Match thread Chester v AFC Halifax Town

That was absolutely horrendous viewing. Two awful sides both playing hoof ball for 90 minutes. I can see why they haven't scored a goal this season, they're relegation fodder all day long based on that performance. What is worrying is that if we can't beat Halifax at home, where exactly is that home win coming from?

Interesting that we need to average 2,100 at home to break even - just under that today on our first Saturday home game and with a performance like that there is only one way those attendances are going. Why would people pay £18 to watch that - I could have watched that standard of football in the playing field behind my house for nothing. There is only so far goodwill can take you.

Seemed again that we were more bothered about not losing the game than winning it toward the end, with both fullbacks not allowed forward. For the last 20 minutes we had Akintunde and Hannah up front yet still persisted to launch aimless long balls up to them. Surprisingly enough we didn't win many of those headers.

As Big Si correctly said - we've signed better players but the tactics aren't allowing them to play any better than we did last season. Kingsley James and Paul Turnbull are both excellent central midfielders at this level, both have an eye for a pass, yet we just bypass them 90% of the time. It's a complete waste of the talent and skill we have acquired.

One positive was that we did defend reasonably well - albeit against a team with very little going forward. The only time we troubled them was the couple of times we got the ball on the floor and passed around their defenders. It just baffles me how you can stand on the touchline and watch that and not change what your team is doing.

We had our best 11 out there today in what will undoubtedly be one of our easiest games this season, and that's the most McCarthy can get out of them? Very worrying performance, and as McCarthy correctly said in his pre-match press conference, the pressure starts now.

That was just dreadful, couldn't really pick out a good player today but Jesus what were the sponsors thinking our left back one of the worst players on the pitch, Hannah was garbage, Tuesdays MOTM did more in 10 minutes than Hannah did all game, well done McCarthy for dropping him you clueless idiot.

Was a terrible game with nothing at all happening. Akintunde goes from MOTM last game to the subs bench and showed why he should be starting when he came on. As a partnership, White and Hannah didn't work, in fact White wasn't that great today and was bullied by Matty Brown of all people. The team don't look as easy to beat this season, we leaked too many goals last year, however we don't look like scoring either!

I can see a lot of 1-0 0-0 and 0-1 scores at this rate, not the entertainment we need to bring more people through the game. Disappointing not to be beating sides like Halifax, but were WAY to narrow and to be honest we look tactically lost at times.

Two games. Two completely different apponents. Two decent points.Great effort from the lads.Chelsea look to be relegated by the way. Happy days.

Fair play Eddie, pretty much spot on with that. I did expect more and maybe optimism got the better of me. Surely we need to see more through the gates to progress as a club.

If we are going to play boring football then it at least has to yield results. I'm thinking West Brom....probably work on shape and set pieces all week long and win games through quality set piece delivery and attacking things in the box. Not pretty but it works for them. We play boring football and haven't won a home game in 16 attempts, it's no wonder people are pissed off and bored senseless. We were 1 game away from relegation last season but McCarthy never admitted that and was insisting we had done wonders so perhaps it's no surprise that lessons haven't been learnt and there has been no tactical evolution despite signing decent players.

The full backs dont go past the half way line and we have a centre midfielder playing on the wing. We have 1 winger starting in Mahon who has looked rusty so far, so it's no wonder we look narrow. It's all a bit predictable and easy to defend against. At home we need to stretch teams and make them chase the ball, then the likes of Dawson and James might be able to find spaces to pass into but everything is so congested and there is nobody showing out wide.

McGuire must be getting annoyed. He is getting all these deals and sponsors yet the only thing decent that they are being served is the grub in the Legends Lounge and the fun stops when the game begins.

Well that was a poor and disappointing watch. Two dire sides scrapping it out for 90-odd minutes. I agree with some posters that we have quality, but we just don't use the right tactics, the same tactics which we have been using since January. We couldn't even string two passes together and all we did was hoof, hoof, hoof without keeping possession and without using width. The thing is, this squad has the potential to do well with the right coaching and tactics but it seems as if we are too anxious to do it and rush into everything. This was rectified by the attendance, and from what I believe there were only 1,700 Chester fans there today, which is probably our core. I can only see these attendances plummeting, and goodness knows what it will be next week. Probably around 1,700. It seems a bit daft that most of us are already starting to get restless, but it's true, the shadows of last season are still hanging over us. To not beat a poor team in Halifax at home today isn't good enough. Oh well, at least the Goats and Tranmere got beat, and we are unbeaten 🙂. However, we still have 44 games to put this right but we must pull our socks up though!

We look like a route one side, without the players to make it work.
I dont think we put more than 2 passes together, all game?
White and Hannah had poor games, but were given very little service and we only started to show any invention and creativity when Akintude game on.
The defence played OK, as did the keeper. James probably MOM. Turnbull worked hard.
What really annoyed me was the times we lost possession. Much more quality is required.
At least under Burr, until he had his crisis of confidence, we tried to play football.

We have been watching crap last season to be continued this season just not good enough I am sorry nice bloke but this manager just has to go

Underwhelmed. Bring on Hartlepool away.

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Ah okay fair enough, they do tend to agree with your view point yes. Don't get me wrong, if anyone has been entertained in the first two games I would be very surprised. That said I guess the positive is we haven't lost! Akintunde has to start on Tuesday against what looks like a bang average Hartlepool side.

I was just quoting McCarthy, he said 50.6 points "would be enough".

McCarthy post-match interview bingo should exist shouldn't it? Budget, 50 points, negativity, *insert random Deva Chat username here*...

and yet the clown is still in charge, I said months ago he would never make a manager, when the board grow a spine and get rid of the clown can anyone see him managing at our level or above? not a chance