Sloshed Joe

With a Dominic Poleon hattrick

How we now feeling about the (non) signing of Ryan Colclough a few months after he’s joined Chesterfield? Looks like he’s in great form for them with plenty of goals & assists. Doesn’t rankle so much this season, but should Chesterfield miss out on promotion this season, he looks like he’ll still be one of the best players in the league for them next season. That’ll be more frustrating should we get our act together and be challenging in the top 7. Could have been a difference maker for us (goals / top quality service for Nuttall, Fondop & Reid)

Even Shaun Williamson would do a better job than Unsworth. Could give us some pre-match entertainment as well.

Dorking won’t drop. Recruited well recently and they have enough about them to get the wins needed for survival.

What’s the Altrincham scouting set up like BP1960? They seem to be doing pretty well with their recruitment recently…

As mentioned, Aldershot rarely get draws. They lost again at home tonight to an 83rd minute winner. A change of approach with Abraham on Saturday could have seen us snatch the 3 points.

Remember the home game against Aldershot when we won it in the 95th minute, with a great slide rule ball to an attacker running behind the defensive line for a 1 v 1 finish? No guarantee that Abraham gets that chance if he plays the last 15 mins yesterday, but there’s always a possibility if he’s actually on the pitch. What on earth did we have to lose by putting him on? It wouldn’t have lessened our chances of a draw. His energy and enthusiasm would have given the team a lift in my opinion, and his closing down from the front unsettles the opposition.

Pretty damming on the club that we have more affinity & rapour with the Dorking manager than our own.

Wellens & Evans were appointed around 9 months ago and have been in charge for 35 league games. During which, they saved the clubs from relegation to the National League (Stevenage looked likely for the drop for a few seasons). This was an immediate impact with only 12 games or so left of the season. The impact has continued. Who would have predicted Orient & Stevenage being top two? Unsworth talks like we’ll need a season or two to see gradual improvement and begin to challenge at the top end. I get why he’s saying it and asking for patience (given his awful record) but with the right person in charge there’s no reason why we couldn’t fast track our progression (or at least stop the decline!!!)

Well kind of, both teams were struggling at the start of 2022. New managers went in and had an immediate impact which helped the clubs avoid relegation. Both teams now look likely for promotion to League 1. That feels like a quick turn around in fortunes to me. We’re continually being told to be patient. There’s been no obvious on the pitch improvement at all this season.

Unsworth says that improvement doesn’t happen immediately, but it seems to at Stevenage & Orient who were struggling with us in L2 not so long ago.

Roberts was still here with Unsworth in charge and played in his first few games as manager.

I didn’t go trawling. I just listened to his post match interview on the official site. And I found it a bit weird when he commented that last nights team were just thrown together. It’s his job to pick the team. And he selected pretty much the same players as usual.

I liked his post match comments v Peterborough - the team last night were just ‘thrown together’. Great management Dave.

Martine McClutchin at straws

I wonder if there’s a scenario where Steve Thompson would be carded as the new manager. Could potentially keep the back room staff in place that way. The recruitment role is something Thompson hasn’t done much of before, but he’s had long spells as Assistant Manager at some decent clubs. Might be worth a shot as caretaker if Unsworth goes.

Remember when we used to think that Pidge was a below average CB for League 2 level? Stevenage look like real promotion challengers this season. Proper dodgy him missing our last 4 games last season and then joining them lot.

How come we weren’t involved in a fixture tonight?

No, I don’t think it’s the fans. I think our fans are mostly great. Supportive, in good numbers and vocal (positively and negatively). I piss & moan at matches when things are shit, but I also roar them on when we play at a high tempo, with passion and on the front foot. That’s when I think we’re at our best, and what most of us want to see. I can’t imagine we’re that much different from fans at other clubs. I don’t think Whelan was good enough when he played for us. I didn’t want him to stay for this season. Yet he’s playing in a play-off chasing Solihull team. There’s tons of players we could add to that list. I think Charlie Cooper shows effort but is very poor. But he’s played plenty of games at this level, so to say that all the players like him aren’t good enough for this level is wrong. He is good enough for this level, we’re just at a crap level. I don’t know what point I’m trying to make. It doesn’t make sense. But it doesn’t make sense that a large squad of players that are actually good enough for this level play so abysmally as a team. i think I am saying it’s the coaches. Unsworth and the coaches need to do better.

We were lamenting the performances of Callum Whelan last season and were mostly against keeping him on. Yet he’s sat in a play off position at Solihull. Think of all the managers and players that don’t cut the mustard here, yet slot in quite nicely at another clubs set up and perform better. That’s why I don’t think it’s about individual ability. It’s a collective thing. Maybe a club cultural problem. With all the behind the scenes positivity, I’m hopeful things will improve. But not a fan of Unsworth’s blame game. He has to find a way of brining this squad together.

So far this season, these players have been abysmal. Individually and certainly collectively as a ‘team’. But the 11 that started today (apart from Okabue) have played many, many games at this level and higher. And we probably have another 11 players in the squad that also boast good experience of NL, L2 & L1 football. We’re not dealing with Mo’s lower league French boys with zero scouting or knowledge of how they’ll cope at this level. We have a squad full of players that should be capable of holding their own in this league. I think the issues runs deeper than the players in the squad. I thought it was Al & Mo, so now it’s frustrating to try and understand why things are so bad on the pitch.

Lang winning League 1 with Wigan, Surridge flying in the Championship with Forest. Should’ve smashed League 2 the season we had them two in attack.

Don’t know how reliable BBC Sport formations are but CBJ has been down as playing centre mid the last few games.

Listen to the first few minutes of this on half speed. Very entertaining!

Dearnley scored for Halifax tonight. Typical that we released him for being a crock and then replaced him with an even bigger crock.