FA Cup 1st Round Replay..: Stocky Tony’s County Away..Stockport replay Wednesday 17th live BBC 2

[Mar]

If you score twice at home you should be winning the game, end of. The fact we don’t have attacking players to go and score 3, 4, 5 every week just makes it more obvious that the wank defending is where the issue is.

Santos and Johnston are both players good enough for this level…whether they work as a pair is a reasonable question. He fecked up not upgrading the full back cover on both sides but again it should be back to basics and working on clean sheets. The worry is he doesn’t have it in him at the moment - big month November, if we concede 6 goals at home to Crewe, Donny and Cheltenham he’s in trouble for me.

Can't imagine Evatt being at risk of losing his job any time soon. We've been dominant in games and not capitalising. The transition is in the right direction and is a work in progress with a good strategy in place. We're not going to throw that in the bin off the back of some bad defending. Maybe it's an eye opener and highlights naivety on Evatt's part in thinking we'd be okay for cover. Possibly we should've strengthened but it's all about getting the right players in for the long run. I've got plenty of faith in Evatt at the minute, upgrading the quality of our set pieces will probably make a massive difference in terms of the scoreline we want. Perhaps a specialist needs to be brought in on how to do that (Big Sam next week perhaps?)

[BWFC_Insane]

If you score twice at home you should be winning the game, end of. The fact we don’t have attacking players to go and score 3, 4, 5 every week just makes it more obvious that the wank defending is where the issue is.

Santos and Johnston are both players good enough for this level…whether they work as a pair is a reasonable question. He fecked up not upgrading the full back cover on both sides but again it should be back to basics and working on clean sheets. The worry is he doesn’t have it in him at the moment - big month November, if we concede 6 goals at home to Crewe, Donny and Cheltenham he’s in trouble for me.

Can't imagine Evatt being at risk of losing his job any time soon. We've been dominant in games and not capitalising. The transition is in the right direction and is a work in progress with a good strategy in place. We're not going to throw that in the bin off the back of some bad defending. Maybe it's an eye opener and highlights naivety on Evatt's part in thinking we'd be okay for cover. Possibly we should've strengthened but it's all about getting the right players in for the long run. I've got plenty of faith in Evatt at the minute, upgrading the quality of our set pieces will probably make a massive difference in terms of the scoreline we want. Perhaps a specialist needs to be brought in on how to do that (Big Sam next week perhaps?)

We have failed at football basics all season. Stop making excuses. Evatt can see defensively we are an absolute unmitigated shocker. Why hasn’t he fixed it? Either the players aren’t up to it or he isn’t.

Whatever the case Crewe is an absolute 100% must win game. There is rising discontent in the stands as people watch the same nonsense week in week out and listen to a manager pretend we are dominating games that we patently aren’t. Possession is useless. Absolutely useless. And our attempt to even concern ourselves with it needs to end immediately. We need to work on the two boxes. Mainly how to defend our own box. And set pieces. The basics of football that if you get wrong nowt else matters. And we’ve got them wrong all season. You cannot build on quick sand.

[GhostoftheBok]

We need two centre halves who are defenders first.

Pretty sure you said the same thing last season before we went on our promotion run and kept a load of clean sheets.

[BWFC_Insane]

We need two centre halves who are defenders first.

Pretty sure you said the same thing last season before we went on our promotion run and kept a load of clean sheets.

Last season we effectively plugged the holes with MJ.

This season we are up against better teams and have lost our experience in Baps and Gilks.

Our back line is unacceptably porous. Either it needs coaching to fix it (if so why hasn’t that happened?) or better players. Take your pick, but the results and goals against speak for themselves.

[officer_dibble]

We need two centre halves who are defenders first.

Pretty sure you said the same thing last season before we went on our promotion run and kept a load of clean sheets.

Fingers crossed it happens again. He fixed it last January - we started keeping clean sheets and won games! For me there’s a set of players there he could get to keep clean sheets through November. Even if we say end up drawing a game 0-0 and win a couple 1-0 it’s more points than we’ll get if we ship 6 goals across all 3 and score 3 or 4. Points first priority before style for me to arrest this slide and get us into January in reasonable nick.

[BWFC_Insane]

We need two centre halves who are defenders first.

Pretty sure you said the same thing last season before we went on our promotion run and kept a load of clean sheets.

Fingers crossed it happens again. He fixed it last January - we started keeping clean sheets and won games! For me there’s a set of players there he could get to keep clean sheets through November. Even if we say end up drawing a game 0-0 and win a couple 1-0 it’s more points than we’ll get if we ship 6 goals across all 3 and score 3 or 4. Points first priority before style for me to arrest this slide and get us into January in reasonable nick.

The style on the ball occasionally plays us into trouble. But that’s not the issue in the main. It’s a red herring. We have lost the basics and are playing as though we don’t need to defend and be compact and deny space or work on set plays.

