Fruitygoo

I've felt like not coming back numerous times, but i'll find myself back in the same seat, next to the same people, watching the same rubbish next game. I can't help myself.....

One thing i have noticed is the distinct lack of passion from the players. No team spirit, no energy and no passion. In the past, we've gone through bad patches where we just had bad players, or played bad football....but this is the worst of all now. I understand that i will never see passion from the players like i have for the club, but there should be some there. I never really moan at the players, but i had to shout something when Danny Whittaker didn't even jump to try and win a header which the defender headed directly above him - that kind of play is disgraceful.

sunday morning - better defending

eardley just squeaked it for me - but i can't believe no one has mentioned allott.......he got through a bucketful of work tonight

Thought they looked fantastic tonight (apart from the almost in tears look from taylor - even though it was a stone waller!) and this is all after a few flat performances from both. Is it a coincidence that now the transfer talk is over, and they both know where they are going to be for the rest of the season?

I think they've been able to go out tonight without any issues hanging over them and it stood out a mile.

Special mention for eardley tonight though, thought he was solid throughout defensivly and threw in a couple of great crosses. Was hoping a ball would drop to him 25 yards out because i fancied him to knock it in.

Great result

Flemming - Not the best kicking today, good handling but not much else to do other than wonder save - 7

Lomax - Defensivly sound, average distribution. Would love to see him bomb up the wings more - 7

Gregan - Never looked in any trouble, solid as ever - 8

Hazzell - Average performance. Didn't have a lot to do but didn't look confident with the ball - 6

Goldbourne - Pretty poor game all around. Like the way he gets forward, but doesn't deliver much when he gets there. Defensivly, not the best - 5

Taylor - Much better second half than first. Wasn't involved and poor when he was first half. Second half looked far more dangerous and slipped in a couple of great balls - 7

Whittaker - Disappears all to often for me. When we play well as a team, he looks well....when it's a tougher game he doesn't get involved. Apart from goal last week, not done enough since he came back in for maher. Horrible first half, slight improvement second but not enough - 5

Allot - Usual allot performance. Nothing new, but thats not a bad thing - 7

Smalley - If the guy could see the gaps that are available to him, he'd be a cracking player. Doesn't get up and down the line as much as he should yet i still think with time (pref on a loan) he'd improve tenfold. - 6

Hughes - Had to get through a fair amount of work and didn't get ANY service first half. Got more second and was unlucky on a couple of occasions. Never gave up - 7

Windass - Looks to be flagging after 10 mins. Didn't creatdrop off as much as in previous games and offered little. Is he worth the money. I'm beginning to doubt - 5

Subs

Allesandra - Possibly should have scored, although it was a good save - 6

It's getting to a point now where we have to make drastic changes because constantly playing THIS team will not work. We've brought in players (Lee, Maher) and never given them a chance. Midfield is looking particularly poor at the moment along with left back and with davies leaving today, a distinct lack of pace up front. Shez, who i still support, really needs drop certain players and make changes to show the players that they are not guarenteed starting places.

Anothe aspect of the management i'm not liking at the moment is the lack of being able to make changes in a game. Subs come all to late and when they do come, they're unlikley to make any real difference. (Liddell on tuesday at 2-0 down. Maher should have been on after 20 mins).

My team for tuesday:

Flemming

Hazell - Stam - Gregan

Lee - Maher - Eardley - Allot - Taylor

Hughes - Allesandra

the guy blamed shez when hughes laid a horrific ball back to the defense which set them on a break...shez was right - he can't control where one of his players passes the damn thing?!

I reckon he's a quality striker myself. His head was a mess when he was at latics, and as far as injuries go, could it have been any worse? Saw him play a couple of times north of border and he looked well. Certainly think he could get goals for WBA / Stoke type team or even a Boro who don't have any decent strikers...

Heard a rumour he's off to cardiff anyway.

Why is it we have to pay him off when it was always pretty obvious that he'd sign for county.....couldn't we just do a free transfer?

makes you cringe does'nt it. ktf.

Indeed i agree...

personally think it's time to give someone a chance over liddell and revert back to a lewis/hughes strike partnership.....my choice this week...(Lewis would be in for a front 2)

Flemming

Lomax - Hazell - Gregan - Eardley

Maher - Allott - Whittiker

Taylor - Hughes - Davies

Subs

Lee

Byfield

Stam

Allesendra

Smalley

Hartlepool can't defend - so lets have a real go.

makes you cringe does'nt it. ktf.

Indeed i agree...

personally think it's time to give someone a chance over liddell and revert back to a lewis/hughes strike partnership.....my choice this week...

