Frankly Mr Shankly

1 hour ago, whittles left foot said:

And then does what exactly?

Sprays a 20 yard pass across to Gardner who slots it in.

12 hours ago, Dave_Og said:

 

Would we give Dallas time?  Seems pretty clear that Barnsley have written him off - farming him out back to this level doesn't smack of them being sure they got a player good enough for L1

I absolutely would. He was one of the few who never tried to hide and even when he gets flattened as he did several times against Chesterfield and again by Altrincham's centre half (amazingly, given as a foul against him), he gets back up and goes again.

4 hours ago, sjk2008 said:

Now I’ve come to terms with the fact we’re gonna be spending another season in this league, I remain optimistic with Mellon.

 

We have a team full of absolute bottle merchants. That much is clear. They can play better when there’s less pressure and we’re seen as the situational underdogs, such as Chesterfield or when we’re behind to an in-form Altrincham or a man down against Fylde. But then the expectation weighs on the players, they can’t deliver.

 

I’m not absolving players like Norwood of any blame, but I totally understand his frustrations. Conlon, debut aside, has looked lost. 
 

But the biggest thing for me, is we have gone thru an entire season without any real pace outlets, no good wingers and very little central midfielders who can collectively control a game.

 

As a result, we can’t dominate games. Our creativity is seriously lacking, and our defenders have no passing options so resort to hoofing. If they had more balls about them, we’d look a lot better.

 

That being said, I feel we need two full backs and an entire midfield.

 

Kitching can go for me. If the Reid situation bothers him so much, follow him out of the door. We need a specialist right back, that much is obvious.

 

Conlon, Gardner, Lundstram and Sheron can stay, but not sure I’d put my house on any of them being nailed on starters, but definitely squad options. Bring in a DM who can control a game, bring in a #10 similar to CCC (who we should have gone all out for) and bring in 2 wingers. Proper, fast wingers.

 

Id also like a pacey forward.

 

And one thing we have to remember, it took Notts County, Wrexham and Stockport a long time to get out of this division. Same for Chesterfield. I think it’s about time we started respecting this division (myself included).

Apart from the Kitching take, it's as good as an assessment as I've seen on here. Summed up perfectly, particularly the need for pace and creativity.

If we're not top of the division, but we're seeing a real upturn in attitude, performances, BIG wins and much better home form, I expect most will get behind it, even if it's not quite good enough next term. We just haven't had the sense of improvement even though there has been improvement. It's got to be tangiable and self-evident rather than a few points and places further up the board.

A big, meaty win or two in the last few matches will go a long way to helping that, even if the cynics will call it a papering over the cracks.

4 minutes ago, spanishfly said:

 

This isn't 1st hand but is a summary of what I was told recently. Promotion was the immediate aim when the new owner/s came in. It was the aim again this season; both for Unsworth and for MM. It has recently been accepted it's not going to happen, largely due to a bloated squad of inadequate players. The season ticket price was set accordingly (i.e. to be in this league next season). MM is going nowhere and there will be a huge clearout in the summer (by whatever means necessary). We must be promoted next season. All important footballing decisions have been entrusted to "the Royles" so I`m assuming that to mean Darren and Joe (and I don't even know what position either holds tbh, I was only here for the football on the pitch).

 

Make of it what you will.

That’s probably not far from the truth. I’m not sure it would be as end of days as it’s being made out here. The Rothwell’s are hardened business people and the projects they’ve undertaken in terms of redevelopments don’t marry up with a rhetoric of “if it doesn’t happen next season, we’re all buggered”. They want to leave a legacy behind, for the town to enjoy.

if it doesn’t happen next season it’s likely a readjustment of the way the football team is funded happens and we work under a smaller budget with less marquee type signings. Which altogether might not be the worst thing.

3 minutes ago, League one forever said:

I could you give countless examples of mistakes I think he’s made, and I’m sure you could counter me. Just the nature of how we see things at the minute. 

It’s a fair assessment. Norwood’s always going to be a favorite. He has caliber that is far higher than all players at the club, Raglan and Garner aside. His playing time on the pitch reflects it.

might be moot anyway next season if rumors to shift him off the wage bill are to be believed.

18 minutes ago, League one forever said:

A great example is Garner and Fondop - they come into the side because of injury and score goals together. As soon as Norwood is fit he’s straight back in. . they hadn’t done anything wrong to warrant dropping. It might also of given Nors a kick up the arsed to see he’s not a guaranteed starter. 

No, that’s not strictly true. He returned to the bench after injury vs Southend, came on and we scored two minutes later. He wasn’t "straight into the side”. He benched him again at Aldershot.

