TheBigDog

19 minutes ago, Gaz_Oafc said:

Dale fan at works says there's a bit of talk about us signing someone called Sinclair from them?

 

Apparently need the money to pay the wages so is available at a knockdown price.

 

Good scoring record for a winger - just back from an ankle injury which he picked up against us…

24 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Excusing Ward given he's not had the chance to show anything yet there's only really Shelton and perhaps Willoughby who haven't contributed.

Ward and Willoughby have not had enough playing time to show what they can deliver and for us to properly judge…

7 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

It will never be acknowledged but in my mind the primary objective of the youth set up is to sell players before they get anywhere out first team and hope they sell ons work out occasionally 

Definitely one but not the primary objective I think. 
 

10 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

With a complete lack of any youngsters of our own I'd be more than happy to see a few of these players coming in for 4 games and having 6 goal involvements before going back to their parent club if it means we keep pushing on up.

 

We don't have a pot to piss in as it's all been pissed up the wall so if it means we have to play the loan roulette market than so be it, particularly if they come with the same attitude and desire as Stones.

Two good points:

In recent times there is only Will Sutton who has come  through from the youth setup and stayed in the first team picture - Harry Vaughan could have done likewise but was moved on…

Couto, Moore,  Forshaw and others have still not shown enough and maybe never will.

It was the desire and willingness to run the channels, and get a shot off, that impressed me from Stones. Hopefully we bring in one or two more that have the same attitude.

Tyler Golden? 

1 hour ago, redlion said:

I've got my coat on and i'm ready to take Nuttall to Scunny. 

I still think that there’s a decent player there…

WE WIN.
2-0. Not the most convincing display but a first home win for MM - btw Hudson got MotM

Live on TNT Sports- Saturday February 3 – Ebbsfleet vs Oldham Ath (5.30pm)

On 12/27/2023 at 11:09 AM, Lee Sinnott said:

If there's a team to break our home form hoodoo against, it's this lot. They were absolutely shite. 

The lad who came on in the second half, Mancini, looked very good. They were also without Dieseruvwe - not sure if he is long term injured.

They will still cause us problems unless MM manages to sort out his home tactics and formation

14 minutes ago, Monty Burns said:

whats the words to his song sounds pretty catchy?

 

he'll smile now lm tellin ya..

He’s always smiling nowadays

50 minutes ago, Pidge said:

Maybe this shows a problem analysing football. Norwood is not fast enough or tricky enough to take a loose ball a distance from goal and make something out of nothing. (Those players are worth millions!)

 

Norwood is a good finisher, so needs a team around him bringing the ball forward and giving it to him much closer to goal.  So when our team is sitting back, not closing down to win it in forward positions, and passing badly, as has happened in our poor performances, how can Norwood possibly just win the game for us anyway? We really need to be realistic if being critical.

 

Norwood is an arrogant personality, but at the moment we need him, even if he isn’t great for team spirit.

Don’t agree with any of what you’ve said above…

’not fast enough… to take a loose ball a distance from goal…’ 

I give you the third goal at Barnet

’an arrogant personality’ 

Know the guy do you?  I wonder if many of his teammates would agree with you?

For me, the problem is the micro analysis that seems to be prevalent at the moment. 
 

I'm just glad that he is finally showing what he is capable of at this level

I think that the club is making too much of this incident - fine the guy, ask him to apologise, move on fer chrissakes

3-1 victory - Two average sides but  in Stones and Norwood we had the better strikers
No subs made by Mellon.  Surely we can beat them at home on Saturday?

Hartlepool not won at home since October 7th. 
Latics on a run of 3 away victories…

Only one outcome

25 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

Not saying it’ll never happen, but people have been asking that question for over a year and it hasn’t happened yet.

Yet…

Ridiculous!

Nothing to see here - move on…

1 hour ago, Only Blue said:

Totally agree. In the past when matches have been rubbish the atmosphere has cheered me up but it looks as though the Athleticos are struggling to raise the morale at the moment.

