A Novel affair. Home to Mansfield Town Tues 3rd Dec. 1945

[Worthy4England]

JDC on the left? Schon on the right?

Because Ormerod got their shirts mixed up, according to one wag on our row.

100% winning record. We've deconstructed the defence, waffled about wingbacks, moaned about midfield, fumed about forwards and all this time it was the fcking wrong kit man

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We looked genuinely threatening as opposed to genuinely threatened.

Nicely put. Agreed. But...

Weird how flat I feel about that. Normally a comeback feels great, but that didn't do anything but a grudging nice one

Yeah. Prolonged again?

[brommers95]

Not a cat in hell’s chance we win that if it stays 11v11. We were shocking but hard to be upset with a Wanderers win. Never boring at this club is it.

MOTM undisputedly Desmond Tutu, the way he skipped past the full back was brilliant to see after years watching our wide players turn back to play the safe ball. He surely starts on Saturday. Would be good to see him on the right with Schon on the left.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I note Arfield wasn’t even on the bench tonight. I wonder whether there would be any clubs willing to take him off our hands next month?

That'd be lovely, but to be fair it's the first league game this season he hasn't been involved.

[truewhite15]

I don't understand how we won that.

Evatt was incredibly frustrated with the players throughout. Demanding they speed up play, screaming for no short corners, reacting in exasperation when the ball went backwards or we failed to win the second ball for the umpteenth time. Clearly, there's a breakdown in how his plan is being applied on the pitch.

We were awful for the vast majority. We only looked threatening when we actually decided to run at the Mansfield back line. Schon and Osei-Tutu were best at doing that. They have to start together. They're our best wing backs.

If the mark of a good side is winning when they don't play well - God help this league if we ever actually decide to turn it on.

Evatt's thin-ice escapology act continues for another few days at least.

[Mar]

I note Arfield wasn’t even on the bench tonight. I wonder whether there would be any clubs willing to take him off our hands next month?

That'd be lovely, but to be fair it's the first league game this season he hasn't been involved.

He's probably not too keen on seeing out his career bench warming, so it might just suit both parties to get him out elsewhere.



Just a note on Baxter today, everyone's in praise of those who came on, and obviously Matete and Santos stood out and didn't put a foot wrong, but Baxter deserves a shout too. Put his neck on the line literally for the cause today and that's something to be grateful for.

[truewhite15]

On Baxter - that incident from the hospital pass is one of the greatest pieces of shithousery I've seen from any player at our place, wearing white or otherwise. I think Mansfield were very hard done by - I don't think it was a foul at all - but Baxter absolutely bought it by going full K.O. spreadeagle on the ground, practically forcing the stoppage.

And the Oscar goes to...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I note Arfield wasn’t even on the bench tonight. I wonder whether there would be any clubs willing to take him off our hands next month?

That'd be lovely, but to be fair it's the first league game this season he hasn't been involved.

He's probably not too keen on seeing out his career bench warming, so it might just suit both parties to get him out elsewhere.

Maybe, aye. He's definitely dropped off in time on pitch - 335 minutes (plus injury time) in the first 10 games – and he was injured for two of them – halving to just 176 in the 11 since then.

[Prufrock]

Lolos's attempted chest down then reminded me of the Franky Worthy line "his second touch is a sliding tackle"

"His second touch is a header" is a new one.

[Prufrock]

Well back to a positive goal difference and on the cusp of the play offs.

But enough of the positives. I tuned in at half time so I guess I saw us win 3-0 but that was shite. Truly dreadful until their lad with the single digit IQ had his third go this season at getting an early go at the Reebok showers and finally succeeded. Even then we scored two of the shittest goals you'll ever see. It's not good, is it?

And what's the plan? After watching England labour through a successful if uninspiring euros we copied that shape and transplanted at least the latter element. Now the new trendy thing is the lad down the road having opposite wing backs and two weeks later we're just... having a go at that?

If only there were two record breakingly successful manners from these parts who'd won things with a back four.

I mean I always want us to win, but it feels like 70 mins of shite followed by a come back is prolonging the inevitable. We go again, I suppose.

Shame Brett didn't get his clean sheet.

[Harry Genshaw]

On Baxter - that incident from the hospital pass is one of the greatest pieces of shithousery I've seen from any player at our place, wearing white or otherwise. I think Mansfield were very hard done by - I don't think it was a foul at all - but Baxter absolutely bought it by going full K.O. spreadeagle on the ground, practically forcing the stoppage.

And the Oscar goes to...

That's how it looked to me too from a greater distance. How close was that one of theirs to going in just a little later? Looked like Baxter had flapped at a cross again, but quickly recovered while their players and fans seemed to be appealing it had gone over the line?

[officer_dibble]

Was the inverted wingbacks a pep copy then (as if I should be surprised )!? The problem with it is that all it did was expose the two GJ’s who played like they couldn’t tackle their tea. Santos having to propel crosses away and then the lack of a proper DM meaning they got a lot of second balls and rebounds.

[truewhite15]

On Baxter - that incident from the hospital pass is one of the greatest pieces of shithousery I've seen from any player at our place, wearing white or otherwise. I think Mansfield were very hard done by - I don't think it was a foul at all - but Baxter absolutely bought it by going full K.O. spreadeagle on the ground, practically forcing the stoppage.

And the Oscar goes to...

That's how it looked to me too from a greater distance. How close was that one of theirs to going in just a little later? Looked like Baxter had flapped at a cross again, but quickly recovered while their players and fans seemed to be appealing it had gone over the line?

Difficult to tell - I'm looking at it from a slightly oblique angle - but looked to me like Baxter got it just before it crossed the line. Not much in it.

