with us. Plus he's sometimes had to track back - how many strikers on 19 goals are forced to play out wide at times?

A couple of guys behind me in the kop were screaming at him and wanted him taken off. Madness. Apart from the odd goal from others, Nors is our only goal threat.

 

[bigmart]

I thought Higdon did ok with his back to goal when he came on, but our play was scrappy and disjointed in the second half and we created nothing. There was a huge gap between midfield and attack, with Jennings and Harris sitting right on top of the back four. We badly missed the creativity of GTF and Hughes.

In the first thirty minutes GTF was involved in a lot of passing moves and we created chances. He should have stayed on the pitch in my view.

Totally agree regards taking off GTF, he can link up play well and with Hughes going off injured he offered are only real hope of creativity, in the end to me we lost all shape and worst of all there was a lack of effort from most of the players

 

[Boz]

Another point on GTF, in Brabin's post-match report said was taking him off because he was dropping too deep.

Firstly, could he not have instructed him to push forward more?

Secondly, why no similar instruction to Harris and Jennings, who were playing more like central defenders at times.

Remarks like this along with the dig about fans giving up which RLC mentions do not strengthen Brabin's position.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

On another tactical matter, when we brought Higdon on it surely would have been better to have two natural wide players on the pitch (Kirby and Mackreth). Regardless of whether he had a good game, by taking Kirby off and sticking Norwood on the left we had no genuine width on that side, and nobody who could deliver crosses (Hill barely ventures past the halfway line these days). As a result we had Norwood, Higdon and Fenwick effectively getting in each others' way for the last twenty minutes. I can remember a game earlier in the season when we finished with three centre forwards on the pitch, and Brabin's notion that 'three forwards on pitch = goals' is such limited tactical thinking.

 

[Boz]

Think in the Dover home game we ended up with Norwood, Mangan, Tomlinson and GTF up front with the first two pushed out wide and similar chaos up front, though Mangan did hit the post.

Thought Kirby was by no means the worst performer yesterday, though not at his best; shot cleared off the line first half and one of the rare attempts on target in the second. Norwood can deliver a decent ball into the box, but didn't manage to yesterday, while he's still better deployed up front. Broadly agree with RLC's analysis above.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

We always are liable to get picked off when we play 442 and our two wide men don't have productive games. It's been the same since the Ronnie Moore era. Adam Virgo in his BT Sports commentary of the Lincoln game kept highlighting the gap between our midfielders (Jenno and Harris) and the forwards. Even with GTF trying to do the link up, if the two wide men aren't constantly involved then we look light in there. That's where we miss Mekki because for all his faults he always looks to come short and get on the ball.