The reason for the flat atmosphere at home is the way the team is set up to play and its continuing underperformance. The manager has to take some of the responsibility for this. 
 

It’s an easy cop out to say that Mellon has inherited bad players - that is only part of the story.
The manager is making mistakes in formation and team selection and it’s his job to get more out of what he has at his disposal. The squad has shown that it can do it albeit not consistently. 
 

He has made his mind up about many players but, until he can move them on and bring better players in, he has to get more from the current crop. 
After all, that’s what he’s paid to do surely?

7 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

Same here but beneath the tripe he posts there is a point and that is that others will feel the same, we know we have about 3000 or 4000 diehards and we don't want to go back to that again, more than ever the club needs our money, if only to clear up the mess created by Darren and David. 

Agreed. There were 6,500 there on Saturday and the team played very poorly. 
 

How long before some start to drift away? 

On 12/23/2023 at 4:44 PM, GKing521 said:

I don’t see much point in attending many more fixtures for this season.

Me neither but I will because they are my team

9 hours ago, TheBigDog said:

 

The point I was making is that if his words have a familiar ring to them, it’s because nothing is improving at home.

 

I was surprised that he made little effort to change the formation yesterday. 
 

Revert to 442, Hogan and Stones off, Hope and Fondop on - and do it before we go behind

6 hours ago, oafc1955 said:

WTF do you expect him to say?

It’s not about what I expect him to say, it’s more about if he’s saying the same thing each time then he needs to change it!

See my earlier post

40 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

frustratingly you could see Gateshead vulnerability yesterday

I must have missed that… what was their vulnerability?

1 hour ago, JoeP said:

How is he supposed to sugar-coat it?

1 hour ago, League one forever said:

He’s not, and shouldn’t. 

That’s not the point.

The point I was making is that if his words have a familiar ring to them, it’s because nothing is improving at home.

I was surprised that he made little effort to change the formation yesterday. 
 

Revert to 442, Hogan and Stones off, Hope and Fondop on - and do it before we go behind

56 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

 

Mellon would have been well aware of the abilities of most members of this squad as most of them have played in games he's been involved in.  I'm therefore surprised that he's so perplexed about how to get anything out of them.

His post home match interviews are sounding the same every time….

9 hours ago, JoeP said:

 

Not particularly aimed at you, but...

 

Unsworth given a budget, resources, came with red flags and was clearly shit from the start = Needs time to turn this around.

 

Mellon given no budget, expected to juggle Unsworth's shit, 5 promotions and has shown signs he can get a tune out of the players in spite of that = it's going to end in tears sooner rather than later.

 

Unless we start hurtling towards the bottom, Mellon can do what he wants in terms of subs and team selection to help him work out what he needs and who he can get something out of moving forward.  I think we do need to right this season off.  Even if we get in the play-offs, I wouldn't fancy our chances at all to be consistent enough to win them.

 

He's been here the shortest time out of anyone at the club, yet is the one we're looking at first?  Not for me, as it stands...

 

As it stands…

Whilst I agree with a lot of the above, it was clear very early on yesterday that playing 5 at the back was not working. 

Gateshead were by far the best passing team I have seen at this level. They were quicker than us in thought and movement. 

We by comparison looked decidedly average - too many (again) were off the pace and panicked when put under pressure.

Often we had three central defenders marking one forward while the midfield was overrun or simply bypassed.

Mellon spent a large part of the game screaming at his players to get further forward and work harder - yet when there was a break in play he did not bring them to the touchline to get his points across.

As it stands, I’m not convinced that Mellon is getting it right. It’s clear from his demeanour that he does not rate many of the players at his disposal - in his post match interviews he continually stresses ‘we’ to prevent him from slagging off the team.

Of course he gets more time from me but there are one or two niggling doubts about his performance so far…