I honestly think a lot is attitude. And probably comes from the top and the sentiment they are the ‘best side in the league’. More hard work and less BS needed.

[GhostoftheBok]

Last season we effectively plugged the holes with MJ.

This season we are up against better teams and have lost our experience in Baps and Gilks.

Our back line is unacceptably porous. Either it needs coaching to fix it (if so why hasn’t that happened?) or better players. Take your pick, but the results and goals against speak for themselves.

I've a lot to say on this, but I want to watch the the game again if possible so I can take the emotion out of it. Dunno is it'll be on iFollow with the FA Cup having its own licencing agreement.

Yes we are crap at the back. I think our crapness against Stockport was players over system. We did not press well enough, but we had bodies where they needed to be and then people just watched play.

That lack of intensity absolutely is concerning. I have no idea how to quantify how concerning it is at the moment, as we were clearly up for it the match before. This doesn't strike me as a team where the dressing room is off or they don't back the manager. We came back well from going behind and after the equalised at the half we came out and dominated the ball again in the second. We did not bottle that game.

Like I say, I'd like to watch it again when I'm not screaming at folk.

[GhostoftheBok]

More hard work and less BS needed.

Agree with that.

[GhostoftheBok]

Challinor has said in his post match that part of Sarce leaving was tied in with him not starting vs Plymouth.

My vote remains with him being a massive mardarse...

[BWFC_Insane]

I don’t think it’s a ‘lost the dressing room thing’.

It’s just we started the season defending badly. We got away with it due to promotion bounce and Dapo being great and teams maybe not working us out. The question was always as that dried up and we hit the cold hard depths of mid season would that remain. The answer is no but our defensive frailties have.

So the problem is one of attitude, application and hard work is needed. But all the manager has done is feed them with you are the best team in the league, we are dominating games etc. Is there a collective desire from the top right down to work to ensure we keep a clean sheet Friday? If not there is a problem.

[TANGODANCER]

We're disappointed. We'll get over it. We didn't lose.

[GhostoftheBok]

Is there a collective desire from the top right down to work to ensure we keep a clean sheet Friday? If not there is a problem.

Yes, I'd guess so. There's no way Gilks is less of a monster about it off the pitch than on and nothing about former "kick him into the stands when needed" centre half Evatt strikes me as fine with soft defending.

The coaching has been question in this thread, but they had three shots all game and both their goals were just errors on the pitch. The second one doesn't happen if Baptiste and Izzy are not in that defence. Baps has got to track the man in front of him and Izzy or Lee have to put a foot in.

The biggest issue for me is the lack of intensity in transitions and it is something Evatt has mentioned, so I'd guess he's both seen it and isn't happy. If Lee and Izzy sprint to recover when that ball goes into the channel then Madden and Rooney have nowhere to go. They both jog and Rooney just walks into a bit of space with nobody on him. I don't think that's coaching, I think that's having a winger at right back and an intensity issue. We were all up for it against Dale, so why the difference? I can't answer that, but Evatt needs to.

Again, shape and patterns were fine both defensively and offensively - application was off. Ultimately it'll all fall on the manager eventually, but I'd be very interested to see the sprint stats in our games this season and comparing them to results.

[Mar]

Last season we effectively plugged the holes with MJ.

This season we are up against better teams and have lost our experience in Baps and Gilks.

Our back line is unacceptably porous. Either it needs coaching to fix it (if so why hasn’t that happened?) or better players. Take your pick, but the results and goals against speak for themselves.

I've a lot to say on this, but I want to watch the the game again if possible so I can take the emotion out of it. Dunno is it'll be on iFollow with the FA Cup having its own licencing agreement.

Yes we are crap at the back. I think our crapness against Stockport was players over system. We did not press well enough, but we had bodies where they needed to be and then people just watched play.

That lack of intensity absolutely is concerning. I have no idea how to quantify how concerning it is at the moment, as we were clearly up for it the match before. This doesn't strike me as a team where the dressing room is off or they don't back the manager. We came back well from going behind and after the equalised at the half we came out and dominated the ball again in the second. We did not bottle that game.

Like I say, I'd like to watch it again when I'm not screaming at folk.

Perhaps the intensity is down to the fact we're playing Stockport in the FA cup in what is a banana skin of a fixture. Maybe those with hungrier appetites would've helped. Sad thing is I don't see that appetite in those coming in and those who are hungry don't necessarily have the ability. Seems like we were happy to phone it in for a lot of that.

Not necessarily a bad thing drawing the match today. Good chance for a TV fixture.

[DJBlu]

Challinor has said in his post match that part of Sarce leaving was tied in with him not starting vs Plymouth.

My vote remains with him being a massive mardarse...

Let's see how happy he is at being kept out by Stockport.

Soft shit.

[TonyDomingos]

We're disappointed. We'll get over it. We didn't lose.

