hollandspies

As leader of the management team hierarchy, Darren should stand up and be counted. He shouldn’t be exempt from a Q & A at the next fans forum. Frank, Darren and Mickey should give our supporters some of their time. The meat and potato pie supper is pretty decent to be fair.

what about the other six? You must have Hope in our Gardners?

Atherton is currently serving a 4 match ban for a second straight red this season, so, his first team debut ain’t happening anytime soon.

Starters from 1 - 11 v Chesterfield on Saturday…..MM use his most experienced / eldest squad members and to be fair, they were right on it from the get go. Pointing Lundstram in the right direction also helped massively. ‘Kids’ who were 100% fit like Walker, Sachdev, Hobson and Hammond, either made the bench or sat this one out. Coincidence or not, MM got a gig out of them and for now, maybe that’s the way to go.

Yarddog certainly did. It more than crossed my mind too. Not unexpected but the result suits them more than it suits us.

He won the MOM award.

He was also in attendance at the Tuesday night match v Boreham Wood on 13th February.

Garner and Fondop start. However, they’ve both put serious shifts in Sat, Tue, Sat, Tue or whatever, whilst Norwood has been sidelined. Options from the bench tomorrow if required, hopefully we are out of sight so Dallas gets some game time instead, rather than rushing Norwood back. Ohh for an ‘In an Ideal World Scenario’. 3-0 up @ 65 mins…. Then again, we could be 0-2 down!

I can’t understand why we don’t start our home games with fire in our bellies, take the game to the opposition from the very first whistle, and set out our stall to score the first goal. Once that’s achieved, surely our opponents will then feel the need to ‘come out and play’ which should work in our favour as MM can then potentially deploy the same kind of tactics that work so well away. We currently start so slowly, which more often than not, affords the away side the initiative, leaving 65 travelling supporters singing loudly whilst our Atheticos bite their nails. Ultimately, we all get a bit / very restless and the team then struggle to raise their game. I think our game management at home would be so much better if we just went for the jugular from the off, set up to dominate the play, get the crowd fired up and go all out to get the first goal. We just don’t break sweat first 20 minutes. Perhaps if we did then the tone of the game might be set differently. Might be worth a try and see how it goes!?

Luke Garrard and Lloyd Doyley, wow, what had they been smokin on the coach up!?

Counting blue dots Not including the Chaddy, only 141 seats remain available across the remaining 3 sides of the ground. The majority of these (83) are in the JF Family Stand.

Fair play, another correct call.

MM’s 2.29 minute interview on the official bore all the hallmarks of < please insert >

Well, It looks like Reidy has “cooked his goose” at Christmas after all.

We are led to believe that another signing will be made later this week. To second guess the gaffer, which position/s is MM looking at next to strengthen us further?

Heard Stones is out for the season.

Shirley, posting on social media whilst ‘on official club duty’ is a breach of conduct?

Should be able to name as many as we want, but accept that the number of permitted changes is (currently) 3, but push for 4 or even 5. Why not?

My son reliably informs me that JL started alongside McAleney and Smith. All 3 got 90+ minutes and Salford, who could only name 5 on the bench did not make any subs.

That’s frankly a very good shout on a number of levels for this boy to resurrect a very promising career with us in an environment, and with a manager that he’s very familiar with.

This is no criticism here of Mellon but this assessment of todays substitutions shows where we are at from a squad depth point of view: Hope, he’s hard working, fit, plays narrow wide and has a goal in him. No issue with Hallam, his graft at home to break down defences makes me think that he’s worth a start. Willoughby, simply out of his depth at this level, he peaked in the division below as an out and out striker but his positive contributions for us are far outweighed by his lack of physical presence and the uncertainty as to what his best position is for us when he comes onto the pitch as a substitute, let alone, as a starter. Hogan, I was completely bewildered at times by the expectation of him to play effectively in the right sided midfield / forward link despite his lack of finesse in that respect. He should have just be the anchor at the back for us instead, with McGahey marauding forward if MM wants that type of impact from a defender pushing forward as McGahey is a far better passer of the ball than Hoges.

Just watching ‘The Hairy Bikers’ and it’s quite apparent that Si King, without the facial hair, is the shoe in twin brother of our sexy Dave!

This is the Academy Youth team many of which are first year scholars, signed early summer 2023 in time for a full pre-season. They play in the North West EFL Youth Alliance. This is Chuks Akuneto’s group. Indeed, some of the older, more experienced lads are out on loan. Then there is the Youth Development squad. Most, if not all are first year scholars. This group was established late August 2023 and despite their tender age (16/17) they play in the North West NL U19 Alliance. This is Nicky Adams’ group. He hopes to improve the squad sufficiently to allow some of his boys the chance to step up to the level above. I’m led to believe that both groups also receive an onsite education with tutors delivering level 2 and 3 Diplomas in Sport and Physical Science. The infrastructure is certainly there, but is currently in its infancy.

Shelton and Tollitt miss out I agree but no Hope?

Led to believe just one more week for Ward and Dickinson to prove their fitness before they’ll be ready / considered for a return.