Modgull wrote:Another game where we only played for 45 mins. When is the manager going to get a grip on this problem?
He must be really concerned about the defence - two horrendous performances by the central defenders and saved by, can you believe it, Martin Rice. Where is the influence of Shaun Taylor?
And what are we going to do with Howe, it seems, injured.
Only bright spots were, it seems, Bodin, O'Kane and Atieno.
classy keeper.
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(Only bright spots were, it seems, Bodin, O'Kane and Atieno)
Last few games Atieno has been a better player than Howe judging by reports on this board. Saw Saturday's game and thought Howe looked slow and bumbling in contrast to Atieno's pace and quick thinking. Was surprised it wasn't Howe taken off for Bodin.
Boy am I glad I didn't bother to make the trip tonight. Although I wasn't fussed about progressing in this competition I'm disappointed to hear about the manner of the performance. Aside from the Bristol Rovers game which was a one off in itself there hasn't been one game where we have played to a decent standard from start to finish. Bodin sounds useful but it is frustrating that he won't be available on Saturday. The fact that he is a loan player adds further uncertainty, with the loss of Kee and a potential injury to Howe the squad is already starting to look threadbare. That's without mentioning the dodgy performances at the back.
Ling took a bit of a risk bringing in Brian Saah and making him 'club captain' and I still can't understand why there was really any need. Based on his performances so far he definitely isn't a commanding centre half in the mold of Guy Branston and in all honesty it is about time he was benched. I have also been surprised that Macklin hasn't had more of a look in on the wing but perhaps he will now get his chance. In general this season I have felt O'Kane has looked a shadow of his former self and I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that ML wants him and Manse to rotate meaning quite often he is playing much deeper than he was last season. This has benefited Mansell with his goals return but not O'Kane, who is our most prized asset. I would rather see O'Kane playing higher up the pitch doing what he does best behind the front men with Mansell playing behind - he is the more naturally defensive of the two anyway.
Whilst the start has been far from a disaster this season and even though we aren't expected to pull up trees in this league I hope we are going to see some more consistent performances in the upcoming games. If we are going to continue to turn up for only one half of matches it will be reflected in our points total and league position soon enough. I expect much better against Macclesfield please!
Thought Rice did what he could and should be proud of a couple of the saves that he made, and he had no chance with either goal. LRT played a decent game and has a good touch, but Saah and Ellis didn't work. Saah was poor and Ellis was usual miss (costing us second goal) and not really a hit....Oastler disappointing.
Macklin played the best game that I've seen of him and deserves a start on Saturday but McPhee didn't show up again. Lathrope was ordinary and Manse led well until taken off.
Bodin was a threat and although Howe took stick for never actually getting off the ground, has to be said that once he'd gone off, it all went a bit flat.
Macklin MOTM for me......
Macklin MOTM for me also, just in front of Rice who made 4 good saves. A good even match really, didn't come away feeling too bitter, though a bit concerned about the centre-back pairing and the anonymous Lathrope.
Funny game, as an attackign threat we were miles better than our performance at Aldershot but defensively we're nothing short of a joke. I made a comment of all the players we lost if I could have one back it would be Branston, Christ what I'd do to get him back.
We started brightly created a few early chances which their keeper and defense scrambled clear. Pretty much their first attack lovely move down the right Oastler AWOL, lovely whipped in low cross, their forward gets in front of our defender and neatly turns it in at the near post.
Saah concedes a needless free kick, they take it quickly LRT trips oover the ball and Ricey turns it away. Then a straight through ball we all miss it, their forward in one on one and Ricey saves it with his legs. Then the abomination of a 2nd goal. A repeat of the goal they scored against us in the 94th min last season in many way. Their keeper takes a harmless free kick, it goes straight down the middle, none of our CB's attack it, watch it land, it bounces up, Oastler misjudges it and just flicks it backwards right to their guy with a free volley from 10 yards, 2-0. Absolute joke of a goal.
2nd half we were a bit more at it, scored a nice goal when Bodin who was lively got down the left put in a lovely cross with lots of pace in and Macklin was there at the back stick to volley in. Macklin actually had a pretty decent game, gave their left back a torrid time, beat him for fun just the final ball is inconsistent. BUT for me he does more both going forward and defensively than Stevens and McPhee on the evidence of thiss eason so far, he should start.
Ricey then pulled out a top drawer save when their guy got another clear shot from the edge of the box, we huffed and puffed for the last 10 but never really looked like getting the equaliser.
Rice 8 - Excellent. Kicking was very good, made 4 or 5 very good saves and other than one cross in the 2nd half which he couldn't hold (but got it out of danger) handling was good.
Oastler 4 - Positional sense is poor, dives into tackles too much and was partly at fault for the 2nd goal.
Saah 4 - Seen him 3 times, every game been poor. Stands off too much, doesn't dominate in the air, is far too easily bullied by forwards.
Ellis 5 - Did get better as the game went on, awful first half.
LRT 6 - Poor first 10-15 mins but again got better. I like LRT there is a player there.
Macklin 7 - Final ball needs work, but pacey, beat players for fun, got involved, scored the goal and worked back defensively for the team as well. Should start
Lathrope 5 - Didn't really impose himself, is fine in possession but wasn't at his best.
Mansell 8 - Excellent performance. Was taken off I imagine with Saturday in mind. Tireless performance, good in possession. MOTM.
