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Post by Rio Doherty on Sept 8, 2018 17:27:23 GMT
What an absolute cracker today - a thrilling game from start to finish. It’s also great to have that winning feeling back, especially at home. I’m saying this in a nice way, but I actually think the capitulations at Blyth and Telford are actually starting to bring the best out of us as our last two displays have been much improved. This win has to be dedicated to all of our hard-working volunteers and the companies who have worked extremely well to get this match on. Without them, we wouldn’t have witnessed an 8-goal thriller today.
The first half was really entertaining and was packed with drama. Obviously, I was disappointed to see Bradford go ahead so early on as it may have affected the overall mood. However, we fought back really well and soon turned the tables with two decent goals. The fighting spirit shown at Guiseley was certainly brought into this encounter, and if we show this endeavour more often then we will do well. Both defences were shaky in that half though which is why it was packed with goals. We did have a fair few shaky moments at the back, especially Dom Smalley’s shocking back-pass which was followed up by a shocking open goal miss to redeem himself. Bradford were certainly no mugs and played some decent football at times to get back into this contest, which shows that they were rather worthy of 3rd position at the start of the day. Craig Mahon had another brilliant game, dominating play and having a few decent shots. Bradford PA scored before the break to make things a little uneasy, but we went into half time with a positive scoreline.
The second period was packed with drama too, with entertaining end-to-end football. Bradford scored another goal which then put the match on a knife edge. I was like ‘’here we go again, yet another lead given away’’. However, that brought back our excellent fighting spirit to go on and win the game. Again, Craig Mahon was fantastic and put in another great performance. It’s fair to say that his form has been inconsistent since the Barnsley game, but overall he’s put in some great performances this campaign so hopefully we can expect more of the same. Dan Mooney had a decent game as well whilst his goal was very well taken. Also, I thought that Deane Smalley had a good game up top. It’s a shame that this was only his first appearance for us, but he held the ball up really well and looks like an effective player. We took advantage of our playing surface as we played some decent football on the floor. Over the past few years we have had to put up with the obligatory ‘hoof ball’, but I’ve definitely noticed that we are attempting to play proper football in this new era.
Of course it will take time for us to fully adapt, but I am beginning to see something click now. We were leaky at the back again, although we did manage to find the net more frequently which is all that matters. The only thing that us supporters can do is to continue to give the lads our full backing, as I’d like us to be applauding them off the field more regularly instead of jeering them off. Moments like that brings us all together.
Anyway, we move onto another home match on Tuesday evening. FC United have started to pick up a little, but it’s still a game that we should be winning. We still have a handful of matches in hand to catch up with, and if we do win the majority then we can start to look up a bit more. Things are looking better for us, and once again this victory wouldn't have been possible without all of the hard-working souls. What a game!
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Post by MPW on Sept 8, 2018 17:28:35 GMT
Looked very dangerous every time we broke. Can't defend to save our lives like. Can’t believe I’m going to post it, but I’d it worth giving GR a go at right back as he played there before coming to us? I don’t see how Burton could be taken out of this side, stopforth is the engine, Roberts is class but at the moment I wouldn’t change who we have. Don Smalley has struggled a lot in some games and seems to be at fault for a goal a game! I was thinking that we should give Matty Thompson a start, but that’s a good shout that mate!
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Post by wirralseal on Sept 8, 2018 17:33:55 GMT
Thought we had loads to be positive about today. Looked like scoring every time we went forward. I was personally most impressed with Matty hughes. Thought he dropped in to get on it loads and linked up play brilliantly. Hopefully dean smalley can get match fit.
Defensively we do look poor and actually thought BPA were stupid to go long as we found it easier in the air in my eyes. If anyone from FCUM was there today then I guess a lot of there work will be on exploiting Dom Smalley. Made numerous mistakes today. I haven’t been at hands where he has featured but can’t be long till he’s givinh young Thomson a go. Reports on here have always been good.
Anyway a good result against a side that will do well
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Post by btb on Sept 8, 2018 17:35:45 GMT
Superb game today. The midfield and forwards were superb and the back line headed and cleared a lot of pressure away in the second half whilst the game was tied. It would be unfair to be critical to anybody this evening but its glaringly obvious where the weak links are and they either have to shape up or ship out. But that said, I thought going forward we were brilliant today. Bradford were decent to be fair, although like us defending didn't seem their priority, hence a 5-3 score line that could easily have been more! I've been critical on here and in private but that game went a long way to building up my confidence in the team and staff. Roll on Tuesday.