Flemming

Lomax - Hazell - Gregan - Eardley

Maher - Allott - Whittiker

Taylor - Hughes - Davies

Subs

Lee

Byfield

Stam

Allesendra

Smalley

Hartlepool can't defend - so lets have a real go.

we don't get a load of rubbish from all the people who don't really have a clue - yipeee! You know the sort of stuff....hughes not interested and that kinda thing. As i said last week, you give him the balls in the right position, he'll get a bucketfull.

I'm off on holidaytonight now untill new year so have a happy new year all of you people to go with the 3 points from today!

Perhaps we need consistent supply to the strikers. They can only put away chances that are created

Agreed. We could have had worlds top strikers up yesterday but no chances = no goals. I don't understand how people CAN'T see it

Agree, so disappointing today was Danny. Thought Allott had his best game for weeks, as for Hughes £400k, bite their feckin hands off. Largely disinterested and yet another stupid booking why the feck does he have to get involved? Already got the pen then shoves the keeper argy bargy lucky to stay on himself then the edge in his game is immediately nullified 'cos of the risk of another yellow. Tit!

I've never seen Hughes disinterested in an oldham shirt. The guy makes space better than 99% of strikers in this league. We just dont' seem to spot when he does. I agree he gets involved stupidly at times, but to say disinterested just makes you sound stupid....i got there and didn't bother reading the rest

Personally - been a great fan of him for years, even before he came to us, but now, i just don't see what he brings to the team. yes you can always rely on him to score a penalty, but thats just not enough.

Going forward, he can't beat a man, and will only get a decent ball in if he has space which isn't enough. He tends to knock it back to the full back 6-7 times out of 10. Defensivly, i think he works hard, but he can't tackle, lacks pace so really makes the Right Backs position harder than it should be. For me, it's time to give smalley a run in the side, or potentially go 3 in the middle and allow taylor to play where he feels like it.

When the club does it's pre-season budget. Do they budget for the team to get knocked out in the first round of every competition, or do they budget for some progress? If so, how far?

I keep hearing that because we didn't make the 3rd round of the cup, we'll have to sell players. It doesn't make sense...if we'd beat cheltenham, we'd have gained £20K and then Morecambe would have been £30K....So ok, realistically, we're £50K down. Yes it's a lot, but everytime i hear it mentioned, it's talked that theres a potential 3rd round game on TV which may make us an extra few quid. You can't budget for this as the chances of getting on TV are slim. Say we got Burnley away again - we wouldnt be on TV, we'd probably get beat, and the crowd wouldnt raise to much cash, so i'm sticking at £50K down... Budgeting for that and anything more, is bad budgeting!

So this week we find that we're on TV for 2 games raising a total of £40K.....a sum which we didn't expect therefore didn't budget....leaving us a massive £10K down. To me, the club should be able to cope £10K less than budgeted because there is ALWAYS that chance that you won't win a game in the FA CUP. We shouldn't now have to sell ANY player in order to recoup what the cup cost us....

Another thing i've spotted today is regarding TAX that football clubs coming from administration are being told they do not have to pay:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7741859.stm

When we came out of administration, we didn't pay the full amount to HMRC, but how unfair is it that we had to pay 50% of our £520K bill when Leeds and Leicester only paid 10% of their £7m (approx) bill. Is it any wonder that teams go into administration - and then teams like Leeds and Leicester continue to spend?

According to latics world....kelvin was Shez's man of the match!

Bring back eardley, stick him at RB, Lomax at LB, Taylor on RW and Jones on LW.....

It was only ever gonna be season ticket holders and the odd other fan. Anybody who paid for Yeovil and Cheltenham was never going to pay tonight with what was on the box.

if he was playing left wing, not being able to defend mught not matter as much. Unfortunatly, it's a fairly big part of being a full back.....

Great result so i'll start with PRO's

PRO's

Hughesy looks like he's back in the goals

Jones showed why he's a cracking winger

Came from behind again showing spirit

Whittaker returned and looked well

O'Grady looked strong, confident and useful

Maher was solid and probably should have stayed on

Majority of players worked 100%

Substitutions made a difference

CON's

Jones showed why he's not a left back

Conceded two quick goals, first poor defending from corner then all round sloppiness for second

Liddell not in game anywhere near enough to merit his starting spot

Allott miscued too many passes and didn't control as much as usual

Crossley, at fault for first? Had to make a great save after spilling a simple claim

As a side note, first time i've seen byfield tronight so i'm not going to make any major decisions on him but he certainly needed some new boots tonight as he was on his backside more often than not and his touch needs to be closer. Makes some good runs and creates plenty of space. O'Grady looked the better striker.

Yep, looked strong, held the ball up well on a number of times, most noticebly for th 3rd goal. Looked like the kind of striker who could cause defences some real problems.