[Prufrock]

Was the inverted wingbacks a pep copy then (as if I should be surprised )!? The problem with it is that all it did was expose the two GJ’s who played like they couldn’t tackle their tea. Santos having to propel crosses away and then the lack of a proper DM meaning they got a lot of second balls and rebounds.

The new lad in the other half of town who the media have spent the month since he agreed to take over constantly shouting "he only plays 343" at each other. But with a leftie on the right and vice versa in the early days there. They win last week and...

It's fecking amateur hour! Or an odd coincidence but put next to England in the summer and the shape change then... We've basically got a 13yo old on football manager in charge.

[BWFC_Insane]

I think there is a very good case that the 4 withdrawn should not start Saturday. Collins is having a difficult time. Cogley is well, Cogley. Schon is putting effort in but I don’t think he really is the flying wing back that the system demands. And Sheehan. Well the less said the better.

We are currently relying on quality off the bench but maybe that’s all you need at this level. Change games against tired teams. I thought that Williams and Tutu offered something we sorely lack which is an ability to run at your opponent. Tutu especially adds something dynamic to the team that is entirely absent otherwise.

However it was a dispiriting night more than anything as the crowd are just weary there was very little enthusiasm and the issue is not that we can’t win games with our attacking quality it’s that we have performances like the first 60 minutes in us. And if you do that when it matters there isn’t a comeback in most cases.

[Bertie Wooster]

I'm not sure where to start about last night, the 1st 60 mins was as bad as the 1st half against Blackpool - it was dismal & questions need to be asked as to why this keeps happening. The turning point was deffo the sending off, I honestly doubt that we would have won if they had kept 11 on the pitch. Collins, Johnston, Sheehan & Victor were absolutely shocking - Collins has a shocking, lazy can't be arsed attitude which is a shame for an obviously talented player & Victor doesn't look like a football player, even his goal looked like it would have gone wide but for the deflection, its clear how much quicker we move the ball and play with more intensity when Sheehan's not on the pitch.

On the other hand I thought that Santos, Matete, Lolos & Desmond were very good.

In the 1st half with the inverted full backs I thought that Evatt was trying his best to get sacked, and although some of the players are playing for Evatt, personally I think that perhaps a couple of players are not and may be a disruptive influence on the rest behind the scenes and in training.

Evatt is a very lucky manager IMO, both last night and against B/Pool the crowd was getting quite toxic & vocally critical of the manager and had we lost either of those I think that he would have gone - these results are papering over the cracks and he's surviving game to game at the moment. However it was 3 points and that's the main thing.

[DJBlu]

Have a watch of the last 30 minutes if you can.

The changes Evatt made won the game, assisted by the sending off. He's "lucky" maybe because the subs played extremely well. Ironically it was Williams doing something Schon didn't(running past his man) that got Boateng sent off.

I think my frustration with possibly everyone else is that we could've done that from the start. When we went 2-1 up the defence changed as they had something to protect. The play was faster, energy levels looked better.

I do look on twitter and think we must be in a worse position vs last season, it's true. We're 8 points worse off however the last 12 games we're on a par with Brum in 2nd having scored 4 more however the goals against is 7 worse. Wycombe are top.

Despite what we think we've achieved 26 points over the 12 with last nights win, which edges us into 2.16 ppg.

Possibly needs a Wycombe collapse but if we can be in the top 2 for form over 41 games then we might have a chance.

[Worthy4England]

For me, the problem is (apart from "he's still here"), that we should be top 6 pretty comfortably, with the squad and investments.

The league table is little different than this stage 2 years ago, when it had Plymouth, Ipswich and Sheff Weds as 1, 2, 3 on 42, 38 and 37 points (albeit all on played 18). It's pretty much a match for today assuming Brum don't crash on their games in hand. We were on 28 points from 17 having scored 19 and conceded 14. We made the playoffs, so I don't doubt we can do that again. We're only 4 points behind the mythical 2 ppg. But. 2 years ago 96 points didn't go up (other than through the playoffs.)

We're a long way short of last season at the same point. P18, top with 39 points (bizarrely Oxford were in 3rd, 3 points behind.

I genuinely think Shazza is "being advised" that on the maths, this isn't bad, with our budget, top 6 (rather than top 2) is realistic and we should be ok with that, because January will fill some holes and then we could be 2 games from a Wembley pay date.

But when you use your eyes on something other than a spreadsheet, it's clearly gone backwards and I for one, still haven't moved off "he's not getting us up this year." He's managed to lose a lot of the people who were very enamoured with goals, whilst having the 7th leakiest defence in the division.

Not good enough for me.

[jimbo]

We’ve picked up 26pts from the last 12 games, since the Huddersfield accident. Objectively that’s a really strong run. If we carry on with it, we’ll be there or thereabouts for promotion. Had we sacked Evatt after Huddersfield and the new guy had racked up that run, we’d be delighted. And yet we’re all dejected and miserable (me included). Our wins have mainly been lucky, and our defeats or draws pathetic efforts. Funny old game isn’t it.

[dave the minion]

It is, and its also a funny old league this year.

Birmingham are hardly smashing it despite spending 10 gazillion pounds in the summer (I suspect their fans must be up in arms about their plight?).

Huddersfield - many people's other strong tip for the top - are only 2 points ahead of our calamity of a season. Wrexham can be reeled in with a couple of favourable results, and Count-eh are level on points with us.

Barnsley are below us on more games. Charlton and Peterborough are 3 wins away from us, and Rotherham are closer to the relegation places than they are to us.


Now, none of this matters one bit to us if we're not seen to be performing, but what it does show is that there are many other supposed strong (or "big") teams that are faltering in this weird and crazy league, so all is most certainly not lost......