Indeed. This was their cup final. They are are an average NL side. I watch a lot of NL. It's good quality, but, it's not L1 standard.

[Worthy4England]

In the history of football, I'm sure there are very many goals that are down to the split second decisions made by two players. There's makes a better one than ours and we're in trouble. That occurs repeatedly and managers lose jobs. They spent 30 minutes after United/City and about the same length after United / Liverpool talking about zero goals mentality. That's part of coaching too.

I'm less interested in hearing the explanation from Evatt, about why the soft goal happened (although clearly Evatt needs to know) and I'm fine to dissect it on here.

But it still needs solving. And that's his job.

[GhostoftheBok]

Perhaps the intensity is down to the fact we're playing Stockport in the FA cup in what is a banana skin of a fixture. Maybe those with hungrier appetites would've helped. Sad thing is I don't see that appetite in those coming in and those who are hungry don't necessarily have the ability. Seems like we were happy to phone it in for a lot of that.

Not necessarily a bad thing drawing the match today. Good chance for a TV fixture.

No idea why, but it happens too often this season. You'll always have some fans who will talk about a team being mentally weak after any poor performance and this lot don't worry me on that front, but we do start slowly in a lot of games and that might be why Evatt has been talking the team up to a stupid extent. It feels like he's trying to give them the confidence to just take it to teams; because when we do we look 100 times better.

I understand people looking at those "best in the league" statements and saying "maybe they believe it and don't try enough", but I don't think it's that - I think it's the other way around. I think we are too timid, because we are expecting to make mistakes. I also understand people talking about Sarce's drive on the pitch being important (and it was), but he was also a key point in our play breaking down in the final third. We do need to work harder at times, but I don't think overconfidence is the reason.

We miss Gilks, Jones, Sarce and (second half of last season's) Baps. We miss their character and attitude. The team has to evolve, though. We will need to add some more personalities, but we will also need to give these new lads time to step up. Johnston has something about him, but he's a young lad. I still think Sheehan can be important for us in this division. Jones will be back from his injury. Baka puts his foot in and scraps when needed. There's enough in there for a proper "get your shit together" player to drag into games.

They need some help in January, but they'll be fine. Mate of mine told me today that the whole squad is a write-off aside from Dapo....whilst wearing his Santos shirt.

[The_Gun]

A disappointing result no doubt, but one that I think can be attributed to personnel issues rather than coaching or structural problems.

I really have no idea why Baptiste was selected to start over Johnston or Aimson. He's not played enough this season, and doesn't appear to be at the required level any more. He can stick around as fourth choice until the end of the season, but I hope we don't see much of him again.

Izzy isn't a right back, and opposing teams know that. We don't seem to have any other good options there, bar shifting to a back three, which seems unlikely. As we're all aware, this must absolutely be addressed in Jan, but before that we're going to continue having problems.

Apparently John was suffering with breathing difficulties in the first half, which may explain his lackluster display. Liam Gordon, despite putting in a couple of encouraging performances this season, I think isn't good enough to play for us yet. He's far too tentative on the ball and posed no real threat to non-league defenders yesterday. Because we have so many areas of need, Gordon can probably stay on as back-up for the remainder of the season, but I wouldn't be offering him a new contract.

Thomason clearly has something about him, but I also feel he's not quite ready to play regularly for us. I'd like to see him loaned out to a League Two or National League side in Jan (assuming we bring another midfield body in) where he'll play every week.

We desperately need a viable alternative to Doyle up top. As DSB suggested, there are signs that he may be on the decline now, but given our paucity of forwards, particularly goal-scoring forwards, we pretty much have no option but to start him. He was ok yesterday, but having no proper alternative on the bench hurt us yet again, and it's clear that this was a major oversight in the summer.

I'm confident we'll win the replay, but some of the issues which manifested themselves yesterday are concerning for the league games we have left before the transfer window opens.

[BWFC_Insane]

A disappointing result no doubt, but one that I think can be attributed to personnel issues rather than coaching or structural problems.

The problems have been all season. Either we've miscalculated on the players we've kept and signed OR the coaching of them is not up to it in terms of their defensive shape and roles.

But its 1 or 2. And both come back to the management. The problems off the ball aren't new - they happened right at the start of the season and have continued since. Our defensive record is a shambles.

[The_Gun]

A disappointing result no doubt, but one that I think can be attributed to personnel issues rather than coaching or structural problems.

The problems have been all season. Either we've miscalculated on the players we've kept and signed OR the coaching of them is not up to it in terms of their defensive shape and roles.

But its 1 or 2. And both come back to the management. The problems off the ball aren't new - they happened right at the start of the season and have continued since. Our defensive record is a shambles.

Their first goal yesterday was a horrific error from Thomason, their second was weak play from a few of our defenders who were positioned well enough. They had three shots all game.

I'm not saying we don't have some structural problems generally, but I don't think they were the reason we failed to win yesterday.