Whilst I think you have a point, in that the Fondop / Garner partnership needed exploring more. I think there’s a lot of trying to fit a narrative in here. Ultimately, I don’t think he rates Fondop at all and I’ll be amazed if he’s offered a deal in the summer.

6 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

and the ones he's recruited

Like I said further up. Loans brought in most commonly don't work out perfectly. He did get Stones spot on to give him credit. The permanent signings I think may be too early to give judgement on. Conlon clearly needs to step up, and may well do with fitter, better midfielders around him and wingers to give the ball to.

8 minutes ago, League one forever said:

I don’t know mate, I don’t think he helps himself. 
 

I said on the other thread- in first few months you could pick the same 9/10 starters and results overall were good. He did much better with a smaller squad. . . 
 

Since Christmas (and the new signings) it’s been like a raffle. 
 

How can players get any rhythm if a lot of them are in and out, playing multiple positions, or playing unnatural positions??

 

In many ways, I wish we had saved the money in Jan and went with what we had, then had a big clear out.

He only signed three players on contracts in January, the rest are loans which always carry a fairly low success ratio. Garner will play more of a role next season I'm sure. Conlon needs hard working terriers around him to shine so I'm reserving judgement on that and Hammond is a low cost punt at buffing up a potential diamond.

I get the lack of continuity hampers us, but  he has to change and rotate with how he expects the opposition to form up, the conditions and who performs better at home vs away. It's a difficult balance to get right when you have few pace options and a midfield that generally doesn't like to tackle.

I get the feeling, reading between the lines of his interviews (he's remarkably diplomatic compared to other NL managers), he'd jettison as many of this squad as he can over his time here, save for a small handful.

1 minute ago, deyres42 said:

Are we really saying 9 games at the start of the season has determined the rest of it? We were eyeing up a top 3 finish if we'd beaten Bromley...

Not exclusively, but a good start buys you a lot of wiggle room for bumps in the road. We did well to get into the frame (a run that really should buy at least some goodwill) but the recent wobble has coincided with upturns of form for three of our competitors.

All the playoff contendors had got themselves into position before we got our shit together. Grimsby, in 21-22 would not have been promoted without a brilliant start to their campaign, which sustained a two month winless period. Alty went 6 losses on the spin, but now find themselves in fourth.

Another, probably bigger, factor is not being able to convert wins when in front. Maidenhead, Dagenham, Wealdstone, Gateshead (twice), Southend and Chesterfield are seven matches which if we converted half of them into wins, sees us in the play-off places right now. 

2 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Comms said he was Injured. 

With Fondop suspended, think it's clear his options were limited.

The regular switching of midfielders mainy speaks to me about how little he rates the crop he's inherited.

30 minutes ago, oafc1955 said:

Kitching like the rest, cannot beat a man to save his life. As soon as he gets a defender on him he turns around and passes backwards.

He has been playing behind the likes of Gardner and Hope. TBF, I'd not be ploughing down towards their goal line if I knew I had to pump straight back up to the other end immediately.

1 hour ago, oafc1955 said:

Has anyone any idea where this rumour of Mellon walking at the end of the season come from?

Someone's head who has too much time on their hands?

53 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

I like Mellon, but I am absolutely puzzled with the bench yesterday. 
 

We played a wide 2, but our bench consisted of Sheron, Lundy and Ward. Yet we kept Walker out the squad ? We also kept Hammond out the squad who could do a better job than the other 3 out wide. Very very strange decisions. Killed us from making and impact subs. 
 

Give the armband to Raglan and play Hobson over Hogan, he’s dump. 
 

Sign a pissing right back. 

I suspect Walker isn't good enough IMO. Pathetically ineffective at Dagenham, which I know was only one match but it was made for him to shine. He was only ever used off the bench for the last 10-15 mins during his time at Morecambe.

MM is just rotating a fairly bad / inexperienced bunch of players to get through to the end of the season. The only surprise was Garner not even being on the bench unless he's ill or picked a knock up on Friday (possible). It's quite probably he's more than sussed that he doesn't have a midfield collective who are up to task and ones he has (Green for example) are injured.

Personally, the calls for sacking him at this juncture are wildly off the mark. I've been disappointed with how our season has fizzled out, but the blame lies squarely with the dreadful start we had which eliminated any insurance against big wobbles which nearly all clubs get in this division. We've simply been running on empty for 4-5 weeks.

What would be seen as the biggest surprise in our history? Promotion at Wembley this season or saying we'll stay up in 1993 a fortnight before the season ended? Surely the odds were longer on that?