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Post by 54321 on Sept 8, 2018 17:43:10 GMT
Rio any chance you could show the league table as it stands can't find it anywhere (old fart) cheers.
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Post by eltonblues on Sept 8, 2018 17:44:52 GMT
Glad to here the Chronicle are referring to Mahon's performance as sublime. Some on here had written him off. Nobody wrote him off. Many wrote off his ability to stay fit though. He’s one of my personal faves but even I’ve had fitness doubts, and rightly so he’s not had a run of games in two years. Superb today though. Scoring 5 goals against a side as good as BPA isn’t an easy feat. If we can sort the defensive mistakes we’ll be a force this season. 2W 2D 2L I’d probably have taken that given the tough start. Onwards and upwards. I had, but I loved being proved wrong today. Let's see if we can get half a dozen performances like that from now.
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Post by Rio Doherty on Sept 8, 2018 17:48:25 GMT
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Post by eltonblues on Sept 8, 2018 17:48:27 GMT
Cracking entertainment today and lots of signs that we are moving forward. Thought Hughes, Mahon and Mooney were excellent (good job Mooney put his second in the bottom corner because Hughes was wide open in the penalty box and would have gone mental if he'd missed, and Dudley had a very good second half in particular. The new lad look liked he might be a player when he came on (definite dive for the pen, I couldn't believe the ref gave it). Definite issues in defence where Smalley was unconvincing at times as was Shenton. Best thing about today though was the fact that we went down 1-0 dead early, but showed character to come back and then another good reaction when they go it back to 3-3. We are moving in the right direction - the team looked like a team and everyone worked their asses off on the pitch. Looking forward to Tuesday now. The pen if you are interested. It was deffo a pen mate, the lad hooked his foot. Made the most of it but def a pen.
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Post by 54321 on Sept 8, 2018 17:55:31 GMT
Thanks rio now know where to look
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Post by bonecrusher on Sept 8, 2018 18:01:34 GMT
Blyth are below us with a negative goal difference. Savour that...
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Post by Gandalf on Sept 8, 2018 18:02:57 GMT
Rio did you manage to get a video of all the goals?
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Post by Si on Sept 8, 2018 18:05:45 GMT
Certainly entertaining but the balance definitely isn’t right. There is no way we should be shipping 3 goals in at home. We are conceding far too much space in wide areas and I’m worried about the ball when it comes into the area too. Smalley had an absolute stinker and I think it’s time to give Thomson a start. I was thinking the the managers might have told Mooney to give Smalley some more protection but he was causing problems at the other end and probably didn’t want to nullify his attacking threat. Mahon was great today, such a fun player to watch when he is in that mood. Attacking wise it definitely clicked but continued questions about the defence and Shenton. Was really impressedwith Deane Smalley - he held it up really well and just stuck his fat arse into the defenders to shield the ball which was exactly what we needed. He certainly made the ball stick and seemed to link well with Dudley so it’s nice to have a different option. The main thing was just getting the 3 points on the board, but was nice to feel thoroughly entertained too. Crowd was awful though, where were all the people from the Spennymoor game? Looking forward to Tuesday now, another 3 points and we are in business. Feel like the last 2 weeks has started to see the team gel and hopefully the only way is up from here.
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Post by tonya on Sept 8, 2018 18:13:46 GMT
Sounds like a gung-ho Kevin Keegan performance...excellent!
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Post by Rio Doherty on Sept 8, 2018 18:31:54 GMT
Rio did you manage to get a video of all the goals? Unfortunately I only managed to record 3 because I was too busy retrieving a ball in the car park, which is why I missed the first 2 goals 🙄. My vlog will be out tomorrow but you can watch the 3 goals which I recorded here: http://instagram.com/p/BneaaMXlPZl
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Post by jb on Sept 8, 2018 18:32:37 GMT
Good attacking performance with Dudley leading the line well.
However defence was poor. Smalley was shocking. A new right back is a must. He looks way out of his depth.
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Post by btb on Sept 8, 2018 18:36:52 GMT
Good attacking performance with Dudley leading the line well. However defence was poor. Smalley was shocking. A new right back is a must. He looks way out of his depth. Its such a shame. He's the first player to come over and applaud the support, every time. Really seems to want it and maybe that's part of the problem.
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Post by Jack on Sept 8, 2018 18:38:34 GMT
A fantastic game to watch and hugely encouraging in parts, but still major alarm bells ringing over our defence.
