Sloshed Joe

Another reason why the ‘decision makers’ wanted Mellon for the job was his previous association & success managing James Norwood. They will have realised that getting our new expensive star striker motivated and firing was key. The way that Mellon talked in his early interviews, about being out of the game working in other fields and this project being presented to him - I wonder if he even applied for the job but was in fact approached by DR and sold the dream - due to his promotion record and history with Norwood. It’s sound logic, but clearly hasn’t paid off (yet) Similar logic would’ve been to let Thommo & Redders continue. Yes, Thommo was part of a recruitment team that saddled us with an unbalanced squad. But as manager, I liked the fact that he backed the players which he’d scouted. Reid, Nuttall, Lundstrum, Ward, Kurt etc - he would’ve poured all his efforts into getting those players firing to prove his judgement was sound. And a lot of the squad had a rapport with Thommo coz they knew he’d rated them and brought them in. I liked the fact he was a proud Oldhamer as well. In hindsight, I think giving them the job until the end of the season, to see if he could get his expensive signings firing, would’ve been the best approach. Then reassess the situation in May. Instead, a lot of those players have barely played, are demotivated and will be much harder to flog.

Nuttall ‘does superbly’ (according to the Cheltenham Twitter admin) to assist the winning goal v Fleetwood as they fight for League One survival.

I wish there was a magic bullet as well. As someone said on the phone-in on Wednesday, the only solution to it all is ‘time’. Frustratingly, that’s true. We know how hard and how long it can take to get out of this division. We’re looking enviously at Chesterfield and asking ‘why can’t that be us’? Similar size club etc. Chesterfield were stuck down here for about 6 seasons. Finished 14th. Finished much lower in 2019/20 and could have been relegated to NLN if Covid hadn’t stopped the season. Then they had 3 seasons making the play-offs but failing to go up. And all the while, they were losing to Dover & Fylde & Gateshead & Boreham Wood and thinking wtf is going on this is horrendous. We will rise again. We will be good to watch again. And when it happens it will be fucking glorious.

The defeat at Aldershot is looking like a major blow at this moment in time. Without that swing in their favour, it’d all be up for grabs, even with our run of draws. If we can displace any teams, it’ll be Solihull or Aldershot who we could trump on goal difference if level on points. We might have to catch both teams if Halifax continue to win. Its a shame it’s come to scrambling around like this as most would’ve heavily backed us 10 games ago when we looked certs for the playoffs.

Wow that’s a big difference compared to our support players. I’ve just had a look through our league scores and we’ve blanked 11 times this season. Failing to score in a quarter of the games given our fire power is poor. Norwood - 17 Fondop - 7 Sheron - 6 Dickenson - 5 (loaned out) Reid - 5 (frozen out) Garner - 4 Green - 3 Stones - 3 Hope - 2 Hogan - 1 Gardner - 1 Tollitt, Nuttall, Shelton - 1 (loaned out or frozen out) Everybody else - 0

Solihull have named a full bench and signed a player from Rochdale who starts tonight.

It’s not just corners, it’s attacking set pieces - freekicks in dangerous positions & long throws etc. Given we have big centre backs and supposedly play with attacking wing backs (well one wing back) - where’s the goal contribution from these players? Goals from midfield has been pretty poor as well. Sheron gets his share. Dickenson chipped in. As does Green. But with Dickenson on loan and Green injured, we’re relying on either Sheron or the two chosen strikers to win us the game by scoring.

Are we actually safe from relegation yet? Joking (not joking)

This is another big issue I feel. The spreading of goals around the team. Considering we play with so many CBs, to only have Hogan scoring 1 League goal this season is a dreadful stat, considering the aerial power we should have from corners & freekicks. Out of all the teams in the top ten, only two have lost less games than us. But no team has drawn more. Nicking a few more games with goals from corners, set pieces would put us where we want to be. In the play-offs. It looks like we will fall short, but we should easily be in the top 7 with some small improvements. Shelton has been bombed out of the squad, but at least he chipped in with the odd goal. He’s even scored a league goal this season having barely played. That’s one more league goal than Raglan, Sutton, Hobson, McGahey, Freeman, Kitching, Sachdev, Lundstrum, Conlan, Hammond, Dallas, Walker & Willoughby combined!! And who knows how many more goals Dickenson might’ve added (or assisted). A couple more goals, turning draws into wins, and we’d still be looking good for a playoff spot. Yet we chose to get rid off a proven source of goals.