Mcphee 5 - Played out of position, had an early chance but struggled to get in the game.
Howe 5 - Didn't really seem up for it tonight. When the ball is played into his feet he holds it up well and brought others into play.Never got the service.
Bodin 7 - Busy. Played up front and on the left for a bit, quick and will be an asset while here.
Atieno 7 - Brilliant when he came on I thought. He's a handful and I thought we looked more like scoring when he was on.
O Kane 7 - Classy in possession, played a couple of nice touches and passes to create opportunities.
Halpin 6 - Did ok, didn't have a lot of time but tried to get involved, had a shot that went over late on.
I know that Lee's family were sitting in the stand and they will find out how lee feels on being substituted with the Captains armband going to Saah. Now with the nest will in the world, if that doesnt creat unrest in the dressing room and tension between Mansell and Saah. I will be Prime Minister. My main fear now is that we end up losing Lee Mansell. I think that Dinger bringing in Brian Saah and making him Captain of the club was a mistake. There is no way you can't say that Lee Mansell has not deserved his place in the team with battling performances every match. And he earns the Skippers armband. How would anyone feel to have someone placed over him who can't seem to string any two or any decent performance together. I would have to admit defeat and ship Brian Saah out on loan for a while and see how the squad settles down. maybe the rest will do Him good and we might find out how the team plays without him. Whatever the reason he isn't firing on all cylinders Sorry Brian but it just ain't working at the moment.
I think you're seeing things that just aren't there.
There is no unrest in the dressing room at all, I doubt Mansell is bothered in the slightest and will know only too well there's an important game coming up on saturday.
Mansell is the captain and everybody knows it. Club captain means nothing.
Correct Dave. Mansell was subbed to save the legs for Saturday. Someone has to be skipper for what that matters anyway. I'm more concerned with Saah's own individual performances so far. He hasn't convinced me at all yet.
Glostergull wrote:I know that Lee's family were sitting in the stand and they will find out how lee feels on being substituted with the Captains armband going to Saah. Now with the nest will in the world, if that doesnt creat unrest in the dressing room and tension between Mansell and Saah. I will be Prime Minister. My main fear now is that we end up losing Lee Mansell. I think that Dinger bringing in Brian Saah and making him Captain of the club was a mistake. There is no way you can't say that Lee Mansell has not deserved his place in the team with battling performances every match. And he earns the Skippers armband. How would anyone feel to have someone placed over him who can't seem to string any two or any decent performance together. I would have to admit defeat and ship Brian Saah out on loan for a while and see how the squad settles down. maybe the rest will do Him good and we might find out how the team plays without him. Whatever the reason he isn't firing on all cylinders Sorry Brian but it just ain't working at the moment.
.....um....What?
Its the JPT, Manse was subbed for a reason, so that he doesn't pick up an injury most likely. League is 10x more important than this cup.
Why would there be tension between them? Manse is the captain, Martin Ling has worked with Saah for ages and trusts him on and off the pitch, he is a vice-captain + Martin Lings club captain.
We wont lose Mansell.
Saah isn't placed over Mansell team wise, but Ling knows Saah, so off the pitch Saah is closer to Ling.
No point sending Saah out on loan, we have a small enough squad as it is.
Why would the squad need to settle down? There is nothing going on that is bad 'behind the scenes'
But I do think he needs to be dropped to the bench for the next game, but most of what you said is utter bullsh!t.
Spent a little time with the Mansells and they agree with me that, perhaps, Lee was taken off before he was sent off. He was VERY frustrated, hollering at officials and booting a post at one stage. Hardly worth him saying the wrong thing or worse, diving in, and getting himself dismissed. Given the manner of our non-performance, it would have been most easy for him to have lost his temper.
As for those indicating that we were good second half, we weren't, we were less shit in the second half, but never good, save for 30 seconds which produced the goal and maybe 2 minutes at the end.
Today proved once and for all that we are incapable of playing long ball, we simply don't know how. The ONLY time we looked like a football team was when we stopped playing 50 or 60 yard aimless balls and started playing 10 yard passes to feet.
Cheltenham are a L2 side, they may be a good L2 side and I mean not to come across all Northampton Town, but we, once again, made a very ordinary team (bearing in mind, they MUST have had 80% possession and managed just to scrape past us 2-1), look like Barcelona on speed. They had so much time and space. Every flick and deflection and mishit went straight to a red shirt and I cannot believe that it is down to luck every single time. There was one move, which ended with a poor shot deflected to Ricey, which must have been 50 passes long and at no stage did we look as if we had any clue where the ball was or where it was likely to go next.
We were very poor once again tonight and my worry is that it is too many times now to be a rough patch. So far, we have only been a genuinely good footballing side for 30 minutes against Burton, one half against Rovers and the second half of the Dagenham match. That's less than three whole halves out of a possible 10. Worrying times indeed, or am I being needlessly negative?
I didn't think we were THAT bad today when we had the ball, we looked quite dangerous, final ball wasn't great on the whole, their keeper made a few decent saves. My concern is defensively, we're a shambles.
That's the best I've seen Cheltenham play in the 5 times i've watched them as well to be fair to them.
Sorry, been a fair weather fan lately, actually ive been a helping sister decorate and move into a new flat fan lol so i missed dag and chelt...booo
been interested to read all the comments...anything exciting ive missed?? not many of them apparantly lol
classy keeper. 