The balance is definitely still off - it was really easy for BPA to get to the edge of our box and that spells danger. When Roberts is back, I'd be tempted to get 3 central midfielders on to try and win that battle. Also big gaps still down the side of the central defenders at times. Yes we won, and we won with some great style going forward, but on another day those whipped crosses over our 6 yard box will cost us. A lot of it stemmed from Moran and Howson, they didn't win nearly enough of their battles with the centre forwards and they were always picking up the second ball. Simon Grand though! What a player he is, we need to get him back into the centre of the back 4 and we will instantly become tighter. Smalley knows he was nowhere near it today, and I'd agree that a little spell out of the team will probably do him good, I'd be having a look at Thomson to start against FCUM.
Enough of that, the positives were how lively we looked going forward. In Mahon, Dudley, Hughes and Mooney we must have one of the most dangerous front 4s in the division. At times, they were unplayable.
Dudley is going to score 20 for us this season, he's such a neat footballer - always getting the ball out of his feet and ready to pull the trigger. Was delighted for him to get on the scoresheet today because he totally deserved it. Mooney showed what we all suspected was in his locker, a really promising performance and Craig Mahon reminded me of the player we had 2 years ago in the good start under JM. He was sensational today, his goal was exquisite, sent two of the their defenders to the corner shop and was able to finish it. IF we can keep him producing that, I can't see many better footballers in this division.
We mustn't be too harsh on ourselves, but we're very much a work in progress. BPA are clearly a good side and we hit them for 5. The cliche in football is that putting the ball in the net is the hardest thing to do, and we look like we'll do it with regularity. Tightening up at the back is a priority, whether that means our full backs tucking in and holding back a bit, I'm not sure but something has to change. We can't outscore every opponent, there'll be days where it just doesn't click and at the moment you cannot see us keeping a clean sheet. I'm not absolutely convinced that 3/4 of our back 4 today are quite up to the standard, but we'll see as the season progresses.
Great game, delighted for the managers and now it's so vital we back it up with a good win against FCUM. We showed today that we're more than capable of competing, I'm glad to see BM referencing the defence not being quite good enough today - with a bit of tweaking we could be a really good side.
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Post by elazuluno on Sept 8, 2018 18:50:12 GMT
Great entertaining game today, loved it. Looked fantastic going forward Dudley was MoM for me looked a different class all together real top quality has everything, reminds me of Chicarito/Solskjaer. Mahon was close behind as well as Hughes and Mooney.
However at the back... oh dear! Shenton scares me every time he makes a save the ball returns to open play, rarely to safety. Howson was ok today, Moran looked out of sorts and pace and Smalley had a shocker (he’s much better than that) Entertaining tho but we’re was “Singin the Blues” over the new PA? :0)
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Post by sirfred on Sept 8, 2018 18:55:25 GMT
We look excellent up top and decent in midfield but so fragile at the back - sort that out and we could get promotion
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Post by tarvinblue on Sept 8, 2018 19:16:35 GMT
It was certainly entertaining! We seem to have developed our game going forward and we were very dangerous all afternoon. We seemed to get the best out of everyone going forward today and it was one of those occasions where everyone seemed on form. Defensively though we are still a long way short. Dom Smalley is nowhere near good enough and was targeted throughout the game by Bradford. He tries hard but there is nothing to his game that offers enough and at times he is a liability. Similar could be said of Shenton who was again mistake prone and cost us at least one goal. If we could sort out our full back areas as well as our goalkeeper situation, I think we have enough to threaten the top half of the table this season. However, we are going to continue to be vulnerable to conceding goals until our defensive situation is resolved. We don't need anymore wingers that's for sure!
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Post by bluejay on Sept 8, 2018 19:40:51 GMT
Great entertaining game today, loved it. Looked fantastic going forward Dudley was MoM for me looked a different class all together real top quality has everything, reminds me of Chicarito/Solskjaer. Mahon was close behind as well as Hughes and Mooney. However at the back... oh dear! Shenton scares me every time he makes a save the ball returns to open play, rarely to safety. Howson was ok today, Moran looked out of sorts and pace and Smalley had a shocker (he’s much better than that) Entertaining tho but we’re was “Singin the Blues” over the new PA? :0) Spot on. Agree with every word. Stunned when I heard the attendance. It looked easily over the 2,000 mark. Weren't the gate counters one of the pieces of kit affected by the flooding?
