TheBigDog

It’s times like these when I really miss the good ol’ upboat

The condition of my back lawn is excellent when you compare it to BP playing surface. Having checked the highlights of the game at Gigg Lane versus Crawley, it looks somewhat worn and boggy but definitely an improvement on our own surface. I presume that you guys will be resting a few on Saturday so they will be fresh for the big Checkatrade game against Pompey?

What's the state of their pitch in comparison to our pristine surface I wonder?

Fickle or better informed? Nepomuceno has definitely grown into the role. Fullback or wingback? Playing behind Branger on the left he is at his most effective - even if Nepo himself might not agree.

Fair comment. Also fair to say that his starting team was, to a certain degree, impacted by injuries and fatigue. The balance of the starting eleven was wrong and the performance on the night was poor. Hopefully Hamer and Lang will be back for Saturday. Also that Maouche and Missilou start in the middle with Nepomuceno back at left back behind Branger. We’ll see a much better performance I’m certain.

Would have Hamer in for Hunt. Apart from that, the above team is in my opinion the best starting eleven we can currently put out. Missilou plays well when Maouche is alongside him. Nepomuceno and Branger are our best left wing partnership. Hamer and Dearnley could be good down the right. Baxter and Lang interchanging up front. Last night was a horror show. We will be underdogs on Saturday and I expect to see an improved performance. Seven days is a long time in football

Tonight was a bad performance. A lot of the posts in this thread rightly point out that a number of players were poor tonight. And yes these were the same players who played well against Yeovil. The starting eleven, whether due to injuries or not, was unbalanced. One or two players confirmed that they are simply not up to it. A number of players showed that they can play. No panic or over exaggeration from me. Just comment on what we saw tonight and to a lesser extent on Saturday. Scholes is learning fast that this football management game is far from easy. On to Saturday and hopefully the return of Lang and Hamer. That will bring better balance and maybe an upturn in performance.

The three players above were all hauled off but in truth it could have been Nepomuceno and Branger too. Maouche and Vera showed very little when they came on. Only Iversen, Clarke and Baxter played well That was bad.

Poor performance so far. Stott is not a left back. O’Grady looking slow. Sylla wandering around ineffectively. This is bad.

iversen save! Baxter close...

The original post is from our website Have changed the wording as it could be misinterpreted as the Morecambe fishul... *stop press* Now changed on Latics official website...they must have read my post

From the Latics website match preview page: The preview is the one for the original game so is somewhat out of date referring to Pete Wild as (interim) manager etc. That notwithstanding, the text contains the following gems: Latics are currently on a run of four games without a game going into Saturday Latics made three signings this past week with Alex Iacovitti, Oladapo Afolayan and Zak Dearnley all in line to make their debuts. (Two of ‘em still in that line it seems...) Oldham Athletic are priced at 4/5 to beat Notts County. Oi webmaster, take a couple of minutes to proof read the page....

Theresa?

I’m thinking If Hamer is okay he will be straight back in for Hunt. Edmundson and Clarke in the centre. Iversen as Keeper obviously If Lang Is not fit then Benteke will start. Apart from that, Scholes will stick with Nepomuceno and Branger as the left sided pairing, Maouche and Missilou in the middle and Baxter further forward. Only other debate for me is whether Dearnley keeps his place and how close Sylla is to starting. We should be favourites to win this one. And the win would set us up nicely for Bury.

Our goal on Saturday was helped by the heavy pitch. The Crewe keeper anticipated that the Iversen punt would bounce through to him and he was left in no man’s land when it sat up nicely for our boy Callum to pop it over the keeper’s head and into the net

Nice theme tune too...

Morphology innit ...

Not sure why this is in the Bury (A) thread but Stockport had a decent crowd on Saturday: Attendance: 4,708 (133 away).

So given that the downboat is no more... time for the grammar police to jump in here... You’re very welcome

Icon still red though

Can’t help thinking that if we hadn’t wasted so much time there might have only been a couple of minutes of additional time...remind me again when Crewe got the equaliser?

Scholes not blaming the pitch but... "We struggled to create a bit today I suppose. It's difficult on that pitch, I don't want to make excuses because I know the players are good enough to do better than what they did today, but we're asking them to play football, asking them to create chances and score goals on that pitch it became difficult to really get any kind of play going that we would of hoped for.

I cannot remember O’Grady holding up the ball yesterday

I think that Branger has gotten a little too confident - yesterday was an example of a player trying to do too much. A quiet word from Paul Scholes and I think we’ll see a better performance from Johan on Tuesday.