OK - so my views on tonight....

I originally thought that Gregan in the middle of the park may help us against a side who just lumps the ball forward and is physical. I thought the combination of Maher/Allott/Gregan would be enough, but on the way to the ground i thought something else would be better......Cheltenham were never going to come and attack us down the wings. They were always going to launch balls as high and far as possible. For me, a back 3 would have been more appropriate with Jones and Taylor as wing backs. As it turned out, it probably would have worked better as Cheltenham don't play through the middle so it was a pointless excercise to stick an extra man in.

Anyway, to the game. First up, i'll give my ratings:

Crossley - not much to do, sometimes distribution is too slow - 6

Lomax - Pretty solid defensivly but didn't have to do that much! Distribution poor and doesn't overlap. 5

Hazell - Won balls in the air, and on the ground. - 6

Stam - Shakey. With clearences and tackles. Not a good performance at all - 5

(Liddell - worked hard. Finds good space but isn't always found by teammate. Still has quality but definatly best as a sub - 6)

Jones - This guy is not a wing back. Defensivly very poor, gets caught too far forward and positionally poor. Not TOO bad going forward proving he's a winger and not a full back - 5

Gregan - Put himself about, worked hard. Looked better than in recent weeks but never a midfielder anymore! - 6

Maher - Didn't battle enough, didn't get control of the ball. Wasn't helped by long balls over top by both sides missing midfield out - 5

(Lee - i think he deserves a run - 6)

Allott - Same as above - 5

Smalley - Wasn't fir from the start, should never have started - 4

(Wolfenden - Was always going to find it hard. First game for a while, pressure from fans and up against massive side. Some good runs, but should have scored. Was saddled with a poisened challace with the service he got - 6)

Taylor - Struggles with Jones in the side. Good running forward but lack of quality into box - 5

Allessandra - Pretty much same as above. Service not right. Not as interested as Wolfenden tonight though and again, should have scored - 5

--------------------------

So, performace was poor all around. It was clear for all to see that long ball wasn't going to work and we had to knock the ball about to create space. It's a simple task which involves 2 basic elements of football. PASS AND MOVE. Tonight we had the passing, but to be honest, i don't think i've ever seen such a lack of movement from a professional football team. I saw better in Sunday League when i was playing that! It seriously was crap. If you don't move, you don't create space, the opposition has you in their pocket and all you can do is lump it forward. I could see it, YOU could see it, but none of the management tried to sort it out.

The formation was in trouble from the beginning. Gregan in midfield when we have two midfielders on the bench is a crime. Not putting Stephens/Lee on earlier when we were clearly missing any form of creative spark was a disaster and it cost us big time. We've been beaten there by one of the worst sides i have ever seen. The side isn't working at the moment. Is it down to the manager, or is it down to the attitude of the players?

I'm still behind Shez, and will be untill at least January.....but the motivation of the players is something that has to be turned around immediatly. It stands out like a sore thumb. I believe it's time for Shez wield the axe on some of the automatic first-teamers - one of them being allott at the moment who isn't performing to potential at the moment. Jones is a massive defensive worry for me.....he's a poor defender and when he attacks, he restricts Taylor. In fairness, first 2 months of the season with Eardley and Lomax at full backs - we were doing ok. There was a need for a full back as cover yes, but the strange decision was to throw him straight in when neither player (NE/KL) were playing that bad....We seemed to have a fairly settled side up untill Stockport, when we lost and from then on we've chopped and changed be it full backs, wingers or strikers. Allessandra was dropped because he wasn't scoring even though he was doing ok....when it was clear that his and Hughes' partnership was the best we had. It's got to a point where TOO MUCH tinkering is taking place. We have no settled side (yes i know latley this has been down to suspensions).

We've got a good squad which is definatly capable of top 6 finish. We're in danger of not making that by what i believe is mostly down to off-field activities which i can't be ar*ed going into tonight. Get the side settled, get the spirits up, and we'll return to earlier in the season standards.....they're the same players after all.

GK - Norm

RB - Eardley

CB - Stam

CB - Hazell

LB - Lomax

 

CM - Maher

CM - Allott

CM - Whittaker (If fit)

 

RW - Taylor

LW - Jones

 

CF - Lewis

If no Whitts, stick eardley in midfield, lomax to RB, Jones to LB and then stick Taylor and Lidds on wings

Just feel that against a side whose likley to be fairly physical, we'd be better of with a midfield of 3 to give us a solid center.

GK - Norm

RB - Eardley

CB - Stam

CB - Hazell

LB - Lomax

CM - Maher

CM - Allott

CM - Whittaker (If fit)

RW - Taylor

LW - Jones

CF - Lewis