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Post by Anders on Sept 8, 2018 19:42:42 GMT
Certainly entertaining, lots to like about us going forward but goes without saying that there’s still issues at the back.
Going forward Mahon was outstanding, it’s a shame he’s had so many injuries because we’re seeing what he’s capable of again if he can stay fit. Was made up to see him score, cracking bit of skill to open up the space driving in to the box. Anthony Dudley is such an intelligent footballer, knows where to go and is pretty assured on the ball as well. Given the support he should score plenty although I would like to see him put himself about a bit more though. Industrious performance from Matty Hughes as well, linking the midfield to the attack well. Mooney also did well but is rather erratic and inconsistent.
Elsewhere I reckon even a pedometer couldn’t keep up with Gary Stopforth’s mileage, everywhere he is. Some nice signs from Burton but he did look like he was being cautious with that hamstring after limping off last week. Nice little sneak previews of Jordan and Deane Smalley at the end, both looked good when they came on. Grand was probably the only one in the back five that I felt safe with on the day though.
Right then, on to Tuesday and hoping for back to back wins. Hasn’t happened in the league since November 2016.
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Post by sirfred on Sept 8, 2018 19:49:12 GMT
Not sure i agree re Smalley he played really well in parts my main concern was center backs not winning a single header and looking fragile - needs improvement
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2018 19:50:11 GMT
As most have already said, a really entertaining game where both team seemed to favour the more attacking elements of it. The front 4 were sumptuous, there movement and link up play was as good as you’ll see at any level of football and with Burton and Stopforth dominating the middle of the park they had a platform to play from. Grand was simply faultless again despite being the elder statesman and apparently playing out of position. I think Shentom gets a fair bit of stick on here but I didn’t actually think he did too much wrong, took crosses when under pressure and his distribution was also good. BPAs 7,9 and 10 caused us the same sort of problems that our front 4 caused there backline. Howson was slightly the more commanding of the two CBs but Dominic Smalley looked absolutely terrified for some reason. He’s a hell of player but at the moment looks really short of confidence and as someone above has already alluded to, he tries desperately hard but at the minute he’s lacking quality. Substitutions worked a treat and actually got us much further up the pitch. I know it was only a fifteen minute cameo but I thought big Dean Smalley was terrific when he came on, his firstvtouch and hold up play was made to look really easy. BIG 3 points and a superb attacking performance!
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Post by MPW on Sept 8, 2018 19:55:03 GMT
Morley doesn’t paper over the cracks in his post match interview and said it was car crash defending at times and if some players don’t cut out the mistakes then they won’t be playing for us any longer.
He also praised Luke Jordan, but it sounded like he has come to us on the promise of a contract, but there isn’t any money in the budget to pay him at the moment.
This is where I think us fans need to try and help with the squad builder to avoid another Tuton scenario. If we come across a decent young player, then we should be looking to tie them down in case they earn us money in future.
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Post by Sealand Road Veteran on Sept 8, 2018 19:57:17 GMT
Not sure i agree re Smalley he played really well in parts my main concern was center backs not winning a single header and looking fragile - needs improvement We said exactly the same, biggest issue today was CBs didn't win any defensive headers, caused us no end of problems
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2018 19:57:45 GMT
Not sure i agree re Smalley he played really well in parts my main concern was center backs not winning a single header and looking fragile - needs improvement Howson won everything, thought he was class today. Doing the work of 2-3 men at times. Moran had a tough day though.
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Post by blueforever on Sept 8, 2018 20:02:51 GMT
Shenton has cost us dearly he is a good stopper but how many times this season has he not held the ball and let it rebound off his chest ? Also Moran very clumsey with misplaced balls and not good enough at center half ,Yes forwards played well but defence needs sorting
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Post by eltonblues on Sept 8, 2018 20:39:57 GMT
Shenton has cost us dearly he is a good stopper but how many times this season has he not held the ball and let it rebound off his chest ? Also Moran very clumsey with misplaced balls and not good enough at center half ,Yes forwards played well but defence needs sorting Moran had a great game last week but was off the pace today barely winning a header.
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Post by norwegianblue on Sept 8, 2018 20:40:41 GMT
Good attacking performance with Dudley leading the line well. However defence was poor. Smalley was shocking. A new right back is a must. He looks way out of his depth. Were the defence bad or did they appear to be bad because midfield didn’t track back? I know for sure that Mahon doesn’t.
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