2 hours ago, League one forever said:

True, but it is beyond the realm of possibility that we’ll win at least 4 of the last 6 in my view. 
 

 

I don't think it is but I'd agree in that it'd need a remarkable upturn in our form / tactics.

I could see us getting four wins and still somehow missing out!

It's a funny game, football.

They've called it about right. It's always going to be difficult to market another season in the Conference. £11-£12 per match for getting to most or all home matches is decent value still, despite the obtuse negative naysayers who just can't resist piling on.

2 hours ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

The sad thing is, he might just be proved right

If you have @GKing521 glass half empty outlook every time with Latics you’ll be proved right much more often than proved wrong. Running to his keyboard as soon as shit goes down though. That’s something else.

Sophie Ellis Bextor in her theaudience days did sing “A pessimist is never disappointed” I guess. 

How this is panning out just shows how important a solid start to the season is. We've played catch-up since October, really so to get anywhere remotely near in such a physically competitive division should be looked at as a good effort.

I still hold hope we can nip in there in 7th but we'll need to go all out attack for most of those matches. Two of them at least will be on bad, bobbly pitches. Definitely not unsurmountable but the cluster of once-inconsistent teams like Gateshead, Halifax and Alty all stringing fat wins together at the same time are putting the bar a touch further away. I still think 74 points (I thought 72 would be enough last week) will get us there but that equates to four wins and two draws. Very little room for mistake.

I just hope we can finish the season with at least a couple of commanding victories, even if it only serves as momentum to take into next season.

21 minutes ago, GKing521 said:

Gateshead will cook us if we somehow sneak in. Forget this season. It's fucked.

You literally can’t wait to throw your blanket of pessimism on here, can you. Five minutes after full time. It must be exhausting being you, no?

3 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Next manager might come in and have a completely different philosophy, so you've got to go out and recruit a new squad again whilst trying to get rid of the ones he doesn't want, smart clubs don't operate that way.

 

At the moment we just seem to be flailing around without much a plan, chucking good money after bad and hoping the dice drop our way, very odd given the supposedly intelligent people running the club.

Which way of operating is there other than let the incumbent manager identify and sign players he wants for his team?
 

The only one I can think of is the sign players and force them on the manager way of operating? And we all know how that panned out, the last time we did that.

Me. I know, let's start a shopping list thread, to stick in players who we think offers improvement and could be realistic targets.

OWTB: Fuck it. Let's moan about Norwood / how shit we've been for 4+ pages.

Never change, forum. Never change. 

19 hours ago, JoeP said:

Dallas hasn't even scored yet!  And Chesterfield aside he hasn't exactly shined particularly brightly... 

- Consistant goalscorer for Solihull, enough to make a promotion-chasing L1 club think he's got something.
- He's been loaned out, deprived of minutes under the belt and injured. Bound to be a bit rusty, given that.
- The Chesterfield match showed us what potential he has if you play to his strengths, on the floor. He deserved a goal.

12 minutes ago, JoeP said:

I'm not sure anyone seriously believes we're going up this season. It would be miraculous. 

I personally don't think getting into the play-offs is too big an ask. There's a lot of assumption that Halifax, Alty and Gateshead are not going to be caught but they have a lot of matches to cram in. However the three matches beyond that feel a stretch too far for me, with two tough away assignments before you even get to Wembley. One from Bromley, Barnet, Aldershot or Solihull I'd reckon.

On 3/22/2024 at 5:55 PM, League one forever said:

He looks and plays like an enthusiastic boy in a man’s game. Loads of energy, and picks up good pockets of space but if you get knocked off the ball so easily it’s difficult to be effective. 
 

A summer in the gym, and hopefully he kicks on next season. 

He never shies away from a tackle, despite his size which is an attribute which I like and think we can work with. It's going to be about developing his physical presence but I think we've a decent asset on our hands. 

Less football, more Britpop era could-have-been band chat for me.

7 minutes ago, Lee Sinnott said:

Liam Mandeville has always done well against us. If Chesterfield looked for an upgrade ahead of their EFL season, then I'd be happy if we tried for him...

Yes, really rate him but I suspect he'd be too similar to Conlon. The glaring hole in midfield is an enforcer type (hence why MM has needed to use McGahey in a defensive midfield position out of necessity. First and foremost we need to stop being bullied and dictated to in midfield. Until this is remedied effectively, we'll continue to suffer from being overrun in large periods of matches.

We basically need a player that had the effect that Sean Gregan did when he arrived in 2006. It turned us into a real force in the division and complemented the creativity of Wellens brilliantly.