Just watched the highlights. Think the criticism of Norwood’s header chance is harsh. Keeper does well to save it. There’s a moment when we have a 3 on 2 break with Dallas leading the charge. He has Walker to his left and Norwood to his right. If Dallas runs with the ball and commits defenders, he can slip in a teammate or have a clear chance himself. Instead, he shits himself and plays a terrible pass to Norwood forcing him ridiculously wide. It’s moments like that where we need to show much better composure and decision making. Norwood was also just behind Fondop for his late chance. Reckon he would’ve smashed it home if Mikey wasn’t there. His reaction after the ball was cleared looked like a man who clearly cared and was very frustrated.

Good luck to the lad. Shame he’s missing our league match but great that he’s starting in the U21 qualifier. Not sure if the line up I saw is correct, but it had him starting left in a front three.

They rearranged our game for April 10th - leaving the midweek of April 16th free for the Chesterfield rearrangement. They’ll be fresher for the game against us and will know if they need points or not against a less motivated Chesterfield.

It’s doubly disappointing that our collapse has happened at this time, as our squad depth was supposed to be our strength and guard against such problems when playing Saturday / Tuesdays. We’ve got more players to call upon than any other team in the chasing pack.

Joe Nuttall starts for Cheltenham. Gwan big nuts.

oh yeah wasn’t Mike Stott the resident statto on there?

I was on there, I think as ‘Tino’ (I liked Asprilla). Pretty sure I started the ‘last person to post on this thread wins’ thread.

Given our away record and how York have performed since we played them, our draw at their place is looking like a poor result.

Let’s bring it back round on topic - Joe Nuttall didn’t make the bench for Cheltenham tonight. Have they sussed him out already?

Sorry for creating an early match thread, and if I’ve done it wrong. Just wanted a place to start talking about Saturday. Thoughts…extremely tough game. Without the 10 point deduction, Southend would be in the playoffs and only one place behind us. And that’s with a thin squad and embargo most of the season. They also have the best defensive record in the league and have only conceded 36 goals. Gave us a hammering on the opening day and in decent form having won their last 3. Plus our patchy (being kind) home form…I don’t think a draw is a bad result here if we can follow it up with a win v Bromley. I think Bromley is the more winnable game of the two.

Thinking about the main squad changes that Mellon has made since arriving in place of Unsworth; Garner instead of Nuttall Dallas instead of Reid Walker instead of Willoughby Sachdev instead of Freeman Conlan instead of Shelton Hammond instead of Dickenson Binned off Tollitt, who wasn’t really catching the squad under Unsworth either. All seemed like reasonable upgrades at the time, but i wonder how many of these changes fans would swap back for the run in given the chance…?

I’ve seen it publicised that the total raised from his two combined rows is around £1.3 million. I wonder how come the first row raised so much more money, as it seems the row this time has gained so much more publicity (or maybe it’s only on my radar because of the football club). Magnificent achievement and I hope the media attention continues to help grow the Just Giving final total.

Is Hallam Hope injured or just out of favour?

Mellon said in his post match interview that Green came off on Saturday with a knock, so couldn’t play 90 tonight but was always gonna come on at some point. Also said none of the injured lot likely to be back for Saturday, maybe Dallas. Has it ever been confirmed that Walker is injured? He just disappeared without a mention.

We’ve just won 2 games back to back before tonight

Poor game of football and I felt we had a few more gears to move up to grab the win. But never felt concerned that we would lose that game, which is unusual when watching Latics - so we do have an air of authority about us, despite not showing too much quality. The league is a bit bonkers and is going to be very tense over the next few months. If we finish in the playoffs I think it’ll be tight. We’ve matches against Bromley, Aldershot, Halifax, Chesterfield, Alty, in form Fylde and derby day v Rochdale all to come in the next month or so. All big big games. Got to give credit to Gateshead, who I thought would sink after losing their manager and key players. They’ve just won 5 out of 6 to go back above us. Our last game of the season is a good one, at home to Wealdstone. If we can be in a position where a win secures playoffs, I’d be happy with that.